Latest / The Whitfield Report / TWR Monday | T.G. Brown: From Police Officer to Storyteller

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TWR Monday | T.G. Brown: From Police Officer to Storyteller · The Whitfield Report

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  The right to offend is not some pesky little part of freedom of
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  speech that we have to put up with.
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  It is the heart and soul and lungs of freedom of speech.
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  It is the instigator of liberty and modernity and science and
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  understanding. What a laughing stock today's
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  student leaders are that they can so casually dismiss the
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  right to be offensive without realizing that their lovely,
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  enlightened lives are the gifts of individuals who gave offence.
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  Offensiveness is not just something we have to
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  begrudgingly accept. Offensiveness is the motor of
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  human progress. Now broadcasting from the Right
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  to Offend media studios in sunny South Florida, bringing you the
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  latest in politics, current events, art and pop culture.
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  This is the Whitfield Report live with Sam Whitfield.
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  But giving offense is good. In fact, it's essential.
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  All righty folks. Hello and welcome to the
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  Whitfield Report Monday edition. My guest for today is Mr. TG
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  Brown, who is an author in the men's adventure fiction genre
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  space, author of the Warren Lawson series, and I believe TG.
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  You have a few other books as well, if I'm not mistaken.
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  Crack. Yeah, yeah, right behind me
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  there. I wrote a western called Cut
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  Them Down, and then I have another book called Silence Thy
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  Father. So cut Them down.
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  Like I said, the Western Silence Thy Father's like a prison
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  survival story. Yeah, and that was that was
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  actually the first one that popped up on Amazon when I typed
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  in your name, so. Yep, Yep, it's my most recent
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  one. Very exciting.
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  So anyway, welcome to the show and happy to have you here.
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  Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
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  I'm excited. Yeah, I appreciate it.
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  So just to start off, what is your general background and how
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  do you get started at first as a reader and then as a writer?
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  Or were you a reader of fiction beforehand?
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  Yeah, yeah, no. So I definitely was a reader
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  beforehand. I've been reading for most of my
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  life. You know, I grew up reading the
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  Jack Reacher books and Michael Connolly's Harry Boss series.
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  Of course, Lula Moore books, so many types of fiction.
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  A lot, a lot of time, a lot of action adventure, a lot of
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  mystery, a lot of crime. Crime definitely was something
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  that drew that drew me in a lot crime genres, whether is from
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  the the criminal side of things or the law enforcement side of
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  things. I was always intrigued by that.
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  My background. I'm currently a police officer.
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  I've been a police officer for 11 1/2 years.
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  I'm a Sergeant right now in Oregon.
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  And yeah, I know it's been busy. I've been a detective, I've been
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  on the Major Crimes team. I've investigated various crimes
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  from homicides to sexual assaults to human trafficking
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  cases, drug trafficking cases, and that's, you know, been my
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  life for the last 11 or so years.
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  I'm also a defensive tactics instructor.
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  So I teach various martial arts for officers and civilians alike
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  to be safe in a use of force incident.
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  And I also teach verbal de escalation skills.
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  Cause majority of the time verbal de escalation actually
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  works in the real world. That's kind of your main weapon.
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  So I, I try to teach that as well as the physical stuff as
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  well. So yeah, this is my background
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  in a nutshell. Yeah, so that's actually
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  interesting. I did not know that.
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  I think maybe you had told me like in the Discord or something
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  before that you were in law enforcement.
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  I I didn't know or I had forgotten.
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  I I've actually had a few authors who are also either,
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  most of them are actually retired police officer I serves.
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  I don't know if you know who Andrew G Nelson is, but he's
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  another author in our space who was with the NYPD for decades.
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  And he's he's retired now. But like talking to him about
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  law enforcement has been fascinating as well.
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  Has that, is your role in law enforcement influence your
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  writing at all? I'm curious.
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  Absolutely. I'd say my Warren Lawson series,
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  which is about a police officer investigating various crimes on
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  the tribal reservation, definitely was influenced and
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  inspired by some of my real life experiences.
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  Although I write fiction, I try to write it as real as I can
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  while it being entertaining. And so that's kind of where my
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  War and Lawson series is. It's My War and Lawson series is
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  very much a reflection of my experiences, with, of course,
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  the men's adventure aspect thrown in there.
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  Was writing something that you always wanted to do or was it
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  more of a reaction to, you know, all all these, all these, you
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  know, cop books are, you know, BS.
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  And since I'm a cop, all right, one that's more realistic.
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  I I hear that that a lot from, you know, authors in our circle
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  and, you know, so. Yeah.
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  No, good question. No, I always wanted to write.
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  And at first I started. I mean, since I was a little
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  kid, I love writing stories. And then I grew older and I
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  became a police officer, experienced things while on the
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  job. And while I experienced those
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  things, I was trying to find way to get through the trauma
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  mentally, right? You can't make sense of some
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  things that happened to you. So I started journaling and when
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  I would journal these incidents, I would rewrite the endings of
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  what I wish happened versus what really happened.
