7 Questions: Thomas Pluck

Thomas Pluck seemed to shoot out of nowhere in 2011. When did you start writing?

Sorry for the longwinded answer. They say writers have a million words of crap in them, or have to work 10,000 hours before they get any good... and I've been writing a long time.

The first book I wrote was in 2nd grade, about two endangered Komodo dragons defeating a poacher. Through high school I kept a "Journal" where I'd write bizarre humor in homeroom and pass it around, and I wrote 400-odd hand-written pages of an awful science fantasy novel before turning to crime fiction in college. I wrote a dozen or so short stories and began a novel about a recovering heroin addict who hunts down a missing girl for his old boss, but I never completed it. One of my college stories, was accepted by Pulphouse Magazine, which promptly folded; I hunted around and found Blue Murder magazine, which published my first story. So if you've been in online crime for a dozen years, you'd have seen my original, tiny splash onto the scene. Kevin Burton Smith of Thrilling Detective found me a copy of Blue Murder #11, and sent it to me. Felt good to see it again.

I wrote more, but I let doubt get to me- something no writer should permit- and stopped writing for years. Then my grandmother, who raised me after my parents were divorced, passed away from cancer and mortality reared its head. I was a morbidly obese computer gamer at the time. I quit gaming, and started dieting, hiking, weightlifting and practicing mixed martial arts. I lost 140 lbs. in just over a year, and found my confidence again. I started dating and met the woman who would become my wife, and she lived in Brooklyn at the time. A long drive or a couple train rides. And let me tell you, crossing two rivers to meet someone, in New York, that's true love.

Those drives gave me a lot of time to think, and I started tossing around ideas for a novel about kids who were bullied in school, who commit a terrible crime, and only one of them pays for it. Someone told me about National Novel Writing Month and a backlog of words exploded out of my brain, 115,000 words in two months, a novel called THE GARAGE, which I'm rewriting into a crime novel titled BURY THE HATCHET. This time it's from the perspective of the guy who went to prison, not the everyman. The guy is out for revenge. It's a very dark and intense tale of small town corruption, familial anger and betrayal, and strong friendships bonded in crisis. After I wrote the "zero draft" I took a rest from it to thing it out, and short story ideas kept popping in my head.

I heard about Flash Fiction Friday, and began participating. I had a humor, food, movie and beer blog that had been my outlet for writing, and I channeled that into stories. On twitter I met Fiona Johnson, and she read my story "The Last Sacrament," and suggested I send it to a few venues including a new one called Shotgun Honey. They accepted it, and I let the ego boost from that first acceptance carry me into writing more and more, submitting to different markets and treating it as a sort of challenge, to reach as many readers as possible. I can't say I've written a story for a particular magazine unless the editor asked me to do a guest spot, but I am very meticulous in reading venues to choose the right story to send them. Duotrope.com, a great tool for writers to keep track of where you've sent your work, says I have a 38% success rate, which is very good. But a big part of that is reading stories the editors have accepted.

Though I'd only read one or two from BEAT to a PULP before sending "A Glutton for Punishment." It was a fighter story and you have that great boxer art on your splash page. So I took a chance.

Lets jump back. What was it like growing up T. Pluck?

I had a wild imagination and was a daydreamer, still am. It's where my stories come from. We had HBO, so I watched dozens of inappropriate movies for my age, from Conan the Barbarian to Alien, Patton and The Stunt Man, The remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, Night of the Juggler, Vice Squad and Magnum Force... it wasn't quite like growing up in a grindhouse theater but at times it was close. Back in the day HBO played movies, and most of them were cheap exploiters. They fueled my imagination, and I'd daydream about fighting laser tanks with crystal swords and my James Bond career, flying a supercar, wearing a tuxedo, and pursuing beautiful women. This doesn't play well on the schoolgrounds, so I got pushed around a lot as a kid. My parents split- my father was a hell of a character, and he influences a lot of my writing- and life was a bit chaotic. We moved into my grandparents place and I spent a lot more time with that side of the family. Storytellers, jokesters, mechanics, horse bettors, sailors, bar owners who ran bars for the mob, veterans, bikers... and a few hard working stiffs thrown in. They told enough stories to last a lifetime, and I still spend Sunday mornings having coffee with my mother and my uncles, average age 80-something. They come from a time when we'd tell stories around the table, and it rubbed off. Getting knocked around a bit made me a weightlifter, and years later, I train in mixed martial arts. The fear's still there, sometimes. I'm built like a gorilla but I couldn't walk into a room without sizing people up in case they turn on me. And that fuels great fight scenes, in your head. I've calmed down a bit. But the sizing up is a habit. Be prepared, the scouts say.

How do you feel about social media and promoting books? Do you feel comfortable using Twitter, Facebook, etc to sell your work?

I joined Twitter as a jokester, and broke 1000 followers before I wrote a single story. It's where I learned about #flashfriday and #fridayreads, and I think it's an excellent tool for reaching readers. Facebook could be, but it lags behind. Facebook started as a stalking tool, Twitter began as a broadcast tool. They're both aimed at data mining now. Google+ began as a data miner, so it's the least useful, in my opinion. Books live and die on word of mouth. Promotion, ads, they help of course, but readers spread the word. Like the fabled "silent majority," I think most promotion blasts into the ether like radio waves into space, but the few people you do hook, you should ask to spread the word. Their friends will buy the book on their recommendation, not because a stranger tweets it regularly. I only have one book for sale, LOST CHILDREN: A CHARITY ANTHOLOGY. It benefits two children's causes, PROTECT: The National Association to Protect Children, which lobbies for stronger children protection laws, and Children 1st, a Scottish family support charity. I've tweeted long and loud about it, and so have many of the 30 contributors. We've sold 175 copies in about 75 days. I'm told that's pretty good, but I don't rest on my laurels. I want to sell a hundred times that, then maybe I'll think it's a success.

I think writers are still figuring out how to properly use social media, really. I like to connect with readers, not shout at them. I still think of stories as if I'm telling them after dinner, the tablecloth stained with spilled wine, children hiding underneath to eavesdrop, like I used to. Feedback is not essential to a writer, but it sure helps when you're tearing your hair out in the middle of a tough scene. I'd rather have five thousand twitter followers who spam the hell out of me with comments (that I try in earnest to respond to in my spare time) than 15,000 who just saw my name, read a book, and like hearing the occasional poop joke.

What is Christa Faust like in person?

Christa Faust is as vibrant in person as her writing is on the page. I met her at Bouchercon last year. I hadn't read her work yet, I just knew that CHOKE HOLD was about an MMA fighter and she told the truth, that it's a tough game not unlike being a porn star. Great book, by the way. We met in the bar, I didn't know anybody and she grabbed my arm and introduced me to a dozen people I was too shy to approach. I lightened up and had a great time, met a lot of great people. And I'm thankful, she didn't know me from Adam. Friendliness is common in the crime fiction community, but that kind of generosity is unique, and she's one of a kind.

Mitt Romney or President Obama? And Why?

Politicians give whoring a bad name. I like what Bernie Sanders and Al Franken are doing. Everyone is big government or a crank like Ron Paul, but those two guys aren't feeding us bullshit quite yet. Give them time, and money. Democrat, Republican, once they get a taste of the big money- Congress is legally allowed to insider trade, remember- they're one party, the Wolf party, and we're the sheep. I voted for Jesse Ventura, when I lived in Minnesota. He did some good and some bad, but at least he wasn't a stooge.

Tell us a little more about LOST CHILDREN. How did you become involved with this project and will there be more books in the series?

LOST CHILDREN began as a flash fiction writing prompt I asked Fiona Johnson to write for Friday Flash Fiction. She chose neglected children as the inspiration, and would donate 5 pounds her story to Children 1st, a Scottish charity who help families in need; I matched her donations to PROTECT, who lobby for stronger laws and enforcement against child abuse, and Living Water for Girls, who rescue women forced into prostitution. 44 writers responded, and we paid out over $600 in donations. We decided we could get more if we collected the best stories, so I formatted them into an e-book, and then again into a paperback. My wife Sarah designed the cover with the arresting photo by artist Danielle Tunstall, donated for the project.

The stories range from bittersweet to joyful to downright brutal revenge tales. Paul D. Brazill, J.F. Juzwik, Chad Rohrbacher, Ron Earl Phillips, David Barber of The Flash Fiction Offensive, Gutter's flash fiction arm, all contributed great tales. We have a story of a Lost Boy from Sudan, as told to his teacher J.P. Reese; a story from Vietnam from veteran James Lloyd Davis. Hardboiled legend Wayne Dundee gave us a rave review. A very generous and talented guy, that Wayne.

