7 Questions: Fred Zackel

Interview by David Cranmer

What is a typical writing day like for Fred Zackel?

Writing is self-indulgent, and I try never to forget that. After thirty-odd years of writing, I write for myself, not for New York or Hollywood or magazines or anthologies. I have no idea what they want and I cannot write to their expectations. But I write all the time every day. I am OCD about it. I compose by hand, so I am always taking notes. And if the moment allows me, I keep writing until I have to eat lunch or teach or take out the trash. If I wake up at 4 am with an odd but interesting dream, I'll sit in the dim-lit living room and write until the story is done or until I run out of ideas or new ways to develop them. I carry a small notebook around. At the gym, I carry paper and pen ... and later trying to figure out what I wrote with sweaty trembling hands on wrinkled paper. "Molasses and Murder? What the hell is that?" If I get an idea while driving, I'll ask my wife to write it down for me. Later each day I collate what I have garnered and input it into the computer. I usually spend an hour daily at that. But I will stay at the computer until I run out of new developing ideas or a favorite TV show comes on or it's time to go to bed. As they pop out and onto the screen, the various ideas get parceled out into whatever story file they most likely belong. Ninety minutes of every morning is for editing or composing, whichever strikes my fancy, and then an hour around suppertime is set aside for inputting. Since I always have four or five writing projects unfinished at any given time, I write about whichever project grabs my attention. With juggling that many unfinished projects, I never sweat Writers Block. And since I don't give a s--- about my writing career anymore, I just write compulsively about whatever I want. Lots of freedom, once you abandon the concept of a writing career. But what vindicates this self-indulgent behavior of mine, sooner or later everything I write gets accepted somewhere.


Who are your primary influences on writing?

Although I was too young to ever meet her, the science fiction writer Andre Norton was the librarian at my local (the Nottingham) branch of the Cleveland Public Library, so she was a role model in so many ways. Through her books, I fell in love with reading. With genre and Adventure. When she became a full time writer, she moved to Florida, where it's so much warmer than Cleveland. As a teenager, I fell in love with writing first through Lawrence Durrell's Alexandrian Quartet. I must have read the novels a half-dozen times in all. I never wrote like Durrell at all, but geez the poetry and the lyricism and the sensuality are enviable.

In mystery I learned most from Ross Macdonald, first through reading and then by asking specific questions. He was a very generous man. Then, over time and repeated readings, I learned minimalism from Hammett and then I learned attitude from Chandler. James Cain taught me about dirty sex and postmen. Elmore Leonard taught me visual shortcuts in form and structure a writer can take that work wonders in a manuscript. Thanks to teaching lit in college classrooms, I re-discovered as a writer, instead of just a reader, the joys of the classics. Once a year I re-read Shakespeare's Othello just to be awed by a master craftsman. He can turn on a dime from comedy to horror within a sentence. Voltaire's Candide is the most ruefully funny novella ever. Read that at least once every year for the proper attitude toward life and the Big Picture. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is the most under-rated novella in English. Of Mice and Men is a perfect thriller. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is the wisest book ever written; it teaches you how to deal with Daily Assholes. C.F. Cavafy's poems were a huge influence on how I write character. (Both of those last two books are still bedside, close at hand.) Albert Camus' Notebooks gave me a strategy I use daily about how to gather my thoughts in one place. Giovanni Boccaccio, who wrote The Decameron in 1353, a collection of one hundred novellas, still teaches me to write any goddamn genre I want.

I have to include Thomas Pynchon, Jimmy Buffett's early songs, Rod Stewart's early songs, and a lot of Motown, just for How to View Life in General. Novelist Joe Kanon was my editor when I was first published. He knows the forest and the trees, and I am still learning how to look at what to leave in and what to leave out. I am flat-out in awe of Loren Estleman, his drive, his vision and his oeuvre. Compulsively I also read Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Ken Bruen, Andrea Camilleri, Philip Kerr. I love Megan Abbott's voice, and I think I have read all of Sue Grafton. She cares more about structure than most writers give her credit for. Two new guys, Michael Koryta and Declan Hughes, impress the hell out of me. Koryta, who writes about Cleveland but who is moving towards the supernatural which I think is the future, and Hughes, who writes like an Irish Ross Macdonald and makes me think of each character's family history and psychology. A third, Dave Zeltserman, has influenced me, too, with his skill and his drive. A fine writer of the hard-boiled, yes, but he also works twice as hard as any other writer and is incredibly determined. But then his last name begins with a Z. So he has to try harder. You think I'm joking? Readers go into a bookstore and they rarely get past the C's. Think: Agatha Christie, Joseph Conrad, Bob Crais, James Cain, Ray Chandler, Bill Crider, Al Camus, Harlan Coben, Mike Connelly, Dave Cranmer, John Connolly, Lee Child, Reed Coleman, Leslie Chateris, Peter Corris ... oh, you know I could go on. If you are a Z, forget about readers noticing you. They never get past the C's. But Dave will succeed brilliantly and deservedly. After he changes his name to Dave Celtserman. How do you make a smiley face emoticon?


Aside from the writing, what did you admire about Ross Macdonald?

