The Cat’s Meow: 13 Questions With Author Marie-Helene Bertino

Marie-Helene Bertino

By Daniel Ford

It was the title of Marie-Helene Bertino’s book that caught my eye. 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas is not something you encounter on every walk through your neighborhood Barnes & Noble. The novel’s lime green back cover did the rest of the work, pulling me in like a tractor beam.

Degenerate music club. Broken characters. Dark Philly streets. I was 10 pages deep before I remembered I had to go back to work. I was all in.

The best thing I can say about Bertino’s book (for now, I’ll have an official recommendation coming in October) is that it is a constant surprise. Sentences hit you with left hooks after you’re punch drunk from right hand jabs, multiple storylines dance nimbly to the accompanying music, and Bertino writes with a confidence typically reserved for seasoned masters. I’m less than 25 pages from the end and am reading a page at a time because I don’t want it to end.

Bertino talked to me recently about her early influences, her writing process, and the inspiration behind 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas.

Daniel Ford: When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Marie-Helene Bertino: I decided when I was 4 years old, and I decide again, every day.

DF: Who were some of your influences?

MHB: My brothers were my first influences. They are older than me, and I saw them writing when I was a little girl. There was such mystery and delight surrounding the activity of them scribbling into their copybooks, and I wanted in on that. In grade school, the stories of Lloyd Alexander and Madeleine L’Engle and the fantasy genre in general were huge influences. In high school and college, poets were my biggest influence. After college, I went to London to study Shakespeare. Later, irreverent surrealists like Etgar Keret, Aimee Bender, Amy Hempel, Jim Shepard, and Raymond Carver guided my first forays into fiction.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you listen to music? Outline?

MHB: I don’t normally listen to music or outline, unless I need a jolt back into the story. When I’m “composing” a new piece if you will (will you?), it needs to be quiet in the palace. Nothing louder than my cat padding across the floor. When I’m writing non-fiction or revising, I listen to NPR all day. I do a fine impression of Lakshmi Singh if I may say so (may I?), and groove without realizing to the Brian Lehr Show theme song.

DF: You teach at NYU, The Center for Fiction, The Sackett Street Workshops, and the Emerging Writer’s Workshop for One Story. How have all of these organizations influenced your writing?

MHB: My students at NYU are brilliant and energetic, willing to fearlessly try new things. I leave class inspired and chuckling a lot. This semester I began teaching in the low-residency program at IAIA (Indian American Institute of the Arts), based in Santa Fe. IAIA’s mission is “to empower creativity and leadership in Native arts and cultures through higher education, lifelong learning, and outreach.” It is a new M.F.A. program built out of deeply ingrained tradition and feeling, and I am already learning so much from the other faculty members and students. In the workshops at IAIA, CFF, Sackett, and One Story the students are sometimes several years past college age. They normally work day jobs in unrelated fields before coming to class each night. I have a very real understanding of the sacrifices they make to be there, and their determination and talent stokes my own desire to keep writing.

DF: Your first published work was a collection of short stories titled, Safe as Houses. What drew you to short stories originally and why did you make the decision to switch to the novel format?

MHB: I like the canvas of short stories, that they are in essence a magic trick. Other magic stories compelled me to write my own. “Why Don’t You Dance” from Raymond Carver was the first one I remember giving me that gut punch—only not the story. It was produced as a short film at The Tribeca Film Festival years ago, and I liked the film so much I sought out the author. The last lines of that story still hold great alchemy for me. While I was writing the stories in Safe as Houses, I switched back and forth to 2 A.M. at The Cat’s Pajamas. The scope of the latter’s story overflowed a story container. It took a long time for it to teach me how to write it.

DF: How long did it take you to complete your first novel 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas?

MHB: That’s a tricky question to answer, because I didn’t work on it for hours every day for 12 years, though all in all, from first word to publishing, it was that long. During that time I wrote a children’s book, another novel, my short story collection, in addition to becoming the person I had to be to write the novel. So, that’s a loose figure, at best.

DF: Did you know you had something good when you finished?

MHB: I knew I had something that was exactly what I wanted to say.

DF: How did the idea for the story originate?

MHB: I was having a string of late nights in Philadelphia, hanging with friends and hearing music. Then I moved away and became homesick. I wanted to write something that felt the way I felt when I was in the city with these friends. But it took a long time to figure out how to do it. It’s not a one to one ratio. And, music is deceptively tricky to write about.

DF: How much of yourself—and the people you have daily interactions with—did you put into your main characters? How do you develop your characters in general?

MHB: I am lucky that I was raised by a woman who has an uncanny knack for understanding a broad variety of people. My mom worked for forty years for people living with severe mental disabilities. She taught me to be a people person, in the true sense of that word. This includes the world-weariness that only people who truly love other people encounter. In any case, I’ve always been interested in other people’s experiences. I’ve held two jobs that required me to interview people—in one case, musicians, in the other, people living with TBI, but I’ve been informally interviewing people my whole life.

DF: 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas has gotten great reviews. What has that experience been like and what’s one memorable moment that will stick with you?

MHB: I hesitate to admit this, but I don’t read reviews. I hesitate because sometimes this seems to invite people to tell me what they think about me not reading reviews. But I decided long ago to put to route anything that is bad for my writing. And, I can’t see how an overly positive or overly negative review could help my writing in any way. I also decided never to walk in anyone’s shadow. If I fail, if I succeed, at least I lived as I believe. No, wait. That last part was Whitney Houston.

DF: What’s next for Marie-Helene Bertino following the success of your first novel?

MHB: Oh, you know. Writing, writing, writing. I’m puttering right now, on a book and stories, the way a gardener putters in her garden. I’m doing a lot of readings—which is a lot of fun. I’d like to do more readings, visit schools, talk to emerging writers. I’d like to visit Arthur Avenue in the Bronx for the first time. And India. I’d also like to figure out how to make a flower crown, and teach my dog to turn around while standing on his hind legs. I don’t know about that last one. He just doesn’t seem interested.

DF: What advice would you give writers just starting out?

MHB: I have so much advice for new writers, but here is one specific tidbit: Ask yourself, what am I avoiding in my writing? And, force yourself to write it. Maybe it’s dialogue, sex scenes, descriptive scenes, scenes where more than two people are speaking, dialogue beats, whatever have you. Force yourself to write two pages of it. Again, and again. Work to refine that skill like you would a weak muscle. And keep doing that every so often, no matter what level you reach.

DF: Can you please name one random fact about yourself?

MHB: Besides the Lakshmi Singh thing? I am preternaturally adept at parallel parking.

To learn more about Marie-Helene Bertino, visit her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @mhbertino.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Writing the Hero: 10 Questions With Best-Selling Author David Wood

David Wood

By Sean Tuohy

Action, adventure, and good times. Those are all things you'll find whenever you crack open an adventure novel by David Woods. You will most likely find yourself reading a Dane Maddock tale since he's Woods' main hero in an ongoing series.

Woods took a few minutes away from writing to sit down and chat about his work, where his love the adventure story stems from, and what writers need to do to stay ahead of their worst enemy: them-selves.

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

David Woods: I started reading at an early age and working as an author was a dream of mine since childhood, but I thought of it as an unrealistic fantasy, like being a rock star or professional athlete. Looking back, I wish I had pursued my dream much earlier in life instead of waiting until my 30s.

ST: What books captured you as a young reader?

DW: Early on, childrens' mystery series like The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but it was the classic adventure stories like The Lost World and the Doc Savage books that truly captivated me and fueled my imagination.

ST: Who were your early influences?

DW: Aside from the books mentioned above, Clive Cussler's early books had a big impact on me. When I was a pizza delivery guy in college, I'd listen to his books on tape (yes, I'm old) and concoct my own adventure stories in my head.

ST: How long did it take to complete your first novel?

DW: After years of procrastination, I took part in National Novel Writing Month, in which writers are challenged to write a short novel in a month. I knocked out most of my first book, Dourado, during that month, and then spent about three more months working on it. I don't recommend working that fast on a first novel. I eventually wound up going back, doing more work on it, and republishing it to address issues with the manuscript. It didn't hurt my career in the long run, but as an inexperienced writer, I should have taken a more measured pace.

ST: Where did your hero, Dane Maddock, come from?

DW: Personality-wise, he's a little bit Dirk Pitt and a little bit Indiana Jones, but I wanted to avoid the "too perfect" action hero, so he's got shortcomings, many of which are balanced out by his partner, "Bones" Bonebrake. Some readers don't like it when the hero makes mistakes or struggles with indecision or her/his conscience, but most of the readers I hear from feel that these qualities make him more believable.

As far as what he does, Dane is a manifestation of my fascination with mysteries and legends. I can't find the Ark of the Covenant, solve the riddle of Oak Island, or find Atlantis, so he does it for me!

ST: What does the future hold for Dane Maddock?

DW: Whenever I get a question about the future of my characters, I usually reply "everybody dies," but this earns me threatening looks from my wife, so I'm trying to stop. In his next adventure, Dane will head off in search of Noah's ark, and readers can count on the usual twists in the story so it will hopefully feel like a new and fresh tale despite the well-covered subject matter.

ST: What is your writing process?

DW: I start out with an ancient mystery for Dane and Bones to solve, a few cool locations for them to visit, and (usually) a creature out of legend, like the chupacabra, to work in to the story. I make a very loose outline, and then plan out five or so chapters at a time. I write those chapters, do more research and plotting, and do it all over again until the first draft is finished. Along the way, I take notes about changes I want to make, but I always finish the first draft before making any changes to what I've already written. The last thing I do is go back and write the historical prologue. This might seem backward, but because I always apply twists to the "mystery from history" my characters are solving, I like to find out how the story ends before crafting the prologue.

ST: Do you do a lot research for your books?

DW: I do a lot of research on whatever mystery provides the book's back-story. This includes visiting some really whacked-out forums where people share some truly far-fetched theories, because these places often provide inspiration for the twists at the story's end. I also do a lot of research on the various settings, because it's important to me that the reader feels he is really there while reading. Most of my research doesn't make it into the story, and it's always a bit of a bummer when I finish the book because I wish I could share everything I learned.

ST: What advice do you give to first time writers?

DW: Write fast so you can outrun your doubts and insecurities. Write the kinds of stories you love to read. Join a critique group and seek out podcasts and websites that will help you refine your craft.

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

DW: Only one? Hmmm... I'm a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo.

To learn more about David Woods, check out his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @davidwoodweb.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Writing Fedora: 10 Questions With Historical Crime Writer Kelli Stanley

Kelli Stanley

By Daniel Ford

You’ve got to respect a writer who pursues her craft while wearing a smart fedora.

Kelli Stanley’s biography on her official website could double as Writer’s Bone’s mission statement:

“Kelli earned a Master’s Degree in Classics, loves jazz, old movies, battered fedoras, Art Deco and speakeasies.”

It gets better. Stanley is best known for her Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco. City of Dragons won the Macavity Award for Best Historical Novel, and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Shamus Award, a Bruce Alexander Award, and an RT Book Reviews Award. She also writes a “Roman Noir” series that takes place in ancient history.

Stanley took a break from the past, pushed back her fedora, and answered a few of my questions about her novels and writing process.

Daniel Ford: When did you decide you wanted to be a writer?

Kelli Stanley: I’m not sure if I ever did, actually—writing was just something I did. Poetry, mainly, though I wrote my first play (a noir, of course) when I was 8 years old. I loved writing term papers, speeches, letters, anything.

At the same time, because writing was so much a part of me, I never considered pursing an actual career in it…so my academic history is checkered with experimentation. I was a drama major for a couple of years, flirted with film and English, and finally settled on art history and classics, with a Master’s Degree in the latter.

It was during my collegiate career as a classic major that I was first exposed to Steven Saylor’s mystery series set in Late Republic Rome, and I thought to myself “Gee…I wonder if I could do that?”

Translation was one of the aspects of classics that I enjoyed the most (and something for which I won awards), but I didn’t want to concentrate solely on translation. And the closer the “terminus” of Ph.D. approached, the more squeamish I became.

I eventually realized that the breadth of study in classics is one of the key elements that drove me to its pursuit, and that a doctorate would kill the very thing I love, i.e. force me to specialize. I’d already written Nox Dormienda in my senior year (while also working on my thesis), so I threw caution to the winds and decided to pursue publication—which is different than deciding to be a writer, and a whole lot more complicated.

Alea iacta est, and I crossed the Rubicon in 2007 when I got word that my book would be published the following year.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you listen to music? Outline?

KS: I outline in order to interweave the usually-two-but-potentially-more subplots of the novel and to maintain a suspenseful pace punctuated by dramatic beats—a must with writing crime fiction, especially anything with thriller overtones. For me, an outline is like a road map from which you are free to deviate when you find a side road that begs for exploration.

I only listen to music that Miranda might hear or encounter, and I do that for research and inspiration—not while I’m actually crafting sentences. Writing is its own music, and writing a novel is like a composing a symphony—and music gets in the way of music.

DF: You’re best known for your Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco—which include City of Ghosts, City of Secrets, and City of Dragons. What drew you to noir and who were some of your early influences? What made you decide 1940s San Francisco as a setting?

KS: I’ve always been drawn to the period of American history from the 1920s through the end of the WWII. I’ve also always adored film noir. As a little girl, I could do a mean Jimmy Cagney impression! I must have been born with a noir gene. Not many people in my third grade class could figure out why I was writing a play about gangsters, spies, and an unfaithful, treacherous girlfriend.

My actual taste of literary noir didn’t come until I was an adult, however. I grew up reading Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie as a child (and Dame Agatha is far darker than many people think).

