TWO AUTHOR INTERVIEWS
Two interviewers asking intelligent, atypical questions. See how I answer.
Interview by Susan Anderson
http://susanrussoanderson.com/2013/03/11/3766/
Interview by Jim Northrup
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Praise for “Heroes and Lovers”
I just finished HEROES AND LOVERS…really an enjoyable read. Hell, if I was a cop, I would BE Sam Jenkins…Great writing Wayne. I’m looking forward to more.
Dirk Western
Wayne Zurl is a fantastic author that grabs the reader from the first page and doesn’t let go… His characters are fully developed and realistic. His descriptions of the Great Smoky Mountains area makes one want to leave on vacation. His story-line is full of twists and turns mixed into everyday life…Then there is the main character Sam Jenkins, the kind of man who can steal a woman’s heart with a smile [and] who will not take “no” as an answer when he is trying to…find his kidnapped friend. If this is the first Sam Jenkins mystery you pick up, it won’t be your last.
Marianne Spitzer, author
This story takes you on twists and turns that are unexpected, making the book hard to put down. Another great job by Wayne Zurl!
Margaret Millmore, author
Sure, Heroes & Lovers had a good-old-fashioned mystery at the heart of the book. But, this book also delved into who Sam Jenkins is as a person. It’s the human connection that speaks to me… This book is so much more than a mystery or a detective novel. The author tackles some very serious issues…with humor and compassion. He’s created flawed, but likable characters…And all was redeemed in the end. Zurl ties up his loose ends superbly. The book was a pleasure to read from beginning to end, and that’s why I’ll be back for more Sam Jenkins books.
Tricia Darmmeh, author
Zurl captures the regional southeast flavor in his characters’ individual dialects, in his descriptive writing, and in his obvious affection for the locals. In this entry Sam has to solve the kidnapping of his friend, a local TV anchorwoman, and the assault of her cameraman… Mix in a crooked car repairman, an active drug trade, political interference, and a lot of colorful characters and you have the makings for an entertaining story. I especially appreciated the satisfying ending, where several loose ends from the complex plot are all brought together. I liked this book a lot. Highly recommended.
Jerold Last, author
The reader will mentally view a superb story unfold, aided by excellent characters who do their jobs perfectly. Zurl uses descriptions of his characters and their surroundings with skill. The dialogue is perfect and realistic.
Lee Carey, author
My uncle Lou used the word spiffy to infer that an individual had class, was cool, and had his act together… it describes Sam Jenkins…Sam is a hero with pizzazz.
Author Roy L. Murry
I love Sam’s wit and humor along with his ability to see what other’s may not. He is charming and lovable and of course the ladies all love him and I like that in spite of his charm he is faithful to his wife Katherine, who may have a smaller role in the story but definitely not a minor role in Sam’s life.
Kathleen Kelley, reviwer
I really enjoyed reading this book. It…kept my attention from start to finish. I wasn’t expecting it to end the way that it did. Always a good sign!
Melissa Waldron, reviewer
read moreEvery once in a while a really good crime / police mystery comes along that just grabs your attention and doesn’t let go until the end. And that is what Heroes & Lovers has done for me! This is the first Sam Jenkins Mystery novel that I have read, but it will not be the last. Author Wayne Zurl weaves an intriguing tale that is just a plain good ol’ fashion mystery that could only be told by a person with years of prior police experience. I really enjoyed the author’s writing style: the mixture of humor, intrigue and romantic drama engages the reader, while the story has enough twists and turns [to] keep the reader guessing what will happen next. With rich descriptions and details of the Great Smoky Mountains and rural Tennessee setting and dialect, to Sam’s sarcastic personality and the witty banter between the characters, Heroes & Lovers is an entertaining story that crime/police mystery fans will thoroughly enjoy.
Kathleen Anderson, reviewer
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A Leprechaun’s Lament
A new full-length Sam Jenkins mystery
A stipulation of the Patriot Act gave Chief Sam Jenkins an easy job; investigate all the civilians working for the Prospect Police Department. But what looked like a routine chore to the gritty ex-New York detective, turned into a nightmare. Preliminary inquiries reveal a middle-aged employee didn’t exist prior to 1975.
