The Roving Eye Interviews Anthony Neil Smith

Today's Roving Eye interview is with Anthony Neil Smith. Whose novels, amongst others, include the brilliant dark noir of Psychosomatic and Yellow Medicine.

When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

Ever since I discovered that books were things you paid money for. The first book fair at our elementary school, when we got money to buy books that we didn't have to give back like the ones from the library. I had to be about 9 or 10. I guess I wanted to do other things, too--comic book artist, rock star, etc.--but I always came back around to writing.

Technically, I still don't write *for a living*. I teach at a university for the actual money. Writing is a glorified hobby. I would love to do it for a living. 

What made you chose crime fiction?

 I remember finding a Hardy Boys book where the boys were stuck in an airplane, headed for impact with the ocean, and I wanted to know what happened to them. That sense of danger and fear drew me in. And I ended up reading a lot of Hardy Boys, The Three Investigators, and then moved on to the classic adult P.I. books. There were Mike Shayne novels on my grandpa's bookshelf next to his westerns. I've been hooked on them ever since. The idea of an investigator just appeals to me. They figure out how someone got killed. All day long. 

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

James Lee Burke's The Neon Rain. I was in college, trying to write about this Cajun detective I'd thought up when I was younger (I grew up on the Gulf Coast, near New Orleans), when I heard that there was already a Cajun detective series out there. So I looked it up. I was furious (and stupid, of course) and I loved it and I've read all of his books since then. 

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

Outside of crime, I'm a big fan of Flannery O'Connor. She was able to write about religious concepts in an earthy way, back when I was "de-churching" myself from Pentecostalism, and that appealed to me, especially since they were delivered with vicious dark humor and weird stuff. 

Who are you reading right now?

I've been "studying" bestselling crime writers, having a blast. Reading a lot of Daniel Silva, John Sandford and Stephen Hunter. Also, finally getting around to Jo Nesbo's PHANTOM.

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

Since I'm also a teacher and Chair of the English Department, I've got that one filled. But if it had nothing at all to do with academia or fiction...probably law. I would've gone to law school.

What was the last great book that you read?

Next question

One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?

The record would be Lyle Lovett's ROAD TO ENSENADA. The book...that's harder. I need new stories, new books. I guess I'd have to go with the old stand-by THE BIBLE. Not because I'm religious, but because it's got *lots* of stories, many of them violent, full of sex, plus some far out shit like Jonah, Job, and Revelation. The fuck was that all about? Old Testament prophet stories are freaky. 

What five words best describe your average day?

Working hard, wishing harder. Yeah.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

Technically, the latest novel that has been published was ALL THE YOUNG WARRIORS: Two Somali-American teens join young terrorists in Somalia and get in over their heads. Everything goes to hell.

And, lastly, just for fun..

Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

I haven't, but I would, sure. Nothing wrong with dirty, dirty books.

    

You can follow Anthony Neil Smith on Twitter @Prof_Neil_Smith

 

  

The Roving Eye Interviews Sam Hawken

This week, the Roving Eye falls upon the author of the dark and hard-boiled, The Dead Women of Juarez and Tequila Sunset. Ladies and Gentlemen...Sam Hawken.

When did you first realise that you wanted to write for a living?

I first fantasized about writing for a living when I was in my early 20s (a long time ago) and tried my hand at writing truly terrible cyberpunk novels that went absolutely nowhere, career-wise.  I quit writing altogether from ages 26 to 36, vaguely thinking I'd like to get back into it, but never actually putting anything on paper.  Then one day I started typing and wrote a book that was much better than anything I'd written before, at which point I began thinking I might actually be able to make a go of it professionally.  Though it would take me three years of work to get there.

What made you chose crime fiction?

Pure chance.  I'm not even sure how I got there, but I happened to look at a webzine for crime fiction where they were doing a "borderland noir" theme issue.  I found the guest editor's description of this sub genre so compelling that I hammered out a story the next day, which I submitted.  He ended up loving it for some reason, which made me write another crime story later on that was likewise well received.  Right about then I managed to secure an agent, who asked me if I could write a novel in the vein of the first story, so I did it.  That ended up being The Dead Women of Juárez, my first from Serpent's Tail.  They've since bought two more.

