Story writer and novelist O’Neil De Noux lives the fast-paced lifestyle that most people fantasize about. By day, he works as an investigator for the Southeastern Louisiana University Police Department, and by night he spins his own field experience into a collection of crime and detective stories, primarily based in New Orleans. Over the course of summer 2010, De Noux has added five new titles to his writing collection, which is comprised of seven novels, six short story collections and over 200 short stories.

With the excitement of his newest accomplishment still fresh, De Noux sat down with The Lion’s Roar to talk about his writing background, some of his favorite works and how inspiration can be found in the most interesting of places.

The Lion’s Roar: Tell us about your writing background, how you first started.

De Noux: I first started in high school. I wrote a bunch of bad short stories in high school. I always wanted to be a writer. I didn’t have anything to write about until I became a police officer, and then found out that’s what I needed to write about, because I knew a little bit about that. I started writing novels and short stories in the mid ‘80s and had my first novel published in 1988.

What would you say was the most difficult thing about getting published?

Well, the most difficult thing is getting an editor to believe in you. Getting an agent is difficult too, someone to represent you. But an agent is only half the problem. The problem is getting an editor and a publisher to believe in you.

What inspired that?

Probably reading stuff by Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, people like that when I was young. Just reading good stories and good novels. And I said ‘You know, I think I could write that. I like to write stuff like that.’ So I think it was always there. I was always meant to write it. I just had to get around to doing it.

What is your favorite book?

Favorite book of all time. One book, huh? Probably “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. I think it is one of the greatest books ever written.

So why did you choose to become an investigator as your professional career? Would you consider being a writer as a side career?

No they’re both. I have a dual career. I started in law enforcement, I was a cop before I became a writer, and then I became a writer. I have always been both since then.

Did you write for your school newspaper or a literary magazine?

No, never did. I just had an interest in it. I wrote for myself. I couldn’t write anything good. Got into college, I wrote a few things, just dabbled at it until I got out of college and then started writing more seriously.

What kind of writing do you enjoy the most?

I guess they’re about even, but I think I might lean toward novels. I like the novel format. It gives you a lot of room to run, to do a lot of different things. Short story is quite limited and quite challenging. I think I’m a better short story writer than I am a novelist. Like Poe, who thought that he was a better poet than he was a short story writer. He was actually a better short story writer. And I think I’m probably a better short story writer, because I won awards as a short story writer, but I enjoy novels.

What kind of awards did you win?

In 2007, I won the Shamus award for best short story, [from] the Private Eye Writers of America. Then again in 2009 I won a best novelette, which is also a long short story for the Short Mystery Fiction Society. So I won a couple of them.

How did you come up with these ideas? Do you draw from real life inspiration?

Pretty much. You get inspired easily when you’re a professional writer. Inspiration is never a problem. It’s getting the time and the discipline to do it. But you can get inspired by so many different things and in “New Orleans Nocturnal” and “New Orleans Mysteries,” I was inspired by events that happened in cases. Sometimes you’re inspired by a word. I wrote a short story called “Erotophobia” because I saw the word on the Internet. And I said ‘What is erotophobia?’ So I looked it up, it’s a fear of erotic situations and I said, ‘That’s a title.’ At one time, my wife walked into the room when I was watching TV, and she showed me the Victoria Secret catalog and said ‘Look there’s a brassiere called the kissable cleavage bra.’ I said, ‘Kissable cleavage. That’s a title.’ She said, ‘No it isn’t.’ I wrote a short story and sold it twice called Kissable Cleavage. Sometimes a writer is inspired by just words or situations. I used to tell the students I used to teach, is whatever can bring an emotional reaction in you, that’s what you want to write about. Because you might be able to portray that, and get the emotional reaction out of the reader. So something that moves you.

What are your favorite things to write about? Do you primarily write about crime or mysteries?

