It depends on where you’re sitting
June 30, 2009
NEWS: Busy week for A TRACE OF SMOKE. SMOKE is Thriller Book Club selection at dearreader.com:
http://www.supportlibrary.com/fm/shelf_main.cfm?win1=LLIST&id1=81&CFID=21947286&CFTOKEN=97892259
SMOKE also got a good review in the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper on Sunday:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906280314
Finally, SMOKE and I got a write up in the Hawaii Tribune:
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2009/06/26/features/features05.txt
POST: Do I think like the hero or the villain?
I’d like to say I think like the hero, and mostly I do. I tend to follow the rules, try to help people out, and just in general be an annoying goody-goody. I’m so bad at lying that I have to call my sister when I need a whopper. I won’t tell you which sister, and I have three. But one of them is a genius at lying. Simple lies, complicated lies. She’s got the gift. She doesn’t lie all the time, but it’s there when she needs it, and it’s also there when I do.
So, I think I’m mostly a hero.
But recently I borrowed a friend’s car. A non-writing civilian with a real job. He was having problems with his boss and told me not to put anything in the trunk so it would be empty when I picked him up from work. Without missing a beat, I said, “So you can put in a body?” He looked at me in total astonishment and said, “So I can put in the boxes if I have to clear out my desk.” And that was when I realized that maybe I think a bit like the villain after all.
I’m trying to pass that off as a good thing, so pay attention here (and, no, I didn’t call my sister before coming up with this explanation). Every hero has some bit of villainy he needs to vanquish in himself and conversely every villain has noble reasons for her actions (yup, I’m messing with the pronouns just for fun). 
Hero? My main character in A TRACE OF SMOKE thinks long and hard about taking in an adorable five year old orphan who appears on her doorstep one night. She doesn’t send him out into the darkness alone in the middle of the night.
But she thinks about it.
Villain? My main villain is based on a historical figure, top Nazi Ernst Roehm, who was sure that he was the hero who was going to restore Germany to greatness. He did terrible, reprehensible things. He also had a warrior code that he lived by, he suffered horribly in World War I, and he was a highly decorated soldier.
Like all villains since the dawn of time, he was human.
For better and for worse.
Not a grown up job
June 23, 2009
Why do I read crime/mystery/thrillers?
The first part of the answer is: because I read everything. I read crime, mystery, thriller, literary, historical, some sci-fi, the occasional romance, film scripts, and nonfiction. If it’s printed, I read it. Probably some kind of weird compulsion I ought to see someone about.
Reading takes me to different worlds and different lives. I doubt I’ll ever climb Mount Everest, fall in love with a Scottish Highlander, or solve a tricky murder. But because of books I can experience all that while sitting in a hammock sipping lemonade and listening to the surf. I know, it’s a rough life in Hawaii, but I will point out that the hammock broke because the salt air ate through the nylon so you know that it’s not all bliss out here. Yes, we have real problems.
My mother would say that I read mysteries because I have an overblown sense of justice and I expect the world to be fair. As usual: she’d be right. I do. And in mysteries everything happens for a reason, the evil are exposed and, usually, they even get punished for what they did. Who could not want to read that?
Obviously there’s a leap from reading them to writing them.
I could make up a deep psychological reason, but really I write them because they are fun. I get to do all kinds of research and ask questions that normally cause trouble. I just recently watched someone blow a giant pile of lava into gravel, begged an autopsy report off someone, found an expert on chemical weapons, and am going to spend this morning watching “The Olympiad” by Leni Riefenstahl. As a friend said: “It’s not a grown up job.”
I like that.
Favorite Criminal Mind
June 22, 2009
I am currently blogging over at 7criminalminds.blogspot.com with 6 other crime writers. I’ll be cross posting the blog entries here too.
My current favorite criminal mind is a guilty pleasure. I first met him a few years ago in a place I don’t usually hang out: TV. We had mutual friends, so I thought I’d give him a go in spite of my reservations. I Netflixed him.
I didn’t want to like him. He’s brutal, sadistic, and good at what he does. Even the people who do like him don’t want to. Because he does horrible things. There’s just no getting around that.
Sure, he had a traumatic childhood. But that’s no excuse.
Slowly, he grew on me. I tried to resist him, but he was self aware and funny. A deadly combination. He has a strong honor code too. It’s just warped. And I love his theme song.
But really, he’d make a good roommate. He’s very tidy and organized. Easy going too, most of the time. You know he wouldn’t drink straight from the milk carton. He can cook too, at least breakfast. If you asked him, he’d leave the seat down. If it was his job to make sure that the air conditioner got fixed, you’d know he’d get it done. Especially the air conditioner.
I admire how he treats his girlfriend. She’s been through her own traumas, but she’s sweet. He’s great with her kids too. A real father figure.
Dark, dangerous, yet strangely reliable.
His only problem: he’s a serial killer. His only redemption: he only kills other killers. Ah Dexter! In fiction, you fascinate me. In real life, stay away.
I wrote and scheduled this post a week ago, but after I read CJs post and realized that she’d chosen the same guy, I thought of rewriting it, but decided to let it stand. Sometimes, panelists agree.