Nigel Bird Drops In

Nigel Bird.  Brit.

Teacher.  Artistic bon vivant.  Writer of noir.  Kinda like the guy already.  Another one of those Trestle Press writers who seem to be popping up everywhere.  Like me.  Here's a talented writer who openly admits he may have grown up on the wrong side of the tracks.  Grew up in the dirtier, rougher side of British society.  Which is good.  That kinda life gives you a feel for writing noir/hard boiled. 

Or so they tell me.

Anyway, pleased I was when Nigel graciously agreed to be interviewed by me. (I doubt the rubber hose, the 1000 watt light bulb in his face, and the brass knuckles lying about had anything to do with his decision.)  Read and enjoy.

1.  As one of those rising new British stars in writing noir, what was it that made you decide to tread deep into these troubled waters? 

Troubled waters are where I swim.  Not in a dramatic way, just in the way a depressive does - perfect strokes one minute, sinking the next. 

I grew up watching old noir movies and that’s probably the strongest link I can suggest.  They became a regular part of life and almost formed a mould of the way I viewed things.  Of course I wanted to be the heroic character who went down with the ship; in some ways acted this out a bit too well in the early days.

Dirty Old Town

 Fitting in with that was the punk movement and the rise of such art as Factory Records who also celebrated the industrial landscapes and the misery of them. 

Inner cities have always been places I find fascinating.  For some reason I’ve always seen some kind of romance in the urban decay, partly as I imagined that the stories of lives there must be so much more interesting than those in the suburbs in which I grew up.  Of course, now I’ve matured, I see that life stories are never dull and that fiction is so much less about recreating real events than about crafting a plot of one’s own.

2.  How long have you been writing?  And when, might I ask, will we see a set of characters developed from you that requires novelization and perhaps an on-going series to be written?

 I’ve been writing since I left school really, as long as diaries are included. 

I moved on from diaries to poetry after the break-up of my first marriage.  It was one of the few ways in which I managed to find an outlet for my pain.  From there I moved on to being the editor or a magazine and a publisher on a very small indie level.  As for prose, I guess I’ve been at it for more than ten years, five of those with a huge amount of focus and effort.

My novella, Smoke, is a stepping stone towards fleshing out characters for longer fiction and I do have a novel that’s complete and waiting for feedback.  Early thoughts are very positive indeed and I feel like it will be ready for release some time next year.

3.  Comment, if you will, on the British Crime Scene.  What points of interest do you see that makes British crime writing vibrant and unique compared, say, to the European or American scene?

The British crime-writing scene is spectacular and has become all-the-more lively with the advent of e-books. 

To put it into context, there’s a great tradition of crime-writing here, something which lies as a foundation and offers signposts to those writing today.  We’re also very lucky to share the language of the Americans, which means that the influences of the hard-boiled work of the 1930s and onwards has always been easily accessible, as has everything since.

On top of that Britain has many aspects to life which make settings easy to come by.  There’s a huge drinking culture; the council estate; the football gangs; huge variety of regional dialects; drugs; disaffection; an embedded sense of class and class-struggle; lots of movement in terms of immigration and emigration; multiculturalism with all its positives and seething undercurrents; riots; humour; conservatism; rain and grey skies.  Perfect.

What it has in common with other scenes is a loose-knit umbrella for everyone to shelter under.  The community is friendly and helpful and considerate.

Trestle Press has played some part in shifting things up a gear for those authors who deserved to be established, but hadn’t quite cracked the ceiling.  I’m thinking of Paul D Brazill, McDroll, Sant, Veste, Bury et al.

4.  What kinds of struggle do you wrestle with when you write?  What holds you back?  What compels you to overcome these struggles and write?

I don’t find many struggles with short fiction.  It’s not to say I find it easy, but my focus is clear and my mind can incorporate all aspects of a piece at once.  The editing process is vital there, but not too daunting as there isn’t a great deal of structure to work at re-shaping.

It’s long fiction that I find taxing.  I’ve attempted three novels now.  The first, ‘Orinoco Pony And His Dandelion Adventures’ I’ve almost forgotten.  The second was edited from 70000 words to 22000 and became the novella ‘SMOKE’.  The third, ‘In Loco Parentis’, I’m pretty excited about and it’ll make it out to an audience one day.    It can seem like a huge mountain to climb – I can put in months of work with all the spare hours I have and still find myself only at first base.  Once enthusiasm drifts, I tend to let things drift with it and that means the structure starts to creak and my memory stops working.  In the end, something usually kicks in to get me there – obsession might be the best word for it.  Or stubbornness.

Smoke

 5.  Who has inspired you?  Was there a certain author you may have read that flipped a light on inside you to reveal the possibility that maybe you could write something better?I’ve been inspired by many writers over the years.  Going along to see people read out their work is one of my favourite pass-times.  It’s what stared my brother and I with our publishing effort, The Rue Bella way back.

