Hi Jason, thank you so much for joining me today. Can you tell me about your book, No Man’s Ghost and what inspired it?

Hi Laura. Thank you for the invite. No Man’s Ghost is the story of two strangers. The first, Charles Davids: a probationary firefighter, starting his first week in his firehouse after graduating the academy. Charles is excited to be a firefighter but is worried that he may not be completely prepared. Sure, he passed the academy, but he was never really in danger there. What if he can’t cut it in real life?

The second is Alan Johnson, a poor excuse for a husband who gets kicked out of his home by his wife and her best friend for being a poor excuse for a husband. He decides to get revenge by calling in false alarms for fire in his now former apartment every night just to disturb her. If he can’t sleep there, why the hell should she? Alan’s path crosses with Charles’s when eventually he decides that fake fires aren’t enough.

Being a firefighter yourself (which is amazing by the way), did this help you with the themes and subject matter of the novel or did it add additional pressure/level of responsibly to the narrative?

Yes, and Yes. There’s a saying in the fire service that goes, “Let no man’s ghost return to say my training let me down.” When a firefighter is on probation, a lot of pressure is put on them to train and learn and work towards proficiency on the job, because once a call comes in, they’re an important part of the team.

Whatever function they’ll perform on that call is their responsibility alone. That can be an intimidating truth when you’re new. Members with time on the job know that, and it’s a balance trying to show the probie that, yes, you need to take your job seriously because the community and our own families need you to be good at your job, but also, you’re not doing any of this alone. There’s always a team to help you. I think the core of that lesson can be true for life as well.

I wanted to do the fire service justice by showing how important and serious a career it is, but I also wanted to make the story relatable. I think readers will find a lot of themselves and their loved ones in Charles and the other characters. Even Alan.

What’s your typical writing day like? Do you have any writing rituals?

Don’t have one. I work 24-hour shifts at the firehouse that either start at 9am on one day and end at 9am the next; or it starts at 6pm the first day and ends at 6 the next. The days of the week that I work aren’t the same each week, either. If the 24 is busy, when it’s done, I’ll go home and go to bed for a few hours.

There are days when all my morning hours are on the truck and I don’t get time to write until the afternoon. Then there are days when I start my morning at home, and I’ll write until I go to work. On my days off, I write when I’m not tired. I try and devote a minimum of an hour to writing every day, but I don’t decide which hour that will be until the time comes.

From idea to finished book, how long did it take you to complete this novel?

No Man’s Ghost took 9 months of actual writing time. Unfortunately, I lost a good friend of mine at a fire we were fighting in Harlem during that time. For a few months I didn’t do anything productive. But after a while writing, felt like a path to peace, and it served as an enjoyable distraction. So, I started then stopped then finished. The time it took, not including the stop, was nine months.

What was your approach to the research and editing processes? How do you know when you’ve done enough?

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