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After serving in the U.S. Army, and after completing a Ph.D. in English literature in 1978, I taught writing and literature at an Iowa liberal arts college for nearly a decade. After a brief and inglorious stint as an investment broker, in 1992 I decided to strike out on my own as a freelance writer.

I currently live in Moscow, Idaho, with my wife, Laurie, the world’s fattest cat, two dogs, and two horses, which we ride regularly in the area’s hills and woods—when I’m not in the basement brewing homemade beer.

Thank you Michael for taking the time to answer some questions for us!  To start, please tell us about the latest project you've worked on.

The people of Richmond, Virginia, called her Crazy Bett. Her name was Elizabeth Van Lew, and during the Civil War, she ran a Union spy ring in the capital of the Confederacy. She pulled it off... by posing as a madwoman... as Crazy Bett.

My novel, titled Crazy Bett, is based loosely on Elizabeth’s life. The novel pays homage to the crucial, but largely unknown, role that women and African Americans played in the Civil War. Crazy Bett was a staunch opponent of slavery and a loyal supporter of the Union. With daring and grit, she ran an underground network of spies, and she did it right under the nose of Confederate authorities.

Vital war intelligence flows into her Richmond mansion. It flows out in coded messages hidden in bodices or the boots of couriers. Helping her is a former slave who works undercover as a servant in Jefferson Davis’s White House. Meanwhile, she’s placed a clerk in the city’s infamous Libby Prison, which houses Union prisoners of war under brutal conditions. Through Crazy Bett’s efforts, a group of prisoners make a dramatic escape to safety—but not before one, the dashing Captain Harry Howard, slips and falls to Josephine Holmes, a member of Crazy Bett’s network.
Plots and counterplots threaten to ignite antiwar revolution in the North. Under Crazy Bett’s guiding hand, and despite her grave doubts about the wisdom of her actions, the characters whose lives she touches thwart the conspiracy, often by adopting disguises or posing as double agents. Among them is Howard’s comic sidekick, a Scots doctor who’s known to enjoy a wee drop o’ the malt. And in fact, the tale is laced with humor as characters find ways to see the lighter side while chaos and tragedy surround them. Conspiracy comes to a head with a plot to abduct Abraham Lincoln. Howard and Josephine set out on a desperate moonlit horseback ride through Confederate lines to save the president—and to save each other.
Crazy Bett has a little something for everyone: spying, secret codes, intrigue, action, comedy, and a bit of a love story. It can be ordered at www.crazybett.com.

Besides writing books, do you also do speaking engagements, or seminars?

I’ve supplemented my income by freelance editing and paid public speaking, presenting writing seminars for attorneys under the auspices of state bar associations and other professional organizations.

How has your education, profession or background helped you in your writing career? Or conversely, how has you writing success helped you in your  profession?

I launched my first novel at age 57, after many years as a teacher and freelance writer. If I could remember half of the content of the items I’ve written, I could go on “Jeopardy” and make a million dollars. But all this work, I think, created a substructure of knowledge that contributed in direct and indirect ways to Crazy Bett.

What kind of other works (books, scripts, poems etc.) have you had published?

Over the years, I developed a specialization in historical topics. I’ve written numerous nonfiction books (among them The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln), and made major contributions to many others. Topics include general American history (Women in American History; Encyclopedia of Race and Racism; Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History; America in the 1920s; Justices of the Supreme Court; Milestone Documents in American History), espionage and intelligence (Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security), and terrorism (Terrorism: Essential Primary Sources). Publishers Weekly cited my book The Crusades as among “20 Best Bets.” Additionally, I write a regular editorial column for an Idaho newspaper. I fancy sometimes that in writing this column, limited to 700 words, I sharpened my writing skills more than I did in any other activity.

What will your next project be?

I’m currently mulling a sequel to Crazy Bett. It will involve three of the characters, now ex–Civil War spies—whose lives she affected and who turn into a nineteenth-century “Mod Squad.”

How did you get started as a writer?

My first literary undertaking dates to the 1950s, when I was about eight years old. I took it into my head that Romeo and Juliet would appeal to a wider audience if it were rewritten in modern prose. Armed with an Underwood typewriter and a box of well-worn erasers, I set out to do just that and actually completed Act I. Sadly, the manuscript does not survive.

Which is your favorite book/work published? Is there a favorite?

My favorite novel is still John Barth’s The Sot-Weed Factor. It and Catcher in the Rye are the two books that have made me laugh out loud. Sot-Weed is riff on early American history, particularly the mythology surrounding the settlement of the colonies and the colonists’ relationship with Eastern Seaboard Indian tribes. It’s a work of enormous erudition, but it’s also hilarious, and as an experiment in how my reaction to a book might change with the passage of time, I read the book every five years.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I’m an early riser, and I get more work done between about 7:00 and 10:00 than I can get done during the rest of the day. I usually cry “Uncle” at about 3:00, unable to induce my poor brain to function.

Who is your favorite writer/author?

I adore Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen series.

Finally, a most important question: what was the last song you sang out loud when you were by yourself?  :)

For reasons I cannot fathom, I cannot get “Runaround Sue” out of my head. I try to force it out with the Manhattan Transfer’s “Gloria,” but I’m only partially successful. Sometimes the Canadian national anthem takes over for a while—go figure, I’m not Canadian—but “Runaround Sue” always reasserts itself.

Thanks for a great interview, Michael!