Film School: 11 Questions With Washington Post Critic Ann Hornaday

Ann Hornaday

By Daniel Ford

I started listening to “The Tony Kornheiser Show” on ESPN980 when I was graduate student in New York City.

I was working full-time and going to school every night. It was a backbreaking schedule that gave me just enough time to eat and sleep before the process started all over again the next day.

Tony Kornheiser and his gang of rotating radio show guests became more than just a distraction from the never-ending bus and subway rides to and from Queens College. They became friends I could count on to make me laugh until I cried and ponder the important questions of the day (for example: How will the weather report in Washington D.C. affect Tony’s ability to play golf?). It was also comforting knowing that the show’s fan base—lovingly called Loyal Littles—was as much a part of the show as any of Mr. Kornheiser’s high profile guests.

One of his most endearing and exuberant recurring guests is Ann Hornaday, film critic for The Washington Post. I don’t know how I watched or thought about movies before I started listening to her reviews, but I imagine my mind was like a scene from Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” The best part is she usually brings to light movies that I necessarily wouldn’t have found on my own—“Mud” is one great example.

As Loyal Little luck would have it, Hornaday excitedly agreed to answer some of my questions about her writing career and the movies she’s reviewed over the years.

Daniel Ford: Did you always know you wanted to be a writer, or is it something that you discovered or grew into over time?

Ann Hornaday: My wanting to be a writer has its roots in the simple fact that writing was one of the things I received praise for from an early age. It's a matter of tender ego, pure and simple! I remember a little poem I wrote earned a coveted spot on the bulletin board in my second grade classroom, and I think I was hooked after that—like a precocious little stage moppet hearing applause for the first time. Obnoxious, but true.

DF: According to your bio, you started out in the magazine world and eventually became a freelance writer in New York City. What were those years like and what lessons and skills did you learn about writing?

AH: My very first job upon landing in New York after college was being a fact-checker at Ms. Magazine, which taught me just about everything I needed to know about writing, from my beloved boss Della Rowland, from an enormously gifted copy editor named Cathy O'Haire and from Gloria Steinem, who role modeled the best ways to procrastinate. I wound up being Gloria's assistant for two years that probably still qualify as the most disorganized of her life; but she was an invaluable mentor, and she's the one who urged me to go freelance. That's how she started, and she said it's the best way to hone your skills vis-à-vis reporting and writing on deadline.

I supported myself during those years by freelance fact-checking (which you'd never guess from the number of unconscionably sloppy mistakes I still make); it was hugely valuable for making contacts at magazines I ended up writing for. Those years taught me perseverance, self-preservation, the importance of internalizing the voice of the outlet you're writing for (you're not there to indulge your muse, you're there to advance that magazine or newspaper's mission) and simple professionalism, i.e. never blowing deadlines, and balancing several stories simultaneously without letting editors know that they're not the only ones you're working for.

DF: What led you to reviewing movies for The New York Times, and eventually The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Post?

AH: I didn't review movies for the Times, although I did do occasional book reviews; I wrote features for the Sunday Arts & Leisure section. That gig led directly to my first staff job as a film critic, with the Austin American-Statesman. They were looking for a critic who could also report on the burgeoning film industry and culture down in Austin at the time, which was the mid-1990s. I loved Austin and still can't believe I ever left. I went to The Baltimore Sun at the height of that newspaper's commitment to enterprise journalism and deep, literary storytelling, and I'm very grateful that I got to work there when I did. I still live in Baltimore, even though I've now been at the Post for 10 years!

DF: What's your process like for writing a movie review? Do you take a lot of notes while you watch a film? After seeing a movie and finally sitting down with your notes to write a review, what helps you get into the writing groove? Do you need it to be dead silent, or do you listen to music?

AH: I do jot down notes in a notebook, mostly words that will help bring back the sensory experience of watching a film—or, if it's a comedy, maybe a joke or two. My aim is to help the reader get a sense of what the movie's like (of course, with a minimum of spoilers), and whether or not they may want to give it a shot. Any examples I can give them – again, without spoiling the movie – are helpful. This is going to sound pretentious but, since I really try not to fall into the trap of over-synopsizing (one of my pet peeves in movie reviews), I almost think my job is more like a poet's, in terms of using language to convey a feeling and a vibe more than "what happens" in the movie.

I don't listen to music while I work, but I probably should! (I used to in college, why did I stop?!) I usually try to write first thing in the morning, ideally the day after I've seen a movie—soon enough for my sieve-like memory to function, but after enough time has gone by for the film to "settle." It's amazing how films kind of wax and wane as they burrow their way into your consciousness. I'm having that experience today with a film I saw yesterday, "Under the Skin," by Jonathan Glazer.

DF: What's the best movie you've ever reviewed and what's the worst? And what would you consider your least favorite movies of all time and your top five most rewatchable movies?

AH: Oh boy, this is the toughest one…The list always changes depending on the day.

The best movie I've ever reviewed: It's got to be "The Hurt Locker." A stone cold masterpiece. Full stop. Least favorite movie of all time: “The Hobbit.” Bored me to tears (Hated “Lord of the Rings” even more, but I didn't review any of those!).

Most rewatchable movies: "Goodfellas," "All the President's Men," "Apocalypse Now," "Sweet Smell of Success," and "This Is Spinal Tap."

DF: You seemed to have loved "Inside Llewyn Davis" as much as I did. It told a universal story about reaching the limits of potential in such a refreshing and real way, so I was surprised that it didn't get more awards love/buzz. Why do you think that was the case?

AH: Stay strong, brother! I was just thinking about my beloved "Llewyn" this morning…What a great film. Judging from my email inbox, a lot of viewers found the main character too unsympathetic, too misanthropic, and sour to relate to. And a lot of people found the film's Coen-esque structure off-putting. I find that astonishing since, like you, I saw his journey as such a poignant evocation of self-awareness and failure…It still gets to me. There was absolutely nothing about that film that wasn't perfect, in my opinion. Glad you're helping me fight the good fight on that one!

DF: What is one movie that no one saw last year that they need to see immediately, and what's one that you're excited for coming up in 2014.

AH: Last year was such a stunner…So many great ones that were probably overlooked. I could say "Short Term 12," or "Mud" or "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" or a wonderful documentary called "Medora," but I'll go with "All Is Lost," JC Chandor's film starring Robert Redford. It's just an amazing film, with an astonishing performance from Redford. I was heartbroken that he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for that one. Robbed, I tell you! Robbed! (He's good in the new "Captain America" movie, too).

As for this year…Of course I can't wait for Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of "Inherent Vice"! I admit to my shame that "The Master" kind of left me cold—but I adore PTA and can't wait to see what he does next.

DF: You were named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in criticism in 2008. What was that experience like?

AH: That was one of the greatest days of my professional life, hands down. Our then-publisher, Don Graham, walked over to my desk, told me how proud he was of me, took me by the elbow, and walked me through the newsroom, beaming. Keep in mind, that day the Post won six Pulitzers—so, technically, I was the chick who lost the seventh one. Don treated me as if I was the day's biggest winner. I'll never forget it, and I'll be forever grateful to him for treating me so kindly.

DF: I consider myself a Loyal Little of the Tony Kornheiser Radio Show on ESPN 980 based out of Washington D.C. I remember hearing on a podcast a couple of years ago that you two have actually never met in person. Is that true? And what's your favorite Tony Kornheiser moment since you became a regular guest on the show?

AH: Well, for a long time I hadn't met Tony—but we did finally meet in person, at a screening a couple of years ago. Still, I have yet to do the show in the studio with him and Jeanne and Gary and the gang—something I dearly want to do one day. I kind of inherited that gig when my predecessor, Stephen Hunter, left the Post, and I think there was some wariness on both sides—demographically and temperamentally, I'm not exactly in the TK show's wheelhouse. But it's turned out to be the highlight of my week. And he has the best fans. Every time I speak or appear in public, a Little comes up and says hello, and he (sometimes she) is always the nicest person there!

As for moments…That's a tough one. The shows go by so fast! Probably me and Jeanne swooning over Mark Ruffalo. Le sigh.

DF: What's your best advice for young and up-and-coming writers?

AH: Although it's important to develop your own voice, it's just as important to come to your work in the spirit of service: How can I be a useful part of the conversation I'm either starting or diving into? Give yourself time to think before you start to type. Oh, and outline! I still do it, with Roman numerals, capital letters and everything.

DF: Name one random fact about yourself.

AH: I play the ukulele (sorry, John Goodman).

You can learn more about Ann Hornaday by following her work with The Washington Post or by following her on Twitter @AnnHornaday.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Author S. Craig Zahler On Why Discipline and Imagination Trumps Money and Financiers

Cover photo courtesy of S. Craig Zahler

By Sean Tuohy

All writers want to set a tone and want to set themselves apart from the crowd.

Few do it well. Some barely pull it off. Others fail completely.

Author S. Craig Zahler succeeds spectacularly and puts miles between himself and other writers with his grim tone and no-holds-barred approach to writing. Zahler hit the scene hard with his debut novel A Congregation of Jackals, which was twice-nominated for awards and highly praised. His screenplay “The Brigands of Rattleborge” was ranked number one on the highly regarded The Black List.

With stories raging from western, crime, and sci-fi, Zahler proves that hard work and believing in your story is what makes a great writer. Zalher spoke with Writer's Bone about his daily writing process, gave us a glimpse of what’s to come, and allowed us a chance to see inside the mind of a true writer.

Sean Tuohy: When did you know you were a writer? Was it something you knew from birth or did you discover it later in life?

S. Craig Zahler: I have always been creatively inclined, but as a kid, I thought of myself as visual artist (comic book artist was a goal for me, as were animator and director), though yes, I did write some weird fiction even then.

When I went to Tisch/NYU in the early 1990s, in addition to not coming into contact with women, I studied animation, film, film history, music, directing, and cinematography rather than writing, though there were some perfunctory courses that showed me formulas I then quickly (and thankfully) forgot.

