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Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Kinky Friedman

Country-singer-turned-mystery-writer Kinky Friedman rises each morning in his little green trailer deep in the heart of the Texas hill country and tilts at America’s sacred cows like a modern-day Don Quixote on mood elevators. His warped mysteries, together with a catalog of highly irreverent country songs from his wasted-minstrel days, represent the most wickedly funny sustained attack on racism, bigotry, and hypocrisy since Lenny Bruce.

Starting with his first mystery, Greenwich Killing Time, in 1986, through such fractured who-cares-who-done-its as Armadillos & Old Lace, Elvis, Jesus & Coca-Cola and The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover, Friedman’s eponymous black-Stetsoned, cigar-chomping alter ego has stumbled ever blindly toward, if not exactly enlightenment, then random illumination. He may eventually solve the crime, but more often than not the clues seek him out as he holes up in his Greenwich Village walk-up with a disinterested cat and copious amounts of Jameson’s Irish whiskey to assist cogitation. The reluctant sleuth is aided by a loose assemblage of New Yawk barroom denizens collectively known as the Village Irregulars. Messrs. Ratso, Rambam, McGovern and the rest also are real people, rendered, one suspects, just slightly more irregular as they pass through the author’s Wal-Mart typewriter. ("About the last typewriter in Texas," he says proudly, having returned to the Austin area several books ago).

When last we visited the cockeyed world of country-singer-turned-amateur-sleuth Kinky Friedman (in Blast from the Past), a chunk of ceiling plaster, dislodged by Winnie Katz’s lesbian dance class upstairs, had transported the vicar of Vandam Street on a comatose trip back to the ’70s. His 12th misadventure, Spanking Watson, continues in the Sherlock-Holmes-on-a-bender tradition. The Kinkster concocts a cold revenge on his upstairs neighbor, and of course things go immediately awry. With an almost criminal glee, Kinky dupes and recruits his colorful cronies to find a would-be assassin of Katz, then unleashes them on the unsuspecting Winnie and her Danskin-clad students like a horde of locusts on a summer field. When he learns that someone actually is intent on killing Katz, the merry chase begins in earnest.

"Spanking Watson is the search for the perfect Watson," Kinky explains in his smoke-sanded baritone. "It’s a challenge I put out to all of the Village Irregulars to try and infiltrate the lesbian dance class upstairs. Ratso becomes one of those guys you always see in an all-female aerobics class, the kind of feminine nerds that get involved in that. And all of these idiots do infiltrate the dance class. They get up there and then Rambam bugs the loft for me. They do it under the belief that a death threat has been written to Winnie Katz, which I’ve shown them. Of course, I’ve written it myself when I was drunk. It’s kind of Machiavellian. A little darker. But I think it’s funnier."

Kinky’s is perhaps the least likely of modern literary success stories. In the ’70s, young Richard Friedman parlayed his musical talent, knack for social satire, and Semitic birthright into semi-success on the fringes of country music as Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. The band’s stage shows were outrageous, thanks to Friedman’s redneck-baiting, chauvinistic stage persona, and such bitingly hilarious anthems as "They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore" and the tongue-in-cheek, anti-feminist ode, "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed." Country music has never been fertile soil for comedy, much less satire, so it was little wonder Kinky’s music delighted the critics and offended almost everyone else. Let us note here that his "Ride ‘Em, Jewboy" remains the only country song ever recorded about the Holocaust.

"It took courage back then," he admits. "It did. That was before Howard Stern. It took pawn-shop balls. We were a country band with a social conscience — always very dangerous."

The band came to make its home in perhaps the only country bar on the planet that would have them, New York’s Lone Star Cafe. By all accounts, the party was great. "I met everybody in those days. Andy Warhol. Everybody came by," he says. But by 1976, the party was over. It took Kinky a few years to, uh, refocus and try his hand at a new medium — mystery writing. To borrow a title from one of his songs, when the Lord closes the door, he opens a little window.

"I think it was more like desperation," he admits. "I was searching for a lifestyle that did not require my presence. The Texas Jewboys had disbanded a decade earlier and I was living in New York, flying on 11 kinds of herbs and spices, and broke. So I attempted to write the first book by borrowing my friend McGovern’s typewriter."

Another pal, radio talk-jock Don Imus, pulled strings to get Greenwich Killing Time to Simon & Schuster. Since then, Kinky mysteries frequently appear on the New York Times bestseller list and have been translated into 17 foreign languages.

"It has definitely been a financial pleasure for the Kinkster," he admits. "It’s more than music has really ever been. Of course, as I always say, money can buy you a fine dog but only love can make it wag its tail."

Both Kinkys shamelessly traffic in such bons mots. "This is a Cuban cigar," he’ll say. "I’m not supporting their economy, I’m burning their fields." Or "I’m the oldest Jew in Texas who doesn’t own real estate." Some avid readers contend that these politically incorrect witticisms and rapier-like turns-of-phrase are the real reason to pick up a Kinky mystery. In fact, in tales such as Roadkill, which takes place on tour with Kinky’s compadre Willie Nelson, the plot seems to disappear altogether in a cloud of peculiar-smelling smoke.

"The problem with the Willie book was that I lost so much by taking the detective out of his natural setting. I lost all the Village Irregulars and the cat. And I only found that out halfway through. I fly by Jewish radar. I write like Oscar Wilde behind bars. I don’t structure a lot of this, and I think, in part, that if there is any freshness to these books, any flavor, that’s the reason."

If Roadkill fell short by Holmesian standards, it nonetheless brought Hollywood calling. "The latest idea is to do Roadkill with F. Murray Abraham as Willie and Lionel Richie as me," Kinky says, giving no hint as to whether he’s serious. (Asked whether he would consider playing himself, Nelson replies, "Stranger things have happened. Kinky starts these rumors, you know. And then they come true.")

In fact, the movie idea got its initial boost from a surprising source: President Clinton. "He invited me to the White House for an awards dinner honoring the arts. He must have been on medication because, out of several hundred people, he sat me right next to him at the power table there. He proceeded to try to get my books made into movies with the lady who’s the head of Paramount Pictures, Sherry Lansing."

Equally surprising, the idiosyncratic musings of a Lone Star Jewish iconoclast have been bestsellers in Germany, Holland, and England. Explanation, please? "The rest of the world sees these books as a commentary on America," Kinky says. "It’s unconscious commentary on America. I find that women and little old ladies are really picking up the books. Even though the books are becoming increasingly profane, they’re also possibly becoming increasingly profound."

How close is the fictional Kinkster to his creator? "I think the books are very close to home. They represent an inward turning. I often write with an utter disregard for the reader. That’s the most honest way to write. At the moment, the books I’m writing, each one seems to be the best one. All I have to do is continue to be unhappy and I’ll be fine."

Jay MacDonald is a writer in Naples, Florida.

Country-singer-turned-mystery-writer Kinky Friedman rises each morning in his little green trailer deep in the heart of the Texas hill country and tilts at America's sacred cows like a modern-day Don Quixote on mood elevators. His warped mysteries, together with a catalog of highly irreverent country…

Fiction

Dave Barry

BookPage has the distinction of being the first to interview Dave Barry on his first novel, Big Trouble, a flaming rollercoaster ride through the mean streets and fleshpots of Miami. In these pages you’ll find crazy Russian mobsters, icy Mafia killers, beautiful women, ugly sociopaths, a poisonous toad the size of a bowling ball, a dog with a dilemma, and one ticking suitcase that puts them all in harm’s way.

BookPage: First of all, the painfully obvious question, just to get it out of the way: Are you making this up?
Dave Barry: Yes and no. I’ve read a lot of interviews with fiction writers, and apparently many people don’t realize that it’s possible to make things up out of thin air, which is called fiction. In this case, the characters are all made up. Except for the ones I didn’t have to make up. The city of Miami has got to be the weirdest city in the United States. You can’t really embellish it. So any of these characters could be found in Miami.

