Good Morning, Booklovers!
It’s time for book talk with guest mystery writer George Cramer, who’s brought his featured book, NEW LIBERTY.
It’s time for book talk with guest mystery writer George Cramer, who’s brought his featured book, NEW LIBERTY.
Welcome, George. How do you take your coffee?
GC: I take it black, always have—always will. Back awhile, I drank upwards of fifteen cups a day. Heck, I’d have a cup before bed. Now, I have trouble sleeping if I have anything with caffeine after two in the afternoon.
Ally: While I pour, please tell readers something about yourself.
BIO:
An enrolled descendant of the Karuk Tribe of California, I enjoyed a forty-year investigative career in law enforcement and private and corporate investigations. I attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, earning an MFA-Creative Writing.
As a corporate and private Investigator, I conducted investigations throughout the Americas and Asia. For about five years, I kept my investigative skills honed by volunteering as a Missing Person investigator at a California Police Department.
My short stories and poems have been published in numerous anthologies. My debut novel, The Mona Lisa Sisters, was released in 2020. Robbers and Cops followed in 2022. New Liberty-A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel, the first in the series, will be out shortly.
Something unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “My father was exceptional, and his skills led to a unique experience in my teens. Dad was a horseman, a good part of his life. Pop even rode with the 11th Calvary, the Blackhorse Regiment, up to and into World War II.
Pop bought three wild donkeys in my fifteenth year, and we trained them to be pack animals. Pop made the saddles and all the equipment needed by a beast of burden. We spent over three weeks on the John Muir Trail and more weeks in the backcountry of California. In all my years, I’ve never met a man like my Pop.”
You can contact me at:
Email gdcramer@outlook.com
Blog https://gdcramer.com/george-cramer-blog/
FaceBook https://facebook.com/george.cramer.56211
LinkedIn (99+) George Cramer | LinkedIn
Amazon Amazon.com: George Cramer: books, biography, latest update
An enrolled descendant of the Karuk Tribe of California, I enjoyed a forty-year investigative career in law enforcement and private and corporate investigations. I attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, earning an MFA-Creative Writing.
As a corporate and private Investigator, I conducted investigations throughout the Americas and Asia. For about five years, I kept my investigative skills honed by volunteering as a Missing Person investigator at a California Police Department.
My short stories and poems have been published in numerous anthologies. My debut novel, The Mona Lisa Sisters, was released in 2020. Robbers and Cops followed in 2022. New Liberty-A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel, the first in the series, will be out shortly.
Something unique that isn’t in your regular bio: “My father was exceptional, and his skills led to a unique experience in my teens. Dad was a horseman, a good part of his life. Pop even rode with the 11th Calvary, the Blackhorse Regiment, up to and into World War II.
Pop bought three wild donkeys in my fifteenth year, and we trained them to be pack animals. Pop made the saddles and all the equipment needed by a beast of burden. We spent over three weeks on the John Muir Trail and more weeks in the backcountry of California. In all my years, I’ve never met a man like my Pop.”
You can contact me at:
Email gdcramer@outlook.com
Blog https://gdcramer.com/george-cramer-blog/
FaceBook https://facebook.com/george.cramer.56211
LinkedIn (99+) George Cramer | LinkedIn
Amazon Amazon.com: George Cramer: books, biography, latest update
INTERVIEW:
Ally: I always ask my guest authors about the sexual content of their books (I avoid sharing erotica), but I rarely include their responses. I made an exception this week. See below. J
GC; I had to laugh when you asked for the heat rating of any romantic scenes in my crime stories. There is no sex: my protagonist and a few others rec telephone calls while sharing a bed with wives or girlfriends. In my first draft of Robbers and Cops, I had a heated sex scene, but my two daughters immediately put the kibosh on that. So, no heat.
Ally: Does real life ever show up in your stories?
GC: Robbers and Cops was initially about one incident and then the experiences in the young life of Detective George Cramer. The story begins with depression-era brothers who become bad guys and the detective who nails them after the forty-year history of the two criminals. At about 20,000 words or so, the protagonist was a complete bore. So, I took that one incident involving a San Mateo City detective, and Cramer was given an ancillary role.
Ally: I always ask my guest authors about the sexual content of their books (I avoid sharing erotica), but I rarely include their responses. I made an exception this week. See below. J
GC; I had to laugh when you asked for the heat rating of any romantic scenes in my crime stories. There is no sex: my protagonist and a few others rec telephone calls while sharing a bed with wives or girlfriends. In my first draft of Robbers and Cops, I had a heated sex scene, but my two daughters immediately put the kibosh on that. So, no heat.
Ally: Does real life ever show up in your stories?
GC: Robbers and Cops was initially about one incident and then the experiences in the young life of Detective George Cramer. The story begins with depression-era brothers who become bad guys and the detective who nails them after the forty-year history of the two criminals. At about 20,000 words or so, the protagonist was a complete bore. So, I took that one incident involving a San Mateo City detective, and Cramer was given an ancillary role.
Robbers and Cops
In the poverty-stricken world of two brothers…
…sometimes crime is the only option.
Are they evil or lost souls?
Buy or read in KU: Amazon
Ally: Have you done any ghosting writing?
