with Matt Madigan
We are delighted to welcome author Matt Madigan to Omnimystery News today.
Matt's second mystery to feature hard-boiled private detective Reid Hollow is Down (Past Midnight Publishing; February 2015 trade paperback) and we recently had the chance to catch up with him to talk more about it.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about the lead character of your series.
Matt Madigan: The main protagonist is Reid Hollow who is the ultra-violent, yet incredibly smart private detective working for an elite agency during the 1930s. He suffers from a lot of trauma from his upbringing and the Great War. He is a ruthless individual to whom sex and violence are almost the same. Yet, he does show, at times, great compassion.
OMN: How do you expect the character to develop over the course of the series?
MM: I think that depends a lot where you begin the character. Reid is in his 40s in the first book, so he is a fairly fully formed person. But writing is a very organic process and sometimes you become surprised with the way the characters grow. So I never go in thinking anything is firm.
Still, I have to relate strongly to a character to use him more than once. Reid and I are sort of kindred spirit in some ways. I usually go into a book with some thematic elements in mind, more than a sturdy plot structure. This allows me more freedom to flow with the writing.
OMN: How difficult was it finding the right voice for your characters?
MM: It is difficult writing the opposite gender, but study a master like James M. Cain and what he did in The Cocktail Waitress and you will see it can be done. So I don't think it matters that much. Joyce did it in the last chapter of Ulysses without even using punctuation. But I tend to stick with what I know; although I rule nothing out.
As for finding the voice, it is one of the hardest things for a writer to learn how to create. It comes with practice and study of master writers. A lot of times a young writer will sound very much like his or her favorite author. This is very normal. Now you sort of have to move away from that eventually and find your own voice. It is a difficult thing and many people trying to write never find it. You read their stuff and say, "if I wanted to read (whatever writer) I would read them, not a pastiche." But you gotta start somewhere.
OMN: Into which genre would you place this series?
MM: I would say my books are as advertised, Hardcore Noir. To me Past Midnight Publishing and I are taking the noir genre and dragging it to an even more extreme destination.
OMN: Tell us something about the book that isn't mentioned in the synopsis.
MM: It's hard, but maybe not as hard as its predecessor Her Name is Violence. I mean that in content and style.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
MM: None. I like to make up everything and totally immerse myself in that world. These are really just events and people bouncing around in my head. I have to say Reid is a great deal like me. He is what I sort of would like to be more of — just that assertive. He is far more successful though.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
MM: I try and go in with thematic elements. That was especially true with Her Name is Violence. I had a much better grip over the style and characters in Down. I knew, in a way, how I wanted it to end, and how I wanted it to begin. Then I just let things flow and filled in the middle, connecting the pieces. Characters just seem to pop up. But you have to be careful with them. Someone can't have a role just to bridge something or give exposition. You have to have a real, and almost organic, reason for them.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
MM: A lot of the weapons stuff is easy enough to find out, and for Christmas I received a 1936 gun catalog, which is invaluable to me. The publisher did do a lot of fact checking, but almost everything was fine. I like history and learning about it. It is hard to ask people, people you don't know well, "So how do you make a pipe bomb?" And with things like they are, you don't want to look around online for that sort of stuff.
OMN: And what about the setting?
MM: Cities are just sort of interesting to me. The filth, the grime, the anonymity. How people become so callused with the suffering of others. Walk over people, see someone sick or in trouble, and just keep going. And yet there are all these amazing and expensive buildings and all this wealth. These sort of things scare me because of the crazy life I've lead, like how close am I to the sidewalk? So I decide to write to make money? That will get you on the sidewalk very quickly. So going into a city almost frightens me to the point that if I have to go there, I am always scared I won't have the money to get out. Sort of stuck in there with nowhere to go and no cash, and then it is the sidewalk for me. People would step over me, and all I could think would be, "But I have two published books!" That's a city for you.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story, all expenses on us, where would it be?
MM: I really just would like a nice quiet place around some nice people. Have my bills paid and have a place that is safe and clean and quiet. Sorry I didn't say London or Paris, but those are cities!
OMN: What are some of your outside interests?
