DWIGHT KEMPER

“GOOD EVENING! I am Detective Chief Inspector Kemper of Scotland Yard and WELCOME to MURDER MYSTERY THEATER!” This is how I open all my mystery shows so it only seemed appropriate to make my introductions this way to you, on the web too. I've been producing and writing mystery shows since my dinner theater play LIGHTS! CAMERA! MURDER! premiered all those years ago at the Sherwood Inn, Greene , NY . Before that, I was toying with the medium of radio drama, adapting unsold screenplays to the airwaves and learning as I went about how many characters were really needed to tell a story. When you only have so many actors who can only do so many voices you have to be practical. This was a great learning experience both in how to do live Radio Theater and how to edit a story to achieve its maximum effect. Mystery dinner shows are even easier to write because you're only writing one page of testimony for six to eight “actors” taken from the audience. The rest is how you set up a crime scene for the audience to investigate and how you keep things moving by the sheer power of your personality. I learned straight away to be aggressive and insulting. The more insults I flung at my audience, the more they loved it. Then again, I have a dry British wit and don't just call someone “stupid.” That wouldn't fly at all. But my way of poking fun and putting people in their place is a real crowd-pleaser. Now I'm entering a new form of entertainment, mystery NOVELS; a different breed of entertainment with its own rules and methods. Much like Dr. Pretorius in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, I only achieved success after “countless failures.” But you have to fail before you can succeed, or so I'm told. One of those failures was a fantasy novel, turned radio play, turned screenplay, turned comic called WITCHHAVEN that predates Harry Potter by quite a few years, but missed the boat completely and never made me a penny. No doubt because timing is everything and I had the right idea at the wrong time (my Harry Potter was a witch girl with dyslexia). Although no one would pay to publish WITCHHAVEN, I decided to cut my losses and eventually found myself writing mystery plays for dinner theater. This led my full circle back to writing books, adapting one of my plays. The first attempt met with little fanfare from Publishers. Then I tried again and eventually succeeded with WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? Now I have a book deal to write a series in my very own label of MARQUEE MOVIE MYSTERIES. Other authors may be printed under that label, but the invention of it is mine, along with the support of my faithful publishers at Midnight Marquee Press, Inc. So, now, dear reader, meet the man behind the bowler hat and red carnation, the real Dwight Kemper.

What is your approach to writing a novel: that is, do you outline or not? Do you keep files and piles of notes?

I think outlining is the death of a novel. Too often a fledgling writer will spend months on a ridiculously long outline instead of getting down to the business of writing the BOOK. So, my outlines are no longer than three pages. Usually I can get by with just a sketch of the crime scene, a list of suspects and their motives and what trips the killer up and reveals them as the doer of the foul deed. I will make notes as I'm writing chapters, reminding myself what needs to be brought out and if there are any dangling loose ends that need tying up. Once in a while I'll write out a chapter by hand and later type it up. Mostly it's just me, a cup of black eye coffee, and a laptop at Barnes and Noble.

What is it that kick starts a project for you: a character, a situation, or…?

For WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? it was a photograph: Boris Karloff's surprise party on the set of Son of Frankenstein. He was in full costume with director Rowland V. Lee, and co-stars Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi also in full costume as Boris cut the cake. This photo hangs framed on my office wall. I took one look at that photo and thought, “All appears well, but I'll bet there's a dead body on that set somewhere.” So, I began working on a story where someone winds up dead on the set of Son of Frankenstein. For other mysteries, the ones I perform as Detective Chief Inspector Kemper at my weekend and dinner theater shows, I can get ideas by browsing antique stores and finding something I think will make a good murder weapon. I did a whole show around a set of railroad spikes. I thought, “What a great weapon of opportunity.” I imagined a dead body in the antique store with a spike through the back of his head. The antique store allowed me to use them as an actual crime scene location for a mystery weekend. The investigation took place near where the spikes were being sold. I eventually bought the entire set of spikes in case I had to stage the show again. Other times I'm inspired by something like a theater program. I bought a 1920's DRACULA program for a show done in Boston and it became the focus of MURDER AT THE VAMPIRE PLAY, which I performed as a Halloween mystery show and will eventually adapt as a novel. So ideas can come from anything. It's taking an idea and making it into a great plot that's the hard part.

Can you tell us a bit about the first story you had published -- how did that come about? And how do you feel about it now?