Raymond Chandler was my first real writing teacher. I devoured everything he wrote, and realized style, as he once said (and I paraphrase) is all a writer really has to call her own, so you need to develop it, hone it, and protect it. Hammett followed—to him, I owe the importance of existential, tough-as-nails realism, the moral force of class warfare, and the beauty of bare-bones story-telling.

I think of Chandler and Hammett as (in a bizarre way) the Catullus and Horace of hardboiled literature. The latter two were contemporary Roman poets who were both brilliant in contradictory and complementary ways, as were Hammett and Chandler. Other influences include Cornell Woolrich, Vera Caspary, Daphne du Maurier, and (particularly in opposition to his misogyny) James M. Cain…along with a host of other writers, including those who wrote for Hollywood.

I’ve been at least as influenced outside the genre as inside—because, frankly, I don’t really believe in genres. Because I grew up reading constantly—mostly poetry and literature—I’ve been influenced by a range of authors and poets from Thomas Hardy to Steinbeck to Poe to James to Shakespeare to Dickens to Saroyan to Fitzgerald to Austen to Hemingway to Nathanel West to Shirley Jackson to Whitman to Sophocles to O’Neil to Ray Bradbury to Tennessee Williams to…you get the idea. I guess the linking component is great writing, particularly with a strong lyrical aspect or skeletal framework.

As for San Francisco…well, I live here. It’s a fabled city with a fabled past, and a distinct type of noir atmosphere that is older than Los Angeles’—stemming from her Gold Rush days of desperation, sweat, and broken dreams. It’s a city with a corrupt police force at the time (Los Angeles did not have the lock on that, sadly), and with Hammett as the inspirational literary pipeline. It also embodies the dichotomy of outrageous beauty coexisting on top of ugly social conditions and nostalgic, romantic views of the past vs. historical truths…a main theme I explore with the books.

DF: How long did it take you to complete your first novel? Has your writing process changed in anyway since that initial endeavor?

KS: I was working on my thesis at the time, so actually writing it took about a year and a half. My process has become more solidified, if no less terrifying. Ask virtually any published author and they’ll tell you the same thing: you wonder whether or not you can write with every book you face. It’s the horror of the vacuum, that blank page fear, and the sad fact that most of us are terribly insecure.

DF: Do you have an in-depth research process?

KS: I research constantly. I don’t have anything I’d dignify by calling it a process. There are a few things I do with every book, however: go to the main library and research newspapers from the dates I’ve selected for the narrative; research Life Magazine from the same dates; consult my many, many of-the-period reference books; study photos and videos and any pertinent documentary footage; search out and secure story-related ephemera to add to my ever-growing collection. That collection, by the way, includes all kinds of souvenirs from the World’s Fair on Treasure Island, train schedules, journals, railroad china, and all sorts of other inspirational and forgotten bits of daily life that I use to flesh out the books and make them seem three-dimensional.

I’m something of a fanatic about research, and was very honored that City of Dragons won the Macavity Award for best historical mystery.

DF: You also write a series set in first century Roman Britain—which include the novels The Curse-Maker and Nox Dormienda. How did the idea for this series come about and what are some of the defining attributes of “Roman Noir?” KS: Well, as I mentioned earlier, I was staring at “the end,” aka matriculation. So, in a sense, “Roman Noir” was, itself, born from a noirish desperation to find something to do with my degree and my life that wasn’t just the typical “get a doctorate, go teach” path.

KS: As for what it is…firstly, it’s a playful pun on the French literary term for noir or hardboiled. Secondly, it’s my idea of translating the sometimes strange but always human ancient world into a more modern and relatable feel and style. Noir and hardboiled conventions suit Rome and suit the culture…so, in this case, instead of Latin poetry, I’m translating history.

That said, as a classical scholar, my research is extremely accurate. When I speculate, I do so with the evidence and credentials to make an argument or write a journal article. That’s one reason I was so honored and delighted to win the Bruce Alexander Award for Nox Dormienda, my debut novel.

Some people get confused by the approach. They apparently believe that Romans should be written according to the upper class British or Transatlantic accents with which they are nearly always portrayed in film and television. I mean, c’mon—Romans weren’t all wordy, nerdy, rhetorically grandiose characters. Not that my language in the books is anachronistic—far from it. The metaphors and similes so associated with hardboiled are based on actual history and actual Roman culture.

DF: True or false: You write while wearing your fedora.

KS: True. I wear my “writing fedora,” which is a beat-up vintage Champ felt. The reason is that it’s a visual cue for my partner to know I’m “in the zone,” i.e. don’t talk to me unless it’s really important.

I own many fedoras—from red to orange, from summer straw to winter felt, vintage and modern—but other than my old Champ, I don’t wear them around the house.

DF: What does the future hold for Kelli Stanley?

KS: Right now, I’m working on the next Miranda Corbie novel, City of Sharks, which is the last one on this particular contract. I hope to be able to write more Miranda and to hopefully pen not just another Roman book, but a few other things rattling around in my head: a stand alone thriller, a YA, and assorted other projects.

DF: What advice do you give to up-and-coming writers?

KS: Research the business, because it’s in a constant state of flux. Choose your agent carefully, and don’t settle for publication at all costs—sometimes it’s better to wait to be published really well.

Think before you self-publish. Publication, whether it’s traditional or done through Amazon, is a business. Ask yourself if you really want to put in the time and energy necessary to undertake that venture. Finish the book before you even think about contacting an agent, editor, or other professional. And, most importantly, keep at it.

DF: Can you please name one random fact about yourself?

KS: My first record album as a kid was “Free to Be…You and Me”, based on the Marlo Thomas television show. It’s still a great album with a great message for children, and I highly recommend it!

To learn more about Kelli Stanley, check out her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @kelli_stanley.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

A Walk Among The Tombstones With Author Lawrence Block

By Sean Tuohy

Later this month, former New York City detective Matt Scudder will slam his way into theaters across the nation in the new thriller “A Walk Among the Tombstones.” The film is based on the novel of the same name by legendary crime writer Lawrence Block, and was adapted to the big screen by award-winning writer/director Scott Frank (“Get Shorty,” “Minority Report,” “Out of Sight,” “The Lookout”). In the film, our drunken hero finds himself in the middle of a blood-soaked case when a drug kingpin's wife is kidnapped. Tough guy Liam Neeson plays Scudder and brings an edgy feel to the character.

I recently talked with Scudder’s creator Lawrence Block about the upcoming film.

Sean Tuohy: This is the second time Matthew Scudder has made it to the big screen. Are you excited to see him in the movies again?

Lawrence Block: Yes, very much so. “8 Million Ways to Die” didn't really work—artistically or commercially—although both Jeff Bridges and Andy Garcia did some very fine work in the film. “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is a much better film in every way, and very much reflects the book I wrote.

ST: What was process of turning your novel in to a movie?

LB: It took a long time. The film was just weeks away from commencement of principal photography when Harrison Ford changed his mind and pulled out. Then the project was dead in the water for over 10 years, and I never thought anything would come of it. But Scott never lost faith. He knew he wanted to make the film, and now he's done so...brilliantly.

ST Scott Frank has adapted novels before to wide acclaim. Were you excited to have him writing/directing the project?

LB: I was indeed. His adaptations of two Elmore Leonard novels, “Get Shorty” and “Out of Sight,” managed not merely to tell Leonard's stories but to capture his tone and attitude. I was particularly pleased when he elected to direct the film himself; I'd seen “The Lookout” (which he wrote and directed) and knew how good he was at this.

ST: “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is a pretty dark story. Why do you think this story was chosen to be turned in to a movie?

LB: Scott originally got Jersey Films to option the book just a couple of years after its 1992 publication. I don't know that darkness had anything to do with it; he read the book, liked it, and wanted to make it into a film.

ST: Liam Neeson plays Scudder this time around. How do you feel about that casting decision?

LB: I couldn't be happier. For years, Liam Neeson was up at the top of my own mental shortlist to play Scudder, ever since I saw him in “Michael Collins” (In my novel Everybody Dies, Michael Collins comes up in a long conversation between Scudder and Mick Ballou).

ST: How does it feel to see your work on the big screen?

LB: It's very gratifying. I've written well over a hundred books, and this is only the fourth to be filmed—and the first to be filmed at all well. So I'm obviously capable of being happy with a book whether or not it makes it to the screen. But that this book has been filmed, and filmed so brilliantly, feels better than I can describe.

ST: Final question. How do you take your popcorn?

LB: Intravenously.

“A Walk Among the Tombstones” comes out September 19, 2014.

Also check out:our first interview with the author, Mystery Novelist Lawrence Block On Why Writers Must Go On, 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

In the Service of Writing: 11 Questions With Novelist Scott Cheshire

Scott Cheshire

By Daniel Ford

I first became aware of Scott Cheshire’s High as the Horses’ Bridles after reading a feature on Grantland recommending the novel.

I’m a sucker for books that explore father and son relationships, so I was already primed to be a huge fan. An intriguing discourse on religion and the New York City setting made me run to my nearest Barnes & Noble.

I’m not the only one that felt that way. The flames of damnation envelop Cheshire’s cover, but they may as well be a metaphor of how hot this book is. In addition to Grantland’s glowing review (no pun intended), High as the Horses’ Bridles, the novel earned positive reviews from The New York Times Book Review and The Washington Post, was a Time Out New York Critic’s Pick, and was an Amazon “Best Book of the Month” in July 2014. Not bad for a first novel!

Cheshire graciously answered some of my fan boy questions about his career, his writing process, and our shared love of Queens, N.Y. Boston-area readers eager to hear more from the author can attend his reading and Q&A at Harvard Book Store today at 7:00 p.m.

Daniel Ford: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Scott Cheshire: My earliest writing memory is a long handwritten letter, three or four pages, to my parents, making a strong defense for not cleaning my room. I was probably about 9 or 10 years old, which makes sense when I think about it, because while I spent most of my 20s and early 30s writing what might be called more typical stories, I seem to have returned to a more personal voice in my work. Thankfully, I am no longer addressing my parents. Instead, I’m talking to the universe. That came out as a joke, but I sort of mean it.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you outline? Listen to music?

SC: Well, I’m certainly not the type of writer that “writes” every day, although almost everything I do is in the service of writing. I read every day, a lot. I have a reading schedule that is usually thematic, focused on whatever project I’m working on. As far as an outline, it’s funny, I was just talking recently with a writer about this. My first novel, which has an unorthodox shape and structure, was written in the dark (maybe all novels are). What I mean to say is I was learning how novels work while writing one, and was rather committed to that method. And so save for a few central ideas, I had no idea how the book would work. I did not outline. Whereas this new novel seems to be demanding one of me. I one day got a sense of the new book in its entirety, the outline of the book, which is a strange feeling.

And yes to music, always music. Lots of 1960s “free jazz” and noisy punk rock.

DF: When you first finished High as the Horses’ Bridles did you know you had something good, or did you have to go through multiple rounds of edits before you had something you felt comfortable sending out into the world?

SC: I thought I finished it several times. And I was always wrong, except once. When I finally got an agent, who’s a super reader, we worked some more on the manuscript. Same with my editor. As I said, the book has something of a strange shape, plus I worked on it for a long time (it’s so easy to get lost in the forest of your own work), so their input was welcome. I needed it. But I should also say the strangeness of the book led me to think I was working on something good, or at very least interesting. I also think my perspective, coming from a place of a particularly relevant religious disappointment, helped. I knew I was working on something that others wanted to read. I had to believe that.

DF: The book was named to Amazon’s Best Book of the Month in July 2014 and Grantland just ran a feature highly recommending it to readers. What have those positive experiences been like and has it affected the way you think about your work?

SC: It’s been wonderful, I have to say. The independent bookstores have been so incredibly supportive. Here in New York City, and as far thrown as Ann Arbor, Mich., Texas, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle. I had a chance to go west and read and found there a vibrant community of excited readers. Warmed my heart. But I also want to point out that Amazon has been super supportive of the book too because they are real fans of the book, which for some writers is a problematic statement. Including me. But I think it’s important to remember that Amazon, while largely monolithic, yes, also has individual editors that truly love books and care about book culture and are trying to better that system. I have met some of them. And they are people too it turns out. And readers thus far have very strong responses to the book. They love it or hate it. And I think that’s a good place to be.

DF: Your novel centers around religious belief and a father and son relationship defined in part by what they both believe. How much of yourself and your interactions with your family and friends did you put into the story? What was your inspiration for the story in the first place?

SC: I was raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and because most young men in the world train as child preachers, I was a child preacher, too. Knocked on doors. Stood on stages, etc. So that certainly informed the story. But at some point I became aware that my story was not enough, and I soon became aware the story was really about America, about humanity in general, about our desire to make meaning, to transcend. I’m no longer a “believer,” but I found the more I dug into our national religious history the more I recognized myself. And it was uncomfortable, to be honest. But that makes for good fiction. As far as family, well, you draw from what you know, and I did that, but at the same time this story hardly resembles my life. Thankfully, my family agrees.

DF: New York City offers a writer a character that is instantly recognizable to readers, but can also slip into cliché when applied the wrong way. Was that something you were conscious of when choosing your setting? Or as a New Yorker, did you intrinsically know what pitfalls to stay away from?

SC: I was lucky because I found myself writing a story about character falling away from belief, no longer privileging a world to come, and now falling in love with the given physical world. And so Josie (the narrator) is looking, always looking at what things surrounds him. And it often feels like the first time he’s seen a chain link fence, a beach, a telephone pole, etc. And so I needed to be hyper-vigilant about avoiding cliché. Not to mention, I wanted to write about Queens (I’m from Queens), and there are not many writing about Queens. It seemed wide open territory.

DF: I lived in Queens, N.Y., for all of the 11 years I was in New York City and I loved every minute of it. What was it like growing up there and what’s one of your favorite Queens stories that didn’t end up as part of the novel?

