Ask the Author: Chip Hughes
Answered Questions (6)
Chip Hughes
Raymond Chandler's fictional landscape in his Marlowe detective books is intriguing to me for various reason, but also because they depict Southern California in the 1940s before freeways and over development and smog, etc. I grew up in an LA suburb in the 1950s and 60s, when pristine blue skies were disappearing as well as the paradisal qualities that prompted so many people to come west. What I'd do in Chandler's landscape is breathe deep, hike the foothills, and enjoy the clear view. Of course, Chandler's noir detective landscape is something quite different from the natural backdrop in his works I'm trying to explain!
Chip Hughes
Raymond Chandler's fictional landscape in his Marlowe detective books is intriguing to me for various reason, but also because it depicts Southern California in the 1940s before freeways and over development and smog, etc. I grew up in an LA suburb in the 1950s and 60s, when pristine blue skies were disappearing as well as the paradisal qualities that prompted so many people to come west. What I'd do in Chandler's landscape is breathe deep, hike the foothills, and enjoy the clear view. Of course, Chandler's noir detective landscape is something quite different from the natural backdrop in his works I'm trying to explain!
Chip Hughes
Summer has past, but I will try to remember what I read and what's on deck. THE TWO OF US: MY LIFE WITH JOHN THAW by Sheila Hancock, a memoir about the actor who so fabulously played my favorite TV detective, Inspector Morse. M IS FOR MALICE, by Sue Grafton. ENDGAME, by Bill Pronzini. I read a couple of music biographies about jazz pianist, Bill Evans. Elton John's memoir, ME. And I'm currently reading JAZZ PIANO METHOD by Mark Davis. On deck are some mystery books about missing persons, because my next Surfing Detective novel will develop that subject: THE SONG IS YOU, Megan Abbott; IF YOU WERE HERE, Alafair Burke; and GONE BABY GONE, Dennis Lahane.
Chip Hughes
The idea for HANGING TEN IN PARIS and ANOTHER PROBLEM IN PARIS came from two trips to the City of Lights over the last several years. It was a stretch, a long stretch, for a Hawai'i-based PI to take on two cases so far from home, but I hope I worked out a rationale that is solid in both narratives.
Chip Hughes
BARKING SANDS, in which Kai Cooke works a twenty-year-cold case of three serial killings on the island of Kaua'i, is the book I'm currently finishing. The next Surfing Detective mystery, soon underway, will be set on the island of Maui and involve a missing person.
Chip Hughes
I try to work a set number of hours every day, not many hours of late. I sit myself down at my desk if I feel like it or not. Sometimes some of my best work comes from days when I don't actually feel like working. Main thing, for me, to get writing done I need to write every day and keep to my schedule. Of course life sometimes intervenes. And I miss a day or two. But when that's over I try to get right back to my plan. I hope this helps!
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