"This is it!" - Interview with Robert J. Randisi

 What is it to be lucky? Getting to 'interview' some amazing writers. Robert J. Randisi is one of those. Who knew back when I started reading some of his work that I would one day be sharing his insights into this career of writing. Reading the answers can inspire others to want to follow in his footsteps, as best they can.

Enjoy, I know I did.

Photo provided by RJR

1. When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I was fifteen years old when I decided “This is it! I had gone to the movies to see Paul Newman in HARPER. When I came out I was hooked on the private eye genre. I bought the Ross Macdonald book the movie was based on, THE MOVING TARGET, and I said “This is what I’m going to do for a living by the time I turn thirty.” And I did.

2. Did you choose the genre or did the genre choose you?

The Western genre chose me when a publisher came to me and said, “Can you write Westerns?” I had never thought about it because I was writing mysteries, but I said, “Of course I can!” That’s how The Gunsmith was born. I wrote the first one and the editor said, “It’s good, but we have to break you of this hardboiled style. I said, “In westerns, it’s not hardboiled, it’s hardcase!” I’ve been producing a Gunsmith book every month since January of 1982

3. What was the nudge that gave you the faith that you could and wanted to be published?

There was no “nudge,” there was just never a question of doing anything else. I was committed to this and didn’t allow any room for failure. I made sure I had no other profession to fall back on.

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4. Is there a writing routine you follow or do you write when the muse strikes?

When you’re on a schedule like mine—for the most part, sixteen books a year—there’s no “muse” and there’s no “waiting.” There’s no time between books, there’s just always a book-or two. I usually start to write after breakfast and stop to have dinner.  After that, I’ll take a nap to get the day book out of my head. I head back to the office around nine p.m. and start working on the night book, stop at around midnight (when we have a coffee/tea break) then go back and work from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.  I go to bed around 5:30 a.m. and sleep til noon.  It only changes if I’m working on three projects at once.  Then there’s the day project, the 9-to-midnight project, and the 1-5 a.m. project. 

5. If you had a choice what is your favorite to write, short stories, novellas, or full-length novels.

My favorite has always been novels. I am just naturally a long-winded sonofagun. Even when I try to write short stories, they usually come out to about ten thousand words. And I ever think in terms of a novella.

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6. Is there a process where you find your next story, or does it just come to you?

As I said about, the process is that there’s always a book, always stories to tell. I don’t understand a life where you don’t wake up in the morning with an idea and go to bed at night with another one.

7. Do you write in other genres?

I’ve written in just about every genre except Romance—but my career has been Mystery and Western. I started out writing mysteries when my first book, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF PENNY, came out in 1980.  It was that same publisher who came to me and asked me to write Westerns.  From that point on, I did both.  While I’ve written about 500 Westerns, I believe I might be better known in the mystery genre,, where I’ve written many private eye books, edited about 30 anthologies. While being one of the founding members of Western Fictioneers I’ve also founded The Private Eye Writers of America, created the Shamus Award, founded the American Crime Writer’s League, and co-created Mystery Scene Magazine (with my late friend and colleague, Ed Gorman)

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Of late I’ve been concentrating on my Rat Pack mysteries series, of which there are 12 books. I’m working on #13. They are now being reprinted and published by Speaking Volumes. I’ve also recently had two books in my Nashville P.I. series appear from Wolfpack Publishing, and two books in by Headstone P.i. series from Down & Out Books.

And of late, as well as the Gunsmith, I’ve been writing Ralph Compton books for Berkley, four of which are now available on Amazon and in Walmart.

RALPH COMPTON SERIES

BIG JAKE’S LAST DRIVE (2021)

FRONTIER MEDICINE (2021)

RIDE FOR JUSTICE (2021)

THE WRONG SIDE OF THE LAW

RAT PACK SERIES

Everybody Kills Somebody Sometime (2006)

2. Luck Be a Lady, Don't Die (2007)

3. Hey There (You with the Gun in Your Hand) (2008)

4. You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Kills You (2009)

5. I'm a Fool to Kill You (2010)

6. Fly Me to The Morgue (2011)

7. It Was a Very Bad Year (2012)

8. You Make Me Feel So Dead (2013)

9. The Way You Die Tonight (2013)

10. When Somebody Kills You (2015)

11. I Only Have Lies for You (2018)

12. That Old Dead Magic (2020)

HEADSTONE SERIES

1. The Headstone Detective Agency (2019)

   2. Headstone's Folly (2020)

NASHVILLE SERIES

1. The Honky Tonk Big Hoss Boogie (2013)

   2. The Last Sweet Song of Hammer Dylan (2019)

For a complete list, check out the link below.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/robert-j-randisi/

Amazon Author Page

Thank you, Robert, for being so generous with your time and knowledge. I know I appreciate your years of experience and all those wonderful stories you've written over the years. 

