I had the pleasure of speaking with crime novelist, Brad Smith. We discussed his latest book, Shoot the Dog and what inspired him to write the popular, Virgil Cain series.
I’m looking forward to his next book!
Brad Smith was born and raised in the hamlet of Canfield, in southern Ontario, a couple of hours from Toronto. As a child, he had a Huck Finn existence, building rafts and catching frogs and falling off his bike with regularity. (this was in the pre-helmet days – which might explain a lot) He grew up on stories – both oral and written – reading the hockey books of Scott Young, and listening to the old-timers in the village. His next door neighbor was a WWI vet who had been a sergeant at Vimy Ridge in 1917. Smith attended elementary school in Cayuga, and high school – somewhat sporadically – in Dunnville.
Smith started writing in his late twenties, in part to see if he could, and for a while it appeared that, as a writer, he was going to make a hell of a roofer. There was a certain amount of partying going on at the time and the result was a lack of the self-discipline required to write. The first effort at a book ended after roughly five pages. A couple of years later though, holed up in the small town of Revelstoke in the Rocky Mountains, he actually finished a novel which is unpublished to this day, and will remain so. The next effort, however, was Rises A Moral Man, published by John Flood at Penumbra Press. Since then he has published One-Eyed Jacks (2000), All Hat (2003), Busted Flush (2005), Big Man Coming Down The Road (2007), Red Means Run (2012), Crow’s Landing, 2012 and Shoot The Dog (2013). All Hat was made into a feature film by the same title, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007. Smith adapted the novel for screen. Smith also wrote and directed the short film Fading Fast in 2008, and continues to do some film work.
To learn more about Mr. Smith, you can visit his website at http://www.bradsmithbooks.com/
Quick Links:
Red Means Run (Book 1) and Crow’s Landing (Book 2)