Guest Post - John Hegenberger - Stan Wade Private Eye

Today I'm so pleased to present a guest post by new/old author John Hegenberger. He's taken this opportunity to present to my readers a Q&A that will introduce his late 1950's protagonist Stan Wade Private Eye. John has several Stan Wade novels coming out, the first, Spyfall will be out this fall by Black Opal Books.
Enjoy!!

John Here's a Humphrey Bogart quote as Sam Spade to set the scene.  "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it."
And a Mike Hammer quote to round things out -"If I need something, I'll invent it."

Here's a little something of John's to whet your whistle until the Stan books come out.

Here's John!!!

• File Size: 710 KB
• Print Length: 81 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publication Date: May 16, 2015
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English

OVERVIEW:
A series of serious crimes: Kidnapping. Murder. Art Thief. Blackmail. Comic Books. 
“…fast-moving, atmospheric, and consistently surprising…” 
Private Investigator Eliot Cross faces heartache, headache, backache, and a royal pain in the neck in these rollicking noir stores from the heart of the Heartland. 
Cross Examinations, Inc. established in 1988 
Crime in Columbus 
Never before published, CROSS EXAMINATIONS sets the stage for an exciting new novel that will join pop-culture author, John Hegenberger’s soon-to-be-published Tripleye trilogy and his upcoming Stan Wade, L.A.P.I. series.

John Hegenberger, a new old author, who got started in the 1980s, got busy raising a family, got retired from corporate marketing, and got back into writing private-eye fiction this year.  He has more than six novels sold and scheduled to appear in the coming months.

Q: You’ve published a few books in the past, but now you have these historical mystery novels set to come out this year about Stan Wade, L.A. private eye.  What are they really about?

A: I guess you’d say the main character is the pop-culture world of Los Angeles of 1959.  I try to put the reader in a place and time full of wonder and historical significance.

Q: For instance….

A: Well, Stan’s office is in a cramped little room at the back of the Brown Derby restaurant, which lets him and us encounter several famous Hollywood stars and other notables of the day.  Plus, his boat is moored out where they’re dredging what will one day be the glamorous Marina Del Rey.  And his biggest client is Walt Disney, who is somehow connected to the FBI.

Q: But these are first-person mystery thrillers, right?

A: You bet.  During one of the novels in the series, STARFALL, Stan has to figure out who murdered the 8^th candidate for what today we know as the Mercury 7 astronauts.  In another of the novels, a TV actor vanishes into the witness protection program, while the world still thinks he’s committed suicide.

Q: Which actor are we talking about?

A: George Reeves.  You know, Superman?

Q: What about the main character, Stan Wade.  That sounds a lot like Sam Spade.

A: Yes, and he continually has to live that down.  He started off cocky with youth, but he’s beginning to question if he’s really any good at his chosen profession.  Then, when he’s forced to intentionally kill someone for the first time, he starts having deep regrets.  Lately, he’s feeling like everyone he knows, even his friends, has a personal agenda that they’re not sharing.  Like all detectives, he yearns for the truth.

Q: And where’d you get the idea for all this?

A: A lot — and I mean a lot – of it’s based on actual fact.  There are reference notes at the back of each book to add insight into the hidden underpinnings of our world today that began back in 1959. 

But, it occurred to me that there was a mature and growing market for nostalgic stories told with a light sensitive voice.  So I wrote these tales focusing on action, humor and deep characterization.

Q: So, let’s see; we have the space race, color TV, rock ‘n roll, fistfights….

A: Like the one in SUPERFALL, on the top of the Capitol Records Tower.

Q: And we visit other popular sites like that around the L.A. basin?

A: Yep. Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Anita Racetrack, Marineland and Dodger Stadium when it was being built back in 1959.

Q: Right.  What about commies and spies?

A: Ah, that’s in SPYFALL, where Stan teams up with Ian Fleming and travels behind the Iron Curtain, just before the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Q: Really?  So how do you know that this history/mystery concept works in the public mind?

A: It’s been successful for a series of books several times before; just not in the setting of L.A. of 1959.

Q: For example?

A: Stuart Kaminsky published twenty-plus novels about a hard-luck private eye set in the early ‘40s L.A.  My novels are sort of an extension of that, updated to a time that we all see today in popular television shows like Mad Men and films like Jersey Boys… with tons of pop culture references to take the reader deeper into Stan’s world.

Q: Such as?

A: Mickey Cohen, Ross MacDonald, Bobby Darin, Lloyd Bridges, John Steinbeck, Noel Coward, the Kingston Trio, John Ford, Philip K. Dick, and Jack Benny.  All of them and more have major appearances in the Stan Wade L.A.P.I. novels.

Q: Okay.  Where can we get our hands on these stories?

A: SPYFALL will be available in the… fall, from Black Opal Books.  I’m currently wrapping up STORMFALL.

Q: What is that one about?

A: I’ll let you know just as soon as it’s done.  Meanwhile, you can keep up to date with all this and news about my other two private eye series at johnhegenberger.com

or follow Stan on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stan-Wade-LAPI/1565111797107480?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

 Connect with John - Website - Facebook - Sam Wade's FB Page - Twitter

MEET JOHN:

Born and raised in the heart of the heartland, Columbus, Ohio, John Hegenberger is the author of upcoming Stan Wade LAPI series from Black Opal Books, father of three, tennis enthusiast, collector of silent films and OTR, hiker, Francophile, B.A. Comparative Lit., Pop culture author, crime-fighter, comedian, ex-lead in the senior class play, ex-Navy, ex-comic book dealer, ex-marketing exec at Exxon, AT&T, and IBM, happily married for 45 years.

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