STALKING JOE CLIFFORD

                         JOE CLIFFORD (http://www.joeclifford.com/) IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOKS JUNKIE LOVE AND WAKE THE UNDERTAKER. JOE IS ALSO EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THE E-ZINE FLASH FICTION OFFENSIVE.  http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/

B.O.C.

JOE, READING A LITTLE ABOUT YOU, IT’S SAFE TO SAY YOU'VE HAD FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE WITH REALISTIC CRIME STORIES. NOT TOO MANY CRIME WRITERS CAN LAY CLAIM TO THAT CAN THEY?


JOE

I’m not sure. One of my good writing buddies out in SF, Joe Loya, wrote a terrific memoir about his past life as a bank robber. The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber. My pal (and co-editor of FFO), Tom Pitts, was a thieving junkie like me. Of course, this could say more about me and whom I choose to hang around with than anything else. Which is really the issue. I’ve always preferred the company of the marginalized to the conventional. There are superfluous layers that get stripped away the lower you go. I deplore comedies of manners. Fuck Jane Austen.

B.OC.

 SO WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES AS FAR AS WRITERS?

JOE

Salinger and Kerouac immediately spring to mind. Can’t be a crime writer and not appreciate Chandler. Hammet. Day Keene. Westlake. Goodis. Willeford. Patricia Highsmith. My new favorite is Hilary Davidson. There are countless peers in the crime genre writing today, way too many to mention. But you can open any issue of Thuglit, Shotgun Honey, All Due Respect, etc., and you’ll find them. Close your eyes and point. I mean, this could prove to be a phase, and maybe a lot of these guys, myself included, won’t make it. But I get the feeling that in 10, 20 years the guys populating the pages of these journals will not only still be around but staking claims and forging new ground, proving luminaries in the field.


B.O.C.

TELL EVERYONE ABOUT YOUR LATEST PROJECTS.


JOE

My latest novel, LAMENTATION, is a mystery/thriller set in the Northeast, which uses the recent Sandusky case to explore fractured relations between brothers. Think Russell Banks’s Affliction meets Hilary Davidson’s The Damage Done, with a heavy dose of pop culture and drugs. And I also am part of the new Gutter Books, signing and editing other authors. My first project, Will Viharo’s Love Stories Are Too Violent for Me, comes out soon. It’s an amazing book (that’s already been optioned by Christian Slater). I really love writing and editing, pretty much equally. Two sides of one delightful coin… (That’s from a meme I saw once.)

B.O.C.

 BEING EDITOR IN CHIEF OF FLASH FICTION OFFENSIVE, DO YOU EVER RUN ACROSS STORIES ALMOST HIT THE MARK AND HOW DO YOU HANDLE REJECTION PERSONALLY? 


JOE

Fuck, man, this is the worst part about editing, the having to say no. The thing is, when I took over editing from David Barber, he left me with some words of wisdom that I took to heart. He said not to be too exclusive, that e zines like FFO are where a lot of writers get their start. Hell, it was one of the places where I got my start. You want to put out a quality product, of course, and I think our bar is pretty high. But I also do my damnedest to get in folks who really want in. If they can take criticism and are willing to work with me, we usually succeed. I pledged early on when I got the gig that I would personally respond to every submission. Which gets time consuming, honestly. But writers—even of the ones who don’t do it for me—pour their hearts into writing the best piece they can and they deserve at least that. I don’t believe anyone sets out to write a “bad” story. So I strive to work with them in helping make their piece the best it can be. Part of this desire, to use psychological parlance, is obviously transference. I hated when I’d bust my ass writing a story and get back a “Dear Writer” rejection with grammatically errors. It was like Fuck you. I spent 60 hours writing this, and you can’t even bother to spell check your rejection to me?

B.O.C.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE STARTING OUT WRITING? 


JOE

Stop. Seriously. It’s not a great career path. If you write “for yourself,” terrific. Have at it. Keep your journals. Have a good giggle when you look back someday. But if you mean write as in “for a job,” it’s not easy. And it’s not fun. There’s very little money. People really don’t give a shit. I mean, it’s not their fault. Most people have to be told what to like (see E.L. James). You can write a terrific short story. And so what? Same thing with a novel. And writing a novel isn’t something you do on the weekend. It takes years and years and years. And it’s heartbreaking. You take years. An editor will say no after reading a paragraph. It’s the nature of the game. So much goes into making a book a success—things that go far beyond talent and good story—luck, tapping into housewives deepest desires (because they are the ones who buy books), etc. And the whole while you will watch shit—and I mean shit—that is inferior, written by some dumpy Reality TV star pass you by while you sit at Starbucks opting for the Tall because you can’t splurge on two Ventis (I think that’s what the fucking things are called) in a day. Now, having said all that, if you are still here, and you haven’t been discouraged, and you write because that is just what you have to do, and you refuse to be dissuaded…then you do all that you can do: you keep writing and you don’t let anyone or anything dissuade you—not a lack of funds, or a boy/girlfriend who wants you to “get a real job,” or parents who are ashamed. You keep at it, and you sit your ass in the chair, and you listen to feedback, and know when to discard it (rarely) and when to take it (usually the case). And here’s the good news: if you keep at it, and you are good enough, you will get published. Someday. You’ll be broke and bitter, pissed off more than likely, but you’ll have a fucking book out. Yay.

