Roger Hobbs

From Sam Coggeshall's Portland Monthly Q & A with Roger Hobbs, author of Ghostman:

What was your inspiration for this novel? Why crime fiction?

I got the idea for Ghostman the summer after my sophomore year at Reed. I was walking home late after a movie when I came across an armored car depot. It was a plain white unmarked building with rows and rows of armored cars parked out front. I sneaked up and touched a few, and my mind started whirling—what do you think I would need to rob one of these? That night I went home and wrote the first chapter of what would become Ghostman.

Portland is such a writers’ town. Does anything about the city contribute to your style of writing or your choice of subject material? The long winters or the rain, say?

The thing that I love most about Portland isn't the rain, but the darkness. Even when the sun comes out, it's never bright here. Nobody wears sunglasses. During the winter months, Portland is submerged in a perpetual twilight—and that's a fantastic atmosphere for a crime writer like me. I like to work at night to avoid distractions, and Portland's quiet, dark, industrial silence definitely helps me set the mood. I love listening to the...[read on]

Visit Roger Hobbs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue