Dancing With Myself: CHRISTOPHER GRANT interviews CHRISTOPHER GRANT

Before I let Christopher take it away (and he really does), I've a couple of extrs contributors to announce.

Added to the list are: Vicki Delany, Angela Choi, Tom Llewellyn, Zoe Sharp and SJ Rozan. Joe R Lansdale is too busy right now for any extra load, but he's up for it in principle and asked that I get back to him in a month or so (fingers tightly crossed).

I'd like to take the opportunity of thanking all the contributors to date - they've given me a huge amount of pleasure and information and I'm grateful to them all for taking the time to take part.

Look out for a couple of top interviews this weekend, when Eric Beetner and Chris Holm will be here.

And now, a man who has to be one of the most prolific and widely respected publishers of short stories in the business. When he took a couple of my stories I was purring for weeks afterwards. Here he is, worthy of a Friday special...

Self-interview with Christopher Grant, Editor/Publisher of A Twist Of Noir by Christopher Grant, Editor/Publisher of A Twist Of Noir

1. A Twist Of Noir. I'm not so much interested in the name as where the interest for noir came from. There was a time when you thought of yourself as primarily an SF writer. When and why did this change occur?

A. If this interview happened sixteen years ago, when I was sixteen, I don't think I'd be able appreciate noir fiction or even film noir.

Remember, you threw James Ellroy's THE BIG NOWHERE in the garbage after the first five pages, not being able to understand what the fuck it was all about. Granted it was the second book of a quartet and you were only about thirteen but you threw the thing away.

I guess the switch probably started with not having the ability for one reason or another to pull off a convincing SF story, at least in my mind, and looking elsewhere for something to write. I mean, I could probably do an SF story today if I wanted to but it would still read like noir or crime, just with androids and hover cars and DNA splitting and nanotech. In other words, very much Phillip K. Dick.

2. Wait, wait. You threw THE BIG NOWHERE in the trash?

A. No, that was you, remember? The story just wasn't working for me.

Danny Upshaw and his story bored the shit out of that thirteen year-old me.

So, with the story just hanging there, doing nothing for me, neither good or bad, I had you toss it in the trash.

If I had thought about it, I could have gotten my six bucks back by
returning it but you just tossed it.

Something like five years later, we regretted doing that and we had to track down a copy and then it had all those typos, remember? And so we had to order it from the local B&N.

3. Sure, blame me for everything.

So the change occurred after you couldn't write a convincing SF story. And that was about twenty-five, twenty-six, somewhere around there, right?

A. Yeah. But I was writing a lot of stuff back then. I was writing
commentary for a politics website and SF for the drawer and poetry (not all that great, either) and a couple of other things. I was of the impression at that point that you write as much as you possibly can, in as many different genres as you can, so you don't get pigeonholed or burn out in one area. Diversify.

I'm don't believe that any longer. I think you can write the same genre as long as you want to, as long as it interests you.

I'm still very much of the impression that the audience is the audience and will either love it or hate it and there's not a whole lot you can do about it, except not put shit up on that stage.

But I don't think you can ever burn out on something like noir or crime. We live in that world and there are two zillion stories to be told.

Just this morning (as of this writing, that is), I was put into the mind for another story by something I witnessed happening at five in the morning. Two guys, with a trash bag in each hand, came running down the street, highstepping it to a Dumpster outside of a school. A couple minutes later, they came walking back.

The writer in me immediately started asking questions. The obvious one was what was in the bags and then why couldn't they put those bags in their own trash can? Why run with the bags in the first place? Where's the fucking rush? I didn't ask them, of course. At five in the morning, that last thing I want to do is spend a couple hours in the emergency room if it turns out that I shouldn't be asking those questions aloud.

But if you can't tell a noir or crime story with that opening hook, I don't know what your problem is.

4. Let's talk about A Twist Of Noir and what it's like to be
editor/publisher. What's a typical day or week like?

A. There's no such thing. The guidelines say that I will put stories up every day. Anyone that's come to the site knows that's not true. And it's not true because sometimes it's not possible. Sometimes I get ten stories, sometimes I get two. When I get two, they probably go up right away unless I have something more pressing to get to. When I get ten, there are times I will separate out some and save the rest for the Friday Story Drop.

Whenever I do put a story up, regardless of whether it's on a regular day or on a Friday, I read the story, looking for errors along the way, correcting it along the way, put it up in the Blogger field and fix everything up (if the errors are minor) and then publish it.

If the errors are not minor, I run them by the writer of the piece and wait for them to get back to me to see what they think about the changes I think are necessary. I don't believe in screwing around with anyone's story just so I can get it up at the site.

I think the writer deserves respect and I think the site should be
respected. And you can't have either if you put up something that's not coherent or that doesn't hang together and make sense or you decide to screw around with that person's story just to get it on the site.

After a story goes up, I inform the writer and I put out the word on
Facebook.

And that's a typical day at ATON. Come back next week when we'll be doing arts and crafts. Until then, I'm Martha Stewart saying, Pop a cap in that ass.

5. Recently you announced that A Twist Of Noir would be changing its
maximum word count. Why the change?

A. There are over five hundred stories at ATON right now, we're rapidly closing in on six hundred. When I started the site, the count was actually only 2,000 words or less (if I remember correctly). At some point, I decided that I wanted to open it up a bit and raised it to 5,000 words or less and it's been there for quite a while (over a year anyway).

Part of the reason for the change in word count is what I've seen people like Paul Brazill and Michael Solender and Des Nnochiri and now R.S. Bohn and Kelly Whitley and Phil Beloin Jr. and Tom Larsen be able to do with a modicum of words.

I've been saying for a couple weeks now to various people: you don't need a novel's worth of words unless, of course, you're writing a novel.

Look at Jim Harrington's latest on ATON for a prime example of that new maxim. One paragraph and that's the story.

I have no problem with people that like to let the story go as long as it takes to tell the story. I used to be an advocate for that back before I was writing crime. But, at the same time, there's a lot to be said for self-editing and tightening up the narrative. And I really think that crime benefits from doing this. The sharper the hit, the more hardboiled the story, the better the experience for the reader.

