In many ways, humorists are similar to–and yet the opposite of– rubbernecking journalists. They also point out freak accidents, murders, thefts, and just ordinary politicos caught with their pants down in public. Comics don’t take it so seriously, though. These things happen, they say, so don’t worry about it. For God’s sake, just go outside and breath some fresh air once in a while.
It was poet Dylan Thomas who once advised people to rage against the dying of the light, with Sylvia Plath as cue-card holder. But if he’d been a humorist, Thomas would have told people to wave a candle at the line of approaching super-storms between swigs of Coke Zero. No one rages anymore, except guys with AK 47s and three sheets to the wind. We’ve all decided that nothing will ever change, least of all our own addictions. My question? With Thomas gone, aren’t all the hack TV journalists out there (who focus on Hollywood award nominees and those walking jewelry stores known as rap stars and divas) REALLY saying that the life of the average Joe or Mary “Toe-Tag” Smith is pathetic and miserable by comparison, as well as meaningless and random? People sure seem to be getting the message by the way they drive in traffic.
And what about all the Chinese watching American TV in Beijing by satellite? What do they take away from it? According to Jared Diamond, they want what they see: our SUVs, camera cell phones, plasma TVs, Harleys, 20 oz. steaks and supersized steak-cut fries. Plus they want our central air and hot tubs, too, and our marble kitchens, and maybe a big hearth with a big roaring fire. Thing is, though, if they get what they want the world will become unlivable. Our solution? Combine rubbernecking news with Hollywood news, and broadcast it to Beijing, and quick. Because it’s already too late for us.
SATIRE– A tongue-in-cheek mockery, usually in literary format, and particularly with the rich or powerful as target. Examples:
“Yacht Race Massacres Fifty”
Fifty spectators to the Pre-Oscar Celebrity Yacht Race in Long Beach were accidentally killed last night when a Celebrity Cruise Line ship piloted by Tom Cruise grazed a Carnival Cruise Line ship piloted by Ted Cruz, and veered into the stands. “The two ships were supposed to pass in the night, but kissed off each other,” harbormaster Eric Ericson reported to the Long Beach Tattler after hours phone desk. “Please tell folks, if you must, that all the celebs involved in the incident are truly, truly safe, and that anybody who is anybody wishes to express their deepest condolences to those who are not.”
ARCHEOLOGY– The science involving the excavation of old artifacts buried in the earth, and the interpretation thereof. Not to be attempted at home. Example: Jimbo “Jonesy” Jones, Newark, NJ:
June 24) While in search of fossils this afternoon in my back yard, have run across a jawbone similar to the one found by Dr. Alfred Zimmer in Ethiopia last summer, which HE claimed was 4 million years old. (Or 40 million–he wasn’t too sure about the decimal point). What this may mean, I have no idea except that perhaps college textbooks need to be rewritten so students can’t resell their old ones next year. Plan to take this jawbone home and reconstruct a skull from it, hopefully. On the way back must remember to stop at the library and check out GRAY’S ANATOMY and an unabridged copy of 100 SCIENCE PROJECTS YOU CAN BUILD WITHOUT LEAVING THE KITCHEN.
June 26) Have encountered minor difficulties in my work with plaster molds and the posterior portion of the skull. My enthusiasm remains high, however, for in my zeal to unravel the mystery I inadvertently (but nonetheless brilliantly) substituted Red Band Flour for Plaster of Paris. Such accidents in the past, we are told, resulted in many inventions and breakthroughs in Science for such men as Edison, Goddard, and Herbert Bloom (who once constructed a Brontosaurus from one broken tooth, 900 bags of Quickrete, and–as accident would have it–19 bales of chicken wire.)
Lincoln Child is part of a collaborative writing team. Together with Douglas Preston, they have produced several #bestsellers, including RIPTIDE, THUNDERHEAD, RELIC (made into a movie starring Linda Hunt), MOUNT DRAGON, and RELIQUARY. One of theirs, THE ICE LIMIT, was about an unusual meteorite collected from an island off Chile. At the time of this interview their new title was THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES.
JONATHAN LOWE: Many bestselling authors are teaming with lesser known writers in order to produce more books these days. This includes Clancy, Cussler, Clarke, and even Ludlum before he passed away. You are an exception, as you write all of your novels together, as equals. How did your partnership come about?
LINCOLN CHILD: We met in the mid-80s, when I was an editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York. I was fascinated by the American Museum of Natural History and was looking for someone to do an armchair tour / history of the place. I noticed that Doug Preston, who worked for the museum, wrote interesting historical columns for their magazine. So I took him to lunch at the Russian Tea Room and pitched the idea to him. He’d always wanted to write a full-length book and the project appealed to him. That was the beginning of a non-fiction title called DINOSAURS IN THE ATTIC, which he wrote and I edited. Over the course of the project, we became friends. Afterwards, he sent me an idea for a murder mystery, set in a museum. I responded that murder mysteries were hard to do well, and (in my opinion anyway) a dime a dozen. But why not a techno-thriller, set in a fictitious natural history museum? It seemed the ideal place for one. And why not write it with me? I was in the process of leaving the publishing industry by that time and my own nascent writing interests–which had more or less dried up while working so closely with other people’s manuscripts–had begun to reassert themselves. That was how RELIC got started.
LOWE: How does the collaboration work in terms of outline, first draft, editing?
CHILD: Although there are exceptions, the way we have generally collaborated is this: first, we brainstorm extensively, sometimes over the phone, sometimes in the form of letters faxed or emailed back and forth. Next, I put together a rough outline of an upcoming series of chapters, based on our discussions. Sometimes we toss this outline back and forth, adding things, removing things, posing questions, pointing out problem points. Then Doug writes a rough draft of those upcoming chapters, based on the outline. I then revise those chapters. Sometimes my revisions are relatively light; other times, they significantly rework Doug’s originals. At one time, I used to do a final pass over the entire manuscript–the literary equivalent of a Zamboni machine–to give the manuscript a uniform feel. But over time, I think our individual styles have really begun to approach each others–I’ve picked up traits from Doug, and Doug from me, and so when we’re working together on a book that last pass of mine is no longer necessary. We both look at the finished manuscript, add our individual bits of polish, and that’s it.
LOWE: Do you ever argue vigorously over which way to go?
CHILD: Of course we do! As Doug once put it in an interview, “sometimes we argue like an old married couple.” In the early days, we were extremely diplomatic with each other. But now, we’ve worked together long enough that we can put forth our ideas, or critique what the other has done, in relatively blunt tones, without fearing (usually) for bruised egos. Our arguments and discussions are healthy things, however. With two minds at work, there are twice as many ideas to choose from. And with somebody else looking over your shoulder, you are less likely to slip unconsciously into self-indulgent writing, or to travel down some dead-end path in the story.
LOWE: The dust jacket says your background is in story anthology editing. Who are some of the writers you’ve published, and have you written short stories for magazines yourself?
CHILD: Actually, most of what I edited was novels, by both American and British authors. I edited several hundred books while an editor at St. Martin’s, primarily #mysteries, #thrillers, and historical novels, but also non-fiction books as diverse as the notation of Western music and a certain armchair tour of the American Museum of Natural History by one Douglas Preston. I’ve been involved with the work of such authors as James Herriot (ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL) and M. M. Kaye (THE FAR PAVILIONS). I wrote several short stories in my callow youth, and submitted one or two for publication, but they were never printed. Since high school, I really haven’t thought much about short story writing. I do have an idea for a really chilling short story, but I’ve been so involved with novels I haven’t had time to put it on paper! Some day, I do hope to publish another anthology of ghost and #horror stories. If that ever comes together, perhaps I’ll write that story of mine for inclusion.
LOWE: Describe you new novel, if you will.
CHILD: Our seventh thriller, CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, has what we think is a great hook: a developer is razing a group of old tenements in lower Manhattan to make way for a new high-rise tower. They break into an old subterranean chamber, and a workman goes in to investigate. He finds what is basically a charnel: the walled-up remains of dozens of people, killed brutally. It appears to have been a New York Jack the Ripper, working unsuspected in the late nineteenth century. These ancient crimes become even more grisly when it turns out the murderer appears to have had the skill of a surgeon, and he was attempting in his fiendish work to find an elixir of life prolongation. And then, in modern-day Manhattan, similar killings begin to surface. Is it a lunatic, copycat murderer…or did the diabolical “surgeon,” in fact, succeed?
LOWE: An interesting twist on the old serial killer theme. Almost like a combo horror/suspense with a historical perspective. So, these cabinets referred to are like minature museums which used to be displayed, right? How did you research them?
CHILD: As you know, Doug Preston worked for several years at the American Museum of Natural History in NY. He did quite a bit of research on the old cabinets of curiosity for his first book, so we were able to tap into his expertise for our new novel. I believe that some of today’s natural history museums helped get their start by buying up the old cabinets, too.
LOWE: Actor Rene Auberjonois does a great job with the narration. It sounds as though one is listening to a museum curator, with his delicate and precise diction. Of course he’s best remembered for #StarTrek: Deep Space Nine. But I wanted to ask you about sequels, considering that a sequel to your book, THE ICE LIMIT, might explain some things. Do you not plan on writing any more sequels, or is the ending to that novel a suggestion to the reader or listener to use his or her imagination for closure? Perhaps just a final chilling question mark?
CHILD: We are not planning to write a sequel to THE ICE LIMIT. With each book we write, Doug and I try to bring something fresh and new to our readers. That’s what keeps things interesting for us, and hopefully for our readers as well. The one time we wrote a sequel — RELIQUARY, the sequel to RELIC — we found it very difficult. We refused to succumb to “sequelitis,” the kind of tired retread of an original story that neither Doug nor myself can bear to read. We had to make sure RELIQUARY was a unique and interesting book on its own, and that was challenging. There were lots of technical problems, too, such as balancing the needs of returning RELIC readers with those readers who had not read RELIC — how to bring them up to speed without boring the “old” readers? We also think, as you yourself suggest, the conclusion of THE ICE LIMIT is more effective if we leave that chilling question mark hanging for the reader/listener’s own imagination to answer. However, I will say that, in a rather interesting if subtle way, what ultimately happens in THE ICE LIMIT has an impact on Nora Kelly, the hero of both THUNDERHEAD and our new novel.
LOWE: Interesting, and I agree with you on sequels . . . I generally hate them too! Now, audiobooks are increasing in popularity as more people simply can’t find the time to read print books. Do you ever get fan mail from people who’ve heard your audiobooks as opposed to having read your books in print?
CHILD: Yes, we get a lot of fan mail from listeners, as well as from readers. Personally, I think that audiobooks are a great way for people to enjoy “reading” — whether it’s popular fiction, literature, poetry, biography, or whatever. I have a friend who has listened to the complete works of Patrick O’Brien on tape, in unabridged form, while commuting to work. It makes so much sense: why just stare out the window of a train or car when you can be enjoying a book? But it goes far beyond commuting, of course. For someone who does not have the time to read, or for some other reason prefers tape to print, audiobooks are an invaluable resource.
LOWE: You had a stand alone novel something along the lines of West World or Jurassic Park?
CHILD: I’ve long been fascinated by today’s first-rank theme parks. The way they employ all sorts of subtle psychology to manipulate guests and keep them happy; the way they micro-manage all the various details of the experience of visiting a park; the way cutting-edge technology is used in everything from designing rides to tracking visitor flow. I wanted to write a thriller that would lift the curtain that’s been carefully placed between the park that guests see and the behind-the-scenes park they’re never allowed to see: the offices, labs, workshops, tunnels, security areas. The more a park becomes computerized, I thought, the more vulnerable it becomes to a sophisticated penetration. UTOPIA is about a group of high-tech hackers who hold an ultra-modern theme park hostage and demand an outrageous ransom. It’s also about the man who designed the park’s robotics… and who is the only man who can stop the villains. Stopping them is especially important to him because his only daughter is at the park that day, and as such is in grave danger.