My first published story was WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? if you're not counting mystery shows that I've been doing since 1989 or the two radio dramas I produced at college both in the US and abroad in England that eventually appeared on the Hospital Radio Network in England . After I got the initial idea for BORIS KARLOFF I wrote it as a mystery show and performed it on Halloween. The story and death, etc. were completely different from the novel. The only thing that was the same was the idea that Boris Karloff is framed for a studio executive's murder. In the play the body is found on an operating table at a display in front of a movie theater showing a Boris Karloff film festival. You can get away with a lot in a two-hour interactive play that you can't in a novel. People can read back in a novel and can be more critical of the plot. In a mystery show people just want to laugh and drink and have a good time. The show is mostly about the crime scene investigation and how people I take from the audience handle their parts as suspects. I use no actors. I'm the only professional. Everything else depends on how I interact with guests and suspects. In a novel you have to develop scenes, motivations, and create dialogue beyond suspect testimony. You also have to deal with story structure and create act breaks. I suppose it's my theater background that makes my approach to a novel like writing a screenplay. I think in terms of act one, act two, and act three. The turn at the end of act one that leads to the problem that has to be coped with in act two, and the doom that eventually comes at the end of act two leading to the resolution in act three.

What started you in writing? What kept you going?

I've always been very imaginative. I've been trying to get published since I was 13 years old and I wrote children's books thinking I was a child and could write for children. Publishers apparently didn't see it that way. I laid off writing for a while, went to nursing school, did Hospice care until I burned out from that and decided to go back to college and take some theater courses. Eventually I started writing scripts, which led to what I'm doing now as a mystery entertainer. Writing books was the next logical step since I don't see myself carrying around crime scene dummies, heavy speakers and sound equipment well into my sixties. Although my work does keep me motivated to visiting a gym five days a week so I CAN set up my crimes scenes and sound equipment. I also recently discovered that writing is in my blood. The Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkley, CA recently contacted me asking if I had any Gertrude Stein memorabilia they could borrow for their on line exhibition. They've been doing her family tree and it turns out I'm her great, great nephew on my father's side! Of course, she wrote literature and I'm basically a pulp fiction writer, but writing is writing.

How have you grown as a writer? What has gotten better? What things have you dropped along the way?

Early on I recognized I had a problem developing plots. I made a study of plotting and how you structure a story. There was a great book about it called WRITING PLOTS THAT SELL. It's probably long out of print, but it was very good at showing how plots are developed from basic story ideas taken from literature, jokes and fairy tales. A recent book on mystery writing was also very helpful in plotting WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? I highly recommend HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION by Carolyn Wheat. So I'd say over time I've become a better storyteller.

What are the three most important pieces of advice you'd give to writers?

First and foremost, actually write something. Don't talk about writing something, just sit down and DO IT. You can't get better until you actually write things down. Secondly, recognize your strengths and weaknesses. If you have to research a subject longer than a couple of months on your first novel, you're probably not qualified to write that novel. Write what you know. I have been watching and reading about Universal Horror films since I was a kid. I was around for the first Monster Boom in the 60's. I was more than qualified to write WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? and had to research only a few facts about my suspects and how the studio system worked. All in all, it only took a month or two and some books I borrowed from the local university to get me ready to write WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF. Finally, and most important of all, if you're going to write a book, write the whole first draft before you start polishing. Don't stop until you reach the end. Put it away for a month to get a fresh perspective, read it over and take notes. THEN polish.

How long does it generally take you to complete a novel – from conception to completion?

WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? was written in an intense writing session that lasted a full summer from research to completion. It helped that Sara Karloff was interested and I had to send her chapters every week. She was hooked early on and wanted to read more. She also was very helpful with Boris's dialogue and suggesting how he would react in my imagined situations. I wrote anywhere from ten to twenty pages a day.

How many revisions do you normally go through when writing a novel?

It depends on the novel. I recently finished one manuscript with three chapters that I revised 20 times. This is not an exaggeration. I had to rethink and rework a complicated series of events to lead to a certain conclusion, basically working out a magic trick to get a person from point A to point B and not be seen by a large crowd of people. It was a very complicated bit of business and took me many, many tries to get it where I felt it was both funny and believable. WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? was a fairly easy write, with only four re-writes. Three for plot development, mostly for the middle section where some publishers felt it wasn't “catching fire” the way they would have liked (solution, add more dead bodies) and once for pace and brevity. The original manuscript was nearly 700 pages long, double spaced 12-point type. I cut it down to a trim 500 pages. I'm a vicious editor. In fact, I cut the manuscript before Midnight Marquee even asked me to. I felt it could be better shorter. ANYTHING can be better shorter. Are you reading this, Stephen King?

