Author Interview: Gregory A. Fournier, Author of Terror in Ypsilanti

Gregory A. Fournier was born in Trenton, Michigan in 1948. He grew up in the Downriver Detroit area and graduated from Allen Park High School in 1966. When he read Lost Horizon as a young teen, he decided then that he wanted to be an author. That novel transported him to Shangri-La, and he's been trying to get back there ever since.

He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English Language Arts and sociology from Eastern Michigan University. After teaching at Ypsilanti High School for seven years, he moved to San Diego, California, and taught Language Arts in public school for another thirty years. He also taught night school and weekend college during that time as an adjunct professor at Cuyamaca College for ten years. Now retired, he is living his dream of becoming an author.

In addition to his debut novel, Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel, Greg writes a weekly blog at fornology.blogspot.com, He joins us today to talk about his new book Terror in Ypsilanti.

Can you tell us a bit about you as an author? 

I began my writing career in 2009 after a career teaching English in San Diego. My first book Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel was published in 2011. My current work is a true crime treatment about a little known Michigan serial killer. Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked, is newly released and available online. For the last six years, I’ve been writing a blog entitled Fornology in support of my writing. I want my writing to stand for something beyond the story. As an author, I want to accomplish more than being in the boredom-killing business. I want my work to have intrinsic meaning and value beyond the page.

What are the hardest parts of being an author? 

 Publishing and promotion. Writing is a challenge, but the commercial end of the business is inscrutable. Traditional publishers are losing their grip on their market share, and independent publishers and digital printing are changing the game. The writer is caught in the middle.

What do you enjoy most about being an author? 

The sweet agony of creating meaning out of thin air and having my readers respond favorably to it.

What authors/books have had an influence on your writing? 

My primary inspiration was James Hilton’s prophetic Lost Horizon. Later in life, Night author Elie Wiesel taught me the power of memoir and the writer’s responsibility to the testament of truth. But the author that has had the greatest impact on my writing is Stephen King. His On Writing may be the finest book ever written about what it takes and what it means to be author.

Do you ever get Writer’s Block? If so, how do you deal with it? Do you believe there is such a thing? Brain freeze? Everyone gets it. Walking away from my writing for a day or two to let my subconscious go to work sometimes helps. More often than not, I write a blog post and have a couple of beers.

Do you have a particular place that you like to write? 

Yes. In front of my desktop computer at home. The problem with working at home are all the daily distractions.

Do you have a favourite time of day to write? 

I prefer to write in the morning after I check my social media until early afternoon. The middle of the night works great when I can’t sleep.

How do you like to reach your readers? (Social media? Book signings? Blogs etc) 

I’ve been building an audience for over five years on social media and my blog. Now, I have an author website which is showing positive results.

Can you tell us about your latest book? (is it part of a series, genre) 

Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked is a long overdue, nonfiction treatment of a serial killer case from the late 1960s. Collins was the poster boy for the new age of serial killers before the term serial killer was coined. More isn’t known about him because the Charles Manson Helter Skelter murders occurred just as the Collins case went to trial and drew all the national press to Los Angeles, California.

How long did it take you to write the book? 

Five solid years of research and writing.

Do you have a favourite character/topic in your work? 

No. This was a difficult story to tell. John Norman Collins is the central figure in the book but far from my favorite. He is a psychopathic murderer.

Tell us about John Norman Collins. 

JNC was the prime suspect in the murders of seven young women in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor, Michigan between the summers of 1967-1969. Washtenaw County prosecutors tried and convicted Collins of his last murder—the sex slaying of Karen Sue Beineman. The other murders became cold cases.

Why isn’t Collins better known? 

The week the Beineman case came to trial, the Helter Skelter [Tate/LaBianca] murders happened in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. Overnight, Charles Manson and his family drew national attention to Southern California. The Collins trial became a war of attrition; the Manson trial became a three ring media circus.

What genre is your book and who is your target audience? 

It is true crime. Terror in Ypsilanti strives to restore the lost history of these cases. The trial transcripts were purged from the Washtenaw County files shortly after all of Collins’s appeals ran out in the mid-1970s. I initially wrote this book for the people of Ypsilanti to pay a debt to history, but young people going away to college will find the story instructive and cautionary.

Can you briefly summarize the content of Terror in Ypsilanti? 

Part one tells the story of the murders as the details unfolded before the police and the public. Much of this information has never been made public before. Part two reconstitutes the most infamous criminal trial in Michigan history from hundreds of vintage newspaper articles. Part three tells the story of Collins’s years in prison, his efforts to circumvent his life sentence, and his attempts to manipulate public opinion through the media.

What qualifies you to tell this story? 

While these murders were happening, I lived one block up the street from Collins and had several negative encounters with him. It wasn’t until I saw his face plastered across the front pages that I realized I recognized him. I knew people he knew, and I knew friends who knew some of the victims. Going to Eastern Michigan University and teaching at Ypsilanti High School gives me a detailed knowledge of the area and its people. The non-fiction story of what actually happened needed to be told before these events become lost in the fog of time. I’m uniquely positioned to do that.

Has this story ever been told before?

