We are delighted to welcome author Terrence McCauley to Omnimystery News today.
Terrence's new novella is titled The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood (Down & Out Books; February 2016 trade paperback and ebook formats) with all proceeds from the sale benefiting the Semper Fi Fund.
We recently had the opportunity to spend some time with him talking about his work.
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Omnimystery News: How did the idea of a prequel story come about?
Photo provided courtesy of
Terrence McCauley
Terrence McCauley: At this point, all of my stories, novels and novellas are part of the same fictional realm. Devil Dogs is a prequel involving the war time experiences of Charlie Doherty, the same Tammany Hall-corrupted NYPD detective who is featured in my previous novels Prohibition and Slow Burn and in my novella Fight Card: Against the Ropes.
The idea to write about Charlie's experiences came to me while I was writing an epic fight scene that takes place in Slow Burn, where the story is told in first-person from Charlie's perspective. It's a scene where rent protesters begin to riot and Charlie helps the police restore order. As he's wading through the protestors, he has a flashback to the epic battle in Belleau Wood where he found himself in a pitched battle against an unflinching enemy.
OMN: How difficult was it to take Charlie back to 1918?
TM: Though all of my fiction takes place within the same universe, that doesn't mean my audience has to read all of my stories in order. But I'd like them to be able to recognize characters and events if they read more than one piece of my work.
For example, Charlie Doherty appears as an older man in Prohibition and Slow Burn, but as a much younger man in Devil Dogs. He's still fundamentally the same character, but in Dogs, he's certainly not as worldly or jaded as he is in Slow Burn. I offer the reader a glimpse into how he becomes that way, but not enough to make a first-time reader feel like they're missing out on something that appears in the later books. In fact, I look at each project — whether it's a novella, short story or novel — as a way to introduce the reader to my work and hopefully get them interested in reading more of it.
OMN: How difficult is it for you to find the right voice for your characters?
TM: Most of my lead characters have been male, although I wrote a short story from the perspective of a young girl in upstate New York once. It was called "Redemption" and it was published in Thuglit, Issue Three.
I also try to write characters that are compelling and have completely different experiences than my own. My fictional universe has featured wealthy families and cops and war heroes and killers. I've never been any of those things but I try to find something common about each character type and accentuate it in my writing. I think as long as the voice and descriptions are authentic, it works.
OMN: Suppose Charlie were to interview you. What would your conversation sound like?
TM: Charlie Doherty (flicking an ash on the sidewalk): So what's your thing? Everybody's got a thing. What's yours?
Me: What do you mean?
Charlie: Don't play stupid. Booze? Women? You play the ponies? Shoot craps?
Me: Cigars.
Charlie: That's a good thing.
OMN: Into which genre would you generally place your books?
TM: I'd categorize myself as a Pulp/Noir writer. Maybe that's more of a style rather than a genre. One of my literary heroes is Richard Matheson, who published works across many genres. I got my start writing pulp works and I don't have plan on changing. Whether I'm writing a western or space adventure or one of my spy thriller stories, I like the clear delineation of plot and character. I like to deliver facts to the reader through dialogue and events, not long exposition paragraphs. I prefer to keep the static in a story to a minimum and keep the reader engaged.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of your new book?
TM: The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood is an intense war novella that tells the epic tale of valor, sacrifice and duty in World War One
OMN: When starting a new project, which comes first: the characters or the storyline?
TM: For me, it's always about the storyline. I try to write interesting and compelling characters. The reader might not necessarily like them all the time. That's by design. After all, everyone gets on someone's nerves some of the time. I feel that adds a certain credibility to my work. But if they're not doing something that maintains the reader's interest, the work is pointless.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
TM: I'm in government relations and haven't written about a PR-person yet. I plan to eventually, but for now, I'm happy to stay in the Crime/Thriller slot. I've never been a gangster or a spy or a cop, but so what? I bring human elements to my work that I've experienced in life. I place my character in certain situations and make them respond in a way to which the reader can relate. It takes a lot of research to pull that off, but it's worth it.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
TM: I never outline. Not formally. I start off with a beginning and an end and I fill in the blanks as I go. Sometimes, the ending changes completely. Sometimes the beginning does, too, but I never feel lost in the writing process. I trust the initial idea and let it evolve as I type. Sometimes the slightest change throws the entire story into chaos, but that's the fun part of the process.
