Dancing With Myself: JOHN VORHAUS interviews JOHN VORHAUS

I'm proud to be able to say today that I'm one of the nominees for Spinetingler's award for the Best Story Online category. I'm proud for lots of reasons.

First off, there are some amazing stories out there, many of which have given me a lot of pleasure.

Secondly, to be part of a group with the others on the list is a magnificent feeling. They're all talented stars who've earned their places.

Thirdly, it's Spinetingler.

Anyone who likes a quality read should pop over and see who and what they've chosen. Every writer gives you a huge, satisfying portion of themselves and a lesson or two in the art of the short form, should you feel the need.

Read them all, chose your favourite and then go and vote. That's how it works. You'll have a lot more fun than when you're voting in your government, I can assure you.

http://www.spinetinglermag.com/2011/03/24/2011-spinetingler-award-short-story-on-the-web-nominees/

And, as if life couldn't get any better, here's John Vorhaus:


Q: Okay, JV, interview time, me against you, you against me. Do you think you’re up to it?

A: Being as how I’m deeply schizophrenic, yeah. I think I can manage.

Q: So then let’s start there. Does having a split personality help you as a writer?

A: Okay, I don’t actually have a split personality, but I do have the knack for both guiding my characters and being guided by them. Even as I’m composing a scene or a sequence, I’m looking at it from the protagonists’ point of view and seeing if it makes sense to them. That’s always the bottom line: Does this make sense to the people in the story?

Q: In your last two books, The California Roll and its new sequel, The Albuquerque Turkey , you write about cons and con artists. Some people think you know a little too much about that world, and some people think you know a lot too much. So let me ask you point-blank. Are you, John Vorhaus, a con artist?

A: Categorically not. And you can take my word for it because I’m a trustworthy liar.

Q: “Trustworthy liar?” What the hell is that?

A: Someone who lies to you, tells you he’s lying to you, tells you why he’s lying to you, and insists that he’s doing this for your own good.

Q: Sounds like self-serving bafflegab to me. Can you give me an example.

A: Of course. I wouldn’t have asked me the question if I didn’t have an answer. In addition to writing, I teach and train writers all over the world – 26 countries on four continents at last count. It often happens that the writers I’m working with have serious confidence issues. They don’t believe they’re up to the task at hand. I tell them that I’m 100 percent sure they will succeed, even though I never am.




Q: I lost me.

A: Look, if I tell them I don’t think they can do the job, how can I endow them with the confidence to do it? If I tell them I believe in them – whether I believe in them or not – I let my confidence support and inform their own. It’s called self-fulfilling prophecy: say you believe in something and you help that thing come true. And oh by the way, that’s how I write every book I write. I tell myself I can do it whether I actually think I can do it or not (often I don’t). So I not only lie to others, I lie to myself, and all for everyone’s own good.




Q: Okay, I guess I buy that. Tell us about The Albuquerque Turkey.

A: It brings back the old gang from The California Roll: world-class con artist Radar Hoverlander, his conny girlfriend Allie Quinn, and their halfwit sidekick Vic Mirplo. Radar and Allie want to give up their lives of con artistry and go straight, because they’re in love, they want to be honest with each other, and think it’ll be hard to do that if they’re still lying to the rest of the world.

Q: Wow, honesty really seems to be a thing with you.

A: Honestly, yeah, I’m interested in the subject. Anyway, they’re trying to go straight. Only now here comes Radar’s dad, Woody Hoverlander, with the scam of a lifetime – and with his life on the line. The question of the novel is whether Radar will stick to his commitment to go straight, or revert to his true nature – his destiny – and be the top-flight flim-flam man he is.

Q: So what happens?

A: Oh, dude, read the book.

Q: Yeah, but I’d rather sample it first.

A: No problem. You know what they say: The first taste is free. So go here to read an excerpt.

Q: Uh-huh. Any other goodies for us?

A: There’s an outstanding promo video for the book. I promise it’ll be the best 4:44 you spend today. I also tweet @TrueFactBarFact.

Q: Again with the truth and lies. What the frick is a bar fact?

A: Okay, see, there are two classes of reality, things that are true and things that sound true in bars late at night. The object of the game is to figure out which.

Q: Example?

A: During the American Civil War, the state of Maine attempted to secede from the Union and join Quebec.

Q: Wow, that almost sounds like it could be true.

A: A few beers from now and it certainly will.

Q: Well, I must say, JV, it sounds like a strange and troubling world you live in, there inside your brain.

