Randall J. Funk's Blog, page 2
January 15, 2018
Time to Give Up Theatre
I did my first play when I was 12 years old, playing a supporting role in Lincoln Junior High School's internationally-renowned production of "Little Miss Christie". It was a mystery about...oh, never mind what it was about. It had a big scary house and a bunch of intrepid kid detectives and, depending on your point of view, was a step above or a step below "Scooby Doo". The interesting thing, looking back some 35 years, is how theatre and mysteries were tied together right at the beginning of my creative endeavors. And I've come to the conclusion that it's time to break those ties.
Theatre is tough for me to give up. I can safely say that I would not be the writer I am today (for good or ill) if I had never participated in theatre. It has influenced me in myriad ways. The entirety of my narrative voice and the ability to write dialogue comes from my time in theatre. When writing first person narrative (my preferred style), I tend to think of it as a long monologue; one that not only addresses the readers, but engages them in conversation. My ear for dialogue has been developed through actually saying lines. Over time, actors develop a keen sense of dialogue that is enjoyable to say and rings true to the ear. If I have any ability with dialogue, it's due to 35 years of performing plays.
Theatre has also influenced the structural elements of my work. The traditional two and three act structures of plays translate very well to mysteries. Performing in front of an audience gives you an idea of how long a scene should play out, how to provide a maximum amount of information in a short amount of time and how to drop clues into the narrative that will pay off later on. All of my storytelling instincts have been honed on stage.
On top of that, I get to actually inhabit the characters and, for a time, live in their world. That's been invaluable with writing. It's helped me constantly get into a character, even when switching from one point of view to another. I can reach a level of empathy that I truly believe I would not have reached otherwise. And if I have any ability to distinguish characters through physical characteristics, it comes from having to do that same thing as a performer. I don't just write my characters and scenes, I really feel like I live them. It's made writing a very rewarding experience.
And the biggest influence, I truly believe, are the incredibly funny and talented people I've run across in my time in theatre. I can cite people like Dave Berry and David Letterman as influences on my sense of comedy, but really, being around my theatre friends has been my biggest influence. I've known so many witty and brilliant people who have given me what feels like a master class in comedy. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have run across the people I've known. And without theatre, I would have never known them.
Which is one of the difficult things to give up. I met my wife doing a play. I've met all of my closest friends while doing theatre. It's been more than a hobby. More than a vocation. It's been my entire social life and a key part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Even in a world where you can stay connected on social media, it's not an easy thing to walk away from.
And I can honestly say that, even after doing it for so many years, I'm more fascinated with the craft of acting than I have ever been. Writing, directing and acting were always things I was interested in. But the first two appealed to me far more than the last. Acting was a thing I could do and I wanted to be good at it. But I don't know if I felt as passionately about it. That's changed in the last several years, as age has allowed me to become more comfortable with myself, less self-conscious and more willing to take chances on stage. Commensurately, my fascination with the craft of acting is greater now than at any other time in my life. And I've discovered that with age comes more interesting roles. Of the three-and-a-half decades I've been acting, this past half-decade has been my favorite.
But aging is among the reasons I'm ready to walk away. On a social level, younger actors don't gravitate toward older ones. A sort of unconscious segregation takes place by which younger actors stick with people their own age. And I can understand it. When you're young and only have your hopes and dreams to fuel you, you don't want to see someone who's older and still doing theatre as a hobby. That person is the living embodiment of what you don't want to become. So I understand being mildly ostracized. But I don't have to like it.
The biggest issue, though, is simply deciding my priorities in life. Since publishing DEATH IS A CLINGY EX, I've been trying to keep one foot in two different worlds. I've imagined I can dedicate myself to writing and marketing AND still do theatre on the side. (And funneling the bits of money I make doing shows into my publishing company has helped fuel that.) But I've had to come to the reluctant realization that I can't keep doing this. Theatre, done properly, takes too much of my time and mental energy away from my writing. And the writing has the same effect on theatre. Something has to give.
So it's time to give up theatre and focus on the thing I've really wanted to do all of my life: be a writer. I will be forever grateful to the experiences I've had and the people I've met. But there comes a time to choose your priorities. And sadly, it's time to be done with theatre.
Theatre is tough for me to give up. I can safely say that I would not be the writer I am today (for good or ill) if I had never participated in theatre. It has influenced me in myriad ways. The entirety of my narrative voice and the ability to write dialogue comes from my time in theatre. When writing first person narrative (my preferred style), I tend to think of it as a long monologue; one that not only addresses the readers, but engages them in conversation. My ear for dialogue has been developed through actually saying lines. Over time, actors develop a keen sense of dialogue that is enjoyable to say and rings true to the ear. If I have any ability with dialogue, it's due to 35 years of performing plays.
Theatre has also influenced the structural elements of my work. The traditional two and three act structures of plays translate very well to mysteries. Performing in front of an audience gives you an idea of how long a scene should play out, how to provide a maximum amount of information in a short amount of time and how to drop clues into the narrative that will pay off later on. All of my storytelling instincts have been honed on stage.
On top of that, I get to actually inhabit the characters and, for a time, live in their world. That's been invaluable with writing. It's helped me constantly get into a character, even when switching from one point of view to another. I can reach a level of empathy that I truly believe I would not have reached otherwise. And if I have any ability to distinguish characters through physical characteristics, it comes from having to do that same thing as a performer. I don't just write my characters and scenes, I really feel like I live them. It's made writing a very rewarding experience.
And the biggest influence, I truly believe, are the incredibly funny and talented people I've run across in my time in theatre. I can cite people like Dave Berry and David Letterman as influences on my sense of comedy, but really, being around my theatre friends has been my biggest influence. I've known so many witty and brilliant people who have given me what feels like a master class in comedy. I can't tell you how grateful I am to have run across the people I've known. And without theatre, I would have never known them.