But I don't like to rest on my broad laurels. I have a second volume in the works, with a lot of heavy hitters interested in joining us this time around. We made a bit of a splash, and I won't name names until contracts are signed, but you will recognize them on the book's jacket.

Andrew Vachss- who's more than an influence, he's a personal hero- calls his fiction Trojan horses. Hardboiled gut punches that leave you thinking, but aren't "message stories." Oh, there's a strong message in his work, but he manages to share it without being preachy, you know?

I hope to do the same. I like that the cover has made people jump, and a local bookstore I've dealt with for 20 years, refuse to carry it. And that's just a child's eyes. But the stories within, and my own, are not salacious. No more than Weegee's photos of poverty, or bodies at a crime scene were. They're a wake-up call. A call to anger.

What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?

You want me to pick just one? I had a kidney stone a few years back. Second one, but it was a lot worse. I haven't written a story about a man pissing blood yet, but I can accurately describe it. Thanks to an idiot nurse telling me not to drink water before my MRI, I was in the most pain I've ever experienced. The knife in the back shooting down to the testicles kind of pain. And mind you, I've broken bones, crushed my fingers, been stabbed in the thigh, kicked in the liver, sparred with 6'4" heavyweights, and had my heart broken by beautiful women, so you have something to judge this pain against.

By the time I crawled into a hospital bed, pain pills wouldn't touch it. Across the room, an old man lay in bed with his foot bandaged up. I paid him little mind. Women who've had kidney stones will compare it to childbirth. It's that bad, and this was an infection with a 104 degree fever. I felt like a child, delirious with the flu. I couldn't sleep, or move much without pain shooting from neck to nuts. So I press the buzzer and ask for painkillers.

It was not easy. I had my wisdom teeth pulled, and I flushed the Percocets down the toilet. I don't like admitting pain. So this tawny angel, a Latina nurse who don't take shit, comes in, rolls me over and sticks a needle in my butt cheek. And that sends me over the edge. I sob like a little bitch, for a brief moment. It felt like ages. Moments later I'm drooling into my pillow, and wake with the sun in my eyes.

The old man has the TV on, staring at the vast moronic wasteland of morning talk shows and infomercials. I say good morning, ask what he's in for. He has an infection in his foot, aggravated from a war wound he received on Omaha Beach. So I cried like a little bitch over a needle, in front of a veteran of Normandy. Now, I have no proof. Lots of guys say they were there, just like no one served in the rear ranks in Vietnam, when guys talk at the bar. Everyone was in the shit. But he didn't brag any, and reminded me of my great-uncles, who were loathe to talk about their service. It was a humbling experience, and no matter how much my kidney throbbed, as trickles of relief dribbled into my bed pan, I kept my mouth shut.

Then there was the time when I tried to prank call a bowling alley with the old, "Hey, do you have ten pound balls?" gag, and the lady said "Yes, would you like to lick them?" but that doesn't touch crying in front of a war hero, if you ask me.

7 Questions With...

Nik Korpon at Gutter Books.

"All of this is a long way to say I want to read stories where the knife is wavering beneath the table, unsheathed, rather than covered in blood."

7 Questions with...

Frank Bill. Right here.

An Interview With...

I have a new 7 Questions over at Gutter Books with David Barber. He talks about his editing job on the FFO, the world ending, and kilts.

Fred Zackel

I have an interview over at Gutter Books blog with Fred Zackel where he talks about his career, influences, and his friendship with Ross Macdonald. I hope you can stop by and leave a comment.

7 Questions: Alyssa Goodnight

Congratulations on the wonderful news of your two-book deal with Kensington. The first is called AUSTEN IN AUSTIN. Can you tell us a little more about it?

Thanks so much, David! Honestly it still doesn't feel completely real. (I'm still reeling from landing an agent back in October.) In fact, the one thing that does feel real is the the 'two-book' part of the deal--the fact that I'm expected to turn something out in a timely manner! But none of that was part of your question, so let me get back to that.

To describe AUSTEN IN AUSTIN, which, I've been told, is a temporary title, I'm going to re-use the blurb paragraph I used during my agent search. It garnered me one loyal fan...

What do you do when you don’t believe in magic but your life has just been liberally sprinkled with fairy dust? Suck it up, vacuum optional.

Nicola James is a left-brainer with a carefully finessed life plan, a plan that doesn’t include an enchanted journal or an interfering fairy godmother. But when Nicola discovers her first journal entry has been mysteriously whittled down to a few select words that read like a snippet from a Jane Austen novel, she’s freaked first, skeptical second, and finally downright curious. She can’t help but keep writing, dueling really, with a two-dimensional fairy godmother she doesn’t totally believe in. But when the odd little excerpts start coming true, screwing with her plans, her head, and her life, nudging her towards an impossible—and impossibly seductive—romance with a man who’s inarguably wrong for her, she’s torn, trapped between a life that makes sense and a man who doesn’t. With a fairy godmother wedged in the middle. A fairy godmother who just happens to be the spirit of Jane Austen herself.


When did you first decide you wanted to write romance novels?

Honestly, it started as a lark. I was visiting my sister with my then eight month old son, and I think one of us was reading a romance that wasn't living up to expectations. This prompted the two of us to comment that between the two of us we could write a better book, and out came the paper and pens. We had fun with our little project for the duration of the visit and agreed to keep things going long-distance. I'd write a bit and send it off to her, and then she'd edit what I'd written and tack on a bit more. It went back and forth like that for a little while until she got tired of it. I, on the other hand, was totally and completely hooked and kept at it, writing pretty much every day while my little boys napped. The final result was UNLADYLIKE PURSUITS, my self-pubbed Regency historical novel.


What is it about Jane Austen that keeps us coming back to her work 193 years after her passing?

Personally, I think a big part of it is that she published so few novels. Most readers probably get introduced to Ms. Austen via Pride & Prejudice, and they so enjoy the storyline, the characters (Mr. Darcy chalks up the adoring fans...), and the author's light, sardonic wit, that they immediately go in search of another novel, and then another. But there are only six complete novels. So as devoted readers, we either have to reread those six or branch out to reading spin-offs, hoping that they'll capture some of the magic of the originals. So authors keep writing, hoping to appeal to that audience, and at the same time, capture a little Austen magic for themselves.

Beyond that, each of Ms. Austen's novels are compulsively readable. These were popular fiction at the time of their publication, rather than highbrow literature, and they remain completely accessible to readers today. The themes are still mostly relatable and the characters are much beloved.


Why do so many romance novels seem to be period pieces. Is it because romance is lacking in today's society?

Most historical romances are set in either eighteenth or nineteenth century Britain or in the early American West. Certainly there are romances set in other times, some featuring Vikings, pirates, and Medieval warriors, no doubt because readers are curious about the lives, cultures, and customs of those periods in history. Not to mention their romance lives.

I started reading Regency romances when I was a teenager, and I think what appealed to me was how very different life was in that time period. A girl my age would already be having to think about getting married off--yikes! Luckily, given we're discussing romance novels, the heroine always ended up with the right guy, and the story ended with a happily-ever-after. In a typical Regency romance, the characters tend to be upper class and so a good bit of the storyline revolves around balls, walks in the garden, and invitations to country houses. There is witty banter and flirting. The seedy side of humanity tends to fade into the background--or else the villains are soundly routed by the hero (possibly with help from the heroine). Men are men (breeches don't leave much to the imagination), and women are innocent...until page 275. Seriously though, It's an escape to another time, glossing over mistresses and brothels, and resolving all romantic problems within 300 pages.

I wouldn't say romance is lacking in today's society. Maybe it could maybe use a jump start.


How do family and friends support your career?

Honestly? They are so supportive as to be almost pesty. But in a good way. I almost dread the initial pleasantries after seeing someone after a long absence. They invariably pose the question, "So...do you have a new book out yet?" Little do they know that not only am I a S-L-O-W writer, but the publishing industry itself is notoriously slow. Admittedly, if I'd decided to self-publish my second book, I could have had it in their eager hands long ago, but I chose to pursue traditional publishing this time around. Now I can tell them proudly, "I finally have a new book coming out!" but then I'll have to admit it won't be available for at least another year. Still, I'm thrilled that they're interested, I just wish I could promise a better response time.

My husband and sons are tremendously supportive--it was my husband who suggested I give self-publishing a shot, and my older son is constantly keeping tabs on how many reviews I have up on Amazon and how many pages I've managed to write between check points. It's sweet.


