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  Who is Lee Driver?
   
  Lee Driver is the pseudonym I use for the Chase Dagger series.  I wanted to use a different name in order to distinguish this series from the Sam Casey series which I write under my own name (S.D. Tooley).
   
  How long have you been writing? 
 
  Almost 25 years now but I remember as a child coming up with my own plots for my favorite TV shows.  I actually started 25 years ago writing screenplays.  I wrote two for Moonlighting which never saw the light of day.

   
  Tell us about your latest, Chasing Ghosts?
 
  For the previous three books in the series I hinted at Dagger’s past.  Was he a rogue assassin?  A renegade mercenary?  In Book 3 I mentioned a shadow corporation, BettaTec, which Dagger might or might not have worked for.  This all comes to a head in Book 4 as an intruder tries to kill Dagger and events trigger something in Dagger’s memory.  A series of numbers lead him to a city in Nebraska, one mile below the surface.  It’s technologically advanced and at first glance abandoned.
   
  What was challenging about this project?
 
  Coming up with believable advanced technology but it’s amazing how things just unfold.  The Discovery channel had information as did Science magazine and articles I found in the newspaper.  It gives me enough information to go on and then I let my imagination take over.
   
  How did you get the idea for it?
 
  I knew I would eventually have to shed more light on Dagger’s past so ideas had been percolating since the first book.  I just had to plant enough hints in the first three books but not too much that I would box myself in a corner.
   
  You are a self-published author. Is it difficult to find your audience in today’s techno-savvy age?
 
  It’s not hard to identify the target audience but it is difficult to get the word to them.  Without the deep marketing pockets of a NY publisher, my efforts are limited.  However, MySpace allows me to tap into the fans of other cross-genre mysteries.  I also have an extensive fan database of readers.  Several years ago I found a minefield of fans by placing an inexpensive ad in the souvenir program guide for the World Fantasy conference.  And since 2006 I have been using print on demand.  Lightning Source (which is owned by Ingram) has my books available in the UK and EU.  They also produce all of my POD books in eBook format.  And Books in Motion just contracted to produce Chasing Ghosts in audio book.  They have produced all the Chase Dagger books in audio book.
   
  Who are you reading?
 
  My reading tastes are all over the spectrum.  I’m currently reading James Lee Burke who is fabulous for sense of place as is Kent Krueger.  For humor I love Mark Schweizer’s Liturgical Mystery series.  Casey Daniels has a great chick lit cozy cross genre. (It’s so hard to categorize mysteries these days.)  Carol O’Connell is probably my favorite.  I actual go through Mallory withdrawal when O’Connell doesn’t come out once a year with a book in her series.  I got hooked on the Dexter series after watching the first season this year on CBS.  A serial killer as a protagonist.  What a concept!
   
  What inspires you?
   
  Escapism.  I have always been a “dreamer,” off in lala land as my mother used to call it.  Even if I never had a book on a store’s shelf, I would still have an imagination that would need an outlet. I love to read and I love to tell stories, especially ones that require the suspension of disbelief.
   
  What’s next for you?
   
  I’m flipping a coin as to whether I start the second in my middle school series or the fifth in my Sam Casey series.  However, there is a stand alone apocalypse book burning just under the surface.  I am a sucker for apocalypse books.  I’ll probably work on both the middle school and Sam simultaneously.