One Man's Opinion: Psychosomatic by Anthony Neil Smith

Anthony Neil Smith’s debut novel Psychosomatic was released earlier this year for Kindle and what a debut it was.

The book has a plot that drives forward like a tank with broken steering, crushing everything in its path. It has great dialogue and the interplay between characters really sparkles.

As a starting point, we come across Lydia, a foxy lady with no arms and no legs. She wants to gain revenge on her husband for having sex with a younger woman in front of her. It’s not the unfaithfulness which upset her, rather the fact that they turned her on and left her without satisfying her needs. She employs the local thug, Cap, to beat up her husband, but he finds out about it and turns to Alan Crabtree, a small time crook, to film the fake beating he’s managed to organise.

During the fake beating the camera rolls, Cap takes things to far and kills Lydia’s husband. While they clean things up, Crabtree kills Cap during a moment of madness and then returns to Lydia to explain.

Unfortunately for Crabtree he’s in a tough spot with Terry and Lancaster, the car thieves from whom he bought his car. Lydia offers him a way out and at the same time manages to take over his body and mind.

This is only the beginning.

What happens next is a fizzing plot, driven by the needs of this crazy bunch of characters Smith sets against each other.

There’s planing and counter-planning, guessing and second-guessing and ignoring every bit of logic they’re capable of.

Crabtree and Lancaster become crazed killers, Terry and Lydia pulling at the stings with all their might. They head to the airport for a final showdown and I guarantee that you’ll get a buzz from the way it all plays out.

To my mind it’s as if Smith has taken the main characters, thrown them in a blender and pressed the button for a minute. He’s opened the lid, added a beautiful woman dressed as a nurse and pressed the button for another while.

The lives of these people may be chaos, but the writer never loses control. He’s always there as an invisible hand crafting the scenes and the dialogue to make sure there’s not an ounce of fat left to trim.

Fast-paced, stylish and brutal, it’s an absolute must for any fans of crime-fiction.

An absolutely ridiculous bargain at 69p from:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=psychosomatic&x=14&y=21

or $1:13 at:

http://www.amazon.com/Psychosomatic-ebook/dp/B004HW7K6O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1302950248&sr=1-3

Warning: This book will have your Kindle smoking – do not throw water over it after downloading.

Dancing With Myself: ANTHONY NEIL SMITH interviews ANTHONY NEIL SMITH

ANS. I've heard from a lot of people that he's made a difference to them. Helped them through his excellent PLOTS WITH GUNS site as an editor, facillitator or friend to the writer.

Then there are all those that dig his novels.

In fact, he's touched a lot of people in a lot of [appropriate] ways.

Here he gets a chance to talk about himself. I'm glad he took me up on the offer,

Humble greetings, Mr Anthony Neil Smith.

ANS: Who the fuck do you think you are?

ANS: I'm a crime writer with a Ph.D in English/Creative Writing. I'm the Director of Creative Writing at Southwest Minnesota State University, where I'm an Associate Professor. I wrote four novels--PSYCHOSOMATIC, THE DRUMMER, YELLOW MEDICINE, and HOGDOGGIN’. Plus, bunches of short stories all over the web, both literary and crime mags. I edit the ezine PLOTS WITH GUNS. I'm a fat guy who like tacos.

ANS: You got a problem with the label "crime writer"?

ANS: Nope. I like it. Some people seem to shrug off labels, but I kind of see "Crime Writer" as a label like "Muscle Car." I don't see old GTOs trying to shrug out of that one. I'm pretty sure that the Most Interesting Man in the World (from the Dos Equis ads) is actually a crime writer. Crime writers sit in bars and grouch at things. They also write better TV shows than everyone else. So fuck it, I'm a Crime Writer, except when I'm not.

ANS: I hear tell that noir doesn't sell. Thoughts?

ANS: Here's the thing. I want to be read. I want to write stories that are the sorts of things I want to read, but I also want to be read. And my goal is to sell enough of them that whatever publisher I have lets me publish the next one. I love noir, and I love the people who are dedicated to writing noir--I'm glad those books get written, out there, and discovered by the small but rabid group of readers who wolf it down. But then again, sometime you wanna hear Hank III, sometimes you wanna hear Lady Gaga. I write what I feel like, what rocks my world, and a lot of it is noir. And even when it's not, I'm glad noir readers go along and give it a shot.

Anyway, noir does sell...a little bit. Good enough for me. Banjo jazz sells a little bit, too, but enough that it's music worth making.

ANS: You're from Mississippi. You moved to Minnesota. And then your setting also moved from the South to the North. Notice any differences?

ANS: Accents are a bit different, but not as much as you'd think. Turns out that anywhere you go in the USA, rural is rural. I went from woodlands, rednecks, fishin' holes, to farmers, rednecks, long stretches of flat prairie. Rural is still rural, though. Country is country. But the Minnesotans around me have got a lower threshold for surface politeness than Southerners. You heard about Minnesota Nice? Not in the Southwest part of the state. More like "Minnesota Begrudgingly". Not a bad thing. Just a fascinating aspect to write about.

I wrote YELLOW MEDICINE while angry. New in Minnesota, pissed off at the weather and the cold-heartedness. Then I met the woman who would become my wife. She showed me the Minnesota I was missing. I fell in love with her and the state at the same time. Now I look forward to blizzards and thigh-deep snow. I can't hack the heat and humidity of New Orleans for more than a handful of days anymore.

ANS: If you weren't a writer...?

ANS: I wanted to be a writer. Then I wanted to be a comic book artist/writer. Then I wanted to be a rock guitarist. Then I wanted to be a Christian rock guitarist.songwriter. Then I quit church and wanted to be a writer again. So I did it. Now I'm a writer.

If not a writer, I guess I'd still want to be a teacher. Even if it was just a composition prof. Seeing the light bulb go on over the students' heads when they're able to turn those thoughts into good paragraphs is irreplaceable.

Or, I'd like to own a taco truck and travel around, selling tacos.

ANS: Drink of choice?

ANS: I don't drink much. Allergic to much of it. So, the cheapest, lightest, and coldest beer wins. Mexican beer with lime is best. But I like tequila, too. The good expensive stuff. It's cool. Small sips.

ANS: PLOTS WITH GUNS came back. Why? What's the plan?

ANS: I figured out that I could format it faster, make it look better, and I was starving for new awesome noir writers. The two immortal issues of MURDALAND made me jealous, as did THUGLIT, so I said, "Fuck it, I'm doing it again." Having fun doing it, too. I'm paying for the site out of my pocket, a labor of love, and I can't pay writers, but I hope like hell they get a lot of attention from the stories I post. Helps some of them make contacts with agents, other editors, and that's worth it all.

The plan? Keep doing it until I can't. Then, find someone I think can do what I would do, and pass the baton.

ANS: What do you think about the current state of--

ANS: Shut up. I'm already bored with that question.

ANS: Asshole.

ANS: [Gets up, tosses some dollar bills on the table] Here, buy yourself a wank magazine and then send this interview in. I've got books to write, bitch.