Two authors are featured this time around: Earl Stagg and Michael Kronenwetter
Earl Stagg Interview
By Julie Obermiller
Author Earl Stagg and his wife abandoned life in the snowy northeast to move first to Florida and then to Fort Worth , Texas where the sun always shines. Being semi-retired, Staggs has penned a number of short stories that have appeared in magazines and in book anthologies. “All the Fine Actors" brought home a Derringer Award for Best Short Mystery Story in 2002.
When he's not penning his own missives, Earl remains active in the writing community and served terms as both Vice President and President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. He enjoyed a stint as a Senior Fiction Editor and is now Managing Editor of FUTURES Mysterious Anthology Magazine.
"Memory of a Murder" is Stagg's first novel. Adam Kingston, a former FBI Agent and now a Private Investigator has paranormal abilities. He was first brought to life in a short story Earl wrote as a writing class project. Staggs latched on to the idea of a psychic PI and fleshed Kingston 's character into glorious Technicolor in “Memory of a Murder” (an excerpt appeared in the last issue of Mysterical-E). The characters are all too human and subject to the foibles of everyday folks, an ensemble the reader can immediately bond with. There are proper clues and more than a few twists, and this explosive ending might leave you slapping your head after missing it! It's a fast paced, comfortable read that will leave you anxious for further adventures of Adam Kingston and Homicide Detective Brenda McCort.
Staggs took time out from his writing and book signings to answer some questions from a new fan.
Q. Do you write what you, as a reader, enjoy? What makes your own
personal reading list?
One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever received was "Write what you like to read." I enjoy a whodunnit mystery with action and suspense that keeps me guessing right to the end. That's the kind of book I tried to write with "Memory of a Murder."
Part of the fun in reading is trying to solve the puzzle before the protagonist does. If I can do that, I become bored and stop reading. Any writer who pulls off a good solid ending without me seeing it coming goes to the top of my preferred reading list. I love to reach the end of a book and say, "Yes! Why didn't I see that?"
Q. When writing a story, do you have a beginning, a plot and an end
before you put it down, or does it evolve as you go?
Once I get started on a story, it evolves as it rolls along. The starting point of a story can vary. Sometimes I have an ending in mind and build a story to reach it. Other times, a provocative opening will pop into mind and I have to create a story from there. Outlining and charting may work for many writers, but I found them too restricting. I've tried them, but found it better to let the story spin along its own path.
Q. What finally made you start writing seriously; at what stage of your life?
I always wanted to write, but didn't get started until I was in my fifties. Before that, I was busy raising a family and making a living and there never seemed to be enough time. When our daughters married and left the nest, my wife and I decided to build a new nest in a warmer climate. We moved from Maryland to the sunny South and that's when I finally decided to give writing a good shot. I started with short stories, hoping to learn the craft, and then began the novel. I still love writing the shorts and plan to continue with them. The main character in the book, by the way, grew from a short story I wrote while in Florida .
Q. The two main trios, Adam, Ellie and Phil and Brenda, Timmy and Captain Jackson provide human and sometimes comic relief to the horrors of murder. Knowing that serious fans love serial books with familiar casts and settings, do you plan to continue writing mysteries around Adam Kingston?
Absolutely. I already have plans for Adam's next book-length adventure and most, if not all, of the same characters will appear; especially Brenda. After all, as Timmy says in the book, "There's more to life than chasing bad guys." I feel I owe it to Adam to keep Brenda in his life. A man who spends a lot of time in the hard, cold world of crime deserves some soft and warm time once in a while.
Q. Does your own background temper your writing; do you write from
a familiar comfort zone?
Not really. Adam Kingston is a former FBI agent and I spent most of my working career in sales. Besides Adam, I've written about characters as diverse as cops, PI's, hit men, and little old ladies. None of them came from my own background. Especially the little old ladies. The experience in sales, however, brought me in contact with every conceivable type of person on the planet so I draw on them for my fictional characters.
Q. What's a typical writing day like for you?
I have a part-time thing I do which takes three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. I write for about an hour in the morning, and then go out for morning gig. After that, I'm back home for nearly four hours before I have to go out again. That's my prime writing time. In the evenings, after a full day, the mind and body do not have the energy to do anything creative, so I may read or edit a little, then get to bed early.
