As an ongoing promotion for my new novel, Null_Pointer, I will be interviewing some characters from the story. Today we speak to Detective Bill Plait of the Boise Police Department. He’s the detective assigned to Joshua’s case in the book.
My View: You have appeared in another story besides Null_Pointer right?
Plait: Yes, I was in the short story, “The Safecracker”.
MV: Did you know that I named you after an astronomer?
Plait: No. Why did you name a police detective after an astronomer?
MV: I wanted to capture some of his famous skepticism. I named you after Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy fame. He’ll never read the book, so he’ll probably never find out about it.
Plait: True. Although the real Boise Police Department is now following your Twitter stream.
MV: Yeah, I saw that. I thought it was real cool. Do you think anyone at the precinct has read Null_Pointer?
Plait: Probably not. Too busy serving and protecting real people to bother with your fiction.
MV: Let’s hope so. Still, it would be cool if real cops were reading my crime fiction.
Plait: So am I going to be in the next Joshua Jones Mystery novel?
MV: Yes. You get to help Joshua track down a Sociopath.
Plait: Interesting. I don’t believe we have had one of those around here in a while.
MV: I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot yet, as I have not even started writing it. But you will be in the novel and you will have a prominent role to play. I may even have you in another short story sometime next year.
Plait: I’d like that. I had fun working in the last short story. I even managed to get my kid’s bike lock open. That lock pick kid in the story was pretty good. Is he based on anyone you know?
MV: As a matter of fact, he is. One of my friends at work is a safe cracker and he inspired the story. Of course, Jeremy is nothing like the dude in the story, that part is all made up. But Jeremy is a great guy and he sometimes gives talks about his craft. He has so many cool toys.
Plait: I don’t mean to be rude, but I should be getting back to work.
MV: Well, thanks for taking a few minutes to chat with us. I’ll be in touch about the next novel.
Plait: My pleasure.