Steve is going to murder me for doing this, but I got a little distracted this week. My wife and I have a baby on the way, so my focus hasn't been there. Because of that, and after reading Joelle's post, I decided it's time to republish an old blog post I wrote in 2007 about the death of the PI. I have edited it some:
William Ahearn posted this article on his website. It's entitled The Slow and Agonizing Death of the Private Investigator. Obviously, since I write PI novels, I have a stake in this.
The PI has grown and expanded to become both more realistic and at the same time more exciting...The PI no longer is a cypher in which to see the mystery unravel, if it ever was. The PI was always personally involved in their stories. Spade tried to solve the Falcon case because his partner was murdered--and despite him saying, that's just what you do, and his sleeping with his partner's wife--I have a feeling Spade cared. If Chandler hadn't died, it appeared that he was well on the way toward marrying Ms. Loring.
The character taken umbridge with the most seems to be Lew Archer, a character who had "feelings." It strikes me that Archer is the character who changed the least. He killed a man in the first novel and it was mentioned only once more in the course of the series. He met a woman in The Blue Hammer, but we don't know if anything came of that. In fact it seemed that Archer was the character who we most saw only the case. Did he beat anyone up? Occasionally, but not if he didn't have to. But we always knew he could. Did he care about people? Yes. But how cases affected him, that was always to be deduced by the reader.
Characters these days, the article seems to say, are only wussy men or women who drink for no reason or see psychiatrists or do things that the old PIs never did. Guess what, times change. The series has always been about the character. Things have to happen to the PI for us to care. Seeing a psychiatrist is an interesting way to look at a character's depths, I think. (It worked in THE SOPRANOS and Tony was still willing to get his hands dirty.) As far as the psycho sidekick works, yes, it has become a cliche (just like the bottle in the top drawer, the article seems to love so much).
I don't think the PI is dead. I think-at some point-it's going to thrive again. There are great PI writers out there... Pelecanos, Lippman, Crais, Parker, Lehane. (Kenzie was a character, one who was conflicted by his job, commited a murder when he saw no other option, but had to let an even worse character go, when he couldn't get to him. He got scared, he fell in love, and he got beat up. There was much more to him than the "clutter" on the surface.)
The detective stories were always about the detective in the novels. Marlowe played chess by himself (clutter?).. . Spade was after the killer of his partner, as I said, and didn't care much about the bird. Nick and Nora drank way too much and were much more interesting than whatever the case they were solving was.. Sherlock Holmes did cocaine..
(I would bring Spillane and Hammer into this more, but... alas... I haven't read him... and I'm willing to admit that. Though I've seen one of the movies (the one with the nuclear stuff and the house that blows up because of it) and it struck me as just plain silly.)
PIs who have psycho sidekicks (or don't) still get their hands dirty... which was one of the things you said the old PIs that you enjoyed did, but new ones didn't.
Kenzie and Gennaro executed a gang member (but the article says the reader threw the book across the room, so I'm not sure he got that far).
Tess Monaghan killed a man and it still comes up in the series.
Spenser has set up men to be murdered by his hands.
Evils Cole has killed many men and been willing to shoot, punch, and do what it takes to get the job done.
In fact, the point of the article is that the current PIs have a conscience. They kill but they feel it. It strikes me that if Hammer, Spade, and Marlowe didn't feel it when they killed someone (and Marlowe definitely felt it...James Bond felt it too in the novels)... they would be psychos themselves. They are not heroes, they are cold blooded killers as well.
I find the novels now, more exciting. There is more intense action and there are reprocussions to this action. I want to see how characters are affected by the violent worlds they live in... to me, that is more exciting.
Like just about everyone else (EXCEPT YOU), I saw THE DARK KNIGHT RISES this weekend. I really liked the film and for the most part felt it was a quality movie and a well-done end to a superb trilogy.
But, it wasn't without its flaws.
Most of its flaws came at the cost of character. The movie--hell, the series--takes its time setting up aspects of Batman and his surrounding characters and then in the last ten minutes of the movie ignores them. It was enough to set off alarm bells in my brain, and knocks the movie from AWESOME HOLY CRAP SPECTACULAR down to well, I really enjoyed that.