I think one of the major reasons that I enjoy writing so much and have had some success in this field is because it does not require me to be collaborative and it allows me to make things up as I go rather than plan everything and try to convince people of my instincts. Additionally, getting better at writing requires effort, discipline, imagination, a critical mind, and a strong fondness for fiction rather than money, fancy equipment, and financiers.

ST: Recently on Writer's Bone a contributor expressed some self-doubt about identifying as a writer, despite a lifetime of writing. Have you experienced doubt as a writer? Have you always felt comfortable calling yourself a writer or was it something you grew into with each milestone of success as a writer?

SCZ: Anybody who writes is a writer, but for me, the term in the traditional sense has a professional connotation that is connected to generating revenue from writing—having people pay to read my work. Prior to making a living as a novelist and screenwriter, I wrote a lot of music criticism (for Metal Maniacs and some ‘zines), and although I was paid for a lot of this, I did not classify myself as a writer since my vocations at the time were as a cook, and to a lesser degree, a cinematographer. I’d say, “I write for a metal magazine,” but not, “I’m a writer,” even though I had written a massive, still unpublished two book fantasy series called Slaves of Uzrehan’be (which was me splitting the difference between Clark Ashton Smith weirdness and George RR Martin gray morality), and some plays (two of which I directed), and six screenplays, and a ton of music criticism. But this writing felt like I was trying to crack “being a writer” rather the actually “being a writer.”

When I got a three-picture deal with Warner Brothers and writing became my full time job, I felt comfortable saying, “I’m a writer.” This felt far more accurate on the day that I sold my novel, A Congregation of Jackals to Don D’Auria at Dorchester.

As far as doubt, I have always believed in my abilities, but less so the industries of publishing and filmmaking to which I sell (or attempt to sell) my material.

ST: A Congregation of Jackals was a somber and thrilling debut novel; how long did you work on the project?

SCZ: Thanks for the kind word regarding the book. I wrote A Congregation of Jackals in three and half months, including all of the revisions other than the tiny ones that I did with the publisher that took only a few days.

ST: What is your writing process like?

SCZ: My process is to have a general direction for the story—doors to which I am guiding the main characters. Then, I get in the mind of the protagonist and proceed toward those doors.

While I do this, I try to surprise myself every single day. An important thing for me is to limit the amount of words that I am allowed to type in a day to about 1,100 so that I never chase myself into a corner or plot on autopilot. If it’s all flowing too quickly, too naturally, I feel it’s too easy and has probably been done before and will not contain enough distinct invention. I’m usually surprised by which characters live and which die in my fiction.

ST: Do you have any special rituals that you have to perform before or after a new project?

SCZ: Certainly. I write seven days a week until the story is done. I do this lying down on my stomach in bed, like I’m sliding into home plate.

I write my allotment of words for the day, revise this chunk twice, and then leave it alone for the most part until I finish the whole piece (which I write in order from beginning to end, making occasional adjustments).

Usually, after two or three hours of work, I reward myself with my “morning” coffee, which is at about 5 or 6 p.m., since I usually wake up around 2:30 p.m. Then, after I have finished my writing (and completed my daily workout), I put on my “saving music,” which is a song selected as the daily reward for completing the day’s work. I tend to keep one song per project, so each book or script has its own theme. “Blood Red Skies” by Judas Priest was the song I listened to every day while writing A Congregation of Jackals. Marvin Gaye’s “Trouble Man” is what I am listening today when I finish working on my new book. Usually it’s soul music or heavy metal, which are my two favorite kinds of music, followed closely by progressive rock. The Persuaders, Nate Dogg, Ritual, Altars of Oblivion, Tavares, Ennio Morricone have all provided me with saving music.

ST: What project are you the most proud of?

SCZ: This is a tough question, since I am very critical, and although I am proud of all of my books and albums—they survived my personal process of brutal nitpicking so I can now stand behind them—of my 48 completed pieces (six novels, 37 scripts, and five albums) different pieces have different elements of which I am most proud.

I think my horror western Wraiths of the Broken Land is my most vividly written and intense piece, though it is way too dark for many readers and so comes with that caveat. My science fiction book Corpus Chrome, Inc. is my most imaginative and emotional book experience. It plays to emotional aspects that are very meaningful to me specifically, and is less gratifying in normal narrative ways than most of my tough guy material (i.e. the crime and western stuff).

In terms of my music, I’m very proud of my recent “Realmbuilder” album, “Blue Flame Cavalry,” which made some important year-end best of lists for the first time. (This is doomy epic metal, influenced by stuff like Manilla Road, Thin Lizzy, Manowar, Reverend Bizarre, Summoning, Blue Oyster Cult, and Cirith Ungol).

As for unpublished works, there is a novella/script called Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child as Told in Twenty-Seven Chapters that is very, very dear to me and gets the strongest emotional reaction of all my unpublished work.

ST: You combine grim noir and the west in your works very well; where did this fascination come from and what, if any, core similarities do you believe these two genres share?

SCZ: I think classical crime and traditional westerns are historically very different, since the earlier are generally urban experiences, often heavy on colorful language and plotting, and the latter are more adventurous and expansive types of tales in which a group of people are dealing with civilization in the wild. Though yes, there are many exceptions to these distinctions.

Some of my favorite film noirs ever like “Gun Crazy” (directed by the master, Joseph H. Lewis), “Nightfall” (directed by the amazing Jacques Tourneur, based on a David Goodis book) do both things, but something like “The Big Combo” (also directed by the master, JH Lewis) or “The Sweet Smell of Success” (probably my favorite script ever) lack the adventure component.

With the exceptions of my comedy material, I try to make everything that I write vivid and atmospheric, whether it is a crime, science fiction, horror, or western piece. I did not set out to write a “noir western” with A Congregation of Jackals, but a western in which the feelings of dread and unease and remorse were there throughout. For a lot of people, this heaviness translates to “noir,” especially since I did not make A Congregation of Jackals a vicious horror western the way I did with Wraiths of the Broken Land.

My upcoming book Mean Business on North Ganson Street is noir/crime, though it certainly has some of what I like about classical westerns is in there too, especially the idea of a man defining himself and imposing his morals upon others in a wild terrain.

ST: Do you have any upcoming projects that you can tell us about?

SCZ: My science fiction novel Corpus Chrome, Inc. was recently released by Raw Dog Screaming Press. It is very weird science fiction that is more character focused than is typical for the genre. At the risk of seeming like a self-aggrandizing jackass, I’d recommend it to fans of authors like Ted Chiang, M. John Harrison, Phillip K. Dick, Gene Wolfe, and Ursula K. Le Guin. There is no specific work by any of these genre luminaries that mine actually resembles, but like a lot of these authors’ books, Corpus Chrome, Inc. explores sociological themes, identity, the arts, and the limitations of the human body and mind…and is not at all traditional sci-fi.

I’d also like to mention Mean Business on North Ganson Street, which will be coming out from Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press in September. It offers the smoothest and most enjoyable reading experience of all of my books, and it definitely contains all my sharpest dialogue to date.

In film, I hope to get my movie “Bone Tomahawk” off the ground, but this is a slow process with dozens of variables that I can’t control. It is heartening that two years later, Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Jennifer Carpenter, and Peter Sarsaard are all still on board!

And I am currently in a creative back and forth process with Park Chan-wook, who intends to direct my western script, “The Brigands of Rattleborge,” which is shaping up to finally get made by him and the producers of “Zodiac” and “Wolf of Wall Street,” which are certainly amongst the very best pictures to get through the Hollywood system in recent years.

ST: What advice would you provide to up and coming writers?

SCZ: Finish your work and show it to people. Sitting on an unfinished book or script is as bad as not writing it at all—actually worse, since you’ve spent time doing stuff for no reason unless you consider yourself the only important audience or do it for therapeutic reasons.

Be critical of your own work, but don’t strive for perfection, since it’s unattainable. I limit the amount of time I allow myself to revise my books and scripts or else I would tweak them forever (and consequently, write a fraction as much material). Set limits and deadlines and stick to them. Sometimes it helps to tell other people what your deadlines are so that you can’t alter them.

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

SCZ: A lot of my favorite authors started in or mainly wrote for the pulps: David Goodis, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. Lovecraft, Norvell W. Page, Donald Wandrei, Max Brand, Robert E. Howard, Elmore Leonard, Isaac Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, and Arthur C. Clarke.

To learn more about S. Craig Zahler, visit his official website or his page on Good Reads. 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

SoulPancake’s Golriz Lucina Chews On Life’s Delicious Questions

All images and video courtesy of SoulPancake.

This person's head is exploding with awesome.

By Daniel Ford

After a rough day, we’ve all at one point one or another Googled “Kid President,” clicked on the first YouTube video that popped up, and rejoiced after hearing a kid in a sharp suit tell us, “the world needs you to stop being boring.”

Kid President’s base of operations is SoulPancake, a website founded in 2009 by Rainn Wilson (from NBC's "The Office") with Joshua Homnick and Devon Gundry, that strives to “make discussions about spirituality, creativity, and philosophy cool again.”

Golriz Lucina, SoulPancake’s art director and executive producer and co-author of the The SoulPancake Book, graciously took the time to answer a few of my questions about the website.

Golriz Lucina

Daniel Ford: How did the idea for SoulPancake come about? Has anything changed from your initial vision, or have you stayed true to your original ideas?

Golriz Lucina: SoulPancake was originally founded in 2009 by Rainn Wilson (from NBC's "The Office") with Joshua Homnick and Devon Gundry. The initial vision was to create a safe platform for people to 'chew on life's big questions' and really dig into what it means to be human. Even though SoulPancake is now accessible via several platforms beyond the original website (book, video, and television ) the core mission of always presenting inspiring, uplifting, and challenging content that pushes people to think about their existence is still a fundamental tenant of the brand.

DF: When developing the website what/who were some of your influences (and who are your creative influences in general)?