6. Along with the new max word count, you also announced that you were shutting down the site for a while, at least such as it's run right now, for what you're calling The 600 to 700 Challenge. What is it and why now?

A. The 600 to 700 Challenge was actually supposed to be the 500 to 600 Challenge. A couple months back, I had a moment where I was feeling burned out by the job of editing and trying to brainstorm how to keep the site going without shutting it down for a time and then coming back rejuvenated.

But I didn't want to shut down the site to alleviate the burn out so I came up with the 500 to 600 Challenge.

I based the concept off of Jimmy Callaway's concept to write the century mark stories, which the man has been churning out since the site hit 200 (and he even went back and wrote the 100 century mark story). In each, he uses only the number of words for that century mark. So 100 has only one hundred words, 200 only two hundred and so on.

And I thought, "Why not do this for every story between 500 and 600?"

So I ran it up the flagpole to various people. Michael Solender and Jimmy Callaway and Richard Godwin and others. Keith Rawson asked some important questions, like how I was going to be able to insure that the thing could be pulled off in the first place and he suggested that, instead of going 500 to 600, that I should go from 600 to 700.

Which, of course, was the right decision. At the time, ATON was at least halfway through the 500s and rapidly approaching 600 and I needed time to figure out how this would work and to gauge reaction. Keith has been a great sounding board for me and I can't thank him enough.

I think this is as good a time as any to have a visible separation between the old era A Twist Of Noir and the new era to come.

7. The new era to come?

A. Yeah. The new max word count starts immediately after the Challenge ends. And there will be more features, such as reviews and interviews (which I did back when the site was just finding its feet), and I will be enlisting the help of others to carry these changes off. This will mark the first time that something other than the stories will be written by someone other than me. Damn, that sentence doesn't sound like it's worded right. Shut up time, Mr. Editor. Just let it stand on its own.

8. And what about your own writing? Will we be seeing more of that?

A. Of course. Hopefully in bigger amounts. Constantly, writers that write for ATON are asking when they're going to see more of what I write and that I should take off the editor's hat more often. The compliments are much appreciated. And with the changes that I'm planning for ATON, I think I will be able to take off that editor's hat a bit more.

9. What about the future of noir and crime writing? How do you see that?

A. Bright. Extremely so.

If you look at what I said earlier about this being a world in which noir or crime is just next door or even in your family, then the stories are right
there, too.

I think testament to this fact is the number of writers that have written not just for ATON but for Powder Burn Flash, Yellow Mama,Thuglit. Thrillers, Killers 'N Chillers, Crime Factory and Flash Fiction Offensive (just to name a few).

Interest just keeps growing and so does the pool of writers.

10. What about the future of A Twist Of Noir?

A. Also extremely bright. I wouldn't give this up for anything in the world. I want to see how far, with the help of the writers, I can take this thing.


http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/

Posted with much respect.

Dancing With Myself: PATRICIA ARLENE ABBOTT interviews PATRICIA ARLENE ABBOTT

Here's a lady who has her fingers in lots of pies and every one of them's delicious. Come and take a bite. Patti Abbott.

Why would we be interested in the facts of your life?

I certainly wondered about that myself and had, in fact, considered using the facts of someone else’s life to rouse more interest. I had Mary Robert Rinehart picked out since we were both born in Pennsylvania and she seemed obscure enough that anyone reading this might mistake her life for mine. Would you have bought that I created the “Had I But Known” narrative? But since I’ve never read a book by Ms, Rinehart I felt it would be too difficult to pull off. I had also chosen her because I liked Oscar Wilde’s quote—that she put her art into her lifestyle rather than her books. What writer of dozens of books wouldn’t be flattered by that statement?

No, seriously, why would we be interested in the facts of your life?

Seriously? Okay, my greatest achievement before quite recently (other than quitting smoking) was producing two amazing children and marrying an amazing man. For years I thought it was quite enough that I had done such a thing. Especially after my mother leaned into the car about to speed us away from our wedding reception and said, “I give it six months.” How many can choose well at nineteen and birth well at 22 and 23. So I basked in these accomplishments until two of those accomplishments were gone. There was no more strutting around at PTA meetings, baseball games and awards nights after that. I went back to a few the next year and frankly people stared at me and asked if my children hadn’t graduated. After acquiring a prescription for xanax, I thought maybe I should do more than make quilts and bake bread. Unless I could find a sixties commune and I couldn’t. It was 1994 by then.

Why do you waste so much time blogging and reading blogs?

Didn’t you read the above? I quit smoking, and with no cigarette break, what’s a girl to do? I go read a blog or the comments on mine when I need a break. Unfortunately I used to smoke a lot so those breaks come often. I like blogging. My kids always said I could ask more questions in five minutes than any talk show host and my blog is mostly about asking questions. When I get really antsy I go ask questions on facebook.

Why no novel?

Why the hell does everyone ask me that? I especially resent being asked that here. Actually I’ve written two novels, both proclaimed brilliant by my husband and close friends. So far no agent has agreed to rep them although I give up rather easily. Ten tries on the first one and I ditched it. In the long run, I feel I write stories between 2500 and 4000 words best. I have little to say so why keep on saying it? And it doesn’t help that both novels fall uneasily between crime fiction and mainstream novels such as they wrote in the sixties.

What do you read?

I spend an awful lot of time reading magazines. My husband and I are addicted to getting things in the mail and there are not a lot of letter writers out there. Magazines are so desperate for subscribers now, they practically give them away. Getting magazines written chiefly for the people in various cities is quite enjoyable. I really love reading reviews of plays in places like St. Paul and Portland. And I am quite up to date on restaurants in Albuquerque and Burlington. We easily get 20 magazines a month—four cooking ones alone (that’s my husband, not me). Aside from magazines, I read online zines and lots of novels and anthologies.

Why did you start Fridays Forgotten Books?

Because there are so many forgotten books. There are more forgotten books than remembered ones by 100-1. Bringing those books to light could keep me busy for a while. I’ve talked about this in other places but here’s a good opportunity to thank those people who have contributed pieces to this project. Blogging can be like doing a “Sally Draper.” (Does anyone get that reference?) So I was looking for a way to slap that hand away.

Do you really think you are competent to write movie reviews?