For example, I did a lot of research on the battle of Belleau Wood. I wanted to get all the details right and, along the way, found the writing to be more of research paper than enjoyable for me. I realized that there were a lot of accounts of the battle, some of them varying and all of them important. I didn't want to get lost in the details and lose the soul of the story in the bargain. So, I scrapped all of the technical aspects and focused on the true essence of that horrible battle. I paid attention to the necessary details (such as the difference between a bayonet and a trench knife) and told the story I wanted to tell. One of fear overcome by a sense of survival, valor and duty.
OMN: Tell us more about how your research your storylines.
TM: I always do a lot of research for my books. I use it as a guide and inspiration. All of my books have been born out of a real-world event, save for my futuristic science fiction. Prohibition was loosely inspired by the life of Owen Madden and the corrupt Tammany Hall machine in New York City. Slow Burn was inspired by the Lindbergh kidnapping and the social changes coming to New York at that time. Sympathy for the Devil was inspired by the surveillance culture and the fears of terrorism that grip us today. I like to do enough research to know enough of what I'm talking about to tell a good story, but I try not to sweat the details too much. As one of my mentors — Wesley Gibson — told me once, "You're writing a novel, not a text book."
OMN: How true are you to the settings of your books?
TM: The setting of all my work is the imperfection of the human condition. My villains are never all the way bad and my protagonists are never saints. In Prohibition, Quinn is a hitman who kills people. In Slow Burn and in Devil Dogs, Doherty is a corrupt hack. In Sympathy, Hicks is an often unlikable character fighting terrorists who fervently believe in their cause.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story, where would it be?
TM: Vienna. I've never been to Europe and I'm dying to go. It has such a rich history and I'd love to spend a couple of weeks there soaking it all in.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests?
TM: I'm a big cigar smoker. I'd never call myself an aficionado, but I enjoy sampling different types of cigars with tobacco from all over the world. Some people are big into wine. Cigars are my thing. I love the comradery of cigar smokers. Some of the most interesting conversations I've ever had were in cigar stores. I also like to travel, too. I live and work in New York City, so it's good to get away from it for a while and see different places. I also love movies. Classics, new releases and everything in between. They're a great escape for a jaded New Yorker like me.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring writers?
TM: The best advice I ever received was from my late father. It came at a time when I was struggling with my first novel. It was almost a decade before I was published and the story wasn't clicking for me. He told me, "Just finish it. Because even if no one ever sees it, you'll know you wrote the story. No matter what happens for the rest of your life, you'll be able to point to something most people won't do and can't do even if they tried. You'll be able to reach into your desk drawer, pull out a binder and prove you started what you finished."
My father also gave me the harshest criticism I ever received. When I stepped away from that first novel, I had an idea for a sprawling, five-part gangster epic. Keep in mind, I hadn't even written so much as a short story yet, but I was lining up to write a massive novel. It was also one of the only times I did an outline, a twenty-page long thing that laid out the whole story. My father was an avid reader, so I showed him the outline and asked him what he thought. When he finished, he told me, "It's as long as a whore's dream and just as pointless." He was right. I eventually stripped it down, told the story from one gang's perspective and Prohibition was the result.
I'd advise aspiring authors to do something else to quell their zeal. Collect stamps or take up golf or skydiving or something else besides writing. If nothing else works and you find yourself drawn back to the craft, then pursue it with everything you've got, because it's going to take everything you've got to produce a quality book.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus I am also …".
TM: I am a thriller writer and thus I am also unpredictable. I always try to change things up. Keeps it interesting for me and the reader.
OMN: How did Devil Dogs come to be titled?
