Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My novel White Heat won the Shamus Award for Best Indie P.I. novel from the Private Eye Writers of America. White Heat also won an award in the Mystery-Suspense-Thriller-Adventure category from SouthWest Writers.
I’m a former “script doctor,” and the author of over thirty published short stories, including several award winners, which have appeared in a variety of book length anthologies and magazines. LA Late @ Night, a collection of five of those stories, has just been released.
Publishers Weekly says White Heat is a “…taut crime yarn set in 1992 against the turmoil of the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers charged with assaulting motorist Rodney King…. the author ably evokes the chaos that erupted after the Rodney King verdict.”
And Woody Haut, journalist and author of Neon Noir (Contemporary American Crime Fiction) and Pulp Culture (Hardboiled Fiction & the Cold War), says “[White Heat] really caught early 90s LA, in all its sordid glory. And had me turning pages late into the night. I think WH is up there with the best of the LA novels, but has an air authenticity that many lack.”
I also have the distinction, dubious though it might be, of being the last person to have shot a film on the fabled MGM backlot before it bit the dust to make way for housing. According to Steven Bingen, one of the authors of the recent, well-received book MGM: Hollywood’s Greatest Backlot: “That 40 page chronological list I mentioned of films shot at the studio ends with his [Paul D. Marks’] name on it.”
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, LA Late @ Night, is a collection of five of my noir and mystery stories. Since it’s a collection of five stories there wasn’t one inspiration. But if I had to pick one – or at least the one thing they all have in common, it’s the City of Angels – Los Angeles.
Welcome to Los Angeles. The city that sleeps with one eye open. Enjoy the hot Santa Ana breeze while you sip your tequila. Take a stroll down Sunset Boulevard. Dip your toes in Echo Park lake. Walk down Raymond Chandler’s mean streets.
Meet your new neighbors: A rising star defense attorney with self doubts. A dinosaur LAPD detective resistant to change. A beat cop with anger control issues. A drifter who is easily led astray. And two brothers with extra bad luck.
And of course, the city itself. The City of Angels. La-La Land. Los Angeles.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a night person. I sleep during the day and write all night long. I’ve always been a night person and whenever I couldn’t be as soon as I could again I’d drift back to it. And these days I’m going to bed later and later or is it earlier and earlier? My wife says if I keep going the way I am I’ll eventually wind up on a “normal” schedule.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My writing inspirations are all over the place, everything and everyone from Hemingway to Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, James Ellroy, Carol O’Connell, etc. Also film noir and rock ‘n’ roll and the city of Los Angeles. In fact, I recently did a blog post on this on a blog I’ve started writing for, 7 Criminal Minds. You can find that post here and really get an eyeful of my influences, if you have the time and inclination: http://7criminalminds.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-moveable-inspiration.html
What are you working on now?
I’ve got lots of irons in the fire. The sequel to White Heat is about done. I have another mystery novel that’s also just about done. That one is set on the World War II homefront and “stars” a character that’s appeared in three of my published stories. In a less final state, I’m working on a couple of different novellas and short stories, both for myself and on assignment for a publisher.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Great websites that help promote indie writers, like the Awesome Gang, of course, are great for getting the word out about your books. Also interacting with readers on social media like Facebook and Twitter. It can be time consuming. Sometimes I feel more like a PR flack than a writer, but it’s part of the job.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t quit. And don’t get discouraged by your early drafts. It doesn’t matter how “bad” they are, just keep at them until you get them right.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
In real estate they say it’s all “location, location, location.” In writing I would say “revise, revise, revise.” Even after something of mine has been published I see things that make me cringe. And you need to have objective readers who will tell you where you’re going wrong. Be open to criticism. You don’t have to follow everything, but you should listen to it. Then, after you think you’re done, put the work down for a couple of weeks and come back to it and you’ll see all kinds of new things you want to revise.
What are you reading now?
I alternate between current authors and the classics, both genre and non-genre. At the moment I’m reading “The Grifters” by Jim Thompson, upon which a great movie was made with John Cusack and Angelica Huston.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Just to keep on plugging away at it. Work on the sequels to White Heat. Maybe a short story here and there. Novellas. My idea file has hundreds of ideas. I don’t think I could write them all in ten lifetimes.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham, a survival guide, a very thick book with very dry pages that I didn’t care about that I could use for kindling and The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas to give me inspiration for the revenge I’d be plotting against the person who stranded me there.
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