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  And that was really cathartic for me.
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  And, and so I I did that for a while and then after
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  experiencing enough in this law enforcement field, and I always
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  wanted to write my own fictional character, you know, have a
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  series out there. It is always something I strove
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  to do, but I was like, I don't know if I have enough life
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  experience yet. So about six or seven years into
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  the job I had, I felt like, OK, I got a good a base of things
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  that I could write about now. And then that's where I started
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  writing my first book, Tribal Honor.
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  And Tribal Honor essentially, I mean, it is fiction, but a lot
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  of what I put in Tribal Honor is like actually happened to me.
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  And so it was really almost similar to my journaling
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  exercises in a fictional adventure novel.
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  So it was, it was pretty interesting to write that.
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  It was like the most cathartic book I've written.
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  And so that was how my first book was Birth.
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  And then from there on, I mean, I was, I was like, well, I want
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  to keep doing this and what do I have to do to keep doing this?
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  And so that's where I'm at now. And I'm just continually to
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  write because I love writing. Writing is everything to me.
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  It's, I always tell people it's like breathing.
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  That's how important it is to me.
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  I, I cannot go a day without writing because it, the way it
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  makes me feel. And when someone reads your work
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  and tells you they like, you know, that feeling is just to
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  me. I I can't recreate that in any
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  other form. Yeah, I, I, I totally what you
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  mean about it feel like too. I mean, I, you know, I, I, I, I
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  do freelance, you know, writing kind of like tickle stuff for
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  professionally, you know, as a day job.
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  Like I was also, you know, involved in politics in a couple
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  of political organizations when I was, you know, in college.
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  You know, I write in the political thriller genre, but I
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  do it in a way where I'm, you know, where I'm kind of trying
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  to include some of my, you know, my experiences.
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  I'm not trying to, you know, bash people they're over the
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  head with, you know, anything or the ideology, but like, you
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  know, tell, you know, story that that's fiction, right?
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  But, you know, you can't, you know, you can't have to
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  fictionalize some stuff to keep entertaining.
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  But I think there are definitely, you know, elements
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  that authors that tend to include of themselves and of
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  people around them, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
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  I think that's a lot of authors do that, right?
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  A piece of them is in all their characters.
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  You know, it's what some people say.
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  And I'd say that's that's definitely true for some of my
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  writing for sure. You know, a lot of people say,
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  hey, that Warren Lawson and myself have a lot of
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  similarities and maybe they have similar traits, but Warren is
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  kind of what I view is what I hoped I can become, you know
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  what I mean? Like he's, he's that, he's that
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  type of officer that I, I mean, it's not who I am yet, but I
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  hope I can be. And it's kind of like that
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  character, you know, a lot of fictional characters did that
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  for me growing up was like, man, that that character is so cool.
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  Fictional or not. I was like, I want to be like
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  that. And so that's what led me to the
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  career path that I'm on now. And that's what I hope my
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  character does for people down the road.
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  So yeah, I think that's I think that's really cool.
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  We, you know, we create the characters that we aspire to be.
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  It's funny because one of the characters in my books is the
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  president of the United States. And I didn't write him as a self
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  insert at all. But like fans who have fans who
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  have read the book are like, oh, this is you, you know, if you
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  were present. And I'm like, well, I don't know
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  about that, but you know, it's up to audience interpretation, I
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  guess, stuff like that. So in regards to the Warren
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  Lawson Sears and him being, you know, a detective who works with
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  the tribes, is that something that is also based on your
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  experiences then? Yeah, yeah.
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  So I, no, I don't look at, I am part Native American and I do
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  work for a tribal Police Department.
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  So, yeah, a lot of that was was my own experiences.
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  I, I realized how unique the tribal law enforcement aspect of
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  things are comparably to other police departments in the world.
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  The section of the world that I'm in is a very special and
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  kind of a cool and neat setting that I just felt like brought
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  something fresh to a genre that has a lot of stories already to
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  it. And yes, so.
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  Just kind of open and just kind of an open-ended question, I
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  guess. What are the biggest, I guess,
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  misconceptions about not just tribal police officers, but just
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  tribal life in general? I know that there's been a lot
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  more exposure in recent years to the Native American tribes
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  because of shows like Yellowstone and whatnot.
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  You know, if you had someone who I, I live in Florida now, I grew
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  up in Colorado and one of my close child friends, he didn't
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  live on a reservation. You know, he has ancestors who
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  were part Native American. And he said that, you know,
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  there are a lot more, there are a lot more stereotypes than, you
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  know, people would would think in regards to, you know, Native
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  Americans. Yeah, that's a great question.
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  You know, I think it really does depend on who you're talking to
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  and what reservation they're at. I I'd say the reservation that
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  I'm at is very well off. We have a really good a tribal
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  council, which is essentially, you know, like City Council for
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  any, you know, any other political type parties.