TM: All of the other titles I came up with for Devil Dogs were sub-par and didn't tell the whole story. I thought the current title would just be a working title, but it stuck. Same thing with Prohibition. But Slow Burn was originally called The Taking of Jack Van Dorn. It was a literal title, but one of my friends told me it sounded like erotica. Nothing wrong with erotica, but it wasn't an erotic book! I came up with the title Slow Burn from a throw-away line in the story. Sympathy for the Devil has nothing to do with the Rolling Stones or their iconic song. It comes from a conversation in the novel where Hicks says the devil has a point, too. It goes spoke to the novel's spy theme, so I went with it.
OMN: How involved were you with the cover design?
TM: Down & Out Books publisher Eric Campbell kept me involved with the Devil Dogs cover every step of the way. We tried some covers, but they all looked too generic. We wanted a specific look for this cover and he struck gold by using elements of a World War I Marine recruitment poster. I think it's great.
But I also know the writer can't be the most objective when it comes to cover design. I'm also not a designer, so I like to leave that in the hands of the people who actually know what they're doing.
OMN: How much interaction do you have with your readers?
TM: I love all feedback. Positive, negative or indifferent. It helps me find out what's working and what needs some work.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
TM: James Ellroy and James Clavell were big influences on my writing. I admired Richard Matheson's range and Robert B. Parker's ability to tell a great story with minimal description or dialogue. Richard Stark/Donald Westlake was also a huge influence on me.
OMN: When selecting a book to read for pleasure today, what do you look for?
TM: Lately, I've been on a big zombie book kick. I'd like to try my hand at a zombie story if I could come up with something original. The genre has attracted some very good writers who have crafted some original stories. I like reading outside whatever genre I might be writing in at the moment, and since I haven't tackled zombie fiction yet, that seems to be the safest bet.
OMN: What kinds of television or films do you enjoy watching?
TM: I admit to watching everything. Junk shows on Bravo and binge watching shows on Amazon or Netflix. Homeland is my latest obsession. I'm halfway through season 2 and enjoying it. On Netflix, I loved The Fall and River.
OMN: Suppose your books were to be adapted for television or film. Any ideas on who you'd like seeing the lead characters?
TM: I've always thought Titus Welliver would make a great Doherty, Gerard Butler would make a good Quinn and Jeremey Renner for Hicks.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
TM: Top 5 Favorite Books — in no particular order:
1. The High Window — Raymond Chandler;
2. Tai Pan — James Clavell;
3. The Cold Six Thousand — James Ellroy;
4. The Hunter — Richard Stark/Donald Westlake; and
5. Cathedral — Nelson DeMille.
OMN: What's next for you?
TM: The sequel to Sympathy for the Devil is coming out in July 2016. It's called A Murder of Crows. I'm also working on finishing up a western I've been working on Vengeance at Dover Station and the third novel in the University series, tentatively called Vanguard Rising.
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Terrence McCauley has had short stories featured in Thuglit, Spintetingler Magazine, Shotgun Honey, Big Pulp and other publications. He is a member of the New York City chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers and the International Crime Writers Association. A proud native of The Bronx, NY, he is currently writing his next work of fiction.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at TerrencePMcCauley.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood by Terrence McCauley
A Prequel to Slow Burn
Publisher: Down & Out Books
1918 — As a corrupt patrolman in New York City, Charlie Doherty had the ward bosses of Tammany Hall and other political cronies to watch his back. But in the hell-storm that became known as the Battle of Belleau Wood, only his rifle and his training keep him alive.
After taking cover behind a fallen tree during the worst of the German shelling, Doherty links up with a brave Marine captain and a ragtag crew of survivors who realize the only way out of danger lies not in retreat, but in marching toward the sound of the gunfire. They fight the enemy wherever they find them, hoping to hold back the advancing German tide long enough for the shaken American forces to regroup and re-enforce them. They lean forward. They dig in. They fight back.
Doherty and the others began the day as Marines. But by the time it is over, they will be part of a battle that helped secure the reputation of the United States Marine Corps as one of the most feared fighting forces in the world.
— The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood by Terrence McCauley. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
