Meet Tim O'Mara

Ladies and gentlemen I give you great writer, funny-man and hard core New Yorker, Tim O'Mara.

JB: Please tell the masses reading this interview what life was like for Tim O'Mara. And did anybody call you Timmy as wee lad?

TO: I grew up in suburban Long Island, the fourth of five kids in a very Catholic family. There were so many kids my age living within walking/biking distance I was never at a loss for things to do—most of them baseball-related. And yes, my whole family call me Timmy. Now there's only a handful of people who do—including you, which I take as a sign that we may actually be related.

JB: How old were you when the lightning bolt of writing struck you? Was there a specific event? A book you read? Movie? Bookish damsel who kissed thine rosy cheek?

TO: I've been writing one way or another, my whole life. I loved writing assignments in school. (If nothing else, they took me away from the math work.) I was in a lot of plays in high school and found myself rewriting some of them, usually to give me more—and funnier—lines. I didn't consider writing crime fiction until I stumbled across Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels as a first-year substitute teacher. After all the writing I had done, and all the TV detectives I grew up watching—you and I share a favorite in Jim Rockford—writing mysteries was a rather obvious next step.

From the great writer's fire escape!

JB: SACRIFICE FLY, which I really enjoyed by the way, was your first book. Rumor has it the book took several years to craft. Tell us about it.

TO: Sacrifice Fly did, indeed, take twenty years from putting Word One down on paper until it's publication in the fall of 2012. I'd write some, put it away, write more and so on... Then I read a best-selling mystery that was pretty bad and said, "I can do that just as badly." I took Sac Fly out of the closet, finished it, got two agents through a friend, sold it—and the next one—and I was off. (Spoiler Alert: I did not quit my day job. Even against the wishes of my boss.)

JB: What is you number one pet peeve about the publishing industry? Or is it a balanced, well-oiled, machine that you simply adore?

TO: The publishing industry is too focused on what's going to be the next big thing. Then it goes out of its way to promote the next big thing. And when you promote the next big thing, it becomes the next big thing. I often tell people I'm glad I got published late in life (aged 50) and that I don't need the money that comes from getting published. (Because it ain't a lot, brother).

JB: I heard that...Knowing what you know now about writing and the industry, if you could go back to the days you were penning your first book, what, if anything, would you do differently?

TO: If I could go back to the beginning of writing my first novel, I'd focus more on Ray's character and how that drives the story. I also wouldn't worry so much about the micro stuff; writing a novel requires attention to character and keeping yourself honest about where the character takes you—sometimes called "the plot."

JB: Ok, I'm switching channels here. Alcoholic beverage of choice...go!

TO: My alcoholic beverage of choice changes from day to day. Depends on the weather, what I'm eating, who I'm with etc.

JB: We've hung out a half-dozen times, tops, yet I know you're a buddy for life. What do you make of that? Oh, and sorry to put you on the spot.

TO: As for our instant friendship, I think it started with knowing a lot of the same people. It did not take me long to recognize that we shared many of the same core beliefs even being from different coasts. I think we also look at everybody as a potential friend until they show us otherwise. We both find people very interesting and find ourselves incredibly entertaining. And we're right.

JB: I'm cool with that. And on that note let's end part one of the interview right here. Stay tuned folks because Big Bad Timmy shall return!