A: You should know, dude, you’re right there with me.

Q: And if I want more of “the drug that is John Vorhaus?”

A: Read my books on writing, The Comic Toolbox and Creativity Rules! or my many Killer Poker books. Or the novels. Or just poke around at http://www.johnvorhaus.com/. It’s the happiest place on Earth.

Q: I thought that was Disneyland.

A: Nah, they stole it from me.

Q: True fact or bar fact?

A: Okay, that’s it, interview over! (Storms off in a huff).

Dancing With Myself: MICHAEL HASKINS interviews MICHAEL HASKINS

Michael Haskins, Key West Mystery Writer, interviews himself.

Isn’t Key West inundated with writers?

Not really. While writers seem to vacation here, few writers live here fulltime and even less write about the island. My friend Tom Corcoran has a long-running series – the Alex Rutledge Mystery series – set in Key West, but I can’t think of anyone else besides Tom and me with a series set in Key West. You don’t run into many of New York’s published elite here or publishers. If they come, most of them must continue to live as if they are still in Manhattan and avoid the local riffraff like myself. You must remember, Key West is a vacation destination and we accept everyone, even the elite.

Why did you choose Key West as your home?

I grew up outside Boston and then went to Los Angeles – kind of jumping from the frying pan into the fire – and after my West Coast stint, I need to escape earthquakes and smog. I was spring break vacationing in Naples, Florida with my twin daughters – Seanan and Chela – and two of their friends, and it was raining. The local news showed Key West as sunny, so I packed up the four teenagers and drove the eight hours. I told them I’d never be this close to Hemingway’s house again, so off we went. We stayed at the hotel the Beatles stayed at on South Roosevelt Boulevard, (gone now, replaced by time shares) and that made them happy; we spent two days walking, shopping, and whatever tourists do downtown – including two visits to Hemingway’s home. They discovered Jimmy Buffett’s restaurant and T-shirt shop and I discovered my Muse.

Muse?

I feel in love with Key West, the history, the architecture, the water, the diverse people and felt at home, something I hadn’t felt since leaving Boston. I don’t know what else it could have been if it hadn’t been a Muse guiding me to where I belonged, where I could write and be happy.

Writing about Key West, what is that like?

It’s fun. I spent five years as the business editor/writer for the daily Key West Citizen and then five years as the city’s public information officer and both these jobs afforded me an insight into life in Key West that most people are not privy to. It has helped my writing and it has given me contact with business people and politicians so I can pick-and-choose where my stories go. It has also given me the ability to present the island more honestly than a writer who only visits the island for research or spends six months or less “absorbing” Key West. One of the comments I often get from locals is that I captured the essence of Schooner Wharf Bar, the Hog’s Breath, and other local hangouts, and that is welcomed praise since these people frequent the establishments.

Tell us about the new book.

Thanks for finally asking!

Free Range Institution was released in mid February and is the second in my Mick Murphy Key West Mystery series. I’ve just signed a contract for my third in the series – Car Wash Blues – and it should be out in 2012. We really don’t have crime in Key West, not like Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston. I am a news junkie and read newspapers and newsmagazines looking for that quirky news crime story from anywhere. When I find it, I run it by a few friends in law enforcement or my military intelligence source. When it’s possible, usually with some adjustments for the Keys, I work on bringing that crime to Key West. In Free Range Institution, I have a corrupt city commissioner and others attempt to smuggle a drug residue from cocaine processing – “paco” – into the states via Key West’s fishing fleet. In between the opening when a body comes off a hotel roof and lands on a car on Duval Street and the RPG attack on the good guys at Cay Sal Banks, I shoot up much of Key West and the body count and attacks turn the small island into the old west. What I did after discovering ‘paco’ the drug was come up with a probable scenario involving Key West. With the help of my sources, I think I pulled it off pretty well.

What is next for you?

Car Wash Blues, as I said, is due out in 2012 and I am busying working on my fourth in the series, Stairway to the Bottom. In Car Wash Blues, I bring two Tijuana, Mexico drug cartels to Key West. Both are after Mick Murphy and there is a lot of what is happening today in Mexico between the cartels and the Mexican government in the book. There’s also betrayal of old friendships and a link to Murphy’s past in Mexico and Central America. I should mention I spent most of 28 summers in Tijuana attending the bullfights and had the opportunity to befriend many of the city’s residents. I also have followed the LA Time’s long-running series “Mexico Under Siege” and used it as a research tool. In Stairway to the Bottom, I get away from drugs, dredge up some old Cold War agents in search of millions of dollars worth of diamonds, a hit man for Whitey Bulger from Boston running away from witness protection, and mix it all together. It is going well and I am having fun bringing all these people to Key West. Anyone that wants to discuss my books can come to one of my book signings, the information is on my website:

http://www.michaelhaskins.net/.