But the problem is even bigger than the Batman series, it's a film problem.
It strikes me that film is more about the moment. Whenever people talk about movies they always talk about "that scene." "REMEMBER THAT PART WHERE?" Ignoring the fact that that part is only so cool because it ignores everything that came before it for the sake of the scene. Character motivation doesn't matter. Reality doesn't matter.
All that matters is the shot, the scene.
Head of a horse in movie producer's bed? Nevermind that Tom Hagen had to sneak back into the estate, chop off the head of a horse without anyone noticing, then sneak back into the mansion... WITH A BLOODY HORSE'S HEAD.. and put it in the bed without the movie producer waking up.
But come on, everyone remembers that point and points to it as cool.
And we're used to it. The scene outweighs the character. It's so cool, that you can get into years long arguments because there are a clues in a scene that make no sense in to the character or even the plot.
Take, for example, the end of THE SOPRANOS.
There are a lot of people who think Tony dies at the very end. That when the screen goes blank, it's because Tony does. They point to a painting on the back wall of Holsten's (which is 3 minutes from my house... great ice cream... painting isn't really there though). They point to the communion style way the Soprano family eats their onion rings. They point to Members Only jacket. Tony dies, they say. There's no other answer.
.......
What???
No other answer?
Did you listen to the entire episode before that? Did you pay any attention to the fact that Tony and crew take place of all family business? That everyone is either dead or struck a deal with Tony to end the mob war? That no one is left to kill Tony? That hired killers do things for money, not revenge...? That the Russian didn't know Tony existed? That the two hired guns from season 1 were taken care of? That we didn't even know Frank Vincent had a brother, so how could Members Only be Frank Vincent's brother out for revenge? If you look at the end of 90% of all the other episodes, the theme of the series, and what the characters, believe... LIFE GOES ON?
But that doesn't make the scene cool.
So he has to die. That's a cool scene.
Movies... TV (which is changing as it's becoming more of a writer driven medium) have to become about more that a shot, an angle, or a scene. Reviewers need to focus on the whole picture. Directors need to sacrifice their wonderful shot if it doesn't fit who the characters are.
Something great happened in the last few weeks. An honest to goodness crime thriller, GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn, hit the number 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. You may have heard. I believe it was number 1 two weeks in a row.
People were excited. Well, two or three people (the way I gauge the excitement of the publishing world) were really excited. By all accounts, GONE GIRL is a really, really good book. I can't say yet, I just started it last night. But yeah, it seemed like a big deal.
I mean, this book was one of the books that finally outsold FIFTY SHADES for a week. And, if you follow Twitter, a few publishing people were excited. But the Tweets weren't overwhelming. There wasn't a groundswell of support.
No, instead you kept seeing people bash FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. Trash. Mention it, hate on it, mention it again. Now, other than an excerpt here or there, I haven't read FIFTY SHADES either. But FIFTY SHADES was the book to hate on. Something borne out of fan fiction and TWILIGHT.
Not to mention it was a monster of a seller.
But, when it was dethroned by GONE GIRL, the conversation didn't switch. There wasn't a party. There weren't high fives. There were a few "That's great."
Which once again supports my theory: It's much easier to be negative.
People don't like to be positive. People don't like to enjoy something. Odds are there'll be some pushback against GONE GIRL if it keeps selling like it does. People will start hating on that.
But, again, by all accounts, it is a well written, smart, twisty thriller. We in publishing/writing/book blogs should be happy. It was like when INCEPTION ruled the box office. A smart, original, not re-boot. People wanted to see it.
So, let's be positive today. Let's celebrate something good.
Celebrate GONE GIRL.
Forget the snark.
Use the comment section to say something good about publishing, please.
I am obsessed with a TV show. It's not a good TV show. In fact, each week, I find myself rolling my eyes at least once. But I can't turn it off.
MTV's TEEN WOLF.
Yeah, that. It's a show about a teenager who gets bitten by a wolf and spends the better part of 18 episodes trying to figure out what's going on in the world around him. It's not the Michael J Fox comedy from the 80s. Basically all it shares with that movie is a title and the high school setting.
