The Blog is Dead…Long Live the Blog

This is blog is now The Sovereign Soul formerly ‘The Noirista Lounge’

May God bless all who sail on her and may it make waves without harm to hull, gull or peep-pul.

[1]This Blog [2] “You Owe Reality Nothing” – Richard Hugo

Tags

books, hugo-awards, poetry, writing

Its been several years since I posted here. Over the intervening years my literary tastes and drives have changed. I no longer read crime fiction of any kind. I recent years my reading is almost exclusively fact-based covering the subjects of travelogue, sociology, history and more recently, the more esoteric subject of psychogeography which is a topic that deserves an article in its own right.

One of my favourite exponents of psychogeography is the English writer/film-maker John Rogers who lives and works in London, England. You can find his Youtube channel by following this link.

It was while watching one of John Roger’s videos that he mentioned an American poet Richard Hugo (1923-1982) for his love of the Pacific North West and the state of Washington. Hugo spun poetic gold from the many threads of the Pacigic North West’s geography, sense of place in terms of time, history, space and people. Rogers cited Hugo as a psychogeographer even though its unlikely Hugo ever used the term.

To say I also got into poetry would be an exageration but I have definitely gotten into the works of Richard Hugo. He is not a conventional poet, in fact he reminds me of Walt Whitman in terms of transcendalism and ultra-realism and finding beauty and fascination with details other poets may overlook or disregard as inconsequential.

What does this mean if you’re in too much of a hurry to investigate?

Well, let me put it like this…if poets were beekeepers, Richard Hugo would ponder why certain bees buzzed in a certain way, why one settled on that particular branch the way it did, what forces compelled this bee do this, another bee that. Left-field in other words.

This Blog

This blog will no longer be known as the Noirista’s Lounge even though I still very much love the noir genre in literature and film but I don’t want to be restricted in subject matter.

The archive content will remain in place but I will post fresh articles once a week from now on. I was going to use the word ‘content’ as that’s what how the doyens of social media put it e.g. “I upload new content regularly”

Content vs Articles

There is something cold, utilitarian about the word ‘content’. It makes me wince in the same way I wince when I see restaurant/cafe menus refer to ‘protein’ e.g. ‘Now you’ve chosen your vegetables, you can now choose your protein”

If you have made music, just call it music. If you have written an article, call it an article. If you’ve recorded a video, call it a video. Perhaps the word ‘content’ has a case in its defence for being a collective word for several kinds of media formats/types but still, this blog deals in the written word and the written word alone and for these reasons, I will steer clear of referring to my work as ‘content’.

I do wish cafes would stop using the word ‘protein’ and resume using words such as a fish, chicken, pork and beef. Protein is a word more befitting for food scientists and dieticians, not social settings.

I’ll leave us with some quotes from Richard Hugo:

“Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it.”

“You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything“

I’m Back

Please look out for new content soon…

Black Friday

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day : the religion of consumerism where we worship in the cathedrals of malls and amazon, now has its own liturgical calendar just like any other religion on earth.

They say that if you have only 5 minutes to spend in a country and you want to find out what’s most important to its denizens, just look at what its biggest buildings are.

Once upon a time In the West, that would have been cathedrals and palaces, Now it’s shopping centres and financial institutions.

We say we are in a post religious society but are we really? Have we replaced the Gods of the long flowing white beards with the Gods of the box set, the plasma TV, the 50% off sales sign, the latest smartphone?

it’s ok to have a god shaped hole in our hearts that needs to be filled but we should be careful to choose what we fill it with because if know it or not, something will fill it. Better to fill it by design rather than have it filled surreptitiously or by societal pressure.

I’m not against consumerism per se, we all like nice things if we are lucky to afford them but not to excess. If you have ten pairs of shoe, do you really need an 11th? If buying the 10th pair didn’t bring you life satisfaction then I doubt that the 11th pair will.

And I’m not saying everyone should start becoming religious necessarily in the traditional sense.

We and I count myself in this too, should think about how to fill that ‘god shaped hole’ with something that brings real meaning not just to ourselves but others too.

After having finished another boxset last night and finding myself looking for a new one, it dawned on me that I should be looking for better ways of filling my time. Perhaps I’ve got lazy and complacent and I’ve been thinking why this may have happened. Unrelenting work pressures and corporate bullshit have seeped into every pore  and it’s killing my spirit

 

Time for big changes I think.

Off The Cuff : The Bad Guy

First one of the New Year; this time Dietrich Kalteis and I talk about the bad guy, the antagonist in crime fiction.

And we’ve got Peter Rozovsky to thank for another great noir shot from his vault.

MF: I actually use the word ‘guy’ for both Elton Johns and Olivia Newton Johns (men and women in other words), and the word ‘him’ for ‘him/her’ so I want to get that out of the way first. The topic of the Bad Guy is a strange one. At first, it seems simple. We all know what a bad guy is when we see him, read him, hear him, but what is a bad guy and what’s his purpose? It rather depends on the story and how long the writer wants him to continue. A short story, novella or movie can get away with a villain being someone who lacks dimension, but in my mind, a bad guy as a main character is someone who is the progenitor of negativity and nasty events and acts as a dark shadow over the other characters and the story itself. That’s probably obvious but a good bad guy is depicted as having another side, a more human side, Janus-like even. This makes for a complex bad guy, and the best bad guy of all, is one we root for when deep down, we know he’s a sack of rats.

