Joseph Flynn

Talk to Me

I’m a Chicago guy who doesn’t live  in Chicago anymore. I grew up on the North Side of the city and rooted for the baseball team that plays on the South Side. Life is full of contradictions.

I’ve always been a reader, and that led me to become a writer. Also, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories when I was little. He didn’t read books to me; he just spun the stories out of thin air. Talk about a lifetime influence. My mom was my first editor. When I was in the fourth grade, I wrote a school paper about our family dog. Mom read it and said, “Try to be a little more imaginative in your writing,” I’ve done my best to follow that guideline ever since.

I got my first writing job at a big Chicago ad agency. I also toiled in the ad mines of Honolulu and Los Angeles. I wrote a bunch of screenplays in L.A. and had one of them optioned by 20th Century Fox. I also wrote my first published novel in the City of Angels. Moving back to the Midwest, I got my first hardcover novel deal — writing two titles for Bantam Books.

Now, my wife and I are the co-publishers of Stray Dog Press, Inc. We have 30+ titles on Amazon and the plan is to keep writing and publishing until my well of imagination runs dry. That doesn’t look to happen anytime soon.
— Joe

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Jim McGill Series

When McGill was formally introduced to the White House press corps, Helen Thomas asked him how it felt to be the country’s first First Gentleman.

He responded, “I prefer to think of myself as the president’s henchman.”

Books in the series [in order]:
#1 — The President’s Henchman [2009]
#2 — The Hangman’s Companion [2010]
#3 — The K Street Killer [2011]
#4 — Part 1: The Last Ballot Cast [2012]
#5 — Part 2: The Last Ballot Cast [2012]
#6 — The Devil on the Doorstep [2013]
#7 — The Good Guy with a Gun [2014]
#8 — The Echo of the Whip [2015]
#9 — The Daddy’s Girl Decoy [2016]
#10 — The Last Chopper Out [2017]
#11 — The King of Mirth [2018]

         The King of Mirth

McGill’s Short Cases 1-3: Three Jim McGill Short Stories

Jim McGill Series Character List