As soon as I saw this, I knew this question would be the hardest to put into words. Nobody outside of family ever treated me nicer or gave me such hope. First off, he had me call him Ken, which in light of who each of us was still amazes me. You see, he was the Literary Lion of Santa Barbara. There was no one greater in those days. He had two dozen novels under his belt, had that huge feature article about him in Time magazine, he had a PhD from U of Michigan, Eudora Welty praising him the New York Times, two big movie studio feature length movies starring Paul Newman, all that talk about a TV series. Me? I was a kid driving taxicab at night in San Francisco. I worked for a Chinese cab company operating out of a unmarked garage at the edge of Chinatown; my bosses were refugees from Mainland China; they were both the owners and the mechanics. I drove a fifty buck canary yellow ex-taxicab too old and too beat to be a cab anymore. Another thing ... He was always Ken Millar to me. He wrote letters and signed them Ken. He wasn't Ross Macdonald. He was Ken. The first image I remember reading your question was ... how he walked alongside me. And I know how stoopid that sounds. When I was with him, we walked a lot, usually with a handful of dogs trying to run between our feet and topple us. I don't recall him ever using a leash on any of them. He truly loved dogs. His house was geared for the thundering paws of big dogs playing rough. We walked sidewalks and boardwalks and dusty creek beds and ... and ... I knew I didn't deserve that heartfelt warmth and generosity and friendship and patience, but he gave it to me without reservation. Two very public places where I met up with Ross Macdonald was the Santa Barbara Writers Conference two summers in a row back in the mid-1970s. The second time I was there, a woman showed me a photograph from the previous summer, with Ken Millar and I walking together under the palms in Santa Barbara, lost in talking together. We looked like two college math professors debating a math problem. An odd picture in so many ways. And I saw the woman's photograph of the two of us and I clicked on Ken walking alongside of me. He listened to me and talked to me and argued with me and advised me and ... We even swapped gossip about who was sleeping with whom at the conference ... and worse. At every opportunity he was kind and he was generous and nobody outside of my family has ever been that encouraging to me. I still have and read his letters; how he encouraged me, geez. Like nobody else has. There is other stuff, too, from him that my kids will get when I'm gone. Anyway, that woman got my address and said she'd send me the photo. I waited and waited. I asked around about her and the photo, but I never heard again from her. I never saw the picture again. About thirty-five years ago now. I would dearly love to have that photograph.


Did you ever get the sense that Mr. Macdonald recognized his importance alongside Hammett and Chandler as one of the leading architects of the hardboiled school of writing?

I can't answer your question. I know he thought Hammett was the absolute best. Hammett we talked about. He also talked about some writers (at that time) who were writing near or at that level. Writing at that level, to Macdonald, was the greatest goal in our field.


Your poem, "Squish, You Babe," featured at BEAT to a PULP, was disturbingly unique. How long have you been writing poetry?

The poem came easily. On a rainy day I saw pink worms crawling across white concrete. A little later I saw a bunch of little kids in red rubber boots stomping in rain puddles, while their mother despaired. Combined, a nice pair of images, but not noir-y enough for what I wanted to write. But the polar opposite was a huge powerful man stomping on little pink worms in the rain. Why would a huge powerful man act like that? Well, he's feeling powerless and frustrated. Why? Because of a woman, of course. But where would a huge powerful man be so powerless and frustrated? Once I saw the prison, all the rest was detailing work, like using cotton swabs around the dashboard of your car.


What are your thoughts on eBooks?

Today I just happened to notice that in 48 hours it will have been one year exactly since I put my first manuscript up on Kindle. Maybe a celebration is in order. That book MURDER IN WAIKIKI is my biggest seller, and this month my wife and I are both surprised by how briskly (for us) it is selling. I don't market much (and always quit early at it) because I always feel, well, inept at it, like a giraffe pretending to be a ballerina. Nor do I feel I have to sell any writer, either, on the benefits accruing her if she puts her work up on Kindle. Stuff that's out-of-print, stuff your agent couldn't sell in the marketplace because another type of story was selling, stuff your agent had little faith in ... why, that's what Kindle is about. You get to be your own publishing house. New York turned down MURDER IN WAIKIKI three times. That's the reason why my first short story collection TIGHT FIT IN A LONG COLD BOX is freshly available at Kindle, smashwords and the Nook. So fresh, it doesn’t yet have a cover.


What is next for Fred Zackel?

An old Irish saying is that there are more great Irish novels spilled out on the floors of saloons than have ever appear in print. So you will forgive me if I skip over what's not yet completed. (Although I have a half-dozen short stories half-done, and a couple novels I have started, and ...) But there is a new novel, yes, it is completed, and it is in final edit. Soon it goes back to New York. Or Kindle.

Lowlifes, Cops and Zombies

---

An interview with Joe McKinney by M. C. O'Connor

---

Joe McKinney is a Stoker-nominated author operating successfully in two genres - horror and crime fiction - and a full time homicide detective in San Antonio, Texas. In the following interview he discusses his just-released crime novel, Dodging Bullets, his love affair with zombies, and the finer points of real life detective work.

In Dodging Bullets, Peto, the main character, gets the holy bejeesus beaten out of him, but he carries on. How much beating can a man take and keep going?

I was a street cop for a number of years before becoming a detective, and I remember dealing with people who absolutely refused to go to jail. I once saw a man get shot six times and still wrestle an officer’s gun away from him and kill two cops with it. I’ve seen meth freaks running naked through traffic with temperatures of 110 degrees and a pulse over 200. I saw a petite little stripper on coke snap a pair of handcuffs like they were made of taffy. I can’t tell you how many traffic accidents I’ve seen where drunks get their heads bashed in and live to tell about it. Cops call it the cockroach factor. An ordinary, upstanding citizen…if we got stabbed or shot or crunched in a car like that, we’d be toast. But the scum of the earth…they always seem to survive impossible injuries.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. I think the body can take whatever the mind tells it to take, you know? Ultimately, sure, there’s a limit…I mean, you can’t walk through a nuclear blast wearing nothing willpower…but willpower can take you a long way. And that’s what Peto’s got going for him. Willpower and love. Maybe he has a little bit of the cockroach factor, too, but it’s his love for Shannon Dupree that makes him get up every time he gets knocked down. That’s why he was such a fun and compelling character to write. Somebody with that level of commitment is like a god - possessed of an inner power that is awesome and more than a little frightening. How could you not have fun with that?


