Mike Gerrard is an award-winning travel and drinks writer who has contributed to newspapers, magazines, and websites in the UK and worldwide. He has also published over 40 travel guides, a collection of travel stories, and two novels. His newest nonfiction release, Behind Bars: True Crime Stories of Whiskey Heists, Beer Bandits, and Fake Million-Dollar Wines (Prometheus Books, October 2024), is filled with stories of what happens when alcohol meets crime. Look for Mike on his website MikeGerrard.com, on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X, and several travel sites including Travel Distilled and Arizona Travel Guide. You’ll find his books on his Amazon author page. Behind Bars is also available on all major online bookstores through links on Prometheus Books.

In the year before releasing Behind Bars, you published three travel guides, a book about tequila, and another about bourbon. During what led up to a remarkable publishing schedule, why did you choose the project that became Behind Bars?
Before Behind Bars I had written a book about the history of barrels, Cask Strength (Matt Holt Books, 2023), and prior to that numerous travel guidebooks for publishers including National Geographic and AAA. After Cask Strength, I wanted to write another book about drinks, and I thought I was writing a book that would be filed under Food and Drink in the bookshops, but when I saw it in my publisher’s catalogue they had filed it under True Crime. Which is a much more suitable home for it. So, to my surprise, I became a True Crime writer without knowing it! I was delighted as I’m an avid reader of crime novels and True Crime stories, and I’m working on a crime novel as well.

According to your introduction to Behind Bars, a “connection has always existed between booze and crime.” You then take readers from “Scotland’s Illicit Stills” (chapter one) to great wine and whiskey frauds in “It’s Not the Real Thing.” Do you have a favorite story among all those you relate in the book?
My favorite story is definitely of the moonshine gang that operated in a place called Merry Hill in North Carolina. Two of them acted as a regular married couple and leased a mobile home, and underneath and behind it the gang built a moonshine distillery, without anyone local noticing their activity. They operated for 18 months without anyone becoming suspicious, and when they were caught they were charged with defrauding the authorities of over $1.6 million in tax revenue. That was over 50 years ago, so imagine the equivalent today, and imagine how much they must have made. And when they went to trial, some were found Not Guilty, and the ones who were sentenced to prison had their sentences later reduced to probation. Who says crime doesn’t pay?

Any “Oh, wow!” moments while doing research for Behind Bars?
Well, I was prompted to write the book partly by discovering what went on in the White House during Prohibition. Researching it further and finding that from the President on down, most of DC simply ignored Prohibition and did not go short of something to drink. I did think, “Wow, that’s how corrupt our politicians are.” You would hope things have improved, but I don’t know….

When looking for inspiration for your works, what things motivate you to write?
I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was about seven or eight years old. My father wrote a humor column for the local paper in the town where I grew up in the north of England, not far from Liverpool. He also did cartoons and sold some to national newspapers. This was all in his spare time. I thought it was brilliant. I started writing myself at the age of about 17, when I sold a poem to a local magazine, followed by writing one or two articles for them, and then expanding my horizons.

So to answer your question about what inspires me… simply the desire to write. To tell stories. To get experiences down in words and entertain people… and to make a living from it, which fortunately I’ve managed to do. I’ve mostly been a travel writer, so what inspires me there is seeing something that sounds like an interesting story, selling the idea to an editor, and then having to go away and write it.

What challenges have you faced as a writer, given your voluminous writing history?
The challenge is always selling a story or an idea, whether it be for a travel piece or a non-fiction book. I’ve always loved the writing, so for me the challenge is selling something, finding the right outlet. I hate pitching ideas and stories, love writing them.

Before writing travel guides, what kind of work did you do?
I started off writing general journalism pieces, a few humorous pieces, for newspapers and magazines in the UK. I liked the idea of being a travel writer so I sent in a story on spec to one of our national newspapers, based on a holiday in Greece, and to my amazement they bought it. Next time I went on holiday I wrote another piece, and they took that one too. After one or two more I asked the editor about press trips, and she explained to me that I should pitch her with a few ideas, and if she commissioned them then I could go on a press trip, or contact a tour company or tourist board, and they would set up a trip for me. In that way I built up a portfolio of work. I didn’t really think about writing guidebooks, till I got approached to do one to the Yorkshire Dales, which I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing, and that then led to other commissions, and to me approaching other editors.

