Harstad shares wit, wisdom from arresting career

By Diana Nollen

The Gazette

Donald Harstad of Elkader has spent so much time in the old Clayton County Jail that it has a room with his name on it.

But when he goes there these days, the experience is vastly different from his 23 years as a deputy sheriff in the northeast Iowa county.

The old jail in Elkader has been turned into a bed-and-breakfast and Harstad has turned himself into a best-selling mystery writer.

“I've done a couple of book talks at the old jail. That's fun,” says Harstad, 64. “It's kind of a weird feeling. I can sit in the jail cells and drink a beer. That never happened before.”

He quit his job the day he sold his first book, “Eleven Days,” in 1996.

“I'd had a heart attack and had been back (at work) about six or so months when the book sold. I thought if that isn't a message I don't know what is.”

It only took 11 days to write the aptly named book, but eight years passed before it was sold. That happened when a cousin who worked in wardrobe for television's “ER” showed it to a friend who showed it to an agent. Next thing you know, Doubleday Publishing called Harstad at work. He hung up and gave his notice.

“I said ‘This is my last day,' said goodbye, got to my house and thought, ‘Oh my God, I've got to write a second book - that was easier than I thought,'” he says with a laugh.

That debut novel, which has sold over a million copies around the world, was just the beginning. He's now written eight books, has been published in nine languages and has another book coming out next May.

“I started one three weeks ago and I'm 20,000 words into it. Carl is the main character,” he says, speaking of Carl Houseman, the fictional Iowa deputy sheriff who cracks the cases in most of Harstad's novels.

Is Houseman his alter-ego?

“Pretty much, although he's younger, lighter and smarter,” Harstad says. “He brings my point of view into it. That's why it's so easy to write him - it's my life experiences.”

Ironically, the mystery writer prefers to read non-fiction.

“I hate mysteries,” he declares. “But you write about what you know. That explains why there's no sex in my books. You write about what you know, then you can put it anywhere. If I wanted to write science fiction, I'd write about cops in space. You write about what you know and the people you know. ... It's therapeutic to write mysteries. If there's somebody you don't like, you can kill them” in print.

He'll share glimpses of his wisdom and wit with people attending the daylong Northeast Iowa Writers Fall Retreat on Sept. 19 at the Best Western Longbranch in Cedar Rapids.

He's a regular speaker for the group's retreats, which are open to the public.

“I've supported them from day one,” he says. “I like to encourage people to write.”

Writers' groups such as this “put people in contact with each other. In any area in Iowa, but especially in rural areas, you don't have a lot of writers you can sit down and have coffee with during the day. Here you can sit down and talk writing,” he says.

“Getting together really kind of energizes people.”

He prefers this kind of networking for people honing their craft. His advice to budding writers is “to finish the book and don't share it until it's done. People who bring in a chapter at a time to a writers' group end up with a book written by committee, and that's just ugly,” he says.

“A novel is like a painting. You wouldn't bring in a painting of a foot and say, ‘What do you think of the foot?' You have to bring it in as a whole. Too many nuances are lost if you look at it a chapter or piece at a time.”

ARTS EXTRA

What: Northeast Iowa Writers Fall Retreat

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 19

Where: Best Western Longbranch, 90 Twixt Town Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

Speakers: Freelance writer and photographer Denny Eilers of Luana, 10 to 11 a.m., on using digital and 35 mm photography with written work; author Don Harstad of Elkader, 12:45 to 1:45 p.m., on the importance of plot structure and how to craft a believable novel

Fee: $50 adults; $35 students

Information: http://neiwritersretreat.tripod.com/index.html