The entry begins:My nasty little story telling secret concerns the age of Kirk McGarvey who has been the main character in fifteen novels and counting. Without Honor, the first story, he is hiding in plain sight in Switzerland with a live in girlfriend and his go to hell kit—cash, several passports, credit cards and his pistol a Walther PPK, suppressor and a couple extra magazines of ammunition. An assignment for the CIA that went bad in mid-stream ruined his marriage and forced him to go to ground.Learn more about the book and author at David Hagberg's website.
At that point he was a man of fifty or so, with a background in Air Force intel in Vietnam.
Move forward to my new novel Abyss, set right now, and Mac is still about fifty or so, and I no longer mention any Vietnam connection, because that would put him in his late sixties. I’ve never aged him, and I blame it all on Mickey Spillane, who early in my career gave me two pieces of advice: If you have a character you like, don’t age them, your readers won’t care. And, if your plot sags kill someone important.
With all that in mind Bruce Willis has always been in my head as McGarvey. The actor is so goddamned versatile. The problem of course is that Willis has aged, where Mac has not. Right now I’m seeing...[read on]
Writers Read: David Hagberg.
My Book, The Movie: Abyss.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
