Scott McCrea
Targets West
Lucas Wheeler is having a bad day when he leaves his beloved Wyoming for the concrete canyons of New York. But he has no idea how rapidly things will turn for the worse.
The Writer’s Dossier 5/22/2024 – The Scott McCrea interview
DOSSIER: Even with all the writing you’ve done over the years, what was it about the Jeff Galleon, Tales of Tom Mix and Bradigan’s Mountain series that really shot you up to the next level? Was it the writing, the timing, what?
McCREA: Probably a mix of timing and writing! I had written a lot of nonfiction – books, magazine articles, even bubblegum cards – and while fun, my mind was always on stories. I’ll never forget something my husband said to me when we were first dating (34 years ago!): he said my imagination was “fetid and overripe.” (Honestly, he could’ve been talking about more than my imagination there.) I’ve always had an aggressively immersive imagination, and fiction has allowed that to flower.
Also, the Jeff Galleon, Tom Mix and Bradigan books are all series novels. Some writers find series books restrictive, but I think there’s something liberating about series characters. You can keep the same characters, but mix it up in interesting ways. The Tom Mix books, for example, have had comedies, YA Christmas fun, dead-serious revenge stories, adventure tales and even a close-to-horror story.
I’m really excited about the Jeff Galleon Adventures. They are about a surfer-dude-cum-genius Jeff Galleon who travels the world having these outlandish adventures. The first one was about pirate gold and the upcoming book, Jewels of the Feathered Serpent, about a lost tribe of Aztecs … in the Philippines!
On top of that, I’m starting a new Western series about a hard-case marshal named Ezra Flint. These will be grittier than my usual books and I’m curious to see what fans think of them.
DOSSIER: You’ve been writing stories since grade school, but you went into writing public relations materials as a professional. Besides having to write about urinary incontinence, what else about that world made you want to jump ship and do adventure/western novels?
McCREA: I had to make a living and it’s next to impossible to do that when starting out as a writer. It’s just one of the hard facts of a writer’s life. Back in the day, when there were pulp magazines and the slicks and radio and the like, it was a lot easier to make a living. Today you’re competing against the Internet, video games, smart phones and cable. So I got a job in public relations.
Public relations (and advertising) are great fields for the budding writer because they teach you how to lie for a living. They also give you a healthy skepticism about nearly everything. (You’d also get the same skills being a hooker, and there’s not that much difference.)
Also, doing public relations for various diseases and medical conditions (my sweet spot for years) is a wonderful trigger to inspire imaginings that are more fun. Seriously, if you’re writing about liver disease day-in-day-out, you start thinking about secret agents, Wild West shootouts and gangsters.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Absolute silence/music playing/sitting on a horse in the west Texas town of El Paso?)
McCREA: I write at my desk which is in, of all places, the living room. I don’t mind too much noise around me because I quickly get lost in what I’m doing. However, I ‘do’ have to write in the same place. When I move around, I get distracted by whatever is different. Also, I turn off the Internet whenever I write. I’m convinced that Evil ForcesTM invented the Internet to distract working writers.
DOSSIER: You’ve said, “The world is full of adventure — you can find it everywhere and anywhere…” Where are some of the best places you find adventure these days (and we’re talking about the kind that inspire the kind of stories you keep coming up with)?
McCREA: If I were to list the writers that inspired me we would be here all day. We’d start with Conan Doyle and move through Ian Fleming and Zane Grey and Sax Rohmer (do yourself a favor, read a Rohmer) and Agatha Christie and … well, see what I mean?
But one that had the most influence on how I see things was Leslie Charteris, creator of Simon Templar, The Saint. I don’t remember which story it’s in, but I’ll never forget something that Charteris/The Saint said, “Adventures happen to the adventurous.” It’s so Zen and sounds so silly until you unpack it and see the wisdom of its simplicity.
You can find adventure anywhere if you’re adventurous. Merian C. Cooper (another person I admire immensely) was a world explorer who later created King Kong (another great boyhood influence). He thought adventure could only be found in the remote, exotic places of the world. I love exotica, too, and include it in my fiction when I can. But adventure is there, for the taking, whether you’re in Abyssinia or Abeline.
Two funny stories: I have lots (and lots!) of hats. When we were in Aberdeen we got surrounded by a bunch of tough-looking guys at three in the morning. Turns out they wanted to try on my fedora. In a jazz bar in Paris someone walked up and asked to try on my Stetson – that hat went from head-to-head around the bar until I got it back.
DOSSIER: What did becoming a Western Writers of America Spur Award Finalist do for your writing? What about your ego?
McCREA: I will tell you without shame that when R.G. Yoho called to tell me I was a Spur Award Finalist, I just broke down and wept. (He was great about that. “Lots of people cry,” he said.) Writing is the loneliest of professions. Getting award recognition is like hearing a voice call out to you after you’ve been lost in the desert.
DOSSIER: Even though you entertain, you still create. Explain the difference between being an artist vs being an entertainer.
McCREA: Well, there is an ‘art’ to being an entertainer, but an entertainer isn’t necessarily an artist.
The art is in the telling. A good writer packs unintended layers that are there to be found (and sometimes pointed out to the writers as they are often unintended!). Sometimes you read a “literary” book and your reaction is “meh.” Sometimes you read a pulp story and you just say “wow,” and that can be for the thrill of the story or because it also touches you in some way. I aim for a good, fun story, and hopefully the “wow” will come up.
I want people to read my books – whether thrillers or westerns or comedies – and feel like they’ve had a good time. I’m in the happiness business. I don’t write with a message, or to change the world, or to be remembered for the ages. My goals are smaller and more contained: here is a fun book. Leslie Charteris (there he is again!) used to chuckle at his typewriter while doing his Saint novels, and he hoped his enthusiasm was shared by the reader. Same here.
In the next chapter in the Tales of Scott McCrea:
Aside from the second Jeff Galleon Adventure and the new Western series, Marshal Ezra Flint, I have several more mainstream novels in the works. These include spy thrillers featuring Lucas Wheeler, an Arizona rancher who gets involved in intrigue (think James Garner as James Bond!) and a very noir book about a gangster’s moll who fights child trafficking called The Perfect Gift.
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