BP: Big Trouble starts and ends with Puggy, a homeless individual. He’s admirable in every way; you obviously like him a lot. Is this an alter ego, who Dave Barry might have been if not for kismet?
DB: In the sense that Puggy really likes beer, yeah. I like to think that I’m a few notches higher on the IQ level than Puggy, although so are most domestic animals. He always ends up doing the right thing, although his real quest is for more beer.

BP: Was writing this book a whole lot of work, or did you dash off this first novel in your spare moments?
DB: It was a whole lot of work, but I really enjoyed the process. It’s so different from writing columns or nonfiction books. With a novel, you find yourself lying in bed wondering, "What will they do next, and how will they do it?" I was worried at times that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out, but then when the next part came, it was extremely satisfying. And often surprising. I talked to several writers — Elmore Leonard, Stephen King, James Hall, and Les Standiford, just to name a few who were generous with advice — and they all said there would come a time when each character would make it clear what he or she wanted to do. And they were all exactly right.

BP: Big Trouble has "Make Me Into a Movie" blazoned across it in sky-high neon letters. Who do you see Stanley Tucci playing?
DB: Probably one of the Mob guys, or one of the Russians. But he’s such a wonderful actor, he could play Jenny or Monica or Roger the dog and still make you believe it.

BP: Did you write the FBI men, Greer and Seitz, with Danny DeVito and Joe Pesci in mind? Or do you see taller Feds?
DB: No no no. One is tall, one short. They’re physically different in every way. Actually, I named them after my neighbors across the street, who are both incredibly wonderful people. So I lifted the names, transposed first and last, and made them horrible, amoral government agents.

BP: In the inevitable movie, name a cameo role you could play.
DB: One of the four jerk lawyers smoking cigars in the crowded restaurant. Maybe the one who figures out real quick that the smoking lamp is going out, per the gentle suggestion of the hit man, Henry.

BP: In the flashback scene where Eliot quits by giving his idiot boss’s computer a flying brogan, I sensed either a secret desire or an actual event in history. Which is it?
DB: Never happened. Not that it couldn’t. But I was taking the obligatory potshot at the newspaper industry, where everything is processed by committee and the end goal is to create a commercial product. There’s a covert war that’s always going on between editors and writers. However, let it be writ large that where I work at the Miami Herald, there are zero editors who are that jerky. No, it was just getting some old grudges out at the business, and I wanted to make it plain why Eliot would wind up so dramatically stuck in advertising. Because he burned his bridges in journalism.

BP: Is any resemblance of a living person to the Client From Hell purely accidental? And have you ever met, or licked, the Enemy Toad, arch-nemesis of Roger the dog?
DB: Surely a Client From Hell exists somewhere, possibly named Legion. And speaking of toads, one of the things that struck me when I moved to Miami in 1986 was all the dangerous wildlife living around here. Pretty scary when you think about it. Back then I lived next to a canal, and this giant Bufo marinus toad — you can’t believe how ugly these things are — marched up and took over my dog’s dish. And he was a big fierce dog, too. So that part actually happened. By the way, dogs are such wonderful characters in real life that I had to write Roger into the book.

BP: In one particularly scary scene with Snake and Eddie, the reader encounters a moment of fairly graphic sex and violence.
DB: Well, it was really hard for me to write that scene, but I wanted to show that Snake and Eddie, who previously seemed to be harmless losers, are in fact truly bad guys. Especially Snake, who is an actually evil person: rotten, unlikeable, impolite, unchivalrous, and mean-spirited.

BP: Earlier you mentioned the scene involving four cigar-puffing lawyers in a crowded restaurant. Was this a personal fantasy, or were you just giving your readers a uniquely satisfying moment in literature?
DB: Oh, occasionally I’ve wished I were a large and ugly Mafia hit man with no sense of humor about violations of common courtesy and the Clean Air Act; and yes, I have more than once been in restaurants where the same scene occurred but without such a happy ending. Not that I encourage aggravated assault on the criminally inconsiderate, or mean people who are otherwise immune to reason. That would be wrong. Delightful to witness, but wrong.

Jeff Taylor is author of Tools of the Trade and Tools of the Earth (both by Chronicle Books).

BookPage has the distinction of being the first to interview Dave Barry on his first novel, Big Trouble, a flaming rollercoaster ride through the mean streets and fleshpots of Miami. In these pages you'll find crazy Russian mobsters, icy Mafia killers, beautiful women, ugly…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Gary Soto

Great stories are about the human situation first and any particular ethnic group second. The story collections and picture books created by Gary Soto are clearly set in Mexican-American communities, yet their universal themes speak to every adolescent. Soto, a Chicano ("That's what I am"), is quick to say that he feels a certain obligation to that ethnic group, but he's no cheerleader.

Born and raised in Fresno, California, Soto decided while in college that he would be a poet. He began writing poetry for adults and received much recognition for his work. In 1990, his first two books for juveniles, one of poetry and one of short stories, were published to wide acclaim, with Baseball in April and Other Stories, named as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Now 45, Soto's stream of creativity is still flourishing as he continues to write novels, plays, essays, and poetry for adults and young readers.

His newest title, Petty Crimes, is a collection of ten stories about kids in the middle-grade years who are dealing with contemporary issues on their own — resisting bullies, petty thievery, a grandfather in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a girl trying to buy back her dead mother's clothes.

"La Guera," the first story in the collection, begins with Priscilla in kindergarten, where all the children hold hands and sing of rainbows, unicorns, lakes, and sheep. But by sixth grade, Priscilla has become La Guera. She teases her hair, wears mascara, and steals constantly, especially candy and cake. Desperate to find a solution, her mother sends her for a summer visit with her aunt and two cousins, but it's too late for change. At the end of the story, we find La Guera back in the city in a vicious street fight with another girl.

Not a pretty story! Although touches of humor dot the landscape of several of these stories, most are depressing with occasional violent outbursts. When I asked Soto what he was trying to say in these harsh scenes, he replied, "Petty Crimes is about youth not using their minds or their bodies very well. And it is about the development of character." He went on to discuss a recent incident in California where a child tried to shoot his principal. Disturbingly, this type of violence in schools is becoming a nationwide trend.

A daily observer of the Mexican-American community, Soto wants to make clear that his stories are not based on actual events. "Although the experiences in my stories, poems, and novels may seem autobiographical, much of what I write is the stuff of imagination."

He writes in short sentences, using lots of dialogue and giving readers a vivid sense of reality with his deft use of imaginary detail. That detail includes several noticeable Soto trademarks. One of them is the frequent mention of food throughout the stories — everything from pork rinds and animal crackers to Mars bars and barbecue potato chips.

"There may be something to that," Soto replied when I asked about all the food references, "but I don't do it on purpose. Someone else mentioned a lot of references to body shape. I think it's just that I see the images of what I write so clearly."

That may also be the reason Soto includes so many Spanish and Mexican words in his stories. He grew up in a blighted area of south Fresno, and "these are the pictures I take with me when I write. They stir the past, the memories that are so vivid." Soto has a big following of Mexican-American readers. "All the Chicanos read my books," he says. A number of Soto's books include glossaries to define the Spanish words and phrases he uses so naturally in all his writing, even in his picture books.

In Big, Bushy Mustache, Ricky doesn't like being told that he looks like his mother. When his teacher brings out the costumes for a class play about Cinco de Mayo, Ricky isn't interested in any of them until she holds up a mustache. He loves wearing it; it looks like his papa's. Against his teacher's instructions, Ricky takes the mustache home only to lose it on the way. None of his attempts at making another one works, and finally, in tears, he tells his father he has lost mi bigote. The next morning Papa has the perfect solution, and Ricky goes to school with a mustache in his pocket.

Another picture book by Soto, Snapshots from the Wedding, is told from a little girl's point of view. Maya was a flower girl in an elegant Hispanic family wedding, and her special memories of the event are depicted in Stephanie Garcia's terrific clay figure illustrations.

Soto's picture books are much happier than his middle-grade titles, but touches of humor lighten those as well. In "If the Shoe Fits," one of the stories in Petty Crimes, Manuel is preparing to go to his first boy/girl party. "He got dressed, splashing his face and throat with three different kinds of cologne. He brushed his teeth until they hurt and combed his hair four different ways" — only to discover he had outgrown his dress shoes!

