Victor Gischler vs. Sean Doolittle

Interview between Victor Gischler and Sean Doolittle: Two Authors Talk Tough

SD: Okay, full disclosure. You and I met in 2001, right? My first book (DIRT) was about six months old, and your first book (GUN MONKEYS) was just about to be published. Here we are a few years down the road, and your third novel is hot off the press. SUICIDE SQUEEZE. I've read it, and it's great. It's only fair and accurate to say I'm a big Victor Gischler fan.

But pretend we don't know each other. I'm a high-powered movie producer, and you have to describe SUICIDE SQUEEZE to me in 25 words or less. I'm wearing $1200 shoes and I can reprogram satellites with my cell phone. You're in one of those wrinkled luau shirts you wear. Go.

VG: I say to the movie producer, "In SQUEEZE we follow lovable loser and repo man Conner Samson as he tries to repossess a sailboat, battle Yakuza thugs over a collectible baseball card, and win the woman of his dreams—who is unfortunately a savage chick with head problems." Okay, I just counted the words, and that's over twenty-five. Damn. I fail again.

But as you say, we do know each other. We're good pals, and it's hard to do this pretending-to-be-strangers. I might as well risk this becoming a sickening love fest by saying Doolittle's DIRT and BURN are wonderful books, great Elmore-Leonard-style reads. Do you mind being compared to Leonard? I've seen the comparison in more than one review, and I'm sure it's meant as a compliment.

SD: As a Leonard fan, I think the comparison is both extremely flattering and not entirely accurate. But maybe I'm not the best person to judge that.

I guess BURN is technically a murder mystery, but whodunnit is the least interesting thing to me about the story (in which a retired arsonist tries to start a new life and becomes implicated in a murder he knows nothing about). I love crime novels, but I'm always far less interested in the crimes than in the characters and how they deal with things.

As a reader, voice is always a key ingredient for me. By that I mean, I know when I'm reading a Victor Gischler book, and that's what keeps me coming back. I've seen you compared to other authors too, but to me a Victor Gischler book has its own unique signature. Ultimately, that's what I hope for my books as well. If you like Elmore Leonard, my books are probably up your alley. But after you read them, I want you to feel like you've read a book you haven't read before.

Did you have any particular inspirations for SUICIDE SQUEEZE? When I read the manuscript, I remember thinking of John D. MacDonald in a good way. MacDonald mixed with some other stuff and run through the Gischlerizer. Anything to that?

While you're at it, how did you decide what stuff to throw in the blender anyway? Baseball cards, Yakuza thugs, sailboats....

VG: I'm a big John D. MacDonald fan, and there's a little Travis McGee in Conner Samson—mostly the handsome-boat-bum aspect. But in a way, Conner is sort of the anti-Travis. McGee is competent, good with the ladies, good with his fists. Conner Samson isn't. Conner is the Travis McGee who got all the bad breaks and bad luck (at least, that's how Conner would see it).

The baseball card thing turned out to be lucky, and is one of the prime ingredients in the blender. At first, in the infant stages of the novel, the card was merely something for the characters to chase after. It seemed like all the MacGuffins had been done: drugs, microfilm, jewels. So I invented this collectible Joe DiMaggio card autographed by Joe, Marilyn Monroe, and Billy Wilder. It turned out to be a great way to take a playful poke at American pop culture, and pop culture's contribution to an American national identity is a subtle theme throughout the book. Formation of identity has always been fascinating to me...but I'll clam up now before I lapse into grad school gibberish.

Speaking of influences and all the stuff that goes into the blender, you came to crime after making a bit of a name for yourself in the horror genre. You even had a story in the late Karl Wagner's The Year's Best Horror. The crime genre's gain is the horror genre's loss, but do you retain any of those old horror inclinations? How and why did you transition to crime writing?

SD: Well, I'm not sure how much of a name I ever made for myself. But Stephen King was one writer who really got me fired up early on, and because you start out imitating heroes, I started out writing horror stories (though obviously King's written all kinds of things). After a while I found myself trying too hard. Once I relaxed, things seemed to come a little more naturally.

Basically, I try to write stories I think I'd want to read. BURN has a lot of elements that come from the kinds of stories I love, though often they seem to end up shifted one or two positions from baseline. The hero is a criminal, the private investigator is no good at his job, the villains are just as riddled with insecurities as anybody else, et cetera.

I think crime fiction seems to be really wide open in terms of what you can do (or what fits within the boundaries after you do it). Do you feel like you set out to write a certain kind of book? Does the plan change? One thing you and I have in common is that neither of us is writing a series, at least not yet. Any plans on writing more Conner Samson books?

I guess that's a lot of questions. Take your pick.

VG: I was thinking about the no-series thing too. I've been asked if Charlie Swift from GUN MONKEYS will ever return. He might come back someday, but right now it's good to work without expectations. When you do stand-alones, you can let the book take you in a sudden new direction. I'd feel more obligated to stick to the plan if I were writing a series.

I really think of the larger story of the book as something that allows me to write the scenes I'm interested in. Generally, I have the characters and I have scenes in mind and the story sort of becomes self-evident as I go along. Sometimes I'm halfway through a book when I slap my forehead and say, "Oh, that's what the novel is about!" There really seems to be quite a lot going on at the subconscious level. I'll go back and look at the last few chapters I've just written and wonder if that's what I really had in mind. Did any of that junk I just said make sense?

What about your writing process? This is the expected lame, how-do-you-write question that comes up all the time in interviews. Personally, I can never answer this question intelligently because it seems I never write a book the same way twice, and I'm not self-aware enough to know what's going on—which is why I claimed earlier it must be sub-conscious. But here's the question anyway. You're stuck with it. Talk.

SD: I've got a stock answer for this one, and it isn't even mine. But I like it too much not to keep stealing it.

Eudora Welty said, "Each story teaches me how to write it, but not how to write the next one." Maybe that's another way of phrasing what you said, that you never write a book the same way twice. Anyway, I relate. It seems like whenever I finish a book, I'm chomping at the bit to try something a little bit different next time out. The inevitable downside is, next time out, I've never written a book like that before. DIRT was sort of a slacker crime novel sprinkled with industry satire. BURN is more or less a murder mystery. The forthcoming book, RAIN DOGS (Dell, spring 2006), is a somewhat quieter rural noir. And the book in progress is a straight up hide-the-body thriller. It's like recalibrating your compass every time you get in the car. But hopefully, you learn to trust the overall process even if the roadmap varies. (And the weather's bad...and you forgot to fill up at the last gas station...and you just ran over a nail....)

VG: We've both come a long way, baby. So where do we go from here? RAIN DOGS is your next book after BURN. After that, what's on the horizon for Sean Doolittle? Look deep into the future, Nostradamus.

SD: To be honest, as of right now, considering our second child is due within the next few days, I'm looking only as far ahead as Wednesday or so. And this week's pregnancy newsletter from iVillage.

After that there's the due date for the book in progress, titled THE CLEANUP. It's a tender love story about a cop who hides a body to help a girl.

I'm no good planning much further ahead than that. You?

VG: I've always wanted to write a really cool sci-fi or fantasy novel. In the meantime, I'm keen on my next novel, SHOTGUN OPERA and I'm typing my butt off every day. (Except for the days I don't.)

I guess we'd better wrap this up. Say good night to the nice people, Sean.

SD: Good night, everybody. It's been fun. Sincerest thanks to MysteryNet.com for giving up valuable website space for the likes of us.

Mystery Net: The Online Mystery Network.