GL: There was really no other website on the Web that we found that was doing what we set out to do—which was not only to present quality content, but also to allow/encourage people to engage with it, have dialogue around it, etc. Our creative influences today are broad and span across amazing musicians, authors, poets, artists, and filmmakers.

DF: You guys published a book in 2010. What was that process like and what was the driving force behind that endeavor?

GL: The process of writing a book was really incredible, but also challenging as it was a first time for all the authors. We felt so grateful for the opportunity and excited to give people another medium by which to engage with our brand. One of the most fun aspects was sourcing incredible art to feature from artists all over the world. Aesthetic and design has always been of utmost importance to our brand so we scoured a lot of art sites to find the perfect illustrations to accompany the questions we were presenting in the book.

DF: Needless to say “A Pep Talk From Kid President” is a hit (32 million+ views on YouTube and counting. The true story of how the video came together is even more awesome. What are your feelings on the series and what has it meant to have it on your website?

GL: We are so proud of the Kid President series. Brad Montague, the creator of the show, is one of the most incredible, brilliant, and golden-hearted people we've ever worked with. His desire, along with Robby's (aka “Kid President”) to make the world a better place was completely in line with SoulPancake's ethos and we're so happy and excited about Kid President touching so many hearts with his positive, hilarious spirit!

DF: Besides Kid President, what are some of your other favorite things on your website? What keeps you up at night thinking, “Yeah, that is really cool and I’m glad it’s ours?”

GL: We are really proud of a lot of our content! Our signature SoulPancake street stunts such as “Chatterbox Heart Attack” and “Listen Up” are favorites. We are really proud of our “My Last Days” series as it tackled such a taboo subject in our culture (death), but in such a refreshing way! Currently our “Science of Happiness” and “Science of Love” series are resulting in a lot of great dialogue!

DF: We talk and write a lot about writing process on podcast and website. What are some of the things that define your creative processes?

GL: We are highly collaborative. We listen to our audience. We try to make sure that everything we create resides at the intersection of creative, thought-provoking, and uplifting.

DF: What do you all do besides run the website? Is it a full-time gig, or—like Rainn Wilson and acting, writing, etc.—do member of your team have other interests they are passionate about?

GL: On a daily basis, we run the website and a highly successful YouTube channel. We are also extending our brand and working as a creative agency, as well as developing television programming.

DF: Of all the Big Life Questions you’ve chewed on since launching the website, what’s one that you could talk and debate for days and weeks at a time without getting bored?

GL: There really isn't one favorite! I guess at the heart of it the biggest question we hope everyone asks themselves is "What is my life's biggest questions, and how can I start finding answers?"

DF: If you were a craft beer—or any other adult beverage of your choice—which one would you be and why?

GL: I recently had a virgin mojito that came to the table with a heaping mound of cotton candy on it. It was the most interesting and delicious drink I'd ever had. So yeah, that :)

DF: What advice do you have to up-and-coming creative types that are just starting out?

GL: Trust your gut. Spend a lot of time honing your skill. Make sure that whatever you're putting out into the world is your best work. Don't get complacent and don't compromise your intent.

DF: Name one random fact about yourselves.

GL: I have a freckle in my eye.

If you’re in the mood to chew on life’s delicious questions, check out more from SoulPancake by visiting http://soulpancake.com/, subscribing to its YouTube channel, or following the website on Twitter @soulpancake.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

The Editor is In: 9 Questions With Grammar Guru Patricia T. O’Conner

Patricia T. O'Conner and her husband Stewart Kellerman

By Daniel Ford

I’ve always believed that to be a good writer, one needs a great editor.

I don’t understand writers who get pissy about their stuff being edited. Writing is personal, but if you want to hack it as a writer, you need to embrace the samurai sword of a usually much wiser and objective wordsmith. I consider my first editor to be my college professor, the late Kalev Pehme, who required every one in his copy editing class read a grammar book of our choice. Most of the class opted for The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, but I did some research and ended up choosing Patricia T. O’Conner’s Woe is I. That’s really when I found out I knew nothing about grammar.

But O’Conner’s book patiently led me down the right path and I can now realize when I’m making dopey grammatical mistakes. I can also admonish others for using “due to” and “hopefully” incorrectly (although socially acceptable) and have the facts to back it up.

I was lucky enough to talk to O’Conner recently and get her thoughts on writing and editing, her career at The New York Time Book Review, and what it’s like being married to another editor.

Daniel Ford: When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Was it from birth, or was it something you discovered over time?

Patricia T. O’Conner: My original ambition, at age 9 or so, was to be a cowgirl—Annie Oakley was my inspiration. But practical considerations intervened. When I first realized I had to actually earn a living, writing seemed the least painless option. Little did I realize just how difficult it is to write.

DF: As someone who studied journalism in college I have to ask, what was the graduate journalism department at the University of Minnesota like? What were some of the things you covered while you studied urban journalism?

POC: This is a long time ago—the early 1970s. And back then, being in a graduate journalism program was absolutely thrilling. Between classes, we gathered in the student lounge to watch the Watergate hearings. Newspaper reporting seemed the most glamorous, heroic pursuit in the world back then. We were pretty full of ourselves!

What an exhilarating time that was for a young aspiring journalist. This spring marks the 40th anniversary of those nationally televised Senate hearings. People were throwing around terms like “dirty tricks,” “deep throat,” “inoperative,” “smoking gun,” “follow the money,” “the plumbers.” Journalism has never been the same.

In the program I was in, we covered the same things the Minneapolis Star covered—police, courts, legislature. We went out on assignment (when we weren’t busy watching the news on television!), then returned to the journalism building to file our stories on deadline. It was hard work, but not nearly as hard as being a working reporter later.

DF: We’re big fans of The New York Times Book Review here at Writer’s Bone. What was your experience as an editor for that publication like and what was the most memorable book review that crossed your desk?

POC: Working at the Book Review was like no other job in the world. I was there for 11 years, and I learned more in those 11 years than at any other time in my life. There were so many brilliant—and funny!—people crammed into those little offices on the eighth floor of the old Times building on West 43rd Street.

Everybody who was anybody wrote for the Book Review, all the best minds of their time. Even so, their prose often needed tweaking! As a copy editor there, I tried to make sure the writing was as elegant and fluid and accurate as it could be. A review had to make sense and it had to be fair—that is, everything said of the book and the author had to be true. Sometimes the authors complained about how they were reviewed—more than once, Norman Mailer came up to the office to yell and pound on somebody’s desk. So everything said in a review or essay had to be defensible.

I can’t pick a “favorite” review, but one of the best I can recall was a piece Eudora Welty wrote in 1981 about a collection of stories by Elizabeth Bowen. Flawless writing on the subject of flawless writing! I’ve looked up the review, and here’s one of Welty’s sentences: “As it ends the story can be seen to be perfect, and the perfection lies in the telling—the delicacy, the humor, above all the understanding that has enveloped but never intruded upon it, never once pricked the lovely, free-floating balloon.”

Of course, there was bad writing on the Book Review as well—stuff that landed with a thud. But the wonderful writing more than made up for it. You can see why I loved my job there. I also got to write things myself. I wrote reviews and essays.

DF: I remember reading Woe Is I for the first time in college and being blown away by all the things I didn’t know or was doing wrong all my life. I would go to parties with the book and explain all the grammatical things I was learning. What made you decide to start writing books about grammar, and do you think grammar has gotten better or worse since you first published it?

POC: One day in 1994 I got a call at my desk at the Book Review. Jane Isay, who was then the publisher at Grosset-Putnam, asked me if I’d be interested in writing a light-hearted grammar book. At the time, this was a contradiction in terms!

I said yes, and started to compile lists of all the grammar and usage problems I’d run into during my years as an editor at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (Iowa), the Des Moines Register, The Wall Street Journal, andThe New York Times. There was a lot of material to work with. For instance, even some senior editors at the Book Review couldn’t get their minds around the concept of the dangling modifier, as in “walking through the woods, a mountain sprang into view.”

So I collected all these problems and set about to explain them in the simplest possible terms. My idea was to avoid the grammatical terminology as much as possible, and to make the examples amusing.

DF: In your experience and research, what’s the biggest grammatical mistake that people make? What’s the most obscure piece of grammatical trivia I can use at the next party I attend?

POC: Pronouns seem to account for the bulk of the grammatical mistakes. Then verb conjugations—people get tenses wrong. The most common problem I notice is the tendency to use “X and I” for every purpose, even when “X and me” is appropriate.

But people make even the most obvious mistakes, using object pronouns like “me” and “him” as subjects. Most notorious example: I was once invited to appear before a large group of school teachers and administrators in suburban New Jersey. A high school principal and one of his colleagues approached me beforehand to apologize because, as the principal said, “Him and me will have to leave early.” This is a true story. My husband, who was standing next to me, is a witness!

DF: I had a professor in college spend a whole class on why email was spelled “e-mail” and not the way it is now. Language is constantly evolving in the digital age, so how does grammar keep up with it? Why are some rules okay to change, while others need to stay the same?

POC: Historically, hyphenated constructions tend to lose their hyphens. This isn’t a grammatical issue, it’s one of style and usage. And the “rules” of style and usage change much more readily than grammar—the bedrock of the language. That’s why there are three different editions of Woe Is I—the book tries to stay ahead of the curve on style and usage. In fact, I have a file of material to use in case I’m ever allowed to do a fourth edition.

DF: We normally ask writers what their process is like, but I’m more interested in finding out what your editing process is like. Do you need absolute quiet, or do you prefer to listen to music while you edit?

POC: The quieter the better. No music. I am a musical person, and I get distracted by what the musician is doing.

DF: You manage a website and have written several books with your husband Stewart Kellerman, who is also a journalist and editor. How have words shaped your relationship and who would you say is the better editor?

POC: It’s sometimes a challenge to keep my cool as Stewart tells me something I’ve written is gibberish. This is a real test of a marriage (we’ve been married for 26 years). Even as I write this (under duress), he’s editing one of my blog items and tearing it to pieces. He’s probably the better editor—as I’m sure he would tell you.

