Michael Koryta, interviewed by Steve Hamilton
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Over the years, the NorCal East Bay chapter of Mystery Readers International has had many "At Homes"—intimate evenings with favorite mystery writers. We've hosted Anne Perry, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Elizabeth George, Janet LaPierre, Sharan Newman, Laurie King, Rochelle Krich, Carolyn Hart, James Ellroy, Steven Saylor, Janet Evanovich, Eddie Muller, Taffy Cannon, and many others.
These events are held in private homes, and they're similar to Literary Salons. Since so many of our cyber members and friends aren't able to attend these intimate evenings, I thought it would be fun to have a "visiting" author each month interviewed by another "visiting" author. This month we feature Michael Koryta, interviewed by Steve Hamilton.
 In 2003, Michael Koryta became the youngest winner of the annual St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America "Best First Private Eye Novel" contest. Michael wrote the winning novel, Tonight I Said Goodbye, when he was just 20. It was published when he was 21. It went on to earn an Edgar nomination for best first novel and to win the Great Lakes Book Award for Best Mystery. His most recent novel, A Welcome Grave, third in the Lincoln Perry series, has been nominated for a Quill Award, and his work has been translated into many languages.
Michael lives in Bloomington, Indiana, where he attended Indiana University, earning a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. Previously an award-winning newspaper reporter, he now works for a detective agency in Bloomington and also teaches for the Indiana University School of Journalism.
—Janet Rudolph |
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Steve Hamilton: Okay, let's get this out of the way—it's the one thing you're probably sick to death of hearing about, but really it's your own damned fault.
When I first met you at the Vegas Bouchercon in 2003, you were what, 20
years old? You were literally too young to buy yourself a drink?
You've heard all the jokes since then, I know, but seriously—where did
you get off writing such a good first novel when you looked like the neighborhood paperboy?
Michael Koryta: Now, you're exaggerating, Steve. By the time I got to Vegas I'd been 21 for at least two weeks. The only reason I didn't buy myself drinks was
to save money and mooch. But yes, I heard lots of age jokes in Vegas,
and many more have come in since then. The only real answer I can offer
for how I was able to publish so young is that I benefited tremendously
from people who went out of their way to help me. Bob Hammel, the
newspaper editor who was my writing teacher/mentor is one. The
investigator who gave me a job when I was still in high school is
another. There are people who gave me opportunities I had not earned and
those opportunities taught me a lot and allowed me to get my foot in the
door early. The only thing I can really give myself credit for is some level of discipline. I put in the time, and after St. Martin's passed on
my first book, I kept banging ahead on the next one without wasting
months or even weeks feeling sorry for myself. If I'm proud of anything,
that would be it.
You chose the same route to publication that I did a few years before
you, by entering the book in the PWA/St. Martin's Press Best First
Private Eye Novel Contest. I'm sure you'll agree with me in hindsight
that all three SMP contests (an MWA contest was added this year, to go
along with the PWA and Malice Domestic) are probably the best shots for
an unknown writer to break into the business, but at the time you were
writing that manuscript, how did you become aware of the contest? And
what made you think to enter it?
Those contests are truly special in today's marketplace. It's just so
hard to get your manuscript onto an editor's desk in New York, and they
offer you that chance. Truth be told, I was in touch with an editor at
St. Martin's, Pete Wolverton, after Bob Hammel made introductions for
me. Pete graciously agreed to read my first book, and while he didn't
accept it, he did promise to read what I wrote in the future. For the
second book I hedged my bets and submitted to Pete and to the contest.
He said he'd publish it if I didn't win, but we waited on the contest,
and it turned out I won. As for how I learned of the contest, well,
that's all thanks to you. I'd read all of your novels, and there was
that little detail about the contest in your bio. Eventually, I got
around to researching it and I found out that was a chance to submit
without having an agent.
