# Please introduce yourself and your book(s)!
James Pomerantz: I wrote my first novel in 1999. I had studied Journalism at the University of Missouri and then cut my writing teeth in Chicago while owning 10 nightclubs and sports bars over many years. As a forerunner to the celebrity restaurant boom, I was an innovator. I opened a themed restaurant in 1988 in partnership with the Newman/Haas CART Racing Team of Mario Andretti, owned in part by actor Paul Newman. Mario Andretti’s 1987 Indy car was in the main dining room! I also survived a restaurant partnership with actor Steven Seagal during the height of Seagal’s popularity in 1991, after the movies Above the Law and Hard to Kill made Seagal an A-list movie star.
I have written many books. My latest one is The Breacher’s Playbook with Tom Hruby. The protagonist is Deklan Novak, whose story is based on Tom’s real-life experiences as an MMA professional fighter, a Navy SEAL and as a linebacker for Northwestern University. I met Tom at Northwestern in 2014 when he played Division 1 football. At the time, he was in his 30s and was also an active-duty SEAL.
Tom Hruby: The Breacher’s Playbook is my first published book. James is the real genius behind this project. Although I wrote many portions of The Breacher’s Playbook, without James my writing was merely a series of short stories. I stand in awe of and appreciation for the opportunity to work with, observe, and learn from James and experience his creative genius.
I have always thought of myself as more of an adventurer and explorer, rather than a writer. When I met James, he was researching characters for a novel he was working on. At the time, I wasn’t interested in writing my story, but over the next few years James and I stayed in touch and became friends. We eventually agreed to create the fictional protagonist, Deklan Novak.
# What is/are the real-life story(ies) behind your book(s)?
Tom Hruby: As we’ve already said, much about the character Deklan Novak is based on my own life. It has been quite a ride. I was a professional MMA fighter, a Navy SEAL, and played BIG Ten football at age 32 with four kids. I’ve deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Asia. I’ve played in FBS Bowl games. I’ve fought in Octagon cages. Now I’m transitioning from intense military service to normal community life. I focus on being a good dad to my four sons, while my wife and I are divorcing. I also focus on my businesses, managing employees, and working to make ends meet. I am simply trying to understand and find satisfaction in my new life.
I’m so grateful that James and I became friends and have developed this beautiful character and project in Deklan Novak and The Breacher’s Playbook. We are planning to write two more Deklan Novak books.
James Pomerantz: I’d like to emphasize that research for my books is the key to a great story. For example, The Spitting Image of My Father which was published in 2001, is a novel that takes place within the world of professional rodeo. As research, I attended a bull riding school. At the age of 47, I lived in a bunkhouse for two weeks and got on the backs of 2,000-pound bulls to understand what it feels like to ride a locomotive. I learned that bull riding is a young man’s sport, but I gathered great material for the novel.
Then in 2004, I wrote a biography entitled Sid Rock: Rodeo’s Extreme Cowboy, about World Champion Steer Wrestler Sid Steiner. The Steiner family is rodeo royalty in Texas. I spent months at the Steiner Ranch while writing the biography.
Ghost Bandit, which I researched and wrote in 2019, blends outlaw folklore and a talented present-day thief with vigilante retribution. One man robbed the most successful nightclubs in the nation. The other man is Jesse James.
The novel I am currently writing, Clear Sky into Cape Cod Gateway, blends fact, fiction, myth and memory. It’s a book about the Kennedys, based on researching my wife’s childhood.
# What inspires/inspired your creativity?
James Pomerantz: What inspires/inspired my creativity? Very good question. Inspiration is a hard thing to gauge. I suppose it’s like trying to describe our determination. It’s there and does not have to be summoned. Inspiration for an author is the confidence to take the reader away from his/her own life for a brief journey. Inspiration to me is how I love to take that journey with my readers.
Tom Hruby: For me, inspiration requires allowing myself the freedom to explore. Once this state is available all that I have to do is write or speak it into existence. Often in our process of writing The Breacher’s Playbook, I sent James long winded video messages.
# How has your creation process improved over time?
Tom Hruby: When James and I started this endeavor, I had no idea about the book writing and publishing process. I’ve often been overwhelmed by the enormity of the pieces to this puzzle, and I have come to realize a distinct difference between being creative and actually creating in this space. Creating a character and turning him into a novel series that sells, are two very different things.
James Pomerantz: The creative process naturally improves with experience, not so much the passage of time. Getting older does not automatically equate to a becoming better writer. I became a better writer when I was able to review my manuscripts as a reader and not as the author. Once I have completed a manuscript, I must read the work as an outsider. Objectivity over subjectivity wins every day and twice on Sundays.
# What were the best, worst and most surprising things you encountered during the entire process of completing your book(s)?
Tom Hruby: Certainly, the worst thing I encountered in the writing process was condensing the completed manuscript by one-third. Choosing entire chapters, backstory after backstory, to remove was remarkably hard to do. The best thing I encountered has been telling my story and recasting it as a wonderful character of great depth and significance. I am enjoying watching Deklan Novak develop. I am always surprised at how difficult it is to write well.
James Pomerantz: The best and worst things I encountered as an author were connected. Learning how to ride a bull might be the best and most exhilarating experience I have had. Learning that I was not put on this planet to jump onto the backs of 2,000-pound animals was a painful lesson.
But here’s the most surprising thing I learned from being an author. I found out recently, after my wife passed away, that she was born in New York City in 1955 and adopted a week later. There were no adoption papers and she was adopted by a politically connected family in Chicago from a politically connected family in Massachusetts. My new novel Clear Sky into Cape Cod Gateway is a fictional account of a baby born from an affair with JFK. Was my wife the illegitimate daughter of John F. Kennedy when he was a Senator from Massachusetts? Probably not, but then again, maybe so.
# Do you have any creativity tricks?
Tom Hruby: I think creativity comes from somewhere deep inside. I try to sit as still as possible, and when the inspiration begins I let it flow for as long as possible. Taking notes and speaking them into the world if possible. I don’t have a great memory, so I have found it critical to write my ideas down.
James Pomerantz: My best creativity trick is taking notes wherever I am, whenever I hear something remarkably clever or watch something tremendously moving or think of something profound but not necessarily relevant at the time. It may become relevant, so I want a record of it.
# What are your plans for future books?
Tom Hruby: I am working on three books. James and I are working on book two of the Deklan Novak Series. I am also working on a series of children’s/adolescent books following Young Deklan Novak. In addition, I am writing a book on divorce and transitioning from the military/elite athletics.
James Pomerantz: In addition to my finishing my Kennedy novel, I look forward to working with Tom on the second and third Deklan Novak novels.
Links
https://jamespomerantzwriter.com
https://www.tomhrubyseal.com
https://www.amazon.com/Breachers-Playbook-Deklan-Novak-Novel/dp/1966413009