PDB: Can you pitch your latest publication in 25 words or less?
All about greed that in the end changes my protagonist's life forever, for the worse.
PDB: Which books, films or television shows have floated your boat recently?
I enjoy ABC’s Castle for escapism. I think most of the movies and TV shows I like are for escapism, tho they seem to revolve around mystery, like Burn Notice, Person of Interest. Sometimes the writing on those shows impresses me. Justified is another great show, but being from Elmore Leonard it has to be.
PDB: Is it possible for a writer to be an objective reader?
A writer MUST be a reader. Hemingway said it and so did Stephen King. You need to read to see what others are doing and then you need to try to do it better. This limits my reading to thrillers and mysteries, tho I do enjoy a good non-fiction book on occasion. I read WAR by Sebastian Junger and told myself it was ‘research.’ It was both a good read and research about war, which, in a mystery novel, is the good vs evil battle.
PDB: Do you have any interest in writing for films, theatre or television?
None right now, but offer me some money. I kind of like Key West and spent too many years in Hollywood, Calif., to want to go back. Once thing you can say about LA that you can’t say about Key West, at least you can see what you’re breathing in LA! I’ll take the wonderment of clean air.
PDB: How much research goes into each book?
Story is pretty much made up from a ‘what if’ scenario, but I use a friend that was in military intelligence (yes an oxymoron) to get weapons and tactics right.
In Stairway to the Bottom he convinced me I needed the bad guys to use 20mm shells not 50 Caliber. In Free Range Institution he corrected my motor scooter assassins’ weapons and how RPGs would be used on the water, and finally, all about the seaplane at the end. We do this over lunch or cigars and drinks at happy hour. Research is tough! But I do it so I get the story right.
In Stairway to the Bottom he convinced me I needed the bad guys to use 20mm shells not 50 Caliber. In Free Range Institution he corrected my motor scooter assassins’ weapons and how RPGs would be used on the water, and finally, all about the seaplane at the end. We do this over lunch or cigars and drinks at happy hour. Research is tough! But I do it so I get the story right.
PDB: How useful or important are social media for you as a writer?
A good question because in MWA Fla, I am on the board, we ask it a lot. I am not sure. I use FaceBook and Twitter. When I had my book sigings in Houston, Texas last year no one came up to me and said we were FB friends. Didn’t happen anywhere. What does it mean? If you figure it out let me know. However, I offered Chasin’ the Wind for Free on Kindle and got a great response, more than 2,000 downloads and mentioned it on both FB and Twitter. I am not convinced one way or another, but will continue to use them, if for no other reason than they are free.
PDB: What’s on the cards in 2012?
I am rewriting my 3rd and last ‘lost manuscripts.’ It needs an ending and takes place in Tijuana, Mexico. In June I hope to begin the sequel to Stairway to the Bottom. It will be a dark story and I may write it from Norm’s voice telling about how Murphy is handling what happened in the end of Stairway. Need to find Alexi the Russian. It is about revenge and tentatively titled No One Wins. I hope to have it finished in early 2013.
In between all that, my traditional publisher has had Car Wash Blues since Jan. 2011 and will release it in August 2012. Twenty months after they bought it!
In between all that, my traditional publisher has had Car Wash Blues since Jan. 2011 and will release it in August 2012. Twenty months after they bought it!
To find out more about the ‘lost manuscripts’ readers can go to my website –www.michaelhaskins.net – and on the right hand side will see a story from Solares Hills that tells all! Also a good review on Stairway.
1 comments:
Michael and I are members of the Casa Marina Group, a small critique group here in Key West. His novels place the reader squarely in a lively, contemporary Key West setting, with a tireless, appealing central character who manages to find trouble more often than he avoids it.
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