by Sandra Parshall
Every year, Margaret Maron’s latest Deborah Knott mystery is an automatic read for me. I don’t have to see reviews. I don’t have to know a thing about the plot. All that matters is that it’s a book about Judge Deborah Knott, who represents the modern South better than any character in current crime fiction.
I prefer that the books be set in Deborah’s home state of North Carolina or, failing that, another Southern state, so I wasn’t happy when I heard that Three-Day Town (2011) was set in New York City. I shouldn’t have worried. Deborah and her husband, Deputy Dwight Bryant, take the South with them wherever they go, and they’re the same people on the mean streets of New York as on the back roads of fictional Colleton County, NC. I’m glad they’re back home, though, in this year’s book, The Buzzard Table.
Authors tend toward two extremes when writing about the South. Some go for humor, playing up the eccentric Southern characters (especially the wacky women), the regional speech habits, and the quaint customs that linger from earlier times. Suspense and thriller writers see the South as a dark and dangerous place, steeped in stubborn prejudice, filled with corrupt politicians and ignorant savages straight out of Deliverance, a place where outsiders are resented and feared, where most people own guns and are quick to use them.
All these elements can be found to a degree in the South, but it would be hard to find one place that fits either stereotype perfectly. Margaret Maron knows that today’s South, like any other part of the nation, is neither idyllic nor hellish.
Judge Deborah Knott is an educated professional woman who speaks with a Southern drawl and isn’t embarrassed by folksy colloquialisms. Nothing matters more to her than family, and she has a big one: eleven older brothers, their children and significant others, plus aunts and uncles and cousins. Her husband, Dwight, can act and sound like a classic good ol’ boy, but he’s a smart, honest cop who can’t be corrupted by racism, favoritism or payoffs.
Margaret Maron’s South has racists and poverty, but it also has educated black people in positions of influence. It has gays and northern transplants and drug problems and kids who drink and drive and sometimes die as a result. It has cell phones and internet service. Her South is changing with the times while trying to hold onto traditions that give the region its special flavor and charm. In that way, it’s no different from any other part of the country.
When I read a Margaret Maron novel, I know I’m getting an accurate picture of the real South she lives in and loves. Her books have a deep-in-the-bone authenticity that I find in few other novels set in the South.
Thank you, Margaret. You are a treasure.
Interviewed by Sandra Parshall
Scott Pratt was a reporter, columnist, and editor on Tennessee newspapers before he decided to go to law school in his late thirties. Eventually he was drawn back to writing, and after a more difficult struggle than he had anticipated (see below for the whole story), he sold his first legal thriller, An Innocent Client, which was published this week. Publishers Weekly gave An Innocent Client a starred review and called it a “brilliantly executed debut” with “richly developed characters.” The first chapter is posted on Scott's website.
Scott and his wife have two grown children and share their Tennessee home with a German shepherd named Rio, a Yorkshire terrier named Pedro, and a Bichon Friese named Nacho.
Q. Tell us about your first novel.
A. An Innocent Client is the story of Joe Dillard, a forty-year-old criminal defense attorney who is excellent at what he does, but has grown tired of the constant moral compromises he’s forced to make in the profession. On his fortieth birthday, he makes an off-hand wish for just one innocent client before he quits. Not long after that, he thinks he’s gotten his wish. A young girl is accused of stabbing a preacher to death in a motel. Dillard is hired to represent the girl, and he sincerely believes she’s innocent.
However, as the case unfolds, Dillard finds himself dealing with a dirty cop, a politically-astute district attorney, a drug-addled sister, a dying mother, a violent stalker, and a manipulative redhead who isn’t what she seems. Dillard is forced to make a series of gut-wrenching decisions along the way and ultimately is forced to confront his worst enemy – himself. I tried to keep the story suspenseful but fun, fast-moving but deeply evocative. There are several twists, a bunch of great characters, and what I think is a satisfying, plausible ending. Sounds like a bestseller, huh?