DK: For me, the bad guy or antagonist light the fuse, and his/her actions sets things in motion, driving the story.

MF: For sure, without them, there is no crime novel is there? Bad guys come in many forms and some come across as being ordinary and polite, but others are obviously nasty. The most obvious vehicle that carries the damaged goods of a bad guy’s soul is dialogue. Do you have any thoughts about how dialogue can paint the bad guy on the canvas?

DK: I love dialogue and there’s nothing better than some foulmouthed bad guy to lend color to the page. Dialogue sure can reveal a lot about the character and can even help paint a picture for the reader of what they appear like.

MF: Yes, I know we have narrative and action, but dialogue, both spoken and internal is the line of sight into the soul of any character, not least the antagonist’s, but to make them come to life and convince the reader they are credible, it’s important for his traits, foibles, mundane behaviours to be brought to light. Someone once said something about the mundanity of evil and depicting a nasty character within ordinary settings can lend an added chill. ‘Oh look, he killed folk in cold blood but now he’s shopping for groceries and having a Frappuccino just like I do. What’s going on?’ is the kind the reaction I would like to provoke in a reader.

DK: I want my antagonists to be less than linear, not all one thing, maybe not really bad at all, just forced into some kind of situation. Sometimes clever, sometimes dumb or reluctant, always shady, but showing sparks of humanity. These kind of traits make their actions less than predictable, and that’s what I want, making for a more believable character and a more interesting story. As you said, Martin, without these traits they will lack dimension. And if the characters don’t come off as real, the reader is bound to lose interest.

MF: For sure.

DK: Anti-heros who are cool in the face of danger seduce the reader into rooting for them. And it’s interesting how we can forgive transgressions on the part of an anit-hero like Walter White of Breaking Bad, and who didn’t root for Tony Soprano? Bad guys we are meant to root for. When these villains show us their human side, we empathize. Maybe we just want to see someone step across that line of prevailing norms or go on that journey with them without risking anything ourselves.

MF: Walter White and indeed the character Carter Tomlin in Owen Laukkenan’s ‘Criminal Enterprise’ come to my mind too. Both started as law abiding, suburban ordinary working guys who through a dark alignment of circumstances, fell from grace and ended up descending into evil so far there was no clean or obvious way back. I found this aspect the most chilling. It makes me wonder if there’s a bad guy in each and every one us, just waiting to be woken by the right alarm clock. To convince the reader that the bad guy could have been you is something I like to convey in my own writing. Cornell Woolrich, the now largely forgotten, but no less wonderful pulp/noir/crime writer whose heyday was the middle of the 20th century, adhered to this principle too i.e. the good guy turns bad through a set of seemingly innocuous circumstances that set him on a road to hell.

DK: And sometimes we have a bad guy where it isn’t even his fault like in Stephen King’s The Shining.

MF: I think they’re the best ones.

DK: Some of my favorite bad guy characters over the years: In Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard the bad guy seduces the good girl and it ends up there’s grey area as to who’s the bad guy. In Pulp Fiction, it’s also hard to tell the good guys from the bad, it’s more like bad and badder. Which begs the question, what’s so wrong about rooting for the bad guys anyway?

MF: Nothing is black or white and one twist I adore as a reader is finding out that the good guy or at least one of them, has been a scoundrel all along later in the story. There’s nothing in rooting for a bad guy at all, but I wonder is it because deep down, we do so because we don’t really believe him to be a bad guy at all?

We’ll be back next week with another installment …

Off The Cuff Part 12 : Literary Conversation with Dietrich Kalteis, Sam Wiebe & Samantha J Wright

Tags

DIETRICK KALTIES, Fiction, literature, off the cuff, SAM WIEBE, Samantha J Wright, writing

Dietrich Kalteis and I are joined by Samantha J Wright, (author of The Ison Delusion and The Sands of Carsaig) and Vancouver’s own Sam Wiebe, author of Last of the Independents. Thank you both very much for joining in.

 

And we also have another great shot from Peter Rozovsky’s noir vault.  

MF: I suppose the difference between being ready to write a short story and being ready to write a novel is a matter of one’s thirst and preparation for the journey ahead, a bit like a day trip compared to a road trip spanning a week or more. I feel I am ready to write a novel when I have prepared myself for it. I’ve written some short stories and then felt the need to go on a longer journey that’s more immersive. It can be daunting, but it does give a writer the space to expand his/her craft. I could go on, but I’d like to hear some initial thoughts from you all.

DK: When I started writing, I wrote a lot of short stories, and I can’t say it’s easier than writing a novel, just different. The nice thing with writing the shorter form, if you don’t like what you’ve written, it’s not such an investment in time and not the end of the world if you walk away from it. For me, it allowed me to play around with different genres, find out what I was comfortable writing. And it was nice to submit a short piece for publication while I just kept on writing the next one. And what a thrill when they get accepted. Nothing like gaining a little confidence along the way.
Eventually as I kept writing I gained confidence and also developed a voice. And that only evolved after many written pages. Once I felt I had that voice, I tried my had at writing a novel. 