On the day before Halloween, 1938, millions of Americans tuned in to a popular radio drama program hosted by Orson Welles. Unfortunately for listeners that day, Welles’ adaptation of “The War of the Worlds” presented the radio drama as if it were an actual news broadcast. Fake updates described a “huge flaming object” dropping from the sky near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Actors read lines like “Good heavens, something’s wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake They look like tentacles to me! This is the most extraordinary experience. I can’t find words. I’m pulling this microphone with me as I talk. I’ll have to stop the description until I’ve taken a new position. Hold on, will you please, I’ll be back in a minute!” While the beginning of this broadcast indicated its fictional nature, such an explanation wasn’t repeated until more than half an hour later. In the meantime, the panic that ensued would soon make legitimate news headlines, with stories of people hiding in cellars with loaded guns, or wrapping their heads in wet towels for protection from Martian poison gas. It all prompted New York Tribune columnist Dorothy Thompson to declare that, “All unwittingly, Mr. Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air have made one of the most fascinating and important demonstrations of all time. They have proved that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic proposition as to create a nation-wide panic. They have demonstrated the appalling dangers and enormous effectiveness of popular and theatrical demagoguery.”
This was the Golden Age of Radio, which didn’t fade until the newer technology of television took over in the 1950s. Oddly, the effectiveness of radio wasn’t diminished even by World War II, since news broadcasts spurred a need for escapist evening drama, particularly thriller drama. During a typical wartime season, then, radio networks offered 25 programmed hours each week of shows like “Suspense” and “The Shadow.” Even later, when television was young, many successful radio series were adapted for the small screen, like “Gunsmoke,” which could then be heard on radio and seen on TV simultaneously. In fact, only when the number of TV sets began to near the number of radio sets in American homes did the medium die as a popular addiction.
But has it died completely? Not if you ask Steve Karesh, whose radio drama Sonic Theater channel was heard nationwide on the even newer technology known as XM Satellite radio. Beamed from space to strategic repeater stations nationwide, XM radio can be heard anywhere in America, fade free, with an offering of both old and new, including Bob & Ray, Imagination Theater, Alien Worlds, Twilight Zone, Radio Tales, and L.A. Theater Works productions. And what has listener feedback been like? “I’ve received hundreds of emails from people, half of whom are fans of the comedy plays and half the dramatic plays,” Karesh told me. “I believe we’re providing something that hasn’t been available for a long time, and I have no doubt that we’re influencing producers to format new works in lengths of thirty minutes to meet our needs, too.”
For a deeper look at those producers, and the state of radio and audio drama production today, I interviewed Sue Zizza, and asked about her own history with the medium. As Executive Director of what has become the National Audio Theatre Festivals, Zizza also teaches a course on the subject of audio drama at New York University, and credits success to directors like Charlie Potter, Yuri Rasovsky and Tom Lopez, along with audio artists like Marjorie Van Haltern, David Ossman and others.
“Back in 1979,” Zizza recalled, “when I was on staff at a community radio station in Missouri, we put feelers out across the country to other dramatists in the field. The intent was to see who was still doing what, and to form a new group of professionals, utilizing funds provided at the time by public radio, the NEA and CPB. Then when the suggestion was made to form a training event, the Midwest Radio Drama Workshop was born. Now, our week long workshops in Missouri introduce people at all skill levels to audio drama production.” As Zizza further explains it, “We believe that if you learn how to produce an audio play, where you’re blending voice and music and sound effects and silence, then you can take those skills and become a better documentary, film or music producer, because what you learn through telling your story as audio drama really hones your storytelling craft.”
In addition to week long workshops, the NATF also sponsors weekend events around the country, focused on one particular skill, and at the end an actual performance is staged so that these learned skills can be practiced. “Take Lindsay Ellison, for example,” Zizza points out, “who added audio production and direction to her stage direction and acting skills. Now she’s working with Tom Lopez on the post production of her play. Others take classes in voice acting, writing, producing, directing and technology. After learning the fundamentals, they mount a live show as an effects artist or technical assistant, and also network with others at meals and social events.”
In describing the unique challenges of audio drama, Zizza cites knowing how to make voices unique “because obviously there are no body types or hair colors as in stage acting,” and also knowing when and how often to utilize sound effects “because too much sound design only confuses the listener, and should only be used to support the action, identify locales, or move characters around a space.” In short, the listener must be clear at all moments about what is going on. And that rule has never changed.
But hasn’t the equipment changed since radio’s Golden Age? “Not really,” claims Zizza. “Many of the props I use today were inherited from my mentor Al Shaffer, who did sound effects for Bob & Ray, among others. He taught me how to do horses, walk down stairs, etc. The only thing that’s really changed is that the microphones are more sensitive now, so you can’t get away with using an old-time prop like cellophane to make fire. Although corn starch is still used for walking through snow.” Indeed, she is adamant that sound effects taken from CDs don’t work for the most part, even in our modern, high-tech era. “The acoustic space is not the same as the space where the actors record, and you can tell. With animals in a zoo, for example, there’s a reverb which can’t be corrected. So getting a sound effects artist to listen and add effects in real time actually saves time. Where the science has advanced is really in post production, with digital recording and editing. But if you don’t understand how the elements of writing and acting and sound design combine in the final product, it won’t matter if you’re producing it digitally, and Pro Tools won’t save you.”
Zizza says that part of her funding today comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, and part from the local arts councils where the festivals are held, and from individual contributors. The audio drama community as it exists today consists of “about two hundred independent companies or individuals producing mostly new material, although maybe half will produce both old time and new scripts.” For her own part, she produces The Radio Works, (suemedia.com), a sampler series which is heard on 70 public radio stations, and features a different producer each time, with all new work. Other audio drama companies currently active include the Full Cast Audio company, founded by Bruce Coville, a producer/publisher of teen and young adult titles primarily in the fantasy genre; the Atlanta Radio Theater, Great Northern Audio Theatre, ZBS Foundation, Firesign Theatre, Shoestring Radio Theater (an amateur San Francisco company), and the Radio Repertory Company of America. Seeing Ear Theatre, associated with the Scifi channel, produces original plays for publishers like Harper Audio, like the excellent “Two Plays for Voices,” featuring actors Bebe Neuwirth and Brian Dennehy performing Neil Gaiman’s “Snow Glass Apples” and “Murder Mysteries.” And of course L.A. Theatre Works, perhaps the most highly regarded audio theatre company, employs talented professionals like Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason to record classic plays as audio dramas for distribution in bookstores, like Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” More news about audio drama may be obtained from Audiofile magazine, whose editor, Robin Whitten, is a consultant for NATF, and maintains a website rich in material on the entire audiobook industry at AudiofileMagazine.com. To find more about what’s available in new audio drama, look to the Lodestone Catalog, now online at Lodestone-media.com. Or one may sample the productions of an individual pioneer like Yuri Rasovsky at BlackstoneAudio.com.
What does the future hold by way of opportunities for actors, writers, directors and technicians in the full cast segment of the audiobook industry? Zizza is cautious, but optimistic. “Full cast audio is costly to produce, as you know, and so there are not as many titles available. This is also true for public radio stations, who find it more economical to produce news or talk shows. But I think the situation is improving over what it was just three years ago. Listeners are becoming more astute, and they enjoy hearing a story, and so after seeing something like Spider Man, which has an incredible sound track, you can’t expect them to listen to a dry audiobook with nothing but a voice. With all the webcasting and iPod downloading going on, and with the new Mp3 players that are starting to come standard in new cars, I think people will seek out audio drama, and already a new crop of directors and producers are studying the craft the same way as those who study stage acting. Our challenge is to produce better quality material, and take those interested to the next level of skills so that audio theater looks forward instead of backward.”
With tens of millions of books in print and numerous New York Times bestsellers, Julie Garwood has clearly earned a position among America’s favorite fiction writers. Her reputation as a masterful storyteller is solidly founded in her ability to deliver stories with appealing characters, powerful emotions, and surprising plot twists. Readers claim that it’s the humor as well as the poignancy of her novels that keep them laughing, crying and thoroughly entertained. Her first novel, Gentle Warrior, was published by Pocket Books in 1985. There have been over 30 novels since then. Her name appears regularly on the bestseller lists of every major publication in the country, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly. The popularity of her books expands with each new publication, and she is now read and enjoyed in many languages around the world. Her website is at JulieGarwood.com. One of her new titles is Grace Under Fire.
JONATHAN LOWE: You come from a large Irish family, growing up in Kansas City. Any other storytellers among your siblings, and what are your earliest memories of reading or writing?
JULIE GARWOOD: Everyone in my family is a storyteller. When we get together, it’s always fun — and sometimes a little noisy from all the talking and laughing. My very earliest memories of reading aren’t pleasant ones. During second grade I was kept out of school for an extended period of time because of complications after a tonsilectomy. When I finally returned, I had fallen behind in reading. My mother eventually saw how much trouble I was having and got help. She took me to Sr. Elizabeth, a nun at our school and a wonderful woman who opened up a whole new world of books for me. It was because of her that I learned to love the written word.
LOWE: You have an interesting website. The backyard seems to have a gazebo and a castle in the distance. Mostly imagination, like Wizard of Oz, or does your backyard hold similar surprises?
GARWOOD: My back yard isn’t quite like that. I do have a beautiful view of trees, but there isn’t a castle beyond them. That view is just in my imagination.
LOWE: How would you describe your latest book, and are you working on a new one now?
GARWOOD: FIRE AND ICE is a romantic suspense novel about a reporter for a local Chicago newspaper who thinks she’s covering a routine and rather uninteresting story, but behind that story is a mystery that takes her all the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The idea actually came to me after watching a Science Channel documentary about polar bears. Yes, I’m working on the next book now. Until I’ve got most of it down, I don’t give out too much information. I made the mistake several years ago of telling about the story I was working on, and then in midstream I changed my mind and wrote a completely different book. I’m still getting emails from people who are looking for the first story. As soon as I’ve written most of the current book, I’ll post some information about it on my web site.
LOWE: Do you have a preference between contemporary and historical or regency, and do you find that your readers have preferences too, or is romance universal?
GARWOOD: I love writing both historical and contemporary novels. The story usually dictates the setting. Most of the readers seem to have a definite preference. I’ve discovered from their comments that they tend to favor the type of book they read first.
LOWE: You’re not going to write a paranormal vampire romance one day, are you?
GARWOOD: The paranormal genre certainly has become popular, but I don’t have plans to write about vampires. I’ve never really been drawn to the subject; however, I do understand the appeal. There’s something intriguing about that combination of danger and romance.
LOWE: Literacy is one of your interests, which is important, I believe, in our current age of television and video games. What do you do to help the cause, and how can readers get involved?
GARWOOD: I try to support literacy programs as much as I can. I’m especially sympathetic to local libraries who are struggling to stay alive. I used to visit schools often to talk to students about reading, but unfortunately my schedule lately hasn’t allowed as much time for that as I’d like. My recommendation to anyone who wants to help is to get involved with your local library. There are so many programs and fundraisers that could use volunteers.
LOWE: I sometimes review audiobooks for truckers, and was surprised to learn that many macho truck drivers–guys you’d think would be watching Steven Seagal movies while drinking beer–are actually fans of writers like Janet Evanovich or Nora Roberts. Have you encountered any wrestling fans at your signings, and what advice would you give men about reading romances so that they can learn to be more romantic by understanding their wives.
GARWOOD: I don’t recall any wrestling fans at signings, but you’d be surprised by the number of men who write to me. They usually say they got turned on to my books by their wives. In fact, I received an email just yesterday from a man who said his wife reads my books to him when they take long car trips, and now he’s hooked. And for messages like that I say, “Thanks, ladies.” I definitely think men will understand women better if they read romances, and there’s a strong possibility that these same men will say thanks too.
Daniel Lenihan is co-author with Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman on the sea adventure “Wake of the Perdido Star,” on audio from Brilliance Audio, and a new title “Justice for None.” He lives in New Mexico.
JONATHAN LOWE: Read that you’re an underwater archaeologist for the National Park Service, yet you live in Santa Fe. What is your background, and the nature of your work?
DANIEL LENIHAN: Our NPS dive team has been active for almost thirty years in finding historic shipwrecks and protecting them for the American people. We also work on prehistoric sites behind dams and in submerged caves. The team is small–never more than five or so people–and has been located in Santa Fe for its entire history. It developed a reputation for fast-moving, intense diving operations. Some of our work that has received significant media attention includes underwater mapping of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, excavation of the Confederate submarine Hunley and the resurvey of ships sunk in the atomic bomb blasts at Bikini Atoll. In between the two novels I co-authored with Gene, my personal memoir was published in 2002 on the formation this special team of diving ranger/archeologists. It’s entitled “Submerged: Adventures of America’s Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team.”
