Ask the Author: Patrick Kanouse
Answered Questions (18)
Patrick Kanouse
I'm not sure I would have had an answer a few years ago, but now I have one. At least the beginnings of one. A number of years ago, a person contacted me and asked if she could get a signed copy of a little chapbook of poems I had made. I did not get many such requests, but I did not find it "odd" either. I was pretty stoked. So she gave me her address, I signed a copy, and sent it on its way.
She revealed to me then, that she was my half-sister. Way back in the day, before I was old enough to remember, my mom and birth father divorced. I stayed with my mom, who eventually remarried and her second husband adopted me. (And he has been my dad. I asked him to be my best man at my wedding.) My birth father had not kept in contact, though he apparently did follow me as best he could in those pre-Internet days.
Additionally, it turned out that an uncle, a few years older than me, lived quite close by.
Perhaps the beginnings of a mystery plot? With the necessary turns and twists, of course. :)
She revealed to me then, that she was my half-sister. Way back in the day, before I was old enough to remember, my mom and birth father divorced. I stayed with my mom, who eventually remarried and her second husband adopted me. (And he has been my dad. I asked him to be my best man at my wedding.) My birth father had not kept in contact, though he apparently did follow me as best he could in those pre-Internet days.
Additionally, it turned out that an uncle, a few years older than me, lived quite close by.
Perhaps the beginnings of a mystery plot? With the necessary turns and twists, of course. :)
Patrick Kanouse
I do agonize over it. I spend a lot of time playing around with the opening, tweaking it small or overhauling it completely. Of all the sentences in my books, it is the one I rewrite the most.
Patrick Kanouse
I've actually never faced writer's block. That's not to say, I haven't found moving forward with a book or poem easy. If I find I'm struggling mightily with a scene or something, I'll often jump forward and write a new one, returning to the challenge later. Staring at the blank page is just a beckoning to fill it up with words, and I may toss those words away eventually, but I can fill them up.
Patrick Kanouse
For THE CLEARING, I wanted a small town near the Canadian border because one of the "threads" of the story and it needed to be with quick, easy access to New York City and thence to Washington, DC. So I made a town up and plunked it where I wanted. For THE SHATTERED BULL and Drexel Pierce series, those are set in Chicago, which I've visited frequently and am readily able to obtain research. Plus Google Maps helps a lot there too.
Patrick Kanouse
Many sources. Reading other mysteries, news reports, television, and so on can all spark ideas or ways of approaching a story. Sometimes I get lucky and an idea just pops into place--or so it seems to me.
Patrick Kanouse
I do, but I switched to digital notetaking a number of years ago. It used to be I had a bunch of small notebooks and then a bigger notebook that I jotted down ideas for. It was great for poetry...could just jot a line down or an image. As I switched to fiction, though, I jumped into using Evernote, where I have categorizations for science fiction versus mystery ideas and I can not research web sites or books or an article that gives me an idea. I did invest in a pen called LiveScribe that can take digital copies of handwritten notes, but as soon as I got it, I injured my wrist, which was painful for months and made writing--even a check--agony. Typing was not, and the pain is no longer there, but the digital notetaking had taken over.
Patrick Kanouse
Enormous changes over the years. Since the beginning of my publishing career as an employee of a publishing company, I've seen a lot! But what those changes meant, mostly, was a streamlining and efficiency injected into the process...mailing of manuscripts from the author to the publisher to the editor back to the publisher has all but disappeared. Now email. Changes along those lines. What's really changed and shaking up the industry, I think, is the coming of the ebook and children who learn first that a book is on a tablet or ereader or web browser. Writers are more free than ever to get their books into the marketplace without the need of specialists like compositors, digital formatters, and distributors. That's a long-winded way of saying that options for writers are greater than ever. That includes both positive and negative, but I'm by and large a fan of making artistic works easier for the artist to get to their potential audience.
Patrick Kanouse
My favorite mystery writer is Ross MacDonald. He's a recent discovery for me, but the Lew Archer series is amazing. Others include Donna Leon, David Goodis, Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly. I would include my friends Larry Sweazy, Lori Rader-Day, James Ziskin, and Russ Hall as well.
I like them for many reasons, but focusing on MacDonald. The writing is so good--very clear, concise. He's a master of pacing, and I feel like I'm getting a view into 1950s, 60s, and 70s Los Angeles.
I like them for many reasons, but focusing on MacDonald. The writing is so good--very clear, concise. He's a master of pacing, and I feel like I'm getting a view into 1950s, 60s, and 70s Los Angeles.
Patrick Kanouse
No character is based on one person. Rather, many people--both folks I know and don't know--influence characters in many different ways. From appearance, to reactions, to tics.
Patrick Kanouse
I've always taken that advice pretty liberally. I've never been a detective, so instead, I try to imagine what it is to be a detective and really focus on getting reactions, motivations, and the character right from what I know.
Patrick Kanouse
I have a pretty good idea of how it begins and ends, but I leave it open for change. That said, because I want to leave clues in the mystery for the reader, knowing who the killer is, is important.
Patrick Kanouse
I've wanted to be a writer as far back as I can remember.
Patrick Kanouse
I'm a very habitual person by nature, so I keep a set routine. Because I work a 40 (okay...50) hour a week job, I write in the morning before the work day begins. And then squeeze what I can in on the weekends or evenings (though I enjoy my Xbox time on weekends!).
Patrick Kanouse
I am working on the second book in the Drexel Pierce series, a contemporary mystery series set in Chicago.
Patrick Kanouse
The first book I recall reading that was anywhere close to being "adult" was a Hardy Boys book--specifically, THE MYSTERY OF CABIN ISLAND. In high school, I read lots of Robert Ludlum thrillers and science fiction by Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Timothy Zahn. I also read a lot of history.
Patrick Kanouse
I designed the cover, which makes it sound easy. I came up with probably a dozen initial concepts that I shared around for comments. I took the most promising of those and developed another dozen variants and shared those for comment. And so on. Eventually I (with a lot of thoughtful advice and critiques) got to one I thought represented the story, fit the mystery genre, and looked good.
Patrick Kanouse
Naming THE CLEARING was quite easy. It kind of popped into my head most of the way through the novel--though I played around with a few variants of it before settling on the final title.
Patrick Kanouse
Thanks for the question! The book should cover most things for the TabE. The functionality between the two devices is nearly identical. One caution, however, is that the book is a tad bit older, so it's not 100% up-to-date anymore with the software on the Nooks.
To sort by author names, open the Library. When it appears, at the top of the screen, you should see a couple of drop-down lists: All My Items and Most Recent. Tap Most Recent, and you should see the option to sort by Author Name. Simply tap that. That should do the trick.
Thank you for purchasing the book!
To sort by author names, open the Library. When it appears, at the top of the screen, you should see a couple of drop-down lists: All My Items and Most Recent. Tap Most Recent, and you should see the option to sort by Author Name. Simply tap that. That should do the trick.
Thank you for purchasing the book!
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