What activities does Alyssa Goodnight enjoy outside of writing?

Definitely reading--that's a big one, as it is for most writers. For me reading is the perfect break, a magical little escape. Other than that, I have fun keeping up with my kids and all the things they're doing and saying. Last week my older son was watching TV (while I was reading a book) and he says to me, "Mom, it's your kind playing basketball." I thought he meant the University of Texas was playing, or maybe even Ohio State. Nope. He meant girls were playing.

I like romantic comedies, long lunches, browsing the bookstore or the library, lazing outside in the spring or fall, and all the hype associated with holidays...although I'm adamantly opposed to Christmas decorations before November.


Which side are you on in the Angelina Jolie vs. Jennifer Aniston war?

I find this question hilarious coming from you, David. And I must admit that I can't claim to have an experienced opinion on this matter. The limited information I have gleaned has come from National Enquirer headlines quickly scanned at the supermarket checkout counter. Then again, maybe that makes me as experienced as anyone else here.

I think I have to side with Jennifer Aniston for these reasons:
1. Angelina Jolie is coming off as somewhat of a hussy. (And honestly, I think she's running with that.)
2. Jennifer Aniston has a girl-next-door vibe about her, whereas A.J....hussy.
(It's just now occurring to me that they have the same initials, just backwards.)
3. From all appearances, Brad Pitt is a wishy-washy bozo--I think Jennifer Aniston doesn't need that dragging her down. (Nor does she need to be associated with a couples' nickname like Brangelina. Gag!)

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7 Questions: Timothy Hallinan

You live half the year in Cali and half in Southeast Asia. Is there much of a cultural shock jumping between the two?

Not any more. I've been splitting my time since 1981, so that's almost three decades. I sort of live permanently over the middle of the Pacific, both in terms of culture and time zones. And my apartments in Bangkok and Phnom Penh are a lot like my house in Santa Monica – books, more books, DVD player, flat-screen, couch, and bed. I can wander around all of them in the dark without bumping into things. Kitchens are pretty crappy over there – they're not air conditioned, for one thing, because why air condition a room where you'll be making so much heat? But I never eat at home anyway.

Culturally, I feel more Thai when I'm in the US and more American when I'm in Thailand. I often experience the thing Poke (my protagonist) talks about in A NAIL THROUGH THE HEART, about feeling that the culture is on the other side of a thick plate glass window and he's pressed up against it. He can get this close but no closer. Took me 25 years to work up the nerve to write about it because I didn't feel (and still don't feel) that I've been actually immersed in it. That's why Poke's a travel writer, because it requires him to attain a certain level of expertise, but never to forget that he's a foreigner. His adopted daughter, Miaow, says to his wife, Rose, in THE FOURTH WATCHER, “He wants so much to be Thai.” Then they both laugh, although there's some compassion in the laughter. As Miaow says, he wants steak every night but he eats what they do.

The real shock comes with the recent riots, which have brought all the divisions in Thai culture to the surface. For years the Thai self-image has been that the Kingdom is run by consensus, when in fact it's been run since the 1760s by a tiny, very exclusive, very rich elite of pale-skinned Thai-Chinese, almost all of whom live in Bangkok, who have imposed their will on a very large number of generally darker-skinned, less Chinese Thais who live everywhere else. The elite has now thrown out the results of four popular elections in order to keep one of their own in power, and the people have had enough. The trouble is that the candidates the people want to elect are probably worse than the current elite.

As a musician, many of your songs were recorded by top musical groups including Bread. Do you still write and record?

It isn't often that a creative person is in a position to do something that actually benefits an entire art form, but that's what I did when I quit music. I had no real talent. I didn't even play an instrument. I could write okay lyrics, but the guy who was writing most of the melodies, Robb Royer, went on to win an Oscar and sell a trillion records by writing much better ones. I faked the singing back when we were making our own records, whereas David Gates and Jimmy Griffin in Bread could actually sing. So, no. The music industry and I went straight to a divorce, without a trial separation. I'm so divorced from it that I haven't even gone after any of the royalties I haven't been paid in the last, say, 25 years. Somebody's got that money, but it's not in my account.

On the other hand, I had a great time and there were women everywhere, and back in the 1960s and 70s you were still allowed to enjoy women without signing on for monogamy. And I did, although, of course, I've evolved culturally since then.

You must be pleased that Kirkus has given your latest high praise.

I'm happy any time Kirkus doesn't skin me alive. It's the most acerbic of the trades, and I've read reviews there (not of my books, thank God) that would have stopped me from ever writing another word. Writers are always eager to know what Publisher's Weekly and Booklist said, but they're worried about Kirkus. But THE QUEEN OF PATPONG got a starred review, which is as good as it can get, and a couple of days later, Booklist, another major trade, also gave it a starred review. So at the moment, we're two for two, and I learned this morning that BookPage, a print publication, has named QUEEN its Mystery of the Month for August, making me the first thriller writer ever to win that honor for three consecutive years.

I'd be delighted to get this kind of attention for anything I wrote, but this is the book that almost killed me, and when I submitted it to William Morrow, I half expected them to reject it. There's hardly a rule of thriller-writing it doesn't break. For people who haven't read any of my books, the lead male character is a travel writer named Philip “Poke” Rafferty, who went to Thailand to write a book, fell in love with it (as I did) and stayed. He's married to a Thai woman who calls herself Rose, who used to be a dancer (yes, that's a euphemism) on Patpong Road, Bangkok's most lurid red-light district. The two of them have an adopted daughter, Miaow, who was a street child when Rafferty first met her. The family is the most important thing in Rafferty's life – in all their lives, actually. It represents a second and possibly final chance for happiness, for three damaged people.

So, I set up a thriller in about 30,000 words: Poke, Rose, and Miaow are eating in a restaurant when they're suddenly accosted by a big, military-looking American who obviously knows Rose very well and who obviously means all of them harm. They manage to escape that confrontation, and then things accelerate until it's obvious that the family is under threat not only physically, but also emotionally: there are a lot of secrets in Rose's past. At the moment the emotional bonds are on the verge of fracturing, Rose gives up and begins to tell the story.

And then we're in a new section of the book – the longest section by far – in which we go back twelve years to meet Rose as a 17-year-old village teenager named Kwan, which means “spirit,” but who is nicknamed “Stork” because of her extraordinary height. In one day, her entire world falls apart and she finds herself bound for Bangkok, in the company of an untrustworthy companion, to enter the world of the bars. And we stay with her for 45,000 words as she is transformed into the woman Poke met in the King's Castle Bar on Patpong. For I don't know how many pages, the nominal hero of the book isn't even in sight. It's like a novella squeezed between the beginning and the end of a thriller, because when Rose's interlude is over, the thriller is back with a bang.

I'd originally envisioned Rose's history as 3-4 chapters, maybe 6000 words total, possibly woven throughout the book. But the material wouldn't let go of me, so I went with it, although with an enormous amount of anxiety. So these reviews are especially good news this time, and it knocks me out that the section that's getting the most praise is Rose's story.

Is it true that 98% of all books started are never finished?

I state this with absolute certainty at the beginning of the very long section of my website called FINISH YOUR NOVEL, but I have no way in the world of knowing whether it's true. I think it's certainly true that the vast majority of people who have spent their lives saying, “I could write a novel,” and who finally sit down and try to do it, find that it's much harder than they'd expected, and most of them quit. I think they're unprepared for all the things that happen to all of us: blind alleys and ideas that go rancid and characters that don't work and flat dialogue and problems with handling time (one of the biggies) and the chorus of internal voices that continually sing, “You can't do this” in four-part harmony. And I think they're unprepared for the sheer scope of the commitment: sitting down regularly – daily, if possible – and shepherding their daydream for a year or however it takes to turn it into a coherent novel-length story. An interesting, coherent novel-length story.

While it's undoubtedly true that everyone has a book inside him/her, it doesn't necessarily follow that he/she is going to be able to get it out. Writing a novel is like running a marathon: it takes a long-term commitment, regular exercise, and the ability to postpone gratification – because, guess what? It's going to take as long as it takes, and that's almost certainly going to be longer than the novice writer expects. On the other hand, I don't actually think that writing a novel is harder than any other kind of creative enterprise; it just takes longer.
That's why I wrote that almost book-length section of my site – to help people get through the first one. And a lot of people have used it, including Helen Simonson, whose COLONEL PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND was one of this year's best-sellers. She even thanked me in the acknowledgments. Oh, and the Seattle Examiner has just asked for permission to print the whole section, one piece per week, for however long it takes to get it all out there. That's pretty rewarding.

