with Russ Hall
We are delighted to welcome author Russ Hall to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of Red Adept Publishing, which is coordinating his current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find his schedule here.
Russ's new suspense thriller is To Hell and Gone in Texas (Red Adept Publishing; August 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to talk with him a little more about it.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the lead character of To Hell and Gone in Texas.
Photo provided courtesy of
Russ Hall; Photo credit Joan Dyer
Russ Hall: Al Quinn is someone I wouldn't mind hanging out with, sitting down with to talk over dinner, or count on if I needed help. He interests me because he had a clear vision of his retirement, being alone to fish, read, play his chess games by himself, and listen to classical music. For a former sheriff's department detective this might seem a stark contrast, but it is what probably drove him through the days and weeks leading up to his retirement. So what happens? The brother he hasn't spoken to in twenty years comes to live with him, along with a flirtatious nurse as well as a woman with whom Al had a disastrous prom date way the hell back in high school. How does he feel? Disrupted, bothered, crowded, and then in danger for his life accompanied by the threat of death to others, for whom he is now responsible. Ah, tranquility to chaos. What life doesn't need that? But it does make for a ripping yarn, with promise of others to come.
OMN: So that means this is the first in a series? How do you see Al developing as a character?
RH: Every novel is about development. From the beginning to end of each book, and from book to book in a series, a character needs to grow, learn, and develop to some extent. Not to do so would leave you with a stagnant and unalive character. That does not necessarily mean a character must turn a year older in a series that comes out once a year, but that character must have an organic feel so that he or she is true to the ways he or she would naturally act but have room for whimsy and mistakes, because that's how the real world works.
OMN: As the author of many books of fiction, how do you decide whether or not one will be a stand-alone or part of a series?
RH: A lot has to do with the ending. If your protagonist or key characters get killed off, well that's the end of that. In a larger way, it has to do with whether the author wants to hang out with the characters some more and whether the readers feel the same way. Elmore Leonard said in a television interview on PBS that he missed some characters and wanted to spend time with them again. Really good characters become friends of authors. An author likes them in spite of their flaws and because of their qualities, values, and sometimes their ability to surprise or amuse the author.
OMN: How do you go about finding the right voice for your characters?
RH: In To Hell and Gone in Texas the lead character is a good deal like me. That was a matter of evolving from the original idea of two brothers who must reconcile after being estranged when their lives are in danger. The voice came quite easily there.
But I have another cozy mystery series that features a retired school math teacher, Esbeth Walters. She's a feisty gal who doesn't brook a fool gently, and when the sheriff tells her to butt out that's the last thing she intends to do. Readers of cozy mysteries like her because of her personality and voice. She is full of home-spun wisdom and is often "as busy as a bee in a basin." Her voice was a hoot to write and cracks me up. Also, I never quite knew what she was going to do next.
OMN: Into which genre would you place this book? And do you find such labels restrictive?
RH: To Hell and Gone in Texas is a suspense/thriller, and on the hard-boiled side of that. Yet it also holds another distinction. The protagonist, Al Quinn, is retirement age and that makes him fit in a new category, that of "geezer fiction."
Consider the fiction of Colin Cotterill and his Dr. Siri series, where Siri is a 72-year-old reluctant coroner. A lot of baby boomers and people of a remotely similar age get a charge out of the antics of someone their own age swept up in solving a mystery or dealing with danger.
I don't find labeling a plus or minus. That's someone else's thing. My mantra is that "all fiction should be good fiction." If an author writes in a genre in a manner as credible and good as people writing mainstream fiction, the entertainment is every bit as rich and good. For years the literary folk didn't embrace Hammett and Chandler, and they should have since those two were writing as well as anybody writing at the time.
OMN: Tell us something about To Hell and Gone in Texas that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
RH: This book started out as a touching memoir about two estranged brothers whose lives are disrupted and who must come together and reconcile despite their differences. As I wrote it got darker and darker I looped back and I trimmed out the touching memories of their growing up (which I quite liked and encouraged to make the book happen) and let the book take its own course, which just happened to be To Hell and Gone in Texas.
