Bobby’s
back! Second guest in the new Branching Out
Interviews on the Scribbler.
It’s been a
long time since Bobby’s first visit to the Scribbler. Way back in 2014 when the
Scribbler was starting to gain traction, Bobby was a terrific guest then,
sharing an Excerpt from Alexander Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt. See it
HERE.
Moving on to
2019, he visited us again and we got to know a bit more about Bobby’s novels
and a childhood memory, his involvement with Patreon and other good stuff. If
you missed it, go HERE.
If you want
to read a bio on Bobby, check the last Scribbler visit of have a look at his
website – www.bobbynash.com.
So, Dear
Reader, pull up a chair and let’s chat with Bobby.
Allan: Hello
Bobby. Glad to have you back again. Before we get into writing topics, tell us
about yourself, not an author’s bio, but how did you end up in Bethlehem? Did
you grow up there? If not, where did you spend your childhood?
Bobby: How I got to Bethlehem isn’t overly interesting, I’m afraid.
I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and we lived in Doraville. When I was twelve, we
moved to Winder, way out in the middle of nowhere back then, not so much now.
Bethlehem sits next to Winder and when I moved out on my own, that’s where I
ended up. See, not very exciting. Our middle of nowhere area has boomed in the
past couple decades though. We are no longer as middle of nowhere as we once
were.
I will add that
I do like it here. It’s far enough outside of Atlanta to be the country, but
it’s close enough to be in downtown Atlanta in less than an hour, traffic
notwithstanding.
Allan: I've had
the pleasure of reading Snow Falls, Book 0ne in the Abraham Snow series. You
can read my and other reviews HERE. Tell us, Bobby, where did Abraham Snow come
from? Is there part of Bobby Nash in this hero?
Bobby: The idea for Snow started as a film
idea, actually. I wanted to do a series of minisodes (as they were called at
the time), maybe 10-15 minutes each that, when watched together made a movie.
The opening idea for the movie became chapter one of Snow Falls when it became
a novella.
The reason
the Snow books are novella length is that I was contacted by a new publisher
about doing eBook novellas. They were looking for pitches and I had this movie
idea laying around so I pitched that and they liked it. I wrote Snow Falls and
it was published. I wrote Snow Storm and sadly nothing happened. The publisher
eventually went the way of the dodo and I was able to retrieve my rights. I
tried shopping it around, but at that time, no publisher I talked to was
interested in doing novellas so I was left with two options. One, I could do a
rewrite and make it a novel, which I didn’t want to do as I had come to like
the format for this series. That left me with option two. I published it
through my indie press, BEN Books and haven’t looked back. I’m currently
working on book six as well as the Snow Shorts line of $.99 eBooks.
Snow is basically
my love letter to the p.i. and cop shows and books I grew up with in the 70’s
and 80’s. You’ll see a lot of The Rockford Files and Magnum p.i. in these
tales. They are big fun, heavy on action and character. Character is very
important to me. Character always comes first. Thankfully, the audience has
liked these characters because I fell in love with them too. I hope to be
writing Snow adventures for a long time to come.
Shameless
self-plug: You can learn more about the Snow series at www.abrahamsnow.com
Allan: You
are often out on day trips with your father. Being the good son. Care to share
any incidents on these trips with our readers?
Bobby: Sadly, these stories aren’t what I
would call super-exciting either. My dad is not a big talker so mostly, our
trips involve long periods of silence as we travel down the highways and back
roads seeing where the road will take us. We do talk, but there are long
periods of silence. I sometimes nap since he drives. The past few years have
been tough on our family. In a very short span, we lost my mother and brother,
plus my dad and I both had some health scares. Oh, yeah, then there is that
whole pesky pandemic thing on top of everything else added an extra layer or
two of stress to our lives.
It’s basically
just the two of us now and to avoid going stir crazy at home, we go for rides.
No destinations, most of the time. We just go and ride. It gets us out of the
house, gets us some sun, and is relaxing. We have fun. Because of the pandemic,
these are day trips so we’re back home in our own beds at night. That means we
stay in a fairly small-ish area, although we can visit up to four states in
close proximity. When things get back to normal, I hope to push for a longer
trip that gets me to a beach. It has been far too long since I stood on a beach
and listened to the crashing waves hit sand.
I also take
photos on our trips, which I’ve used in stories. In the Snow book I’m currently
writing, I’m using a real location with a waterfall that I discovered on one of
our excursions. That’s been a nice bonus.
