An Interview with Paul D. Marks

Paul D. Marks

Paul D. Marks is the author of the Shamus Award-Winning mystery-thriller White Heat. Publishers Weekly calls White Heat a “taut crime yarn.” Betty Webb of Mystery Scene Magazine calls its sequel Broken Windows “Extraordinary”. His short story Ghosts of Bunker Hill was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Poll. Windward was selected for the Best American Mystery Stories of 2018, was nominated for the Shamus Award, and won the 2018 Macavity Award for Best Short Story. His stories have also been published in Beat to a Pulp, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Hardboiled, Switchblade, Mystery Weekly, Mysterical-E and more. www.PaulDMarks.com

Interview

 BMH: Where was you first appearance as an author?

PDM:  If I remember correctly it was in a small bookshop in Pasadena. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name and I don’t think it’s there anymore. It was with several of the other authors of a short story collection in which my first published fiction came out, a story called Angels Flight.

BMH: Outliner or seat-of-your-pants writer?

PDM:  Panster, definitely. Sometimes I wish I could be an outliner. I think in some ways it would make life easier. But I don’t think in that linear, well-thought out form. I like to see where my characters take me (see the response above about talking and walking).

 

BMH: What is something you wish someone would have told you before you became an author?

PDM:  I don’t want to be a downer, but you have to be realistic: Nobody told me how hard it would be. I think we all think that we’re going to write a book. It’s going to be great. Agents, editors and the public will come calling. If we’re lucky, maybe even Hollywood. And I guess for some people that happens. But for the vast majority it’s a struggle. It’s a lot of work trying to get an agent or get published in the major magazines or with the major publishers.

Also, the competition is fierce. And that’s okay. You just have to be prepared for the long haul if writing is something you really want to do.

And people tell you not to take rejection personally. But it’s hard not to. Your work is like your baby. You wouldn’t like it if someone said your kid was ugly or stupid or whatever. But you have to develop a thick skin. Be persistent. And just keep moving forward.

BMH: You can go back in time, meet and chat with anyone, who would it be? What would you talk about?

PDM:  Well, the first person that comes to mind is John Lennon. But even if I did meet him I think I might be disappointed. There’s a quote from the Jose Ferrer version of Moulin Rouge that says, “One should never meet a person whose work one admires; What they do is always so much better than what they are!” So I’d be concerned that maybe he wouldn’t be the person I imagine him to be. I think I’d probably ask him a bunch of questions about the Beatles. And I’d want to know 2 important things: 1) was Paul really dead, just kiddin’ 😉 ?   2) Was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds about an LSD trip? I know he denied the latter, but maybe I could get him to tell me the truth. And then, since he was into baking bread, I’d want some home-made Lennon-bread.

BMH: Why crime fiction?

PDM:  Because everything is crime fiction or at least mystery fiction. Most stories have a mystery somewhere in them. But as to crime fiction, it rights wrong, you get some kind of justice that we don’t always get in the real world, even if it’s imperfect. And even in noir, where justice is more elusive, there usually is some, even if everything isn’t resolved for the best.

BMH: Have you written in other genres?

PDN:   I started out writing more mainstream things, though didn’t have much success, at least in the beginning. Early on, I had a novel accepted by a major publisher. It was a satire, though it had a mystery element to it. Unfortunately, the editorial staff was let go and a new staff brought in. And, as a new broom sweeps clean, so the new editorial staff dumped most, if not all, of the old staff’s projects. Mine was swept out with the tide. And, because it was topical satire and had been with that company so long, the humor was dated so I couldn’t really bring it to another publisher. Lesson learned: Don’t write topical humor.

A few years ago I was asked to contribute a horror story to an anthology. I don’t really read much horror and I guess you could say I was horrified at the prospect, but always up for a good challenge. So I wrote Finders Keepers for Journals of Horror. And then more recently I was asked to do another horror story. I guess I was less horrified this time around, and that story is The Lamp in the Simple Things anthology.

I like writing satire sometimes. My story Continental Tilt in Murder in La La Land is a good example of that. And my mainstream story Terminal Island, about a Japanese-American girl and a white veteran during World War II, was bought by Weber: The Contemporary West, and Endless Vacation received recognition from both Glimmer Train and the Lorian Hemingway International Short Story Competition.

So, while I write mostly crime fiction I do like to spread my wings and try other things on occasion.

BMH: What is something you’ve never written about, but hope to some day?

