Booksandauthors.net: Why do you write?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: At different times in my life I wrote my way through difficult times, kept a diary during my teen years. When I discovered the diary wasn't as "private" as I thought, I stopped doing it. Later in my adult life, however, I'd write about things that preoccupy me , I'd write poetry to express my deepest feelings, and periodically keep a journal. When I was 48, I went back to school to finish a degree left unfinished since 1968. At that time, I was working at NIH (National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, as a writer/editor. One of the government benefits is tuition, but the course work must be job related. I decided to get the degree in Professional Writing from University of Maryland University College. None of the courses, however, were creative. They all had to do with technical writing.

The summer I graduated, I spent the summer reading Writer's Digest books on creative writing. There was one little book in particular, that got the ball rolling. It was called "Mastering the Art of Fiction Writing." I always seemed to have story ideas rolling around in my head, so I just started writing them down. There were three of them. Two of them died away, the third continued, taking on a life of it's own. I was just writing for the fun of it. It was never my intention to write a book. One day, I looked at my notebook and saw that I had written 175 pages. Oh! Hmmm...this looks like it's going somewhere. This story became Recompense.

Another reason that I write is to relieve the stress in my real life. I'm working toward making my fantasy life catch up with my real life!

Booksandauthors.net: Who is Detective Cal Hopkins? What do you like about this character? Do plan to revisit this character in a follow up novel?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: Detective Cal Hopkins is an African American who has experienced so much pain in his early life that it has left him with a passion to protect young people from the evil around them and sometimes from themselves. Although he's the protagonist, his character was the most difficult to write. He will appear again in my next book, entitled "Slavemaker."

Booksandauthors.net: RECOMPENSE is based in Baltimore Maryland -- Tell us about your personal research to get your settings and environment so vividly described. Why Baltimore?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: In writing this book, I broke all the rules...the rules my mom taught me...don't stare, don't eavesdrop, stay away from the dangerous parts of town. I spent hours in my van parked outside the Baltimore City Jail, just watching the people that went in and out, wondering what it must be like to love someone that was incarcerated. I projected myself into scenarios on visiting day. I also lurked around the "red light" zone, watching the hawkers trying to get people to drop into the strip clubs, peep shows, and adult stores.

I drove around in certain parts of the city known for drug sales, looking for the most likely place for a cop to sell drugs out of his cruiser without being seen. I looked for places where someone could be ambushed and killed without witnesses.

I love Baltimore. I remember visiting here once a year as a child when we came to visit my father's sister and her family. I recall my thoughts as sad ones...it was old, dirty, and it seemed that everyone was poor. Over the years, I watched it change...slowly. Then, in 1974, my husband and I moved here after he graduated from Law School. From that time on, Baltimore grew into maturity, blossomed like a late bloomer. I spent more time there and decided that Baltimoreans were regular folk...no frantic upwardly striving of the sort found in the Washington area. Baltimore is like a kaleidoscope...every time you turn it, it's beautiful in a different way.

Booksandauthors.net: Your dialogue in RECOMPENSE is very believable -- How do you go about writing dialogue and how important is conversation to you as the storyteller?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: This is another place where I broke the rules. I am an unabashed eavesdropper--in restaurants, malls, public restrooms. There are a couple of scenes with dialogue that were inspired by real events. Recompense was not totally imagined. It was more like transcribing a movie that was playing in my head...all I did was transcribe. I use dialogue to move the story forward and to inject information about characters that I want the reader to know.

Booksandauthors.net: What has been your feedback from readers?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: This is the really thrilling part. I have not received a single pan. Everyone that has read it that I've heard from have loved it, had difficulty putting it down, and has asked for the next one...soon!

Booksandauthors.net: Who are your favorite writers and why?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: My absolute favorite is James Patterson. I've learned a lot about plotting and pacing from his writing. It is because I saw my own reaction to his short chapters that I took the same approach. Keep the chapters short, and end each with a cliff hanger so the reader will be anxious to return, or better still, forget it's time to make dinner, keep an appointment, or do something else that needs doing.

I also enjoy David Baldacci's writing. I like to watch him build his characters.

Michael Connelly is another of my favorites. His stories are heavily forensic, and while I'm trying to figure out what's happening next, I'm learning. He does a lot of research for his books.

Another is Jeffrey Deaver, although I have to admit his stories are sometimes a bit scary!

Booksandauthors.net: What's next?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: I'm currently working on the next Detective Cal Hopkins book. It's called "Slavemaker" and is about a current-day slave plantation in Maryland.

Booksandauthors.net: What was the last book you read?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: I recently read "Pale Horse Coming" by Sephen Hunter.

Booksandauthors.net: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

Joyce Morgan Hammock: I enjoy photography, and spend a fair amount of time on the road looking for locations and settings. When I find just the right one(s), I photograph it and put it on my flip chart for that part of the story. That way, when I'm ready to create the scene, I have all the pieces I need. I don't have to depend on my memory.

I'm also an avid forensics buff. For this book, the Baltimore City Police Department was kind enough to allow a cold case homicide detective (yes, a real one!) to work with me so this book will be so real that even a real live cop would enjoy it!

I can't help it, but everything I see is story fodder. I keep a notebook with me all the time. What I make a note of today may not be in this book, but who knows what the one after this one holds?