It gives me great pleasure to welcome David Liscio onto the website today. David is an international, award-winning journalist and bestselling author of three crime and action/adventure thrillers. As a journalist, his feature stories have earned him no fewer than 20 awards from the likes of the Associated Press and United Press International. He resides with his wife on the Massachusetts coast.
Alex: Tell me a bit about yourself, David.
David: I spent my first 18 years in a small upstate New York town where there are more dairy cows than people. I wrote my first short stories in high school as class assignments for an English teacher who liked them immensely and encouraged me to keep on.
My parents were factory workers — good-hearted and supportive. Neither was educated past elementary school, so I’m not sure they fully understood my passion to become a writer, but they weren’t going to hose my flame.
After fours years of undergraduate college I received a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in journalism. Within months I was working as a reporter and photographer for a daily newspaper. I fell in love with the excitement of having each day introduce a fresh challenge and new people. Not many jobs can offer that.
Over the next several years, I moved on to bigger cities and larger-circulation newspapers where I won a slew of journalism awards. I wrote an existential novel that attracted two editors at major New York publishing houses. My wife Christine (we hadn’t been married for long) traipsed from one publishing house to the next at my side, helping carry the heavy manuscripts along Manhattan’s bustling streets. We were brimming with hope. Ultimately, the book wasn’t selected, and that hurt, but the odds were never in my favor. The book publishing industry was a different world in those days.
Though I continued to work as a newspaper reporter, I began writing articles regularly for a series of national magazines. I played to my strengths — skiing, sailing, kayaking, fishing, military and environmental subjects, adventure travel. I also returned to school, this time earning a master’s degree in ecological literacy and integrative education. I was a tree hugger. I found work as an adjunct college professor for a dozen years, primarily teaching ecology, environmental science, and public relations courses. My students read The Lorax aloud. I enjoyed every minute of it.
In 2016, my first crime fiction novel was self-published through Amazon, a serial-killer thriller titled Deadly Fare. Suddenly I was an “author.” I truly had no idea what that meant in the grand scheme of my life.
Deadly Fare featured a female protagonist named Hannah Summers. The reviews were positive and I sold quite a few copies. I was thrilled when Deadly Fare reached No. 58 on Amazon in the U.S. among crime novels, directly next to best-selling author Dennis Lehane’s then latest, Live By Night, at No. 57.
Two years later, I published Blood Sons, a mafia saga that’s crime fiction fused with action/adventure. It, too, had Hannah Summers taking a key role in the investigation as she grows from a state police detective into a special ops soldier.
The plot of Blood Sons is based on an accidental baby switch 15 years previous by a tired hospital nurse. DNA testing reveals a powerful mobster’s true blood son is living on a vineyard with those he believes are his parents. Meanwhile, their biological son is being raised by the mafia don as his own. When the truth is unveiled, the don demands his blood son be returned.
As a journalist I had covered plenty of organized crime stories, so the writing came easily. The mobsters in Blood Sons had eyes on taking over casinos in Cuba. Didn’t somebody famous say, “Write what you know about?”
In 2020, Pacific Poison became the third book in what I refer to as the Hannah Summers series. It won high praise, but the royalties from all three books weren’t enough to give me freedom to write full time. And the Covid pandemic didn’t make marketing any easier. I picked up work as a private investigator to bolster my magazine journalist income. That’s where things stand today as I try to find time to write my next novel.
Alex: Tell me a bit about yourself, David.
David: I spent my first 18 years in a small upstate New York town where there are more dairy cows than people. I wrote my first short stories in high school as class assignments for an English teacher who liked them immensely and encouraged me to keep on.
My parents were factory workers — good-hearted and supportive. Neither was educated past elementary school, so I’m not sure they fully understood my passion to become a writer, but they weren’t going to hose my flame.
