Wag the Fox has a great interview with James Reasoner, author of THE DEAD MAN #5: THE BLOOD MESA and about 10,000 other books, today on their blog. Here's an excerpt:
Gef: You had mentioned that The Blood Mesa marks one of your most brutal works, a purposeful attempt on your part to cut loose. Was this something that you had been looking to do in your writing for a while, or just something you tackled when it came to you?
James: I’ve always included a lot of action in my work, and I’ve never been shy about going over the top when it felt right. It’s never been quite as graphic as in my Dead Man story, though. I think I saw this opportunity when I was reading the previous books in the series, and when I actually started writing, I knew that was the way I wanted to go.Gef: What were your initial thoughts when you were approached to contribute to The Dead Man series? With multiple authors each writing about the Matt Cahill character, did you have concerns of "too many cooks spoil the broth" or saw a unique opportunity to, in a way, become part of a writing team on a series?
James: I’ve written for a number of different multiple-author series, so this was just business as usual for me, with a slight difference. Most of those other series I’ve worked on didn’t have much, if any, book-to-book continuity, so I had to be more concerned with this book fitting into the flow of the rest of the series. Luckily, with Lee Goldberg and Bill Rabkin supervising everything, that wasn’t a problem. […]I’m writing a Western series for Berkley called REDEMPTION, KANSAS, with one book out so far and at least two more to come. I’m also doing a Western e-book series called RANCHO DIABLO with my friends Mel Odom and Bill Crider, with three books out so far under the house-name Colby Jackson, and many more to come, we hope.