Debut Author Herm Groman

JW: Former colleague, and now fellow-author, Herm Groman is my special guest blogger today. Herm, we spent ten years together in the Detroit Division of the FBI, all of which helped cement the special bond we share today. Your first book, Pigeon Spring, debuts this month. Give our readers a thumbnail sketch about your background.

HG: What a great ten years it was too! I know this might sound a little weird, but Detroit was the most exciting city we could have been assigned to at the time. Being an FBI Agent there exposed us to the best criminal work that an FBI Agent could hope for. I got transferred to Detroit from the Pittsburgh office in 1982 and was first assigned to an organized crime squad, then to a drug squad, and finally to a public official corruption squad. During all three of those assignments, I was fortunate to work a lot of undercover operations and major cases. Then I went to the Las Vegas FBI office where once again I went undercover on several major organized crime and public official corruption cases. When I retired five years ago, I was on the Special Operations Team. This was post 9-11, so we did a lot of work related to terrorism all over the country.

JW: What prompted you to write a novel, it seems a rather ambitious beginning to a writing career? Why not start with a short story to get your feet wet?

HG: Good question John. The answer is I fell in love. I fell in love with rural Nevada, its people, the history, and the landscape. I already loved Las Vegas, but there really are two Nevadas. I wanted to tell a story about both of them. I guess it’s a lot like any large project. You think you know where you are going with it, and before you know it, it develops a life of its own. It was a labor of love.

JW: You’re Chief of Security at a major casino in Las Vegas, which had to play a huge role in your book. Tell us how that impacted your story.

HG: It does play a major role in the novel. As you know from having the good fortune to have served as an FBI Special Agent, we were exposed to an incredible number of real life situations and characters that serve as a basis for great stories. The casino business is the same target-rich environment for these wacky colorful stories. I couldn’t make up some of this stuff. My imagination isn’t that good. But it doesn’t have to be; real life is so much more entertaining.

JW: I know the excitement and emotion I felt when I saw the finished product for my first book. Share with us what your feelings when you opened the box and saw Pigeon Spring for the first time.

HG: The closest I can come to describing it is, it’s like Christmas morning and Santa just left the house. I still go to Amazon.com at least once a day and just stare at the book cover and shake my head. To say it’s exciting is an understatement. Today some guy came into my office at the casino with six books he purchased and asked me to sign them. It’s a blast!

JW: I know the book is a mystery, but without giving away too much of the story, tell us what Pigeon Spring is about.

HG: It’s largely set in rural Nevada, but the story takes the reader from the glitz, glamour, and scams of a Las Vegas casino to the serene beauty of the Sierra Nevada where retired FBI Agent Matt Steel encounters someone from his past. The story has a mystical twist to it as well. I like to think there is something for everyone in the book. There’s action, mystery, history and a surprise ending in which an ancient Native American artifact plays pivotal role.

JW: I suspect we may see some Herm Groman traits in your protagonist. With all of your undercover experience, does your book’s character get involved in that work as well?

HG: I couldn’t keep him out of it. The undercover work comes out in a big way, but Matt Steel isn’t the Hollywood stereotypical flawed protagonist. You know…the drunken divorced retired cop who drives like a maniac. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of that guy. He’s predictable and boring. Matt is an honest straight forward guy with a sense of humor. You know he’s a good guy right away, but I think readers will find him to be an interesting character with a few tricks up his sleeve.

JW: Sounds fascinating, Herm. What are your plans after Pigeon Spring, perhaps a sequel?

HG: I’ve really learned a lot about the writing process this past year. I’m taking that experience and moving forward with a sequel. I feel like I’ve found a place for Matt and the characters he encounters at the casino and rural Nevada. Both places are a rich and diverse source of colorful stories and I enjoy blending them together. This next one starts off with the bribery of an unnamed politician, the murder of a prostitute, and centers around a nuclear waste repository in rural Nevada.

JW: Thanks for being a guest on my blog. For those of you interested in Herm’s work, you can go to his website: www.hermangroman.com/about/about.htm. I took a look at your site, Herm . . . you have plenty of signings and appearances lined up. For those who can’t make it to Vegas, I know your book is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, and of course through your publisher, TotalRecall Press. Good luck, my friend.