 Brief surveys of the Collins story have appeared in crime magazines and internet articles—usually with faulty information and without the benefit of hindsight. Five years after these events occurred in 1976, Edward Keyes published a cozy mystery called The Michigan Murders, which used pseudonyms for the victims, the witnesses, and the convicted murderer. Keyes wrote his book as a novel, but it did more to obscure the real history than add any insight. Terror in Ypsilanti is a very different treatment of the subject matter. I take a terse journalistic approach.

What was your biggest challenge writing Terror in Ypsilanti? 

Getting official information on the trial. The Washtenaw County Court files were purged in the mid-1970s, and nobody in authority would comment on that. I had to create a patchwork of facts from hundreds of local newspaper articles to tell the broad outline of the trial.

Does your book leave readers with a message? 

Yes, if something doesn’t feel right about a person, trust your instincts. Don’t place yourself in a compromised position and recognize danger before it’s too late.

What else have you written? 

My first writing effort after I retired from teaching was Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel. It tells a multicultural story of the clash between urban and suburban cultures. Main character Jake Malone gets a crash course in race relations and learns that the face of racism comes in every shade of color. I also write a weekly blog entitled Fornology [fornology.blogspot.com] about my news and views.

What was your process? Did you plot out the entire book, or just let the storyline flow? Do you write in chronological order? 

I use a chunking technique at first. I get an idea of where I want the writing to go, and I write a few chapters. From there, I chart out a preliminary outline and write each chapter like it was a stand alone short story. Once on the writing treadmill, I continually rewrite until I come up with something I like.

Do you have plans for further instalments? 

I may write a follow up about some prison letters of John Norman Collins. Several people have given me caches of his letters, but for now, I’ve had my fill of him.

Do you have a plan for your next book? 

Yes, an unsolved murder of an eight-year-old boy found frozen under a bridge in the rural town of Ypsilanti, Michigan. The Ypsilanti Historical Society asked if I might be interested in writing a piece on little Richard Streicher.

Ebooks vs Physical books? Do you have a preference when reading? 

I prefer the look and feel of books. I like to go back and forth when I read and turning pages works best for me.

Self-publishing vs traditional publishing? What are your thoughts? Do you feel that the industry is changing? 

What has happened to the broadcast television networks, the movie business, and the auto business is happening to publishing--decentralization. The digital revolution is a game changer. Why be on the ragged edge of traditional publishing when I can be on the cutting edge of independent publishing. Either way authors go, promotion is their responsibility, so why not cut out the middleman?

And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring authors? 

Write, write, write until you can’t help yourself anymore. Then find a competent editor to help guide you. The eye sees but doesn’t see itself.

How can readers find you?

Website: gregoryafournier.com
Facebook: facebook.com/gregoryafournier
Twitter: www.twitter.com/GAFournier1

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Gregory-A.-Fournier/e/B00BDNEG1C/
Goodreads: goodreads.com@gregfournier
Gmail: gregoryafournier@gmail.com

Thank you Gregory for dropping by. As a fellow true crime author, I found this a fascinating interview. I am one of the few who know of the crimes of John Collins, so it was great to see another author's journey with such a violent killer.  Amanda

If you would like to be interviewed for this blog or have a great story to tell, please drop me a line.  As always thanks for dropping by and see you next week. 

Cheers!

Amanda Howard

A Change of Pace - An Interview with Amy Wright - Co-designer of Killer GPS App

I thought now that we have some incredible author interviews in the works and a very interesting line up to fill in your weekends, I thought I'd also get some of the other interesting people I know to be interviewed and share a little piece of their life with us.

My first victim subject is Amy Wright. I'll let her explain her interesting life to us...

Can you tell us about you. Who you are, and what you do?
I'm a wife and mother with a regular day job. At night and on weekends I like to read about, research, and visit locations of murders. In 2012-13 a friend and I developed three apps for iOS - Serial Killer Murder Library, Killer GPS, and Killer Quiz. The library is what you'd expect, a collection of serial killers from around the world. Killer GPS is an app that will lead you to locations of murders, be it the home of Sharon Tate (the Manson family) or a little known murder that occurred down the street from you. The Killer Quiz is obviously a quiz. The questions are easy at first, but they get difficult pretty quickly!

When did you get started in your field?
I've been interested in true crime since I was nine years old, but I only really started doing something with my knowledge about four years ago. That's when I met my friend Chris. He's an app developer, and we used his IT knowledge and my serial killer knowledge to create our apps.

How is it all going?
It's going well. Our app sales keep rising, our Facebook page gains new followers every day. The

engagement is great. I can't imagine my life without all of our Facebook followers now. We've become a real community.

So, I know I want to hear more about your your current project, what is the most interesting thing you’ve come across lately?
I recently stumbled across a murder that occurred in Brisbane, where I grew up. It happened around 40 years ago, but I'd never heard of the case. A woman was raped and murdered in her home whilst her fiancé was at work. I realised there's so much I don't know about my own city, so I'm concentrating on cases in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area at the moment.


