Ask the Author: Jim Sargent
Answered Questions (12)
Jim Sargent
My latest Mickey Mathews mystery Brotherly Love was published in September of 2023. At the moment I'm writing the outline for a Young Adult novel, Teen Spies. The tale is centered around a brother and a sister with three friends who live outside Charlottesville, Virginia, and discover a German-born neighbor is actually a Nazi agent.
Jim Sargent
Thank you, Phil. Best regards, Jim
Jim Sargent
I did not include that information in the book, because I could not find an exact answer. I have read that trainer Jack Homel led a "posse" of Tiger players into the stands. But I found no pictorial or other newspaper evidence to support the fact that other Tiger players actually made it into the stands. As you know, Colavito was ejected for entering a "fan area."
Jim Sargent
I would return to the 1940s. I would visit Ypsilanti, Flint, East Lansing, and other cities in Michigan. I would also travel Up North to St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie and across the Upper Peninsula to Copper Harbor. Next I would try to meet and get to know President Roosevelt so that I could write a novel centered on his life in 1944-1945.
Jim Sargent
I read so many novels that space doesn't permit listing all of them.
Jim Sargent
The journey of my move to Clemson, South Carolina, in 1970, to teach US History at Clemson University, after completing grad school at Michigan State University. Later, I found a movie filmed mainly on Clemson's campus, The Midnight Man (1973), captured the mystery of why one night the campus police chief, played by Burt Lancaster, found a student murdered near a college building. I had an "extra" part for most of one night in that movie, which also starred Susan Clark and Cameron Mitchell. Sadly, Midnight Man has not yet been converted into digital format.
Jim Sargent
Perry Mason and Della Street. I always liked the clever plots and the interesting characters on "Perry Mason," and Della always came across like she and Perry were secret lovers!
Jim Sargent
Put whatever time it takes into the thinking, the research, and the writing. You need ideas, time, and effort plus the willingness to keep polishing your work.
Jim Sargent
You can express your research and thoughts into an article or a book, which I find very gratifying. My favorite time period covers the 1930s through the 1960s. Novels allow the writer to be more creative, because you are combining fiction with facts. I started with a baseball novel, Curve Ball. Now I am writing a series of Mickey Mathews Mysteries. See my website for more details.
Jim Sargent
I've never had "writer's block." The only problem is finding enough time to express the ideas.
Jim Sargent
Retired as a professor of American History, I have been writing sports profile articles since 1992. I started with two Tiger favorites, Charley Maxwell and Ray Boone. on SABR's website BioProject, you can find a large number of my baseball articles. Joe Schmidt for football and George Yardley for basketball are just two stars from other sports that I have profiled. Many of the players featured in my articles and books were kind enough to let me interview them. I really enjoyed the interviewing experience.
Jim Sargent
My second Mickey Mathews Mystery, The Long Pursuit, stems from the first novel about Mickey and his friends set at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Final Secret. Mickey was summoned to Ypsilanti, Michigan, in September of 1943 to investigate blackmail. Yancey White, president of Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan), called on the Normal alum and current novelist to deal with the blackmail. Soon Mickey and his friend Frank Tuttle are also investigating murder and sabotage at the Bomber Plant in nearby Willow Run. You can see my comments about all three of my novels at my web site: jimsargentbooks.com
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