Not at all, but the sheer number of movies we see impressed Jeremy Lynch on Crimespree Cinema. He couldn’t imagine getting anyone else to see 1-3 movies a week. People are always asking me how do you make the time to see so many movies? And my response is that four hours a week does not seem like a lot of time. Plus the only good popcorn is at movie theaters. You may settle for that microwave crap, but give me the 800 calorie version at most movie theaters. I almost never watch movies on DVD or TV. It is too easy to pick up a book or go check my email.

Where do you envision yourself ten years down the road?

Dead.

How did you start writing?

Good question. I was well into my thirty-year degree B.A. program by then and a course I had signed up for on the American Indian looked too damned hard. It had like eight books and three papers—a new professor had come from Yale with visions of making our school a little Yale of the Midwest. So I dropped that class and the only class fitting into my schedule was on poetry. I didn’t realize it was a class on writing poetry and not reading it until the third week or so. I thought other students were just obligingly supplying the instructor with some text until our books came in. And suddenly it was my turn and I found out how easy it was to write bad poetry that semester. But some wise person said, “Hey you know, your poems might make good stories.” So I tried that and here I am.

For those here because I am Megan’s mother—Did you always know she would be a writer?

We have a cassette of Megan saying she’d be a writer at age seven. Amusingly, she blamed her lack of success at age seven on the fact we had not bought her a typewriter.
Actually, I thought she’d be an artist. She drew constantly as a child. I have boxes and boxes of her drawings. But when I look at those pictures now, they always have narratives to them. They even have words a lot of the time. Captions above, or you can follow the story from frame to frame. I just didn’t see the words for the pictures until later. My son also said he wanted to be a lawyer at around that age. I was the only one who drifted through life ambitionless. But enough about me.

http://www.facebook.com/l/bae6a;pattinase.blogspot.com

Enough about you? I don't know about anybody else, but I could certainly go another couple of slices.

ARCHIE DAGGERS by GARETH LOCKJAW DAVIES

the following post is by a man of many talents. looking for the new breed, look no further

Archie Daggers didnt know anything about dying but he knew a dead man when he saw one. Or at least he thought he did. This being a dark alleyway and a crumpled face-down body blurred into a cobblestone puddle, what other possibilities were there? Like whoever he was had belly-flopped into a pool too small for him, water seeping out of his edges.

He gave him a kick anyway, just to make sure, a tin can flick making no impression. His second kick had a bit more backlift but the mass of flesh and bone under the overcoat didn’t flinch an inch. It was like taking a penalty with the ball glued to the spot. This must be why they called it dead weight. Three goes for a pound Archie thought, but his ankle felt not too far from a sprain just two kicks in so he didn’t bother. Wasn’t like the body was going anywhere, was it.

What would a police officer do, he asked himself. No sign of a struggle. No glint of a knife in the pattern of puddles surrounding his new-found friend. Not much inclination to try and flip him over to see how mashed his features would be. How would the crime squad draw a silhouette in this wet and windy weather? Did they have waterproof chalk? He’d end up looking like the touchlines on his local sunday league pitch, wavy as a drunkard’s walk thanks to the pickled groundsman. Number of times there’d been a right fracas over what was a corner kick and that never went out ref. All depends on where you looked at it from. White lines don’t do it, it’s all in the mind. Is that the best outline you could manage, P.C. Dabble? A three-year old boy could do better than that. Go get me a three-year old boy.

He should really sneak a peek inside the pockets while he could, lift his wallet, maybe a phone, but this was one big fellow and his long overcoat hugged him like a roll of carpet, he’d have to shift him onto his back to get a proper go, and he really didn’t fancy that. Not squeamish exactly, just a little spooked. He could take his boots, nice leather soles, shiny in the rain. But they looked a few sizes too big for him and what would he do with them anyway? Sell them down the pub? And then the next day’s Evening News would read Bloody Big Corpse Found In Alley Wearing Burlington Socks and all heads in said pub would turn to Archie as if to say where did you get those boots again?

Archie noticed he was feeling a lot calmer than when he first spotted the shadowy slump of a man round the corner from his corner. His heart wasn’t racing any more. It was just a dead man in the alley, fallen from the sky or left there to die. No fountain of blood, no clamouring of hounds tearing at the poor sod’s trousers. The whole thing stank of anti-climax. If this was opportunity knocking, Archie wasn’t answering the door.

Dancing With Myself: BILL CRIDER interviews BILL CRIDER

Please welcome into the fold, Bill Crider.

Do you know, that really wasn't good enough. This time loud as you can, please welcome to the fold...

Bill Crider Ten Questions (and answers) with Bill Crider

Q: Is it true that you can leap tall buildings with a single bound?

A. No, I'm sorry to say. I've tried, but it's just not in the cards. Small buildings, though, that's a different story. Very small buildings, the kind you make with Legos. Very few Legos. Say, ten, tops. And it might take two bounds. No more than that, though.

Q: How about the rumor that you were going to take Janet Evanovich's place as St. Martin's most highly paid author?

A: As everybody knows, Ms. Evanovich left St. Martin's because they wouldn't pay her $50 million for her next four books. I, on the other hand, am willing to do four books for half that amount. In fact, I would be happy to do four books for a mere $10 million. So I started that rumor in hopes that St. Martin's would take me up on it when the sales of my latest book, Murder in the Air, went through the roof. The sales must have been in a very tall building, however, rather than a very small one, because so far they haven't reached the roof, no thanks to the tightwads who aren't buying the book. Anyway, I'm thinking of starting a rumor that I'll do four books for only $1 million to see if that will get the negotiations underway. In fact, this seems like a fine place to plant that rumor, so consider it planted.

Q: Have you thought about adding vampires to your novels? That seems like a sure way to make some quick cash.

A: Oh, sure, I've thought about it. Who hasn't? Other monsters might work, too. I was talking to one well-known and formerly successful writer the other day. His sales are off, and he told me that he's got any number of vampire proposals out there. Under pseudonyms, of course. One proposal that he has high hopes for is Dashiell Hammett, Vampire Hunter. Another is The Maltese Vampire. He's looking for a deal any day now on The Hardy Boys and the Tower Treasure and Sea Monsters, but if that doesn't come through, he's also working on Murder on the Orient Express and Zombies.

