By Adam Messer
Mel Odom is a multi-genre author who has written many well read books, including The Rover, which he dedicated to his son shortly after his son was born. Fast forward years later to when his son started reading The Rover in fifth grade, where his son would come home after school and read his favorite parts of the book to his father!
Please introduce yourself.
I was born in California, but my parents moved back to Oklahoma when I was eight months old. So I have a dot on a map where I was born, but southeastern Oklahoma was my home till I moved to Oklahoma City, then Moore, in 1981. I’ve lived here since. I sold my first book, a Mack Bolan Executioner novel, in January 1988, and I’ve sold over 200 other books since then under my name, with Tom Clancy, and in the Buffy the Vampire universe as well as Forgotten Realms, Shadowrun, Android, and others. I started teaching at the University of Oklahoma in 2007 and have been out there in the Professional Writing program since. As an FYI, the Professional Writing program was started in the 1930s by pulp writers.
What genres do you write and why?
I’ve written action adventure, suspense, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, horror, Western, and romance under a pseudonym for Harlequin Books. I raised five kids, so I was properly motivated to write fast and well. Also, becoming a writer was my lifelong passion starting in third grade. My love of stories is still strong. I read EVERYTHING while growing up, and I still do.
What is your earliest memory of reading?
My earliest memory of reading was when my mom read to me when I was in first grade. I was the oldest of four boys and she had to do something to keep me close to home. I was constantly going out for adventures up and down the alley where we lived then, then prowled government land on foot and on horseback after that. In third grade, I’d read all of my teacher’s books. I was, and am, ADHD—though it wasn’t diagnosed at the time and one of my sons’ doctors diagnosed him and told me he got it from me, so I need constant stimulation.
Mrs. Knight tried to corral me, but my papers were all done and all correct. She brought in a big box of Hardy Boys mysteries, Nancy Drew mysteries, Ken Holt mysteries, Tom Swift Jr. adventures, and others. When I finished my work in class, I was allowed to read. That way I didn’t bother anyone else. If I had a “good” day, I got to take home whatever book I was reading that day. The worst day to have a “bad” day was Friday. Those books were usually cliffhangers!
When did you know you wanted to write? How did it happen?
I knew I wanted to write by third grade. I loved comics and I used to work at turning my favorite stories into prose material. Those efforts increased my love of stories, and they helped me understand story and character better. When I got my first library card right before sixth grade, I discovered Andre Norton, Robert Heinlein’s juveniles, and J. R. R. Tolkien, so the die was pretty much cast from then on. I only got to check out five books at a time and usually had them read in a couple days. My mom would only take me to the library every two weeks. I ended up trying to write sequels to the books that most interested me. Then I found out sometimes there were sequels to them.
What’s one of your favorite scenes in one of your books?
My favorite scene is in The Rover, the chapter where Edgewick “Wick” Lamplighter has to climb the masts into the ship’s rigging to confront the Embyr. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever written. Everyone who has read that book has commented on that chapter.
What makes a good character? A bad one?
A good character is one the reader can understand and identify with. I’m assuming you mean writing one, not a morally correct one. A bad character is one that is a cardboard placeholder with a name label on it. I usually write about characters who are in challenging situations they can’t easily get through.
What moves the story for you?
Action moves a story for me. The character(s) has/have to constantly have something challenging to do. That goal can’t always be the same one just strung out over bad luck and trouble. Events, settings, and antagonists have to stay in motion, and the odds against the character have to rise.
What is your favorite book and why?
My favorite book I’ve written is The Rover. It won the Alex Award (though at the time I didn’t even know what that was), but my youngest son was in fifth grade at the time he read it. (It’s dedicated to him because it was written only a couple years after he was born—I don’t know if he even remembers that.) Every day after school while he was reading that book, he came into my office and read his favorite parts to me, sharing it, not even thinking about the fact that I had written it. Those memories are still some of the highlights of my career.
What do you want to say to your audience?
My audience needs to be aware that I write several different things in many genres. The readers may not like everything I’ve written because tastes are different, but I enjoyed writing those books.
What advice do you have for new writers?
My best advice to new writers is to remember that they were usually readers first. Keep reading, everything you can get your hands on. Even a bad book can teach you something. You don’t want the well of your imagination to go dry. Keep it primed.
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Action Pulp! 
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