SC: I love Queens. And I love Queens writers and writers who write about Queens (like novel-ists Victor LaValle, Bill Cheng, Matthew Thomas, John Weir, the poet Todd J. Colby, not to mention Kerouac and Whitman. Alas, these are all men, but are just a few off the top of my head…). And as far as a favorite story…that’s a fantastic question. I have a hundred. But here is a good one:

When I was about thirteen or fourteen, walking down 101st Ave., in Richmond Hill, headed for school, headphones on, listening to new wave, I’m sure (until very soon after I discovered Minor Threat and was changed forever after). I had my head down, bobbing it, not paying attention to what was in front of me. Until I walked right into somebody, almost knocked the guy over. I looked up…and there stood mafia don John Gotti (they were very present in my part of Queens). I looked around. I was surrounded by muscle, bear-sized men in tracks suits. I was lifted into the air, and thrown against a brisk wall by one his guys. My feet dangled. Gotti walked over to me (headphones now around my neck), looked me up and down, and laughed. He said, “He’s just a kid. Leave him alone.” I took the day off from school that day. Then again, I did that a lot.

DF: Tell me a little about your work with the Tottenville Review and the Sackett Street Writers' Workshop.

SC: I don’t work nearly as much as I used to with Tottenville Review, mostly because I’m writing a new book. It’s a great magazine with a great mission—to bring attention to books that might fall beneath the media radar. I was the interviews editor there for a few years, which basically meant I begged writers to talk to us and facilitated conversations between people. I paired up people to have a talk. As far as Sackett, Julia Fierro’s organization, it’s a fantastic New York institution. I teach small groups, nine or 10 people, and we meet in bars, bookstores, apartments, and we workshop work. We also do a lot of reading. We read and discuss short stories, in addition to the workshop stories, every week. I enjoy it immensely. Lately, I’m doing more one-on-one work, editing, manuscript notes, etc.

DF: What’s next for you following the success of High as the Horses’ Bridles?

SC: The next book is a thriller set in Queens, again and is about a family falling apart after their daughter goes missing. It’s shaping up to be rather dark. And funny. Hopefully dark and funny.

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

SC: Read like hell.

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

SC: I’m right now staring at one of the ceramic-cast idols actually used on the set of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." One of these:

I treasure it. (Bad pun).

To learn more about Scott Cheshire, check out his official website, like him on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter @ScottCheshire.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

The Importance of Pacing: 8 Questions With Thriller Author Ben Coes

Ben Coes

By Sean Tuohy

Many writers haven tried to bring the halls of power to life. Few have actually worked within them. Best-selling author Ben Coes began his career a political speechwriter in Washington D.C. before focusing his attention on thrillers.

David Morrell, the creator of Rambo and Writer’s Bone podcast guest, called his first novel, Power Down, “a fresh, exciting thriller” with action scenes that were “big, vivid, and authentic.” Coes has now written four novels in total and shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Coes took a few minutes to sit down and talk about his career, his process, the importance of pacing, and why writing is like building a house.

Sean Tuohy: When did you decide to write a thriller?

Ben Coes: In 2007, on New Year’s Day, I woke up and looked at my wife, Shannon.

By way of background, I had been thinking of writing a thriller for several years. I love thrillers and thought I could use my background in finance, politics, and the energy industry as part of a book about terror coming to American soil. But as much as I thought about it, I never actually started writing. So on this particular morning, I told Shannon for the first time how I wanted to write a book.

“Then get up and start writing,” she said. And I did. That morning, I wrote what became the first chapter of my first book, Power Down.

ST: How long did it take you to complete your first novel?

BC: Oh, man, just answering this question brings back horrible memories. It took about two years, maybe a little more. The actual first draft took about six months. The editing process took much longer.

I’ve always known how to write, but the construction of a novel isn’t just about words. It’s about pace, plot, character development, tension, and a million other things. My first stab at Power Down was a well-written mess. So I sought out help in the form of an experienced editor, a veteran of the publishing industry who’d worked with a number of authors. Using an analogy he took from the worked of architecture, he politely explained to me that I’d built a house but placed the kitchen on the third floor, the garage in the basement, and that I was missing a roof. In other words, I had to learn how to build a real novel.

If I’m a successful author, it’s because I listen to advice and guidance. It’s a very important quality to have as a novelist. I learned that skill working as a White House-appointed speechwriter. My boss, Betty, was a tough critic, and thank God for that. A writer needs tough critics. Most people don’t like to have their work torn apart and criticized. But it’s absolutely essential if you want to be a novelist.

ST: Your characters feel so real, are they based on any real people you have met while working with the government?

BC: Well, first of all, thanks for saying that. The most important thing I’m trying to create in my books is authenticity. My characters are a mixture of people I know and people I imagine. I like to take qualities I like in some of my favorite people, or dislike in some of the people I don’t like, and embed them in the characters in my books. Sometimes, as in the case of Teddy Marks, from Power Down, the character is based entirely on someone real. The real life Teddy was my godfather. He was a Navy SEAL who fought in Vietnam. He was a very important part of my life until his death from cancer a couple years ago. Teddy helped me understand certain key operational aspects to covert war, and certain experiences he had are re-created in my books, including the final battle scene in Coup d’État, my second book.

The hardest challenge to making a character feel real is how you do it with characters that are not based on real people. Dewey Andreas, my hero, is a good example. He’s made up, and yet for my readers, and for me, he feels real. Why? I think it’s because I endeavor to show him in his raw light, with his flaws and his strengths, and to show those little moments that we all have, the unglamorous moments. At the end of The Last Refuge, Dewey plays a game of quarters with a buddy. It’s one of my favorite scenes.

ST: Your thrillers stand apart from the rest because they are ground very much in the real world. Do you believe this enhances the experience for the reader?

BC: Thanks for saying that. I believe very strongly that the best thrillers use current events as a foundational element to the plot. I want current dangers and threats to play an actual role in my books versus simply using current events as ornamentation or backdrop. The reason I do this is because, for the reader, hopefully the feeling they get is that what they’re reading could in fact happen.

Power Down is about terrorists attacking a U.S. energy company. Coup d’État is about India and Pakistan and their ongoing conflict, a conflict which is especially perilous today due to the fact that both countries possess nuclear weapons, and one of the countries, Pakistan, is 98 percent Muslim and filled with jihadists. The Last Refuge is about Iran and Israel, and Iran’s ongoing surreptitious work to develop a nuclear bomb. Eye for an Eye, my fourth book, involves China’s ongoing technological war against America, a war which U.S. policy makers are only beginning to do something about. My next book, Independence Day, is about nuclear weapons that were formerly in the possession of the Soviet Union; it features an attack on the U.S. that one source of mine, a former high-ranking Pentagon official, told me was the number one terror threat facing America.

ST: What affect did your background have on your writing?

BC: My background is important in two ways. First, I worked at the White House and on several political campaigns. I think I understand that world where politics and national security intersect.

More important than the experiences I’ve had, however, was the training I had as a speechwriter. That’s when I learned how to have my work edited; to welcome feedback no matter how harsh.

ST: What is your writing process? Do you outline?

BC: I wake up very early – usually around 5:00 a.m. – and start writing. I am almost never psyched to start but I do it anyway because, if you are a writer, you write. No matter what you feel like, you write. Writing for me is a blue-collar job, like laying bricks or hammering nails. Writers write, not because they feel like it, because oftentimes you don’t. Writers write because they have to.

I don’t outline because I think it robs a thriller of the spontaneity a thriller needs. My best scenes invariably are the result of in-the-moment ideas I have while writing a scene; unplanned and therefore unpredictable, the way actual ops unfold.

ST: What advice do you give to new writers? 

BC: If you want to be a writer, you must write. Writers write. If you don’t write, you’re not a writer.

To write every day, there are steps you can take to help make it easier. Establish a routine. I like early in the day because you get it out of the way, and also because I don’t like writing at night, though I often do write at night. Set an operational goal for your writing—either word count or page count. I need to write five pages a day. That’s my minimum. Sometimes I can do that in an hour, sometimes it takes 18 hours. But if I don’t produce those five pages, I feel like I’ve failed that day.

Keep writing until you have a completed book. Don’t give up. When you do finish, then it’s time to get help. Be patient. Find the right people to help you. Don’t just start firing off a completed manuscript until you know it’s good. The process of finding an agent and ultimately a publisher is the last mile of a 26.2 mile marathon. You want to go into that final mile with your best possible work.

ST: Can you please give us one random fact about yourself?

BC: I go through about a bottle of Sriracha a week.

To learn more about Ben Coes, check out his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @authorbencoes.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Getting Over Writer's Block: 9 Questions With Annalise Sierra

Annalise Sierra

By Sean Tuohy

One of the key elements of writing is that you have to share your writings with others. If you’re like me, you nervously hand your work-in-process to a peer and hope they don't notice all the misspellings. However, there are plenty of other ways to share, such as Annalise Sierra’s The Writer's Block. The Reno, Nev.-based showcase is an open mic for writers to help others share and craft their work.

Sierra was recently able to sit and chat a little bit about her on going showcase and to discuss the finer points of reading your work in public.

Sean Tuohy: Tell us about your background. What is your back story?

Annalise Sierra: Well, I might as well tell you, I was quite the rebellious child. To add to my charm, I happened to be very stubborn with an incredible will to (almost always) break my mother's strict rules for safety. The only peace she ever had from me was when I would get lost in a book or was busy writing poetry.

She taught me to read and write when I was close to 4 years old, but comprehension probably didn't kick in until much later. I was very fortunate she taught me these two essentials at an early age because it helped me search for answers I wasn't sure I was looking for.

I remember when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I decided to start my own business. I was writing poems in rhyme for my neighbors in my apartments. It was a friendly community so I wasn't shy about putting some poetry in their mail slots. I kindly asked for a quarter if they liked my work. I was giving it away for free. That's how you lure them in.

I'll never forget how embarrassed my mother felt when she found out I was asking our neighbors for quarters. She felt embarrassed, but I felt proud. This was probably one of the rare times I actually knew what I wanted out of life. I was sure (and, without a doubt, know) I could write every single day of my life and it would never get old.

ST: Where did the idea for The Writer's Block come from?

AS: I heard there was going to be a writing show at my favorite open mic, RMP (Reno Music Project) Acoustic Open Mic at Wildflower Village. I approached the man who was coordinating the events at the time, Michael Mac Millan. I pretty much threw myself at him (respectfully, of course) and did my best to convince him I'd be the best host ever. He eventually caved, but he claims he caved rather quickly and invited me to the Wildflower meeting the following Tuesday and bam: The Writer's Block was born.

ST: How long have you been running the show?

AS: I am proud to say I've been running this show since the very beginning. March 13, a month after my birthday exactly. The Writer's Block seemed like a late birthday present, but one worth waiting for and a dream come true.

ST: Is it hard for writers to go on stage and share their work?

AS: Hey now, writers are people too! We come in different shapes and sizes, as well as different egos and capacities for how much attention we can handle in a 10-minute set. People who read short stories or parts of their novel seem to go much smoother because you read until your time is up. Poets are a little different. There is something about them. They seem to be shy, and stay shy, no matter how many times they've been to the show. They still blush a little when you compliment their work. It's endearing to hear their words from their lips: personal, touching, raw.

ST: What is the most common type of story read at the event?

AS: Honestly, I don't think we have "common.” Us writers seem to be an unusual bunch. We have a funny man in a red suit and hat, a charming cowboy who is very authentic, a barefoot monk, a cross-dresser who teases us with steamy stories from when he used to be a call boy, a lovely schoolteacher who speaks boldly about love, and a very tall poet on the shy side and surprises me with his dark work. We always have a new crowd to listen in and enjoy our intimate setting of tea light candles and barely enough lights on because I still get shy on stage. The Writer's Block is like a safe haven for writers.

ST: What is the most interesting story you have heard someone share on stage?

AS: Of all the characters I mentioned, the cross-dresser stands out the most. Not because of the obvious, but because he clearly knows how to tease the crowd with a good story. Week after week, he's tortured and teased us with the juiciest parts of the story just when his time was up. He's shocking, unexpected, and sincerely human.

ST: Has there even been a bad reading?

AS: We have never had a bad reading. Writers get nervous sharing their work, but I never felt it was "bad.” I've always felt it made them honest.

ST: What does the future hold for The Writer's Block?

AS: I'm not sure what the future holds for The Writer's Block, but I can tell you I hope this show sticks around and remains a rock for writers who need an escape so they may share their words with a crowd who wants to hear it, and not just because the writers need to release it.

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

AS: I am the kind of person who thinks "spicing things up" means reading a book from the last chapter first and going from there. I'd rather know how it ends and see how it came to be. The end isn't always the end. The beginning is.

To find out more about Annalise Sierra and The Writer's Block, check out the official website.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Perry Mason Disciple: 10 Questions With Crime Writer J.T. Ellison

J.T. Ellison

By Sean Tuohy

You know those things that go bump in the night? Most of us tend to hide under the covers. The New York Times best-selling author J.T. Ellison runs toward the sound with a flashlight in one hand and a note pad in the other.

With the help of favorite television lawyer Perry Mason, Ellison took her love for the macabre and mystery a step further and began writing novels about killers, cops, and everything in between. Her next novel, The Lost Key, was written with Catherine Coulter and comes out Sept. 30.

I sat down with Ellison to talk about her career, Perry Mason, and what the future holds.

ST: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

JTE: I read very early, and was advanced for my age. So I was probably 8 years old and was writing some poetry and little short stories. I received my first rejection at 10 years old. My grandmother sent a poem I’d written to True Confessions magazine. Of course they said no…it was about slavery!

ST: You lived in rural Colorado and than moved to Washington D.C. Did this have an affect on your writing later in life?

