Mike Maden

Growing up in a working class family in central California, Mike Maden spent a fair share of his youth in slaughter houses, canneries and feed mills but a lifelong fascination with history and politics ultimately led to a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California (Davis) focusing on the areas of conflict, technology and international relations. After brief stints as a campus lecturer, political consultant and media commentator, Maden turned to studies in theology and a decade of work with a Dallas-based non-profit where he eventually discovered fiction writing. Drone was the result of a recent challenge by two published friends to try his hand at a novel. Written primarily in Texas, Blue Warrior was edited in the shadow of the gorgeous Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee where Maden and his wife Angela now happily reside.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Maden's reply:

I just read my first John D. MacDonald book, The Deep Blue Good-By, the first in the Travis McGee series. I hadn’t been introduced to him before and only swerved into the series because so many other great writers pointed him out. Books from that decade can be a little slow and artificial. Too often, you’re painfully aware that you’re actually reading rather than simply experiencing the story. But McGee’s prose is swift and sweet, like a natural golf swing. It reads as well as a Lee Child novel which is about as effortless as it gets, especially in that genre. Can’t figure out why a PI in a Florida houseboat hasn’t been picked up as TV series yet. Maybe the old Rockford Files with PI Jim Rockford (James Garner) and his single wide trailer by the beach was channeling MacDonald. Any Hollywood producers out there paying attention?

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My Book, The Movie: Drone.

The Page 69 Test: Drone.

My Book, The Movie: Blue Warrior.

The Page 69 Test: Blue Warrior.

--Marshal Zeringue