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  But yeah, and we have a really good relationship with each
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  other. Our law enforcement in this in
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  the people of our town. We're like, we're like this like
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  we've created such a good bond with each other.
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  So life on the reservation is unique, you know, because it is
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  pretty remote, you know, there's not a lot of things out there.
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  You know, DoorDash isn't drive into your house out there, you
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  know, you it's just a different vibe, you know, and, and you
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  know, that's I think where people kind of forget is that
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  like, oh, there's a lot of easier places to live than most
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  reservations. And you know, a lot of
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  reservations. The struggle is real.
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  Like the the struggle for a lot of these people just trying to
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  get by is definitely something I see every day.
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  You know, whether it's, you know, a kid growing up in a
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  poverty family and not really having a chance after, you know,
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  that, you know, or, or something else of that nature.
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  But but yeah, no, I'd say it, it just varies, you know, like I
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  said it from place to place, I, I wouldn't know what it's like
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  on a reservation in like Arizona, for example, because
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  those reservations are massive and, and there's a lot that goes
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  on down there that doesn't happen up in the Pacific
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  Northwest. Yeah, where?
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  Where? I don't want to dock your, I
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  don't want to dock your locations.
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  If you're not comfortable, you know, sharing where, Yeah, that
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  that's fine. But I, you know, are are you are
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  if I ask where, where you're at? Yeah.
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  I mean, I'll just, I'm in Oregon, so yeah.
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  So up in the Pacific Northwest is where I'm where I'm at.
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  So then I would, I mean, I imagine the environment, you
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  know, in Oregon and just, you know, like anywhere, your
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  environment kind of effects, you know, your, your life as you
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  know anyone would so as would for anyone.
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  So then what would you say are the biggest, I guess challenges
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  in terms of law enforcement that you that you face?
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  Yeah, another, another really good question there.
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  You know, mental health is a really big problem right now,
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  but I think that's definitely one of the biggest challenges is
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  trying to find enough resources to help mentally ill and
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  homeless populations. I'd say day-to-day that's
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  definitely up there because it is a very, it takes a lot of
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  time to deal with someone who's having a mentally mental health
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  issue, right? A lot of the times officers
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  don't have that time in a realistic.
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  I mean, we are dealing with other crimes, other calls coming
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  in, we don't have enough resources.
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  You know, we're not mental health clinicians, so we're not
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  going to be able to diagnose what's going on with somebody.
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  So I would say that's probably up there with, you know, and
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  then I would say right after that is, you know, drugs,
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  there's a lot of drugs out there.
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  You know, that's always been the case and.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
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  Well, I, I was going to say that that that is unfortunately one
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  of those stereotypes specifically with, you know,
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  Native American tribes. There was a lot of, you know,
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  drug use and alk and alcoholism. And then you know what, in
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  Oregon, I know that outside of Portland, from what I've heard,
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  Oregon is pretty normal. But then once, once you get into
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  Portland, you know, it's, it's murky from what I've heard to
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  put it, you know. Yeah, yeah.
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  Oregon's an interesting place if you ever read on, like the
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  political things that we've decided to do.
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  Yeah, Yeah. You know, it's pretty wild.
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  You know, we decriminalized drugs for a while, and that was
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  a crazy time to be a police officer.
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  You know, we for me, like I said, I've been a police officer
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  since 2014. So, you know, when I started,
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  drugs were illegal, you know, including marijuana, like
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  everything was illegal. So we arrested people for that.
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  And then we go from that to literally it's, it's lesser than
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  a traffic ticket. You know, I mean, it was crazy
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  to be like, oh, wow, we don't arrest those, those people
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  carrying the drugs now. And that was just a crazy time.
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  There was a lot of crimes that came with that, you know,
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  because when you can get access to drugs and no repercussions,
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  you know, things tend to happen, unfortunately.
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  And so, yeah, that was a wild thing.
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  Do you, I don't know if you can't answer this.
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  So I'll try and I'll try and ask this, I'll try and phrase this.
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  Do you think decriminalizing all the drugs has fixed, you know,
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  some, some of these crimes problem?
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  Because I, I, I have a lot of friends who are libertarians and
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  they have no, they have no odd force experience, but their,
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  their whole theory is, well, if we just decriminalize all the
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  drugs, then the crime rate will, will go down and it'll be great.
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  And I'm like, well, I'm no expert, but based on what I can
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  see that the, you know, the number of reported, the number
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  of reported crimes won't go down.
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  But I definitely think that there's going to be an element
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  of people that will commit crimes regardless of, you know,
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  whether or not they're on, they're on drugs.
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  And yeah, I don't, I don't think, I don't think eliminating
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  drugs is going to eliminate crime.
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  It's what I've told people. And I mean.
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  Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, definitely that's all.
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  Yeah. I mean, it is that totally heavy
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  into question. But what I will say is that
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  overdoses went up a lot, at least in my area, and I would
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  say in a lot of areas that I know of around me.
