Note On: American Booksellers Association, now hobbled and near defunct.
WhitWords: I thought ABA was a swedish group
WhitWords: I can't wait to read it. Got my copy from AMAZON.ga
Note On: I hope you like it, Bob.
DBORYS: What bit of bribery did you use you get that contract out of Michael...
DBORYS: and do you have any bits left I could buy at a price?
Note On: DB is referring to Michael Seidman, my new editor at Walker. The bribery consisted of...
Note On: al(((%%& &&&nd then I 8^&&
Note On: And that's how I bribed Michael.
Note On: Anybody else seeing line noise tonight?
WhitWords: No. is it a new movie?
MSeidman: Keith, um, uh, could you tell us why you write...other than the big bucks?
Note On: None of your business.
MSeidman: Thank you; that was as enlightening as I expected.
Note On: (MSeidman is my editor, in case anyone was wondering why I was being rude.)
SAKwriter: < Keith, we didn't really notice you were being rude. >
WTNLori: < is one supposed to be rude to one's editor? Just kidding >
WhitWords: Do you have a working title for book #3?
Note On: No, I don't. This is the first time I've started a book without any idea of its title.
Note On: The Microsoft Word file is called "Book #3," so I guess that's my working title.
WhitWords: Sounds likea winner!
SAKwriter: OK, so I'll stick in a question of my own. How on earth do you
SAKwriter: juggle all the activities: writing, film making, music?
Note On: By not making sufficient progress on any of them. Also by not having a social life.
SAKwriter: I can't believe that part about the social life. I'veheard a lot about your dancing
SAKwriter: ability.
Note On: :)
MMURRAY3M: Is Show Control coming out in paperback?
Note On: There is no paperback deal for SHOW CONTROL now, but I hope there will be at some point...
Note On: It would be nice if COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE generated enough interest to...
Note On: get something going in that direction. But my books are a little unusual, and ...
Note On: I think it may be a case of "We're not sure about this" on the part of some paperback houses
Note On: But I'm new at this, so I could be completely wrong.
DBORYS: I know how he finds the time to do all that....
DBORYS: by not spending any time at all on AOL bulletin boards with crazies, right Keith?
Note On: Uh...
Note On: yeah, that's it.
Note On: Actually, I'm considering removing AOL fom my office computer, just because I spend...
Note On: too much time here.
WTNLori: < too much time on AOL??>
Clomo3: How many hours a day to you spend writing?ga
Note On: It varies a lot. I think there are two ways of accomplishing goals. ...
Note On: Discipline or determination. I'm determined. ...
Note On: So I'm terrible at sticking to writing schedules, and sometimes I leave town and do...
Note On: nothing but write for a week or two. I'm trying to even it out, but that's my essential...
Note On: character.
Clomo3: Do you prefer music or wiriting or is it even?ga
Note On: You got a week for that answer...? Well...
Note On: Writing's better for ideas. Music's better for addressing the soul directly...
Note On: I would not want to give up either. .
WhitWords: When you say that your books are "unusual", how do you mean that?
Note On: My characters are younger than most mystery/suspense characters and the books are funny...
WhitWords: Cool.
Note On: And there's an irreverance for the conventions of the genre that makes them a little hard to
Note On: pigeonhole. I still haven't found the perfect way to describe them...
WhitWords: < sorta like the Hardy boys on acid >
Note On: No, no acid. No drug use among my three main characters.
MSeidman: May I, as his editor, interject something here?
Note On: I wish you would, Michael.
SAKwriter: Please do.
MSeidman: What keith said about the books being different is right,
MSeidman: that's what made them appeal to me. I'm touting him at sales
MSeidman: conference as a cross between Walter Gibson (though not as techie)
Note On: William?
MSeidman: and Donald Westlake...after they meet slackers. It's not quite
MSeidman: accurate (yes, William; Walter wrote the Shadow, sorry)
MSeidman: Anyway, he doesn't fit the profile in terms of audience...his books
MSeidman: aren't cozy, sorta softboiled. What counts for me, though, is
MSeidman: the difference. He's creating the bandwagons, instead of jumping
MSeidman: on them, making a difference in the genre and for other writers,
MSeidman: bringing a new sensibility. That's what's going to make it tough to
MSeidman: find a mass market house; they want the tried and true and
MSeidman: want someone else to do the trying. Thanks.