Will we see the return of private eye Simeon Grist?

In at least one way – by the time this goes up, the first two titles in the series, The Four Last Things and Everything But the Squeal, will be up on Amazon as e-books at the astonishingly low price of $1.99. Think of it, people – a year of my life for $1.99. Twelve long months of me sitting all by myself, banging my head against the keyboard, drinking far too many bottles of Singha Thai beer. (I had to learn how to write all over again after I quit drinking. Beer kept the fear of the blank page at bay.)

$1.99 people. That's almost cheaper than free.

I actually dreaded going back into the books to prepare them for upload, so it was a real treat to learn that I actually like them. Some places are overwritten (what else is new?), but most of the dialogue holds up just fine and there's some stuff that made me laugh out loud.

And I found a great kid online to design the covers, because even after the rights to your books revert to you, the publisher still owns the jacket art. So the kid made new ones. He's 17 years old, and look at this:

The four last things, in Catholicism, are death, judgment, heaven and hell. Got two of them up there.

If anyone buys these things ($1.99!!!!!) I'll put up the other four.

I'm also working on a new book about Simeon called Pulped. The basic idea is that there's a kind of limbo to which series characters go when they're finally out of print. So I get to write all these kinds of detectives – hard-boiled, cozy, clairvoyants, cats, vampires, little kids – all thrown together and bored stiff. They only time they can make contact with the real world is when someone down here reads one of their books, and then they can look out through the page as though it were a window. And in the first chapter, Simeon's watching one of his few remaining fans reading Everything But the Squeal when a pair of hands circle the fan's neck and strangle him. Simeon and all these wildly different detectives have a new murder at last.

So far, it's pretty funny, and I doubt anyone will figure out what's going on, since I myself don't have the slightest idea.

Explain Charles Dickens' influence on you.

That's a rough one. I could go on for pages. I think the primary thing I learned from Dickens is always to think in terms of characters first and story second. He had a prodigious, operatic talent, and he's continually inventing some character who's in danger of walking away with the story, although he or she usually doesn't. And Dickens worked at really substantial length – these novels are three volumes long – so he could always make room for a Miss Havisham or a Mr. Micawber or Vincent Crummels and his endearingly wretched theater troupe. Dickens could play with these characters, have his fun with them, and move along.

So another thing I learned from Dickens is that writing can (should) be fun.

The third thing is that he was one of literature's supreme pantsers, by which I mean he wrote those sprawling, densely populated novels entirely by the seat of his pants, without any concept of where he was going – and he published them in monthly installments, as he wrote them, meaning he couldn't go back and change things when he finally figured out what the book was about. He had to live with what he'd written a year ago – he couldn't bring Little Nell back to life (thank God) or decide that Great Expectations would have been better if Estella were sympathetic. She was a bitch and he was stuck with it. He freed me, on my much tinier scale, to make it all up as I go along without first building the framework of an outline.

So he gets a medal for inventiveness and sheer bulk courage.

What's next?

Well, of course, there's The Queen of Patpong coming out on August 17. I have to confess that I like it a lot, and this is the time when I'm usually regretting every word in the book. This one feels different.

Then there are Pulped and maybe a standalone thriller that I don't want to say anything about because it would be too easy to steal. But if I can write it, it'll be cool.

The next Poke may (or may not) be called The Fear Artist. It begins in the Bangkok riots we saw earlier this year, when a Western man who's been shot staggers into Poke and dies in his arms as news photographers and a TV crew shoot the scene. All of a sudden every really scary organization in the world want to know what was said between them. The story, assuming it goes the way I think it will, does something I like in other people's books: it starts small and then gets bigger and bigger. And it's going to give me an opportunity to write all the used-up old spies who now call Bangkok home – guys who would have shot each other on sight 40 years ago, now getting drunk together and re-fighting battles from the 60s and 70s. I'm going to try to keep Rose and Miaow out of trouble in this one. I think they've endured peril enough in the first four.

Latest 7Q

Who answered my latest 7 Questions by writing a flash piece (that included yours truly), supplied an MRI pic of his head, and clarified why he thought he was King Sh@#!?

Don't know? Click here to find out.

Latest 7Q

What does this writer have to say about working with Keira Knightley and Cameron Diaz and how did a dead man end up in the back of his cab? Click over for my latest 7 Questions to find out.

I Found Him At 39.070388 N,-76.545241W

Ladies and gentlemen, Shea. Kieran Shea.

7 Questions: Philip R. Abbott

Having a wife, daughter and son-in-law as writers, not to mention your own writing, do you find yourself constantly reading rough drafts?

I read a lot of Patti's work, but not really as a critical voice. Mostly I am there to encourage her although if something jumps out at me, I do mention it. My preference in stories are for ones that are somewhat ambiguous so my most common contribution to her work is to say maybe you don't need that last line or two. I read a lot of fiction but don't write it myself so I wouldn't feel comfortable saying much more than that. She complains that I am not critical enough but I know when to get out of the way.

We both read Megan's final first draft and sometimes the final version. Early on in her career, she sent us more versions of her work, but now she turns to her agent or husband for that job. What we see is a pretty polished version.

Although Patti has read early versions of Josh Gaylord's novels (and several earlier unpublished novels) I have not. I would feel even less comfortable weighing in on his work.


Can you tell us a little about your own work?

I am a political theorist. Most of my most recent books concern the American presidency. I am currently working on a book on bad presidents--what constitutes a bad president. I also did one on accidental presidents--those who took office due to an assassination or death. Another dealt with Franklin Roosevelt and his use of earlier presidents as exemplars. I've done several textbooks and books on subjects such as American inventions, the American family, and some traditional political theory.

I also write on utopianism and just finished an article on whether utopians should have perfect bodies to be published shortly in FUTURES.

I got my Ph.D at Rutgers and teach at Wayne State University in Detroit-although I spent a year teaching in England and a semester in Amsterdam.


Who was the worst US president?

Buchanan appears as the very worst in almost all presidential rankings. But to me the more interesting questions is why was Buchanan so bad. The dominant view emphasizes his indecisiveness--Buchnanan was immobilized by the threat of succession. A more intriguing view, one suggested by Lincoln himself in his House Divided address, is that he had a plan that almost worked, the nationalization of slavery. From this perspective Buchanan was still bad but more like Richard III than Richard II.


What would you consider the most defining moment in our country's history and why?

Most scholars would identify the following as defining moments in U.S. history and I would agree: 1787: The Second Founding and the Constitution; 1800: the election of Jefferson; 1860: the beginning of the Civil War, the election on Lincoln and the Southern secession; 1932: the Great Depression, the election of Roosevelt and the programs put into place during his first two terms to deal with it; 1963, the assassination of Kennedy.


What has changed good and bad in academia since you received your Ph.D?

Research is more interdisciplinary than it was a generation ago. Scholars see the world in broader terms. Professors are more creative in designing courses and research projects that cross disciplines.

The Internet and email have changed things. It is much easier to prepare manuscripts for publication than it was. It used to take years before a book or article appeared.

Teachers are able communicate more easily with students. Everything happens faster. Methods of teaching changes daily with online courses and power point. (This has a downside, too, of course. Online courses certainly don't offer the intense and intimate experience a class of 15 does).

On the negative side, there is more plagiarism. Texting and cellphones in the classroom are a real distraction for everyone.

There are fewer jobs for professors. Salaries have declined with the new economy. There is more pressure than ever to publish.

New Ph.Ds going onto the job market are now expected to have delivered conference papers, had articles published.

College resources go toward technology rather than classroom buildings, teachers, scholarly travel.


How did you meet Patti?

I grew up in a resort town--New Hope, PA--where Washington crossed the Delaware and the site of a summer theater, restaurants, shops. My father owned a small luncheonette and newstand there so I came back every summer from college (American University in D.C.) to work. Patti, just graduated from high school, had a summer job there in a restaurant around the corner. We met one day when I was sweeping the front sidewalk and she was looking for her roommate. The same night we ran into each other again. Oddly enough, we'd both been there the summer before (in a town of 800 people) but never met.


If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would you choose?

I always thought six made a good number at dinner: Shakespeare, Euripides, Jefferson, Freud, Janet Malcolm.

7 Questions: Paul Brazill

You are a prolific writer. What's your daily writing schedule like?

Oh, I don't have a schedule and I don't write every day.

I don't have my own computer- never have. My girlfriend's computer is in a room that her mother uses to give massages so, when it's free I sit down and maybe write but more likely mess about on Facebook or something. I've started making notes in a proper notebook most days, though.

