Author R&R with Michael Landweber

Michael Landweber has worked as a copy editor at the Japan Times, as an editorial assistant at the Associated Press, and worked for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and for the State Department. He also served as Associate Director for a non-profit called Partnership for a Secure America, which promotes bipartisanship in foreign policy and national security. His short stories have appeared in literary magazines such as Gargoyle, Fourteen Hills, Fugue, Barrelhouse, and American Literary Review. He is an Associate Editor at Potomac Review and a contributor for the Washington Independent Review of Books.

His new novel from Crooked Lane Books is The Damage Done, set in an Earth where violence has suddenly and inexplicably become a thing of the past. Fists can’t hit, guns don’t kill, and bombs can’t destroy. The U.S. president must find a new way to wage war. The Pope ponders whether the Commandment “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is still relevant. A dictator takes his own life after realizing that the violence he used to control his people is no longer an option.

In the first days after the change, seven people from different walks of life—who have all experienced violence—struggle to adapt to this radical new paradigm. As their fates intertwine, the promise and perils of this new world begin to take shape. Although violence is no longer possible, that doesn’t mean that some among us won’t keep trying. Mindless cruelty is still alive and well, and those bent on destruction will seek the most devious means to achieve it.

Michael Landweber stopped by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the book:

My approach to research is low key and ad hoc. Of course, I think research is important. If you are writing a novel about 16^th century France, you better study up. You weren’t there. Similarly, if your book is a military thriller that mainly takes place on a submarine, you’re going to need to learn a little something about submarines. But those are not the novels I write. So, in my own work, I believe research is important when necessary. The key is knowing when you don’t know what you need to know.

I often describe my books as literary fiction with a Twilight Zone twist. I start with a what-if question. What if you got trapped inside the brain of your younger self? What if time stopped and you were the only one not frozen? What if teleportation was a commercial means of transportation? And my most recent novel, The Damage Done, presents a world where violence is no longer possible. As you can see, most of my work hinges on ideas that are not particularly researchable.

Take my last book, The In Between, in which a couple loses their son while teleporting to Japan. When I started the book, I was very curious about whether anyone thought teleportation was even possible. (I would also note that good research is only successful if you are actually curious about the topic you are researching.) Turns out that subatomic particles may be able to teleport in quantum computing. That’s cool. But not that helpful for my story of losing a child somewhere between Omaha and Tokyo. So that was a research rabbit hole I didn’t go that far down.

And that maybe is my main thought about research. The assumption is that every effort is a deep dive. But for me research can be quite limited and still valid. The goal for me is not to become the expert in every aspect of every thing I write about. Most of what I need to research does not require an extensive bibliography or interview schedule. My goal is to immerse the reader in the story I’m telling. So for me, research tends to be a series of targeted jobs. In and out, find out what I need, no fuss.

That doesn’t mean I’m not obsessive about what I’m writing. I spend countless hours making sure that the rules I’ve created for my worlds are airtight. In The Damage Done that meant creating a mental catalogue of all the ways people commit violence against each other and countering each with a creative way to thwart it. The time that I might have been reading reference books or chatting up experts is instead wiled away in an internal debate over things like whether bumping into someone purposefully on a subway platform constitutes a minor act of violence. There was research to be done, things I needed to know like how to make a Molotov cocktail or where people cross the Rio Grande. But each time I discover one of those factual stumbling blocks, I find what I need with as much efficiency as I can muster. I don’t linger.

So maybe that’s my true mantra on research. No loitering.

But who knows? Maybe I’ve got a historical novel or a submarine thriller in me somewhere that will require a more methodical style of research. For now though, I’m sticking with my need to know approach.

 

You can learn more about Michael and The Damage Done via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Damage Done is available from Penguin Random House via all major booksellers in ebook, print, and audiobook formats.

Author R&R with Tessa Wegert

Tessa Wegert is a journalist and former digital media strategist. Her business and marketing articles have appeared in such publications as Forbes, The Huffington Post, Adweek, and The Economist. She grew up in Quebec near the border of Vermont and now lives with her husband and children in Coastal Connecticut, where she writes while studying martial arts and dance. Tessa is also the author of the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, beginning with Death in the Family. The latest installment in that series is Dead Wind.

In Dead Wind, a body is discovered on Wolfe Island under the shadow of an enormous wind turbine. Senior Investigator, Shana Merchant, arriving on the scene with fellow investigator, Tim Wellington, can’t shake the feeling that she knows the victim—and the subsequent identification sends shockwaves through their community in the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York.

Politics, power, passion...there are dark undercurrents in Shana’s new home, and finding the killer means dredging up her new friends and neighbors’ old grudges and long-kept secrets. That is, if the killer is from the community at all. For Shana’s keeping a terrible secret of her own: eighteen months ago she escaped from serial killer Bram Blake’s clutches. But has he followed her...to kill again?

Tessa stopped by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing her books:

 

Like most authors, I have a folder of story ideas that I refer to – even if those “ideas” are nothing more than a few overheard words or abstract lines – but for me, the writing process often starts with setting. That was the case with Death in the Family, the first book in the Shana Merchant series. I knew I wanted to write a mystery that paid homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and the Golden Age detective fiction I had always loved. I’d been visiting the Thousand Islands in Upstate New York for years, and setting a mystery on one of those islands, in a grand historic home, just made sense.