 It was seeing Allan Guthrie at the launch of his debut novel, ‘Two Way Split’, that excited me about the possibilities for my own writing.  Not only did I immediately sense that he was a talented man, I also saw that he was able to take flavours from the history of noir and crime-writing and bring them into a contemporary and regional setting.  What also gave me hope was his explanation of his journey to publication and the stamina and dedication he’d had to apply to the process.  That was a point when things began to crystalize for me, though things are still solidifying around my work all the time – though I hope that an element of malleability will always remain.

Mr Guthrie’s still inspiring me.  His books are fantastic and he’s doing very exciting things over at Blasted Heath just now that leave me in awe of his capacity to work.

6.  For you, what makes a good story?  What ingredients have to be added into the boiling cauldron that's used to eventually cook up a good story?

I’m not sure about ingredients.  Perhaps it’s the blend that is the most important thing.  I love to read work where I feel utterly absorbed (don’t we all?).  How that is achieved is one of those mysteries to life.

As a Support for Learning teacher I work with a range of children who often have similar issues, but are all entirely individual.  I guess that’s why I have a job – because there’s no one single answer.  Things need to be carefully thought through and experimented with.  I suppose that’s what it’s like to be a writer, too.  There would seem to be templates out there to follow, but if it were simply a matter of copying, we’d all be at it.

Dramatic tension and empathy or sympathy for characters would certainly figure, as would well written sentences, great imagery and a dash of the poetic from time-to-time.

7.  Looking back on the path you've trekked down so far as a writer, are there turns in the trail or, perhaps other paths altogether, you would have followed if you could start all over?

 I wish that I’d reached my current position of status and as a craftsman many years ago.  It would have given me more time to work at a better level.

Other than that, the path is what it was.  I needed to do lots of things in life to get to where I am, had to survive a lot of stuff and to find some kind of hold on the planet.  For those reasons I can’t separate writing from anything else.

8.  What are you working on now?  Give us some hints as what will soon be seen in the next coming months.

I’m not working on anything new just now.  Attempts to keep the balls rolling in terms of sales for the things that are already out there is time-consuming, but always worthwhile.  ‘Dirty Old Town (and other stories)’ recently made its 1000^th sale and things like that keep my spirits up.

In the New Year I’ll be starting on my next attempt at a novel.  I have some ideas simmering away, but they need more time to ferment before I start shaping them into a draft.

I’ll also be working with Chris Rhatigan again.  The experience of producing ‘Pulp Ink’ together was very rewarding and we’re keen to see what else we can do.  At the moment, we’re not entirely sure what that will be, but it may involve adding in a couple more editors and changing the approach ever-so slightly. 

There are also a couple of collections out soon which will feature my stories. ‘Brit Grit Too’ is being put together by Mr Brazill and there’s John Kenyon’s ‘Grimm Tales’ collection with an introduction by Ken Bruen.  They’re both exciting the hell out of me.

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There you have it.  Good stuff. (but don't ask me why there's gaps in the interview.  I've been pulling my hair out for the last two days trying to figure that one out!)

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A Taste of Old Revenge is Finally Out

Turner Hahn

Tally ho, me hardies!!  It is finally out.  Finally out!  After nearly two years of waiting around drumming my fingers and pulling what little hair I have left in my head out.  A Taste of Old Revenge is finally out! (check right and see the cover)

The year after god invented dirt I came up with the idea of developing Turner Hahn and Frank Morales . . . the two homicide cops that are the main go-to guys in this book.  Uh . . . . maybe I'm stretching the time line a little bit about when Turner and Frank came to mind . . . but you get the general idea.  It was some time ago.

I've been reading the detective/mystery genre for more than . . . . uh, hell!  That long?! . . . . fifty goddamn years!  Half a fracken century.  And yeah, over the last fifty years I've seen a lot of trends come and go in this venerable old fart of a genre.  Some good.  Lot's on the 'what the hell!?' side of the coin.

Take, for instance; the 'main chartacter' or 'hero' of our imaginations.  Over the years we've seen the demise of the Phillip Marlowe kind of guy . . . you know, the honorable wreck of a near-alcoholic who fights in the back alleys of crime trying to right the world in a world that doesn't care anymore . . . to the certifiably homicidal killer molded in the guise of Lee Child's Reacher, or Robert Crais' Joe Pike.  Or we have Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne. (note how I put the spy/adventure sub-genre into the mainstay of mystery/detective?  Sorry, that's just a tic of mine).

Don't care how you want to slice and dice it; look deep into the psyches of all three characters listed and you have to agree these guys would rather kill you than look at you.  Not that I'm saying it bad, mind you.  So happens I like to read all three of them.  With my preference leaning toward a good Jason Bourne tale.

