with Warren C. Easley
We are delighted to welcome author Warren C. Easley to Omnimystery News today.
Warren's second Oregon mystery to feature small-town lawyer Cal Claxton is Dead Float (Poisoned Pen Press; July 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats). We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Warren to talk about his series.
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Omnimystery News: What is it about series mysteries that appeals to you as an author?
Photo provided courtesy of
Warren C. Easley
Warren C. Easley: When I first started writing about my protagonist, Cal Claxton, I sensed that I had a fair amount to say about him, so a series seemed the obvious way to go. I'm working on my third book in the series with no end in sight, so I think I made the right call. How to handle the character arc is a tricky question. No one wants to read about a static character, even in a stand-alone. In my series, Cal starts out a broken man in the aftermath of his wife's suicide. In the first book, Matters of Doubt, he finds his footing by going outside of himself in defense of a homeless kid. In Dead Float, he has the strength to extricate himself from a very tough legal and psychological situation, although he makes plenty of mistakes along the way, i.e., he's still recovering. My approach, then, is to give Cal an arc in each book as well as an overall arc across the series. The constraint at work here is that I don't want Cal to change so much my readers won't recognize him. This is tricky business!
OMN: Give us a summary of Dead Float in a tweet.
WCE: An Oregon fishing trip turns ugly when a member of the party is murdered. When the cops come down hard on Cal Claxton, it's clear he better solve the crime or get blamed for it.
OMN: Do you think it important as a male writer to have a male lead?
WCE: My protagonist is the same gender as me, male. However, I am working on a book now in which the narration alternates between Cal and an underprivileged sixteen year old girl living in Portland. I write Cal in first person and the girl in third person close. It has been fun and challenging to write in the sixteen year old's voice. I've raised a couple of daughters, so I do know something about tough females! I'm also in a critique group with four other capable female writers, so I get plenty of feedback when I get it wrong. I think the only time the gender question comes up with the reader is when the writer is doing a poor job of it.
OMN: Into which mystery subgenre would you place your books?
WCE: My mysteries are not cozies and they aren't hard-boiled or noir either. So maybe I should call them medium boiled? They're also about an ex-prosecutor from L.A. who moves to rural Oregon to start a one-man law practice, so maybe they are medium-boiled legal thrillers? Seriously, I suppose the categories help some readers make selections at the highest level, e.g., someone goes to the police procedural shelf first, then selects a book. I probably should, but personally, I don't pay much attention to categories as a reader or a writer.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
WCE: This is probably the thing most writers hold closest to the chest! My characters are generally composites, although sometimes I draw very heavily on someone I know or have known, but I'll never tell who! The events in my published books so far have come from my imagination, but I'm all for using a real event as a spring board if it's compelling enough. For example, I have a manuscript in editing that starts off with the infamous flooding of the Native American fishing grounds at Celio Falls with the construction of a dam on the Columbia River. A man disappears the day of the flooding, and Cal Claxton is asked to sort it out fifty years later. A very cold case!
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
WCE: My writing process starts with a single concept or idea. For example, I'm a fly fisherman and fish the storied Deschutes River often. What would happen, I asked myself, if a group of high tech executives were on a fishing/team building trip on the river and one of them turned up dead? Bingo! I had the idea for Dead Float. Next, I think up a cast of cast of characters with psych profiles and descriptions, etc. Then I begin writing in a pretty organic process. I can see ahead a few chapters, but that's about it. Basically, what I have written informs what I am about to write. If I've done a good job in creating the characters, then the cast stays pretty constant as the story progresses. I believe in equal opportunity for the bad guys, so I'm usually pretty far into the story before I settle on who dunnit.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
WCE: Of course, I rely on Dr. Google like every other writer, but first-hand experience is very important to me. If I'm describing a part of Portland, for example, I go there and walk around with a notebook in hand. I'm working on a book now that involves a gun shooting range. I've been to one and am going back to rent a gun and blast away with the same type gun that figures in the book. The most challenging research involves legal questions. I'm not a lawyer, and my legal sources are often busy, so I find myself doing a lot of my own research on line.
OMN: Your mystery series is set in Oregon. How true are you to the setting?