Almost as important as writing as much as you can, I think it’s important to read as much as you can. Delve into the genre you want to write, study and learn from the greats and find out what works for you as a writer.

SJW: When do you know if you’re ready to write a novel? Hm … well, I think that question implies a certain amount of constraint, yet it is one that many people ask. Over the years I have learned that writers (myself included) are very good at putting restrictions, erecting lofty standards and making harsh demands of themselves when it comes to their work. Like many, I have at times become my own worst enemy by developing this mindset. Such thinking can stifle creativity and slow us down. There is no room for spontaneity or asking those what ifs. It’s all shoulds and oughts, can I and will I? Whereas the unfettered creative mind says, ‘I will. I want to. I can. I need to.’ I enjoy art also, but I do not and never have asked myself ‘am I ready to paint this picture?’ I just do it. My best work in both writing and art comes when I am relaxed and uninhibited by mental clutter and questions like, am I ready?

My first novel was not plotted or planned. I just went with an idea that came to me and wrote and wrote sequestered in my room to the point where the world just fell away. This was not with any intention of publishing you understand, but for my own pleasure. And that gave me the freedom to use broad brush strokes and let the stories and characters be who they were meant to be. You know the saying dance like no one is watching? That’s the way we should be when we write. Hard to do when you want to get noticed, but the benefits are huge. In a nutshell it’s all about passion and desire. You start over-thinking it, all you will be left with is an empty commitment that you don’t really have any strong urge to fulfill. Keep it simple, and just go with the flow. You can edit later to craft it into something publishable.

SW: For me, stories fall into two categories: ideas that emerge fully-formed, and more experimental works where I’m attempting something I’m not sure I can pull off. Elmore Leonard mentioned he wasn’t comfortable writing a female protagonist, so he wrote a short story, Karen Makes Out, as a sort of test drive before writing Out of Sight.

The cool part about short stories is that you get exposed to all aspects of the process, including submission and rejection, at a faster rate than novels. So when you encounter those same problems with a novel, they differ in degree rather than kind from what you’ve already faced.

MF: I remember when we talked earlier in the year when you (Dietrich) mentioned how you like to write without detailed step by step planning: it was the difference between wearing a tee shirt and wearing a tie. I’ve been thinking about that lately. Whilst writing my latest novel, I felt as though I was working in a tiny airless cubby hole, a feeling I’ve rarely felt when writing. I found myself continually glancing at my notes and it becoming tiresome. Now I’ve decided to change tack. 

Looking back, I think the effort I spent on creating detailed notes was a diversion, a delaying tactic. It felt like I was doing good preparation, but the time could have been better spent actually writing the novel itself. Then I felt a little constrained by the plot-details that I carefully constructed some months before. But now without all that, I feel liberated and the words are flowing. So what compels me to write the novel? it’s when I have an idea that grabs my imagination, and I can’t wait to write it, or should I say, excavate it, as a small part of me likes to believe that all stories are real somewhere out there. Crazy I know! My day job requires me to plan things in detail weeks and even months ahead, and I think this mind-set has crept into my creativity. While it works for some, and even worked for me in the past, it’s no longer working for me. It’s funny how our MO can change over the years, isn’t it?

SW: A novel is a bigger gamble. Jazz musicians learn a tune by heart and then improvise over the chord changes, and that’s pretty much my approach to novel writing. I figure out the eight or ten or twelve story ‘beats’ and a logical way to get between them. It ends up at about a page. Then I throw that in a drawer and write the first draft without looking at it. That way I don’t really flail looking for the story, but at the same time I’m not locked into an unforgiving outline. If I want to linger on a certain idea, or introduce a new character, that method allows for those digressions.

MF: Interesting analogies and points Mr. Wiebe, and they’ve got me thinking … When you refer to beats, would you be talking about the outline/structure of beats as described in this website for example? http://www.gailgaymermartin.com/2013/12/writing-novel-seven-story-beats
 If so, that’s very useful advice as it provides structure without rigidity, but when we think about all the great novels we’ve read, do they all adhere to this structure? With practice, I am sure a writer could reach the stage that he/she wouldn’t need to consciously think about the beats/structure as it would come naturally in much the same way a pianist doesn’t think ‘the next key is C, the one after that is E etc, but rather, comes naturally in the rhythm.
–

Off The Cuff Part 7 with Dietrich Kalteis, Robin Spano and Martin J Frankson

Tags

Crime, crime fiction, Dietrich Kalteis, Fiction, Martin J Frankson, off the cuff, robin spano, vancouver, writing

We’re back with week seven of our freestyle chat – no rules, no editing, and no net under us. Dietrich Kalteis (author of Ride The Lightning) and Martin J Frankson (author of Dark Introductions and Party Girls collection of short stories) I discuss what we’re working on, writing in general and just whatever comes to mind – real off the cuff.

This week we have a very special guest: Robin Spano, the talented author of the page-turning Clare Vengel Undercover novels Death Plays Poker, Death’s Last Run and Dead Politician Society

Robin Spano

Dietrich Kalteis

And our thanks to Peter Rozovsky for use of yet another great noir shot from his vault.

So here we go.