JTE: I think it did. I was very sheltered in Colorado. We lived on a dirt road 40 minutes from the nearest town. There was a great group of über-smart people around, but it was small, and while my parents were wonderful about exposing me to culture, D.C. was so much more accessible and immediate. Politics permeated every discussion. We could go to the symphony and opera all the time, and did. There were so many different kinds of people, from all over the world. It was incredibly different, and helped round me out.

ST: How long did it take you to complete your first novel?

JTE: About a year. I did six months of research before I started writing. But I had a lot of stops and starts until I settled down to it full-time in 2003.

ST: Can you describe what influence Perry Mason had on your writing?

JTE: I thought Perry Mason was God when I was growing up—not a god, but God himself. No flowing beards and pearly gates. When I said my nightly prayers, it was a sober man in a black suit I was talking to. That may be where my crime fiction fascination came from.

ST: What draws you to crime fiction? Is it the mystery, the characters, the problem solving?

JTE: All of it. I’m fascinated by how awful people can be to one another. How cutthroat and mean and deadly. And how some people will fight to stop those capable of committing such heinous acts. I like white hats and black hats, like examining the why behind the crimes and the effect crime has on normal people.

ST: What is your writing process like?

JTE: I write daily, and shoot for 1,000 words a day. I do business first thing and really settle into my writing day around 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. I write until my husband gets home, with an hour break for lunch. I definitely do my best work in the late afternoon. I am not a morning person. There’s a lot of tea being pumped into my system.

ST: Do you have an in-depth research process?

JTE: I used to. I did a lot of hands-on work—ride-alongs, autopsies, and interviewing everyone I could find. Now it’s catch as catch can, skimming the important parts and supplementing on the go as I write. I have a great assistant who can grab details for me, and I read a lot of non-fiction. So much of my work is topical, sometimes too topical. So I can do research by reading the daily news.

ST: What does the future hold for J.T. Ellison?

JTE: More books, and more writing. I have a few more under contract right now, and ideas for more to come. The mass market of When Shadows Fall releases Aug. 26, the mass market of my first collaboration book, The Final Cut, with Catherine Coulter, comes out Sept. 2. The Lost Key, also with Catherine, comes out Sept. 30, and my next Dr. Samantha Owens book is due out in June 2015. No rest for the wicked, eh?

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

JTE: Read everything you can get your hands on. Read in your genre so you know what’s out there and what the standards are. Read Stephen King’s On Writing and Elizabeth George’s Write Away. Make lists. Journal. Anytime something strikes your fancy, write it down. Work everyday. Guard your writing time, it is your most precious commodity. Don’t give up. Simultaneously submit. Believe in yourself. If you’re hitting roadblocks, read The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. If you have real writer’s block, try The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

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

JTE: I like golf. I am inches from being a crazy cat lady. And I am a really good shot with a pistol (Did I mention I am not a fan of math?).

To learn more about J.T. Ellison, check out her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @thrillerchick.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Humble And Honest: Author Wally Lamb On How He Explores Truth

Wally Lamb

By Daniel Ford

I was in high school when my mother lent me her copy of Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True.

At that time, I was still finding my way as a reader. I was reading classics on my own and in class, but was just starting to branch out into modern fiction.

Lamb’s critically acclaimed novel was like a thunderbolt to my young mind. I may not have fully appreciated his characterization or writing style at that age, but I was enough of a reader to know great writing when I saw it and I Know This Much Is True is superb prose. In college, a good friend of mine—who has read everything Lamb has ever published—recommended I go back and read She’s Come Undone. The novel remains one of the best I’ve ever read. It’s a masterpiece that should be required reading.

Lamb published his latest novel, We Are Water, in October 2013 and it features deep, well-thought out characters and a memorable multi-narrator structure (the paperback edition is available Aug. 12). He talked to me recently about how he caught the writing bug, how he lets his protagonists take the wheel, and how his work with the York Correctional Institution has affected his writing.

Daniel Ford: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Wally Lamb: When I was a kid, I wasn’t particularly interested in writing or reading, but I loved to draw. My specialties were cartoons and comic books. It was only in retrospect that I realized I was preparing myself for a life as a writer with this hobby. I began writing fiction in earnest the summer I was 30. This was also the summer that I became a first-time dad, so for me the two are intertwined.

DF: As a Connecticut boy myself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask how growing up in Connecticut influenced your early writing and your subsequent career.

WL: My hometown, Norwich, housed the largest state hospital for the mentally ill in Connecticut. The hospital campus both scared and fascinated me when I was a boy. And I’m from eastern Connecticut, which afforded me a different upbringing than if I’d grown up in the western part of the state. We root for the Red Sox, not the Yankees. We drop our "R’s" like Bostonians. I’ve quipped that western Connecticut is paté, and eastern Connecticut is liverwurst. My family was largely working class, as are most of my characters.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you outline? Listen to music?

WL: I sometimes envy writers who can outline their stories and then write toward some preconceived ending. That seems like it would be a much more efficient way to write a novel than the way I do it, which is to write in a character’s voice and allow that character to take me into a story and reveal himself or herself a little at a time. The plot evolves from what the character reveals and I have no idea when I begin where the story will take me. For instance, when I wrote my second novel, I Know This Much Is True, I began with the angry voice of a character named Dominick. I had no idea then that he had a brother, much less an identical twin, or that that twin’s mental illness would circumscribe his own life into adulthood.

DF: She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True were best-sellers, featured on Oprah’s Book Club, and put you on the map as a writer. What were those early experiences like and how did they shape your mindset and career going forward?

WL: She’s Come Undone was picked by Oprah in 1997 (five years after its publication) and I Know This Much Is True in 1998, right after I finished that novel. It was like a pair of rides on a really cool roller coaster: a little scary but mostly fun. But then the ride was over and it was time to go to work on a new novel. The success of the first two novels intimidated me for a while; I was afraid to write because I was afraid to fail. My insecurity kept suggesting that I was a fake and that now everyone would find out. I had to let go of my focus on my readers’ reactions and rededicate myself to the reason why I started writing fiction in the first place: to discover and explore my own truths honestly and humbly.

DF: One of the defining characteristics of your novels is well-rounded characters that realistically and poignantly struggle to become better people. What’s your approach to character development?

WL: My approach is to sit in the passenger seat and let the protagonist drive the story. Slowly, the character reveals what I need to know: is he or she a reliable or unreliable narrator? Do other characters need to speak up, too? Does the main character’s childhood reveal who this person has become as an adult? After I complete a draft, I then have to begin again, going deeper with the knowledge I’ve accrued about this person. The real writing begins once you start sculpting the lump of clay you’ve generated—in other words, revising your highly imperfect initial draft.

DF: How has your experience as a volunteer facilitator at York Correctional Institution, a women’s prison in Connecticut, influenced your writing and how has it affected you in general?

WL: Through their writing and discussion, the incarcerated women with whom I work have opened my eyes to many realities about which I was previously ignorant: the injustice of the justice system with regard to people of color for one; the lack of mercy and relative indifference to rehabilitation in the American penal system for another; for a third, the sad fact that the majority of incarcerated women were victims of incest and/or violence as children. This has not only informed my fiction to some degree but also made me what I call an “accidental activist” for fairer treatment of our imprisoned populations. Once you hear the stories and see what sometimes goes on in prison, you can no longer unsee and unhear these things. Denial is no longer an option.

DF: There are multi-year gaps between your novels—including, of course, your collection of essays. Is that because of your teaching schedule or is your writing/editing process more deliberate than most writers?

WL: Both, I think, and also because I’m a pokey writer and, during bad writing stretches, a procrastinator.

DF: Was your writing process any different for your most recent novel We Are Water?

WL: Yes. We Are Water is not told by a single narrator, but by eight different voices: four female, four male. Thus, the story becomes a mosaic rather than a straight narrative that takes the reader from point A to point B and so on. This way of revealing the story allows the reader to become more interactive, I think. You have to decide whose viewpoints you trust and whose you don’t. Different readers root for different characters. I’m told that this makes for an interesting book discussion because not everyone is on the same page.

DF: Where did the inspiration for We Are Water come from and how did you go about developing your main characters?

WL: The novel has two non-fictional antecedents, both from my hometown. The first was a devastating flood that occurred in 1963; it destroyed much of the property in its path and took five lives. The second is what happened to an outside artist named Ellis Ruley, who painted obsessively but could not sell his work during his lifetime. He died under mysterious circumstances and his work is now prized by collectors of American folk art. The way I developed the story and the characters was by starting with these real-life events and people and then weaving a network of fabrications until they became their own thing. The actual flood and the life and death of Ellis Ruley were merely springboards into the fiction.

DF: All of the characters in the Oh family undergo a dramatic life change by the end of the novel. How do you decide which characters will find themselves stronger and which characters will be a lost cause?

WL: I don’t believe in lost causes, necessarily; I think that even a despicable character like Kent Kelly, who dies without redemption, could have been redeemed had he believed what I believe: that love is stronger than hatred, that good can triumph over evil. To ask how I “decide” the fate of my characters is to assume that I’m in control like an omnipotent god or a puppeteer pulling strings. It just doesn’t happen that way for me. The story gradually reveals itself to me. I don’t really feel as if I am in control.

DF: What advice do you give to up-and-coming writers?

WL: Humble yourself to the challenge of revision and seek feedback from others. Also, give feedback to other writers. I participate in writers’ groups and that has always been part of my process.

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

WL: I recently made a cameo appearance in the film version of my comic novella Wishin’ and Hopin’, which will be released later this year. I play a janitor—pretty funny because in real life I can’t fix a damn thing.

To learn more about Wally Lamb, check out his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @WallyLambAuthor.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Upheaval and Innovation: Author Shawn Vestal On Writing and the Current State of Journalism

Shawn Vestal

By Daniel Ford

Perusing through The New York Times Book Review recently, I came across a book with a title that I loved instantly.

Godforsaken Idaho.

I don’t know why it hit me the way it did, but when things like that happen, you don’t question it and immediately email the writer to see if he or she is willing to sit down for an interview.

Author Shawn Vestal was more than willing and provided insight into his praised collection of short stories, his writing process, and the current state of journalism.

Daniel Ford: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Shawn Vestal: I always had an interest in language and reading, from a very early age, and my teachers often encouraged me and praised my writing. So I would imagine it was kind of twofold—I had an interest/aptitude, and then I developed it. I wrote my first poems and stories when I was in high school and college, but I sort of dinked around with that kind of writing while working as a journalist as a young adult. I didn’t work on it as hard as I could have.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you outline? Listen to music?

SV: I just open the laptop and go. Usually, I’m sitting on the little couch in my office at home, but sometimes I’ll move around. I never listen to music while writing, and I try to write for a sustained period before ever dipping a toe into email or the Internet. More and more, I recognize the crucial importance of the time I spend away from the keyboard, thinking about what I’m working on, unconsciously preparing for the next burst of writing. Because my week is divided between journalism and fiction-writing, I usually have gaps of a few days between fiction writing, and in those gaps I try to think through problems or spend time in the mind of the characters. Often, I write quickly and for an appallingly short period of time –a three-hour bout at the keyboard is about as far as I can go, in terms of breaking fresh imaginative ground—and I often write less than that in a sitting, though I can edit and tinker for longer.

DF: As someone who was trained as a journalist and made a living at it for a couple of years, I have to ask what you think of the current state of journalism and why was it something you pursued when you first started out? Also, what’s the most entertaining story you ever worked on?

SV: I fell into journalism accidentally. I was an English major at the University of Idaho in the 1980s, and I dropped out, intending to earn money and return. Instead, I took a job at my hometown weekly newspaper and found that I really loved the work. I moved around the West to different papers, and have now settled at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. , where I am a columnist. It’s a pretty great job. I feel very lucky to have it.

The current state of the business is, of course, struggling. I think that newspapers in particular have seen their means of earning money—and therefore paying for journalism—suffer, and we’re going through a time of all sorts of upheaval and innovation. It’s been bad news, so far at least, for the kind of deeper, investigative reporting at the community and state level. But I’m not sure what journalism will look like eventually. Those of us weaned on the old model frankly don’t have the eyes to imagine it. I think that the essence of journalism, and not the business of it, is what is crucial: reporting on the powerful, serving citizens, and holding government accountable. There is too little truly excellent journalism in the world, but that is not new. I think that the demise of old forms of media don’t at all mean that journalism will go away.

DF: How much of yourself—and the people you have daily interactions with—did you put into your main characters?

SV: I suppose I put only myself into my characters—it’s all I have, really. But I very rarely do it directly and I have never “fictionalized” a real person who I know—taken a real person or circumstance and made a story out of it. What happens is, in the course of invention, I draw upon my own experiences, and so I use bits and pieces of people and my past to patch things together.

DF: We’re big fans of the short story here at Writer’s Bone. What drew you to write short stories originally and why do you think this mode of storytelling is so compelling to readers?

SV: I loved Flannery O’Connor in high school, and Raymond Carver a short while after that. Both made me want to write stories myself. I think there’s something about the compressed impact a great story can have—such potency and such brevity—that I simply want to keep trying to write a great one.

DF: Your collection of short stories “Godforsaken Idaho” has garnered positive reviews since its release in April 2013. How did you go about compiling the stories you wanted to include?

SV: I looked at the stories I had published that I thought were the strongest, and then tried to consider how, or whether, they fit together. Several of my stories have Mormon elements in them, and that became a unifying thread. Ultimately, I organized the stories to move backward in time – from a future afterlife to a fictionalized story about the founder of the Mormon Church in the 1800s. The stories are loosely connected and organized. I want it to feel unified, but it stops well short of a strongly linked collection like Jesus Son or Olive Kittredge.

DF: Having never been to Idaho, what, if anything, do I need to know about the state before I dive into “Godforsaken Idaho?”