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  And it was pretty sad to see because there was no regulations
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  on this thing. There are certain drugs out
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  there that we should probably have regulations on, in my
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  opinion, just based on what I've seen in my experiences, because
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  those drugs are very unhealthy. You know, some of them make
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  people downright delusional. You know, I mean, sometimes
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  they, those drugs will, will incite A schizophrenic break,
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  break in somebody's head and then they go off and on a
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  rampage because they're on drugs and they're a totally different
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  person when they're not on drugs.
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  And so to me, yeah, I would say that I see both sides of what
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  Oregon was doing in that time, right?
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  Which is OK. The they, they decriminalize
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  drugs because the, the amount of drugs somebody was carrying,
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  let's say like somebody had just like a gram of, of cocaine or
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  something, instead of charging them with a felony, they wanted
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  us to charge them with a violation, right?
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  And so I can see one side of that as saying, Hey, that's just
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  a normal guy out partying, right?
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  No big deal. We shouldn't charge him and ruin
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  his life or whatever. And I can, I can see that side
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  of it, but there's a flip side of that.
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  Is that, OK, now we're endorsing that behavior And where does
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  that stop for that person? So if I would say there is two
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  sides to every story. And, and unlike most things in
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  life, not everything's black and white.
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  And so there are cases that I saw where it did work for people
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  and some people did get clean. And there was cases that I saw
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  where people used that decrimination law and ran it
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  into the ground and we're doing crazy things like snorting
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  cocaine in front of cops in the parking lot.
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  And you know what I mean? So yeah, there was definitely
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  some weird things like that. And so, yeah, so like I said, I
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  I'm not a politician for a reason.
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  I just go out there and, and do whatever the law, I enforce
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  whatever the law is, and that's all I can do.
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  It's it was definitely, it's definitely a wild, it was a wild
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  time to be alive, I'll say that. Has your attitude about being a,
• 18:55
  a police officer, I mean, I guess, I guess it would change
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  inevitably as you get, you know, into the job more.
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  But I guess like how has your attitude approached as what I
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  guess has there been anything that's really surprised you in
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  both the negative and positive ways?
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  And then kind of tying that into your into your writing, you
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  know, have you tied any of those experiences into your writing
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  that? Yeah, no, definitely.
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  There's a lot of experiences that I've tied into my writing,
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  whether it's a case that really affected me or it's my just a
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  general emotions of the whirlwind that is this job.
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  You know, when you start out in this job, I would say you have a
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  lot of hope. And then you kind of realize
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  that it's it's not necessarily one person's not going to change
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  everything, you know? And you know, and when you
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  start, you think you can save the world.
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  You're young and you're hopeful and all that stuff.
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  And I don't want to say that you just grow old and become
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  cynical. I don't think that's necessarily
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  I think you just become more of a realist.
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  Like, OK, you take it by case by case basis and you, you, you
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  short, you like the scale of what your mind was at the
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  beginning just sharpens like, OK, I'm going to help this
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  family and do the best that I can for that family and this
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  particular thing. And then once I'm done with
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  that, I will move on to the next thing, you know, and that's and
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  that's so you definitely just get really good at shifting your
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  focus. And so I would say that's.
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  Where I changed the most. When I first started, I was
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  trying to stop every crime in progress.
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  I was trying to work way too much.
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  I was neglecting everybody at my home life.
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  And then as I got older, I was like, what am I doing this for
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  if I don't make time for my loved ones?
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  And so then I got better at balancing those two things.
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  Yeah. And I think in regards to like,
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  you know, mental health, what you know, what you were talking
• 20:43
  like, it's awesome that, you know, you've found writing and
• 20:47
  it's cathartic, you know, for you to be able to write, you
• 20:52
  know, these books and, and whatnot.
• 20:54
  One thing I hear a lot of people talk about is, you know, what
• 20:58
  will police officers and cops need to be more aware of of
• 21:02
  mental health? And on the one hand, I think in,
• 21:06
  in general, that could be true, But I think there's also kind of
• 21:09
  the flip side where it's like, well, you know, all these quote
• 21:12
  UN quote mental health experts also need to be aware that
• 21:16
  police officer serves our people too.
• 21:19
  They're not, they're not robotic terminators, unlike, you know,
• 21:23
  what some people might think, but you know, they're, I, I've
• 21:26
  talked to all of police officers who they might not have mental
• 21:31
  health issues themselves, but they, you know, they know police
• 21:36
  officers who do or something. And and then I've heard that
• 21:41
  there that there's not as much awareness about, you know, the
• 21:45
  mental health, the men. Yeah, Yeah.
• 21:51
  No, I'd say that's true. I think in recent years we've
• 21:55
  definitely progressed in that, that way.
• 21:58
  I think, you know, when I first started, it was very much like
• 22:01
  if you talked about your feelings, you're a total wussy.
• 22:04
  And then and then now I think it's more accepted where where
• 22:08
  guys will go out of their way to be like after a bad call and be
• 22:11
  like, are you OK? Like you want to talk about it?
• 22:13
  I'm here if you want to talk about it.
