The Clouds Roll Away (39 page)

Sibella Giorello:
Tim, I recently met a book store owner who could not stop raving about
Shoofly Pie
. She's not the first, either. That book isn't new, but people talk about it like it was just released. Aside from the obvious—great story, great voice, couldn't-put-it-down—why do you think readers still go wild for
Shoofly Pie
?

Downs
: It surprises me too, because I like to think my stories improve with each novel I write.

Tim

SG
: And they do.

TD
: Thanks. I think it has to do with the first appearance of an intriguing character—in this case Dr. Nick Polchak, forensic entomologist. I think there's a certain freshness and originality in the first incarnation of a character that readers recognize and respond to. Nick Polchak is a very strange man, and in
Shoofly Pie
you meet him for the first time in all his glorious weirdness.

SG
: No offense, but I'm glad my protagonist likes rocks. Your entire forensic series features Dr. Nick Polchak, aka the Bug Man. What's with the bugs, Tim—what attracts you as an author?

TD
: It wasn't bugs that attracted me, but the concept of a “bug-man”. It seemed to me that in crime fiction it had all been done before: hard-nosed cops, cynical private investigators, brilliant detectives . . . Then I read an article about the emerging science of forensic entomology and something occurred to me: The people who do this aren't in law enforcement—they're just scientists who love insects and have learned a forensic application for their science. I asked myself, “What kind of person gets a PhD in bugs? What would that person be like around other people? And what would he be like at a crime scene?” I knew I had the makings of a great character, and that's when the Bug Man was born.

SG
: I also heard you're a cartoonist—syndicated no less. Do you still draw? Do you sketch out the quirky characters in your books?

TD
: I don't have a lot of time for drawing these days, but I think the three thousand comic strips I wrote and drew had a lot to do with preparing me to write fiction. Cartooning taught me to be creative on a deadline and to be concise with words—you have to be concise when you only have four frames to work with! It also gave me a love for humor that pervades all my writing. I can't help it; even when I try to be serious I end up being funny. Cartooning also gave me a lot of practice developing characters and writing dialogue. Most of all, it gave me the desire to break out of those four frames and try something longer—like a four hundred page novel.

SG
: Stretching is good for artists and writers. Speaking of which, your new book
Wonders Never Cease
is a departure from the Bug Man series. Tell us about it.

TD
:
Wonders Never Cease
is a story I waited five years to write, and finally I got the chance. It's a very imaginative story—part comedy, part romance, and part mystery. The story takes place at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The central characters are a single mother and her troubled six-year-old daughter who begins to see angels one day. Has she lost her mind, or is she seeing something that no one else can see?
Wonders Never Cease
is a story about faith and the difficulty of believing in things unseen. It's a very tender story, and it's funny too. I think I needed a break from blow flies and flesh flies and decomposing bodies!

SG
: I'm intrigued! Can readers expect more books like this from you? Or did the Bug Man get jealous of your time away?

TD
: I hope to write a wide variety of stories in the future. As long as it's a creative concept with oddball characters and an intriguing plot, I'm interested. And don't worry about Nick Polchak. He never gets jealous—he only cares about bugs.

Featured above are Tim's novels with Thomas Nelson.

To discover more about Tim and his writing, visit TimDowns.net