LOWE: You sound like you have a lot in common with Clive Cussler! But I didn’t realize that Gene Hackman was a diving enthusiast. How did you meet and start up your writing partnership?
LENIHAN: We met about the time Gene was needing dive training for a movie he was involved with, “The Firm.” You might remember that there is a scene in the film where Gene leads Tom Cruise around underwater. People referred him to me at the Park Service. We helped him with his diving and he helped us with some shipwreck preservation PSAs. This was about twelve years ago. Since then we became close friends, and about 1995 we started on our first book.
LOWE: Your first book together was “Wake of the Perdido Star,” based partly on Gene’s experience in the Marines. But what else was behind it, and how did you decide to make this an historical rather than a contemporary adventure?
LENIHAN: Gene and I both are pretty voracious readers and we found ourselves discussing all kinds of books. Curiously, we talked about books even more than movies. But we shared a special attraction for sea tales, particularly the classics by Jack London, Melville, R L Stephenson and the like. We also both enjoyed Vincent Bugliosi’s book “And the Sea Will Tell.” For our first foray into fiction we liked the notion of a coming-of-age book with “the worm turns” as a driver for the plot. Put that all together and you have an historical sea tale like “Wake of the Perdido Star.”
LOWE: What diving trips have you taken together, and do you still dive with Gene?
LENIHAN: In truth we aren’t diving together that much any more. I would say we most enjoyed the diving we did in the Dry Tortugas about 65 miles west of Key West. There were some fine shipwrecks there and amazing critters. Gene also loved his dives in Truk Lagoon but I wasn’t on that trip with him. I heard all about his adventures there in the retelling. However, we both believe good stories shouldn’t be burdened by slavish adherence to truth and accuracy, so I don’t put much stock in the details!
LOWE: Your new book “Justice for None” is also historical, and set in the Midwest as a courtroom drama. Hackman grew up in Illinois, where the book is set, so I’m wondering whether you split the plotting like you split the writing. Down the middle on this one too?
LENIHAN: No, I would have to say that Gene was a bit more dominant concerning plot in this one. Although we discussed in detail all elements of the story arc before forging ahead with each chapter, he was especially energized by these characters. I agree with the comment by some reviewers that this book is atmospheric. I suppose that’s because so many authentic details in the setting came directly out of Gene’s memory, not just our research. Even the pivotal plot-point, a murder-suicide, was inspired by an actual event that occurred next door to him in Danville when he was six years old. A fellow killed his wife and shot himself and crawled around the house for a couple days before succumbing. A thing like that tends to leave an impression in a kid’s mind.
LOWE: I’ll bet. Who do you like to read?
LENIHAN: Well, since you mentioned it, I’ve enjoyed Cussler’s novels, particularly the diving parts. I respect the fact that he has been one of the only private individuals who has funded a shipwreck hunt and then done honorably by the wreck once it was found. But I guess I’m primarily a fan of Hemingway, Steinbeck, some of Fitzgerald’s work, Edward Abbey, Cormac McCarthy, Carl Hiassen, Martin Cruz-Smith, Ken Follett, Alan Furst. Gene loves Furst’s novels, by the way. In the realm of nonfiction, I like Loren Eisely and Tom Friedman.
LOWE: Do you or Gene ever listen to audiobooks?
LENIHAN: I do, but usually only when driving some distance. I suspect Gene does when he’s driving alone. But I don’t really know since when I’m driving with him he’s, well, not alone.
LOWE: Would love to hear Gene read your next one. Probably win a Grammy to place beside those Oscars. Of course “Justice for None” has a talented reader in John Peakes, who gives an enthusiastic performance, don’t you think?
LENIHAN: Yes, he captures the spirit of the book well and I like his cadence and tone of his voice. It’s an interesting idea to have Gene read one of his books though. I’m not sure if that would work or not. I would, however, love to see him direct a film based on “Justice for None.” He would have such a strong sense of place and be great with the casting.
LOWE: Are you planning to write another novel together?
LENIHAN: Yes. We’ve been working on a Civil War period novel. At the moment we’re hung up on some plot issues, but if we get those worked out we will forge ahead. In the meantime we have written a couple screenplays, one in association with my sister Patricia.
LOWE: Sounds great. Thanks for taking this time, Daniel.
Memoir out now, detailing my 28 years in the audiobook industry, with many book recommendations. Post Office Confidential is inspired by Kitchen Confidential, and includes many interview excerpts and a detailing of the postal shooting in Royal Oak, Michigan, which changed the USPS forever. Scott Brick contributed. Excerpts too from Postmarked for Death, and more. Now an ebook Kindle Unlimited, going to print and audio who knows when? Two major publishers are interested in combining my memoir with Postmarked For Death.
Kitchen Confidential author, on A Cook’s Tour in Japan.
Jan 1, 2023Audiobook and hardcoverEbook and audiobookGenetics ThrillerNew
from the vault: An interview with Jonathan Korzen of Audible and Steve Karesh of XM about what’s (new) in audio for the road.
LOWE: You guys are at the forefront of audio technology. Audible.com offers thousands of audiobooks as direct downloads off the internet. XM Satellite radio beams fade-free radio across the entire country from space in 101 simultaneous channels. How do you do it?
KORZEN: Mac users use the iTunes 3 jukebox software to manage downloads and streams from Audible.com, burn their own CDs and/or transfer to either iPods or our own Otis MP3 player. PC users use our free jukebox software, Audible Manager (available at http://www.audible.com/software) to do the same things.
KARESH: XM broadcasts from two satellites, plus a network of ground-based repeaters. The satellites are each in geostationary orbit above the U.S., one over the east, one over the west. The repeaters fill in any gaps in coverage from things like urban centers, mountains, valleys, etc.
LOWE: So not only are cassettes going bye-bye, annoying, gimmicky radio is too. In addition to convenience, what do you offer? What’s the content?
KORZEN: Beyond all the audiobook material, Audible has digests of newspapers and magazines, Robin Williams, Car Talk, language learning, comedy, personal development/inspiration, business and IT news analysis, historic speeches, and author or poet readings. KARESH: XM currently has 101 channels offering all kinds of music, talk, news and sports. Sonic Theater is XM’s book and drama channel, and there I broadcast plays, dramatizations of books as well as serialized radio programs, comedies, mysteries, detective stories, etc. We even have a premium Playboy channel.
LOWE: How long does it take to download an audiobook on average, Jon?
KORZEN: Depends on how your PC/Mac is connected to the Internet, as well as the audio format the listener chooses. One hour of audio is 2MB, and 2MB usually downloads over a 56k modem in 20-25 minutes. Multiply that by an 8-hour long book, and it’s a long time, but we offer the ability to schedule downloads to launch and run in an unattended fashion, like overnight. DSL goes much quicker, obviously.
LOWE: How can drivers listen in their cars or trucks, though?
KORZEN: We supply all our listeners with a cassette adaptor that goes from any of our compatible audio players to the vehicle’s cassette player. If the vehicle only has a radio and CD player we direct folks to a $20 device from Radio Shack that will broadcast the audio to an available frequency on the radio’s FM dial.
LOWE: What’s all this cost?
KORZEN: We have two membership plans right now–any 2 audiobooks for $19.95 per month, or any 1 book and 1 one-month subscription for $14.95. Commit to either for one year and we send you the Audible Otis player for free.
KARESH: Several options. After a $50 dollar rebate, a Pioneer system plus the antenna will cost about $200 dollars for your car or truck. Delfi’s SkiFi costs $129.99 and requires the addition of a vehicle adapter, a home adapter ($69.99), or the new boom box kit. You may also get a $75 dollar rebate on the purchase of a Sony Plug and Play, although I don’t know how long the rebate may last. The terms of the subscription are a one-time $14.99 activation fee, then it’s $9.99 a month for 100 XM channels.
LOWE: Congratulations to you both. For Apple computer choosing Audible as a partner, and for Fortune magazine choosing XM as Product of the Year. Technologies that utilize digital audio and upcoming digital radio are definitely the future. Any final thoughts on what you see coming down the pike?
KORZEN: We’re keen on the day when in-vehicle computer/media systems will be able to wirelessly receive audio files directly at the dashboard. And PDA/cell phones that can wirelessly receive, store, and play audio files. Plus development of standards for secure audio formats and digital rights management tools while there is continued growth of awareness for the value of the spoken word.
KARESH: I see things only improving for the industry. As more and more people hear how good radio can be, more people will be interested in being a part of it. Already new cars and trucks are starting to come equipped with satellite radio receivers. The release of the SkiFi boom box will be great for the industry too, because it now makes satellite radio portable.
LOWE: Thanks, that’s great news for those of us tired of the same old thing!(Note: You can see how long I’ve been doing this, and where the industry has gone since! Please note my first and last memoir “Post Office Confidential,” inspired by Kitchen Confidential). https://amzn.to/3YnSbq9
From the vault: Catherine Coulter is the bestselling author of The Edge, The Cove, Hemlock Bay, Riptide, Eleventh Hour, and many other suspense and romance titles. With 50 million + copies of her novels in print, Catherine Coulter lives in Mill Valley, California.
JONATHAN LOWE: You started writing Regency romances, and some historical romances. Then you started writing contemporary suspense novels. Now you write both. Why the switch, back and forth, and which interests you most?
CATHERINE COULTER: Can you imagine two more disparate genres than historical romance and suspense thrillers? And that’s why I do both — I’ll never get burned out. I hope I can continue to do both forever. Well, I don’t want to get carried away here. How about for another fifty years?
LOWE: Okay. Of course that’s not up to me! What is your background?
COULTER: I think of background as what happened yesterday. To go way back, my background started when when I was riding quarter horses with no saddle and sometimes no bridle as well, which drove my mother mad. At twelve I was in love with Little Joe Cartwright and wrote my first novel — it was fourteen pages long and is, thankfully, in oblivion. After the horses and Little Joe, I got degrees in history, English lit and psychology. Yes, you might come to the conclusion that I was a professional student. When I decided to try my hand at a novel, I knew I’d come home. Oh yeah, I wrote funny speeches for the president of an actuarial company on Wall Street. What I wrote was really funny; unfortunately, he wasn’t.
LOWE: Wall Street is definitely not funny these days. Did anyone influence you to become a writer?
COULTER: No one influenced me to become a writer. I didn’t visit Tibet and meet with a beautifully-complexioned monk who laid his hands on me and intoned, “Write.” Nope, I read everything in sight, including cereal boxes, and the #writing came along with it. My very favorite writer growing up was Georgette Heyer, and she certainly influenced my first novel.
LOWE: When I interviewed Lincoln Child, he told me he prefers to do something new and different each time out, rather than a series utilizing series characters. It’s harder to sell books that way, these days, since you have no faithful readers of characters. What are your thoughts on series?
COULTER: You know, I really like series for the simple reason that you get to know the people and want to know what happens to them. I’ve done both single books and the series — series are the most fun as well, in my own humble opinion. Maybe you could say that a single book is like coming out with a new kind of cereal every year and then it’s gone and there is no more. But what about all those folk who happened to love that cereal?
LOWE: You’ve got a point. I’m not crazy about serials, though, or cereal. With the exception of MacDonald’s Travis McGee series, or Cussler’s Dirk Pitt. Which novels have done best for you, sales wise?
COULTER: The very best top-selling book for me is The Cove, which turned out to be the first book in the FBI series.
LOWE: Do you go on book tours? Any surprises along the way, there? I know some writers who get a flood of people in one city, and hardly anyone in the next.
COULTER: Book tours and surprises, both pleasant and unpleasant, go hand in hand, like having a stretch limo drive me from Dayton to Chicago in time for an early TV show and running into the most violent thunderstorm of twenty years. I’ve toured now for years, some years more intensive than others. This summer one of my stops will be in eastern Tennessee because Blindside is set there.
LOWE: What’s this about a writer’s retreat you’re attending?
COULTER: I have three very dear friends: Iris Johansen, Linda Howard, and Kay Hooper. We met in Las Vegas. We call it a “retreat” — it makes the accountants happier.
LOWE: Let’s hope the IRS isn’t listening. Describe your latest book, if you will.
COULTER: I just finished Blindside, the next FBI thriller, set primarily in eastern Tennessee. Sherlock and Savich are in it big-time. The Sheriff, Katie Benedict, is remarkable. I have a feeling she’s going to be getting her own fan mail.