Do you have a literary agent? Why or why not?
My last job before I went full-time freelance when I was about 30 was with a literary agent in London. So I’ve always believed that you should have an agent, if you can get someone to take you on. My own agent is Linda Konner, who specializes in food and drink writers, and self-help books. I approached her with my proposal for Cask Strength, and she liked it and thought she could sell it. But she was also an enormous help in improving the proposal. I thought I’d written one that was good to go, but Linda showed me how to improve it, and there were several back and forths and me adding to it or rewriting bits of it before she was happy with it.

Who are your greatest mentors in writing? Authors who have either helped you or inspired you on your writing path?
Number one is and always has been John Steinbeck. Not that I could ever hope to write like him, but when I read Of Mice and Men as a teenager, I was hooked. It seemed to me to be the highest level of writing, and if I could only be 10 percent as good then I’d be happy. Reading good writers always inspires you to do better yourself. My other all-time favorite is Flannery O’Connor, a very different kind of writer. I used to love Hemingway but I re-read some of his stuff recently and didn’t like his mannered style at all. For travel writers, my all-time heroes are Norman Lewis, Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin.

Of the forty-plus books you’ve written, which one was the most challenging and which was the most enjoyable to write?
The most challenging was the first guidebook to Greece that I wrote, covering just the Greek mainland. I had to plan the trip (pre-internet days) of about 4-5 weeks, and, never having driven in Greece before, ended up driving some 5,000 miles, including through Athens, and in some remote mountain areas, all the way to the northern border with Albania, and the eastern border with Turkey. There were some hairy moments.

The most enjoyable was after I met my wife and we started writing guidebooks together, as she is also a writer. We were commissioned to write most of an official travel guide for the Rugby World Cup in France in 2007. So in 2006, we did a trip of several weeks around southern France spending several days in beautiful cities like Lyon, Montpellier, and Toulouse. My wife was less interested in touring the sports stadiums, which we had to do and which I loved, but overall it was probably the best trip we’ve ever done.

Tell us about your writing process and your writing routine.
I’ve mostly written nonfiction, so when it comes to books, they have to be worked out in full in advance, in order to sell a proposal to a publisher. When it comes to fiction, I am 100 percent a plotter. I have to know the full story, and know where it’s headed, before I write it. But strangely when it comes to travel writing, it’s very different. I always take copious notes on trips, but never plan out a story. I always need to have an opening sentence in my head before I sit down to write, and then from that sentence I just let it go wherever it takes me, using my notes and photos and my most vivid memories. Luckily that always worked for me. I’m just able to do it, in a way I can’t when writing fiction. I won several awards for my travel writing, so it must have been OK.

I write almost every day and always have several ideas on the go. I used to feel guilty about this and kept telling myself I should focus on one thing at a time, till I went to a talk by Joanne Harris who said she always had lots of projects on the go, at different stages, and she just waited till one of them took over.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently if you started your writing/publishing career today?
I think for travel writing, I would focus on my own websites, rather than working for other people. For fiction, in a similar way, I would strongly focus on self-publishing, but go in for it 100% rather than just sit back and wait for something to happen. The more personal control you have over your work, the better.

You’ve written both fiction and nonfiction. How does your experience as a nonfiction writer benefit your fiction writing?
When you’re writing non-fiction you have deadlines, briefs and word counts, and you’d better pay attention to them all. It teaches you that you can’t sit around waiting for inspiration. A newspaper wants 1,000 words by such a date, or a guidebook publisher wants 30,000 words by such a date — and you cannot miss those deadlines. It teaches you to sit down and write, every day, for as long as it takes.

In writing hundreds of travel pieces for newspapers and magazines, I learned that you have to have an opening that grabs people’s attention, then you have to make the piece flow so you never lose their attention. You also have to wrap it up in a satisfactory way. That discipline then carries across to fiction and you can apply it to either scenes or chapters or a whole book. Start it well, keep the momentum going, and then have a good ending that ties things together. Easier said than done, of course!

What advice would you give to writers who are just starting out?
Develop a thick skin as you will probably face rejection after rejection. Almost everyone does — JK Rowling, The Beatles, Stephen King…even Dr Seuss was rejected by 27 publishers but went on to huge and long-lasting success.

Christina Sultan is a former Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico resident who joined SouthWest Writers in 2022. A graduate of the English literature program at McGill University, Montreal, she has been an avid reader and writer of literary criticism all her life. She interned as a journalist at United Press International before working at the Whistler Question Newspaper and Whistler Magazine. She then went on to obtain a master’s degree in business in California. She was named to Who’s Who U.S.A. in 2007 and devotes much of her time to working in the arts, investments, and the humanities.