Which is one of the difficult things to give up. I met my wife doing a play. I've met all of my closest friends while doing theatre. It's been more than a hobby. More than a vocation. It's been my entire social life and a key part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Even in a world where you can stay connected on social media, it's not an easy thing to walk away from.
And I can honestly say that, even after doing it for so many years, I'm more fascinated with the craft of acting than I have ever been. Writing, directing and acting were always things I was interested in. But the first two appealed to me far more than the last. Acting was a thing I could do and I wanted to be good at it. But I don't know if I felt as passionately about it. That's changed in the last several years, as age has allowed me to become more comfortable with myself, less self-conscious and more willing to take chances on stage. Commensurately, my fascination with the craft of acting is greater now than at any other time in my life. And I've discovered that with age comes more interesting roles. Of the three-and-a-half decades I've been acting, this past half-decade has been my favorite.
But aging is among the reasons I'm ready to walk away. On a social level, younger actors don't gravitate toward older ones. A sort of unconscious segregation takes place by which younger actors stick with people their own age. And I can understand it. When you're young and only have your hopes and dreams to fuel you, you don't want to see someone who's older and still doing theatre as a hobby. That person is the living embodiment of what you don't want to become. So I understand being mildly ostracized. But I don't have to like it.
The biggest issue, though, is simply deciding my priorities in life. Since publishing DEATH IS A CLINGY EX, I've been trying to keep one foot in two different worlds. I've imagined I can dedicate myself to writing and marketing AND still do theatre on the side. (And funneling the bits of money I make doing shows into my publishing company has helped fuel that.) But I've had to come to the reluctant realization that I can't keep doing this. Theatre, done properly, takes too much of my time and mental energy away from my writing. And the writing has the same effect on theatre. Something has to give.
So it's time to give up theatre and focus on the thing I've really wanted to do all of my life: be a writer. I will be forever grateful to the experiences I've had and the people I've met. But there comes a time to choose your priorities. And sadly, it's time to be done with theatre.
October 13, 2017
DEATH WEARS A BIG HAT
Death Wears A Big Hat is now out!
Joe Davis, Twin Cities humor blogger and low-grade celebrity, is looking forward to a night on the town. He’s accompanying his friend Carol to the grand opening of a store catering to craft beer enthusiasts like Joe. It’s the kind of event guaranteed to warm a snowy night in January.
At least that was the idea.
The evening takes a nasty turn when Carol is found standing over the corpse of one of the store’s owners, holding the murder weapon. Carol claims she’s innocent and Joe’s about the only who believes her. In a flash, Joe and his friends are forced to go on the run, pursued by both the cops and the actual killers.
As they spend the night ducking and dodging, Joe and the gang piece together the story behind the murder. A collection of disparate characters emerge: a jilted fiancée, a comely contract killer, a band of offbeat cops and the victim’s own business partners. But just what was going on? What do the victim’s final words, with its references to a book and a big hat, have to do with it? Will Joe and his friends find the real killer before time runs out? All of this because a guy wanted a beer.
Joe Davis, Twin Cities humor blogger and low-grade celebrity, is looking forward to a night on the town. He’s accompanying his friend Carol to the grand opening of a store catering to craft beer enthusiasts like Joe. It’s the kind of event guaranteed to warm a snowy night in January.
At least that was the idea.
The evening takes a nasty turn when Carol is found standing over the corpse of one of the store’s owners, holding the murder weapon. Carol claims she’s innocent and Joe’s about the only who believes her. In a flash, Joe and his friends are forced to go on the run, pursued by both the cops and the actual killers.
As they spend the night ducking and dodging, Joe and the gang piece together the story behind the murder. A collection of disparate characters emerge: a jilted fiancée, a comely contract killer, a band of offbeat cops and the victim’s own business partners. But just what was going on? What do the victim’s final words, with its references to a book and a big hat, have to do with it? Will Joe and his friends find the real killer before time runs out? All of this because a guy wanted a beer.
June 30, 2017
DEATH, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD
When their college buddy, Wayne, runs afoul of some Chechen gangsters, it's up to Joe and Mike to get the band back together and help him out. It's DEATH, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD, a new Joe Davis short story, available for the next week at randalljfunk.com.
https://randalljfunk.com/2017/06/30/d...
https://randalljfunk.com/2017/06/30/d...
May 4, 2017
DEATH IS A CLINGY EX
Joe Davis’s comfortable life as a humor blogger and low-level Twin Cities celebrity gets shaken up by his ex-girlfriend, Tess, and her problems at the office. Tess asks Joe for a simple favor: escort her to a swanky corporate party and make sure a jealous co-worker doesn’t fold, spindle or mutilate Tess’ person. Hoping to score karma points for their ugly break-up, Joe agrees. However, the party takes an ugly turn when Tess’ boss does an eight-story half-gainer through a buffet table. And Tess winds up as the main suspect.
With no one else to turn to, Tess asks for Joe’s help. Despite being unqualified to take on any investigation more complicated than a search for his car keys, Joe agrees to the job. Armed only with sarcasm and a gaggle of idiot friends, he manages to piece together a conspiracy involving murder, fraud, adultery and, worse, office politics. But as he gets closer to the truth, Joe is left to wonder: is Tess a victim of this conspiracy? Or its mastermind? And just who’s winning this break-up?
With no one else to turn to, Tess asks for Joe’s help. Despite being unqualified to take on any investigation more complicated than a search for his car keys, Joe agrees to the job. Armed only with sarcasm and a gaggle of idiot friends, he manages to piece together a conspiracy involving murder, fraud, adultery and, worse, office politics. But as he gets closer to the truth, Joe is left to wonder: is Tess a victim of this conspiracy? Or its mastermind? And just who’s winning this break-up?
May 3, 2017
DEATH LIVES ACROSS THE HALL
All that Joe Davis, humor blogger and Twin Cities’ D-List celebrity, wants is a little peace and quiet…oh, and the All-City Touch Football Championship. But murder can get in the way of these things. A feud between Joe’s best friend Mike and Mike’s neighbor across the hall goes nuclear when the neighbor is found dead and Mike is arrested for the crime.