Soto's current passion seems to be writing plays. "It's not unusual for contemporary writers to try their hands at two or three different genres," he says almost apologetically. "I wish I could offer a brilliant thesis for my interest in so many forms, . . . but at the moment I'm still mulling over my intentions."

Great stories are about the human situation first and any particular ethnic group second. The story collections and picture books created by Gary Soto are clearly set in Mexican-American communities, yet their universal themes speak to every adolescent. Soto, a Chicano ("That's what I am"),…

Tim Jarrell

In keeping with the travel theme of our March issue, BookPage chatted with Fodor's publisher Tim Jarrell about the history of the company—which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year—and the future of the travel guidebook industry.

Eugene Fodor lived an unusual life—a native Hungarian and naturalized U.S. citizen, he worked for the OSS during World War II. During the Cold War, some of his writers were spies placed by the CIA. Probably a similar skill set! What do you think Fodor's most important legacy was?
Eugene Fodor possessed an insatiable curiosity about the world and its people. From his first job sailing along with cruise ships across the Mediterranean and Atlantic, Fodor was constantly motivated to experience new cultures, communities and sights.

He brought this passion to the page, and in turn inspired a whole generation to explore new destinations. Fodor’s belief was that the beauty of travel was not only seeing the great monuments of the past but experiencing a place as it was in the present—and this included interacting with the people that lived there. As he writes in the forward of his first guidebook On the Continent, “Rome contains not only magnificent monuments . . . but also Italians.”

Subsequently, Fodor was the first publisher to include cultural information in his guides. He forever changed the guidebook market and the way people viewed the world around them.

How has the travel publishing world changed since Fodor released his first guide in 1936?
In 1936 it was typically only the very wealthy that could afford to travel. Oversea vacations required lengthy transportation on ships and a lack of rental cars and poor road conditions generally limited the degree to which individuals could explore a foreign destination on their own. Most saw Europe over a period of weeks in the company of a large group as part of “The Grand Tour.” Publishing reflected these practices—often covering all of Europe in a single title with more focus on famous monuments to visit than off-the-beaten-path sights and were only updated every 10-15 years.

Advances in technology and transportation have, of course, radically changed the needs of travelers today. Fodor’s guidebooks focus on the individual experience so that our readers can craft the perfect trip for them. Guidebooks have also changed in two other essential ways. They include logistical information about hotels, restaurants, and transportation and, because this information is rapidly changing, almost all Fodor’s guidebooks are updated annually (note that Eugene Fodor was the first to implement both of these changes in the guidebook market).

What sets Fodor's apart from other travel guides?
At Fodor’s we believe in offering readers an authentic and reliable experience. We’ve maintained many of Eugene Fodor’s original visions, including publishing guides that focus on the culture and people of a destination, are as accurate as possible with annual updates, and remain on the front edge of travel innovation.

In the past 75 years, we’ve also grown tremendously as a brand. We are the number one imprint in the market for our full-color fully-comprehensive guidebooks. Fodors.com offers travel inspiration and guidance for millions of unique visitors each month and our online forums provide a virtual home for posting and answer questions and sharing travel stories for thousands of loyal fodorites.

What's your best-selling destination of all time?
Over the course of time Italy has remained a prime travel destination. We currently offer several titles to the country and its cities and regions, but the combination of all would make it a frontrunner.

Is there an area of the world you think more people should see?
Americans should spend more time  anywhere outside of the United States. Of course, there are fabulous destinations here. But traveling really does broaden horizons— too few of us see the need go beyond our borders.  

As Eugene Fodor said, “What’s important is that we all learn as we travel. We wake up to the fact that everyone has his rights and way of life. In the war we used to say you can’t shoot an enemy soldier who shows you a picture of his family; it’s hard to hate people whose country you’ve visited.”

As a travel publisher, what is your dream vacation?
My dream vacation combines a grand site with a connection to local culture—especially someplace I haven't gone before. And great scenery helps too. Last year, I went to Machu Picchu and traveled across the Alto Plano to Lake Titicaca. You can't help but be moved by the Incan civilization, and Peru is such a fascinating country.

Where do you see travel guides going in the future?
As technology changes, so will readers’ access to travel information. Today our content is disseminated through traditional books, e-books, websites, smartphone apps, downloadable PDFs, Twitter, Facebook . . . the list goes on and on. Mobile access, GPS capabilities, new platforms—these are all game-changers in the industry. We know, however, that the proliferation of travel information leads to a greater need for a trusted source, and so the Fodor’s brand will continue to play a critical role in offering venerable recommendations. We will continue on with both Eugene Fodor’s passion for travel and his willingness to continually innovate the travel publishing industry.

In keeping with the travel theme of our March issue, BookPage chatted with Fodor's publisher Tim Jarrell about the history of the company—which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year—and the future of the travel guidebook industry.

Eugene Fodor lived an unusual life—a native Hungarian…

Children's & YA

Cynthia Rylant

For nearly 30 years, Cynthia Rylant has been telling stories for children via more than 100 much-lauded books: novels, poetry, short stories, nonfiction and picture books, two of which she illustrated. Her beloved characters include Mr. Whistle the guinea pig and Tabby the cat, and perhaps her best-known creation, 12-year-old Summer from the Newbery Award-winning Missing May. The characters in Rylant’s new book, The Beautiful Stories of Life: Six Greek Myths, Retold, are of a different sort: Zeus, ruler of the universe; Hades, god of the underworld; and several other gods and goddesses. The author gives us her take on these age-old stories in simply but powerfully told tales of immortal men and women who are fallible nonetheless. She corresponded (alas, not by winged messenger, but plain old email) with BookPage from her home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she lives with her Corgi and two cats.

Where did you grow up? Were you an avid reader?
I grew up in a coal-mining family in southern West Virginia, and actually read few books, as there was neither local library nor money. I did read tons of comic books and Nancy Drew mysteries, which I could get at the five-and-dime store.

How does the child you were inform the author you are today?
I didn’t see real children’s books–picture books, Charlotte’s Web, etc.–until I was 23 years old and happened to see a display in a shop in Huntington, West Virginia. I picked up a book, Ox-Cart Man [the Caldecott winner by Donald Hall], fell in love with it, bought it, and that was beginning: I knew I must write like that. I had never met a writer, but I started anyway. I found publishers’ addresses and I mailed off stories. When I was 24, my first story was accepted: When I Was Young in the Mountains. I have been writing ever since.

Did you have another job before you became a full-time writer?
When I was 27, I went to library school because I needed the foundation of a job, though my intent was to be a writer. I figured being in a library would be a good compromise. I earned an M.L.S. at Kent State, but worked in a library for only a year. I managed to earn a living (a modest living!) writing and doing school visits, which allowed me to be an at-home mother to my son, whom I raised alone.

Looking back on your career as a writer, do you see changes in yourself and your life reflected in your work?
Over the years, I’ve needed to try new things–new genres, illustrating–anything I could do to keep the work fresh and exciting. I could not bear to be a writer of only one kind of book, over and over, even if it made me rich. So, I bounce around!

How did you become interested in Greek myths? What sort of research did you do for The Beautiful Stories of Life?
I didn’t know anything at all of mythology. I found out about the myths when I read a book about archetypes, meaning that people have personalities that "fit" those of the gods and goddesses. (We all know someone who is a Zeus, for example.) From there, I decided to read the original myths and bought a few books, such as Bulfinch’s Mythology and other basic texts. Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes was great, too.

Why do you think the Greek myths have such enduring appeal? What do you hope readers will take away from your book?  
I could see–as many mythologists have noted–that buried in these strange tales were deeply human stories we all live in some way. We all feel false pride, we all trust the wrong person, we all become obsessive, we all fight for love, we all try to control fate. I wanted to tell the myths my way, from the heart, to illuminate our shared frailties and beauties. Without, of course, getting on too high of a horse . . . there’s something about myths that intimidates most people.

