Ninety-Nine days after being told to pack his stuff and leave his safe and secure world, Mark Rogers talks about the genesis of his first in his Mexican Noir series, TJ99, and what inspires him to set his books in Baja California, south of the Rio Grande. Vanya Vetto is irrelevant as usual, taking a casual piss in the toilet. 'At least piss on the side of the bowel,' said Mark Rogers, who has been a travel writer for US Today, traveled to over 52 countries on assignment and has published books, from publishers both sides of the Atlantic, from Korea Town Blues to Sky Dog. But more on those books in the next interview, where we discuss the next in the Mexican series, Mocking Bird, in the next three weeks. Shout out Lawrence Osborne and Mark Rogers. 'Good times talking with Vanya Vetto, with him in Australia and me in Mexico. He asked me for a few words about myself. I’m a reverse immigrant, having fled The U.S. for Mexico, where I’m writing novel after novel. Some traditionally published (Koreatown Blues by Brash Books) and some self-published, like my Mexico noir TJ99, the first in a series of standalone crime novels set in Baja California. My book-length memoir of life in Mexico, Uppercut, will be published in December 2020 by Cowboy Jamboree Press. Charles Willeford had Miami, Elmore Leonard had Detroit, Raymond Chandler had LA. Someday I hope they say that when it came to crime fiction, Mark Rogers had Baja California, Mexico.'