Since Joe’s the only one who believes Mike is innocent, it’s up to him to bail his friend out.
The case takes Joe through a winding collection of suspects: a junkie sister, a jealous ex-boyfriend and a self-important lawyer; each with their own agenda, none of them who they seem to be. And how does a low-level thug, a cool co-worker, an internet want ad, a grumpy neighbor and the curious incident of the dog in the morning factor into this whole thing? This is what Joe must fit together if his best friend is ever going to see the outside of a prison cell again. The things we do to win football games…
Since Joe’s the only one who believes Mike is innocent, it’s up to him to bail his friend out.
The case takes Joe through a winding collection of suspects: a junkie sister, a jealous ex-boyfriend and a self-important lawyer; each with their own agenda, none of them who they seem to be. And how does a low-level thug, a cool co-worker, an internet want ad, a grumpy neighbor and the curious incident of the dog in the morning factor into this whole thing? This is what Joe must fit together if his best friend is ever going to see the outside of a prison cell again. The things we do to win football games…
May 2, 2017
An Interview about Death is a Clingy Ex
Q. So tell me about Death is a Clingy Ex.
A. It is a fast-paced, funny, mystery about a humor blogger named Joe Davis and an entanglement with his most recent ex-girlfriend. Joe works for The Daily Bugle, a zine that was once a free newspaper. Think of the City Pages if it was web-only. And let’s not rule out that possibility. At any rate, Joe is asked by his ex, Tess, to accompany her to a corporate event because Tess believes that a jealous worker is going to try something violent at the party. Joe only goes along out of guilt over their break-up. At the party, though, Tess’ boss is killed and Tess becomes the prime suspect. And since she doesn’t have anyone to turn to, she asks for Joe’s help in clearing her name. And then we’re off to the races. Joe and his idiot friends manage to piece together a conspiracy and start to wonder if Tess isn’t maybe behind the whole thing.
Q. Is this a one-off or the beginning of a series?
A. I definitely see it as the beginning of a series. I have the second book, Death Lives Across The Hall, nearly completed and I’ve started plotting out the third book, Death Wears A Big Hat. And I’ve got plenty more ideas.
Q. Tell me about the process of trying to get Death is a Clingy Ex published.
A. I spent about three years shopping the book around to various agents and small presses. It’s always been difficult to get published via the traditional route, obviously. But it’s gotten to be a near impossibility in recent years. The publishing industry is in a state of flux and the powers that be are terrified of pouring money into a book that doesn’t find an audience. And you, the writer, have three chapters—if you’re lucky—to convince them that not only are you a good writer, but that your book will sell. Yes, some writers are able to do that. And some people are able to win the lottery as well.
Q. Why go the self-publishing route?
A. One, I have an absolute, complete, unwavering belief in the quality of my book. Is it the second coming of The Great Gatsby? Of course not. Is it an entertaining and fun read? Absolutely, yes, yes, yes. Second, the opportunity and ability to self-publish is better now than at any point in the past. There are a number of self-publishing platforms available. The rise of e-books makes getting your work out to the general public easier than ever before. And frankly, it’s more democratic.
Q. How so?
A. I figured I had one of two options: I can spend the next several years of my life knocking on doors, so to speak, and getting them slammed in my face. I can spend all of my time hoping to find that one person that’s willing to give me a chance. Or I can put my work directly to the public. The way I look at it, either my work is worth somebody’s time or it’s not. If I go directly to the public and the response I get is, “Well, thanks, but no thanks” then it doesn’t matter how many industry people I query, it’s not going to happen. Because the public doesn’t want it. But I’d rather hear that from the public than someone who thinks they know what the public wants.
Q. Are you worried about the stigma that seems to go with a self-published book?
A. Worried? No. I can’t control what people think. I will say, though, that plenty of very successful authors have struggled to find a publisher at the beginning of their careers. J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel was roundly rejected by publishers. Two Minnesota authors, Steve Thayer and Vince Flynn, both self-published their first books and went to successful careers. Did they struggle because they weren’t talented or their books weren’t going to find an audience? No. Sometimes, more frequently than they’d probably care to let on, the publishing industry simply gets it wrong.
Q. Can we expect other series from you?
A. I have a couple others in mind. I’ve got a series idea that centers around a Twin Cities actor named Jim Sullivan and would take place in the world of small theatre. I’ve got another idea for a P.I. series that would begin in 1946 in St. Paul and every entry in the series would take place in another year going forward.
Q. Tell me about your writing process. Do you prefer outlining or just sitting down and writing?
A. Yes is the answer to that. To be honest, my process is kind of a work in progress. I didn’t use an outline at all for Clingy Ex and I outlined Death Lives Across The Hall to the nth degree. I didn’t find that either approach was some sort of magic elixir. They both required extensive rethinking and rewriting. Every book is its own adventure, y’know?
Q. How long does it take you to write a book?
A. Again, no real set time. I worked on Clingy Ex for 10 months and had to set it aside for several months before working out a few knots in the plot and being able to finish it. Death Lives Across The Hall has taken me about a year. I’m hoping to tighten that up. I try to write at least five pages a day while I’m actively writing a book and I’m generally pretty good about sticking with that. Rewriting, though? That takes forever. It’s tough getting to a point where you simply say, “Okay, this is as good as I can make it right now.” I think any author can go back to something they wrote ten, fifteen or more years earlier and make it better. But you have to get to a point where you say, “This is as good as I can do right now.”
Q. Your background, for the most part, has been in theatre. How has that affected your writing?
A. It’s been good on a number of levels. One, it’s helped me with dialogue. Reading and performing as many plays as I have over the years has, I think, given me an ear for dialogue. It also helps give me a sense of scene; of when to start and when to finish a scene. Plus, I’ve been a part of two start-up theatres and that’s helped frame my experience for starting a publishing company.
