John G. Bluck was an Army journalist at Ft. Lewis, Washington, during the Vietnam War. Following his military service, he worked as a cameraman covering crime, sports, and politics—including the Watergate scandal—for WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV) in Washington, D.C.

Later, he served as a radio broadcast engineer at WMAL-AM/FM.

After that, John worked at NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where he produced numerous television documentaries. He transferred to NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, where he became the Chief of Imaging Technology. He then became a NASA Ames public affairs officer.

John retired from NASA in 2008. Now residing in Livermore, California, he writes the Luke Ryder mystery-thriller series of novels at Rough Edges Press, an imprint of Wolfpack Publishing.

What brought you to writing?  During the Vietnam War, I served in the US Army as a journalist at Fort Lewis in Washington state. Writing articles for the fort’s weekly newspaper, The Ranger, was fun, and I learned to love writing. I especially liked interviewing soldiers and their families. People told me wonderful stories, and I realized how rich and varied people’s experiences are.

Following my service in the Army, I worked in television news for several years, shooting daytime crime stories in the Washington, D.C., area for the ABC affiliate TV station. I also worked at the ABC Radio Network as an engineer. These experiences yielded plenty of “story fuel” I now draw upon when writing.

After working in commercial radio and television, I had the opportunity to write nonfiction when NASA hired me to create documentary television shows. I wrote scripts used to produce numerous programs, which were translated into many languages and broadcast worldwide. Later, I became a NASA public affairs officer, writing news releases and articles.

When I retired from NASA, I finally had enough time to try my hand at writing fiction.

Tell us about your writing process. First, I write an inciting incident–an event that starts a novel. (For example, a person is murdered, a boss fires an employee, or a building blows up.) I also draft the last action-packed scene in the book. Then, I design characters and locations that will appear in the novel, and I imagine the scenes that will take place between the beginning and end of the story.

 Do you outline, or do you write without a detailed plan? I make a plan, a plot. I put twenty or thirty blank notebook sheets in a binder, and then I grab a pad of Post-it notes. I jot down a few words to describe the beginning scene on a note and stick it on the first blank notebook page in my binder. I do the same for the last scene and affix it to the previous blank sheet.

I take a good deal of time to dream up the scenes between the beginning and end of the book. I scribble a short description on a Post-it note for each scene I envision. I put these sticky notes in order between the book’s first and last scenes. I can easily move scenes around to make adjustments. Finally, I can visualize the whole story.

Then, I create a file for each scene in Scrivener, a low-cost authoring software program. (See: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview.)

I type a few words from each sticky note to label each Scrivener scene. I put the Scrivener scenes in the same order as the Post-it notes in my loose-leaf binder.

Finally, I write each scene in full from the beginning to the end of the book. I can drag and drop scenes to rearrange them because each is a separate file. I strive to entice the reader to keep reading when I write the end of each scene. I write short scenes because I believe readers are more likely to keep reading when they come to the end of each brief passage.

After my first draft is done, I use Scrivener to compile (convert) the manuscript into one Microsoft Word file. I then do my final three or four edits in Word.

Do you base your characters on any real people? I remember personality traits from persons I’ve met, which could be useful in designing characters. But I don’t use individuals I’ve known as complete models for persons who appear in my novels. Instead, I design fictional people using a process:

First, I name the major characters—the protagonist (hero), the antagonist (bad guy), and the other actors in the story. To begin to create them, I visit the Enneagram Institute website, which describes nine kinds of people (and various shades of each personality type). See: https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/. Alternatively, I consult a psychology textbook to read about common types of personalities, such as the introvert, the extrovert, and many other types.

I pick out personalities that will conflict with one another. Character clashes lead to drama. I write a description of each character and critical scenes I expect to appear in the story. I refer to my character sketches and scene descriptions as I write. I also cut pictures of people from magazines and newspapers to help me visualize the fictional persons in my story.

What advice do you have for new writers? Although you might have a plot, don’t be afraid to stray from it when a character starts doing something you didn’t plan as you write. If you try to force your characters to closely follow the plot, the story may suffer. Adding scenes as you go and readjusting them can lead to good plot twists. Using Scrivener or another writing program, you can easily rearrange scenes by dragging and dropping them.

After you finish the first draft, edit it with care at least three times. Revisions result in excellent writing, and your final story will shine.

 Please describe your Luke Ryder series of novels. The Luke Ryder mystery-thriller novels are jam-packed with action. Luke is a Kentucky deputy sheriff who’s struggled with a drinking problem. He copes with his addiction by substituting adrenaline highs for alcohol when he fights crime. In Death in the Holler, the first of this six-book series, he must confront his addiction to alcohol in order to land a job as a deputy sheriff.

In the second novel, Murder at NASA, he goes undercover to investigate a cold-case murder at the space agency.

Mayhem at Sea is the third volume in the series. Luke is on an Alaskan cruise when pirates attack the ship, and he must again go undercover to confront the buccaneers.

In Book 4, Pigeons of Death, Luke works covertly, this time at a Kentucky horse farm as a stable hand, to investigate a Mexican drug cartel.  Later, Luke travels to the United Kingdom in Book 5, Headless in London. In this tale of murder, spies, and espionage, he is drawn into the investigation of the death of a baroness. Link to the Luke Ryder series: https://geni.us/WXA8

What is the latest book in the Luke Ryder mystery-thriller series? The sixth book, Assassins of Mexico, was published on July 8, 2025.

In this action-packed blend of espionage thriller and crime fiction, Luke again fights for his life…only this time, the open skies and vast landscapes of the American West become a backdrop for international conspiracy and ruthless revenge.

After surviving an assassination attempt on his driveway, Luke is dragged deeper into the covert world of international spies and drug cartel hitmen. When the FBI recruits him to shadow a Belarusian KGB defector posing as a tractor salesman on a bus tour of US national parks, Luke expects boredom. Instead, bullets fly, bodies fall, and betrayal lurks behind every panoramic vista.

Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FB9J2797

How do our readers contact you?

E-mail: John@bluckart.com

X (Twitter): https://x.com/JohnBluck1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JohnGBluckSciFi/

Website: http://www.bluckart.com

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