Hi and welcome to my website! Take a look around and let me know what you think. Allow me to answer some of my own questions…
Who are you?
My name is Jamie Baynes and I was born and raised in the City of Richmond, went to Richmond Public Schools, then Virginia Commonwealth University. I joined the Richmond Police Department in 1993, worked in Patrol for (9) years and retired in 2020 as a Homicide detective.
What motivates you to write?
Reading bad novels. Any time I read a bad novel, it makes me want to write a great novel.
What do you write about?
Cops and the residents of the City of Richmond.
What’s your writing style?
Action, humor and every so often solving a murder or two.
Do you respond to emails?
Absolutely! Shoot me an email and let me know what you think about the books and/or the website.
Do you have any help writing your books or are you a one-person show?
Initially I wrote and edited my first book and thought I did a wonderful job….until I reviewed it again after a full night’s sleep and recalled the old adage that a lawyer who represents themselves has a fool for a client. The same applies to authors who edit their own work. So since then, I’ve recruited a bunch of very patient proofreaders who go behind me and correct my atrocious punctuation. Here’s a list of these amazing people in no particular order:
Jessica Kline
Marsha Fishbaugh
Natalie Barb
Brenda and John Graham
Kathleen Neylan-Moore
Shannon Harrell
Liz Limerick
You don’t use race when you describe your characters….why?
In my opinion the race, or gender, for that matter isn’t necessary to propel a thriller. I’ve found it distracting in books by other authors so I choose to not use race in my books, with one exception; Park. Park gets his own book later in the series and I’ll speak about why I use Park’s race when that book comes out. But otherwise, using race in the descriptions is non-negotiable.
But you have character photos and the race is out there for the world to see. Want to explain that?
Sure. I see my novels and the creative process involved in writing them as a community of people and ideas. This community extends to my character photographs. Everyone who has volunteered to be a character is part of the Danny and Park community and they enjoy being the face of whichever character they portray. Ever read a book and then seen the movie? Sure you have. Sometimes the actors portraying the characters don’t match what you’ve seen in your head from reading the books. In my opinion, that’s ok as long as it doesn’t detract from the thrills.
While we’re on the subject of writing, what do you think of ‘Thriller’ writers who insert their own political views into their novels?
I think those authors are shortchanging their readers. Especially long-time readers who began to read the authors before they decided to get on a soapbox and use the novel as a platform to push their own political views.
I get inserting some views into your books, but why push politics when they can be so divisive? Why alienate a group of readers who just want a great story?
If the author is writing a political novel, great. Put all the politics that you want into the book. If politics are part of the storyline for your novel? Again, do your thing.
But random, snarky comments that are inserted just to push the author’s views? No thanks.
You don’t have to be left, right, or center to enjoy my novels. All that’s required is for you to enjoy thrillers.
What would you say to those authors? The ones who allow their political views to sneak into their novels?
Stop it.
Are you stressing over all the vitriol and hate coming from all sides with recent events?
Nope. And neither should you. I’m going to tell you something that all cops know; good people and bad people come in all different forms, from all different backgrounds, different races, religions, genders…What we ALL should do is to look out for each other and treat others the way we want to be treated: with dignity and respect. If we do that at our level? We’ve got nothing to worry about from all of those outside influences that would rather see us apart then together. Knowledge is power, so never stop learning and questioning what you’re being told by those doing the telling.
Are your books just for cops or people who support cops?
Nope. My books are for everyone. And I mean everyone.
Now moving beyond the Q & A….
I enjoy modeling my characters after people I know and people that I meet. All of the characters to the right of this column are real people who have said that they wanted to be in the books. I’m always looking for more characters, so if you want to be a character in the books shoot me an email and we’ll make it happen.
I believe that making a big deal out of a diverse cast of characters takes focus away from the story of the book. And after all, aren’t we all reading thriller books for the story and not for the author’s viewpoints on life?
Life in and of itself is diverse. Embrace it.
In the novels, and in real life, family’s important which is why I use the RPD family, and the RPD extended family to portray characters in the books. I love good guys, but have had many of my models ask to portray bad guys! Of course I obliged. So if you see someone you know as a bad guy, it was their choice! I believe that all cops are good guys (and gals, of course), despite what others may think. Disagree with me? Go ahead, but check out the books anyway. I think even people who say they don’t like cops will enjoy them!
Click on the picture of the Jeff Katz Show logo to the right of your screen to hear an interview I did on WRVA with Jeff.
In writing these books, I want to share stories of cops and show how police officers of all races, sexes, religions, etc. are heroes of their departments and to their families. It’s easy to beat up on the media for casting cops in a bad light, but they’re not the only ones; the entertainment industry enjoys using cops as targets for scorn as well. Authors get their licks in too. Even authors who use a police officer as their main protagonist will eventually write about ‘crooked’ cops. Not my thing and it never will be.
The cops in my books are portrayed as real people. I’m not like other authors who make a big deal about how tough a woman cop is because I KNOW and all of the women cops I know, know, that they’re tough. Why draw attention to it over and over again? I’ve read many books where authors feel they have to prove that their female characters are just as tough as their male counterparts. It’s like the authors are patting themselves on the back for writing what we all already know!
To reiterate what I said above, my books will never get bogged down by partisan politics because the help cops provide is non-partisan. Let the politicians deal with each other; real people know that helping each other out is what brings all of us together.
A big thanks to all of my models who appear in the character pics of the website (and will appear on the cover of future books). Why is Park’s face covered? Well, while fictional Park is a proud patrol officer, the REAL model does work where being recognized as a police officer could make his job even more dangerous. So, Park’s face will remain a mystery.