OMN: Give us a summary of the book in a tweet.
RH: Al and his brother Maury haven't spoken in twenty years, but they'd better start soon with a Mexican Mafia murder cell headed toward them.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
RH: Let's see. I live by a lake near Austin, feed the deer, play chess games with myself, and listen to classical music. The area has also been in a drought. I have all that in common with Al Quinn, or perhaps it's the other way around. Now, my brother on the other hand, is a year older than me, but otherwise is nothing like Maury Quinn, who is a womanizer. My brother plays piano and organ for a church and has been faithfully married for as long as I can remember. So, okay, those were starting points. From there the characters galloped off on their own as soon as they became alive on the page.
Let me explain. At a certain point in writing a book the characters come to life and start talking, at least to me. Others report something similar. I'll be mowing the lawn or driving the car and the characters will start saying, "I wouldn't have done that the way you wrote it, or had me say it." So I have to stop, pull off the road if I'm driving, and scribble down these quite organic emendations. Letting the book take over at this point and hanging on also means the end may change, so the book can be true to itself. This chatter from the characters is also when they've left the germ I used to start them and they are on their own. And, as for them talking, try this the next time you fly. Turn to the person next to you and say, "Just let me know if at any time the voices in my head bother you." Quietest ride you'll ever have!
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
RH: I outline every book, as soon as I'm done writing it.
I most often start from what I call "a moment of tension," one that showcases the actions of key characters in mental or physical conflict. We can't all start with, "It was a dark and stormy night." My books do develop as I write, and change.
Sometimes as characters appear in the storyline I pause to think about them. What are all the things I know about them that don't need to go on the page but affect their actions, decisions, and values. What do they like, dislike, and, most especially, what do they want? Each character should have the opportunity for as many dimensions and as much complexity as that character needs to remain engaging and vital to the advancement of the story. A flaw, or obstacle is always nice, and not just drinking for a detective — that worked forty years ago, but no longer. A game leg, insomnia, migraines — whatever makes doing a job harder but allows the character to achieve nevertheless.
The characters do, at a certain point, begin to have a say in what happens. The chief reason for not outlining is to eliminate possible rigidity. Some writers stick too close to their outlines lending their prose and plots to a style that can be more predictable.
OMN: Where do you usually find yourself writing?
RH: I have a dedicated office in the house that faces the front lawn. The deer come up to stare in and encourage me, tell me they won't get fed if I don't sell some books. But I mainly write there, only one or two of my editing passes happen on the computer. I most often print out hard copies and head for a coffee shop where I can put on the cap of tough love editor. It's a little schizophrenic, but that's the only way around to getting a book out without the ideal situation of letting it sit in a drawer for a year or so before beginning the serious polishing and revising round.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
RH: Just this weekend I was out shooting guns with a friend at a shooting range. Now, I don't hunt, nor particularly enjoy shooting, although years ago I sold and traded guns and did all the gunsmithing at a sporting goods store, but I like to keep up on what it feels like to handle and shoot various models of guns.
One editor claimed in a comment that it is a myth that someone hit by a bullet can be slammed backward. When that person is light in weight, wearing a bulletproof vest, and flying through the air to block someone else from being hit with the shot, that so-called myth is out the window. There are real-world tests on this that a writer can explore, and some pretty graphic videos. I will add here that television has done much to tangle up the reality of such things. Checking the details for yourself matters.
When writing of a geographical area I like to get on the ground for an accurate feel. When writing a western I once went out and hiked all over the area around Scalp Creek (and nearly got bitten by a rattlesnake) for an accurate feel of one scene in the book.
I do ride-alongs with various law enforcement types, and was also once long ago on a police department at night while going to college by day. I go to autopsies and have many shelves of books and magazines on forensics, weapons, martial arts, etc. The internet has been a huge boost. Years back I spent two weeks tracking down how the selector switch on an AK47 works, and that was for one sentence in a book.