MF: So far, the characters in my first two crime novels were not police officers, therefore I was free from having to research process and procedure, as they could just follow their noses and do what they wanted. However, when it comes to geography and technology, I do my homework. I like to refer to real streets, buildings, bars, coffee houses and stores so that readers may say ‘I was there’ and perhaps visualize the story taking place interwoven with their own memories. Right now, I’m doing something I haven’t done before, and that’s more detailed planning for my third novel that’s set in Vancouver. During my time there earlier this year, I took extensive notes on my travels, and these have proven valuable as I want to infuse as much realistic detail as possible. Not just geographic but societal as well. I have started creating character cards detailing things like the kind of car they drive, personal likes and dislikes etc. I’ve just spent fifteen minutes on a used car website in Vancouver to give me the lowdown on the real makes and models that are driven these days. Google Maps is wonderful too. Sometimes though, I make something up. If I need a motel where one doesn’t exist, then I invent it. What’s your take on research and what do you like to include and leave out?

 

DK: I like to keep towns, landmarks and major cross streets real for the most part, but I also like to throw in a location that doesn’t actually exist if it better serves the purpose of the scene (maybe a store, gas station, bar or restaurant). As far as characters like police officers, I haven’t written a story that is heavy on procedure either. Most of my lead characters have been from the shady side of the tracks, and they’re usually avoiding the law.

 

RS: I’m glad you’re researching Vancouver so intensely, Martin. It means we’ll get to see more of you. I’m with you guys on keeping street scenes true to life unless I need to change them. In Death’s Last Run, I invented a bar because nefarious stuff was going down (like drug money laundering) and I didn’t want to taint a real Whistler business with a negative brush. But in my head it is the same bar where I’ve had apres ski beers a few times, same layout and position in town. I use Starbucks way too much, which I’m pretty sure reveals my own addiction. And like Martin, I use Google Maps street view a lot, too. I find that especially useful in cities where I’ve spent time and remember the feel of the place, but want extra detail, like was that street paved with concrete or cobblestone?

 

MF: Thanks Robin. Mrs Frankson and I are planning a 3 week visit to Vancouver next May/June time. Vancouver will be an annual visit for me. I totally love the city. I too sometimes base fictional bars/cafes in place of ones I frequent, but its best to give them fictional names when derrings-do are set there otherwise it could be a legal minefield for sure, not to mention unfair to the owners. Shady characters are probably the most fun to write about. However, I do like stories about corrupt cops. They have to work within tight bounds and procedures, therefore have to be imaginative when trying to work outside the system without being caught. I once read there are two kinds of corruption, corrupt for greed and corrupt for the job. The former like to line their pockets, whereas the latter break the rules to put away criminals who would get away with it if the letter of the law took its course. One of my favourite writers, the late Derek Raymond wrote several crime novels featuring a lead but nameless detective who constantly broke the rules for the greater good as he saw it. For books like that, knowing procedure would be vital, otherwise how would one know how such rules are bent or broken? They also make for a good read. Nightmares of the Streets and The State of Denmark are two of his books that come to mind, but I digress.

 

I strongly believe that art, least of all novels, should not be set in a societal or political bubble. If there is a major national or world event, the world within the novel should at least acknowledge its existence. It may or may not affect the characters or the story itself, but it does demonstrate a grounded and historical relevance the reader may appreciate. It also adds another dimension to the characters. They don’t exist in a world by themselves. It may be fiction, but there is a world beyond the walls of the scenario the writer creates. Do you like to read work where the real world permeates through the fiction, and if so, how has this manifest itself in your own work, or do you think it’s important at all?

 

RS: That’s a great observation. Another Canadian crime writer, Robert Rotenberg, recently gave me the advice to always have a big, world story going on at the same time as your own narrative. Sometimes it can tie into your plot, and other times it can parallel it, and other times, like you say, it can set the novel in its place in history. I think Rotenberg uses his own advice really well in Stranglehold, which takes place in the midst of a Toronto mayoral campaign.

 

DK: I can see such events lending certain believability to the story. It can make it seem like real life is going on, even if it just floats in the background. Another great example of this is Black Rock by John McFetridge. The story’s set in Montreal in 1970. It’s about a cop hunting a serial killer amid the riots and bombings that actually went on at the time – a great read by the way.

 

MF: That sounds like an interesting book to explore. I don’t think I’ve read crime fiction set in Quebec, and it has seen dramatic political intrigue over the past 45 years. There are many crime novels set in Ireland where the ‘Troubles’ as they were so-called form the backdrop. Stuart Neville comes to mind here. This does add gravitas and credibility to the story. Fiction maybe, but a branch from the tree of truth. It also shows that the writer doesn’t live in an ivory tower. These days, social awareness by the artist is gaining greater currency in society.

 

Putting on my reader hat, I really don’t care if correct police process or procedure is followed, within reason of course. For example, we all know the police can arrest suspects, but I don’t know what paperwork they then need to prepare afterwards. I do find that stuff boring and unnecessary unless the paperwork or other forms of process are in themselves, a falling domino that triggers a chain of events. If so, such detail is fine. If the writer is just putting the detail in to show off his/her homework skills, then it’s not moving the story forward; but, if it it’s kept to a minimum, then that’s okay. We can’t be absolutist on anything in art can we? There is always room. However, in the crime/thriller genre, the story is what matters. I know some people are keen for 100% accuracy, but that’s a little pedantic in my book, if you pardon the unintended pun, but everyone’s entitled to what they appreciate. I can only speak for myself and my own tastes. Is factual detail a keynote of your own writing, and how much leeway do you think a writer can have ranging from total faithful adherence to fact to the other end of the scale in just making stuff up?