DF: Name one random fact about yourself.

POC: I’m dieting (have lost 11 pounds in the last two months) so I’m cranky right now. As you can perhaps tell from my last answer!

To learn more about Patricia T. O'Conner, check out her official website www.grammarphobia.com or follow her on Twitter  @grammarphobia.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Horror Writer Mary SanGiovanni Explains Why Characters Are the Heart and Soul of Any Story

Mary SanGiovanni

By Sean Tuohy

I recommend you read this interview with the lights on. Mary SanGiovanni is the author of the Bram Stoker nominated novel The Hollower, its sequels Found You and The Triumvirate, Thrall, and Chaos, as well as the novellas For Emmy, Possessing Amy, and The Fading Place and numerous short stories.

SanGiovanni took a timeout from scaring the bejesus out of readers to answer some of my questions.

Sean Tuohy: When did you know you were going to be a writer?

Mary SanGiovanni: I knew probably since before I could actually write. I always told myself stories to amuse myself, and was always fascinated with the fantastic. But it was when I was about 16 and I worked for a bookstore in the local mall that it finally dawned on me that people could actually do that for a living, that people could make careers out of writing stories. I think it was then that I knew I wanted to do that.

ST: Who were some of your earliest influences?

MSG: Stephen King was definitely an early influence. I loved his early stories for the feeling I got reading them, for the creativity, if not the technical sophistication of his later works. I also gravitated pretty quickly to Lovecraft and Poe; to me, they made horror poetic. I loved short story anthologies, too, and used to buy them whenever I could find them; they were a big influence on me before I even really remembered all the authors' names. Anthologies like Charlie Grant's Greystone Bay, Poppy Brite's Love in Vein, Karl Edward Wagner's Horror Story series, and of course, The Dark Descent. Those works and authors led to other works and authors, and it delights me that today, there are so many great works of horror and thrillers to choose from.

ST: The Hollower Trilogy is outstanding. How long did you work on all three books and how did you develop the story?

MSG: Thank you! Well, initially, I had no plans to write sequels for The Hollower. It was my thesis novel for my Masters degree at Seton Hill University, and it took me about two years, give or take, to write. I sold it shortly thereafter to Leisure Books, and I guess it did well enough that they asked me to write a sequel, Found You. With that second book, I wanted to realistically pick up where I thought those characters' lives would have gone. I wanted to make parts of it familiar, as a sequel generally is, and parts of it new and different. I didn't want to rewrite the same book. I had been told once that in order to build on the momentum of your past work and build a writing career, you have to get at least one book out a year. It's been advice I've tried to stick to. Thunderstorm Books actually were the ones who asked me to write the third book, The Triumvirate. Both Found You and The Triumvirate each took me a little under a year to write. Of the three, I think The Triumvirate is my favorite. A trilogy goes by different rules, I think, that a sequel or a series. It's a triptych of ideas where the overarching story runs through all three, but the threat needs to be escalated and the scares need to be different each time than the ones audiences have seen before in relation to that threat. It was a fun book to write. What I liked best about it, though, was that I felt like that book not only ended those characters' stories for me satisfactorily, but bridged those books to my future works.

ST: In your novels you written such wonderful characters that come off the page, most of them are already broken people that must overcome huge odds. How do you write your characters? Are they based on real people?

MSG: Thanks! Characters are important to me. They are the heart and soul of the story, the part the reader cares most about, at least in this genre. I always start a story, whether it's a novel, a short story, or a novella, with an idea about the kind of person I think would make a good hero or villain, the kind of person I think I could say something significant through. The characters nearly always come before anything else. The story develops around those characters. Sometimes it's the monster I come up with first, because the monster is just as important a character to develop. Heroes and monsters, if both well developed, will balance each other, and anything worth saying about the human race comes from the exploration of that balance, and whether circumstances can or should tip the scales in one direction or another. Many of my characters are based on parts of me, and some are based on parts of other people. Really understanding people, their facial expressions and body language, the looks in their eyes, the thoughts and feelings that drive them—it's what makes characters realistic and even better, what makes them sympathetic and identifiable to readers. I like to think, though, that the qualities of both myself and others that I write into characters are blended with enough fictitious qualities that no one can point to a character and say, "Wow, that's so-and-so, through and through."

ST: What draws you toward the horror genre?

MSG: It's my fundamental belief that horror is a genre in which two things happen: 1. The injustices, the tragedies, the terrors of mankind are safely and vicariously explored, processed, and/or held up to scrutiny, so that we as a society can change them, and 2. We can see the amazing strength and resourcefulness that human beings are capable of when under extreme circumstances. Horror is a genre charged with emotion, but also with endless possibilities for the fantastic; I like a genre that allows the reader to put the average ho-hum of life aside, even if the unusual circumstances introduced are terrifying. There's a certain adrenaline rush, a thrill writing/reading about/watching humans relying on instinct in the face of the amazing and unexplainable.

ST: Do you have any upcoming project you would like to talk about?

MSG: I have a short story that is slated to appear in Lamplight Magazine, as well as a couple other short stories I'm contracted for, for various projects. I'm working on a new novel which I hope to have finished mid-2014.

ST: What is your writing process? Is it structured or unstructured?

MSG: It's not as structured as I'd like to be. I think a schedule is important for a writer looking to be prolific and productive, and I'm trying very hard to develop a schedule that allows me to produce more work faster. I teach Monday through Thursday afternoon, and I have a son, a cat, and a big family that need me and a significant other, but I still try to write at least 4-5 nights during the week, and during weekend nights that I'm not spending with family or my partner.

ST: What advice would you give to up and coming writers?

MSG: I'd advise new writers to read a lot; know what's going on in your genre, your sub-genre, and outside of it. Read the old stuff, the classics, as well as the new stuff. Also, write a lot; write what you love, what matters to you—it’ll matter to someone else, too. Learn the business: how to promote without spamming, how different publishing models work and what will work best for you, how to network, and what's going on in your genre and in publishing at large. Make sure you have health insurance and some type of retirement fund. Treat your work like the valuable commodity it is, and others will, too.

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

MSG: Hmmm. I have some kind of Sensory Processing Disorder (Sensory Modulation, I think) or Tactile Sensory Disorder (I’m not sure which; although I think they’re similar). Basically, it means I have extreme sensitivity, both mental and physical, to certain tactile experiences, primarily the feel of certain textures of fabrics, stiff, new, itchy, rough, or stained/dirty fabrics, seams and tags, etc. Touching the wrong kind of fabric makes my skin crawl. Hell, it makes my skin feel like it's trying to jump off my bones. It's a very weird, unpleasant feeling. I have to bring my own blanket and sometimes, even my own pillow to hotels.

To learn more about Mary SanGiovanni, visit her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @marysangiovanni.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Comic Book Great Timothy Truman’s Fans Are Cooler Than Your Fans

Timothy Truman

By Sean Tuohy

Timothy Truman is a triple threat: comic book writer, artist, and musician. Truman's groundbreaking working on “Grimjack” is still one of the most outstanding comic books of the past 25 years. With a slick style and eye to the Wild West, Truman has also worked on several DC comic series and “Star Wars” as well. I got lucky enough to talk to the comic book great about his career and his future projects.

Sean Tuohy: When did you know you were artist? Has it been since birth or was it something you discovered later in life?

Timothy Truman: I always remember doing it. My mother and sisters have always told me that I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil. I haven't learned much in all these years, but it's something I've always done.

ST: Who were some of early influences growing up?

TT: I want through phases—still do, to a degree. Early on, I was influenced by whatever my cousins had in their comic book collections. However, I quickly developed an eye for spotting particular artists, like Sam Glanzman on “Kona” and Jack Kirby on the early Marvel stuff. Soon after, when I started collecting my own comics, I got into Joe Kubert's war books, Will Eisner in those early Harvey Comics “Spirit” reprints, Kirby's “Fighting American,” “Fantastic Four,” “Thor,” and “Captain America,” and things like that. In the 1970s, when I really started dreaming seriously about one day getting into comics, I became a big fan of Steranko, Jim Starlin and Paul Gulacy—especially Gulacy. I also loved Kubert's “Fire Hair,” “Tarzan," and "Enemy Ace." Soon after, I fell in love with the work of Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Jeff Jones, and Barry Smith. Alberto Giolitti was another inspiration—the "Turok" comics. In the mid-1970s, the work of Michael Golden, Walt Simonson, and Marshall Rogers were huge influences on me.

A big change occurred when I entered my Warren comics and Underground comics years. I was a big fan of black and white books—still am, really. I prefer to look at black and white comics rather than color, because I like to study the rendering techniques and it's easier to see what guys are doing with compositions. In the Joe Kubert School, I really got into Russ Heath, John Severin, and Tony DeZuniga. I also discovered European comics—Moebius, Druillet, Hugo Pratt, and guys like that. I still love European stuff and draw most of my inspiration from European artists like Alfonso Font, Corrado Mastantuono, and Victor de la Fuente. The guys I hung out with at the Kubert School really inspired me, too—especially Tom Yeates, John Totleben, and Steve Bissette. These days I still learn much from Tom's work, as well as the work of folks like Mark Nelson, Geof Darrow, Mike Mignola, and Zach Howard.

As a writer, early influences were mainly novelists like Samuel Delany, Robert F. Jones, Michael Moorcock, George R. R. Martin, and, of course, Robert E. Howard. There are some comic writers in there, too—Doug Moench, Archie Goodwin, Harvey Kurzman, and Don MacGregor.

ST: How did you become a comic book artist? Had you been a comic book fan before?

TT: I was a huge comics fan, and I dreamed of doing comics, but I didn't think I could be a comic book artist until the Kubert School came about. I had no idea how one went about it. I was hillbilly kid from rural West Virginia and there were absolutely no sources of information as to how to go about it. The Kubert School was the place where I learned what I'd need to enter the business.

