Featured Interview With Gary Kidney
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I grew up in a small Iowa farm town and moved to Mesa, Arizona, for high school and college. I was enamoured by the microcomputer revolution and became a specialist in teaching with technology. Duing my career in highed education, I've taught and coached nearly 800 instructors in how to use technology to motivate and educate students. After retirement, I relocated to Pearland, TX, where I live now.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I can't remener a time before I had a fascination with books and writing. I wrote my first published short story in 7th grade. My career took me away from cretive writing into the publish or perish world of academia. To try to reclaim some of that enjoyment, I enrolled in a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Since then, I'm now actively writing and enjoying everything about the process.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Over time, my reading interests have changed. Once addicted to science fiction and fantasy, I now find myself more in the thriller and mystery market. Ken Follett and Dan Brown have made me appreciate the interweaving of history, plot, and action. On a trip to Germany, I took along Erik Larson's "In the Garden of Beasts." As I sat in the Berlin's Tiergarten reading as scene from the book set in exactly that spot, the mixture of literature and location was overpowering. I grabbed my laptop and wrote the first scene for my book, The Eagle Scout Picture, set in that location. Since then, I've travelled to every location in my writing.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Eagle Scout Picture follows a 17-year-old Eagle Scout who is unofficially recruited to become an American spy in Nazi Germany. It was a found story — I met the man who claimed to have lived the life. Upon arrival, he is caught in a lie and disobeys a Gestapo officer's order. Trying to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo's suspicion is challenging. He discovers a picture taken in Texas for his Eagle Scout court of honor has been published in a Nazi magazine two years before he was recruited. He finds other non sequiturs that make everything he knows about his life and family seem to be elaborate lies. He wonders how much of his original self will be left after years of pretending to be someone he isn't.
It took ten years to research and write the book, mainly because I wanted every historical detail and location to be accurate.
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