Michael Hearns
Trust No One
DOSSIER: With so many years operating in law enforcement working serial homicide and large drug investigations, do you find yourself pulling from elements of specific cases you worked when you sit down to write, or are you creating stories out of pure imagination now?
HEARNS: There are ignition points from my past that help move plot and prose. The Vice Intelligence and Narcotic (VIN) world is very secretive and not like anything taught in the police academy. I was in the world for ten years. Cade Taylor is a detective in the VIN Unit. The stories are all fictional, but everything around Cade Taylor is real. The streets, restaurants, buildings, landscape everything is completely authentic. Miami is as big a character in the books as any character is. Cade Taylor is written in the first person perspective. Many readers tell me they feel as though they are right in the plot line with Cade Taylor. I am often asked about the correlation.
DOSSIER: If your protagonist, Cade Taylor, a Vice Intelligence Narcotics undercover detective working in Miami, had to work in any other jurisdiction in the world, where would that be?
HEARNS: I lived for a spate of time off and on in Malibu so more than likely it would be in coastal Los Angeles County with many portions in Malibu, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Absolute silence/music playing/lawn chair on South Beach?)
HEARNS: My amazing wife has created the most idyllic cozy home office that we share. It has great light and is in the front of the house affording us both wonderful views outside. I have a thirty hour long playlist that I play on a loop and listen to with earbuds. I like my writing space to be very neat. On more than one occasion we have both adjourned from the office to discuss dinner plans and she will tell me about the things she had to do that day, and she will ask me how did it go for me. I have on more than one occasion told her “I was killing people.”
DOSSIER: Nothing is more frustrating while watching a TV series or a film and there’s some operational error acted out on the screen. We’re famous here at The Dossier for loudly pointing these things out. As a technical advisor for film and TV, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen either a writer or an actor try to do in a scene?
HEARNS: Absolutely correct. There is a fine line between harsh realism and entertainment and as Technical Advisor (TA) it is my job to bring as much authenticity and realism to the scene and keep in mind that line exists. I work directly with the actors, director, and the director of photography. I help with dialogue (yes words do get changed seconds before filming), and every nuance of the scene. The actors often seek me out off camera to hear some stories, get some inspiration, get some insight, or discuss their concerns. I wouldn’t say it was the weirdest thing but a A list actor had an attitude but after hearing of my past spent the breaks and lunches next to me asking for stories.
DOSSIER: In addition to writing Cade Taylor novels, you’ve also done a lot of adjunct professor work at universities around the country. What’s the first thing you tell your students about writing crime novels?
HEARNS: I teach Investigative Criminal Psychology (Criminal Profiling). The students are more interested in Ted Bundy than me.
Website: Michael Hearns | Amazon Page
Jeff Circle 