with Preston Lang
We are delighted to welcome novelist Preston Lang to Omnimystery News today.
Preston's debut crime novel is The Carrier (280 Steps; March 2014 ebook format) and we recently had the opportunity to talk to the author about his new book.
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Omnimystery News: How do you know if the book you're writing will be a stand-alone or one of a series?
Preston Lang: If the main character is just an average guy who gets caught up in serious trouble, it can be hard to make a series — why is it that every time you go out to buy a pack of cigarettes you get involved in an 80,000 word caper?
If the main character is a detective or an investigative reporter and doesn't die at the end of the book, why not give her another chance?
OMN: Into what genre would you place The Carrier?
PL: Crime novel feels about right for this one. It lets people know there will probably be a plot and law breaking with very few postmodern shenanigans. Maybe you lose those who think genre fiction is silly. I'm all right with that as long as a few people have a good time.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
PL: A friend of mine brought an owl into a diner once. That made it into the novel in an oblique way. I asked my friend why he thought it was a good idea to bring an owl into a diner. He told me, "Man, owls got to eat too, right?" Of course, they didn't serve his owl. No one's going to serve an owl. I haven't heard from him in a while.
Other episodes, statements, and personality tics may come from real life, but The Carrier is very much a work of fiction.
OMN: Tell us where we might find you writing.
PL: I usually write on a computer while sitting on the couch, but I also write with pen and paper on subways and in pizza parlors and on park benches. I like quiet, but I can write in the middle of a busy room if I have to.
OMN: What was your most exciting topic to research for your books?
PL: I may end up with a carnival fan dancer in an upcoming novel. The research into that was enlightening. Fan dancers tended to be the most highly educated members of any carnival, the majority of them had at least a master's degree. Paradoxically many municipalities considered fan dancers a danger to the minds of young people.
Ring toss is the only game that isn't rigged. Don't let them guess your weight — no good can come from that.
OMN: How important is setting to the story?
PL: My settings are more or less real, but I certainly take liberties — if you put a donut shop on 75th street it doesn't turn the book into alternate history. I've invented a small university and a highway rest stop, but I hope the flow of a college town on a busy Tuesday night and the still corruptibility of a nearly empty diner are preserved.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into your books?
PL: I like music a lot, so my characters listen to the radio and sing to themselves. I'm sure I'll have musicians who are up to no good in a book fairly soon.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
PL: I think Hemmingway said always leave something to write for the next day. This has been useful advice. I think he also said something along the lines of "You must kill a bull, make love to an immoral woman, and unman a sailor." This has been less useful to me.
The harshest criticism I've received is simply, "I can't finish this. It's not interesting." Harsh, but useful.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a crime writer and thus I am also …".
PL: If you are crime writer you are probably depraved.
Yeah, I know authors make things up — I think that's what fiction means. Still, with the best crime writers I always assume they are genuinely corrupt beyond any hope of redemption. You can write in your bio that you're actually a sweet and decent family man who likes collecting seashells, but I wouldn't turn my back on you for a second.
You go snorkeling with Jim Thompson, I'm going to stay on the beach and read.
OMN: Tell us a little more about the book's cover.
PL: The cover was designed by a woman named Risa Rodil. I had nothing to do with it, but I think it's fantastic — a nod to Saul Bass but fresh and original.
OMN: What kind of feedback do you like receiving from your readers?
PL: Before the manuscript is finalized, I like very specific feedback — why does she say nutmeg? How can he talk to his pharmacist in chapter 19 when he died in chapter 14? The gestation period of the hippopotamus is 18 months, for real?
Once it's set in stone, I like to hear crazy theories people have. It doesn't belong to me anymore.
OMN: If The Carrier were to be adapted for television or film, who do you see playing the key roles?
PL: Hadn't really thought about this while writing, but I think Ken Jeong would be an excellent Danny Chin. Then cast the rest of it with other actors from Community. I would like to see that happen.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
PL: One of my favorites as child was Andy and Willie Super Sleuths by Lee Sheridan Cox. I still think it's a terrific book and have a hard time believing it's not better known. Cox was an English Lit professor, an expert in Shakespeare and Milton, who wrote exactly one detective novel for fifth graders. She died last year and is greatly missed.
At about the same time I read a lot of Raymond Smullyan's books, which were essentially logic games disguised as stories. They would sometimes hurt my brain, but I loved working through them.
Early reading leaves a mark, definitely.
OMN: What do you read now for pleasure?
PL: I've certainly read all the really obvious (and brilliant) suspects in crime fiction: Cain, Hammett, Thompson, Stark/Westlake, Leonard … could certainly list many more. Lately I've been reading quite a few of the novels of Harry Whittington, who wrote insane pulp at an even more insane pace in the 50s and 60s.
As for writers who are (I hope) not dead, I've recently enjoyed Hell on Church Street by Jake Hinkson and City of Heretics by Heath Lowrance.
I also like a lot of what is sometimes called serious literature.
OMN: Do you have any favorite literary characters?
PL: I've always liked Adolphus Crosbie from Trollope's The Small House at Allington. He's a perfect composite of Adolph Hitler and Bing Crosby — smooth, easy going charmer and ruthless invader — yet he was created more than 20 years before either man was born.
Masha from The Seagull is also a favorite, and her answer to the question "Why do you always wear black?" would have been the perfect opening to a noir. I guess it works well for Chekov's purposes too.
OMN: Give us a Top 5 list on any topic.
PL: Top 5 English words derived from Portuguese: savvy, tapioca, breeze, fetish, albino.
OMN: What's next for you?
PL: More books. I've got two and half done, and a few other ideas set to go. There are insurance scams, depraved carnies, and maybe a period piece about jazz musicians. I've also got an idea for a series about an amoral Canadian private detective in America based in large part on my wife.
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Preston Lang has written a number of plays, stories and articles, and has worked as a mathematics instructor, a census taker, a furniture mover, and a lounge pianist. He lives in NYC. The Carrier is his first published novel.
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The Carrier
Preston Lang
A drug courier gets held up by a sultry-voiced girl he picks up in a roadside bar. Throw in a sinister brother, bosses, a fast talking sex-offender and his oversized neighbor, a gum-loving Puerto Rican girl, stalks of corn and bars of gold …
It's a bad idea for a drug courier to pick up strange women in roadside bars. Cyril learns this lesson when the girl he brings back to his motel room points a gun at him.
But Willow isn't the only one after the goods that Cyril's been hired to pick up. A fast talking sex-offender and his oversized neighbor are also on the trail, as is Cyril's sinister brother, Duane.
Willow and Cyril soon form an uneasy alliance based on necessity, lust, and the desire for a quick payday. But with so many dangerous players giving chase, will they nab their package?