Without giving away too much, I think we can say that Peto gets a shot at redemption in Dodging Bullets. How do you see redemption in your stories? And in real life? Do real folks get those chances to turn it around? Do they succeed?

Redemption is a complicated issue, and I guess the answer to your question really depends on the story being told and the characters in that story. Peto gets a shot at redemption because he is basically an average guy caught in between forces that are, quite frankly, way over his head…and yet he never stops fighting, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable. That, to me, is the kind of character who deserves at least a crack at a better life. He may not get it, but at least the chance is there.

See, I don’t believe in fate. I don’t think there’s any sort of redemptive gyroscope in the world that looks for ways to put you back on track. Fixing your life, improving it, is a personal choice. You either make that choice or you don’t. You either take charge of your circumstances or you don’t. Most people in Peto’s position don’t know or care about redemption. But Peto is different. He’s sensitive to the possibility of a better life, but he’s also aware that it won’t be handed to him. He’s going to have to take it. And Peto does take it.

"Peto’s shot at redemption comes because he is fighting for true love. He is playing to his higher nature, instead of merely wallowing in his vices. Most people, though, they’re content to wallow."

I think the same thing carries over into real life. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to notify the next of kin of some piece of shit gangster or drug dealer and I’ve had to listen to them wailing about how poor little Johnny was really a good boy and how he was finally getting his life back together. Those situations are hard – I mean above and beyond the fact that you have to tell some lady that her kid is dead – because you have to sit there and listen to her delude herself about how Little Johnny was getting his life back together. Inevitably they ask how it happened. Then I have to find a polite way of saying that Little Johnny was shot twelve times by the drug dealers he cheated out of $80 worth of heroin. You don’t have to experience that too many times before you sour on the idea of redemption as a real possibility for most people.

The difference between Peto and all the other Little Johnnys in the world is motivation. Peto’s shot at redemption comes because he is fighting for true love. He is playing to his higher nature, instead of merely wallowing in his vices. Most people, though, they’re content to wallow.

We hear a lot about the Eme, the Mexican Mafia, here in Northern California, mostly in connection with pot plantations in the forests. What should we know about them that we don't hear about in the news?

The Mexican Mafia was born a few short blocks from where I work. There’s a section of San Antonio’s shallow West Side that is sort of like the Mexican Mafia’s version of Sicily. According to legend, you can’t be a part of La Cosa Nostra unless you hail from Sicily. In the Mexican Mafia, if you want to rise to the top of the organization, you need to hail from that little corner of San Antonio’s West Side. What that means in practical terms is that all the founders of the Mexican Mafia grew up within a few blocks of each other.

It’s not that way, anymore…at least from what I’m told by my friends in the Gang Unit. These days, the Mexican Mafia has expanded from its prison gang origins to a multifaceted criminal organization with its fingers in just every pie it can find. To my knowledge they don’t do much with pot plantations here in Texas. Around these parts, it’s prostitution and heroin and guns and extortion.

Dodging Bullets treats the organization fictitiously, of course. In real life, the Mexican Mafia would have probably smoked Peto faster than you’d slap a mosquito on your arm. I’ve tried to capture just how vicious and tough some of the established members of the organization can be, but it’s really hard to overstate just how vicious and tough they are. Every time you think you’ve heard the worst, something else comes along. That’s what readers should take away from Peto’s story. Things can always get worse.

Your work—as a detective—gives you a unique view of human behavior. How does it influence your character-building?

Well, it certainly has a significant impact on the types of characters I choose. And my police work is also responsible for my biggest step forward as a writer…that is, as a writer who is interested in the craftsmanship of writing. I think it was Stephen King who wrote that every writer has a book or story – preferably early in their career – that forces them to step outside of their comfort zone and go for something more than they thought they were capable of doing. Taking gambles, basically. You try to tackle a story or a point of view that maybe you don’t feel quite ready for, but when push comes to shove, you do tackle it and you end up learning from the experience. You become a better writer.

For me, that experience was my second novel, Quarantined, in which San Antonio gets quarantined by the U.S. military in order to prevent a pandemic outbreak of a killer flu virus. The main character in that book is a female homicide detective named Lily Harris. For years, I had watched female police officers get treated as second class citizens, both by their fellow officers and by the public at large. Within the department, there was this attitude that the ugly ones must be dykes and the hot ones must be sluts. There seemed to be no middle ground, and acceptance into the boy’s club that is police work was granted only with reluctance. And the public at large was no better. I remember making calls with female officers, entering a crime scene, or a family disturbance that’s turned violent, or just about any situation that was going to require the police take immediate charge of the situation, and more often times than not the parties involved would walk right by a female officer and go to the first male cop they saw. So when it came time to write Quarantined I channeled all the indignation and frustration I’d witnessed from the female officers I knew and put it all into Lily Harris. She remains, for that reason, one of my favorite characters.

In Dodging Bullets the female lead is a college girl named Shannon Dupree. She’s rich, frisky, fun-loving, and enjoys a good roll in the hay, if you get my drift. But she’s not a cardboard cutout by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is she simply a rich and ditsy nympho. Her character is a fond evocation of the women I knew in college. But of course I’ve changed a lot since college, and the naïveté with which I’ve shaded her character is, I suppose, an inevitable byproduct of that.