ST: You brought back "Creature Commandos" while at DC comics. I always loved this comic because it was like "Dirty Dozen" meets the old Universal Monster movies. How did you approach rebooting this project?

TT: As I recall, it actually began as a dare from my great friend and "Grimjack" partner John Ostrander. An editor at DC had called me up asking if I had any projects I wanted to do. They wanted to reboot some of their older, more obscure characters. I had no idea what to propose to them. John and I were talking on the phone one day and I asked what he thought, and he was, like, "Hah! ‘Creature Commandos!’ I dare you! You'd do a great job with that." When I thought about it, I was like "Hmmm...maybe so." So I came up with something and the editor loved it. It's still one of my favorite projects. I recently re-read it, and there are thing's I'd handle differently now, but it's still a hoot. And working with artist Scott Eaton was a blast. He was so great on that project. Really inspiring.

ST: Daniel Ford and I are both big “Star Wars” fans, you wrote the comic series for Dark Horse, can you explain how this project came to be and how did you, a western fan, approach the world of “Star Wars?”

TT: Another occasion where I got a surprise call from an editor, Peet Janes. They were doing all these single-issue comics in conjunction with the big Episode 1 movie launch. I did one of those and Dark Horse and the folks at Lucasfilm really loved the story. They also liked the fact that I did a lot of research and that my script needed no revisions. Soon after I got another call, to become the main writer for the regular “Star Wars” title. It was a really fun time. I liked “Star Wars” a lot, but I wasn't a die-hard fan, so I approached the stories in a very matter-of-fact way. I actually researched the material using techniques I'd developed when I was writing my historical books, "Wilderness" and "Straight Up To See the Sky."

I'd buy all these official “Star Wars” guide books and things and study them as though they were actual histories or anthropological volumes; reading them, marking them up, and taking notes in stacks of spiral bound notebooks.

The correlation between “Star Wars” and westerns came pretty easily for me, especially in the Tusken Raider stories I did and the episodes featuring Aurra Sing, the bounty hunter. Those were just sci-fi westerns. Most science fantasy is. For those arcs, I was inspired by a lot of actual historical and cultural material I'd come across while studying Apache life and traditions for "Scout" and frontier culture for "Wilderness" and the "Jonah Hex" books. You can come up with a lot of stories elements just from little bits and pieces that you can pull out of things you research. Sometimes you might not use the materials for years. Then one day you're doing a story about Tusken raiders and you'll remember some little bit of desert tribal trivia that you pulled out of a National Geographic article about the African Tauregs or from some book about the Apaches.

ST: When I started collecting comics and I would say I had never read "Grimjack" I always received strange stares and the same comment "How have you not read it?!?!" How did you get involved with "Grimjack?"

TT: When I was working at TSR Hobbies doing the Dungeons and Dragons stuff, I went with some friends to a Sunday comic convention in Chicago. They told me a new publisher was going to be there—First Comics—so I took my portfolio along. I showed the portfolio to Mike Gold who was editing the First books and Joe Staton who was First's art director. They really liked my work—especially the fact that my portfolio had a lot of very beat-up and grim looking science fiction mercenaries, which was pretty rare to see at the time. Mike and Joe looked at each other and smiled. Then Mike told me, "We have a new project in the works you might be perfect for. We'll call you in a couple of days." Sure enough, they called me and told me about "Grimjack" and asked if I'd like to work up some sample pages. I did so and landed the job, first with the backups in "Starslayer" and later as artist on the monthly title.

ST: Westerns play a big part in your work, where does this love of that genre come from?

TT: From watching western movies and western television shows in the 60's and 70's. I never liked Western novels, but I loved those old cowboy TV shows—"Branded," "Rifleman," "The Rebel," Paladin," “Cisco Kid," "Have Gun Will Travel," "High Chaparral," and the like. And movies like "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly," "Once Upon a Time In the West," "Chato's Land," "Bad Company," "The Cowboys," "Shane," "The Searchers," and "Major Dundee." Later on, I got into reading about old west history and studying the clothing, weapons, and stuff like that. I guess I made some sort of mark on the western comics genre with the stuff I've done. These days it seems that every third job I get offered is somehow western related.

ST: You have done a lot of work for the Grateful Dead how did that  relationship happen? Were you a "deadhead?"

TT: I liked all San Francisco music when I was in high school and college—the Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Kingfish, Santana, Malo, and the like. I loved the Dead, especially the 1969 to 1972 period. I wouldn't call myself a "Deadhead" though. I saw a little announcement in the Comic Buyer's Guide that Kitchen Sink Press was looking for submissions for "Grateful Dead Comix," which they were about to launch. I gave them a call. Dennis said "Great. Let me call their offices and I'll call you back tomorrow to let you know where to send the portfolio." Well, he called back 10 minutes later: "No need to send a portfolio. You're in. Jerry Garcia knows your work." As it turns out, Garcia was a huge comics fan and collector. I was in every issue of the Kitchen Sink "GD Comix" and it led to a long association with the band. I've done a ton of work for them over the years—comic stuff, t-shirts, CD covers. I'm currently working on art for their 50th anniversary special edition lithograph. An art director at Kitchen Sink once told me that when he and Garcia were looking at some of the first work I did for the comic, Jerry turned to him and said, "Wow. This guy draws what I see in my head when I'm singing the songs." One of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten.

ST: You mentioned guitarist Carlos Santana. Carlos is also a big fan of your work. How did it feel to learn that?

TT: Pretty amazing, as you might imagine. I was even a bigger follower of Santana than the Dead. When Rock-it Comics was doing their series of rock musician bios in the mid-1990s, the publisher called me up to say that they'd spoken with Carlos about doing a comic about his life and career and Carlos told them, "Sure, if you get Tim Truman to draw it." Some guys from the American Indian Movement had shown him some of my "Scout" comics some years before and he'd become a big fan. I'd named the lead character, Emanuel Santana, after Carlos.

ST: What is your creative process? 

TT: It sort of varies from job to job. For comic art, in the old days I'd read a script, do little thumbnail layouts in the margins or on typing paper, then start doing full sized roughs on 11x17 tracing paper. I'd tighten up the roughs on tracing paper then use a light box to trace my finals to bristol board for penciling and inking. If I was in a rush, I'd do my roughs on the reverse side of a sheet of 11x17 bristol, flip the board over, and do tighter pencils from that. I usually ink my own stuff so my pencils don't have much rendering to them—just outlines, really.

In recent years, I build mannequin figures digitally with a program called DAZ Studio and use those for my models. The DAZ program is fantastic, because I create all my own models individually. I then pose them any way I want, try different camera angles, pan in and out, and basically visualize any concept I see in my head. It's just like having live models, but you don't have to pay them or feed them lunch and they'll come to the house any time I need them. After I get the poses and shots I need I arrange them into panels and pages with the Comic Life program and print them out. Then I re-draw the pages using my old tracing paper and light box technique.

It's a godsend. It's really freed me up creatively and helped my figure drawing, which has never been one of my strengths. Plus I can visualize the most difficult scenes that I can possibly imagine.

When it comes to writing, that also depends on each job. Generally, though, if I'm creating a tale from whole cloth rather than, say, adapting something like a Robert E. Howard short story for one of the "Conan" books, I'll come up with an overall situation that I think of or some them that I want to work with. Then I put a cast of characters in place and have them react to the situation or theme. Their interaction with the situation usually results in a story. Their reactions are based on their personalities—the type of people they are. I like to say that the best stories are the ones where you've developed the characters so completely and know them so well that they end up telling you the story. They tell you what to do.

ST: What advice would you give to an up and coming artist?

TT: I'd tell then what Joe Kubert taught me: 1. Comics are communication. 2. Learn how to use reference. 3. Make sure your work looks consistent from panel-to-panel, page-to-page. And 4. Keep your deadlines. Jack Kirby also had a good adage that I'll paraphrase: "Why draw a slingshot when you can draw a cannon?" And I always like to pass along something that Will Eisner once told us at a Kubert School seminar: Comics are the most sophisticated art form that a single artist can engage in. So if you're drawn towards comics as a means of self-expression, don't ever let anyone in any other discipline put you down.

ST: If you could be the sidekick to any comic book hero who would it be?

TT: Comic hero? Hmmm…I'd probably run around with the kids from Boy's Ranch. They seemed to have it pretty good. Or maybe the Spirit. He had "Ebony," so I'd probably be "Ivory,” I suppose. But if I were to hang out with anyone, it probably wouldn't have been a comic hero. I'd do some time traveling and be a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

ST: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?

TT: Something surprising for a guy that has written and drawn all the "He-Man" action-adventure stuff that I've done: I'm a big fan of bunny rabbits! Over the last year, I've become infamously devoted to two cottontails that hang out in our back yard. I sort of rescued them one day last spring while I was mowing. I started looking out for them, making sure they had enough ground cover and food and such. Now when I go to the backyard and call for them they hear my voice and come running over to see me, like two little pets. It's really pretty cool. I love the little guys. I call them "Jasper" and "Bigger." So there. My secret is out.

To learn more about Timothy Truman, visit his official website. 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Women Reading Aloud Founder Julie Maloney On Helping Female Writers Find Their Voices

Julie Maloney

By Stephanie Schaefer

Many writers have trouble embracing their voice from time to time—a challenge that literary organization Women Reading Aloud (WRA) aims to overcome. The group, which empowers female writers through workshops and retreats, was founded in 2003. More than a decade later, the organization has expanded while holding true to its values of authenticity, creativity, and equality among “the writer, the reader, and the listener.”

In honor of Women’s History Month (although I think we should celebrate kick-ass female writers 12 months a year), I chatted with Julie Maloney, founder and director of WRA.

Stephanie Schaefer: Women Reading Aloud sounds like a great project. Where did the idea come from?