PDM:  I’m fascinated by the Red Scare/Hollywood Blacklist era of the 1940s and 50s. I’d like to write about that. I have some notes written down and hopefully I’ll get to turn them into a novel at some point. I got to know one of the Hollywood Ten, Edward Dmytryk, a little bit. I’m not saying I would tell his story, but it certainly was interesting. And, just as a side note, he directed one of my favorite film noirs, Murder, My Sweet, based on Chandler’s novel, Farewell, My Lovely.

BMH: How big a part did your upbringing have on your writing?

PDM:  That’s an interesting question. My mom encouraged it, my dad didn’t get it. But both of them wanted me to have a “real” job to fall back on. And while they were probably right, at the time it felt like they didn’t believe in me and that made it hard. It made me want to prove myself to them and everyone. To show them I could do it. So in one sense it gave me more motivation to write, but it didn’t make for happy family reunions, though that wasn’t the main reason for unhappy family times. And I think my drive to write made me pass up a lot of things so I could stay in my place and write.

BMH: Why did you become a writer?

PDM:  To be rich and famous. Uh, now I need to rethink that…

On a more serious note, my wife, Amy, likes doing jigsaw puzzles. I don’t have the patience for them. But to me, writing is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have to make sure all the pieces fit together in the right places. That’s fun. I also have things I want to say – I guess I have a big head and think someone else might want to hear them – and I like saying them in an entertaining way. And that’s my main reason for being a writer, to entertain. And I hope I’ve done that.

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

PDM:  I think at least in high school I was already considering it as a career. But, even as a little kid I liked to set up my army men as if they were on a movie set instead of on a real battlefield. I would use TinkerToys as Klieg lights and move them around and give them “dialogue” as if they were in a movie. So I guess it’s something I always had in me.

BMH: Who is you hero/heroine? Why?

The hero – or anti-hero in my series books, White Heat and Broken Windows – is private detective Duke Rogers. Generally, fiction PIs are trying right wrongs. Like Chandler’s Marlowe, they want justice. Duke’s a noir hero, imperfect and flawed, but wanting to do the right thing. And Jack, his very politically incorrect sidekick, gives me a way to show how Duke tries to be better and not think like Jack.

BMH: What two words best describes your writing style?

PDM:  I hate to answer in more than two words, but I think my style changes depending on the needs of a particular story. Sometimes it’s hardboiled or noirish, other times satirical and funny (I hope) and all things in between those two. Sometimes I think I should stick with one style, but I really don’t want to be typecast.

BMH: How do you create your characters?

PDM:  I like to do what I call letting my characters “talk and walk”. As a pantster, I don’t like outlining. I might start with a few notes, but no heavy duty outlines. So my first drafts are largely stream of consciousness, where I let the characters talk and walk and get to know each other as I get to know them…as they work their way through a plot that’s beginning to take shape. I might not use everything or even much of what I do in these drafts, but I do start to form the basis of the story and characters. In a sense you might even say they are my outlines, especially as they’re often written in screenplay format.

BMH: How much editing do you do as you write your first draft?

PDM:  Minimal. One of the best pieces of writing I ever got was not to rewrite as you go along. You can get bogged down trying to perfect one scene or even one line and never move forward. And especially now in the age of computers and word processing programs it’s so easy to change things in later drafts. Sometimes I’ll change something along the way. As a kind of silly example: A character might have blonde hair in the beginning and I decide I want her to be a redhead. So I change it to redhead at that point and make a note to go back and change earlier references from blond to red in the next draft, but I don’t spend time changing it in the current draft. I do very little major editing as I go along.

BMH: How do you use social media to promote yourself?

PDM:  I do a fair amount on social media. Several years ago a publicist friend wanted me to go on Facebook. I argued with her vehemently that I didn’t’ want to, thinking that all people did there was post pictures of their breakfast…or worse. But she talked me into it and after a while I found my niche there. I post things that interest me. People know me as the noir guy or the LA guy, though I post on a lot of other things as well. And I do promote my books or stories that are coming out, but you have to do that judiciously. You don’t want to turn people off. I think everyone I know gets annoyed when someone friends you, then the first thing they do is try to sell you their book or ask you to read something when you don’t even know them yet.

After Facebook, I started using Twitter a little. And I’m on Instagram, but don’t go there much.

The other thing that I like about Facebook, especially, is that, since I work at home, it’s sort of like the office water cooler for me. A place to take a break from writing, chit chat about this or that. Feel connected. Though I could do with less vitriolic political posts.

BMH: What do you think of the new faces of publishing….ebooks, POD, indie-publishing?