Another
surprising bonus has been the reaction to my posts about our road trips on
social media. I’ve started taking photos to add to the posts by request. My dad
doesn’t do social media and he thinks it’s hilarious that people follow our
excursions.
Allan:
You’re a big comic book fan. You even write comic books. When did your
fascination with comics start and how has it developed over the years?
Bobby: Comic Books were my first love. I remember the very first
comics I ever owned. I still have them. The store had these three packs and two
of the books were Spider-Man comics. I knew Spidey from reruns of the various
cartoons. He was my favorite hero. I begged my mom to get them for me and she
relented. It turned out to be Amazing Spider-Man issues 192, 193, and 194. I
was hooked, much to my parent’s chagrin. They were not really a fan of my being
into comics and tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade me from reading them.
Like most, I
started writing and drawing my own comics on typing paper (some of you may have
to Google that). I had big dreams of being a comic book artist, but alas, my
art is not quite at professional comic book standards. Thanks to some tough
love advice from a friend, I focused on writing and within a couple of years, I
had my first professional comic writing gig.
Sadly, I
don’t get to do comics as often as I would like. I don’t have the money to hire
artists and I’m not really knowledgeable enough about Kickstarter to try and
make it a go. I take my comic writing work where I can get it. I have a Domino
Lady comic trade coming out this April that I’m really proud of and am happy to
see released. It’s been in limbo a while.
There’s a
small part of me that still dreams of writing The Fantastic Four one day. I
would also love to write Thor or Captain America at least once. It’ll probably
never happen, but there’s always that small sliver of hope.
Allan: You
have a great collection of books and stories. You’ve won awards. Which of your
works has been the most popular with readers?
Bobby: Oh, that’s a tough one. Over the years, I think I’ve gotten
the most comments about my work on Domino Lady and Evil Ways, which was my
first novel. I have been referred to as “the Domino Lady guy” and “the Evil
Ways guy” before so I guess there’s something there. These days, Snow gets a
lot of attention, which makes me happy. I’ve actually received letters telling me
that nothing bad ever happen to Archer Snow or they’ll revolt. I love that the
character has connected with them so well. Now, I put him in jeopardy all the
time. I’m so mean. Ha! The awards are just icing on the cake. It’s a great
feeling to know that these characters and stories are connecting with readers.
Allan: Which
book was the most fun to write? Which one was the most difficult?
Bobby: I have a lot of fun with my characters. Snow and his pals are
a hoot to write. The same is true with Sheriff Myers and his deputies. I feel
as if I know these characters and I have fun hanging out with them. I’ve also
had a couple of special projects like writing AC Comics’ Nightveil. I fell in
love with that character when I was in high school. I remember telling a friend
back then that I would write her one day. It took thirty years, but holding a
copy of Nightveil: Crisis at the Crossroads of Infinity in my hand was a huge
thrill and a big feeling of accomplishment.
They’re all
difficult in some way or another. Sometimes I get started at full steam and I
fizzle out and lose my way. Other times, the characters stop talking to me and
I flounder. Other days, I’m lazy and don’t feel like writing. Recently, this
happened on the third book in a series. Somewhere along the way, the story went
off course and I couldn’t course correct. It took time, but eventually, the
characters showed me what I needed to do and I was able to get the story back
on track. It meant losing a lot of words and starting over, but in the end, the
story is better for it.
Allan:
What’s new? What’s next?
Bobby: In 2021, part of my focus is on BEN Books, my indie press.
There’s focus on Snow and Sheriff Myers as well as finally getting Evil Intent
completed and in the hands of readers. Snow Shorts launched in January. I’ve
invited a handful of other writers in to write stories with Snow and/or his
supporting cast. That’s been a fun, and somewhat terrifying project. It’s hard
to release control of your babies, you know. I’ve been very pleased with the
results though. I mentioned the upcoming Domino Lady Threesome comic trade
coming out at the end of April and there are at least three more Domino Lady
stories coming throughout the year. The publisher has commissioned three. I’ve
already completed two of them. I’m also doing a The Lone Ranger short story for
an anthology, which is a fun character to write. The Horror Houston: Horror
Hunter series will debut soon. It’s a four-book series and three are written.
There will be a novel follow up to my horror/western story in The Devil’s Due
Anthology that will be fun. I’m also planning more Lance Star: Sky Ranger too.
