By
JOHN SCHERBER
AN INTERVIEW
WITH THE AUTHOR
I had an opportunity
recently to sit down with my old friend Derek Hamilton, who has contributed a
few of the sage comments that introduce several of my books. He had prepared
some questions about the writing life and where it has taken me up to this
point.
DH. You’ve just brought out your thirteenth San Miguel mystery,
titled Angel Face. Do you ever get tired of working with this
same set of core characters?
SCHERBER. I never do. The combination of Paul Zacher, the artist
turned investigator, Cody Williams, the retired homicide detective, and Maya
Sanchez, the Mexican girlfriend who has a master’s degree in history has been a
winning group all through this series. Each one brings a unique perspective to
every case.
DH. What’s the advantage of having the same core group in each
book?
SCHERBER: For the reader, it creates that sense of continuity that
many readers look for in a mystery series. If you appreciate the dynamic of
these three characters, you’re going to want to connect with them again. I’ve
never been a fan of short fiction, myself. The bigger the book, the more I
enjoy it, if it’s well done. In these books, since the stories link one to the
other, it’s like having one huge book, even though they’re written so they can
each be read as a complete stand alone mystery. The advantage for me as the
writer is that it provides an established insight into how these people think
and act. Once I have a plot worked out, it’s a matter of putting a page in the
laptop and starting to type. They immediately begin to move around and talk on
their own.
DH. Do you ever feel that with this many books in the series you
might start to repeat yourself? Or has that already happened?
SCHERBER: That’s an excellent question. I’ve never been a formula
writer, and anyone who has read the earlier books realizes that they’re all
quite different. They’re driven by the plot. In general, however, they come in
two kinds: artifact stories and relationship stories. The artifact books are focused
on Mayan ceramics (Twenty Centavos),
an ancient Mayan book (The Fifth Codex),
an Aztec skull cast from solid gold (Strike
Zone), and the Virgin of Guadalupe
image (The Theft of the Virgin).
The others are
centered on normal human desires: revenge, greed, hatred, and lust.
DH. I’ve noticed that your villains tend to be less than fully
hateful or monstrous, unlike those of some other writers, and your heroes are
flawed. Does this reflect some core belief of yours?
SCHERBER. Very much. To me, all black or all white characters are
boring. We are all mixed in our behavior. We think of people as good when they
behave well more often than they behave badly. Conversely, my villains are
capable of many fine things. Often they’re cultured and sophisticated. I suppose
that might be a way of hiding them in plain sight. But when they go astray, it
often leads to a chain of bad acts in the attempt to cover up the previous
ones. Speaking of core beliefs, most humans like to think that actions have no
consequences. That often figures into it as well.
DH. You’ve used the same character from the local Judicial Police
in most of your books. Is he based on an actual person?
SCHERBER. Quite the contrary. Diego Delgado is a complete
fabrication. When I was about to start the first of the mysteries I approached
the San Miguel Police and asked if I could talk to them about their procedures
and take a look at their facilities, particularly their jail cells. I also wanted
to have a contact person inside I could bounce things off now and then. They
turned me down flat. At first I was upset, but then I said to myself, hey, this
is freedom! I can make it anything that suits my needs. This is why we call it
fiction. I put a police office on the second floor of the old Presidencia,
where Delgado can look out on the jardín,
our main plaza. He’s been a great character for me as a way of expressing some
attitudes of Mexicans toward the expat population. There’s always a sense of
rivalry between him and Paul Zacher, but over time they’ve learned to help each
other out.
DH. Do you have a fourteenth Paul Zacher mystery in the works?
SCHERBER. Of course. It’s titled Uneasy Rider. It’s set in the horse community around San Miguel,
and hopefully I’ll be releasing it in the late fall of 2015.
DH. And will there be more in that series down the road?
SCHERBER. Absolutely. Several more are in the works, and the next one
is built around shamanism. I’ve given that one the working title of Scorpion Rising.
DH. You’re so prolific!
SCHERBER. I began life as a writer in college, ran off the rails,
and ended with a writer’s block that persisted for 37 years. I believe I hold
the record, something I’m not proud of. Anyway, when I broke through, there was
a lot of material built up behind the dam.
DH. Your three nonfiction books on the expat experience have been
quite successful. Do you have any other nonfiction projects in the works?
SCHERBER. I do think about it. I really enjoyed writing them. The next
book will focus on subjects I didn’t deal with in the others. For example, the
way the American media rants against México and how Americans living here react
to that, knowing the truth as they do. I’d like to contrast that with how
Canadians and their government and media view México. There would be material on
working here, rather than just being retired, and on death and dying here.
Working title on that one is From My Side
of the Border: The Expat Experience in San Miguel de Allende.
DH. If you weren’t doing all this writing, how would you spend
your time?
SCHERBER. I’d be painting pictures, just like my main detective
character, Paul Zacher.
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