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MEET THE AUTHOR
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Interview with BJ Bourg, Do you recall how your interest in writing began? My interest in storytelling began when I was about ten. Upon the advice of the elders in my mom's church, my siblings (older sister and younger brother) and I, along with every other child in the church, were pulled out of the church's private school and thrust into the home-schooling system. The elders said it was the parents' responsibility to teach their children. My Mom was a single parent trying to raise three kids on her own. We usually lived in two bedroom houses or trailers and my brother and I always shared a room. We'd hold school classes in the living room. Before school would begin in the morning, my Mom would make us read the Bible and pray. My brother and I would read in our room and my sister would read with my Mom. I didn't like reading my Bible and I didn't like praying for those long periods. Time seemed to stand still as we knelt there. It was around that time that I had read a book called The Swiss Family Robinson. The adventures in that book had set my mind to wandering. Instead of reading my Bible, I began daydreaming my own adventures. I found that it helped to pass the time. Finally, one morning I told my brother that I had had a dream on the previous night and I asked if he wanted to hear it. He was as bored as I and he said yes. I began telling him the stories I had been daydreaming. He sat with mouth agape and a gleam in his eye. He hung on my every word. The next morning, he asked me to tell him my dream again. This went on morning after morning. The adventures would become more elaborate and exciting with each passing day. There were even times when my Mom would tell us that our prayers were over, but we'd tell her we weren't finished, because I hadn't reached the end of the story. My brother became dependent on hearing my "dream" and I became dependent upon telling it. In those early years, I also penned a couple of stories and some poems about the Old West. I never lost that love for storytelling, but life got in the way for many, many years. At the end of 1998, I wanted to begin telling stories again, but I didn't know what I could write about. The only books I'd ever read were Westerns, but I didn't know anything about the Old West - other than what I'd learned from Louis L'amour. Then one day I read something about a mystery writer getting with his local sheriff's department to learn about different police procedures. I read about an author who used to be a cop and she began writing mysteries. I also read that a person should write what he or she knows. The wheels began turning. I'd been a detective since 1993 and I had a lot of stories swimming around inside my head. I decided to start writing police mysteries. By the middle of 1999, I'd written four stories and submitted them to AHMM and EQMM. I received four rejections from each place. I also submitted several stories to the AHMM Mysterious Photo contest and garnered an honorable mention for the September 2000 photo (AHMM, February 2001). That excited me somewhat, but by the end of 2000, I'd written a total of six stories and hadn't received any acceptances. Life again got in the way and it wasn't until January of 2003 that I decided to begin writing once more. I submitted the same stories to Future's Mysterious Anthology Magazine and waited. While I waited, I wrote. On May 23, 2003, Earl Staggs (Senior Fiction Editor, FMAM) emailed me to say that he was accepting my story Muddy Waters. Incidentally, this is the first story in Absent the Soul. That acceptance really fired me up and I began writing in earnest. Since that time, I've had nineteen additional stories accepted for publication in eleven different venues. What do you see as the influences on your writing? Although every facet of my life influences my writing, I would have to say that my job has had the biggest impact. Because of my law enforcement background, I'm able to add subtle details that help make my stories believable. It's hard for me to describe something I've never experienced, so it helps when I've actually experienced what my character is going through. An example of that is found in one of the stories in Absent the Soul where a bad guy deploys a TASER on a protagonist. I'm certified as a TASER instructor and I elected to be "shot" with the TASER X-26 for certification purposes (greatest ride ever). Had I not been exposed to the TASER, I would not have been able to accurately describe what the character was experiencing. What does T A S E R stand for? T A S E R is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle. Can you tell us exactly what happens when you use a TASER? When someone deploys a T A S E R, two probes, which are connected to the gun by thin wires, are propelled forward to a distance of up to twenty-five feet. When the probes, which are actually straight fishhooks, make contact with an attacker, the attacker becomes immediately incapacitated due to the 50,000 volts of electricity that override his central nervous system. One cycle from the T A S E R lasts five seconds. Once the cycle is over, the attacker regains his mobility. Most attackers don't want to continue fighting after that initial introduction, but if they insist, the trigger can be pressed as many times as is necessary to subdue the attacker. As a cop, I've been exposed to various types of less-lethal weapons. As a fighter, and a rough kid growing up, I've been exposed to various types of pain and physical abuse. In my opinion, based on personal experiences, the T A S E R is the most effective less-lethal weapon available to law enforcement and it's the best ride in the park. What exactly is it that you do for a living? Currently, I'm the Chief Investigator for a District Attorney's Office. I also serve as the leader of a Sheriff's Office's sniper team and I teach defensive tactics, report writing, firearms training and various investigative subjects at the local Police Academy. Prior to my current job, I worked as a full-time instructor at the Police Academy for 11 months. Before that, I worked for ten and a half years as a detective investigating all types of felony cases. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing? The plotting. Once I know who is going to do what, where they'll be when it's done, and when it'll be done, things seem to flow a little smoother. Of course, getting to that point sometimes takes a little bit of forever. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work? Louis L'amour is my all-time favorite author. I grew up reading his novels. I still have every novel I ever purchased by him. It's been years since I last read his work, but I remember moving seamlessly through his stories. I would forget I was reading. I would actually become a part of the story. To me, that marks a great story teller. I don't get to read much anymore, but when I do, it's usually James Patterson, Tom Clancy, or Mary Higgins Clark. If you never experienced publication, would you keep writing? I write to get published, just like I fight to win. I never start a
story and think, "This one won't be accepted for publication,"
and I never go into a fight thinking, "I'm going to lose this one."
Even if someone told me I couldn't get published, I'd continue to write,
always striving for publication - for that victory.
ABSENT THE SOUL
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