Interview with Author Scott McCrea

 

Welcome Readers toanother installment of our author interview series. Today we have the pleasureof chatting with Scott McCrea, author of The Tales of Tom Mix Series.

JMR-Welcome to theBooks Delight, Scott. Tell our readers where you live, what you do for fun andwhat does the perfect day look like?

SM- Hello and thank youso much for this! It’s a pleasure to speak with your readers. Right now, I livein Huntington Beach, CA, but prior to that I was a lifelong resident of NewYork. Here’s a dirty little secret – I hated New York! Lived there almost mywhole life and could not wait to get out of it. Too congested, too dirty, toosmelly. No wonder I write Westerns! I spent years and years in New York,dreaming of wide-open spaces!

I do all kinds ofthings for fun, but I love reading. I guess all writers do. I read everything:westerns, detective fiction, thrillers, history, biography, poetry. I’mbeginning to think it’s ink and not blood that flows through my veins.

There are many ways Icould have a perfect day. I love to go camping and spending the day in thewoods sounds ideal. But I love museums, so spending a day in an art museumwould be heaven. I also love movies, so a day in front of TCM with a stiffdrink would be great fun.

JMR-What’s yourfavorite historical time period? Why?

SM- Easy: the 19thcentury! You have the West happening here in the States, the Victorian era inthe UK, and perhaps the most vital intellectual and artistic moment of moderntimes happening on the Continent. On top of that, what a time for adventure!You could lose yourself in the American West, or exploring a world that wasstill largely unknown. Great books – now classics – were being written. Signof Four. She. Huckleberry Finn. The Picture of Dorain Gray.What a time to be alive!

JMR-Who is yourfavorite historical figure? Why? If you could ask them one question, what wouldit be?

SM- I have more‘favorite’ historical figures than I could count! I’d love to meet Conan Doyleor Oscar Wilde or Somerset Maugham or Gen. Gordon or Sir Richard Burton orLawrence of Arabia or Wyatt Earp or Bram Stoker. But if I had to pick justone, I’d go with Buffalo Bill Cody. He was a real-life western figure, andas the frontier closed, he started Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, a travelingtheatrical show that created many of the tropes we still think of when we thinkof Westerns. He was an expert tracker, a scout, a Pony Express rider, abusinessman, a showman and writer. The whole genre – our whole myth of theAmerican West – has its roots with Buffalo Bill. He was also a kind, graciousand open-hearted man. I’d have loved to have been his friend! He makes anappearance in my recent book, Tom Mix and the Wild West Christmas. If Ihad a chance, I wouldn’t ask him anything specific – I’d just let him talk!

JMR- How did you cometo be a writer of historical fiction?

SM- When I was in highschool, a teacher of mine said I was a displaced person in time. I’venever forgotten that. He was so right. I don’t believe in reincarnation or pastlives, but the past has always seemed more real and vital to me than thepresent. Certainly I understand it better!

JMR- Did you visitanyone of the places in your book? Where did you feel closest to yourcharacters?

SM- I write two seriesright now, the Tales of Tom Mix and the Bradigan’s Mountainbooks. The Tom Mix books are westerns that take place in the final days of theWest in Oklahoma and I make a point of making all of them different. CowboyVengeance, for example, is a grim revenge story, while Hogg Wild isa riotous comedy. The Bradigan’s Mountain books are a family saga thattakes place in the mountains of Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma I writeabout no longer exists, though I have spent a lot of time riding, camping and learningthe ways of the West and mountain men.

But the amazing thingis – I’ve never set foot in Oklahoma! Tom Mix and Bradigan’s Mountain takeplace in the landscape of my imagination! I spend a lot of time there.

JMR- You writeWesterns; is there anything unique about this genre that sets it apart fromothers?

SM-Yes, I’m glad youasked that. I think, of all the genres, that there is something more honest aboutwesterns. A good western is a morality play with the stakes pared down to bareessentials. A western connects you to a universal humanity in ways that, say,science fiction could never hope to do.

JMR- Scott, tell usabout your new book,  A Mountain Man’sRevenge.

SM- My most recent bookwas Tom Mix and the Wild West Christmas, which may be the happiest bookI’ve ever written. I had real Christmas spirit. But now that the season is over(sob!), time to get back to gritty action. Mountain Man’s Revenge willbe the final book in the current Finding Bradigan’s Mountain trilogy. I’mworking on the last few pages now, so keep a watch out for it in late January,early February 2024. Expect lots of action, a depiction of the trials of lifein the mountains, and a touch of romance.

JMR-You are a prolificwriter! What projects do you have in the pipeline?

SM- I was unusuallyprolific in 2023! I wrote 12 westerns and then, under different names, athriller, a comedy and a YA novel! I hope to do another 12 westerns this year.

However, you and yourreaders will be the first to know that I’m publishing several thrillers in2024. The first is a book called The Perfect Gift, about a womancriminal who balks when she gets involved in child trafficking. The other twoare about an American rancher named Lucas Wheeler who gets involved, againsthis will, with international intrigue.

JMR- Tell our readershow to find you on social media and the web.

SM- My Web site is www.talesoftommix.com,and you can find me on Twitter @ScottMcCreaWest and under the same handle onInstagram. Feel free to follow and ask questions – I love to connect withreaders.

SM-Thanks for not asking where do you get your ideas! I get askedthat about once a week and the honest answer is, damned if I know.

Connect with me on Twitter and letme know; I write to be read, and it’s great fun to connect with other bookpeople!

JMR- Thank you, Scott,for stopping by. Your books look really great! Readers, I’ve included a link toScotts’s books below. Please be sure to check them out.