Interview with Alan Orloff

What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
My new book is called I Know Where You Sleep, and I’m excited about it because,

Alan Orloff

although it’s my ninth published book, it’s my first private eye novel.

What was the most recent book you read?
I just finished Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett. A really fun read! Great voice and great characters!

How did you develop your character and choose your location?
I often write about the place I lived for most of my life, Northern Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington, D.C. However, unlike so any DC-area writers, I don’t write about the machinations of our federal government or about political backstabbing or about three-letter government agencies. Instead, I like to set my stories in the suburbs, where the cookie-cutter houses might all look alike, but there’s deception and suspense going on behind their doors.

Tell me about your recent Police Academy experience. How did it impact your research for your books?
I wanted to write about crime but I’ve led a sheltered life. Realizing that I needed to learn more about crime, I knocked over a 7-Eleven. Just kidding. I took a Citizen’s Police Academy. That coursework consisted of 10 or 12 weekly sessions, each focused on a different aspect of police business. We learned about gangs and drugs, we saw a K9 demonstration, we fired weapons on the shooting range, we toured the local jail, we got to use radar (LIDAR) guns, and we went on a ride-along.

What was the ride-along like?
I have a whole ride-along story!

Let me take you back to that Saturday night on the mean streets of Herndon...
We’d been cruising for about two hours or so, checking out the normal trouble spots, and we’d gotten the usual calls. Excessive noise at a sketchy apartment complex, some possible gang activity near the 7-Eleven, a D-and-D (that’s drunk and disorderly, for all you, uh, rookies) at a local bar. Just your typical shift. Then we got a report over the radio of several people running through the Community Center’s parking lot with rifles.

We went roaring through town, cars parting to let us through. Screeching into the Community Center parking lot, we pulled up alongside a couple other cruisers, both empty, one with a door still flung open. Someone had left in a hurry.

The officer barked at me, “Stay here. Don’t get out of the car.” I forced a nod, mouth too dry to talk. Of course, she didn't have to worry. I had no intention of following her into the night with a bunch of armed goons on the loose. I slid down in my seat, until I could barely see over the dashboard.

She grabbed her shotgun out of the lockdown and raced off, leaving me all alone. 

All alone.

My heart raced. What if the guys with guns doubled back and found me, by myself, a sitting duck in a patrol car? Would I become the unfortunate reason future ride-alongs had to be eliminated? I glanced around, hoping for reinforcements. Nope, just me and the empty police cars. I’d realized it before, but it hit home a lot harder in that moment. We don’t pay law enforcement personnel nearly enough.

Luckily, the situation had a non-violent resolution. It turned out that the people running through the parking lot were teenagers wielding air rifles. No one got hurt. But, man, how easily could something have gone terribly, irrevocably wrong? In the dark, those air rifles were indistinguishable from real rifles. Some poor teenager’s head easily could have been blown off.

I heartily recommend going on a ride-along. Just make sure to wear two pairs of underwear on ride-along night. That experience made its way into one of my books, a suspense novel appropriately titled Ride-Along.

What drew you to writing?
Process of elimination, I think. One of the few things I hadn’t yet tried!

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Write more, and don’t worry about what other people think UNTIL you’re ready to get feedback on your work. Then be judicious to whose voices you listen.

Who is your favorite author?
I have so many favorite authors, and I wouldn’t want to leave any of them out, including many of my friends. So I’ll go with Stephen King. You can never go wrong with Stephen King.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
Excluding my family and friends, here’s my guest list: Dorothy Parker, Albert Einstein, Sally Ride, Jacques Cousteau, and George Plimpton.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
I’d be an entrepreneur doing something, maybe in the alternate energy field.