Can policemen be super funny? 100 % they can!
And if you don’t believe me, please meet author David Wilson…

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m a native of Maine (New England), born and raised. I grew up in the rural, northern part of the state where we spent a great deal of time at our family camp. Fishing, exploring the woods, and playing on the lakeside were my childhood pastimes. I grew up in a simpler era, we didn’t have cellphones or video games to keep us entertained, we simply had the woods and nature. As an adult I ultimately followed in my father’s footsteps and entered into law enforcement, focusing on a career specializing in criminal investigations, and training others. These experiences, both as a child and an adult, are the basis and inspirations for my books. As a child, I was introduced to the world of art and drawing. This became a hobby of mine and I spent many hours as a child developing little comic strips and character sketches, with my favorite mediums being pencils and acrylics. I’ve been lucky enough to have the ability to incorporate my childhood hobby into my books.

“I use humor and satire to describe my experiences as a police officer, when appropriate, as humor is a coping mechanism for those who choose public safety as a career. ”

— David Wilson

Why should I buy your books?
As far as the memoir, there’s a lot that people don’t know, or perhaps don’t realize, about how ‘human’ a police officer truly is. They only know what they see in the media. The truth is, they’re just like you or me except that they’ve chosen a profession that requires them to put on a uniform and serve others, living each day in a ‘fishbowl’ where others can see inside. I use humor and satire to describe my experiences as a police officer, when appropriate, as humor is a coping mechanism for those who choose public safety as a career. My memoir is focused on those who believe that law enforcement is a tough, respectable job, as I offer many of my own opinions in the book about crime and punishment in describing my own experiences. It has a target audience. In contrast, as far as my Maine-based humor novel, it’s purely for entertainment value, and for everyone. Growing up as I did, I try to take the reader back to that nostalgic time, while still keeping the storyline in the present day. Through my characters I’ve attempted to relay stories about adventures that my father and I shared. It’s a silly tale, one that is designed to simply make the reader smile and forget about the challenges of life for a while.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I originally wanted to document stories that my father had passed along to me about his life experiences. However, I didn’t believe that I could write a book purely based on these, so I created the fictitious town that you’ll discover in ‘Two Seasons,’ and the characters to tell the stories through. During the time that I was writing this book, I made the decision to document my own experiences in a memoir that I truly never thought would be published. It began as more of a diary that eventually evolved into a book. However, once I completed ‘Peanut Butter Memoirs,’ I discovered an audience for my work and even though ‘Two Seasons’ had been in the works prior, the memoir became the first book published. I completed ‘Two Seasons’ soon after and, it too, was published. In all, it took a total of 15 years to complete both books to the point I was satisfied with each.

“As a public safety officer, when we use humor, we’re not attempting to be disrespectful or hurtful in finding something to laugh about in other people’s difficult times. We simply need this form of release to keep us going, and to help us stay focused.”

— David Wilson

Why did you choose to write humor?
As I’d mentioned, humor is a coping mechanism for those that choose my line of work as a profession. We see and deal with the worst in people and situations on a daily basis. Humor is a way of coping with these situations so that we not only remain sane, but it also keeps us returning to work each day to deal with more. In my memoir, I chose to document the situations that I’d responded to using humor when appropriate. Understanding that there are those incidents where no humor can be found, nor should they be made light of. As a public safety officer, when we use humor, we’re not attempting to be disrespectful or hurtful in finding something to laugh about in other people’s difficult times. We simply need this form of release to keep us going, and to help us stay focused. A lot of people don’t understand that and feel that we’re acting disrespectfully, when in fact we’re not. Without the use of humor, we would simply go insane. In comparison, for reasons of pure satire and silliness, ‘Two Seasons’ is just a fun story. In this book I’ve again documented actual events outside of my career through the use of fictitious characters and humor. While adding other stories into the mix, the end result is purely for enjoyment. I believe in today’s society we need to laugh more and, not take life so seriously. Life is tough enough, we need outlets such as books to take us away from all that.

