Marshaling life’s experiences, Marc Cameron takes over ‘Jack Ryan’ series

Author Marc Cameron’s adult life could be summed up as a fulfillment of nearly all of his childhood dreams. He worked with the U.S. Marshals Service in North Idaho, where he started writing “Hard Road to Heaven,” his first traditionally published work. Cameron had wanted to move to Alaska for as long as he could remember, so when the opportunity to work for the U.S. Marshals in Alaska came, he jumped at the chance.

“We’ve been here 20 years, but we came from Coeur d’Alene,” said Cameron, who’s since retired from the Marshals Service. “So we came from a beautiful spot to a beautiful spot.”

For years, Cameron was the deputy U.S. marshal in charge of Alaska’s fugitive task force, life experience which has been instrumental in the world-building of his various mystery novels. After years of writing his own series (“Jericho Quinn” and “Arliss Cutter”), he was invited to take over writing Tom Clancy’s “Jack Ryan” series from the previous writer.

“I write all the time,” Cameron said. Each year, he writes one “Jack Ryan” novel and one of his own; those two deadlines in addition to the promotion of already published books keep him busy. “I always have a little notebook with me so that if I hear a neat turn of phrase or see something that affects me in a certain way, then I write it down and it comes out in a book.”

Cameron’s most recent work, “Stone Cross,” is the second in his “Arliss Cutter” series set near Eagle River, Alaska, where he now lives.

“What I’ve tried to do in these books is to touch on the smaller duties that the Marshal Service does that are lesser-known,” Cameron said. “The sexy part of the job that everybody knows about is tracking federal fugitives, but much of what we do is protect federal judges and make sure the courts run smoothly.”

Cameron says the works are certainly not autobiographical, but out of the 21 books he has had published, “Stone Cross” has by far the most of him in it. Spending a good deal of the past few years of his career in the Alaskan bush, in villages along the Kuskokwim River like the fictional town of Stone Cross, Cameron seems uncommonly qualified to write a series with such a setting.

“I have many friends out there, and this is a kind of homage to those folks and the hardships that they work through and triumph over,” Cameron said. “It’s a harsh but magical place for me.”

“Stone Cross” follows Cutter, a supervisory deputy U.S. marshal, as he tracks an unknown serial murderer through the Alaskan wilderness. Cutter might succeed in the end, but first, he’ll be forced to brave unforgiving winter conditions and a few run-ins with predatory animals before he has any chance at catching the killer.

At the time of our interview, Cameron and his wife were a week into a two-week self-isolation after returning from Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, where he does a great deal of writing during the winter. Stuck indefinitely at his home in Alaska due to the coronavirus quarantine, Cameron’s “Stone Cross” book tour was canceled, and research for upcoming books has had to be postponed.

“Generally, I’m happy to stay at home and write, but this has really slowed down my ability to go out and meet readers, which is disappointing,” Cameron said. He takes advantage of social media but does not prefer to use it.

“Writers are so approachable now,” Cameron said. “But sometimes to our detriment. We get so tied up in social media that we don’t have time to write.” As a rule, he sticks to talking about writing, past adventures and his annual trips to Rarotonga; he never makes political posts on social media. “I think people get a good enough picture of me just by reading the books that I write.”

To aspiring writers, he recommends trying to live like a filter-feeding mollusk. “We get little bits and pieces of the culture around us and give them back to the reader in interesting ways. To do that, we have to get out and live and see things, so we can’t always be stuck on social media talking about writing.”