Bookpleasures.com welcomes  as our guest, Steven C. Harms author of The Counsel Of The Cunning.

Steven is a professional sports, broadcast and digital media business executive with a career spanning over thirty years across the NBA, NFL, and MLB. He’s dealt with Fortune 500 companies, major consumer brands, professional athletes, and multi-platform integrated sports partnerships and media advertising campaigns.

He is also an accomplished playwright having written and produced a wildly successful theatrical production which led him to tackling his debut novel, Give Place to Wrath, the first in the Roger Viceroy detective series and The Counsel of the Cunning.

Norm: Good day  Steven and thanks for taking part in our interview.

How did you get started writing novels? As a follow up, why do you write? Do you have a theme, message, or goal for your books? 

Steven: I was inspired to tackle writing a novel after a similar experience I had with tackling a theatrical production.

Fifteen years ago I completed a two-act play that included music, drama, and dance. I thought at the time it was just a creative exercise to see if I could actually bring my story to life on paper.

Well, from there it actually got to a stage and went on a five year hugely successful run with 20,000 people seeing it. So, what was next? My brain landed on take your next inspiration and write a novel. 

I write because it’s a creative release and the inspiration and goal is to bring a subtle, or sometimes obvious, message of morality into the mystery/thriller/suspense genre.

And, I’m not taking any high ground here at all, but rather the universally accepted moral principles is the focus.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process.

Steven: Honestly, it’s mostly intuition with a dose of logic. We all have intuitions that we come to find out were misplaced, so that flips on the logic switch.

Norm: What inspired you to write your recent thriller, The Counsel of the Cunning?

Steven: After the release of the first book, Give Place to Wrath, I realized that I needed to free up my detective hero, Roger Viceroy, from the constraints of working in a government agency. Think Jack Reacher to a degree.

That resulted in crafting a story that got him out of that position so I could broadly widen the possibilities of story plots.

In The Counsel of the Cunning, he’s hired away by a former U.S. Senator and billionaire to serve as a stealth investigator. That worked well.

From there, I came up with a plot that involves international intrigue covering the streets of Milwaukee (Viceroy’s home base), the corridors of Washington D.C. and a conspiracy in Central America. 

Norm: What was the time-line between the time you decided to write your book and publication? What were the major events along the way? 

Steven: It was about a three-year undertaking. My agent and I wanted to move on from the publisher from the first book to upgrade that part of my opportunity as an author.

That took a while with publishers not necessarily looking to take on a back listed book in a series.

We were fortunate to land a deal with Suspense Publishing. From there, the editing process unfolded for Cunning bringing the process to a planned publication in the spring of 2020. Unfortunately, the pandemic’s arrival pushed it all back, and finally got it launched just last month.

Norm: Did you know the end of your book at the beginning?  

Steven: Absolutely. I know in my head the plot at a 30,000-foot level, but before I ever write one word I know more granularly the beginning, the end, and some of the middle that needs to happen to advance the story. Then, I fill in the gaps and let the creative process blossom.

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing the story?

Steven: Not to reveal too much, but the story as a parallel plot. Two things are going on at the same time. The challenge was to keep both afloat for the reader and, while the trajectories of both are fast-paced, I had to be measured in their convergence so it built to a climax.

Norm: What is your secret in keeping the intensity of the plot throughout the narrative? 

Steven: I tend to include a number of short chapters that are planted in the story to compel the narrative forward and quicken the pace, thus heightening intensity.

And, while not always, I also end most chapters with an action, idea, or surprise for the reader so they want to turn the page.

Norm: Who is your favorite character in your book and why?  

Steven: Hands down, one of Viceroy’s assistant detectives – Trevor “Silk” Moreland. He’s a former high school athletic star who went onto a decade’s work as a top-flight detective for the Milwaukee PD before joining Viceroy’s team.

He grew up on Milwaukee’s streets, standing 6’5” with a wit and a well-timed irreverent attitude that seem to work well. Silk is gets the most response from readers. They love him and want to see more of him in future books.

As I developed the character, it was Silk’s irreverential trait that opened a door, allowing me to write his dialogue with some humor and flare, and his interactions and reactions with a much wider berth, while also providing me the freedom to use him for plot moments that worked better than Viceroy or Regina, the other assistant detective. 

Silk seems to resonate with readers in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I think it’s his dry, yet pinpoint humor he invokes at just the right moments combined with his dedication to being “a monster for details,” as Viceroy describes him. He’s completely sold out to being a detective and is passionate about finding clues or angles that others may have missed. The chapters he’s in just seem to have a more energetic bounce to them.

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you?

Steven My Website

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Review of The Counsel of the Cunning.