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Many of you will recognize Scott Graham in connection with our (now retired) website, Nightstand Book Reviews, where I reviewed several books in his always terrific National Park Mystery Series. With book #10 coming out soon and another one being written now, he kindly agreed to pause his writing schedule and reveal how he gets it all done.
Scott Graham
author of the National Park Mystery Series
I once asked an oil-painter friend of mine how he knew when he was finished with a painting.
“I know I’m done,” he told me, “when someone sneaks up behind me, hits me over the head with a hammer, and yanks my paintbrush from my hand.”
For me, the same is basically true when it comes to researching and writing my National Park Mysteries. Which is to say, if it were up to me, I’d never be done with either.
I always visit for several days the national park in which the mystery I’m about to write is set. I talk with park employees and visit the sites in the park where the action in the book will take place. Immediately afterward, with the park’s sights, smells, and sounds firmly in mind, I start writing.
My off-site research takes over at that point, as I turn to the internet to answer the many questions that crop up as I write, write, write, and rewrite and rewrite some more.
Until, that is, ‘someone’ forces me to press send on my manuscript. That ‘someone’ is the calendar.
For the last decade, I’ve written and published one National Park Mystery per year, with the goal of building an audience for my work through the annual release of my books. The yearly deadline has served its purpose well. The audience for my books has grown steadily over the last ten years, with sales of the books in my series doubling in just the last year alone.
The deadline serves me well for another reason, too. It forces me to finish my books when, if left to my own devices, I’d never finish them. Instead, if given the opportunity, I’d happily edit and rewrite forever, because both are fun and much easier than writing a first draft. But my annual deadline forces me to dive into telling a whole new story from scratch the minute I press send on my last book. And each time I set sail on a new tale, I recall all over again why I love storytelling so much.
My latest National Park Mystery, Great Sand Dunes Massacre, No. 10 in my National Park Mystery Series published by Torrey House Press (torreyhouse.org), is releasing June 2, 2026, wherever books are sold and in all formats—book, ebook, and audiobook.
In Great Sand Dunes Massacre, a macabre death at the exact moment archaeologist Chuck Bender makes a baffling discovery in Great Sand Dunes National Park sends Chuck racing to solve the vexing riddle behind the find. After a second bizarre death in the park, will Chuck unravel the clues before his daughter Rosie and others fall victim to the killer’s vengeful wrath?
I loved researching and writing Great Sand Dunes Massacre, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it. As for me, I’ve happily moved on to researching and writing DYING IN ZION, No. 11 in my series. When it comes out in 2027, I hope you’ll like it, too.
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Scott Graham (scottfranklingraham.com) is the National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of the National Park Mystery Series published by Torrey House Press. Scott is an avid outdoorsman and public lands advocate who lives in southwest Colorado.
In addition to his mysteries, Scott is the author of five nonfiction books. He has worked as a reporter, editor, disk jockey, city councilor, and coal-shoveling fireman on the steam-powered Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
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For those of you unfamiliar with the series, here are some thoughts about the first four books:
The National Park Mystery Series features contract archaeologist Chuck Bender, Chuck’s paramedic wife, Janelle Ortega, and Chuck’s stepdaughters. The contract work moves Chuck Bender and the family to different parks each summer vacation, setting the scene for stories dealing with environmental, political, and social justice issues.
The series began in the Grand Canyon with “Canyon Sacrifice,” a resounding success as a debut novel. A kidnapping and a murder place the family in harm’s way on the Bender honeymoon camping trip as Chuck navigates parenthood and spousal responsibilities for the first time. Readers will be mesmerized by Graham’s imageries of the Grand Canyon and the achievements/artifacts of the ancient Anasazi Indians that Bender discovered on an earlier contract dig. Prepare to be swept into the world of outdoor recreation and the wonders of archeology in the West.
Book #2, “Mountain Rampage,” moves Bender and the family to Rocky Mountain National Park where he runs a college archeology field school. The book takes place over a three-day period, with murder and mayhem that involves his brother-in-law and false accusations, and plenty of adventure to go around.
“Yellowstone Standoff,” set in Yellowstone National Park, has a hair-raising premise with rogue wolves, grizzlies, and a murdered researcher. As always, Graham delivers breathtaking descriptions of the wild and puts the reader in the middle of the terrifying action. An exciting page-turner.
Book #4, “Yosemite Fall,” brings Janelle and the older daughter more to the forefront of the multi-layered storylines, with a rock-climbing competition, a deadly reunion, and a contract to solve a 150-year-old mystery as the backdrop. Janelle and Chuck are the suspects in a present-day murder, and once again, the national park is a character in the book.
Enjoy!
*Photo and posters provided by Scott Graham 🙂
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