PDM:  I think they’re great. One can get their books out faster, easier. But it’s a two-edged sword. There’s a lot more competition and it’s really hard to stand out from the pack and get noticed.

BMH: Do you blog?

PDM:  Too much. At times it feels like it’s all I do. I blog for two blogs, 7 Criminal Minds and SleuthSayers. And I really do enjoy it, but I put a lot of time and thought into my posts and so I want people to see them, so I do a lot of promotion for them and sometimes wonder if I’m over promoting.

BMH: What comes first for you, characters or plot?

PDM:  Depends , you need both. But if I had to choose one it would be characters. You can have the greatest plot in the world, but if your characters aren’t compelling, complex and interesting, no one’s going to care what happens to them. So a great plot needs to have great characters that the reader can relate to and root for.

BMH: What do you do to cut loose and have some fun?

PDM:  I like to explore Los Angeles, places I grew up. See how they’ve changed – not always for the better. I hike with my dogs. We live in a pretty rural area outside of the city. And one of these days I expect to come across a dead body that someone’s hidden out there. That’ll give me something to write about. I used to like doing things on the water, SCUBA especially, but haven’t been able to do that in a while. Also like to hang with my wife and dogs, eating pizza and watching old black and white noir movies. Too much pizza, not enough noir.

BMH: What did you do to celebrate when you signed your first book contract?

PDM:  To be honest with you I don’t remember. We probably celebrated with a fancy dinner or something. One thing we’re doing to celebrate right now: my wife is making prints of all my book covers and hanging them on a wall. It’s a way to remind myself what I’ve accomplished and feel grateful.

BMH: What authors influenced you the most?

PDM:  In the mystery/crime field, I’m afraid it’s not a very unique list, but it’s a good one: Chandler, Ellroy, Ross Macdonald, Goodis, Connelly, Thompson, Crais, Mosley, and so many others.

BMH: Research?

PDM:  Definitely. And I love it too much, I get lost in it. Love researching things and can find hours slipping by. My Duke Rogers novels (White Heat and Broken Windows) are set in the 1990s. My upcoming novel The Blues Don’t Care is set in the 1940s. And, let me tell you, researching the 40s was easier than the 90s. The problem with the 90s is that since many of us lived through them and since so much was similar but not the same, you have to really make sure you’re remembering it right and not putting today’s technology back then. For example, there were cell phones, but they were very different than they are today. There was Windows, but what version and how was that different – and does it make a difference in the plot? Things like that. Whereas the forties, I didn’t live through, so I don’t have personal memories to confuse things. But I love the music and movies and Raymond Chandler from that era, so doing that research was fun. Plus I had my mom and her friends to go to for first-hand knowledge. And it was all fun. As I said, I love doing research too much. I get lost in the history and the music and everything else.

BMH: Do you have a daily writing routine?

PDM:  I try… These days I do most of my writing after 10pm, until the wee hours. Part of me wants to get on a more normal schedule. But this seems to work for me…until I have to get up early to go somewhere sometimes.

BMH: What are your strengths as a writer? 

PDM:  Dialogue. I think I’ve learned to listen to the way people talk and translate that to prose writing. Characters that function on more than one level. And hopefully fun, exciting plots that often take place in a real world, surrounded by actual events.

BMH: What are the hardest kinds of scenes for you to write?

PDM:  Action and love. The first because you can go overboard with minute descriptions of the action, the second because you don’t want the prose to turn purple.

BMH: What is the best encouragement/advice you’ve received in your writing journey?

PDM:  Don’t rewrite as you go along and don’t give up.

BMH: How about some hard-earned advice.

PDM:  Just do it, sit your ass in a chair and write. And if you can’t write, then type. Let your mind flow. You might not use much of what comes out, but it will help free up your creative juices. If that doesn’t work, take a drive and listen to music. Then get back and try it again. There’s no such thing as writer’s block.

The other thing is, be prepared to become a PR flack. You have to wear a lot of different hats these days and one of them is PR person, even when you’re with a publisher. You need to figure out how to market yourself and your books. There’s no easy answers and I think most writers would prefer not to do it. But unless you’re John Grisham or someone like that you’re going to end up doing a lot of your own PR.

PDM:  I always have several things going. Right now I’m working on the third Duke Rogers novel, the first two being the Shamus-winning White Heat and its sequel Broken Windows. I’m also working on two or three or short stories. And I have another novel, a standalone, that I’m dying to get back to one of these days. Unlike much of my stuff that’s so LA-centric that one is set in New York city. A little change of pace for me.