Policemen figure prominently in Dodging Bullets. What's it like working with real policemen all day and then inventing more of them later? Do you ever get sick of policemen?

"I guess there’s just something about being able to stand over a headless, footless and handless corpse while arguing with your partner about where you’re going for lunch that creates lifelong friendships. "

Strangely, no, it hasn’t gotten old yet. I still love going to work. And the reason for that has to be the people. Believe it or not, car chases get old. Shooting guns gets old. Kicking open doors in the middle of the night gets old. (Actually, kicking open doors in the middle of the night gets old in a hurry when the people inside start shooting back at you. Go figure.) But the friendships I’ve made doing police work haven’t gotten old. I guess there’s just something about being able to stand over a headless, footless and handless corpse while arguing with your partner about where you’re going for lunch that creates lifelong friendships. I can’t explain it any better than that.

Tell us about the zombie obsession—your Amazon page lists four zombie novels!

Ah, zombies! I love those shambling corpses. But why is that? Well, I guess it all started with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. I remember watching that movie when I was about fourteen or so, and being totally blown away. I mean, here’s this young angry black man fighting with an old rich white guy for control of a house, and all the while this tightening ring of paranoia (here played by the zombies) closes in upon them. The cast is in a pressure cooker, waiting to explode. I remember thinking, Holy Shit, this isn’t just gore…this is an allegory for race relations in America. It was like an intellectual slap in the face. That was the work that convinced me that horror could be about something more than just naked bimbos getting chased through the woods by axe murderers. Not that there’s anything wrong with naked bimbos, you understand, but it’s nice when a horror story can get your mind working.

Since then, I’ve seen zombies exploited for their metaphorical potential in just about every way imaginable. It doesn’t matter what your issue is, zombies are essentially a blank slate and can be adapted to illustrate that issue. What scares you? Contagion? Illegal immigration? Terrorism? The fate of education in America? It doesn’t matter what it is, we’ve got a zombie to exploit that fear. Did you see Shaun of the Dead? I bet you laughed your ass off, right? It’s a great movie. Well, watch it again, but this time, look at it as an allegory of the drudgery and futility of life in the modern workforce. Eh? Do you see it? Gives whole new meaning to the term “working stiff,” doesn’t it? That’s what I love about zombies. I love that there are endless opportunities to use them.

What's up next—flesh-eaters or cops-and-robbers?

Well, my next two releases will be horror novels. One of them, called Apocalypse of the Dead, is a big 500 page zombie novel. The other is a far more subtle coming of age horror novel called Lost Girl of the Lake. I’m also editing an anthology of horror and dark crime stories that focus around abandoned buildings and how they got that way. Those three projects should be hitting the bookstores late this year and early next year. Anybody who wants up to date information on new releases can visit me at my website Old Major’s Dream.

7 Questions: Keith Rawson

Interview by David Cranmer

I don’t see as many Rawson original stories out there these days. Is the editor gig slowing down the author?

I'll answer the last part first because I'm asked it quite a bit. The answer's no. I'm pretty lucky in the fact that I have two partners who are just as passionate about Crimefactory as I am, so the weight of the magazine is far from entirely on my shoulders. Working on CF does take up time, but not as much as the author interviews and reviews I do for BSCreview and Spinetingler does (which I've had to back off on lately because of stress at the day job, family and other writing/editing projects) But I have a lot of fun working on Crimefactory.

The other reason you're not seeing a lot of stories from me these days is because just like every other writer out there, I'm working on longer projects. The first is a novel and it's been taking up the bulk of my writing time, the second is an original short story collection that I've been chipping away at since the beginning of the year. (by the way, neither project can be clearly defined as crime fiction) So, I've been doing plenty of writing just not all that much that I've been sending out. I have completed a few new short stories lately so those will be making the rounds and I've been thinking about sending a few of the stories from the collection out to the online zines and college journals.


Why did you choose a print anthology over an e-book.

To be honest with you, we really had no intention of publishing CF as anything other than a PDF to begin with. It was Dave Zeltserman who suggested that we offer the zine in Kindle format (yeah, I owe Dave a keg of beer for all the advice he's dispensed to me over the past few years) in an attempt to monetize. I ran the idea past Cam and we decided what the hell and posted issue 1 to Amazon.

With the anthology, it'll most likely be offered in e-format along with a print edition. But when I came up with the idea of putting together an all original stories anthology under the CF banner, I wanted it to go through a publisher who could distribute it to the indie bookstores and brick and mortar chains (although selling through stores like Barnes and Noble is a pretty shitty deal if you're a small publisher. You're basically giving your product away with all the discounts they expect.) as opposed to putting it out myself. Don't get me wrong, I would have had no problem going the lulu/createspace route if no publisher would touch the anthology. But luckily enough Jon Bassoff over at New Pulp Press was into the idea.


What's the line-up for the anthology?

Since this is for you and Gutter Books, David, I might as well drop the entire line up.

Here we go: Ken Bruen, Adrain Mckinty, Craig Mcdonald, Charlie Stella, Dennis Tafoya, Dave Zeltserman, Roger Smith, Scott Wolven, Patti Abbott, Hilary Davidson, Frank Bill, Dave White, Steve Weddle, Jonathan Woods, Nate Flexer, Kieran Shea, Greg Bardsley, Jedidiah Ayres, Chris F. Holm, Chad Eagleton, Leigh Redhead, Anonymous-9, Jimmy Callaway, Josh Converse, Cameron Ashley and me with a foreword by original Crimefactory founder David Honeybone.


