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- Author interview - |
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  Interview with Jonathan Harrington, author of The Death of Cousin Rose and The Second Sorrowful Mystery, both released in paperback this year by Worldwide Mystery (Toronto, Canada), a division of Harlequin. The Death of Cousin Rose appears in May 2000 and The Second Sorrowful Mystery in August. The third book in the Danny O'Flaherty series, A Great Day for Dying, will be out in spring 2001. Interview by Charlotte Austin. CHARLOTTE AUSTIN - The sequel to The Death of Cousin Rose (1996) is your second mystery novel entitled The Second Sorrowful Mystery (June 1999). It was received with even wider critical acclaim. Booklist called the novel "excellent." Publishers Weekly wrote: "Harrington…conveys well the undercurrents that can lie beneath a small town’s placid appearance." What is the underlying reason for the success of The Second Sorrowful Mystery? JONATHAN HARRINGTON - What I tried to do in The Second Sorrowful Mystery is to write a puzzle with literary style and realistic characterization. It seems that many writers of the Golden Age of the Detective novel subordinated characterization and style to the puzzle. The plot was everything and characters (and language for that matter) were servants of the plot. Now, many writers have subordinated the plot to characterization. We know everything possible about the protagonist, but there is no mystery per se. What I try to do in the Danny O’Flaherty mystery series - and it is easier said than done - is to create a classic puzzle mystery with rich characterization and a polished, cinematic writing style. It seems that your cozy mysteries are different from other traditional mysteries. How so? JH – A customer comment recently posted on Amazon.com said this: "Harrington has created a new sub-genre of the English cozy with this series. His Irish mysteries carry the same elements as the English cozy: amateur sleuth, village setting, a limited number of characters who have secret lives. But oh how much more robust are these characters than their neighbors across the Irish Sea." I like that. Of course, I’m not sure I can take credit for creating the sub-genre. But I will say that I was surprised when I first started writing the series by how few mystery novels are set in Ireland. It just seemed natural to me that the genre would have been tried with an Irish setting. However, there may well be cultural and political reasons why it has not been done more often. I don’t really know. All I do know is that when The Death of Cousin Rose came out in 1996, I could only find a handful of mysteries with an Irish setting. I was really surprised. So the setting is one thing that makes the series different. Please describe a typical writing day for our readers. JH – I’m afraid that since the birth of my son 2 years ago, I don’t have typical days anymore. I haven’t quit the day job yet, and my wife performs on Broadway in Phantom of the Opera. I’m at my day job from 9-5 and then I take over for my wife at home when she leaves for the theatre around 6. As anyone with a two-year old in the house will know, I don’t have a lot of quiet time at home. So, right now I’m doing a lot of writing on the subway. I have about an hour commute to work and an hour home, so I write as much as I can on the train in long hand and type it into the computer at work. I squeeze time in before work and after my son is asleep. It’s a far from ideal situation right now but I’m sure it will improve soon. There must be many writers - especially women - who have written under much more restrictive conditions. Would you say that some authors influenced your writing? Which authors in particular? JH -- First of all, my background is literary. I graduated from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and was an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing. I’ve published a lot of poetry, so I’ve been influenced by poets - too numerous to mention. Among fiction writers, my influences are writers like Graham Greene (who also, of course, wrote mysteries or entertainments as he called them). Paul Theroux is one of my favorite living writers as is William Trevor. All three of them are superb stylists - their prose is absolutely breathtaking and characterized by economy of expression combined with vivid detail. As far as mystery writers are concerned, P.D. James is perhaps my favorite writer and I admire Ruth Rendell very much. It’s funny looking back over this list that three of the five writers I mention are English. One is Irish (William Trevor) and Paul Theroux lived in London for a long time. That’s certainly not a conscious choice on my part. In fact, until now I never realized how partial I am to English writers. I was born and raised in the Deep South in an Irish-Catholic household, so I’m not sure how this comes about. Among American mystery writers, I admire James Lee Burke very much. I was a fan of Burke’s long before he began writing mysteries. He published short stories in literary magazines and mainstream literary novels. He is also a master of description. When he writes about the bayous and backwoods of southern Louisiana, it is highly evocative. One other writer I’d like to mention is Tom Wolfe. I think Bonfire of the Vanities is one of the best novels I’ve read in the last fifteen years - and it’s a crime story. How long did The Death of Cousin Rose take to research and write? JH – Well, that’s always a difficult question to answer because it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly when one’s research begins. Both sets of my grandparents were born in Ireland, in County Clare and County Mayo. When I was a teenager, I went to Ireland with my mother and met all our relatives there. Since then, I have been back many times to collect Irish folklore, tape-record stories and to research my family history. So, initially, I was researching genealogy. I didn’t know that this genealogical research would actually lead to the publication of my first mystery novel, The Death of Cousin Rose. I did publish several articles about my travels in Ireland and different people suggested that the material might be good for a novel. So, when I wrote The Death of Cousin Rose, I knew I wanted to write something that would both entertain and also introduce people who have never been to Ireland to its people and culture. When I decided to use my genealogical research in Ireland as the background for the book, I realized at that moment that it would have to be a mystery novel. Genealogical research is actually detective work. Like a detective, you are looking for clues to your identity by examining birth, death, and marriage certificates, ship’s registries, church records, etc. You are trying to uncover any clue that will help answer the question: who am I and where did I come from? This is the theme of The Death of Cousin Rose. The protagonist, Danny O’Flaherty, is not only trying to find out who the murderer of his cousin is, but he is also trying to find out who he is and