John J. Nance is the author of Pandora’s Clock, The Last Hostage, Medusa’s Child, and many other novels and non-fiction books. He is an aviation consultant for ABC, and an airline correspondent for Good Morning America. A licensed aerospace attorney, Nance was also a full-time working airline captain until his recent retirement, and now records his own novels for Brilliance Audio. I met him at the Audie Awards in L.A., and also talked to him via phone at his home in Tacoma, Washington. From the vault:
JONATHAN LOWE: What is your background, and how did you get into writing about aviation?
JOHN NANCE: I have a varied background. In fact, the joke around my place was I couldn’t decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. I have a legal, a journalistic, and an aviation background. As a kid I was fascinated by books, by radio and television, and by planes, and so it’s amazing that all of those have areas have come together the way they have.
LOWE: What within aviation specifically is your background?
NANCE: I’ve been a pilot for many years. Got my original pilot’s license in 1965 in Honolulu, and returned to the mainland to go to Southern Methodist University, where I got my undergraduate and law degrees. Was an Air Force pilot from ’70 to ’75 on active duty, and basically flew the C-141, the Lockheed Airlifter, for about 23 years, serving in Vietnam and Desert Storm. When I got out of active duty, I flew with Braniff International as an airline pilot until the company’s demise in ’82, then I began my writing career, and also joined Alaska Airlines in ’85 until my retirement.
LOWE: What made you want to write fiction about things going wrong on airline flights, and with terrorism?
NANCE: My transition from non-fiction to fiction was the realization that you can do more with fiction. I had four non-fiction books in the ’80s, all of them successful, but the reality was that anytime you write a non-fiction book, you have a very specific audience, and that audience doesn’t build as well as with fiction. The opportunity in fiction is that you can say what you want to say in multi-dimensional layers, as well as to give everybody a rip-snorting good story, and they don’t have to be interested in all the background, which just makes colorful wallpaper.
LOWE: Dale Brown and some others focus on military jets, but yours may generate more empathy from readers in that they focus on commercial airline flights. Let’s hope this never happens, but I love the one where the pilot locks himself in the cabin and flips the plane to prevent people from breaking into the cabin, while the authorities on the ground think there’s a bomb on board.
NANCE: One of the things I’ve had fun with is the Mr. and Mrs. Anybody could be here. Any of us could climb on board one of those airliners. But I am branching out to show other elements of aviation, too. Things that are not only fascinating, but also serve humanity.
LOWE: Which you incorporate into your fiction.
NANCE: Absolutely. Grisham writes on the stage of southern law. Robin Cook writes on the stage of medicine. I write on the stage of aviation.
LOWE: You write a lot of books, too. What does your schedule look like?
NANCE: It’s usually somewhat chaotic, but the more I can get uninterrupted time to concentrate on all the little details that make up a story, the faster it goes for me. I usually reserve about two months per book for the actual writing, once the research and plotting is done.
LOWE: Did you ask to narrate your own books, and what was that experience like for you?
NANCE: Since I was a radio broadcaster, and trained in voice, and had done a little acting in the past, I really didn’t want anyone else narrating my books, if I could cut it. The first one I did was “Pandora’s Clock,” but I remember the experience was great, and a director named Dan really helped me find the subtle nuances, and learn how to do the voices without overdoing them.
LOWE: I think you do a great job, while some authors don’t. I was thinking they should have an audiobooks channel on airline flights, since they have so many music and talk channels. Although I’m not sure how your books would play with skittish or paranoid first time flyers.
NANCE: I know, that’s been a little consternating to me in the past, this idea that you wouldn’t want to read a John Nance book on an airplane. Before 9/11, I was seriously considering a campaign at the airports which would have said, “Are you brave enough to read a John Nance book?” When I’m not using an airliner as the foundation for the story, then it’s not a personal threat, and I think it’ll be more acceptable to people on flights.
LOWE: Could you describe your novel “Skyhook?”
NANCE: It’s a lot of fun, about two very smart young women, one a lawyer and one an executive for a shipping line. The executive’s father is a pilot, and one night the plane carrying both her parents disappears over the Gulf of Alaska. This leads to a rescue with the help of the lawyer getting help from the Coast Guard. The problem is that the Coast Guard pilot loses his airplane, an old WWII amphibian, and he’s almost sure he hit something, but he’s not sure what. He was at low altitude in a fogbank, at night, you understand, and unfortunately the FAA wants to take his license, and accuse him of drinking, although he believes he did nothing wrong. At the same time there’s a parallel story about an Air Force black project, as someone is fooling around with a code used by the top secret Skyhook project, and the software engineer involved doesn’t know why. The books deals with how these two stories interplay, and how Ben Cole, the young scientist, is presented with all sorts of scary dilemmas, and ends up finding out the connection.
LOWE: An interesting and involving plot. What’s next for you?
NANCE: Next will be “Fireflight,” which I’m about to record. It has to do with the people with fight fires from the air, flying those big, lumbering ancient airplanes in the middle of what is very often a firestorm. It’s an incredible community, these people who use a dwindling number of available aircraft to fight fires. The story follows an air tanker pilot who is fighting to contain a forest fire near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that is threatening Yellowstone National Park.
LOWE: I’m here in Arizona, where we had a terrible summer last summer, losing a third of the state to forest fires, so I look forward to hearing your next book.https://amzn.to/3gZcGZz
from the vault: Mark Bowden is the author of four books— Bringing the Heat, Doctor Dealer, Black Hawk Down, and Killing Pablo. As a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he won many national awards for journalism, and he has since published in magazines such as Men’s Journal, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and Parade. His screenplay version of Black Hawk Down was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films, and Killing Pablo has been optioned by “Gladiator” director Ridley Scott.
JONATHAN LOWE: In your early career as a journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, what types of stories did you cover?
MARK BOWDEN: In my work for newspapers, which began in 1973 for The Baltimore News-American, I have covered just about everything imaginable. I have always preferred being a generalist, and have enjoyed moving into new territory. My first writing job was with a special section of the Baltimore paper called “Young World.” I wrote searching feature stories about acne and loneliness. I went on to cover cops, a suburban county, the state legislature, politics and even baseball. At the Inquirer I have been science writer, transportation reporter, football reporter and have done extensive national and international reporting.
LOWE: Was it a natural progression for you from newspaper and magazine stories to books?
BOWDEN: Yes. When I was just getting started, a solid newspaper story was the best thing I could do. Then it was longer Sunday stories, magazine stories (I was staff writer for The Inquirer Sunday Magazine for five years), and then stories that had to run in a series. At this rate by the time I’m 60 I’ll be giving Will and Ariel Durant a run for their money.
LOWE: In BLACK HAWK DOWN you write about a tragic incident during the war in Somalia that was harrowing and galvanizing. When did you know this had to be told in a book–was it the famous photo of a dead American Special Forces soldier being dragged along the streets of Mogadishu?
BOWDEN: I was drawn to the story in Black Hawk Down by its inherent drama. I didn’t even realize when I started that the troops involved were Special Forces, or even, frankly, what Special Forces were.
LOWE: I saw the Frontline piece on drug lord Pablo Escobar’s life and death, and what fascinated me was how many people revered him, and continue to do so. Current drug lords in Mexico also purchase poor citizen’s allegiance, and buy politicians or threaten them. But none have been as blatant or cruel or rich as Escobar. What is your take on his mythic status? Was he really intelligent, generous, and sociopathic–like a Mafia don–or was he only a self-deluded street thug who attracted allegiance with his fearless audacity and by passing the buck?
BOWDEN: I think Escobar did have something of a social conscience, although only in a very selective and self-serving way. I suspect his efforts on behalf of the poor helped him rationalize the other things he did. It enabled him to see himself as a good man, even when he was ordering assassinations and setting off bombs in Bogota.
LOWE: His extravagant lifestyle seems to support the myth that crime pays, although his death explodes that notion. Was he a paranoid man, or did he really think he was innocent and untouchable, like a god? And exactly how far reaching was his control of the drug trade in the U.S.?
BOWDEN: At his height, Escobar was the most powerful drug dealer and most successful criminal in the world. About 80% of the cocaine that reached the U.S. came from his cartel. He certainly came to believe that he was too powerful and smart to be stopped, and no doubt felt that he was performing an important service. He was not paranoid. It’s like the old joke …people were actually trying to get him. His extravagance was the expression of a man who suddenly had more money than he could ever spend. So his imagination ran wild.
LOWE: Why couldn’t the CIA take him out earlier? Why did it take so long to find him after he walked out of his agreed-upon self imposed “incarceration?”
BOWDEN: The book makes a strong case that American military, drug enforcement and spy agencies were linked to the death squads that left Pablo isolated and vulnerable, but the final killing appears to have been done by the Colombian Search Bloc, with considerable American assistance. Escobar was not killed earlier because he was smart and fast on his feet. He was extremely difficult to find because he had many friends, he was rich, and where he was not beloved in Antioquia, he was feared.
LOWE: This really is an amazing story, involving competing spy forces, government corruption, revenge, and the ridiculous conceits of the criminal mind. But do you think Escobar would be alive today, were it not for the secret vigilante group “Los Pepes” which targeted his operatives in revenge?
BOWDEN: I think that without Los Pepes, Pablo would still be at large.
LOWE: Are many people in Medellin, Colombia drug users? You say that the place is still dangerous today for American tourists. Are they so used to seeing brutal killings as a way of life that they might not help someone being attacked in the street?
BOWDEN: To my knowledge, Colombia has never had a drug problem anything like ours. Widespread drug abuse afflicts prosperous societies. In poor countries people are too busy trying to eat and find shelter to lay around stoned for long. The people of Colombia and a warm and generous folk, but Medellin in particular has long been plagued with violence, and in recent years guerrilla groups have targeted Americans and affluent Colombians for kidnapping.
LOWE: Did you enjoy narrating the audiobook version of KILLING PABLO?
BOWDEN: I very much enjoyed reading the book for Simon & Schuster audio. I’ve been reading my work out loud to my wife for years, and she’s never offered to pay me. We writers fall in love with our words, so what could be better than an excuse to sit down and read the whole thing out loud?
Jonathan Lowe is author of Lottery Island, Gonzo Fun, The Final Plot of Valerie Lott, The Methuselah Gene, Cat on a Cold Tin Roof, and Judge Jury: Hybrid Stories. He has been an audiobooks journalist for 30 years.
From the vault: His title was inspired by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. There is also the rock band. And of course weather itself is going viral, with the Weather Channel now doing dramatic plane crash and disaster programming. In CHANGE OF SEASONS, John Oates shares his story for the first time, from his own motorcycle accident to meeting Andy Warhol at the Denver airport during a snowstorm. He takes listeners on a wild ride through all the eras, personalities, and music that has shaped him into what he is: the first true account of the band and his memories as half of a genius music duo, perfectly paired, whose iconic songs have universal appeal and will stand the test of time.
Not that either of them ever wanted to be considered half of anything. They are individuals who have sometimes collaborated, and through highs and lows they forged ahead, together or separately. Rebels and individualists, John was a journalism major in college when he met Darryl, who studied music education. A swirl of people and circumstances, including ever changing commitments, led them to collaboration. What happened next was both happy coincidence and the result of hard work and talent.
Narrated mostly by his co-writer Chris Epting, but also by John, the audiobook is a surprising and long-awaited peek into the lives of two who once sang the words “No Can Do,” recommended for anyone who loves the 80s era, how time changes people, and yet how friendships forged early grow stronger. Technology may have killed much of the old school, as lamented by Joe Walsh at Darryl’s House. (“It’s drum machines, and you can tell.”) Yet Darryl and John’s remain true to their long-standing belief that technology is something to embrace. And so, with innovative videos and tours sponsored for the first time ever by outside corporations, (including a highly publicized Lear jet race) they created whatever it took to “push the envelope,” and to “stay ahead of the curve,” with the ultimate desire to keep making music. Today “Hall & Oates” remain the biggest duo ever, unique, and possibly never repeated. Who knows? No one can predict where it’s all going.
Interestingly, when I showed my pre-release copy of the audiobook in downtown Greenville SC as a test, I discovered that some young people (18-25) didn’t know who they were. But then Clark Gable never heard of William Faulkner. When they met, Gable said, “what kind of work are you in, Mr. Faulkner?” Funny, because Nobel Prize winner Faulkner was writing Gable’s screenplay! (Gable’s narcissism is also recounted in the James Garner biography.) It was never just about the fame, with Darryl or John, as it is in much of the music business today. It’s about having fun doing new stuff, not flaunting what you have or who you know.