Michael will be signing copies of his book at Murder By The Book, Houston, on Saturday 23rd April (the day after Joe Lansdale, no less) at 4:30 pm. If you need more information, http://www.murderbooks.com/signings.php is where you'll find out more.

Crime Spots and Slow Learners

Are you slow on the uptake like me?

Take you a while to catch up with the world?

Need someone out there to point out the good things in life?

A Paul D Brazill, perhaps?

In case there isn't enough of Paul D to go around, if you've not seen it before, take a look at Crime Spot. It's been going since 2006 as far as I can work out, and today was my first visit.

Lovely work.

http://www.crimespot.net/

And here's a link for the trailer of the The Bastard Hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETOrN-_HOwo

More Sinned Against

The first work I read by Dave White was his story in the ‘Terminal Damage’ anthology.
That’s a brilliantly constructed piece about a young man who has lost his grip. It was so good that I had to get hold of ‘More Sinned Against’ as soon as it came out.

Here I found a very different voice.

I met Jackson Donne, a Private Detective in the classic mould who has a strong enough profile to make him stand out from the rest.

This is a series of tales that are beautifully self-contained. There’s enough tension, pathos and character in each one to make them the perfect read for fans of the detective genre.

It’s extremely satisfying, also, to have complete stories that can be read in one sitting, reminding me of Block’s Hit Man in that respect. Nourishing tales in manageable bites, it’s just the kind of thing Kindle was invented for.

Jackson (and I feel I know him well enough now to use his first name) is just the kind of man I’d want batting on my team. A+

Dancing With Myself: ALLAN LEVERONE interviews ALLAN LEVERONE

Thanks for joining us. It says here your name is Allan Leverone. Now that’s obviously an alias. We’re not playing games here, why don’t you stop screwing around and fess up your real name?

You’re welcome. And, yeah, my name really is Allan Leverone. If I was going to pick an alias, I would choose something much better than that. Something like Lee Child, or maybe Clive Cussler. Something cool. Why would I use an alias, anyway?

To cover for those Penthouse letters you flooded the magazine with so long ago, of course. And I’m asking the questions here.

Uh, that must have been a different guy. Really. And, um, do you have one?

One what?

A question.

Oh. Right. Of course. Stop being so evasive, for chrissakes, and come clean. We’re supposed to believe you write novels, is that correct?

You don’t have to believe it, but it’s true.

If you say so. Okay, wise guy, have you written anything I would recognize?

You know the John Rain series of thrillers, with the Japanese-American assassin?

That was you?

I wish. That was some other guy. But I wrote Final Vector, the thriller featuring Nick Jensen, an air traffic controller who gets tangled up in a plot to assassinate U.S. President Robert Cartwright by blowing up Air Force One.

You really wrote FINAL VECTOR? No kidding. That’s the best book I’ve ever read!

Um, okay, thanks, but everyone knows you’re really me, so maybe you should just cool it.

Oh yeah. You’re probably right. Well, it’s still a pretty cool book. What the hell made a thirty-year air traffic controller decide to write novels, anyway?

Since I was a little boy I’ve loved to read, and always had a fascination with stringing words together in interesting and entertaining ways. I originally went to college with the intention of becoming a newspaper journalist, but once I began to realize the small percentage of journalists who actually earned a living wage, I decided to change majors. I know, I know, I was a sellout. Sue me.

After graduation, I got hired by the FAA as an air traffic controller in 1982, got married and raised a family, and writing just sort of faded into the background. Then, about five years ago, I started up a sports blog at Foxsports.com, kind of as a lark, and began to actually cultivate a small following. A year or so after that, I had an epiphany. I realized that as much as I enjoyed blogging about sports, what I really wanted to do was write fiction. So I did.

Listen, guy, take a breath will ya? Nobody wants to hear your life story.

But I thought—

—Never mind what you thought. Honestly, you’re really starting to try my patience. How about you share some of your literary influences with us?

Okay, well, that’s a tough one; it’s hard to narrow the list down because there are so many. I love thrillers and horror novels, and also mysteries to a slightly lesser degree, so my influences are spread out among those genres. I’ll say Lawrence Block, Lee Child, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Donald Westlake, Bill Pronzini, Tom Piccirilli, Barry Eisler, Sophie Littlefied. Man, I could use up the rest of this post naming authors I admire.

