David
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My first book was a cautionary tale about a boy
who builds a rope swing despite his parents'
objections, falls off as they predicted, and breaks his wrist. It was called
Swinging Danger and like all first novels it was highly autobiographical.
I was ten years old.
Thus began a writing career that has taken me from covering Nine-Man
football in Fergus Falls, Minnesota (where they have 287 words for "cold") to
the Edgar Award ceremonies in New York.
I was one of those annoying people who always knew what he wanted to be
when he grew up. What I wanted to be was a writer (for a brief period I felt
I was destined to replace Rod Carew as second baseman for the Minnesota Twins,
but that only lasted until I tried to hit a breaking ball).
For my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a printing press, so naturally
I started my own newspaper, Neighborhood News. I sold it door-to-door
for a dime, which was good money back then (you could buy five packages of
Chum Gum for that). I also worked on my high school newspaper, eventually
becoming its editor when I was still a junior.
I was fired for printing an anti-war editorial. Course you need to
understand I attended an all-boys Catholic military school during the height
of the Viet Nam war. Of course they fired me. You would have fired me, too.
To my astonishment, two months after I graduated from high school,
I was hired by a real newspaper -- Minneapolis Tribune. I started in
the sports department as a "copy boy" and quickly rose to staff correspondent,
covering high school and college sports and those events the senior reporters
didn't want to cover: Big Ten gymnastics, AAU swimming, World Team Tennis.
I loved it! I was the toast of my class at the University of St. Thomas,
where I earned a journalism degree.
Unfortunately, a full time position eluded me when a merger of the
morning Tribune and the afternoon Minneapolis Star caused massive
staff reductions. So after I graduated, I became a news reporter for the
Albert Lea Evening Tribune in southern Minnesota. It was there that I
met Holland Laak, the Freeborn County Sheriff.
Laak hated me. I was this pip-squeak reporter always asking questions he
didn't want to answer. Yet I liked him. He had no sense of humor that I ever
saw, but I admired the way he went about his business. He was a cop's cop; a
real crime dog. I named the protagonist in my first series of books after him,
even though the only things Holland Taylor and Holland Laak shared was a first
name and a compulsion to put things in order that were once out of order.
After a brief stint as a sports reporter again, this time for the
Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota, I left journalism and drifted into
advertising, working for several prominent Twin City agencies as a copywriter
and creative director. Eventually, I became creative director and part-owner
of my own shop, Gerber/Housewright, in St. Paul. Along the way I worked on
campaigns for a number of national clients such as Federal Express, Miller Beer,
Hormel Foods, Jim Beam, Tony's Pizza and 3M.
It was while at Gerber/Housewright that I wrote my "second" novel --
I had reached a true crossroads. I had always wanted to write books. To
me that is what a "real" writer did, write books. So the question was, am I
going to do this for real or aren't I? Is this going to be my life or just a
hobby? I think it took me about three minutes to decide to sell my advertising
agency to my partner and become a free-lance writer.
It didn't hurt that I had the full support of my lovely wife Renee
Valois, who was already a successful free-lancer. She was a contributing
writer for The History Channel Magazine, did theater reviews for the
St. Paul Pioneer Press, and managed to publish some poetry, all while
writing advertising for the same kind of clients as I did. (Most people will
tell you that she's a better writer than I am, but I'm funnier - seriously.)
Five months later the Mystery Writers of America gave me the Edgar Award
for Best First Novel of 1996 and the Private Eye Writers of America nominated
me for the same prize. My second novel,
Of course, it hasn't been all roses. My publisher, W. W. Norton, dropped my
contract following my third novel -
Such is the world of publishing. Still, I can't complain. I have
published 13 novels: Penance (1996 Edgar Award Winner Best First Novel from Mystery Writers of
America, Shamus nominee Private Eye Writers of America, 1995), Practice to
Deceive (1998 Minnesota Book Award winner, 1998), Dearly Departed (1999), A
Hard Ticket Home (2004), Tin City (2006 Minnesota Book Award nominee,
2005), Pretty Girl Gone (2006), Dead Boyfriends (2007), Madman
On A Drum (2008), Jelly's Gold (2010 Minnesota Book Award winner, 2009),
The Taking of Libbie, SD (2011 Minnesota Book Award nominee, 2010), Highway
61 (2011), The Devil and the Diva (written with Renee Valois, 2012), and
Curse of the Jade Lily (to be published June 2012). I have been involved
in six anthologies: Silence of the Loons (2005), Twin Cities Noir (2006),
Resort To Murder (2007), Once Upon A Crime (2009), Deadly Treats
(2011), and Writes of Spring (2012).
