Dwayne Clayden
Dwayne Clayden combines his knowledge and experience as a police officer and paramedic to write realistic crime thrillers.
Crisis Point, Dwayne’s first novel, was a finalist for the 2015 Crime Writers of Canada, Arthur Ellis Awards.
OutlawMC and Wolfman is Back are the second and third novels in the Brad Coulter Series.
The Brad Coulter will continue in 2020.
In his 40 year career, Dwayne served as a police officer, paramedic, tactical paramedic, firefighter, emergency medical services (EMS) chief, educator, and academic chair.
Dwayne is a popular speaker at conferences and to writing groups presenting on realistic police, medical, and paramedic procedures.
The co-author of four paramedic textbooks, he has spoken internationally at EMS conferences for the past three decades.
Marina Raydun: Your background goes hand in hand with your genre. How helpful are real life experiences in setting up fictional scenarios?
Dwayne Clayden: Having worked as a police officer and paramedic gives me a unique view of what really happens. I can bring that reality to the pages of my novels. I show the relationships between partners – you spend ten hours or more a day together and know where your partner’s ‘hot’ buttons are and you push it often.
I include the paramedics as characters in each novel. You get to know them and read about them in action – what they do responding to the situation, what care they provide on scene and on the way to the hospital as well as some of the hospital care. This is a perspective I have not seen in other police procedural/thriller novels.
All my characters are mixtures of a number of cops and paramedics I worked with. I took idiosyncrasies from several people and molded them into a character.
My cop and paramedic friends try to guess who each character is in real life. Sometimes they recognize a couple of quirks, but then see the quirks of someone else in that character too.
One ‘real’ character in the novels is Lobo, a German Shephard. When I was a twenty year-old rookie police officer with a big gun and the thin cheesy moustache, I needed a police dog too. I rescued Lobo from the pound and he has a role in all the novels.
MR: What do you owe real life people upon whom you base your characters?
DC: There are two “real life” characters in my novels. In Outlaw MC, I introduced a Sergeant in the Identification Division, Bill Surgeon. He was a police academy classmate and provides me with the accurate information on fingerprints, ballistics, and everything Ident and Forensics. He’s a great friend so I asked if I could use his name as the character. He agreed, but he now thinks I need to do a series about a handsome, brilliant, and charismatic Ident Sergeant.
The second is another classmate, Randy Ames. Randy had always wanted to be a sniper. He first appears in Outlaw MC and will return in novel four, the working title is Sniper.
MR: What’s the most difficult part about writing characters from the opposite sex?
DC: Everything! Luckily I have female beta readers. I worked with many female cops and paramedics and used them to create realistic characters readers could identify with. My beta readers always keep me in line!
MR: Have you read anything that made you feel differently about fiction?
DC: Stephen wrote an excellent book called, “On Writing.” It is brilliant. He shares his thoughts on writing, his struggles, his rejections, his writing routine, and many practical tips for writers. I have read it at least five times.
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
DC: I like a lot of genres, but my favorite would be police procedurals and thrillers – Michael Connelly, John Sandford and Robert B Parker. But I have read everything John Grishom, Ken Follett, Jeffrey Archer, Vince Flynn, and Lee Child have written. I have also read Outlander, Game of Thrones and James Rollins.
MR: What are you currently reading?
DC: I am reading an FBI profiler series by Steven James and the protagonist Patrick Bowers. I am on the second novel, “The Pawn.” When I find a new author I tend to binge read several novels in a row.
I have asked Santa for the newest Michael Connelly, Lee Child, John Sandford and John Grishom novels.
MR: Is there a book that changed your life?
DC: Joseph Wambaugh changed my life in couple of ways. First, in 1971, he wrote “The New Centurions,” about policing in Los Angeles and told it like it was. He didn’t hold anything back. It was a big change to the sanitized police shows of the early 70s. I felt like I was there on the streets of LA as I read “The New Centurions.” It got me thinking about a career in policing. I wanted to be a cop – a New Centurion.
MR: Is there a book that people might be surprised to learn you love?
DC: “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” by Garth Stein.
All Mitch Albom’s novels.
MR: Are there any books you’ve read over and over again?
DC: I’ve reread early Joseph Wambaugh: The New Centurions, The Blue Night, The Black Marble, The Onion Field. Robert B Parker’s Series “Jesse Stone.” Michael Connelly’s Bosch Series.
MR: What do you think about when you’re alone in your car?
DC: About how many traffic tickets I could write!! When I was a cop, I hated writing traffic tickets. Now I count how many I could write!
But you probably want to know if I think about writing. I think about writing 24/7. Whether working through a plot thread I’m having trouble with, or chapters that just aren’t coming together or thinking of new novel ideas.
Earlier this year I was struggling with the last chapters of Wolfman and had been thinking about it for weeks. On the flight home from Las Vegas it suddenly came to me. I wrote longhand for three hours. That is the ending I kept in the novel. So, driving, eating, flying, I’m thinking about novels.
To learn more about Dwayne, please visit the following:
e-mail: dwayneclayden@gmail.com
Facebook: DwayneClaydenAuthor
LinkedIn: dwayneclayden
Twitter: @DwayneClayden