What can you tell us about your new release, Pickoff? Jon Michael Miller, writing for Readers Favorite, said, “Pickoff by GP Hutchinson offers great action, great baseball, a great love story, a great moral dilemma, and crisp direct prose. Hutchinson has hit this one out of the park!” That’s precisely the response I’ve hoped a majority of folks would have while reading Pickoff and for a good little while afterward. Average 1920s Americans, baseball, speakeasies, sophisticates, and mobsters each play major roles in the novel and each must deal with serious temptation, the theme at the heart of the story. I love taking readers into earlier eras in America’s history and giving them a feel for the mood and ambience of the times. As is the case in many stories and movies that’ve come along prior to mine, I’m pretty sure the prohibition/speakeasy/mobster elements of Pickoff are somewhat exaggerated in comparison to what the everyday American experienced during the 1920s. But vicariously facing the outrageous is part of what draws us to fiction, isn’t it? Meanwhile, in terms of baseball, transportation, living conditions, and so forth, I believe the novel is pretty well researched and presents a fairly representative picture of the times. What books are currently on your night stand? Lee Child’s Past Tense and Jordan Poss’s No Snakes in Iceland What advice would you give your teenage self? Know God. Love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. Not merely with lip service, but in action and truth. If you had an extra hour each day, how would you spend it? Ideally, I’d spend it visiting with people I care about, with no electronics to distract us. Realistically, I’d probably just do more of what I’m already doing. What makes your world go round? Why does it bring you joy? My wife, kids, and grandkids. They’re each such a tremendous blessing to me, and I’m so grateful for how their lives are unfolding. What scene from Pickoff was your favorite to write? Probably the party scene at Gyp Scaletta’s house, fairly early in the novel. Lots of interesting characters are there, plus it sets up the initial encounter that propels the story’s hero into the troubles that lie ahead.
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