Q. How so?
A. The more I look at my goals with the publishing company, the more it reminds me of my initial goals with the theatre companies. You keep your goals modest. Just sell enough tickets—or in the case of the publishing company, enough books—to keep yourself in business. Make sure you’ve got the ability to do another one. And you have to stay open to learning new things, admit you don’t know what you don’t know and keep your attitude constructive. And honestly take stock of what you did right and what you can do better and move forward from there.
Q. Where does the name Ghost Light Press come from?
A. From one of the theatre companies. Ghost Light was first runner up for the name of theatre company. I’ve always liked the name. It invokes a sense of mystery and atmosphere and on top of that, it’s a theatre term. So, mysteries and theatre. My whole background.
Q. Who are your influences? Who do you enjoy reading?
A. Mystery-wise, I love Carl Hiassen. His stuff is intriguing and makes me laugh out loud. In a totally different vein, I love Dennis Lehane. There’s nothing in my writing that’s comparable to his, but I love his work. I’m very drawn to classic mystery literature. I’m a Sherlock Holmes fanatic. I very much enjoy Agatha Christie. I read Edgar Allan Poe every fall. I’m a big fan of my friends Ellen Hart and Jessie Chandler. And it wouldn’t be summer if I didn’t read Janet Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum book. Comedy-wise, I love stand-up comedy. Louis CK is probably the funniest person on Earth. George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks were all brilliant. I also love just about anything with Tina Fey’s name on it. And, of course, my biggest influences that direction: Dave Barry, who taught me what comedy looked like on the page, and David Letterman, who taught me just about everything else about comedy.
A. It is a fast-paced, funny, mystery about a humor blogger named Joe Davis and an entanglement with his most recent ex-girlfriend. Joe works for The Daily Bugle, a zine that was once a free newspaper. Think of the City Pages if it was web-only. And let’s not rule out that possibility. At any rate, Joe is asked by his ex, Tess, to accompany her to a corporate event because Tess believes that a jealous worker is going to try something violent at the party. Joe only goes along out of guilt over their break-up. At the party, though, Tess’ boss is killed and Tess becomes the prime suspect. And since she doesn’t have anyone to turn to, she asks for Joe’s help in clearing her name. And then we’re off to the races. Joe and his idiot friends manage to piece together a conspiracy and start to wonder if Tess isn’t maybe behind the whole thing.
Q. Is this a one-off or the beginning of a series?
A. I definitely see it as the beginning of a series. I have the second book, Death Lives Across The Hall, nearly completed and I’ve started plotting out the third book, Death Wears A Big Hat. And I’ve got plenty more ideas.
Q. Tell me about the process of trying to get Death is a Clingy Ex published.
A. I spent about three years shopping the book around to various agents and small presses. It’s always been difficult to get published via the traditional route, obviously. But it’s gotten to be a near impossibility in recent years. The publishing industry is in a state of flux and the powers that be are terrified of pouring money into a book that doesn’t find an audience. And you, the writer, have three chapters—if you’re lucky—to convince them that not only are you a good writer, but that your book will sell. Yes, some writers are able to do that. And some people are able to win the lottery as well.
Q. Why go the self-publishing route?
A. One, I have an absolute, complete, unwavering belief in the quality of my book. Is it the second coming of The Great Gatsby? Of course not. Is it an entertaining and fun read? Absolutely, yes, yes, yes. Second, the opportunity and ability to self-publish is better now than at any point in the past. There are a number of self-publishing platforms available. The rise of e-books makes getting your work out to the general public easier than ever before. And frankly, it’s more democratic.
Q. How so?
A. I figured I had one of two options: I can spend the next several years of my life knocking on doors, so to speak, and getting them slammed in my face. I can spend all of my time hoping to find that one person that’s willing to give me a chance. Or I can put my work directly to the public. The way I look at it, either my work is worth somebody’s time or it’s not. If I go directly to the public and the response I get is, “Well, thanks, but no thanks” then it doesn’t matter how many industry people I query, it’s not going to happen. Because the public doesn’t want it. But I’d rather hear that from the public than someone who thinks they know what the public wants.
Q. Are you worried about the stigma that seems to go with a self-published book?
A. Worried? No. I can’t control what people think. I will say, though, that plenty of very successful authors have struggled to find a publisher at the beginning of their careers. J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel was roundly rejected by publishers. Two Minnesota authors, Steve Thayer and Vince Flynn, both self-published their first books and went to successful careers. Did they struggle because they weren’t talented or their books weren’t going to find an audience? No. Sometimes, more frequently than they’d probably care to let on, the publishing industry simply gets it wrong.
Q. Can we expect other series from you?
A. I have a couple others in mind. I’ve got a series idea that centers around a Twin Cities actor named Jim Sullivan and would take place in the world of small theatre. I’ve got another idea for a P.I. series that would begin in 1946 in St. Paul and every entry in the series would take place in another year going forward.
Q. Tell me about your writing process. Do you prefer outlining or just sitting down and writing?
A. Yes is the answer to that. To be honest, my process is kind of a work in progress. I didn’t use an outline at all for Clingy Ex and I outlined Death Lives Across The Hall to the nth degree. I didn’t find that either approach was some sort of magic elixir. They both required extensive rethinking and rewriting. Every book is its own adventure, y’know?
Q. How long does it take you to write a book?
A. Again, no real set time. I worked on Clingy Ex for 10 months and had to set it aside for several months before working out a few knots in the plot and being able to finish it. Death Lives Across The Hall has taken me about a year. I’m hoping to tighten that up. I try to write at least five pages a day while I’m actively writing a book and I’m generally pretty good about sticking with that. Rewriting, though? That takes forever. It’s tough getting to a point where you simply say, “Okay, this is as good as I can make it right now.” I think any author can go back to something they wrote ten, fifteen or more years earlier and make it better. But you have to get to a point where you say, “This is as good as I can do right now.”