What's the most difficult stage in the writing for you?

Working out the mechanics of the crime itself. It took me eight tries to find the easiest way to frame Boris Karloff for murder. I would bounce ideas off of Sara Karloff. It's not like she said that's a good idea or that's a bad idea. But I could tell from her reaction what caught her fancy. First I thought of a killer wearing a mask cast from Jack Pierce's mold of Boris's face, as I used in the mystery show. But I found it lacked something dramatically for a book. I felt the actual person found at the scene HAD to be Karloff and not just a fleeing murderer. Then I got caught up on the idea of getting Boris's fingerprints on the lever that operates Kenneth Strickfaden's monster making machine. I thought of rubber gloves taken from casts of Boris's hands that the killer leaves behind when Karloff is found at the scene. But I learned from Sara that Boris never had his hands cast in a mold. Then I saw a still of Boris as the Monster posing with a Strickfaden machine, his hands basically stroking it. I thought, “Ah ha! The killer switches levers with the fatal machine!” But no, examining footage of Son of Frankenstein, I couldn't find the actual machine in the still on the set. Finally, I just played out the whole scenario in my head and the answer came to me like a revelation. If Boris sees a body burning on an operating table, the first thing he'll do is TURN OFF THE MACHINE! Then I just need a studio guard to catch him at the wrong Hitchcockian moment and PRESTO! Karloff is in the frame for murder.

Who are the authors that you admire most, who inspire you, whose writing you think is most beautiful, moving, exciting?

I like mostly non-genre writers like Truman Capote and now Gertrude Stein since discovering we're related. I like the simple, straightforward prose of Richard Matheson, especially in his book HELL HOUSE. I like the humor of SF writer Robert Sheckley. I used to be a BIG Asimov fan. In fact, I credit his adaptation of the Fantastic Voyage screenplay as my main reason for passing my anatomy and physiology exams at nursing school. Oddly enough, I hardly read mysteries. I've listened to some Agatha Christie on tape, and I've read The Maltese Falcon for my unofficial mystery show sequel Bye, Bye Blackbird, but I'm really a SF and horror fan. And of course, nobody can touch H. P. Lovecraft for creating a weird mood.

Are there authors who you think are much better at spinning a plot as opposed to writing beautiful prose?

Anthony Shaffer has written two of the best-plotted stories I've ever encountered, SLEUTH and THE WICKER MAN. I've never read any prose from him since he seems to be mostly a playwright, but his are the best plots. How else can you explain enjoying a mystery play like SLEUTH for the sheer enjoyment of the cat and mouse interplay even if you know what's going to happen next? MARVELOUS!

What do you find most satisfying in another author's book: a great plot, beautiful writing, fully realized characters?

It depends on the book. I like Ray Bradbury's horror stories more than his SF, but sometimes his prose gets a bit too much for me to handle. He has a unique narrative voice that can sometimes be downright oppressive if you're not in the right mood to read it. Best book by Bradbury; SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES; worst adaptation of Bradbury's work to screen; SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. It's like catching lightning in a bottle. Go figure. For character studies, you can't beat Truman Capote. IN COLD BLOOD and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANIES, brilliant! For sheer moving prose and characters, nothing beats A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. No film adaptation as EVER captured this book correctly. All the film versions SUCK! READ THE BOOK!

In your own work, what do you think you are strongest at: plot, beautiful prose, character? Or something else?

Definitely character first, plot second. I love writing dialogue and getting people to interact. Some of the nicest critiques I've had about WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? came from people's reaction to how I wrote scenes between Boris, Basil and Bela. The plot usually works itself out as you write, but if you don't have a good handle on writing dialogue, you're doomed.

How do you plot a mystery or a thriller – what stymies you most, what do you find easiest?

Crime scene first, usually as a detailed sketch. I'm also an artist. Then I work backward to figure out how the crime scene could happen. But to be honest, most of my plotting goes on subconsciously. I studied Raja Yoga and use the technique I learned from that to feed my subconscious mind material and tell it to formulate a solution. I give it a deadline and then when my fingers feel ready to type I just type and I find myself and just as surprised as anyone when I get to a certain point in my book. I only do conscious work after the first draft, which just pours out of me onto the page. A funny story: I really did pick names from a hat to assign suspects or Boris, Basil and Bela. When Basil got James Whale I had absolutely no idea what Whale was going to tell him. I just kept writing and thinking, “Boy, whatever Whale tells Rathbone, it better be pretty darn good!” And it was. Another funny story: I didn't want to reveal the name of a person I thought was the killer when my subconscious wanted me to. I thought, “But if I say his name NOW, what am I going to write about for the next 60 pages?” I fought it like hell and tried to find other solutions but they all sucked. Finally I gave in and wrote it the way my subconscious wanted me to and no one was more surprised than I was about the final resolution. I'll never fight my subconscious again.

