Born: 1942,
Sallisaw,
OK
Nationality: American
Genre(s): Novels,
Short Stories, Nonfiction, Mystery/Crime/Suspense fiction
Personal
Born January 3, 1942, in Sallisaw, OK; son of Ben G. (a laborer) and Mary (a
homemaker; maiden name, Cantrell) Sasser; married Dianne Carol Riley, October
8, 1965 (divorced June 22, 1978); married Kathy Renee Pitts (a photographer),
February 2, 1979 (divorced December 10, 1986); married Juanita Marie Jackson
(a nurse), May 20, 1991 (divorced December 21, 1992); children: (first
marriage) David Charles, Michael Wayne; (second marriage) Joshua Dale.
Education
Attended Miami-Dade Community College, 1966-67; Florida State University,
B.A., 1969.
Career
Writer. Miami Police Department, Miami, FL, officer, 1965-68; Tulsa Police
Department, Tulsa, OK, homicide detective, 1969-79; instructor in sociology at
Tulsa Junior College and director of criminal justice department at American
Christian College, Tulsa, 1975-78; president of Cedar Press Publishing Co.,
1981--.
Military
U.S. Navy, 1960-64; became journalist second class. U.S. Army, 1965-83, medic
with U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) in Southeast Asia and Central and
South America; became sergeant first class. U.S. Army Reserve, 1983--, combat
tactics instructor. Military Police Company, first sergeant, 1991.
Memberships
Oklahoma Sociological Association, Oklahoma Criminal Justice Educators
Association (founding member), Oklahoma Writers Federation, Tulsa Night
Writers, Fraternal Order of Police, Special Forces Association, National
Association for Crime Victims Rights (member of board of directors, 1978);
Keystone Crossroad Historical Society (president, 1975).
Sidelights
For his first novel, No Gentle Streets, Charles W. Sasser calls upon
his past experiences as a homicide investigator. Weaving a suspense tale about
a tough homicide detective bent on finding a mutilating murderer of young
girls, the author also looks at the price such an occupation--dealing daily
with the worst in humanity--exacts from its practitioner. Reflecting on the
craft of writing in aLibrary Journal interview, Sasser related:
"Craft for a writer is nuance and sound and feel and rhythm of works
brought together so that they breathe and live for others."
Sasser told CA: "As a poor Okie kid picking cotton in the
Arkansas River 'bottoms,' I vowed not to live just one life, but many lives.
The wide span of my writings indicates this desire. I have pursued a number of
careers and interests simultaneously--policeman, educator, airplane pilot,
Golden Gloves boxer, paratrooper, sailor, rodeo bronco rider, rancher, fur
trapper, newspaperman. I once spent a year traveling on an 80cc Yamaha
motorbike--living in a tent--and have just returned from a free-lance job as a
war correspondent in El Salvador.
"For stories I have parachuted into Korea's demilitarized zone, rode
buses from the United States through Central America, chased after pirate
treasure in the Caribbean, canoed 700 miles solo across the Yukon territory,
chased wild mustangs, raft-floated the Mississippi River, solo- sailed the
Caribbean in a 17-foot sailboat, searched for 'lost cities' in Central
American jungles, hunted bear, caribou, and other big game.
"The first books I ever owned--when I was six years old--were Ernest
Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Steinbeck'sGrape of Wrath,
and Robinson Crusoe, gifts from an eccentric aunt who believed poor
hill kids who lived in tin-roofed barns should read in order to open doors for
themselves to the world. The books opened doors to my becoming a writer. I
sold my first piece at age 15 and have been writing since. Ernest Hemingway
remains my favorite author, closely followed now by Pat Conroy and John
Irving.
"Motivation? I want to live, live truly, as Hemingway would have put
it, and to experience literally everything in life, and then to share
my experiences with others through my writings."
Information provided under
copyright by Gale Research.