But the point is this;  what happened to the honorable, traditional, god-I-need-one! . . .  traditional hero?

I think it's time to resurrect'em.  Sure, there are authors and characters out there that I haven't read that will undoubtedly fit this bill.  But when Turner and Frank came along I hadn't seen one for decades.  I read and read and never found a story, or a character, I truly thought satisfied the needs I had for a good book/series/long term relationship.

Frank Morales

So I decided to create them.  Two of them. Make them homicide detectives.  Make one just as good, and as interesting, as the other.  Make both of them have their own unique characteristics.  Individually Turner Hahn is an equal to Frank Morales when it comes to solving a homicide case.  Neither plays the traditionally second-fiddle to the other.  Each bring to the detective team talents uniquely their own.  Not the least of which is their respective sense of humor.

Yeah.  A little humor in a good 'whodunit.'  What the hell!  Don't care what the 'experts' say; I find that a little humor in even the darkest of stories makes the darkness even more bleak . . . and the story even more compelling.

In A Taste of Old Revenge  Turns out to be a three-dimensional human being.  You find out that he has his weaknesses as well as his strengths.  You find out about what happened to his mother and father.  About the farm he grew up on.  About suddenly becoming unimaginably rich.  And about what the sudden acquisition of vast wealth does to his relationships with his peers in the police department.  And you get to meet Turner's grandfather.  Brother, are you in store for a surprise here!  Gramps is one interested dude.

You get to meet Frank Morales' wife.  His kids.  You get to taste and appreciate Frank's intellect.  He may look like a genetic throwback to pre Cro-Magnon Man . . . but the guy is one smart critter!  Best of all, you get to see Frank as the head-investigator in his own homicide case.  See how he ticks.  See how he moves.

I like these two guys.  Each is what I think a 'hero' should be.  Each have their own foibles.  Their own susceptibilities.  Their own strengths.  But at the end of the day you'll come to two definite conclusions.  They are both interesting to be around.  And they are both honorable.

There are a number of Turner/Frank novels coming down the pike.  At least three more novels in the immediate future already started.  I'm crossing my fingers and hoping A Taste of Old Revenge will kick start the series into high gear.

But really, that depends up to you, the reader, doesn't it?

But hell!  What do you have to lose by throwing down five bucks and loading it up on your e-reader?  Ya can't even go to McDonalds and have a burger and fries for five bucks!  Give'em a try.  I betcha ya won't be disappointed.

Another friend of mine

Good lord, recently I've been on a roll.  In the last couple of months I've interviewed some big names in the noir/ hard boiled/ historical-detective fiction world.  Guys like Richard Godwin, Vincent Zandri, Jason Michel. And there was the amazing feminine master,  I.J. Parker. This time I add another superlative writer to the list.


Matt Rees.


Matt is another one of those world traveling international reporters.  Matt lives/work in Jerusalem.  His beat, for years, has been the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  It's been this generations-long conflict which made Matt become an international best seller.


Matt created a character by the name of Omar Yussef.  A Palestinian refugee.  A teacher by profession who suffers along every day through the pain and suffering that is an houly occurence, it seems, in the Gaza Strip.


What I like about the character Matt has created in Omar Yussef is this;  the man is basically a humane, gentle soul forced to overcome his fears of violent reprisals both from the many factions found in the Palestinian movement, and from the Israelis, and confronts those in power to demand justice.  Demands that those who murder are captured and tried as the criminals they are.


But Matt also has written other novels.  Novels about as far away from the Gaza Strip as one can get.  Currently his Mozart's Last Aria.  And yes, me puppies, the book is about Mozart.


So I thought it'd be great to interview the guy and pluck his brains to see how he ticks.  I think the results are fascinating.  I believe you'll agree with me.

1. I'll admit it enthusiastically; I am an Omar Yussef fan. Omar is a Palestinian-teacher-turned-reluctant detective. Where, when, and how did this character come into being? And how successful has his mysteries been in your writing career?

You’re very kind, B.R. Omar was born out of my sense that the reporting I did for Time Magazine during the Palestinian intifada was unable to contain the full reality of what I witnessed as Palestinian society destroyed itself. It became a gangster reality, which I was able to tip at in news stories. But to truly encompass that reality, I’d have had to write about it again and again – journalism doesn’t really deal in such continuity. Moreover I wanted to get at the emotional reality of life under such extreme circumstances for the Palestinians I had come to know well. Journalism is supposed to stay on the surface, to be objective. I had enough of that. The first Omar Yussef novel "The Collaborator of Bethlehem" won a Dagger from the Crime Writers Association in the UK. The books have sold in 23 countries. So I'm pretty happy with them.

