This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Lanny Larcinese will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
What is your favorite book today?
Pulp According to David Goodis by Jay A Gertzman. Much of my own writing lies between hard-boiled and eloquent, so classic noir writers such as David Goodis are excellent inspiration - not only regarding the form - but the noir mentality and style. Gertzman’s book is an academic study of pulp and noir as well as those aspects of Goodis’s background that informs his work.
Tell us about your current book in 10 words.
A young man finds redemption by co-opting the mob’s tactics.
What are you reading right now?
An excellent book by Robb Cadigan, Phoenxiville Rising, a beautifully written tale about the main character’s journey toward insight, set against the framework of a once-dying town come back to life.
E-Reader or print? and why? I’m a print guy all day. I like to bookmark (literally place bookmarks) at passages that are striking in their eloquence, succinctness, insight, craft-worthiness, or, sometimes the opposite of those things. I return to them often by just cracking to their place. Plus, I read a lot in bed, which means tossing and turning, shifting the book toward the light, putting it in the other hand (I’m an ambidextrous reader!) I may look at the cover, read the blurbs or back-of-the-book or jacket synopsis. To have to scroll would be a pain. Plus, print on the page is kinder to my eyes, and this may be dopey, but I like the feel of the paper, the ritual of loosening the binding, the looks of them on my shelves.
One book at a time or multiples?
I’m a multiple guy with works of non-fiction, but with fiction, one at a time. With the former, multiple books break the monotony of whatever I am studying, e.g., history plus biography; with fiction, I can only do one book since, as a novelist, my immersion includes style, technique, & structure as well as story. When writing, I don’t usually read other fiction in order to avoid another writer’s immediate influence.
Favorite book you've read this year?
Hands down, Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Initially, it was not an easy read, but with ten or fifteen pages of patience in order to get the rhythm of the mid-nineteenth century syntax, it is an eloquently - often poetically - written, albeit ultra-violent tale of American expansion along an axis from Texas to the Sierras and into California. The violence by various groups (Indian, Mexican, American) is presented matter-of-factly, the effect of which does not minimize it, but skillfully dramatizes it. In my opinion, it is one of a small handful of American classical novels both in concept as well as execution.
When do you do most of your reading?
If I’m writing, throughout the day since most of my reading will probably be research. When not writing, in the evening, after tending to the mundane demands of my life. Since I live alone, I don’t have another to share the ongoing stream of demands like food, laundry, bookkeeping, etc. (On the other hand, since I live alone, no one else delegates to me!) Also, promoting my work is demanding but imperative.
Favorite genre?
This is a very interesting question. I think about it a lot. The answer is, easily, crime. But why is that? What is there about that genre that attracts so many? Intuitively, we all have a dark side, or at least dark tendencies which become subsumed in the process of becoming civilized. Such dark tendencies don’t go away, they are merely constrained so we can live in society, not go to prison, and set an example of how we would like to be treated. Crime stories allow for catharsis for such suppressed feelings (e.g. greed, vengeance). It’s why we like the Sopranos or Dirty Harry. They circumvent the constraints demanded by civilization. My fiction writing is in great part about a character’s interior struggle in attempting to navigate the civilized world vs. the jungle/jumble of such feelings crying out to express. So yes, I am unabashedly a crime guy.
Do you loan your books?
Not unless you secure the loan with a second mortgage on your house.
How do you keep your books organized?
Were it would that I was a librarian or married to one. My books are loosely arranged between fiction and non-fiction. Beyond that, it’s Katie bar the door!
I slid my foot over to touch Dad’s. I had promised Mother I’d look after him.
“Is this about the money you lost at the table?” I said. “Should we play a few more hands?”
German pounded his fist on the desk. “Don’t try to second-guess me, you punk! You’ll talk when I say, got it?”
I kept my eyes fixed on German’s. Six…seven…eight…
Dad reached over and put his hand on mine. “I didn’t lose the cleaners,” he said. A bead of sweat meandered toward his jaw. “The union was working on ’em going back three years now. It was already a done deal by the time I got there.”
“Whatever,” German said. “Just don’t let it happen anymore. And tell Donny here to mind his manners or you’ll be back driving a truck.”
The baseball bat leaning in a corner near German’s desk was an exclamation point that punctuated his directives. If it ever came down to that, I’d slash his throat with a rusty knife. Yet I still had to walk a tightrope. Dad would have preferred the bat to the demotion. Dad was a climber and German his future.
German picked up a couple of coded folders and put them into a filing cabinet, slamming the drawer down its rails like a runaway train.
“Oh, and Joojy wants to see you. I don’t know about what.”
“What about?” Dad said.
“You don’t hear? I said I don’t know! Maybe that thing. Now get outta here, both yiz. I got to take my daughter to ballet.”
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Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Death-Family-Lanny-Larcinese-ebook/dp/B07XSLCCL1/
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteJudith, thanks so much for the opportunity to spread the word about writing and the jumble of things the writer juggles when attempting to create an enjoyable story, and at its best, art.You will hear from me again regarding Crime Writers Caravan, a speakers collective of crime writers selected for presentation skills and designed especially for libraries. Once more, thanks, and best for the new year to you and your clientele and readers without which writing would only be voices in the wind.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWriters love to share about what we do, and but for sites like Straight from the Library, we'd be voices writing into the wind!
DeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteRita, I try to make my stories layered, meaning not only the real-time surface action but also the inner landscape of the characters, their conflicts, how they experience their world. There will also be an underlying moral issue --- not a morality tale --- but the kind of conflict which comes from not always knowing what's best.
DeleteThanks for the giveaway; I like the cover and excerpt. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Cali. Book covers are no small decision. They should be a pictorial representation of what lies between them, but also artistic. In Death in the Family, a diner and a casino which were originally "stage design," loomed into greater importance as the story evolved, so it became imperative that they appear on the cover. Best for the new year! Lanny
DeleteHow long did it take you to write your book?
ReplyDeleteBernie, it should be a simple question, but here's what frequently happens to many novelists: 1) You have an idea for a story and begin to write it; 2) you get stuck at certain places in the story so you put it away for a while; 3) you resume the story but now it changes due to a) some characters becoming more interesting as plot points are reached, b) your original plot does a left turn, etc...; 4) another book that you submitted for publication a year ago now comes out & you need to market it, so your work-in-progress goes into the drawer; 5) you finish the book and shop it around for publication, which can take months, etc. etc. etc. So my point is that it often is not a linear endeavor in which you conceive the book to final execution of the book. All that considered? Death in the Family was a 4 year project; actual time at the keyboard including original draft, edits, re-drafts, etc., about a year and a half.
DeleteSounds really great.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dale. I hope it's the kind of story you like. It's got crime, mystery, vengeance, homicide, a buddy-story, a mob story, etc. Like Stallone said in one of his movies, "I brought everything I had."
DeleteI would love to read your book.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bridgett, that's always music to a writer's ears. It's a complex story -- not in the sense of hard to follow, but many elements or layers: crime, unrequited mother-love, vengeance, friend-love, mystery, etc.
Delete