Interview with Crime Writer Richard Meredith: S. 7, Ep. 1

Debbi Mack interviews crime fiction writer, Richard Meredith.

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Debbi: Hi everyone. We’re back for a seventh season of the podcast, which just blows me away. I mean time flies, man. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for six years. Anyway, as always, I’m blown away also by the variety of backgrounds that people bring into the writing craft. And my first guest for this season is no exception. He has a background in biology. He’s worked as a marine scientist and wildlife biologist for the federal government and the private sector. He has also worked on commercial fishing boats. My guest today is author Richard Meredith. Hi, Richard. Thanks so much for being here today.

Richard: Hi, Debbi. Thank you very much for having me. It’s a real honor to be with Crime Cafe. And I also want to thank you for posting my guest blog on your website. That was wonderful.

Debbi: Oh, my pleasure to do so. Like I said, you have a very interesting background. What was it you did on commercial fishing boats?

Richard: Well, this may be before your time, but there was during the ’70s, there was this controversy about the tuna dolphin controversy where the fishing boats were catching the dolphin and so I was one of the government monitors on those boats. So I did that for about two years.

Debbi: That isn’t before my time, by the way.

Richard: And I did that for a couple of years. And then my wife said the next job that comes in on the beach, take it. That was in Kansas City. So I got pretty far from the ocean after that.

Debbi: Well, that’s very interesting. I used to work at EPA actually. So I was going to ask you if you did environmental protection.

Richard: Yeah, I was at the Corps of Engineers and we worked with EPA quite a bit. Yeah.

Debbi: Very good, excellent, wonderful. All that Clean Water Act stuff.

Richard: Yeah, exactly.

Debbi: There you go. Had you written any fiction before you wrote The Crow’s Nest?

Richard: I wrote a novel called Sky Dance, which was about my experience. Well, it’s a novel, but it was based on my experiences in Ecuador when I was working on doing environmental impact studies on petroleum projects down there. And that was self published. I did it through CreateSpace with Amazon. But this was the first one that was published by a publisher.

Debbi: I see. So is this the first in a series or is this a standalone?

Richard: This is a standalone. Yeah. My next three that are still, well, I’m trying to find a publisher, but they’re a series. Yeah.

Debbi: Tell us a little about The Crow’s Nest. What’s it about?

Richard: Well, I say that The Crow’s Nest is a crime thriller without police, federal agents, or the military. It’s just two men seeking justice against a brutal cartel. It’s unique so far in that I think it’s the only novel about the use of the crude submarines in the smuggling of cocaine between Columbia and Northern Mexico. I describe it as the mutant spawn of Das Boot and Savages. But in a nutshell, The Crow’s Nest is a story about two men, Jonny LeBeau, who’s a notorious smuggler, and Chase Brenner, who’s an innocent fishermen. And for different reasons, both men get sideways with the vicious Baja cartel and the capo, Fernando Cuervo. They’re desperate and are on the run, and they figure that the only chance to survive is to bargain for their lives. But they really don’t have any leverage.

The Crow’s Nest is a crime thriller without police, federal agents, or the military. It’s just two men seeking justice against a brutal cartel. It’s unique so far in that I think it’s the only novel about the use of the crude submarines in the smuggling of cocaine between Columbia and Northern Mexico.

Richard: So Jonny, who has some inside information about the cartel, conceives a plan to hijack one of the cartel’s secret narco submarines, and he figures with 100 million dollars worth of cocaine onboard they can cut a deal. And it’s a great idea until the cartel’s chief sicario, a man named [inaudible 00:06:46] kidnaps Chase’s family. Now things get a little more complicated and Jonny faces the moral dilemma of his life. Ditch Chase, the man who saved him from sure death, or escape with riches beyond his wildest dreams and lose it all, including his life just to save Chase’s wife and family. And from there, there’s much mayhem on the road to resolution. That’s it in a nutshell.

Debbi: That’s interesting. It sounds like almost a little bit like an action adventure with psychological thriller thrown in there.

Richard: A little bit. All the characters are flawed in some way.

Debbi: Interesting. Do you feel that your experience on commercial fishing boats contributed in any way toward the writing of this book?

Richard: Yeah, the technical aspects, but there were no personalities like this onboard the boats. They were pretty nice guys overall.

Debbi: Yeah. Let’s see. Do you write full-time or are you still employed?

Richard: No, I’m retired. I retired about three years ago. And I write, well, full time when I’m not babysitting with the grandkids. But I try to get in a couple, three or four hours a day. But I think as I told you in my interview, that I’m a lazy writer. I have to wait for the mood to hit me. I’m always taking notes and things, but to sit down and put it together, it takes me awhile.

Debbi: It does take a certain amount of discipline though, doesn’t it?

Richard: Yeah, It does. I always tell friends it’s the hardest thing to start and the easiest thing to quit, but in between it’s a lot of fun.

Debbi: Yeah. There’s that. I think that’s a good observation there. Between the hard times, it can be fun. Do you have a particular, you don’t have a particular routine I take it for writing? Or is there a time of day or something- ?

Richard: I’m pretty much a morning person. If I can get up, have a cup of coffee and go to work right away, I’m good for about two or three hours doing it that way. Then after that it’s on the web, doing filing, or all the menial labor after that. But every once in a while you get, something comes into your head and you have to write down the note and you wait, use it for the next morning.

I’m pretty much a morning person. If I can get up, have a cup of coffee and go to work right away, I’m good for about two or three hours doing it that way.

Debbi: Absolutely. Yeah. Get those ideas while they’re fresh. How would you describe your writing to someone who’s never read your books?

Richard: Describe the writing?

Debbi: Yeah.

Richard: It’s a crime thriller, a lot of action adventure. I think that would be it. I see a movie script in everything I write, but no one wants to buy a script yet. But there’s a lot of action. Yeah.

Debbi: Interesting. Are the endings noirish or more upbeat?

Richard: Upbeat.

Debbi: Okay. So good guys win?

Richard: Yeah, I like-

Debbi: Or better guys win maybe.

Richard: Sometimes someone may get away, but the good guys win in the end.

Debbi: Cool. Let’s see. You travel a lot you said. Do you set your stories in the places that you visit? And how much does location, how much of a part does location play in your writing?

Richard: I think setting is very important to me almost because it forms a character, where they’re at. And I’ve been fortunate in my career to travel a lot of different places and have a lot of different experiences. And so far, each one of them has contributed to one of my books. So I think it’s very important for me for setting.

I think setting is very important to me almost because it forms a character, where they’re at. And I’ve been fortunate in my career to travel a lot of different places and have a lot of different experiences.

Debbi: It’s almost as if the choice of that setting is a function of character because only a certain type of character would choose to do these jobs.

Richard: Right. In fact, my latest one I’m working on is about this woman who is a hardhat diver. And I had an experience working with hard-hat divers in the Sacramento River where they’re recovering pipelines. And I have her uncovering this strong box that was lost during the California gold rush 150 years ago. So that setting, having this hard hat diver, then how did she get there? That’s not typically an occupation you find a lot of women in, but that