Interview with John Desjarlais, author of Bleeder and Viper
Marilyn: Please tell me a bit about your background. John: I was a Radio/TV/Film major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked in radio and video production for nearly twenty years. When I was let go by Wisconsin Public Radio in the recession of 1993, I returned to grad school for a master’s degree in English/Writing so that I could teach at the college level and continue to write. Marilyn: When and why did you start writing? John: I wrote spy novels in junior high and high school for my entertainment and perhaps because I fancied myself becoming a TV scriptwriter someday. I worked on the high school newspaper and literary magazine. In college, my attention turned to radio and TV. After graduation, I worked for a small media company writing scripts for training videos and fundraising material for non-profit groups. My serious fiction writing came in my 30s, after a documentary I produced on the history of Western Christianity got me interested in I