Murray McGuire spent the second half of his life repairing office equipment for the small city of Prospect, Tennessee, but the police can’t find a trace of the first half.
After uncovering nothing but dead ends during the background investigation and frustrations running at flood level, Jenkins finds his subject lying face down in a Smoky Mountain creek bed—murdered assassination-style.
By calling in favors from old friends and new acquaintances, the chief enlists help from a local FBI agent, a deputy director of the CIA, British intelligence services, and the Irish Garda to learn the man’s real identity and uncover the trail of an international killer seeking revenge in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Available in hardcover, paperback & eBook formats
Read An Excerpt
I think about the little guy often. Murray McGuire looked like a leprechaun. He played darts like a pub champion and drank stout like a soccer star. If you worked for the city of Prospect and found problems with a piece of office equipment, Murray would work tirelessly to remedy your troubles.
But after I interviewed him for thirty minutes, I could have cheerfully strangled the little bastard.
Thanks to Murray, I’ll always look over my shoulder with a modicum of trepidation. I have dreams about a beautiful redhead I could do without. And I remember an incident best forgotten every time I see a turkey buzzard.
For days I thought of Murray as the man who didn’t exist.
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Putting a Dialect into Dialogue
Writing dialogue with a dialect can generate controversy and debate and on occasion, even animosity among writers and readers.
I write about an ex-New York detective working as a police chief in rural east Tennessee. The accents he’s been exposed to are about as similar as a Venezuelan and a Glaswegian, both attempting to speak understandable English. Sorry Scotland.
I live in the same area where my protagonist works. Coincidently, I’m also an ex-New Yorker. And through nine novelettes and one full-length novel, I’ve written, using in varying degrees, east Tennessee accents.
To my ear, there are three distinct sounds to the accents here and I write them all. And occasionally, I have a New Yorker visit Chief Sam Jenkins and we hear them ask for a “cuppa kawfee”, say they will “open a windah” or cut the grass with a “mowah.” I do that so the residents of southern Appalachia can’t say I’m exclusively picking on them when I write the universal greeting of the Smoky Mountain region, “You doin’ aw rot t’day?” or any of the other appropriate colloquialisms I hear all the time. Honest folks, I don’t make this up. I only write what I hear—and I have always had a good ear for languages. That’s why I can speak English fairly well, am semi-fluent in two other languages, and can swear and order a beer in five more.
Okay, let’s look at what the experts say. In his book THE 38 MOST COMMON FICTION WRITING MISTAKES (And How to Avoid Them) Jack M. Bickham wrote a 2 ¼ page chapter called Don’t Mangle Characters’ Speech. Jack says NEVER deviate from the King’s English; it may tend to confuse a reader. Prior to his death, Bickham published about 75 novels and taught English at the University of Oklahoma.
Since I didn’t like Jack’s answer, I looked further. Everyone’s heard of Stephen King and may have read one or more of his sci-fi/horror novels. I think we’ll all agree Stephen has done well for himself in the author business. I’m not a fan of horror stories, so I don’t read his fiction, but I liked and recommend his book ON WRITING (A Memoir of the Craft). The first half tells the story of a young Stephen teaching high school English in Bangor, Maine, near poverty, and in danger of having his utilities turned off until he finally sold the famous CAREY. The second half is pure advice on how to write fiction King’s way.
Stephen’s take on writing dialect is: Write it the way you hear it. And he’s got a unique accent to duplicate in “Down East” Maine.
Steve, however, says: Don’t substitute apostrophes for the letters you leave out of the words. Example: writin’ rather than writing, should simply be writin, according to King.
So, I was looking at a stalemate, one for and one ag’in.
