For many people, retirement is just that, a time to retire, travel, enjoy life. Yet for Phillip W. Price, it has become a time to pursue his life’s dream, to be a writer. Price was a highly decorated Georgia Bureau of Investigation officer. He took part in solving some of the most heinous crimes in the state’s history. Now he has taken his background to pursue a second career - mystery writer. He is the author of the Daniel Byrd mystery series. This doting grandfather says he is writing the books for his grandchildren to read one day. He says writing is more difficult than solving real crimes. I had a chance to interview Price on why he and so many retirees are pursuing second careers in retirement.
Why did you decide to start writing?
I was a reader from an early age. I grew up relatively poor and my family traveled very little. Reading took me to faraway places (which sounds so cliche'). I read SHERLOCK HOLMES and later JAMES BOND and loved the sense of adventure and faraway places. One day I read an article where someone I read (I can't remember who) said he tried to write books he would like to read. I thought that made sense, but at that time I didn't have the skill or self-awareness to do that. So, the desire was there for a long time, but not the willingness to do it. COVID, and the distancing, gave me the opportunity to write. I was still actively in law enforcement and our job didn't change, but we encouraged people to do reports and other clerical jobs from home. I ended up in an empty office for a lot of that time, and I took the opportunity to explore a story that I wanted to tell. The story was of a very traumatic, for me, investigation of public corruption in a rural mountain county in North Georgia. That was the genesis of my first novel, MOUNTAIN JUSTICE. And, at the end of the day, cops have lots of stories. I wanted to leave some of those for my family, who suffered through my absences, my emotional ups and downs and the sacrifices we all made to live a life in public safety.
Why do you think so many retirees are pursuing second careers in retirement?
Public safety work is fraught with risks. Not physical risk, but emotional risks. Joseph Wambaugh, a former LAPD cop who became a very successful writer, was the first person I heard of who expressed this idea. The emotional toll of dealing with people at their most difficult times. In my career I've seen several hundred autopsy's and had to talk to hundreds of families of victims. The sadness and the sense of despair that goes with my job led me to want to deal with some of the trauma in a positive way. Many therapists (I hear) recommend that their patients who are dealing with post-traumatic stress should put their experiences in writing. That's the way I got started, looking for the catharsis of telling my stories. And cops need to be natural story tellers. We testify in court, in hearings and during trials, we speak at public events and we teach other officers how to do their jobs better. Story telling is an integral part of that.
What has surprised you the most about being an author?
I have written hundreds of books in case reports. But a case report is, by definition, a factual accounting of an investigation, devoid of emotions and judgements. It took some adjustment to deal with the emotional side of writing. And to drop the barriers I had built around myself. I wanted to get past my own ego. I wanted to create a character who was like me, and yet had flaws that I saw as consistent with the life I led. And address those flaws in an honest way. My hero, Daniel Byrd, is not me but he has some of my characteristics. He had flaws that are mine. He has flaws I saw in other people. But at the end of the day, he can't be an everyman. He has to be a cop and fit his personal issues into that realm. I was also fascinated with what I saw as a disconnect between the real world of investigation and the perception ordinary citizens have. I wanted to paint a more realistic picture of that world.
What makes writing more difficult, in your opinion, than solving crimes or is it?
Writing is story telling. So is writing a case report or telling a jury or grand jury what happened. Writing can be easier than solving crimes because I am able to manipulate the narrative, but I also want to be bound by my real-world experiences. The big challenge in writing versus crime solving is that, in spite of knowing how I want the story to end, I need to engage the reader in the lives of the cops, the victims and the suspects. And I get to explore the motivations and inner angst of each of them. I found the experience, so far, to be very cathartic.
Tell us about the Daniel Byrd series.
Byrd is a relatively young (in Self Rescue he is 34) state officer (a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation-an agency I worked for 29 of my 31 years with the State of Georgia) who must deal with the crimes that state officers encounter. So much is written about sheriffs or police officers who work in a certain environment. State police officers live a very different existence. I would conduct major investigations with little or no support. State troopers make traffic stops alone, with the nearest backup sometimes a long way away. Byrd is a lone ranger kind of guy. He works, largely, alone and in an environment where he is his own backup. CJ Box, and his Joe Pickett novels, are the only novels that deal with the distinctly different world of a state officer. I traveled all over the United States to investigate crimes that related back to Georgia. I wasn't bound by a specific jurisdiction because the cases the GBI engaged in were always serious crimes.
Did you use any of knowledge or previous cases to base any characters or plots on?
Every character is based on someone, or several someone's, I worked with or worked on. The characters in Self Rescue are derived from cases I worked when I was assigned to the GBI Smuggling Squad in 1980-1983. At the time, aircraft and boat smuggling was epidemic. Many of the experiences I lived were used as particular events in the book. I try not to use a single person for the inspiration for a character in the book. But I would have to admit that people who worked with me in that era would recognize some of the people in the fictional world. So far, each of my novels is rooted in real events. They are moved around in time and space (geography) to protect the people involved.
Tell us about Self Rescue.
SELF RESCUE revolves around a business enterprise between a Mexican drug trafficker and a CIA contract officer who come up with a scheme to smuggle methamphetamine from the border to Atlanta. Our hero gets involved and then, as he follows the evidence, he enlists the help of a Texas Ranger, a Texas Trooper, a Texas Narcotics Service agent and a task force agent from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. It happens that the Trooper is a former romantic interest, albeit a causal relationship, of Byrd's from the second book in the series. A LITTLE BIT KIN, my second novel, revolves around a meth cook who gets in too deep. The Trooper, then a Canton Police Officer, gets tangled up in the case and her life is changed. We meet her again in Texas as she and Byrd work together to resolve this case. The novel gives a taste of the real drug world on the US border with Mexico, and the evolution of Atlanta as the new Miami. FUN FACT-Adeline Riley, Raelynn Michaels and Stetson Crosby are named after my grandchildren.
What led to this plot?
An actual CIA contract officer I helped investigate in the late 1970 to early 1980's. He was involved in an early plot similar to Iran-Contra. He used his influence in the federal government to hold us off. He was arrested for gun running and smuggling, but was released at the request of the CIA. Years later I had the chance to get to know several members of his family and have always been fascinated with his story. The unfortunate thing is I really can't begin to tell his full story because no one would believe it.
Are there things you wish you could add to the story that you didn’t?
I wanted the story to be true to the drug scene in the era in which the story is told. To do that, I had to modify some of the motivations, some of the real events and some of the character relationships. And I can't stress enough that the real-life events are some much more over the top. The Tom Cruise movie AMERICAN MADE touches on the time period and how things were. I get asked often if I think that AMERICAN MADE is real. I happen to know people who can tell the real story, and the movie is not a fantasy.
How does your family, former colleagues and friends feel about your new career?
Some are amused. Other would like to do the same thing but can't get past their own stuff. I feel blessed to be able to pass on some of the things I experienced in a way that's entertaining. But I was intimidated for many years by the prospect of putting things out there for people to read (and judge me).
What advice would you give a person who wants to write their book?
Do it! Don't wait and don't quit. People want to engage with other people, and this is a way to do that. Tell YOUR story. It will resonate with someone.
No comments:
Post a Comment