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The Collaborator of Bethelem

2. You are a Western reporter living in Jerusalem. You see the chaos of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict on a daily basis. How does this energy bleed into your Yussef novels, and will Omar ever witness a better set of circumstances for his people?

In some ways Omar already sees things as they might be, and in a positive way. That’s why I made him a schoolteacher. He’s there to protect his society against ignorance, just as a detective aims to protect against criminality. I don’t foresee writing about immediate circumstances of peace and prosperity for the Palestinians, because it’s just not on the horizon. I wanted to show that Omar lives for that day, however, and that’s why his favorite granddaughter is such an important secondary character. All the risks he takes are an investment in her future.

3. Recently you wrote Mozart's Last Aria. What were the factors that came into play which compelled you to write this?

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Mozart's Last Aria

I’ve always loved Mozart, but his music became more important to me during the intifada. I was in some ways traumatized. My reaction to trauma was to lose my temper to a crazy extent. When I listened to Mozart, I felt calmer. I took a break from covering the intifada to visit Austria with my wife – we were looking for a place that was organized, peaceful and beautiful, as a change from Israel and Palestine. We passed through a small mountain village where Mozart’s sister, Nannerl had spent her married life. I visited her house and saw that she looked exactly like her brother. Naturally that got me thinking about plot opportunities. But I also felt called by her, as I stood at the edge of the lake at the bottom of her garden. Called by a talented woman who had been consigned to this backwater while her brother achieved fame in the Imperial capital. I wrote the book for her.

4. Writing and writers in general; what makes a writer, for you, worthy of reading? Are there any pre-requisites a writer needs in order to be successful (in any genre)?

Writers seem to me to be some kind of introverted version of an actor. They need to inhabit a character, just as a method actor might. So I think writers are the introverts of the creative world, which makes outsiders particularly suited to writing. I know I felt that way growing up and for much of my life. Now I’m a Brit living in Jerusalem. Still an outsider. I think of Hammett, who was a Communist, and Chandler, who was just rather prickly, amongst others. All outsiders. If your life has been a stroll in the sun and everyone always loves you, I don’t think you’ll have much to write about.

5. As a follow-up question for question No. Four, what are the parameters for a good mystery/detective novel? Is it plot? Characters? The crime? All of the above? None of the above?

Characters are the emotional core of a novel, so they ought to come first. However, a good intricate plot is a great way to provide them with conflict and really bring them out. I don’t care if someone figures out the plot halfway through one of my books – and I don’t believe anyone who says they do, anyhow – but plot is a vehicle, in my opinion, for dramatizing character. I also think a writer ought to undermine the genre a little bit. One of my ways of doing this is to have two or even three endings. You think you’ve got the solution, then someone else turns out to be even more guilty, then we realize something else entirely is going on. That mirrors reality as I’ve come to see it. It also jerks the reader out of the cosy complacency that often inhabits even the most frosty and bloodthirsty of crime novels.

6. When will the fans of Omar Yussef get to see another Palestinian caper? And what is the long term diagnosis for the continuation of this series?

I’ve finished a novel about Caravaggio, the Italian painter, and I’m working on a thriller now set in Iraq and New York about post-traumatic stress disorder. So Omar’ll have to wait a bit. I have an idea for a book in which he comes to Jerusalem…

7. Have you ever thought about writing a counterpart to Omar Yussef from the Israeli point of view? It would be a kind of counter-balance, and quite interesting, view of how this part of the world sees itself.

I do have an idea for an Israeli novel. It wouldn’t be a detective novel per se. Something a little different… I hope it’ll be the one after the one I’m writing now… I want it to be a novel centered on Israel but encompassing the whole Middle East. Israel itself is a bit parochial; thinks it’s the most important place on the globe. I don’t find that a compelling scenario for fiction.

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A Grave in Gaza

8. What else is in store for the fans of Matt Rees' writing? Another book on a famous composer? Maybe something out of the mystery/detective genre altogether? Care to share any musings along this line of speculation?

After MOZART’S LAST ARIA, I’ve written another book that turns on the mysterious, unsolved demise of a favorite artist of mine. Caravaggio disappeared in 1610 when several murderous people were on his trail in a series of vendettas. It was too good to resist.

This is Matt Rees.  A wonderful writer and an articulate person to boot.  You should look into his writings.  You'll be happy you did.

Yes, this is a friend of mine

Yes, this is the face of an accomplished writer, blogger, and emagazine publisher.  Add 'friend' to that list as well.

Meet Jason Michel.  The man who is behind the fabulously successful emag called Pulp Metal Magazine.  By the way, he's another one of those mad Brits.  Why is it that all the Brits I've met who have a fondness for dark noir also have this dark, twisted sense of humor that is so close to my own?  Am I a Brit in disguise?  Or maybe . . . just maybe . . . all of the writers I've met so far hailing from that little island are related to me?!