I primarily write mysteries, however I’ve written a lot of erotica, I’ve written westerns, I’ve written historicals, I like historicals. I’ve written children stories. I’ve had a story in Messenger of the Sacred Heart, which is a Catholic magazine. It was a nice short story. I have a story in lesbian short fiction, because I had a positive portrayal of lesbians. There was not a sexy story, they were professional people and who were positively portrayed. So I’m proud to be in all those genres. I like writing in different genres.

Do you have a specific favorite?

Probably crime fiction. Because I think I know crime fiction better. I don’t have to do much research with that. I don’t have to call another cop up to say ‘Hey, is this accurate?’ I know the way a police officer thinks, what they feel, what they’ve gone through, the effects of violence on them and their families. Cause violence works both ways. The victim is of course the most important person in the case, because they are the victim, but violence on the victim also affects first responders and everyone else too. So I try to portray all that stuff.

Are any of your characters based on people you know in real life?

Yes, in fact, most of them are. They’re not completely that person. They’re always bits and pieces of that person from different people. My first main character’s name is Dino LaStanza. He’s a Sicilian-American. Unfortunately, I made him look like me. I wish I would’ve made him taller ‘cause everyone think it’s me when it’s not. He’s actually a lot of my brother in him. My brother’s was a New Orleans robbery detective, a lot tougher than me. So a lot of my brother in him, some of my father in him, some of me in him. And John Raven Beau. He’s half-Cajun, half-Sioux. I don’t know any Sioux personally, but I know the traits and I know some Cajun people who’s inspired him. And I do that on a lot of stuff. I’ll get a little bit of some person and drop it into the character.

Who have been some of the most interesting people you’ve worked with as a writer?

Well, Harlan Ellison number one. He’s my mentor. He’s a wonderful writer, a great writer. He’s been around for a while. He wrote for “Star Trek,” he wrote for “Twilight Zone.” He’s a very great short story writer. George Alec Effinger was a short story writer and a novelist. He passed away recently. Actually, it hadn’t been recently, it’s been quite a while. It just feels recently ‘cause he was such a great guy. He helped teach me how to write a short story. He’s a New Orleans writer that very few people even heard of, even though he won big awards in his field. He was a science fiction writer. He won the Hugo and the Neubula. John Edward Ames is a New Orleans writer, who’s written 60 novels, but he writes them under psudenoym, and he writes westerns, which is not big in New Orleans. In fact, he helped inspire the John Raven Beau character, because he wrote a series called “Cheyenne” and I got some of the inspiration from him. So pretty much those three.

What is your dream writing project?

I’ve already done it. I just did it last two years. I wrote the novel that I was always meant to write. It’s something that was in the back of my mind for a long time. It’s a novel, a “Gone with the Wind” type love story, set against the backdrop of the Battle of New Orleans. It’s a 320,000 word book that’s longer than “Lonesome Dove” and not quite as long as “Gone with the Wind.” It’s an epic, it’s a historical epic. And I’ve done it. So I’ve just gotta get it out there, and right now I’ve moved on to writing a small noir, private eye novel. But that was my big one. I don’t know if I’ll ever write anything that good again, but you never know. I just did it the last two years. It was quite an undertaking. It was a lot of discipline, and I like that. But it was the best thing I’ve ever written, that’s for sure.

What are some of the ways you prepare to write? Any little habits?

All good writing starts with a germ of an idea. You get an idea, you write it down. Just put down the idea. Then you go back and you flesh out the plot. Well, what are you going to do with this, who’s going to be your main character, whose point of view, when’s it going to be, where’s it going to be? And I put all that together, and then I will write a short synopsis of the story, or the novel. I know how it’s going to end, I know how it’s going to begin. And then what happens is, you mull over that. You let it sit there, you let it ferment in your brain. You come up with different scenarios, different scenes until you are about ready to write. And then you start writing. You should write as quickly as you can. And then rewrite, and you should rewrite it a lot until you get it right. So it’s a real process, it’s a real discipline. But I always start something up as soon as I finish a project. I start something right away, and just keep moving.