Interview With Author Richard Cass by Jacqueline Seewald

Richard Cass is our guest today on Author Expressions. He has a most impressive background. Richard began writing as a poet but slowly became enamored of the possibilities of prose: first short stories, then novels. He graduated from Colby College in Maine and earned an MA in Writing from the University of New Hampshire. His short fiction has won prizes from magazines like Redbook, Writers' Digest, and Playboy. His first collection of stories is called Gleam of Bone. His first novel is published by Five Star/Cengage.

Richard is a native of Boston and a Mainer by choice and holds an MA in Writing from the University of New Hampshire, where he studied with Thomas Williams and Joseph Monninger. He's also studied with Molly Gloss, Ursula LeGuin, and Ernest Hebert.

Question: What is the title and genre of your novel?  Why did you select them?

Answer: The first entry in my Elder Darrow series is called Solo Act. When I started planning the series, I envisioned a series of titles with the word “Solo” in each, as a way to tie the series together.

Solo Act is what I’d call an amateur sleuth. Elder Darrow is a bartender, not a cop or any other kind of law enforcement officer and the initial mystery he solves is very personal. I’ve always been attracted to the amateur protagonist, at least partly because I was very impressed at a young age with Travis McGee, John D. McDonald’s creation, who solved crimes and helped victims without having any sort of legal or official standing.

Question:   What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Answer: As part of my checkered past, I spent a lot of time tending bar in both classy and seedy places. You can’t be a bartender for long without realizing that behind all those faces are stories you can’t even imagine. And being a bartender allows you to be a sort of voyeur of those stories. I also spent a lot of time bouncing around jazz clubs in my youth and wanted to capture some of the flavor of that music for readers. And as a native of Boston, I wanted to catch some of my love for the city, its institutions, and its inhabitants.

Question:  Could you tell us a little bit about the heroine and/or hero of your novel?

Answer:  Elder Darrow is the son of a Boston Brahmin whose family has been in the banking business in Boston since just after the Revolutionary War. He attended prep school at Exeter and college at Harvard but he became an alcoholic before he worked out any professional path for himself. His father would have liked him to go into the banking business but until Elder can prove he can stay sober, that’s not going to be possible. And Elder himself isn’t sure that’s what he wants.

He’s bought the Esposito, a bucket of blood bar in Boston’s South End, with the idea that he will gentrify it, turn it into a jazz nightclub. His working assumption is that by being around alcohol and drinkers all the time, he’ll inoculate himself against his addiction.

Question:   Can you tell us about some of your other published novels or work?

Answer:  Solo Act is my first published novel. I’ve published a book of short stories called Gleam of Bone and any number of essays and articles. Other than fiction, I write mainly about the outdoors: environmental topics, fishing, oceans and rivers, and so on.

Question:   What are you working on now?

Answer:  My agent is currently shopping a thriller about a man who, in trying to avenge his girlfriend’s death, kills the wrong person. I’m also finishing up the first draft of a political mystery, set in Portland, Maine, where the protagonist is hired to kill a sitting governor’s best friend.

Question:   What made you start writing?

Answer: I wrote my first short story in the sixth grade, a labored-over tale of a valuable stamp hidden in the handle of a magnifying glass. I’ve always read and I always loved mysteries and thrillers, from Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock all the way down the decades to Robert Crais and Ian Rankin. Essentially, I started writing because I wanted to do what all those writers I admired do.

Question:   What advice would you offer to those who are currently writing novels?

Answer: Pay no attention to what you think is going well or not going well in the short term. You will finish your book by accretion, not in great leaps. Understand that you are playing a long game, that how your day’s writing went is almost immaterial with respect to whether you’ll finish and/or how well you’ve done. It’s about momentum and finishing, not about making each day’s work be perfect, or even good. Almost all of the goodness is going to be in the revising.

If you are lucky enough to be published, understand that the publishing business operates at the speed of a shucked snail. And everyone will have plenty of advice for you. Develop a thick skin if you don’t already have one.

Question:  Where and when will readers be able to obtain your novel?