I actually enjoy doing the research. For westerns, that may mean reading as many as forty books. Fact checking involves making sure you don't have someone use a Winchester during or just after the Civil War, since that rifle didn't come out until 1873. Here's the one most important rule I'll share. You can never research too much, but you can put too much of the research on the page.
OMN: How true are you to the setting of To Hell and Gone in Texas?
RH: I'm pretty true to the Central Texas setting. One reason is that it's an interesting place. When I moved to the Austin area from New York City I felt an anthropologist's wonder at a place quite different from the rest of the world. A guy came out of a convenience store drinking a can of cold gravy at 10 a.m. and I asked myself whether that was common to the area or a fluke. Turned out that was a fluke.
The purpose of many good books is to sweep the reader off to a faraway place, though even the locals seem to like reading about Texas. Also, it is right in the way of the growing influx of influence and danger from Mexican drug cartels. The peaceful world of most Texans is about to be disrupted in a big way, and Al Quinn, local law enforcement, and agencies like ICE are all that stand in the way.
Setting is important to stories when it helps drive the storyline and advances the plot. The heat and drought, as well as the rolling-hill beauty of Texas Hill Country, play roles in the story.
When I once did a couple of books set in the Bahamas I liked the contrast of tropical paradise beauty and the raw danger of some illegal activities in the area. Texas enjoys a similar exotic charm that adds to the story.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world to research the setting for a story, completely at our expense, where would it be?
RH: I'd say Australia or New Zealand, for perfectly selfish reasons. I'd just like to go there.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
RH: Much like Al Quinn, I feed deer, hike, fish, maintain a decorative back yard garden, play chess, and listen to classical music. The gardening didn't make it at all, and there was only a bit of hiking in this book. I also go to live music venues, play the upright string bass and guitar, explore Texas BBQ, and travel some — none of which was useful to advance the plot here.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
RH: The best advice I've ever come across was in Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. The first bit was that, "Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the reader's." This is profound. It means you should know just how much to put on the page and leave room for the reader to engage his or her imagination and see the cinema of each scene clearly. Reading, especially in mysteries and suspense, is about the reader being involved on a path of exploration and discovery. You need to leave the right amount of room for that to happen.
The second bit from King's book comes when he relates that an editor once sent him a rejection that said something like, "You know, during a final revision the MS should get at least 10% smaller, not bigger." The message: tighten that prose until a quarter can bounce off it like it does off a marine's blanket on a well-made cot.
Probably the harshest criticism I ever received was that not all the characters in one book were as complex as they might have been. It was a fair comment, and led me to know more about my characters even if not all of that was on the page. Just understanding their complexity better shows through as more fully-rounded alive characters.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a crime novelist and thus I am also …"
RH: … a psychopath who enjoys the mixed smells of formaldehyde and cordite.
Actually, if you're writing, you should fact-check whether the smell of cordite does hang in the air at a shooting.
Seriously, or not so much, if you bring home a date and happen to have a number of books on poisons and poisonous plants on your shelves, you may find the path toward any deeper sort of relationship a bumpy one.
OMN: How involved were you with the cover design of To Hell and Gone in Texas?
RH: The cover was handled by one of the publisher's capable people who does only that. We had a conversation in which I expressed my bias toward "less is more" covers. Then I shared some ideas and pictures and we talked about them. The completed design popped back into my inbox not long after that and unlike some past experiences we moved right ahead with the first completed design.
OMN: What kinds of feedback have you received from readers?
RH: We all like to hear that the reader couldn't put the book down, which is why I've considered Velcro or sticky glue covers. The least enjoyable feedback comes from lazy readers who didn't consider carefully placed details as important and later wondered why things turned out the way they did. Worse, one reader told me that she always starts with the ending of a book before going back to the beginning. It's enough to make a mystery or suspense writer tear out hair.
