Charles Sasser is a freelance writer and photographer with over 2,500 articles and short stories to his name. He has been published in several leading magazines, including Parents, Christian Life, Soldier of Fortune, and Writer’s Digest. He was a journalist in the Navy and a Green Beret in the Army. He has also been a police officer in Miami, Florida, where he worked on the vice squad.  Later he served as a homicide detective in Tulsa for ten years.  Additionally, Sasser is a gifted public speaker and the consummate adventurer.  More information is available at charlessasser.com.

By Ryan Dahlgren

I read your first novel, No Gentle Streets. How long were you a homicide detective?

I was a cop fourteen years. I was four years in Miami, Florida, then I came back to Tulsa for ten years.

What did you do as an officer in Miami?

I worked in vice and was on a salt and pepper team.

You’ve written an impressive range of books. You’ve published histories and thrillers, even a science fiction novel.

I’m doing another science fiction title now and a book on the 10^th Mountain Division in Iraq. So I’m probably going to Iraq here shortly.  I’m also doing a Christian book. And that [he points to a stack of papers and binders] is probably going to wind up being a World War II history article—on this old guy who was a World War II veteran and was in the Aleutians when the Japanese invaded. 

Is it hard to get into Iraq as a journalist at this point?

No, not really. You can just fly into Baghdad. I’ll go with the military. I’m retired military. I can fly military aircraft, so I’ll just hop a plane.

What about getting around when you’re there?

Being ex-military helps a lot. Being an ex-cop helps a lot.

It looks like you stay busy.

I always write at least three books at a time, and then I write a regular column for a magazine. I do a lot of stuff.

How do you measure your writing?

I don’t do pages or chapters. I just work those two hours or whatever. Then when it’s finished, it’s finished. I write pretty fast. I write everything longhand. I write it once, type it up. Rewrite it and type it up. So I only do one rewrite. I just sold a book and the publisher asked how long I needed. I said eight months to a year.

How do you write three things at once?

I mark out my day here, every day.  It works. If you’re just doing one thing it’s boring, so I do a lot of different things that interest me. My agent, years ago when he first became my agent, said, “Well, we’ve got to find you a niche.” I don’t want to do that. Why would I want to do the same thing over and over again? I’ve got other interests.

You wrote the Detachment Delta series, which is sort of a change for you since you prefer more variety.  How did you like it?

I just finished that series of five novels, which was fun. I’ve started another series now, the OSS Commando series.  I’ve done two of those books; I need just one more. But I’ve got some other things I want to do. There’s more to life than money. You have to do what you want to do.

You’ve had several careers.  You’ve even been a rodeo clown and a kick boxer.  Why have you led so many different lives?

A lot of things interest me. When I was a little kid we were migrant workers. We lived in dirt floor chicken houses and barns. I told my mom, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a writer and live many lives and write about them.”

I heard you’ve got quite a passion for the space program.

In 1986 I was a finalist for the journalist in space project. It looked like I was going to get to go up into space. Then the teacher creamed in. They cancelled all of those programs. It shows what kind of society we’ve got now. They have one casualty and they close it all. It just drives me nuts, the timidity we have in this country. This lack of risk. Nobody wants to take a risk. I have news for everybody—you’re not getting out alive!  If you’re afraid to die, you’re afraid to live.

How do you know when it’s time to go from one job to another?

Well, they say starvation is the best inspiration. If you got to do it, you’ve got to do it.

But how did you decide to stop being a police officer?

I’d been selling articles for a long time. Then I sold No Gentle Streets. I also got divorced from my first wife. So a year later, I told my girlfriend at the time, “Hey, I’m heading to the woods.  You can go it or not. It’s up to you.” Cause we lived in an 8 by 16 foot tool shed for eight months while I built another house. “You can go or not go, but I’m going. I’m going to make my living as a writer.” I just planned on doing it anyhow, and it was the right time.

Is it unusual to have served in two branches of the military? It seems like that would give you a broader perspective.