 

DK: As I said, I haven’t had the need to cite exact police procedure, but if it was needed, I would seek it out. But if it’s something general like a cop character filing paperwork, I agree, it’s probably enough to just give the broad strokes, and leave out the boring details. I always try not to throw so much detail in that I feel I’m slowing the pace of the story.

 

RS: I’ve asked a few cops and lawyers—who, surprisingly, like to read crime fiction—if procedural mistakes bug them. Every single time I’ve asked, the answer has been no. They’re bugged if the error is egregious, but only because the mistake takes them out of the story they were enjoying. They’re unfazed by technical mistakes. Like you guys, I could not care less about procedure—and neither could Clare, my protagonist. She works within the system, but she’s undercover, so off on her own most of the time. There’s a cop in LA who I play iPhone chess with. (If you’re reading this, Domino King, sorry I’ve been away from the game all summer long!) who helps me keep it real enough to be credible.

 

MF: I’m with you on that. On the point of historical writing, it would be interesting if Google Maps allowed one to look at a historical view in streetview as opposed to just a snapshot of today. Imagine the possibilities, the old cars, the old stores and buildings.

 

RS: That would be SO cool. Though I so far haven’t been tempted to write anything historical, I’d enjoy walking down my old street in the 70s from when I was a kid. It would also be a neat way to teach history to future generations.

 

MF: I think Google is actually working on this. Imagine the possibilities of putting on a headset and being immersed in a new city, virtually walked down its streets at any point in time. I work in IT, and I can see this happening within 20 years tops. It’s exciting, not to mention a boon for researchers and history buffs and writers too, but I can imagine it being quite a distraction. I guess in the meantime, we have to rely on old-school methods for that, but going down the rich avenues of research can be fun, too. For example, one of my characters in my next novel is a figure from the past. I chose him to live in a small village of Old Crow, Yukon. I then found a great website about Old Crow and its cultural and current heritage, and that got me going down some wonderful side-roads, finding out about things like the Gwitch’in language which would be criminal to ignore. Research does add armoury to the pen and the imagination and does enrich a writer’s own knowledge, even if what we read or find doesn’t filter into our work.

 

DK: Absolutely. I’m currently working on a period piece that takes place at the beginning of the twentieth century, and that requires quite a bit of research to bring the story to life: the architecture, the type of vehicles they drove, cultural habits, the way they dressed, even the way they spoke back then. All of these details have to be handled carefully and not overused, but they do help to bring the story to life for the reader. It’s amazing what I found for my story: entire newspapers of the exact dates I needed, numerous articles, books and personal accounts, historical maps (one with overlays of then and now), a phone directory, a business directory, lots of photos, even a short film clip from the early 1900s.  And you’re right, Martin. You do unearth some interesting facts along the way.

 

more next week …

Off the Cuff : Part 6 with Dietrich Kalteis and Martin J Frankson

Tags

Belfast, Canada, Crime, crime fiction, Dietrich Kalteis, Ireland, literature, Martin J Frankson, off the cuff, Peter Rozovsky, vancouver

We’re back with week six of our freestyle chat – no rules, no editing, and no net under us. Vancouver-based crime writer and author of Ride the Lightning, Dietrich Kalteis and I discuss what we’re working on, writing in general and just whatever comes to mind – real off the cuff.

A special thanks to Peter Rozovsky for use of his noir shot: At Maryland’s Eastern Shore. You can find out more about Peter’s work on Facebook, his Twitter account @DBeyondBorders and his sublime blog http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.co.uk

 

So here we go.

 

 

MF: I’d like to touch on how important settings are this week since it seems so closely connected to character, which we talked about over the past two weeks. I’ll start off by saying LA, NYC and London have been very well served in the canon. Writers these days need to look at different locales/settings which have specific cultural aspects that perhaps are not widely known in broader culture. This is why, to me, crime novels set in British Columbia by writers such as yourself, Robin Spano, Linda E Richards and ER Brown fascinated and entertained me. Owen Laukkenan’s books that feature the character Carla Windermere (a black female FBI agent) are set in Minnesota. Now, there’s a double whammy of originality, a black female protagonist and Minnesota.

 

DK: I like reading stories set in my hometown. It’s interesting to hear other writers describe settings which are familiar, and Robin, Linda and ER all do it very well. And I recently finished Owen’s Kill Fee and double whammy is right, a great job with both character and setting. 

 

For me, Vancouver creates an interesting backdrop, partially because it hasn’t been overused. It’s also a busy seaport and tucked up against the US border, just begging for some crime fiction. Using where you live as a story’s setting makes it both easier for the writer and more convincing to the reader. When I wrote Ride the Lightning I also chose Vancouver because of the unusually high number of grow-ops here which served the story. 

 

And I see your point about settings that we’ve read over and over, but to me when a story is well written the setting could be anywhere. Take James Ellroy and his LA Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz) must-read crime fiction. Or Ed McBain and his 87^th Precinct stories set in New York. Carl Hiaasen and Florida, James Lee Burke’s Louisiana, George Pelecanos’ Washington.  