I heard from co-writer and narrator Chris Epting, who told me, “My experience recording the audiobook was really very special. It’s the first time I haven’t voiced a book alone, and so that in and of itself made it special. What really stood out, after having written the book with John, was realizing that when you have to read a book aloud it takes on a new meaning. You begin to notice things that you missed while writing it. There are nuances and tonalities in John’s writing that really fully blossom once read aloud. He has a very poetic way of crafting a narrative and I think it reads wonderfully on the page. But when read aloud, it has a deeper gravity and inner beauty. He does the intro to the book, along with a piece at the end, and so he is well represented in the story. But in the end it’s the words that matter, I think, more than the actual Voice speaking those words. Working with John gave me a tremendous insight to how he presents himself and what his thought processes. I think that helped me bring a certain context to the audio that a hired actor would not have been able to achieve. That’s what happens when you work with somebody on their story. You spent hundreds of hours together and really climb inside their brain. It’s a very intimate process and I’m very proud of the book that resulted from this collaboration. Again, John is a tremendous writer and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to experience the audio portion of this project because it gave me an entirely new perspective, working on it the last two years.”
See THE FINAL PLOT OF VALERIE LOTT, now at Amazon.
One of my favorite actors was William Hurt. Not just because I resemble him, but because of his script choices. Very few are junk. My favorite—and his—was EYEWITNESS. In it, he plays a janitor with a crush on a TV reporter played by Sigourney Weaver. He records her on tape to watch when he gets home on a BMW motorcycle, (which I once owned). She is rich, and dating an Israeli underground agent to release prisoners, played by Christopher Plummer. James Woods plays a hanger-on former janitor and friend who hopes Hurt’s character Darrel will marry his sister, as they are dating. He is thought by Darrel to be the murderer of a Vietnamese criminal now living in the building where they do janitorial work. Darrel is suspected by the Vietnamese to be telling or about to tell Weaver’s character, (who is sent to the building to investigate with a camera crew), because he found the dead body. Darrel pretends to know more than he does because he wants to date Weaver’s character, and it’s a way to spend private time with her. Meanwhile there’s a scene where Darrel and his girlfriend break up in one of the most surprising ways ever filmed. They are laughing and happy that (surprise to them both) they never loved each other and don’t have to get married after all! There are scenes on the motorcycle as Darrel fights off the Vietnamese with Weaver riding with him, in his apartment where his well trained dog attacks them after being… but I shouldn’t reveal too much! Horses play a key role in the movie earlier at at the park and at the climax where Darrel’s way with animals is proven.
A nearly perfect and yet largely unknown film.
My second favorite movie by Hurt is BODY HEAT, a film noir in which he plays a small Florida town lawyer who falls for a wily femme fatale, played by Kathleen Turner, who targets him as a potential patsy to kill her husband. Lots of cool (hot) atmosphere as he is reeled slowly in and set up to take the fall. Great scene in which he is locked out of her mansion, and looks up at her wind chimes, then breaks in by throwing something handy through the door and glass, where he sees her staring at him with a lustful and smoldering expression. The twists and foretelling elements require repeated viewing to catch. Look for the quick scene where he goes to Miami to establish an alibi and is passed by another red convertible, this with a clown at the wheel. Or how the cigarette smoke in the lawyer’s office tasked with finding errors in his legal work lingers along the ceiling and is repeated several times, but especially at the end, when, at the scene of her victory in the islands where she hoped to live, the camera moves up into the clouds as that haunting music sends chills to cancel the heat that is a theme. “People get crazy and murderous in this heat.” And earlier when Hurt goes into a restroom to wash an ice cream spill, and breathes in the smoke of a teen smoking marijuana, he comes out and blames the heat. A masterful script and direction by Lawrence Kasdan that was widely praised. Included Mickey Rourke and Ted Danson (as his wary friend with a funny dance) and Richard Crenna as the targeted and rich husband.
Other movies? GORKY PARK with Lee Marvin (who lived at the end in Tucson and was seen late at night alone, shopping for groceries.) Brian Dennehy was great in a plot about a Russian police officer played by Hurt investigating a murder linked to smuggling of live sables. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, which won him the Oscar, where he played a gay political prisoner. THE DOCTOR and CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST and AI and SMOKE and THE BIG CHILL and ALTERED STATES (where a person in line with me at the theater said, “there he is!”) BROADCAST NEWS. A TIME OF DESTINY. ONE TRUE THING. DUNE, MOBY DICK, LOST IN SPACE, THE BIG BRASS RING, DO NOT DISTURB, VARIAN’S WAR, RARE BIRDS, MASTER SPY, INTO THE WILD, ENDGAME, DARK CITY, more. What is your favorite? He also played in some Marvel movies. He died in March 2022 of prostate cancer.
A universal trait of engineers is their curiosity with how things work, and nothing arouses more curiosity than the laws that govern the universe itself. Such laws seem to break down at the extremes of size, both on a small scale, in particle accelerators, for example, and on the vast scale, as detected by telescopes. In each case, tools designed by engineers now probe these mysteries, discovering the surprising nature of matter and energy.
A shining example is the new Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) atop Mt. Graham in southeastern Arizona, which enables scientists to study objects like the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. For a personal tour of this revolutionary telescope housed at Mount Graham International Observatory near Safford, I joined Dr. Richard Green, LBT’s director, on a clear, sunny day for the 125-mile drive northeast of Tucson to the remote mountain.
At 10,700 feet, Mt. Graham rises from the desert like a sky island of unexpected beauty. In contrast to the cactus below, 200-hundred-year-old Douglas fir trees grace the upper reaches of the mountain. Yet by following a final twisting dirt road to the summit, past several security checkpoints, a more unexpected marvel soon appears–the LBT observatory building itself. This $120 million dollar facility is home to the most powerful optical telescope in the world–a 600 metric ton all-steel mount encapsulating two massive 8.4-meter mirrors, each the largest of their kind yet deployed. Indeed, once the mirrors are phased together, this visionary binocular will function as if it was a Cyclops with a single mirror 11.8 meters wide–impossible to produce with today’s technology–and with an angular resolution of 22.8 meters. With a honeycomb design, the mirrors sit on a single mount and are more rigid and lighter weight than conventional solid-glass mirrors. Together they collect more light than any existing single telescope.
While the telescope’s size is revolutionary, so is its precision, accuracy, and sensitivity. During my visit, I witnessed the lowering of the twin mirrors for scheduled attachment of a red-sensitive camera to a deployment arm and was told that the moveable mount, despite weighing 600 tons, is steered easily under the power of a one-horsepower electric motor. “The structure actually floats on an oil pressure pad, like a rocking chair, thanks to 12,000 PSI,” Dr. Green tells me, “so if you had to move it by hand, you probably could.” Added Dr. John Little, LBT’s lead site engineer, “The ride from vertical to horizontal is twelve minutes, or one minute, depending on speed selection of the analog drive.” When I asked if there was any smallest degree to which the telescope could be angled, Little replied, “Not really. With digital feeding, the mirrors will be able to be positioned to resolve one thousandth of an arc-second, or roughly a BB at 32 and a half miles.” Luckily, testing for degradation of positioning at various elevations has revealed almost no deviation. And though counterbalancing is still a problem, considering the heavy instrumentation that will be swung in and out of position, there is a solution coming in the form of a newly designed dynamic fluid system that will pump a water and antifreeze mixture to various tanks within the structure to compensate. “For now we’re using physical weights,” says Little, pointing to what looked like stacked barbell rounds at the ends of the matrix.
A Global Effort: The LBT Corporation was established in 1992 to undertake construction and operation of the LBT, which evolved from an international partnership of over 15 institutions from around the world. The University of Arizona (UA), which also represents Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University on the project, holds a quarter partnership in the LBT. The Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, representing observatories in Florence, Bologna, Rome, Padua, Milan and elsewhere in Italy, is also quarter partner in the project. Ohio State University and the Research Corporation each holds a one-eighth share, with Research Corporation providing participation for the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Virginia. Germany is the fourth quarter partner, with contributing science institutions in Heidelberg, Potsdam, Munich, and Bonn. The Research Corporation promotes the advancement of science in the United States and ensured that funding was available at critical stages of the LBT’s development.
Work on the LBT began with construction of the one-of-a-kind telescope building in 1996, led by UA. The structure consists of 16 stories, and the top ten floors rotate. As to the massive 8.4-meter dual mirrors themselves, they were spun cast in Tucson, at the UA’s Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. In the state-of-the-art facility, housed in the campus football stadium, a huge furnace heated the 20 tons of glass, gently spinning it into a parabolic shape at 2130 F before it was cooled and polished to an accuracy of about 3000 times thinner than a human hair.
UA engineer Warren Davison developed the telescope’s innovative compact, stiff design in collaboration with other engineers in the United States and Italy. The major mechanical parts for the LBT were fabricated, pre-assembled, and tested at the Ansaldo-Camozzi steel works in Milan, one of Italy’s oldest steel manufacturers. Then the telescope was disassembled and shipped by freighter to Houston, Texas, and overland to Safford. The mirror cell continued to the Mirror Lab, where a team integrated the mirror support system and mirrors into the cell before a heavy equipment moving company hauled the assembly up the mountain. The LBT saw first light in 2005, and the LBT Observatory currently has a staff of approximately 50 scientists, engineers and technicians.
Varied Backgrounds: What type of technical background does it take to work on a telescope like the LBT? Green studied quasars and black holes during his graduate student days, back when he was a member of the science team that built the Hubble Space Telescope instrument that surveyed nearby giant galaxies. He served as director of the nearby Kitt Peak National Observatory before coming to LBT a year ago to handle public relations and scheduling of telescope time. A charming and self deprecating man with wide interests, he engaged me in conversation about many topics, from the mostly private funding of the project and its limited access to scientists (outside the consortium of universities involved), to the latest theories about dark energy, the Big Bang, and even the movie Blade Runner. But he is truly an astronomer first.
Other career paths to LBT played out differently. Dr. John Little, who worked in medical electronics, industrial controls, and military electronics before coming to the project, wasn’t very familiar with astronomy at all, except as an amateur. “I went to Cal State at Sacramento for a degree in electrical engineering and remote sensing, then to the University of New Mexico for a masters in electromagnetics before some work at Utah State in optics,” he told me, his steady blue eyes focused on days past. “So what’s great about working here is that all these disciplines are involved. On top of that, it’s exciting to see the data come in. When we get our adaptive optics running–taking the ‘twinkle’ out of the stars, so to speak–the clarity will be ten times that of Hubble. And so when we’re pulling in images for the first time here, we’ll be seeing them come right off the camera, and that’ll be a thrill.”
Also working in controlling the axis to position the telescope accurately, but in software rather than hardware, is Chief Software Engineer Norm Cushing, who told me, “At one point in my career I was working on HDTV set boxes, digital recorders and the like, and I realized right away that just wasn’t as intellectually fulfilling. There was something missing. Call it awe. That’s the missing ingredient which LBT supplies.” Immediately prior to his arrival at LBT, Cushing developed software related to satellite tracking. “That background in image processing married well to what happens here, but it’s been a phenomenal learning experience, too. When I arrived, I learned how little I really knew, especially about astronomy. Some know a lot, like Joar Brynnel, chief hardware engineer, who told me he needs his people to understand the concepts to fix problems in a reasonable time.”
Members of Cushing’s group write low-level embedded software in assembly language and higher level software modules running in Linux that talk to each other through reflective memory. “Algorithms for right ascension and declination are created to actually steer the telescope and make it move to position and track objects,” Cushing explains. “Lower level commands control the motion of the building to follow the telescope.” And is this software new and as exciting as being an astronomer? “All of it is new, written from scratch for this system,” he replies, then adds, “When I was a boy, running around in my PJs, my sister would call me whenever Carl Sagan was on TV. I’d run out, and it was all fascinating. So it’s been a dream come true for me, too.”
Astronomers as Engineers: Not that engineers can’t be astronomers themselves, or vice versa. Take Roberto Ragazzoni from the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy, one of the member institutions of LBT. “I would say one in five astronomers also make instrumentation for radio or optical astronomy,” he tells me. As an astronomer, Ragazzoni once studied planetary nebula in an observatory in Chile. He has extensive knowledge of astrophysics, but now he mostly designs and tests the instrumentation used on large telescopes, and he labels the scale of most of the scientific instruments used on LBT as revolutionary. “Two interferometers are being made for this telescope,” Roberto tells me over a plate of spaghetti in the observatory’s kitchen. “One at the U of A, and the other in Germany and Italy.” An interferometer combines the signals of two separate telescopes (or mirrors) almost as if they were coming from separate portions of a telescope (or mirror) as big as the distance between the two telescopes. It works on the principle that two waves that coincide with the same phase will add to each other while two waves that have opposite phases will cancel each other out, assuming both have the same amplitude. The instrument provides unprecedented imaging capability at infrared wavelengths and in its “nulling” mode reduces the glare from stars, thereby permitting the detection of orbiting planets or dust disks, which would otherwise be overwhelmed by the star light. “What’s new is the scale to which this technology is being applied, and also, instead of using a laser for alignment, we use a wider field of view, with the light from several faint stars, which are then combined.”
With such technology, astronomers can use the LBT to find and image the first Earth-sized extra-solar planets, employing the telescope’s astonishing light gathering power accompanied by an array of cameras, spectrometers, and interferometers–some the size of compact cars and weighing a ton. Or it can map the neighborhood of the inner Milky Way, where a monster black hole flings stray stars off on wild eccentric orbits as if they were mere marbles in a child’s game.
After Roberto ate his plate of spaghetti with garlic and olive oil, I asked him if astronomers like him were not actually providing a microscope for laymen to see themselves as smaller and smaller as the universe they saw got bigger and bigger in their giant lenses. He laughed. Perhaps I reminded him of the children he once talked to about his work in adaptive optics, when one asked how he “made a star, which was so big, look so small.”
For more information on the Large Binocular Telescope, visit http://www.lbto.org My book of stories CAT ON A COLD TIN ROOF includes a novella “The Sky Over Dubai” with much astronomy in the plot.
UNEASY LIES THE CROWN: The year is 1901 and the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has sent all of the Empire into mourning. But for Lady Emily and her dashing husband Colin, the grieving is cut short as another royal death takes center stage. A body has been found in the Tower of London, posed to look like the murdered medieval king Henry VI. Soon after a second dead man turns up in London’s exclusive Berkeley Square, his mutilated remains staged to evoke the violent demise of Edward II, it becomes evident that the individual behind the crimes plans to kill again and again. The race to find him takes Emily deep into the capital’s underbelly, with its secret gangs, street children, and sleazy brothels. But the clues aren’t adding up, and even more puzzling are the anonymous letters Colin has been receiving since Victoria’s death. Is someone threatening her successor, Edward VII?
Jonathan Lowe) What is your background, and how did you turn to writing?
Tasha Alexander) I am the daughter of two philosophy professors, I grew up surrounded by books. I was convinced from an early age that I was born in the wrong century and spent much of my childhood under the dining room table pretending it was a covered wagon. Even there, I was never without a book in hand and loved reading and history more than anything. I studied English Literature and Medieval History at the University of Notre Dame. Writing is a natural offshoot of reading, and my first novel, And Only to Deceive, was published in 2005. I’m the author of the long-running Lady Emily Series as well as the novel Elizabeth: The Golden Age. One of the best parts of being an author is seeing your books translated, and I’m currently in love with the Japanese editions of the Emily books.
Q) You’re a travel buff, and love to pack light. Where have you lived and traveled?
A) I played nomad for a long time, living in Indiana, Amsterdam, London, Wyoming, Vermont, Connecticut, and Tennessee before settling down. My husband, the brilliant British novelist Andrew Grant. I may be biased but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong! I live in southeastern Wyoming, but still don’t have a covered wagon, yet a log house goes a long way toward fulfilling my pioneer fantasies. Andrew makes sure I get my English characters right, and I make sure his American ones sound American.
Q) What do you like to read?
A) I’ll read pretty much anything I can get my hands on, but some of my favorite authors (in no particular order) are Jane Austen, David Mitchell, Leo Tolstoy, Vikram Seth, Meg Wolitzer, Haruki Murakami, Elizabeth Peters, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Anthony Trollope, William Thackeray, Naguib Mahfouz, Arthur Phillips, Pablo Neruda, Homer, Dorothy L. Sayers, Carol Shields, David Lodge, William Boyd, James Thurber, Margaret George, Pauline Gedge, Mika Waltari, Robert Harris, Jeannette Winterson, Henry James, Evelyn Waugh, Orhan Pamuk, Saki (H.H. Munro)
Q) In Uneasy Lies the Crown, a thrilling mystery in your bestselling series, Lady Emily and her husband Colin must stop a serial killer whose sights may be set on the new king, Edward VII. Anecdote?
A) On her deathbed, Queen Victoria asks to speak privately with trusted agent of the Crown Colin Hargreaves, slipping him a letter with her last, parting command: Une sanz pluis. Sapere aude. “One and no more. Dare to know.”
Note: Scott Brick narrates the new Reacher novels which Andrew has taken over. What comes next for Tasha is The Dark Heart of Florence. Since this interview she has done a short story Upon the Midnight Clear, and In the Shadow of Vesuvius. She loves Italy, where I visited just once. She lives on a ranch in the beautiful backcountry of Wyoming where Lee Child is also building a ranch TOO CLOSE TO HOME.
L.L. SOARES’s newest book is TEACH THEM HOW TO BLEED, published by Bloodshot Books. His fifth novel, it offers a very different take on vampires. His previous novels are also in print, including LIFE RAGE, ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, HARD, and BURIED IN BLUE CLAY. His first professional story sale was “Little Black Dress” to the horror fiction website “Gothic.net” in 2001. A film criticism column he wrote with Michael Arruda, called “Cinema Knife Fight,” was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction for 2009, and his novel, LIFE RAGE, won the Stoker Award for Best First Novel for 2012. He lives with his wife and their pet iguana Osiris in the Boston area.
Jonathan Lowe) So tell us a little about your new book.
L.L. Soares) I’ve always strived to do things that are original or to put my own personal twist on familiar concepts, and TEACH THEM HOW TO BLEED continues in this tradition. It’s sort of a vampire story, but not in the way we typically think of vampires. No fangs or capes or crucifixes, but something completely different. First of all – the way you become a vampire is very brutal – and each person becomes their own type of vampire. For example, a woman who is a drug addict finds that she sprouts “needles” all over her skin when it’s time to feed. Another “vampire” will have totally different apparatus to extract blood. It’s also an ensemble novel, featuring several characters – some of whose storylines merge by the end. These other characters include a hunter who eats the hearts of her vampire quarry to gain special powers, and a demonic entity that escapes from confinement to wreak havoc on the world. There are also lots of twists and turns along the way, to keep things interesting.
Jonathan Lowe) Who are your favorite narrators, and why?
L.L. Soares) That’s a tough question. Do you mean, narrators in the way of author’s voices, or actual characters who narrate stories? If you mean characters, then that limits things a lot, since in a lot of books and stories, if written in the third person, you don’t have a narrator per se. But there are a lot of writers I love who have very distinctive voices – you can identify their work from the authorial voice. People like William S. Burroughs, Flannery O’Connor, Charles Bukowski, and Henry Miller. If you mean actual characters who narrate works of fiction, I’d have to say James Ballard, the narrator from J.G. Ballard’s classic novel CRASH; David, the narrator of Jack Ketchum’s THE GIRL NEXT DOOR; Eleanor, the narrator of Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE; and Franz Westen, the narrator of Fritz Leiber’s OUR LADY OF DARKNESS.
Jonathan Lowe) You’re also an editor, and won a Bram Stoker for criticism. How did that part of your career come about?
L.L. Soares) I’m an editor in my day job, and have been editing my work (and other peoples) for decades now. So it’s a skill I’ve honed over time. As for criticism – we’re mostly talking film criticism – I wrote several movie review columns in the early aughts for a variety of places – and eventually teamed up with writer Michael Arruda on a column called “Cinema Knife Fight,” which ran in one form or another from 2004 to 2018. It was a mix of like a Siskel and Ebert kind of thing – with two distinct voices and points of views – and a more imaginative aspect. We would find ourselves in situations that related to the movies we were reviewing, and there was lots of humor. The column was popular for a few years, and we even got nominated for a Stoker in 2009, but unfortunately we didn’t win. As time went on, Michael went on to other things and I did the column with a revolving cast of other co-writers, until it came to a close. While I wrote for CKF, I went to the movies almost every week, something I would really miss once the pandemic started. I don’t really write movie reviews much anymore, except on social media. But it’s definitely something on my resume.
Jonathan Lowe) For someone just hearing you for the first time, what should they know about horror fiction, and why was that your choice?
L.L. Soares) I have always loved horror. It doesn’t hurt that my birthday is two days away from Halloween. When I was a little kid, I saw FRANKENSTEIN (1931) for the first time on television, and right then I fell in love with the genre, and wanted to somehow be a part of it. Growing up, I saw tons of movies (this was the 70s, so there were tons of Creature Feature-type shows on, and then in the 80s was the VHS boom, which meant suddenly hundreds of movies I had never seen were available to me). So movies were the first thing to grab me, but I was also a big fan of horror literature. In grammar school, I read a lot of Poe and Lovecraft. In high school, I read more science fiction, and started sending stories of my own to magazines. I thought I would get published early and have a long career as a writer, but it was not to be. All I got were rejection slips for years. I sold a story in college to THE MINNESOTAN SCIENCE FICTION READER called “Electroshock Therapy for Mimes,” for $15, but the magazine folded before they could publish it. I wouldn’t sell another story until 2001, when I made my first professional sale to the legendary horror fiction site Gothic.net. The story was called “Little Black Dress.” I think what draws me to horror is that it is a genre that can elicit an involuntary response, either repulsion or fear. I was also always into writers who broke taboos, and horror is the perfect place to do that. I’ve just always liked art that tries to break down boundaries, that takes risks. In art, I don’t think there should be limitations, for the most part, and I was just always drawn to that sort of stuff. Part of it is the thrill of transgression.
My stuff also tends to pull things in from different genres. It’s not unusual for me to add elements of crime fiction, or science fiction, or even fantasy to my work. And in my books, there is a very big emphasis on characters. If someone picks up TEACH THEM HOW TO BLEED without having read other things I’ve written, I think they’ll get a good taste of my style.
Jonathan Lowe) So tell us why you chose to write about vampires in the new book.
L.L. Soares) Growing up, vampires were probably my favorite archetypical monsters. Zombies, for example, can give us some raw scares, but vampires can interact with us on our level, even blend in with us, and yet they’re predators. Over the years, vampires have become a list of tropes where you check things off, and I didn’t want to do it that way. I wanted to get rid of some of the baggage, and sort of reinvent them. I’m definitely not the first person to think that. I didn’t want to deal with stuff like crosses and coffins and bats, and all that more traditional stuff. I like fangs – they can be very effective as a visual metaphor – but they weren’t essential, either.
Vampires have survived in literature because they are adaptive to change. Whether it’s Stoker’s DRACULA or the vampires of Anne Rice, who have a much stronger emotional life, or even Stephanie Meyers’ sparkly TWILIGHT vampires. Even if there’s a take on the subject I’m not a big fan of, I can recognize that each generation is able to adapt vampires in a new way, and it’s this fluidity that keeps them relevant.
Jonathan Lowe) What’s next for you? Any collabs?
L.L. Soares) I have a story in the upcoming New England Horror Writers anthology WICKED SICK, and a career-spanning short story collection coming in 2023 called SOMETHING BLUE And Other Colorful Deaths from Trepidatio Press. Meanwhile, I’m always working on several projects at once. I don’t like to talk too much about works in progress – not because I am superstitious or anything – but because I find, the more I talk about something that’s not written yet to other people, the less interesting it is to me. That said, I am working on a crime fiction novel that is also a mash-up of horror and science fiction. And I have ideas for a sequel to TEACH THEM HOW TO BLEED, expanding on the world of these characters. And a few other things. But which of these actually gets finished is up in the air. As for collaborations – I’ve done several over the years, but nothing I’m currently working on. My first book ever, IN SICKNESS, was a short story collection in collaboration with my wife, writer Laura Cooney, which consists of stories we each wrote separately, and a novella called “In Sickness” that we wrote together. We also wrote the novella GREEN TSUNAMI together. Other authors I’ve collaborated with include Peter N. Dudar, Kurt Newton, and Daniel Keohane (aka G. Daniel Gunn). And of course, “Cinema Knife Fight,” while it existed, was a collaboration I did every week for years, with Michael Arruda and several other writers.
