The Beat of a Different Drum

What book(s) surprised you by the impact it had on you?

by Paul D. Marks

There’s been many books over the years that have had an impact on me one way or another.
And I know that a lot of people were influenced by Catcher in the Rye, but I didn’t read it till I was an adult. Others were inspired by Tolkien, but I’ve never read him. Sorry, I’m just not into fantasy. Music had and still has a great influence on me, as does Edward Hopper’s art, but that isn’t the question.

So, if I was going to pick a crime novel it would probably be Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, even though it’s not my favorite Chandler. That would be The Long Goodbye. But if we’re talking about a book—of any genre—that truly surprised, maybe more than any other, it wouldn’t be a crime novel. And, in fact, this question did actually bring up a lot of “stuff” for me, because the book that I’m going to talk about is The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. If I have to pick one book that really surprised me with the impact it had on me this is it. As with a lot of books, I had seen the movie with Tyrone Power first and I liked it a lot. I related a lot to his character. So I figured I’d read the book.

The Razor’s Edge is the story of Larry Darrell, a World War I vet who’s traumatized and disillusioned by the war, and looking for meaning in its aftermath. Larry’s struggle for meaning in a seeming meaningless and insane world struck a chord with me. As did the things he gave up to achieve some kind of meaning and inner peace (I’m still working on the last thing in particular…).

After high school I couldn’t wait to get out of the house, unlike kids these days. I did some interesting things that are maybe better left for another time. But eventually you have to settle down and figure out what you’re going to do with your life and find some kind of equilibrium. For Larry the answer, at least somewhat, can be found in Eastern religion. And though the story is very personal to me, I didn’t do what Larry does in terms of going to India and meeting with a guru, or even getting into Eastern religion, that’s not my style. But his struggle for meaning and purpose certainly resonated with me. I’m still searching because like Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Though the unexamined life is probably a lot more fun than the examined one.

Larry wants to “loaf,” take things slowly, stop and smell the roses, not something I’m good at. But, like Larry, I certainly didn’t go the approved path that my parents would have preferred and I think they might have thought I was loafing sometimes ’cause they didn’t understand the life of an “artist”. I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious.

I always had this fantasy of being an expat on the Left Bank like Hemingway and the Lost Generation after World War I. Instead I went to bars in Hollywood and West L.A. and hung with other writers there. I don’t think it was quite the same. But what I did do was dedicate myself to being a writer and trying to have some success at it. As we all know that comes with many ups and downs and rejections and it’s the few and far between who are the overnight successes. But most of us toil in obscurity and do it because we can do nothing else. And if we’re lucky we do achieve some level of success.

There’s been two movies, that I’m aware of, based on this book. They are the 1946 Tyrone Power version and the 1984 Bill Murray version. I like the former better, though the latter is growing on me. And, as an aside, I remember seeing Bill Murray on the Warner Brothers lot, though it was probably called The Burbank Studios at the time, the day after it opened, reading the reviews in the paper.

So to bring this full circle: I think The Razor’s Edge helped me achieve a level of some sort of sanity and peace, though not always. Ask people who knew me when I was younger and they’ll tell you about all the fights, verbal and physical, they saw me get into (and I ain’t a big guy). My wife has also helped calm me, but I still have my moments. But the Razor’s Edge surprised in the sense of how much I related to it. How much I related to the character of Larry and what Maugham was writing about. It really spoke to me and helped give me a better perspective on life. Now, if I could just keep that in mind more of the time…

What about you? What book/s surprised you and why?

~.~.~

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“There are all the essential elements for an engrossing read: good guys, bad guys, gangsters and crooked policemen, and through it all, an extremely well written sense of believable realism.”

            —Discovering Diamonds Reviews, Independent Reviews of the Best in Historical Fiction (https://discoveringdiamonds.blogspot.com/)

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The Man Behind the Curtain

Overheard at a recent convention: “I don’t read the way I used to before I was a writer.” Is this something you can relate to? What does it mean for you? Pros and cons?

by Paul D. Marks

This is definitely something I can relate to. And no, I don’t read the same. 

I’ve been writing one thing or another for most of my adult life. First screenplays, then some non-fiction, then stories and novels. And for all these types of writing working “behind the scenes,” so to speak, has skewed the way I watch a movie or read.

