Life experiences often play a major role in influencing an author.

Mike Palecek, whose latest, seventh book focuses on the story of an Iowa man, says his time in prison has had a major affect on his work.

Palecek, who was incarcerated five times in the 1980s, says writing was an outlet for him.

“Four were for crossing the line at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, in protest against the United States military. The other was for a sit-in at Congressman Hal Daub’s office in Omaha protesting United States involvement in the killing of poor El Salvadorans,” he says. “My prison experiences are very much a part of my writing.”

After getting out of prison, Palecek says he was looking for a nonviolent way to express himself.

“In one sense, writing is a way I can express myself comfortably,” he says.

“In another sense of the question, it’s the world around me, getting angry at my environment, the people around me and what is happening. I came out of doing six months in the Council Bluffs jail in 1989 and was looking for a way to keep on with peace and justice work and writing seemed to fit me.”

Many of Palecek’s books focus on the corruption of government, justice and social reform. “Looking for Bigfoot,” Palecek’s latest novel, is no exception.

“‘Looking for Bigfoot’ is a novel about an Iowa man who reads the news, listens to the radio, watches TV and comes to understand that not everyone is telling the truth,” Palecek says.

“He takes a bus to go find the truth.”

Palecek, who grew up in Norfolk, Neb., says he enjoys using Iowa towns, such as Sioux City, as settings for all of his books, except one, which takes place in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Although his books are fiction, Palecek says he feels as though they are based on reality.

“I think all of my writing is based on real things, real feelings. I actually think that fiction, in a strange way, is perhaps a better way to talk about real things than nonfiction writing,” Palecek says.

Although his previous books are fiction, Palecek says he will try his hand at nonfiction writing. He says he always has ideas floating around in his head and he puts little slips of paper in his pockets and carries them around all day long.

When he gets inspired by something, he tries to sit down and fit all the little pieces into a story.

One area of reality that Palecek feels no trouble expressing his opinion involves the political arena of the United States. Palecek says he has serious problems with the government and nation’s current president.

“I think he (President Bush) is a murderer, a liar, a very evil man. He is the worst president in the history of the United States,” Palecek says.

“The war, the killing, the dying has all been in vain – all for oil. It is not about freedom. That is talk straight out of George Orwell.

“I do not support the troops any more than a resister in Germany in the 1940s would have supported the Nazis.”

Palecek says he doesn’t feel the Democratic Party has it all figured out, either. He says Democrats are on the right track, but need to back themselves up.

“If I were given the power, I would take the money from the military and give us universal health care, better schools, transportation, care for the poor,” he says.

“I would pour money into social needs. I would open the borders to immigrants. Nobody should be called ‘illegal’ – that is insane. Abolish the death penalty.

“If the Democrats could find it within themselves to say that, then they would have something going, and so would we.”