David Madsen

“Aeroflot announces the arrival of Flight 116 from Moscow.”

“American Airlines Flight 909 to Port au Prince is now ready for boarding.”

Arrivals and departures were my background music when I used to write in airport terminals. After 9/11, I moved my occasional “office” to train stations; I recommend Union Station in Los Angeles for its vibe and people watching. I love doing location research for my novels, but if I’m not going anywhere, being around travelers gives me a buzz of inspiration.

Before selling my first novel, I had various travel related jobs. I worked on a Swiss railroad – I was the guy who pushes the drinks cart down the aisle. I escorted 28 Los Angeles psychiatrists on a tour of Eastern Europe before the Wall came down. I only lost one, who was arrested at the Czech-Austrian border because his visa was not in order. I got him back. {PS: My Iron Curtain adventures will soon be a novel]

My first novel was “Black Plume: the Suppressed Memoirs of Edgar Allan Poe”. I followed it with “U.S.S.A.”, an alternative history detective story set in the American-occupied Soviet Union. My third novel “Vodoun” mixes Haitian politics, voodoo and D.C. journalism. I am also the co-author, with Elisa Makunga, of "L.A.Adventures", a guide to touring Los Angeles by rail.

My new novel "Under a Secret Sky is out now! It's a family suspense story set during the Cold War in the San Francisco Bay Area and a mysterious town in the Mojave desert.

I am produced screenwriter, with credits that include “Copycat”, the Warner Brothers thriller starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter.

When I’m not writing or worrying that I’m not writing, I’m reading -- novels, history, narrative non-fiction. I’m an amateur cold case sleuth, still trying to identify the Zodiac killer. On my research visits to the San Francisco library, I stop by a glass case in Special Collections to pay my respects to Dashiell Hammett’s typewriter.

@Mrdavemad