Murdoch is an easy character to return to for a variety of reasons, McGeachin said. "The first-person style lets me have him do and say things I never could, so there's a bit of wish fulfillment there," he said. "Even though the stories are somewhat tongue in cheek they still need the right pacing and drama and motivations to work on the thriller level, so there is always that challenge."

McGeachin's work as a photographer has taken him all over the world to situations both beautiful and tense. He said it was the perfect backdrop for a writer crafting tales about a secret agent like Murdoch.

"Working and living around the world as a photographer gives you a pretty amazing range of unusual experiences and characters to draw on," he said. "I've always used these anecdotes in my photography classes and giving Alby a cover identity as a photographer enabled me to use many of them in my writing. Things like having all your camera gear put in bond by gun-toting soldiers in third world countries and then smuggled out the back door of customs after money changes hands, or taking pictures at sunset from the 22nd floor of an unfinished hotel in Seoul at a time when anyone seen with a camera above the fifth floor could be shot without warning by security forces tend to stick in the mind."

Moreover, the patience and eye for detail he developed as a photographer helped him flesh out the scenes in his stories, he said, adding that he has been told he has a "very visual" style of writing.

But most important, McGeachin said, was to have a sense of humor while watching the world operate in often capricious ways. It is fertile ground for writing if one imagines that a spy agency is run about the same way as the local DMV: "I'm slightly in fear that my particular creation, DED, is the same as every other government bureaucracy world wide: made up of a combination of dedicated, competent people, those barely functioning but keeping their heads down and hoping not to be noticed, and those way too stupid to realize they have no business being in the job but who try to maneuver and viciously back stab their way to the top."

For more about McGeachin and Dead And Kicking, visit www.geoffreymcgeachin.com.

Contributing editor Gerry Doyle is the author of numerous short stories published in the United States, abroad and on the Internet. His first novel, From the Depths, was released in November 2007 by McBooks Press. He has worked as an editor and a reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 2001. He's also OK at ping-pong and has had cocktails on three continents. He doesn't put much stock in astrology but just in case: He's a Leo.