Thomas Hofstedt

"Writing" is approximately my fifth career, each of which is partially reflected in the plots and settings of my writing. In terms of vocations, I have worked as a professor in major universities, as a management consultant all over the globe, and as an advisor and board member for not-for-profit organizations. I am the complex product of a Scandinavian heritage, a Midwestern upbringing, and a Northern California value system. I currently live in Sacramento, California with my wife, first reader and most diligent critic, Sharon.

My friends and relatives always ask, “How do you write your books?” which segues into a discussion of work habits (undisciplined), travel history (extensive) and all the minutiae of literary engineering (haphazard and self-taught). But the far more interesting question for me is “Why?” not “How?” In fairness, my (non-existent) psychoanalyst should answer that question, because it involves ancient maladies like compulsion, insecurity and arrogance. Happily, there are other, more positive drives. Curiosity mostly, because I do not know where the story will take me and the only way to find out is to start writing and see where the characters decide to venture.

As to genre, I am drawn to the ‘suspense/thriller’ because of the way it permits colorful characters to inhabit a complex plot, while permitting me to upend the narrative and/or the protagonists with a stray bullet or a misplaced Top-Secret file, sending them careening off toward yet another cliff edge.

In the writing, however, I am increasingly troubled by the possibility … likelihood? … that my tales of morality come unglued, of corruption and malevolence, are not at all fictional; that such sinister forces are both real and barely contained. Perhaps such negativity is an occupational hazard for authors, but when readers ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” my answer these days is disturbingly simple: I read the newspapers.