B.O.C.

 WHAT DEAD CELEBRITY WOULD YOU RESURRECT AND WHAT USE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THEM? 


JOE

Marilyn Monroe. And I think we know what I’d use her for. Holy fuck that sounded creepy. I mean, she’d be alive and vibrant Marilyn, not all decomposed and shit, right? I don’t know. I’m kinda freaking myself out. Maybe Salinger or Jack, I guess. Although I think both would fail to live up to my mythology. Sorry. I’m sticking with Marilyn and we've recreating Seven Year Itch, like every day.

B.O.C.

I HAVE TO SAY, SOME OF THE STORIES I’VE READ BY YOU REALLY REMIND OF ROSS MACDONALD IN STYLE, I THINK THEY COULD BE PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORKER. DO YOU FEEL THERE’S A DIFFERENCE IN GENRE FICTION AND LITERATURE? 


JOE

Fuck the New Yorker. Bloated, boring crap. And I can safely say that because there ain’t a chance in monkey ball hell they’d ever publish me. Which is fine. I mean, I like Alice Munro enough. I guess. But I've read the fiction in that over hyped rag. I couldn't recall the plot in a single goddamn one of them. A bunch of jackasses sitting around a dinner table. I don’t get it. Then again, I doubt the NY gives a shit what I think. I look at the difference between genre and literary fiction that same way David Lee Roth described the two incarnations of Van Halen (genre being the DLR of the equation): “Classic Van Halen…makes you wanna drink, dance and screw… [T]he new [Sammy Hagar] Van Halen encourages you to drink milk, drive a Nissan and have a relationship.” (Ever hear the DLR story about the boogie van, groupies, and BK onion rings?)

B.O.C.

GIVE US AN INSIGHT OF WHAT GOES ON WHEN YOU DO READINGS AT NOIR AT THE BAR AND OTHER PLACES. IT SOUNDS LIKE IT COULD BE FUN.

JOE

The best part about the reading Tom Pitts and I just gave at Noir at the Bar in L.A. is we finally got to meet all these people with we've been talking to for years—Eric Beetner, Seth Harwood, Holly West, Josh Stallings, et. al—face to face. Up until now they've been binary code. These are my peers and the writers I respect, so getting to meet them in person and being able to share the bill with them was pretty awesome.


B.O.C.

 WHAT IS YOUR TOP TEN CRIME/NOIR MOVIES OF ALL TIME? 


JOE

Well, this could change depending on the day or if I thought more deeply about it. But here in no particular order and certainly leaving something out…

Memento, Casablanca, Usual Suspects, Detour, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for the films, and for the books The Killer Inside Me, The Long Goodbye, Home is the Sailor, The Damage Done, and hell let’s go with Crime and Punishment.

B.O.C.

OKAY JOE. I GOT THIS WEIRD PHONE CALL OUT OF THE BLUE, NO NAME OR NUMBER ATTACHED TO IT, BUT A DARK MUFFLED VOICE WANTED ME TO ASK YOU WHAT YOUR FAVORITE JERRY LEWIS MOVIE IS?

JOE

Don’t be ashamed. I love Taylor Swift.

STALKING BILL MODDY

Bill Moody was born in Webb City, Missouri and grew up in Santa Monica, California. A professional jazz drummer, Bill has played and/or recorded with Jr. Mance, Maynard Ferguson, Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, and Lou Rawls. He lived in Las Vegas for many years as a musician on the Las Vegas Strip, hosted a weekly radio show at KUNV-FM, and taught in the UNLV English Department. He now lives in northern California, where he teaches creative writing at Sonoma State University, and continues to be active in the Bay Area jazz scene with the Terry Henry Trio and Dick Conte's trio and quartet. He is the author of five Evan Horne novels: Looking for Chet Baker, Bird Lives!, Sound of the Trumpet, Death of a Tenor Man, and Solo Hand. "The connection between playing jazz and writing crime fiction is a strong one for me. A jazz musician begins with the framework or the song — the chords, the structure, the form — but during a solo, he doesn't know what he's going to play or how until he reaches that part of the song. Writing crime fiction for me is a similar process. Working from the basic structure of the crime novel, I then improvise on a premise or motif, if you will, and I'm a fervent advocate of the 'what if' game during the writing process." -Bill Moody (http://billmoodyjazz.com/)

B.O.C.

WHAT INFLUENCED YOU TO START WRITING, AND WHAT WRITERS, ESPECIALLY IN THE MYSTERY/CRIME GENRE WERE A MAJOR INFLUENCE?