I write in short bursts which, I suppose, is why I write flash so much.


You got started late penning crime fiction. What was the spark?

I think the discovery of ezines like Powder Burn Flash was really important. From there I discovered a new world and new writers. In fact it was Keith Rawson who sent me over to Powder Burn Flash via his My Space page and Cormac Brown - whose stories I'd enjoyed at Powder Burn Flash who encouraged me to write my first story for Six Sentences.


How did an Englishman wind up in Bydgoszcz, Poland and decide to stay?

Well, it all started in 2001. I was working as a Welfare Rights worker in London -where I'd lived for 10 years - and took a six month sabbatical. I'd done that job in Hartlepol and London for far too long.

I had the bright idea to use some money I had from the sale of my flat and travel across the USA! Of course that all went pear shaped. I ended up spending two weeks in a hotel near Times Square in New York waiting for the money to come through and-when it didn't - I returned to England with my tail betwen my legs.

So, I went back to my home town of Hartlepool and waited for the cash to arrive. While there, it was suggested that I do a TEFL (Teaching English as as Foriegn Language) course since I didn't want to go back to my old life.

So, I did. I did it in Madrid for 4 weeks in 42 degree heat.

Back in England after the summer I applied for a completely random selection of jobs around the world and within two weeks was living in Skierniewice in Poland with no knowledge of Polish, of course.

Since then I've lived in a few places in Poland. I lived in Warsaw the longest. I was ready to go back to England for a while when I came to Budgoszcz on a three month contract and met Daria, The Black Witch, and with her help became self employed, moved in with her and started writing.


Poland has had a colorful but sometimes harsh history. What is the mood of the people today?

Poland is stil in the middle of rebuilding itself. The Nazi invasion and almost 50 years of Stalinism have taken their toll. One effect of that is that there is a 'missing' generation and a massive gap between the older more conservative generation and the youth, who are completely enjoying the new freedoms, especially since Poland joined the EU.

It has became normal for young people to travel to the UK and Ireland at the drop of a hat, for example, and the level of foreign language skills has made amazing progress even since I've been here. The younger generation are very much internationalists.


How did you land the Pulp Metal Magazine gig?

Sometime last year I bumped into Pulp Metal's Dictator and novelist Jason Michel over at Outsider Writers because of something I wrote about Robert Mitchum.

He's an EFL teacher in France, he asked me if I would write a regular column for Pulp Metal and so I said yes, though I've been focusing on interviews lately.


Away from writing, what preoccupies Mr. Brazill's time?

Well, I teach just enough to pay for my keep. I don't have much money but I don't have much stress either.

My students come to me, so sometimes I don't leave the house for days in winter!

I drink far too much booze, I'm sure, though a lot less than I used to. I can't write when I drink or have a hangover though.

I occassionaly go to the opera with Daria and my mates and, if the weather's okay I go for a walk in the forest with the dogs.

I go to the local art house cinema every Tuesday. I watch Polish soap operas that I don't really understand and I usually read at least one novel a week and a few short stories.

And I faff around on the internet a lot ...


What's the most lame brain thing you ever did as a teenager?

Lame brain? Selling my cherished comic collection, which I'd built up over about 8 years, when I was 15. I sold it for 5 pounds and bought Talking Heads 77 and Jocko Homo by Devo.

7 Questions: Scott D. Parker

Tell me about the life of a technical writer living in Houston, TX?

When you can find the work, being a technical writer in Houston is fantastic. You have major oil and gas companies here, computer-related companies (HP), and the medical center. Thus, the opportunities to write different kinds of things are omnipresent. Many of these companies are based in places other than North America. As such, Houston has become a major cosmopolitan city. On spring days in the park, you will likely hear at least five languages being spoken.

I work for a small company called Aesbus. It's an out-source firm whose biggest client is HP. I write server documentation. I joke that my job description is this: "I write the books you have to read when the machine doesn't work right." When people find out about my job, they almost always reference the manuals the general public gets when they buy TVs, computers, or electronic devices. The complaint is usually the same: *You* write stuff like this? At which time they proceed to tell me how bad the consumer electronic manuals are written. I tend to agree. I smile and offer to show them one of my server guides. Oddly, they always decline.

I'll admit the only downside to being a technical writer is that it occasionally filters into my writing. I sometimes obsess over where a character is standing in relation to the door or another character. The downside of being a fiction writer for my tech writer self is that my flowery language can sometimes filter into my day job. Clients don't often appreciate how much a downhole oil drill dislikes the men who assemble it and want to do them harm.


How do you balance your day job with family, three blogs, and your own writing?

When you lay it all out like that, I can't help but visualize myself as one of those performers on the Ed Sullivan Show that balances spinning dishes and whatnot on sticks. As adept as the performer is, on one level, he looks ridiculous. Sometimes I feel that way when I look at the time I have available to me and the sheer number of things I want to do.

One thing that has helped the balancing act is becoming more simplified, more minimal in all aspects of my life: family, writing, online computing, reading, eating, and mental health. I have a wife and a son. They take priority. Period. Carving up the rest of my day is where the balancing act comes into play. I'll admit that my fiction writing suffers when other parts of my life (day job, family) takes up more time than is usual. And, honestly, blogging does, too. The irony is that, as of today, I'm known as being a blogger rather than a writer. The one thing about my blogging that helps is that I don't proofread my posts. What you see on any of my blogs is a first-pass, check for spelling errors, and publish effort. I think that's how most folks do it so I'm not alone.

Usually, I like to write at the lunch hour so I can get writing out of the way for the day. Thus, I can give my family my whole attention when I return home. Sometimes, I'll also write at night. In fact, I wrote my first novel almost exclusively at night, from 10pm to midnight. I try to write every day. I don't have a set "way" of writing. I can write anywhere on anything. I carry a pocket Moleskin notebook and constantly make notes on ideas and plot points. I've also created a standing desk so I stand and type and it gives me more energy. I have a MacBook Pro and I take it with me on most workdays. I don't have any fancy and needless special programs to help me write. I use Scrivener to write fiction, MacJournal for the blogs.

Enjoyment is the sole criteria for what I do and how I do it. I enjoy writing, all forms. The blog writing is easy and enjoyable with instant gratification. The fiction writing, as a yet-to-be-published writer is harder since success isn't guaranteed. The one thing that helps me here is my desire for the job of being a full-time, non-technical writer, not the fame. If I could have a career--one that pays the bills and gives me an enjoyable life--without a single mention of my name (i.e., only use pen names), I'd consider myself a lottery winner. It's the life I want; not the fame. The science fiction writer Ted Chiang is the only tech writer I know of that also writes fiction. His track record is extraordinary. He's not prolific but his stories are excellent and usually win awards. If you want a SF story that will stay with you, find his award-winning "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate." Better yet, find the audio verison narrated by James Campanella.


"You Don't Get Three Mistakes" has been one of our most popular stories at BEAT to a PULP. Where did that character spring from?

I'm about to give an answer I'd hate reading from another author to whom I posed the same question: I don't know. I can name two things that played a factor. One was my reading of a book my grandfather had, William Colt MacDonald's Mascarada Pass. It's a novel featuring Gregory Quist, a railroad detective. Westerns were my grandfather's favorite genre and I wanted to read one of his books. Liked that book a lot (not so the second one I read). The other thing that comes to mind was a visit to the local Houston gun show. I went for research into modern weapons but became enamored by all the historical guns and paraphernalia. I saw a Texas and Pacific Railroad Special Police badge and, thinking of Quist, bought it. That's probably where the seed of the idea to write a story was born. Another seed was to write a story my grandfather would have liked.

As to the story itself, I've pored over all my files, paper and electronic, and can find no trace of any notes I made prior to the writing of the tale you published. The story was written in one session, pretty much as it was published, with nips and tucks here and there based on Elaine's suggestion. Heck even a writer friend of mine suggested the title. (Original working title: "Job Interview") I have notes written afterwards when I realized how much I liked the story and the chances that I might have a character on which I could hang a few more yarns. Interestingly, his original first name was Caleb and I had no last name. When I came time to submit the story to Beat to a Pulp, I still had no last name. I scanned my writing room, searching for a name. My eyes landed on Max Allen Collins' first Hard Case Crime novel, Two for the Money. But, as you can see from the previous sentence, I didn't want a character with an "s" in his last name. Somewhere, Carter popped into my head. As for the first name, again, no dice. But I have a number of volumes of the collected Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. Perhaps it was then that the name "Calvin Carter" wedded themselves together.