Note On: Thanks, Michael.
SAKwriter: Gosh, Keith, I'm in awe. Burnthis1, go ahead with your question.
WyreWizard: ?
Burnthis1: Keith, have you ever thought of writing music as a
Burnthis1: companion piece to one of your books?
Note On: Not really, but what I have thought of is trying to attach myself as film composer to...
Note On: a project, the same way some writers attach themselves as directors. But...
Note On: since that might tend to encumber the possibilities for a film sale, I'm not...
Note On: bound and determined to do it.
Note On: Oh, I was referring to film projects based on my books. I didn't make that clear.
Joebobtom: How does one "decide" that you're writing a series? was it your idea, or the pub?
Note On: First it's the author's idea, but then the publisher has to concur or it's not a series! ...
Note On: I thought I had more to say about that but I guess I didn't. :)
WyreWizard: In your personal opinion.
Note On: Which is, of course, unto holy writ
WyreWizard: How would you say the genre will evolve?
Note On: Hmm...
WyreWizard: Would you say there would be a resurgence of old styles, birth of new styles...
WyreWizard: or many new subgenres spinning off,
Note On: The best I can do is compare it to what happens with music...
Note On: There's always tension between the musicologist types and the musician types...
Note On: musicologists want to quantify and label things and then they want them done CORRECTLY...
Note On: musicians are more like magpies. They just steal any shiny thing from anywhere and...
Note On: use it in their own nests...
Note On: So there are always these opposing forces of change and status quo...
Note On: I would hope that the mystery genre would get a bit more dynamic than it is now, but...
Note On: I think if its core changes too much, it won't be mystery any more, and publishers have...
Note On: much more at stake than writers, so change will be slow coming. BUT...
Note On: that doesn't mean we can't write whatever we feel like, which I think we...
Note On: should be doing anyway...
Note On: I kind of tapdanced around your question, but I hope it was close enough.
WyreWizard: No, I found it satisafactory.
Note On: I rest easy. :)
WRieser283: Does Grover assist w plot structure?Social Life: We're chopped liver?
Note On: Grover is a royal pain and he mostly assists with depleting my tuna supply.
Note On: Before I forget, there is an excerpt from COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE...
Note On: up on the web. It's at http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith
WhitWords: Not to change the subject but, do you buy lunch -- or does Michael? :-)ga
Note On: I'm a writer and he's an editor. Mostly we look plaintively through restaurant windows at
Note On: the diners.
Burnthis1: Can you tell us a little about "Coffin's...?"
Note On: It continues the character of musician Jason Keltner and his friends...
Note On: Robert Goldstein (actor) and Martin Altamirano (artist) who live in a big wrecked...
Note On: boarding house in Pasadena, CA. (A house I once lived in.) In this one...
Note On: there's a mysterious computer gadget that a lot of mysterious people seem to want...
Note On: though no one seems quite sure what it does...
Note On: there are some guys with guns in it, and a car chase and some African drumming...
Note On: a trip to Las Vegas, a hotel in Death Valley, a peahen named Esmerelda...
MSeidman: and a partridge in a pear tree
Note On: and a really, really ugly gun.
Burnthis1: Cool! Do they get a bigger kitchen?
Note On: Nope, that'll be book 3. :)
Burnthis1: Can't wait!
SAKwriter: I'd like to interject, for those who haven't met Keith in person, that he's not
SAKwriter: only nice, but handsome too. Keith, was the boarding house wrecked
SAKwriter: before, during, or after you lived in it?
Note On: Oh, blush, Shirley. :) ...
Note On: The boarding house was a piece of junk before I ever moved in. It's still there: ...
Note On: Marengo and Del Mar, in Pasadena.
Note On: They'd painted it blue, last I looked.
MSTSchramm: Any interest in writing literary or mainstream books?
Note On: Yes, but I haven't begun the one I'm thinking of yet. It's still percolating.
MSTSchramm: What kind of beans?
Note On: Magic.
MSTSchramm: That's what I thought. thanks.
WhitWords: How was the dust jacket cover design arrived at for your newest book?ga
Note On: COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE has no cover design yet, so...
Note On: arriving at it has been very easy. ...