HAYBALE HORSES & WOODEN CROSSES By Shayna Matthews

     Someone asked me recently, "How on earth do you get your ideas for these stories of yours?" The truth is, I don't know where they all come from, nor am I always conscious of when an idea strikes. What I do know is this: stories come to me. Not all at once, of course; that would be too easy. But they do come in visual flashes; sometimes quick as a lightning strike, other times more like a slow, steady burn, like glowing coals from a perfect smores campfire. I fly by the seat of my pants when I write, and I begin each session wondering what my characters will reveal to me this time. Often, if the session goes well, I become lost within their world and lose all sense of time and place. Just last night my main character finally decided to reveal her story to a group of eager Texas cowboys, and before I knew it,I had written straight through the night and shut my light off at 5:00 a.m. Sure, I know where I went last night-1880's Texas- but I don't know how I got there. Where did these brand new ideas come from? My MC revealed details of her life I certainly knew nothing about, and I created her. Or, so I as the writer, would like to think. Sometimes I wonder, but that's for another post entirely.

      It's a funny thing, one's subconscious. We writers conjure up all manners of past experiences, conversations, people, places and faces. And yet, details show up we have no recollection of having experienced ourselves, in any sense of the word. So when someone asks me where my ideas stem from, I just smile and murmur an answer about knowing how to look for, and listen for, a good story. You see, my training in listening for stories began when I was three, and has sculpted me throughout my life to become what I am now, a historical fiction writer.

My training? I was essentially born into the world of living history. I suppose not many of us can boast experiencing life's day-to-day adventures of the 18th Century, but my fondest memories still bring me back to my youth...when kids still plugged into their own imaginations.
 

My favorite smells in the world are woodsmoke, leather and horse sweat. Combine the three and I'm a little girl again, running through meadows in moccasins and a little deerskin dress, dodging teepees while catching grasshoppers in tin lanterns and picking ox-eye daisies to decorate my braids. By 1986, (I was seven) I knew how to row a canoe, drive a team of mules, and con absolutely any man with a horse to give me a boost, saddle not necessary. When no horses were available, a bale of hay holding someone's saddle sufficed, and I imagined I was on my trusty steed, gallivanting off into the sunset. Ladder-back chairs made for the perfect train, and when enough of us kids got together around the woodpile, teams were chosen and a very serious game of "Patriots and Lobsterbacks" always followed. We were always the Patriots, and being that I was often the only girl, I was always the one tied up, time and again, waiting for my Patriots to break through enemy lines. Sometimes, the boys fighting over me got a little bit too real. Wielding fire-pokers, they dueled, and I wound up with the tip of a hand-forged fire-poker embedded in my shoulder. I still bear the scar, and it brings me nothing but bittersweet joy for the memories I've gained. I miss those times, terribly. Years have a way of changing things, and I do not often adjust well to change. Lifelong friends have been made and lost over the years. We still reenact, and I still sit around campfires at night, passing the jug, and quietly listen to my friends reminisce over the good old days.
 

In the old days, my solitude during the campfires was two-fold. If I was quiet enough, maybe my parents would forget I was there and I wouldn't have to retreat to the tent for the night. I wanted to stay up, because I wanted to hear the adults tell their stories. One can pick up on grand stories, if one knows how to listen. Over the years I learned to listen intently. To this day I am often labeled as quiet and shy, but usually I'm just listening for a juicy tidbit...a damn good story.

Sometimes, those damn good stories turn into scenes which, no matter how much you love them, you wonder if they are meant for the story. A decision must be reached...do I scrap the scene, or keep it?

One day I came up with the idea for a small, insignificant scene involving a small wooden cross. I could see the cross clearly in my mind. It was handcarved out of a wood with tiny mottled holes, and handwrapped with black sinew. I began jotting down the framework for the idea revolving around this cross to be gifted to my main character, a young woman from Philadelphia. (You’ll hear more of her later). The original scene didn’t seem to blend too well with what was going on in the story at the time, so I had decided, pretty much, to scrap it. Two days later, my uncle had an appointment in town and so he came for a short visit and a crash on our couch. The appointment also took him out of our place long before my husband and I rolled out of bed the next morning. I was going through my morning routine when I heard my husband ask “What’s that on the floor?” and I saw him bend down to pick something up. He carried the unknown object over to me and I held out my hand. He dropped the item in the palm of my hand; I looked down at it and the breath hitched in my throat. I started to quiver and I can only imagine the look on my face. There it was, the very same little wooden cross wrapped in black sinew… the very same mental cross I had written, and thought of scrapping, only days before.
 