BILL

I started writing in high school--a column for the school paper, but never did anything serious until I wrote some articles for magazines like Downbeat and Jazz Times. In the mystery genre, I always like Elmore Leonard, John Sanford, and Laura Lippman.

B.O.C.

YOU’RE ALSO A TALENTED JAZZ DRUMMER.  WHO AMONG THE GREATS CAN YOU LIST THAT ARE YOUR FAVORITES?

BILL

Drummers: Shelly Manne, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Philly Joe Jones, and Roy Haynes.

B.O.C.

IF YOU HAD THE POWER, WHAT DEAD CELEBRITY WOULD YOU BRING BACK TO LIFE AND WHAT USE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THEM?

BILL

Dead Celebrity: Maybe Chet Baker or Miles Davis. I’d love to talk to both of them, get their take on jazz.

B. O.C.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE NEW WRITERS?

BILL

For new writers I would say persistence is a very important quality. Never give up and write for yourself, not what you think other people want.

B.O.C.

YOU KNOW, READING A LITTLE ABOUT YOU, IT SEEMS LIKE A GREAT IDEA TO COMBINE THE LOVE OF JAZZ AND THE LOVE OF CRIME STORIES.  AS A TEENAGER, WERE YOU IN YOUR ROOM READING THE LATEST ED MCBAIN NOVEL AND BLASTING COLETRANE AND MILES DAVIS? ALSO, DO YOU THINK WHERE YOU GREW UP HAD A BIG INFLUENCE ON YOUR WRITING?

BILL

My mother was a very good pianist, so there was always music in our house. I was exposed to jazz at a very early age. I grew up in Santa Monica, CA but I don’t think that had anything especially to do with influencing my writing.

B.O.C.

WHAT I REALLY LOVED ABOUT YOUR STORY, FILE UNDER JAZZ, THE MAIN CHARACTER IS NOT JUST A DIME A DOZEN DETECTIVE. HE JUST DOESN’T LOOK FOR MYSTERIES BECAUSE IT’S A JOB OR HE’S NOSY. IT’S ACTUALLY A COMPULSION. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THAT STORY AND YOUR CHARACTER EVAN HORNE?

BILL

Compulsion is a good word. I share that quality with Evan Horne. He’s compelled and obsessed with not only playing but also finding the answers, the truth to things, particularly when they have to do with jazz musicians.

B.O.C.

TELL EVERYONE ABOUT YOUR NEW PROJECT OR BOOK.

BILL

My newest book is a spy thriller, The Man in Red Square, I wrote long before the Evan Horne series. It just took a long time to find a publisher. At present I’m working on a new Evan Horne book with the working title San Quentin Blue. Evan plays a concert at the prison and comes across a famous jazz drummer and of course, becomes interested in why.

B.O.C.

HOW HAS THE INTERNET AFFECTED YOU PERSONALLY ON HOW YOU GET YOUR WORK OUT TO THE PUBLIC?

BILL

I don’t think the internet has affected me a great deal other than it makes some research easier. Of course publishers routinely use it for publicity for new books.

B.O.C.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EDITOR SEND BACK A STORY AND SAY I DON’T GET IT, OR COULD YOU CHANGE THIS—OR ADD THIS—AND IT NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT YOU WERE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH STORY-WISE?

BILL

Every writer knows about rejection, and I’ve had my share. You just have to hope you have an editor/agent who understands your work and purpose. Sometimes they don’t. In my case, I was very fortunate to have a big jazz fan as editor for my first five books.

B.O.C.

OKAY BILL, I GOT THIS CRAZY MESSAGE THROUGH THE TOASTER YESTERDAY AND THE MESSAGE READ: ASKY BILL MOODY WHAT HIS FAVORITE JERRY LEWIS FILM IS.

BILL

Jerry Lewis? I was never a big fan but I did like the film he did with Robert DeNiro, KING OF COMEDY. DeNiro wanted to be a standup comic, so he kidnapped Jerry Lewis who played a talk show host.

Author of CZECHMATE: THE SPY WHO PLAYED JAZZ

billmoodyjazz.com

BLACKOUT CITY PODCAST

STALKING G.WAYNE MILLER

               
http://www.gwaynemiller.com/

http://www.gwaynemiller.com/thund.htm

G. Wayne Miller is a staff writer at The Providence Journal, a documentary filmmaker, and the author of three horror/mystery novels, a sci-fi/horror short story collection and seven books of non-fiction, including THE XENO CHROICLES: Two Years on the Frontier of Medicine Inside Harvard’s Transplant Research Lab and KING OF HEARTS: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery, which is in Hollywood development. He has been honored for his writing more than 40 times and was a member of the Providence Journal team that was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. Three documentaries he wrote and co-produced have been broadcast on PBS, including The Providence Journal’s COMING HOME, about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nominated in 2012 for a New England Emmy and winner of a regional Edward R. Murrow Award. Miller is Visiting Fellow at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center, in Newport, Rhode Island, where he is co-director of the Story in the Public Square program, www.publicstory.org. Visit Miller at www.gwaynemiller.com

