Mark S. Bacon began his career as a
southern California newspaper police reporter, one of his crime stories
becoming key evidence in a murder case that spanned decades.
After working for two newspapers, he
moved to advertising and marketing when he became a copywriter for Knott’s
Berry Farm, the large theme park down the freeway from Disneyland. Experience working at Knott’s formed part of
the inspiration for his creation of Nostalgia City theme park.
Before turning to fiction, Bacon
wrote business books including one for
John Wiley & Sons Publishers that was printed in four languages and three
editions, named best business book of the year by Library Journal, and selected by the Book of the Month Club and two
other book clubs. His articles have
appeared in the Washington Post, Cleveland Plain Dealer, San Antonio Express News, Denver Post, and many other
publications. Most recently he was a correspondent
for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Desert Kill Switch is the second book in the Nostalgia
City mystery series that began with Death
in Nostalgia City, an award winner at the 2015 San Francisco Book
Festival. The third book in the series
will be published soon.
Bacon is the
author of flash fiction mystery books including, Cops, Crooks and Other Stories in 100 Words. He
taught journalism as a member of the adjunct faculty at Cal Poly
University – Pomona, University of Redlands, and the University of Nevada -
Reno. He earned an MA in mass media from
UNLV and a BA in journalism from Fresno State.
Website
and social media:
Twitter: @baconauthor
Interview:
Tell us
about your book! What is it about and what inspired you to write it?
A life-and-death chase across the Nevada desert in August highlights the action in this complex
mystery spread across the southwest. Desert
Kill Switch takes place first in Nostalgia City, a massive (and pricy)
theme park with a unique appeal—particularly for anyone who remembers the
1970s. The Arizona park re-creates in
minute detail, a small town from the 1970s.
It’s complete with period cars, clothes, food, music, shops, fads, hair
styles, restaurants—the works.
The story begins in the desert just outside the park. Lyle Deming, a park employee and ex-cop,
finds a bullet-riddled body next to a pristine 1970s model Pontiac
Firebird. But when he returns to the
scene with sheriff’s deputies, no car, no body.
At the same time, Kate Sorensen, the park’s vice president
of public relations is in Reno, Nev., representing Nostalgia City at a rock ’n’
roll and classic car festival. When
she’s accused of murdering the festival’s president, Lyle joins her in Nevada
and the two embark on a wild, puzzling ride to exonerate Kate, save a witness’s
life, trap a blackmailer and find the missing corpse. They travel from Nostalgia City to Reno to
Las Vegas and back.
In addition to automobile kill switches, which I’ll explain
in a moment, the book also looks at the classic car market. This is not the sale of repainted jalopies,
but of beautifully restored muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s that can sell in
the low to high six figures. And can be counterfeited.
Inspiration for Nostalgia City theme park comes from one of
my jobs early in my career. I was a
copywriter for Knott’s Berry Farm, the large theme park just up the freeway
from Disneyland. As a mystery fan—but
not a mystery writer yet—I thought that a theme park, especially at night,
would make a great setting for a murder novel.
I used my behind-the-scenes theme park experiences to create the retro
park, Nostalgia City.
Tell us
about your publishing process. What was it like? Did you go indie or the
traditional way?
This is the second book in my Nostalgia City mystery
series. My publisher is Black Opal Books
and I’m under contract for the third book in the series which will be out next
year. Although I self-published a how-to
book once, I wanted to find a traditional publisher to carry this novel series. It gives me more time to write, rather than
be involved in every production task.
How did
you choose the title for your book? Did it come to you right away, before you
started writing the story, or did it come later?
This was a challenge.
You can’t copyright a book title, thus often more than one book has the
same title. Confusing. At least six relatively recent
mystery/suspense books have the title “Kill Switch.” Obviously I didn’t want to make mine the
seventh book with that title. But since automobile
kill switches are so important to the book, I had to look for other ways to use
those words.
As the book is set in Arizona and Nevada, it takes place in the
Mojave, Sonoran and Great Basin deserts.
I thought about using one of those desert names, but ultimately decided
on the more simple, Desert Kill
Switch.
Kill switches are devices that some auto dealers install in
cars they sell. Dealers sometimes put
GPS trackers and kill switches in cars sold to people considered to be
high-risk borrowers. If a buyer misses a
payment—sometimes by as little as a few days—the car is dead. I discovered this practice in a news article,
did follow-up research, and found out that about two million cars in the US contain
remote-control kill switches.
Tell us
about the cover design process. Did you have a basic idea of what your book
cover would be like?
The credit for this stunning cover goes to its designer,
Jacci Larsen and to James Mandas, the owner of the 1972 Pontiac Firebird Trans
Am seen stranded in the desert.
My publisher permits authors to do their own covers and I had
a pretty good idea what I wanted: a photo of a classic car surrounded by empty
desert. Since the book takes place in
the desert, an arid landscape had to be part of the cover and the classic car
trade would be represented by a good automotive example
Without spoiling too much of the plot, in the first chapter my protagonist, Lyle
Deming, finds a Firebird on a lonely desert road. The mystery—and the murder—proceeds from
there.
To set up the picture, I needed to find a restored classic
car from the 1960s or 1970s. I didn’t really care what make or model it
was. I first tried local car clubs and happened to
find reference to a Pontiac owners club.
After about twenty minutes more searching I found pictures of the white
and blue Firebird at an auto show and was able to contact Mandas, its owner.
He graciously agreed to haul his beautiful car out to the
desert. After several postponements due to bad weather, the photo shoot took
place about 25 miles north of Reno, Nevada on a chilly, November day. The car is an immaculate automobile artifact
and it reflected the desert sun as it posed for the photos.
The cover design has the photo flowing across the spine to
the back cover. One clever design
element that Larsen added on the spine is a US highway sign with the numeral 2
in it to indicate this is the second book in the series. The first book had the
same highway sign on the spine, except it said, Route 66, representing the
historic “mother road.” Nostalgia City
theme park is located near a restored portion of 66.
Who is
your cover designer and how did you find him/her?
Larsen is my daughter.
She’s a web designer, not a book designer by trade, but her sense of
style and balance translates well to all media.
She did the design for my first book and has helped with designs on my
website and printed promotional material.
How was
your experience working with the designer?
Excellent. I
appreciated she treated me as much like a client as her father. She worked with deadlines, gave me updates on
the work in progress and was open to suggestions.
What
has been the readers’ response to your cover?
So far, so good. The
book has just come out so I’m waiting for more feedback. I posted the cover on social media recently
and several people wanted to read the book, just based on the cover.
What
tips would you give to authors who are looking for a cover designer?
Look at lots of samples. If a designer has not done many
book covers, but has an extensive professional portfolio, study the work.
Look at the covers of top-selling books in your genre. See if you can spot trends. If you’re a romance writer and the artist
you’re considering has mostly designed high tech books, tell him or her to
study your genre. Also, talk with other authors. Ask them who designed their covers. How much did it cost?
Anything
else you’d like to say about your book?
The landscapes in Arizona and Nevada have many faces. The bare, dark hills and tan and green scrub
brush on my cover reflect the open spaces—and the daunting isolation—of the
southwest deserts.
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