Doc Ephraim Bates: 7 Questions for Our Author and Now Local TV Personality
Our inimitable author Doc Ephraim Bates was on TV recently promoting his new book, Dragon’s Men: Domestic.
We’ll share a link to Doc’s stellar appearance at the end of this post, but if you really want the inside scoop, here are seven big questions from his editor, Nancy Sayre, that the TV interviewer neglected to ask:
Nancy: You started writing the Dragon’s Men stories when you were only a teenager. How on earth did you know how to plot thrillers at such an early age?
Doc: I first started creating the Dragon’s Men characters back in the mid 1980s. At that time in America, the missing children pandemic was extremely prominent. Pictures of missing children were practically everywhere: magazines, music stores, grocery markets, the sides of buses…and most notably, milk cartons.
The Lincoln Group intended to dominate the world. However, there were four kids–all in their mid-teens–that the re-programming didn’t work on. The four kids find each other and plan an escape which they execute flawlessly. Keep in mind, these four had their memories stripped; only the brainwashing didn’t take hold.
The kids find their way back to a small town in upstate New York. The authorities there have no idea what to do with these amnesiac kids and their wild story of a corporation that is creating an unbeatable army to use for world domination. So, they’re shipped off to the authorities in NYC. Doctors there run tests on them and the cops post nationwide bulletins in hopes that someone will recognize them. Weeks go by, and no answers can be found. Nobody believes their story about The Lincoln Group, and the four are starting to be written off as freaks.
Finally, a police sergeant who has a cabin in the Adirondacks near the alleged military compound believes their story. Once at the cabin, they hike through the darkness to find the compound. And they do.
The police sergeant, whose name is Jack Thompson, sees it all for himself. Let’s jump to the end. Thompson tells who he needs to tell, a U.S. military strike team goes into the compound and does what they need to do, and the super army is neutralized. The four escaped teens are lauded as national heroes. They spend the next year making appearances all over the world–and making a lot of money–telling their amazing story. Through it all, though, no one ever comes forward with information on their identities.
When the dust settles, the four older teens open up their own business specializing in helping people that the police can’t help. The leader of this ragtag bunch, John Watkins, has a birthmark on his right forearm that looks just like a dragon’s head. By the end of the story, the other three have taken to calling him Dragon John. When they open up their business, they decide upon calling it “Dragon’s Men Investigation And Protection Agency.” Thus the legends were born.
I realize that the story is kind of far-fetched, even by 1980s standards, but that was the original story of Dragon’s Men.
Over the years, I have shaped, refined, and streamlined the character arcs to make Dragon’s Men what it is today. To think, it only took about 40 years to do it.
Nancy: Okay, well, I’m glad I asked. So, what was it like to grow up as the youngest (by far) in a family of so many brothers?
Doc: In my pre-pubescent years, it was a lot like boot camp.
Most of my brothers were still home, and we had to share bedrooms. My parents were the best, but by the time I came along, they were pretty much on auto-pilot. People would always assume that since I was the baby, I was spoiled rotten. That premise was not too far off, as my parents really did let me get away with a lot of things that my older brothers got punished for when they were my age. Here’s the thing, though: If I did something for which my brother’s were punished, and got away with it, my brothers made sure I got what I deserved…and then some. It got to the point where I would ask my dad to give me a spanking. I figured it was better to be disciplined by one father than to have to face the wrath of three or more of my brothers.
That’s just one aspect of it, though. Most of the time, it was a blast. Almost every day or evening–especially in the summer–we’d go out in our back field and play stickball, football, and basketball, depending on what sports season it happened to be at the time. If it was raining, we’d stay inside and play cards or board games until whatever game we were waiting for came on TV.
Yes, my early years were pretty great. Now, here’s what you have to understand: for my six brothers, there were just 2-3 years between their ages. But then there was a six-year gap before I came along. As the years ticked by, my brothers started leaving the roost. They went off to college, married, and moved away. So, when Bobby , my next oldest brother, graduated high school and went off to college, I was only 12 years old and living alone in this big house with my parents.
To make it worse, we lived so far off the beaten path that it made the “boonies” look like Atlantic City on a Friday night. Our neighbors were the cornfields and the sheep. It was the mid-1980s, so there was no internet, no cell phones, and no computers. Out where I lived, you couldn’t even get cable TV.
So, I had to figure out a way to keep myself entertained because hanging out in the kitchen watching my mom can string beans and tomatoes just wasn’t cutting it. That was when I turned to my old friend, Imagination. I started inventing characters and plot lines. The places that I would go were endless, and I did it all with a pencil and notebook paper. Even back then, I really felt like I could be a pretty decent writer. So, that’s what it was like growing up as the youngest of 7 boys.