You see, when my uncle found out about his illness, his brother carved that little cross for him, and he has worn it under his shirt ever since. This is why I have never seen it before. I gave the cross back to my uncle, shivering as I told him the story. And in case you are wondering? No, I did not scrap the scene. It will be there, bold as print, in my WIP  novel. I took a picture of my uncle's cross, the cross I envisioned my character wearing days before it fell into my reality...just to remind myself that the stories we write belong to our characters, it's their story as much as ours. Sometimes it pays just to stop, listen, and let them tell it.

Tell me, where do you gather your greatest inspiration for your own stories?

     ~Shayna Matthews

 

Why Write? by Sara Barnard

Problem. You have written THE story. The one everyone has to read in order for the world to keep turning. 





You exercised show and not tell, trimmed the purple prose as easily as you trimmed the lawn last week. You triple checked your P.O.V and tenses, avoided cliches and all allegorical alliteration and emerged victorious at The Battle of The Writer's Block. Then, you got off Facebook and Pinterest long enough to bring your writer's dream to fruition. 

Now what? 

Three agents' rejections, four publisher "I regret to inform you's", and five snarky beta readers left you wondering why you ever bothered to pick up a pen in the first place. 

Where do you go? What do you do? 

For normal people, they would shrug it off and turn on the t.v. Binge on a Netflix series.

Go out with friends. 

Do something normal. 

For a moment you wish you, too, were normal. Like them. 

Like everyone else. 

Alas, you are not.

Then, it comes. 

The one YES that changes everything. 

Be it from a reviewer, beta reader, agent or publisher. 

Once you connect with that person,

make them feel what you wanted them to feel through your words,

the pen that was so heavy before becomes feather light. 

You're on top of the world. 

And then it starts all over again. 

How do you keep motivated?

Bad Writing

by Richard Prosch

Here's a simple question for you. 

What is bad writing?

Objectively, as far as such things can be measured, or subjectively to your individual preference --what makes a piece of fiction bad?

I've spent the last few months catching up to a new year's resolution I made to read all the indie books open on my Kindle. Not all the books archived, just the ones I'd put on the machine and hadn't yet looked at.  As expected, I enjoyed most of them. Others, not so much. Innocently enough, I checked out some online reviews of the titles I'd read.

And herein lies the question.

Books I considered poorly written, but with an adequate story or cast of characters, got just as many stars as books of outstanding prose. Stories that didn't make any sense at all, with murky settings, and cliched or non distinct characters, often got as many good reviews as their opposites.

In other words, there seems to be a lack of consistency in what people judge as good or bad. 

Not exactly news, I know, but it got me to thinking about what's most important to a story.  As a writer I wondered, what do people want?

Most say a good character. But I wonder, do you have to like him/her? Is it enough to identify with some aspect of them? Do you even need that?

Some say plot is secondary, not as important as character. But can beating the same old tired story trail be considered good writing? 

When you read, is grammar important to you? If the author drops that Oxford comma, do you throw the book across the room in disgust?

How about this: do you have different parameters for different genres?  

For example, I'm willing to skip over (or look up) unfamiliar words I come across in a western.  Even if the author is making them up.  On the other hand, I weary of the made-up words in science fiction. Too much techno-babble and I'm outta there.

What about originality? Nothing will kick me out of a book faster than an author who repeats the same scene from book to book. In my New Year's batch was a western writer I had previously never heard of (and who isn't, I don't think, a member of the Fictioneers). I tried two of the guy's titles and couldn't make it through any of them. Especially when, half-way through the first chapter of the second book, I read the exact same shoot-em-up scene I'd read in the first story.

My vague conclusion --for me-- is that bad writing is anything that --when repeated more than once or twice-- knocks me (as a reader) out of the story.

(That goes for too many dashes, parentheses, and italic words too!) 

I'll put up with bad grammar for a while if the story is good. I'll put up with a trite story if the characters are good. I'll put up with bad characters if I like the word choice on a sentence level. Or if I like the setting. If the dialog crackles, I'll stick with a murky setting.

But when the mistakes add up, that's when I put the book down.

How about you?

After growing up on a Nebraska farm, Richard Prosch worked as a professional writer, artist, and teacher in Wyoming, South Carolina, and Missouri. His western crime fiction captures the fleeting history and lonely frontier stories of his youth where characters aren’t always what they seem, and the windburned landscapes are filled with swift, deadly danger. Read more at www.RichardProsch.com

ONE WRITER'S TOILS - Meg Mims

FIRST, an apology.

