(Perhaps it was destiny that Duane Swierczynski became a writer – his name contains just about every letter in the English alphabet. Duane is the author of several sizzling fast thrillers – including the high-octane “Severance Package” (which was recently optioned by Lionsgate for a Hollywood movie), “The Blonde,” “The Wheel Man,” and “Secret Dead Men.” Duane is also the primary writer of the Marvel Comics’ “Cable” series, but has also written comic stories for Moon Knight, Punisher and Iron Fist. We love writers at DaRK PaRTY – especially ones we can root for in the cut-throat industry of telling lies and selling them. Duane is one writer to keep an eye on. The 36-year-old novelist and Philadelphia native was gracious enough to answer our questions about the writing life he’s been enjoying so far).

DaRK PaRTY: What's the deal all of a sudden with comic book writers turned novelists? Are you all serious writers struggling to get discovered?

Duane: If I wanted to get discovered, I'd come up with a cure for static cling (I'm close, damnit... so, so close...). But I was a novelist first, and the comic book writing thing was a happy surprise. To

me, it's a way to satisfy my storytelling urges in two very different ways. Novel writing is a long, solitary enterprise; comic scriptwriting is collaborative and deadline-oriented. I like having both.

DP: You're also a former journalist. Is writing for a newspaper a good training ground for writing fiction?

Duane: I think so -- look at James M. Cain, Laura Lippman, Michael Connelly, and the other dozens of crime writers who started out as newspaper reporters or columnists. If you're lucky, you'll encounter some editors who will help you beat a lot of the bad writing out of your system. There's nothing like seeing a page of your writing covered in red ink.

DP: You recently decided to stop working a full-time salaried job to dedicate yourself to your own writing. Was it a difficult decision? Isn't it kind of like tightrope walking without a net?

Duane: Actually, I have a net -- an exclusive contract with Marvel Comics. That said quitting my job wasn't exactly an easy decision. But I'm glad I did it.

DP: Your latest novel "Severance Package" is a full throttle thriller with lots of gore. A lot of reviewers have compared it to a movie. Did you visualize it as a film or a comic book first? What was the writing process like for this book?

Duane: It was always meant to be a novel. And it followed my usual pattern: I started out with a situation, then kicked around some characters who would be ideal for that situation, then came up with a vague goal in mind -- where I thought I wanted the characters to end up. But most of the writing was improvised; I plotted very little in advance; which is essential for me. Nothing worse than being bored by your own story.

DP: Who are your favorite fiction writers and which writers of the past have inspired you?

Duane: There are too many living novelists to include, and I wouldn't want to leave someone important out. But as far as dead ones -- aside from the usual suspects? Fredric Brown was a huge influence, because he knew how to inject humor into a story like nobody else. And James M. Cain for his economy and muscle. I read a lot of their work early on, and I keep coming back to them.

5 Questions for the Author of "The Stupidest Generation"

5 Writers Every Man Should Read

Labels: 5 Questions, Duane Swierczynski, interview, thrillers, Writing

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An Interview with Novelist Michael Marshall Smith

(Writer Michael Marshall Smith (who also writes under Michael Marshall) is a thriller writer in the UK who knows how to do several things really well: frighten people, make them glance nervously over their shoulders, and write with a tense, driving confidence that makes you hang on to his books as if you were clinging to a cliff side. We recently caught up with him to talk about writing thrillers, his career as a man of dark letters and his intersecting relationship with Stephen King.)

DaRK PaRTY: What attracts you as a writer to the horror and thriller genre?

Michael: To be honest, I don't understand why anyone would write anything else. These are the genres where you can try to write tense, involving fiction, treading the fine line between reality and otherworldliness, and exploring the darkest and most vital aspects of human nature to your heart's content - while at the same time dealing with everyday existence just as fully and deeply as any other genre.

So why not? I've tried writing other types of fiction, but within a few pages my fingers always end up steering toward the shadows. I've given up fighting that impulse, to be honest.

DP: “The Straw Men” (2002) was remarkable for its tense paranoia -- especially since it was released right after 9/11 -- and ability to keep readers tearing through the pages. What's the origin of the storyline and your thoughts on the book?

Michael: Like a lot of books, I suspect, the original idea came not to occupy a huge part of the final narrative. The question I initially found myself considering was why, given the disadvantages at the time, humankind stopped its hunter-gatherer existence and began farming.

Kind of an abstract point, I'll admit, but no-one's really nailed the question, and so I came up with a (rather unlikely) explanation - which I then realized could be used to rationalize very unpleasant ways of living. And from this came the idea of “The Straw Men.” As the series progressed, the conspiracy became more complex and its roots began to draw from further back in history. And these parts came to me with surprising ease, as if I was remembering something I already knew. I've almost forgotten that some of it (probably) isn't true, in
fact.

DP: You are adapting Stephen King's short story "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" about a woman obsessed with finding shorter routes through the back roads of Maine and finding herself in "another place" as a result. What is it about the story that fascinates you?

Michael: I remember reading it years and years ago, and it striking a very vivid chord - even when placed amongst all the other great short stories in that collection. I know when I was writing the first draft of the adaptation, just before Christmas, that the thing that really spoke to me (as it often does with King's work, especially that written in the last five to 10 years) is the melancholy, the quiet and very real horror of chances missed and the irrevocability of time's passing.

Of course that traditional King element of other realms existing just to the side of ours has great appeal too (and is something I often touched on in my Michael Marshall Smith novels), but it's his grip on the human that's always really appealed to me about his work. For such a short story, it packs an amazing punch.