Julie Maloney: Eleven years ago, I was sitting with a friend, another writer, and we were talking about the “gaps” in the industry. All of a sudden, I said “I’m starting something called Women Reading Aloud.” Honestly, it just fell from my lips! I knew that I wanted to create a place where women writers felt supported in their creative lives. I had no idea that we would grow to hosting international writing retreats from what began around my dining room table.

SS: Who are some of your favorite authors?

JM: I love so many. I’m a huge fan of Joyce Carol Oates. My copy of We Were The Mulvaneys is sitting on my desk right now. I constantly open it and read a passage to remind myself of what’s working on the page. Also, there’s Elizabeth Strout. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, is the only book I’ve read more than twice. It’s a gem. The Irish writer, Anne Enright, moves me every time I read her work; Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach, a lean but powerful book, continues to enchant. Only recently, I discovered and read the amazing novel, Stoner, by John Williams. Breathtaking! Of course, I fell in love with D.H. Lawrence in college. Over and over, I’ve read Nikolai Gogol’s short story, “The Overcoat.” Ahhh…and then there’s May Sarton! There are so many beauties out there and I haven’t even begun to name poets like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Kooser, and Linda Pastan.

SS: I’ve noticed on your website that the writer’s weekend retreats have been very popular! What role does atmosphere and location play in your creative process? Do you have a favorite writing spot?

JM: I like quiet places but this doesn’t mean that I must have them to write. I can write in the middle of a coffee shop or café, unaware that someone might be sitting naked wearing only a baseball cap at another table! I’m always writing in my head, especially when I’m driving which I do not recommend. I have a room at home that I call my “writing room.” It’s bright with neatly stacked books in every corner, on shelves, in piles. My desk is messy no matter how hard I try to be tidy. When I select a place for a retreat, I pay careful attention to the atmosphere – to the surrounding noise level. Our Writer’s Weekend Retreat is held annually at the New Jersey Shore. We’re one block from the ocean. Writers can slip away and walk and think and be alone or else they can choose to chat up another writer while sitting on a bench facing the water. It’s perfect. We’ve been selling out to 20 writers every year for six years. Our international retreat, held on the magical island of Alonnisos in Greece, also combines solitude with community. Although, it’s interesting how some writers note that the beauty of the Aegean Sea distracts them from writing! One of my favorite places to write in the world is in the New York City Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 41st Street. You can feel the creative energy as soon as you push through the doors.

SS: Can you tell me more about the “Writing and Yoga Program”? It sounds very zen! 

JM: I guess you could say it’s “very zen!”

I work with an amazing yoga teacher who has taught me so much—not only about the physical part of yoga but also about the chakras and how our life force, our prana, guides us. We spend time coordinating programs that fill the full day, alternating between yoga and writing in accordance with the chakras. Writers leave glowing after spending time exploring what lies within by moving to the page. It’s quite exhilarating.

SS: What is one thing you want women who participate in WRA to take away from the experience?

JM: I want women to know that they have a voice that either is waiting for discovery or for further refinement. We must keep on working on it. I always say this in my workshops: It is not as important that the world hear our voice, as it is that we hear our own voice. This requires deep listening to ourselves. The journey is worth the commitment. I have seen women who have never written before attend a WRA workshop series and end up hooked on writing. They write, publish and give readings! The transformation is the reward as is the process of engagement.

SS: Have you faced any obstacles as a female writer? How does WRA aim to overcome those challenges and break gender stereotypes?

JM: I’ve been fortunate to create a creative life that works for me. Of course, the publishing industry is a difficult one and although I’ve read and heard about women facing obstacles, I’ve shaped my world to be kinder. Right now, I’m fighting for a novel of mine to find a home and it is a hard, hard journey, but I’m a warrior. Check back with me in a year! What WRA does is provide a supportive space where women writers can take chances in their work without the distraction of competition. It’s a place intended for discovery without fear of the inner critic.

SS: What advice would you give to young females who want to pursue a career in writing?

JM: Believe you can do it! Surround yourself with people who support your dreams. Sit down and write. Read every genre. Sit down and write. Breathe. Sit down and write. Read. Write. Dream. Connect. Support other writers by buying their books! Attend readings, book launches, learn about the business without forgetting why you write. Do it because you love it!

SS: What is one random fact about yourself?

JM: I am a former dancer/choreographer and artistic director of my own modern dance company in New York City.

To learn more, visit Women Reading Aloud’s official website. 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Promising Author Lindsey Palmer On Magazines, Teaching, and Publishing Her First Novel

Lindsey Palmer

By Stephanie Schaefer

I’ll shamelessly admit that that at any point in time I have a stack of magazines piled up in the corner of my room like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Getting a new mag in the mail each month has the magical power to turn any bad day around. Although iPad apps and the Internet have transformed the industry, there is something about the glossy pages, vibrant fashion spreads, and chic exposés that make sitting down with the latest print issue of Glamour or Marie Claire oh-so indulgent.

In her new fictional satire, Pretty in Ink, up-and-coming novelist Lindsey Palmer details the evolving world of women’s magazines, drawing upon her own experiences as an editor in the field. The debut novel is “filled with juicy gossip and outrageous office politics,” according to Publisher’s Weekly, and Booklist says, “Palmer’s debut contains the authenticity of experience and the salacious story snippets fans of The Devil Wears Prada will appreciate.”

Palmer recently took time to chat with me about her writing process, literary inspirations, and Connie Britton’s (aka Mrs. Coach from “Friday Night Lights”) fabulous hair. I for one can’t wait to sit down with a glass of wine and indulge in the drama-filled pages of Palmer’s new novel. If you’re a magazine fan like me, look for Pretty in Ink in bookstores March 25 (available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and IndieBound), or hear Palmer read an excerpt at Boston’s Trident Booksellers & Cafe on April 16!

Stephanie Schaefer: Did you know at an early age that you wanted to be a writer? Who were your inspirations?

Lindsey Palmer: I definitely wrote stories from the time I figured out how to form sentences. In fact, I recently visited my parents’ house and found a book of stories I wrote as an 8-year-old, which were sort of hilarious. It was full of silly plot twists and what passes for a third grader’s deep thoughts. Still, I’m not sure I thought about what it meant to be a writer until I was much older. Writing is just a mode of being for me, the way in which I’ve always attempted to make sense of the world.

I was always a big bookworm, reading whatever I could get my hands on, but it was in my high school A.P. Literature class when I first encountered novelists and poets who completely blew my mind (and I love this fact because now I teach A.P. Literature): Robert Penn Warren, John Fowles, Thomas Pynchon, J.D. Salinger, Mary Oliver, Wallace Stevens, Toni Morrison, Eavan Boland, and more. I couldn’t believe what these writers could accomplish with the same 26 letters of the alphabet that all of us have access to. In college writing classes, I found a lot of inspiration from the likes of Philip Roth, Grace Paley, Lynn Sharon Schwartz, and Mona Simpson, as well as from my fellow classmates, some of whom have gone on to publish beautiful books (for example, Alicia Oltuski and Ariel Djanikian).

SS: You’ve interviewed some pretty high-profile women—including Michelle Obama and Connie Britton—while working in the magazine industry. Do you have a favorite celebrity moment?

LP: I’m a big fan of NPR’s "This American Life," so interviewing host Ira Glass was a favorite moment. We spoke over the phone, and it was kind of amazing to hear this voice that I knew so well from the show answering my questions. It was a surreal experience, like the radio was speaking to me.

SS: I have to ask—Is Connie Britton’s hair as fabulous as it looks on TV?

LP: Yes, her hair is amazing! As someone who has always longed for long hair but could never really pull it off, I was in awe. And Connie Britton was so lovely and gracious, as was her former “Friday Night Lights” television husband, Kyle Chandler (aka Coach Taylor).

SS: Your upcoming novel, Pretty in Ink, is a satire on the world of women’s magazines. Can you tell me a little more about the novel and how you crafted your characters and plot?

LP: In terms of crafting plot, after working for years at women’s magazines—at Glamour, then Redbook, then Self—I not only felt I knew this world backward and forward, I also believed it would make an ideal backdrop for a novel. Especially in a post-2008 world, in the era of economic meltdown and recessionary downsizing, I thought this world would work really well for a thrilling piece of fiction. On page one of my novel, the editor-in-chief of the fictional magazine Hers gets fired, which sets in motion the kind of upheaval and staff reshuffling that will be familiar to anyone who’s collected a paycheck (or tried to) in the past five years. I lived through this kind of experience, and I took notes. Those notes eventually became the novel. The characters are not based on real people; rather, they’re combinations of different attitudes and traits either that I felt or had personally or that I saw in others. With the cast of characters, I tried to represent the range of perspectives and personalities that tend to make up a magazine masthead.

SS: How did you go about getting your work published?

LP: I wrote another novel years ago, reached out to a slew of agents (whom I found through acquaintances and colleagues, through acknowledgment pages of some of my favorite books, and through random Google searches), and received back a slew of really kind and encouraging rejection letters. So when it came to the second time around, I had those names filed away to reach out to again. I ended up signing with Joelle Delbourgo, who runs her own company and was a wonderful match for me; not only does she have years of experience as an agent, but she also worked for decades as an editor and so brings that editorial eye to the table, too. Her wise feedback helped me reshape my novel from something decent to something I could feel really proud of. Then, she pitched a bunch of editors. The book found a home at Kensington, a small publisher that focuses on smart women’s fiction.

SS: I’m impressed to read that you also have a Master’s in English Education! Has being an English teacher influenced your writing?

LP: It’s been really fun to work with young writers who bring so much enthusiasm and a fresh eye to their work. It’s interesting and inspiring to read their writing, and it’s also useful for me to go back to basics, thinking through how plot and character and setting and pacing work in order to be able to teach it. All of that is the good stuff. The not-so-good stuff is that the reality of having 150 students and teaching three separate courses every day. I have way less free time to write than I used to. I’m hoping I can dedicate my summer to writing.

SS: The editorial industry today is certainly changing. What advice can you give to young, hopeful writers?