I have a reminder on my calendar to prepare a blog post every month for Western Fictioneers. And this month, I procrastinated. Yes. Page proofs for my historical mystery thunked on my desk, along with a ton of other pending matters. No excuses. I should have prepped this post, with an appropriate western theme, long ago. But such is the life of the writer. I'll do the next best thing - chat about all the blood, sweat, and tears that go into a writing life. You have to be desperate to want that.

SECOND, I was desperate to succeed.

Oh yes. Back in the early 1990s, with my 3-year-old daughter at my feet happily playing, I tapped the keys of a manual typewriter with hopes that one day... You can guess the rest. Like a cat pawing under the door, trying to find that elusive toy... Five stacks of manuscripts later (most with dead bodies, which puzzled the romance editors) and many years followed. I worked part-time as a substitute teacher and tutor, enhanced my brilliant daughter's education (schools were good, but she needed more than what they offered), assisted my husband caring for his elderly mother, published in the children's market (very little money in magazines, trust me), and even set aside my writing throughout my daughter's high school years to help (and lead) the Band Boosters. Once she hit college running, I needed time to recharge my batteries. Oh, and do housework. Housework is always last on my list. As it should be. It will wait for you.

THIRD, I finally took my dream seriously.

No longer would my writing be a hobby. I wanted a real career. I wanted that publishing contract and even an agent. But first, I had to figure out why -- while friends had published (romances) -- why, oh, why the editors praised my writing but pulled the carrot away. So I decided to get an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. My husband supported my decision. Doing the week-long term residencies and the hard, hard, hard work of writing at home between, I identified my strengths and weaknesses. I even found my voice (lo and behold, it wasn't romance!), shored up the weakness in my writing and infused more of my strengths into my work. I graduated, celebrated, and snagged an on-line writing job to help pay bills -- but that's not why I earned the MA. I set aside my "thesis manuscript" (flawed, despite two years of hard work), and revised the manuscript I'd written before I started the MA (just to prove to I could finish one again, after a four-year hiatus, although it was more romance than western).

That book became DOUBLE CROSSING. Nobody wanted it. Not even after winning awards and finalist berths in unpublished writing contests. That's when I realized I had to PUSH HARDER. What would it take to get a foot in the door? I accompanied my daughter to Vienna (in spring!) to recharge my batteries, think, and pray. We had a lovely time. Writing was furthest from my mind. Sometimes you just need to get away, relax, sightsee and eat Sachertorte.

When I returned, I accepted an offer from a small press -- no advance, but it was grand seeing my name in print at last. And I am SO GRATEFUL to the Western Writers of America for choosing Double Crossing as the Best First Novel of 2012. I'd submitted it to many contests, but that win helped me realize this was for real. My dream HAD come true. But the hard work wasn't over. Staying at a small press wasn't the end of the line for me, despite a supportive writing community of friends. My college friend and long time critique partner Sharon Pisacreta helped me write the sequel to Double Crossing, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, which won the Laramie for Best Mystery - Western. It helps, when you're stuck in the middle of a book, to kill off a character -- her words, exactly.

But while driving to her house for that helpful session, I had the brilliant idea (all thanks to God, of course, for pinging my brain) of pairing up Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins as amateur sleuths. Since Shaw's Pygmalion is in the public domain, that gave us license to "take over" the characters while keeping his original intent in mind, plus his witty humor. Together we wrote the first draft and came up with a pseudonym, D.E. Ireland. We also snagged an enthusiastic agent three hours after sending a query. And John Talbot landed a publishing contract within three weeks from Minotaur Books. We were thrilled.

No, our book is not a western. But it is historical, and it is a series. I haven't left the western genre, since I have ideas for future dabbling. But for now, my mind is far, far to the east, in jolly 1913 England. And our first book, WOULDN'T IT BE DEADLY, has been nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Historical of 2014! Wow. We are in grand company! Long established mystery authors Charles Todd, Rhys Bowen and Victoria Thompson are in that same category, with the decision to come at Malice Domestic the first weekend in May. We are SO HONORED.

And we are working on page proofs now for the second book, MOVE YOUR BLOOMING CORPSE, which is coming September 22nd, including Royal Ascot and the suffrage movement. We had so much fun writing it, and are enjoying these characters immensely. So while I may not be around much in the western field, I am still posting here... and plotting for the future.

Happy to place my nose back onto the grindstone... 

Award-winning mystery author Meg Mims -- also one-half of the writing team of D.E. Ireland for St. Martin's Minotaur mystery series featuring Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins -- lives in Southeastern Michigan with her husband and a sweet Malti-poo. She loves writing novels, novellas and short stories, both contemporary and historical. She earned a Spur Award, a Laramie Award and an M.A. from Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program. Follow on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest!