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- Author interview - |
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  Interview with Bill Crider bestselling author of 35 mystery and western novels. His latest Murder Is An Art (St. Martin's, 1999) is now available through Amazon.com. Interview by Charlotte Austin. CHARLOTTE AUSTIN - MURDER IS AN ART, your 35th mystery novel, was released in April 1999 by St. Martin's Press. You have been publishing mysteries since 1981, a difficult genre to master successfully. Where does this passion stem from? BILL CRIDER - My interest in mysteries goes back to childhood, when I read as many of the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Judy Bolton books as I could find. As I got older, I discovered the great old Fawcett Gold Medal paperbacks, along with Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross Macdonald. And I also read spy novels by the metric ton. When it came time to write my doctoral dissertation, I chose a topic that was dear to my heart, The Private-Eye Hero. By that time (the early to mid-1970s) I was also writing letters and reviews that appeared in a number of fanzines, such as The Armchair Detective, The JDM Bibliophile, and The Mystery Reader's Newsletter. I've always loved writing almost as much as I love reading, and eventually I started writing mystery novels of my own. Please describe a typical writing day for our readers. Since I have a "real" job as chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at Alvin Community College, I don't write much fiction in the daylight hours. I usually get started around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. and write until I finish whatever number of pages I've assigned myself for that day. I generally try to finish by 9:30 or so. With a schedule like that, I don't get to watch a lot of television. I do like to listen to music when I write, folk, doo-wop, pre-Beatles rock and roll, and pop music from the '40s and '50s. Would you say that some authors influenced your writing? Which authors in particular? When it comes to plots and writing style, I don't think you can find any influences in my work. But when it comes to writers I admire, there are literally too many to list. Besides those I've named above, there are Harry Whittington, William Campbell Gault, Jim Thompson, Day Keene, and many, many more. Your latest novel entitled MURDER IS AN ART was released earlier last year by St. Martin's Press. How is this particular mystery different from your other mystery novels? MURDER IS AN ART is the first novel I've done with a community college setting. I've done a few other academic mysteries, but they've all been set in a four-year school. MURDER IS AN ART also has a female point-of-view character in quite a few scenes. I've done that only once before, in a stand-alone book called THE TEXAS CAPITOL MURDERS. Typically, how long do your novels take to research and write? Sometimes the research is easy. For the academic mysteries, I just have to draw on my own experience and the experiences of friends. For some of the westerns, I've had to do more extensive research, but the book that required the most work of that kind was THE TEXAS CAPITOL MURDERS. I researched that one for several months. As for the writing, it all depends on how well things are going. Sometimes everything seems to fall into place, and I can complete a book in only a few months. Sometimes it takes a lot longer. BLOOD MARKS, which has probably sold more copies than any of my other books, probably took less time to write than quite a few of the others. You have quite a following of dedicated readers with high expectations from the next Bill Crider mystery. Is this difficult to live up to? How does it influence your work? I always hope to live up to the expectations of readers. In fact, I'd like to exceed their expectations if I could. But as far as worrying about it, or even thinking of it when I'm writing, well, I don't. When I'm working, all I can think about is the book, the characters, and the writing itself. It's just me and the fictional gang in my office, having a high old time. In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing writers today? Getting in print and staying in print. Sometimes I think the second might be the more difficult. How is the Internet helpful for your work? I love the Internet. It's great for research, and everything is right there. I once had to write a story set in Ireland, and I discovered that the Alvin library had exactly one book on Ireland, and a very unhelpful one at that. But when I went online, I found all the information I needed in less time that it had taken me to drive to the library. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer? Read a lot. Write what you want to write. And have fun while you're doing it. What project or novel are you working on now? I'm finishing up the memoirs of a private eye named Clyde Wilson, a legend in the Houston area. I've never written a nonfiction book before, but Clyde is such a colorful character, and he's had such a great career, that I couldn't resist taking on the job. And I've begun a book called A ROMANTIC WAY TO DIE, which features one of my series characters, Sheriff Dan Rhodes. There's a romance writers' convention in Blacklin County, Texas, and a cover guy gets killed. I'm also fiddling around with two other book ideas. I've written a chapter of one and jotted down some notes about the other. Any closing thoughts or comments? I don’t write about world-shaking events or novels where the Fate of the Universe hangs in the balance. I enjoy writing about small towns and people like the ones I've known all my life. Sometimes the biggest crime in town is when a restaurant doesn't have a sneeze guard over the salad bar. There’s a good story told with a sense of humor, believable characters and strong plots in all my books. And ultimately, that’s what being a writer is all about. Writing what you enjoy writing. Read Bill Crider’s full bio |
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