Spotlight: Richard Hacker

Today’s In the Spotlight features the award winning author Richard Hacker. If any of you have missed Richard’s bio your in for a treat. He sounds like a very interesting man.

Here he talks about flying in his plane; Spinning toward the ground from 5000 feet, my stomach somewhere in the back of the plane and my inner child screaming, I pondered why a writer would intentionally put an aircraft into spiraling dive toward the extremely hard earth below.


I love adventure but Richard seems to go over the top.


Good morning Richard, how are things in Seattle?

First of all, thanks so much for this interview. I’m very pleased to have a chance to visit with you and your readers. Things in Seattle are cloudy and damp, but we’re all excited about clear skies coming by July 5th. Having lived most of my life in Austin I’ve been working hard to go with a few less days of sunshine. If anyone has some extra vitamin D, please send to the address at the end of this interview. Please.

You seem to have a real adventurous sprit Richard, tell us what drives Richard Hacker?

I firmly believe you don’t live life standing still, so while I’m not anywhere near a daredevil, I do like to get out in the world. In my writing, I love to tell stories and entertain. I’ll often look up in a coffee shop and notice folks staring at me -- the guy with the laptop laughing. Hopefully readers will find my stories, often littered with unusual characters in odd situations, entertaining and at times, humorous.

When did you first know you were destined to become an author?

Third grade. I wrote short stories to read at show and tell and I remember thinking about how I’d like to write stories when I grew up. Interestingly enough, I think many writers have a similar history of some moment in their childhood when they knew they had stories to tell.


Where do you get the ideas for your stories?


Sometimes I’ll wake up at three in the morning with a story idea rolling around in my head, so I’ll jot it down and go back to sleep. When I get up the next morning, many of those ideas are the ravings of a dreaming loon, but occasionally a plot line forms on the page and I’m off. I also draw quit a bit from life experience of a place. For example, TOXIC RELATIONSHIP is set in what used to be my hometown, a little bedroom community of Austin with the odd name of Pflugerville. The place gets its name from a Swedish family, the Pflugers, who settled northeast of Austin in the 1800‘s. Many of my characters have been lovingly constructed with bits and pieces of the people I’ve met. (I suppose I should be clear, especially for readers with a law enforcement background, I’m not talking about actual bits and pieces.) And of course, Central Texas plays a role as well.


Tell us a little about your new book Richard, I understand it’s set to release in August but has already received recognition.

TOXIC RELATIONSHIP is a thriller with a humorous twist set in the Hill Country of Texas. Nick Sibelius, moves to Pflugerville to set up a private investigation business, find some peace and maybe, himself, after a murdered partner, a cheating wife and a lost job in Houston. When a young couple disappears and a bass fisherman turns up dead, he finds himself drawn into a web of toxic relationships: MaryLou, a beautiful woman with a mysterious past, Junior, a failed farmer whose best intentions seem to always result in a dead body, and Barry, a sociopathic dentist turned illegal toxic waste and methamphetamine entrepreneur with visions of grandeur. When the felon who killed his partner in Houston joins forces with Barry, Nick must not only stop the toxic waste dumping while finding his client's missing daughter, but keep from being killed in the process. In the end, MaryLou's dark secret will either help him or kill him -- whichever comes first.


Thriller with humor sounds like my kind of book.

Thank you so much Richard. I wish you all the success. Anything else you’d like to add?


Thanks again for the interview. As you mentioned at the top, I currently live in Seattle, which is a stunningly beautiful place -- snow capped mountains, Puget Sound, forests -- crazy beautiful. Before moving here I lived in the Austin area for over thirty years and continue to go back to Austin regularly to visit family, friends and the Hill Country. There's a strange beauty to the place and I hope my other character, Central Texas, shines through in the book. TOXIC RELATIONSHIP will be released by Champagne Books in August, 2012. Pick up a copy, pop open a cold Shiner (or as close as you can get, wherever you live) and kick back. Sex, murder and toxic waste -- nowhere else but Texas!


You can find Richard at:

http://www.champagnebooks.com/

Website: http://www.richardhacker.com/

Blog: http://www.richardhacker.wordpress.com/


Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RWHacker


Twitter: @Richard_Hacker