Jonathan Lowe) Where can readers find out more about your work?
L.L. Soares) Well, my books are in print and readily available on all the usual sites, like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. They’re available in electronic (Kindle, etc.) and paperback editions. And you can check out my website, www.llsoares.com. I also have an Author Page on Amazon.
(Jonathan Lowe is a book journalist with 30 years experience, and author of five novels and a latest collection of horror MOM GOD.)
Angie Cavallari is an assiduous writer that has been hammering away at the craft for over 20 years. She has authored thousands of blogs and articles with some of her work featured in Huffington Post, Healthline, The Reset, SF Bay Reader, among others. A transplant to a plethora of U.S cities including her current home, Denver, Angie grew up in Florida, then moved to NYC where she picked up her husband in a bar. In spite of her propensity for wanderlust, she managed to settle down long enough to have two extraordinary kids and build a solid life with her husband of 16 years. Angie Cavallari her pen/maiden name and Angie Walker her married name as co-founder of Retro Publishing, LLC. She joined forces with a fellow book nerd and Gen X’er that had always wanted to be an indie publisher.
Jonathan Lowe: What made you want to write TRAILER TRASH and open up stories about your life in a memoir?
Angie Cavallari: Let me start by saying that I have always been a writer but the idea of making any money—even a pittance—as a writer was not something I was encouraged to do at any age. Instead, I would read, then write, rinse and repeat with a measure of spirits thrown in for courage. I have boxes of unfinished manuscripts and embarrassing journals dating back
to when I was nine-years-old, but what I confess prompted me to write and complete my first book was that I longed to live through the stories of my youth again. To revisit these stories and memories be it good or bad. I am estranged from my family and many of those in my book like so many that we have lost in our lives are magnified like a rear-view mirror when they are gone. It’s my belief that this truth is at the heart of every author that has ever written a memoir.
JL: What was it like growing up in a trailer park and attending private schools with friends that lived in normal or typical neighborhoods?
AC: It was befogging. I remember always being aware of the social divide even from a very young age. My friends didn’t have neighbors that were openly intoxicated before noon or homes with dark, particle board walls and a roach problem. One thing I can tell you about living in a trailer—no matter how much you weigh or your age, when someone is walking down the hall it sounds like a herd of elephants approaching you. However, even as inhospitable as it sounds, I have a deep appreciation for the community that I lived in and the people that lived there. Unlike a typical suburb (which I live in today), these people are as real as it gets—they don’t put on airs and are working too hard or living too hard to bother.
JL: Do you have a favorite tenant or neighbor from your childhood?
AC: They were all so colorful but I would say, Florence. In fact, my favorite chapter to write and share during a reading is Chapter 3: The Tenants. Here is an excerpt from Trailer Trash: an ’80s Memoir.
“Perhaps the most memorable tenant I knew was Florence. And we were warned never to call her “Flo” or risk a backhand to the head. Her lot sat smack dab on the south side of our yard, and, during the eight years that she lived there, I never saw her sober. She always seemed to be coming and going from her many trips to and from the liquor store or the local watering holes, much to my father’s chagrin. You may have not heard her leave, but you always heard her return because she would take out the metal trash cans and stray cats with her 1970s pale-blue, rusted- out Cadillac. On many occasions, my father decided to perform a more subtle intervention by filling her gas tank with water while she slept off the Colt 45. Florence held a strange fascination for me and my sister. For starters, I could never figure out her age. She may have been in only her early sixties, but I would place her around seventy-eight in booze years. And she wasn’t the kind of sweet old lady who wanted to connect with children or keep butterscotch candies in a faux crystal jar for younger guests. Most days Florence would proudly sport a halter top sans a brassiere and briskly march across her yard in crudely trimmed cut-off jeans—her cheap flip flops flailing off her feet and her sagging breasts bouncing in cadence to her determination to find escape through a good time.”
JL: Do you listen to audiobooks?
AC: I prefer to listen most books on audio, but classics such as Pride and Prejudice I prefer to read in print. Currently, I am recording my book from the privacy of my closet and an expensive microphone. I hope to have it finished in the next two months but it will need finessing by a professional so stay tuned!
JL: I have an upcoming story collection, including scifi and satire based on The Rockford Files. Do you think your book will reach a wide audience?
AC: That is my hope as an author. But even if a reader cannot relate to trailer park living, or even spending sticky summers in Florida, they can certainly connect to ’80s nostalgia. Believe it or not, I have many millennials that love learning about the ’80s and are fascinated by a time when they were not tethered to technology—I think we are all longing for that time as well.
JL: Indeed. It’s all about money, now, maybe even to Eminem. Thanks, Angie.
Trailer Trash tells the story of Angie Cavallari, your typical girl growing up in the 1980s who finds herself cradled in an arm of a society that would be considered anything but your paradigmatic suburban neighborhood. In 1980, Angie and her two siblings are dropped into a world of the poorest tenements during a decade where material wealth was worshipped. But these are not your usual run-of-the-mill Florida retirement occupants—these are tenants with issues that Angie soon realizes are the same that can happen anywhere—even under her own roof. Her place in society is further confused by the fact that she doesn’t live in a trailer but nonetheless, shares a postage-sized backyard with a less-desired community by societal standards and attends a prestigious private school more than 45 minutes from her cinderblock castle. After spending a decade living in a world of indiscernible differences, Angie’s family decides it’s time to pull up stakes, sell the trailer park and buy a double-wide trailer of their own in the Carnie Capital of World, Gibsonton, Florida. Funny at times, nostalgic throughout, Trailer Trash hits on some serious notes and undertones about societal differences and the trials of surviving childhood in any decade and any environment.
And they have incorporated.
Read the story below and answer three questions at the end. You will then be graded. Good luck..Tycoon Otto Rolfing once owned three sweatshops in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Newark (New Jersey). His thousand employees worked around the clock manufacturing and stockpiling micro mini-skirts in anticipation of their sweeping return to fashion. Sweatshop workers were paid ten dollars a day for sixteen hours, plus meals {which consisted of rice with fish heads.} Otto’s general manager was Klaus Brunner, reputed cousin of Adolf Hitler. One day over a bucket of Extra Crispy Chicken with Otto, Klaus claimed that his cousin was still alive, and a fisherman in Argentina, but had totally forgotten his past life in Germany, being quite senile. “It’s hard enough,” Klaus confessed, “for him to bait a hook.” Naturally, documentaries didn’t raise an eyebrow. .Soon afterward Otto ran out of money. First to be cut off were the telephones, which really didn’t matter as the phones never rang much anyway, except in New Jersey, where Immigration officials called, hoping someone answered with a Mexican accent. Next to go was the gas. Again, even in New Jersey this didn’t matter except on three or four days in mid winter when inside temperatures fell far enough to trip the thermostat, which was permanently set at 41 degrees. It was only when the power company delivered a threatening note to Otto’s trailer with the euphemistically worded phrase “an interruption of service” that the end became apparent. It would have been nearly impossible to operate sewing machines in total darkness. After all, the warehouses were windowless to maintain secrecy in the event that Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren found out what they were up to. (Even the sign outside read: Otto’s Buttondown Shirts to throw off the media elites.) So Otto suspended operations, offering each of his employees, both male and female, a mini-skirt as severance pay. He could afford to be generous as he had manufactured, by then, enough micro mini-skirts for everyone east of the Mississippi, with a few left over for the west coast as well. What he needed now was a vacation. After selling their respective trailers, Otto and Klaus hopped a cruise ship bound for the ominously Virgin Islands. As if on cue the ship then mysteriously sank somewhere between New York and Miami. To make matters worse a terrorist, swearing he was from Iran despite his blond hair, blew holes in all the life boats but one, and with a compact grenade launcher he’d managed to smuggle on board because ship’s security had mistaken it for a lifesize Miley Cyrus doll. In the water now Klaus and Otto worked frantically to lash together the few remaining ping pong tables into a kind of raft. These, however, were quickly seized by the ship’s captain, performer Andrew “Dice” Clay, and Jimmy Kimmel. Then, as Klaus began complaining about circling sharks, Otto lapsed inextricably into a numb recitation of the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Luckily, about then a Ouija board floated nearby, and their spirits improved immeasurably. Unfortunately, it was noon and they couldn’t distinguish east from west, and so paddled their Ouija board in the wrong direction. Soon the two crossed the 200 mile boundary into international waters {not seeing the buoys}, and were instantly picked up by a surfacing Soviet sub. Not just an ordinary day to day Soviet sub either, but a Typhoon-class model carrying 140 warheads capable of obliterating any country within 5000 miles. The sub’s captain, an amiable if slightly nervous chap of 19, understood English well, having been kicked out of several Welsh boarding schools. Ultimately he succumbed to Otto’s tale of misfortune, embellished with opinions on how the overweight citizens of the United States would probably die of heart attacks as soon as the DOW collapsed again anyway. Remembering all the fast food ads he’d seen, the young captain agreed and ordered the sub be taken to Argentina where, according to Klaus, life was simpler and the fishing was still good. He then permitted Klaus to use the deck cannon to scare Dice and Jimmy a bit. .The trio now lives with Adolf in a little fishing village south of Mar Del Plata, while the sub, piloted by a 20 year old female, glides aimlessly in and out of Cape Cod, looking through the periscope for sights of a Kennedy heir. Adolf himself has undergone an operation, and now resembles Mother Teresa . . . in a micro mini-skirt..
Quiz: 1} Do you believe this story?2} Do you finally perceive real life as boring, yet you’re too afraid to take the red pill or join a book club, and instead prefer ESPN and TMZ?3} Do you watch Entertainment Tonight religiously?.If you answered yes to any of these questions, ET will be contacting you with an offer you may soon be unable to refuse. LOL.
Lowe) As a doctor what about your career and people you were seeing led to writing your first book? And second, what led to writing your first book? And second?
HELGOE: In general, after absorbing so many observations from the lives of my clients as well as my own, I wanted to share my insights through writing. I authored four books prior to INTROVERT POWER. But that fifth book was one I had essentially been writing all my life. My own therapy helped me wake up to my introversion and that changed my life. I wanted to help other introverts wake up as well.
FRAGILE BULLY, my most recent book, tackled the topic of narcissism. I am keenly interested in the way personality and culture interact, and was noticing how so many of us were getting triggered by narcissism – on social media, in conversations and, more than ever, in the political sphere. I wanted to help people “unhook” from a losing and destructive game.
Lowe) I’m an introvert, and so are many creative people, famous or otherwise. Do most introverts struggle with depression or shyness, and what misconceptions do people have about us?
HELGOE: There are few good ways to describe “most introverts” because we comprise half of the population. In fact, that is the first misconception: that we all behave the same way. Some introverts are shy; others are quite social. What the shy and social introvert share, however, is that they process things internally. People who process things internally need more time and space for reflection. True, an internal orientation makes us more vulnerable to depression and anxiety. It also brings advantages, and can be a source of creativity, as you mentioned. Almost every creative endeavor requires the ability to observe and interpret the world around us in new ways. That is an introvert function.
Lowe) Extraverts seem to crave action and sensory stimulation, and can suffer from stress and/or lack of an attention span. Do extroverts have a bigger chance to become narcissistic, and what do percentages look like?
HELGOE: Yes, there is a relationship between extroversion and the type of narcissism we are most familiar with: the overt, grandiose type. There is a type of narcissism more related to introversion, and I also discuss this “covert, vulnerable narcissism” in my book. But your point is spot on: just as introversion and extraversion both have their own strengths, each are associated with certain vulnerabilities. Extraverts are more vulnerable to externalizing, reward-seeking disorders (substance use disorders, grandiose narcissism) while introverts are more likely to experience disorders associated with introspection (anxiety, depression). One orientation isn’t inherently healthier than the other.
Lowe) Sports fans. Introverts or both introverts and extraverts in large part?
HELGOE: I don’t have stats on this, but I would venture that loud, highly stimulating sports events would have more appeal to the extravert, while calmer contests would appeal to the introvert (think Wimbledon and Olympics competitions). That said, I’m an introvert and dove into Wrigleyville to watch the Cubs win the World Series in 2016. Values motivate us to move into spaces that might otherwise be stressful.