I believe that; you’re already using up my patience. What are your goals with this writing gig? Sell millions of books and retire, probably, am I right?

No! Well, I mean, I’d love to sell millions of books, don’t get me wrong, but I’m always going to write. If I go more than a day or so without writing, I start to get a little . . . I don’t know . . . twitchy.

Kind of like a junkie.

You said it, not me.

What are your plans following FINAL VECTOR?

Thanks for asking. I’m actively pursuing publication of a thriller titled THE LONELY MILE, in which a divorced hardware store owner stumbles upon the kidnapping of a teenage girl and manages to break it up, but in so doing, thrusts his own daughter directly into the sights of a sociopathic killer. I’m also working on a paranormal horror/thriller tentatively titled FLICKER, but that’s still a ways away from being ready for anyone to see.

Anything else you want to get off your chest before we release you on your own recognizance?

Yes, I’d like to say thanks to Nigel Bird and Sea Minor for giving me an opportunity to take part in this very cool experiment. I’m following in the footsteps of some real authorial heavy hitters, and I pray I didn’t just bring down the property values in this whole neighborhood.

Kiss-ass. Okay, that about does it. You can go. Just don’t leave town.

Don’t leave town? Why would I—oh, never mind, it doesn’t matter. I don’t get out much, anyway.

http://www.allanleverone.com/

Dancing With Myself: DES NNOCHIRI interviews DES NNOCHIRI

This week, I was delighted to hear that a story of mine that I'm very fond of has found a home. It's going to be published by the very exciting Voluted Tales.

They have a superb site to go and visit at http://volutedtales.com/. What I like is the approach. I've not seen quite so many things in the one place.

You can advertise your work or put out news items that will be on display at the home-page. You can look up writing resources and tips. You can blog and join a forum thread. You can follow the news of their up-coming projects and the submissions dates and, of course, you can submit work.

Not only that, they pay for the stories they use. Not bad for the one site, huh?

The magazines they produce are General Fiction, Noir/Thriller, Paranormal Romance, Serials and Young Adult - something for many, I'd say.

Why not pop over and see what you think? If you like what you see, join (for free) and start to use the resources - I for one am keen to take a good look around.

I might even go over there and advertise today's interview by Des Nnochiri. He certainly deserves a wide audience. Take it away, Des:

Q: Okay. So. Des. Why "Des?"

A: Because "Desmond" sounds like somebody's stodgy uncle. Which I actually am. An uncle (Hi, kids!), not stodgy. But still.

"Des" is racier, pacier, more...

Q: How would you describe yourself?

A: Not too short; not too tall. Good-humored - with an edge.
Hey. I thought we were gonna talk about my writing, here.

Q: Who inspires you, as a writer?

A: Stephen King, Ed McBain, James Ellroy, Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Thomas Harris. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. P.G. Wodehouse. Also, Gary Larson's "The Far Side", Glen Baxter, and Handelsmann's "Freaky Fables." The Encyclopedia Britannica.

Q: The Britannica. Really?

A: No. I just wanted you to waste a question. Though, there was a time, back when my dad was stationed at the Nigerian Embassy in Gabon, when I tried reading the Britannica from A to Z. Interesting stuff. I didn't finish. What was your question, again?

Q: I didn't ask one. Hmm. An eclectic mix, of influences. Quite a few thriller writers, there. What's your approach to the crime and thriller genre?

A: I tend toward the psychological. Sure, there's blood and murder, but I'm more concerned with what motivates the killers - and the bloodhounds that pursue them. I like to get into their heads; explore what made them who they are. And makes them do the things they do.

Q: You have a reputation for using very few words, in your short stories. Why is that?

A: Umm... Less is more?

Q: So, what have you been working on, lately?

A: Well, there are three major projects, in the works.



First is "The Truck Stop's Here", a collection of my noir short stories. Some of the material in it first aired on Christopher Grant's blog site, A Twist Of Noir. Some of it's fresh. All of it, I highly recommend.



Then, there's my novel, "Xero Option." It's a thriller, based on my feature-length screenplay, of the same name. And the project itself fleshes out the characters of two police officers who featured in one of my best-received short stories at A Twist of Noir. Which (the story) you'll find in "The Truck Stop's Here." Way leads to way, and all that.



