You've written well-received and popular nonfiction books on topics as diverse as healing, ending racism, mythology, and clean boating. What prompted you to dive into the world of thrillers?

I tell people, "If you want to understand a Clyde Ford thriller you only need understand the power of myth." You see, I'm a psychotherapist by training. One of my non-fiction books I'm most proud of is The Hero With An African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa.

It wasn't until after I wrote Hero that I began to write fiction. A guy said to me, "You've studied mythology deeply. You know some of the oldest stories humans have told. You understand how great stories are told. Now you ought to tell your own." So, about ten years ago I started writing thrillers. I called it my "literary sex change."

Take Precious Cargo, for example, it opens with a couple pulling up the body of a young woman from the ocean floor on the flukes of their anchor. It's a great opening image--powerful, scary--the pointed end of an anchor piercing the pallid flesh of a young woman's lifeless body. A good way to begin a thriller.

Water, in psychotherapy and mythology has long been associated with the depths of the unconscious--that region of our mind where we store, sometimes hide, things we are afraid of, or not yet ready to face: an incident in our past we're ashamed of; or a bizarre thought or fantasy that surfaces occasionally and we wrestle back down, faraway from our ordinary awareness in hopes it won't resurface anytime soon; or an unexpected emotion that emerges for reasons we can't fathom but troubles us until it goes away.

Truth is, we all have these encounters with our unconscious mind. Truth also is the situations, circumstances, thoughts, and feelings that give rise to these encounters don't really go away--they get stuffed back down into the netherland from whence they've come.

Well, good storytellers know this intuitively, or in my case, from having studied great stories and sat across from clients in countless therapy sessions. Great stories turn on these truths.

An author wearing a Greek fisherman's cap who looks suspiciously like Clyde Ford shows up in Precious Cargo. Do you do cameos in all your books? What made you decide to write yourself into the book?

I only write my "Hitchkock scenes" in the Charlie Noble novels. I wanted to experiment with the form, so I tried it. Now that I've gotten feedback from readers about how much they like it, I'll probably continue writing myself in to the books in this series when it makes sense.

On your web site you use software called OnScene™ to let readers immerse themselves even more fully in Charlie's world by showing the actual locations that appear in your book. Has there been much interest from other writers? How are readers responding to it?

Incredible interest in this technology from many sources: writers, publishers, readers, educators, students. I wanted to reach beyond the pages of the book to allow readers to engage in the story. So, with a background of many years as a software developed I created an online application that allows readers to fly-in to place names in the book using Microsoft's Virtual Earth and Google Earth. Once at a location viewers can listen to me reading from the book, watch clips from the book video set at that location, view live webcam footage if available, or learn more about the history and geography of the place or even take a  tour of the places I anchors when I'm out writing. When a book captivates readers they want to have experiences beyond the pages. OnScene offers them that experience, it also reaches across the digital divide to younger readers who are so fluent with this technology yet may think of a book as less interesting than a video game. I wanted to bridge the gap between old and new technologies with those readers.

You produced a 20-minute video for Precious Cargo narrated by Morgan Freeman. How did that come about and why?

For the debut of Precious Cargo, I wanted to reach beyond the pages of the book to people perhaps used to stories told through film rather than on the written page. I wanted to show that a book can be every bit as engaging and exciting as a film. So I turned to great actors who could do just that.

The Precious Cargo video is remarkable for its stunning cast. Morgan Freeman, an avid sailor himself, brings depth and authority to the narration. Veteran actress Ruby Dee fires her passages with passion and intensity. Roscoe Orman engages the viewer with his compelling voice and fine-tuned delivery. And Swil Kanim's authenticity as a Native American storyteller comes across in his mellifluous readings and his poignant comments about the role of Native Americans in contemporary fiction. It's a compelling way of telling the story of Precious Cargo that stays true to the words on the page.

The video can be seen on my home page.

Is there anything you'd like to tell us about the next novel?

The title is Whiskey Gulf. It will be out in the late spring. A sailboat drifts into a "live-fire" military exercise area known as Whiskey Gulf, and it's never heard from again.

Can you name the last book you finished, the book you're currently reading, and the next book on your list?

FINISHED: John D. MacDonald's Deep Blue Good-by.  READING: MacDonald's The Long Lavender Look. UP NEXT: Re-read of Nautical Chart by Arturo Perez-Reverte.

Contributing editor Rebecca Cantrell sold her house, quit her high tech job, and moved to Hawaii to write a novel. Her first novel, A TRACE OF SMOKE, starts a mystery series set in Berlin in the 1930s. It will be released in May 2009. As of this writing, she lives in Hawaii with her husband and son.