SV: For one thing, the Idaho of the book and the title is not the Idaho. It’s not my comment on the state; it’s meant to convey two elements of the book: a sense of existential isolation of many of the characters, and the surreal or extreme types of things that are included, whether it’s an afterlife or a haunting.

DF: When you finished “Godforsaken Idaho,” did you know you had something good right away and how did you go about getting it published?

SV: I never know if I have anything good. I still wish I could revise some things in the stories. The book was published by the more or less traditional route. I got an agent, who submitted the book to publishers, and she persuaded one of them to bite.

DF: What’s next for you following the success of “Godforsaken Idaho?”

SV: I’m trying to write a novel.

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

SV: A lot of very mundane things. Read and write a lot. Work hard. Do not wait around for inspiration—inspiration comes more often when you’re working than when you’re waiting. If you find yourself stuck or blocked, allow yourself to write lines of nonsense, to invent ridiculous scenarios, to write something very, very bad. Lower your standards to get yourself moving, and then raise them again in editing and revision. Find writers you can share your work with and share honest critiques with.

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

SV: I stopped having anxiety dreams about showing up unprepared on the final day of class as a student, and started having anxiety dreams about showing up unprepared for the first day of class as the instructor.

To learn more about Shawn Vestal, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @vestal13.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Writing Testosterone: 8 Questions With Screenwriter William C. Martell

William C. Martell

By Sean Tuohy

A working screenwriter is as versatile as a well-trained Green Beret. They have to jump in to the middle of hazardous production, fight elements like bratty actors and loud producers, and punch up new pages on the fly while the whole production team waits for them.

William C. Martell is one of those screenwriters and has been producing scripts for more than 20 years. He's earned a solid Hollywood career by penning action thrillers, horror flicks, and noir films. Martell also give newbies plenty of screenwriting tips and advice on his blog "Script Secrets" and in his book Secrets of Action Screenwriting.

I recently talked with Martell about his career, how screenwriting has changed since he has entered the business, and what is next for the script guru.

Sean Tuohy: When did you know you wanted to become a writer? Did you always know you wanted to be a screenwriter?

William C. Martell: When I was a kid and I told all kinds of crazy stories and got punished for lying...so I had to find some way to get paid instead of punished. As a kid, I did everything from little plays in my backyard to making my own comic books and giving them to friends. I loved movies, but had no idea that someone wrote them, and for sure I couldn’t do something like that in my home town. My grandfather’s business was water wells and farm irrigation, so I figured I’d end up digging ditches for a living (literally). My father painted and installed signs, so during summers I’d often have to help carry heavy signs up ladders so they could be bolted onto the fronts of buildings. That was the other job I might have ended up doing, while making short stories, comic books, and little plays my hobby.

I loved movies, so I got a job at the local movie theater at 15 and a half years old and got to see movies for free (including R-rated movies). Around this time, I was also making short films with an 8mm camera and later a Super 8mm camera. Somewhere in there I discovered this business that sold actual screenplays from movies and television shows and ordered some and thought “I could do this!” Of course, I was hundreds of miles from Hollywood, so I just continued making short films (and a Super 8mm feature, which was a bad idea at the time). My first script sale was to a local production company that was making low budget kung fu movies. A decade of working in a warehouse later, I sold a script to a company on the Paramount lot.

ST: You have written everything from techo-thrillers to noir. Do you find it challenging to switch from genre to genre? 

WCM: I write testosterone. My home genre would probably be Hitchcock-style thrillers (which is why I have the first of three books on screenplays and Hitchcock out on Amazon), but my Super 8mm feature was a private eye movie. I then did that kung fu movie (and wrote a kung fu sci fi script that was supposed to be shot next, but that didn’t happen). The script I sold to Paramount was a noir script called "Courting Death." That got me to Hollywood, where a second noir script, "Treacherous," sold and was made, followed by "Implicated" (more noir!) and then a sci fi kung fu movie! Cable networks like USA, HBO, and Showtime began making their own films and that sci fi kung fu script was an HBO World Premiere Movie. The techno- thrillers came from trying to sell another script to that HBO producer. I’d read an article in Variety about U.S. Navy cooperation on films—where the Navy allows you to shoot on Aircraft Carriers and film SEAL Teams doing exercises for free—so I wrote a script targeting cooperation. The producer realized he could basically do "Hunt for Red October" on an HBO budget, and I made a sale. I continued writing techno- thrillers for a while. I also wrote action films, which led to all kinds of studio meetings on scripts that never managed to get made (on the average, for every 10 scripts they buy, they only make one). That led to writing my book Secrets of Action Screenwriting. I have a spy script that almost got made *ages* ago, kind of a kid Indiana Jones script that was optioned by a Hollywood company when I was still living in my home town, and all kinds of other “testosterone” scripts.

ST: What films influenced you early on?

WCM:  I write the kind of movies I’ve paid to see, so everything from Bogart films to Hitchcock films (especially "Rear Window," North by Northwest," "Psycho," and "Notorious") to "Chinatown" to "Point Blank" to James Bond movies to "Dirty Harry" to "Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein" to "Mysterious Island." As a kid, I’d watch horror movies and science fiction films and Sherlock Holmes movies that played on Saturday afternoons on television. And I read a ton of books (still do) and sometimes read the book before the movie or the movie pointed me to the book (for example, "Point Blank" sent me to Richard Stark, "Double Indemnity" sent me to James M. Cain, "Rear Window" sent me to Cornell Woolrich).

ST: Do you have any scripts that are stuck in "development hell?"

WCM: A stack of them! As I said, usually for every 10 you sell (or are hired to write) only one gets made. In 2007, I had two films come out the same day—one with Steven Segal, one without—and since then everything has either stalled or died along the way. A couple of years ago, I wrote the remake of a hit 1980s horror flick for a big name producer, but it hasn't been made. I wrote a big action script that takes place in Finland, a funny creature feature about giant killer frogs, a horror script about an elevator that craves blood, and a whole bunch of other scripts for producers where I got paid but the film never got made. Some of these went as far as to have posters designed before something happened and they ended up on the shelf. You get used to this after a while. "Courting Death" would pop up in Variety and Hollywood Reporter every few years when they hired another director or star and then it would fall apart again. David Fincher was the director on that one for a couple of months. The problem becomes scheduling, getting all of the people you need to get the movie off the ground in the right combination at the right time. On a recent project, we needed a star and a director that wanted to work with that star and we would either have one or the other. Star on board, but no director. Director on board, but no star. It went back and forth like that for almost two years before they just moved on to another project. It’s a miracle if any script gets made in Hollywood.

The “development hell” part comes when some star drops out of a project and the producer thinks that they need to completely change the script before they send it to the next star so that it’s “fresh.” They decide maybe your western should take place on Mars and you have to do the Martian rewrite, which, of course, doesn’t work. So the producer thinks, "Maybe if the Martians were really Nazis who fled to the angry red planet after World War II?" And you write that version and it doesn’t work. And then they “replace you” aka they fire you) and bring in some other writer to try the Nazi Martian western version, and when that doesn’t work the producer thinks maybe it can take place in Iceland, because he just vacationed there and it was really cool. So that new writer does an Iceland Martian Nazi western script...and on and on into the night. The strange part is that sometimes they make one of these crapfests and your name is still on it, but it doesn’t resemble anything you wrote. Oh, and it sucks (obviously).

One of the reasons I started writing articles and books on writing is that I was in control of those things. My column for Script Magazine (which ran for 20 years) was never going to sit on a shelf because the magazine was going to hit newsstands and be mailed to subscribers. If I wrote it, it went to print. My website, www.scriptsecrets.net, has a free screenwriting article every day and my blog, which are things that I can write and instantly people can read them. None of the frustration of writing a bunch of scripts that sell or assignments for pay, and having the projects get shelved when a star backs out to take a job with Clint Eastwood (that happened).

The Blue Book expansion thing is folding those 20 years of columns for Script Magazine into some old booklets I wrote in 2002 and turning them into full-sized books, which are instantly published on Amazon Kindle and people are reading them the next day. After a big project I’d been working on got put on hold by the producer at the beginning of this year, I wrote a couple of short stories and they were on sale at Amazon in 12 hours! The frustration of being a screenwriter is depending on a bunch of other people in order to get your story to the audience. For every movie you see listed on IMDB there are nine other scripts that you do a lot of work on, but no one will ever see them.

ST: What is your writing processing? Do you have any pre- or post-writing rituals?

WCM:  My main writing ritual is to sacrifice a movie producer with a special scimitar and then...oh, wait...you mean the stuff that’s not crazy psycho stuff?

Because I was writing scripts with a 40 hour a week day job, I tried to find the best method to get things done writing a limited time every day. That ended up being outlining the script and breaking it into manageable pieces that I could work on every day before work. I would basically do a bullet point outline listing the scenes of my script, and work that outline until it made sense and there was no fat. Then I’d write two or three scenes a week, at least one good page a day, and that added up to finished scripts.

I still do that now, just with more pages per day because I don’t have that pesky day job. By the way, this helps when I have an assignment with a deadline, because I know if I write "X" number of pages a day I’ll end up with a completed script by the deadline. I like to finish two or more days earlier to do a quick rewrite to fix things before sending it to the producer. I have a home office that almost never gets used because I bicycle from coffee shop to coffee shop in Los Angeles (and often parks), and try to write five pages a day. The cycling gets my blood flowing and gives me time to think. My job is sitting on my butt, so I before bicycling I was looking like Jabba the Hutt. Coffee shops are less distractions than working at home for me because there’s nothing else I can do there. I have headphones and listen to movie music from whatever kind of script I’m working on, and when I look up from the laptop screen I have a window on the world, people around me who might spark some idea. Plus, coffee is close by at all times. I switch up my locations often, so that when I look up at my window on the world it’s interesting.

ST: How has the screenwriting world changed since you first entered?

WCM:  Many different ways. Those HBO movies I used to write? Don’t exist anymore. I had a friend who made horror films "for" Blockbuster. They paid him to make six films a year as Blockbuster Exclusives because horror has loyal fans and exclusive movies would bring them into the stores. Blockbuster isn’t around anymore. If Hollywood stopped making some kind of film to focus on superhero movies or whatever, there were other places that would make those movies. Now many of those places are gone. So we have great television shows now on cable networks, but no movies. So it’s more difficult to get things made.

Because studios are focusing more on “branded” entertainment (stuff that is already insanely popular in some other medium) the market for original scripts is tough. Original scripts are basically job applications for some writing assignment working on those scripts in development hell, trying to break it out into production.

Screenplays themselves have gone through an evolution. About 15 years ago these people began popping up on message boards who thought screenwriting should be more than a document designed to make a film. It should be "literature." Now that some of those people are in the biz, screenplays have become “great reads” that sometimes may not make very good films. Though you want a script that is a “good read” you also want it to work as that blueprint for the film. This is a weird trend, and part of it is due to “the business of development” that sprang up. If most scripts are never going to be movies, let’s just not focus on that movie thing! We’ve ended up with these little factories that develop scripts that are separate from the business of making films.  Producers just want you to work for free on some script that’s probably never going to be made instead of changing their methods because studios are cutting back. The problem as a writer is we don’t know what projects will happen and which will not. So far, I’ve managed to get paid on every project, but that’s because I turn down unpaid gigs. Because the business continues to evolve, I suspect the “unpaid work” will shift back to the old model where there was less pointless “busywork” and scripts are focused on becoming films.

The great thing happening in screenwriting? When I turned from making my own films to writing scripts because I could no longer afford film and processing, I basically became Hollywood’s bitch. I work for "The Man." But now there are people making films on their iPhones! Now you can make your own film, and that’s a big shift in how the business works. Instead of working for free for some producer who is never going to make our film, we can make a film ourselves. We can still work for "The Man and" sell screenplays or land assignments, but if we get frustrated with the system we can just go out and do it ourselves. That gives us power and that power can help when we are selling scripts and getting paid gigs. Hollywood is not the only game in town, and we can go make "Paranormal Activity" and make them pay a lot more later. And that may be one of the things that has lead to an increase in spec sales. Add to that, as Hollywood focuses on big tentpoles, there are foreign companies like Europa who have moved in to make genre films like "Three Days to Kill," "Brick Mansions," and "Lucy." New script buyers!

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

WCM: Write! Read screenplays to get a feel what they are supposed to read like, then just keep writing screenplays. I’m always amazed when someone on a message board says they are going to quit because they have written four scripts and Steven Spielberg hasn’t phoned yet. WTF? A survey by the WGA a while back showed that the average writer wrote (and rewrote until they were great) nine full length screenplays before they ever made a cent! You either love writing, or you’re in the wrong business! Writers write.

Other things: grab a crew position on a film set. Since people are making films all over the place now with Kickstarter campaigns and doing credit card movies, find some low budget folks in your area making a movie and work on it. Once you see how films are really made, it changes the way you write screenplays. You see what works and what doesn’t and understand the practical needs of production. Also, don’t limit yourself to screenplays. Writers write! So write short stories and novels and articles and whatever else you can. It’s like working out, you use different muscle combinations and that helps you overall. Someone who wants to be an Olympic 400 meter hurdle runner, you don’t only practice by running the 400 meter hurdles, you do all kinds of stuff. Oh, and find some film related job you can do. Learn editing or sound or some other set job. Those are great ways to earn a living and make contacts.

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

WCM:  I was born in the same hospital as Tom Hanks.

To learn more about William C. Martell, check out his official website or follow him on Twitter  @wcmartell.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Developing A Sense of Humor: 9 Questions With Stand-Up Comedian Slade Ham

Slade Ham

By Sean Tuohy

There are few stand-up comics that have the ability to grab you with one joke and keep you interested. Sometimes it takes some time to develop the right rhythm with the audience, and rarely does it happen with one punch line. That is unless you’re comedian Slade Ham.

