Rick Ollerman is the author of four crime fiction and
suspense novels. He has worked as both a freelance editor and as an editor for
a small press, and edited and contributed to the reference book Paperback Confidential, a collection of short essays on paperback original era authors. He
has also written more than a dozen essays that have been used as introductions
for other books, as well as several short stories, including one in the
upcoming anthology Waiting to be Forgotten. Today Rick sits down for an interview with us. Learn more about Rick
and his books at his website.
When did you realize you wanted to write novels?
I always wanted to write something, back from when I was a kid
and writing and illustrating books that were derived from the great “Alfred
Hitchcock and the Three Investigators” books. When my grandfather, who had been
a journalist, gave me his old typewriter, I had a way to make the stories at
least look better. But it’s been a
lifelong thing.
I grew up in a family where
you couldn’t be a writer because it was “too hard,” you couldn’t be an
astronaut or a race car driver because those were “too hard.” I was supposed to
be a physicist or a doctor—apparently those would be easy.
How long did it take you to realize your dream of
publication?
The problem I had with
writing is, I think, a common one when you start too young. You start a piece,
but you can get overwhelmed by feeling you haven’t anything to say. I think
this might come from reading soooo much. Then I think when you start writing,
you have to overcome the voices that constantly question everything you do: is
this section too fast? Too slow? Boring? Developing confidence in what you’re
doing—or putting it another way, getting past those childhood voices where you
were always told that writing was “too hard”—is key for new writers. Until you
can just sit down and write, completely unselfconsciously, you’re letting
yourself in for a difficult time.
Are you traditionally published, indie published, or
a hybrid author?
I am a traditionally
published author. A hybrid might be something to try if your readership is so
large they’ll look for your books without publicity or a store presence, but
I’m not a fan of self-publishing in general because I’m afraid it ups the background
noise. And like Cory Doctorow says, the biggest problem an author faces is
probably obscurity.
You need to somehow rise
above the noise, to get to that place where readers will pick your new books
and not just the same old bestselling writers year after year. Although there
are clearly exceptions, I’m afraid that so many self-published titles raise the
noise level so high that only the huge guys can rise above it easily. If you
believe the axiom that you’re not a writer until someone else says you’re a writer, the wave of self-published titles just
makes that a bit harder, I think.
Where do you write?
On a reclining chair with my
laptop in my lap. Or anywhere, really. I’ve been known to pull over my car or
motorcycle on the highway shoulder to get down some thoughts to a problem my
subconscious has been working on.
Is silence golden, or do you need music to write by?
What kind?
Silence could be golden, but I don’t have that sort of hermetically sealed
workspace. I listen to music, mostly jazz, usually Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Art
Blakey and the like. I seem to be able to tune it out as it covers the
background noise of the house and lends a certain energy. Can’t have anything
with words, though. Breaks the spell completely.
How much of your plots and characters are drawn from
real life? From your life in particular?
I take that as almost three
separate questions. For plots, I never want to write the same book twice. A pet
peeve, if that’s a good term, is that there are so many writers who write two or
three really great books, then settle into a formula and do a book a year that
way for twenty years. I don’t want to do that. I like to ask “what if” and
“why” questions to come up with the plots. In Truth Always Kills, I try to ask a lot: if the FBI says stalking is
the only accurate predictor we have of murder, what do you do if you know this
and you see your significant other being targeted?
Why are lawyers the only
ones in a courtroom that aren’t sworn to tell the truth?
Why throw out good evidence
found on a search warrant just because it wasn’t where you were supposed to be
allowed to look? Why not keep the evidence but prosecute the police officer for
the “bad” search?
Those questions helped
define the main character. For the rest of the plot/crime, I asked a few more:
why is prostitution legal and pornography isn’t?
I also derived a character
from real life, though I had him appear as a corpse. There was a case where a
man was caught with stolen jewelry in his possession. The cops knew they didn’t have enough to likely get anything
meaningful, but he did agree to a complete confession in return for immunity.
When he gave his testimony, not only did he confess to the one crime but to a
whole litany of others the police had no idea about. It turned out he was a
longstanding and very efficient cat burglar that they hadn’t a clue had been
operating for years.
The deal gave him immunity
but afterwards the police made his life a living hell. If someone put on a mask
and held up a convenience store, they’d pull him in and search his house,
ignoring the fact that the description of the robbers showed them to be of a
different race, etc.
Generally speaking, though,
I think there’s something of yourself in virtually all of your characters. For
me, I think it mostly shows up in the dialog, and with my sense of humor.
Describe your process for naming your character?
That is such a hard thing
for me to do. I have a prejudice against unusual names, or ones that seem
pretentious to me. For instance, I’d never name a character ‘Atticus’ or
‘Beauregard’ or ‘Geronimo Falcon,’ anything like that. I think it’s a weak
point for me, but I tend to stick to ordinary or more common names, even though
they may not stick out as much in the reader’s mind as the probably ought.
The best name I probably
came up with was for my second book, Shallow
Secrets. I needed a name for a fictional reporter and somehow came up with
the name ‘Sabrina.’ A few years later, when we were pregnant with our first
child and my wife and I couldn’t decide on a name, I finally told my wife
‘Seabiscut’ (this was before the book and movie came out) would be on her birth
certificate. Then my wife remembered Sabrina from Shallow Secrets, which had not yet been published, and that became
her name.
Real settings or fictional towns?