What crime novel would you most like to have written?

Without question it would be No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy.  Reading that book was what made me start writing again.  And I know some people don't consider it truly crime fiction because it has a literary pedigree, but it really is pure crime in its most distilled form.  I love it and reread it often.

Who is your favourite author outside of crime fiction and why?

I am probably unhealthily fond of Ernest Hemingway.  When I was first trying to write in a serious way, I tried to emulate him, but picked up all the wrong lessons from his writing and produced dreck.  I'm still nothing but a speck of dust on Hemingway's windshield, but I like to think that now I get him better.  It might simply be a product of getting older, but I suspect being more interested in craft has made me appreciate what he did.  I certainly don't get tired of reading his work.

  

Who are you reading right now?

Currently I'm reading a novel by Spanish author Rosa Montero, called Tears in Rain.  Though I no longer write in the SF genre, I absolutely love the movie Blade Runner, and her novel directly addresses some of the major themes of that film.  Hence the title, I guess.  It's not subtle.

If you weren’t a writer, what else could you see yourself doing?

Before I was able to make decent money writing, I worked in retail to make ends meet.  I had an interlude where I was doing academic work in the history field, but there was no real money there.  Even so, I wouldn't mind pursuing a position in public history, or working full-time as a researcher in my particular historical field (Holocaust scholarship).

What was the last great book that you read?

That's a really, really tough question.  I can't actually remember the last time I read a book I could unequivocally call great.  Plenty of good books, but no great ones.  I really have to have the pillars of my world shaken before I'd put the label great on something.  Maybe I'm just reading the wrong stuff.

One record and one book to a desert island, what would you take?

Pink Floyd's A Delicate Sound of Thunder and Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.  I never get tired of either.

What five words best describe your average day?

Solitary.  Rigorous.  Structured.  Tiring.  Uneventful.

Sum up your latest novel in less than 20 words.

I'll give you the short version of Missing, my next release from Serpent's Tail (2014):

"A man from Texas has his stepdaughter go missing in Mexico. Blood and tears follow."

And, lastly, just for fun..

Have you read or would you ever consider reading 50 Shades of Grey?

I've already read more of Fifty Shades of Grey than is probably healthy.  I am never, never going to be able to get the images of the tampon scene out of my head, for which crime EL James can rot in Hell.

The Healer - Antti Tuomainen

Set amidst a ruthless climate catastrophe that has driven all but a resilient few from the streets of Helsinki, Finnish poet Tapani Lehitenen's world is turned upside down when he wakes one morning to find his Journalist wife, Johanna, missing. His desperation is then magnified when he finds that her disappearance appears to be linked to a politically motivated serial killer known as The Healer. Sounds good, huh? Well, I thought so. 

I was wrong.
Its not a bad book, far from it. Its brilliantly written, with an atmosphere and mood that is second to none, and, at times, the descriptions of the rain soaked city, desolate and desperate are jaw dropping. But, a good book needs more than good writing, and, in crime fiction, it goes without saying, that the one thing it does need, is a good plot. Unfortunately, here lies the major setback.

Of course, there is a plot, but, it never really goes anywhere, with scene after scene meandering along with nothing, or very little, happening. The clues and any information seem to come in big chunks instead of being dripped in slowly over the course of the novel to excite and tease. The characters are, on the whole, very bland and one dimensional, and the ending, well, lets just say that its all a little predictable.
 

For the writing, its a definite 5/5. For the rest, well, a low 3/5

Welcome to The Roving Eye

'Only he and one other knew the truth. Knew what was really hiding in those woods behind the Police tape and the horror that was about to begin...'

If that's the kind of sentence that get your pulse racing, then you you've come to the right place. Welcome crime lovers, to The Roving Eye.