Introducing Detective Will Diaz

I believe I’ve pointed this out more than a few times that Detective Will Diaz and his creator have a lot in common. I first began the story because I’m into genealogy. I want to know who my ancestors were, where they came from, and what they did. One of the most frustrating pieces is that except for a few brief blurbs in a family Bible, I knew almost nothing about these people. I’d heard the stories, but in the course of my research I discovered that that’s exactly what they were, stories.

A good example was a great ancestor on the Franklin side. According to what I’d heard, he’d spent most of the Civil War in a Union POW camp. Now granted, the POW system back then was a mess, but if you were a POW for the entire war, you’d think someplace, somewhere, some small record would survive. But I kept running into wall after wall until one day, by sheer chance I stumbled across something else. Turns out I was looking in the wrong army.  He was never in the Army of the Confederacy, but a Union Officer. He’d never spent day one in a POW camp. Where did the story come from? Near as I can figure it’s because he came from North Carolina, a state that sided with the Confederacy.  I think he made up the story to keep from being beat up. Later, when he came out west, he was a General in the Mormon Militia.

I wish I could have sat down and talked to him just to find out his story.

So, I made the decision to write my story and cases down. I wanted to leave a record so there was very little second guessing who I was and what I did.

Problem was, some of it was still pretty raw. When you go and start talking about the things you’ve done, you sometimes realize that there’s a scab over wounds. And one of the first rules of medicine is that there’s danger in reopening old wounds.

So after a whole lot of false starts, I found it easier to tell the stories from the perspective of a fictional character. The next thing I knew, not only was he living out what I’ve done, but going off on adventures of his own.

And Will Diaz was born.

When we first meet him, he’s about thirty three years old and a soldier in the middle of rain storm during the Gulf War. He’s tall like most MPs are. He’s a marathon runner, and in peak physical condition. It’s quickly established that he had a career as a police officer before the Army, had gone to college and taken a degree in something that’s difficult to get a job in.

Will’s enemies and detractors have hung the name of “The Lawman” on him. Part of it is because he was raised a cowboy. He’s tough, decisive, and not afraid to stand alone. He also dresses like something that blew out of the old West. Except for being home, he almost always wears jeans, cowboy boots, a white shirt and a black vest. Dressing up to him is putting a tie on and a western cut jacket. On duty, he carries a Colt 1911. Off duty his CCW is a Walthers PPK.

He carries the Lawman title with pride.

But life has beat him up, and when we first meet him it’s safe to say he’s at his lowest point. When we first meet Will, he may be at the top of his game physically, but upstairs, he’s a mess. His life has fallen apart, and the most important people in his life have told him he’s a loser and abandoned him, and he’s starting to feel like one. He’s someone who seriously needs to dump the load he’s carrying.

But life proves otherwise. Through a series of small victories, he begins to feel like a man with a mission, but doesn’t know what that mission is yet. During the course of the first book, through a series of counseling sessions, we see some of the hurts and pains that he’s faced along the way. He comes to realize that these very things have made him the man he is today. I’d like to think the one thing Will has learned along the way is to learn from the mistakes he’s made. Since he’s received forgiveness from others, he’s quick to forgive. He’s a grown to be a good Christian man, a place that gives him a lot of strength. It also blinds him sometimes because he looks for the good in people, and ignores the bad, and what works for him may be rejected by others.

He sees change and knows not all of it is for the good. So he starts training people to be better detectives and police officers, passing on knowledge and experience. Little does he realize he’s building a core team that will face trouble alongside him time and again. He also has friends from the military who join him on occasion. All these people hope for a better world, and at times, they feel they’re just being foolishly optimistic.

He’s absolutely devoted to his wife, children, friends, and community but that devotion has driven a wedge between him and his extended family for reasons he doesn’t understand (he will later).

Now he’s starting to go off on his own adventures. He’s headed on a collision course with destiny. He’ll be forced to put his life on the line for love, honor, and his community.

He won’t be doing it alone.

So, stay tuned. I hope to keep him and friends out there for a long time to come.