And the third one is called, "And We Didn't Get It" (Subtitled: Tweets, from The Lighter Side of Dark). Kind of experimental. It's a collection of - I guess you'd call them Twitter vignettes. Darkly humorous scenarios, played out in 140 characters, or less.

Q: Any other projects, we should know about?

A: I have several short and feature-length screenplays out there, screaming for celluloid. Couple of the shorts have made it off the printed page.

A young director named Andy Burchett filmed "GhostWriter" for me, in 2010. It's a horror story, about a pair of writers who make the wrong sort of bargain, to achieve success.

Then, there's "BFF: Best Friend Forever", a cautionary tale about the dangers of unrequited puppy love. That one's currently in production.

You can visit my website, at:

http://www.desnnochiri.co.cc/

(a.k.a. The Website of Des Nnochiri) to find those two, and all my other scripts.

I also blog, at:

http://desnnochiri.wordpress.com/

(Des Nnochiri's Write to Speak)

Haven't had an avalanche of reader comments, yet. But, I occasionally say something interesting.

Q: Des Nnochiri. Writer. Screenwriter. Thank you.

A: Not at all. Nice suit, by the way.

Dancing With Myself: JODI MACARTHUR interviews JODI MACARTHUR

Reality is not how an artist sees it. Yet, it isn’t as practical and straight edged as your physics professor insists either. One has to maintain a balance. But that doesn’t mean one mind isn’t allowed to overcome the other and take charge based on the needs of the moment. If I’m writing/creating, the artistic mind rules and the practical mind sits in the background and laughs, I can’t believe the crap you come up with. Who do you think you are? Just like when you were little flapping your arms and jumping off that balcony thinking you are going to fly like a bird, like super woman? And when you fall flat on your face for the 30th time what are you gonna do? Huh?

If my practical mind dodges an oncoming Semi, thereby avoiding being squished, the artistic one sinks back, but whispers, you missed a perfectly beautiful meadow of sunflowers back there. And if you’d paid attention to that trucker’s license plate you would have seen that it read idiot666 and I could have written about that later. That was worth a chance with a bumper thumper, I think. Yes, it was. You wimp! You speak of courage, but where is the courage now?

This may sound a bit crazy, but I have a feeling that every single one of you writers know exactly what I’m talking about, and you readers? Well, you gotta give something for the price of admission. I think this recent interview with practical ol’ Jo and J.Mac explains a lot.

Jo: Hi there.

J.Mac: Hi.

Jo: So wassup?

J.Mac: Suppressing the beast & taming 10,000 monkeys.

Jo: Is that it?

J.Mac: No, I’m also painting my bedroom red.

Jo: Why?

J.Mac: To suppress the beast and tame 10,000 monkeys.

Jo: You already said that.

J.Mac: I know. WTF?

Jo: You tell me.

J.Mac: No, you tell me.

Jo: I’m asking the questions, dammit.

J.Mac: Then ask them.

Jo: Fine. I will.

J.Mac: Fine.

Jo: What else are you doing?

J.Mac: I’m painting a big X on my red bedroom wall.

Jo: Why are you doing that?

J.Mac: To make a spider web.

Jo: A spider web for what?

J.Mac: To catch them.

Jo: Catch what?

J.Mac: The things that crawl through…here. *Taps head*

Jo: Jodi, what do you do with the things you’ll catch in your spider web?

J.Mac: I will consume them.

Jo: You kill them and eat them? That makes you a monster.

J.Mac: No, no, I give them life. A birth. A living breath.

Jo: That’s absurd. You’re not a god. Who gives you the right to give or take a life?

J.Mac: They choose me. I don’t choose them.

Jo: You’re fucking crazy. I think someone needs to call 9-1-1 and take your paint away, what do you think about that?

J.Mac: I think they can take my paint, my pens, my paper, my clothes, my dignity. They can tie me to a cross and burn me in flames, but they can never take what is between my ears and behind my eyes. Never. Only I can suppress or set that free. And that is why I must paint my bedroom red…

Jo: Why?!?

J.Mac: To suppress the beast and tame 10,000 monkeys.

Jo: I give up.

J.Mac: And that’s why I win and you are lame.

Jo: You literary bunch piss me off.

J.Mac: I write for the everyday not for the overlords. I’ll never be hung on a literary noose.

Jo: *Smiles. Nods approvingly.* You still piss me off.

J.Mac: Ditto.


When Jodi MacArthur isn’t suppressing the beast she unleashes it at http://www.jodimacarthur.blogspot.com/