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Jay Bailey, whom you’ve also interviewed. Jay is a friend of mine and we share similar styles in that we don’t hold back our thoughts or feelings when it comes to our style of writing. I enjoy Jay’s style in writing about himself in the third person through his character of ‘Mudflap’. I don’t use this particular style, however, I do use a style in which at times, although I’m relaying events of the past, I speak directly to the reader. Jay and I have both had our challenges in life, and we use these to gain strength through our writing.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
The ability to be free in expressing yourself. The truth is, I never really felt that there’d be an audience for my memoir until it was published, and I began receiving positive reviews from both readers and professionals. Every reader has a particular genre that they prefer and I’ve found that there’s an audience for my work. With the memoir, it’s a specifically targeted audience that possibly shares my same feelings and opinions on the subject matter of my career of choice. In the humor novel, again, it’s having the ability to express yourself freely, put it on paper, and see where it goes and who will enjoy it. When others take the time to tell me that they’ve enjoyed my books, it’s a great feeling of satisfaction. The other fun thing is the ability to use my artwork in my books. As mentioned, I’m an amateur artist, self-taught, having drawn and painted long before I ever began writing. Having the ability to do my own character sketches, for the humor novel specifically, has allowed me to put a ‘face’ to my characters and share that with the readers. I’ve also designed and created the covers for all of my books and plan to continue this in the future.

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
In my experience, it’s the over-criticizing of my own work. It’s easy for me to put an idea down on paper, however, I find myself being very critical of the final result. I’ve found it difficult in being satisfied with my work until someone else tells me that they’ve enjoyed it. I think this is the reason that it took so long to complete both books. During the process, I literally ‘trashed’ and re-wrote both books entirely at least once. For some chapters, even more. I think as authors we all want our work to be ‘perfect’, however, the truth is, it doesn’t need to be. The result just needs to be something that’s enjoyable to those who prefer the genre, and the stories we’ve chosen to write.

I could not agree more! Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
I’ve found that Grammarly is a good tool that I use. It points out the little, simple mistakes that I miss when I’m editing my own work. No matter how many times I re-read my work, and it’s many, there are still things that I miss that the program picks out for me.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
I’ve just completed a sequel to ‘Two Seasons,’ entitled, ‘Ma’s Diner.’ Following this, there are two projects that I’ll be working on. One, believe it or not, is a follow-up to my memoir. When I originally wrote ‘Peanut Butter Memoirs,’ it was far longer than the finished work, and I found that I was required to scale it back a bit during editing. Now that the book’s found an audience, I’m going back and adding a few of the chapters that I’d removed, and also writing about new personal ‘adventures’ that hadn’t been written for a new book. I’m also working on a book of a new genre, that being the horror genre, with maybe a bit of a twist. I’m calling it a ‘horror’ novel due to its storyline, however, its premise is also a personal social statement on my feelings on crime and punishment. I’ve been wanting to do this due to the fact that I grew up in the same city as Stephen King, the great ‘horror’ novelist, and that I do enjoy a good, scary story if it has a decent plot. It makes me want to give this genre a try and see if my readers, or new readers, will take an interest. Possibly, as a result, they’ll tell me to stick to humor. We’ll see.

Do you expect new technologies to come along soon that will have a huge impact on self-publishing? For instance, when will we see a decent novel written by an AI author?
I think there needs to be progress in this area. As more people choose to self-publish, and I don’t blame them, it will require more resources for the authors. I think many good, new authors will require at least starting out this way and I also believe more will look to self-published their work as it’s tough to ‘sell’ yourself to publishing companies.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
When my memoir was published, I truly never expected to sell a single copy. When it began to get noticed, and sales started appearing, I was elated. I don’t have a ‘target’ number of books that I’d like to sell. I write for my own enjoyment as much as I’d like to see others enjoy my work. I would, however, enjoy having a book become a best seller on its own. And, as mentioned, I am changing genres and would enjoy being successful in that venture. Again, my goals include having people simply enjoy my work. If I can do that by being successful in more than one genre and reaching a wider audience, that would be great.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the interview, and the opportunity. I don’t believe that authors are highlighted enough and that there are those that believe that print books are dying out due to other technologies that are available to stimulate our senses. We need books to take us away from real life, or to teach us more about life than what we receive from television or social media, which more often than not isn’t always reliable. I believe that rather than watching television, or play video games, or spending our time on our phones texting all day that we need to pick up a book and read. Thank you so much for your time!

So true. I guess that for our societies to slowly move away from these “empty calories,” a good place to start would be to raise our children to love other and better things than Netflix, games, and iPhones. Thank you for doing the interview David, I hope lots of readers discover your books, and that your forage into the horror genre is a success.

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