WCE: Whether it's Cal at home in his old farmhouse in the Oregon wine country, in Portland doing pro bono work, or fishing some river, it's important to me to get the setting right. I love Oregon and the Northwest, so I guess I feel a special obligation to evoke the beauty and uniqueness that surrounds me.
OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story — all expenses paid, of course — where would it be?
WCE: Oh, man, what a hard question! I lived in Switzerland for a number of years. I'd like to go back to a chalet in a small village somewhere high in the Swiss Alps. I would do research for a mystery set in this village, and it would take me a very long time.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into your books?
WCE: I like all things outdoors, but especially skiing, hiking, and fly fishing. My protagonist, Ex-L.A. prosecutor, Cal Claxton, has retreated to an old farm house in the Oregon wine country in the aftermath of his wife's suicide. He takes up fly fishing as a kind of meditative therapy. My writing has also influenced my life — as a result of writing about a homeless character in my first book, Matters of Doubt, I now now tutor homeless youth at a shelter in downtown Portland.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
WCE: For best advice, I'd have to go with Elmore Leonard, who said, "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."
For harshest criticism, I'd say a comment I got from a respected editor on a manuscript I was particularly proud of: "I loved your set-up and then the plot just wandered off."
I think the important thing is to not fall in love with your writing. Your toughest editor should be YOU. If a little voice says this isn't quite right, listen. Don't be afraid to scrap a scene and re-write it. Kill your darlings!
As for reading about the craft, I would recommend Steven King's On Writing, Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, and Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …".
WCE: I am a mystery author and thus I am also a student of human nature, a habitual people watcher, a voracious reader, and a lover of good stories well told.
OMN: Tell us how Dead Float came to be titled.
WCE: The term "Dead Float" is a fly fishing term that refers to an artificial fly that is drifting without a wake, mimicking an insect that has surrendered to the river. A dead float often portends a violent strike. I suggested a salmon fly of the type used on the Deschutes River for the cover, and my publisher did the rest. The hook lurking below the surface says it all.
OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?
WCE: Any and all questions and comments are welcome. I figure I can benefit from the positive and the negative. I've learned that my readers are very discerning and attend to the details. A reader in Canada very politely pointed out that I referred to a "revolver" when I should have used the term "pistol," which, it turns out, has a chamber integral to the barrel as opposed to a revolving chamber. Okay, point well taken! I've heard from readers in Europe, too, who seem drawn to my descriptions of life in the Northwest.
OMN: Suppose the Cal Claxton mysteries were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the part?
WCE: Cal Claxton is an everyman protagonist who has faults and self-doubts, but at the same time, he's persistent, even dogged, he gets up when he's knocked down, and he is drawn to the side of the underdog.
Give me a time machine and I'd pick Harrison Ford to play Cal. The Harrison Ford in Witness.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what your write today?
WCE: The biggest influence on my writing has been the books of James Lee Burke, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. The vivid settings, crackling dialogue, and utterly believable characters have been an inspiration. Closer to home, the wonderful James Crumley novels. I read everything by Sarah Paretsky, Robert Crais and Michael Connelly, too.
OMN: What are you reading now?
WCE: On my night stand at the moment are Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, Worthy Brown's Daughter by Philip Margolin, and an anthology of short stories by Raymond Carver.
OMN: Create a Top Five list for us on any topic.
WCE: Top Five Mystery Authors …
• James Lee Burke;
• Raymond Chandler;
• Robert Crais;
• Michael Connelly; and
• Sara Paretsky.
OMN: What's next for you?
WCE: I've got 45,000 words written on a new Cal Claxton mystery, so half way more or less. Looking forward to wrapping it up and sending it off to my editor!
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Warren C. Easley was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied chemistry at UC, Riverside and took a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at UC, Berkeley. The author of over a dozen scientific publications, he had a distinguished career in research and development and international business, including holding such posts as Technical Director of European operations for a large, multinational company and Vice President of Technology for another. After living abroad and traveling extensively, he’s retired and lives with his wife near Portland, Oregon. Drawing on his varied life experiences, he writes full time when he’s not tutoring GED students at an alternative high school, fly fishing, or skiing.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at WarrenEasley.com or find him on Facebook.
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Dead Float
Warren C. Easley
A Cal Claxton, Oregon Mystery
Mac
