On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik paid homage to Timothy McVey and al-Qaeda when he bombed government buildings in Oslo, Norway, killing eight. The explosion failed to bring down a building or produce the body count Breivik hoped for, so he attacked a Labor Party youth camp on the isle of Utøya. He massacred sixty-nine [...] Read More →
Author Archives: J.M. Hayes
Me ‘n Guns
I thought maybe I should clear things up since some folks are a tad upset with me over what they perceive as anti-gun sentiments in my Mad Dog & Englishman series.
A Crime of the Heart
The following conversation between Mad Dog and his former girlfriend, long after the events they’re discussing, is from Plains Crazy (2004), my third Mad Dog & Englishman mystery: Former Girlfriend – “Don’t you remember . . . when we had the fight and I thought we broke up and you decided not to call me [...] Read More →
How I Broke into the Writing Profession with a Sale to One of America’s Most Popular Magazines
It was 1969 when I decided to become a professional writer instead of an anthropologist.
A Letter to Santa
Despite my charter membership in cynics anomalous, I’m a big fan of Santa. It goes way back to my childhood. I used to stand up for the big guy when my friends and classmates started telling me Santa wasn’t real. “He’s just your mom and dad,” they said. But I knew better. I’d seen him. [...] Read More →
Book Story
I’d like to tell the story of a book. It may help readers understand the current confused state of the publishing industry, as well as open a door on a valuable historical viewpoint that’s not widely available.
Murders Rip Rural Community
They found the bodies in grassy woodlands near the Ninnescah River northwest of Arlington, Kansas. Two-year-old twins, Jamie and Andy Vogelsang, killed with a 12 gauge shotgun using number 6 pellets. One twin shot once, the other twice. Their babysitter, Tammey Mooney, shot four times with a 12 gauge, but with a number 7 ½ [...] Read More →
The Werewolf of Tucson
Once upon a time, I saved a damsel in distress. Not in my imagination or on the pages of one of my novels. It really happened.
Why write about Kansas?
First, for the obvious reason. Like they say, write what you know. Kansas is where I was born and grew up. You get a kind of intimate sense of place that way.
A Boy & His Blog
I am forty-five. It is a Friday in June of 1990. Fridays start my weekend. I always turn them into a treat. I don’t go to bars for snacks and brews. That’s for a younger crowd, and I am neither young nor good in crowds. I go to bookstores. I have several favorites. The big-box [...] Read More →