Today’s special guest author is Douglas J. Wood and we’re chatting about his new mystery thriller, Blood on the Bayou.
Bio:
Douglas J. Wood is Senior Counsel at the law firm of Reed Smith LLP, with over 45 years of experience practicing entertainment and media law, often imparting knowledge gained from his career in his books. Listed among the leading global specialists in advertising law in Chambers, the Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers, he is known and respected worldwide and is a member of the Legal 500 Hall of Fame. He received his BA from the University of Rhode Island, his Juris Doctor from the Franklin Pierce Law Center, a Masters of Law in Trade Regulation from New York University School of Law, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of New Hampshire. Doug has been adjunct professor of advertising law at the UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and the University College Cork in Ireland.
Doug is the author of the award-winning Samantha Harrison political trilogy. In 2018, he published his memoir, Asshole Attorney: Memories, Musings, and Missteps in A 40-Year Career (winner of the 2019 Independent Press Award for Best Humor and Wit). In the following year, he added Dark Data: Control, Alt, Delete, a thriller about cyberwar and financial terrorism and winner of the 2020 Independent Press Award for Best Political Thriller. Doug’s latest novel, Dragon on the Far Side of the Moon, is a thriller that pits China and the United States in conquest of the Moon. His next book, Blood on the Bayou, a mystery thriller set in New Orleans, will be released on April 12, 2022. His other non-fiction titles include 101 Things I Want to Say…the Collection, a book of fatherly advice to his children and the best-selling text Please Be Ad-Vised: A Legal Reference Guide for the Advertising Executive, now in its seventh edition and described by Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers, as the legal bible for the industry.
Doug lives in North Carolina with Carol Ann, his wife of 48 years. They are blessed with three grown children, their spouses, and four adorable grandchildren.
Welcome, Doug. Please tell us about your current release.
Blood on the Bayou is a mystery thriller set in New Orleans that culminates on Mardi Gras. It centers on a joint investigation by a Rebecca Simone, a NOLA detective and Christopher DiMeglio, an FBI profiler searching for a serial killer – the Bayou Slasher – terrorizing New Orleans. The victims are found in alleys and deserted parking lots with their throats slit, odd symbols carved into their faces, and a wooden cross gripped in their dead hands. The two embark on a search for the common denominator that links the victims and helps them find the killer. Borrowing from today’s headlines, the story includes twists and turns of criminal investigations, racial tensions, and religious beliefs as the duo gathers clues and rejects theories in their search.
What inspired you to write this book?
My first inspiration came from articles I read on serial killers in the United States and a few documentaries I watched as I was stuck home in the pandemic. I learned that the Murder Accountability Project, a non-profit that analyzes FBI data, estimates that there are as many as 2,000 serial killers responsible for 185,000 unsolved murders. According to the FBI data, there could be as many as fifty active serial killers prowling for victims every day. Most of them will never be caught. It inspired me to look more closely at serial killers – what motivates them, how they’re discovered, and what they have to say when caught. I consulted with police, FBI agents, and other criminologists to learn as much about the mind of a serial killer as I could.
As I did my research, the daily news inundated us with stories of racial divide, religious fervor, and allegations of police brutality. I decided to incorporate today’s headlines into the story.
As a writer, I try to incorporate reality into my fiction to tell a story that while a product of my imagination, is nonetheless plausible – plausible fiction.
Excerpt from Blood on the Bayou:
The man lay in the decaying gutter of a New Orleans French Quarter alley. Blood oozed from the slit in his throat, mixing with the puddles from the hot September night drizzle, and blending into the rancid stench of vomit and sewage. His killer stood over him, smiling. He tried to ask why, why him? Bourbon Street was alive with miscreants of all types who deserved to die more than he did.
But his killer just nodded, pleased with a job well done. The man felt his life ebbing away. Darkness fell upon him, and just then he heard the whisper in his ear, the reason for his death . . .
By the time the body was discovered, the morning aromas unique to the French Quarter had overtaken the stench of the night. Freshly baked beignets and hot brewing coffee laced with chicory in the New Orleans way, masked, for a while, the smell of a body decaying in a pool of blood and filth. The Bayou Slasher was long gone from the scene, having crossed another off the list.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I’m exploring a political thriller that connects Africa’s cartels and political tyrants engaging in genocide, plying the illegal drug trade and fostering the horrors of human trafficking with China and its massive investment in the Continent as it rebuilds the Silk Road, partners with regimes and criminals to control drugs, diamonds, and precious metals, and exports disruption and misery to the free world.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
As a lawyer, most of my day was occupied by writing contracts and deals. As a specialist in advertising and marketing law, I was privileged to work with clients who were among the most creative people in the entertainment industry, able to sell and evoke emotion in a mere thirty seconds. While I had already written a business best seller – Please Be Ad-Vised – my clients inspired me to move beyond the routine writing of a lawyer and embrace more creative authorship. My first effort was the Samantha Harrison trilogy tracing the rise and fall of the first female president of the United States as she faced the sacrifices and compromises necessary to climb the political ladder. When the series started winning awards and getting great reviews from people I didn’t know, I first considered myself a writer.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I still practice law as my “day job.” I do most of my writing at night and on weekends. Pre-pandemic, I also did a lot of traveling all over the world and wrote on flights and during downtime in distant hotels. That travel also informed me of many of the places I use in my books and made the writing more inspired. I’ll also often get up and write in the middle of the night when something hits me as a plot line or character quirk.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Before I write the first chapter, I write mini biographies of the potential characters who may appear in the book. When and where they were born, what they did in their lives – good and bad. What motivates them and what loves they have had and lost. Their character flaws and foibles. What they look like. How they feel. What they believe. I then incorporate some of that in the books but not necessarily all of it. In fact, some characters never even appear in the book. My approach helps me invent people with depth and complexities that I use to further develop the characters and their relationships with others in my books.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
As an Army brat who lived all over the world watching my father serve in the Army, I first wanted to be a soldier not unlike the typical dream of children who grew up in the Fifties. After my dad retired when I was 10 years old and moved to New Jersey, I developed a talent for math. So my guidance counselors in high school told me I needed to be an engineer, a major I then pursued in college. I hated it and switched to political science. So it was in college that I first took a serious look at what I wanted to be when I grew up. The intersection between law and history became my focus and developed from there to where I am today. In the process, I fell in love with creative writing. So at 71 years old, I may well have finally grown up!
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
First and foremost, I hope my books tell stories that my readers enjoy. Second, I hope my books also give readers something to think about in their own lives and the lives of those around them. While it is not my desire to pontificate or voice opinions, I do hope to create dialog between readers as they further explore the topics I cover in the fiction I write.
Links:
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Thanks for being here today, Doug.