DP: King has written blurbs for your books -- and called "The Straw Men" brilliantly written and scary as hell. Have you met King? What's your relationship with him?

Michael: I don't really have one. I did meet him once - very briefly - at the UK launch of his novel “Bag of Bones.” It was the first time he'd been in the UK for quite some time, and his publishers threw a big party for the book, which I was lucky enough to be invited to.

A mutual friend brought King over and introduced us. Sadly I was rendered utterly inarticulate, muttered something inaudible, and King moved on.

To receive his blurb for “The Straw Men” a number of years later was
definitely one of the highlights of my career. King was probably the thing that inspired me most to start writing, and to receive any kind of validation from him -- Well, you can probably imagine.

DP: You've just published "The Intruders" in 2007 (with the paperback due this year). Can you tell us about your latest thriller?

Michael: Well, it's a step to the side from the last three novels – “The Straw Men” books -- in that I've allowed myself to re-introduce a few slightly otherworldly elements. I don't think they're incredible, but they're not based completely in consensual reality, so I guess perhaps it represents a move back toward the horror field that I started out in.

Labels: 5 Questions, interview, literature, Michael Marshall Smith, Stephen King, thrillers

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Now then. This is the Lou Archer School of Hard Knocks for Private Eyes. I’m Head Master Continental Op. To my left is Professor Travis McGee and to my right is Professor Mike Hammer.

We’d like to welcome our ex-police officers, ex-city reporters and ex-military officers to the first day of school. We ask that you leave your liquor bottles, bad attitudes, failed marriages, propensity to use violence to solve difficult problems, and wise-cracks outside of the classroom.

Yes, Spenser, this means you. And please, can you ask Ms. Susan Silverman to step outside? This orientation is for students only. Thank you.

We have a full day ahead of us so let me outline the classes.

First period we’ll get right to the physical aspects of the job with “How to Take a Punch.” Then we’ll move on to “Serial Killers, Hitmen & Mobsters” followed by “Heart of Gold Economics: How to Earn a Living without Charging Clients.” Then it is off to the aforementioned “Beat Down” class.

Then we’ll break for lunch: steaks (cook rare, of course), fries, cold beers and black coffee. After the smoking break we’ll continue with classes.

Fifth period will be “Insults: Delivery is the Key.” Sixth period will be “Handguns: Blow Away Bad Guys Not Bystanders.” Then we’ll end the first day with “Dark Musings: How your Hometown Shapes Your Attitude.” And yes, Mr. Stoner, Cincinnati counts as a city.

Here is the syllabus for the first semester – five modern private eye novels we think rise to the top of genre:

L.A. Requiem by Robert Crais (2000)

Crais has developed a reputation for hit or miss mystery novels – especially with his main protagonist L.A. private detective Elvis Cole. “L.A. Requiem,” the eighth novel in the Elvis series, is his best effort by far. In fact, “L.A. Requiem” is one of the best private eye novels in the last 10 years. The reason is because Crais expands his usual first person narrative by interweaving a third person perspective that focuses on Elvis’ partner, the mysterious Joe Pike. Elvis can get a little, well, annoyingly sentimental at times. There’s none of that here. “L.A. Requiem” is a tightly plotted thriller that revolves around the murder of Pike’s ex-girlfriend and features great characters and Crais’ best writing to date.

Burning Echo by Lee Child (2002)

Former MP Jack Reacher is one of the toughest characters in private eye fiction. The beauty of the Reacher novels are their ability to straddle genres – some of the books are military thrillers, others action adventure and still others classic private eye mysteries. “Burning Echo” is the latter. It’s one of those novels where the bad guys are really “bad” and the good guy gets to deliver a severe punishment that has the reader fully onboard with Old Testament justice. Such is the power of Lee Child’s prose. “Burning Echo” takes place in the badlands of Texas and presents an off-the-wall plot concerning a damsel in distress. But the plot isn’t as important as the action and the adrenaline. Hop on board this one.

The Devil Knows You’re Dead by Lawrence Block (1999)

Any one of the masterful Matthew Scudder novels could have made this list, but “The Devil Knows You’re Dead” tops the list because of its literary ambitions. Scudder is an ex-cop and ex-alcoholic who works as an unlicensed private eye in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. The story here is about Scudder investigating the murder of a prominent lawyer by a homeless Vietnam veteran – at least on the surface. In fact, the story is about Scudder and his decisions in life. He’s reached a crossroads about those decisions in “The Devil Knows You’re Dead.” But like all the Scudder novels we also get a satisfying, gratifying mystery.

In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke (1994)

This is the sixth novel in the long-running Dave Robicheaux series – and the best. James Lee Burke seems to have run out of gas on the character in recent years, but “In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead” has the author in top form (and what a title!). The book is about a psychopathic mobster disrupting a movie set by murdering women and features a spooky ghost story as Robicheaux communes with long-dead confederate general, John Bell Hood. No one paints a setting better than Burke – and readers will be able to feel, smell, and hear the Louisiana bayou. Simply a great mystery.

The Straw Men by Michael Marshall (2002)

This is one of the finest debut mysteries – ever. It’s a paranoid mix of “X-Files,” Stephen King and a good, old fashioned private eye novel. There are two seemingly disparate plots that meet in the middle, but the primary character is ex-CIA analyst Ward Hopkins who is investigating the mysterious death of his parents. “The Straw Men” is the rare novel that keeps the reader absolutely going in circles trying to figure out the intricate plot. Do yourself a favor and get this book.

Labels: books, literature, mysteries, novels, Private eyes, thrillers

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