P.T. Deutermann

P.T. Deutermann was born in Boston in 1941, the son of a naval officer. After living in various places, he entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1959. He graduated and was commissioned into the Pacific Fleet in 1963. He served in the destroyers Morton (DD-948), Hull (DD-945), and Jouett (DLG-29), and commanded a gunboat in the rivers of Vietnam. He attended graduate school at the University of Washington, and then saw service in the Atlantic Fleet as executive officer of Charles F. Adams (DDG-2) and then commanding officer of Tattnall (DDG-19). His final sea tour was as commodore of Destroyer Squadron 25. His shore service included four tours of duty in the Pentagon as a politico-military policy specialist, concluding his twenty-six years of service with an assignment. Following active duty he worked for the Federal Aviation Administration under contract to the advanced systems development programs, before moving to Georgia to pursue his writing career. Deutermann is married, with two grown children. His son is a navy flight instructor at Pensacola, and his daughter is a radar intercept officer in F-14's.

A retired Navy man, P.T. Deutermann is a master of political and military thrillers --- and his latest novel HUNTING SEASON is one of his best yet. The riveting, action-packed, tour de force pits Edwin Kreiss, a retired intelligence operative, against Janet Carter, novice FBI agent. Bookreporter.com writer Jamie Engle was fortunate enough to chat with Deutermann about HUNTING SEASON, the difficulties of writing a strong female character, his future in film and much more.

BRC: Edwin Kreiss is a retired intelligence operative, forced out because he found key evidence no one wanted found. His job as sweeper was to hunt and bring in or sometimes terminate rogue agents, and he makes no secret of the fact he rather enjoyed his job. He uses violence to get the first clue to finding his daughter and has plans to destroy the people responsible for her disappearance. Why did you decide to create an anti-hero for the main character in HUNTING SEASON?

PD: Because of my general frustration, as an American citizen, with the moral depths to which the federal government sank during the last Administration. I truly believe we've only begun to see some of the fallout, e.g., the pardons for money. It would take an anti-hero to do anything good under those circumstances, and Kreiss recognized that.

BRC: On the one hand we have Kreiss, the epitome of experience. On the other hand, we have Janet Carter, an FBI agent with almost no street experience. Their common denominator is their code of honor, which they recognize in each other bit by bit throughout the book. Their code keeps them focused on the end goals despite everything going on around them. Do you feel that's the key to a person's success?

PD: First, native intelligence, which leads to self-awareness; second, a moral sense: knowing what is right and what is wrong; third, the courage to apply consistently a reasonable moral yardstick to everything you set out to do; and fourth, persistence: if you think a thing's worth doing, then it's your duty to keep trying.

BRC: "Palace games" between different agencies and people with their own agendas play a major role in the book. How much of a role do you feel palace games play in today's government and military?

PD: Because the federal budget is in fact limited, all government agencies compete for the money. Bureaucratic turf wars (palace games) are, in my opinion, the driving force behind everything that bureaucrats do. (I'm talking here about the permanent civil servants, not the political appointees who come and go.) A bureaucrat will approach every issue, problem, program, or regulation with an eye towards improving the power, budgetary prominence, and security of his or her position.

BRC: Janet Carter is a strong character; we see both her strengths and weaknesses. How do you maintain the balance between her strengths and weaknesses to come out with a strong character? It seems especially hard to do with female characters.

PD: The strength of Janet Carter and writing strong female characters: first see the answer to the second question above. I write them against those standards, and while they may stumble from time to time, there's that gleam of persistence in their eye and I let the readers see that. Besides, women are, in my experience, stronger than men when it comes to siege warfare. They have to go up against not only the bad guys but often some of the good guys.

BRC: Many of your books end with the possibility that the characters could continue to another story. Do you have any plans to revisit some of your past characters in new books?

PD: Unless one does a series character, publishers tend to dislike sequels, based, I suppose, on their commercial experience with them. One fine day, though, I may write one with all the characters brought back to life, just for fun. For that reason, I always leave the possibility open.

BRC: Three of your books, SWEEPERS, OFFICIAL PRIVILEGE and TRAIN MAN, have been optioned for feature films or television. How are production plans coming? When can we see the film adaptations?

PD: My agent tells me some grim statistics: few books are optioned for film, and of a hundred that are, only one will make it to the silver screen. Right now, TRAIN MAN looks like the best bet; but, like the army, it's hurry up and wait. Considering all the elements that must fall into place to make a movie, it is amazing to me that any get made.

BRC: Will you be involved with adapting the novels to screen?

PD: Only in the sense that the screenwriter and I will collaborate tangentially while he or she's doing the first draft; after that, usually not.

BRC: You have an extensive family history with the Navy; your two children are continuing the military tradition. What does being a military family mean to you?

PD: My father, two of his brothers, both of my brothers, some of their children, and both of my children are either in the service or have been in the service. It means a continuity of shared experience, a homogeneous moral standard, the satisfaction of serving something bigger than yourself, the camaraderie of the professional officer corps, a wealth of personal enrichment because of all the travel, and the knowledge that you've done something worthwhile when you complete honorable military service. Many Americans have never experienced those things.

BRC: After retiring from the Navy, what drew you to fiction writing?

PD: The recognition, early on in my naval career, that I could write. I published a textbook on naval operations and several professional articles in the Naval Institute Proceedings over the years, which prepared me for the discipline of doing fiction. I waited until I was out of the Navy because the Navy was a full time, often 24/7 job.

BRC: How do you research novels that aren't based on your Navy background?

PD: I always go to the place where the book is to be set (a great excuse for interesting travel!) and I use the Net extensively. I also have amassed a network of retired (and some still active) cops, agents, forensic people, doctors, lawyers, gun experts, etc., who have read the books and then very generously volunteered to keep me from making too many egregious mistakes, if I will only listen... Writing fiction is a heavy-duty learning experience, no matter how long you do it, which is one of its main attractions.

BRC: Some authors have a story first and then develop characters; some have characters first then find the story. How do you start a novel?

PD: First, I dream up the story. Then I populate it with interesting characters and turn them loose to see what they'll do with the extraordinary circumstances into which I drop them. They then take over the book (and if they don't, I get new characters.)

BRC: What's your writing schedule like?

PD: Midmorning to one o'clock, every day, until the first draft is done. Then rewrites on the same schedule.

BRC: What authors inspire or influence you?

PD: Elmore Leonard, Larry McMurtry, James Lee Burke, the early Ken Follett, Thomas Acquinas, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Graham Greene, Michael Connelly, Martin Cruz Smith, Jeff Parker, John LeCarre.

BRC: Are there any books you have read in the past six months that you could recommend to our readers?

PD: THE NIGHT MANAGER by John LeCarre and HAVANA BAY by Martin Cruz Smith. (Being a writer, I don't get to read as much as I'd like to.)

BRC: What writing projects are you working on now?

PD: I have a new, two-book deal with St. Martins Press, and I'm working on the first one of those, a suspense novel set at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

BRC: Do you have a website?

PD: Yes, in fact I do. You can get a full description of HUNTING SEASON and all my previous books at: http://www.ptdeutermann.com