Q. Your background, for the most part, has been in theatre. How has that affected your writing?
A. It’s been good on a number of levels. One, it’s helped me with dialogue. Reading and performing as many plays as I have over the years has, I think, given me an ear for dialogue. It also helps give me a sense of scene; of when to start and when to finish a scene. Plus, I’ve been a part of two start-up theatres and that’s helped frame my experience for starting a publishing company.
Q. How so?
A. The more I look at my goals with the publishing company, the more it reminds me of my initial goals with the theatre companies. You keep your goals modest. Just sell enough tickets—or in the case of the publishing company, enough books—to keep yourself in business. Make sure you’ve got the ability to do another one. And you have to stay open to learning new things, admit you don’t know what you don’t know and keep your attitude constructive. And honestly take stock of what you did right and what you can do better and move forward from there.
Q. Where does the name Ghost Light Press come from?
A. From one of the theatre companies. Ghost Light was first runner up for the name of theatre company. I’ve always liked the name. It invokes a sense of mystery and atmosphere and on top of that, it’s a theatre term. So, mysteries and theatre. My whole background.
Q. Who are your influences? Who do you enjoy reading?
A. Mystery-wise, I love Carl Hiassen. His stuff is intriguing and makes me laugh out loud. In a totally different vein, I love Dennis Lehane. There’s nothing in my writing that’s comparable to his, but I love his work. I’m very drawn to classic mystery literature. I’m a Sherlock Holmes fanatic. I very much enjoy Agatha Christie. I read Edgar Allan Poe every fall. I’m a big fan of my friends Ellen Hart and Jessie Chandler. And it wouldn’t be summer if I didn’t read Janet Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum book. Comedy-wise, I love stand-up comedy. Louis CK is probably the funniest person on Earth. George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks were all brilliant. I also love just about anything with Tina Fey’s name on it. And, of course, my biggest influences that direction: Dave Barry, who taught me what comedy looked like on the page, and David Letterman, who taught me just about everything else about comedy.
DEATH WEARS A BIG HAT
Joe Davis, Twin Cities humor blogger and low-grade celebrity, is looking forward to a night on the town. He’s accompanying his friend Carol to the grand opening of a store catering to craft beer enthusiasts like Joe. It’s the kind of event guaranteed to warm a snowy night in January.
At least that was the idea.
The evening takes a nasty turn when Carol is found standing over the corpse of one of the store’s owners, holding the murder weapon. Carol claims she’s innocent and Joe’s about the only who believes her. In a flash, Joe and his friends are forced to go on the run, pursued by both the cops and the actual killers.
As they spend the night ducking and dodging, Joe and the gang piece together the story behind the murder. A collection of disparate characters emerge: a jilted fiancée, a comely contract killer, a band of offbeat cops and the victim’s own business partners. But just what was going on? What do the victim’s final words, with its references to a book and a big hat, have to do with it? Will Joe and his friends find the real killer before time runs out? All of this because a guy wanted a beer.
Coming in the summer of 2017...
At least that was the idea.
The evening takes a nasty turn when Carol is found standing over the corpse of one of the store’s owners, holding the murder weapon. Carol claims she’s innocent and Joe’s about the only who believes her. In a flash, Joe and his friends are forced to go on the run, pursued by both the cops and the actual killers.
As they spend the night ducking and dodging, Joe and the gang piece together the story behind the murder. A collection of disparate characters emerge: a jilted fiancée, a comely contract killer, a band of offbeat cops and the victim’s own business partners. But just what was going on? What do the victim’s final words, with its references to a book and a big hat, have to do with it? Will Joe and his friends find the real killer before time runs out? All of this because a guy wanted a beer.
Coming in the summer of 2017...
April 20, 2017
The Short Story Series
NOTE: Last year, I published 12 short stories (one per month) on my website. This is the story of the writing of that series.
So in the event any of you are interested in just how the Joe Davis-monthly-short-story series came to be and how it was executed, I’ve got a little look backstage for you. This will take you through the original idea to the writing to what the future may hold for Joe Davis short stories. Anyway, here’s a glance at what happened:
THE IDEA AND THE RUN-UP
The idea to market Joe Davis through a series of short stories on my website occurred to me in the late summer of 2015, shortly after the release of Death is a Clingy Ex. I was re-reading Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories at the time and it served as an inspiration (had I remembered that Conan Doyle frequently regarded writing Holmes stories as an unmitigated pain in the ass, I might have reconsidered.) At this point, the manuscript for Death Lives Across The Hall was largely completed and I wanted to take a break before getting started on the final edits. With no writing projects on the horizon, I thought I could take the time to write about four or five stories and have a running start when I began publishing them in January, 2016.
It was a good idea in theory.
The problem, of course, is that I have a tendency to do things back-asswards. For example, I had run four marathons before I’d run my first 5K. Apparently, I like to take on the biggest challenge and work my way down. When I sat down to try writing short stories, I realized I hadn’t written one in nearly twenty years. I had an idea for what eventually became Death at Intermission and fumbled around writing the first twenty or so pages. Unhappy with it, I set it aside and tried a different story. I got all of ten pages into that before abandoning it.
Clearly, I had some thinking to do. So I went back to the drawing board. Almost literally.
I started by writing down close to fifty short story ideas, none of them longer than a sentence. (Ex. Joe has to get his brother Owen out of trouble; A millionaire wants Lars dead for unknown reasons; Flashback to Joe solving a murder in high school.) From there, I divided the ideas into stories that would work for Joe and stories that would work for other characters. (I figured if the Joe idea worked out, I could use the website to introduce other potential series and gauge the response.) Since Joe’s stories were clearly the priority, I tackled them first.
I began outlining each of the story ideas, just fleshing them out so I could get a point of attack and a rough idea of the structure of each story. This approach had two benefits: 1) I began to get a clear idea of which stories were developing into usable ideas and which were going to need some work and 2) I realized that short stories didn’t need to follow the “here’s the crime, here are the suspects, here are the clues, here’s the solution” structure of a book. A short story could simply be an incident or a caper. It didn’t necessarily need to be a mystery at all, as long as there was an element of suspense involved. I know that’s a very elementary realization, but it was very freeing.