Answer: You can order the Solo Act hardcover from any independent bookstore that buys books from major national distributors like Ingram or Baker and Taylor. Solo Act is also available in e-book and hardcover formats from Amazon.com and in hardcover from BarnesandNoble.com. For five or more copies for readings, book signings, or reading groups, the publisher provides a discount code for direct ordering.

Richard, thanks so much for being our guest today. Your novel sounds like a fine book.

Readers, do you have any questions or comments for Richard? They are welcome here.

A Visit from the Grammar Police

Every now and then I come across an article or review in which the writer gives vent to his or her favorite (or least favorite) verbal failings among contemporary writers. We all have them, but I always try to remind myself that every writer has a weakness or two, and the point of publicizing them is to give all of us a chance to learn and improve our own work. Writing well is a lifelong learning process, and when we stop learning, we stop growing. Here, to add to your own personal list of grammar sins to watch out for, are a few of my obsessions.

I am obsessed with the proper use of the direct object for personal pronouns. If I gave the book to you, and you gave it to George, and George decided he didn’t like it and gave it Melinda, why on earth does it transpire that Melinda decided to wrap it up and give it as a gift to Harry and I? What happened to me?

Then there are the words that are fast fading, and I miss them. I cringe whenever someone tells me that a reviewer has called a book marvelous and lavished it with fulsome praise. For those of you not cringing at this moment (or laughing at the reviewer’s sneaky joke), fulsome is related to false, not full. Fulsome praise is false praise, best translated today as smarmy.

Then there are the now ordinary usages that occasionally produce startling images. If you live in a college town and order bacon and eggs and pancakes (and don’t have to worry about high cholesterol), and the waitress asks you if you want them together, you had better be careful of your answer. It’s best to reply to the possibly overeducated young that you prefer them simultaneously rather than together—a mixture that is likely to appear on the plate unappetizing at best.

There are some words that probably can’t be recovered. Career is one of them. The sense of careening is lost now, and those of us who occasionally find ourselves writing career instead of the more idiomatic careen usually cross out the error and make the change. And, of course, the original meaning of careen is pretty much lost also, just like a ship might be from leaning, or careening, too far over in a high wind.

But if I have to give up some of my favorite words, I get to use new ones, or old ones with new meanings. I especially like troll, which I find blinking in my brain whenever I come across someone who delights in finding errors in other people’s work and then pointing them out to everyone they encounter.

Words are fun, and I wouldn’t be a writer if I didn’t try to learn and use new ones, expand my vocabulary as a way of making my sentences more precise, and seek out and learn from other writers whose subject matter is different enough from mine to promise new words and ideas.

If you have favorite words disappearing or changing, let me know. I’m always ready to add to my list of words to watch.

Writers' Groups

A few weeks ago an acquaintance asked me for advice on setting up a writers' group. I immediately said, Sure. Then I paused and wondered, What kind of writers' group? My friend didn't know. I shouldn't have been surprised. Writers talk about their writers' groups usually with reverence and affection, but few actually describe what the group is like. As a result, most beginning or non writers think a writers' group is a writers' group is a writers' group. And they would be wrong.

Over the last forty plus years I have been in a variety of writers' groups, ranging from the informal two-person (actually two-woman support group for struggling dissertation writers only able to meet over lunch) to the large, highly structured group with strict membership requirements (and no nonsense whatsoever). But a few types stand out for the gratitude and affection I came to feel towards my fellow members, and these are the ones I described to my friend. This is not a definitive list, but a few suggestions for how to structure the coming-together of writers who want to help each other. These are roughly in chronological order.

First was the group of writers of all genres and all levels of publication history, including the writer who managed to get a contract for a nonfiction book about hikes in New England and then didn't look at the contract again until four months before the manuscript was due. She hadn't written a word. The purpose of this group turned out to be to provide massive amounts of encouragement and a small dose of envy for anyone who could get a contract and be so cavalier about deadlines. Another member sought information on a particular free-lance job, received highly specific warnings about avoiding this magazine at all costs, ignored them, and then received massive amounts of encouragement in suing the vendor who refused to pay her. If nothing else, this group was consistent. We were promiscuous in our praise and unstinting in our support and generally ignored all good advice.