Hell!  Now THAT'S a scary thought!!

Anyway . . . Jason and I crossed paths about a year and a half ago when I sent him a Turner Hahn/Frank Morales story.  He liked it and used it immediately.  So, being the glut for pain as I am, I hacked together a few more stories and sent them off to PMM.  He published them all and I thought . . . sonofabitch!  I might be a writer after all!

And then one day he sends me an email asking if he could use one of the stories I sent him, a Turner/Frank story entitled 'Odd Way To Order Carry Out,'  for an anthology of PMM stories he wanted to put together.  The first collections of PMM stories is called Laughing At The Death Grin.  Some great authors are in this collection.  Both surprised and happy that I was asked to join this montage of excellence.

Hitting him up for an interview was a no-brainer.  I had to ask him why in the hell would a sane man want to put himself thru hell and create an emag like PMM?  His answer, I'm sure you'll agree, will conclusively certify that all Brit writers are insane. (grinning and winking)

1. Writer, short-story collaborator, e-magazine publisher. Which came first? Which do you prefer to think of yourself the most?

#1 Well, first came the paranoid megalomania and the overwhelming desire to become a villian in a sixties spy flick. That, of course, still perfumes my every waking moment, MR BOND, um ... , I mean, BR.

Well, to answer the bloody question, the writing came first. Short stories, of course. I actually started off with the intention of never publishing myself. I thought that that way I could be completely free in my writing and never have to pander to any other fucker.
Of course, that way you can sit around in your underpants feeling smug that you are REAL and not like the corporate soul sucking whores making money with mediocrity.
A fantasy and intellectual cowardice was what it really was but it was a good way of honing in on my own way of writing. It gave me the courage to start sending them off.
Then I finally got one published in the now legendary SCARECROW magazine, run at the time by Lee Rourke and Matthew Coleman.

After that there was no stopping me.

As for what I think of myself ... A hack suits me fine.

2. Donning the magazine editor's hat, tell us; what makes for a good short story? What do you look for when you're deciding what to publish?

#2 Of course, taste is all subjective. I have actually chosen stories that didn't slap me across the face with their ideas, but I knew that they were beautifully written and that other people would really appreciate them.
But, the ideas and the vibe of a story are something that I really like. Writing deals with the imagination and the atmosphere of a story plays with the mind and what we see in there.
Give me something unexpected. A twist. A line of dialogue that makes me spit out my mouthful of Merlot over the computer screen. Or a scene that makes me feel downright spooked.

A bloody good yarn helps.

3. How did Pulp Metal Magazine come into existence? Did you wake up one day and say, "Hey! I want to be a magazine editor and waddle through 10,000 pages of drivel just to find ONE good story!" Uh . . . are you crazy?

Actually, that's pretty accurate, except I was drowning in an godawful hangover and then this pernicious thought hit me.
I still think the gods are torturing me somehow ...
I blame Paul D Brazill for agreeing to a column, after that, who could refuse!

4. When YOU craft a story--what do you go after? Plot? Character? Innuendo? Emotions?

#4 Ooohhh, I don't know. The vibes, baby, it's all in the VIBES.

One of my favourite writers was the late great Hunter S Thompson (RIP, Mr Duke). I loved his style of getting right down deep and dirty inside the subject himself. Becoming the story. That's how I approach ideas. Attack the fuckers from all sides and see where they lead. Live them metaphorically and at certain times in reality.

It's hell on a relationship, let me tell you.
When you open the door to the bedroom and scream BUT I MUST KILL HIM! IT IS THE ONLY WAY!
That can even send the cat running under the sofa

5. You have a set of classic Pulp Metal Magazine stories out called Laughing at the Death Grin. Why did you decide to go this route? Was it hard to decide who to put in? Has it surprised you on the success or failure its garnered so far? Is there a 'Masks 2' going to come out?

#5 LATDG was actually a logical extension of the magazine, as is the whole PULP METAL FICTION malarky. It just made sense with the whole ebook thing kicking a hole in the arse of the trad publishing route.
Sales have been slow but do we want instant gratification or a long burner here?
I am in negotiations with a couple of other well known PMM faces to put out anthologies of their work with a couple of all new original stories in for good luck.
Not telling you anything else yet.

So there.

 6. What's next for you in the literary world? More short stories? Maybe a ground-breaking novel? And while we're at it . . . what's next on the evolutionary trail for Pulp Metal Magazine?

#6 Um, my novel Confessions Of A Black Dog was published last year in the US and my self published book of shorts is still available on Lulu as an ebook, just because I've been too lazy to take it off. I may put a revised version of that out on PMF in the future.
I've also just released my novella AND THE STREETS SCREAMED BLUE MURDER! over at PMF.