Q. I’ve heard that the legal thriller market isn’t easy to break into. What was your road to publication like? Easier than you expected or more difficult?
A. It was vastly more difficult than I expected. I knew going in that I could write, but I didn’t know how to structure a novel. I enlisted the help of The Editorial Department, an on-line company that not only helps writers develop manuscripts but also helps them secure literary agents. It wasn’t cheap, but without Renni and Ross Browne, the owners of the company, I don’t know whether I could have done it. I went through five drafts of the novel. After each draft, we’d send it out and get rejected.
After the fourth draft, I knew something fundamental was missing, so I bought a copy of “Plot and Structure” by James Scott Bell. That put me over the top. I did another draft and Renni called Philip Spitzer, whom she’d known from her days as an editor in New York. Philip got the manuscript on a Monday and called me Tuesday afternoon. The first words out of his mouth were, “This is the best first novel I’ve read in ten years.”
I started the novel in January of ’06, Philip picked it up in July of ’07, and he sold it to Penguin in October of ’07, so it took me a little over a year and a half, start to sale. Over the next few months, Philip and his co-agent, Lukas Ortiz, also sold it to major publishing companies in France, Germany, Japan, Holland and Bulgaria, and I firmly believe he’ll sell it to more publishers before all is said and done.
Probably the most interesting thing – and frustrating at some level – I discovered along the way is that publishers aren’t necessarily looking for good books. They’re looking for bestsellers. If they don’t think a book is going to be a big hit – especially a book from a first-timer – they’re not going to take a chance on it. Ditto for agents.
Q. How did you get the news about the sale? What was your first reaction? How have your family and friends reacted?
A. I got the news about the sale in an email from Philip. He called a little while later. My reaction was mixed – part of me said, “Finally,” and another part said, “I don’t believe this is really happening.” You have to understand that when I quit practicing law and made the decision to do this, I had some financial resources, but, as things turned out, not enough. About a year into the process, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. We wound up filing bankruptcy, losing our home and our vehicles… it was bad. But I kept telling myself that I’d eventually make it and that all the bad things that were happening would make me more appreciative of the success. And that’s what’s happened. I’m extremely humbled and thankful for what’s going on right now and for the opportunities I’ve been given. My only concern is to get the snowball effect going and keep it going.
As for my family and friends, I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive group. They were skeptical at first, but once they realized I was serious, they all believed that good things would happen, and they told me so. My mother is proud as punch.
Q. What was the inspiration for the story? Were you already familiar, as a lawyer, with the legal issues involved, or did you have to do some research?
A. The inspiration for the story was the moral dilemmas that I faced each and every day as a criminal defense lawyer. The criminal justice system is the perfect backdrop to explore the themes I wanted to explore -- things like the hypocrisy in the criminal justice system, the fine line between justice and injustice, man’s continued inhumanity to man, the dangers inherent in extremism and power, the havoc that childhood trauma, especially trauma that is buried and unresolved, can wreak on the life of an adult, just to mention a few -- and I used the opportunity to work out some of the dilemmas in my own mind.
As far as research, I have to admit I did very little. After practicing law for as long as I did, I was intimately familiar with both the legal and moral issues involved in the story.
Q. Why did you decide to go to law school after working as a journalist?
A. To be honest, I was tired of being poor. I had a couple of kids and a wife to support, and I thought law might be a good fit for me. I didn’t start law school until I was 38 years old and I had to commute over 200 miles a day, five days a week, for three years to get through. It was so difficult I barely remember it. The other reason I went is that as a journalist, one of the things I noticed was that lawyers could actually change things for the better once in awhile, and that appealed to me. I practiced criminal defense and I also took on some civil rights issues.
Q. Do you write full-time now? Do you outline and stick to a writing routine, or do you wing it?
A. I write full-time. I’ve already finished my second novel, In Good Faith. It’s in the production process and is scheduled for release in May. I’ve also written a couple of teleplays and a screenplay based on my novels. There’s some serious interest in Hollywood, but so far nobody has shelled out any money.