While working on my full-length novel, A NEW PROSPECT, I hired Bill Greenleaf, a retired editor, book doctor, and author of nine novels. Bill also said: Write it as you hear it; it’s more authentic when dealing with characters who speak in a unique accent. He further stated that new writers probably shouldn’t just omit letters without using the substitute apostrophe as suggested by King. That may only confuse editors, thinking you may be submitting a manuscript with typos. Sad but true—a guy like Stephen King can get away with much more than you or I.
A NEW PROSPECT was traditionally published and the publisher/editor accepted all the dialect without question. Since I’ve mentioned my book twice and at my age, I no longer have any modesty, I’ll mention it was named best mystery at the 2011 Indie Book Awards. So, I guess the dialect wasn’t too troubling to the three judges who read the proof copies.
Additionally, both the publisher and editor at Mind Wings Audio which has produced nine of my novelettes in audio book and simultaneously published them as eBooks have accepted them all written with oodles of Tennessee dialect. (A novelette is defined as something between 7,500 and 17,500 words.)
Some readers or reviewers of my works say, “I’m from the south and I don’t speak like that.” Understandable. Someone from Charleston, South Carolina sounds nothing like someone from Cocke County, Tennessee. Someone from Nashville in middle Tennessee doesn’t even sound like someone from the Smokies. To these people I say: If you’ve never been in my neck of the woods, don’t comment on how my neighbors speak. Not only can I speak with some authority on how a resident of east Tennessee speaks, I lived in New York for forty-six years and know first-hand someone from Brooklyn sounds nothing like a resident of Buffalo.
Recently a reviewer said: Writing in dialect never works. I’m suspicious of someone who uses absolutes like always or never. When I hear that, I tend to wonder where they derive their expertise on the subject upon which they commented. This reviewer claimed: It would be enough to state that the character spoke with a heavy accent. Isn’t that telling and not showing? George Peleconos has written a successful (It seems to have worked for him) series of novels featuring black private detective, Derek Strange, working in Washington DC. Peleconos extensively writes dialogue in Ebonics. It only makes sense. Jive-ass, hip-hop, gangsta-rapping drug dealers do not speak like little old men from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In my opinion, it would not sound authentic and detract from the story if no dialect was used.
Some readers have told me: Reading dialects makes me slow down. So what? What’s the hurry? Do you want to absorb and understand a novel or just knock out another book and add one more to your “I’ve read” list? Sometimes, I think professional readers (self-styled, unpaid reviewers) cruise through books so fast they really can’t write an intelligent review. Another opinion: Everyone should savor a good book. Slow down and smell the printer’s ink.
THE END
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On Bad Reviews
Some people have no bedside manner. That’s certainly true of a few book reviewers.
Don’t you hate to get bombed by a blogger who has only six followers and spends most of her time passing judgment on kitchen appliances? You ask yourself, “Why didn’t she leave my book alone and pick up a Veg-O-Matic?”
How should you handle the pain of a bad review? Let’s take it by the numbers and I’ll give you my thoughts.
1-Allow the steam to escape from your ears before proceeding.
2-Get all thoughts of physical violence and verbal retribution out of your system before moving on to step three.
3-Look at the poorly worded, opinionated, juvenile, asinine, obnoxious, nasty, insensitive, shit-for-brains review, written by an obviously uneducated cretan, OBJECTIVELY and assess its merit. Perhaps among all the hurtful statements, something can be learned from a valid point (no matter how ill-phrased).
4-Do not immediately click on Amazon’s comment box and write, “Oh, Yeah?”
5-If you must reply, (and there may not be a necessity to do so) you owe the reviewer (and your reputation) civility. Type in: “Thanks for your opinion,” and send it on its way. Then without delay, grab a paper and pen and for your mental wellbeing, finish your thought with: You moron! Up yours! What makes you think you would know a good book/story/poem (strike out those that do not apply) if it bit you in the ass?
My best advice (and who follows his/her own advice?): Don’t dwell on the negative thoughts of others. Most great authors have received criticism from someone.
Second best advice (and I like this one much better): If available, print out a photo of the reviewer and hope you see them on the street some day.
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