In addition, I occasionally teach what little I know at the Loft
Literary Center in Minneapolis.
You couldn't ask for a better life. It can be difficult; make no
mistake. But it is fun. It's the most fun a guy can have.
Susan Evans: When did you begin writing? How did your experience as a journalist
and advertising copywriter inform your fiction writing?
David Housewright: I began writing when I was in the sixth grade--or rather
I should say that that's when I knew I wanted to be a writer. I learned a great
many things from journalism and advertising that have found their way into my
novels--the ability to do research and converse with sources among them. Probably
the most important thing, however, was how to find the most interesting story out
of a series of events.
SE: Why did you choose to write mysteries?
DH: You could argue that mysteries chose me. It had always been my favorite
genre. I read maybe five mysteries for every non-mystery. But when I actually sat
down to write my first book, I had planned to write about political corruption--you
could say I was channeling Gore Vidal. But after I got into it, it occurred to me
that if I tossed a few dead bodies on the floor, it was would make a dandy crime
drama. And so I did. And Penance won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel
in 1996. I've been a crime writer ever since.
SE: You've been described as a modern noir writer. What do you think that means
and do you agree?
DH: I think it means that I have taken the traditional trench-coat
detective--Philo Vance, Sam Spade, Phillip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Mike Hammer--and
given him 21st century sensibilities. Beyond that, I have no idea.
SE: Who are your favorite mystery writers? Anyone you have learned from?
DH: I think you learn from everyone you read. I've been greatly influenced
by crime writers like James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, James
Lee Burke, Ross Thomas, Donald E. Westlake, Ed McBain, and Lawrence Block. But I
have also learned a lot from Kurt Vonnegut, E. L. Doctorow, Larry McMurtry,
Patrick O'Brien, and Scott Fitzgerald.
SE: Penance was your first published novel and it won an Edgar. That's
a tremendous achievement. Was it the first novel you wrote?
DH: It was my first finished novel. I had attempted to write books when I
was younger but they went nowhere. In fact--they sucked!--largely because when I
got out of college I didn't know anything.
SE: Can you explain your timing on Penance. How long did it take you to
write it? Did you have an agent and how long did it take to sell?
DH: It took me a year to write the book (I was running my own advertising
agency--Gerber-Housewright--at the time and that slowed me down). It took another
year to find an agent and a third to find a publisher who liked the book as much
as we did. Such is the world of publishing.
SE: Penance is a political story, a theme that you return to often. It
postulates the first woman governor of Minnesota and it was published in 1995. In
it you create a remarkably corrupt cast of characters. In fact Pretty Girl Gone
has a cabal of business leaders and influence peddlers running the state's government.
Did this theme grow from your years reporting? How accurate a view of power and
politics do you think it is?
DH: I believe it is inaccurate only in that it is much less organized than
I made it out to be. The truth is that there are a lot of very rich and powerful
men who are trying to "run" things and they're not always secretive about it (read
the campaign donation lists and their names pop up all over the place). Yet they
are nearly always concerned with their own self interest. They want what they want
so they can become richer and more powerful than they already are. Beyond that
they couldn't care less about government.
SE: Rushmore McKenzie and Holland Taylor are very similar characters, both
ex-police, both unmarried, both investigators in Minneapolis/St Paul. What made
you create McKenzie when you'd won an Edgar with Taylor? What are their differences?