It is much closer relative to the early Spider-man (and Ultimate Spider-man) series. Teen is given special powers, tries to save people, while keeping the secret of his power. Teen Wolf spends the majority of episodes worrying about the girl next door (or down the street) and crouching on roofs. He has a best-friend, a father figure, a single mother who's not always around. And a super-villain to face.
And that's what the show does really well. It does not resolve anything. The moment you're going to get a chance to breathe, something complicates the situation. Someone rings the doorbell at a key time. All questions during conversation are answered with other questions. The are cliffhangers galore. It really ramps up the stakes pretty well.
It's kind of a master class for writers from that aspect.
But, Dave, you said the show wasn't that good.
Right, it's not. Because the show goes all out to deliver that tension. It sacrifices logic and character to get there. Each week, characters do something dumb which puts them in jeopardy. And if they don't do something dumb, then they at least do something completely out of their established character. Not all of the plot twists make sense. It often forgets about the rules the show has already set up for itself.
But, again, it's doing something right, because I can't stop watching. And it's teaching me something about my own writing.
Because it's giving me ways to create more tension.... just in my first drafts. Smooth out the characters and the logic later. But when you really ramp up the stakes, you never know what's going to stick and work in the draft later.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go track down last night's episode.
Some new novels out today, including one of our very own:
Murder for Choir by Joelle Charbonneau: Yep, our very own DSD writer's newest book is out. Here's the description:
Even as a struggling opera singer, Paige Marshall has never seen anything like the cutthroat competition of the Prospect Glen High School show choir. Coaching these championship-hungry students may be her toughest gig yet...
Especially when her best young male singer is suspected of killing the arrogant coach of Prospect Glen's fiercest rival. To clear his name, Paige will have to sort through a chorus of suspects, and go note-for-note with a killer who wants her out of the spotlight for good.
The land is contaminated, electronics are defunct, the ravenous undead remain, and life has fallen into a nasty and brutish state of nature. Welcome to Bridge City, in what was once Arkansas: part medieval fortress, part Western outpost, and the precarious last stand for civilization. A ten-year-old prodigy when the world ended, Gus is now a battle-hardened young man. He designed Bridge City to protect the living few from the shamblers eternally at the gates. Now he's being groomed by his physician mother, Lucy, and the gentle giant Knock-Out to become the next leader of men. But an army of slavers is on its way, and the war they'll wage for the city's resources could mean the end of mankind as we know it.
Can Gus become humanity's savior? And if so, will it mean becoming a dictator, a martyr . . . or maybe something far worse than even the zombies that plague the land?
Sam Capra must commit an impossible assassination--or he will lose the only person in the world who matters to him . . . Sam Capra has one reason to live: to rescue his baby son from the people who abducted him. An ex-CIA agent, Sam now owns bars around the world as cover for his real mission-working undercover for a secret network as mysterious as it is powerful, while using his skills to find his child. Now the kidnappers have offered a deadly deal: they'll surrender Sam's child...if Sam finds and murders the one man who can expose them. Teaming up with a desperate young mother whose daughter is also missing, Sam tracks his prey-and his son-across the country in a dangerous race against time, and must unravel a deadly conspiracy if he's to rescue the only person in the world that matters to him.
And finally, if you haven't picked it up... wake up!
Drift Away by Jeff Shelby: The Noah Braddock series is great, and Jeff is back with a new epsiode:
Forced to leave San Diego after his life is destroyed by tragedy, Noah is hiding and trying to heal on the Florida Panhandle. Paralyzed by fear and the pain of loss, he’s isolated himself and given up everything that meant anything to him. When a young boy comes to him on the beach, unable to find his mother, Noah is pulled into both of their troubled lives. As he reluctantly works to protect them from local thugs, he must confront the memories that continue to haunt him. Those memories come to life when shadowy figures from his past show up in Florida. While he grapples with this, a new threat emerges that will forever change the lives of the boy and his mother and compels Noah to make a choice - keep running or face the consequences of his shattered life.