 

Having said that, there is a certain intrigue to stories that take place in a foreign locale that I’ve never been to. Take a classic like Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Or even an imaginary setting like the town of Wallace in ER Brown’s Almost Criminal. In the end, I think it all boils down to the strength of the writing – whether the setting’s exotic, familiar or imaginary.

 

Striving for the original is always important, but sometimes your characters want to show up at overused locales like bars or cafes if they’re the kind that frequent such places, regardless of whether the setting is a bit cliché or not; that’s where they hang out. But I do agree with you, as a writer, it’s important to strive for originality in settings.

 

MF: Very true. We’ve all read bar scenes, but like a game of chess, there are an infinite number of possibilities of character, plot, dialogue and story that can take place in that setting, and this is where originality comes in; but if a writer feels he/she can make the setting work in a completely new land or one that’s unfamiliar within the genre, then go for it. Alexander McCall Smith, the Scottish crime writer has won much deserved success for his books set in Botswana. Brian McGilloway, the wonderful Irish crime writer from Derry, sets his work in the northern Irish borderlands between Derry and Donegal, again, a setting that is such a rich vein to mine, and one that has seldom been used in the past. The English crime writer, David Mark sets his work in the northern English city of Hull. No one has set crime literature there before, and why not? He does it very well, and people love his work. Hull may not be the most fashionable of places, but it certainly has its secrets and textural intrigues, and David evokes the atmosphere and nature of Hull supremely well.

 

DK: Elmore Leonard based many of his crime novels in and around Detroit, and he had every aspect of it down: the people, the settings, the dialects. One of his last was Djibouti, a city in the horn of Africa, and he pulled it off beautifully. A great example of dropping characters in settings that are unfamiliar to them, making them vulnerable by being out of their element. Ken Kesey’s Sailor Song, set in a fishing village in Kuinak, Alaska, is another fine example. Also, Hunter S Thompson’s The Rum Diary, taking place in Peurto Rico.

 

MF: You’ve just expanded my to-read list Dieter. Another example from my recent reading is Snow Candy by Terry Carroll, set in rural southern Ontario. People sometimes make the mistake of assuming that a small town or rural setting is more tranquil and peaceful than a city. That may be at first glance, but an awful lot of unsavoury things go on and are hidden in the countryside. People live there too, and where there are people, there’s intrigue just like anywhere else on the planet. It’s just not as obvious as it would be in a city. Books set in such locales are the more interesting for it. Confuse the bucolic with the moral at your peril.

 

Anya Lipska from London is another great example. Yes, her work is set in the familiar city of London, but its set amongst the Polish immigrant community. No one’s done that before, and even though the landscape of the setting may be familiar to many, the cultural landscape of her characters is not, and therein lies the originality that is such a wonderful hook and makes for a great read. Her novel Death Can’t Take a Joke (great title) involves investigations that take the story to Poland itself. Again, not just original but probably unique in English-language crime literature.

 

Ken Bruen, one of my favourite crime writers, lives in the west of Ireland where he sets his work. Granted, his main character, Jack Taylor is a middle-aged alcoholic male, but his humour and kitchen-sink everydayness is entwined so realistically within the crimes he investigates, and it works so well. Bruen shows how he lives and interacts with the modern world around him as opposed to holing him up in a dingy office where the real world of single mothers, curmudgeon neighbours and convenience store eccentricities don’t exist. Again, there’s an example of the familiar genre character being depicted in a fresh way and updated for our times.

 

This is why Scandinavian, Italian and German crime literature has been so successful in recent years; readers are crying out for fresh perspective and an insight into places and characters whose outlook, mannerisms and ethos are unfamiliar and fresh. However, it’s important for the writer to ignore the current fads and fashions of here today, gone tomorrow popularity and set their work wherever they feel it’s best.

 

more next week …

Off The Cuff : Part 4

Another great noirish shot by Peter Rozovsky: writer, blogger and editor at Detectives without Borders, lending this page some class.

Dietrich Kalteis and I are back for week four of freestyle conversation with no rules, no editing, and no net under us. We discuss what we’re working on, writing in general and just whatever comes to mind – real off the cuff.

MF: I’d like to talk about originality of character this week, and then touch on themes since they are so closely connected, which we can continue next week.

Some may say there’s nothing new under the sun. Perhaps the broad themes are no longer new, but what makes a book original include:

Characters with lifestyles and attitudes that have been rarely portrayed before. The alcoholic, divorced middle-aged male detective with a drinking problem was once the most popular character in the genre. It’s still popular, but readers wanted fresh detectives with fresh lifestyles to reflect the times we live in. Along came young female detectives which was a breath of fresh air, but writers now need to look at society and see its diversity in the round. There are very few gay or non-white detectives in modern day crime literature I’ve noticed. I say ‘few’ as opposed to none at all. They do exist, but you have to go looking for them.

DK: I agree, avoid writing stereotypical characters with the hang-ups and problems we’ve seen over and over. They can come off as wooden and even uninteresting. It’s critical that the character becomes real, whether likable or not, if the reader is going to follow on their journey.

When I write a character I have to understand them, not influence them with my own beliefs, allowing them stay true to their own nature. Otherwise I might have them doing something that seems out of character, not to say a character can’t change or grow as the story moves along.

