James Blakley was educated at Missouri Western State College and Washburn University. While at MWSC, he was a local and national award-winning columnist and section editor of “The Griffon-News.” Blakley worked 10 1/2 years as a page and as an Assistant Librarian for the River Bluffs Regional Libraries of St. Joseph, MO. He currently lives in Topeka, KS where he worked for The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and several years in clerical and customer support capacities for international computer companies, such as EDS and HP. Additionally, Blakley has worked in information gathering and analysis for various government agencies and programs.
Welcome to The Writer's Life! Who is your publisher and how did you find them or did you self-publish?
Inkwater Press was my original publisher. Technically, it was a vanity or legacy press; so, I’ve always “self-published” but paid Inkwater for their professional interior and exterior design work. Now, the “K-Frost Caper” and my other mysteries are self-published under the chosen name “The Powers That Be Publishing.”
Do you believe a book cover plays an important role in the selling process?
Absolutely. I worked in public libraries back in the late 80’s and throughout the 90’s … in online’ s infancy and well before the e-books revolution. Graphic arts programs weren’t as publicly accessible; trained artists and illustrators still handcrafted lots of interior and cover art. There was a noticeable difference between a traditionally published book and self-published one back then. So I fully understand the importance of reeling a reader in with captivating cover art and a juicy blurb that have a professional finish.
How hard was it to write a book like this and do you have any tips
that you could pass on which would make the journey easier for other
writers?
Writing “The K-Frost Caper” was fun and not that difficult because I studied existing missing persons and fraud cases and already had the fertile field of fiction detective/insurance investigators from whence to cultivate my own sleuth, Luna Nightcrow.
The one thing I wanted, though, was to make Luna stand out from her P.I. predecessors and contemporaries; so, I boldly made her a Native American. I use the word “boldly” advisedly because it’s been said that writing about another race poses risks to a writer not from that group. Growing up, though, I remembered white author Ernest Tidyman created the groundbreaking black P.I. John Shaft and even adapted his novels to movies. It was during a critical time in America, the 70’s, and helped transform the way blacks were seen and subsequently hired in Hollywood.
I am sure that some Native Americans will point out flaws or maybe even oversights in Luna’s characterization. But the hope is that Luna will similarly open the doors for inclusion of Native Americans in more mainstream, non-stereotypical fiction (like Shaft did for blacks).
What other books are you working on and when will they be published?
I have a third Luna Nightcrow mystery, this time set primarily in Alaska and dealing with arson, that I’m working on. Then, I plan to give an old favorite of mine, science fiction, a go with a story of mystery and subterfuge on the Moon, involving real science stretched to the limits of likelihood.
What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?
As with all my mysteries to date, “The K-Frost Caper” draws from a reality not realized. By that I mean, being an insurance fraud investigator can be both exciting and dangerous work. It isn’t just sitting behind a desk and cybersleuthing the case. Back in the early 2000’s, when I wrote “K-Frost,” there were several high-profile murders of insurance investigators away from their offices that influenced aspects of the book (such as Luna being armed, if in a novel way, and working more closely with law enforcement).
Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?
One of “The K-Frost Caper’s” main themes is that things aren’t what they seem. While that can be said of any mystery, I guess, it’s really important here because this story has a Native American heroine who finally breaks the mold. She isn’t confined to mysteries on her tribal lands but is instead cosmopolitan, clever, and has an effective, if offbeat, investigative style that make her the go-to gal. Luna isn’t the sidekick but has one instead (in the form of a Haitian American cop who follows her lead). Throw in a case of multiple identity thefts and a missing person or two that hinge on the complexities of Miami’s melting pot populace, and you’ve got an approach to the genre that perhaps few have seen.
Thank you again for this interview! Do you have any final words?
Barton Keyes, from James M. Cain’s “Double Indemnity” and perhaps the granddaddy of insurance fraud investigators, once said in the movie version of the book: “A claims man is a doctor and a bloodhound and a cop and a judge and a jury and a father confessor all in one.”
That should make reading “The K-Frost Caper,” about a revived death benefit claim, a lot of fun.
A cold case heats up when Kelvin Frost, believed to have drowned in Alabama, returns from the dead to apply for more life insurance. Or has he? When a body-a dead body-identified as Kelvin Frost, turns up in Miami, murder complicates matters. Enter Luna Nightcrow, the insurance fraud investigator whose “smartphone never sleeps.” After recovering a valuable Cherokee relic, Nightcrow accepts Charmed Life Mutual Insurance’s offer of $50,000 to sniff out and close down the K-Frost Caper. But it won’t be easy with so few leads or clues. Paired with cosmopolitan cop Tiago Toussaint, the two match wits and wiles, in attempt to find out when is the last time anyone saw Frost … in Miami?
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The Writer’s Life
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