Q: What about movie deals? Anything in the works?

A: No. For some reason nobody's beating down my door for the rights to the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series. What's wrong with those people in Hollywood, anyway? Nothing, really, I guess. They're still making classy, successful movies like Knight and Day and The Split. No wonder they don't need my books.

Q: Are you bitter? Because you sound bitter.

A: Me? Bitter? Surely you jest.

Q: Don't call me Shirley.

A: Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. I just didn't want you to think I was bitter. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If I were to make some Hollywood sales, which God forbid, I'd be rich. I'd have to live in L. A., buy Oakleys, drive a Porsche convertible, and put up with groupies. Who'd want to live like that?

Q: Surely you jest.

A: Don't call me Shirley.

Q: I beg your pardon. What I meant to say is wouldn't the same thing happen if St. Martin's took you up on your offer to write four books for $1 million?

A: A million bucks ain't what it used to be. I mean, after taxes and after I bought the Oakleys and the Porsche convertible, I wouldn't have much left to entertain the groupies with. Besides, in Alvin, Texas, there are only two, maybe three days a a year when you can drive a convertible with the top down. And all of those are in February.

Q: Are you married?

A: Yes, and Judy would probably object to the groupies. Maybe even the Oakleys. As you know, she's my first reader and editor, and I wouldn't be able to write the books without her, so maybe we'd better just forget the whole thing. Who needs a million bucks, anyway? I'll just have to settle for $100K a book like I'm getting now.

Q: How many questions does this make?

A: That's ten I think.

Q: As I recall, one of them was a statement.

A: Look, I'm the retired English teacher here, so I'll be the judge of that. Ten is ten, and that makes eleven. Our time here is up, so let me take a second to thank Nigel for this opportunity to appear on his blog and to thank everyone who's reading this. And to remind everyone to go right out and buy a copy of Murder in the Air if you want to help me out, as who wouldn't? Sure, I'm a sweet, wonderful guy who can leap small buildings at a single bound, two in some cases, but I need all the help I can get.

http://www.billcrider.com/BillsBlog.html

http://billcrider.blogspot.com/

http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/2010/07/bill-crider-on-murder-in-air.html

Dancing With Myself: NICK QUANTRILL interviews NICK QUANTRILL

When I was editing the Rue Bella magazine, we published a poem called 'Hull Is The End Of The World' by Ian James.

For today's guest it's the place he calls home, like it or not.

Warm ripples of applause please for novelist and all round good egg Nick Quantrill

It’s well documented you’re a football fan – or should I say, a Hull City fan, yet your protagonist in ‘Broken Dreams’ is a former rugby league player. What’s the score with that?

That’s totally true. Aside from the Saturdays when I was playing the beautiful game myself, I’ve stood and sat at Hull City games man and boy. I knew when I was sketching out Joe Geraghty that I wanted to give him a sporting background which was ripped away from him at an early stage of his career. The temptation to make him a former footballer was immense, but I had to make a decision to serve the book. Rugby League has always played a massive part in everyday life in Hull, and although its popularity is maybe on the wane, the fact the city has two massive clubs gives me an additional angle to play on and add a bit more depth to the writing.

Do see yourself written a series based around Geraghty, or will you branch out?

I think the honest answer is to say that I don’t know. The next Geraghty novel, ‘The Late Greats’, is substantially done, so it feels like I’m now starting to reap the rewards of the groundwork I’ve put in. Certainly the book after that is looking like it’ll be Geraghty, but the storyline feels very organic and a natural progression for the characters. I think the trick is to keep things interesting for yourself as a writer and being able to recognise when you need to take a step away to keep things fresh. Michael Connelly is very good example of this. At the moment, I’m happy with Geraghty, but nothing’s set in stone. I like the idea of different characters coming to the fore, but having Geraghty going about his business in the background.

You seem to be developing a habit of borrowing song titles for stories. Is music important to you? How about films?

It does seem to be something I’m doing more and more....but yes, music is a massive influence on me as a writer, though maybe not directly. I think the seed to get up and do something and not just sit on your arse, expecting the world to offer you something was planted initially by musicians like Billy Bragg and Joe Strummer. To be fair, it lay dormant for a while, as I was happy playing football and going out drinking on weekends, but I also spent a lot time watching my friends in bands self-release and promote their own records. I think their attitude was a massive help to me in finding a way forward for myself when I needed it. Films have never massively interested me as an art form. It’s always been about music. I enjoy the cinema as much as the next man, but the mechanics of film making isn’t something which massively excites me.

People often ask what the best part of having a novel published is – what’s the worst?

The vast majority of things connected to having a novel published are great and it’s a huge privilege to have someone show enough faith in you to make it happen. The worst part, and I suspect I’m not alone in this, is the continuous self-doubt. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever be totally satisfied with what I produce. I think if you start feeling self-satisfied, you’re done for. It sometimes feels paralysing, but it also drives me on to try and produce better work.

How important has the Internet been to you as a writer?

Massively important. And not just the Internet, but technology in general. The thought of writing a novel by hand or typewriter makes me feel physically ill! The Internet has let me plug into a crime writing network and share my work and that support continues to spur me on greatly. I think what surprised me most was not just thinking internationally. The Internet has also brought me into contact with writers who live in my home city of Hull, so it’s also impacted on my ‘real’ life, too. The opportunity to reach readers through the many fantastic websites has always been an important factor, and something I’ve tried to build as I’ve progressed.

The short story or the novel?

I started off by writing short stories, and even though I write the occasional one, I think of myself more as a novelist. The progression always seemed natural to me and it was something I was aiming for. I was using the short story to equip myself with the tools to write novels, and looking back, that was probably a mistake in some ways. I don’t regret learning the discipline of crafting a piece of work, but I’ve come to learn there’s a significant difference between the two forms. It feels like I’m improving and producing better short stories, but I tip my hat to the likes of Paul Brazill and Ian Ayris. As a reader, I very much lean towards the novel, but the short story is a great way to discover new writers. I do most of my reading on www.bykerbooks.co.uk, www.thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.com and www.a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com.