Picking up where the critically acclaimed Liquid Smoke left off, Drift Away exposes a new Braddock – introspective, lost, confused…but not yet broken.
I don't really have a fully formed opinion on Kickstarter yet, but something about it seems kinda shady to me.
On the outside, everything seems hunky dory. I mean, you know people want the book, movie, graphic novel, or TV show because it's crowd sourced. And then it's like the crowd owns a piece of it. So that's kind of cool.
But, at the same time, doesn't it seem like you may not trust your work to sell otherwise? You're basically begging for an advance, and then doling out the material. You're trying to even the odds. Which is okay, I guess.
Also, I'm always curious what happens to the money. I'm sure it's different with movies, because those are expensive... but with books? When I self-pubbed WITNESS TO DEATH, I went for it. I spent money on promotion, cover, and formatting. It wasn't cheap, but I felt like I was confident I'd make that money back and then some.
And I did. WITNESS did pretty well, in my eyes.
But it didn't cost me near what people are asking for when they Kickstart their novels. So, the question lies, where does the money go? Are people using it on a mortgage payment? Author photos? Or are they doing something with their books I don't know about?
I'm not writing this post to make people angry. I truly don't know the answer. I need more information to understand. My opinion isn't informed yet. I'm just going on gut reaction....
So, if you could fill me in on Kickstarter, I'd really appreciate it.
Summer is just about here for me (less than a week of school left). I always get a ton of reading done in the summer.
Usually I try to shake things up in the summer. Read something big (3 years ago THE POWER OF THE DOG and THE GIVEN DAY, last year AMERICAN GODS and GAME OF THRONES). But at the same time I also like to fall back on some favorite writers.
Right now I'm reading some Don Winslow. Up next is Chuck Wendig.
But to be honest, I'm opening up this post to the comments. Sell me on something cool (and maybe even a bit different) to read this summer.
The other day I raged out on Twitter about seeing the same arguments over and over about self-publishing and traditional publishing. Both sides grip their arguments tight to their chests, unwilling to let go of their side, unwilling to even loosen their hold.
I think this mentality actually ties into the world's view right now. Or at least the view of the country. With all that's raging on and on about the "99 percent" and the "1 percent," that mentality has begun to bleed into many other aspects of life. And I think self-publishers believe they're the 99 percent.
And so they protest.
They yell and scream and push and prod trying to get people to believe that this is the new way. The only way it will work. Self-publishing will soon shut down the EVIL PUBLISHERS, everyone will sell millions of copies, and everyone will be happy bestselling writers.
Meanwhile, with this new assault, a lot of traditionally published people have taken to the streets warning everyone about the dangers of self-publishing. You won't get exposure. You won't sell millions of copies. You'll have a crappy cover. Life will be horribly awful for you and you'll never win. Traditional publishing the is only way to go.
Tastes great.
Less filling.
Shut up.
Seriously, everyone shut up. Take a deep breath. Take a step back and shut up. Look at what you're doing.
This is not an either or. There are pros and cons to both.
You can do both.
You can sell millions self-published, but still have the support and help that a traditional publisher brings.
Find what works for you, and exploit that.
But don't try to convert everyone. I'm okay with you if you're a Self-Publisher.
I like that you're traditionally published.
Neither of you are failures in my eyes.
Come on now.
Group hug.
Just stop speaking in absolutes. The world works in many ways. And there are more than 50 Shades of Grey in life.
Ugh, after that joke... I'm bailing out of this post.
Samantha DeRose is a colleague of mine, one who is also moonlighting as a stand-up comedian. She's brilliant, funny and got a ton to say, so let's get to it right now.
DSD: How did you get into stand-up comedy?
SR: My mother blames my father. I’ve always been the family buffoon. My father always made me do impressions when I was little...I did a bad ass Richard Nixon. I’d do it now, but it’ll lose its comedic appeal in print.
Then it was the old “my friends always told me I was funny” spiel, but you know, just because your friends think you’re funny doesn’t mean the rest of the world shares that opinion.