The illustrations are lovely! Do you choose the artists you work with?
Some are chosen by the editor, with my approval, and sometimes I ask for someone specifically. I had no one in mind for The Beautiful Stories of Life, but one night, I was watching a local Oregon TV show and they did a segment on an artist named Carson Ellis. I saw her paintings and I knew she was the one. Luckily, Carson said yes! I’ve never met her even though she lives 20 minutes away. Eventually I will.

What are you reading now?
Just the newspaper, the New York Times. Sometimes I am just tired of books, so I take a break and read the paper and watch a lot of TV!
 

For nearly 30 years, Cynthia Rylant has been telling stories for children via more than 100 much-lauded books: novels, poetry, short stories, nonfiction and picture books, two of which she illustrated. Her beloved characters include Mr. Whistle the guinea pig and Tabby the cat, and…

Children's & YA

David Shannon

David Shannon has been illustrating books since 1989. Last year his No, David! won a Caldecott Honor, and this month David Goes to School arrives in bookstores and libraries. BookPage had the opportunity to talk and laugh with the real David about the latest installment of the fictional David's mishaps.

BookPage: No, David! was written to celebrate familiar phrases that most children hear. What prompted you to write David Goes to School?
David Shannon: Well, I'd had so much fun with No, David!, and while I was working on that, the idea to take it to the next level of authority started germinating; I wanted to keep going with this character. In David Goes to School, there's that same dynamic of things that kids do at school, and the no phrases that teachers use — just like the no phrases that Mom uses — seem to be timeless and universal.

BP: No, David! was originally written when you were 5 years old, based on personal experience. Any personal experiences in David Goes to School that serve as reference points?
DS: A few. I will not elaborate.

BP: What's David's next adventure?
DS: He's going to be stuck in school for a while. I have other projects in the works, and I don't want to overdo David. I don't want him to become a formula. With David Goes to School, I didn't want to simply re-write the same book. I wanted a separate book that built on the first one, but was a different type of book that did different things. For instance, collaging the text on [tablet] paper, I think, sets it apart.

BP: The look on David's face often seems to indicate that he does not misbehave intentionally. For example, he is caught writing on his desk, but the look on his face is one of surprise, not guilt.
DS: He wasn't really thinking it was wrong. He's sort of an accidental anarchist, and that's a big part of his personality; he's not a mean-spirited kid, he just doesn't think. Or he goes too far. A lot of kids go through that.

BP: Is there any situation that would prompt him to behave?
DS: Hmmm . . . I'd have to think about that. Generally he is trying to behave all the time. The problem is that every situation presents the potential to misbehave.

BP: David doesn't appear to be very popular with his peers. There's no text to support that, but they seem annoyed at times.
DS: Well, I tried to kind of mix that. One of the differences betweeen this book and No, David! is that this book involves other people besides [David and] the authority figure. Now that he's in school, his actions affect other people. And he has to learn about that responsibility. In the library, when he's making a lot of noise, one girl is clearly annoyed. But if you look in the corner, another kid thinks David is funny. And then on the last page, those same two kids are waiting on him after school. David actually has a crush on the girl [Cindy]. If you read between the lines, you'll see that David is trying to get her attention and impress her by pulling her hair and stuff. That's what kids do—if you like somebody, you poke them and whack them. When he's drawing on the desk, he's drawn Cindy as a pig; you recognize this because of the hair. This is what kids do when they like somebody — sort of the opposite of what you'd expect.

BP: Does Cindy reciprocate?
DS: I think Cindy puts up with David, but girls demonstrate things a little differently than boys. And by the end of the book, she is waiting for him. I wanted to show David interacting with other kids not only to show how his actions affect others, but also to show how kids behave when they like each other, or when they don't like each other. For example, he gets in a fight, a food fight, because he cuts in line. I drew it as a food fight, but probably in reality it would have involved a few fists.

BP: What about the rest of the graffiti on the desk?
DS: There's my dog, Fergus; he's a West Highland terrier. He's in all my books. And there's a little self-portrait. There's a self-portrait in No, David!, too, that was drawn on his floor.

BP: There is a lot of detail reminiscent of school—a sprout experiment, mysterious cafeteria food, food group and choking charts. Why include so much detail in a picture book?
DS: I wanted to put a lot of detail in the illustrations because the text is so simple. Otherwise, you could flip through this book in a minute. The illustrations tell more of the story than the text.

BP: What does David think of his teacher?
DS: I think he likes his teacher.

BP: Even though he gets into trouble?
DS: Yes. By the end of the day, they have formed a special relationship.

BP: What advice would David give his fellow troublemakers?
DS: David would tell them to have fun. I don't picture David as the type of kid who really gives advice; he pretty much leads by example.

BP: What about David Shannon?
DS: My advice would be that getting into trouble isn't the end of the world.

BP: What's next for David Shannon?
DS: My next book is about a rainy day and how it affects people's moods. It's more characteristic of my other work, but some of the little things from the David books—like line work, drawing, and composition—manage to creep in. Each book is fun, because I learn something new.

David Shannon has been illustrating books since 1989. Last year his No, David! won a Caldecott Honor, and this month David Goes to School arrives in bookstores and libraries. BookPage had the opportunity to talk and laugh with the real David about the latest installment…

HistoryAmerican History

Winston S. Churchill

Name recognition just wasn't an issue when Winston S. Churchill began a 27-year career in Parliament in 1970. But being the grandson and namesake of the great World War II-era British leader hasn't opened every door. When the young Winston identified himself to two burly, disbelieving Chicago police officers amidst the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention, he got a swift nightstick on the noggin for his trouble. A New York cabby once told him,  "If you're Winston Churchill, then I'm Marilyn Monroe."  And then there are always the daunting comparisons.

"My grandfather's life is a constant reproach to me and to everybody,"  Churchill says during a call to Belgium, where he is on summer holiday.  "How little one is able to achieve by comparison! Not only did he produce some 50 volumes of history, biography, and speeches, but nearly 500 canvases as an artist, some of them of remarkable quality. And in his spare time he managed to beat the daylights out of Adolf Hitler as well."

Four of the volumes Sir Winston produced make up his massive A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, for which he received glowing reviews and the 1953 Nobel Prize for literature. Buried within these volumes is a fresh and vigorous account of the development of the United States, which Winston S. Churchill has seamlessly edited into the very enjoyable and very readable The Great Republic: A History of America.

"I had long known of my grandfather's writings about America and his love of America,"  Churchill explains,  "and it just struck me as amazing that the history of America which he had written had never been published in this format. To this day mainstream American readers are probably oblivious to the fact that Winston Churchill wrote a rather good history of their country."

Rather good indeed. Sir Winston writes with wit and verve and a capacious understanding of politics and governance. As his grandson says,  "It certainly isn't the work of an academic historian who has scribbled in his ivory tower. This is somebody who knows the world." The American world Sir Winston presents to the reader is just unfamiliar enough to be exceptionally interesting. Although the son of an American mother and proud of his American blood, Sir Winston escaped the hypnotic pull of our founding mythologies. So, for example, while acknowledging the contribution of George Washington and his heroic struggle to keep a revolutionary army in the field, he attributes British losses not to Washington's generalship but to larger strategic matters, such as Britain's inability to bring overwhelming force against the colonial armies because the French dominated the sea and bottled up the British navy in port. What we get is certainly a recognizable version of our history, just not the one we're likely to hear from other historians. That The Great Republic is so cleverly written is simply an added pleasure.

Sir Winston's writing is probably best when describing the battles of the Civil War. Such gruesome and heroic struggles clearly energized him. According to his grandson, he tramped many of the battlefields on foot during a 1929 visit to the United States. He impressed into service somebody who as a small boy had witnessed some of the heaviest fighting. He brings to his descriptions all of his knowledge as a soldier who had fought in many battles on four continents, as well as his power as a strategist, politician, and historian.

Churchill's history of the United States ends about 1900. His grandson fills the void by presenting a fine selection from Churchill's articles and speeches about 20th-century America. Some of these are the expected ones the famous Iron Curtain speech delivered in Fulton, Missouri, and his speeches before Joint Sessions of the U.S. Congress. But there are surprises here, too—a review of Upton Sinclair's book, The Jungle, in which Churchill displays an unexpectedly intense social conscience, and a very funny 1933 article on American food called  "Land of Corn and Lobsters."