Lowe) Women read romances, and men watch sports on TV. For the most part. That’s what I learned in reviewing audiobooks, listening at work while the guys were listening to ball games and screaming for their teams.! Which is why I wrote The Umpire Has No Clothes. Any thoughts on the subject?
HELGOE: Ooh dangerous territory. My sister screams harder for sports teams than anyone I know (she is an extravert). Your book sounds fun (see what I did there?)
Lowe) Do you listen to audiobooks, and what do you think of your narrators?
HELGOE: Yes – I love audiobooks!! I got to select my narrators from the finalists, so I am really happy with the way they handled the content. Narrating is difficult. I did it in a studio once and I had no idea how many distracting sounds I make while speaking.
Lowe) What’s next for you?
HELGOE: Look for a podcast in which I may use the occasional expletive (my extraverted husband will be joining me). And I am spending more time at my easel. You can peek at my oil paintings at LaurieHelgoeArt.com.
RED MOUNTAIN in eastern Washington is home to a community of eccentrics. Otis Till, the area’s visionary winemaker, has been known to howl at the moon–fully nude. Single mother Margot Pierce moved across the country to build an inn, but so far all she does is binge on gelato, the Hallmark Channel, and fantasies of murdering her ex. High school senior Emilia Forester, daughter of celebrity parents, is struggling to build her own life outside of their shadow. And Brooks Baker is a man haunted by his past spent living on the streets as an orphan. Somehow, everyone lives together harmoniously, their lives intertwined like the vines in Red Mountain’s beautiful and renowned vineyards in the novel by Boo Walker, narrated with the resonate voice and acting skill of Armen Taylor. From the vault: Jonathan Lowe) You’ve always wanted to write, but you’re involved in the winery business. Did you start with articles or fiction? Boo Walker) I used to play music in Nashville for a living with a band called the Biscuit Boys. My first taste of the creative process and putting words together was writing songs. When I left that career, I had to fill the void. Being a voracious reader, I always wanted to try my hand writing fiction. So I went from songs to full-length fiction. JL) Anything happen at the winery itself that could be described as “mysterious” or “suspenseful?” BW) There’s always things that happen at the winery with a sense of suspense or mystery. Our winemaker was nearly killed by the press one year. A year before that, someone stole our neighbor’s grapes, picking them at midnight during harvest. I’ve seen wars waged between humans that may not resolve themselves for generations. Eastern Washington is desert country, the wild west. We have coyotes that will track you, we have badgers that will maul you, and we have rattlesnakes that linger in the grass. Even though Red Mountain is a tiny blip on the map, the potential stories are endless! JL) Drinking a bit helped me with live interviews, and many writers have been aided by wine in loosening up the free flow of ideas. Red or white for this? BW) Ha! The best interviews always begin with a glass of white. But I have a steadfast rule… no drinking while writing. Even Hemingway stuck to that. TR) Favorite authors? Influences? BW) My favorite author for many years has been Pat Conroy. We share pasts in Charleston together. If I could emulate one writer, it would be him. But I read Plum Island by Nelson Demille while traveling through Ireland after high school, and it gave me the thirst. I was in Waterville on the west coast, and I remember thinking that I had to write a book. Not that I could or should, but that I had to. So I owe him a lot. My favorite book right now though, one that has utterly blown me away, is A Gentleman in Moscow. I’ve never felt so motivated as a writer. Amor Towles puts words together in ways that make my eyes water. The way his mind works is pure art and genius. And most importantly, he’s reminded me to be free in my writing. I don’t need to subscribe to any particular way of doing things. I need to write from the heart and let my voice shine. TR) Your wine is carried at Whole Foods, bought by Amazon. Some of your characters are in wineries, too. Ever thought about sending a case to Jeff Bezos? He might buy movie rights. BW) I love the idea of sending wine to Bezos! I sent him an email one time; he never responded. Perhaps a box of wine would do the trick! TR) Hobbies? What’s next for you? BW) I’ve got a sequel to Red Mountain. Once that’s wrapped up, I’ll be writing a few books from my new home in St. Pete, Florida. After many years in Washington, my wife and I decided to take a new adventure. So I’m getting out and about in St. Pete, learning the history, the culture, the people. And then I’m going to throw it all in a blender and see what kind of fiction comes out. I always tell my new friends that they better be careful what they tell me, because I’m always looking for new material. Other than writing, I still play some music and absolutely thrilled to be buying my son his first guitar this Christmas. My newest hobby will be teaching him everything I know! Note: see RED MOUNTAIN BURNING.
From the vault: Racing legend Bobby Unser is three time winner of the Indy 500, and his new audiobook WINNERS ARE DRIVEN, written with Paul Pease, features a forward by his friend and fellow racing legend Roger Penske. The book is narrated by Jim Bond for Brilliance Audio. I spoke to Bobby by phone at his home in Albuquerque.
JONATHAN LOWE: Winners Are Driven uses racing as a guide to business success. What gave you the idea to tell your own story this way?
BOBBY UNSER: Well, they wanted me to write a book, and I wasn’t hot on writing another biography, then it dawned on me, since all my talks over the years had been motivational, of doing it this way.
LOWE: We seem to live in a win-at-all-cost era. Your book focuses on integrity, though, using examples from your past to illustrate various points. What is your favorite example of why integrity is important? The Goodyear vs. Firestone tire incident?
UNSER: That was a perfect example, and why we put it in the book. I turned down a tremendous amount of money at the time, over switching tire companies, because your word has to be your bond. People are used to older people saying that, but we should all have integrity, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to prevail as it should.
LOWE: Wouldn’t it be great if integrity was the rule of law for politicians?
UNSER: Yeah, that would be such an asset. We’ve come to accept politicians openly and outwardly lying to us. But why do we? It shouldn’t be accepted. And they have become used to the fact that they can lie, and that nobody believes them, and it just flows out of their mouths.
LOWE: Wasn’t meant to be that way, with career politicians forever in office.
UNSER: The career politician, what a terrible concept.
LOWE: Internal politics was involved in the race win that they took away from you for a time in 1981, wasn’t it?
UNSER: Yes, they created an infraction after the race was done. At a meeting I was never invited to they said the blending point–where you get back into the race from the pit–was going to be at the end of the pits, not coming off of turn two, which had been the rule. All the drivers that testified on my behalf didn’t remember that change, so it must have really been a deep secret. There was nothing in print, that’s for sure. When ABC does that race, though, you see, they have 25 cameras around the race track, and they all record all the time, so what we did was get hold of the tapes nobody ever sees. So when we saw those, darned if Mario (Andretti) and many other cars didn’t do exactly the same thing. So they were caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They’d wanted to start a war between teams Patrick and Penske, and it backfired on them. Indianapolis should be above that, though. Largest single sporting event on earth.
LOWE: Earlier in your career, you used walnut shells in tire rubber. . .sounds like what Thomas Edison might have tried. What gave your team that idea?
UNSER: Well, the idea was if you put walnut shells in the rubber, when you wear the tire down, the shells are going to flake out. So when that happens it becomes like a sponge, and gets hold of the coarse road a lot better. A gain of about forty percent. We also tried crushed batteries.
LOWE: What gave you the idea to even try that?
UNSER: Because it was some rubber that was made for ice. So I put shells on one side of the car, and crushed batteries in the rubber on the other, and we found the shells got the best traction. That was a secret for us, and I took the concept to Goodyear. I did a lot of tire development for Goodyear, in fact, and after many years of trying to develop rain tires, we finally developed a compound tire that did better than the walnut shells.
LOWE: Traction versus speed, then.
UNSER: Yes, the biggest gain we found was in the turns, not just going faster down the straight away. Traction is most important.
LOWE: You talk about an eight-second pit stop at Indianapolis, which is an amazing time for changing four tires and refueling. Is there a most memorable pit stop for you?
UNSER: None most memorable, as I’ve done thousands. Often things will go wrong, for sure. Probably the worst was in 1981, in the Indy race, when because of the design of the fuel filler that year, there was a tendency of the sleeve to stick. Happened to Rick Mears car, which caught fire. He jumped out, got burned a little. Same thing happened to me, around the same time, but what I did was just take off out of the pits, gambling that the flames would blow out, which they did. It burned my left sleeve, but that could have cost me the race had I just jumped out.
LOWE: About the go-cart accident which laid you up for a year, did you really tell the doctor you needed to go race as soon as you woke from a coma of more than a week?
UNSER: When I woke up in the hospital I was close to dying, for sure, but you have to realize I didn’t even have a headache! Didn’t know where I was. I was like I’d just woke up from one night. So it’s time for me to go, time to be at Indianapolis for a sprint car race.
LOWE: That’s amazing. Did you know Dale Earnhardt?
UNSER: Yes, I did.
LOWE: What is your thought on track safety today?
UNSER: Safety has just steadily gotten better. Racing will never be totally safe, but it’s so much better than it used to be. Goodyear, for one, spent lots of money, not just on winning races, but on safety. Like fuel cells, break-away fittings, clothing. Bill Simpson was a tremendous help with safety. Simpson Safety Products really got technology going that way. My brother died from burns at Indianapolis, and there was just no safety back then. Helmets, clothing, cars, walls, all were just terrible. We used to accept the fact that about fifty percent of the drivers died while racing, and that wasn’t a good number.
LOWE: Fifty percent?
UNSER: Yeah, but it’s changed, now, and you hardly ever see a fire today. The uniforms are a thousand percent better. Drivers I remember used to race in tee shirts, back when there were no bladders in the fuel tanks. Now Indy cars have a lot of shock absorption qualities, whereas in Nascar the frame is rigid. Steel tubing.
LOWE: That’s not good.
UNSER: Now this is turning out to be a negative, and Nascar is looking into remedies, because they’ve got to do something about shock absorbing. An Indy car, where the driver sits, is like a capsule, where everything else can shuck away. Nascar cars, like Dale’s. . .that’s a rigid frame, and one of the reasons why he died. I saw the report on Earnhardt. Best done investigation of an accident I’ve seen. Of course there were many reasons why Dale got killed. Problems that came together all at the same time.
LOWE: Dale Jr. carries on. Do you have children, yourself?
UNSER: Four kids. One daughter has a program to help teach driving safety in corporations, to get breaks in insurance. My other daughter is a real estate appraiser. And I have two boys. Bobby Jr. helps create TV car commercials. Stunt driving for those. He’s won some awards, like for the commercials on the Super Bowl. Then Robby was a race driver too, but he didn’t stay with it either. He was in Indianapolis twice.
LOWE: Jim Bond reads your book on audio. Do you listen to audiobooks yourself, while driving, or recommend them?
UNSER: Absolutely. I have some people who’ve gotten mine, and listen while going to work. Ironically, some are in L.A. with the bad freeways! But what a beautiful way to read a book. I think audiobooks are a fabulous idea.
LOWE: Good way to relieve stress. Better than rock or rap, which only adds to stress.
UNSER: Exactly. A way to keep your mind working, for sure. Something other than being aggravated about the traffic problems. If my wife and I are going somewhere, she’ll listen to tapes and learn Spanish, since we own a home in old Mexico now. Same with my book. That’s how Lisa read it, listening to the tapes. Time on the freeway is wasted time, so why not turn a negative into a positive? That’s the bottom line.
LOWE: What’s next for you, and for your friend Roger Penske?
UNSER: I do expert witness litigation work now. Roger, of course, will keep on racing. He’s got the best team, and he loves the sport. He isn’t slowing down. A good man, and good for racing.
LOWE: As are you. Thank you, sir. It was a pleasure and a privilege to talk to you.
Jay Bonansinga is an internationally known author of many books, including THE WALKING DEAD.
Jonathan Lowe) What are your favorite audiobooks of yours, and why? Jay Bonansinga) I love all the versions of my books that were done as audiobooks, but I especially love the Robert Forster performance of my book The Killers Game. This guy is pure Chicago with his hard R’s and flat vowels! Also love Fred Berman, who does all the Walking Dead books. JL) I used to review for trucking magazines like Truckers News and Landline, plus Cracker Barrel stores, which had an audiobook program. XM Radio too, which truckers listen to. I know a trucker named Jan Martinson, and my new narrator Geoff Sturtevant drives. You were a trucker? JB) I guess I always saw the cross country trucker as the last cowboy. Running cattle, taking no shit from anybody, always pushing, tough as rawhide. I have my chauffeur’s license, but the first day I drove a huge stake truck when I was nineteen. I clipped a mirror off another rig and that was that…my career kaput in one day!
Jonathan Lowe 
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