Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I hail from Donalsonville, GA., a small town with a dark, checkered past. I played in the same streets as John and Clarence Anglin–two of the only people to ever escape from the maximum security prison of Alcatraz, and I was
friends with several members of the Alday family (Donalsonville was the site of the second largest mass murder in Georgia’s history–the Alday Murders).
I was also neighbors to the Squirrel Man but moved after discovering a large squirrel cemetery behind the man’s property. I still wake up in night-sweats from the horrifying images.
After meeting my wife, Myrna Rose, I packed up his things and a plethora of story ideas and moved about forty-five minutes away to the slightly bigger town of Dothan, Alabama, a.k.a. Circle City.
I discovered a passion for writing at an early age: he wrote his first book, a children’s picture book, at thirteen. While this book is still unpublished, I still have my original manuscript (with hand-drawn illustrations) and often get requests to read it from my two beautiful daughters, Myranda and Madyson.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Bastard Boys of Montezuma. I read The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt and decided then and there I wanted to write a Western. As a fan of the movie Tombstone, I thought it would be nice to write about ”the kids of Tombstone.” And since historians agree that Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp never had children, I figured maybe they didn’t know they had two illegitimate sons. Thus, The Bastard Boys were born.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write a blog called Opening Lines on my author site where I evaluate the first sentence of popular works of fiction. This obsession has me OCD about grabbing the reader’s attention with the first sentence of my novel. I want it to make the reader ask questions that they can only hope to have answered by reading more of the book. For example, the Opening Line of The Bastard Boys of Montezuma is: ”Across the street, I counted six crows perched on the rooftop of the funeral home, which was as ironic as it was prophetic.”
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Patrick Dewitt influenced me to write a Western, but Elmore Leonard has the style I love. If he was the Dickens of Detroit, I want to be the Leonard of Lower Alabama.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a storyline about a girl who comes across an opportunity to do something that everyone else is convinced is a scam and the adventure that follows from her decision to believe it’s not.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As a newly published author, I’m trying to investigate this right now. Hopefully, it will be the Awesome Gang!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read. Read everything, not just the genre you want to write. It might sound simple but it’s necessary to study how successful authors craft their sentences.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
In writing, Elmore Leonard’s most important rule was: ”If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
What are you reading now?
One of my fellow authors, Brock Heasley, in the same publishing house as me wrote a book which is coming out soon called Paper Bag Mask.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I make notes in my phone when an idea strikes me. The really good ones always seem to draw me back to them. And with each one I write, I only feel like my writing improves. So to answer the question, there’s always another story coming next.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m a religious guy so I’d bring the Bible to comfort me and give me peace.
I’d bring something by Elmore Leonard, probably Freaky Deaky, which I have yet to read but was considered to be his personal favorite.
I think Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea would be appropriate.
And maybe something by John Grisham.
Author Websites and Profiles
Jaromy Henry Website
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Twitter Account