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MEET THE AUTHOR
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Interview with Herb Holeman, Do you recall when you first recognized you had an interest in writing? I’ve always had an interest in writing and reading, too. When I read all the exploits of Frank and Joe Hardy, I remember the enjoyment of writing my own version of the Hardy Boys. What factors have been the greatest influences on your writing? I’ve witnessed a wide variety of social settings and people behavior in my work in the criminal justice field. I can draw much from these experiences. Who are your favorite authors and why do you find their work memorable? I’m an avid reader of mysteries, and the authors I favor are too numerous to list here. But growing up, I loved reading Golden Age mysteries. I still enjoy haunting used bookstores and discovering some of the classic mysteries that I’ve missed. What area of the writing craft do you find particularly challenging? I think it’s important for a fiction story to have a solid tie to reality. While fiction, by definition, depicts imaginary people and events, I find it challenging to write fiction that touches on the real-life situations and depicts real-life people solving mysteries in unusual ways. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? It empowers me to create events and bring characters to life on the written page. I enjoy, too, interacting with other mystery writers, such as with my local chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and participating in internet-based writers groups. Mixing with mystery aficionados at such events as Bouchercon is an added bonus. What is Switcheroo about? Fired from his job, the protagonist, Nick Oliver, initially accepts the vague reasoning given by his boss. But things change when a stranger, Erin Archer, enters his life. She links Nick and his former employer to the mysterious death of her father, a private investigator. Helping Erin find her father’s killer, involves Nick and Erin investigating a series of strange events at Nick’s former employer. What prompted you to write this story? Part of my motivation to write this story was to present an argument for protecting our national park system. And I wanted to do it in a non-pedantic way and in a manner that would not cause the reader’s eyes to glaze over. To that end, I incorporated the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite as a character in my story. I also wanted to write a story in the tradition of the Golden Age of the detective story where meals run "like a doughy thread" throughout the narrative. In the words of H. R. F. Keating, "Your really implacable sleuth could never go far without pausing to eat the appropriate meal." This tradition lives on in Switcheroo.
What are you working on now that Switcheroo has been published? As a break from a novel-length work, I’m writing short stories. They are fun to do, especially when they end with a twist. Where do you hope to take your writing in the future? I plan to fictionalize stories based on my professional work in behavioral research. Visit his web site at Visit his web site at
Switcheroo
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