Once I had my outlines (which totaled about nineteen story ideas) I had to pick which stories were going to be part of the series. Since I wanted each story to be set in the month it was published, some easily presented themselves (Death at Intermission made the cut and its references to an end-of-the-season Wild game made it an obvious choice for April). For most of the others, I simply chose the outlines that were best-suited to become stories. THAT decision, however, would be one I would regret (more on that later.)
With everything ready to go, I began working on the first story, Death is My Little Brother, right around Christmas, 2015. I thought things would be smooth sailing, now that I had everything planned in advance.
I should have known better.
WRITING THE STORIES
For the first few months, things were reasonably smooth. I tried to get the stories out by the third week of every month, which gave me about four weeks to work on each. January’s story, Death is My Little Brother and February’s, Death Plays Broomball, were both completed on time and with a minimum of fuss. The first difficulty arose with March’s story.
The original idea was to do a story involving Joe and Mike and some of their old college friends. Three of the characters (Robbie, Stoner and T.J.) had been a part of Joe’s “fantasy football league” which allowed me to flesh out their personalities through the Cup o’ Joe articles. And all three had been featured in February’s story, creating a setup for their appearance in March. However, the story was supposed to be a “caper” story, something akin to Ocean’s Eleven with elements of The Magnificent Seven throw in. The problem was I already HAD a caper story planned, one featuring the character of Harry Baxter. Since I was more excited about the Harry Baxter story AND I was facing a shorter turnaround time due to February having only 29 days, I reluctantly decided to scrap the planned “caper” story. Death at Intermission was already two-thirds written, so I decided to move it up to March and find a new story for April.
The easy thing, of course, would have been to move May’s planned story up to April. However, it was one of the stories I’d attempted the previous fall (involving Carol and a boyfriend) and I was already cooling on it. In looking through the “rejected” story outlines, I stumbled across what would become Death and The One Percent. I’ll be honest: I have no earthly idea why that story didn’t make the cut originally. It had a decent jumping off point and just about any story involving Lars is easy to write (he’s bizarre enough that nothing is out of bounds for him and it’s fun to play him off Joe.) So I green-lighted it and it proved as easy to write as I hoped.
Since I’d decided to scrap May’s AND June’s stories (more on June in a minute), I now had an opening for May. Fortunately, the idea for Death Goes Missing came to me. This had NOT been part of my original group of outlined stories. In fact, I was pretty much outlining the story and writing it at the same time. It’s a small miracle that I didn’t have to go back and make any major rewrites by the time I was finished. That would not always be the case going forward.
June’s story was originally to be a flashback to Joe’s high school days, featuring his girlfriend, Lisa, and his best friends, Sam and Andy. If that idea sounds familiar, it should. Somehow, I had planned TWO flashback stories. If the series didn’t need two caper stories, it certainly didn’t need two flashbacks. And the later story (which would become Death is Old School) was my preferred choice. So June’s story was scrapped and needed a replacement.
Fortunately, one practically fell into my lap. I had been using my Sunday “Beer and Writing” sessions at Steel Toe Brewing to outline potential stories for other characters. During one of those sessions, I outlined a story in which the main character’s best friend/sidekick thinks there’s a conspiracy against him because of many weird things that have been happening. It turns out the sidekick is right. As I was outlining the story, I wrote in the margin of my notebook Good story for Mike. I had planned to have Mike narrate a story and had set one aside for September. However, THIS story seemed like the better option, so Death is Out to Get Me became June’s entry.
I would like to tell you it was an easy write and for about three-quarters of it, it was. Unfortunately, I had to rework the ending about three times before the entire plot made sense (not all elements of the outline fit into being a Good story for Mike.) It was nearly July before I finished the story, so I was more than a little grateful to be done with it, even if it was fun to write in Mike’s voice rather than Joe’s.
July and August, surprisingly, proceeded just fine, giving us Death and the Gentleman’s Gentleman and Death Stole My Stuff. However, as I was writing them, I was also reworking plans for the rest of the year. September’s story was supposed to be narrated by Mike, but I had used that one up. October was originally supposed to be a complicated story that took place in three different time periods. I wasn’t satisfied with the outline and my rule about no flashbacks until the Lisa story gave me a convenient excuse to junk it. Two stories that hadn’t been previously outlined came to me and I decided to give them a shot. Death is Hard Boiled featured Carol’s father and gave me a story that could focus on Carol (I hadn’t had one to that point.) Death Will Kill You was a fun concept, but ultimately I got bogged down in the narrative and I was very disappointed in the final results. If you’d like to know HOW disappointed, here are two facts: 1) I nearly junked the story 24 hours before it was scheduled to go on the website, figuring I could write a better short story in a day (I ultimately decided that plan was too risky) and 2) I did almost nothing to promote it. Seriously. I made an announcement when it was published then said nothing else before quietly pulling it off the site four days later.
The only change left was to switch November’s and December’s stories. Originally, the “flashback” story was to have been published in November and A Death in the (Extended) Family, involving Joe’s cousin, was to be the finale. I kept the stories, but decided to switch their publication month. The “flashback” story was one I was more emotionally tied to and felt it would make a better conclusion to the series.
So there it was. Of the 12 stories I planned, 7 of them were actually written and four of them were published in the month they were intended to be published. So you might understand if I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants through most of the series.
SO WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM ALL THIS AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
In 2015, my friend Sam Landman took on a project of publishing a new one-act play every week. Through a hell of a lot of personal adversity (not the least of which was a f**king HEART ATTACK) Sam completed the project. When it was done, he implored others to take on a big challenge and create, create, create. While I don’t consider 12 short stories to be on the level of 52 one-act plays as a challenge, I was still glad I could, in my own small way, take Sam’s advice and complete the short story series. That I managed to do it while being pleased with all but one of the stories feels like a bit of an accomplishment. Particularly while also writing a book and providing semi-regular Cup o’ Joe articles AND living what passes for a life.
