I know in your books you pull from actual events you have encountered through the years of your awesomeness, so I was just curious in your book Bedlam Lost, was Simon based off of any true life experience or purely fictional? Or both?

Jack Castle Hi Samantha,

First, Great Question! Simon the psychopath in "Bedlam Lost" was easily my all-time favorite character to write.

While working law enforcement duties in Alaska one of my jobs was transporting the criminally insane from city to city either by plane, patrol vehicle or boat. As you can imagine, during transport I often had to spend a lot of time in close quarters with these highly dangerous individuals who often turned on you without a moments notice. Some transports thought they were being hunted by aliens, others thought they were aliens and I once transported three individuals all claiming to be the Messiah in just one week! What I found the most interesting was how much each of them really believed this fantasy world they had created for themselves.

Additionally, another thing that surprised me about ALL criminal behavior is no criminal ever thinks they are bad. I was amazed how often criminals would try to justify their criminal behavior whether it was shoplifting because they really needed it or they didn't consider themselves a monster because they only brutally harmed one child instead of several.

So to answer your question fully, Simon (a.k.a. the Naked Man) was not based on any one individual, but created by keeping these two train of thoughts in mind, i.e. Simon doesn't believe the insane criminal acts he does in the town of Havenport are evil.

Now here's the kicker... what if he's right?

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