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Who is David Wind?

That’s a loaded question.  My wife says that I’ve got a “colorful” history – personally, I’m not so sure.  I was born in NYC, raised in Queens and Long Island until I finished Junior High School, and then we moved to Hollywood, Florida.  From there I went to Atlanta for college, and then to Chicago before returning to New York.  I’ve worked for the Playboy Club organization, The Chicago Sun Times and Daily News.  I’ve worked in radio and television advertising and the beauty and auto industries…  oh, and of course, during most of it all, the publishing industry as a writer.

I started writing when I was living in Manhattan.  It was something I always wanted to do but never did.  I grew up on books.  As a teenager, I read voraciously – anything I could get my hands on:  Science fiction, fantasy, sports, hard boiled detectives.  I even slipped a bunch of “historical” out of my mother’s dresser when I ran out of anything else.  I soon developed my favorites in all the genres”  Edgar Rice Burroughs, E.E. Doc Smith, Andre Norton, Isaac Asimov, Mickey Spillane, Daschiell Hammett, Richard Prather, Rafael Sabatini…  I‘ll stop there but the list is long and distinguished.

Back in the real world., I’m married and have been for 27 years.  I have 3 great kids (Or they used to be kids) and a wonderful deck, where I write every morning year round.

How long have you been writing?

I started writing 31 years ago.  My first book was published by Gallen Books, 26 years ago, in ’82.  But in the late ‘90’s I took several years off to clear my head.  I started writing again a year and a half ago.

Tell us about your latest, Angels In Mourning.

In a broad sense, Angels In Mourning is a combination of the old style 50’s, 60’s & 70’s mystery combined with a very contemporary story telling style and strong on suspense.

Early one morning, the protagonist, Gabriel Storm is summoned to his friend’s apartment by the NYPD, where he learns Scotty Granger, considered one of the world’s great playwrights, has been murdered in a botched burglary attempt:  the murder occurs as his newest play is in rehearsal.  Unwilling to believe this theory, Gabe starts his own investigation which centers on the “Angels” who have invested in the show and an unknown woman whom Scotty has been seeing.

Relentless, Gabriel Storm goes from the theatres of Broadway, through the alleys of Hell’s Kitchen to Miami’s ‘Little Cuba’ and onward to the halls of the U.S. Senate in his need to find the killer of his best friend.

Working with Captain Christopher Bolt, head of the Mayor’s Special Crimes Task Force, Storm follows a warped path of suspects from Scotty Granger’s Angels – the show’s investors – to pimps and prostitutes before descending into the octopial sub-culture of sexual predators with tentacles reaching all the way to Washington’s law makers.  We discover that Scotty Granger’s sister Elizabeth, a victim of a predator, was abducted at the age of eight and has never been seen since: When Scotty became successful, he founded an organization to help children who were abducted by pedophiles or lured from their homes by predators.

The action moves quickly as Storm pursues the illusive killer by using a network of people who are part of the killer’s world.  Working both alone and with the FBI, Homeland Security, a mafia connection and the NYPD, Storm follows twisted trails and the unlikely suspects who populate the story from Wall Street financiers to pimps and gangsters and a U.S. senator, on the road to unexpected, suspenseful and surprising conclusion. 

How did you get the idea for this novel?

Through a personal experience, 25 years ago.  I can better explain by using an analogy: I look at a story like I would ripples from a rock thrown into a still pond.  Ripples are generated outward, moving until there is no more water. Ripples in a pond is how I developed Angels In Mourning. 

When my son was 8 years old, he was living with myself and my wife.  One day, my ex-wife took him on her regular weekend visitation and never brought him back.  It was a very hard 4 months for us, until, with the help of a private investigator, we found him, brought him home, and went on with our lives.  Today, my son is a happy and successful young man, doing very well for himself and my wife and I consider ourselves among the luckier parents who have gone through this type of situation.

But what remained from that experience was the building blocks of “Angels” in the question -  What are the long term ramifications of a single deed carried out over a quarter of a century earlier?  What happens to ALL victims of child abduction by a pedophile? What happens to the other victims of this horrendous crime, the parents, the siblings?