• 22:15
  You know, things like that. Because I think the older
• 22:17
  generation who, who lived, you know, 30 years of this job
• 22:20
  without processing what they went through, they're paying for
• 22:24
  it later on, unfortunately. Because now unfortunately, those
• 22:27
  things crawl back up in the back of your brain and, and now
• 22:31
  you're left with them alone in retirement.
• 22:33
  And that's a really hard place to be mentally.
• 22:36
  And so now I feel like we've definitely taken steps to get
• 22:40
  better at that, you know, finding healthy hobbies and
• 22:42
  things like that to help police officers survive this job.
• 22:46
  Because really you don't, you don't really just serve in this
• 22:49
  job. You survive it because there's
• 22:50
  so many ways of this job. There's so many things this job
• 22:53
  takes from you emotionally, physically and all that.
• 22:56
  So you have to survive it and you have to find ways to survive
• 22:59
  that and find good things that are healthy for you.
• 23:01
  Because even though I love the job, it is very unhealthy.
• 23:04
  Like this job is a lot of highs and lows, you know, and it's not
• 23:08
  normal. Some of the things they ask a
• 23:09
  police officer to do is not normal.
• 23:11
  I mean, we're, we're the Jack of all trades, but the master of
• 23:14
  none. You know what I mean is that,
• 23:15
  you know, there's things that they expect us to be masters of,
• 23:18
  but we're, we're not, you know, we're not, like I said, we're
• 23:20
  not mental health clinicians. So, so yeah, I'd say we're
• 23:23
  getting better and I hope one day that might.
• 23:25
  My wife is also a therapist and she specializes in like law
• 23:29
  enforcement, mental health. We hope one day to present
• 23:32
  classes to law enforcement to help them with mental health one
• 23:36
  day. That's also in our radar, so.
• 23:38
  That's actually awesome that, you know, that you have a wife
• 23:43
  that's, you know, supportive that way.
• 23:46
  Yeah, Yeah. My wife and I actually met on
• 23:50
  the job. She used to ride with law
• 23:52
  enforcement. So she was part of what's called
• 23:53
  the Mobile Crisis Response Team. And so that team consents of an
• 23:57
  officer that's basically like a bodyguard for the therapist, and
• 24:00
  a therapist will ride with them in the patrol car.
• 24:02
  So they'll take calls, anything from a, you know, a suicidal
• 24:07
  person to someone having a mental health episode, whatever
• 24:09
  it might be. She would get called to that
• 24:12
  anyway. So I met her on the job and
• 24:14
  that's how we met. And in my first book, Tribal
• 24:17
  Honor, there's actually a scene where my main character meets
• 24:20
  his love interest in the same exact way that I met my wife
• 24:23
  because there's a very unique way How I Met my wife is
• 24:26
  hilarious. It was all these things and I
• 24:28
  had to. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 24:30
  Yeah, yeah. So anyway, so actually the first
• 24:33
  book, my main character in the love interests, there are actual
• 24:37
  some real life things put in there to add some flavor to it.
• 24:41
  Yeah, yeah. So as far as as far as going
• 24:45
  back to like your interest, so it was, was, was becoming a cop
• 24:50
  something that you always wanted to do or was it something that
• 24:54
  you thought later on down, down the line?
• 24:58
  Yeah, no, I there was a couple things I wanted to do in my life
• 25:01
  from a young age. And so one of them is I wanted
• 25:03
  to be a professional athlete. This I wanted to be a police
• 25:06
  officer or a detective from either a detective or on a SWAT
• 25:09
  team, one of those two. And then I wanted to be an
• 25:12
  author. I wanted to write books.
• 25:13
  And so I ended up getting to be able to be a professional
• 25:16
  athlete. I actually want to be in the
• 25:17
  NFL. That didn't work out for me, but
• 25:19
  I ended up being a professional athlete and CrossFit.
• 25:21
  I'm still competing in the sport of CrossFit.
• 25:24
  And then I became a police officer.
• 25:26
  And then once I had those two things knocked down, I was like,
• 25:30
  all right, there's one more things I, I got to get done to
• 25:32
  have a full life. And then then I started writing
• 25:35
  books. And so that's, those were the
• 25:37
  three things that when I was very young, I was like, that's
• 25:39
  what I want to be in my life. Like that's that's that's what I
• 25:42
  want. Wow.
• 25:44
  Yeah, and do and so do you, do you have any other family
• 25:48
  members in in the law enforcement?
• 25:51
  Yeah, no, actually I don't. I am the only one.
• 25:55
  And and that was a it was a pretty big surprise.
• 25:57
  But, you know, I, I just grew up watching these movies in these
• 26:01
  and reading these books about police officers and stuff.
• 26:04
  And I remember just thinking, I want to do that.
• 26:06
  I want to be like that, you know?
• 26:07
  And you know, it's funny, you know how how far a childhood
• 26:10
  dream can get you? Yeah.
• 26:12
  But that that feeling never left my brain.
