Featured Interview With Gary Corbin
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Born to a family of nine children (yes, Catholic) and raised in the small town of Agawam, Massachusetts, I’ve lived all over the US and now choose the equally small town of Camas, WA to call home with my beautiful partner, Renee. We harbor and feed dogs, the occasional fish, wild deer, and brave wild critters on our small plot of land overlooking the stunning Columbia River.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
My fascination with books came in my teething years…I wasn’t very observant about the distinction between food and reading material. In first grade I discovered Greek mythology and the public library, not in that order, and soon branched out into biographies of famous people (mostly football and baseball players) and eventually fiction. I began writing in my early teen years, thinking I would someday become a famous poet, or maybe a rock star, or in my spare time as the starting left fielder for the Boston Red Sox. Sadly, I could not hit a curve ball. Or catch. But alas, I could write.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love a good thriller or mystery, but also a great play or good literature. My favorite legal thriller writers (Scott Turow, Philip Margolin, Robert Dugoni) focus on character over plot and make me care about the people and place at the center of a story. From Barbara Kingsolver, Toni Morrison, and John Irving I obtain great joy from the pure beauty of their prose. Neil Simon and Sam Shepard inspire my stage work the most. And while I’m not a big fan of horror, I find Steven King to be one of the best writers currently publishing.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My new book, coming out February 8, 2017, is the second book in The Mountain Man Mysteries. In this book, The Mountain Man’s Bride, rustic forester Lehigh Carter fights to clear first his own name, then that of his fiancée, Stacy McBride, as they are accused of murdering the deputy who once made their lives miserable.
The idea for this book came while I was finishing the first book, The Mountain Man’s Dog. I wanted to continue the story of Lehigh and Stacy and their two fiercely loyal, lovable dogs, Lucky and Diamond. Lucky for me, the idea flowed naturally from the conclusion of “Dog,” although the two books can be read stand-alone.
In “Bride,” the murder of popular acting Sheriff Jared Barkley in Clarkesville, a small town in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, put Lehigh and Stacy’s plans to marry on hold when Stacy is arrested for committing the crime. On the advice of her lawyer, Stacy cuts off ties to Lehigh, who remains a subject of the investigation himself by the crooked cops and politicians running Mt. Hood County.
Lehigh’s own lawyer, the smart, beautiful Samantha Pullen, works the legal angles to keep Lehigh out of jail, but he ignores her advice to keep a low profile and conducts his own investigation into the murder — putting himself in greater danger than he ever imagined.
A chance meeting with an old high school football teammate prompts Lehigh to visit the victim’s grieving mother, who will only talk to one who has suffered the same way—Lehigh’s own mother, who, in her advancing senile dementia, blames Lehigh for the death of his older brother when they were tikes. When the two women bond, Lehigh becomes privy to new information revealing a series of clandestine meetings between Jared and Stacy leading up to his death—meetings that look a lot like an ongoing secret love affair, rekindled from their youth.
As Lehigh continues his investigation, his doubts about Stacy’s innocence multiply—particularly when she appears to make romantic overtures to her ex-fianceé, attorney Paul van Paten, a leading member of the conspiracy against Lehigh. Cooperating with the only honest cop he knows in the county, Detective “Gentleman Jim” Wadsworth, Lehigh plays a high-stakes game of legal chicken to infiltrate the conspiracy and discover the truth behind Jared Barkley’s murder.
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Gary Corbin says
Thanks for the feature, ABP!