I'm also still working on my Stories From Old Lurk site, which is the most fun I've had writing for a long time, total freedom. Developing the weird and wonderful world of Old Lurk and that multi-dimensional cad - Vincent Blake just makes my knees tingle.
I've also got the germ of an idea to the follow up to the novella.

Besides that I'll be planning to hold the universe to ransom for a while to come ...

(We're in the white mode today because issues . . . lots and lots of issues.  Mostly mine.  And yes, I am taking my medicine.  Again)

My Interview with The Boss

Up front, just to let you know, one of the publishers I work with is Trestle Press.  An upstart, new, really visionary epublisher just getting into the full swing of things.

I'll just say that . . . somehow . . . I got in on the ground floor of this new publishing house and am glad I did it.  The 'Head Fred' (capo de capo;  alias, 'the publisher') of the organization is a guy by the name of Giovanni Gelati.  Now, what can I say about Giovanni that hasn't already been said?  He's enthusiastic, brimming with ideas, creative, funny (in a morbid kind of way.  You should read some of HIS writing to fully understand!).  Best of all, he's a hard working visionary who actively takes in ideas and suggestions from his growing stable of writers and uses them to their maximum limits while asking for more ideas to bounce his way.

I dunno . . . if you get the impression I kinda like the guy . . . you may have something there.

Everybody interviews authors, artists, and politicians.  But who interviews the guys who sit in the background doing the day-to-day work of making a publishing house successful?  Hint: it's done rarely.

So I thought I'd go against the grain a little bit and do just that.  Interview the boss, if you will.  The traditional 'six questions' (except this time it turned out to be seven questions).  Hope you like it.  I enjoyed myself arm-twisting the guy to pony up with some answers.

1.       Trestle Press is becoming a huge success.  The stable of writers being recruited is rising at an exponential rate.  How did Trestle Press come into existence?

We created it so an exceptionally talented author like yourself and others could find a home and a place to build their “platform” and “brand”. My kids laugh at me when I use words like that.

The idea and genesis for this came from me listening and reading stories from authors and readers looking to find each other.

For author’s, Trestle Press is a nice place for them to be creative, free thinking, and a home for their hard work. For readers, a place that they know they can go to get high quality reads at affordable pricing.

I am going to think it is beginning to work, we are fortunate enough to have a number of our titles hit the sales charts on Amazon Kindle and Amazon UK, many within hours of release.

As I write this “Amish Knitting Circle” is the #1 Short Story on Amazon Kindle (in the short story category) and the entire series (all 4 of it installments) is the most read digital short story series (in the short story category) in the world today.

2.       What motivates you to succeed?  And why this drive to succeed in the publishing world?

You know B.R. I really like you, why the hard questions? I am not a very deep thinker. My wife once said of me, and I quote:” You are like a dog with a bone”. Now I take compliments when I can get them; I look at that with a positive twist.

But to sum it up quickly: I think the world is ready for the readers to control author’s destinies. I am driven to make sure that authors like you and all the Trestle Press authors find their place and their audiences. Your stories are intense, vivid, and amazing; I can say that about ever author I have the good fortune of working for.

3.       You show a wide range of literary taste. Tell us, if you had five books on a table in front of you, (a hardboiled detective novel, a romance, a comedy, a religious/ spiritual selection, or a traditional novel of literature) which would be the one  you would choose to read first?  Do you have any preferences?

I am not sure I could recognize literature if I fell over it, not my speed. If by “literature” you mean something from Billy Shakes I will save that for last without a doubt.

Romance makes me blush, so that would go on top of that, next to last.

The religious stuff, I need to read slowly so I can reflect on it, so I do it in chunks. I enjoy it very much, but going back to the deep thinker thing, I need to digest it a bit, so it takes me longer.

Comedy?  I am always up for a good bocce story, do you know any of them? A little birdie told me that a new one just came out-“Holy Chrome Bocce Ball Beach Bloodbath”.

I guess that leaves the nasty stuff for the top. Thankfully you and the rest of the crew at the soon to be “Dark Pages Press” turn out great stuff every week.  

4. Recently Trestle Press has decided to expand and create separate imprints with each imprint specializing in one particular area.  Tell us about this decision and how it came about.

Did you just read my mind?

We decided to do it for a variety of reasons but the main ones had to do with the readers and the authors. We are fortunate at Trestle Press to have a very nice diversity in the genres we offer to the readers. But in this new digital age of publishing labels need to be applied, platforms must be built and brands must be created. To facilitate that we felt the need to make the moves. Each genre that we have will have its own Imprint starting with the Noir/Hard-Boiled authors.”Dark Pages Press”  

Dark Pages Press

5.  Currently Trestle Press is an ebook publisher.  Will expand into the print world? What are the pros and cons a new company like Trestle Press may face if they make such a decision.