You’re a crime writer – do you write in other fields?

Not in terms of fiction. Crime writing does everything I want and lets me explore the situations and issues that I want to look at. Away from crime, I write the occasional book and music review, though not anything as regularly as I used to. It’s more a case of trying to promote things I really like in an attempt to spread the word, though I recognise that it doesn’t make for me being a great reviewer. I occasionally contribute to a Hull City fanzine and turn my hand to the writing of guest blogs, so it’s nice to do a few different things. Since ‘Broken Dreams’ was published I’ve had a few interesting offers connected to writing put to me, but it often just comes down to the issue of time, and I know which side my bread’s buttered on.

How about reading? Is it always crime fiction?

Not always, but probably most of the time. When I head into a bookshop, it’s the crime section I aim for. The fact I write crime is directly related to it being something I’ve read, in one form or another, since childhood. There are so many great writers, it’s hard to choose favourites, but I don’t miss books by Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, Graham Hurley and Ray Banks – they’re consistently my favourites. I also love writers like Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh, and going back a bit, John Steinbeck. In many ways, I don’t think they’re a million miles away from crime writing. A lot of the elements are the same. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction, but I enjoy good football and music writing.

Hull...cesspit or underrated city?

It’s home...it’s somewhere in-between the two extremes. In many ways, it’s a frustrating place to work as a writer, as the local council don’t seem to value the arts in any meaningful way, and nor does the wider public. Maybe it’s our relatively isolated geographical position, but the city certainly suffers from a general feeling of cynicism and distrust of different ideas. That said, there are some marvellous hidden-gems in Hull, both in terms of writers, musicians and playwrights, as well as some fantastic venues like Hull Truck and Fruit. As a city we don’t seem to be very proud of what we have, so you have to look that bit harder to find the good stuff. But it is there.

What’s next?

Once ‘The Late Greats’ is done, it’ll be on with planning out the next novel. It has a working title, but I’m not ready to share yet in case it’s a load of rubbish! I’m more of a planner than a fly by the seat of my pants type of writer, so I’ve learnt it’s important for me to keep a firm grip, as I’m now into the cycle of writing one novel and promoting another. There’ll be a short story in the ‘Mammoth Book of Best British Crime’ next spring, which sees me sitting alongside writers like Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre and Kate Atkinson, so that’s a massive boost for me. There’s another story scheduled to be included in an American anthology and a couple more will leak out onto the Internet in the not too distant future. Keeping busy!

http://www.hullcrimefiction.co.uk/


http://www.facebook.com/l/04316;www.hullcrimefiction.co.uk

Dancing With Myself: RJ ELLORY interviews RJ ELLORY

A couple of things.

Today I had interviews in from Kelli Stanley and Emma Donoghue. That counts as one hell of a day.

The weeks ahead look as follows:

Sunday 5th Spetember NICK QUANTRILL

Tuesday 7th September BILL CRIDER

Thursday 9th September PATRICIA ARLENE ABBOTT

Saturday 11th September ERIC BEETNER

Sunday 12th September CHRIS HOLM

Tuesday 14th September CHRIS RHATIGAN

Thursday 16th September GERALD SO

Saturday 18th Spetember STEVE WEDDLE

Sunday 19th September EMMA DONOGHUE

Tuesday 21st September PAUL D BRAZILL

Thursday 23rd September CHRIS DABNOR

Saturday 25th September KELLI STANLEY

Tuesday 28th September MALACHI STONE


Thursday 30th September MICHAEL MORECI



Wednesday 6th October REED FARREL COLEMAN


I'm sure you'll agree, whatever your taste, there's something in there that's going to be to your liking.




If you're one of those who's offered an interview, I'm looking forward to hearing from you whenever that may be.

Should you be involved in writing, editing, blogging in a way that might fit into the mix, please drop me a list in the comments boxes and let me know. I'll get back to you one way or the other.


I'd also like to offer thanks those who've given space to promote these pages - I'll give you your shout over the next weeks. It's certainly appreciated.


And now to today's interview.



(so much for saying nothing and letting the man speak for himself).



I'm one of those who carries round a quiet belief in angels. How about you?



Delighted to present to you for your entertainment/education/satisfaction,




RJ ELLORY

1. Tell us your viewpoint about your work, and why you became a writer.

The best explanation of the difference between non-fiction and fiction, I feel, is that non-fiction's primary purpose is to convey information, whereas the purpose of fiction is to evoke an emotion in the reader. I think great books work on an emotional level. Fear is an emotion, a very powerful emotion. Perhaps people read thrillers and horror novels because it is a way of experiencing emotions that you ordinarily don’t experience in life, but without putting yourself directly in harm’s way. I think, also, that it is an effort to try and better understand the aspects of the human psyche that we don’t have answers for. The more we ourselves understand about human nature, the better we will survive. I know we operate that way, so all reading – of whatever genre or subject – has to also come down to the fact that we are trying to better comprehend life, and thus improve the quality of our existence. I always read as a child. I was orphaned at seven and sent away to various institutionas, and there was always great access to books. When I think of my childhood I think of three things: long-distance running, reading and being hungry! I started with Christie and Conan Doyle, Shakespeare and the classics, and then I found Harper Lee and Truman capote, Steinbeck, Faulkner and Hemingway. Later on, in my early teens, the kind of TV we watched was predominantly American. I grew up watching Starsky and Hutch, Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, all those kinds of things. I loved the atmosphere, the diversity of culture. The politics fascinated me. America is a new country compared to England, and it just seems to me that there’s so much colour and life inherent in its society. I have visited a number of times, and I honestly feel like I’m going home. And I believe that as a non-American there are many things about American culture that I can look at as a spectator. The difficulty with writing about an area that you are very familiar with is that you tend to stop noticing things. You take things for granted. The odd or interesting things about the people and the area cease to be odd and interesting. As an outsider you never lose that viewpoint of seeing things for the first time, and for me that is very important. Also many writers are told to write about the things they are familiar with. I don’t think this is wrong, but I think it is very limiting. I believe you should also write about the things that fascinate you. I think in that way you have a chance to let your passion and enthusiasm for the subject come through in your prose. I also believe that you should challenge yourself with each new book. Take on different and varied subjects. Do not allow yourself to fall into the trap of writing things to a formula. Someone once said to me that there were two types of novels. There were those that you read simply because some mystery was created and you had to find out what happened. The second kind of novel was one where you read the book simply for the language itself, the way the author used words, the atmosphere and description. I think that the truly great books are the ones that accomplish both. A classic, for me, is a book that presents you with narrative so compelling you can’t read it fast enough, and yet written so beautifully you can’t read it slowly enough. I think any author wants to write great novels. I don’t think anyone – in their heart of hearts – writes because it’s a sensible choice of profession, or for financial gain. I certainly don’t! I just love to write, and that love, that passion, has been there since my early twenties. First a reader, then a writer.