LP: Write and read as much as you can. That is the best—and probably only—way to improve as a writer, and good quality writing will always eventually find a home. As heartbreaking as it felt when I wrote my first novel and didn’t manage to get it published, I now see those years of writing and revising as wonderful practice. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without that experience, and I won’t be the writer I will hopefully be in five years without the writing practice I’m doing now.

SS: What is one random fact about yourself?

LP: When I was a kid I twirled baton and competed in Miss Majorette competitions. This has proved to be useful in adult life only in terms of the outfits’ potential for Halloween costumes.

You can learn more about Lindsey Palmer by visiting her official website or liking her Facebook page. 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Sing if You Must: Folk Singer Joshua James On Music, Writing, and His Forever Home

Joshua James

By Daniel Ford

It was 2007.

I sat down at a desktop computer past its prime to write what would eventually become my first novel. I couldn't do much else. I was an in-over-his-head grad student in New York City, financially and emotionally incapable of funding a relationship, and being fed on a daily basis by the generosity of my best friend (who I was sharing a room with in a small apartment at the time).

In short, it was the perfect time to be a brooding writer in New York City.

I need music to write. Without it, I produce content that contains the emotional resonance of a dish towel. That year, I remember searching for music on iTunes with money I didn't have. I sampled a few songs by a singer-songwriter named Joshua James and clicked "buy" without thinking about how I'd purchase my next meal.

"The New Love Song," "FM Radio," and "Dangerous" became permanent songs on the playlist I put together while giving life to my main character Sid Sanford. I followed James' career from that point forward and couldn't have been more excited when one of his songs ended up on a popular television show (see below for more details).

James is about to go on tour in Australia, but he graciously took some time to answer my questions (causing my 2007 self's head to explode).

Daniel Ford: When did you first realize you wanted to be a singer/songwriter?

Joshua James: I still don't think that that moment has arrived. Singing grew from a necessity to some sort of expression. As a youngin' I always needed some sort of semi-destructive outlet. As a 13-year-old, it was skateboarding and small acts of vandalism. As a 21-year-old, it was reading and expanding. Years later, it was singing and self-expression; a form of connecting to life and death.

DF: How did growing up in Nebraska influence your music?

JJ: Anything in one's vicinity becomes an influence. Parents, siblings, nature, surrounding, home front, etc. Nebraska and her vast openness has had a stronghold on my heart since I can remember. She is my forever home, full of nostalgia and memories never to be repeated.

DF: Who are some of the artists that influenced you early on?

JJ: My mother, The Doors, God (and his many faces).

DF: I discovered your first album, “The Sun is Always Brighter,” on iTunes during a really rough time in my life and it really helped get me through it. What are some of things you went through and thought about while writing and producing that album?

JJ: That record was the first official release of songs that I did. As I think we can all do, I attempted to use a big of shock and awe with its content. The themes stretch anywhere from suicide to drug abuse and even extends into the political. It was, as are all of them, a record of personal experiences.

DF: The song “Coal War” was used in the opening sequence of the fourth season of “Sons of Anarchy.” I fist pumped in the air and shouted out loud in an empty apartment in New York City after hearing the first couple of notes. How did that make you feel as an artist hearing your music on such a mainstream show?

JJ: First off, I love that you fist pumped. Everything else will appear pale in its comparison, but I will attempt to answer with fervor. When I saw the usage of "Coal War" in “Sons of Anarchy,” I was ecstatic. I, throughout my career as a singer, have tried to sing with an honest voice, with as much truth to what I am feeling at the moment as I possibly can, and so when one of the songs that I wrote was chosen for such an epic moment in such an epic television program I was elated and full of pride (be it good or bad).

DF: What are the best and worst parts about touring?

JJ: The best: Everything and her mighty wind. The worst: The longing for my lover, for my home, and my baby boy.

DF: Was your writing or producing processes any different for your newest album, “From the Top of Willamette Mountain?”

JJ: The making of “From the Top of Willamette Mountain” was extremely different than any other record that I had made previously. In life, I find that I get comfortable, we all do, it's part of the process of living. It's part of the process of dying. We settle and decide that what we are doing is (and has been) correct. I was extremely guilty of this. I was comfortable and confident. Richard Swift changed that. His approach to music and her making was something I had never witnessed and it changed me, for the better (or at least I would like to think so). It was the feeling and not the mathematical. If the take felt good, it was good. And that was it. It had a minimal approach to it, at least in comparison to what I had done up until then. I loved making that record. I did. Boy, did I?

DF: If you had to pick one of your songs that defined you forever, which one would you choose and why?

JJ: “Mytic.” It is a brief history of me. It describes how I have felt since before I can remember.

DF: What advice would you give to up-and-coming writers and singer/songwriters?

JJ: Stop if you can. Sing if you must.

DF: Name one random fact about yourself.

JJ: I eat kale for breakfast after feeding my five lovely goats and 12 chickens.

Stop what you’re doing and go check out Joshua James’ music on his official website, like his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter @buffalojames.

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Writing by Numbers With Mystery Author Janet Evanovich

Janet Evanovich

Many of us spend time thinking up weird stories, but rarely do we turn those self-made adventures in to a career. However, that's exactly what best-selling author Janet Evanovich did.

Evanovich started her career as a romance writer, moved to writing mysteries, and created heroin Stephanie Plum, a one-time lingerer buyer turned bounty hunter. The long running and much loved Plum series was also turned in to a film, "One For The Money."

Writer's Bone was lucky enough to chat with Evanovich about her career as a writer, how she learned to write dialogue, and what her favorite candy is.

Writer’s Bone: When did you know you were a storyteller? Was it at birth or was it something you realized years later? 

Janet Evanovich: As a kid who lived in a world of my own, I made up stories all the time. After graduating from art school (and discovering that I had an allergy to the pigment in the paint), I started writing those stories down. The first one was about the pornographic adventures of a fairy who lived in a second rate fairy forest in Pennsylvania. That was my starting point and I progressed from there. 

Writer’s Bone: We read that you took an improv acting class to learn the act of dialog. Did this help with your writing? Also, do you continue taking acting classes now?

JE: Yep, I really sucked at writing dialog. I had a friend who was teaching acting and I took a couple improv classes. It taught me to develop character and I became very good at talking to myself. I no longer take acting classes, but I talk to myself a lot.

Writer’s Bone: What's the single best piece of advice an established writer like yourself has for an aspiring author? 

JE: Sit your butt in the chair and start writing. Do it every day. You don't have to write full time—an hour or so seven days a week and you'll be amazed at what you can turn out. Even if your output is only two pages a day, at the end of a month you'll have 60 pages. Writing is like any other muscle; it gets stronger when you exercise.

Writer’s Bone: How many numbers are you planning to go up to? 

JE: This is where I normally would say "infinity." Well, maybe that's too high a number, but the point is that I have no plan to stop the Stephanie Plum series anytime soon.

Writer’s Bone: Can you tell us one unknown random fact about yourself? 

JE: How about two? My favorite Tootsie Roll Pop is grape and my favorite vegetable is birthday cake.

You can learn more about Janet Evanovich by visiting her official website or following her on Twitter @janetevanovich. 

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Mystery Writer Rebecca Cantrell on Why Writing Should Be Fun

Rebecca Cantrell (Photo Courtesy of the author)

Not many people would give up the sand and surf of Hawaii to move to Berlin, but that’s just what award winning and New York Times best-selling author Rebecca Cantrell did.

For those of you who don’t know, Cantrell writes the popular Hannah Vogel mystery/thriller series that is set in Berlin in the 1930s. According to her official website, the Vogel character was inspired by a faded pink triangle found on the wall of the Dachau concentration camp and her time going to school in Berlin in the 1980s (is it us, or does this sound like #badasswriter fodder?).

She graciously took some time away from Hannah’s world to answer Writer’s Bone’s questions about her life as a writer.

Writer’s Bone: What is a word or phrase that you hate to hear about the writing craft?

Rebecca Cantrell: Writers must suffer for their art. Every time I hear that it drives me crazy. If writing isn’t fun, why do it? I have lots of fun writing and so do most other writers I know. It doesn’t have to be about suffering.

WB: You were 7 years old when you decided to become a writer. How did you go about reaching your goal?

RC: I read every spare moment as a child and teenager (I still do), and I started writing all the time. I wrote poems and short stories as a kid, plays that I convinced other children to act out in my early teen years, and bought my first electric typewriter with my babysitting money when I was 14 years old and clacked away on it just about every day.

WB: Reporter Hannah Vogel just leaps off the page and grabs you by the neck and pulls you in. Where did the inspiration for this character come from?

RC: Thank you! Hannah Vogel was first invented as a counterpoint to her brother, who was the murder victim in the first novel, A Trace of Smoke. She’s not based on any one person, historical or otherwise, but has very much determined her own character since her very first page.

WB: What are the similarities between you and Hannah Vogel?

RC: Probably more than I’d like to admit. I think we’re both stubborn and have a strong sense of right and wrong that gets us into trouble. I don’t have her reckless streak, I’m happy to say.

WB: You are one of the few modern authors who write short story fiction. Do you have a preference of short stories or novels?

RC: I think short stories are enjoying a Renaissance right now. For years I wrote nothing but shorts stories, but now I have to fit them in between novels. I like them both for different things. You can pare things down to one essential moment in a short story, without having to build the structure of a novel around it—you can show a moment in a different way. But I also like the sweep and space of being able to add in more time and setting and emotions in a larger work. I’d like to do more of both.

WB: Do you have any new projects in the works?

RC: Let’s see. I just released The World Beneath, the first in a series starring Joe Tesla, a millionaire who is stricken with agoraphobia and lives in the tunnels under New York City. I plan to be working on the second in that series later this year tentatively titled The Danger Below. I’m currently writing Blood Infernal with James Rollins. That’s the third book in the Order of the Sanguines series. And early next year I want to get back to Hannah Vogel, with a new book set in 1945 as the Russians are taking over the city where Hannah will be going in with American troops as part of Operation Paperclip. I’m also putting out a new short story, The Man in the Attic, next month set at the beginning of World War II but with some fantastical elements.