MM: Nothing for decent readers! You know, trying to make a living takes a lot of work. But I read constantly and like old movies. Not a real big sports guy, but I love old boxing matches.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
MM: The best is to read widely, write all the time, and study the masters. Just trying to get this book published before it was picked up, was a hard time. You know it is good, and people just don't think it will sell, so they just chuck it out. But the best thing I can say is get a good editor and learn your craft. Don't do it for fame or money. Some of today's top selling, most famous authors don't have 1/10th of the talent I have. I am not trying to brag here, but just read my stuff. I am willing to go up against anyone.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …".
MM: The best unknown writer in America today.
OMN: Was Down also your working title while writing it?
MM: Down was the original title. I gave it about five different ones along the way, then came back to where I started. It is a bit of a non-sequitor, but the answer is in the text.
OMN: How involved were you with the cover design?
MM: The cover was painted by someone the publisher hired. His name is Robert Jaz and I love the cover. I didn't have a lot of feedback with the cover, but I have no complaints.
OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?
MM: You have to sort it out. People who have never created anything in their lives but carbon-dioxide are the most critical. Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? I would have done it like that. No they wouldn't have, because they are sitting around talking while I am writing. With the internet today people who have no real business criticizing things — books, athletes, singers, artists, are now instant experts. Go to Amazon and look up reviews for great works and see how the uneducated can just dump on something they really don't get. Sad and almost comical. Really funny when the reviews are riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.
But people who have created are much more insightful. A lot of people discussed my style, which I would call faux-stream of consciousness. It isn't completely s.o.c or the book would almost be unreadable. I got some good feedback on how to tighten it up from other writers.
OMN: Suppose Down were to be adapted for television or film, who do you see playing the key roles?
MM: The ghost of Marilyn Chambers as Violence.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
MM: I loved Famous Monsters of Filmland and when I got to be a young teen I read a lot of dirty mags. They, for better or worse, really influenced me. Forest J Ackerman and my junior year high school English teacher George Moonoogian influenced me to write. Moonoogian gave me the confidence.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
MM: Thomas Pynchon was big for me as I got older, and as I said Forest J Ackerman. Lots of bad horror movies, The Watchmen, and a lot of Feral House books.
OMN: How did films influence your work?
MM: I was really inspired by stuff like Eraserhead and Videodrome. Violent Japanese films like the Guinea Pig series. I'm not a violent person, in fact real violence really scares me, but I have always been attracted to that type of entertainment. I would watch a lot of late night tv when I was younger and anything that was said to be "banned" like John Waters films, which are hugely influential on me, I had to find.
OMN: When selecting a book to read for pleasure, what do you look for?
MM: I can't say one thing draws me in. Great writing and esoteric topics. I go in cycles. History books, crime books, detective novels, books on magic, books on heavyweight champions.
OMN: Create a Top Five list for us.
MM: My five favorite Jim Thompson novels:
Five — After Dark My Sweet
Four- The Kill-Off
Three — Savage Night
Two — Swell Looking Babe
One — Killer Inside Me
And here's another, my top Five fave heavyweight champions (not the best, but my fave):
Five — Clubber Lang
Four — Joe Louis
Three — Joe Frazier
Two — Jack Johnson
One — Larry Holmes
And one more, my five fave crime/mystery writers (excluding myself) — and a recommended book:
Five — Joseph Hansen (Skinflick)
Four — Ross MacDonald (The Way Some People Die)
Three — Raymond Chandler (The Little Sister)
Two — James M. Cain (Double Indemnity)
One — Jim Thompson (The Killer Inside Me)
OMN: What's next for you?
MM: I am going to be editing some books for Past Midnight Publishing, so that should be fun. I am also looking for new writers for the publishing house, but soon will begin writing again another new Reid Hollow novel titled Precious. Anything not to work a real job!
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Down
Matt Madigan
A Reid Hollow Mystery
It all begins with a call ripping through the darkness … A violated corpse … An innocent man being framed … and the electric chair waiting for him.
Reid Hollow must return from his last case, which almost killed him, battle hit men, corrupt police, armed thugs and even a kidney stone to find the real killer. A killer who seems to be just getting started.
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