The Great Republic concisely demonstrates what an exceptional writer Winston Churchill was, something that may surprise Americans who think of him primarily as a politician. According to his grandson, Sir Winston derived virtually all of his income from his pen, which is why by the end of the war six years when he had been unable to earn anything he was effectively bankrupt. When Churchill announced that he had to sell his beloved home, Chartwell, wealthy friends and well-wishers purchased the place for posterity. Churchill lived there until he died in 1965 at the age of 90.

Winston S. Churchill has vivid memories of his grandfather standing at his upright desk at Chartwell correcting page proofs. "It was a literary factory there. When he was at home he had a large team two or three researchers, mostly Oxford historians who would be preparing material, looking up facts and figures, and a relay of two or three secretaries that he kept busy until the early hours. He really drove himself."  Sir Winston had no speechwriters, and according to his grandson, put "approximately one hour of preparation into each minute of delivery. And that's why the speeches are so damn good!"

Like his grandfather and father, the mercurial Randolph Churchill, Winston S. Churchill has had a dual career as a politician and a journalist. In the 1960s he spent a number of years working as a war correspondent and notes that the only time he sustained any injuries was "in a place called Chicago in 1968." He and his father co-authored a book on the Six Day War which remains the standard work on that war. Since retiring from politics, he has written a well-regarded biography of his father and continues to contribute articles to the Wall Street Journal and various European newspapers and magazines.

Winston S. Churchill remembers his grandfather not as the awesome personage of history, but as wonderfully warm and approachable, intensely human, with a lively sense of humor. He adds,  "I learned quite a bit as a journalist from my grandfather and various things as a politician from him. But above all, I learned about independence of mind to stand up for what you believe, come what may."  

Alden Mudge is a reviewer in Oakland, California, and a regular contributor to BookPage.

Name recognition just wasn't an issue when Winston S. Churchill began a 27-year career in Parliament in 1970. But being the grandson and namesake of the great World War II-era British leader hasn't opened every door. When the young Winston identified himself to two burly,…

Memoir

Neil Simon

Playwright Neil Simon's first autobiographical work, Rewrites [1996], ended with the death of his first wife Joan after 20 years of marriage. Simon recently talked to BookPage about his latest book, The Play Goes On, which continues to the present.

BookPage: Why split your life into two volumes?

Neil Simon: I really couldn't go on past Joan's death because I didn't want to trivialize it. And The Play Goes On has turned out to be a fuller, richer book on its own. Also, the first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose. This time I knew more about the editing process, how it all works. It was easier.

BP: Easier technically or emotionally?

NS: Both. Once you've opened yourself up, it's best to go all the way. The first book was a love story about falling in love with the theater and with Joan. The second goes quite a few steps farther in talking about the price you pay for writing all those plays, for putting yourself on the line all the time before an audience.

BP: Were you surprised by which memories were the most painful, or the most pleasurable?

NS: It's always painful when you're writing memoirs because you've got to go through the dark places, but it gives you a chance to find out the person you really are, not the person you thought you were. The most pleasure came from remembering the start of a relationship that you thought would last forever or the starting of a play, and caring for that play about as much as you care for a newborn baby in the family. Then there's the disappointment when the play or the marriage doesn't work.

BP: It seems that Joan, your second wife Marsha Mason, and other family members often inspire your plays.

NS: I've just finished my 31st play, and actually only five have been based on my marriages, like Barefoot in the Park with Joan, and maybe five on my family. The rest have come out of my mind, my own creation.

BP: Tolstoy said a writer meets all of his characters before he's 12 years old.

NS: If I'm allowed to disagree with Tolstoy . . .

BP: He just stepped out.

NS: Fine. I'll ignore him. A lot of your personality is formed before you're 12, obviously, but only a few of my plays, like Broadway Bound and Brighton Beach Memoirs, use characters from my childhood. The more mature plays are affected only by my adult experiences.

BP: What do you mean in The Play Goes On by saying you've waited all your life to write Lost in Yonkers?

NS: It is probably the most honest play I've ever written. I did the best and dug the deepest I ever did. I was making up the story, but I tried to capture the characters as I do in my semi-autobiographical plays. I spared nobody in that play.

BP: You seem to be writing all the time.

NS: I work a regular five days a week like anybody else and take vacations. I work consistently, no matter what. I admit, when I took a four-week vacation to Europe with my family this year I got up every morning at 6:00 to work on fixing The Dinner Party, a new play set to open in Los Angeles in December. I won't give away the story, but it deals with six characters at a posh dinner. It's a dissection of their marriages and divorces.

BP: Relationships are your basic theme. And your characters, who are often very specifically from New York backgrounds, play well on stages in many different countries.

NS: The Odd Couple has the universal theme of the difficulty of two people living together. Others also do well, in Europe especially, but what surprised me is that The Sunshine Boys—and I'm only going by the royalty checks—plays everywhere in the world. I thought those two aging comedians were specifically New York.

BP: Your plays often translate well from stage to movies and TV, too.

NS: Not always, and I never write a play with an eye to film. And I don't like losing the words, as you have to, when I'm asked to turn a play into a movie. It's not a matter of ego . . . I'm just better able to create the character for an audience through words rather than through actions. I much prefer writing an original movie with the screen in mind to transferring a play to the screen.

BP: You mention Chekhov as an influence.

NS: I go to see plays all the time, and whenever I see Chekhov, I'm amazed at how this Russian play strikes home to me living 100 years later in New York City. I'm drawn to him because of his way with characters and their relationships with each other.

BP: You tell many backstage stories in The Play Goes On, but you really don't talk about individual performances.

NS: I don't want to restrict the life of a play to a particular production. The original actors might leave after the first six months, and I want the play to last 30 or 40 years. You write for the character, not the actor on the stage, unlike films, where they might ask you to write a part to fit Mel Gibson or Julia Roberts even if the producer hasn't hired them! You never do that in a play.

BP: Is the germ of a new play for you a character, or the story, or the theme?

NS: All at once. I start with the characters but try to find almost simultaneously what situation they're in, what links them together. After about 25 or 30 pages, you think there's not enough stationery in the world to put down the whole story. That's the best feeling possible . . . It's still a mystery to me, how the plays come page by page, where they come from. Writers feel like a middleman, standing with pen in hand over the page. A force greater than me stands above telling me what to write. That may sound romantic, but that's how it feels.

BP: "Pen in hand"?

NS: You get attached to the way you write, and I'm attached to notebooks. That's where I really write the plays. Just two or three pages at a time, then I transfer to the typewriter and rewrite while I type . . . That's the first rewrite! I don't use computers . . . I'm someone who needs to see the page right away in my hand.

BP: Does the writing get harder?

NS: Getting plays produced is harder, but I think if you have a truly good play it's not going to disappear, even with the tougher economics of Broadway and the competition of musicals and hits from Britain.

BP: The marriage and divorce themes of the play you're revising, The Dinner Party, dovetail with the conclusion of The Play Goes On, after your third divorce.

NS: I'm a marrying man. I've never left a marriage. If Joan hadn't died, we'd still be married today. But just as human beings can be born with genetic faults, I think some marriages have a genetic flaw that can cause them to die.

BP: At age 70 you still believe in marriage, in general and for yourself?

NS: I don't like dating or just living with a woman. I like to create a relationship, a marriage. And almost all of my marriages have involved children, so I'm really a family man as well. I'm going with someone now . . . She, I hope, will be the last marriage.

BP: A new play. A new marriage. The play goes on.

NS: Yes.

Charles Flowers, a freelance writer in Purdys, New York, recently received the Stephen Crane Literary Award.

Playwright Neil Simon's first autobiographical work, Rewrites [1996], ended with the death of his first wife Joan after 20 years of marriage. Simon recently talked to BookPage about his latest book, The Play Goes On, which continues to the present.

BookPage: Why split…

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Ian Rankin

Best known for his books about Detective Inspector John Rebus, Ian Rankin has written a suspenseful winner with The Complaints, our March Mystery of the Month. Starring Malcolm Fox, a member of the internal affairs department of the Edinburgh police force, BookPage's Whodunit columnist calls The Complaints "superb on every level."