Bibliography

Fiction

The Thunder Rise trilogy:

–– Thunder Rise

–– Asylum

–– Summer Place

Since the Sky Blew Off: The Essential G. Wayne Miller Fiction, Vol. 1

(Volumes 2 and 3 will be published by Cross Road Press)

Non-fiction

The Work of Human Hands: Hardy Hendren and Surgical Wonder at Children’s Hospital

Coming of Age: The True Adventures of Two American Teens

Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie and the Companies That Make Them

King of Hearts: The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery

Men and Speed: A Wild Ride Through NASCAR’s Breakout Season

The Xeno Chronicles: Two Years on the Frontier of Medicine Inside Harvard’s Transplant Research Lab

An Uncommon Man: The Life and Times of Senator Claiborne Pell

Films

Writer and co-producer

On the Lake: Life and Love in a Distant Place

Behind the Hedgerow: Eileen Slocum and the Meaning of Newport Society

Coming Home

Screenplays

Summer Love

Bishop Bob (with Drew Smith)

 B.OC.

WHAT INFLUENCED YOU TO START WRITING?

WAYNE

My love of reading and my parents, Roger and Mary Miller, both of whom also loved reading and had great respect for the written word. My airplane-mechanic father was a newspaper man –– read two dailies, the local Wakefield (Mass.) Daily Item and The Boston Globe, pretty much every day of his life until he died. In fact, one of his last conscious acts, on his hospital death bed, as I sat with a laptop writing his eulogy (which I wish now I had let him see), was reading the Globe’s sports pages (see: http://gwaynemiller.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-dad-and-airplanes.html).

My mother was more into books. She loved the dictionary, and had me reading it from a young age. We had little money growing up, but she scrimped to buy me books, including volumes of a children’s encyclopedia –– one at a time, every week from the local A&P. And she insisted on me learning proper spelling, grammar and pronunciation, which could be a pain at the age of six or seven, but in hindsight has served me very well. I wrote my first short story in fifth grade or so, on my own; it was about creatures living under the sea. I talk about all of this in more detail at the final interview on http://www.gwaynemiller.com/inter.htm -- starts about halfway down that page.

B.O.C.

 AS YOU'VE MENTIONED IN OUR MESSAGES, YOU'VE MADE YOUR LIVING WRITING NON FICTION. HOW DOES THAT DIFFER FROM WRITING FICTION IN REGARDS TO YOUR ROUTINE?

WAYNE

Routine is no different, really: up very early, a cup of Early Grey/green tea and straight to the keyboard. Write, write, write, throughout much of the day –– also regularly in my head, where what’s been called “prewriting” takes place. This is my passion, and I love it (it can annoy the shit out of people around you, I would add, not proudly). Method and means, of course, are different: fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction generally requires much more outreach, to people and places such as libraries and archives. Fiction-writing is generally more isolating. You can almost literally disappear into your head. That’s a whole other discussion.

B.O.C.

WHAT KIND OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A WRITER THAT’S JUST STARTING OUT?

WAYNE

Absorb Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, first published in 1959 and still the gospel. Be sparing with adjectives and adverbs, as White and Strunk advise. Use active, not passive, construction. Dialogue is critical. Don’t let momentary rejection and failure defeat you, they’re part of the game. Listen to trusted friends and colleagues who read your stuff –– listen, and then decide what makes sense. Don’t bullshit yourself. Don’t be grandiose. Don’t be cute. Don’t envy other writers. Disregard sycophants and naysayers. Don’t do it for money or fame. Be patient –– if you’re serious, you’re in it for the (very) long haul.

And once more: Write, write, write. Then rewrite. There is no magic formula, but magic can emerge from an active and curious mind, a vigorous and well-practiced imagination, from energy and desire to work hard, and discipline. The old 99 percent perspiration v. 1 percent inspiration thing really is true.

Above all, tell a story, emphasizing character, emotion and narrative. Your goal is to elicit a one-word response from your readers: “Wow.”

B.O.C.

TELL EVERYBODY ABOUT YOUR NEW PROJECTS.

WAYNE

Wrapping up two more collections of horror/mystery/sci-fi short stories, completing a novel, a non-fiction book due out in the fall from Simon & Schuster, trying to get a project to the big screen, and an ongoing series about the impact of digital technology on our lives for The Providence Journal,  http://gwaynemiller.blogspot.com/2013/04/ewave-digital-revolution-projo-series.html. That’s enough on my plate, right?

B.O.C.

IF YOU HAD THE POWER, WHAT DEAD CELEBRITY WOULD YOU BRING BACK TO LIFE AND WHAT USE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THEM?