What does David Honeybone think of the new Crimefactory? And is he involved with the zine in any manner?

He's supportive of what we're doing. David has actually had several pieces in the new magazine, including a phenomenal interview with Peter Temple. Originally Cam and I wanted to have David apart of the running of the magazine, but when we started to move forward, David backed off and decide to only participate as a contributor. It was devastating to Cam and it nearly brought the whole project to a screeching halt. Luckily Cam changed his mind and we charged into it full bore and haven't slowed down since.


What is a Rawson guilty pleasure?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit of a Facebook junkie. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the guy who's constantly taking and creating quizzes about his friends or playing Farmville or Mafia wars. But I'll post links to stories and articles that I've run across through out the day (usually the links are crime fiction related) in hopes of creating a dialogue. I like the interaction. The biggest downside of writing is that most of the time you feel like you're living in a black hole and you're completely alone with your thoughts and the words on the page. Sure I have other writers and fans I write back and forth with quite a bit, but sometimes I want a broader range of opinions. The only problem is that social networking is like crack (I swear there are some folks who spend all day doing nothing but post to Facebook and Twitter and I wonder how they get anything done?) and if I don't watch myself I'll spend hours and hours on it and not even notice. So I've been limiting myself to it an hour or so after I get off work and ten or fifteen minutes before I go to bed.


What current writer inspires you and why?

That's a tough question because quite a few writers, both friends or otherwise, inspire me for different reasons. There's folks like Frank Bill, Hilary Davidson, and John Rector who for me are proof if you bust your ass and believe in what you're doing that eventually you'll see a positive end result from all your hard work, I can say the same of Dave Zeltserman, who's been at it for years and is just now starting to get the recognition he deserves. Folks like Kieran Shea, Patti Abbot, Jedidiah Ayres, Steve Weddle, Christopher Grant, and Jimmy Callaway inspire me because they have no issue at being my sounding boards and making me take a look at things from a different angle. Then there are writers like Ken Bruen, Daniel Woodrell, Al Guthrie, and Charlie Stella, whose books make me want to write and be a writer when I read them.

I'm sure there are a dozen other writers I could name who get me revved up, but, damn who has the time?


What can piss you off faster than anything?

Everything pisses me off. Hell, even as I sit here writing this I'm pissed that you asked me about what pisses me off.

Kidding.

I'm actually a pretty laid back guy and it takes a lot to get me really steamed up. Now, I'll be the first to admit that 2010 has been an angry little year for me for a number of reasons, but I don't think there's any one thing in particular that sets me off more than others.

7 Questions: Bill Crider

Interview by David Cranmer


"Texas store sells American Flag with 61 stars," "Texas Rep. warns of baby-making terrorists coming to US," "Man attempts to hold up gas station with caulk gun" et cetera. Bill, what the heck is going on in the Lone Star State?

Bill Crider

Well, maybe there's something in the water. Or maybe life imitates Joe Lansdale's art. But not all the time. Usually Texas is just like anywhere else. Okay, maybe not like Florida. Florida has a lot more nutty happenings than Texas does. And, let's face it, the "flag" wasn't really a flag, according to the store manager. He said it was a "decorative object." It was made in Virginia, too, so I think the Virginians have to share in the blame. As for the caulk gun used in the attempted robbery, who among us hasn't made a silly mistake like that?


Do you miss teaching college English?

Yes, but that's a qualified yes. When I retired, I'd been an English Department chair for 25 years. A lot of that time I'd been a Division Chair of English and a few other departments, so by the end of my career, I was teaching only a couple of classes. The teaching was fun right to the end, and that's what I miss. What I don't miss: departmental meetings, committee meetings, writing reports on departmental meetings and committee meetings, creating the schedules and assigning faculty to the classes, ordering the textbooks, creating a departmental budget, and, well, you get the idea.

The students were always great, and I especially appreciated the ones who provided me with material in their essays, like the one on MEDEA, in which I ran across "hell hath no fury like a woman spermed," or the one on HAMLET, in which I was informed that "Hamlet always put his mother on a pedal stool."


Speaking of teaching, is it true your brother taught Anna Nicole Smith biology?

Yes, but let me clarify that just in case someone reading this is getting the wrong idea. My brother, Bob, is as straight-arrow as they come, and for many years he taught biology and chemistry classes in our hometown of Mexia, Texas. When Anna Nicole Smith was in his class, she wasn't even Anna Nicole Smith. She was Vickie Lynn Hogan in those days, a kid who worked at Jim's Crispy Fried Chicken on the weekends. Bob says that she wasn't anyone you'd notice if you walked into the room, just a mousy student who sat in the back of the room and didn't say much.


Is there any truth to the rumors that The Fabulous G-Strings will get back together?

Sadly, no. The Fab 4 (or occasionally 5 or 6) is no more. One of our stalwarts, Seepy Benton, has moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where students in the desert are benefiting from his vast knowledge of math and his deeply strange worldview. Rochelle Brunson is shaking her tambourine at Baylor University. Darryl, or maybe it was his other brother Darryl, hardly ever showed up, anyway, and after he was kicked upstairs to the job of assistant to the president, stopped appearing altogether. I've retired, and so has Bill Horine, whose clear tenor was the best voice in the bunch. Only Gilbert Benton remains at the college, and he's likely to retire at any minute. But video is available. Unfortunately.