Q. Is editing harder than writing the actual novel, as some suggest? How hard is it to edit, and cut, your own work?
I've heard it said writing is ten percent writing and ninety percent rewriting. I believe that. I must be the king of rewriting because I can't seem to leave anything alone. I can pick up anything I've written and find something I'd like to revise. Don't tell anyone, but I've actually gone back to something already published and made changes.
I'm only talking about minor changes -- a word here, a word there – not about cutting portions of the story. When you've sweated, cried, and bled over a piece of work, it becomes almost sacred and cutting it is nothing short of heresy. Sometimes, though, it has to be done. I rely on my writing group to point out where I need to insert the scalpel and slice. Is it hard to cut? No harder than amputating a hand or foot without
anesthetic.
Q. Do you write with "the movie version" in mind or are you content to have readers your only audience?
When I write, the story plays out like a movie in my mind. I have to "see it" in my mind's eye before I can write it. If it doesn't play just right on the screen of my own imagination, it won't play for the readers either.
Q. What's your opinion of the current mystery/suspense offerings?
The best thing about the current offerings is they're very much like the classic offerings from the golden days of pulp fiction. Times have changed, for sure, with our heroes and heroines driving faster cars and using cell phones instead of phone booths, but the basics of making sure crime doesn't pay are the same as they've always been. Technology and tools may change, but people don't. Murder is still murder and a right hook to the jaw or a slug from a .45 still get the same result.
Q. Do new writers have a chance to break the ranks of prolific best-selling authors?
There's always a chance, but it's much harder than it used to be. There was a time when major publishers would support and promote promising new authors until they gained the recognition necessary to be successful. Now those publishers concentrate almost entirely on established authors who can guarantee enough sales to make a profit immediately.
There are always exceptions, of course. Ten years ago, few people had heard of Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell, Dennis Lehane, and a small handful of authors now at the top of the field. Even for them, it took longer to climb the publishing ladder than it might have forty or fifty years ago.
Fortunately, there has been growth in the ranks of small publishing houses that are willing to take a chance on unknowns. Some of those houses will grow and prosper and some of those authors will become well-known. But it's a much higher mountain to climb than it used to be.
Q. When a book is finally written, edited and printed, the hard work is just beginning; don't you agree?
As we talked about above, big publishers do little these days to publish and promote new authors and the small publishers simply do not have the money and influence to do it. That leaves the major part of promoting and selling up to the author. It takes a lot of time and effort to get your book and your name in front of enough people to rack up an impressive sales record. The Internet can help spread the word if you use it properly. Mostly, it involves going to conferences and conventions and struggling to set up signing events on your own. Even bookstores are reluctant to give time and space to an unknown author. But self-promotion can be and is being done by many determined authors, and they're opening the doors for those who come along after them.
Q. Do you have any final cautions or advice for the hopeful beginner?
Many beginning writers spend a great deal of time and effort trying to get published. If they spend more time working to become better writers, the chances of being published will come along a lot sooner.
Interview With Michael Kronenwetter author of First Kill
Michael Kronenwetter's well-received fiction debut, First Kill, is available from St. Martin 's. First Kill was a winner in their P.I. novel competition for first timers. Although Kronenwetter is no stranger to writing, having published many non-fiction reference books, this novel is his first published novel-length fiction.
"I was raised here in Wausau . After that, I went down to Evanston , Illinois to attend Northwestern University . I dropped out of there to go to New York to become an actor. That was really fun, but didn't work out professionally too well, so I came back to Wisconsin . I attended the UW for a while, than moved to Kingston , Ontario , where I -- 1. partly owned and operated a local bookstore; 2. partly also owned, performed in, and directed in a local theatre group, and 3. worked as a part time entertainment columnist for the local newspaper. More importantly, I met and married the woman who has been my wife ever since. After awhile, we moved to Montreal , Quebec , where our first child -- Catherine -- was born. We then moved back to the United States, first to Wausau; then down to Carlsbad, New Mexico; then back up here to Wausau, where our son-- Jay -- was born. Since then, I've written more than thirty nonfiction books, mostly for young adults. The latest before First Kill, however, is an essentially adult book entitled Terrorism: A Guide to Events and Documents, published by Greenwood . For the past ten years or so, I've also been writing a more-or-less political column for
Wausau's City Pages."