• 26:14
  I just constantly was like, I want to do that.
• 26:16
  And I just did everything I could to accomplish it.
• 26:19
  Yeah, no, it's, I mean being a writer, something that I always
• 26:23
  wanted to, you know, to do. And, you know, also I wanted to,
• 26:29
  I wanted to be in, you know, broadcasting too.
• 26:32
  And what, what's kind of ironic is around the time, around the
• 26:36
  time when I got, you know, when I was finishing high school, I
• 26:40
  was looking at potential going into casting.
• 26:44
  This is like back in 2012, 2013, you know, around 20/12/2013,
• 26:52
  someone at the local station who I knew actually said, well, you
• 26:57
  know, radio is kind of dying because podcasting is really
• 27:01
  starting to take over now. That was like, and, you know, 10
• 27:05
  plus years ago and now, you know, I guess podcasting kind of
• 27:11
  has taken over the medium. And then, you know, as far as
• 27:14
  like being a writer's concerned, like I'd I'd written, you know,
• 27:22
  stories of when I was a kid too, but hadn't really, hadn't
• 27:27
  really, you know, seriously considered like trying to find
• 27:30
  an agent. And then like about five years
• 27:35
  ago, I finished college and was, you know, just like, OK, I'm
• 27:39
  done with school now. What?
• 27:41
  And the job market wasn't that good.
• 27:43
  So I was freelancing and doing that.
• 27:47
  And then in the meantime, I kind of dug up some of these
• 27:50
  manuscripts that I'd written, and I knew that some people were
• 27:56
  self-publishing. And I was like, well, I already
• 27:59
  self published a podcast, so why not try and self publish a book?
• 28:03
  And what do I have to lose? And so, yeah, so here we are.
• 28:08
  That's awesome. It's wild.
• 28:11
  So yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
• 28:13
  I love, I love that. I love hearing stories like that
• 28:15
  where people just take a dream and and this just see it through
• 28:19
  to the end, you know? Yeah, and I, and I've also
• 28:22
  written a few. You know, I'm not into the, you
• 28:27
  know, I'm not a police officer, but I I've actually run a few
• 28:30
  crime fiction stories myself, so I might have to send you a copy.
• 28:34
  Yeah. I love my of my crime fiction
• 28:37
  anthology because I'm always curious to know what law
• 28:41
  enforcement, you know, things of how accurate most, you know,
• 28:47
  books are. Yeah, why not?
• 28:50
  Yeah, yeah. No, I, I love that.
• 28:51
  No, but please send it to me. I read your The Year short story
• 28:55
  in the Western Veritas Western short story collection and I
• 28:58
  absolutely loved it. I loved that I said that Western
• 29:01
  you wrote. I actually when I read that I
• 29:04
  was like, man, it made me wish that I wrote a Western short
• 29:08
  story for that, for that collection.
• 29:09
  I was like, man, that was so good that I was really moved by
• 29:12
  that ending. I I thought that was a great,
• 29:14
  great. Yeah, well, well, thank you.
• 29:17
  Yeah, I'll. So I'll have to send you Knight
• 29:20
  of the Vigilante, because that short story was actually a
• 29:23
  chapter that I had that I put in Night of the Vigilante, which is
• 29:28
  my Western military thriller, not and I, so I initially and I,
• 29:35
  yeah, it's, it's, it's the same, it's the same character.
• 29:38
  So when I was writing Night of the Vigilante, I had, I'd
• 29:43
  written that short story as a chapter in the book initially.
• 29:49
  And then I, I, I kept reading it and I, I'm sure you've run into
• 29:53
  this as like an author too, but sometimes like you'll write a
• 29:57
  chapter or you'll write a scene and you'll really like it, but
• 30:02
  it doesn't really fit well with, you know, the flow of the story.
• 30:08
  It was 1 of this was one of those moments where I was like,
• 30:11
  man, I really like this. I really like this particular
• 30:15
  chapter, but I I just can't use it.
• 30:18
  So I kind of put it not in the discard pile, but maybe I'll use
• 30:22
  it in a future book. And then when the Veritas
• 30:25
  Western thing came, I was like, well, let me rework this a bit
• 30:30
  and submit it. And if it if it gets picked up,
• 30:35
  great. If not, no harm, no foul.
• 30:39
  So now you also got published in the Noir volume, right?
• 30:44
  So, yeah, So what? So what was that like?
• 30:49
  Well, I'm, I'm absolutely, I'm absolutely flattered.
• 30:51
  And I'll, and I'll, I'll have to send you, yeah, I'll have to
• 30:54
  send you blood ties, which is my like crime fiction cop.
• 30:58
  And then I'll have, I'll have to send you the vigilante as well.
• 31:02
  I, I think, I think the instinct thing out, you know, short
• 31:08
  stories is obviously I like to write long form, but at least
• 31:12
  for me, like short stories gives me an idea.
• 31:14
  It gives me the chance to write something sometimes in just one
• 31:19
  go and not have to really think about it.