So the first book was Tonight I Said Goodbye—introducing Cleveland PI
Lincoln Perry and his partner Joe Pritchard. It not only wins the
PWA/SMP contest but goes on to be nominated for the Edgar. A great way
to start out, obviously, but how did it affect you as you were writing
your second book? Were you aware of any added pressure, like now all of
a sudden you had to do your thing on a much higher tightrope?
Absolutely. I was surprised by how positive the reaction to the first
book was, and between the award nominations and the good reviews and all
of the incessant age remarks, I began to really over-think what I was
doing. I let that into my head more than I should have, definitely
started feeling the pressure even while I insisted there was none. I
wrote a first draft of a second novel that no one will ever see... it was
pretty awful. At that point, I shifted directions entirely, started a
new one, and enrolled in Dennis Lehane's writing workshop in Florida.
He'd told me about that when I first met him, and I'd always wanted to
work with Dennis, so I figured I had to take that opportunity. It was,
truly, more beneficial than my four years of college. I took three
classes with him in two different programs over the years, and can't say
enough about Dennis as a teacher and as a writer.
Sorrow's Anthem was in a tough spot, being the second book in a series
after a highly visible and successful debut. Whether it sells as many
copies (something you obviously don't have much control over), the
bigger question is whether you can progress as a writer and make that
second book as good or even better than the first. I know it's hard to
evaluate your own work in this way, but how well do you think that book
measures up?
Sorrow's Anthem is the book that is nearest and dearest to my heart,
simply because it was so difficult for me to write. It may not be as fun
as Tonight I Said Goodbye... probably isn't, in fact. But I do think the
writing is better, that there's more depth to it, and that you can see
that I was trying to push toward different things. Did I make it there?
Well, I can't say that. But the important thing, in my mind, is that I
tried to be aggressive and challenge myself as a writer. I wrote more
than a thousand pages to get a 350-page final draft of that manuscript.
I like that book a great deal more than the first one. The readers have
seemed very split on that, almost 50/50 based upon the response I've
seen.
I'm reading your third book now (A Welcome Grave). I won't make you try
to judge this one—I'll just tell you flat out. It's your best book
yet. Does the writing process feel any different now? Are you
consciously aware of doing things now that you couldn't have done just a
few years ago?
Oh, yeah. I think that was an element of what overwhelmed me when I
started writing the follow-up to Tonight. There was this realization of:
There are a thousand aspects of the craft and I need to get better at
all of them. And do it fast. I think my awareness of craft is far beyond
what it was a few years ago. I certainly hope so, at least. I'm not saying I'm that much better now than I was then—though I sure as hell
hope there's been growth—but I have a better understanding of all the
layers, and of just how many weaknesses I have lurking out there. So I
try to make a few of those disappear with each book, with each page. The
process itself isn't much different for me now, but the sense of scope
is. I'm seeing story in many more layers than I used to, and just trying
to improve.
I know you've actually worked in the field of private investigation.
How much has that helped you in the development of your story lines?
I have, and I still do it part-time, in fact. It's been a great help in
the detail sense and less of a help in the story sense. The first real
exception to that came in A Welcome Grave, where one element of the plot
was derived directly from a case I'd worked on. I think the PI work and
the newspaper work both offered wonderful benefits in throwing different people and different situations at me every day. It was a constant
education, and even though I was working in a different capacity, I was
always taking it in with an eye toward fiction.
You've also worked in the newspaper business. Out of all the crime
writers I've known with newspaper day jobs (Michael Connelly, Laura
Lippman, Jonathan King, etc.), the thing I keep hearing over and over is
how hard it is to keep doing both. Are you still doing both yourself?
No, I'm not, and yes, it is hard to keep doing both. At the end, I was
only writing a column, so it wasn't that much of a drain on either time
or creative energy, but things were changing dramatically at that paper
and it just wasn't any fun to be there anymore. I miss some of the
people I worked with, and I miss certain aspects of journalism, but I wouldn't want to go back to it, either. It seems to be a depressing time
for writers at most papers in the country. I teach a journalism course
and I'm still around newspaper writers often, and by and large they seem
unhappy, which is quite sad, because it's a wonderful and important
profession.
