Wampus Reynolds's Blog
October 16, 2020
Virtually Live Event Sunday!
Author and old comrade Adam Bregman are Zoomin' Sunday night and talking to each other by our noirish books we coincidentally published within weeks of each other! It's gonna be a good one.
Info below:
https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...
Info below:
https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...
July 20, 2020
Ten Mysteries I Love
One unexpected result of writing a mystery is that I have had friends who usually don't read the genre bexome interested in reading more. Looking back over my list of books read in the last decade, I am surprised to see 1) how the genre is not that big a percentage of books I read and 2) how my then-ratings of books don't line up with my present assessment of them.
But here are ten in the genre I love along with a brief explanation of how they influenced (consciously or subconsciously) my own ideas of what to put in my first book.
(alphabetical by author)
1. The End of Everything - Megan Abbott. Abbott really captures that fragile hold on childhood and the fear of adulthood young teenagers have. Way I See It looks back on that time while presently dealing with the slip into middle age.
2. The Long and Faraway Gone - Lou Berney. The location of Oklahoma City and using real crimes to inspire the fictional ones really influenced me to start this endeavor. This is more expertly built than I could do now.
3. Follow Her Home - Steph Cha. Contemporary author who explores a subculture within a city, one that I lived for a short while. Plus a narrator with no training. I loved it.
4. Caught Stealing - Charlie Huston. Lower East Side bars are something I know. This contains the reality of the scene with some obvious nods to real places-- a trick I used as well.
5. Lives Laid Away -Stephen Mack Jones. Using the backdrop of a present Detroit and its struggle to thrive while exulting in the meals the ex-cop enjoys with others are good uses of setting and culture.
6. Tapping the Source - Kem Nunn. Gonzo surf noir from 1984. It has the classic hard-boiled protagonist who just wants an answer to one question but ends up with more questions.
7. The Sweet Forever - George Pelecanos. In today's world, you can't escape Pelecanos voice as it has gone in so many TV series and movies. This early novel of his still can thrill and capture a moment in time. The use of sports and music cues as shorthand is something I definitely got from him.
8. Missionary Stew - Ross Thomas. My favorite writer. All his books are great reads (though some views expressed can be dated) and I can sometimes recognize the bemused, detached voice of his narrators in the tone of my own book.
9. Savage Night - Jim Thompson. You can't be a literary person in Oklahoma without acknowledging the great and twisted Jim Thompson. His first person prose, especially the endings, figure large for me. Also, his ear for dialogue (watch Kubrick's The Killing and Paths of Glory) is almost musical.
10. Sideswipe: A Hoke Moseley Novel - Charles Willeford. My favorite Willeford novels are his later ones (though his early ones rival Thompson for extreme nihilist violence) when he mellowed out and found the humor along with the horror in south Florida. To me, humor is a natural fit in crime novels and makes the serious parts pop that much more.
Lots of other books could be on this list, but all these are good trips into worlds of the wicked and wary.
But here are ten in the genre I love along with a brief explanation of how they influenced (consciously or subconsciously) my own ideas of what to put in my first book.
(alphabetical by author)
1. The End of Everything - Megan Abbott. Abbott really captures that fragile hold on childhood and the fear of adulthood young teenagers have. Way I See It looks back on that time while presently dealing with the slip into middle age.
2. The Long and Faraway Gone - Lou Berney. The location of Oklahoma City and using real crimes to inspire the fictional ones really influenced me to start this endeavor. This is more expertly built than I could do now.
3. Follow Her Home - Steph Cha. Contemporary author who explores a subculture within a city, one that I lived for a short while. Plus a narrator with no training. I loved it.
4. Caught Stealing - Charlie Huston. Lower East Side bars are something I know. This contains the reality of the scene with some obvious nods to real places-- a trick I used as well.
5. Lives Laid Away -Stephen Mack Jones. Using the backdrop of a present Detroit and its struggle to thrive while exulting in the meals the ex-cop enjoys with others are good uses of setting and culture.
6. Tapping the Source - Kem Nunn. Gonzo surf noir from 1984. It has the classic hard-boiled protagonist who just wants an answer to one question but ends up with more questions.
7. The Sweet Forever - George Pelecanos. In today's world, you can't escape Pelecanos voice as it has gone in so many TV series and movies. This early novel of his still can thrill and capture a moment in time. The use of sports and music cues as shorthand is something I definitely got from him.
8. Missionary Stew - Ross Thomas. My favorite writer. All his books are great reads (though some views expressed can be dated) and I can sometimes recognize the bemused, detached voice of his narrators in the tone of my own book.
9. Savage Night - Jim Thompson. You can't be a literary person in Oklahoma without acknowledging the great and twisted Jim Thompson. His first person prose, especially the endings, figure large for me. Also, his ear for dialogue (watch Kubrick's The Killing and Paths of Glory) is almost musical.
10. Sideswipe: A Hoke Moseley Novel - Charles Willeford. My favorite Willeford novels are his later ones (though his early ones rival Thompson for extreme nihilist violence) when he mellowed out and found the humor along with the horror in south Florida. To me, humor is a natural fit in crime novels and makes the serious parts pop that much more.
Lots of other books could be on this list, but all these are good trips into worlds of the wicked and wary.
July 8, 2020
A long take on Way I See It
A friend who does nothing online wrote a nice thoughtful piece on my book. Here's the link!