OMN: Suppose To Hell and Gone in Texas were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the key role?
RH: Just for chuckles, Jack Nicholson. But the late James Garner would be a better type cast.
OMN: What kinds of books do you enjoy reading?
RH: I read pretty much everything. My personal library got up to twelve thousand books once, but I've slimmed down to a svelte seven or eight thousand books.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
The best thriller, suspense, and mystery writers led me down this particular genre path. There were many I admired, but a few that were quite happy places to go, and that's the kind of books I wanted to write. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe, John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Stuart Kaminsky's Porfiry Rostnikov, Ross Thomas's McCorkle or Artie Wu, Robert Campbell's Jimmy Flannery, or Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri. Who wouldn't want to hang around these characters? I devoured every book, and aimed to write characters equally fun to be around.
OMN: What are you reading now?
RH: Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri series is high on my current list. John Burdett's Sonchai Jitpleecheep books sweep me faraway. And I've read the genre from Alexander McCall Smith to Dennis Lehane to Elmore Leonard to Ross Macdonald to Lee Child and back again. Right now I'm reading the complete works of folks like Ross Thomas, Stuart Kaminsky, and Robert Campbell. Ultimately, it's all about characters I like to be around, to hang out with.
OMN: What about films? Do you enjoy the same types of films as the books you read?
RH: I like action/adventure and comedies, and sometimes a mix thereof. An odd mix, really: Crocodile Dundee, Lethal Weapon, The Glimmer Man, Get Shorty. It's not a crime to have action and a few laughs along the way.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
RH: Top 5 Texas Food Groups:
1) Chicken-Fried Steak;
2) Biscuits and Gravy;
3) BBQ;
4) Mexican Food; and
5) Pecan Pie.
OMN: What's next for you?
RH: I'm thinking of settling down and getting married. No, wait. That can't be right! Even though I'm a life-long single person I'm pretty much (like Al Quinn) used to it.
My bucket list includes writing a few more books (already have two more written in the Al Quinn series), reading the best books out of my library, do a few things that shock me and take me outside my rut or comfort zone, get to the ocean more, travel to a few spots, maybe even take a clipper ship out of Seattle for a sail, and to see a view that takes my breath away.
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Russ Hall moved to the Austin area from New York City to focus on writing, fishing, and hiking after having been in publishing for over thirty-five years with companies ranging from Harper & Row to Simon & Schuster to Pearson. He has a graduate degree in creative writing and makes frequent public speaking and book-signing appearances, gives writing workshops, and is a frequent mentor and judge for writing organizations. He is a long-time member of the Mystery Writers of America, Western Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. In 2011 he was awarded Sage Award by The Barbara Burnett Smith Mentoring Authors Foundation — an award for the mentoring author who demonstrates an outstanding spirit of service in mentoring, sharing and leading others in the mystery writing community. In 1996 he won the Nancy Pickard Mystery Fiction Award for short fiction.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at RussHall.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook.
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To Hell and Gone in Texas
Russ Hall
A Novel of Suspense
Trouble big as all hell …
Retired sheriff's detective Al Quinn hasn't spoken to his brother, Maury, in twenty years. When Maury lands in the hospital under suspicious circumstances, though, Al reluctantly abandons his quiet country seclusion to look into the matter. A second attempt to take Maury out drives the brothers back to Al's lakeside home, where Al knows the territory, but they're not alone for long. ICE agents demand that Maury rat on his silent partner, city cop Fergie Jergens comes investigating the murders of Maury's lady friends, and someone takes a match to Al's house.
Al soon learns his problems are only getting started — his brother's in trouble on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Caught in a ruthless power struggle between the ICE and Los Zetas, a vicious Mexican mafia bent on ascendancy, Al learns the hard way who he can trust — and who's willing to do whatever it takes to succeed.
With everything he loves on the line, Al will find out just how far he'll go to protect his own.
Mac