It's a standard question for a series writer, but I have to ask—are
you going to keep going with the series for a while? Try a standalone
soon?
Just tried a standalone, actually. We'll see what the response is next
summer. Creatively I was burned out with Lincoln, and desperate to write
something in a different voice. Switching to third-person, with multiple
points of view, felt great. Liberating, you could say. But now that I've
taken that break, I am anxious to get back to Lincoln. I have no idea
how long I'll keep the series going. No grand plan. But I certainly
would prefer to pull the plug too early than too late.
Another standard question is to ask which crime writers you read
yourself, but I'll put a different spin on it—who do you read outside
of the mystery field?
Much of what I read these days is outside of the mystery field. When you
spend the day writing a detective novel, reading one at night isn't
quite the escape it used to be, you know? Some of my favorite non-crime
writers: Stewart O'Nan, Pat Conroy, Larry McMurtry, William Gay, Stephen
King, Cormac McCarthy, Robert Stone, Pete Dexter. I read a lot of
non-fiction, too. Generally I select that by topic, but there are some
writers—David Halberstam, Hampton Sides—who I'll read regardless
of subject matter. I just read a fantastic history of pro football, and
before that it was a book about the Astor family, and a biography of
Jimmy Doolittle, so I'm really all over the map.
Okay, so on to baseball then—your Indians held off my Tigers this
season, so I have no room to talk. But you had Boston on the ropes!
How hard was it to watch the ALCS slip away like that? Do you still
consider the season to be a success, or does the bitter taste of failure
stay with you all winter long?
Hey, I don't like this topic shift! Let's go back to books. Yeah, yeah,
they blew it and it hurt. But it's also Cleveland, so, come on, we're
not shocked and stunned, exactly. We'd been waiting for disaster. But it
was a wonderful year, and when you realize that the Indians payroll is
half that of the Red Sox and Yankees, it's even more impressive. I'm a huge baseball fan, but I'm also pretty disgusted with this era of
steroids and mega-payrolls. Bud Selig has done a fine job of dismantling
the game's integrity. Can't wait till he's decided he's satisfied with
the damage and moves on to something else.
While we're talking about sports, I have to commend you on the way you
handled yourself the last time we played B'con hoops. You had four
other youngsters on your team as I recall, and it was me (twice your
age), Parnell Hall (a little older), Reed Coleman (oy, don't ask) and
two other guys I can't even remember. Anyway, we put such a solid beatdown on you, it must have felt like having your dad and his beer
buddies run you off the court. You took it like a man, though, so I
gotta ask—are you ready to get schooled again in Baltimore next year?
S.J. Rozan will be thrilled you included her with the youngsters. I
remember my team was ready to lay a proper pounding on you guys, but I
stopped them. I said, "Hey, I come from Indiana, where basketball is
religion, and we have certain standards. For example, if the collective
age of your opponents exceeds 300, you have to let them win." It wasn't
easy, but I convinced them, and we let you guys have a golden moment,
something to treasure. I'm ready for Baltimore, but even more exciting
will be 2009 when Bouchercon is in Indiana, and you get to play on
hallowed ground.
Seriously, I've got to end this by going back to the writing. You've
been given such a gift, Michael, at such a young age. You have the
chance to get better with each book, and as I read this latest one, I
see you doing exactly that. But you know it's not easy. You know it
shouldn't be easy, ever, not for one minute, not if you're doing it
right. With so many ways to get sidetracked or discouraged, with so
many other ways to spend your time, are you really going to try to keep
writing your best book, again and again, for the rest of your life? (If
you are, I want to know—because it could be a pretty damned good
ride.)
Well, thanks much, my friend. Very kind words, and I appreciate them.
And I certainly intend to keep slugging away at this. Getting better
with each book is what counts, but I think it's also important to step
back now and then and remember what a privilege it is to do this, to get
paid for telling stories, to have readers out there who are willing to
read them. It's the best gig in the world, is it not? I can't imagine
anything better.
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