In reading OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE I got the feeling your main characters were composites of several people, bigger than life.  Can you tell us something about how you went about developing your characters, such as Merrill Jackson and Andrew Meers?  And FBI Agent Gil Allen?

You’re correct.  My characters are composites of people who I have met throughout my life.  Growing up in Southern Illinois, I lived in and around farming communities.  As an FBI agent, I’ve had an inside window into criminal minds and the people who offer their lives to protect the public.  Although they have vastly different careers, the moral fiber of Gil Allen and Merrill Jackson run along similar paths.  I think that’s true with a lot of people.  While we all do not possess the same opinions on certain issues, we generally want to believe our world is just and that good will triumph over wrong.  In order to overcome the conflict of good versus evil and support the thesis, characters such as Andrew Meers must and do exist. In developing this character, I drew from my experiences with criminals I’ve seen in the American justice system.  I saw how they manipulated people.  I saw how they used people and situations for their own personal gain with no regard for others.  I also saw how they justified their actions and fed their egos until it became uncontrollable.  Andrew Meers has many tendencies found in corporate fraudsters.  The fact that he serves in the upper echelon of government makes him that much more despicable.

In your opinion, is the amount of political and corporate corruption depicted in the story representative of the general American climate?  Is OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE a wake-up call to the readers on that issue?

First I have to admit that I am a skeptic.  Years of dealing with criminals will do that to you.  Putting that aside, I find myself looking for logical explanations and unfortunately, logic and politics do not seem to go hand in hand.  Maybe I’m being too simplistic, but why do people spend millions of dollars to get elected to a position that pays less than $200,000 per year?  Secondly, why do corporations and wealthy individuals donate millions of dollars to campaigns if they are getting nothing in return?  In the last six months of 2003, special interest groups and lobbyists spent over a billion dollars.  Are we supposed to believe that those amounts of money aren’t influencing legislation?  I guarantee the money wouldn’t be spent if it didn’t.  The root of the constitution states that government is to be for and by the people.  With these kinds of expenditures and the quid pro quos between government and business, I question whether the people’s interest are foremost in the minds of our elected representatives.  If we’re ever going to hold our politicians responsible for their actions and restore the government to the people, then we have to wake up and start exercising our right to vote. 

In your opinion, does democracy work?  Is it worth the people’s time to go to the polls and vote?

I’ve now been to 22 different foreign countries and I’ve never found a political system as great as ours.  We still have the best system in the world because we are allowed to voice our opinion.  OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE is a perfect example.  We can criticize our elected representatives.  We can make them accountable.  There is no bigger voting block than ordinary hard-working Americans.  Let the corporations and special interests donate whatever amounts of money they choose.  If we decide to evict a politician, we can do it by voting for their opponent no matter how much money they have in their campaign coffers.  We just have to stop listening to the ads and the sound bites presented in the media and start researching the issues that are important to each of us.  Once you decide what’s important to you, then look at where the candidates stand on those issues before you make your decision.  If the two parties don’t fit, then look for alternatives.  No vote is a wasted vote if it reflects what you believe.

How has your background as a Special Agent for the FBI influenced your writing?

It has both helped and hurt.  It has helped with character development as well as allowing me to experience the courtroom setting firsthand.  By participating in trials and other court hearings, I have an inherent advantage in describing them because I know the procedures and I have seen how a jury functions.  What has hurt me is the fact that all of the writing I do for the FBI must be objective and in a narrative form.  In the first draft of OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE, I found that I had very little dialogue and my characters lacked passion and depth.  I had to wean myself away from the objective reporting of my job and go towards a more personable style of writing.  Luckily after numerous rewrites and practice, I think I’ve managed to move away from the objective aspects while effectively interjecting the knowledge gained from my experience.

Where did the idea for OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE originate?  How did you come upon the plan Merrill Jackson and the Patriots put into action?

Boring TV!  I got tired of useless sitcoms and finally sat down to write the book that had been percolating in my mind for some time.  I have always been disturbed by the way politicians tell you one thing and do another.  With the explosion of the internet and the endless amount of information available, thoughts started rolling through my head.  I also remembered a movie called 12 Angry Men, which dealt with a jury contemplating a verdict.  In my experience, I have found that juries take their duties seriously and what better way to judge people than by a panel of their peers.  I also took into account the average attention span of Americans.  If the group didn’t do something sensational, then no one would care.  All of these ideas spun around in my head before I arrived at a coherent story line.  I had the story completed in my head before I ever typed a single word.

I’ve read that you have two other books currently in the works, BLINDSIGHT and WRITER’S BLOCK.  When can readers of your first novel look forward to the availability of these?  Can you give us a brief synopsis of each?

WRITER’S BLOCK and BLINDSIGHT are major deviations from the type of plot you see in OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE.  In WRITER’S BLOCK, the main characters are a writer, an emerging serial killer, and a city cop recently struggling in a small town atmosphere.  Believing that he can absorb the life forces of his victims by maximizing their fear and pain, Jericho Sampson looks to chronicle his life with the forced assistance of a struggling writer.  Suffering from writer’s block Riley O’Shea uses all of her wits to survive while she hopes that the small town police officer can quench his lust for action and uncover enough clues to find her before its too late.  In WRITER’S BLOCK, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. 

BLINDSIGHT explores the possibilities of life after death.  No one knows what happens when you die but I’ve seen people who are unable to peacefully accept their impending death.  In BLINDSIGHT, Randall Garrett learns he has terminal cancer and will die in six weeks.  His failure to accept death propels him into a mysterious world between life and death fraught with unimaginable evil forces desperate to take his soul.  With a blind man who is able to see in this world guiding him, Randall struggles to avoid the steely fangs of the crimson talons who crave his soul for their master.  Reason battles faith and good faces off against evil as one man tries to find his way in the afterlife.

My hope is that WRITER’S BLOCK will be released sometime in 2005 and BLINDSIGHT in 2006.  Both books are in the final editing process.  Finally, I want to thank all of the readers who purchase OUTRAGE: WE THE PEOPLE.  Hopefully I will have managed to make you consider the political process while also reminding you of the power you can exercise.  I love to hear from my readers and I try to answer all of their emails.  You can email me at mhood@americanoutrage.net or visit my web site, which is www.americanoutrage.net.  Thank you so much.