Get to know Rankin a little better in his Q&A with BookPage—in which he shares his "words to live by," his proudest moment and more:

Name one book you think everyone should read (besides your own!).
The book everyone should read is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark—a perfect, short novel, in turn hilarious and terrifying.

How did you approach writing stand-alone novels after so many books with Detective Inspector John Rebus? Were you nervous about disappointing fans?
A lot of fans were sad to see Inspector Rebus retire, but I have enjoyed the challenge of presenting them with new characters and stories. The Complaints has been well received, which gives me hope that I continue to exist, even without my shadow twin!

Describe The Complaints in one sentence.
The Complaints: An internal affairs cop fights for his job and his sanity in a city on the edge of physical and moral bankrupcy.

Where do you write?
I write in a room in my house. The house is a large, Victorian-era property in a leafy suburb of Edinburgh. My office would have been one of the bedrooms. I have a desk, a sofa and a hi-fi system in there. That's about all I need.

What was the proudest moment of your career so far?
There have been many highlights, from the thrill of first publication, to (eventual) success, the Gold Dagger, Diamond Dagger and Edgar. But I was probably most pleased with a letter from the Queen. She intended to award me with the OBE (Officer of the British Empire) for "services to literature." It was proof that the mystery novel was regarded as literature—who am I to argue?

If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one fictional character, who would you want it to be?
Not Rebus—we'd just fight. Maybe Molly Bloom from James Joyce's Ulysses—a fascinating, earthy, practical human being. I'm sure she'd have stories for the campfire.

What are your words to live by?
Words to live by? Words are my life—I love all of them equally.

 

 

Best known for his books about Detective Inspector John Rebus, Ian Rankin has written a suspenseful winner with The Complaints, our March Mystery of the Month. Starring Malcolm Fox, a member of the internal affairs department of the Edinburgh police force, BookPage's Whodunit columnist

Children's & YAPicture Book

Ludwig Bemelmans

Madeline: Deep in the heart of Texas Madeline turns 60 this year, and doesn’t look a day over six. Ludwig Bemelmans’s grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano, took time to answer a few questions about completing one of his grandfather’s manuscripts, debuting this month as Madeline in America.

BookPage: Why this book? Why now? John Bemelmans Marciano: More than anything, I want to reintroduce my grandfather’s non-Madeline books to his fans, the majority of whom weren’t alive when those books were in print. BP: How did Madeline’s Christmas in Texas, a Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalog, evolve into Madeline in America, a children’s book? JBM: Madeline’s Christmas in Texas originally appeared as a 1955 promotion for Neiman-Marcus. Every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas, a different line of verse appeared in the Dallas and Houston papers in the form of an ad, usually accompanied by a small ink drawing. The verse and 15 drawings were made into a booklet, which Neiman-Marcus gave away. The store windows were done in a Madeline theme, and my grandfather did the cover for their catalog.

My grandfather had decided to turn the story into a full-length book, to be called Madeline’s Christmas. However, he began work on a different idea with the same title, and never finished either. A version of the second idea was published as Madeline’s Christmas long after his death, so to avoid confusion, the title of this one was changed.

BP: Why did you decide to include other tales with the book instead of publishing them separately? JBM: To me, the other stories are the most important part of the collection. Originally, we had planned on publishing the short Neiman-Marcus version, which would have never stood on its own, but then I came across two dummy books that my grandfather had put together, and we suddenly had a book-length story.

BP: For the first time ever, Madeline’s last name is revealed in this book. Was this worked out during editing, or was it part of the original text? JBM: The lines Including Mlle. Madeline Fogg and Genevieve her dog appeared in the original gift book, and I assume my grandfather came up with the name for the sake of the rhyme.

The text of the dummy books was used wherever possible. Certain things had to be cut a scene involving store detectives and a gun, for instance. Other things had to be tightened up; my grandfather would go in a dozen different directions in the early drafts of his stories, and then focus on the essentials in later stages.

Where the verse from the dummy didn’t work, I went back to one of the earlier versions or his notes to try to find an alternative. In a couple of cases, we made stuff up.

As for the pictures, most of what I had to work with were rough pencil sketches depicting action and gestures. Fortunately, the gesture is the inspiration, so the hard work was done. As for turning gestures into paintings, I pored over the original books, trying to understand my grandfather’s visual language. I never copied details my biggest fear was of turning the book into a pastiche. BP: Why did you decide to pick up where your grandfather left off? JBM: When I was two, I covered my walls with crayon swirls, and one of my first memories is getting into trouble for it. I’ve always wanted to be a writer and an artist and have worked most of my life at it. As for the rest of the family, my mother was an only child, and I have two brothers, one of whom is an Internet entrepreneur and the other a psychology professor.

In general, I think my family is happier with the finished product than I am. My mother occasionally gets confused as to which paintings are mine and which are her father’s.

BP: Is it true that one of the other stories in the book, Sunshine, was originally intended to be a musical starring Frank Sinatra? JBM: My grandfather took an eight-year break from children’s books after Rosebud was published in 1942. He focused on his novels and writing screenplays he was with MGM for a time. He met Frank Sinatra somewhere during this period and was taken with him. He had an idea for a musical that would star Sinatra and take place in my grandfather’s New York neighborhood, Gramercy Park. My guess is that my grandfather realized the story was better suited for a children’s book than Sinatra, and I’m sure he saw the opportunity to do for New York what he had done for Paris in Madeline.

BP: What sources/resources did your grandfather use to create his characters and their adventures? Do you find yourself using the same, or different methods? JBM: My grandfather drew on his life for his characters, and on his travels for his stories. One of the reasons he did Madeline in London is because he wanted the opportunity to live there and paint the city; the same with Madeline and the Gypsies and the south of France. He followed gypsy circuses on and off for two years researching the book. It’s my guess that one of the reasons he abandoned the Texas story is that he didn’t want to spend all that time there. He suffered terribly from the heat.

I went down and retraced my grandfather’s footsteps from Dallas to San Antonio through the Hill Country and down to King Ranch. I sketched and painted, took roll after roll of film, and bought postcards and knick-knacks and books generally, anything I could do to get the details right. My grandfather had given little indication of what the backgrounds were to be, so I painted the monuments and landscapes of the state that most interested me. In the spirit of the Madeline books and of Sunshine, the locations are listed by page number.

BP: What does the future hold for Madeline, as well as yourself? JBM: Unless I find another one of my grandfather’s manuscripts, there won’t be any more full-length books in Madeline’s future. There are, thankfully, other stories my grandfather wrote but only sketched, three or four of which I hope to illustrate, including Silly Willy. My grandfather based the story on a comic strip he did in the ’30s, and he was working on it when he came up with the inspiration for Madeline. I love it and have been working on the paintings for two years. In addition, I’m in the middle of illustrating a children’s book I’ve written, and I’m trying to finish a novel.

Madeline: Deep in the heart of Texas Madeline turns 60 this year, and doesn't look a day over six. Ludwig Bemelmans's grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano, took time to answer a few questions about completing one of his grandfather's manuscripts, debuting this month as Madeline in…
RomanceContemporary Romance

Catherine Lanigan

Fiction with vision and visions We recently chatted with novelist Catherine Lanigan about the challenges of finding an audience for her new novel, Wings of Destiny.

Wings of Destiny is the story of two families entangled in a generations-long struggle; the conflict between the Dukes and The House of Su dates back to the Chinese opium war. The Duke lineage began with the illicit relationship between Jamaican plantation owner Ambrose Duke and his slave, Yuala. Destinies converge and a battle of good and evil ensues in San Francisco in the late 1800s, where Nan-Yung Su is driven to destroy forever the family of Ambrose and Yuala’s grandson, Jefferson Duke.

The scope of Lanigan’s novel is global, ranging from the Caribbean to the Forbidden City in China, and is decades-long. That span is scarcely grand enough to encompass this unforgettable tale.