I was lucky enough to discover Ham's work one night and his on-stage personality and delivery grabbed me and wouldn’t let me go. Recently, the Texas-based comic has been working as a radio DJ and podcast host in addition to spilling jokes on stage.

I chatted with Slade about his career in comedy, his first experience on stage, and the worst whiskey he’s ever had.

Sean Tuohy: What made you become a comic?

Slade Ham: It’s funny, because the things that made me want to be a comic aren’t the same things that still make me want to be a comic. I’ll answer this question the same way in the past: I was a rock DJ on the radio in my hometown, and a huge fan of stand-up throughout the 1990s, and I thought that my clever (in my mind anyway) quips on the air were somehow on par with the people I watched on A&E’s “Evening at the Improv.” It was the natural progression for a delusional 23-year-old.

The reality is that you don’t know anything in your early 20s. You just don’t. The truth was that I had already dropped out of college, moved to Dallas, failed at basic survival, moved home, was in the early stages of a bad relationship, and was scraping by as a bartender. Stand-up really was just one more attempt to find something I was good at. And of course there was the allure of being the center of attention, the guy on stage. What keeps me doing stand-up is that I feel like at 38, I have some pretty solid opinions about some things. I know who I am. I have stuff to say and the stage gives me a platform. At 23, I had nothing to say, even if I didn’t know that at the time. I just needed to feel like I was working toward something.

ST: What was your first time on stage like? Good, bad, or awful?

SH: It was a train wreck. I mean, people laughed, but civilians don’t always know better. Regular people laugh at “that’s what she said” jokes and “The Big Bang Theory.” I don’t say that to be condescending, but non-comedians have an underdeveloped sense of comedy. They think in one step. So to a room full of people in my hometown, people with very little exposure to mainstream stand-up, I definitely did well.

I was also paraphrasing bits from George Carlin and others in those first few weeks. I didn’t know any better. I corrected that really quickly though and I started sucking with my own material instead of someone else’s. No one is good their first time. You are good compared to having never done it before, but no one is good compared to the standard any pro would consider baseline.

ST: How long did it take you to develop your own voice as a comic?

SH: The adage is that it takes seven years. I think it was closer to 10 for me, but there were gaps in my schedule that delayed things. The thing is that your opinions and values change as you get older, so your voice has to as well. The whole concept of “voice” on stage is funny to me—it’s really about being authentic and being able to present what you have to say as honestly as possible. Once you learn to do that, all the other stuff falls into place. You don’t have to worry about whether you write a story or a one liner, or whether the tone of a bit “fits” your voice. You just start to write as “you.” Not only does it solve all those other problems but it simplifies your actual writing process as well. Some days I still feel like I’m working on that, but for the most part I figured out—really, really figured out—who I was on stage around the 10-year mark.

ST: Which stand-up comics influenced you?

SH: I was influenced very heavily by Carlin in the early stages. Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby remain my Holy Trinity of stand-ups. Pryor and Cosby, particularly in regard to storytelling, have turned out to be bigger influences than Carlin though.

ST: You are also a radio host and podcast host of The Whiskey Brothers. Do you approach these platforms differently from stand-up comedy?

SH: They really are such different mediums. When you are on the radio by yourself there is no instant gratification. It’s literally playing to an empty room. No feedback, no laughter, no interaction. Maybe the phone rings, maybe it doesn’t. It’s just you and the microphone. I really don’t know why anyone does it, honestly. I did it initially because at least in the 1990s there was a bit of a rockstar quality to the DJ. It’s what you did if you had no musical talent but still wanted to go to concerts and feel important.

With the podcast (and with "The Outlaw Dave Show"), it’s a group environment. There is interplay and improvisation and you are actually creating something with your peers. It’s a totally different environment than being on stage by yourself. And of course you have to maintain the control. You’re operating on a clock, there are breaks to think about, levels to watch, and a ton of other things to distract you from simply being funny.

ST: Some comics write whole jokes down while others just keep it all in their head. What is your creative process when coming up with a joke?

SH: I used to have a long writing process. I would write every new joke out verbatim. I would use way too many words. I would over think it ridiculously. Now, I do so much of it on stage. I trust myself to throw a loose idea out in the middle of a show and see what happens. I always bring one good punch line with me and if things don’t work, that’s my out. You can always follow it with something old and proven to redeem yourself. It’s the thing the drum into your head in defensive driving classes. Always leave yourself an out. I’m gonna brake check this asshole who’s tailgating me, but if he gets all road ragey I’m going to make sure I have some space to get out of the situation. Not that defensive driving course offer that level of aggressive driving technique, but they do teach you to leave an out. New jokes are sort of that dangerous.

Most of the really good lines in some of my stories have just happened on stage though. You really are in a different mindset during a show—much more free, much more creative, very much the same way that people are in hypnosis shows. There is no over thinking it. It’s live fire, funny or die. I have a huge respect for the guys that can just sit down with a notepad and write “jokes.” I am fascinated by that. I realize that that seems like a racecar driver not knowing how to drive a stick shift, but I really do suck at it.

ST: You are a well-known whiskey drinker. What is your least favorite whiskey to drink?

SH: I was given a bottle of something called Yukon Gold for the podcast once. It’s the only bottle I’ve ever given back to a fan. It tasted like feet and sadness.

ST: I have to ask, did the Asian woman at Dunkin' Donuts ever dial the other "1"?

SH: Haha, that’s such an old bit but such a very true story. Kudos for knowing some of my old stuff that well. I’ve told the stage version of it so many times that I’ve forgotten what parts are true and which ones aren’t. What is true is that I was very much chased by my ex that night and I went to the Dunkin’ Donuts with the very sincere hope that a cop would be there. I remember laughing about that to myself even as her headlights raced toward me in the rearview mirror.

And she very much burst through the door and started throwing anything she could get her hands on—salt shakers, napkin holders, and then eventually one of those big drink machines got shoved off a counter and shattered the plate glass window. The only other person there was that poor little Chinese woman. It was two in the morning and I know I’m putting words in her mouth in the joke. As far as I actually remember, she just stood there as everything broke and watched. And I’m certain she pressed the “9” and both “1s” the second we left.

ST: What is one random fact about yourself?

SH: I take a toy Yoda with me everywhere I go and shoot pictures of him like one of those roaming gnomes. He’s been in something close to 15 countries with me since I got him last October, and I guard him as closely as I do my passport. There is a photo album with him on my Facebook and Flickr, and it’s gotten so bad that people no longer care what I’m doing; they just want to see Yoda in cool places.

To learn more about Slade Ham, check out his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @sladeham.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Loving the Music of Language: 9 Questions With Novelist Peter Heller

Peter Heller (Photo credit John Burcham)

By Daniel Ford

I can’t tell you how many times I picked up Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars while frequenting bookstores in New York City. I may have read the entire book in aisles and walking around stores figuring out if I had enough money in my account to buy it (I didn’t).

I wasn’t the only one who fell hard for Heller’s post-apocalyptic story that centered around a man, his dog, and an airplane. It was a New York Times best-seller, the 2012 iTunes novel of the year, and an Atlantic Monthly best book of 2012.

Not bad for a first novel.

Heller took a timeout from promoting his new book The Painter to talk to me about loving the music of language, his early influences, and who he bases his characters on.

Daniel Ford: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Peter Heller: My father read to me every night before bed. Started when I was very small. I remember him reading e.e. cummings poems to me when I was six, “Buffalo Bill’s defunct…!” He was a writer and loved words and from that time it was all I wanted to do. When I was eleven, my school librarian handed me In Our Time, that beautiful collection of Ernest Hemingway stories, mostly about Nick Adams in Upper Michigan. My jaw dropped. I wanted to do that.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you outline? Listen to music?

PH: I write in a coffee shop. Music or no, it doesn’t matter. Something about the hubbub hones my focus. I write fiction starting with the first line. I just love the music of the language, and I let that music carry me into the story. I don’t plot much. I want to be as surprised as the reader, and I know that if I am thrilled, shocked, surprised, she will be, too.

DF: The Dog Stars put you on the map as a writer and was on a ton of best of lists in 2012. How did you go about publishing it and how did it feel to experience that kind of positive reaction for your first novel?

PH: I wrote the book in a white heat in seven months. My agent was bowled over and sold it in a week to Jenny Jackson at Knopf, who is the most wonderful editor. I was blown away by the response. First from the people at Knopf, then from Random House reps who travel the country to booksellers, then from the booksellers and readers. It hit a chord that people responded to in a very powerful way. I was amazed and kind of awed, deeply humbled, and grateful.

DF: The literary landscape is saturated, and in a sense always has been, with apocalyptic stories. During your writing process, what decisions did you make to ensure that The Dog Stars stood out?

PH: I didn’t! I just listened to Hig’s voice and wrote it as fast as I could. About three pages in, I realized, “Holy crap, I’m writing a post-apocalyptic novel. I don’t want to write a post-apocalyptic novel!” For one, I didn’t, as a first time novelist, want to be compared to Cormac McCarthy and The Road. But I could see that my character Hig had a certain joy of life and a sense of humor an that this was a different project, so I persisted.

DF: Your most recent novel, The Painter, is a genre switch, but also focuses on a character trying to survive and overcome the events surrounding him. What was the inspiration for the novel and was the writing process different the second time around?

PH: The process was similar to The Dog Stars. I began with a first line and let it rip. Soon it became apparent that the character narrating the story sounded a lot like my painter friend Jim Wagner. A lot. He has a similar backstory: he is a famous artist from Taos, he shot a guy in a bar, etc. And my character looked and sounded like the real Jim. So I had to call him up and ask permission. He is a huge hearted generous soul like the fictional Jim Stegner, so he laughed and said, “Keep going!” I had to thin a bit more in structuring this book; thought about what might happen next. But only in the broadest terms. The rest, as in The Dog Stars, was about letting the character tell his story, following the music of the language.

DF: Given the nature of The Dog Stars and The Painter, the readers spend a lot of time with your main characters. How much of yourself, or those you interact with on a daily basis, do you put into each character? How do you go about developing your character once you have him or her in your mind?

PH: Hig spoke and I listened and wrote. I suppose he is a lot like me. Except that he can cook! Jim Stegner, as I said, is wholly based on my artist friend Jim Wagner. It’s interesting to experiment with characters who are very similar to real people, characters who are composites, and characters who are wholly invented.

DF: Now that you have two well-received novels under your belt, what’s next?

PH: I’m beginning the third. Once you begin making it all up, there’s no going back.

DF: What advice do you give to up-and-coming writers?

PH: Write a certain amount of words every day, and once you hit that mark, continue a bit until you can stop in the middle of an exciting scene or thought. That way, you can’t wait to get up in the morning and begin again.

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

PH: I learned to catch trout by hand a few summers ago. A kid in Paonia, Colorado who is a master tracker taught me how. I’d always thought it was a myth.

To learn more about Peter Heller, check out his official website or like his Facebook page.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Discovering the Magic City's Musical Bermuda Triangle With Otto von Schirach‏

Otto von Schirach

By Danny DeGennaro and Sean Tuohy

Miami is, by its very nature, scuzzy, gaudy, intoxicating, and driven by hedonistic, selfish principles. One can either denounce the city, or draw inspiration from it. Otto von Schirach, like some ultra-zealous sexual anthropologist, drinks deeply from Miami's sewer water reservoir.

That his songs deal with debauchery isn't to say they aren't sincere. On the contrary, von Schirach's obsession with putting the squish and the viscera back into music and art is indicative of someone who's honestly interested in exploring the physical and psychological impact of relationships. For every errant beat, every tempo change, every breakneck yelp, the listener is pushed into self-awareness. His music demands user input, particularly when there's a funky ass break. Booties will most definitely shake. When von Schirach cites a Prince song, it's not to debase the original; it's to elevate it, to demonstrate that the high and the low aren't far apart, but one in the same.

I'll never forget my first real foray into Miami. I was outside of a tattoo parlor that was selling beer inside. My friend and I were both too young to drink by about a year, so we moped around the entrance, taking hateful swigs of rum out of a bottle we had brought. We got in my car and drove to get Mexican food while I played "Subatomic Disco Divas" at a volume that could induce spontaneous bowel movements. Otto von Schirach's music, for me, will always be a hazy ride up I-95 with all sense of responsibility blissfully, temporarily forgotten.

Do yourself a favor, read Sean Tuohy's interview with von Schirach and then gobble up all of his work if you haven't already.

Sean Tuohy: Who influenced you early on in your career?

OVS:  Cuban Folklore and Miami Nights, Morton Subotnick, Eazy E, Impetigo, Tom Waits, Vic da Kid. Too many to choose.

ST: When did you know that music was going be your calling? 

OVS: In 1989 when I DJ'ed my first house party. It was around midnight and the wall of woofer was sizzling. I put the needle on the record, and felt the earth shake.

ST: How did you get your start in the music business?

OVS: I started selling beats in the neighborhood, but before that I was a DJ for house parties.

ST: Your music is a very  unique sound that can be difficult to describe to someone who have never heard it before. How do you describe your own music to people?

OVS: A journey to the center of the Bermuda Triangle where you find sound vibrations that make you feel groovy.

ST: What drove you to create your avant-booty bass music?

OVS: I wanted to see earthlings freak their booty in a very avant-garde way!

ST: What is your creative process like? Do you have any rituals?

OVS: There are many secrets to the triangle. I use rituals. They help me express more emotion and capture more magic in the recordings.

ST: You are deeply connected to your hometown of Miami. Do you draw any inspiration for your music from the Magic City?

OVS: So much...

ST: What effect, if any,  did your cultural background have on your music?