What advice can you give on plotting a mystery?

Don't get too caught up with how you kill someone. Honestly, when I started out I thought the method of murder had to be akin to a Rube Goldberg invention. Just shoot, stab, or poison someone. It's the motive and the opportunity that count. Best book on how to kill someone and what evidence you leave behind: THE CRIME WRITER'S HANDBOOK by Douglas Wynn.

Does the world you create in your non-series novels continue to live in your mind long after you've completed the novel?

No, not really. I'm too busy working on the next world for my next book or mystery show to wax nostalgically about a past world.

When doing a series, how “into” the world of that series do you get? Do you constantly think about that world and compare it to reality, changing it or fixing it as you go along?

My stories are usually based on real events or people, so I try to read as much as I can about the period I'm writing about. For WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? I had to watch Son of Frankenstein about 60 times to catch little things like the wires Bela Lugosi is being flown on when the Monster is carrying Ygor into the Frankenstein crypt, or noting how twitchy Rathbone was getting as Wolf von Frankenstein. I decided the fictional murder I was concocting was getting into his performance, which is why I made him so hyper in my novel. And of course, I watched biographies of Karloff and Lugosi repeatedly and read Rathbone's autobiography IN AND OUT OF CHARACTER.

What other kinds of writing do you do?

I've written fantasy, comedy; I did a comic strip for a while for GREEN EGG MAGAZINE based on my radio show called WITCHHAVEN. I stopped doing the strip when GREEN EGG said they couldn't afford to pay me but wanted me to use expensive shading screens on my artwork. I write mystery fiction because that's what seemed to sell the most to audiences. I see writing as a business. I go where the money is.

What tips do you have for beginning writers?

Like I said before, write something. There are certain pitfalls you can avoid that I see constantly in writing workshops: Apparently some new writers take the advice to “Hook your reader” to mean “Make them wonder what the hell is going on.” So many times I've heard stories where it seems like someone is doing some horrible act and it turns out to be something mundane like folding laundry. Or describing people without telling us where and when we are in the story. In my book I orient the reader straight away about where and when they are. I could have written the first chapter to make you think the real Frankenstein Monster was having a surprise party and only later SURPRISE! reveal it's all just happening on a movie set, but that's not how you hook a reader. You hook them with character and situation. If something isn't happening in your beginning that you think is exciting enough to start your book then rethink your beginning and for GOD'S SAKE DON'T make an exciting scene just a dream so you can have an exciting scene at the start of your book! I HATE when that happens!

What about readers – how have they received your books – do you hear from them, have any problems arisen, or any good/funny/touching experiences happened with regard to readers? What kind of fan mail do you get? Have you developed any friendships with fans over the years? What do your fans most like about your books?

Since this is my first novel, I don't have a lot of touching stories. One reader who wrote a very glowing review on ezboards and at Amazon.com complained the book was so gripping that he got a major sunburn reading it in his backyard because he couldn't put it down. The one touching story I have comes from my mystery shows. A woman came up to me during a lull in the mystery weekend and told me that her mother, who was one of the suspects, had recently been widowed and that this weekend was the first time since her husband died that she's actually laughed and had a good time. A funny story: In the early days of my mystery weekends I did something called The Night of Terror, where I'd dress up as a ghost and sneak into the guest's room and spook them. If they didn't want to participate they just had to hang a Do Not Disturb sign on their door. Well, one couple forgot to do that. I came into the room wearing black and a homemade cheesecloth glow in the dark painted mask so my head would appear to float in mid air. I stood over the man's bed, he woke up, took one look at me, screamed, kicked me in the chest and hid under the covers. To my credit I stayed in character and left quietly. It was soon after that I reconsidered the whole idea of a Night of Terror.

Is the publication of each book as thrilling as that first one?

I'll tell you when I publish the second one, BELA LUGOSI AND THE HOUSE OF DOOM, now a work in progress.

What are your goals as a writer?

Firstly, to make a lot of money. Secondly, to entertain my readers. Thirdly, to make a lot of money. So far, I seem to have achieved the second thing. Still working on one and two.

Why do you think mystery is so popular?

