Mike Monson: How I Create

 

Mike Monson is co-editor of the crime e-zine All Due Respect, along with Chris Rhatigan, and also the author of his own short fiction, including the collection Criminal Love and Other Stories and the noir novellas What Happens in Reno and The Scent of New Death. His latest work is the novel Tussinland from All Due Respect Books, about a desperate man trapped in a middle-class hell who develops an addiction to DM, or dextromethorphan, the drug found in cough medicines.

In honor of the book's launch, Mike stopped by In Reference to Murder to talk a little about how he goes about writing and creating his fiction:

How I Write/Create Character(s) and Plot

Since I am now gearing up to start a new novella or novel, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I write, how I create.

I know that what I want to do is sit down and create characters on paper and then outline a plot. And, then, write the book I’ve outlined. Wouldn’t that be great? Apparently a lot of fiction writers do just that and it sounds wonderful. Work it all out, step-by-step and plot-point by plot-point, then just write the damn thing. So simple, so easy, so … organized.

I tried to do it with my latest project. I had a basic idea, more of a feeling and an image and some kind of urgency to bring some story impulse to life that I just know will be original and cool.

So I sat down at the computer and started typing character descriptions and a plot summary like a real professional writer. And, guess what? It sucked. So dull, so cliché. If I had to read the book I’d outlined, I’d kill myself.

Apparently, the organized part of me is a boring asshole.

Then, as I’ve done with my previous stories and previous novellas and novels—I went back to a blank document and just started writing until I found the voice, until I found the story, the story that only seems to come along if I just open myself up to it and write with a wildness that doesn’t care about anything other than being heard.

And now, guess what? The story came to life, the narrator came to life, all the other characters came to life. A real story emerged almost immediately: Something real and true and compelling. Something that I’m pretty sure had never been told before. (Not that anyone else will think so, but that is how it felt, as opposed to the outlining method I tried before.)

Great.

There is one problem though. This method is difficult, and it kind of hurts my brain. Sometimes when I’m open, and writing and going wild, something comes up that doesn’t really work, so I have to delete, back up, and try again. And again, and again. Until what I have is something that continues to feel true and original to me.

This is hard, so hard. And a lot of work.

But, usually, after I’ve gotten about forty or fifty percent in, I can start to do some outlining, some organizing, and it seems to kind of work …. As long as I’m open to new discoveries that aren’t in the stupid boring outline.

That’s me, that’s how I write. And, guess what? I’m okay with it, as long as it keeps working.

Catch up with Mike via his website, Twitter Feed or Facebook page. Tussinland is now available via Amazon in digital and paperback formats.

Always Have a Plan B

 

Plan B Magazine debuted in 2013, the brainchild of Darusha Wehm, as a way to showcase short crime fiction. She envisioned it as a free-to-readers publication they can read and/or listen to online and also in portable, affordable DRM-free ebooks. Wehm also was determined to pay authors (which is getting rarer in the world of fiction and nonfiction publications), with hopes of attracting top notch authors and original stories. In its short history, Plan B has published a story by Mike Miner, “The Little Outlaw,” that was shortlisted for a Derringer Award, and several other Plan B authors are Derringer winners, including Patti Abbott, Nick Andreychuk, Stephen D. Rogers and yours truly.

To help keep this publication going for a third year, Wehm organized an Indigogo campaign to raise funds for the project. You can help support Plan B in levels as low as $1 (less than a cup of coffee these days), going on up to $100 to sponsor a story or be immortalized in a story by Nick Andreychuk. If you pledge in the $75 category, you can get a story critique from Wehm or Aislinn Batstone. I rather like the $40 category, where you can fill your e-reader with books from Plan B authors (including my own novel Played to Death and story collection, False Shadows).

In the past several years, we have seen the demise of crime zines including Crime and Suspense, Future Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Great Mystery and Suspense, Hardluck Stories, Midnight Screaming, Mouth Full of Bullets, Murdaland, Necrotic Tissue, Nefarious, Nossa Morte, Pear Noir, Powder Burn Flash, Pulp Modern, Pulp Pusher, Shred of Evidence, and Sniplits, among others. If you enjoy short crime fiction and mysteries, want to see them continue, and want to help out a fledgling publication, head on over to the Plan B Indiegogo page and make a contribution.

You can also check out some of the "How I Came to Write This Story" blog posts featuring Plan B fiction that Patti Abbott has been featuring over at her blog. As PEN winner George Saunders notes, “When you read a short story, you come out a little more aware and a little more in love with the world around you.”

X Marks a Giveaway!

 Author Les Roberts has penned 23 novels, close to a dozen short stories, eight screenplays and countless newspaper articles and reviews, but is perhaps best known to readers for his Slovenian detective, Milan Jacovich. What you might not know about Roberts is he's also a Hollywood veteran, producer of such shows as The Hollywood Squares, The Lucy Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. His crime fiction success resulted nominations for both the Shamus and the Anthony Awards, and he's served as past president of the Private Eye Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League.

Roberts’ new book features the return of hit man Dominick Candiotti, a dangerous and conflicted assassin who first appeared in The Strange Death of Father Candy (Minotaur Books, 2011). In Wet Work, Candiotti has grown weary of the violence and a life of temporary identities and wants to leave the profession. His anonymous boss, code-named “Og,” isn’t happy with the decision; he turns the tables on his employee and assigns fellow agents to eliminate him. Now on the run, Candiotti fights for his life, trying to stay one step ahead of deadly pursuers while he tracks down his nemesis boss and uncovers secrets from his own past. It’s a gripping tale about the struggle for power and a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse that leads through several U.S. cities and beyond.

The publisher is offering up three print copies of Wet Work to three separate winners! Just send an e-mail to bvlawson.com with the subject "Les Roberts Giveaway," and you'll be entered in the random drawing. Deadline for entries is Sunday, October 12.