You have an extensive background in acting; were you able to draw upon your previous career when you were writing your books? Is there anything in your professional background that made you want to write FINAL EXPOSURE?
For most of my life I worked as a film actor, but for the last twenty years or so, I was also a writer of screenplays. The ideas I came up with during those years all originally manifested themselves as film projects. That is true for my first novel, ALMOST GRACELAND as well my mystery FINAL EXPOSURE.
In both cases, in adapting them to book form, I used the screenplay as an outline, a template for the novel, since books are so much longer and larger than screenplays.
Which do you like best, acting or writing?
All the years I was acting, I was also writing (it’s only in the last few years that I started selling.)
Acting is an interpretive medium. You take someone else’s ideas, someone else’s words and the directors idea of how they should all come together… then it’s your job as an actor to ‘make it your own’ as much as you can and make it all work. Creative? Sure. Just different from looking at blank page one.
In writing, the ideas are mine, as are the words. I direct how the action plays out, the feel of the piece and eventually what happens. That’s the kind of creativity I enjoy now. I’m very fortunate that I was able to have both in my life.
Was there anything in particular that triggered the plot lines for your books?
ALMOST GRACELAND came about when I learned that Elvis had been born a twin, but that the twin was still-born (That is true, by the way). I couldn’t help but wonder how things would have been different if the twin had lived? My imagination took off and this novel is the fruit of that particular labor.
FINAL EXPOSURE, not only deals with being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but also explores the idea that everyone would like the world to be a bit different, hopefully better, for our having lived. When murder cut short a young woman’s life before her legacy had been left, our protagonist decided that her tracks must still be left. It couldn’t have all been for nothing. His actions take him into the world that got his wife killed in the first place… a dangerous place to be.
I’ve always thought of that as a primal concept and enjoyed using it to delve into the psyches of the characters. I was also able to have it be the springboard into large underground activities that our hero wished he’d never known about.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
My taste is nothing if not eclectic. I range from the marvelously rich stories of Daphne De Murier, James Clavell and early Anne Rice to the starker stories of Hemmingway and Raymond Chandler. I love the humor of Carl Hiaasen, the style and pacing of Nelson DeMille and David Baldacci, the intricacies of P.D. James and the characters of Jonathan Kellerman, and on and on.
I research my pieces thoroughly. When I was doing my ‘Graceland’ book, I read everything I could get my hands on about Elvis. My next book takes me into the world of bio-chemistry, poisons and WMD’s. As such, I am reading and learning (sometimes, more than I ever wanted to know) about chemical sciences.
I also read to constantly remind myself of what top notch writing feels like. Currently I am reading A MOST WANTED MAN by John le Carre.
What next? Back to straight fiction ala ALMOST GRACELAND, another mystery, or a screenplay?
Funny, after years in the film industry, there is now interest in filming my novels. I wouldn’t mind at all having these stories go full circle, in fact, it would be rather nice.
For now, though, my future is totally in books and probably will pop back and forth between straight fiction and mysteries. I have a number of stories in my head and they fall into both camps. I enjoy both kinds of writing; hopefully my readers will enjoy these journeys as well.
Steve Carlson may be reached through his web site; www.stevecarlson.tv