WAYNE

I’d choose three “celebrities” –– religious figures all. I’d bring back Muhammad, the Buddha and Jesus, getting them together in one room for a roundtable discussion. These three “celebrities” have influenced human thought and history more than any others, of course. And I’d want to include Mary, Joan of Arc and Mother Teresa in the discussion.

B.O.C.

WE WHO ARE HIS FOLLOWERS IS DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES. WHEN I FIRST READ IT IN HORROR SHOW MAGAZINE IN THE LATE EIGHTIES, IT BLEW ME AWAY. WHAT INFLUENCED YOU WRITE THAT STORY?

WAYNE

This was during the dying days of the Soviet Union, when the Cold War still haunted America and the threat of nuclear annihilation was real, albeit less dire than during my 1960s childhood, when it was a sword hanging over us all (even children felt it). So for some time, I’d been fascinated with real-life dystopian and post-apocalyptic themes –– and then I read Stephen King’s short story Night Surf, a masterpiece that, to use your phrase (and to make a bad pun), blew me away. I haven’t read it in years, but its imagery remains strong in my head. King was influenced me more than any other writer –– in both my fiction and non-fiction. But I digress…

So Night Surf motivated me to try my own stories in that genre. And I wrote many of them, some published in my first collection, Since the Sky Blew Off (the title story is indeed post-apoc, along with We Who are His Followers) and some due in v. 2, Vapors, due out this summer from Crossroad Press, and v. 3, as yet untitled.

I brought something fresh to Followers, and that was the religious absolutism, a long-simmering result, I am sure, of my strict Catholic upbringing and parochial school years. Just look at the old Baltimore Catechism, with its rigidity, repressed sexuality, harsh and unforgiving god, relentless fear-mongering (of eternal damnation, for example), etc. In various ways, and still to this day, I have struggled with separating the extraordinary message of Christ, which is compassion, charity and love, from the unbending orthodoxy that flows from the Vatican (though I have high hopes for the humble Francis, patron of the poor and sick). You’re getting me going here!

Let’s leave it that I have great respect and admiration for the good work of the many good and decent followers of Christ today, whether clerical or lay person, male or female. I have come to really love contemporary Catholic nuns, including my dear sister friends at a nearby Carmelite monastery and the Sisters of Mercy, notably those who run Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I., where I am visiting fellow and co-director of the Story in the Public Square program, a site and forum and conferences to celebrate storytelling in all its forms,http://www.publicstory.org/ (yes, that’s a pitch, check us out).

B.OC.

WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE CRIMINAL OR CRIME COMMITTED, HISTORICALLY?

WAYNE

Can’t name just one. I am fascinated by Lizzie Borden, Albert DeSalvo (“the Boston Strangler”), Charles Manson, Charles Starkweather (because of his fictionalized portrayal in Badlands, one of my favorite films) and a 19^th-century Wyoming outlaw named George “Big Nose” Parrott, whose nose really was big and whose skin was made into a pair of shoes that you can still see in a museum out there. True story.

B.O.C.

WHAT’S THE BEST AND WORST BOOK YOU’VE EVER READ AND IT’S OK TO TELL US YOU’RE GUILTY PLEASURE AS AFAR AS BOOKS OR OTHER ENTERTAINMENT.

WAYNE

I wouldn’t disparage a fellow writer by naming her/his book the “worst.” And I would have a difficult time naming the “best” –– really, this is all so subjective. I can tell you that my favorite writers include Poe, Lovecraft and King (no surprise), Jonathan Harr, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Dan Barry and Gail Collins of The New York Times, and the list goes on… My guilty pleasure is Showtime.

B.O.C.

IT SEEMS I’M FINDING CERTAIN MAGAZINES ANYMORE RELY ON A FORMULA. SUCH AS ELLERY QUEEN AND ALFRED HITCHCOCK MYSTERY MAGAZINE, NOT TAKING CHANCES LIKE THEY USED TO. HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT AND WAS IT HARD TO BREAK INTO THOSE MARKETS?

WAYNE

I think mainstream publications do try to play it safe more than before. Back when I was trying to break into those publications, it was very difficult –– way more rejections than sales. Which brings us back to the importance of accepting “failure.” I just kept writing, and submitting, and as I kept writing, my mastery of the craft improved and eventually outsiders noticed. The good news is that with the internet and e-books, and self-publishing, way more opportunities exist today. Still, at the end of the day, the quality of the story is what makes or breaks a writer.

B.O.C.

WAYNE, I HAVE TO TELL YOU, I WAS AWAKEN BY A SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT AND IT VIOLENTLY MADE ME PROMISE TO ASK YOU THIS QUESTION OR IT IS CURTAINS FOR ME. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE JERRY LEWIS MOVIE?

WAYNE

Easy: The Nutty Professor.

LISTEN TO WAYNE'S STORY ON DARK DREAMS "WE WHO ARE HIS FOLLOWERS" AND MAKE SURE YOU LISTEN TO "ALL MY CHILDREN"  THAT IS FEATURED IN  THE BAD TRIPS DEPARTMENT OF EPISODE 3 OF BLACKOUT CITY.