I love the old "Wild Wild West" television show and all the gadgets Jim West had at his disposal. I also liked Artemus Gordon's ability to impersonate anyone. I enjoyed the Gregory Quist book and I was reading the first Doc Savage novel. I had just met Charles Ardai at Murder by the Book in Houston and he had given us a preview of Gabriel Hunt. All of that swirled together and out popped Calvin Carter and his first tale. I'm proud of the story and thankful that you and Elaine liked enough to publish it. All the praise I've received in the last year has been gratefully received.


Tell us about your involvement with NEEDLE?

Steve Weddle asked if I'd mind doing a little editing on the side. In my critique group in Houston, I enjoy reading other writers' stories and offering my take on the tale's strengths and weaknesses. I had a similar partnership with a fellow writer back in 2005-06 when we were both writing our first novels. Needless to say, when Steve asked, I jumped at the chance. To be honest, I've had an idea of working in a magazine/publication for a long time. The Needle opportunity came at the right time. I'm looking forward to more good stories and to see how far this ink-on-paper magazine will go. I've already ordered my copy (at Lulu.com) and eagerly await its arrival.


Recently, in your 10 Most Influential Books, The Bible headed the list. How important is faith and The Good Book in your daily life?

Faith is fundamental to who I am. Growing up an only child, I got to see my parents and four grandparents have their own distinct relationship with God. For some, it was personal, like Jesus was sitting in the chair in the room. Others, it was more abstract. All, however, had an unswerving faith. It infused me at an early age, something I'm only coming to realize in these last ten years.

I'll admit that I veered from church but never from my faith and belief in Jesus and God. My mother worked in the church and my dad always helped out. Thus, from an early age, the curtain was unfurled and I got to see the mechanics of church, the politics, the non-magical part. Kind of skewed my outlook to where I became unmoored for a few years. After a personal epiphany where Jesus literally came rushing back into my life, the importance of faith in my life *as an adult* was made abundantly clear. I started reading the Bible and other Christian writers like C. S. Lewis. In addition, I volunteered to go on a mission trip to Guatemala with my parents' newer church. One of the team members was my future wife. Now, twelve years later, we are married and have a son.

Reading the Bible allows me to understand many aspects of human nature. Whenever my son frustrates me, I think back to the Old Testament and how the Israelites constantly kept running afoul of God's law. And, yet, He still loved them. My job as a dad is to keep in mind that, no matter the frustrations, love is still the core value. Of all the books in the Bible, I re-read the Psalms (for nice, short poetry written by humans who were experiencing incredible joys and heartbreaks; they help to keep things in perspective) and the epistles (for when I want to really ponder the sacrifice Jesus made). The history part of me enjoys Acts and the later books of the Old Testament.

Faith has made me optimistic. I'm joyful, often ecstatic about life. The best part about the day, for me, is waking up, especially since I had no guarantee the previous night that I would wake up. My writing talent is a blessing from God. He gave it to me and I'm thankful to be able to shine a little of God's gift through my writing.


Your love of history shines through on your blogs. Would you ever consider writing non-fiction?

In a word: absolutely. And, in truth, I already do. All my blogs--especially my reviews and, increasingly, my Do Some Damage posts--are non-fiction.

When in graduate school, I was aiming to become a history professor. Didn't pan out that way. What never left me, however, was my passion for history. What bugs me the most about our modern public schools is how many (notice I did not say "all") of the history teachers are coaches (not dogging coaches here, either) or some other teacher for whom history is not a first love. What results is a dry rundown of names and dates without any context. It's no wonder modern students don't have a love or, at least, appreciation of history. History is the story of living people faced with choices and having to live with the result of those choices. Folks who don't think history is exciting should just watch "Saving Private Ryan," "Amadeus," and even movies like "To Kill a Mockingbird" which give a clear-eyed glimpse into the past. On the book side, historians (notice I didn't use the word "popular") like David McCullough, Stephen Ambrose, and Joseph Ellis write true accounts of events that are as gripping as fiction. Heck, I'd say more so than fiction because of the stakes.

In order to earn my MA, I had to write a thesis. I wrote about the 14th Texas Infantry in the Civil War. I had to incorporate statistical research in addition to the day-to-day retelling of the 14th's story. Needless to say, I enjoyed the narrative part of the thesis much better than the statistical part. But I learned *how* to research history and what is involved in crafting a piece of historical analysis. I never tired of learning new things about the 14th and pondering how different pieces of information applied or didn't apply to that regiment. I bring that type of ability to my blog reviews. I knew that, had I become a professor, I would have enjoyed both required aspects of the job--publishing and teaching--equally.

The sheer joy in analyzing a problem, doing research, and writing down the results while adding my personal analysis of a subject appeals to me quite a bit. It's one of the reasons why I enjoy reading a multitude of polical columnists like David Brooks and E. J. Dionne. They ask a question, do research, and write their conclusions. I also enjoy longer, creative non-fiction pieces like the Mark Bowden feature on General David Petraeus in Vanity Fair. One of my dream jobs--aside from being an author of fiction--is to work for a publication where I could do investigative research. Recently, my Do Some Damage columns have become focused on ebooks and the future of reading.

I won't say non-fiction is easier to write than fiction. But I will say that I love writing non-fiction and, if I could have a career doing only non-fiction, I'd jump at it in a heartbeat.


Tell me a Scott Parker pet peeve and why.

As I mentioned in the non-fiction answer, non-history lovers teaching history in schools is a big peeve of mine. But I don't lose sleep over it.

I am an optimist. Life is so, so precious. It's something to be cherished every single day. The worst day of your life is still better than the alternative. The little stuff is really just that: little. For example, I live in Houston. There is traffic. Period. I see people every day getting irritated about traffic. Hey. That's Houston. Suck it up or move. What's the point about getting mad about something you cannot control.

My wife thinks I'm too carefree. To some extent, I have a right to be. I have a wonderfully blessed life. I just don't let stuff I can't control bother me. What's the point? It can only get in the way from what truly matters.

7 Questions: Dave Lewis

In both “Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man” (EQMM Feb, 2010) and “The Pride of the Crocketts” (A Fistful of Legends), you display a knack for comedic flourishes. Were you inspired by a funny uncle or are your influences literary in nature?

Hm. It’s sort of a chicken or egg question. Does my mind work that way because that’s what I like to read, or do I like reading that stuff because my mind works that way? I do know I had a fondness for The Three Stooges and Heckle and Jeckle before I encountered any funny fiction. But as soon as I started reading I was drawn to Mark Twain. Later, my idols were guys like Richard Brautigan and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and my favorite writer for the past 30 years has been Robert B. Parker. I can read the Spenser books over and over and still laugh out loud. “The Pride of the Crocketts” is the result of prolonged exposure to Robert E. Howard’s Breckenridge Elkins. Bottom line? I’m not trying to be funny. It’s just happens.

Why does that American folk hero, frontiersman, and politician from Texas/Tennessee still captivate us one hundred and seventy four years after his death at the Alamo?

I know why he captivates me. As presented by Disney, he was a hero with a grin, great one-liners and a self-deprecating sense of humor. Plus he had the coolest theme song ever. Like Davy’s grandson in “The Pride of the Crocketts”, I have the old guy stuck in my head. “Be always sure you’re right,” he tells me, “and then go ahead.”


Outside of reading and writing, what occupies Dave Lewis the most?

Sleeping is number one, which seems a shameful waste of time. TV and blogging vie for second place. The rest is devoted to such thrilling pursuits as cooking, eating, walking the dogs and cleaning the cat box. My wife and I enjoy traveling when time and money permit. We like cities with plenty of history (our favorite so far is London) and most recently explored New Orleans and Philadelphia.


When it comes to blogging, do you feel that takes up too much of your time?

Absolutely. It’s addictive. I’m trying hard to limit myself to one post a day, but many of those take longer than they should. Still, all the great people I’ve “met” through blogging make it time well spent. My main problem is incompatible technology. The photo processing programs I use most are on my old Windows 95 computer, and won’t work with Windows 7, and only the Windows 7 computer is connected to the internet. I’m crawling under the desk several times a day to move the monitor plug back and forth. I’m thinking of getting knee pads.


Why the pen name of Evan Lewis?

Evan is my middle name. I’ve never liked David Lewis and Dave Lewis seems too common. Evan Lewis ain’t great, but it’s easier for me to picture on a book cover. I envy folks born with cool and distinctive names.


What are you reading right now?