Do you have nightmares working in the criminology field? You know, I've never had a nightmare. The closest thing would have to be a dream I had a year or so ago. I was on the phone to Ted Bundy, and he was begging me to visit him. I told him that I couldn't, because he was dead (Bundy was executed in 1989) but he wouldn't believe me!

Have you come across anyone/thing that has scared you or made you a little worried?I've had a few situations that have made me feel uncomfortable. There was a woman who was quite an active follower of our Facebook page. She ended up murdering her boyfriend, which was horrible. There was a guy who would write to me and tell me how he wanted to become a serial killer, what he'd do, how he'd do it. I had to report him to the authorities. I've even had someone contact me looking for someone to kill them! Crazy.

What’s the next stage? Where are you heading? What’s the future hold?
More locations, more research. I can't get enough of it. People are walking down an alley, past a house, through a park where a murder occurred and they'll never know. It fascinates me.

So now, on to some crime related questions...
Serial killers/mass murderers – do you prefer to research one over the other?
I go through phases. At the moment I'm quite interested in assassinations. I don't really have a preference. Maybe serial killers, because there's always an interesting back story.

Do you have a case that you research more than any other? Why?
Serial killer wise, I'd say Ted Bundy. I guess because he was exactly what you wouldn't expect a serial killer to be. I never get tired of reading and learning new facts about him and his victims. If you're talking about mass murder, it would have to be Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. I remember that day so clearly, I remember watching the news for hours. They were only a couple of years younger than me. The idea that two kids could do something so horrible...

Do you have a ‘favourite’ unsolved case?
Betty Shanks. It's always Betty. She was murdered in 1952 when she was walking home after getting off a tram. Her body was found in a policeman's front yard. She'd been beaten to death. She had no known enemies, it appeared to be a random attack. It was such a shocking crime for 1950s Brisbane. I wish I knew who did it!

Now some totally random questions
Would you like to share a strange habit/talent you have?
Habit? I guess rock collecting. I'm not kidding. I collect rocks from places like Belanglo Forest, where the Backpacker murders occurred, Dealy Plaza, where JFK was shot... I also collect them from famous places like Buckingham Palace.

If you were to eat one food for the rest of life, what would it be?
Probably Chinese.

Do you prefer ebooks or physical books? Physical books, or REAL books as I call them. Half the joy of reading is smelling those pages and turning them.

Ultimate holiday/relaxation? Anywhere that's freezing cold, where I can curl up in front of a fire with a glass of wine and a good book. I'm living in the wrong country for that, though!
Thank you so much Amy for dropping by for this super cool interview.

Amy and I went for a trip to Belanglo together in April this year. It was sooooo cold - not sure because of the temperature of the forest or the scary feelings of the forest.

You can find more information on the Apps at: http://www.rocketsplashgames.com

And join us all over at the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/serialkillapp/?ref=ts&fref=ts

The Man Behind The Serial Killer

It was in 1989 that my life collided with the world of the serial killer.

At the time I was in high school, dreaming of performing on the world's stage as a dancer and singer. I was a lot smaller then compared to now but then my life was one of adrenalin and music. Every waking moment was spent dancing, singing, playing instruments, or anything that came under the umbrella of performing.

Dance, drama and performance would remain part of my life for another four years, but it was slowly consumed by a darker world, I guess you could call it the world behind the curtain.  I lived in Sydney. One of the most beautiful places on earth and a place that will always be home, but in 1989 it was also the home to a serial killer.

In early 1989 an elderly lady was found bludgeoned to death. Her murder was reported in the media, as most cases of murder in Sydney are, but she was the first of at least six women who fell prey to the killer known as The Granny Killer. At the time, criminal profiling in Australia was in its infancy and an attempt was made to profile the serial killer. The profile claimed that the killer would be a young man, probably a skateboarder. However when the killer, a 50 year old man, was captured, my whole world seemed to circle in around me.

The idea that the serial killer was a genial older gentleman was incredulous. I could not believe it, he looked like my own father. He actually was a father, to two teenage girls.  I was hooked at that very moment. No more did I believe that killers were the Freddy Kruegers of this world. They were the fathers, the brothers, the uncles and even the mothers that walked among us.

This was how my 'life of crime' commenced. Gone went the dancing costumes and performance ideas, and instead, in their place were criminology exams and interviews with serial killers.

Since my new career path started I have interviewed dozens of serial killers, but nothing I have done will ever compare to that done by the serial killer expert himself Robert Ressler.  Along with another hero of mine, John Douglas, Ressler has interviewed the most infamous serial killers in America. He has, as he put it, looked into the abyss.  His numerous books taught me more than my university degree ever could regarding the criminal mind and the way it worked.

I have had some pretty exhilarating experiences with serial killers over the years, including death threats and recipes where I was one of the ingredients, but had it not been for Ressler, Douglas and their co-horts, would I be looking into the abyss now? Would my life be the one it is  with eight books on true crime published and many more to come? Serial killers have always been a part of history, and always will, but it was the need and ability to understand the mind of a killer that has compelled many of us to peer over that edge and to see what stares back.

Ressler passed away earlier this year, but for those who walk in the shadow of serial killers, he will forever live on.

Photo credit: criminalminds.wikia.com