What's your take on e-books, the state of traditional publishing, and would you consider releasing some of your earlier work in the Kindle format?

Some of my earlier work, from the days when I was famed horror writer Jack MacLane, is now available on Kindle. Buy early and often!

Murder in the Air comes out August 3 from St. Martins.

I think e-books are here to stay, and while they might not replace traditional books, they're going to make serious inroads. Some people are saying there won't be much of a change in the way things are done, but I don't believe it. When the printing press was invented, there were probably people saying, "Those new books are all right, but I'm sticking with my hand-copied manuscripts." We can all see how that worked out. The traditional publishers are going to have to figure out some new approaches.

One thing that worries people, it seems, is that with self-published e-books there are no "gatekeepers." No editors, agents, copyeditors, and such. And with thousands of books being published outside the traditional venues, how will anybody find the "good stuff?" I assume these problems will be addressed. There are already websites springing up that purport to tell you which of the self-published e-books are worth reading. We're in the first stages of a revolution. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.


How did you meet your wife Judy and what's the secret to the success and longevity of your marriage?

One of my best friends was dating Judy's best friend. They decided that Judy and I needed to meet. So they set us up for a blind date. Apparently they were right about us, since things worked out pretty well.

If there's a secret to a long and successful marriage, I don't know it. I've heard a lot of people say that you have to work hard to make a marriage last, but I've never thought that. Maybe Judy has, but it's never seemed like work to me. We've always gotten along pretty well, and while we may have spoken a cross word or two (or more), we've never had a serious disagreement. Could be that we're just lucky. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to vacuum, feed the cats, and take out the trash.


Crider, Gorman, and Reasoner walk into a restaurant. Who picks up the check?

Crider does because of his big heart, his generosity, and his huge bank account. Reasoner would have picked it up, but he was too busy finishing up the novel he'd started writing on the way to the restaurant. Gorman would have picked it up, but he didn't really go to the restaurant. He never leaves the house.

7 Questions: Gary Dobbs aka Jack Martin

Interview by David Cranmer

I picture you hanging out with beautiful actresses all day. True?

Gary Dobbs

Well it's partly true - I've worked with Keira Knightly but she's a little too thin for my tastes and the feeling's mutual because can you believe she didn't fancy me at all. I've also stood within two feet of Cameron Diaz and she's gorgeous but actresses are shallow and would much prefer the hunky leading man, to this skinny Welsh guy with a big nose. Over the years I worked with some of the leading actors and actresses but they don't notice poor old me - I'm just someone walking through the scene as a bystander, builder, milkman, zombie etc but it's all great fun. I do have ambitions to become a sex symbol but I guess that's just a pipe dream. Mind you I have been told that I look a bit like David Bowie so when skinny blond dudes become the fashion I'm gonna break some hearts.


Did Ricky Gervais's EXTRAS accurately sum up that underappreciated profession?

Some of it is spot on and extras are often overlooked or worse ignored. Of course they're not called extras anymore because the term is considered derogatory - these days they are supporting artists, but it's the same old shit. Scenes in Ricky Gervais extras that I thought are very true to life - are the pecking order at dinner time, artists go first, then the crew and then the extras but most of the Gervais stuff is exaggerated. But I think all supporting artists do have secret ambitions to make it as proper actors and why not? I've seen actors who are utter crap and I know that most of the supporting cast could do better. But at the same time there are some superb actors and all we can do is stand in awe and watch them create magic.

Maybe the funniest story I have of being an extra is when we were standing around on the set of Doctor Who and there was a DALEK next to me. All of a sudden the guy in the DALEK lost control of the eye stalk and it whipped me across the face. A voice came from the DALEK - "Sorry Mate." That made me smile despite the pain.


You're also a cabbie. What has been your most unusual or worst experience?

Well there's never a dull moment that's for sure - I've owned my cab for maybe ten years now and during that time I've gone from working every hour in the day to a thirty to forty hour week. The weekends are the crazy times. I work the graveyard shift largely because that's where the money is. It's also when the nuts are out - over the years I've had my nose broken, been robbed (twice), had a guy die in my car and pretty much seen just about everything. There have been many great times too, mind - you pick up some interesting people and have some wild experiences but I don't really want to dwell on all that. These days I only work to supplement my income and thankfully I can pretty much take it or leave it. Still there's something appealing about driving a group of half dressed young ladies about on a weekend.


What did he die from and how did you handle that?

He was a regular customer, an old guy and he had a heart attack. I thought he'd nodded off as he did that from time to time but when I stopped outside his house and tried to wake him I found he'd passed on. How did I handle it? Well it shook me up at first but other than that I was fine.


Why does The Ripper continue to captivate?

From The Illustrated London News, 13 October 1888

The mystery of the whole thing. When researching my novel, A Policeman's Lot I visited what remains of the murder sites and was amazed to find how many people were doing likewise. There are organised Ripper tours and some people have built their entire careers on the case. Somewhere amongst all this we seem to have forgotten that these were brutal and cruel crimes in which young women lost their lives - there are Ripper films, comics, book, even Ripper action figures.

I have always been fascinated by the case - I do not swallow the official line that there were only five killings, nor do I believe there was a Jack the Ripper as such. My meaning here is one man, a maniac, stalking the streets in search of prey. That was largely an invention of the press at the time. These were in a sense the first tabloid killings and the Ripper, over the years, has entered folklore.

