Living in the Harsh Real World vs. Escaping to a Dreamy Fictional One From Keith Raffel

Short bio:

Keith Raffel’s five acclaimed thrillers draw on his own experiences in Washington’s corridors of powers, Silicon Valley’s engineering labs, and university classrooms. The New York Times has praised his work as “worthy of a Steve Jobs keynote presentation.” Since 2023, Keith has written The Raffel Ticket, a syndicated column read in newspapers and on websites across the United States.

Author photo:

Intro:

Jim Ziskin is taking a well-deserved rest this holiday week. As a high school teacher, Jim is accustomed to turning over sacred responsibilities to questionable substitutes. This week, you’ll be hearing from Keith Raffel, who reminds Jim of the greatest substitute teacher of them all, Miss Viola P. Swamp of Harry Allard’s Miss Nelson Is Missing. 

 

Living in the Harsh Real World vs. Escaping to a Dreamy Fictional One

by Keith Raffel

When it comes to professional writing, I’ve always thought of myself as a crime novelist. The manuscript of my sixth thriller is in the hands of my literary agent.

My frenemy best buddy Jim Ziskin must think of me as a crime writer, too. Why else would he have invited me to fill in for him here in “Criminal Minds”?

And yet, when it comes to writing nowadays, I find my loyalties divided.

 Recently, I stopped dead at this sentence in Susan Orlean’s marvelous memoir Joyride: “Writers fall into two categories: There are those who have something they want to say to the world, and there are those who believe the world has something to tell them.”

Which am I?

As a crime novelist, I fall into category two. My stories start with questions, not answers. First and foremost is the question posed in Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films: How does a regular person who’s swept up in deadly intrigue raise their game to become a hero? We’re not talking about a superhero like Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, or Superman. Think instead of everyday people like the advertising executive played by Cary Grant in North by Northwest, the high school student played by Teresa Wright in Shadow of a Doubt, or the photographer played by Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window.

Protagonists in my own books include a World War II veteran who must save the world from blowing itself up in 1962, a retired entrepreneur whose dead grandfather leaves him a message about the lost Ark of the Covenant, and a tech executive suspected of murdering a woman found in his own bed. From there, I go on with questions like:

·      What does loyalty between friends entail in a time of crisis?

·      What happens when technology outruns morality?

·      What is justice if truth is uncertain?

·      How should a patriot support their country when its government is up to no good?

I write crime fiction to discover, not announce, the answers to questions like these. Which was fine at the outset of my career as a novelist. I found the process of writing thrillers much like watching those Hitchcock films—an escape to fictional realms where justice (usually) triumphed.

But in the end, writing fiction just wasn't enough. Complete escape from IRL (real life) was impossible. I have children and grandchildren, and my wife and live on a college campus while school’s in session. Those members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha are launching themselves into a world where hunger, violence, poverty, authoritarianism, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and unfairness flourish.

So, I started writing about the real world in occasional opinion pieces for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and websites. I had something to say to the world about gun deaths, the wisdom of women voters, rampant careerism among students, Trump's pro-Russian past, and the importance of studying the humanities. That urge to express my views grew into a compulsion. So, I bundled up some articles and sent them to Creators Syndicate. To my amazement in 2023, the team there offered me a nationally-syndicated weekly column that would be carried in newspapers and news sites around the country.

Next step? Well, this week, Creators is coming out with a collection of a hundred-plus of the essays I’ve written in the past two years.

Jim Ziskin generously volunteered to use his talents in designing the cover.

Luckily, Unfortunately, the publisher nixed Jim’s masterwork. So, it was literally back to the drawing board where Creators came up with this kick-ass alternative for The Raffel Ticket: Betting on America.

 

So far so good. And my thriller writing background seems to have paid off with early readers like Congressman Jamie Raskin, onetime law professor and floor manager for the second impeachment of Donald Trump. He said, “Keith Raffel’s experience writing thrillers has prepared him to excel as a columnist lighting up the sky with intellectual fireworks on our stranger-than-fiction politics.” I knew Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, was a fan of my thrillers, but I myself was thrilled when he said: “This book is your ‘Raffel ticket’ to smart, fresh, provocative and often funny takes on our times by one of my favorite writers.”

The great Lee Child didn’t mention my background as a thriller writer, but I’m sure it provided a foundation for his terrific blurb: “Keith Raffel is someone I really pay attention to — he doesn't always change my mind, but he always makes me think. We need more like him.” Count me gobsmacked.

Boston University Professor Susan Samuelson wrote, “Raffel is one of the rare opinion writers who genuinely has something new to say.” I’d guess anything distinctive in my columns can be attributed to writing in my thrillers about right versus wrong, cowardice versus courage, and troubled heroes versus triumphant villains.

It’s Thanksgiving season, and I consider myself so fortunate to live in this nation which as Lincoln reminds us, was “conceived in liberty” and “dedicated to the proposition” that all are “created equal.” And like him, I believe it is up to each of us to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Even if—as it so often seems—I’m spitting in the wind, I had to spend more time in this world and at least attempt to help repair it. What I write in The Raffel Ticket reflects that urgency.

But in conclusion, it’s important to tell you I still find time to escape to the fictional worlds of writing and reading crime fiction.

Happy holidays to you all,

Keith

P.S. Jim, thanks much for giving me the chance to write for “Criminal Minds.”

Note: You can follow Keith on the web at keithraffel.com or on instagram @keithraffelwrites. The Raffel Ticket: Betting on America is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Books, Apple Books, and bookstores everywhere.