2. Tell us about the novels you have published.

Although the subject matter that I want to write about takes me to the States, it is nevertheless more important to me to write something that can move someone emotionally, perhaps change a view about life, and at the same time to try and write it as beautifully as I can. I also want to write about subjects – whether they be political conspiracies, serial killings, race relations, political assassinations or FBI and CIA investigations – that could only work in the USA. The kind of novels I want to write just wouldn’t work in small, green, leafy villages where you find Hobbits! So that is where my selection of genre and subject matter comes from, and right from the first book – Candlemoth – I have tried to create real and believable characters and storylines that have this American cultural and political background. Candlemoth is the story of two boys, one black, one white, who grow up together from the early 50’s in North Carolina. It tracks through that time period – up through the death of JFK and Martin Luther King, through Nixon and Watergate, all the significant political and social events of that time. The story is told in flashback from the perspective of the main protagonist, the white boy now in his thirties, who is on Death Row for the murder of his black friend. The events are recounted to a Catholic priest sent to reconcile the man to his execution, and it deals with the events that brought him there and how he was consigned to such a fate. Ghostheart, my second novel, is told from the perspective of the central female character, a young woman, who – by the discoveries she makes in the pages of a book – learns the history of New York gangland and underworld figures in the 50s and 60s, and ultimately how this history relates to herself and her own life. The third book, A Quiet Vendetta, is a five hundred-page epic that deals with seventy years of accurate Mafia history throughout New York, LA, Chicago, Miami, Havana, and numerous other cities, and is told through the eyes of a young man who becomes a hitman for organised crime. City of Lies, the fourth release, is a fast-paced thriller that deals with the lives and crimes of a group of elderly gangsters in Manhattan, and how they use their influence to seduce a younger man into a criminal lifestyle. It concludes with four violent high-powered armed robberies in four different banks in New York City on Christmas Eve. The fifth, A Quiet Belief In Angels, is the biography of a young boy growing up in Georgia in the 1930 and 40s, and how his entire life is affected by the killing of a number of young girls in his hometown. A Simple Act of Violence, the sixth book, is essentially two stories – a series of contemporary killings in Washington DC and how these killings are linked to the undercover actions of the CIA in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Lastly, The Anniversary Man, just released, is the story of a serial killing survivor who works with the Police to uncover the identity of someone perpetrating killings in New York who is copying famous serial killings of the past and carrying them out on the anniversary of their original occurrence. The next book is called ‘Saints of New York’ and will be out at the end of September.

3. What did it take for you to get your break as an author?

I was just bloody-minded! I started writing on November 4th 1987, and between then and July 17th 1993 I wrote something every day except for three days when I was going through a divorce. I completed twenty two novels in that time, something in the region of three and a half million words, and at different times I was in discussion with a couple of agents, with one or two publishing companies, but nothing ever really got as far as I would have liked. I wrote first of all in longhand, and then I got a typewriter, and finally ended up with an Amstrad dedicated wordprocessor that took about half an hour to warm up!
I spent those six years sending material out to British publishers, and received about five hundred complimentary, very polite ‘Thanks but no thanks’ letters. I also have two lever arch files with something in the region of three or four hundred straightforward format rejection slips. This is just from companies that didn’t even look at the material I sent them. I understand the sheer volume of work that a handful of people have to wade through in a publishing house. People have given me figures on just how many unsolicited scripts come to the major publishing houses each week, and that figure is astounding. My belief was that if I just kept on going I would eventually find the right person in the right company at the right time. I had this datum from Disraeli who said, ‘Success is entirely dependent upon constancy of purpose’. However, after six years of doing this I finally thought ‘Enough’s enough’, and I stopped writing. I then studied music, photography, all manner of things, and didn’t go back to writing until the latter part of 2001. It was then that I wrote ‘Candlemoth’. I sent that to thirty-six publishers, thirty-five of whom sent it back. All except Bloomsbury, and an editor there gave it to a friend who gave it to a friend, and it wound up at Orion with my current editor, and we have now worked together through eight books. Since Orion signed me there have been a couple of comments made by a couple of publishers I have met about how they should perhaps have pursued things with a little more tenacity back in the early days. The earlier unpublished stuff will probably stay right where it is in the loft. It was a different genre, more supernatural in a way, and I write better now anyway. I think the time away from it between 1993 and 2001 made me more succinct, gave me a greater clarity about what I wanted to say. I have gone back recently and read some of my earlier work and it was a little verbose. But hell, it was good practice!

4. Can you tell us a bit about how you approach a new book, the thought process, involved, the way in which you actually start?

Well, with me, a book always begins with the emotion I want to evoke in the reader. I have a very simple view of books. As I said before, I believe that non-fiction, as its primary purpose, is there to convey information. Fiction, however, is not there solely to entertain, but to evoke an emotion. I think the books that we love the most, the books that define our lives, the books that we always recommend to people, are those that have touched us emotionally. If I am trying to do anything with my writing, I am attempting to connect with people on an emotional level. For me, the most important thing is that once somebody has finished reading my books they might not necessarily remember the name of the book, even the plot details, but they will remember how it made them feel. That’s the most important thing for me. How does a book make you feel, and does that memory stay with you? So that’s my first consideration: the emotional effect I am trying to create. The second thing is the location. Location is vital for me as the location informs and influences the language, the dialect, the characters – everything. I choose to start a book in Louisiana or New York or Washington simply because that ‘canvas’ is the best for to paint the particular picture I want to paint. So I start with the emotion, and once that is resolved, I choose the location. Then I start looking into the geographical, social and cultural characteristics of the location. From this I determine some interesting facts and idiosyncrasies that I feel would be interesting to write about. Then I’ll work out the primary character, their name, occupation, things like that. I’ll start with the first line, something that I think is intriguing or has a certain attention-grabbing quality, and from there I just launch it whatever comes to mind and see where the thing takes me. Often, even half way through a book, I won’t necessarily know where or how it’s going to end. I don’t plan or structure something chapter by chapter. There’s more spontaneity in it for me than that. I don’t write a synopsis or an outline. Sometimes I’ll have to go away from it for a couple of hours and ask myself how I will handle a particular element which doesn’t seem to be working, and this may mean going back and changing something earlier, but in the main the thing runs like a train, and only when it’s complete will I go back through and make sure all earlier material ties in with the later events.

