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| Revenge of the Fiction Queen: An Interview with Kris Neri By Susan McBride  The Chinese zodiac might herald 2000 as The Year of the Dragon, but in the mystery zodiac, it’s got to be The Year of Kris Neri. This award-winning short story author broke out into novel-length fiction with a book called Revenge of the Gypsy Queen, and she’s done nothing but garner accolades ever since. Her debut has earned nominations for the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Awards, voted upon by devoted mystery fans from around the globe, attesting to her popularity. Read our review of Revenge of the Gypsy Queen. What makes this even more remarkable is that GYPSY QUEEN is the product of Rainbow Books, a  small Florida press, and every bit of buzz surrounding the release was generated by word-of-mouth. And the buzz only continues to grow, especially with the recent publication of DEM BONES’ REVENGE, the second in her Tracy Eaton Mystery Series. Read our two reviews of Dem Bones' Revenge: Reviewed by Phillip Tomasso III. Reviewed by Susan McBride.Between teaching crime writing classes, drafting prose at the computer, and tending to her family in Southern California - which includes husband Joe, and pets Amanda, Jake and Philly (yes, named for Tracy Eaton’s Uncle Phil) - Kris took a few moments to reflect on this exciting time in her career. SUSAN McBRIDE - First of all, congratulations on the amazing response to Revenge of the Gypsy Queen. The mystery community absolutely adores the book. Are you surprised by the attention it has attracted, or is there a part of you thinking: I worked hard for this, I deserve it? KRIS NERI - I did work very hard to reach this level, and I’m still working hard. But every writer who accomplishes anything works hard. Everyone who writes a book, everyone who struggles to get published, every published novelist who works to get noticed. I fear the words are too devalued to adequately express what I feel about the incredible reception Revenge of the Gypsy Queen has received. I'm elated, of course, and incredibly gratified. The publication and award process has been the most awesome roller coaster ride. Although GYPSY QUEEN is your first published novel, you’re hardly a newcomer to the business and you’ve won several Derringer Awards for your short stories. How and why did you make the transition from short story writer to novelist? I’ve won two Derringer Awards for my short fiction, one for L.A. Justice - the story in which Tracy Eaton debuted, and the other for Capital Justice - a much darker, edgier piece. Ironically, both stories afford different looks at the curious path justice must sometimes take in the City of Angels, where I live. Justice, looked at from both comical and serious sides, is an important issue for me. I really love writing short mystery fiction. I still do it, though less now than I used to. One of my own favorites among my stories Sentence Imposed was recently published in A DEADLY DOZEN anthology (Ugly Town). Read our review of A Deadly Dozen: Anthology. I also just learned that the last German anthology in which my work appeared BEI ANKUNFT MORD [L.A. Memorial, a Tracy Eaton story] has been sold to an American publisher and will be translated into English [back into English for me]. Some ideas are just too big to be told in the short form, they demand the depth and length of a novel. And I wanted to tell those stories, too. I also needed a new challenge and wanted to flex new writing muscles. Learning to write a novel did prove to be a challenge in some respects. I expected the size of the novel-length story to present problems for me, but I had no difficulty adjusting to it. It’s quite surprising, since I have so internalized the process of capturing the small story, that I write a fairly complex novel. At first, I approached novels with the leaner, tighter form required of short stories. But the greater demand for texture, the fuller description required for a novel, proved harder for me to capture. Learning that proved to be the real growth experience. How did you hook up with Rainbow Books? Did this happen without an agent? What is their reaction to all the attention received by GYPSY QUEEN? It seems to me that sometimes, the most important things in life happen by sheer chance. I had just left my agent and decided to try to sell my book on my own, when I heard about a writing magazine called Futures. Since it was published and edited by Barbara Lakey, a woman I’d known casually when I was president of SinC/LA, I wrote and asked her for a sample copy. In the issue she sent, the first market listing for Rainbow Books as a mystery publisher appeared. RBI has been publishing nonfiction for more than twenty years, which is still mostly what they do, but they’d just begun to solicit mystery fiction at the time. I sent off a query and followed it up by submitting REVENGE OF THE GYPSY QUEEN. Within two weeks, the deal was made. Absolutely incredible. My publisher’s reaction has been as great as my own. They’re absolutely thrilled with all the award nominations, of course. And they deserve those accolades, too. They chose the book for publication, they offered tremendous editing insights that helped to shape it into a better book, and they produced a beautiful, well-made product. I’ve heard that some of the big NY houses, when they receive queries from unagented writers, now suggest these writers approach Rainbow Books. I have to ask you about the title. Where did it come from? Did you have it in mind before you started writing the book? I don’t want to tell you too much about that, because it might spoil things for some readers. I actually never know precisely where titles come from. They just pop into my head. I always know when it’s the right one, however. I used to be so eager to start writing that I wouldn’t worry if I did have the right title at the start. But I’ve learned that my writing is more focused if I wait for the right title. For the writer, I think the correct title for a project acts as a beacon in the darkness, unconsciously providing a direction in which to write. Tracy Eaton is a great character. She certainly holds her own against her formidable mother-in-law and her own eccentric parents. How much of Kris Neri is in Tracy? Tracy Eaton is the most wonderful gift. I’ve always enjoyed comedies, so I suppose my mind does lean that way. I’d been reading a Noel Coward play. Afterwards, I thought: What if you’d been born into that world, would you ever be able to function the way other people did in the real world? With that, Tracy was born. I knew who she was almost immediately, and every other character gradually came to life in relation to her. How much of myself did I put into her? To be honest, I’d have to say quite a lot. We