BookPage: You wrote the novelizations for Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. Wings of Destiny is a multi-generational saga, complete with ghosts and paranormal phenomena. What compelled you to write a story so different from what you’ve been writing? Catherine Lanigan: I always write from my heart in that, all of my books are the same. But Wings of Destiny is my soul. It is the one book about which I’m over-the-top-passionate. In the 20-plus novels I’ve written, I’ve done several multi-generational sagas. I love their scope and depth. This kind of book is rather like taking a scalpel to life, slicing through layer after layer to come to the raison d’etre. To me, that is our spirituality. Through this book I hope to open the eyes of each reader to see herself, where she came from, and where she’s going in a way she never dreamed or imagined for herself.

BP: It took a little-known publisher to launch Tom Clancy. Likewise, your publisher is taking a leap of faith with you. What do you hope this demonstrates to booklovers? CL: It is true that Peter Vegso at HCI is taking on an enormous challenge in the publication of this novel. By the virtue of his faith in this book, he is opening an entirely new genre of fiction. Can you imagine? Writers like myself, who have been turned down, rejected, scoffed at, and even ridiculed by countless publishers Wings was rejected over four dozen times in 13 years will find an avenue where our out of the box imaginations and passions will have a chance to be heard. My favorite story about Wings of Destiny was over a decade ago when my agent took it to the head of a prominent publishing house, and the editor read it and said, There’s a ghost from the future as a main character. Everyone knows there’s no such thing. Stonefaced, my agent replied, You never read A Christmas Carol? Next! Visionary fiction is destiny driven. I know I am following my divine path in seeing this book to publication. Though I can’t speak for Peter, his actions certainly show that he shares this belief.

BP: Where does your writing go from here? CL: I have two nonfiction books contracted with HCI currently. The Evolving Woman: Intimate Confessions of Surviving Mr. Wrong is a compilation of letters I have received over the past five years from responses to my national publicity campaigns for Mira Books, in which abused women relate how they found the courage and faith in themselves to escape from abusive marriages and relationships. The fact that two publishers are supporting my mission to help families who are victims of violence says a great deal about the heart and soul of the caring commitment they have to making the world a better place.

Angel Watch, the second book from HCI, is a series of factual accounts of paranormal and angelic intervention experiences in my personal life and those of my family and close friends. These are the real stories behind Wings of Destiny and how this book came into being. This is a book I have lived.

Other than that, I have three visionary fiction novels, fully formed in my head, but yet to write. Not to mention another half-dozen paranormal adventures, both contemporary and historical. I have no fear that I will ever run out of tales to tell. ¦ Sandy Huseby writes from her homes in Fargo, North Dakota, and Nevis, Minnesota. She is online at SHuseby@aol.com.

Fiction with vision and visions We recently chatted with novelist Catherine Lanigan about the challenges of finding an audience for her new novel, Wings of Destiny.

Wings of Destiny is the story of two families entangled in a generations-long struggle; the conflict…

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Scott Turow

Write what you know. While writers are told that every day, a writer’s work is naturally that much better if what they know is pretty cool stuff. In Scott Turow’s latest book, Personal Injuries, the best-selling legal thriller writer takes what he knows his personal experience as a prosecutor in a major judicial corruption probe and turns it into a fast-paced and intricate story that is as much about what goes on in people’s heads as what goes on in courtrooms.

Turow, author of the top-selling Presumed Innocent and Burden of Proof, draws on his background as a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago to weave a tale of undercover operatives and deception. But he makes the characters especially Robbie Feaver, the personal injury lawyer who is flipped by the prosecution and used as a stalking horse to rein in corrupt judges as complex as the plot. Instead of creating what could have been stock players in a typical genre story, Turow, as he does in all his books, gives his characters a depth and a humanity that make their troubles that much more deeply felt.

BookPage spoke to Turow about the legal background that led to the story, about personal injury lawyers, and about being undercover both in life and in law.

BookPage: How close was your own experience [in the early 1980s] to the case in this book?

Scott Turow: A lot of the events in the book are things that I witnessed first-hand. When I was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, I had a large role in cases such as this one. There was one large undercover project, called Operation Greylord, that was aimed at the judiciary in Illinois. I was assigned to run a decoy, above-ground, highly visible investigation of judicial corruption in one court, while the undercover operation was going on in the criminal court. Then I was assigned to try to flip a criminal lawyer whom we had a case on. All the while, I was in this world of need-to-know. I knew there was an undercover investigation, but I didn’t know who they were or what they were doing. I was working side by side with them and didn’t know. It was kind of weird. In some ways, this book was the story of what I witnessed and took part in.

BP: Talk about the life of the undercover operative that you observed, and that you put in the book. [Note: One character, FBI agent Evon Miller, spends nearly a year undercover working with Feaver as a paralegal.]

ST: They try to get folks in places where they’re as close as possible to their own life. I’ve known agents who pretended to be Mafiosi or to be fences, which are actually very far from who they really are. I remember a female IRS agent who posed as a Mobster girlfriend for a time. Most of them don’t live it for the extended period of time that Evon did. But the guys I knew who infiltrated a crime family in Milwaukee did so for more than a year. It’s a tough life.

BP: Working with witnesses such as Robbie must be difficult. You have to ask them to do a tough job, and support them while they do it. Yet you know that they’re criminals. How do you handle that as a prosecutor?

ST: Those kind of dilemmas are commonplace when you’re a prosecutor. You’re always in that position with the flipper witnesses. It’s a very ambiguous relationship. You’ve pursued these people, they want to ingratiate themselves with you to get a lower sentence, you want something from them . . . but you know in the end you’re going to stand up in court and ask to have them sent away. What happens is that you develop some complicated personal relationships. You hate their guts when you see them for what they are, but you can also become beguiled by them in a certain way. At the end of the day, you get mixed feelings about standing up and saying, Send him to the penitentiary. Experiences like that were really the inspiration for Robbie.

BP: Speaking of Robbie, you cast him as a personal injury lawyer, the kind of lawyer who often gives lawyers a bad name . . . the ambulance chaser. What do you think of that profession in general?

ST: As the novel presents, there is a scamming aspect to the acquisition of business by these types of lawyers, and because they have a vested financial interest that gives them an inclination to push the envelope. In Robbie’s case, that was pushed a lot further than is right by anyone’s definition. All of those aspects tend to bring some personal injury lawyers into disrepute. On the other hand, as the novel is pretty honest about and notwithstanding some of the egregious aspects of their work, many really do care about their clients. You have to give them an enormous amount of credit in this country for having been responsible for a lot of reforms that benefit individuals, especially in the areas of sexual harassment, civil rights, and consumer rights. The plaintiff’s bar has been responsible for bringing to heel huge vested interests that were beyond the corralling of the political system.

BP: Two sides to every coin, it seems. That’s a big part of this book, in fact of many of your books.

ST: Yes, that’s a pretty durable Turow theme. Everyone has two sides. The tension is between the reality of life and who human beings really are. Everyone is pretty well intended in this book, even the crook Robbie and the overbearing prosecutor Stan Sennett. Sennett’s goals are good ones, he’s just over the top. It’s the inability of the laws and institutions to accommodate these fine differences in people that has always provided a theme for me. In this case, it’s particularly helpful to have that theme. The thematic wedge into this notion is the idea of being undercover, of playing a role, and that everyone is trying to pretend to be something that they’re not.

James Buckley Jr. is an associate editor with NFL Publishing in Los Angeles. He is the author of Eyewitness Football.

Write what you know. While writers are told that every day, a writer's work is naturally that much better if what they know is pretty cool stuff. In Scott Turow's latest book, Personal Injuries, the best-selling legal thriller writer takes what he knows his personal…

Mira Bartok

Artist, writer and musician Mira Bartok charts her talented mother’s battle with schizophrenia in her new memoir, The Memory Palace [read our review]. She spoke to BookPage about the challenge of dealing with a parent with a mental illness.

