"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.

Amazon

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.

Amazon

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)

Amazon

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. 

Santa Fé, New Mexico’s “Miraculous Staircase” by Kaye Spencer

At the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail stands the Loretto Chapel. Inside the Gothic structure is the staircase referred to as miraculous, inexplicable, marvelous and is sometimes called St. Joseph’s Staircase. The stairway confounds architects, engineers and master craftsmen. It makes over two complete 360-degree turns, stands 20’ tall and has no center support. It rests solely on its base and against the choir loft. The risers of the 33 steps are all of the same height. Made of an apparently extinct wood species, it was constructed with only square wooden pegs without glue or nails… (http://www.lorettochapel.com/history.html)



 
Within the well-preserved and quiet walls of Loretto Chapel in Santa Fé, New Mexico, is a staircase steeped in two mysteries that, for many people, have yet to be solved:

1. Who built the staircase?
2. How is its construction possible?

  

Miraculous Staircase

Orb, perhaps?

The Miraculous Staircase, as it is called, was built during a six-month period sometime between 1877 and 1881. To understand the story of the staircase, we must understand a little about the chapel’s history; the vision of its founding; the courage and determination of the people dedicated to its success; and the unwavering faith of these pioneering spirits.

Loretto Chapel’s story begins in 1853 and ends in 1971 when it became a private museum for the primary reason of preserving the Miraculous Staircase and the chapel.

Here is the truncated version of the chapel’s history from the chapel’s website:

1850

• Bishop Jean Baptisite Lamy appointed to Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico Territory
• Bishop Lamy begins letter writing plea for priests, brothers and nuns to come out and help him

1852

• Sisters of Loretto send seven sisters from Kentucky
• Sisters leave St. Louis and travel to Independence, Mo.
• Encounter cholera epidemic, Mother Superior dies, and one nun is too ill to continue and returns

1853 - 1873

• Sisters open Academy of Our Lady of Light (Loretto)
• Few students to 300 students (girls) in a short period of time
• Tuition, donations, and from the sisters own inheritances ($30,000) fund the school and chapel
• Property is purchased, work on Loretto Chapel begins
• School facilities cover a square block with 10 buildings
• Architects from Paris design Loretto Chapel in the gothic style of King Louis IX's Sainte-Chapelle

1876

• Stained glass is purchased in Paris, arrives by ship in New Orleans, goes by paddle boat to St. Louis, and then travels by covered wagon via Old Santa Fe Trail

1878

• Chapel is completed
• No access the choir loft twenty-two feet above the main floor except by ladder
• Due to limited space within the chapel, there isn’t room for a staircase

Choir loft at the back of Loretto Chapel

Choir loft at the back of Loretto Chapel

[1877-1881]

• Staircase is built – without a railing

Picture of a picture of the staircase without rails

1887

• Staircase railing is added

Close-up of staircase railing

1880s & 1890s

• Chapel undergoes additions, renovations, such as the introduction of the Stations of the Cross, Gothic altar, frescoes

Front/Altar of Loretto Chapel

Pre-Vatican II Confessional & staircase - Loretto Chapel

Now, back to the mysteries of the staircase…

According to the history/legend on the Loretto Chapel website, the Miraculous Staircase is believed to have been constructed by St. Joseph, patron saint of carpenters, who answered the sisters' prayers for a solution to the access problem to the choir loft, when he arrived at the chapel with a donkey and a toolbox, and said he was looking for work. When he finished the staircase, he disappeared without payment or thanks.

Is the Miraculous Staircase a miracle, fabrication, or outright hoax? To quote a line from 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'…

When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

The 1998, made-for-television movie, The Staircase, stars Barbara Hershey as the mother superior and William Peterson as the mysterious carpenter. Yes, there's the Hollywood spin that fiddles with the *facts*; the story is a little slow, contrived, and melodramatic at times; but it’s still worth spending the 95 minutes to watch it, even if you only watch it once.

Other resources:
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/helix_to_heaven/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011501810.html

Note: I took the pictures I used in this blog post. Please feel free to copy/download/use the images as you like.

Until next time,

Kaye
 

 
Fall in love…faster, harder, deeper with Kaye Spencer romances

www.kayespencer.com
Twitter - @kayespencer