Award-winning author J.J. White joins us in this episode of CrimeFiction.FM to discuss his new book, DEVIANT ACTS.
Show Notes
J.J. describes his protagonist, Jackson Hurst, as the poster child of losers as the book begins.  Jackson is one of the most unusual PI characters I've read in years.

We discuss the story line of DEVIANT ACTS which begins in 1973.

We discuss the use of Vermont as the setting for the book. J.J. finds it to be a rich source of interesting characters.

J.J. moved from Vermont to the east coast of Florida as a child and developed a love of surfing that has lasted to this day.

We discuss the various writers conferences that John has attended recently, which includes Writers in Paradise.
Interview Transcript with J.J. White and DEVIANT ACTS
Stephen: Welcome back to crimefiction.fm, where we bring the authors of today's best books directly to you. I'm your host, Stephen Campbell, and I'm here with J.J. White, the award-winning author of Deviant Acts, which was released last month. J.J., Welcome!

J.J.: Thank you, Stephen. As a crime writer, I'd like to thank you for all the other crime writers for providing a platform to promote our books.

Stephen: Well, thank you so much for saying that. I always appreciate hearing that, and sadly I don't hear it enough. But, I'm thrilled to talk with you. You have, this book has probably the most unique P.I. character that I've read in years, so let's start talking about Jackson Hurst. Let's start the interview off with Jackson, and give listeners a little sense of who he is, and maybe why you wrote him the way that you did.

J.J.: Well, I have to say it takes place in 1973, or it begins in 1973, which would help a lot in the description. I think if I had to describe him, he'd look like Gregg Allman, with his long blonde hair down past his shoulders, and long mustache, and very thin. Good looking. So, he looks like Gregg Allman, he smokes bad weed like Willie Nelson, and seems to have more crimes committed than Robert Downey, Jr.

But he's, basically, I chose him for one reason. My brother went to Vietnam, and a lot of the stories in there are from him and from other Marines that have gone over to Vietnam, and I embellished them some. But this particular character, Jackson Hurst, he's got PTSD, but he just doesn't understand it because they didn't have post-traumatic stress disorder back then.

Stephen: Right.

J.J.: Jackson Hurst is probably the poster-child of losers. He can't stay out of prison, he's addicted to heroin, he lost his girlfriend because of that, he lost his job because of that. He lives with his mother and he's 24 years old, now. That doesn't sound too bad nowadays, there's a lot of 24-year-olds living with their parents. Thank God my kids aren't. But back then, if you lived with your parents at age 24 you were a loser.

Stephen: You know, I have to say, I was a junior in high school in 1973, and I moved out like two weeks after my senior year. So, yeah. Back in the day, I mean if you were still at home after age 19, you were bordering on being a loser.

J.J.: Exactly. And so he's, like I said, he's the poster-child of losers. He actually robs from his neighbors and steals, and he's been in and out of prison. So, he's really only got two choices. And one choice is to either die, and the other choice is either to go to prison. So he needs an event to happen in order to save him. And that event happens, which I'll go into later.

But basically, the character is quite unusual for a private investigator, and he kind of stumbles his way through at least the first book. I've written this in two books. And he stumbles his way through.

Stephen: He's one of those guys that grows on you. He's a little repulsive in the beginning,