Nancy: The Weapon of Mass Destruction in Dragon’s Men: Domestic is fascinating. Can you give us the backstory?
Doc: Okay, here’s the deal–the WMD in Domestic was just a dirty bomb that would potentially spread the Marburg virus throughout the city and slowly kill everyone. Pretty much run-of-the-mill stuff.
The fascinating part of the WMD was its detonator. I used a Cassaman-Robbins detonator because, in reality, it was so difficult to disarm that the company that made it was forced to discontinue production.
I had a friend–everyone called him “Uncle Phil”–who had been a bomb technician in the military. Later, he joined the Baltimore bomb squad until he retired. I asked him one day just what the toughest detonator he ever came across in all of his years of dealing with explosives was. Without hesitation, he said, “The Cassaman-Robbins.” He spent the next hour telling me about it and the only way to disarm it. The whole thing made for some great writing in Domestic.
Nancy: Something that makes your new series stand out is the way you’re weaving a subtle-but-important social statement throughout the plot. Please explain what it is and why it is important to you (and to us, your readers).
Doc: At some point in each of my Dragon’s Men novels, I include a hot-topic conversation between two or more characters. The conversation takes place between/amongst intelligent and informed people. Talking points of both sides of the topic are represented in a calm, amenable voice. Yes, there are interruptions, rebuttals, points and counterpoints, but they are made in a civil, non-confrontational way.
I am doing this because I hope it causes my readers to remember a time when people conversed about controversial matters without coming to blows or ending friendships. These days, when people have any sort of disagreement on a social issue, they think whoever out-shouts the other guy is the winner. Seems to me, in a situation like that, there are no winners.
Nancy: You have shared that you have Parkinson’s. Can you tell us about the challenges that presents to your writing, and how you’re managing them?
Doc: It’s true, I do have Parkinson’s Disease. Unfortunately, in the years following my diagnosis, I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia, hypertension and hypotension, cervical degeneration in my spine, two bulging discs, and a lot of arthritis. Add to that something called cluster headaches–AKA suicide headaches because people have tried to kill themselves just to make the pain go away. Still, it’s not quite as painful as having to sit through a showing of Last Temptation of Christ.
As far as how these ailments affect my writing? It is what keeps me from writing two books a year instead of one book every two years. Some days my muscles are so tight, I feel like a mummy. Other days, my hands have such bad tremors that I can’t type a sentence. And the chronic pain dictates how much I can do even on days when everything else is going pretty well. Just a few years ago, I was able to work on my books about 20 days a month. Now, some months, I might only be able to work on my stories for 5 days. Of course, that is the worst case scenario, but it does happen.
I am currently on 15 different medications and perform a physical therapy regimen 3-5 days a week. I stick to a strict diet because extra pounds give me extra difficulties. Still, in spite of it all, my faith in God and my attitude of making each day the best it can be get me through it all.
Nancy: Do you have a specific plan of attack for writing your books? Do you do an outline first? Do you come up with an ending and then work your way back to the beginning?
Doc: The niche in which I write (comedic action thrillers) is very different and very specific, and so is the way that I go about it.
While some authors start out with an outline which they use as a guide, other authors start with the conclusion of their story and write their way back to the beginning. I have no idea how that works. I tried it once and got so lost that I ended up in Saskatchewan.
No, the way I write is like this: I write the ending–a great climactic ending–and then I go back to the beginning, Chapter One, and I start writing. I guess it’s called free-writing because I have no real direction and no restrictions; whatever happens…happens. Corny as it sounds, I really let my characters guide my writing. So far, they’re doing a really great job.
Nancy: Agreed. Any last comments? We loved your attire for the interview, by the way. Very Sergeant Pepper.
Doc: I loved doing that interview, and I love getting out and doing book signings and meeting people. Anyone reading this who knows of a place near you that might be a good spot for a book signing, please contact my brilliant publisher and interviewer, Nancy Sayre.
I hope everyone enjoys this interview and the chance to get to know me a little better. I appreciate all of their support and fandom through the years and look forward to putting out great books for the foreseeable future.
Thanks, Doc. We can’t wait until the next Dragon’s Men book drops.
As promised, here is a link to Doc’s interview on Good Day PA on ABC 27: https://www.facebook.com/doc.bates.90/videos/1241592873443828
Follow Doc on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doc.bates.90
Buy his newest book, Dragon’s Men: Domestic here:
or request it at your favorite bookstore.
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