Paper is not going anywhere, people’s desire to hold a book in their hands I don’t think will ever go away. Don’t get me wrong, I have a sincere fondness for my ereader  and love reading on it.

The print thing, well, without going into much detail here, we are going to be putting our own spin on that to. We are going to do the “normal” thing first with some of our full length work like your “Death of a Young Lieutenant” and “Roland of The High Crags: Evil Arises” but after we get that rolling, well let’s just say the fun will begin. Everybody can expect to have our first print books in time to have them underneath the Christmas trees and in their hands for New Years eve.   

6.  What are you looking for when a writer submits something to Trestle Press?  Is it just the words on the screen?  The way they tell a story?  Or are other factors in play as well?

 I have OCD, I am pretty up front about that. I am the kind that is always thinking, and the best way for me to organize myself is with lists. I have lists for a lot of stuff. It is a running joke with my wife, but you know it what makes me stay sane. I mean I do work for you, right? Ha! Just had to get that in there ,I didn’t know if you were asleep or not.

You want to know what I look for. It is not one thing, can’t be, if it was all about the read, then no it wouldn’t work. To me it has to be the whole thing, the whole person, the entire author, from top to bottom. How do they think? What is their motivation? Let’s just say I have a full index card with what I am looking for, at least 20 different things. Does each and every author have all of them, no? Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, gauging them are the key, using them necessary.

I haven’t had the card laminated yet, I may add a few things to it, but , no you can’t see it. Sorry. It is like the remote for the Television, you need to marry one of my daughters to touch it. Simple rules, I think they make sense.

7.  Where do you see yourself and Trestle Press in the next 10 years?

 B.R. you really are trying to make my head explode aren’t you? I hope that I am doing the same thing I do every day, helping authors and readers find each other. That is a lot of fun. 

////

It's a good feeling knowing you're with a publisher who trusts your ideas and is willing to work with you.  Here's to the idea of bigger and better things for Giovanni, Trestle Press, and their new imprint, Dark Pages Press! (raising a glass of two-day old Coke Cola)

Vincent Zandri checks in for a few questions

Krikies!

I asked Vincent Zandri, that world-hopping, e-publishing wunderkind of a writer/reporter, if I could throw at him the nominal six-questions for an interview.  Be damned if didn't say 'Yes' and agree to it almost immediately.

Vincent is a publishing success.  In both traditional print,  and more importantly, in epublishing.  He has at any one time two or more of his numerous books in the Top 100 rankings in Amazon, and have kept his titles in the Top 100 for a year or more.  Obviously he sells bazillions and bazillions of books.

So that makes him a success.

He has this success because he is a damn writer.  His reporter's training has taught him well in sniffing out a good story and filling in the details.  You start reading a Zandri novel and you don't stop until you get to the very end.  That, to me, is the mark of a great writer.

So being the jealous type that I am  (aaaaaaaahemmmm!!)  I thought I'd pick his brains and see if I could get a glimmer of an insight in what makes him so good.  I think you'll find the conversation quite interesting.



The Innocent 



1. Luck. After reading your bio and some other articles you've written about your life, I am struck by the streak of luck that's come your way. Undoubtedly talented--no question about that--but talk, if you will, about the quality of luck, or the lack of it, that affects a writer's life.

Good question…I believe that good luck is like boxing. You keep jabbing enough you’re eventually going land one or two. And if you’re really lucky, you might even land a round-house and knock the poor son of a bitch on his ass. That son of a bitch in this case being this whole crazy writing game of words, pages, books, agents, publishers, critics, editors, predators, sales, and that elusive next book you’re going to have to write. Because remember, it’s never what you’ve done. It’s always what you’re doing or about to do. Those who can’t write another book after the one before are suffering from miserable luck. Which leads me back to the original question. Stay in the business long enough and you will experience streaks of good luck, and just as many if not more, valleys filled with bad luck. You treat the former with a good dose of salt, and the latter with a good dose of booze, travel, reading, women, and just plain living life. 

2. It seems to me you base a lot of your stories off real life incidents. Is that a by-product of being the journalist in your life? Or would have you followed this tack even if you were, say, originally a plumber? 

