By Adam Messer
“You start writing with an idea in your head and very often you find that where you end up isn’t where you thought you were going.” – John L. French.
Please introduce yourself.
I’m John L. French. I’m a retired CSI having done 35+ years on the streets of Baltimore City. I retired early 2019. I started writing about 30 years ago, all short stories back then. At first it was crime fiction, as I got to know other writers, I was invited to submit to anthologies and quickly learned that if an editor asks you, “Can you write this kind of a story,” first you answer “Yes,” then figure out how you’re going to write it.
What genres do you write and why?
I prefer crime fiction but I write in several different genres — horror, noir, pulp, science fiction, fantasy but most of these kinds of stories tend to have an element of crime in them.
What is your earliest memory of reading?
Good question. There was school stuff of course, but that was learning and not “reading”. My first memory is lying on the floor of my living room looking through a comic book, Casper I think it was, and suddenly realizing that I understood the words on the page. I might have been six at the time.
When did you know you wanted to write? How did it happen?
I wrote stories in high school and college. To be brutal, they weren’t very good. I still remember them but hopefully no one else does. I started writing for real when I was working in the Crime Scene Unit. I’ve always been a big reader, mostly SF, fantasy, and crime, and for some reason I came up with an ending for a mystery story. Having the ending, I had, not wanted to but had to write the story. I sent it around and it was published in Gary Lovisi’s Hard Boiled magazine. Both Gary and my good friend, CJ Henderson, encouraged me to keep writing. It was CJ who sort of dragged my into different anthologies and getting me to write Mythos stories, zombie stories, and all sort of other stuff.
What’s one of your favorite scenes in one of your books?
Oh there are so many but I think my favorite is in my third Bianca Jones book. THE LAST MONSTER. Bianca’s a Baltimore City police detective who’s the BPD’s monster hunter. (SPOILER ALERT!) In the next to last story in this book, Bianca hears the confession of Lucifer Morningstar.
What makes a good character? A bad one?
There are two ways to answer this one. First is good people vs. bad people. The easy answer to this is how the character behaves. Do they have a moral code and do they stick with it? Do they care about doing the right thing and helping others, or are their action based on the question “What’s in it for me?” The other way what makes up a character that other people want to keep reading about. A good character is somebody the reader can engage in, they either cheer for them to succeed or hope that they fail. Either way they have to be interested in this person. A bad one is one that if they disappear from the book the reader either doesn’t care or, worse, doesn’t notice.
What moves the story for you?
It’s the journey. You start writing with an idea in your head and very often you find that where you end up isn’t where you thought you were going. Or a character who was meant to have one or two lines to give your main character some information suddenly decides they are not going away and winds up sticking around for the rest of the book.
What is your favorite book and why?
My favorite character is Bianca Jones — there are six books in her saga. My favorite book is THE DEVIL OF HARBOR CITY. It’s a braided novel about one brave cop out to clean up a corrupt city.
What do you want to say to your audience?
Please, please, support the small press and the authors who write for it. When possible, buy their books at cons and shows, or but their books from the publishers’ website rather than the River or the Big Box. When you do see them, if you enjoyed their books, tell them. If there’s a particular book of theirs that you liked, ask when the next one is coming out. It might help them decided what to write next.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Write as often as you can. Find a very good friend who will not only tell you when your writing is good but will tell you when it’s crap. Best negative review I got from CJ Henderson was, after he read a story of mine, was “Nice outline. When are you going to write the story?” Finally, it’s said a writer should write what they know. My take on that is — don’t write what you don’t know. If you don’t know anything about Baltimore, don’t set your story there. Don’t write a scene in the British Museum unless you at least know it’s floorplan. Do your research, talk to those that know, then write your story.
Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Yes. As of this interview, my two newest books are THE RED JACK SOCIETY (eSpec Books) , which is set in a steampunk Victorian London against the background of the Ripper murders. In this book, the Ripper is call “Red Jack.” Detective Inspector Adrian Hope soon learns that there are worse monsters than Red Jack prowling the streets of his city. The next book is THE RETURN OF THE DIESEL KID (Padwolf Publishing), which is a collection of somewhat linked stories set in a near future version of Harbor City. Both of these books should be out by May 2026.
And finally, thank you, Adam for letting me do this interview.
Action Pulp! 
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