Oh, and a couple other novels and novellas in production that haven’t been
officially announced yet. Whew. Somewhere in there, I may take a nap.
***It’s
been a great interview, Bobby. Seems like you have lots to look forward to.
An Excerpt from In The Wind – A Tom Myers Mystery
(Copyright is held by the author. Used with permission)
The character of Tom Myers, and other characters in the
story, first appeared as secondary characters in my novel, EVIL WAYS. They also
made an appearance in DEADLY GAMES!, again in a secondary capacity. They will
also make a small appearance in the upcoming EVIL INTENT. IN THE WIND is the
first book in a series where Tom Myers is the main character.
This is the opening chapter to IN THE WIND – A Tom Myers
Mystery. Oddly enough, Tom Myers does not appear in this chapter, but it sets
up the tone and style of the book. I hope you enjoy it.
Pete Messer hated his current
assignment.
It wasn’t a tough gig, but what it
also wasn’t was very exciting. He had been tasked, along with two other U.S.
Marshals like himself and an FBI Agent to baby sit a witness at a safe house
out in the middle of nowhere.
On paper, it sounded like a plum
assignment.
In reality, he was bored to death.
Their witness was a mid-level scumbag
who kept book for the Manelli crime family named Bates Hewell. Although the
Manelli’s had been keeping a low profile in recent years, save for a slight
altercation a year earlier that ended in a shootout. Instead, they had focused
the investigation on their legitimate enterprises as opposed to their less than
legal means of income, they hadn’t abandoned their criminal ways. They just
learned how to keep those endeavors out of the limelight.
What their witness knew would mean mass
arrests and convictions. Once the word got out that Hewell had turned State’s
evidence, if it hadn’t already, all hell was going to break loose. This guy’s
life wouldn’t be worth a plugged nickel if the Manelli’s got a hold of him. For
the past two months, Agent Messer and a revolving team of agents had been
babysitting the witness, moving every few days to a new secure location in an
effort to keep anyone looking for Hewell off balance. They had to keep him safe
until his deposition later in the week. After that, they would repeat the
process until the trial, which could take anywhere up to a year or more to
begin. Longer no doubt, once Manelli’s high priced attorneys got in on the act.
Messer hoped there was a plan to
rotate him out of babysitting detail soon. He needed a break, not just from the
monotony of the assignment, but from the annoying protectee in his charge. So
far, he was the only Marshal on the detail to not be swapped out and he was
starting to wonder if he was on someone’s shit list back home or if they had
simply forgotten about him.
“Ours is not to question why…” he
muttered and dropped the cigarette on the driveway before grinding it out with
his shoe. He had given up the cancer sticks once upon a time, but when on these
seemingly never-ending protection details, he craved a smoke if for no other
reason than to have something to do. Out of respect for his coworkers, he
always took it outside when time to light up. Slipping on a sweater jacket and
hoodie over his button up shirt and tie to keep up the illusion that it was a
nice, normal family renting out the old Patterson place off Old Country Road 3
near the intersection of Highway 81.
To his co-workers, he was walking the
perimeter while grabbing a smoke.
The safe house sat on a fairly secluded
piece of land in a quiet northeast Georgia area just a few miles north of the
middle of nowhere, a perfect place to hide out. The house they had rented under
false, government created identities, was a ranch built in the 1980’s when the
house had once been a farm house. There were several acres of fairly flat,
overgrown with grass, terrain surrounding them, which meant they would see
anyone coming their way long before they reached the house.
From the outside, there was nothing
extraordinary about the old Patterson place.
The inside wasn’t much different,
which made it the perfect safe house to keep their witness on ice until time
for him to stand before the grand jury and spill his guts.
The safe house was your typical ranch
style house that was built in the 1980’s all over the southeastern United
States. Three bedrooms, two of them tiny, two bathrooms, kitchen, den, living
room, dining room, small fireplace, and two car garage that only fit two cars
if you didn’t have to open the doors on either of them. The house sat on
fourteen acres of flat farm land, which allowed them to keep an eye on all
directions. It was a foreclosure that had been purchased under a dummy
corporation’s name to keep it secure. On paper, it was a rental property.
Only a handful of people knew its
real purpose.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Messer walked
into the living room and yawned. The sun had set less than an hour earlier and
since he had been on duty since midnight, he was ready to crash.
“I’m beat,” he told the Parker and
Cutler, who were playing what was probably their hundredth game of poker. One
of them had brought cards and chips. Messer wasn’t sure if they were actually
playing for real money or not.
