Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we talked to Alex Charns, a Durham, NC criminal defense attorney, writer and hockey player, about his book Ka-Boom? *The Occasionally True Story about how a Catholic Nun, Deacon and Priest Saved the World from Total Nuclear Devastation with a NailsRight™ $4.99 Fluorescent Yellow Ball Peen Hammer (read the review here).

Alex Charns is a Durham, NC criminal defense attorney, writer and hockey player.  He’s the author of Bones of Black Saints, How Hockey Saved the World (*and defeated George W. Bush, but not necessarily in the order) and Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers and the Supreme Court (non-fiction).

Why do you always write about hockey in your novels? You have a hockey playing, warrior nun, called Sister Joan of Arc in Ka-Boom?

Many great writers wrote about hockey, but their editors stabbed them in the back and edited out the scenes. Moby Dick had a great pond hockey scene that was cut. Same with Crime and Punishment. Skating in Moscow. Cut! What a travesty.

What’s more fun, fiction or non-fiction?

I spent ten years litigating against the FBI in order to write Cloak and Gavel. In Ka-Boom? I got to poke satirical fun at FBI special agents without having to sue them. That was cool and less time consuming.

Does President Trump inspire you?

He inspires me like a brain tumor or food poisoning would inspire me. He forced me to write Ka-Boom? to try to fight back after four years of unrelenting narcissism, dangerous and anti-social behavior.

Do the profits from your books go to charity?
They do. Thanks for reading. Oh, and keep you stick on the ice.

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