 

You write early in your book that children of schizophrenics are great secret-keepers. What inspired you to reveal your secret and write the book?
Truth be told, people did know about my mother—my close friends knew that I had a mentally ill mother—they just didn’t know much more than vague information about my distant past or how much I kept inside about it, and how much I obsessed about my mother’s wellbeing on a daily basis after she became homeless. I thought about her constantly—Was she hungry? Was she dead or alive? Was she sleeping on a park bench in the snow? Those were the big secrets, those little everyday sorrows I kept inside, hidden from friends and from family. I’m not a fan of most survivor memoirs, especially the blaming kinds, so I was always hesitant to even write about our relationship for fear of sounding like some kind of victim, which I didn’t feel I was. It was when I was in the middle of writing a novel with a minor character—a dead ringer for my mother and who, in the book, eventually took over the story and the other characters’ lives—that I thought: I better deal with this material or I’ll never be able to write fiction at all.
I also felt that, if I devoted a chunk of time to writing about her, I might come to some decision as to whether or not to see her again. Or at least come to some state of grace or peace about it all. What I never anticipated was finding out that she was dying and then being able to be at her side, with my sister, for the last few weeks of her life. Gratefully, I got the end of my story and the beginning of a new one.

 

You lived in fear of your mother to the point of changing your name and concealing where you lived. What was it like to lead a double life?
Well, I didn’t really feel like I was leading a double life as much as I felt like I was in hiding from one single person, a person I loved deeply but who could ruin my life if she found out where I was. At one point, from around late 1990 to 1992, when my mother and I were both living in Chicago at the same time I felt like I was always looking over my shoulder. And not really because I lived in fear of her—more that I lived in fear of having to take care of her for the rest of my life. Eventually, the stress of her living in the same town got too much and I moved to the east coast.

 

While trying to conceal your identity, you became an accomplished artist and author. How did this make hiding more difficult, and were there any close calls?
By the time I broke ties with my mother in 1990, I had already been exhibiting my art in the U.S. and abroad for over 10 years and had already finished my BFA and MFA in fine arts. When I came back from living in Italy in 1991, I began to focus on writing more and I also began my children’s book series for HarperCollins. I had had a one-person show in Italy when I lived there but was afraid to pursue any shows returned to Chicago because I knew my mother could show up at an opening. All of this didn’t make my hiding more difficult, but rather, it seriously compromised my art career. I was afraid to show again until 1994 and by then I had changed my name to Mira Bartók and the show was in another state. But while my name change negatively affected my art career, it actually helped me reinvent myself as a writer.
 

As far as close calls, yes, there were several. I would go to an exhibit (not my own but one at a museum or gallery), and then find out later in a letter from my mother (or from someone at the art venue) that she had also attended, sometimes on the same day! It was nerve-wracking to say the least, and very sad as well. On the one hand, I wanted her to know about my successes—she was my mother, after all. And yet, I knew the terrible price I would have to pay if she knew about what I had accomplished.

 

Though your mother’s mental illness made your childhood difficult, she also was clearly creative and a piano prodigy. Do you feel you inherited her creativity? Were there other positive things that your mother passed on to you despite her problems?

Yes, I definitely inherited her creativity, and my father’s as well. My mother was a brilliant musician who had a vast imagination and who also wrote lyrical (albeit delusional) prose in her journals. My father was a great writer and a fine painter. Fortunately I inherited their talents, not their psychological afflictions.
 

Despite her illness, when my mother was at her best, she was an extremely kind and loving person. If she never had been struck down by schizophrenia, she would have probably been an amazing mother as well as a brilliant pianist. She also cared deeply about human rights and was the kind of person who would take off her coat and give it to a stranger in need. She really instilled in me the importance of helping others less fortunate and to not focus on material wealth as a measure of success but on one’s capacity for love, creativity and kindness.

 

A car accident when you were 40 left you with memory loss. Did your struggles allow you to related more to your mother’s challenges?
To clarify a bit more, I never had total memory loss but rather very bad short-term memory loss and some impairment to my long-term memory. Long-term memory loss is actually quite rare with brain trauma but I think my problem with it was complicated by the fact that I had a history of PTSD. This is also the issue with many vets returning now from Iraq and Afganistan. Their PTSD complicates their recovery from TBI.
 

Fortunately, working on this book for about four years straight really helped my long-term memory recall. And my short-term memory isn’t great now but it certainly isn’t as bad as it was in those early days.

 
In regards to relating to my mother’s challenges, it wasn’t my problem with memory that allowed me to empathize so much with her but rather my difficulties with external stimulation. I had (and still have) a problem with filtering out sounds and other kinds of stimuli. I often feel bombarded by the world and from reading my mother’s letters, I now understand a tiny fraction of what she felt like on an ongoing basis. The problem with her though was not only did she feel overwhelmed by lights and sound and people but she couldn’t tell if they were real or not. That is a problem I fortunately never had to deal with, thank god!
 

Your mother’s obsession with keeping diaries and collecting photographs and obscure mementos—constructing a memory palace—helped you recapture some of your lost memories. While in some ways this obsession was disturbing, were you grateful she did this?

I actually saw her storage unit more as a cabinet of curiosities—she stored both the bizarre as well as the mundane, and often cataloged the items. While many of the things were items that I used as mnemonic devices for the memory palace I created in this book, there were just as many things in that room that were oddities she kept because she was so ill—like 1950s Geiger counters to measure radiation or dozens of scissors (why dozens?), or hundreds of articles on serial killers, aliens and the like. I was grateful for it all, even the disturbing things, for that is the stuff that art is made from if you are brave enough to face it—and it also gave me yet another glimpse into my mother’s tortured yet beautiful mind. My only regret is that I never photographed her cold little storage room. I just never thought about it until after my sister and I finally cleared it all out.
 

Having established a successful professional and personal life, were people surprised when they found out about your past? How did they react?

Like I said, many friends knew, just not to the extent of how rough it was growing up. And even so, I kept some of the worst things out of the book, just to avoid sounding sensationalist. I really wanted the focus to always come back to the two most important things: my mother’s and my loving yet complicated relationship and the enduring and redemptive power of art and the imagination. But back to your question, yes, some people who didn’t know me that well were really shocked because I am such an upbeat person and very balanced emotionally and they couldn’t imagine that I had had a childhood like that. One childhood friend said, after reading a review copy, “If I had known what life was really like for you, I would have begged my family to adopt you.” I actually feel like some people feel closer to me now, and visa versa. While my book obviously deals with some very dark things, most people who read it also find it uplifting and hopeful. A couple friends have begun to reach out to their local homeless shelters since they read my book and others have, for the first time, begun to either meditate or to attempt to rebuild their own broken relationships with a parent or sibling. It’s all been extremely positive. The best thing so far has been a handful of friends who called to say that they never understood what my life was like with a brain injury until they read the book. My sister said the same thing recently.

 

I hope my book has a positive effect on my readers and that it inspires them to either reach out to someone in need whom they might have ignored or that it empowers them to be more proactive and brave about their own difficult family situation. And I hope it helps family members who deal with various issues—not only mental illness but brain injury and other invisible disabilities such as Lupus, Lyme Disease, Fibromayalgia, and others.
 

You run a website that helps authors, artists, writers and composers find grants, fellowships and other opportunities. With the publication of The Memory Palace, do you see yourself offering advice and support to others raised by parents with mental illness?

Actually, I feel like I dealt with mental illness for so, so many years that for me, the best venue to help others will be doing public appearances with a speaker’s bureau, which I will start doing in 2011. As far as a blog, I am launching a blog on my Memory Palace website this winter. It will deal with subjects like memory loss, new research in neuroscience, issues concerning veterans with TBI, as well as quirky things that interest me, such as ancient memory systems, and art and literary projects that deal with memory and neuroscience.
 

Because of my TBI, I have so little energy and endurance that if I spend all my time giving advice and helping others I’ll have no time or brain juice to make art and frankly, that would kill me. I already devote hours and hours to helping artists with my other blog and I don’t want to let all those people down by spending a million hours doing another one. I’ll have to find a balance somehow between my two blogs, my creative projects and my speaking appearances. It’s called a luxury problem and I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

  

Artist, writer and musician Mira Bartok charts her talented mother’s battle with schizophrenia in her new memoir, The Memory Palace [read our review]. She spoke to BookPage about the challenge of dealing with a parent with a mental illness.


 
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