For pleasure, I’m digging my old hardboiled hardcovers out of storage and rereading Jonathan Latimer, Norbert Davis, Richard Sale, Cleve F. Adams and others. Pulps, too, though they’re harder to hold in one hand while I reach for my coffee or fend off dogs and cats. Before I sit down to write I read a chapter of one of Parker’s Spenser novels and a scene or two from one of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon books (the first book of that series, which I highly recommend, is The Last Kingdom). Which leads to the next question . . .


What's next?

I have four novel projects going. Two historical adventures are done in polished second-draft but need plot-juggling. I wrote a third, shorter historical during NaNoWriMo, but it’s still pretty sloppy. The fourth book is a contemporary mystery, maybe two-thirds done. The one I’m trying hardest to finish and get out of here is a first-person historical, hence the ritual reading of Parker and Cornwell. I’m striving for a style somewhere between the two. I’m eager to write a couple of Skyler Hobbs novels, too, but I’m trying to make myself send one of the old ones out before staring something new. (Except, of course, for the western another blogger and I are considering collaborating on . . .)

7 Questions: Christopher Grant

Who is Christopher Grant?

Christopher Grant is 32 years old, has been a writer in one form or another for at least half his life, has blue eyes and brown hair (at least that which is not turning gray) and loves Spaghetti Westerns.


Gotta ask. Which Spaghetti Western is your favorite?

There are still some essentials that I haven't seen, such as The Great/Big Silence, A Bullet For The General, The Hellbenders and Cemetery Without Crosses.

I'd say it's a toss-up between Once Upon A Time In The West (with my favorite scene being the introduction of Frank and his men; the scene is uber-cool) and Django, due, of course, to the cool and calculation of Franco Nero in the title role.

Some might have thought I'd say The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or For A Few Dollars More or even A Fistful Of Dollars but, to me, those are the Spaghettis that everyone says, sometimes because they haven't seen anything outside of these three (which, by the way, is not their fault, as the market in the US really doesn't push Corbucci or Sollima or Questi or Damiani or anyone else).

Corbucci's early stuff is horrendous (with parts of Minnesota Clay pretty decent) but he got it right with Django and, I think, from there on out.

Leone's masterpieces are seemingly limited to the Dollars Trilogy but I think Once Upon A Time In The West is a beautiful love letter, not just to the end of the West (via the railroad coming through) but also to the Western, which was starting to be replaced at that time by the crime drama.

See? It all connects back to crime, doesn't it?


How did A Twist Of Noir get started?

A couple years back, I was searching for crime fiction sites on the net simply to read and not necessarily write for. I came across a couple that I really liked a lot, DZ Allen's Muzzle Flash and Powder Burn Flash, which Aldo Calcagno does a yeoman's job on.

If you'll note, I have taken on the colors of Muzzle Flash and the style of Powder Burn Flash and applied them at ATON.

I liked both so much that I decided, why not attempt my hand at crime writing, despite never having written anything in the genre (I was more of a speculative fiction writer up until then). I quickly wrote two stories, GETAWAY and THE TOOTH, and fired them off to DZ and had both accepted and got encouraging comments from all involved. I, of course, then sent something off to Aldo and got that accepted, too. And the rest is history.

The evolution of A Twist Of Noir came about when DZ and a few other sites (Demolition Mag, for example) decided to close up shop. I owe a lot to Chris Pimental, in that respect, as he was restarting Bad Things and sent out a mass mailing to announce it.

And, as with the writing aspect, I shrugged and said, "Why not?" and piggybacked on that mass mailing a couple days later, announcing that I was opening my own site.

I figured that the more sites we had, the better results we would all get. The writers would have more access and exposure, the editors would have great original material (or reprints of excellent stories) and it would be a win-win for everyone.

My approach has been that we all should help each other get to the next level, whatever that level is. Why make enemies when you can make friends (and perhaps even a few bucks in the process)?


The Deaf Guy assassin is a hit with readers. Was it hard to allow other writers to roll with a character you created?

Not at all. I'm intrigued by what Jimmy Callaway and Joyce Juzwik and Chad Eagleton have come up with, building upon what was basically a five hundred word story.

When I wrote the story for Dan O'Shea's Church Challenge, I honestly thought that it would be a one-off and, while people would probably enjoy it (he said modestly), it would just be one of the handful of characters that I've written about.

Eric Beetner is the first person that said that I should start writing more about this character or someone would probably snap it up and run with it themselves. A couple days later, Jimmy sent me his story. Joyce enjoyed it so much that she said she'd like to see more and I encouraged her to write her own Deaf Guy story. Chad sent me his story a couple days after Joyce.

I have no problem whatsoever with anyone using one or more of my characters for their own stories, whether in a leading or supporting capacity. What I would ask, however, is that they send me the story before they send it anywhere else, if only so that I might see what they've done with said character. And, of course, if they wish to have it published at ATON, all the better.


People are always asking me how long I can keep BTAP going, so I'll toss that your way and expand on it by saying, what's the future of ATON?

The future of ATON is bright, as evidenced by my inbox yesterday and this morning, with nearly ten stories that need to go up in the next couple days.

Beyond that, I think, nearly every single day, about putting together an anthology and there have been talks with another editor about doing just that.

I would prefer the anthology to be original material, as opposed to taking material off of ATON and putting it in a book.

I think about it this way: if someone wants something that used to be on your site but is now in a book and not available for free, what are the chances that they're going to go out and buy said anthology? Further, what are the chances that they're going to be able to get their hands on it in a store?

On the other hand, what if they've already printed the story out before it's been taken off the site? Then they already have the story and have no need to buy the anthology.

And finally, it's an aesthetic thing. Who wants to a see a site that has a message for ten to twenty stories (and more if there are subsequent anthologies) that reads, "Go buy the book"? To me, it's like a beautiful woman that you meet and you can see she's missing teeth when she smiles. She might be a nice person and maybe you can be friends but you don't want to take her home to Mom.


Besides the zine, what are you currently working on?

My own writing, of course. I just pulled a story out of mothballs that had only seen the light of day on my own blog before I opened ATON and sent it to a print journal so we'll see what happens with that. I still want to get Col Bury and Matt Hilton at Thrillers, Killers 'N Chillers some more stuff. I'd love to write for BEAT To A PULP but, as I consider it to be almost like a temple (that's not smoke I'm blowing; I really mean it), I want to have those stories be just right. Same for Thuglit.

There have been talks about collaborations between a few writers and myself and hopefull those come off.

I'd love to write comic books but need to find an artist for that. I can't draw to save my life!


Deserted island scenario. Which three books and movie starlet would you prefer to be stranded with?

The three books are going to be the hard one, I think. I can think of any number of movie starlets that I'd LOVE to be stranded with but the books are the most difficult.

Let's see.

Books would be:

December 32nd, which is the first two parts of what was supposed to be a trilogy but I think is actually a quartet of a graphic novel story by European master Enki Bilal. I love that book for so many reasons that, if there was a fire and I had to grab one book and go, I'd be grabbing that one.

10,000 Ways To Die by Alex Cox, which is about, of course, Spaghetti Westerns and is the book I'm currently reading so, if I'm dropped on that island today, I want that with me to finish it.

And American Skin by Ken Bruen. If you've read it, you know why. If not, you have no idea what you're missing. This story moves like a stream, turning into a rapids, into a raging river.

As for the starlet, I'd go with Summer Glau. Loved her on Firefly and then in Serenity (which is what helps in qualifying her as a movie starlet, as opposed to a television personality).

Loved her on The 4400. Thought she could have chosen better than The Sarah Connor Chronicles so we'd have that to discuss. Plus, she seems extremely intelligent and, if we're going to get off that island, I want someone that knows what they're doing along with me.

And it doesn't hurt that she's beautiful as hell.

So Summer Glau and those three books and I'm set.

7 Questions: Chris Holm

What impact has the state of Maine had on your writing?

The impact Maine's had on my writing would be difficult to overstate. There's the obvious, of course: my first novel, THE ANGELS' SHARE, takes place in a small town on the coast of Maine, and Maine has featured prominently in a couple of my shorts. There's a richness here, of character and of setting, that I've not felt anywhere else I've ever lived. But for me, Maine's impact goes deeper than that. Truth is, writing was just an idle fantasy of mine until I moved to Maine. I was on another path entirely, living in Virginia and working toward a PhD in infectious disease research. It was what I thought I'd always wanted to do with my life, but I was miserable. For some damn-fool reason, I was determined to stick it out, but my wife's a hell of a lot smarter than I am, and she convinced me I should quit and find a new dream. So I did.