In A Policeman's Lot the reader knows early on who the killer is but not the reason why, nor what the connection to the Ripper killings are. I am very excited about this - the book really does have a truly new and unique theory as to what was happening back in 1888 and although this is a work of fiction, I do believe that it brings something new to Ripper lore and could open a new avenue of investigation. I repeat I am very excited about the book's potential and am over the moon with my publisher Solstice who are fully behind the project and are very forward looking. I plan to continue the adventures of Inspector Frank Parade over a series of novels but when he solves the Ripper mystery in the very first book - well, where do you go from there?


You have been a success in westerns and now are taking a stab at crime fiction. What's next?

I've just completed another western, The Ballad of Delta Rose and I'd like to alternate between each genre, but saying that I've ideas for future projects that are in neither genre. Mind you I'll never go too far from westerns as it's my first love and even A Policeman's Lot with the inclusion of Buffalo Bill and his circus has elements of the western. Well, in the words of the song, my heroes have always been cowboys.


USA or UK?

I'm a spiritual American but England's first game in the upcoming World Cup (which is huge over here, football being more important than life) is against the USA. So I'll be shouting - "Come on England." Mind you I love all you guys across the pond too.

7 Questions: Kieran Shea

Interview by David Cranmer

I heard you nearly gave a woman a heart attack with your writing. What was that all about?

Black Irish Blarney on the beach

Oh, that. I was at the Shamus Awards during this past year's Bouchercon, hanging out with Karen Olson and Clair Lamb. Karen has been encouraging, and she was up for a Shamus for her novel SHOT GIRL. Plus I was curious about the whole PWA cult of Randisi. It was a nice time, but I felt really awkward, you know? Like here I was, some fraudulent interloper, packed in with all these wicked-talented crime writers getting their gnosh on. Someone was in line behind me at the buffet and we started talking. I told him about the Ellery Queen story and he said that Janet Hutchings (EQ's Editor) was there and I should introduce myself, so I did. I was expecting a nice how-do-you-do, but what I got was an arm grab-- “So you’re, Kieran!” She proceeded to tell me that my Charlie Byrne short The Lifeguard Method” prompted the angriest letter she’d received in over twenty plus years of editing the magazine. The irate subscriber was so incensed that she canceled her life-long subscription. I apologized, but Janet said I shouldn’t because if I wasn’t pissing people off I wasn’t doing it right. Got a lot of high fives on that one from great guys like Sean Doolittle and Scott Phillips. So, now I guess I’m the old lady boogeyman.


What's next for ace detective Charlie Byrne?

I kind of bounce back and forth with Charlie stories. Last year I wrote a novel with him falling down his deepest hole yet, but I don't know exactly what to do with it. Crimefactory is serializing a longer piece called "The Blues Before and After" and part two will be coming in issue CF#3. It's funny. I also want to know what's next for Charlie because he's become so real for me. I worry about him a lot. He has this buried rage we haven't seen yet, this madness.


For those who don't know, who is Steve McQueen?

Steve McQueen is everything that is cool. To quote the film "The Tao of Steve"..."Steve McQueen. Y'know, he's the guy on his horse, the guy alone. He has his own code of honor, his own code of ethics, his own rules of living, man. He never, ever tries to impress the women but he always gets the girl." For the slow learners let's roll the tape.


Why are so many people down on New Jersey and is it deserved?

Here's a big secret--people from Jersey actually like it when outsiders sling their "what exit?" jokes and misconceptions. It thins the herd, so to speak. Just ask Dave White, he can go on for hours and hours about Garden State pride. Personally, I get a kick out of showing people the cool things about New Jersey. The quirkiness, characters, and great food. They blink with childish wonder that Jersey isn't what you see at the airport. It's a beautiful, complex place...warts and all. Now, turn around and go home.


You recently had a near death experience. How has that changed you?

I think the incident you’re referring to occurred last summer while out sailing on the Chesapeake with friends. It was wicked hot and an old mentor and close friend of mine who’d recently been diagnosed with the glacially slow type of ALS dove off the stern. Now, this is a man who has been powerfully strong his entire life—a former Marine—and immediately I knew something was wrong. Even though it was a pretty calm day the Chesapeake’s switchback currents and treacherous tidal rips are capable of defeating even the strongest of swimmers. I’m trained as a lifeguard, and I flew in after him. Even though my friend was good all day, as soon as he hit the water he couldn’t speak or move his limbs. Even now what I remember distinctly is the terror in his eyes. I stayed with him. Still under way, it took some time for my wife to navigate back for us. No one on board even realized we were in trouble until we struggled to climb aboard. The whole incident shook me to the core. To be perfectly honest, I think I even cried a little. Anyway, it just reaffirmed for me what everybody knows but never likes to dwell on, the fact that every single day, every one of us…we tread the edge of grief and loss. You can't live in fear. Like my friend who I helped rescue always says—life is precious. Go out and get some.

Kieran makes an appearance in the upcoming Thuglit antho

How does a husband and father of two find the time to write.

I gave up on writing years ago. It was only after my wife told someone at a cocktail party that I wrote a little fiction that I picked it up again. I've been fortunate that she grants me the time. Typically I can carve off maybe two or three hours a day in the morning to write because I'm an early riser. Scary early actually. Amish early.


What's your favorite curse or curse word, and why?

Favorite curse word, huh? Getting your James Lipton groove on, are you? There's so many. Right now I like "ass clown" because recently one of my brothers said my Dad referred to me as such. It just cracked me up, mixing the profane with the classic brain-stain image of a clown. I always hear carnival organ music when I say it.

7 Questions: Matthew Mayo

Interview by David Cranmer

What is your favorite genre to write in and why?