1. How long did it take you to produce FIRST KILL ?
I actually started working on it several years ago, but I got pulled away from it by a lot of nonfiction writing assignments.
2. How many revisions did it go through?
I never counted them, but some areas of it went through several of them. Oddly enough, the most elaborate revision was made after it was chosen the winner of the Private Eye Novel Contest of both St. Martin's Minotaur and the Private Eye Writers of America .
3. What was your biggest challenge in writing this book?
The pasts of various characters' have to do with the present, and the biggest problem was how to effectively work them in.
4. Which character was most difficult for you to write?
Well, I'm afraid answering that question might give a clue to a murderer, so I won't do it.
5. Where did Hank Berlin come from?
Well, his first name comes from both my grandfather and my uncle. A bit of his past--but certainly not most of it--comes from me. A bit of his nature (but, once again, not most of it) comes straight from all the fictional detectives I've read about over the years. The rest of him comes straight from my imagination.
6. Why set the book in Wisconsin ?
Well, I'm extremely familiar with this state. It's a handy home for my detective, Hank Berlin , whom I intend to use in future novels. Also, this is a state that houses some real eccentrics, including some really eccentric murderers. Ed Gein, for instance. And Jeffrey Dahmer.
7. Some reviews peg your book as “soft boiled.” Do you think this is the correct designation?
I've seen only one review that uses that term. That was in Publisher's Weekly. It was used in the same sentence that described FIRST KILL as a positively “solid fiction debut.” To tell the truth, I think “ soft boiled ” was picked as a kind of balance to “ solid .” If it's intended to reflect on Hank's own son and toward the victim's wife--who used to be Hank's first love--I consider it appropriate. If it's meant to describe the vicious murderous events that take place, it's way off the mark.
8. What advice would you have for the first time mystery writer?
“Write one,” I suppose. I mean, there's a lot of advice that seems to work for some people but doesn't work for others.
9. What got you started in the non-fiction field?
Shouldn't this question be the other way around? I mean, I was attempting write short stories and plays before all the nonfiction books started. Actually (in my case) a friend of mine got me involved in some film-script writing jobs back in the early 1980's--including a tooth-brushing film-script writing job for Saudi Arabia, by the way! At one point, the friend had a contract to write a non-fiction book for a high-school age publisher, and suddenly found himself too busy to do it. He got me to take that contract over for him. Around that time, I got hired to do history of my home county in central Wisconsin , and that really hooked me.
10. Was it easy making the transition from non-fiction to fiction?
As I said, the main transition--or distraction--was the other way around.
11. Why did you choose mystery for your fiction debut?
In a way, I see the world as a mystery. We're all trying to solve it in some ways.
12. What is it you like about mystery?
Well, it presents both your main characters and your readers with a puzzle. And in this case, Hank has a dilemma as well.
13. Who are the authors you look up to or who have inspired you?
Look up to or inspired? Graham Greene, William Faulkner, James Lee Burke, Robert B. Parker, John Mortimer, Barbary Hambly, Colin Dexter, Reginald Hill, Martha Grimes, Robert Barnard -- etc.
14. What do you read between working on your own books?
See above.
15. You made an attempt to become an actor, did that teach you anything which you brought to your writing?
Well, I guess that it did. It schooled me in deception. At the same time, it schooled me in detecting deception. That last one's pretty handy for a detective.
16. You also write a political column. Do you ever find yourself embroiled in controversy over your columns?
Oh, sure. I special myself in harboring strong opinions, and that doesn't surprise me in facing controversial strong opinions.
17. Will Hank Berlin stay in Pinery Falls for the next book in the series or will he get to see the world?
Hey, Pinery Falls sees itself as part of the world. And Hank has already seen some of the rest of the world. He's seen Canada , at least. And FIRST KILL sees more of the world than that in some important ways. I'm afraid the next book isn't traveling too far away. On the other hand, there's a lot of distance to travel right there in Pinery Falls .