What grew from those questions became the book, Angels In Mourning and utilizing the death of a friend, rather than a case the protagonist was hired for, allows more freedom to have protagonist Gabe Storm work through all the possibilities of why his friend was murdered, and by whom.

The “Angels” in the title refer to two distinct groups of people: The financial “Angels” of Granger’s newest play; and, the lost children, the little “angels” who have been abducted by pedophiles and predators.  And the big question is, could Granger’s death be connected to the kidnapping of his 8 year old sister, 28 years before?  Storm knows that Scotty Granger had never given up the hope of finding his sister, and had even funded an organization devoted to finding missing children.  Had Scotty Granger found the pedophile who had abducted his sister?

Or was it one of the show’s Angels, who’s considerable investment in the show dictated desperate means to insure the show would be a success? Did one of them murder the Playwright to protect an investment when trouble with the show’s script developed?

And then there is a gangster connection that offers yet another reason for the young playwrights death. 

You’ve written 33 novels, including suspense, adventure, science fiction, historical fiction and romance. What appeals to you about working in a variety of genres?

To put it concisely. I’m a writer.  I love to write.  Working in different genres does several things for me.  It livens up my life, it challenges me to create in different ways and it rewards me with accomplishing what I set out to do.

Is there a genre you prefer?

My preferences are for thriller, mystery, suspense.  Even when I work in other genres, I bring elements of those three things into it.  And romance, we can’t forget that.  There’s always romance in stories.  It’s an important aspect and it has to be handled right for each story.

Was it weird for you, as a man, to write under the pseudonyms of Monica Barrie and Jenifer Dalton in historical and contemporary romance genres?

Not really. Remember, the writer’s craft requires he or she get into a character’s head, know that character, know who that character will react in any given circumstance and make certain the reader believe what he or she is reading.  Every great novel, with some rare exceptions, has both male and female characters, and both always come alive.  Romance, while a woman’s genre, is no different.  Whether a man or a woman is writing, if the writer is good at his/her writing craft, than the characters are believable and real.  If the writer can suspend the readers disbelief, than the reader believes and the writer has done the job.  Isn’t that what writing fiction is about?  And in the myriad romance genres there is some absolutely fabulous writing!

Are people surprised when they find out the variety of genres you’ve worked in?

Yes, sometimes they are, but remember, there have been many writers who work in multiple genres.  Sometimes it takes a while for a writer to hone in on exactly what he or she writes best.  When that happens, the writer usually sticks with what has been successful, but then again, most take forays into other genres.

What inspires you?

Life.  Watching people, listening to people, becoming part of a group of people.  Flying in a plane and watching the people around me react to different things is one example.  It’s where I came up with the idea for The Hyte Maneuver.  I was sitting in my seat on a 747.  Across from me was what I assumed to be a middle eastern man.  Next to him was a couple in their late sixties.

The three of them became the first thirds of The Hyte Maneuver, which started out as a an airplane Hijacking thriller and turned into a serial murder mystery in the last two thirds of the book.  What I saw, as I watched them, was an Arab man (This was pre-Moslem thinking) who I decided might be a terrorist bent on hijacking the plane.  I envisioned the hijacking, and the deaths of several people, including the older couple.

After the hijacking was over, the surviving passengers were being murdered, one at a time.  Who was doing this?  One of the passengers, perhaps a relative of one of the murdered people?

I won’t give the story away, because people are still buying the book 20 years after it was first published.

Who are you reading?

I just finished Eric Lustbader’s last Ludlum book.  Very good.  And I’m now reading Freezer Burn, by D.H. Dublin.  It’s a CSU style murder mystery.  I’ve got It Happened One Knife by Jeffrey Cohen, and The Borrowed and Blue Murders by Merry Jones, waiting for me.

What’s next for you?

That depends.  If Angels In Mourning does well, I’m considering a follow up.  I really like my protagonist.  He’s unusual in a lot of ways.

Where can readers find you on the Web?

My website is http://www.davidwind.com

And the website for Angels In Mourning is http://www.angelsinmourning.com

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