• 31:23
  And so I guess another question I have is with all the stuff you
• 31:29
  do in regards to, you know, being a, you know, being in law
• 31:35
  enforcement and then CrossFit, how do you find the time to
• 31:39
  write and what is your process? Yeah, it is there ever any, is
• 31:45
  there ever any downtime as like a as like a cop, you know, when
• 31:52
  you're on, when you're on on patrol, you know, to write or,
• 31:56
  you know, do do anything because like, I know and I know and, you
• 32:00
  know, sometimes, you know, in TV shows and, you know, movies,
• 32:04
  they'll have, you know, cops doing stuff, you know, in
• 32:07
  between patrol shifts or what not, you know, or is that just
• 32:10
  like Hollywood where there's. Right.
• 32:16
  Yeah, yeah. My, my white uncle was a Fire
• 32:21
  Chief in Telluride, Co and I met a few of his friends at his
• 32:29
  memorial who, you know, who were cops.
• 32:32
  A few of them, you know, said basically the higher you go in
• 32:37
  the department and either the fire or, you know, Police
• 32:41
  Department, he said the more meetings you have to attend to
• 32:46
  and the more the more bureaucracy you have to deal
• 32:49
  with that as well as, you know, as your rank elevates, I guess
• 32:57
  so, yeah. Yeah.
• 32:58
  And being on the reservation, are there any, I don't know if
• 33:05
  you even really could and and to this, but is there anything
• 33:13
  specifically about like, you know, being a police officer on
• 33:18
  reservation that would be different compared to just to
• 33:22
  just like, you know, a normal sheriff in like a town or
• 33:28
  something outside of like a reservation, if that meant, if
• 33:31
  that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:34
  Do do many Native Americans leave the reservation ever like
• 33:39
  to live outside or is it or is it more like, I've heard it's a
• 33:42
  lot like the Amish where they're given the option to leave.
• 33:46
  A lot of them don't just because they feel tied to their
• 33:50
  community. Yeah.
• 33:53
  So what what I imagine, and I could be wrong, but I would
• 33:58
  imagine being, you know, a police hot, a cop, you know, on
• 34:03
  a reservation. It definitely makes, you know,
• 34:06
  hunting for suspects for, you know, crimes maybe a little bit
• 34:10
  easier because you don't have to go through a bit, you know, a
• 34:14
  big as big of a population, you know, samples to look for
• 34:22
  something. It's a lot more.
• 34:24
  Wow, yeah. And I, I think that's
• 34:27
  interesting just be just because kind of from an outsider's
• 34:30
  perspective, it's interesting to me that, you know, the tribal
• 34:35
  place, at least in your, you know, area are very much trust,
• 34:42
  you know, out, whereas outside, you know, the, the tribal lands,
• 34:48
  you know, in the, in the outside world.
• 34:51
  I mean, you know, trust seems to AB, you know, to Evan full like
• 34:56
  quite, you know, it's, it's not very, it's not very consistent
• 35:00
  at all, at all. I mean, you know, just a few
• 35:02
  years ago there was a big push to, you know, defund, you know,
• 35:07
  the place and some of these, you know, big areas.
• 35:10
  And I, you know, everyone I've talked to, you know, who has
• 35:13
  like a working brain thinks that that's thinks that totally
• 35:16
  defunding them is a bad idea, right?
• 35:18
  You know, regardless of what side of the aisle you're you're
• 35:24
  on, I definitely think maybe, you know, please, you know,
• 35:29
  maybe there are ways to, you know, reform police departments.
• 35:32
  But I definitely think at least from what I'm at least from what
• 35:36
  you're telling me, you're working in a very specific area
• 35:39
  has its advantages. And maybe you might not have as
• 35:44
  many headaches as some of these bigger police departments have
• 35:48
  to deal with with. Yeah.
• 35:52
  So is that what I guess to ask? I mean, what what keep, what
• 36:00
  keeps you going on those stressful days?
• 36:03
  Have there ever been date? Have, you know, you're like,
• 36:06
  well, screw this, I kind of want to quit or I'm not sure if I,
• 36:09
  you know, how much longer I can do this.
• 36:11
  Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:12
  Well, I've talked to, you know, a few military veterans, you
• 36:20
  know, over the course of doing this show over the years.
• 36:23
  And, you know, they've said something, you know, pretty
• 36:27
  similar to where, you know, one of the reasons why a lot of the
• 36:31
  guys, you know, re enlist, particularly, you know, with the
• 36:36
  Iraq and Afghanistan war, was a lot, a lot of them, you know,
• 36:41
  they wanted to go over and, you know, serve their country and
• 36:44
  they felt they were, you know, doing something noble.
• 36:47
  And then they got over there and it wasn't what they expected.
• 36:52
  But also once they got involved in combat, it was that there was
• 36:57
  that rush of, you know, adrenaline.
• 37:01
  And they got, you know, they just got used to kind of being,
• 37:05
  you know, in that constant, you know, mindset.