But that was also the drawback to the series. While writing is always my number one (creative) priority in a day, there are still only so many hours that I can devote to it. Dividing time between two projects cuts into the time I can devote to each and when one of them is time-sensitive, it’s going to be a priority more often than not. In other words, I had hoped to focus most of my writing time on the 3rd Joe Davis book, Death Wears A Big Hat, and do the short stories as a side project. However, with deadlines for the stories constantly looming, I found myself frequently devoting my time to finishing the stories and pushing the book aside for a week or two. The end result is that I’ve felt like the short stories became the main focus and the book was a side project. So obviously, I’m not anxious to ever repeat that state of affairs.
I DO plan to write more Joe Davis short stories. I’ll be publishing at least one on the website during 2017. As I’ve written on social media, the short stories from the 2016 series will be published in book form, in two volumes. Each one will include six stories from the 2016 series, one story that will be published on the website in the future and one story that will be exclusive to that volume.
Would I ever do a monthly series of stories again? I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not anxious to try it again. One thing that can come out of taking on a challenge is the recognition of your own limitations. If I’m going to continue the Joe Davis book series, it must remain a priority at all times. I appreciated the short stories affording me the opportunity to explore different avenues of Joe’s world, to introduce new characters and to toy with other narrative approaches. But I can’t allow that to be at the expense of my focus on the books.
On the bright side, I learned how to approach short stories and I’m much more comfortable writing them than I was a year ago. So if I DO take on another monthly short story series, I feel much more prepared.
In the meantime, my sincerest thanks to those who read any or all of the stories and provided me with such nice feedback. And if you’ve gotten all the way to the bottom of this article, thank you for your interest in my work. I hope this peek behind the curtain was worth it.
So in the event any of you are interested in just how the Joe Davis-monthly-short-story series came to be and how it was executed, I’ve got a little look backstage for you. This will take you through the original idea to the writing to what the future may hold for Joe Davis short stories. Anyway, here’s a glance at what happened:
THE IDEA AND THE RUN-UP
The idea to market Joe Davis through a series of short stories on my website occurred to me in the late summer of 2015, shortly after the release of Death is a Clingy Ex. I was re-reading Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories at the time and it served as an inspiration (had I remembered that Conan Doyle frequently regarded writing Holmes stories as an unmitigated pain in the ass, I might have reconsidered.) At this point, the manuscript for Death Lives Across The Hall was largely completed and I wanted to take a break before getting started on the final edits. With no writing projects on the horizon, I thought I could take the time to write about four or five stories and have a running start when I began publishing them in January, 2016.
It was a good idea in theory.
The problem, of course, is that I have a tendency to do things back-asswards. For example, I had run four marathons before I’d run my first 5K. Apparently, I like to take on the biggest challenge and work my way down. When I sat down to try writing short stories, I realized I hadn’t written one in nearly twenty years. I had an idea for what eventually became Death at Intermission and fumbled around writing the first twenty or so pages. Unhappy with it, I set it aside and tried a different story. I got all of ten pages into that before abandoning it.
Clearly, I had some thinking to do. So I went back to the drawing board. Almost literally.
I started by writing down close to fifty short story ideas, none of them longer than a sentence. (Ex. Joe has to get his brother Owen out of trouble; A millionaire wants Lars dead for unknown reasons; Flashback to Joe solving a murder in high school.) From there, I divided the ideas into stories that would work for Joe and stories that would work for other characters. (I figured if the Joe idea worked out, I could use the website to introduce other potential series and gauge the response.) Since Joe’s stories were clearly the priority, I tackled them first.
I began outlining each of the story ideas, just fleshing them out so I could get a point of attack and a rough idea of the structure of each story. This approach had two benefits: 1) I began to get a clear idea of which stories were developing into usable ideas and which were going to need some work and 2) I realized that short stories didn’t need to follow the “here’s the crime, here are the suspects, here are the clues, here’s the solution” structure of a book. A short story could simply be an incident or a caper. It didn’t necessarily need to be a mystery at all, as long as there was an element of suspense involved. I know that’s a very elementary realization, but it was very freeing.
Once I had my outlines (which totaled about nineteen story ideas) I had to pick which stories were going to be part of the series. Since I wanted each story to be set in the month it was published, some easily presented themselves (Death at Intermission made the cut and its references to an end-of-the-season Wild game made it an obvious choice for April). For most of the others, I simply chose the outlines that were best-suited to become stories. THAT decision, however, would be one I would regret (more on that later.)
With everything ready to go, I began working on the first story, Death is My Little Brother, right around Christmas, 2015. I thought things would be smooth sailing, now that I had everything planned in advance.
I should have known better.
WRITING THE STORIES
For the first few months, things were reasonably smooth. I tried to get the stories out by the third week of every month, which gave me about four weeks to work on each. January’s story, Death is My Little Brother and February’s, Death Plays Broomball, were both completed on time and with a minimum of fuss. The first difficulty arose with March’s story.
The original idea was to do a story involving Joe and Mike and some of their old college friends. Three of the characters (Robbie, Stoner and T.J.) had been a part of Joe’s “fantasy football league” which allowed me to flesh out their personalities through the Cup o’ Joe articles. And all three had been featured in February’s story, creating a setup for their appearance in March. However, the story was supposed to be a “caper” story, something akin to Ocean’s Eleven with elements of The Magnificent Seven throw in. The problem was I already HAD a caper story planned, one featuring the character of Harry Baxter. Since I was more excited about the Harry Baxter story AND I was facing a shorter turnaround time due to February having only 29 days, I reluctantly decided to scrap the planned “caper” story. Death at Intermission was already two-thirds written, so I decided to move it up to March and find a new story for April.