                                                                                      

STALKING SETH HARWOOD

AMAZON

BORDERLANDS
SETH'S WEBSITE
PODIOBOOKS

Seth Harwood received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to build a large readership for his first novel, JACK WAKES UP, by serializing it as a free audiobook online. He is the author of two additional novels, THIS IS LIFEand YOUNG JUNIUS, and a collection of short stories, A LONG WAY FROM DISNEY. Seth lives in San Francisco, where he teaches at Stanford and the City College of San Francisco.


Audio versions of Seth's novels and stories have been downloaded over one million times.


The Backstory of JACK WAKES UP/Birth of the Podcast Novel

In 2005, Seth started writing Jack Wakes Up. After almost 9 months of working on the novel, he decided he was ready to podcast it. In July 2006, the Jack Palms Crime Podcast Series was born. As JACK WAKES UP was followed by A LONG WAY FROM DISNEY, JACK PALMS II: THIS IS LIFE, and JACK PALMS 3: CZECHMATE, his podcast audience grew into a sizeable world-wide following, as covered by the San Francisco Chronicle here.


When Breakneck Books published JACK WAKES UP in March 2008, Seth's online audience (the Palms Daddies and Palms Mommas) jumped all over Amazon.com and bought enough copies to raise the book to #1 in Crime/Mystery and #45 overall in books.


JACK WAKES UP was subsequently purchased by THREE RIVERS PRESS (Random House) and re-released on May 5th 2009. It received rave reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Michael Connelly, and Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times Book Review.


Now Seth is happy to see his second novel, YOUNG JUNIUS, out from Tyrus Books in hardcover, trade paperback and also as a very special, limited edition.

Now Seth is happy to see his second novel, YOUNG JUNIUS, out from Tyrus Books in hardcover, trade paperback and also as a very special, limited edition.

About YOUNG JUNIUS, Publishers Weekly says:

Set in 1987, Harwood’s searing look at doomed youth chronicles a few pivotal days in the life of 14-year-old Junius Posey, a captive of poverty, ignorance, and misguided social programming in the Rindge Towers, a drug-ridden Cambridge, Mass., housing project. Beginning with his older brother Temple’s funeral, Junius’s extended quest to wreak vengeance on Temple’s killer and make himself a power in his ’hood results in a vicious black comedy of murderous errors. Harwood (Jack Wakes Up) pulls no punches, revealing not only the white death of crack cocaine but the ineffectuality of black liberals who believe their Harvard Law books can cure the malignancy inherent in “forgotten civic ideas” like the Towers and the desire of the Towers’ inhabitants to destroy anyone trying to escape. In the end, Junius’s fate is as old as Aeschylus, the endless cycle of killing “just a snake eating itself.”

Booklist adds:

After his older brother is gunned down, six-foot-three-inch, 14-year-old Junius sets his heart on vengeance and makes for the Rindge Towers, a three-building slum uneasily shared by two rival pushers. What starts as a narrative limited to the point-of-view of the remorseless teen widens—and widens and widens—until it encompasses a huge cast of characters, including kids, cops, and a legion of small-time thugs. Harwood’s cutaway view of a single bloody day in a housing project is an impressive feat, undercut only by the sameness of some of the warriors, who come fast and furious with names like Big Pickup, Black Jesus, and Seven Heaven. Despite these monikers, there’s nothing cartoonish about the story, which powers forward with a blunt and violent vulgarity: “He pushed the door open and headed out to see what the fuck.” There is a mystery here—who really pulled the trigger on Junius’ bro?—but the point is clearly the bad-versus-worse decisions brought on by bloodlust. Given the characters’ brutality, Harwood’s empathy runs deeply indeed.

CHECKOUT HIS NEW BOOK COMING OUT MAY 7TH IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.

 B.O.C.

  WHAT INFLUENCED YOU TO START WRITING?

SETH

 I think my senior year in college. I'd spent a semester abroad and seen how many different ways people could live. Realized that I didn't have to be a part of the "American Commercial Machine" so to speak (though maybe I still am -- I was an economics major in college, if that helps put things together for you) and came back wanting to create. Once I figured out I wasn't good at drawing or sculpture, I settled into writing. Now, looking back I can see I've been writing stories since I was very young. It was basically there the whole time.

B.O.C.

 WHAT WAS YOUR EXPECTATIONS WHEN YOU STARTED THE PODCASTS OF YOUR BOOKS AND WHERE’D YOU GET THE IDEA?

SETH

I got the idea from a friend who’d been listening to Scott Sigler. Then Scott himself actually helped me out. He’s been great all along. My biggest expectation was to just have a place where my book was available to folks so I could move on from it and start writing the next thing. I wanted to get it out to an audience and man, did that turn out well! It was also a lot of fun to do!

B.O.C.

 DO YOU SCAN THE NEWSPAPERS OR INTERNET SITES, OR EVEN TV FOR IDEAS?