Messer, along with Deputy U.S.
Marshal Simon Parker, Deputy U.S. Marshal Amy Street, FBI Agent Mike Cutler had
spent the past week rotating shifts around their witness, an annoying man who
rarely slept and watched a lot of TV when he wasn’t pacing nervously. He was an
anxiety attack just waiting to happen.
“Yeah, sack out, man,” Parker said as
he folded and tossed his cards atop the pile of chips he had just forfeited.
“You look tired.”
“You’re a peach, Parker,” Messer
said.
“Knock first. Street’s in there.”
Thanks. He knocked and there was no
answer so he assumed she was asleep. Messer gave his colleagues a half-hearted salute before
heading into the master bedroom and quietly closing the door behind him. In the
dark, he couldn’t see Amy Street in either of the two beds that sat against
opposite walls of the master bedroom, but he entered the room quietly anyway.
Both beds were empty. Once the door
was closed, he heard the shower running in the bathroom and saw light from
beneath the door. It didn’t take a twelve-year law enforcement veteran to put
two and two together.
Messer kicked off his shoes and
climbed into the bed farthest from the bathroom without bothering to change
clothes, although he did loosen and pull off his tie and unbutton his shirt. He
hung his shoulder holster on the bed post along with the tie then laid on his
back and stared at the ceiling. He was tired, but sleep constantly eluded him,
especially on the job. It was not a new problem. He couldn’t shut off his brain
long enough to doze off. There were too many variables running through his head,
schedules, check ins, perimeter searches, things like that. His mind was on the
job twenty-four/seven. While that made him good at his job, it had killed more
than a few relationships. Occupational hazard.
Messer could still hear the TV from
the living room through the door, but it was a muffled roar. Their witness was
obsessed with old TV shows. Thanks to the abundance of cable channels showing
classic TV lineups these days and the witnesses inability to sleep for more
than two or three hours at a time, each night he was able to watch one episode
each of each Star Trek series, the A-Team, Quantum Leap, Magnum p.i., Nash
Bridges, Night Court, Cheers, and Simon & Simon before passing out for a
few hours when the house fell into blessed silence.
The deputy marshal did not see the
appeal, personally. He had seen many of those shows as a kid, but after seeing
an episode once, he never felt the need to watch it again. He couldn’t
understand people like his brother who collected box sets of old shows and watched
them over and over again. It seemed weird.
Messer had just started to doze off
when the bathroom door opened and Street came into the room. In the short time
he had known her, he came to realize that she never walked through a door so
much as she burst through them.
“Sorry,” Street said softly as soon
as she realized she wasn’t alone. She flipped off the bathroom light and
plunged the room into darkness. The only light came in under the door from the
living room, the red numbers on the clock, and from around the edges of the
closed blinds on the window.
“Did I wake you?” Street asked as she
tiptoed across the room on bare feet.
“Nah. I just got in,” Messer mumbled.
“You turning in or heading back to the final frontier out there?”
“Nap time,” Street said. After
securing her weapon in the nightstand, she climbed into the other bed. She was
dressed more comfortably than he was, in sweats and a baggy T-shirt, her long,
dark hair pulled up into a ponytail.
He and Street got along pretty well,
probably because he was the only man in the house that hadn’t tried to hit on
her yet. He found her attractive, but she wasn’t really his type. He hadn’t
been able to say the word gay out loud yet, despite John pressuring him to at
least tell his parents about them moving in together. They both agreed that
keeping it out of the workplace was probably smart, especially on these long
babysitting gigs. Based on the way some of the guys acted around Street, he
could only imagine the kind of bullshit he would have to put up with if they
knew. He hated having to hide who he was, but there were some fights he found
were easier to avoid than have. This was one of them.
Messer said good night, then rolled
over to face the wall, and eventually drifted off.
He woke to an out of place sound.
Marshal Messer’s eyes snapped open at
the sound. Without sitting up, he glanced around the room. The clock showed
that it was twenty minutes to four in the morning. He could still hear the TV
playing in the other room, but the sound that woke him had not come from there.
He sat up on the edge of the bed
softly, quietly. He focused, carefully listening for another clue that he
hadn’t dreamt the sound that woke him. He slipped his feet into his shoes, then
stood and pulled the service weapon from his shoulder holster still dangling
from the bed post.
“Time to get up?” Street asked
sleepily from her bunk.