I outline loosely, but the stories, and especially the characters, sometimes seem to develop a mind of their own. I do have a routine – it’s called “get your butt in front of the computer and write every day.” I take a day off every now and then, but when I’m closing in on an idea, I tend to spend a lot of time on it. The other thing I do is talk with my wife every day. We walk four miles every morning at a park near our home and I bounce ideas off of her and listen to her suggestions. She’s been a great help.
Q. What do you believe are your greatest strengths as a writer? What aspects of craft are you still trying to master?
A. I don’t know what my strengths are, really. Maybe dialogue. I hear the characters speaking in my head when I’m writing. As far as the other aspects of the craft that I’m still trying to master, the answer would be all of them.
Q. What writers have inspired you and taught you by example? Whose books do you rush to read as soon as they’re published?
A. I have a wide range of tastes. I love James Lee Burke, Grisham’s early stuff, Paulo Cohelo, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, J.K. Rowling, and a bunch of others. Probably my favorite writer of all time is Mike Royko, a columnist in Chicago. I like straightforward prose, a subtle sense of humor, and writers who leave themselves out of the story.
Q. Are you planning a series, or do you want to write stand-alones? Can you give us a hint of what the next book is about?
A. The next book, In Good Faith, is the second in what I hope will be a long series. At least five, anyway. In the second book, Joe Dillard has taken a year off from the legal profession and is drawn back by what he perceives as gross injustice. The twist is that he’s a prosecutor in the second novel, a job he thinks he might feel good about. It doesn’t quite work out that way.
Q. Will you be doing any signings and conferences where readers can meet you?
A. Right now I have a couple of signings scheduled here in Johnson City, Tennessee. I’m still trying to figure out the marketing thing. I’ll be posting events on my website, www.ScottPrattfiction.com, as they come up.
Q. In parting, do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
A. I think the most important characteristic for an aspiring writer – besides talent - is persistence. You also have to have patience, you have to be willing to accept criticism, and you have to believe in yourself. To anyone who wants to do this for a living, I think you might be nuts, but I certainly wish you all the best.
Interviewer: Sandra Parshall
Kathryn Wall, author of the Bay Tanner series and a member of the Sisters in Crime national board, wrote her first story at age six, then turned her attention to other pursuits for a few decades. She grew up in a small town in Ohio and attended college in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After 25 years as an accountant, she retired with her husband Norman to Hilton Head, SC. Then her real work began, as she set about realizing her ambition to become a published novelist.
You started by self-publishing your first book. It was picked up by a small press, and before long you had a contract with St. Martin’s, so self-publishing led to good things for you. But would you advise other writers to go this route?
I always tell aspiring writers that self-publishing should be your last option, not your first. I'm on a lot of writing- and mystery-related listservs, and I can feel the angst of frustrated authors almost bleeding through the screen. And today, the temptation is so great to skip all that copying and synopsizing and submitting and simply go for it yourself.
My decision to choose iUniverse for the first Bay Tanner, In For A Penny, was made partly as a result of my age when I began the process (just shy of 50) and partly out of ignorance. I sent out 30 queries, all at one time, and didn't receive the final rejection letter for almost 2 years. At that rate, I figured I'd either be dead or in the 'home' before I ran through all my options.
Because the paradigm of the POD publisher was so new back then, I didn't have a lot of information about the drawbacks inherent in my choice: inadequate discounts, non-returnability, and so forth. Most writers today, thanks to networking, listservs, and blogs, are a lot more savvy than I was. And a lot of these drawbacks have been addressed and changed. I'm not certain knowing these problems up front would have deterred me, but it certainly would have made my life after self-pubbing a lot easier. There was a huge learning curve that writers today don't have to face.