5. Are there any superstitions you follow to get yourself in the right frame of mind?

I buy a new notebook, a good quality one, because I know I’m going to be carrying it around for two or three months, and in the notebook I will write down ideas I have as I go. Little bits of dialogue, things like that. Sometimes I have a title, sometimes not. I used to feel very strongly about having a good title before I started, but now – because at least half the books I’ve published have ended up with a different title - I am not so obsessive about it! And as far as little idiosyncratic routines and superstitions are concerned, I don’t know that I actually have any that relate to finishing a book. I do have a routine when I finish a book. I make a really good Manhattan, and then I take my family out to dinner!

6. Are you a planner who outlines everything, or do you just get going?

No, I’m the second type of writer. I have a vague idea of the kind of story I want to tell, a good idea of the emotion I want to create, and a definite decision about when and where it’s going to take place. The immediacy and spontaneity of not planning a complete novel appeals to me. I get involved with the characters, and sometimes I just change my mind about where I want them to go, or how I want them to handle certain things. As the story evolves so do they, and the decisions they then have to make can thus influence the plot and vice versa. I don’t write methodically-planned police procedurals. I believe I write human dramas where the crime is actually a secondary issue. The books are more about the effect of such things on people, and that’s what has always interested me. I think if I sat and planned a book – chapter by chapter, section by section – then by the time I had finished the plan I wouldn’t want to write the book anymore as there would be no flexibility and unpredictability about the process. It’s the writing itself that enthuses me, and that element of uncertainty with which I approach a book makes it all the more interesting and challenging.

7. Unpublished writers are forever being told the importance of the barnstorming opening. How do you go about this?

I don’t think they should look for a barnstorming opening. I don’t think they should look for anything as a kind of ‘magic paragraph’ or opening line. I think the very best advice I could give to a writer as far as what to write is concerned is simply to write the kind of novel they themselves would like to read, and secondly to write about those things that fascinate them. The very worst kind of book is the one that has been written by someone who believes that the subject about which they are writing will interest others, or because they think the book will ‘sell’ if it is about a specific topic or issue. Write the book that interests you. Your own enthusiasm for the subject will come through. That enthusiasm will then be contagious. I don’t know if readers generally give a book so long before they decide whether or not they will continue reading it or give up on it. I know with films that you are supposed to have decided whether or not you’re going to like the film within three minutes or something, and I don’t know whether books are the same. Personally, I am sometimes captivated more by the language used than the story itself. I read books that have very little in the way of compelling plot, but the language with which they are written is so beautiful and inspiring that I read them just as compulsively, often forcing myself to slow down so I don’t run out of book too quickly! I don’t believe there is a formula for a good book. I think that a lot of truly extraordinary and very successful books don’t work as ideas on paper, but because of the way in which they have been written or constructed, they have worked, and worked wonderfully. Books that tell you how to write a bestseller in thirty days…well, I don’t know what to say. I think great stories come from people and their experiences in life, not from formulas. But then perhaps it depends on the type of book you want to write. I’m interested in writing books that people can be emotionally and mentally involved with and challenged by. I’m not interested in writing two hundred and fifty page potboilers with a dead body at the start and a perpetrator at the end. Not that there’s anything wrong with that kind of book! Quite the contrary. It’s just that I don’t want to create that kind of thing personally.

8. It has been said that the ‘crime' in your books is a secondary issue to the human drama unfolding around it. Would you agree with this?

Yes, I think it is. I always strive to write as ‘real’ a book as I can, and that is entirely dependent upon ‘realistic’ characters. I feel that if the characters you create are believable - characters you can somehow identify with, even if only on an emotional level - then you can far more easily ‘suspend the reader’s disbelief’ with the plotline that you create. Even those novelists who are successful with a series are actually successful because the character they create is someone who readers empathise with, and those readers continue to read that series because of their ‘friendship’ with the main protagonist who drives the series. I begin with that desire to create an emotional and mental effect in the reader, and then I think about the kind of character who is going to carry that emotion. That then defines their nature, their personality, their relationships, even their job, and from there I go forward into building the story around them. As the character evolves then the decisions they make as a result of their personality and experiences actually influence and alter the direction the story takes. Sometimes I have made a decision about how a plotline might go, and then when I get to that point I realize that that would not work as the character I have created just wouldn’t operate that way! Therefore the plotline can change as a result of my better understanding of the person I am writing about.

9. What's the greatest influence on your writing?

Live life. Speak to everyone you meet. Try to find out what makes people think the way they do. Go headlong into everything and give it all you’ve got. Be as interested in everyone as you possibly can, and never make the mistake of believing that life will be fun by being interesting yourself. Life is people, that’s all there is to it. Everything good that ever happened, everything bad as well, well those things happened because of people. If you don’t make people important then you’ll miss about ninety-five percent of what living is all about. Live every day as if it’s your last perhaps. Living isn’t a rehearsal. Live with the view that you’re here to give it everything you’ve got, and don’t worry about what other people might think or say. Perhaps the most popular and pointless pastime of the entirety of Western civilization is worrying about what other people might think, even when they’re people you’re never likely to see again. Make family and friends important because they are the ones who give you every defining moment of your existence.