Real settings, but not too
detailed. Everything changes so fast. If I ever did do a fictional town, I
think I would either simply leave it unnamed, or do an Ed McBain and use a made
up name for an obvious real town.
What’s the quirkiest quirk one of your characters
has?
I’m not sure about quirks,
but in Truth Always Kills, I wanted
the lead character to have enough of a short temper that he couldn’t keep
himself from fighting all the injustices that he saw not only in his own life
but in his job as a police officer. The point of this was to show that he was
his own worst enemy when in fact he is by far the only person in the book who
is trying to do the best thing for everybody. It ruins his life and doesn’t
necessarily make the lives of those around him any better.
What’s your quirkiest quirk?
It is probably that I will
say inappropriate things in front of my two children, aged 14 and 12, just
because I think they are so dang funny. Not too
inappropriate mind you, but enough to provoke a mild shock along with the
laughter. You have to remember we home school the kids so that so much of me
rubs off on them, you either have to admire their maturity levels or feel very,
very sorry for them.
If you could have written any book (one that someone
else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?
It probably wouldn’t even be
a crime fiction book. I think I’d have to say Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light. I’ve read it six or seven
times and it’s based on a future shipload of humans that have crashed on a
planet some time in the far future where Earth is barely remembered. Some of
survivors were able to take on what they call Aspects and then wield
Attributes, which were powers modeled after the Hindu pantheon of gods. The
story is one of the privileged fighting against what’s become the ruling class
for the good of all the people, even when it would have been so much easier for
him just to join them and live a long, easy life. Structurally, it is an
extremely unconventional book and while it makes perfect sense as soon as I
finish it, within a few hours I always start scratching my head, asking, “What
really just happened?” and more importantly, “How did Zelazny write that book?”
Amazing stuff.
Everyone at some point wishes for a do-over. What’s
yours?
Oh, it’s got to be the first
novel, followed by the second, etc. Lisa Unger says to read the most recent of
her books and then go back to the beginning if you’d like. I think there’s a
lot to be said for that—your latest book should
be your best. And I haven’t written a series or a sequel at this point, so
that’s especially easy for my books. I should say though that I think reading
your own books can be a lot like hearing your voice on tape: you know it’s you
but it just doesn’t sound like you think you should, and not in a good way.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Piles of mess. I want to
string fishing line above all the flat surfaces in the house so my wife stops
making new piles, sort of like what they do to keep the seabirds away from the
tables at outdoor restaurant in Florida. Start a task, complete the task, be
done with the task. Not start a task, do most of it, then put it in a pile
somewhere to be completed at some point in the future. Your life will always be
behind. Argh.
You’re stranded on a deserted island. What are your
three must-haves?
I’d say my family but I
wouldn’t want to subject them to the hardship. So aside from food, water and
sunscreen, I’d have to go with pens and paper to write with, jazz music, and a
clear view of the stars.
What was the worst job you’ve ever held?
Have you ever de-tasseled
corn? Don’t ever de-tassel corn. I ended up getting fired because the boss
thought I was someone else. I didn’t even think to correct him. May be the only
time I’ve ever wanted to kiss a man.
What’s the best book you’ve ever read?
I can’t do that one. Each
book you read gives you something unique. Quite often the result is an ordinary
or non-spectacular one, but then you read a Parker novel by Richard
Stark/Donald E. Westlake and some of your breath is stolen away and you again
wonder, how the hell did he come up with all that?
Ocean or mountains?
I’ve lived in Florida for
most of my life. We had a house on the water on Tampa Bay that I never thought
I’d sell. And then we had kids, and that was no place to raise children.
Florida has a lot of issues when you don’t live the lifestyle of the Rich and
Famous. So we moved to New Hampshire to be in the White Mountain area. I knew
that if I were going to give up the water I wanted the mountains. So I have to
give you a qualified ‘both.’
City girl/guy or country girl/guy?
Grew up in the city but the
traffic and crime drives me to the country. Where the regional parochialism and
prejudices aren’t the happiest things, but I’ll take the country and suffer the
rest.
What’s on the horizon for you?
Just turned in my fourth
novel, Mad Dog Barked, which should
be out in time for Bouchercon. Next is a true crime book about a case where a
mother fled the country and spent ten years in hiding in order to protect her
daughter from her (allegedly) predatory ex-husband, as well as putting together
an anthology in honor of the late Gary Shulze. Gary and his wife Pat ran the
Once Upon a Crime Bookstore in Minneapolis for many years, affecting the lives
and careers of many young writers and earning MWA’s Raven Award along the way.
He lost his second battle with leukemia in April and the book will hopefully
raise money for a worthwhile charity. So far we have writers like Scott
Phillips, William Kent Kreuger, Reed Farrel Coleman, and a whole lot more lined
up. And conventions, a few short stories, and the start of a new novel.
Anything else you’d like to tell us about yourself
and/or your books?
I hope that people out there
are willing to give some of the newer writers a look. It’s easy to buy every
new Michael Connelly or Lee Child book that comes out, but they had to come
from somewhere, and there are those of us who are going to follow them. The
best feeling you can give an author in this soul-crushing business is to buy
their book and review it, good or bad. Notice them. The only thing an author
controls is writing the books. After that, they’re dandelion seeds in the wind,
hoping to find a home.
Truth Always Kills
A cop in departmental trouble knows
his wife is being stalked, but feels helpless to do anything about it. Does he
report it and bring undue attention to himself, or should he take matters into
his own hands, and damn the consequences?
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