But I had some things going for me, too. I received a lot of input from my critique group and intense editing by my retired English-teacher mother (who wielded a vicious red pen) and my Ph.D. in English sister-in-law, both of whom were supportive but critical. So I felt as if I had a good product to offer when I finally had it in hand. Thinking your first draft is ready for production is a huge mistake an unfortunate number of writers make.
Bottom line? With the proliferation of small mystery presses, there are a lot more options than I had ten years ago, but the goal for most writers has always been a traditional NY press. My advice is to do your best to achieve that goal, because the truth is that being able to name St. Martin's as my publisher carries a cachet that opens most doors. Will that change? Maybe some day. But for now, don't take shortcuts until you've exhausted your other options.
However, this is just my take. YMMV.
Could you expand a bit on the advantages and drawbacks of each type of publishing experience -- self-publishing, small press, and major press?
Please bear in mind that these are MY experiences. They're not universal, and others will undoubtedly disagree.
I can't say this often enough: Being published by one of the major NY houses is a good thing. It automatically conveys legitimacy (deserved or not) on your work and announces to the literary world that you have passed the test. It's not fair, but it's how things are. Chances are you won't make a ton of money or become a household name or get interviewed on Good Morning, America, but it's what serious writers strive for.
But . . . more and more, legitimate, royalty-paying small presses are giving the big boys a run for their money, and I say more power to them. We can all rattle off a list of the major players in this area who sign good and sometimes great writers, edit and advise, and publish quality products. These enterprises are worthy of our support and play a welcome role in giving mystery readers lots more books from which to choose. For the aspiring writer, they offer most of the perks of the majors while providing more author input and more hands-on attention from the editors. My small press was regional, not savvy about the mystery market, and that left me with most of the marketing to do on my own. Luckily, I was retired, so I had the time. Most folks aren't so fortunate.
Self-publishing--in the sense of forming your own company to publish your own books, as opposed to the pay-to-publish industry--can be satisfying but dangerous if you're not a business person by nature or training. You can lose your shirt . . . and pants, socks, and flash drives in a heartbeat. Succeeding at being both creator and producer--and marketing, art, and distribution departments--takes a rare person. It would be tough to manage with a day job and/or family that consumes the majority of your time.
If I had to name the biggest difference among all three types of publishing, I'd say the elephant in the room is distribution. The big boys have it. The small presses have it to a certain extent, but generally without the sales staff of a NY house, or the connections to the Baker & Taylor buyer, the Costco buyer, and so on. A self-publisher can get placement on Amazon.com, perhaps a local independent bookstore or two, but anything farther afield than that is tough. By its nature, this limits the number of books you can hope to sell in attempting to recoup your investment. Certainly there are people who have done it successfully, but, as a former accountant, I can tell you a lot of them went broke, too.
Sorry if my take on self-publishing sounds incredibly negative, but you can find lots of people who'll urge every writer to go for it, fulfill that dream, the hell with all those naysayers, just do it yourself. Like most things, though, it's a lot harder than it looks from the outside. Thus spake the former bean-counter.
You retired to South Carolina, only to launch a demanding new career as a mystery writer. Is murdering people in print more fun than accounting? (Okay, that’s not a serious question.) Did you ever imagine that you would spend your later years meeting deadlines and attending conferences and doing signings?
Of course murdering people is more fun than accounting. I had colleagues that will tell you ANYTHING is more fun than accounting, but I'm one of those weird people who actually enjoyed it.
From the time I was six I dreamed of writing things that other people would want to read. Unfortunately, not many other folks in my life saw that as a viable way to make a living, so I never received much encouragement. While I was practicing accounting, I began writing a historical novel, doing research at the library on my lunch hours because this was the pre-Internet days. (Did I mention in one of my previous answers that I'm OLD???) I managed to crank out an impressive 11 chapters in 8 years, and it dawned on me that I was going to have to wait a while before this dream came to fruition. But the drive never left me, and I was fortunate enough to be able to retire at 50, and I was off.
I attacked the process by taking some community-ed courses at the local college, hanging out with like-minded people, and helping to found a local writers group here on Hilton Head. I guess I never lost sight of the dream, and I'm basically stubborn by nature.