And, I agree with what you suggested at the beginning about not getting caught in a trend. Create rather than copy. At the onset of a story when I create a scene, I come up with an appropriate character and drop them in. And as I write, the character grows and traits become clear. Maybe issues that they have or some bit of back story starts to show. And as they begin to feel real, they actually can start to steer the story in a way because they are behaving in a way that’s true to their own nature.

MF: I do share the idea that character preparation is key, i.e. their background, their tastes, their demons, their politics, basically what makes them tick. All these act like gravity, affecting their reaction to events and even the causation of events that are in keeping with the traits of the character. Sometimes it may not be necessary to explicitly detail certain aspects of a character in a story but nevertheless, some of those traits show themselves in character behaviour, thought patterns and even speech. For example, a character may visit a gallery to collect their thoughts and decompress after a particularly stressful event. The reader may wonder what it was in their background that led the character to behave like this.

DK: So long as it’s believable.

MF: Right.

DK: One thing I wanted to ask is, does writing a female character or maybe a much younger or older character present any difficulties for you?

MF: I base my characters on myself and other people I have known. I’ve met a wide range of characters in real life, as I’m sure most of us have. Didn’t someone once say by the time you’re 40, you’ve met just about every kind of person there is. Speaking for myself, I think this is strue as long as one doesn’t live inside a social bubble. This helps me develop characters who I hope are realistic regardless of their gender or age. One fault of mine in previous years as a writer has been to ascribe my own personal opinions and behaviours upon characters. Instead of asking how a certain character would act/speak, I turned them into mini-me’s. Thankfully, I’ve learned to stop doing that, and this was something that was picked up by a good friend of mine who gave me honest critique. However, one Achilles’ Heel I would admit to having is not really knowing how to write a child character in a realistic fashion. I don’t have kids, and I have never written a child in any of my stories or novels. It’s funny how kids rarely feature in crime writing unless they are depicted as victims. I am aware of good detective fiction written for children that feature child detectives and from all accounts, they are very good indeed.

DK: Do you base characters on people you’ve seen in films or TV?

MF: Sometimes I might base a character on a film or TV show but only rarely. My second novel features a rather eccentric off-the-wall senior female detective who I loosely based on the character of Agent Stahl from Sons of Anarchy. That was quite fun, but perhaps it was a bit of a short cut; but as I mentioned, I base most of my characters on people I have met in real life. Sometimes when it comes to more extreme characters such as psychopaths or gangsters, it may be a little more difficult, as I don’t hang around with such people. But I did meet one guy about 22 years ago who owned a house a couple of my friends were living in. He was ex-SAS and had a drinking problem, and he would make our blood run cold with his stories from his past, many of which were quite illegal, but he had realized how wrong his life was. I based a character in my first novel on him, a fallen angel so to speak who experienced a epiphany but wasn’t able to handle his demons. What about you?

DK: For me, coming up with characters is a bit like building Frankenstein, a little of this, a little of that. So far, I’ve only done it once in a screenplay I wrote, where I used someone completely based on someone from real life. But most of the time my characters are pure fiction, a bit of this and a bit of that. I also keep a character sheet as I write, one for each and every character in the story, usually along with a photo of what they look like, all the details of who they are, bits of backstory and specifics like what car they drive, or a particular weapon they carry, things like that. It’s just an easy way for me to keep track.

MF: I do something similar but not as detailed. For my next novel, I am preparing more character detail that I ever did before. In fact, in doing so, they become more fully formed individuals in my mind, more rounded, more realistic even. I even mentally try to work out how they would interact with one another and how they would react to a range of events, from the everyday/mundane to more extreme stressors.

DK: My characters have been described as quirky and marginal, and they’re often flawed. None are ever all good or all bad, and they all seem to have an agenda. Some are greedy, some are desperate.

MF: Yeah, no one is all bad or all good unlike fairy tales, but we do occupy a position on a spectrum. Personally I do think it’s easy to be good when you’re dealt the right cards. I like to explore how characters act when their backs are against the wall, perhaps for the first time, and that ain’t always a pretty sight. Putting a character into a hectic, dark situation that they’re not used to is also an interesting concept to explore, and its one I like to write about. Character flaws and quirks add a spice, an edge to the character and definitely enriches the story. Its gives the story more texture and makes for a better read.

DK: I haven’t written a character with the intention to have them come back in sequels, and I’m not sure what special circumstances that might bring up.

MF: My next novel is the first of a series, and it’s for this reason, I need to keep a lot of my character-powders dry and not give away the totality of his back story or his persona within one book. I do intend to gently hint at them and to make the reader wonder why he does what he does, but those boxes will be opened in later novels. Different circumstances and situations bring out different behaviours at different times. A serial novel in my opinion would need a wider cast of characters to allow the writer to explore their different facets at different junctures in the novel to keep the story interesting for the reader. A minor character in one novel could become a bigger player in a later one and vice versa.
One of my favourite characters is Harry Bosch, an LA detective depicted by Michael Connolly. What a backstory. Bosch’s mother was a prostitute who was murdered during his childhood (a parallel with the real life of James Ellroy whose own mother was brutally murdered when he was a boy). Later he served in Vietnam and then the LAPD. He’s led such a brutal yet a vivid life, and all these facets shimmer in differing degrees throughout the novels, always at the most relevant time, and this is important. Exposition for its own sake is not economical and unnecessary when it bears little or no relation to the story at hand. As I said before, keep your powders dry.
More next week …

Off the Cuff : Part 3

Off the cuff 3

This week, Dietrich Kalteis and I have added a touch of class to our weekly Off The Cuff free-style discussion. Writer, blogger and editor at Detectives without Borders, Peter Rozovsky, has been kind enough to allow us the use of his noirish photos, just to dress the page up a bit. Thank you, Peter. You’ve not only got a way with words, you’ve also got an eye.