OVS: Being raised Cuban, with big hints of Germanic blood, gave me a proper dose of weird.

ST: Besides your one of kind sound you have some of the most interesting song titles. Where do you come with song titles? 

OVS: Usually, the song tells me its name as I create it. The songs usually tell me some bizarre, unique name, so I just roll with it.

ST: You have this over the top on stage personality that really brings your live show to a whole another level. How much of that is you and how much of that is an act?

OVS: It's all real. That's all me. I also do gardening at home. That is also me. I do jujitsu. That is also me. I like to do many things. I am blessed.

ST: What does the future hold for Otto von Schirach?  Maybe run for mayor of Miami?

OVS: Good idea!

ST: If you had the chance to share the stage with any artist who it be?

OVS: Bruce Haack, Madonna.

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

OVS:  I study the art and lifestyle of living raw.

ST: You helped crave out a Miami identity with your music and your work with the Miami Bass Warriors. How does that make you feel as a Miami native?

OVS: Blessed.

To learn more about Otto von Schirach, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @ottovonschirach.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Character Driven: 10 Questions With Author Ben Schwartz

Ben Schwartz

By Daniel Ford

During my most recent trip to RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, N.H., I picked up a copy of Ben Schwartz’s The Drift of Things, which won the silver medal in the 2014 Piscataqua Press Novel Contest.

I reached out to Schwartz for an interview before I had even finished the book and was delayed sending him my questions because I was so engrossed in his story. The Drift of Things is packed with heart and features some of the best dialogue you’ll read this summer (after you buy the book immediately after reading this).

As an up-and-coming writer, Schwartz lent some valuable insights into the writing process, how to develop characters, and why deadlines are important.

Daniel Ford: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Ben Schwartz: I've always enjoyed writing, but more in an abstract sense—as in, that would be a fun thing to do. During and after college I had written some poems and decent enough short stories, but nothing bigger. As I started to finally attempt a novel, I decided I needed a little more guidance or inspiration or something. That's when I enrolled in an MFA program, which was great, both for the instruction and the deadlines. Deadlines help. My writing definitely developed much faster when I was doing it constantly.

DF: What is your writing process like? Do you outline? Listen to music?

BS: It's pretty simple. I don't outline, though I do have ideas scrawled through a notebook. I'm a high school teacher and am married with two boys. So pretty much everything I write is after everyone goes to bed, sitting in the dark. The toughest part was editing out lines or entire chapters that I loved, but didn't fit in with the rest of the book. I kept finding myself trying to structure a whole scene around squeezing in one good line, and that doesn't work. It's forced. The lines which I ended up liking best were the ones that just kind of appeared.

I always listen to music when I write. I have a hard time listening to new music while writing, because I pay too much attention to the lyrics. So it's usually one band for an entire piece of writing, even if they're not my absolute favorite. It also helps pick up where I left off if I start with the same song I finished with the night before. When I wrote The Drift of Things, I listened very heavily to The Hold Steady. I like their lyrics a lot, and in retrospect, it seems many of their themes wound up in the novel.

DF: Your novel The Drift of Things features witty dialogue between characters that genuinely seem to care about each other on a deep level. How did you go about developing that dialogue style and how do you go about developing your characters?

BS: Dialogue is tough. I tried very hard to make it both true and useful. I feel dialogue should really serve no other purpose then to either reveal something about the speaker or move the story along—without seeming heavy-handed. I think a few well-placed spoken lines can serve to negate the need for excessive narration.

My dialogue really came from getting to know the characters very well. As it developed I did a lot of going back and changing tone or vocabulary. I had a professor who said very rarely do you need more than "said" after a line. If you do, they didn't say the right thing. That influenced me to really make the dialogue speak for itself, so to speak.

As far as characters, I started with some very vague ideas about their past, how it relates to their present, and how they reconcile the two. Sarcasm comes probably too naturally for me, and that seeps into the characters. It sounds pat, but I found I really have to let the characters grow on their own. Sometimes they'd surprise me, I didn't expect them to put themselves into that situation, but it worked.

DF: The heart of your novel is the relationship between your main character and his father. Do you have a similar relationship with your father or did those two characters come from another place or your imagination?

BS: I definitely don't have the same relationship with my father as Norm does with Blake. My mother's alive for one thing, nor were my parents together growing up. I think I needed Norm to see someone, more similar to himself than he realizes, who spent his whole life in the town which now terrifies Norm. Their relationship certainly grows over the course of the book. But, as far as where that came from, I guess it came from them. I ended up caring a lot about them. That seems to show in the way they feel about each other.

DF: How much of yourself—and the people you have daily interactions with—did you put into your main characters?

BS: A lot. None of the main characters are me, or anyone specific, but they certainly say things that I would. Or would like to. Many of the minor characters, especially the students, are taken more directly from actual experiences. The more horrifying student-based events are all based in reality. I like paying a lot of attention to people around me, how I would describe them, what their motivations are. Sometimes small pieces of those thoughts end up in my writing.

DF: When you first finished The Drift of Things, which served as your thesis for your MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University, did you know you had something good, or did you have to go through multiple rounds of edits before you had something you felt comfortable sending out into the world?

BS: The Drift of Things was edited so many times that I think I could recite it. The original "finished" version had a different first chapter which I cut. Which was hard, because I liked it a lot. It may end up as a short story. I did like the book, and felt comfortable, probably more comfortable than I should have, sending it out to agents. I've experimented with a different ending, but have ended up sticking pretty true to the original.

DF: What went through your mind when you won the silver medal in the 2014 Piscataqua Press Novel Contest?

BS: It was great. I had received so many outright rejections, and a few interested nibbles, from agents that I was just really glad that that process was over. Piscataqua Press has been great to work with, and I like the small press. I was able to make final decisions on the cover and layout that I may not have been able to with a larger press.

DF: So now that you have a novel under your belt, what’s next for you?

BS: Another one, I guess. I have a few beginnings and ideas. I need to give myself some deadlines, and maybe some more willpower.

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

BS: First off, I am very far from being an established writer and still hope to be up-and-coming. Advice, though? Write a lot. Often. Get to know your characters to the point where in the early morning you're confused about whether or not they're real. Write badly. My favorite writer's quote about writing comes from William Stafford. He wrote for hours every morning. Someone asked him what he did when he didn't like what he wrote, he said, "I lower my standards."

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

BS: I've purchased Speedos from a Speedo vending machine. Then I wore them.

To learn more about Ben Schwartz, visit his official website.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive 

Always Be Writing: 10 Questions With Thriller Author Brett Battles

Brett Battles

By Sean Tuohy

Brett Battles ushers his readers into a world filled with shadows, shady dealings, and deadly characters. Just like the hero in his novels, Freelance Intelligence operative Jonathan Quinn, Battles navigates the world of international thriller writer with ease and an eye always set to the future.

Brett was able to sit down and talk about his writing process, the meaning of well built characters in thriller novels, and the future of Jonathan Quinn.

Sean Tuohy: When did you start writing? Was it something that came to you naturally or was it developed over time?

Brett Battles: First story I wrote was in sixth grade. At that time, I told anyone who asked what I want to be when I grow up that I was going to write books. It took me a while, but I finally fulfilled that 11-year-old me’s prediction.

ST: How long did it take you to complete your first novel?

BB: Hmmm, that was a long time ago, so I don’t remember exactly, but I think it took about a year and a half. As a side note, it’s one of my two desk novels (books that will probably never see the light of day). It served its purpose, though. Proved I could finish a full novel, and showed me where I needed to improve. Hey, when you first learn how to play baseball, you don’t immediately get called up to the New York Yankees and inserted into the starting lineup.

ST: As a thriller writer do you believe in letting the action build or just throw the reader right in to the mess of the story?

BB: It all depends on what serves the story best. I’ve done both.

The Discarded

ST: Jonathan Quinn is not the standard hero, where did this character come from?

BB: So many places. I have always had a love of spy type thrillers, and wanted to write my own, but I didn’t want to go down the typical James Bond/Jason Bourne route. I’ve also always had a fascination with what I think of as the after story. In other words, what happens after a big event occurs—like after an assassination or car crash or secret meeting gone wrong. I combined these two interests (and other things I’d been thinking about) to create Quinn, a man whose job it is to make the bodies disappear, so basically the ultimate after character.

ST: How important are characters to a thriller novel?

BB: There is nothing more important. You can have the most ingenious plot ever with the coolest twist anyone has thought of, but without good characters the story will fall flat.

ST: What is your writing process like? Do you outline?

BB: I might write down a few notes, but I don’t outline. Why? Well, honestly, I find outlines too restricting. When I follow one while writing a book, I feel like I’m just typing. What I want to feel is the excitement a reader feels when they read a book. I get that when I write without a net. I love the process of discovery as the scene develops. Do I paint myself into corners on occasion? Oh, yeah. But I just back right out and turn in another direction. The only exception to my no outline policy is when I write a book with someone else, like the Alexandra Poe series I write with Robert Gregory Browne. We outline those ahead of time so that we both know the story.

ST: Do you do any research before starting a new project?

BB: Again, depends on the story. Sometimes, yes. Often, though, the research comes as issues arise.

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

BB: Always be writing. I don’t mean always be putting words on paper or a screen. But real writing is a 24/7 gig. See story everywhere. Describe in your head the people you meet. Look for the little things in real life that will make your story connect with readers. And when you do put those words down, always be open to learning more and improving your craft. I’m constantly trying to improve, and will undoubtedly be doing that through the last thing I ever write.

ST: What does the future hold for Brett Battles? Any upcoming projects?

BB: I always have something going on. Just finishing up a new standalone novel that should be out in August called Rewinder. It’s a thriller with a bit of a sci-fi edge. And I’m really excited about it! Later in the year, the seventh in my Project Eden series should be out. And, of course, more Quinn next year!

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

BB: I love peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches. No lie.

To learn more about Brett Battles, check out his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @BrettBattles.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

Take Every New Opportunity as a Challenge: 9 Questions With Photographer Chris Cardoza

Photographer Chris Cardoza

By Rachel Tyner

Chris Cardoza is an up-and-coming photographer based out of Boston. He began as a temp for Reebok International working in their video production department and quickly turned his new skills and connections into a full blown commercial photography and video production career, working with brands such as Reebok, NHL, Spartan Race, Spaulding Rehab, and ISlide.

I was fortunate to meet Chris at UMASS Amherst, where we both majored in Communication. Over the past three years since graduation he has developed not only professionally, but creatively.

Chris gave me the opportunity to ask him some questions about his career, as well as his advice for artists.

Rachel Tyner: At what age did you first pick up a camera? Have you always been interested in photography, or is this something that developed over time?

Chris Cardoza: I didn’t pick up a camera until I turned 20 years old and started a small production company with my best friend Keith Weiner (an extremely talented photographer and camera operator now in Los Angeles) called Pancakes 4 Life. We shot promo and event videos for small businesses in Massachusetts. Once I got my hands on a DSLR, which we were using for everything, I quickly became obsessed and filmed/photograped everything in sight. I have always been a tech nerd so that translated really well to modern DSLRs. Photography and filmmaking has really become the perfect fusion of creativity and technology for me which is why I am so passionate about the art.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: Who in your life has inspired (and/or encouraged) you the most to pursue your dreams? Who are your creative influences (writers, photographers, etc.)?

CC: Personally my parents have always encouraged me to pursue my dreams. They both owned and operated a pizza and catering business for over 10 years during my childhood and now my father is onto a new venture completely different and my mother is teaching at an elementary school. They have never settled for careers they did not enjoy or feel fulfillment from and encouraged me to do the same. From a professional level my greatest influences are photographers and filmmakers Chase Jarvis, Philip Bloom, Tom Lowe, John Loomis, Gary Land, Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger, and many others.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: What is the best advice someone ever gave you, and what would you say to any artist starting out? 

CC: This is a very tough one. Some of the best advice comes from a quote my father loves to tell me about luck. “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”—Seneca

I do feel like one of the luckiest people in this world with all the opportunities I have been given, so with all of this luck I try to really grasp these opportunities no matter how far fetched, outrageous or uncomfortable they may seem. I use to have a very negative first reaction to new opportunities, which was more of a fearful reaction, but now I take every new opportunity as a challenge. In terms of advice to artists starting out I would say be open to opportunities and do not let your ego or fear get in the way.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: On your website, you caption the photo below, “This one is what started everything.” What is the story behind the photo? Do you have a favorite photo that you’ve taken?

CC: I shot this while working for Reebok in the video production department. We flew out to San Francisco to film a piece about kids running in a new pair of shoes. Simultaneously there was a photoshoot for the shoes going on and one of the kids was tired toward the end of the day, so he decided to take a break and rest up against the wall. I was lucky enough to be right there in front of this incredible mural right when he leaned in. The photo gained a lot of attraction around the office and triggered something in me that said “Hey maybe I could capture these moments for a living.” This is one of the first photos I have taken with a professional camera and to this day is my favorite.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: You work with a lot of brands and commercial platforms. How do you balance keeping your own creative voice with portraying the brands' own message? Has this been a challenge?

CC: Luckily I have been able to work with some really talented people who notice that I work best when I am given a lot of freedom to get the right image or video sequence. Since they recognize my process and the results I get for them, most tend to allow me creative freedom. There are some shoots where I lose creative control but it is all part of the business. I try to balance those days with personal shoots or work with clients who give me freedom.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: On your website, you state that you are turning your multimedia studio in Norwood, Mass into a creative paradise. What exactly does “creative paradise” mean to you? And, can the Writer’s Bone crew stop by sometime…?