It’s kind of like seeing the little man behind the big curtain in The Wizard of Oz. On a different level, it’s like the old saw about sausage making, they may taste good but do you really want to see how they’re made? Or seeing how a magician does a trick—it just sort of loses its magic. Things lose their majesty when you see the little man behind the curtain or know how a story is put together.

So, when I’m watching a movie or reading a book I’m often thinking about all those things that go into the making of it, structure, dialogue, foreshadowing, character arc, etc. Of course, some stories do things differently, like Pulp Fiction, where things are out of sequence, but if you put it together in sequence even that pretty much follows the infamous Three Act Structure.

My mom read a lot and we would discuss books often. A lot of times she would enjoy something and I wouldn’t, because I was seeing the skeleton beneath the surface with all its flaws. She would say she just read for pleasure. Well, I read for pleasure and escape too…but while I’m doing that I often can’t help but notice the structural elements beneath the “skin”.

For example, while I think The Da Vinci code is a fun book and a fun ride, I think it’s very poorly written. And that affected how I liked it overall and whether I chose to read anymore of Dan Brown’s works. But for my mom it was just a fun ride.

Making it even harder is when I personally know the author/writer of something. Then I see them behind the characters and sometimes that makes it hard to separate the two. I know when I write there’s a little of me in some characters and some of me in all characters and everything (pretty much) is based on my life experience or at least filtered through it. So when I know the writer I see them in what they’re writing and that, too, can make it difficult to suspend disbelief, but I’m getting better at it. I’m pretty guarded, but people who know me well say they see a lot of me in the things I write, and how could it be otherwise? Though they haven’t said if it affects how they view the finished product.

So, if something really sweeps me up, whether a book or a movie, and I don’t see the nuts and bolts holding it together, then it’s magic. Raymond Chandler does that. When I read him I get totally lost in the story, the characters and his remarkable description that takes me back to another time and place. And I forget that I’m reading a book because I’m there, with those people, in those locations. Another book that totally swept me up was The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati, which I’ve probably mentioned before. The story of a young soldier waiting for something momentous to happen—waiting and waiting and waiting, like so many of us do. Also, Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn. I’m there. At the Huntington Beach pier, feeling the sting of the saltwater, hearing the rev of motorcycles and I don’t see the girders holding up the story. The same goes for The Count of Monte Cristo, my favorite revenge story and I love revenge stories—who doesn’t want to see justice done? And my favorite book of all, The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. When I read that I’m transported to that post World War I era. I’m absorbed—so absorbed I’m not thinking about all the ingredients that go into the pie. And there’re many other books that will carry me away like that. But unfortunately there’s also many books whose skeletons show through the story and when I’m paying attention to that I know I’m not really enjoying them.

I’m always hoping a book will carry me away so I forget my surroundings, forget my little troubles and get wrapped up in the story and characters. That’s what I’m hoping for when I crack the cover. And when it happens it’s sublime. What about you?

***

Broken Windows – Sequel to my #Shamus-winning White Heat drops 9/10/18. A labyrinth of murder, intrigue and corruption of church and state that hovers around the immigration debate. #writers #mystery #amreading #thriller #novels  

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Movies Inspired Me to Read the Book

by Paul D. Marks

Reading—What authors particularly inspire you? Do you read them when you are working on a book?

To the second question, I’d say I have and can read some of the following while working on something, but I don’t necessarily do so on purpose. Sometimes that’s just what I happen to be reading at the time.

Now to the first question: I’m inspired by a lot of authors and a lot of individual books where maybe the writer’s oeuvre doesn’t hit me but they have that one book that’s a knockout. And my two favorite books, both of which inspire me in different ways, are not mysteries or hardboiled novels.

My favorite book of all time is The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham. But I have to admit that I saw the movie first, the original Tyrone Power version, and that’s what inspired me to read the book. I couldn’t relate to everything in it of course, but I related to a lot of it, mostly the main character, Larry Darrell’s search for meaning in an insane world. I relate to the character of Larry on a lot of levels, his disillusionment after the war (WWI), and his search for peace and meaning in life. I found the book inspiring. Still do.

Later on, I saw the Bill Murray film version when it came it out. I didn’t like it nearly as much as the Power version, though it’s grown on me over the years. And it was my understanding that Murray wouldn’t do Ghostbusters II unless he could do his version of The Razor’s Edge, because he also found it so inspiring. Not sure if that’s true though. And, as a sidenote, the day after it was released (I think—hey, it was a long time ago) I saw him on the Warner Brothers lot (though I think then it was called the Burbank Studios, it’s kind of like the song “Istanbul was Constantinople, Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople,”—well, it used to be Warner Brothers then it was The Burbank Studios now it’s Warner Brothers again, so a studio by any other name…). He was leaning on a car in one of the parking lots, reading a review of it—everybody has to check their reviews.