What can you do with McKenzie you couldn't do with Taylor?
DH: Taylor and McKenzie are significantly different from each other in
many ways including their motivation--Taylor was in it for the money, McKenzie
wants to make the world a better place. Yet, I can see how you might find them
similar, and not only in the obvious facts you present. I write both of them,
and as a result they both have my sensibilities.
SE: How much do you identify with them?
DH: This is a question all authors get--how much of you are in the characters
and the answer is that I invented them so you can argue that they are all a part
of me, even the bad guys.
SE: There are a number of things I admire about your writing. The first is the
way you rarely give physical descriptions of your characters. I loved the scene in
Madman on a Drum where McKenzie goes to a dangerous bar, Lehane's, and
encounters six customers and a bartender. Your description is a sociological
treatise. When you first started writing did you consciously avoid more conventional
description? How long did it take you to create such gems?
DH: I try to give the reader only enough description as necessary to evoke
the impression I want them to have. The description of Lehane's--which is a tip
of my cap to Dennis, whom I like very much --was meant to let them know that this
is a very dangerous place. Beyond that, I'm more than happy to let the reader fill
in the blanks from their own experiences. Odds are they'll do a better job than me,
anyway. As for how long it takes--sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it doesn't.
SE: You also do a great job with thugs. I particularly like Big Joe and Little
Joe in Highway 61. The characters are so larger than life, but as a reader
I believed them, mainly because of Big Joe's love for his brother. I think
inexperienced writers are afraid to draw characters too large. Do you have any
advice on how to go big, but not too big?
DH: All you need to do--and this sounds much easier than it is--is to
portray your bad guys as "real people" who get up in the morning and go to bed
at night and in between live their lives with the same thirsts and hungers as
everyone else. Yes, they do terrible things. But they don't see it that way.
They don't believe they are bad guys.
SE: I especially like your women characters. C. C. Monroe feels like a
classic noir woman but she works perfectly with the ultra modern Marion Senske.
In fact Penance is peopled with stunning female characters, as is
Highway 61. And Shelby and Nina and Cynthia Grey and Erica? What is your
inspiration for so many nuanced and multi-faceted woman?
DH: I've been told by many people that I write strong female characters,
but I don't see it that way. I think I write strong characters, period. If my
female characters stand out from those created by, say, John D. MacDonald and
Mickey Spillane, it is because I have more respect for women than they did and
that simply comes from the women I've known in my life, those I went to college
with, those I dated, my wife, my mom. I don't tell myself I'm going to write a
strong female character. I say, I'm going to write an honest female character.
SE: In Penance Taylor makes up character lists for several people. Do
you do that for your characters?
DH: Sometimes. It depends on the character and how important he or she is to
the story.
SE: One of the greatest strengths of both series is your setting. How do you
work that? Do you use a real map of Minneapolis/St. Paul? Are Spaghetti Junction
and Dayton's Bluff and Tin City real places? What about Lehane's? I was
wondering if that bar was a nod to the writer Dennis Lehane?
DH: Every place I write about in my books actually exists. I've been there.
I will, on occasion, change the name and location for plot reasons--and to avoid
getting sued--but they are all real, including Lehane's, which I named after
Dennis because it's the kind of joint that he likes to write about. I believe in
the old saying--"If you were from where they are from, and you were taught what
they are taught, you'd believe what they believe." I carefully use my settings
to give readers a sense of what Minnesota and the Twin Cities are like and to give
them an idea of the kind of people that live there. It is essential to telling
my stories.
SE: I think your love for your cities is most clearly expressed in
Jelly's Gold. How accurate is the history of Minneapolis/St Paul in that
book? Was it in fact a safety zone for criminals during prohibition? And are the
stories of legendary criminals in that book true?
DH: Everything I wrote about in Jelly's Gold concerning the gangsters
and the people who lived among them in St. Paul from 1900 to about 1934 is true!
I merely changed some of the names to fit my story. I spent months doing the
research.