So here we go, Martin J Frankson and I are back for week three.

Who Killed the Dead Guy? What makes a good title for a crime novel.

MF: Personally, I think Who Killed the Dead Guy would be a great title for a crime satire, but seriously, I would like to discuss what makes a good or bad title, and how writers arrive at their titles.

DK: Okay. My titles haven’t come the same way, but I know when one has the right ring for me. Ride the Lightning came from an expression used when someone gets shot with a Taser, as in they rode the lightning, something I found out while I was doing research for the story. I liked the phrase, it stayed with me, and it just fit the story. And as the story progressed I never had any second thoughts about it. It just always worked. And down the road, my publisher and editor agreed. So, for me, I have to live with the title for a while to make sure it really works. If I’m not 100% about it, then I need to come up with something better.

MF: I didn’t know that Ride the Lightning was a euphimism for tasering. That’s interesting and its a title in keeping with the story itself in terms of the pace and vicissitudes of Karl the main character. Right now, I’m looking at my shelf of crime novels that span the 1930’s to the present day, and while there have been changes in the style of titles, there doesn’t seem to be a general rule for what makes a good title, and that’s a good thing. I think the writer just has to avoid a bad title to come up with a good one. It’s much easier to think of a bad or corny title than it is to consciously invent a good one.

DK: For sure, it’s crucial that the title works, boiled down to a couple of words, the right couple of words that will make it stand out. And it’s got to suit the story as well as help market the book. A lot of weight on a couple of words. But, of course, what appeals to one person may not appeal to another.

Like everyone, I have favourites that just rock, many of which have stood the test of time: One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Clockwork Orange, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Midnight Cowboy, Get Shorty, Burning in water, drowning in flames, Cat on a hot tin roof (okay, this one started out as a play, then later became a film), To kill a Mockingbird, Valley of the Dolls, the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I could go on for days, but these just grab me. There are many more that I think are great, and everbody will have their own favourites. But, when one grabs me, I have to pick up the book and start reading.

MF: A meaningful original title that grabs attention is the best kind especially in such a crowded market. I have noticed the proliferation of title patterns, not just in literature, but in film, too. One example is the present-continuous verb plus a person’s name e.g. Kissing Amy etc.

Sure, the initial examples of such titles were fresh and imaginative such as Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman, but the style was copied too often by many books/movies, thereafter making them indistinguishable from one another. If I think a title is corny or follows such a heavily trodden path, it makes me wonder just how original the book behind the cover actually is.

DK: Right, and will likely keep you from picking a particular book off the store shelf, or wanting to see a film, like a sequel that’s got the same title, with a number tacked on.

MF: Right. Another one that comes to mind is The [an occupation’s] Daughter. There are so many titles that follow this pattern. Strangely, there are far fewer with the word ‘Son’. Perhaps we see daughters as more enigmatic that sons in our culture, I don’t know, but it’s interesting to point out. You only have to look on Amazon to see such patterns. Many of them may be good books, but the titles do seem a tad similar which is a shame.

Titles with the word ‘Fear’ and ‘Diary’ have become too common a coin too, unfortunately devaluing the currency of those fine words, and this is something the writer has to bear in mind. Think of a title and find out if it’s been used already, or if the words in the title form part of the titles for dozens or even hundreds of other books. If it does, you should think of changing the title.

DK: I agree with what you’re saying about overused phrases, and sometimes you have a title that works, and somewhere somebody did a song using the same title. It might even help if the song suits the story as well. Metallica’s album entitled Ride the Lightning (named after a seat in the electric chair) likely won’t get confused with my novel. And sometimes another novel with a similar or same title pops up long after the same title’s already been in print, as in the case of Stephen King’s Joyland (2013) which bears the same title as Emily Schultz’s first book Joyland (ECW Press, 2006). Emily wrote a great bit about this called Spending the Stephen King Money. It’s funny and really worth checking out: http://www.emilyschultz.com

MF : There is a long and valid tradition of sharing titles amongst movies, books and album titles and even bands. All About Eve is known as a movie but also was the name of a quite successful English rock band in the 80s whose name was inspired by the imagery of the movie. Heavy Metal and its various sub-genres may be a rich seam of titles to mine for crime novels and perhaps even horror, eg The Dead Shall Inherit, Graves of the Archangels, Effigy of the Forgotten. I could go on, and I note that the best titles are amongst bands from Scandanavia.

In crime literature, perhaps titles with words that are not associated with the genre could be what’s coming next as long as they aren’t contrived. I guess its just knowing what works and what doesn’t and having a good ear for it. We can’t put a finger on what works except for the feeling. Its funny about Emily’s book though, sharing the title Joyland with Mr King. I’m glad he saw the funny side of it.