My other favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo. Who doesn’t love a good revenge story and this is the best of all, especially the way the Count hoists the villains on their own petards. It's the ultimate revenge story and revenge is so satisfying, served hot or cold. As such, it almost counts as a mystery or hardboiled story. Almost.

And while I’ve read books, both fiction and non-fiction, since I was a little kid, I’m a movie guy at heart, so I came to a lot of writers and their books via the movies. This happened with my favorite mystery writer, Raymond Chandler. And he is the top of the heap to me, bar none. I love his style, his turn of phrase. His depiction of a Los Angeles that still existed to some extent when I was a kid. And I came to him through the Bogie-Bacall version of The Big Sleep. His prose definitely inspires me and I keep trying to write my own version of the opening to his story Red Wind.

When it comes to noir, David Goodis is the man. And guess what, I came to him through the movies too, another Bogie-Bacall movie, Dark Passage, based on Goodis’ novel of the same name. I’d seen that movie several times and finally decided to check out the guy whose book it was based on and I was hooked. I devoured everything by him and back then you had to find used copies of his books cause there were few, if any, new production books out there like there are today. My fave Goodis novel is Down There, which was made into the movie Shoot the Piano Player by Francois Truffaut. I’m not a big fan of the movie, but the original book is terrific if you like down and dirty noir stories. This one’s about an ex-GI, a former Merrill’s Marauder, now a piano player who finds more trouble back home than in the war and he had plenty there. Goodis has been called the “poet of losers” by Geoffrey O’Brien and his stories deal with failed lives and people who are definitely on the skids. They’re often people who weren’t always in this position though and the interesting part is seeing how they deal with their downfall—not always so well. Goodis inspires me so much that I wrote a story that might be considered an homage to him. Born Under a Bad Sign was originally published in Dave Zeltserman’s Hard Luck Stories magazine, but is now available in LA Late @ Night, a collection of some of my previously published stories.

Along with film noir, the early hardboiled writers (though there is some crossover) have influenced and inspired my mystery-noir sensibility: Chandler, Cain, Hammett, Dorothy B. Hughes, etc. Along with these writers comes John Fante, although Fante doesn’t fit in either the noir or hardboiled categories. Nonetheless his thinly disguised autobiographical tales of a struggling writer's life in early 20th century L.A. made enough of an impression on me that I wrote to him shortly before he died.

Farther down the time-line road, I was drawn to Ross MacDonald with his psychological insights and stories that constantly double back on themselves and James Ellroy with his corrupt and sultry grittiness. Of current writers, Walter Mosely, Carol O’Connell, Michael Connelly and Kem Nunn’s Tapping the Source help to inspire me.



But for me Chandler, with his elegant descriptions, metaphors, characters, depiction of the mean streets and his ville fatale relationship with Los Angeles, will always be on top.

What draws me to many of these writers and the noir and mystery genre in books and films is that they're about the other side of the American Dream, the dark side. There's an inner core of darkness and corruption in society, a feeling of fear and paranoia. There's a moral ambiguity in the writings of most of these writers and in these films. They are the equivalent of an Edward Hopper painting (another major influence on my writing) with its cold light and shadows, filled with a sense of loneliness, alienation and angst.

In much of noir and some hardboiled writing (and there is often, though not always a difference between the two) there's no sense of redemption, but much betrayal. No good guys, just bad guys and worse guys. The hero is flawed. People's own flaws and weaknesses create their fallibility and ultimately lead to their downfall. I think this appeals to me in the sense that it's a realistic, though often pessimistic and cynical, view of society. And in my own writing, both in my novels White Heat and Vortex, and many of my short stories, the characters are flawed, the situations ambiguous.

So my inspirations seem to go from the heights of the Himalayas (Razor’s Edge) to the gutter (Down There), which is kind of noir in itself.  What about you—what/who are your inspirations as a writer, as a person?

***

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THE NAME GAME REDUX

What’s in a name? Do you give careful thought to the names of your characters or do you draw them out of a hat?


By Paul D. Marks

As Art can attest, it’s hard to come on Fridays since people have sometimes stolen your thunder earlier in the week. My post was called The Name Game, but now it’s redux – great minds and all of that.