But no one was more surprised than I when it actually worked! I realize how lucky I am, despite the hard work. Lots of people work hard and never reach the goal. Folks helped me along the way--too many of them to mention--and serendipity played a huge role. No doubt about it, I'm a lucky woman, and I know it.
Aside from all the work involved, how has publication changed your life? Do you have any regrets about the loss of privacy and leisure time?
I think my husband says it best. Every once in a while, as we're driving up I-95 to another event or strapping into an airplane seat headed for a conference, he'll look over and say, "Didn't we retire? I distinctly remember retiring. I'm sure that was us."
There's no doubt it's a tremendous amount of work. Not the writing. That is the sheer joy of the whole process. But the attendant traveling and speaking (tough gig for a former accountant) can be wearing, especially for us gray-haired folks. I answer every e-mail personally; I try to participate in local fundraising events for charity; I try to accommodate local reading groups and libraries; I go to at least 3 or 4 conferences a year; I travel extensively around the Southeast; I hold office in both the Southeast chapter of MWA and the national Sisters in Crime board; and once in a while I stay home and clean the bathrooms. It does get hectic, and sometimes I get tired and think of that old saw, "Be careful what you wish for." But it was my dream for most of my life, and I'm living it. Bottom line, I wouldn't trade it for anything. As long as time and health permit, my husband and I will keep strapping on our travelin' shoes and making the rounds.
You’re not a native of the South, but you set your books there. What draws you to a southern setting rather than the area where you grew up? Do you think it’s easier to appreciate and describe a setting that you haven't known since childhood?
I was meant to be born in the South. I don't know what my parents were thinking when they decided to settle in Ohio. I've always felt an affinity for this part of the country, although I never traveled here until just before we bought our first beach condo in 1984. We instantly fell in love with Beaufort County, SC. The admixture of old and new, black and white, history and progress--we have it all here. Maybe that's why I can write so lovingly about it. Lots of us carpetbaggers subscribe to the old cliche, "I wasn't born in the South, but I got here as quick as I could." Another favorite is, "Southern by choice if not by birth." There are a lot of misconceptions about it--I know, because I shared some of them until I actually moved here fulltime in 1994. I've come to see a lot of what looked like negatives in a different light, my education springing from the wonderful true Southerners I've met over the years.
I guess I could have set the books in northern Ohio (a la Les Roberts) and maybe had just as much fun with them, but this just feels right. For me. For now. And when the wind is howling across Lake Erie on a bleak February night--and I'm sitting on my back deck in Hilton Head watching the sun set over the marsh and the herons take roost in the old live oaks--I know I made the right decision. For myself as well as for my books.
Some writers say they have trouble selling books with highly localized settings. Have you perceived any regional bias against southern mysteries among publishers, booksellers or readers?
I've long felt a bias, especially in NYC, about the South and Southern writers in particular. I once had a Big Apple member of the publishing world remark that she couldn't understand the appeal of Pat Conroy to the rest of the country. I wanted to say, "Excuse me?? They don't have dysfunctional families in Iowa? Or NYC, for that matter? Come on!"
I think maybe it stems from the fact that the South has been considered 'backward' by a lot of folks, for a variety of reasons we don't need to get into here, but which aren't necessarily valid, IMHO. Talk is slower. Movement is slower. Family is more important than work. You've heard them. So somehow mysteries in and about the South appear not to have universal appeal, at least in the eyes of some publishing folk. Labeling any book 'regional' can be a blessing and a curse. Of course, people from the 'region' may find it more appealing because it's set in their own back yard, but the very act of labeling seems to me to signal to people in Idaho that maybe this won't be their cup of tea.
