Shine a light on another writer. Who's a writer you believe deserves more attention?
In order to answer this week's question, I've invited Lisa de Nikolits to write a guest post. She's the award-winning author of twelve novels, as well as numerous short stories and poetry, garnering five-star reviews and a strong international fanbase. She lives and writes in The Beaches of Toronto, and she's definitely an author that deserves more attention.
Crushing on Gangsters — by Lisa
Writing a gangster novel is on everyone’s bucket list, right? It certainly was on mine.
The idea for the book had been simmering for a while and three inciting incidents kicked me into action; the first was to pen a short story for 13 Claws, a Mesdames of Mayhem anthology (2017) and the second was Mad Dog Esposito who I couldn’t get out of my mind.
I was haunted by a Weegee (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968) gallery exhibit showcasing Mad Dog Esposito. Weegee commented that Mad Dog “looked like a stubborn, surly, snarling animal. He stumbled and sagged over to one side, like a drunk.”
There are so many aspects of this photograph that I loved. Truth be told, I mildly fell in love with Mad Dog Esposito; his dishevelled sexiness, his moral anarchy, his casual, oversized trench coat, the torn shirt and ripped jacket revealing a manly chest, and his handsome features and long dark eyelashes completing his poster boy persona with a complete disregard for civilized life. He was the kind of Clyde that this Bonnie could imagine running away with. Because don’t we all dream of running away and living a wild life and going out in a blaze of bullets and glory? Hmm… perhaps not!
The third compelling force behind writing Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon was the obsessive desire to bring protagonist, Jessica Wren, into the world. I saw her as a very young Kim Basinger in LA Confidential, with a murderous family legacy and an ongoing twisted relationship with her vicious ugly sister. It all was quite Cinderella.
The challenge was working all of that into a book. If I had my druthers, I’d write in the style of The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, Pulp by Charles BukBukowski, and Karate is a Thing of the Spirit by Harry Crews.
Other influences included the Godfather’s Vito Corleone and Scarface’s Tony Montana (with his mountains of cocaine, his obsessive stalker obsession for Elvira Hancock played by Michelle Pfeiffer, as well as Tony’s over-the-top violence). Tony was Cuban, so I took liberties with my gangster characters because I also wanted to weave in aspects of Get Carter, a 1970’s movie about a Newcastle-based gangster, Jack Carter (one of my all-time favourite movies).
I wanted to add some Tarantino-style odd-ball whimsy, Tarantino’s style, with a twist of the workings of my own mind which naturally leans toward the fantastical, stretching the truth, and morphing it into an imaginative (but convincing) experience like no other. Events and relationships become heightened and often, very funny.
Add to that a Margaret Thatcher-inspired stepmother, a hunky bodyguard Trevor (see Jean-Claude Van Damme, all caramel-tanned, ripped and gleaming in Bloodsport, (1988), and the 1989 homoerotic glam fest Kickboxer (1989), and throw in high-school sweetheart Joey, inspired by Gus Van Sant’s unforgettable and eternally spectacular Drugstore Cowboy, (1989), set in 1971. Matt Dillon as Bob Hughes and his wife Dianne (Kelly Lynch) are forever carved in my heart.
That’s a lot, right?
And yet it all fell into place. I also watch a lot of true crime and human tragedy; The Dark Side of the Ring (VICE TV), Mafia: Most Wanted (CRAVE, Canada) and of course, Forensic Files, which shows ordinary people committing heinous crimes and getting away with it for years.
And then there are the cons. Take The Grifters (1990), again, an unforgettable movie which sowed a seed; I simply had to write a novel with complex cons.
The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts, and Swindles in American History by Nate Hendley was a great resource, as was unavoidable Google and various library books, and of course, I decided to cook up a new con, just for fun. I don’t want to tell you what the cons were – you need to read the book!
And then there were the gangster nicknames! Which writer could resist the opportunity to come up with new gangster names?
There isn’t a single character in Mad Dog and Sea Dragon that I don’t love with all my heart. And no, the book didn’t end up being a combination of all the influences I listed above (which is probably a good thing!) but, with a lot of love, dedication, hard work, powerful beta readers and time, I’m delighted with the end result of Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon and I really hope you’ll enjoy the book too!
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