Okay, so apparently I am now a crime fiction writer…

 

It happened so fast that my unfocused eyes barely picked it up, but somehow Sam got a knee up and slammed it under his chin. Then she sprang up like a slinky on acid and gave one of the prettiest spin kicks I’d ever seen. Like a jolt of the best coffee, my world sharpened, and when Mr. Freight Train turned to give me another swing I came up and gave him one of my Montreal specials. I don’t think I broke his jaw, though back in my sparring partner days in Belle Province, I’d been known to do that. He timbered straight back, I’m sure unconscious before he hit the floor. Lydia kept screaming. I seriously didn’t know when she took a breath.

Last year with the release of my literary fiction novel, Fall in One Day, I entered the world of publishing as a literary writer. Heavily influenced by writers such as, Richard Ford, Don DeLillo, Raymond Carver, and Jennifer Egan, this all made sense.

But here is my dark, not so secret, secret: I love good crime fiction.

I am shifting the focus of this blog towards talking more about crime fiction, including some of my favourites, new and old—and I want to broaden it out to include films and anything else I think will fit the theme.

I call this my not so secret secret, because if you have read my two self-published novels, Correction Line, and Surf City Acid Drop, you might already know me as a crime fiction writer. And to be honest, there were elements of suspense in Fall in One Day that also emerged from these stylistic patterns.

So why is it that I think so much of Gene Hackman’s meandering journey in Night Moves, or Elliot Gould as the perfect Marlow in Altman’s the Long Goodbye (it’s okay with me), or my fascination with James Crumley’s bad ass detective, C.W. Sughrue, or especially Joe R. Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard novels (as well as most of his work)?

I’m going to answer some of those questions in this blog. I also want to look at why some crime fiction writers are more literary than others, and what the hell does that mean anyway?

A motivation for returning to this theme on woofreakinhoo (a theme I’ve talked about before) is that I recently completed the follow up to Surf City Acid Drop. The new novel is called Manistique (an excerpt starts this post), and yes, it is another Luke Fischer novel. I really enjoyed getting to know him at a deeper level, and I think a bit stronger skill set to this new book.

Also, because I love the craft so much, I am going to talk about some of the things I've learned over the last years. Stuff like: So how do you write violence (and why)? What creates suspense? How do you research?

Lastly, I'll do my best to increase the frequency of the blog.

I look forward to any of your comments.

Cheers.