CC: Definitely come by! It basically means I want my studio to be as relaxing as possible with a plethora of inspiration. I have only had it for a couple months but so far I have filled it with adult bean bag chairs, a gaming desk, some art work, great music and photo books. My goal is to make it a place no one wants to leave and everyone wants to create. For my first year as a freelance photographer I worked strictly out of my apartment on edits which became very lonely and dull. I’m going for the opposite here, which has worked out great.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: You’ve had a lot of success in a short period of time. Something to be very proud of. What has been the most mind blowing part of your experience in the past three years, and what do you hope the next three years will hold for you?

CC: The most mind blowing experiences have to be my travels. Before starting my career, I rarely ever traveled outside of New England and now I have photographed in almost every major city in the United States. Next week I am headed to Rwanda to photograph and film for an amazing nonprofit, www.shootingtouch.com. The whole evolution and speed of my career so far definitely blows my mind and I am forever grateful for all of the people who have guided me and believed in a young creative so far. As for the future, I plan on traveling more, creating more personal photo and film series and working with even more amazing people. I would love to shoot for Vice and Sports Illustrated, too. That would be cool.

Photo by Chris Cardoza

RT: Favorite beer? 5,000 Bonus points if it’s one from our “Happy Hour” page

CC: My favorite beer is Harpoon IPA but I do love a good Shipyard Pumpkinhead in the fall.

RT: What is one random fact about yourself?

CC: I can walk on stilts pretty well.

To learn more about Chris Cardoza, visit his official website, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @cdozaspeak and Instagram.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive

The Song Is Never Finished: 11 Questions With Musician Goh Nakamura

Goh Nakamura

By Sean Tuohy 

Goh Nakamura has been constantly writing music and honing his craft since the 1990s.

During his impressive career, he’s arranged music for award-winning director Ridley Scott, released critically acclaimed albums, and toured the world. Nakamura has even played a parody of himself in two films directed by David Boyle: "Surrogate Valentine" and "Daylight Savings," both of which were met with positive reviews.

Nakamura was nice enough to take time away from touring to sit down and talk with me about music, how he writes songs, and how he never feels that his music is ever finished.

Sean Tuohy: When did you begin writing songs?

Goh Nakamura: I had a 4-track cassette recorder in high school, but I was only recording guitar instrumental pieces, nothing with lyrics. It wasn’t until well after college that I wrote a song that I was happy with. That’d be “Daylight Savings.” I was 30 years old.

ST: Who were some of the artist who influenced you? Was there a song that made you think, "Hey, I want to write music?”

GN: I studied jazz and mostly guitar improvisation way before I attempted to write lyrics, so my influences in that realm are Miles Davis, Bill Frisell, and Chopin. As far as songwriting: The Beatles, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, and Neil Finn. So many songs made me want to write, but one that comes to mind is “Between The Bars” by Elliott Smith.

ST: How much of yourself do you put into each song you create?

GN: I’m not sure, to be honest. I don’t consider myself to be a confessional songwriter. I write more from wordplay and making the syllables match the structure and architecture of the melody.

ST: You have some of the most fun, playful, and funniest lyrics of any artist I can think of. How did you create this lyric style? Was it something you worked at or did it just come naturally?

GN: Thanks! I don’t think I’ve created anything new stylistically or anything. I’m still working on it, and will always be working on it. The songs never quite feel finished to me. I revise my own lyrics live all the time. If I listen to old stuff, I have to think of it like a photograph…they’re (hopefully) the best I could do at that time, and I have to accept that.

ST: “Surrogate Valentine” is my personal favorite song by you. It's sweet and charming and I will hum it out of tune all day. What is the backstory of the song?

GN: I think I first recorded a demo of that around the late 1990s. I lost the cassette (yeah, I’m dating myself here!). It sounded a lot different. I wish I could hear it, because all I have is a fuzzy memory of it…the melody was the same, but the chords where different and heavier.

ST: Do you know if Natalie Portman has listened to your song "Natalie Portman" yet?

GN: I hope not. That song is/was a joke. Embarrassing.

ST: You have played a fictional version of yourself twice on film, "Surrogate Valentine" and "Daylight Savings." How did you get involved with these projects? Was it difficult to play a version of yourself on screen?

GN: I met a director named Dave Boyle at a film festival in San Francisco around 2009. We hit it off, and wanted to collaborate on something. I wrote a song to help promote a film of his called “White on Rice,” and he made a video of me singing it on a rooftop in San Francisco in black and white. I didn’t know it at the time, but I guess that was an audition of sorts for a movie idea he had of a traveling musician. He pitched it to me, and I said “sure” without having any idea of what was in store. I ended up playing the lead role, which is basically an alternate reality version of myself. It was definitely difficult to act, even playing “myself.” I have nothing but the utmost respect for professional actors who do this for a living.

ST: Several of your songs have been featured in Hollywood films, such as “Body of Lies” and “A Good Year.” Has licensing your music been positive for your career?

GN: None of my songs have been licensed, but I did a bunch of guitar work and some co-writing, and arranging on the scores to five Ridley Scott films. The films I did the most on were “A Good Year” and “American Gangster.” Both were incredible experiences, and I hope to do more if I’m going to survive as a musician. I’m still trying to license my music, but it’s akin to winning the lottery.

ST: What is your song writing process? Do you start with lyrics or the music?

GN: It’s different almost every time. Sometimes I intentionally start with one or the other, but most of the time it’s about equal. I’ll change the lyrics to fit the melody and vice versa. They feed on each other.

ST: What advice would you give to young and upcoming singer/song writers?

GN: Learn and write as many songs as you can. Pick them apart and find out what you like and don’t like about them. I wrote so many crappy songs before I was happy with one… I still write crappy songs. It’s okay though, it’s just music. It’s sort of like writing an essay or something, write as many drafts as it takes to strengthen the song. Be able to recognize things that are disposable lyrically, melodically, or architecturally. Not every song needs a “chorus” or a “bridge.” If it gets your message across just with one section, then why dilute it?

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

GN: I usually don’t take my own advice. I’m trying though.

To learn more about Goh Nakamura, check out his official website, like his Facbeook page, or follow him on Twitter @gohnakamura. 

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive 

Noir Hop Artist Zilla Rocca On How He Crafted His Distinct Sound

Zilla Rocca

Photo by Edwin Hay

By Sean Tuohy

Musician Zilla Rocca put together two styles of urban story to spawn his own subgenre he calls “noir hop.”

His latest album, “No Vacation For Murder,” came out a few months ago and showcases the artist’s ability to create tragic tales set to head bobbing beats. His self-made tone is brooding and filled with an uncontrollable creative energy that kicks to break loose.

Rocca sat down with me to discuss his creative process, his views on the music world, and what the future holds for him.

Sean Tuohy: Where did your love of noir and hip hop come from?

Zilla Rocca: I fell in love with hip hop as a kid. I used to watch MTV all day as an only child, going back to when I was really young, when Young MC "Bust a Move" and Tone Loc "Wild Thing" and MC Hammer were on television all day. As I got older and was able to buy my own tapes like Naughty By Nature, Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang and such, I had officially caught the bug and I haven't looked back. I liked the sound of people rhyming, the way people used to dance, and the outfits they wore. It was like nothing going on where I lived in South Philly, which was predominantly working class Irish and Italian people listening to Top 40 or the oldies, like Sinatra.

I was always a big reader too, so I used to read young detective books like Encyclopedia Brown. I always connected with characters that were smart, that were curious, and that weren't afraid to pursue something, so later on when I realized what noir was, it made perfect sense to become a diehard fan of it. Now I read Hard Case Crime books, Elmore Leonard, Frederic Brown, David Goodis, and others. I'm fascinated by crime and how or why people commit it.

ST: When did you decide that you could smash the two worlds of noir and hip hop together?

ZR: Back in 2009, I made an album called "The Slow Twilight" as the collective 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers with Seattle producer Blurry Drones, which was heavily influenced by the noir flick "Blast of Silence." The album is about alienation and anger that never quite bubbles all the way to the surface. I realized then that I made something completely original and that I needed to take ownership of this new style, which I coined "noir hop". And ever since then, it's been my calling card with any project I release, from the artwork to the song titles to the stories on the records. It was the best decision I've ever made musically because it gave me a distinct identity.

ST: What draws you to the world of classic noir?

ZR:  I love classic noir because there's no time for bullshit. People have a clear purpose, whether their intentions are noble or heinous. The writing is quick and brutal. The world of classic noir is seductive and dangerous. The slang is thick, the men are tough, the women are devilish. There's a clear connection between the themes of classic noir and classic hip hop, namely that it's a reaction to a particular city and a particular set of morals. I've lived in almost every part of Philadelphia my whole life, and I've been around people who decided to join the Mafia and people who decided to become cops, people who became dealers and people who became junkies. So that aspect of the literature influenced my writing with hip hop, because hip hop is all about you representing what you know and where you're from.

ST: Which hip hop artist influenced you the most? Which noir writer influenced you the most?

ZR: I'd say Aesop Rock has influenced me the most musically because he showed me a long time ago that you can do whatever you want. For a long time, there were unwritten rules in rap about how you look, what your content should be, who you could emulate, etc. Aesop Rock completely destroyed every rule in the book and has made the most original music for over a decade in rap while always moving forward. His writing is unmatched. His slang is very coded. His production is swampy yet digestible. And his voice is like a death dealer. He gave me confidence to try things that the status quo would frown upon.

There's different noir writers who have influenced different songs and projects. "The Slow Twilight" is very Raymond Chandler influenced. I have songs that haven't been released yet that owe a huge debt to Ed Brubaker and Megan Abbot. My new album "No Vacation For Murder" is probably most influenced by David Goodis because he was a Philly guy who wrote about men near my age in my town making very bad decisions.

Zilla Rocca (Photo by Edwin Hay)

ST: You have built your own sub genre called "noir hop." What does it feel like to be the first of your kind?

ZR: I've noticed that my style and terminology has crept into the subconscious of my peers, which is corny in one way but flattering in another. It means that people have paid attention to my work, but could never fully maximize what I do because they're taking surface level pieces of my stuff—black and white videos, fedoras, whiskey, cigarette smoke, etc. People weren't doing that as much in indie rap before I made that my flag to wave five years ago. I've had other people point these things out to me so I know they too respect the architect.

ST: What is your writing process like? Do you have the lyrics first or the beat?

ZR: I read all of the time and watch a lot of television, so I'll catch a certain phrase and write it down in my notepad app on my iPhone. Or I'll overhear someone say something really slick in a conversation and write that down too. So when it's time to write a song, I skim through my notes for a phrase to spark the concept or hook. I like to write things that are vivid and use phrases no one else has ever uttered in rap, so my notes are like my cheat sheets to accomplish that. I never write without a beat because the beat determines everything: the mood, the flow, the story, the spacing of the words. And the notes I keep help me add some flourishes along the way once I figure out what to do. When I first started out 17 years ago, I used to write lyrics first and match them with a beat. I'll do that once in a while if I wrote a song and it got scrapped so I don't waste any lyrics. But 90 percent of the time, the music creates the words.

ST: You came out with "No Vacation For Murder" not too long ago. Can you give us the background on this album? How long did you work on it?

ZR: The album actually dropped a couple months ago after years of work. It took about two years to write the album and four years total to complete. It was inspired by real life betrayal by people that were the closest to me. I had to take time off from making the record because it was too heavy, so I put out a bunch of other projects that weren't as cumbersome to fill the time.

There's parts on the album that play out like revenge fantasies, and other parts on the album where I take full responsibility for even having those relationships in the first place. I did a lot of growing up from the time I wrote the first song to the time the album was getting mixed and mastered. So the trick was to figure out how to determine the narrative as an album, since I started off feeling like I wanted to exact revenge at all costs on people who had broken my heart, compared to feeling at peace and letting go of all those emotions years later. I can say proudly now that it's my best work, and that unfortunate set of circumstances were the best things to ever happen to me.

ST: Your single "Shoot the Piano Player" is a stunning one-act noir play set to an awesome beat. Where did this song come from? Why did you make this one of the first singles off the new album?

ZR: My producer Blurry Drones, who is the driving force behind The Shadowboxers’ aesthetic, sent me that beat a long time ago. I wasn't really impressed with it. And then one day my friend Has-Lo stumbled across it and thought he and I should tell a quick crime story to it in the vein of Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, two of our biggest influences, for a different project. We did the song pretty quickly, and after hearing it, I told Has-Lo that I had to have it for the album.

My director Pat Murray, who has done several of my past videos, came up with the entire concept. I love working with Pat because he's a visionary—none of the work we've done together looks like anyone else's videos in rap. He understands the mood I want when I do videos, and I give him 100 percent creative control, something most artists don't afford him when they hire him.

ST: The music video for "Shoot the Piano Player" is stylish and original. How did you decide to set the tone for the video?

ZR: Again, that's all Pat. He had previously used that location called the Physick House, a historical landmark in Philly, for a commercial shoot. It was very elegant and built in the 19th century. Lucky for us, we shot it on a Saturday afternoon when it was raining like crazy, so it gave us an added sense of doom. And Pat had the idea very early on to do all long shots for each take, so everything you see in the video had to be filmed non-stop with no edits. If anything was off, we had to start from the beginning and do it for the duration for the song. In short, Pat Murray is untouchable.

Zilla Rocca (Photo by Edwin Hay)

ST: What does the future hold for Zilla Rocca?

ZR: Who knows? I learned recently just to let things happen instead of trying to control everything. Since I've done that, I've been lucky enough to have favorable situations come together. It's better to attract good things rather than chase them.

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

ZR: No matter what city I go to, someone will pull over, or stop me in the street, and ask me for directions. It's happened in Philly, Chicago, London, Phoenix, New York City, Los Angeles, and more. I guess I always look like I know where I'm going.

To learn more about Zilla Rocca, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @ZillaRocca.

The Writer's Bone Interviews Archive