When I first ranted about this issue on the DorothyL listserv, I used John Sanford's Lucas Davenport "Prey" novels as an example. I've never heard them called 'regional upper-Midwest police procedurals,' have you? Do we have a category called Northern fiction? Great Plains mystery? New England cozy? I don't know, maybe as a transplant I'm hyper-sensitive about it, but to me it comes out sounding like a pejorative, and I don't like it. I think in all aspects of the mystery genre we're getting too cute with the subtitles, and it isn't good for our industry. The characters and the story are just as important as the setting, and we ought to quit trying to pigeonhole every book that comes along. When someone calls my books "Southern regional cozies," I feel as if the folks who love Ed McBain or John Sanford or Laura Lippman or Tony Hillerman are being told, "This probably isn't for you." I'd rather my books be judged on their merits (or lack thereof) than on some label.
Okay, stand back. I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.
Quite a few women -- and some men too -- are publishing mysteries for the first time in middle age. What do you think an older writer brings to fiction that a younger person may not?
Life. Experience. Life experience. For those of you pre-baby-boomers who are eagerly eyeing the Social Security web site, you're a far different person from the twenty-something who emerged from college ready to change the world. Most of us who've reached middle-to-old age have come to realize that we've learned a lot along the way, some things in spite of ourselves, and that's what we have to share. A more mature outlook on the value and nature of relationships. The effect of evil on a small community of people. The ability of a single strong, moral individual to effect change. The heart of the mystery, IMHO.
I guess it's mostly about hard lessons learned, about failures and triumphs the young haven't been through yet. We know who we are and who we aren't. Careers are solidified, families growing or grown, most of the big decisions are behind us. And the best part is we're smart enough to realize that we still have things to learn as well as to teach. And for many, like me, there just wasn't any time back then when all our energies were expended on earning a living.
When I created Bay Tanner, I made her 38 years old. I chose that age because it was the one at which I finally felt as if I had a lot of the important things figured out, and I remember what that felt like. As she moves toward forty and beyond, I want to share some of the person I was then, from the been-there-done-that perspective. I guess that's as good a word to end on as any. We older folks have perspective.
What aspects of craft have you consciously worked to improve? What other writers have you learned from, and what has their work taught you?
I think if I began naming names of those writers who have influenced me, this interview would be a lot longer than it already is. Let's just say I read voraciously, constantly, in bed, in the kitchen, waiting in line, on airplanes--everywhere, all the time. I'm not one of those writers who have to read outside the genre, either. I want to be challenged by the really gifted mystery writers, to make myself better, to keep up with what's being published, but mostly just for the sheer enjoyment of it.
An early influence was Mary Higgins Clark. I admired Christie, but I never wanted to emulate her. When I read, "Where Are the Children?" I immediately said, "That's what I want to do." I felt the same about Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell. I like the idea, the continuity, of a series, the opportunity to develop characters over a number of books. I want to learn to create suspense like Higgins Clark, to create memorable characters, to bring the South I've come to love to such life that the reader is here with me. I read critically, too, trying to figure out why the masters of our genre became, well...masters.
I struggle most with plot because I don't outline. (I console myself with the fact that Stephen King doesn't either.) I find that if I set the whole story down, even if it's not a formal outline, I've lost my impetus, my reason for telling it. I need to let it unravel as it will, going back on subsequent edits to fill in gaps and rework clues. My Bay Tanner mysteries aren't necessarily whodunits. I strive as much to create atmosphere and character as plot, but it's the one element I have to work the hardest at.
What’s next for you and Bay Tanner?
I've signed a new contract with St. Martin's for two more Bay Tanners, so there will definitely be 2008 and 2009 books. After that, we'll see what opportunities come my way. I've dusted off that old historical I was working on back in my accounting days to see if I can reinvent it. Of course that early writing is embarrassing, but the setting was partially in the Lowcountry, and I'm wondering if I can rework it into a sort of prequel to the current series. Right now I don't have any extra time for other projects, but the mental pot is boiling. And I feel as if I still have stories to tell about Bay Tanner and Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Thanks so much for this opportunity to chat with you. I welcome your comments or questions. You can find me at www.kathrynwall.com.
Posts
