Q: What are your stories about?

Girls, guns, and game theory. 😛 That’s my flippant answer. I’ve occasionally pitched my books to agents and publishers as “Jack Ryan meets the Good Doctor,” or by asking “What if James Bond was autistic?” But that’s all attention-grabby nonsense. The truth is simpler and more beautiful.

My espionage novels don’t feature brash, over-the-top heroes, unrealistic technology, and the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance. That stuff is fun in the movie theatres, and I’ll sit there in the dark shoveling popcorn and enjoying it as much as the next guy. But I prefer to write with realism and heart.

I write about extraordinary people in extraordinary situations. People from diverse backgrounds and representations using their talents and overcoming their disadvantages. Overcoming hatred and fear in some cases. Defying their disabilities. And ultimately, finding their place in a world that doesn’t quite fit.

Q: Is Thomas Vale the first high-functioning autistic action hero?

No, it’s been done a few times before, just not very well. Movies, TV, and books generally portray autism in extreme caricature — cosmic mental powers and zero social skills, played for laughs. We’re not like that. And we’re not sidekicks.

Actually, my original concept of the Thomas character didn’t have him as autistic. That just sort of developed as my character study and first outline developed.

During my research phase, I learned there are many books with positive and realistic portrayals in the mid-grade and young adult genres. But every time I asked a librarian or bookstore clerk if they could find me “that thriller book where the autistic man is a spy, or an action hero,” they would just shrug. No such thing. Why not? Maybe it’s about time someone fixed that. Someone like me.

Q: How long have you been writing?

There are a lot of different starting points we could measure from. I began the Thomas Vale series as a project in late 2020, and by that I mean that’s when I started doing a lot of research and working on an outline. Four years later, I’ve got two books finished, I’m working on the first draft of the next one, and my first release date is a few months ahead (Exciting!).

But I’ve been writing all my life. I wrote a linear algebra textbook for my doctoral dissertation. I’ve written over a dozen research papers. And I’ve written creatively quite a bit too, though I kept most of that to myself until recently. It took me thirty years or so before I felt I was ready to show the world.

Q: How many books will there be in the Thomas Vale series?

I don’t know yet. At least three, because that’s how many it will take to set up the universe I imagined for Thom and his amazing colleagues. I have ideas for what happens to the surviving characters after that, but … we’ll see ….

Q: Is Thomas really just you?

No. Like a lot of authors, there’s some of me in most of the characters I care about. But no, Thom is not me. He’s on the autism spectrum like me and has a similar academic background, but his personality is very different from mine. Personality-wise, I’m actually a lot more like Sondra (the main co-protagonist in Blood Game and Drawing Dead).

All of my main protagonists are conglomerations of friends, family, or other important or inspiring people in my life. Some of the villains too. Some of these characters have been germinating in my mind and occasional short stories for over thirty years, and have changed quite a bit over the years. They’ve grown up now, you might say.

Q. Can your books be read as stand-alones?

Yes. They are meant to be read in order, but they can be read separately. Later books will make occasional reference to events of previous books, but not in a way that will be confusing or give too many spoilers.

Q: Are your books appropriate for children?

It depends. Parents should make these decisions for themselves, of course. What I tell people at book events is that if they’d be OK with their kids watching a James Bond movie, then add a little bit of salty language, and that’s where the Thomas Vale series is at. Expect the adult situations, violence, and language typical of a realistic spy novel.

Q: How long have you known that you’re autistic?

Since shortly after one of my kids was diagnosed. I’m one of the many parents who, in talking to the doctors about my child’s diagnosis, came to the realization that “high-masking autism” is the missing explanation to most of the strangeness of my life. A lot of things I never understood about myself suddenly came into sharp focus. I feel a lot better about my place in the world now.

Q: Why are you self-publishing?

That’s a long story, but it boils down to not landing a publisher from the “Big 5” publishing companies. I had a few offers from agents, and went with one for a while as he pitched my book to publishing editors, but none of them made us an offer. So I’ll be self-publishing the first three books, and my plans beyond that are still flexible.

Q: Are the places in your books real?

Almost entirely, albeit with some details changed. Artistic license, if you will.

For example, Thom’s hometown of Kill Buck, New York is a long bike ride from where I grew up, and the cemetery featured in a few scenes is right there on Route 417, but does not have a statue of an archangel standing near the gate. There’s a big hill right behind it, just like in the book, but there’s no clearing on top.

So I changed a few things here and there to make the stories better. You can google search anything you’re wondering about, and the results will probably be accurate.