both see life through the same semi-jaded/semi-rosy perspective, and we both tend toward unusual solutions to problems - although mine are nowhere as creative as Tracy’s. Despite her self-deprecating comments, Trcay is more sure of herself than I am. Remarks that would sting me just bounce off her, but that’s on a more superficial level. I discovered hidden vulnerabilities in Tracy during the writing of DEM BONES’ REVENGE. Deep down, I think I’m probably tougher than she is. And I can’t claim I’d never think of the nutty solutions she does - because I do think of them, but I’d never expect them to work. Tell us about DEM BONES’ REVENGE - another intriguing title. This story is set in LA, Tracy’s home town, and features her side of the family, does it not? Yes, it does. It’s a real LA story. While Tracy is such a critic of both her daffy parents and their crazy Hollywood life, she doesn’t appreciate what a product of their world she is. All her life, she saw impossible things carried out on movie sets - or at least the appearance of impossible things - and that explains her unusual approach to life. On a subconscious level, both she and her parents secretly believe things work the same way in real-life. In DEM BONES’ REVENGE, Martha Collins, Tracy’s movie star mother, is accused of bumping off some old Hollywood figures that she claims not to know. But when Tracy tries to clear her, Martha does everything in her power to foil her daughter’s efforts. After a while, it becomes obvious that all the events are tied to the scandals of the past, and that a whole lot of people would rather spend their golden years put away than have those secrets come out. One aspect of DEM BONES’ REVENGE that I especially loved was doing the scenes from Martha’s film career. Each chapter begins with a short snip from one of Martha’s scripts. Those scenes either contribute to a clue or work in ironic contrast to the action of the chapter. I tried to reflect the language of the era in which those pictures were made. Those scenes were such a pleasure to write and I was sorry when the book was done. I tried to go in some different directions with the second book. In GYPSY QUEEN, Tracy was so sure her nutty crime-solving techniques would work. She was so good at making everyone else bend to her will. I thought there had to be a person in the world who could out-Tracy Tracy, who could throw Tracy’s little world off its axis - and that person had to be the one Tracy learned her approach from, her beloved but exasperating mother. DEM BONES’ is being released in trade paperback and hardcover simultaneously. What was the reasoning behind that? REVENGE OF THE GYPSY QUEEN sold incredibly well, embraced by both collectors and readers. Most collectors insist on a hardcover book and many readers prefer them. But some readers like the lighter weight and more affordable price of a trade paperback, while still getting the quality and larger print of a hardcover book. Between the covers, the books are the same; and since they’re printed from the same plates, it’s really easy to do both print runs simultaneously. My publisher contacted me with the idea right after they sent the book to the printer. They asked me to solicit opinions from some of my reader friends. The support for the idea was overwhelmingly favorable and Rainbow Books made the decision to go ahead with a duel print run. I’m absolutely thrilled with the decision. I think it will allow me to reach a lot more readers a lot faster. How different is it for you to sit down and write a short story as opposed to writing a novel? Do you use the same techniques? Is one easier than the other? There are differences and similarities. Since the ending is critical in a short story, I’ll often get an idea for the situation and/or the twist first. On the other hand, my novels usually spring from character; what they’ll do flows from who they are. I find short story writing much easier, and I can often write a story very quickly. On the other hand, because every word is critical, I usually have to rewrite and polish much more. I recently completed a story called To Catch A Killer for the next Gerstenberg (German) anthology, tentatively titled MURDER IN THE PARK. Although that story is only 2,200 words, I probably polished it at least fifty times. No exaggeration. It’s impossible to be that exacting with a novel. As a teacher and an author, what do you tell your students is most important about writing? Do you follow your own advice? For my students, I draw an analogy between writing and playing a musical instrument or excelling at a sport, reminding them that no one could be a brilliant pianist or a great skier the first time out. It takes time to perfect the necessary skills, as it does with any endeavor. Just because people get a good idea and because they can write words doesn’t mean they can compose a great novel instantly. If they expect that, they’ll just be discouraged and defeated. I encourage them to allow themselves to write badly at first and to know that, with effort, they will improve. If they keep at it, that great novel can emerge. There are so many books-in-progress hidden in would-be writers’ desks because those people can’t let go of their perfectionist expectations. That’s so sad to me. When I started, people told me teachers learn as much from their students as they teach them. Sometimes when I’m driving home from class, I review what we did that night. I rethink the answers I gave to questions, to see whether there’s a better way to solve a particular problem. I can’t tell you how many times during that process I’ve realized something in my own work that reflects the same situation - and I’m not following the advice I gave them. I always change the approach to my own problem after that, and my work has never failed to improve as a result. What are you working on now? I’m writing two books currently: REVENGE FOR OLD TIMES’ SAKE, the next Tracy Eaton mystery, in which I take an off-beat look at law firms and lawyers; and NEVER SAY DIE, a darker suspense novel which features Zoe Morgan, the heroine in my short story Sentence Imposed. If you could sum up this past year in three words, what would they be? Yahoo, yahoo, yahoo! How can readers reach you? There’s an email link through my website at http://www.krisneri.com Any final comments? I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life. None have been as exciting and rewarding, or as consuming, as writing mysteries. I can’t think of a better way to live my life, alhough it does get a bit discouraging to realize that something I spent more than a year of my life writing can be consumed by readers in a few days, or even a few hours. I can’t write that fast. Yet I wouldn’t trade places with anyone for anything. |
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