GC: When I was a private investigator specializing in insurance fraud, I became immersed in clinic fraud. Unscrupulous doctors, medical and chiropractic, conspired with the owners of clinics to defraud insurance carriers. A common method was to stage or cause automobile collisions. There were usually at least four in the victim vehicle; all would claim ‘whiplash.” They all went to the same clinic where the doctor would order physical therapy, often thirty or more visits. In my inspections of the clinics, I found treatment sign-in sheets with pages of signatures waiting for someone to add the dates and treatment modalities later. Sometimes the clinics billed for treatment on days they were closed for holidays.
A non-fiction book about insurance fraud needed a section on staged collision and clinic fraud. I ghostwrote the section.
Ally: Do you write with a message or theme in mind?
GC: My goal is to increase awareness in New Liberty Book III, doing so in a forceful manner that respects the families of missing women. In the November 3, 2021, issue of THE BARK, Madison Hunter wrote an article entitled MISSING AND MURDERED: UNDERSTANDING WHY INDIGENOUS WOMEN ARE MURDERED AND GO MISSING AT HIGHER RATES THAN OTHER POPULATIONS. In the article, Hunter wrote: “There is a nationwide crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Indigenous women are more likely to go missing or be murdered than any other ethnicity.” This and programs such as “Three Pines” on prime video have begun to bring awareness to the problem.
Ally: What experiences have you had with critique groups? Did you find them valuable?
GC: When I began writing, I joined an entry-level critique group. I learned but did not enjoy the experience. The group meetings usually had about a dozen present. All genres and each person read about a thousand words, then we went around and commented on the work. It was terrible, and I almost gave up on critique groups. Then I was invited to two small groups. What a difference. While writing Robbers and Cops, I belonged to a group of four crime-mystery writers. What a difference. Without these folks, I would never have finished this book and the series coming out this year.
Ally: What is next on your writing schedule?
GC: I’ve included the cover for New Liberty, Book 1, A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel, coming May 9. Books Two and Three are slated for release later this year. Book II is about ready to go to the publisher. I’m struggling with Book III. One of the subplots is my effort to make more people aware of missing, taken, and murdered Native American women.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
GC:
GC: When I was a private investigator specializing in insurance fraud, I became immersed in clinic fraud. Unscrupulous doctors, medical and chiropractic, conspired with the owners of clinics to defraud insurance carriers. A common method was to stage or cause automobile collisions. There were usually at least four in the victim vehicle; all would claim ‘whiplash.” They all went to the same clinic where the doctor would order physical therapy, often thirty or more visits. In my inspections of the clinics, I found treatment sign-in sheets with pages of signatures waiting for someone to add the dates and treatment modalities later. Sometimes the clinics billed for treatment on days they were closed for holidays.
A non-fiction book about insurance fraud needed a section on staged collision and clinic fraud. I ghostwrote the section.
Ally: Do you write with a message or theme in mind?
GC: My goal is to increase awareness in New Liberty Book III, doing so in a forceful manner that respects the families of missing women. In the November 3, 2021, issue of THE BARK, Madison Hunter wrote an article entitled MISSING AND MURDERED: UNDERSTANDING WHY INDIGENOUS WOMEN ARE MURDERED AND GO MISSING AT HIGHER RATES THAN OTHER POPULATIONS. In the article, Hunter wrote: “There is a nationwide crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Indigenous women are more likely to go missing or be murdered than any other ethnicity.” This and programs such as “Three Pines” on prime video have begun to bring awareness to the problem.
Ally: What experiences have you had with critique groups? Did you find them valuable?
GC: When I began writing, I joined an entry-level critique group. I learned but did not enjoy the experience. The group meetings usually had about a dozen present. All genres and each person read about a thousand words, then we went around and commented on the work. It was terrible, and I almost gave up on critique groups. Then I was invited to two small groups. What a difference. While writing Robbers and Cops, I belonged to a group of four crime-mystery writers. What a difference. Without these folks, I would never have finished this book and the series coming out this year.
Ally: What is next on your writing schedule?
GC: I’ve included the cover for New Liberty, Book 1, A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel, coming May 9. Books Two and Three are slated for release later this year. Book II is about ready to go to the publisher. I’m struggling with Book III. One of the subplots is my effort to make more people aware of missing, taken, and murdered Native American women.
Ally: Which of the trivia questions did you choose?
GC:
- The most memorable book you’ve read: For Whom the Bell Tolls, closely followed by To Kill a Mockingbird.
- An author you’d most like to chat with: He can be no other than Ernest Hemingway. One topic would be asking him to tell me about his short story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”
- The last time you road a train: Your question about trains brought back a pleasant time. My wife and I visited Japan. Traveling on our own, we took the bullet train from Tokyo to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and the Nagasaki Peace Park. The train and the parks were unbelievable.
- Best place you’ve visited: This question sure made me think. The first thing that popped into my mind was the city of Shanghai, China. I was there on business and finished early, giving me three days to wander the city. What a fantastic place. I walked miles and miles, never feeling alone or in danger. I even got to touch a rhinoceros. But after arguing with myself, I settled on Lake Shasta, California. For twenty-five years, my family vacationed there on a houseboat. What more can I say?
- A book you’ve reread: I’m not very good at rereading books. There is one book I’ve reread at least a half-dozen times over the years. Yup, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Ally: Thanks for visiting the blog, George. Before we finish, please show us your featured book.
GC: Thanks for inviting me over for a chat. This has been fun and thought-provoking.
New Liberty – A Hector Miguel Navarro Novel
Genre: mystery
Outside Phoenix, two gangs rule…
…and one police officer is caught in the middle.
How will he stop them?
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvrdESP4jTI
Pre-order (available May 9):
Amazon Barnes & Noble