Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff

Please welcome Jack Huber, who will describe how he came to write the pat Ruger series

About Me
The third time was a charm for me in writing a novel. My first two attempts … well, let’s just say they were poor.

I had written poetry throughout my life, even having two poems published in a literary magazine when my 5th grade teacher submitted them for me. I began self-publishing poetry and my photography in earnest in 2009 and published over 300 poems over a 4-year period. I became a staff writer for Poetic Monthly Magazine and a mentor for novice poets on the on-line writing communities, Ryze and GotPoetry.com.

Soon, my wife asked me to write a novel. As I mentioned, I had tried twice and failed, so I wasn’t so sure I could do it. She is an avid reader and was having trouble finding quality books to buy and devour. She would tell me after each new author she tried, “You can write better than this.” Eventually, I relented and began my first Pat Ruger manuscript.

I wrote a few chapters and suffered from a lack of confidence. I noticed a local event at the Denver Post featuring three best-selling authors and decided to attend. Cornering one of them after their talk, we discussed my process and how in an initial project it might be best to let the characters direct the immediate plotlines.

He recommended I attend a writers conference put on by the Rocky Mountains Fiction Writers (it turned out he was president of the organization), that hosted hundreds of authors for a week-long event, and it was in my own backyard. At the event I signed up for my manuscript to be reviewed by a literary agent and her assessment was eye-opening. I guess my plot had real potential.

My confidence gained, I finished that book and feedback convinced me to make it a series. I’m now working on book number 5. For marketing advice, I’ve been fortunate to have the help of two other best-selling authors in my genre, Nick Russell and Jeff Carson. With their help, I actually had the number 1 crime novel in all of Amazon (for a day).

About the Pat Ruger Mystery Series
Pat Ruger is a retired detective who, with the help of two young call girls, starts up a private investigation firm, later to be joined by his ex-partner, Jimmy Stewart. Pat had lost his wife two years earlier and was still in mourning. Book 1, For Hire, takes place in the Denver area, with a side-trip to Wyoming, and Pat helps one of his soon-to-be business partners locate her missing sister, who had been kidnapped by a large cult. In this book, he meets Amanda, a special agent in the FBI and he becomes involved with her. By the end of the book, he finds the cult’s large bomb and has to decide what to do with the timer running down.

Following the crises in the first book, Pat and Jimmy decide to take a vacation cruise in Caribbean Shuffle. Jimmy brings his wife while Pat is good with going solo. Once on board, a woman he met is murdered and he and Jimmy are asked to investigate. When an earlier quip about pirates comes to life, they must navigate being boarded, a naval standoff and being adrift in the Caribbean Sea.

In the third book, Native Species, several recent brushes with death made Pat determined to rekindle his relationship with Amanda, who had taken an FBI position in New York City. He joins her on a murder investigation at a Native American casino in upstate New York, with tragic consequences.