Today’s the big day. Not the day I buy my first house (that was in April), not the day I celebrate being married five years (that was in May), not the day I see the first ultrasound of my child (that was two weeks ago). No, today is the day I see my other baby: the first book I signed as editor at Gray Dog Press is being released today.

There were others that saw the light of day first, several books that have my name on their contracts, but they were already accepted before I started at Gray Dog; my signature was merely a formalizing of a previous decision. My work on those was largely proofreading and light copyedits, some cover design. And there’s the Zafiro book, And Every Man Has to Die, that I signed after BP, but he’s penned several books and it, too, was pretty well accepted before I started here. Burning Paradise is different. I picked it out of the slushpile, vouched for it when the time came, and now I’ve seen it through from a twenty-year-old manuscript to a brand-new novel. In many ways it encapsulates my experience as Senior Editor at GDP. Along the way there were many moments of confusion, frustration, exhaustion, celebration, and primal piss-in-your-pants fear.

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Frank Zafiro is the author of the River City crime novels and also writes mainstream fiction under the name Frank Scalise, which is his actual name. Born and raised in Spokane, he joined the U.S. Army after high school graduation and served in Military Intelligence. He’s been a Spokane police officer since 1993 and has served as patrol officer, corporal, detective, sergeant and lieutenant. His current title is captain.

Zafiro has written seriously since he was thirteen, starting out with short stories and poetry. Last week I reviewed his River City series. If you didn’t read that post, let me summarize: I’m a big fan.  As Frank’s latest stalker groupie, I emailed him with a bunch of questions about his journey towards publication and being a writer while working full time.

Here are the questions and his answers. Enjoy!

When and why did you begin writing? 

When?  Well, like most writers, I began pretty early.  Maybe eight or so?  But by ten, I knew I wanted to be a writer, so that is the age I usually give in response to this question.  To be honest, I don’t ever remember I time where I didn’t want to be a writer.

Why? The same reason almost each of you write…because I’m a writer.  

I know that sounds like I’m being a smart alec, but I’m really not.  Much in the same way that a musician plays music or a carpenter works wood, I write because it is who I am.  I’d write even if I couldn’t get anyone to read what I’ve written.  I am a writer.  I write.  I suspect that most of the people reading this understand perfectly.  The rest probably think I’m being pretentious. Read more »

Frank Zafiro is an author that many people have recommended to me, but for one reason or another I never got around to reading his stuff. At a recent book signing I finally purchased Under a Raging Moon, the first book in the River City Crime series published by Gray Dog Press. (Coincidentally, this is where our own Marcus Corder now spends many of his working hours.) I finished the novel in one sitting and then rushed down to Auntie’s to purchase Heroes Often Fail and Beneath a Weeping Sky. Now I’m impatiently waiting for the fourth book, End Every Man Has to Die, which won’t be out until March 2011.

River City is fictional, but readers familiar with Spokane will recognize street names and landmarks mentioned in the books. The novels have fast paced plots and fantastic characters. As many of you know, I’m a fan of women’s fiction with strong female leads, but my other weakness is police procedurals and crime/legal thrillers. (My TiVo also have season passes to all flavors of Law & Order.) I love these plot driven books, but they won’t keep my attention unless I’m invested in and care about the characters. In a recent Willow Springs interview, Jess Walter talked about how crime fiction often focus too much on plot but that the complaint about literary fiction is that there isn’t enough story. He thinks there’s a “sweet spot in the middle” that an author can aim for. Zafiro’s novels hit right at that perfect spot and this is one of the reasons why I’m such a huge fan. Read more »