Back to School can be

them. You really do. I mean, you spend more time with them than you do anyone else outside of your wife or kids.

Do you have a favorite character from your books?

To this day, I still really love Smith Driskill from Payback Jack, because he’s the first character I ever saw and felt. And Teeny in Claws, my new book I’m working on now that will come out next year, is my current favorite. She’s an eight-year-old who has gone through some terrible things. She can talk, but she chooses not to. I like that limit. It makes her more interesting, because she can’t say anything. I think the best characters are defined by their limits, not their strengths.

One thing I noticed in your books is how descriptive you are. For instance, I think all our readers would be able to relate to how you describe the weather in southeast Texas, “The heat surrendering to its superior tormentor – humidity. The stickiness of your clothes, the line of sweat forming across your back, supergluing skin to shirt.”

You have to get people off the page. When I read and I see the words in front of me, I hate that. But when I read and I can see pictures in my brain, that’s where I want to be. The best compliment I get is when someone says, “Hey, I read it like it was a movie. It should be a movie. I saw it in my brain.” That’s the greatest. I try to write to people’s senses a lot, as well as to their sense of humor.

Timothy Gene Sojka is the author of Amazon bestselling thriller Payback Jack, and his novels Politikill and 39: Your Last Birthday are both Maxy Award winners. His latest book, Claws, a thriller dealing with the subject of child trafficking, is due out in 2024. Tim is a Realtor/Broker and CEO. He is happily married with one grown daughter. He paddleboards for stress relief, and runs so he can eat Tex-Mex.