JAMESON COLE is a 55-year-old defense analyst with Lockheed Martin in California. Only recently he decided "to give a life-long dream a chance" and wrote his first novel, A Killing in Quail County, a Partners' Pick and Independent Reader Recommended Book for August 1996.
"I never realized until after publication just how important it would be to me that people liked my novel. When people call me, send letters, or meet me and tell me how much they liked it, it gives me a thrill and such a good feeling. I've been really pleased with all the reviews. The most recent was from the Tulsa World which said, `This is not your usual kids looking for adventure to fill their summer days novel. Mark and his friends not only face mystery and intrigue but run head-on into townspeople with deep-seated prejudices. It's suddenly an adult world where the language is explicit, and the action is violent. Still, it is a beautiful novel which portrays the aching vulnerability of adolescence and the startling events that swallow up the last days of childhood.'
I chose to write from a teenage protagonist's viewpoint because I have always liked stories about kids and I wanted to write about kids in jeopardy. I set the story in my own environment -- a small town in Oklahoma in the 50's -- and wove many real-life experiences into the story. My dog was named Bopeep and I really did swing on grapevines and play Tarzan. The main character, Mark Stoddard, is essentially me as a kid with too damn many freckles.
I sent out several queries to agents and received some interest but lots of comments about `can't sell a coming of age novel.' But I believed in the story. Finally, I broke the rules and sent out my very best chapter to an agent, versus the first 30 pages. It worked. I got an agent within a week and had a verbal deal with SMP within 2 months. I'd been led to believe that my print run would be about 4,000 and was startled (and disappointed) to learn it was only 2,000. But after being in print two months, it sold out and St. Martin's Press decided to print another 1000. I think the publishing industry is totally unaware of the book. I know my editor at SMP, Reagan Arthur, loves my book, but I'd be surprised if the powers that be at SMP consider it more than an average first start. Just recently, SMP sold the paperback rights to Worldwide Mysteries for a nominal advance. The book has received interest from Hallmark Hall of Fame people and also from Hollywood, but nothing firm has happened yet.
My next work takes place in Russia in 1986 and it's a suspense thriller involving the Soviet secret police hunting a young college coed. I just finished it and it hasn't been seen by a publisher yet. I'll probably write mostly novels involving both mystery and suspense, and mostly about common people caught up in extraordinary events."