WhitWords: Sort of minimalist, I guess
Note On: I don't always admit this, but I did the cover design for SHOW CONTROL (I do design to support...
Note On: music and writing, and hope to stop doing it some day.)
WhitWords: I'll bet iif you and Michael got out your crayolas, some interesting things would turn up.
Note On: Bob, don't ever give me a straight line like that.
WhitWords: Just tempting you. HA!
WRieser283: Does LaDiva read & critique as you write? Big Ugly Gun=paisley?
Note On: La Diva (my wife) is very helpful in two respects...
Note On: First, she's good to talk to when I'm missing something obvious about the plot...
Note On: Second, she pats my head and says "good boy." ...
Note On: which is all a writer needs sometimes...
Note On: but which is really hard to find if you don't have the right mate...
Note On: As for the ugly gun, I found this monstrous thing called a Desert Eagle...
Note On: which you can customize in all kinds of horrendous ways...
Note On: I'm still tinkering with its description in the ms.
WhitWords: M wife pats my head all the time. Unfortunately it's with a 2x4
Sprtcs: you have some mention of a film in process on your page/site? are you doing a film?
Note On: My friend Blake and I made a short film called "1 is for Gun," which is about....
Note On: a guy who fantasizes about being a 1940s film noir detective...
Note On: We co-wrote/directed/produced and I did the score...
Note On: If you go to the web page I posted earlier (http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith) and...
Note On: click on the guy in the fedora, you can see some stills from it.
SAKwriter: Keith's film, "1 is for Gun" was shown at Bouchercon to a very appreciative
SAKwriter: audience. I loved it and so did everyone else.
Note On: Thanks, SAK. That was its debut, as a matter of fact.
Clomo3: Do you have much control over jacket design?ga
Note On: No control over jacket design at all. I was only involved in the design for SHOW CONTROL...
Note On: because the publisher was in a bind and it was in my power to solve...
Note On: the problem. That was a very unusual situation.
Note On: If you hate the jacket design for COFFIN'S GOT THE DEAD GUY ON THE INSIDE, it's all...
Note On: Michael's fault.
DUNLAPMD: My second novel is a murder mystery(BTW set in the downtown NYC rock music scene)
DUNLAPMD: and I found I was having as much fun with the characters as the plot
DUNLAPMD: do you find that the mystery sometimes takes second place to the characters?
Note On: Only in the first drafts. That's the stuff that gets tightened or cut in subsequent ...
Note On: revisions. Anything that does not serve the story had better have some other...
Note On: really excellent reason for being there, and "because I like the characters" isn't...
Note On: in my opinion...
Note On: a good enough reason. I do let my characters take control sometimes, but...
Note On: only for very brief stretches, and I try to have something else going on...
Note On: simultaneously.
DBORYS: Could you name a mystery genre convention or two you've bent...
DBORYS: and how you've bent it/them?ga
Note On: Let me think of some that won't spoil the endings...
Note On: (Michael, jump in on this one if you have any thoughts...)
MSeidman: What was that you said, "None of your business...."
Note On: :)
MSeidman: Okay,
Note On: DB, honestly, I'm not sure I can, offhand, without riffling through a ms...
Note On: I don't set out to bend them; it just comes out that way...
MSeidman: for all Keith talked about character and roles, his characters
MSeidman: are, for me, far more important than the crime....
MSeidman: Given all the people who are plot oriented....
MSeidman: That's a bend. And you get a sense that while the writing is
SAKwriter: We've got a great chat going here, but we're almost out of time. We need to vacate the room at 10pm ET.
MSeidman: serious (or seriocomic) the idea of the mystery is just a hook. Someone
MSeidman: asked if he wanted to write mainstream: he's already close. I think
MSeidman: that with the right breaks, he could be marketed mainstream. Eventually
SAKwriter: So we need to wrap it up. Thanks, Keith, for being such a great guest.
DUNLAPMD: so charcterization does rule, in a way, MSeidman?
Note On: Characterization is primary, but without direction, there's no reason for the characters.
DUNLAPMD: granted
WhitWords: Good Fortune Keith! And you, too as editor, Michael!
Clomo3: Thank You Keith, It's been great!,end
Note On: Thanks for having me!
DBORYS: Thanks, Keith, and Michael and SAK
MMURRAY3M: Bye Keith