• 37:09
  Anything could happen at any time.
• 37:11
  And then when they got back to, you know, when they would, you
• 37:15
  know, come out of a deployment and go back to civilian life,
• 37:18
  you know, things would just be a little too dull for for them.
• 37:21
  And so, you know, definitely there, you know, there was that
• 37:26
  aspect. And I imagine it might not be
• 37:29
  the same for, you know, all police officers, but I imagine
• 37:35
  there definitely is a kind of that anticipation, too, of, you
• 37:41
  know, something could have. And I don't imagine that job
• 37:44
  ever gets boring for you. Yeah.
• 37:47
  Yeah. It's so funny you mention that
• 37:49
  because I actually actually interviewed my childhood buddy
• 37:53
  of mine who I've been best friends with since middle school
• 37:57
  and grew up in a own household that really wasn't that stable.
• 38:01
  And then about 10 years or so ago now, he started to get into
• 38:05
  mixed martial arts. And it really, you know, more or
• 38:09
  less kind of changed his life, for lack of a, of a better term.
• 38:13
  And he's a lot calmer and a lot more, you know, he's not as
• 38:19
  angry at the world as he, he was.
• 38:22
  And he's definitely said it's it's helped him, you know, just
• 38:26
  get more structured and all in his life and also just be a
• 38:30
  better person as a whole. So very, very interesting.
• 38:38
  So well, as far as books go, what is your next, you know,
• 38:44
  schedule of releases? Do you have anything in the
• 38:47
  pipeline so far that you're working on?
• 38:50
  Awesome. So yeah.
• 38:53
  And then have you ever thought about like writing non fiction
• 38:57
  at all at some point? Yeah, sure.
• 38:59
  Do any of any of your colleagues read or just read your books?
• 39:03
  And have you gotten any feedback from from them?
• 39:08
  Yeah. Is there any, I mean, that
• 39:11
  that's awesome. Is there any author who you feel
• 39:17
  has really nailed, you know, the experience of being a police
• 39:24
  officer that you know, that you, that you can tell like who, who
• 39:29
  would be the most accurate, you know, throw author if you had
• 39:33
  to, you know, suggest one to to an outsider?
• 39:38
  Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, yeah. I, I love the the Bosch books.
• 39:47
  Connolly it I I think, I think the Amazon show also did a did a
• 39:51
  really good job too. But I, I wanted to, I wanted to
• 39:56
  ask your opinion because I didn't, I didn't want to assume
• 39:59
  that you would say calmly. I mean, I'm kind of biased
• 40:02
  because I'm, I'm, I'm a huge fan of, you know, the Bosch series,
• 40:07
  you know, as much, as much as I, you know, as much as I might
• 40:11
  like to, you know, live in LA at certain times, you know, reading
• 40:16
  and stores are like, you know, well, man, LA has a gritty side
• 40:20
  too. So that's yeah.
• 40:25
  So anyway, oh man, thanks for coming on.
• 40:29
  I really appreciate it. Where can people find you at if
• 40:32
  they want to get in contact with with you?
• 40:35
  Awesome. You know, for for the, for the,
• 40:38
  you know, video audience too, that that's also great mic that
• 40:41
  you have have there too. So, yeah, so I, I don't know,
• 40:48
  have you ever, have you ever like done any podcasting
• 40:52
  yourself before or anything went like that?
• 40:54
  Well, well, that that's awesome. I I for one, I for one,
• 40:59
  appreciate it makes it makes it easier, you know, editing stuff
• 41:03
  together when guests have like, you know, a decent mic as
• 41:08
  opposed to someone just trying to use like the $20 Apple, you
• 41:13
  know, earphones that don't have a good mic.
• 41:19
  Anyway, ma'am, why I appreciate you coming on and I would love
• 41:23
  to, you know, help you promote your next book and your series
• 41:29
  if I can. So I really appreciate you
• 41:31
  coming on. You know, folks, we appreciate
• 41:33
  you for listening. Go check out T GS books and I'll
• 41:37
  link all of his stuff in the description.
• 41:40
  Really appreciate you coming on, Sir, and have a Merry Christmas
• 41:44
  and Happy Holidays. So thanks for going on and Yep,
• 41:50
  we'll see you down the lot. The right to offend is not some
• 41:55
  pesky little part of freedom of speech that we have to put up
• 41:58
  with. It is the heart and soul and
• 42:01
  lungs of freedom of speech. It is the coursing lifeblood of
• 42:05
  human protest. It is the instigator of liberty
• 42:09
  and modernity and science and understanding.
• 42:12
  What a laughing stock today's student leaders are that they
• 42:16
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• 42:20
  realizing that their lovely, enlightened lives are the gifts
• 42:25
  of individuals who gave offence. Offensiveness is not just
• 42:29
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• 42:32
  Offensiveness is the motor of human progress.
• 42:37
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• 42:40
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• 42:44
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• 42:47
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• 42:58
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• 43:03
  And until next time, God bless. God save this great nation.
• 43:09
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