SE: To the extent that families are important to your heroes you are as
far away from a noir writer as anyone can get. In fact family seems to be a major
theme, particularly in the McKenzie books. Do you feel you have any other themes?
Have you ever written a book to make a point?
DH: The best crime novels have always been about more than who killed Mr.
Body in the library with a candlestick. You ask have I ever written a book to make
a point--hell, I hope that all my books make a point because I certainly intend
them to. Jelly's Gold is about the moral compromises society makes to
protect its safety. The citizens of St. Paul allowed the worst criminals to live
among them as long as they committed no crimes within the city limits. And it
worked. For 35 years St. Paul was one of the safest cities in America. It ended
only when the criminals turned against them. The Taking of Libbie, SD is
about the decline and depopulation of the Great Plain states and the desperation
of people who live in towns that are literally melting away beneath their feet.
Highway 61, as you point out, is about family and how people will protect
members of their family regardless of how undeserving they are (Erica and her
father, the Joes and each other).
SE: Your pacing is remarkable. There's a wonderful scene in Madman on a Drum
during which McKenzie goes into a bank to collect a million dollars for a ransom
and you describe in great detail that complete process. The scene doesn't advance
the story, and ends with a joke. Later we see McKenzie in a warehouse with the
banker and watch the employees processing the money while McKenzie reflects on
the case. I was struck by how much nerve it took to basically stop the action at
that point and how well it worked. How do you know when a joke is worth it? How
do you know what to tell in detail and what to summarize? Any rule of thumb?
DH: I disagree when you say that the action stopped while McKenzie was
gathering the ransom. There was a time limit after all and things were moving very
fast. Besides, the worst moments in cases like this are when people are waiting
for something to happen and I wanted to express that. The point of the sequences
you mentioned was to let people know how it all works--you don't just walk into
a bank and ask for $1 million in fifties and twenties and then carry it all out
in an attaché case like they do on TV. I wanted people to know this is what
happens when you kidnap a child and demand a ransom.
SE: I have read a number of your books and not one sags in the middle. Do you
have any secrets to share? Do you have a way of thinking of the structure of your
books that keeps them moving so well?
DH: Very simple--if a scene doesn't move the story along or reveal something
significant about the major protagonists, take it out.
SE: What inspires you to start a book, what do you need to begin such a big task?
DH: Going back to an earlier question, the first thing I do is decide what
the story is about. For example, once I decided that Curse of the Jade Lily,
due out in April, 2012, was about how victims of a crime sometimes work to protect
the criminals that harm them, it became much easier to plot.
SE: Guppies are always interested in the writing process. Do you outline or
just write? About how long does it take you to finish a book? How many drafts do
you do? Do you edit as you go along?
DH: I outline, but it is a very informal and changeable process; I do not
force myself to follow it. And I edit as I go along--there is no first or second
draft. One thing I insist on--what I would forcefully recommend to all writers--is
knowing how the book ends before I begin. From a practical standpoint, it helps
you shape the elements of the book so that you have a satisfying and impactful
conclusion. Also, I believe the ending of a book goes a long way toward revealing
to the reader what the book is about. Just as important, it tells the writer what
the book is about.
SE: Have you ever been blocked? How do you handle that?
DH: I have never in my life experienced writer's block. I suspect it is
because I do outline, because I do have an idea where the book is going before I
begin. I have never stared at my screen and asked, "now what?"
SE: Are there any how-to writing books you would recommend?
DH: No. The best way to learn how to write a book is to actually sit down
and write a book.
SE: Do you have any advice for the unpublished among us?
DH: Don't quit. The difference between me and you is that I will find a way
to finish the book. On the day my father died, I wrote three pages. They were
lousy pages and I tossed them out, but I wrote them. Most wannabes will find a
way not to finish the book--the job is a hassle, the kids are a handful, my
mother is ill, I'm having trouble in my marriage, golf doesn't play itself. Finish
the book and then find a publisher who likes it as much as you. It isn't easy.
But it is simple. And if I can do it, so can you.
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text © 1999-2012 David Housewright |