I’ve been writing off-the-wall observations since I was a kid. I’m pretty sure my sister & brother got more than they bargained for when then snooped in my diary.
About 5 years ago, a friend suggested that I take my musings to the comedy stage and naturally, I did nothing. Until one day, when I was going through a rough time in my life , a postcard arrived in the mail. In an effort to pull me out of my funk, my friend had signed me up for a beginner’s level comedy course at Gotham Comedy Club in NYC.
DSD: Tell us a story, as we all have a bit of stage fright: What's your best performance? Why did it work so well?
SR: So I’m guessing performance issues are universal. My best show was my first road gig in front of a crowd of 400 people. I was opening for comedians whom I had really admired. The day before the show, the comic who had been my hero, snubbed me big time. My confidence was pretty much in the toilet.
So I meditated for the first time in my life. An hour before the show, I sat in my hotel listening to Tibetan new-age music and visualized my set as a complete success. And it was. What really helped me was being able to actually “see” myself as being successful, which is really essential in everything that we do.
People actually wanted to take photos with me after the show. OK. Two people, but ya gotta start somewhere, right? One, a college freshman, majoring in education, had really loved my bits about the teaching. Another was a woman who had just gone through some of the same difficulties that I had experienced in the past. She said that it was the first time that she had laughed in about a year.
I took the obstacles in my life and turned them into something that people could laugh about. It was honest and that’s why it was successful.
DSD: Reverse it. Have you bombed? How'd you deal with that on stage? As writers, we deal with bad reviews, but those are filtered by the text on the screen or on paper. We rarely see the people who don't like our work.
SR: I bombed miserably sister’s 50thbirthday party. My aunt thought that it would be a “hoot” if I did a set in front of all of our friends and relatives. Because it’s so easy coming up with a set that appeals to an audience whose ages range from 2 years old to 97.
After a healthy bout of nausea and a glass of wine (or 12) I bit the bullet and bombed. I can still see my mother’s head hanging in shame. It’s one thing to bomb in front of people you’ll never see again, but family and friends? I think I’ll stick to face painting at family parties, thank you very much. Then again, we kind of don’t talk about the face painting incident either. They were CIGARS! I swear (I seriously have pictures).
DSD: To me, as a novelist, writing is very individual. I don't worry too much about the audience until it's too late and the book is already out there. When you write your material, do you consider your audience?
SR: I definitely alter my material for different audiences. Clearly I learned that lesson at my sister’s party. We all have different personas depending on our environments. I’m a mom, I’m a teacher, and I’m a comedian. I present myself in differently depending on who’s around. And the same holds true for comedy. My set at a cancer benefit for Gilda’s Club last year was quite different than the set that I just did at a bar in Newark two months ago.
That’s what I love about the art form though. I can take the same premises and rewrite them to appeal to different audiences.
DSD: What is your writing process? Is there a way to know if a joke is funny or not in advance or does it need that audience approval?
SR: The problem is that I find potential humor in everything. I’m constantly writing premises down (mainly on the envelopes of unpaid bills). Then it’s a matter of trying those bits in front of different audiences, rephrasing, and trying different timing, until the jokes get solid laughs. Most of the time, jokes in their final stages look drastically different than what they looked like on the back of the PS&G bill (maybe because the lights had been cut off). But it’s important to remember that nothing is ever garbage. I often revisit old stuff that might not have worked in the past and try the bits in a different context. It’s pretty cool when the jokes end up working a year or two later.
DSD: Who are some of your inspirations?
SR: My family, friends, and my two sons are constant sources of material and inspiration.
Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, and Steve Martin were my earliest influences. In the 80s, Eddie Murphy. 90s, Seinfeld. It’s such a long list, but to name a few more, Chris Rock, Wanda Sykes, Kathy Griffin, Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis, Jon Stewart, Chelsea Handler, and Tina Fey all crack me the heck up in different ways.
I’m really inspired by the comics that I see in local shows, too. My friends in the comedy community are so dedicated to the craft and really make me want to push myself. I also watch a lot of up-and coming-comics on YouTube. There’s a lot of talent out there just waiting to be discovered...and they’re just a click away.