The second group I attended seemed to be based on whom you had worked for. All genres were acceptable, including a few that had no names as yet. We all knew each other and our professional paths continued to cross. We were expected to show up with something to read at least every other week, and to take not longer than five or ten minutes. We were expected to listen attentively and offer suggestions for improvement. This was another support group but a little more discerning. It was rare that anyone said anything negative, but when someone did, we took it as a sign that we were ready to graduate and move on.

A third group was among the most structured, meeting once a month and requiring each writer to present a complete chapter or two (about 50 pages) for everyone to read beforehand, then listen without verbal response (eye rolling was allowed) as everyone else commented and discussed among themselves. At the end of this, if the writer was still able to speak and could stop biting his or her tongue, he or she could comment on the discussion and the specific points made. I lasted about a month (that's one meeting for those not following this discussion closely).

A variation on the third group requires that a writer send out by email or snail mail copies of whatever she or he wants to discuss at the weekly meeting, and then at the regular meeting each member can comment and discuss with other members including the writer whose work it is. No one is barred from speaking. All genres are acceptable.

A fourth group is probably the result of the first three. This group has a monitor, also a writer but one who does not participate in the readings and critiques. This person is expected to facilitate discussion, keep writers from acting out the crimes they are so graphically describing in their novels and short stories, and generally keep the group feeling positive and motivated and out of the clutches of the authorities.

These then are the four basic writers' groups. And while I might have had some unusual experiences as a writer when among other writers, I hasten to assure all you beginning writers our there that you will survive participation in a writers' group, you will learn a great deal, you will get that boost you need to finish your novel and then sell it. But in the process you will meet a few oddballs and hear some painful descriptions of your brilliant Pulitzer quality work. You may even wonder why you thought writing a novel was a good idea in the first place. But when you finally sell that novel, your writer group friends will bring a bottle of champagne, cheer you loudly, and you will know you really are a genius.

Book Promotion and Libraries

Promoting to Libraries: Part 2

by Jacqueline Seewald

The first part of this discussion appeared on Jeffrey Marks’ blog site Murder Must Advertise, September 23, 2011. At that time, I suggested that authors consider promoting their books, whether fiction or nonfiction, at libraries. Some libraries will pay writers to come and speak, others will at least provide writers with exposure to the reading public. Not all libraries welcome authors but there are many that do. As a former librarian and teacher, I can testify to the fact that authors are welcome to provide an event at many libraries. Books are an important component of what the library has to offer. Authors are respected by most librarians.

If you are a relatively unknown writer, try to get a local newspaper to do a story on you before your library appearance. Also, if you’re not Nora Roberts or Mary Higgins Clark, don’t expect people to come in droves just because you announce a book signing. Think in terms of what kind of event you can provide that library patrons will enjoy and appreciate.

On October 6th I presented an event at the Fort Lee, NJ Library entitled “We Can All Be Writers.” It was not just be a talk but a happening—an interactive experience for both attendees and myself. I provided writing exercises that we could do together and discuss.
I’ll also discussed sources of inspiration for aspiring writers as well as library resources for writers. In short, I was offering information of value to patrons.

I believe that not only can everyone be a writer but should be a writer. By this I do not necessarily mean that they should strive for publication. There is such a thing as writing simply for our own self-expression and self-satisfaction. There is also writing to leave a written and historical record for our families.

My program lasted two hours. Fifteen people showed up who were eager to participate. When I previously did this program in Central New Jersey, twenty-five people were present and actively participated. However, fifteen was a comfortable group to work with and they were very enthusiastic. I also had help earlier in the week from the library coordinator who turned my overhead transparencies into a Power Point presentation.

What’s in it for you, the author? Well, the library may or may not be able to pay you to speak but at least you won’t be paying a fee. Doing an event will provide you with publicity. You can ask the local newspaper to cover it and/or get it placed on their events calendar in advance. Hopefully, library patrons may want to either borrow some of your novels from the library or purchase them from you. At the very least, the library will buy your book. In my case, I offered some of my novels at a heavily discounted price and had the librarian take the money because I donated any money earned from the sale of my books the Friends of the Library so they can continue to sponsor more events. It was my way of giving back to the community.

What is your opinion of authors doing events, talks or panel discussions at libraries? Have you participated in any library events? If so, how has it worked out? Will you consider doing it in the future?