WB: Describe your process for writing a novel. What do you do from the idea to the moment you write “the end?”

RC: First off, let me say that I don’t recommend this process to anyone. There are way more efficient ways to work. My process is that I have an idea for a book. Sometimes it’s a moment in history I want to explore, other times it’s a moment in the life of a particular character. Then I do loads of research, particularly for my historical novels. I love learning everything I can about my characters’ worlds so that I can walk in their footsteps and hope that readers can walk with me. After the research, I develop a plot for the book. Then I write the first 50 pages and discover that my plot isn’t working as intended. Then I re-plot and write 50 more pages and get stuck again. On my co-writing projects with James, I get stuck every 100 pages. I’m guessing that means that two pair of eyes can see further ahead into the story.

WB: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?

RC: I wrote my first short stories on that typewriter I bought when I was 13 while living a haunted house. Surprisingly, it was not horror. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t very good. But it was a start.

You can learn more about Rebecca Cantrell by visiting her official website, or following her on Twitter @rebeccacantrell.

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Mystery Novelist Lawrence Block On Why Writers Must Go On

Lawrence Block (Photo courtesy of the author)

Lawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense novels longer than the millennial generation has been alive.

Block started out writing midcentury erotica in the late 1950s and eventually introduced the world to colorful characters such as cop turned private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller.

He recently answered questions from Writer’s Bone on why New York City is a fixture in his novels, and what mantra his writing process follows.

Writer’s Bone: New York City is normally the setting—and a character—for your stories. What draws you to the Big Apple?

Lawrence Block: It’s my home. I first visited New York in 1948; my father and I took the train down from Buffalo and spent a long weekend at the Hotel Commodore. I first lived here in 1956, and it’s really been my home ever since, although I’ve spent stretches of time elsewhere. John Steinbeck put it best in 1953: "New York is an ugly city, a dirty city. Its climate is a scandal, its politics are used to frighten children, its traffic is madness, its competition murderous. But there is one thing about it-—once you have lived in New York and it has become your home, no place else is good enough."

WB: Can you tell us about some of your earliest work?

LB: I started writing for publication at a young age, and my earliest stories appeared in the digest-sized crime magazines. They’ve since been collected in One Night Stands and Lost Weekends.

I’d been doing this for a year or so when a couple of publishers, Midwood Tower and Nightstand, spawned the genre of midcentury paperback erotica, and I found it a productive learning ground—although I sometimes think I may have stayed too long at the fair.

WB: Was there a time as a writer that you felt hopeless about the craft? If so, how did you work past it?

LB: There has rarely been a time when I haven’t felt hopeless about something or other. Beckett said it in eleven words: “You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.” And one does, at least until one doesn’t.

WB: You tend to write about detectives, thieves, and hit men. Where does this interest come from?

LB: I have no idea. I’ve known a few detectives, a couple of thieves, and at least one fellow with a couple of bodies on him. But I was writing about such folk long before I was acquainted with any of them. And I know a lot of lawyers and doctors and schoolteachers and guys who sell insurance, and rarely write much about any of them.

WB: Matt Scudder is one of the most beloved and interesting private detectives of the latter part of the 20th Century and in to the 21st Century. What is Matt’s staying power?

LB: I’m probably not the person to ask. If I were to guess, it would be that Matt has aged and evolved over the years, but that may better serve to explain why I’ve continued to find him interesting.

WB: Is Matt Scudder meant to be the voice for New York City?

LB: No, not at all. 

WB: So many of your characters have neat quirks, are they based on anyone?

LB:

Rarely.

WB: What is your writing process?

LB:

Again: “You must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on.”

WB: As a New Yorker what are some of your favorite spots in and around the city? Is there a place in the city that really gets your writer’s mind ticking?

LB:

I spend most of my time in Greenwich Village.

WB: Who were some of your early influences?

LB:

I grew up reading the realistic American novelists of the first half of the 20th Century, and when I began writing crime fiction, I read widely in the genre.

WB: Where did

A Candle for the Bag Lady

come from? It stands out as far as detective short stories go.

LB:

There’s a song quoted in the story, and I’d written it a couple of years before I wrote the story. Beyond that, I’ve no idea where the notion came from.

WB: Who are some of the up-and-coming mystery writers you enjoy?

LB:

I usually avoid this question, but I’ve enjoyed Wallace Stroby’s books a lot lately, so I’ll mention him. But just this once.

WB: What is something you wish you knew when you first started being a writer?

LB:

How fast the time goes.

WB: Do you think stamp-collecting hit man Keller will ever come to the big screen?

LB:

One never knows. There’s probably more chance for a television series, but long odds either way.

WB: How has the mystery genre changed since you first started writing?

LB:

Immeasurably.

WB: If you had to solve a case which fictional detective would you want to help you?

LB:

Oh, Bernie Rhodenbarr, for sure. He has the most fun.

For more on Lawrence Block, check out his official website lawrenceblock.com, follow him on Twitter @LawrenceBlock, or like him on Facebook.

For more interviews, check out our full archive. 

Why Screenwriter and Novelist Derek Haas Loves Making Readers Cheer for a Hit Man

Derek Haas (on left)  (Photo credit: Elizabeth Morris, photos courtesy of Derek Haas)

By Sean Tuohy

For the better part of a decade screenwriter/novelist Derek Haas has entertained and thrilled audiences across the globe with his adrenaline-pumping writing skills. Haas helped pen “3:10 To Yuma,” arguably one of the best westerns of the last 10 years, and is the co-creator of NBC’s “Chicago Fire.”

When Haas isn’t lighting up the silver and small screen, he is busy exciting readers with his Assassin Trilogy, which follows international hit man Columbus. His latest novel The Right Hand chronicles C.I.A. Austin Clay’s investigation into a deadly mystery and is one of best spy thrillers of recent memory.

Haas graciously answered some of my questions regarding his life as a writer.

Sean Tuohy:  Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get your start as a professional writer?

Derek Haas: I always wanted to be a writer. I went to school at Baylor University and stayed for graduate school in English Literature.

My now partner Michael Brandt was doing the same thing, only getting his MA in Film. We teamed up soon after college and started writing together.

A screenplay we wrote fell into Brad Pitt’s hands and he wanted to make the movie. He never did end up making it.

However, that got us our start.

ST: Was there a time as a writer that you felt hopeless about the craft?

DH: There have been times when I felt like the machine that is Hollywood would chew us up and not let us get any of our scripts produced, but to be honest, I haven’t had self-doubt about our writing.

Don’t get me wrong, we may not have always turned in the greatest draft, but I have confidence we’re strong writers.

ST: Who were some of your early influences?

DH: My earliest influence was Stephen King. I just think he’s a master storyteller. He knows how to manipulate pace and make his readers keep turning pages. He’s the greatest campfire storyteller of all time. On the movie side of things, I’m a big admirer of Spielberg, Scorsese, Coppola.

ST: What made you realize that you were a storyteller?

DH: I think the first time I wrote something that got the reaction I wanted—laughter, emotion, or a lump in the throat. I started writing stories when I was still in elementary school, and it seemed that I could always surprise people with my words. I still try to do that.

ST: Your Assassin Trilogy follows world-traveling hit man Columbus. Where did this character come from?

DH: I’m always attracted to characters that are gray; just when you want to like him, he does something to turn you away from him, and just when you want to condemn him, he brings you back. How could I make readers cheer for a contract killer? It was a great challenge. I do love writing him.

ST: You write about the unseen underworld—assassins, gangsters, and spies. Where does this interest stem from?

DH: Brandt and I spent a little time with FBI agents in Quantico and I remember one of them talking about a hit man—a contract killer—and it piqued my interest. I started to wonder about what twists and turns a life might have taken to put him in that position to where he kills people for a living. I just love crime stories. Elmore Leonard was also a big influence.

ST: All writers have a great work that is unproduced and sadly may never see the light of day. For example, Doug Richardson’s “Hell Bent,” Quentin Tarantino's “40 Lashes Less One,” and Lem Dobbs “Edward Ford.” Do you have a screenplay or novel that has yet to be produced or published?

DH: Michael and I wrote a movie called “MIAMILAND” that we’ve been trying to get produced for a dozen years. We love it. It’s a crime story where two overeducated con men have to go to Miami and separate a mobster from his money. Some day!

ST: What made you realize that you were a storyteller?

DH: While other kids were drawing pictures, I was writing stories. I asked for a typewriter for my 10th birthday. It was innate. I just had to do it. I pinch myself every day that I’ve made a living from doing it.

Derek Haas writing stories in his youth (Photo credit: Molly McCoy).

ST: What is your writing process? Do you outline your work before hand or just jump in to it?

DH: With screenplays, Brandt and I outline pretty extensively.

It’s the nature of the business. The producers or studio or network want to see what they’re going to get ahead of time. With novels, I just have a vague idea of what I’m going to do. I generally know my beginning, middle, and end in broad strokes. Other than that, I just plow ahead and let the story take me wherever it wants to go. That sounds like hippy-dippy writer-speak, but it’s true. I don’t want to get bogged down with an outline to which I have to adhere. No thanks.

ST: You are both a novelist and a screenwriter, which do you prefer to write?

DH: I love them both. I get to flex different muscles. Prose makes me happy, but when an actor or a director makes a scene even better than you imagined there’s no feeling like it.

ST: What is your best moment as a writer?

DH: Brandt and I were on a rooftop in Miami and it was hot as hell out and 300 people were standing around a set and then the director yelled action and two actors said the words that were in our heads. And it was three-dimensional and real and not just words on a page sitting on someone’s shelf. I almost started crying. (The scene never made the movie.)

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

DH: I piloted the bullet train between Paris and Marseille once. True story.

Follow Derek Haas on Twitter @derekhaas, or visit his official website.

For more interviews, check out our full archive.