“Shhh…” he said. “I thought I heard…”
That’s when the shooting started.
Messer eased open the door for a
look. The living room was empty so he opened the door all the way and stepped
out.
Amy Street was two steps behind him,
gun also in hand. She was still barefoot, which seemed like a bad idea, but he
wasn’t about to admonish her in the middle of a shootout. She moved toward the
fireplace that jutted out from the wall off the master bedroom to divide the
living room from the dining room. It provided good cover.
Messer went wide, heading to the far
wall so he could back her up.
Street pointed two fingers at her
eyes then pointed in the direction of the dining room and the kitchen beyond.
He shook his head. He didn’t see
anyone.
He pointed toward the open door
leading to the other bedrooms, bathroom, and stairwell to the attic that was on
his side of the room.
She shook her head. It was clear.
Messer inched forward, ready to head
toward the kitchen when he heard glass break.
He turned into the hallway, gun
leading the way. The bathroom was ahead. It was clear. So was the back bedroom.
Where the hell is everybody?
He heard glass shatter again and
bolted for the front bedroom. He entered just in time to see their protected
witness leap out of the broken window into the bushes below.
He’s escaping! Where’s his detail?
Hewell shouted as the prickly bushes
bit into his flesh, cutting and scratching him as he freed himself from their
grasp. Once free, Hewell ran for the field ahead, hoping to lose himself in the
tall grass.
“Stop!” Messer commanded.
Hewell looked back, but kept running.
For a second, the marshal considered
shooting him, but couldn’t risk it. Hewell was a scumbag and a crook, but he
was also under the protection of the U.S. Marshal’s Service. Shooting him would
not be looked on favorably.
He heard the sound of footsteps come
up behind him. They were heavy. Boots. Not Street. She was barefoot, he
recalled.
He turned just in time to see a
stranger enter the room.
The man was armed and seemed just as
surprised to see someone there as Messer was to see him.
The man raised his gun.
Messer pulled the trigger first, two
slugs to the heart, dropping the man where he stood.
He ran back into the living room.
“Street! We’ve got a runner and
shooters! Watch your…”
That’s when he saw her.
Street was leaning against the fireplace,
a pool of blood beneath her. She had been shot, belly wound.
“I got… got him,” she said through
the pain.
There was no time to question her. He
had to get them both to safety and call in medics for Street. He decided he
would catch up with Hewell after he was sure she was okay.
“We got to get out of here,” he
whispered into her ear as she helped her back to her feet. With one hand, she
put pressure on the wound. She still held her gun in the other. They reached
the front door without incident.
Messer opened the door and stepped
out onto the small concrete porch. It was barely large enough to hold a chair.
There was one step between the ground and the porch. He took one step forward.
He didn’t feel the blast until they
were airborne.
The house exploded in a giant blazing
ball of fire and smoke. Walls were reduced to shrapnel that hammered Messer and
Street like tiny missiles as they were propelled across the front lawn.
They hit the ground hard as wood and
plaster rained down all around them like a fiery thunderstorm. The grass
ignited and spread quickly to the nearest tree.
Street was lying face down in the
grass.
She wasn’t moving.
Messer tried to get to her, but he
couldn’t move either. He tried again and felt something tear in his side. It
was the most unimaginable pain he had ever felt in his life.
Before he passed out, Pete Messer
caught a glimpse of Bates Hewell before he disappeared into the tall grass.
Their star witness was in the wind.
And that’s
the end of the opening chapter (I always start my BEN Books releases this way.
Consider it Chapter 0).
You can
learn more about In The Wind at www.ben-books.com.
It is available in paperback, ebook, and audio. You can read it for FREE with a
Kindle Unlimited subscription. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Wind-Tom-Myers-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08DPRM4R6
Thanks again
Bobby, for being our guest this week. Wishing you all the success you deserve.
Bobby:
Thanks for having me back, Allan. It’s always great fun to chat with you.
For more
information on Bobby Nash please visit him on-line at
www.ben-books.com
https://www.patreon.com/BobbyNash
www.facebook.com/AuthorBobbyNash
www.twitter.com/bobbynash
www.instagram.com/bobbynashwrites
www.pinterest.com/bobbynash
http://amazon.com/author/bobbynash
https://www.zazzle.com/bobbynash
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/211548.Bobby_Nash
https://www.abrahamsnow.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbynash
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrf2hFXHxYac6y9KRT2nfFw
among other places across the web.
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