DSD: Okay, I've waited long enough to mention it, but it appears you have shaved your head. The picture at the top of this post is a dead giveaway. Why?
SR: I was trying to think of a new way to embarrass my mother since the birthday party incident. She wasn’t embarrassed (by the haircut). And contrary to what people think about teachers, it had nothing to do with random drug testing. Truth. I’ve been teaching for 12 years and I’m always trying to find ways to inspire my students, not only to do well academically, but also to help others. I told my students that I would raise $10,000 for St. Baldrick’s Foundation for Childrens’ Cancer Research and shave my head publicly if they all passed my class for a marking period. It’s a cause very close to my heart as I lost my brother to cancer and I taught several students who had battled the disease. Suffice it to say, my students passed, I’m bald, and we’re steadily reaching our $10,000 goal.
DSD: You're a teacher, what is your opinion on the state of education in the news, government, or world right now?
SR: Loaded question. The modern American classroom is a catch 22.
Today’s students face a number of issues before they even enter our classes from poverty to transience to hunger to pregnancy, just to scratch the surface. Have I mentioned budget cuts, layoffs, and overcrowded classrooms?
The catch 22 is do teachers try to get through their curriculum first or tend to their students’ issues first?
Please show me where standardized testing factors all of those components into the final equation when determining teacher effectiveness.
In the past, teachers had the support of parents, administrators, boards of education, and politicians. Teachers could patch up the hole if one component went missing. But now it’s as if all of the components are gone EXCEPT for the teachers, yet they’re to blame. Go figure.
This is the worst analogy to make but here goes. I have always loved being a teacher but now I feel like I’m in a relationship where I’m in love and the other person doesn’t love me back. You know what I mean? It’s that point in a relationship where you try everything in your power to make it work and your heart is breaking but deep down you know the other person is just not that into you.
DSD: I do know exactly what you mean. We all have that love of the job, but... Sigh. Meanwhile, do you find any similarities between teaching and stand-up comedy?
Great segue. Yes, there are definitely similarities. Teachers are constantly working on and revamping their subject matter to make it relevant, meaningful, and engaging. And that’s exactly what the stand-up comic has to do. You have to develop relevant material, establish a rapport with an audience, make sure that you don’t isolate them, and ultimately leave them wanting to come back again. And the last part is the hardest in both cases (particularly with students).
DSD: Any upcoming gigs you'd like to plug? A website?
SR: I’m producing and performing in a show at The Duplex in Greenwich Village on June 22, 9:30 pm with great comics who have performed all over the world and even written for well-known actors such as Jane lynch.
I’ll be at Otto’s Shrunken Head on 14th St. in Manhattan on June 13 and July 6 at 6pm.
And I’ll be appearing in Montclair, NJ at Tierney’s Tavern on July 8 .at 8:00 p.m.
It's the end of Memorial Day weekend, and I got stuck with the "It's due Tuesday" post. I've just gotten in from a day of BBQ, beer, and cookies (damn good cookies--which you'll hear about here on Thurday.), and now I have to write a blog post.
The Yankees are on. They're on the West Coast and they're winning. And I'm tired.
I've been writing, just about 1000 words a day. A new book. It's fun.
But it's summer.
The summer is upon us. I've got a kid on the way, in less than 3 months.
And you want a blog post.
Whelp, buddy boy, here it is. I'm enjoying my days off. I'm sitting here, trying not to think to hard about e-books, or plagiarism, or Kindles, or book stores, or the Big Six.
And to be honest, you don't want to read about that this morning.
You probably want something to distract yourself from your desk job that you've just gotten back to. Some YouTube video of a cat saying something funny and spelled incorrectly.
So why are you here?
Come back tomorrow.
Wait for Weddle. Wait for Stringer.
Better yet, wait for me, next week.
I have better stuff to offer and some of it's coming next week.
But not today. I'm tired.
Did I mention the Yankees are on?
Publishing will live on another day.
Books will still be here.
So will all kinds of storytelling.
Get back to work.
Or go to some silly I CAN HAZ page.
But give me a break okay. I have a few more hours of a long weekend to enjoy.