The easy thing, of course, would have been to move May’s planned story up to April. However, it was one of the stories I’d attempted the previous fall (involving Carol and a boyfriend) and I was already cooling on it. In looking through the “rejected” story outlines, I stumbled across what would become Death and The One Percent. I’ll be honest: I have no earthly idea why that story didn’t make the cut originally. It had a decent jumping off point and just about any story involving Lars is easy to write (he’s bizarre enough that nothing is out of bounds for him and it’s fun to play him off Joe.) So I green-lighted it and it proved as easy to write as I hoped.
Since I’d decided to scrap May’s AND June’s stories (more on June in a minute), I now had an opening for May. Fortunately, the idea for Death Goes Missing came to me. This had NOT been part of my original group of outlined stories. In fact, I was pretty much outlining the story and writing it at the same time. It’s a small miracle that I didn’t have to go back and make any major rewrites by the time I was finished. That would not always be the case going forward.
June’s story was originally to be a flashback to Joe’s high school days, featuring his girlfriend, Lisa, and his best friends, Sam and Andy. If that idea sounds familiar, it should. Somehow, I had planned TWO flashback stories. If the series didn’t need two caper stories, it certainly didn’t need two flashbacks. And the later story (which would become Death is Old School) was my preferred choice. So June’s story was scrapped and needed a replacement.
Fortunately, one practically fell into my lap. I had been using my Sunday “Beer and Writing” sessions at Steel Toe Brewing to outline potential stories for other characters. During one of those sessions, I outlined a story in which the main character’s best friend/sidekick thinks there’s a conspiracy against him because of many weird things that have been happening. It turns out the sidekick is right. As I was outlining the story, I wrote in the margin of my notebook Good story for Mike. I had planned to have Mike narrate a story and had set one aside for September. However, THIS story seemed like the better option, so Death is Out to Get Me became June’s entry.
I would like to tell you it was an easy write and for about three-quarters of it, it was. Unfortunately, I had to rework the ending about three times before the entire plot made sense (not all elements of the outline fit into being a Good story for Mike.) It was nearly July before I finished the story, so I was more than a little grateful to be done with it, even if it was fun to write in Mike’s voice rather than Joe’s.
July and August, surprisingly, proceeded just fine, giving us Death and the Gentleman’s Gentleman and Death Stole My Stuff. However, as I was writing them, I was also reworking plans for the rest of the year. September’s story was supposed to be narrated by Mike, but I had used that one up. October was originally supposed to be a complicated story that took place in three different time periods. I wasn’t satisfied with the outline and my rule about no flashbacks until the Lisa story gave me a convenient excuse to junk it. Two stories that hadn’t been previously outlined came to me and I decided to give them a shot. Death is Hard Boiled featured Carol’s father and gave me a story that could focus on Carol (I hadn’t had one to that point.) Death Will Kill You was a fun concept, but ultimately I got bogged down in the narrative and I was very disappointed in the final results. If you’d like to know HOW disappointed, here are two facts: 1) I nearly junked the story 24 hours before it was scheduled to go on the website, figuring I could write a better short story in a day (I ultimately decided that plan was too risky) and 2) I did almost nothing to promote it. Seriously. I made an announcement when it was published then said nothing else before quietly pulling it off the site four days later.
The only change left was to switch November’s and December’s stories. Originally, the “flashback” story was to have been published in November and A Death in the (Extended) Family, involving Joe’s cousin, was to be the finale. I kept the stories, but decided to switch their publication month. The “flashback” story was one I was more emotionally tied to and felt it would make a better conclusion to the series.
So there it was. Of the 12 stories I planned, 7 of them were actually written and four of them were published in the month they were intended to be published. So you might understand if I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants through most of the series.
SO WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM ALL THIS AND WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
In 2015, my friend Sam Landman took on a project of publishing a new one-act play every week. Through a hell of a lot of personal adversity (not the least of which was a f**king HEART ATTACK) Sam completed the project. When it was done, he implored others to take on a big challenge and create, create, create. While I don’t consider 12 short stories to be on the level of 52 one-act plays as a challenge, I was still glad I could, in my own small way, take Sam’s advice and complete the short story series. That I managed to do it while being pleased with all but one of the stories feels like a bit of an accomplishment. Particularly while also writing a book and providing semi-regular Cup o’ Joe articles AND living what passes for a life.
But that was also the drawback to the series. While writing is always my number one (creative) priority in a day, there are still only so many hours that I can devote to it. Dividing time between two projects cuts into the time I can devote to each and when one of them is time-sensitive, it’s going to be a priority more often than not. In other words, I had hoped to focus most of my writing time on the 3rd Joe Davis book, Death Wears A Big Hat, and do the short stories as a side project. However, with deadlines for the stories constantly looming, I found myself frequently devoting my time to finishing the stories and pushing the book aside for a week or two. The end result is that I’ve felt like the short stories became the main focus and the book was a side project. So obviously, I’m not anxious to ever repeat that state of affairs.
I DO plan to write more Joe Davis short stories. I’ll be publishing at least one on the website during 2017. As I’ve written on social media, the short stories from the 2016 series will be published in book form, in two volumes. Each one will include six stories from the 2016 series, one story that will be published on the website in the future and one story that will be exclusive to that volume.
Would I ever do a monthly series of stories again? I’m not ruling it out, but I’m not anxious to try it again. One thing that can come out of taking on a challenge is the recognition of your own limitations. If I’m going to continue the Joe Davis book series, it must remain a priority at all times. I appreciated the short stories affording me the opportunity to explore different avenues of Joe’s world, to introduce new characters and to toy with other narrative approaches. But I can’t allow that to be at the expense of my focus on the books.
On the bright side, I learned how to approach short stories and I’m much more comfortable writing them than I was a year ago. So if I DO take on another monthly short story series, I feel much more prepared.
In the meantime, my sincerest thanks to those who read any or all of the stories and provided me with such nice feedback. And if you’ve gotten all the way to the bottom of this article, thank you for your interest in my work. I hope this peek behind the curtain was worth it.
