Interview of Author Curt Larson

AW: Tell us about yourself…

I’m divorced father of two boys, 13 & 23. I started my professional career as an automotive engineer and morphed into software development. I reside in Florida and love the weather. I’m a pilot and car fanatic in my spare time. A stint owning a sailboat convinced me I should stick to what I know best—going fast on land and air. 

AW: What genera do you write and why?

I primarily write in Action/Adventure. I most enjoy reading spy novels, adventure novels and certain detective stories. I tend to write best about what I like to read—and the lives I wish to lead.

AW: Tell us about your three books….
Eternal Love is a romance and the first book I wrote—but I couldn’t figure out the ending. It’s about two people who meet and find they have lived and loved before. It’s a story where their current drama is interspersed with their paths crossing from long ago. How does a guy write a love story? There was a girl...

White River is about a corporate exec who leaves everything behind to fly a seaplane in Canada. 21^st century high-tech espionage intervenes with the wild beauty of flying in Canada—and of course there’s a girl involved. The hero runs into more trouble than one would think is possible and has to work his way out of danger on more than one occasion.

Checkmate is about a businessman who lost everything in a divorce—his family’s company, his kids, his will to live. When his son tracked him down and asked for advice, he figured it was time to get back into the game. His only chance was to buy back his factory, now shuttered, on the sly and start over. Except his ex-wife won’t sit idly by and let him succeed. It’s a high-stakes game of rebuilding an empire from scratch, thwarting adversaries and a scheming ex-wife who is bound and determined to exact an unwarranted revenge.

AW: What was your inspiration for this book?

For Eternal Love, I met a gal who seemed awfully familiar. What if...? And from there a story grew, intertwining a few facts and a lot of fiction to create a unique love story that spans the eons.

With White River, I woke up one morning with a dream so vivid of a seaplane in Canada, I had to turn that vision into a story. Then it was my desire to craft a story that captures the magic of flight for readers while entertaining them with stark danger and a romantic twist—after all, what spy-type novel is complete without a femme fatale involved?

For Checkmate, I went through an adversarial divorce. How do I take that and expand it into a grand tale? From that seed, the first chapter literally popped into my mind out of the ether. I really liked the characters in that story and enjoyed taking the journey of letting that story run on imagination’s wings.

AW: Do you have a favorite character and why that one?

I really like the hero of White River, Ron Johnson. While he’s not me, I would love to fly a seaplane in Canada. I like that character enough the sequel is half-done.

In Checkmate, Sebastian Masters is one determined guy. He’s bound and determined to succeed despite all odds-but won’t break the rules in the process. I wish I could think of a sequel for him, but one hasn’t popped into my mind.

AW: Did you find anything particularly difficult in writing this book?

For Eternal Love, the ending was the hardest part. I re-wrote that book twice more with completely different story lines because the ending eluded me, and then wrote White River and Checkmate. Then one day the ending to the original story popped into my head, but it was a ten-year interval.

For White River and Checkmate, there were points where I struggled with plot and sequence—what is going to happen next? But no major stumbling blocks. The hardest part of Checkmate was that it is a long book—the story grew organically, each piece fitting neatly in sequence that I had to make a determined effort to drive to an ending. 

AW: What project(s) are you currently working on?

I have a sequel to White River, a Western (believe it or not!), a Chicago 30s yarn, and a murder mystery. But most of my time now is focused on marketing the three books—and that’s a LOT more work than writing is!

AW: Do you have any interesting writing quirks you want to tell us about?

I usually write when I can’t fall asleep at night, and before I go to bed. It takes some personal “kick myself in the pants” to start writing, but once I’m rolling it’s hard to stop.

And I like my endings to really satisfy the reader, convey that “Yes!” feeling of the hero succeeding.

AW: Do you have any advice for writers out there?

Write what you’re passionate about, write what YOU like, write what you’re interested in. Don’t worry about writing to fit the current fad. Study how successful authors craft a story, how they develop characters and plot, how they reveal the story as they go. And become proficient with grammar!!!

AW: Where can we find you? 

My website, http://curtlarson.net J

AW: And of course we have to know, where can we find your book? 

My three books are available on Amazon. Search for “Curt Larson.” I’m apparently the only writer with that name on Amazon. Go figure!