10. What book would you recommend to a friend and why?

It has to be IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote. What can I say about this book? I have read this four times. I’ll read it again. Genius. Absolute genius. I feel very strongly about this book. This was almost a case of ‘one man had one book as his life’s purpose’, and then once the book was written he never published another word, and he drank himself to death. For many years – simply as a result of this book – Capote was considered one of the most eminent and important twentieth century American writers. I don’t think anything could ever take that away from him. And then there is the Harper Lee twist. Search out the Norman Mailer essay about the relationship between Lee and Capote (childhood friends – she the author of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, the only book she ever wrote, Pulitzer Prize-winner, Oscar-winning film adaptation; Capote the author of ‘In Cold Blood’, a serialised book that sold more copies of The New Yorker than anything in history, generated four films, two of them adaptations of the book, two of them bio-pics of this period of his life), and see what you make of it. An astonishing book – as William Shawn said ‘I think this book will change the way people read…it may even change the way people write…’ Superb, breathtaking, magnificent.


http://rjellory.blogspot.com/


“Set in New York City, The Anniversary Man is the ultimate killer thriller, chronicling the case of a deranged but highly intelligent murderer who kills on the anniversary dates of famous serial murders from the past. Each subsequent slaying eerily copycats another infamous death--all faithfully replicating precise details of previous homicides. From electrifying start to shocking conclusion, this thriller affirms the genius that is R.J. Ellory. Britain's phenom author has achieved the status of world-class writer.”
Dean Murphy, International Thriller Writers

Wow.

Thanks for the ride.

DANCE WITH ME FATMAN?

Tell you straight, this bounty hunter thing aint nothing like it is in the movies.

There’s no buddy-buddy shit. No good guy/bad guy thing. Just two fellas from the dark side stuck in the same place.

Take me and Eddie Mailman.

Twice he took me in.

Third time he tried I was in New York.

Hadn’t changed much, except there was more of him to go round.

I sat in JFK chained to his wrist wondering how I let such a no-good sloth catch an athlete like me.

No way he could disguise himself. Would have been like trying to hide an elephant in a salad. And creeping up? Imagine a hippo in sneakers.

Only way to get me was for me to go walking right in to him.

And that’s what I did.

=========================================



I opened the door to room 301, a belly full of Jamieson’s and a pricey dame on my arm and there he was, legs spread, a shotgun resting on his knee.



The girl weren’t stupid. She was out the door before I could utter a word.



I collapsed right between his knees.



“Nice to see you, Willie,” he said grinning through his stubble.



An almighty explosion ripped between his legs. Sounded like the devil tearing a directory.



“Pick the bones out of that son,” he laughed and, while I was trying not to pass out, he must have popped on the cuffs.




Mailman had done his party-piece already.



Took the key to the cuffs, dropped them in an envelope and sent them on over to the bondsman in Fresno.



He loved it, I could tell, sensing the penny drop on my side of the chain.



The word privacy had just been rubbed out of the dictionary.



Some might call that justice.



I’d call in the United frigging Nations.



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In the lounge at JFK, Eddie’s buttocks rested over two seats while I squatted on the floor like a dog.

“Got to take a dump,” Eddie said.

“You take a dump that’s murder, scrote.”

He gave a yank of the chain and pulled me onto my feet. “Ever tried fitting a fat man into an aeroplane john?”

Worst thing about being hauled by the Mailman was there weren’t no way you could hold on to your insides for as long as he had you. By the time he took you in, you was practically begging to get behind bars and have yourself a good squat.

I’d been holding in for a good hour, but it looked like I’d been wasting my time.

He wiped the burger slime from his mouth, balled the wrapper and scored two points for the Knicks.

I was about to go where plenty had boldly been before.

Seems I wasn’t going fast enough for Eddie. He pulled me hard and I fell into his chest.

“Dance with me fatman?” I asked.

He pushed a finger up my nose. Lifted me up by a nostril. Made sure my head followed his hand.

“Only dance I’ll be doing is the Tango all over your frigging face.”

I followed him like a bull being pulled by the ring.

At lease we got the disabled toilet.

Eddie undid his belt with his right hand, loosed his waistband and slipped out of his jeans.

I got a flash of turkey-neck and screwed my eyes shut.

Sounded like someone hadn’t been eating their vegetables way he strained.

Grunting like a pig he was and grinding his teeth like he was having one big nightmare.

No matter how hard I tried, I kept getting little pictures in my mind. Got so bad I had to open my eyes to see what was going on.

He was really sweating under his hat. I guess it was what you’d call a ten-gallon - always fancied himself as a cowboy, Eddie, even if there weren’t a horse alive that could cope with him in the saddle.

So there I was waiting for the splash when a look of fear flashed on in Eddie’s eyes.

With his free hand he took a hold of my collar and squeezed like his buttocks had been doing since he sat down.

Then his fingers went for my throat. Gripped on like someone was trying to take his last double-cheese.

Felt my eyeballs turn into my head and things went dark.

And he just let me go.

Never saw a man have a heart attack before then. Haven’t seen one since.

Wasn’t like I imagined.

He just slumped where he was, like a bouncy castle that went and lost its bounce.

So there we was, just me and the fat man.

Did I panic? Yeah, I guess I did for a while, but soon as I got the inspiration I was as calm as Harry Houdini.

I gave the emergency cord a pull and waited.

Took no time at all for the attendant to get the door broke down.

Should have seen his face. Guess it aint often a man gets to see a pair of butt cheeks that size mooning right at them.

Positioned him like that to make sure he weren’t seeing anything else but that ass. Funny how we can’t stop looking at the things that make us freak.

Rest was simple.

Introduced myself as Skinny Ray, bounty hunter. Pointed at the corpse.

“This here was ‘Ruthless’ Joe Finney. Bounty says dead or alive, so if you wouldn’t mind, sir.” I looked down at the cuffs and held them out. “Always mail the keys just to be safe.”

The old guy took off his cap. Looked at me and scratched his head. “Boltcutters?”

It was my turn to nod.

The man disappeared to get his tools.

I sat on Eddie Mailman. Wished you could still smoke in an airport lounge. That crack of his would have made the perfect ash-tray.

***************************************************************

http://danielboshea.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/crash-and-burn-the-steve-weddle-memorial-airport-flash-fiction-entries-auger-in/ for more airport tales.