SETH

No. Not so much.

 B.O.C.

 TELL EVERYONE ABOUT YOUR NEW PROJECT

SETH

My new book is In Broad Daylight. It’s out on May 7th. In Broad Daylight, is the story of FBI agent Jess Harding chasing a serial killer across Alaska during the summer white nights. This baddie leaves brutally beaten victims and cryptic messages scrawled across his crime scenes in blood. Five years ago, Jess Harding hunted him in her first big case and got nowhere. Now, she’s bringing her A-game.  Soon, though, she realizes that some of his messages are calling her out by name. She’s not sure if she’s the hunter or the hunted.

If you’ve already heard the podcast of In Broad Daylight, you know this is an awesome thriller full of kick-ass violence, pulse-pounding suspense, and a wild trip across the Great Land. If not, it’s free just like all my stuff. You can go listen at Sethharwood.com or over at Podiobooks. Tell ‘em Mark sent you.

B.O. C.

JACK PALMS IS DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS IN RECENT CRIME FICTION.  VERY GRITTY CHARACTER, BUT I THOUGHT THERE WAS SOME HUMOR TO IT AS WELL.  WAS IT HARDER TO WRITE JESS HARDING THAN JACK AND WILL THERE BE MORE OF JACK?

                 SETH

It actually wasn't that difficult. Yes, more Jack Palms to come for sure, but also more Jess Harding! I visited Alaska in 2011 and was just so taken with the landscape there I knew I had to set a story in it. Also, I'd been really impressed with Stieg Larssen's Millenium Trilogy and loved the Lisbeth Salander character. I wanted to try writing from the point of view of a female detective and Jess Harding was born.

I think I started with JACK really from the ground up, thinking of this down and out actor leaving LA and going through all he did. Really, these events don't even happen in the book--it's all precursors. Then, as I was writing it, all the action Jack found himself in the middle of just made for such a parallel to his crazy movie (which was actually a lot of the point, I think), so it made sense to me, once he was in those situations, for him to draw on his acting. Like, could he fake his way through it with the real players?

I think I just had fun writing him as a character and exploring how he'd handle himself, that that part of the writing process came organically and may be to blame for the "effortless" quality of his ways.

B.O.C.

 WHO’S YOUR FAVORITE CRIMINAL OR CRIME COMMITTED, HISTORICALLY?

SETH

Criminal? Michael Condiff

Crime: Robbing a bunch of casinos and hotels in a short stint. See CrimeWAV 40

http://crimewav.com/?q=content/episode-40-michael-condiff-confessions-casino-bandit

B.O.C.

  WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO WRITERS STARTING OUT?

SETH

Write as often as you can, every day if possible. Build your game plan for the long haul. Submit often. Write. Write. Write. Read. Read. Read.

 B.O.C.

 WHEN IT COMES TO CRIME FICTION AND NOIR, WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL CHARACTER?

SETH

Jack Palms, of course!

B.O.C.

  I HAVE TO SAY, YOUR OWN PODCAST CRIMEWAV, IS ONE OF THE BEST AROUND. YOU EVER RUN ACROSS WRITERS WHO TURN YOU DOWN WHEN YOU ASK THEM TO READ THEIR WORK, OR DO THEY APPROACH YOU?

SETH

I usually ask people I know or crime writers I come into contact with. So far, I’m getting a really high level of positive responses from them.

B.O.C.

 ONE FINAL QUESTION. AND I’M GONNA TELL YOU SETH, THIS IS A CARRER BREAKING ANSWER, SO ANSWER TRUTHFULLY, AND MAKE SURE IT’S THE RIGHT CHOICE. YOUR READERS WANT TO KNOW THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE JERRY LEWIS MOVIE?

SETH

The Jerk! Or is that Steve Martin?

CHECKOUT SETH'S WEBSITE AND HIS GREAT PODCAST!

http://sethharwood.com/

http://crimewav.com/

STALKING CHET WILLIAMSON

Chet Williamson's first short stories appeared in 1981, and since then he has published over two dozen novels and over a hundred short stories in such magazines as The New Yorker, Playboy, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Twilight Zone and many others. He has won the International Horror Guild Award and his work has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, The MWA Edgar, and the Stoker. His out of print books are available as Crossroad Press ebooks, and he has narrated over two dozen audiobooks, including work by Joe Lansdale, Michael Moorcock, Tom Piccirilli, Skipp and Spector, Neal Barrett, and many others, as well as several of his own novels.

      B.O.C.

 I WAS READING YOUR BIO ON WIKIPEDIA, YOU WERE AN ACTOR AND SCHOOL TEACHER BEFORE BEING PUBLISHED. WHAT MADE YOU SWITCH TO WRITING?

CHET

Believe me, after teaching junior high for a year, I'd have switched to digging ditches, but acting seemed more welcoming. It was through acting that I got into writing, first writing song parodies and then full shows to entertain people at business conventions. Since I was writing, I decided to try writing the kind of fiction that I enjoyed most, which was horror.