It's an established genre with an established group of puzzle solving fans and armchair detectives. Unlike a lot of other forms of literature, a mystery is only good if it presents a worthy puzzle for the reader to solve. It's also one of the most challenging to write because you have to constantly surprise the reader AND provide a logical ending that feels satisfying. This is especially difficult since the average mystery fan has read or seen EVERY mystery book or movie or TV show there is. The challenge is making your story seem fresh.

Why has mystery spawned so many sub-genres?

Mostly money-hungry publishers looking for new a gimmick, I suppose. How else can you explain a mystery solving CAT in a book NOT written for children?

Talk about your most recent book and what it means to you.

What sparked the idea? How long had you had this idea before starting to write?

The idea was sparked by a candid photo of Boris Karloff on the set of Son of Frankenstein. The first attempt at framing him for murder was a Halloween mystery show also called WHO FRAMED BORIS KARLOFF? The book was written a year after the mystery show. The show was written if six months. The book took only three months.

Did you feel compelled to write this book? About this subject?

I was mostly compelled by circumstances. I had been chatting with Sara Karloff for about a year about the book, and then she went into the hospital for gall bladder surgery. I figured I'd better get started writing it so she had something to read. At first I sent her a video of my one-man mystery play DEAD FUNNY that appeared at the Endicott Performing Arts Center. She loved it and was ready for more. So I started writing the book and emailing her chapters as I finished them. She would give me hints and corrections (for instance, she told me her mother was laid up in the hospital for two months after Sara was born because of an infection following the Cesarean section. This became an important complication in my story, which led to the creation of a new character). So I guess my first mystery novel exists thanks to Sara Karloff's gall bladder.

How long did it take to complete it? What was your least favorite part in the writing of the book?

It took three months to write the first draft. Subsequent drafts were polished according to publisher rejection letter critiques. Also, I enlisted the aid of a mystery reader's group at Barnes and Noble to act as a focus group. They had read EVERYTHING and were in the habit of analyzing plot and character. They provided me with input about where they were confused, what was boring, what was interesting, when the pace was too slow, etc. I believe it's important for a writer to find CRITICAL readers to test material on. Don't ask for praise, GOD NO! You want brutal honesty from people who KNOW THE GENRE. Take what they say, try again, and see if the new material grabs them. These are going to be your readers some day, so you may as well talk to them directly. As for the least favorite part of writing the book, starting with the first blank page. My advice; just write anything to get started. Eventually a good opening will hit you around page 5. Cut out the junk. And there you are.

What do you like best about it? Which are your favorite characters and why? Which are your favorite moments in the story?

I like meeting my characters and finding ways of showing who they are to the reader. NEVER tell; just SHOW. It's one thing to say that someone is aggressive and bossy and quite another to set up a scene where we see that person ACTING aggressive and bossy. I wrote a lot of interaction between my three leading players at the opening party scene. Quite a bit more than I really needed. I cut out about four pages of dialogue to get to what was essential for the reader to know and to hurry the introduction of James Whale. But in the early stages this is how you get to know your people. As for favorite characters, Bela Lugosi became quite my favorite character. I'm a huge Boris Karloff fan, but Boris and Basil are very reserved people, very proper, very British. Lugosi became my loose cannon detective. I never knew what he was going to say or do next. His dialogue was the most fun to write. Also, my publishers at Midnight Marquee Press just loved how I made Bela funny and not creepy. Bela struck me as a very proud, very bold, very passionate Hungarian who was frustrated by the hand Fate had dealt him in his chosen profession. I just put myself in his cape and worked from there. As an actor, I have to get into character as I write. When I write a scene, I see it playing out before me as a movie. I just transcribe what I see and hear. Favorite moment, the three actors trying to break into a Mausoleum and Bela having all the answers, much to Rathbone's frustration. Favorite scene, as the three B's move stealthily with a ladder along the cemetery wall:

Lugosi asked, “Why do we not first check to see whether the gates are locked?”

“Because the gates ARE locked,” Rathbone insisted.

“How do you know unless you check to be sure? There are gates by the crematory on Normandie Avenue , and the front gates are on Washington Boulevard . Either of them, they could be unlocked.”

Boris looked over his shoulder. “The gates are there to keep out intruders.”

Bela smirked. “Keep out intruders who do not bring with them a ladder, you mean.”

I will close now as I do with all my mystery shows as I say to you out there, “May all your crimes be perfect ones! Good night!”

And do visit me on the web at http://www.murdermysterytheater.com