CRIMINALLY GOOD: interview with author Roy Harper

1) So, who are you & what have you written?

Hello readers. My name is Roy Harper, author of the novels Shank & Heist, which I hope you’ve read and enjoyed. There’s a prequel, as well, that may be released by Crime Wave Press in the future.

2) Why do you write crime fiction?

I’m a convict. I’ve been in prison since 1975 – Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama and now Colorado. I live crime fiction. I can write what I choose, what I’ve fantasised about and make it better or worse. Crime fiction is a place where anything can happen and personalities can justify any action they choose. It is the mind, with no boundaries set except by the author or the protagonist.

3) What informs your crime writing?

My life, past and present, sets the scene for my stories. Well, mine and the lives of people I meet. Many of the things I write about are or were real. It is often stories of things that happened either in my life or in someone else’s.

4) What’s your usual writing routine?

In Mississippi I was considered high risk and moved from cell to cell every week. I began to write and let me tell you, that was a real bitch. I’d move, spend the day cleaning the cell, then rest that day, and maybe the next, then get out my writing materials and get to work. The more they pissed me off, the more I wrote. Near moving day I’d pack my little shit and wait to move and start all over again. It was a bummer, and at times difficult to adhere to, but I did, and got ‘er done.

5) Which crime book do you wish YOU’D written, and why?

Louis L’Amour wrote a few books that weren’t westerns. Last of the Breed is literature with crime I can relate to. Beautifully written. It’s the sort of masterpiece I aim to write.

BIO: Roy Harper has been incarcerated in Mississippi since 1981 for armed robbery. He has gained nationwide notoriety for two highly publicised escapes from a maximum security prison in 1983 and 2000 and for his efforts in the courts to reduce brutality and injustice in American jails. Buy his book Shank, HERE and Heist, HERE..