B.O.C.

 WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BE A WRITER?

CHET

I loved classic horror fiction, such as Poe and Lovecraft, and around the time I started writing, Stephen King had had a number of novels of published. I started out with short stories, and I think my style was probably closest to Robert Bloch's in those early tales -- very straightforward, constructed backwards from the ending. It got me into the habit of outlining, which continues to this day. In the 70s and early 80s it was possible to read nearly all the horror that came out, and I did. But I also read all the classics as well. Darkness appealed to me -- it still does.

B.O.C.

 TELL EVERYONE ABOUT YOUR NEW PROJECTS OR BOOK COMING OUT.

CHET

I'm currently putting together a new short story collection for a publisher in the UK. I haven't done a collection since 2002's FIGURES IN RAIN, which won the International Horror Guild award, so I'm really enjoying getting this new one together. I'm also revising a new novel called SHIFT, which is 50s noir with a taste of the supernatural. My two most recent novels are DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH, available as a trade paperback and an ebook from Crossroad Press, and HUNTERS, a new ebook.  These are both horror/suspense novels.

B.O.C.

 YOUR STORY MUSIC OF THE DARK TIME HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITES, WHICH WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE. DO YOU MISS THOSE OUTLETS FOR SHORT STORIES?

CHET

There are still short story markets, though not nearly as many as there used to be, and they don't pay as well as the old TZ. I still sell stories occasionally to THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, but usually I only write short stories when an anthology editor commissions one.

B.O.C.

 IF YOU HAD THE POWER TO RESSERUCT A DEAD CELEBRITY, WHO WOULD IT BE AND WHAT USE WOULD YOU HAVE FOR THEM?

CHET

I'd want to sit down and have a talk with Howard Lovecraft. His presence has haunted me for decades. I have a large collection of his works and books about him, and Courtney Skinner's portrait of HPL is one of the last things I see when I go to bed at night. To sit with him (my cat on his lap) and hear his voice and see him right there would be wonderful.

B.O.C.

 YOU HAVE SUCH A GREAT VOICE, IT’S ONLY LOGICAL THAT YOU USE IT TO NARRATE AUDIOBOOKS. HAVE YOU EVER STARTED NARRATING SOMETHING AND THINK “GEEZ, THIS SUCKS!”

CHET

There are audiobooks that I've enjoyed more than others, but with every book you have to think that it's worth doing and put yourself in that mindset so you do the best possible job. I consider it a privilege that a writer would entrust his or her book to me and let me cast all the characters and direct it as well.

B.O.C.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EDITOR SEND A STORY BACK WITH A NOTE ON IT WHAT THE FUCK?

CHET

Sometimes with novels. My former agents would receive rejections and when I'd read them there would be aspects of the book that one editor would like and things about it they'd dislike. And another editor have had the totally opposite reaction. This would just tell us that the book had not yet reached the right editor. Once, early on, when I was looking for an agent, one agent who dealt primarily with mainstream works told me that she liked ASH WEDNESDAY, "all except for that ghost stuff." Since that was the point of the book, I figured she wasn't the agent for me.

B.O.C.

HOW HAS THE INTERNET AFFECTED YOU PERSONALLY ON HOW YOU GET YOUR WORK OUT TO THE PUBLIC?

It's completely changed the paradigm. I could write an entire essay about it, but won't. I've found that my Facebook page provides me with a better news delivery system than my actual website, which is woefully out of date. I'll go on a binge and update it, but when I find that the comments are from people selling propecia, I turn my attention back to Facebook.

B.O.C.

 OK, YOU’RE A TIME TRAVELER, IT’S 1964, TWO CONCERTS ARE HAPPENING, THE BEATLES AND FRANKIE AVALON, WHO WOULD YOU GO SEE?

CHET

Are you kidding? Even the President of the Frankie Avalon Fan Club wouldn't pass up the chance to see the Beatles.

 B.O.C.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A WRITER STARTING OUT?

CHET

Pay more attention to writing than to self-promotion. True,  self-promotion is more important than ever, but there are a lot of writers out there who sell comparatively well because they spend most of their time promoting themselves rather than polishing their craft. And as a result readers are slowly becoming more tolerant of really bad writing. It's the kind of poisoned atmosphere that leads to the success of such rank shit as the Fifty Shades series.

B.O.C.

 FINALLY CHET, GOD HAS SPOKEN TO ME AND HE REALLY WANTS TO KNOW: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE JERRY LEWIS MOVIE?

CHET

Solo films: The Bellboy. Martin and Lewis: Scared Stiff.  Though I would pay a great deal to see the unreleased The Day the Clown Cried...

LISTEN TO CHET NARRATE HIS STORY MUSIC OF THE DARK TIME ON DARK DREAMS PODCAST http://darkdreamspodcast.blogspot.com/