Gerald Petievich

In honor of his heritage, main character in "To Live and Die in L.A." has a Serbian surname, "John Vukovich".

With each of my novels, there has been a time when the idea first strikes-- not that a flash of thought is enough to flesh out a hundred thousand word novel - but when the basic concept; the essence of the drama clicks into the consciousness. For "Earth Angels", it was when my brother John, an LAPD officer, told me a story of how two detectives had once tried to initiate a gang conflict by forging gang graffiti on a wall.