R.B.: Leland, what can you tell us about your early years and how your experiences may have influenced your writing today.

Leland: I’m a native of northern Mississippi in the Memphis, Tennessee area. I think that the farm chore requirements and living in a rural environment, with access to hunting and fishing activities exposed me to many dramas in the daily interaction between humans and animals. I had several jobs during college and traveled extensively throughout the South as a salesman, pulled an overseas stint with the US Army, married and settled in northern Virginia, where I raised three daughters and completed my degree at American University in Washington, DC., and worked my way into computer system development. I eventually divorced and remarried. These things have certainly had an influence on me as a person and as a writer.

R.B.: Did you do any writing during those times?

Leland: Oh, a little story or poem now and again as a kid, for my own enjoyment, I suppose, but certainly nothing very serious. After I began developing computer systems I wrote technical manuals, but that was a pretty austere environment for creativity. You basically had to stick with the formula and try to be as consistent as possible. But even so, word-smithing was an important element.

R.B.: But you didn’t do any serious fiction then?

Leland: No, It wasn’t until several hunting trips to the West kick-started my appreciation for the grandeur and wonder of the places I saw, some of the exciting activities going on out there. I just got an overwhelming desire to 'put it on paper,' to show others what I could see in reality and in my imagination.

R.B.: Once you started writing, when did you first start thinking of yourself as a writer?

Leland: My first novel came about as a result of a trip to the San Juan Mountains in 1988 to hunt elk. About that time I read magazine articles about someone killing the last wild grizzly in Colorado some fifteen years earlier. I started thinking of a scenario where another “last grizzly” could be found there. A few years later I combined an elk hunting story with the story of a bear migrating from Yellowstone to the San Juans and produced THE LAST GRIZZLY. It got great reviews from my hunting buddies, friends and acquaintances and then from the general readership. Some of those people would have been brutal if they hadn't really liked it or if they thought I didn’t tell it like it could have actually happened. I was certainly proud of the book, although in retrospect, I have to say I should have changed a few things. I guess first novels are always tough.

Then, in ANASAZI HARVEST I felt I captured the story I wanted. A year or so after I finished the scores and scores of writing and editing sessions on it, I read it just for pure pleasure. It’s an excellent story. I'm also quite happy with reviews of my third novel, VIGILANTE VIRUS, but it has yet to gain widespread readership. I’m sure it has something to do with the publicity channels I chose for it. Maybe something can be done about that soon.

R.B.: What kinds of books did you read as a youngster? What were the most influential?

Leland: I read widely—took a lot of kidding from my schoolmates for being a bookworm. A lot of Kipling, Edgar Rice Burroughs, jungle stories, animal stories. Later, as an adult, I continued somewhat in the same vein, with outdoor adventure stories. Louis Lamour's LAST OF THE BREED was an inspiration for THE LAST GRIZZLY in an off-handed sort of way. ANASAZI HARVEST was certainly influenced by the modern western series by Tony Hillerman. John Grisham, Anne Rule, Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, Larry McMurtry, and others, have been my reading diet and probably influenced VIGILANTE VIRUS. But I have to say that the one author that influenced me the most was Ayn Rand, probably because I read her as a young adult. I was put off by the cult-like following that she attracted, but was impressed with her ability to bring logic to bear on some of life’s thorniest issues. I read a lot in those years: GONE WITH THE WIND and The YEARLING made big impressions. Later I went through a phase of reading spooky stories, Stephen King, Dean Koontz come to mind.

R.B.: You released a new novel, GRIZ Nightmare, recently. What is it about?

Leland: Yes, in November, 2000. It’s a sequel to THE LAST GRIZZLY. At least it carries the Jim Wilson part of the story forward. This time he has to dodge grizzlies while dealing with a gang of prison escapees running for the Canadian border.

R.B.: Sounds like an exciting scenario. How long did it take to write it?

Leland: It’s only a couple of hundred pages, but it took close to a year to get it completely finished. I had been sporadically thinking about the story for the past several years, just couldn’t come up with an appropriate vehicle for the story line. I finally saw that I could sequel it to THE LAST GRIZZLY and it all fell into place. It was a lot of fun. I had a really good groove with it.

R.B.: Does music ever play a role in your writing?

Leland: For sure. While I work I sometimes play smoothies like John Denver, Striesand, Nana Mouskouri, even my old favorite, Joan Bayez. Faster tempo things, too. I love to have mood music going while I’m writing, perhaps one of Dan Gibson's SOLITUDES. Sounds of birds calling and rain falling are serene and enchanting. Wild horses neighing ahead of a storm as they thunder down a desert canyon stirs me.

R.B.: What projects are in store for your readers?

Leland: My little family of Jack Russell Terriers has agreed to pose for a picture book for children. This has been hanging fire for several months while I worked out some other problems, but now has a good chance to get back to the front burner. Another project I’m working is an exercise manual to show how to develop upper body strength while walking or hiking for general health. And then there’s my next novel. I think it will be a political satire, but it’s still in a formative stage.

R.B.: Is there anything in general you’d like to say to your readers?

Leland: Sure, what I’ve said before. Any author hopes the public gets pleasure from his or her efforts. I certainly do. If my books give pleasure and useful information and along the way something to think about beyond the immediacy of the story, then I'm quite happy about it.