Moving to Maine was an easy choice. I think I loved the place before I ever laid eyes on it, having spent my adolescence ensconced in the works of Stephen King. I first started visiting Maine in college with my wife, who grew up in the Western Mountains, and it felt like coming home. When we moved up here in 2001, it was like a switch had flipped. I started writing in earnest for the first time since middle school, and haven't looked back. There's just something in the air up here, I think. It's hard to describe without sounding all crazy and mystical. But I can't imagine living anywhere else, for fear the words would go away.


Where did the spark for writing begin?

When I was six years old, I wrote a picture-book for school titled "The Alien Death From Outer Space." I'm pretty sure I wore out my red crayon illustrating it, so you can imagine how impressed my teacher must have been. As I recall, she liked it so much, she showed it to the principal. He called me to his office and asked a bunch of what I now assume were pretty pointed questions. When he realized I wasn't so much a sociopath as I was obsessed with science fiction, he congratulated me on a job well done and gave me a candy bar. I didn't realize at the time my blood-spattered tale had caused a panic; all I knew was that I wrote something, and people noticed. I consider that candy bar my first-ever literary award, and from then on, I was hooked.


Congratulations on "Action" being published in the current issue of AHMM. Now, you're an old hat at this with "The World Behind" landing in the June '07 issue of EQMM. What's the secret to your success?

Thanks, David! I'm not sure I've any great secret, but if I did it would be blind determination coupled with a knack for writing toward a specific market. The first story I submitted to EQMM got bounced in record time -- twenty-eight days, door to door. And truthfully, it should have been; it was all wrong for EQMM. I hadn't written it with them in mind, and though technically it fell within their guidelines, it lacked the flavor all their stories seem to share. Of course, I couldn't admit that at the time; I was just pissed they'd failed to see my utter, utter genius. It was a vain, wrongheaded, and ultimately useful response, because it forced me to sit down at my keyboard and write "The World Behind", the whole time thinking, "Oh yeah? Let's see you reject *this*!" Only they didn't, and since then, I don't think I've started a single story without a target market in mind. That market may not be where the story ultimately ends up, but I find the guidance helpful nonetheless.

The caveat to that approach is that you (and by "you", I mean "I", but just roll with it) can't be mercenary about it; if you don't really, truly *feel* the story you're writing, it'll come off bloodless on the page. I can set my sights on The Paris Review all I like, but lit-fic ain't my bag, so it's just never gonna happen. The trick is finding that sweet spot between what the market is looking for and what you like to write, and if there isn't one, don't bother submitting. For me, the approach isn't restrictive; I find it actually pushes me to be more ambitious, to take more risks, and (whether it's a coming of-age story like "The World Behind", a comic caper like "Action", or an adventure-pulp/horror crossover like "A Native Problem") expand my own definition of the kinds of stories I write until it more closely resembles those I like to read.

In a recent blog post you mentioned you are a recovering Star Wars geek. What crashed your Millennium Falcon?

Oh, I wouldn't say it crashed. Maybe just picked up a couple mynocks on the hull, who're draining it of juice. But in a pinch, it'd still make the Kessel run in twelve parsecs. (See? Huge geek.)

Truth is, I'm still a huge fan of the original trilogy. (Yes, even Jedi.) But they're no longer the sacred cows to me they once were. I was exposed to Star Wars so young, it's a part of my cultural DNA. It was the first fictional universe that really grabbed me, and it no doubt shaped the way I view the world. That sort of relationship almost precludes criticism. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to extend to the new trilogy. I've seen them all a bunch of times, and even defended them a time or two, but the fact is, they're pretty terrible. They lack the verve, the spark, the first three had. And the more you watch them, the more they call attention to the shortcomings of the original trilogy. Hokey dialogue. Spotty acting. Cloying cuteness.

Also, for God's sake, Lucas, HAN SHOT FIRST!

Sorry. Don't know what came over me there.

That said, I don't subscribe to the idea that Lucas somehow retroactively ruined my childhood by making I-III. Lucas botching the new trilogy led Whedon to create Firefly. Hell, Lucas botching the new Indy led Ardai to create Gabriel Hunt. That's enough to make me wish he had another franchise or two to screw up.


Cliché question here: When working on a story, do you draft an outline or wing it?

I never know quite how to answer this question, 'cause the fact is, I've done both. I think these days, I fall more into the wing-it camp; it keeps the story fresh for me, and hopefully by extension for the reader as well. Usually when I begin a story, I know where it starts, how it ends, and I've got an idea about a few key beats in the middle. But the less written down ahead of time, the better. More room for surprises that way.


Coffee or beer when you're writing?

I write mornings, so coffee. Maybe a beer or a glass of wine when I'm revising. Whiskey when a project's done.


How's the novel coming?

Very well, thanks! I'm in the home stretch on the second book in a series that recasts the battle between heaven and hell as a Golden Era crime pulp. The first in the series, DEAD HARVEST, is being shopped around right now.


*Chris explains the story behind the fun picture of his wife, Katrina, and himself on his blog.

7 Questions: Clare Toohey

Who is to be congratulated for Clare2e's razor sharp wit?

I won't bother thanking my parents, because they don't spend much time reading blogs. I could thank the many, funnier people I steal from, but why start giving them credit now?


How did Women Of Mystery come to be and who's really in charge over there?

At a local chapter meeting of the New York/Tri-State Sisters in Crime, Laura Kramarsky (aka Laura Curtis) asked if anyone wanted to start a group blog. I raised my hand, as did a couple of other sisters, she registered the domain and set up the site, and we were off. She's really the founder, and still handles most of the technical upgrades, though WoM has always been a collaborative effort, contentwise.

It's flattering you ask who's in charge, because I thought it was patently obvious that we make it up as we go! Though we've lost and added members over time, the basic operation is an enthusiastic, occasionally chaotic, democracy aided by backstage kvetching on our private Yahoo Group. We also have a ridiculously loose, I mean, enlightened and flexible posting schedule. With enough members, we're always working around someone's meat-world issues, whether vacation or illness or alien abduction. We've become good at coming together and flowing like water into the gaps. WoM is like the Tao. It'll transport you into timeless serenity if you'll only let it.


Why the Hamburglar for your Blogger profile image?

Why Hamburglar?
I admire his tenacity, though he's arguably the least successful criminal ever, after Wile E. Coyote that is.
We both look good in stripes, Dracula capes, and Zorro masks.
Burgers rule.


What is your most memorable moment from the various conventions you have attended?

I have had many awesome times at mystery conferences, several I still don't remember, even though I got report photocopies from the arresting officer. (Hi, Patrolman Schuler!) One event I particularly remember was at Bouchercon in Chicago in 2005. I had met mega-author Lee Child at a previous MWA event where he most graciously inquired about my manuscript, and said I could e-mail him if there were anything he could do to help. Swell guy, right? So, at the B-con party he hosted at a nearby bar, I went up to him and thanked him for the shindig. So far, so good. Then, I reminded him of his kind offer to help me in any way possible, and told him I'd brought a cooler along for the extraction because I was seriously running out of time on my remaining kidney.

He just blinked at me, but fortunately, the lovely Robin Burcell, who was standing nearby, actually laughed, so I felt slightly less an ass. Thanks, Robin! And Lee, don't worry. I stole a loose hair from your lapel, and made a voodoo clone from which I'm harvesting organs and plots as needed. No biggie.


Do you have a guilty pleasure TV show that you currently watching?

Along with my incredible erudition and high-mindedness comes horrendously shallow taste. Super-jive old shows like Hart to Hart, Love Boat, and Buck Rogers, really anything with lip gloss or a Mancini theme song, work for me, so I love that they're being re-broadcast on four-digit cable channels. I also indulge in anything with elf boots, giant spiders, demons, and martial arts ass-whupping. But I don't feel guilty about a thing.


Outside of writing, what's Clare's hobby?

I'm the current president of the New York/Tri-State chapter of Sisters in Crime, a very busy chapter of active writers. Check us out at www.nysinc.org. We participate in and offer loads of events, and are just beginning our own anthology process. (I may ask you for BTAP war stories!) Fortunately, I excel like a Stepford at what many consider administrative and domestic drudgery. When that's satisfactorily accomplished, I enjoy road trips and being awesome.


How soon can we expect your Great American Novel?

I did write the G.A.N-- so that's another thing off the to-do list-- but my agent couldn't sell it. Now I'm writing the not-quite-as-good, but much punchier and more appealing novel. I'm also experimenting with another, pseudonymous one of a different genre.