Not that unusual.  I was four years in the Navy, and then I got out and I traveled around on a motorbike and lived in a tent for a year. I worked odd jobs and I was writing. I ended up in Miami with eight bucks. I needed a job and began working with the police department. Then Vietnam started, and I went back into the Army. A friend of mine was in the Green Berets—Special Forces. That sounded more fun than the Navy.

I think your idea of fun and my idea of fun are a little bit different.

It looked like an adventure. You know, parachuting.  Special Forces was the elite of the elite! I said, “Hey,that sounds good to me.” I spent 29 years total in the Army. That’s the Army, active and reserve. And also those four years in the Navy.  I’d go eight months, six months here on a mission. A year here on a mission.

It looks like you’re certified for scuba diving, skydiving, and piloting aircraft.  Also, you’re a flight instructor for ultralight aircraft

I was the first one to make a transcontinental flight in one of those [an ultralight powered parachute].  There were storms and wind.  Sometimes I was flying backwards. If I’d get lost, I’d just go down low enough to read the highway signs. It was fun, but when I landed, I told my wife, “That was a dumb thing to do.”

You head up north a lot. You canoed in the Yukon and wrote Arctic Homestead. You must really like it up there.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I solo canoed across the Northern Territory. I’ve taken my son, and now I’m taking my grandkids.  We’re kayaking the costal waterways from Washington up to Alaska.

So where have you been lately?

I just got back from Laredo. I spent some time investigating some Border Patrol things.

Sounds like a book. What’s going on down in Laredo?

It’s just a mess with the drug runners and the cartels and the smugglers. And, of course, the coyotes. It’s a real mess and it’s getting worse. It’s like going into another country. I met this Border Patrol officer… this is his true name: Tater Ortiz. [Laughs.] He’s an interesting character.

You do some non-fiction books as well.

I did a book called Patton’s Panthers about the all black 761^st Tank Battalion in World War II. These guys are my heroes. I keep getting notices from their widows that they’ve died. Unknown to me, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had written a book about them that came out right after mine did. He didn’t interview these guys.  He just got to one of the men and got his story. So they sued him, because he wasn’t telling the truth. In my book, I told it the way it was.  The guys loved it.

A writer has to write the truth. If he succumbs to pressures and distorts the truth in any way, all he’s doing is falsifying history.

What are some of the things you learned while you were traveling the world?

I was in Algeria. I took some missionaries down to the refugee camps as security.  When I was on the plane, this Algerian soldier came and sat by me. He knew I was American. The first thing he starts to say is “You shouldn’t do this… you shouldn’t do this…” and I said, “Nah, that’s not the way it is.” [Laughs.]   So we started talking.  When we got off in Algiers, it was raining and he took off his leather coat so I wouldn’t get wet.  He’d had time to change his attitude.

Passenger planes, ultralight aircraft, motorcycles, and canoes.  You’ve not only traveled everywhere, you’ve traveled every way.

I walked across Guatemala from El Salvador. It’s a long story, but I had to get out of the country. So I didn’t have any money. So I just started walking. It took like four weeks or whatever it is. I had more fun… cause everybody walks down there in Latin America. So I just saw all these people walking and went in their houses. It was an interesting walk.

One of the most fascinating things in literature is when you read about places you’ve been to. No Gentle Streets is pretty explicitly Tulsa, except for where you changed Riverside Drive into River Drive.  What other books have you set in Oklahoma?

One of my most popular books was a novel called The 100^th Kill.  It’s a Vietnam novel. It came out in 1991, and it was in print for years. It’s kind of old, but one of my characters in it was from Oklahoma, and some of the scenes happen in Oklahoma.  I use Oklahoma a lot. There are a lot of other places but none like Oklahoma 

You’ve done so many different things and have been all over the world. What advice do you have to give?

Never pass up an opportunity. Never. Because every opportunity ends up as material for you as a writer. It’s all grist for the mill.