After fours years of undergraduate college I received a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in journalism. Within months I was working as a reporter and photographer for a daily newspaper. I fell in love with the excitement of having each day introduce a fresh challenge and new people. Not many jobs can offer that.
Over the next several years, I moved on to bigger cities and larger-circulation newspapers where I won a slew of journalism awards. I wrote an existential novel that attracted two editors at major New York publishing houses. My wife Christine (we hadn’t been married for long) traipsed from one publishing house to the next at my side, helping carry the heavy manuscripts along Manhattan’s bustling streets. We were brimming with hope. Ultimately, the book wasn’t selected, and that hurt, but the odds were never in my favor. The book publishing industry was a different world in those days.
Though I continued to work as a newspaper reporter, I began writing articles regularly for a series of national magazines. I played to my strengths — skiing, sailing, kayaking, fishing, military and environmental subjects, adventure travel. I also returned to school, this time earning a master’s degree in ecological literacy and integrative education. I was a tree hugger. I found work as an adjunct college professor for a dozen years, primarily teaching ecology, environmental science, and public relations courses. My students read The Lorax aloud. I enjoyed every minute of it.
In 2016, my first crime fiction novel was self-published through Amazon, a serial-killer thriller titled Deadly Fare. Suddenly I was an “author.” I truly had no idea what that meant in the grand scheme of my life.
Deadly Fare featured a female protagonist named Hannah Summers. The reviews were positive and I sold quite a few copies. I was thrilled when Deadly Fare reached No. 58 on Amazon in the U.S. among crime novels, directly next to best-selling author Dennis Lehane’s then latest, Live By Night, at No. 57.
Two years later, I published Blood Sons, a mafia saga that’s crime fiction fused with action/adventure. It, too, had Hannah Summers taking a key role in the investigation as she grows from a state police detective into a special ops soldier.
The plot of Blood Sons is based on an accidental baby switch 15 years previous by a tired hospital nurse. DNA testing reveals a powerful mobster’s true blood son is living on a vineyard with those he believes are his parents. Meanwhile, their biological son is being raised by the mafia don as his own. When the truth is unveiled, the don demands his blood son be returned.
As a journalist I had covered plenty of organized crime stories, so the writing came easily. The mobsters in Blood Sons had eyes on taking over casinos in Cuba. Didn’t somebody famous say, “Write what you know about?”
In 2020, Pacific Poison became the third book in what I refer to as the Hannah Summers series. It won high praise, but the royalties from all three books weren’t enough to give me freedom to write full time. And the Covid pandemic didn’t make marketing any easier. I picked up work as a private investigator to bolster my magazine journalist income. That’s where things stand today as I try to find time to write my next novel.
Alex: I love the sound of your books. And the premise behind Blood Sons sounds really compelling. I'm going to have to grab a copy. How would you describe your writing, and are there particular themes that you like to explore?
David: I’m fascinated by good and evil, bravery and cowardice, and ambiguity. I’m intrigued by the criminal mind, what makes a person break the law, albeit morally, legally, ethically. I believe nothing is ever black or white, while most everything is shades of gray. For example, there’s no such thing as a purely good cop or purely evil cop. Same with men and women in general. We all have strengths and flaws.
Alex: Are you a writer that plans a detailed synopsis or do you set out with a vague idea and let the story unfold as you write?
David: Probably a bit of both. Once a story idea pops into my head, I try to create an outline or, more often, a flowchart of how the characters might move from one chapter to the next. That strategy is only partly successful. Once the characters start to interact, I set them loose and see where they take me. I’m often surprised by the outcome.
My wife, son and daughter are my most reliable editors. Not much gets past them.
Alex: Tell us about your latest novel.
David: Pacific Poison refers to what was in the late 1980s and early 1990s a smuggling route that channeled tons of heroin from Thailand to the United States. It was run by the yakuza, Japan’s heavily-tattooed gangsters. Most of the action takes place on Saipan, an island I had visited previously on an investigative newspaper assignment.
