Interview with Author Todd Bush

Tweet Todd Bush is the author of the Rick Frost series. Rick Frost and the Alaskan Adventure and Rick Frost and the Sword of Calibum. I recently had a chance to interview him. Here's what he had to say.

Thanks so much for this opportunity! 

1. What inspired you to become a writer.

I've always loved to read, ever since kindergarten.  But I never really thought about writing until I was in the US Air Force, stationed in the Azores.  Several of my friends complained that people back home had no idea what it was like to an American living overseas in the military.  I decided to write a blog and discovered I loved doing it.  Fiction was a natural progression of that.

2. Is your main character, Rick Frost, based on a real person?

Rick isn't based on someone real, but he is a combination of characters that I have loved reading about, and watching over the years.  Indiana Jones, James Bond, Dirk Pitt and a little bit of the Hardy Boys can be found inside Rick and his personality.  But mostly, Rick is different from the typical protagonist.  In adventure novels, the heroes are the best-looking guys, with perfect height and weight proportions.  Rick isn't like that.  He's tall, solidly built and his best friend Ben is the one who has the perfect looks.  But what Rick has is the desire to achieve, natural leadership, and a refuse-to-lose attitude that makes people want to follow him.

3. What type of research did you do for this book and how long did it take?

A lot of the research for my books comes from the Internet.  It's amazing that writers can basically learn almost everything about a location halfway across the world simply by typing in the name in a search engine.  But, I also asked friends who lived in England to describe certain aspects of the country, the attitude toward the royal family and other things in the book.  However, the largest part of the research was done on the history of England as well as the Arthurian legend.  For that, The History Channel and the library became my biggest friends.

4. What is your favorite part of your book? (The Sword of Calibum)

It's hard to say which is my favorite part.  I enjoyed writing the rugby scene.  I had a lot of help from a South Florida man who is from England and runs a rugby club here to make it as accurate as possible.  I love writing action scenes and that one is as action-packed as it gets.  But I also love history and paying tribute to heroes.  The scenes at the Tower of London with the Yeomen Warders was a lot of fun.  The Warders, or Beefeaters as they are popularly called, are all former senior non-commissioned officers in the British armed forces, so to put them back into action defending a member of the royal family was especially fun.

5. How long does it take for you to write a book?

It takes at least three months to write the first draft.  To paraphrase Mark Twain, once you finish writing the book, that's when you actually start writing.  Editing is where all the work comes in.  That can take a long time.  I would say on average it takes me an year to really finish a book.  

6. Did you read a lot as a child and if so what were some of your favorite books?

I did read a lot as a kid.  I loved the Hardy Boys books.  I also liked the classics.  Being from Mississippi, I was drawn to Twain's river books, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.  I also liked Willie Morris's Good Old Boy.  As I got into my teenage years, I started reading Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt adventure novels.

7. Do you have more books planned for Rick Frost?

I do!  I am currently writing the third book in the Rick Frost series, set in New York City.  If you're going to have an adventure or thriller series, you almost have to go to New York at some point, right?  I also have the basic ideas for at least two or three more adventures for Rick.  Actually, it is all up to Rick... a writer needs to not only know his characters, but also to listen to them.  They will let you know all you need to know.  As a writer, if the characters aren't real to you, they won't be real to the reader.

Both books are available as eBooks or paperback through Amazon or Barnes and Noble.