My favorite genre to write in at present is the Western genre, largely because I've experienced the most success in it (so far, he says with fingers crossed and eyebrows wagging). I've written and published in several others (horror, noiry crime, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, balls-out action), and I have a few long-form projects in genres other than Westerns with my agent, so ... wish me luck!

As to why I dig the Western genre, it's a pretty tame response, I'm afraid: I was weaned on TV Westerns, love 'em still, and reading them is a particular thrill. I'm nearly finished reading one now, as a matter of fact, a Ralph Compton by David Robbins called "For the Brand," that's fantastic. I also like rooting around in history, finding out about societal norms, habits, dress, language, etc., and the Old West was so full of diversity in those respects--and others--that to try and write about them and that time is a fun challenge that I think most folks who write Westerns feel. Plus, in my head I'm a cowboy, riding my buckskin, smoking a quirley, and squinting at the damned rustlers skidding down the slope off to my right, knowing I'm going to have to hang 'em high before the hour's up.


Typically, how long does it take you to research one of your books?

Matthew P. Mayo's latest book

For novels, though there are specific periods of research for each that can last for days or weeks, I'd say that most of my research, other than verifying facts, etc., is done every day in reading and listening. For the non-fiction books, it's difficult to answer because though I usually spend a few months researching before writing a book, more research also happens concurrently with the writing of the book. The non-fiction books take from a couple of months to six, eight, or more to research, then write. That was the case with Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears and also for Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks (out in October, 2010!). I'm just now diving into my fourth and fifth non-fiction books, which will overlap in the research and writing process, then a sixth will follow closely on their heels. And I'll shoe-horn novels and short stories into that mix.


Can you give us a sneak peek of these upcoming books?

Upcoming novels--can't say too much, except that one's a Western, the other two aren't.

Non-fiction: The New England version of Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears comes out in October, 2010. It's called Bootleggers, Lobstermen & Lumberjacks: Fifty of the Grittiest Moments in the History of Hardscrabble New England (1620-1950). It's similar in vibe and construction to the previous book, 265 or so pages, plus index, bibliography, etc., and two dozen historic photos and illustrations. Here's a brief blurb about it:

"The story of New England is built on an endless armature of fascinating tales of Yankee ingenuity and hardy, intrepid characters. Bootleggers, Lobstermen, and Lumberjacks takes the top fifty wildest episodes in the region’s bygone days and presents them to the reader in one convenient, narrative-driven package. Including incredible but true tales of hardy Yankee hill folk and crusty seafarers engaged in all manner of amazing activity—from witch-hunting to log rolling, often with tragic results—this book is a perfect stroll through New England’s past for resident and visitor alike. Yankee history is rife with all manner of shipwreck victims surviving any way they knew how; Indian, pirate, and shark attacks, cougar and bear attacks, and, of course, rum runners and bootleggers doing what they do best."

Plus my wife (photographer Jennifer Smith-Mayo), and I just turned in a coffee table book about Maine. The series of books is called Icons, so this one is Maine Icons: Fifty Timeless Symbols of the Pine Tree State. She photographs and I write--it's been good fun working with her on book-length projects. So much so, in fact, that we're signed up to do two more: Vermont and New Hampshire, and are planning them out now. Then I have another book lined up for the "gritty moments" series. This time I'm headed back out West, but with a different theme: Frontier Prospecting. I'm already researching it and can't wait to dive in fully.


How is your new iPad working out for you?

The iPad is actually my wife's. She's a multimedia and photography instructor and likes to keep up on the latest gadgets and whatnots. I love old paperbacks—the smell, the feel, the size, everything—but the ebook revolution seems to be on us, so I'm trying to get savvy with it. The iPad is pretty darned cool. If I owned a Kindle, I'd be peeved right now. Black and white? What were the powerlords at Amazon thinking? Holding out for more money with a later version, I'm sure. Why would I not want to see the color cover of a book I've bought? I've had the opportunity to monkey with both and the iPad is the hands-down winner. It's more comfortable to read, the screen is lovely, the colors pop and comic books look amazing on it. So do magazines, newspapers, and the Web. Imagine the versions we'll get in a few years! Just don't take away my paperbacks.


Who are your influences?

Lovey Howell

Influential people, animals, and circumstances pop in and out all the time and include my parents, my brother, my wife, our dogs, and on and on. As far as writers whose work I enjoy (and so probably influence me), the list is varied. Edgar Rice Burroughs remains a top fave for so many reasons--sheer inventiveness not the least of them. I'm fond of Raymond Carver, Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, and Harry Crews. As far as Western writers go, I really dig Jack Schaefer's writing, ditto for Ernest Haycox and Louis L'Amour. Contemporary Western authors I admire and so probably influence me are Loren D. Estleman, Johnny D. Boggs, Elmer Kelton, Larry D. Sweazy, Peter Brandvold, Joseph A. West, and David L. Robbins (the Wilderness series is a guaranteed fun read). I also have tried to learn from Stephen King, Jim Thompson, Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain, Donald Hamilton, Mickey Spillane, and Robert B. Parker. I'm missing hundreds more, I'm sure. Stop me while there's still time....


What has Matt Mayo done that he is downright ashamed of?

Oh ... lordy.... Perhaps I feel bad when I pick on Kindle people. Nah. Maybe when I failed to claim that winning lottery ticket as income. Nah. Probably when I shoot squirrels with my Red Ryder. But I swear the little bastids taunt me non-stop.


Ginger or Mary-Ann?

Mrs. Howell. No one can work a pantsuit like that. And after all, they don't call her "Lovey" for nothin'.....


Mayo's website.