An Interview with James M. Jackson

by Grace Topping

Doubtful Relations

by James M. Jackson

What will Seamus do this time?

Financial crimes investigator Seamus McCree has wife problems, and Lizzie’s not even his wife anymore. Her current husband disappeared on a business trip to Savannah. Was he kidnapped? Dispatched by his hedge fund partners? Or did he run off with another woman? Police assume he’s AWOL, and Lizzie turns to Seamus for help.

Seamus has no desire to be sucked into Lizzie’s drama again, but her angst is also affecting their son, Paddy. Seamus agrees to help discover the truth, a quest that soon involves the entire extended family. Long buried secrets surface and each member must confront the question, “How far can you trust your family?”

Equal parts road trip, who done what, and domestic thriller, book four in the Seamus McCree series takes psychological suspense to a new level. Seamus McCree fans and newcomers alike will delight in this fast-paced novel that leaves no one in the family unchanged and keeps you guessing until the very end.

I’ve heard other writers comment about James M. Jackson’s character Seamus McCree and wondered what the buzz was about. So when I had the opportunity to interview him and learn more about Seamus, I jumped at the chance. What I discovered is that Seamus is a terrific character, and if he were real, someone I would enjoy having as a friend. That’s high praise for a fictional character.

Jim Jackson is one of the contributors to Writers Who Kill and also the president of the Sisters in Crime Guppy (Great Unpublished) Chapter. Whether he’s blogging on his own site, writing as a guest on another blog, or serving as Chief Guppy, Jim is always reaching a helping hand out to other writers. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to interview him about the latest book in his Seamus McCree series.

Welcome, Jim.

Frequently books are categorized as being character or plot driven. You have a wonderful balance of both. How do you keep that balance in your books?

I want my books to be driven by character motivations and reactions to the events that occur. When I realize a scene is there “because the plot needs it,” I develop another approach to organically reach that plot point. Similarly, if my characters engage in extended navel-gazing, I cut it back to the important observation.

When character motivations impel their actions and I follow Elmore Leonard’s advice to “leave out all the parts readers skip,” I’m confident folks will keep turning the pages past their bedtime.

Seamus worries about everybody, even his ex-wife. What is it about him that makes him feel responsible for what happens to his family and friends?

Seamus’s father died when he was young. Subconsciously he accepted the message that he needed to “be the man of the family.” He conceptually understands that feeling responsible for things out of his control is not healthy, but when a new crisis arises, he reverts to what he knows. To be “in control” he must take charge, and if he is in charge, he must be responsible. He’s getting better about dealing with this issue, but he still has many steps remaining on his journey toward wholeness.

The pace of Doubtful Relations is one of its strongest features. Even with a complex story line it moves and is hard to put down. Definitely no slumps in this story. Is there a secret to good pacing? What advice would you give new writers about pacing?

Excellent books have been written about pacing, but I think it boils down to two basic concepts. (1) Every scene must include tension. If one source of tension resolves, another source must become apparent so the reader always wants to know what happens next. (2) The reader has to be invested in the story. Usually that results from being interested in what happens to at least one character.

Doubtful Relations has multiple mysteries but no body until much later in the book. Do you consider it a murder mystery? If not, how would you categorize it?

I think of the Seamus McCree novels as crime fiction. I haven’t wanted to be pinned down any more than that. Although Ant Farm and Bad Policy could properly be called murder mysteries, Cabin Fever is much closer to a domestic thriller, and Doubtful Relations is probably a combination of road trip, psychological suspense and domestic thriller.

They all involve crimes, and have a focus on financial shenanigans. They all have at least one dead body, but as you note, not necessarily in the first pages of the story.

Computers and high finance play a major role in this story. In fact, you have me afraid to use a computer again. Do you have a background in those areas, or did you have a lot of fun doing research?

I first programmed a computer in 1967, have an MBA with a finance concentration, worked for thirty years in an arcane area of financial consulting, and I’ve always been interested in financial crimes. That background and an active imagination are sufficient for most things I write about. For more technical computer-related information, I rely on experts, including my son.

So many things writers love or hate appear in their writing, such as your love of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which Seamus shares. How much autobiographical material do you allow to creep into your writing?

Seamus and I think alike and share many of the same interests, although not the same skillsets. Unfortunately for me, he is younger, stronger, smarter, richer, and better looking than I. I do have the advantage: No one has tried to kill me.

Because I enjoy reading books that use real locations, I incorporate actual locations into my writing, mostly from my own experiences. I know where Seamus hangs out in the Upper Peninsula and I know his Clifton neighborhood in Cincinnati because I’ve lived in both places.

Doubtful Relations kept me guessing throughout the book and then had a zinger of an ending. Did you start out knowing who your villain was? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I am a pantser writing my first draft. I start a novel knowing the inciting incident for the story and not much else. By the time I finish the first draft, I’ve learned the who, what, where, when, and why of the novel. I never know “who done it” before I start writing, and I often change my mind about perpetrators and their motivations in the course of writing the first or second draft.

I suppose you could say I write a 90,000-word outline and then start the real writing, which for me is rewriting.

Seamus McCree’s mother, Trudy, is quite a character, starting with her dartboard performances and most unusual friends. I always worry that people will think I based my character’s awful mother on my mother. Do family and friends ever accuse you of basing your characters on them?

I am very fond of Trudy as a character because she is complex. The only character that bears any strong intended resemblance to an actual person is Seamus (as I described above).

However, sometimes people think they know who I used as a model for a character. After Cabin Fever was published, I had several people tell me they knew “exactly” who I based a particular character on. Since I had never met that person, I took it as a compliment that I had done an excellent job providing the character with realistic motivations to justify her actions.

You have a reputation for sharing your knowledge and helping other writers. What do you wish someone had told you when you first started writing? What would you tell your younger self?

Thank you for your kind comment on my behavior. Although I have a strong business background, for too long I treated writing as solely a creative endeavor. My original objective was and continues to be to write books people will want to read.

I don’t want my creative process to become subservient to the business of writing. I am not going to write something just because it will sell. However, by not paying sufficient attention to the publishing aspects of the business, I overallocated time on crafting the story at the expense of finding readers who would enjoy the kind of books I write. “If you write it, they will come” doesn’t work very well in today’s world.

Many writers are faced with the decision of whether to continue pursuing traditional publishing or taking their careers into their own hands and self-publish. What advice would you give writers facing this decision? What is the most challenging thing about self-publishing?

Writers need to be honest with themselves about why they write and make career decisions based on their goals. I am fortunate that I do not need to make money on my writing, although I would like to be fairly compensated in the long term. To reach my objectives, I need to expand the pool of people who know of my writing. With each book in the series, I’ve had the choice of sticking with Seamus McCree or starting something new. Because I have a longer story arc in mind, I have stayed with Seamus.

Given that I decided to stick with the Seamus McCree series, I decided that I could better utilize the available marketing and sales tools on my own rather than continue working through a publisher.

What’s next for Seamus?

Empty Promises will be the fifth Seamus McCree novel. In it, we follow Seamus back to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The first draft is complete and I am in the rewriting stage. False Promises is number six. Seamus returns to Boston after his Uncle Mike has been killed. I am about half way through its first draft.

Thank you, Jim.

Doubtful Relations is available for pre-order in paperback and e-book format with an August 23, 2016 publication date. You can check Jim’s website www.jamesmjackson.com for the current list of online retailers, to order a signed print edition of the book, or to learn more about Jim and his writing.