I do give careful thought to my characters' names. Neither the first nor last name is chosen at random. Sometimes characters are named after friends or enemies or in homage to someone or something. Sometimes I want a “plain Jane” type of name and sometimes I want something more symbolic or allegorical. Sometimes the name just comes to me. Other times I’ll look in baby naming books or other research sources to help me figure out an appropriate name.

Even when the characters have simple names like “Johnny Jones” from one of my current works-in-progress, the name was still given a fair amount of thought. On the one hand, it’s a common, clichéd name. But that’s how it’s meant, as we don’t know the character’s real name and this is simply how the narrator refers to him. It could just as easily have been John Doe, Joe Smith, Bill Johnson or any of a hundred other common names.

Naming characters is sort of like naming children or pets. You visualize the kid’s first day of school and how the teacher will call role and mispronounce the name or what cruel nicknames the other kids will twist it into. And then pick a name you hope the kid will live up to and won’t get teased about too much. Actually this is how I ended up naming my character Duke in White Heat. Duke’s relationship with his dad is not the greatest father-son relationship. His father cruelly named him “Marion,” after John Wayne’s real first name. Not a nice thing to do to a boy and maybe that’s one of the reasons they don’t get along and certainly why Duke chose that as a nickname.

Also, when naming pets, I like to pick names that are unique and mean something to me and my wife. Something that captures their personality, but that also won’t be too hard or too embarrassing to yell out when calling them to come. You don’t want to be yelling “Here Mr. Snuggles” when your neighbor walks by. So our Rottweiler was called Bogie. And our black cats Curley and Moe. Our mostly Rottweiler, but who looked nothing like one, was Audie, after Audie Murphy. and our German Shepherd is Pepper, full name Sgt. Pepper, after the Beatles album.



There are several “rules” I try to follow when naming characters:

They shouldn’t be too hard to pronounce – you don’t want readers stumbling over them.
Don’t try too hard to be unique – like soap opera characters that always have names like Raven Snow or Chastity Chamberfield, unless going for humor or irony.

Names can be symbolic, foreshadow or can be ironic. In my story 51-50, the cop character, Cleaver, is purposely named after Ward Cleaver, the all-American father on Leave it to Beaver. I wanted to play against the all-American image of Ward Cleaver with a tough cop about to lose his sanity.

Names can be revenge for someone you don’t like – but be careful when doing this and disguise it well.


Names can be an homage. In my short story Free Fall, the femme fatale is named Gloria, after film noir icon and femme fatale Gloria Grahame. In Broken Windows, the sequel to White Heat and not yet published, there is a character named Chandler – a woman cop – but we all know who that name pays homage to. And in my story L.A. Late @ Night and my noir story Born Under a Bad Sign, there is a cop named Larry Darrell – which pays homage to Somerset Maugham’s character in The Razor’s Edge. Not that he’s much like Maugham’s Larry Darrell, but still.

Names can give insight into the character – who they are and where they’re from – sometimes the story behind the name can give you a little extra info about the character – for example Michael Connelly’s Harry “Hieronymus” Bosch – a unique name and an interesting story behind it.

Sometimes names should break stereo types: In White Heat there is an African-American character named Warren. Someone who read the book said Warren wasn’t a black name. But I named the character after a black Marine friend I’d had. Just because a character is black or Hispanic, or any other ethnicity, doesn’t mean they have to have an ethnic-sounding name.

And character names often change in later drafts. Sometimes I just use “placeholder” names until after I get to know the characters better. Then, if I think of the perfect name later on, I can use search and replace to change it later.

Names are important and can be fun. Like the old song, The Name Game (written by Shirley Ellis – and ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jfVpizj1Uk

The name game!
Shirley!
Shirley, Shirley bo Birley Bonana fanna fo Firley
Fee fy mo Mirley, Shirley!

Lincoln!
Lincoln, Lincoln bo Bincoln Bonana fanna fo Fincoln
Fee fy mo Mincoln, Lincoln!

Come on everybody!
I say now let's play a game
I betcha I can make a rhyme out of anybody's name
The first letter of the name, I treat it like it wasn't there
But a B or an F or an M will appear
And then I say bo add a B then I say the name and Bonana fanna and a fo
And then I say the name again with an F very plain and a fee fy and a mo
And then I say the name again with an M this time
And there isn't any name that I can't rhyme.