 

There are real stories that genuinely disturb me, not as a journalist necessarily but as a writer and a human being. When some money-hungry college kid who comes from a nice town and a nice home can climb the stairs in the middle of the night and enter into his parent’s bedroom with a fireman’s axe and proceed to bash their brains in with it, I find myself doubled over in pain on behalf of human kind. Sounds a little dramatic, but certain stories have to be told. As a journalist I almost consider the fictional technique of telling a real story as a fiction in line with the more narrative non-fiction writing style invented by Capote in In Cold Blood and later turned into Pulitzer Prize winning fiction by Norman Mailer in The Executioner’s Song. When you write plain reportage you’re going to miss out on a lot of speculation. In other words, what was going on in the killer’s mind at the time of the incident; what did it feel like to bury an axe into your dad’s skull and then pull the blade out. These things need to be dramatized and imagined if we are to better understand the human condition of pure evil. I guess in the end, it comes down to that old adage: You can’t make this shit up if you tried. There are just too many real life stories out there that need to be told. I don’t need to write down a single novel idea ever again for as long as I live.  

3. In your bio you've mentioned how you are a workaholic when it comes to your writing. You DO produce a lot of work in a relatively short time. Good stuff, I might add. This dedication to your writing--do you think this is a requirement all writers must have? Or is it just a quirk of your own personality?

Writers and would-be writers have to ask themselves one very important question: Do I want to be a professional full-time writer or do I want to be a part timer? There’s no right or wrong here obviously. There are always going to be those full-timers who work all the time who will barely eek out an existence, and those who write only one or two books in their lives who win Pulitzers. You never can tell. But to be honest, almost no one ever succeeded in this business by doing it half assed. In Hemingway terminology you have to “bite the nail” every day. There’s always going to be the “John Locke’s” of the indie world and the James Fry’s of the major pub’d world who hit homeruns more or less on their first try out (Ok 

 
4. Apparently you have an agent who has bought into the world of ebooks and epublishing hook, line, and sinker. Is this unusual? And are you happy with the results so far?

Ironically that agent quit the agenting business and went into e-book publishing. I am pleased with what she’s done in negotiating my contracts with the Stone Inks, even though at first I was entirely ignorant to the e-book process and what’s been happening. When I originally signed, I thought, I’ll never make a dime from this. Then a few months later I was selling more books than Harlan Coben. Go figure. But like anything else, the success if cyclical. But I have to say, sales are still steady. It all resulted in a major deal with Thomas & Mercer who bought out my back list and two new books. And who could ask for anything more?

Concrete Pearl

5. So many writers of noir/hardboiled, both male and female, are taking the female POV role for their main characters. In a word----why? Whatever happened to the Mickey Spillane characters of the world?

Nice loaded question BR and you know what? I’m gonna take the bait. Well, the answer is this: women read. Men don’t. Plus it’s fun living inside a woman for a change, 28 day cycle and all. Women are far more dominant in today’s society than in previous decades. Ok, I know I’ll catch a rash of shit for that statement, but there are simply some hot, sexy, bad ass women out there who can truly fuck you up if you get rough with them and then fuck you to death if you are nice to them. Not to push my own work, but that’s where I came up with my character Ava “Spike” Harrison of CONCRETE PEARL. Hot, sexy, smart, and able to kick your ass in a New York minute, Spike is entirely independent and self-assured, even if she is entirely up against it in the plot-driven thriller. Ok, how’s that for some shameless advertising?

6. I've asked this to a number of European writers. So I'll ask the same question to you; Writing styles; do you see any similarities or differences when comparing European noir/hard boiled to American noir/hard boiled? For instance the subject of humor has
come up. British writers think they put more humor in their writing. True? False? Maybe? What are your thoughts?

I don’t know. Not only don’t I spend time comparing them (the writing school prof’s do that), I don’t get to read a whole of them simply because I don’t get to read as much as I want to these days. I do read Max Frisch’s stuff over and over again (he’s Swiss and German), may the Lord rest his soul. I love Peter Robinson. I’m really pumped to see how well Russel D. McLean is doing as a young noir up and comer and I’ve blurbed titles for London’s Richard Godwin. Let’s face it, the Brits and the Europeans have always been ahead of the curve when it comes sex, humor, and just not being pent up in your panties. Remember Monty Python???? But so much of the beauty of noir and hard-boiled fiction lies in its regionalism, it’s sometimes hard to categorize anyone into something like, Well, he’s a Brit so he writes funnier than say some dude from L.A. like Charlie Huston who is actually very funny but dark as hell, or a brooder from NYC like Andrew Vachss. And then there’s Zeltserman who is Boston but not as Boston as Parker, and Zandri is Albany, New York even if he doesn’t live there full-time anymore. I actually have a new book in the quirky Dick Moonlight series coming out from Thomas & Mercer takes mostly takes place in  Florence, Italy because I spend so much time there now and the regional effects have had a major impact upon me as a writer. Anyway, I’m entirely sure I offered up a fucked up convoluted answer. Bu the simple answer to this question is this: True…False…Maybe…and All of the Above.

Vincent Zandri is good.  Very good.  You need to find him and read his books.  You won't be disappointed.