where he came from. It’s not only a who-dunnit, it’s also a who-is-I? So, there, I’ve invented another sub-genre. How do you conduct your research? JH – There are two distinct stages to my research. With the books set in Ireland, I go to Ireland. It is important for me to just be there, soaking up impressions before I actually do any formal research. It would be awful to sit in an Irish pub with a pen and pad trying to write down all the colorful phrases you are bound to hear. I think if you did that you might just miss out on the big picture. Better to order a pint of Guinness, sit back, look, and listen. Now, with the second book in the series, The Second Sorrowful Mystery, I was actually doing a pilot study for a Fulbright grant proposal. I went to Ireland with a tape recorder in order to collect and record Irish folklore and legends. I wandered the back roads of counties Clare, Galway, and Mayo recording the tales of farmers, fishermen, pubkeepers (lots of pubkeepers) and anyone else who would talk to me. Believe me, it’s not difficult getting Irish people to talk to you. It’s probably harder to get the Irish to keep quiet. They are tremendously gifted storytellers. While I was tape-recording an elderly woman in a village in County Clare, she told me an interesting story. She said that a new rectory had been built in the parish about ten years before. The first three priests who had come to the parish died within a year of moving to the village. Some people believed that there was a curse on the rectory since the priest’s residence had been built in a direct line between two ringforts. Ringforts are the archaeological remains of pre-Christian Ireland. According to the woman, the fairies had a pathway between the two ringforts and the new parish rectory was built in the middle of the path. That was the reason, some believed, that each priest who had been assigned to the parish had died within a year of arriving. It was the work of Ireland’s pre-Christian gods. Well, I filed that story away without much thought. But as time passed, I began to see the dramatic potential in the story of the dying priests. Again, I wasn’t actually researching a novel at that time. But, in fact, the Fulbright plans didn’t work out as I’d expected. Instead of a scholarly book, the research led to the publication of The Second Sorrowful Mystery. In this book, Father O’Malley is the fourth priest to come to the rectory, and of course - he is murdered. Danny O’Flaherty is asked by the villagers to investigate. So he must sort out this legend of the ringforts and find out what happened to Father O’Malley. I particularly liked what some reviewers have said about the settings seeming very real. That shows to me that my research paid off. All that time in Irish pubs was hard work. In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing writers today? JH – Without a doubt it is extremely difficult to get published - especially in book form. So, the greatest challenge is to be able to sustain yourself emotionally through all the years of rejection. Let’s just forget about the economics of it for a moment because if you are going to begin writing in order to make money, I’m afraid to say you are sadly deluded. Please, don’t do it for that reason. I do it because I have to. It’s an obsession or a compulsion - I don’t know which one. The point is I have to write. It’s who I am. I couldn’t stop if I tried. I wouldn’t stop even if I never made another dime off my writing. Having said that, however, does not diminish the pain of rejection. The whole process of trying to get published is a very punishing experience. I don’t know that it can be compared to anything else. Your most private thoughts, dreams, aspirations - all that is most important and close to you is being regularly rejected. Years and years of that can have serious consequences on your self-esteem and probably on your mental health. Skip the mental health part. If you’ve decided to become a writer you must be crazy to begin with, so that’s a given. But your self-esteem is on the line. Face it, we live in an almost completely materialistic culture. Writing poems, novels, and stories is probably viewed by most people as a hobby. In fact, it is the most important undertaking in the world. I sincerely believe that. Storytellers are the only people who can truly save this planet. Without our stories we are nothing. In fact, we are only our stories. When I am gone, all that will be left are the stories I tried to tell in my writing. When the world is no more, all that will be left is a story that begins: Once upon a time a group of people lived on a place called Earth. Someone has to write that story. That someone is you! We are writing the story of our existence. When everything else is gone, all that will remain is the story of who we were. Don’t ever forget that. The next time you’re at a gathering and someone asks you what you do, rather than mumbling something about writing as you try to think of what kind of real job you can tell them about, tell them you’re saving civilization. One poem, one article, one short story, one script, or one novel at a time. Is the Internet important for your work? JH – It has become increasingly important to me, particularly for research and promotion of my books. On-line lists like DorothyL keep me connected to readers around the world. But I hasten to add that the Internet can be a mixed blessing. A person can waste incredible amounts of time surfing the net or chatting with interesting people instead of writing. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer? JH - First, don’t choose to be a writer unless you absolutely must do it. If you must, then the most important advice I can give you is: Never give up. Read as much as you can. Read books about the craft of writing. Write every day. The muse doesn’t exist. Don’t wait for her. Write! Never give up. What new projects are you working on now? JH – I have so many – too many, perhaps. I’ve never limited myself to one genre. I’ve published poetry, short stories, reviews, travel essays, profiles, editorials, and mystery novels. Right now I have several articles I’m finishing for various magazines. I have poems coming out in a couple of different anthologies. I’m working on a treatment for film of my novels, and I’m beginning to work with a photographer on a coffee table book. And, of course, I’m writing the third novel in the Danny O’Flaherty mystery series, A Great Day for Dying, to be released in spring 2001. Any closing thoughts or comments? JH – We are fortunate as human beings that we cannot see into the future. When I decided in elementary school that I was going to be a writer, I could never have imagined what a difficult goal that is to attain. And the odd thing about writing is you are never sure if you have attained your goal. No matter how many books you’ve published, every day when you face a blank piece of paper you ask yourself again: "Am I really a writer? Do I really have what it takes?" There is only one way to find out -WRITE! |
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