Setting inspired my new crime novel, Dead Wind, as well. A few years ago, prior to starting the series, I visited Wolfe Island in Ontario, Canada. It’s a small, flat, sparsely-populated island that houses a wind farm, and the turbines are absolutely massive. I was there on a day when a storm was rolling in, and a story unfolded right in front of me: a body found at the base of one of those towering turbines, the local police rushing to collect evidence before the rain, and a female investigator wondering whether the crime could be linked to the serial murderer who’d been terrorizing the community for months. When I sat down to write the book, which is the third in my series, I returned to the photos and videos I had taken that day, and I was off to the races.

I think that for mysteries in particular, a strong sense of place helps to pull the reader into the story and keep them invested. Setting can also help to shape the plot. In the Thousand Islands, where Dead Wind is set, there’s a big class divide – you have the year-round locals, many of them in the hospitality and restaurant trades, living alongside tourists from cities across the Northeast and the uber-wealthy owners of the area’s many private islands. In reality, everyone gets along beautifully, but when it comes to writing crime fiction, there’s no limit to the number of stories an environment like that can produce.

 

You can find out more about Tessa and her books via her website and follow her on Facebook and Twitter. Dead Wind is available in ebook and print formats from all major booksellers.

Author R&R with Len Joy

Len Joy's short fiction has appeared in FWRICTION: Review, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Johnny America, Specter Magazine, Washington Pastime, Hobart, Annalemma, Boston Literary Magazine, and Pindeldyboz. He's also a nationally ranked triathlete and competes internationally representing the United States as part of TEAM USA. His first novel, American Past Time, was published in 2014 and was followed in 2018 by Better Days and in 2020 with Everyone Dies Famous.

In his latest work, Dry Heat, the day Arizonan All-American Joey Blade turns 18, he learns his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, he's betrayed by his new girlfriend, and he's arrested for the attempted murder of two police officers. Then things go from bad to even worse.

Len Joy stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about writing and researching his work:

In my first novel, American Past Time, the main character, Dancer Stonemason, is a minor league baseball player in the 1950s who pitches a perfect game that ends up costing him his chance to make it to the major leagues. The novel covers the twenty years after the cheering stops as Dancer struggles to find his way in postwar America. My third novel, Everyone Dies Famous, picks up Dancer’s story thirty years later, with Dancer a grief-stricken old man, trying to come to grips with the death of his son. In my second novel, Better Days, the main character, Darwin Burr, has coasted through life on the fading memory of high school heroics. But when his boyhood vanishes, he risks everything to save him.

My new novel, Dry Heat, is the story of Joey Blade, All-American high school football player. On the day Joey turns 18, he learns his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, is betrayed by his new girlfriend, and is arrested for the attempted murder of two police officers.  

I was a good high school athlete in a small town back in the day when it was possible to play three sports. I have always been interested in the life lived after the crowds have all gone home. In my novels, Dancer struggled, Darwin coasted and Joey went to prison.

Put simply, I am following that adage, to “write what you know.” I understand athletes, the rush of having a crowd cheer for you, the wistfulness of no longer being able to do something that you loved, the challenge of moving on and growing up.

Dry Heat is set in Phoenix during the period from 1999 to 2014. Joey Blade, is an All-American high school football star, planning to attend the University of Arizona on a football scholarship in the fall. His family owns the largest engine rebuilder in the southwest.

In 1988 I bought a large engine rebuilder in Phoenix and for the next fifteen years I operated that business with my brother-in-law. On a summer evening in 1996, the son of one of my employees was riding in a car with two other boys and they were involved in a road rage incident with another vehicle. One of the boys fired a gun at the other car. It turned out that the driver of the other vehicle, who had instigated the confrontation, was an off-duty cop. They were all arrested, but the other two disappeared before their trial and my friend’s son was the only one prosecuted. He was looking at twenty years in prison if he lost at trial, so he took a plea deal for three years. One foolish mistake and his life was changed forever.

In my novel, on the day Joey Blade turns 18, he learns his ex-girlfriend is pregnant, is betrayed by his new girlfriend, and after a road rage incident where he is the innocent bystander, he is arrested for the attempted murder of two police officers.

It is not the story of my friend’s son. But that incident made me think about how easy it can be for any of us to have our lives turned upside-down in an instant. I imagined a character who had everything going for him and lost it. The challenge of the novel was not describing the incident or even the courtroom drama. The challenge was figuring out what Joey Blade does with the rest of his life.

I am a strong believer in what Robert Boswell’s describes as “The Half-Known World.” Boswell maintains that it is not necessary to know everything about your character. Let your imagine roam. Give your character the opportunity to surprise you. 

It is important, of course, to get the details right. It was easy for me to recreate the setting of Phoenix circa 2000, because I lived there. I didn’t have any experience with gangs or the criminal justice system, but I had good contacts. The mother of the boy who went to prison shared with me her son’s perspective as well as her own. One of my beta readers is a criminal attorney and he helped me with the trial procedures. I found numerous articles and blogs on gang activity.

It is easy to get caught up in the research, but it is important to have a light touch. The goal is not to show the reader how much you know. The goal is to tell a good story and keep the reader turning the page to find out what happens next.

You can find out more about Len Joy via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Dry Heat is now available via all major online booksellers.