An Interview with Author Judy Copek

Judy Copek is someone with whom I worked for many years. Over time we became good friends even though she worked for the corporate office outside of Boston and I worked outside of Atlanta. I learned of her "night job" as a writer and I was priveleged to be one of the first readers of her e-book "Shadow Warriors." I really loved it.

Judy worked for many years as a computer programmer in Chicago and Boston. She is currently retired and lives outside Boston with her husband, who is originally from Germany. Judy has two grown sons and one 8-year-old granddaughter. She keeps very busy in her retirement, as she is involved in many professional organizations for writers. Judy uses her knowledge of new technologies to create stories about people who work with computers and who are involved with computer security issues.

On a recent visit to Atlanta, I had the opportunity to interview Judy for this website.

Judy, what is your educational background?

I attended Rice University in Texas and I majored in English. After college I got married and raised a family. I then went back to school to learn computer programming.

What made you decide to write your first book?

I was writing computer programs at work and got fed up with my job. I thought that if I could write computer programs, why couldn’t I write a book? At night I would sit down at home and write. My first book was “Witness Be Wary” and when I finished it I tried to sell it but had no success. In retrospect, it was not a very good book. It was a mystery about people who worked in the field of computer security. Though the book was not very good, I liked the characters that I created and I carried them forward into my other books.

What was your second book about?

My second book was called “The Shadow Warriors.” I was traveling home from Singapore to Los Angeles and I was stuck in the Singapore airport for a long time. I saw a sign for the International Security Conference which was going to be taking place in Singapore and I started to get an idea for a new book. I used the same characters from “Witness Be Wary.” There was killing and mistaken identity involved in the plot and a lot of suspense. I was able to sell the book to an e-publisher, but then the publisher went out of business. Fortunately, I was able to find another publisher who used “print on demand” technology.

What did you write about in your next few books?

My third book was about two clueless Americans in search of stolen software. It took place in Germany around the time that the Berlin Wall came down. It was a stand-alone book and not part of the series that I had started with “Witness Be Wary” and “The Shadow Warriors.”

In my fourth book, I resumed the series with the same characters from my first two books. This book took place in Wisconsin and was called “Promiscuous Mode.”

In my fifth book, “Festival Madness,” the series continued and revolved around reformed computer hackers who attended various folk music festivals. At each festival they attended, one of them got murdered. I got the inspiration for this story line from the Burning Man festival which takes place each summer at Black Rock Desert. (www.burningman.com)

What is the next project you have planned?

I have begun working on a book that takes place in 1928 Los Angeles. It is loosely based on an incident in my mother’s life. When my mother was 22 years old, she was teaching school in Kansas. During her summer vacation, she went to visit a friend in California and while there she met a man whom she began to date. When the summer was over, she returned to Kansas alone, but proceeded to receive many letters from this boyfriend. He decided to travel to the desert in Mexico looking for minerals to get rich. He died from heat stroke while in the desert. The book covers the universal themes of death and murder.

What is the most satisfying thing about writing?

Once you get into the story, the people come alive and you are creating a whole world that is yours and you can make anything happen. It gives you a sense of accomplishment and is quite an ego trip

What is the most frustrating thing about writing?

For me the most frustrating thing is getting started on a new story for a new book with new characters. Of course, trying to sell your book once it is complete is the most frustrating experience of all.

Where can a person find your books?

“Shadow Warriors” can be found at Amazon.com.

Shadow Warriors



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