Hannah Summers by then has left behind her state police detective badge and joined the CIA. Posing as an international travel agent interested in resort properties on Saipan, she befriends the top yakuza boss. A plan is hatched to take down the smuggling operation, but it’s a bigger job than anticipated.
Alex: What was the first book you read?
David: It may have been Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which contains the story of “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, but I can’t be certain. We didn’t have many books in the house growing up — the Bible, TV Guide, a biography of President John F. Kennedy, and shelves of my mom’s Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts novels. I do remember reading Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, but by then I was in high school.
Alex: How much research do you do and what does it usually entail?
David: I thoroughly enjoy research, perhaps because I majored in history in college. I dislike novels that use vague descriptions, often because the author was too lazy to find the details. Imagine one of your characters is poisoned by a fruit or plant. You must identify it. (In Pacific Poison, there’s a scene when the yakuza bosses dine on fugu, or potentially-fatal blowfish.) Same applies to gun battles. You can’t just say character A’s gang shot many bullets at character B’s gang. I often read that someone was killed by a shotgun blast fired from a half mile away. Good luck with that. It shows lack of firearms knowledge.
It’s important to get things right if you want to earn a reader’s respect. I was a firefighter for 25 years. We breathed compressed air from the metal tanks on our backs. We didn’t carry oxygen tanks, since they would likely explode. Yet I read that misinformation over and over in books and news stories. Same applies to scuba equipment. It’s compressed air. Hospital tanks (usually painted green) contain oxygen.
Back in the day (and by that I mean pre-Internet), research required a trip to the library. It took concerted effort to thoroughly research a subject. Today, there’s no excuse for not doing your research. You don’t even have to leave your home desk.
Alex: Do you ever base your characters on people you have encountered in real life?
David: Absolutely. As a journalist for four decades, I covered all sorts of stories. I met princes and paupers, heroes and cowards, murderers, rapists, con men, high priests, famous generals, amazing athletes, beauty queens, scholars and scoundrels. I was fortunate to receive assignments that took me to foreign places or provided unusual opportunities.
Alex: Which was the last book you read that blew you away?
David: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
Alex: How do you market your books?
David: I have a Facebook personal page, a Facebook author page, a website for my books, a Twitter account, and slowly have begun using Instagram. I attend events — library gatherings, holiday fairs, author spotlights, book clubs — pretty much any place where I can meet new readers and sell books. I depend on Facebook groups that are related to authors and books where I can join the discussions and spread the word about my books. Book bloggers, reviewers, and other authors have been a tremendous help, a large percentage of them based in the UK.
Alex: What are your interests aside from writing? And what do you do to unwind?
David: Sailing is among my most potent interests and pastimes. I own a vintage 32-foot Bristol sloop that I keep on a mooring in the small town where I live along the New England coast. I enjoy traveling and particularly like trips that offer adventure, or a historical perspective. I like to cook and experiment making dishes from a wide range of cultures. Photography is another joy, though it has been more a professional occupation than hobby over the years. I also like spending time outdoors — skiing, hiking, kayaking, playing in the waves at the beach.
As a young man, my uncle Lido frequently took me fishing for trout in the nearby streams and hunting for birds and small game depending on the season. He taught me a lot about nature.
Reading a good book also helps me unwind. My mom was quick to turn off the television and escape into one of her novels.
Alex: Which authors do you particularly admire and why?
David: So many that it’s hard to say, and my tastes have ranged widely over the years. Early on, in college days, it was all John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Jack London, Albert Camus and others. These days, I gravitate toward novels by the late Vince Flynn, whose stories always put me in the mood to write.
I’ve always liked Bruce Chatwin. There’s no pomposity and his work is always interesting.
Alex: Thank you so much, David for sharing your writing journey with us and serving up such thoughtful, lucid and fullsome answers. I look forward to reading your books.
David. My pleasure, Alex. And thank you for including me in this incredible pantheon of authors.
