Harry Dolan and Liz---Tearing Up the Deuce Over a Beer
Howdy neighbor.
Welcome to my beer bar, Harry! What can I pour you to start?
How about a Wolverine Premium Lager? Because it's brewed in Michigan, from the waters of the Huron River. And because I'd like to get in good with the interviewer.Cute! A suck up! I knew I liked you....
I have had the honor to read both of your mysteries set in Ann Arbor. I read the first one, Bad Things Happen, on a beach in South Carolina a couple of summers ago and have YOU to thank for a pretty painful sunburn. You know, was reading, forgot to re-apply sunscreen? Anyway, I picked up Bad Things Happen at our favorite book store, Nicola's Books, and knew I had to have it when I realized it was based in Our Fair City. Little did I know what a fabulously taut (I'm a romance writer and am allowed to use this word in regular conversation) this story would be. The first sentence of the book pulls in you and the rest of it holds you by the throat and won't let you go. (See: Liz's Sunburn)
Do you come up with characters or story first?
When I wrote Bad Things Happen, I started with the character of David Loogan, a man with a dark past that's hidden from the reader for most of the book, and only revealed toward the end. So the character definitely came first, and the story grew up around him. I also had a background as an editor, which came into play in the setting of the novel, which centers on a series of murders involving the writers and editors of a mystery magazine called Gray Streets. The second book, Very Bad Men, evolved in a similar way. I knew I wanted to write another book featuring the characters from Bad Things Happen—Loogan and Ann Arbor detective Elizabeth Waishkey—but the story didn't really take off until I developed Anthony Lark, the villain of the piece. Lark was fun to write because he's dark and disturbed. He's obsessed with a long-ago crime, the robbery of the Great Lakes Bank, and he's trying to kill off three men who took part in that robbery—men who, on the surface, don't pose a threat to him or to anyone else. So part of the fun is uncovering Lark's true motives.
Was Bad Things Happen your first book to be published?
Yes, it was the first to be published, but not the first book I wrote. My first novel was an odd hybrid: part crime novel, part romance, part coming-of-age story. It ended up being 850 pages in manuscript, and when I queried agents about it I got some good responses. People liked the way it was written, but they told me what I should have known already: that no one was going to publish it. It was too long for a first novel by an unknown writer. It's still unpublished, but I learned a lot from writing it. And the experience led me to try writing a more straightforward crime novel. Incidentally, that first novel was called Liars, Thieves, and Innocent Men, and it makes a kind of cameo appearance in Bad Things Happen, where one of the characters, Sean Wrentmore, has written this giant, unwieldy novel that eventually causes a lot of trouble, in ways that I won't give away here.
The sequel, Very Bad Men, takes us a little further along with Hero and Heroine (again, *flashes romance writer get away with these words card*). David and Elizabeth get enmeshed with what I would call a pretty complex storyline of past crime and present-day coverups. When you wrote the first book, did you have this follow-up in mind?
I wrote Bad Things Happen as a stand-alone novel, but the people who read it early on thought that the characters would be good for a series, and I found that I had more stories to tell about them. So I didn't have Very Bad Men in mind from the start; it came later. The first book centered around Gray Streets, and the murder victims (and suspects) were mostly writers or people who worked for the magazine. I went in a different direction with Very Bad Men, which deals with the fall-out from a seventeen-year-old bank robbery. So the characters who figure into the plot are more diverse. There's the former sheriff who foiled the robbery all those years ago, and his daughter, a popular politician. There's a fifteen-year-old boy, the half-brother of one of the bank robbers, and there's an elderly senator who's about to retire. There's also a young reporter who's writing a story about the robbery. Her friendship with David Loogan—and her mysterious disappearance—are central to the plot. What's more, in Very Bad Men, the identity of the killer, Anthony Lark, is known to the reader from the beginning, and many scenes are written from Lark's point of view, which gives the book a whole different dynamic.
Oops, bad host: your glass is empty. What's next?
Another one of the same. Are you trying to get me drunk? Oh damn am I that obvious? Why yes, dear, I am.
Did you set out in life to become a successful published author? If not, what was your career before this?
I studied philosophy in college and worked for many years as the editor of an academic journal that published scholarly essays by philosophers, political scientists, economists, and law professors—which was exactly as exciting as it sounds. After about eight years of that, I was ready to try something new, so I quit that job and took up freelance work in order to find time to write. It took a long time—ten years—but I finally published my first novel in 2009.
You know I kid you about this more than is probably necessary, BUT I think you should spice up your next book a little. You know, give us some details about David and Elizabeth and what is no doubt some kink in the bedroom. C'mon you know you wanna. Can you say "Ann Arbor collaboration?" Okay, I will agree to ghost write those bits. *winks to readers*
Well, Elizabeth is a detective, so she has handcuffs. You can use your imagination from there… Oh Honey, you think I'm kidding don't you? We'll talk more later...*pats his hand*
I understand there is a third book in this series. What sort of "BAD" is in the working title? Can you share any more about it with us?
I'm working on the third book now, and it centers on the murder of a female law student at the University of Michigan. Elizabeth has a stronger role in it than in the previous books, and we see more of her working to solve the case. But David gets involved as well, naturally. The working title I've been using is The Girl in the Rain. I don't know if that will last. If the publisher wants "Bad" in the title, it might end up being A Bad Rain. I'd say keep 'Bad' in the title for certain. Bad Girl in the Rain would work....snickers.But seriously I can't wait to read more from Elizabeth. She rocks. And has a kick ass first name, of course.
Finally, what are your goals as a writer? Become the Janet Evanovich of Ann Arbor based mysteries? I love it, if so. If not, what comes next for you? What's your current WIP outside of David's stories?
I'm focusing now on this third David Loogan book, to the exclusion of everything else. I've got a contract for another book after this one, but I don't like to look too far ahead. Eventually I'd like to try a nonseries book, maybe something set in upstate New York, which is where I'm from originally. But for now I'm happy to be writing about my own noir version of Ann Arbor.
And for a nightcap? What can I pour you?
Well, if it's a nightcap, it should be Wolverine Dark. Thanks, Liz!
My pleasure and honor.Hope to see you again soon! Now about that Tap Room book signing party??cheersLizFind Harry Here:http://www.harrydolan.com/
http://www.facebook.com/harrydolanauthor
http://twitter.com/harrycdolanOooo here we are again! I'm such a fan grrrrl.
Welcome to my beer bar, Harry! What can I pour you to start?
How about a Wolverine Premium Lager? Because it's brewed in Michigan, from the waters of the Huron River. And because I'd like to get in good with the interviewer.Cute! A suck up! I knew I liked you....
I have had the honor to read both of your mysteries set in Ann Arbor. I read the first one, Bad Things Happen, on a beach in South Carolina a couple of summers ago and have YOU to thank for a pretty painful sunburn. You know, was reading, forgot to re-apply sunscreen? Anyway, I picked up Bad Things Happen at our favorite book store, Nicola's Books, and knew I had to have it when I realized it was based in Our Fair City. Little did I know what a fabulously taut (I'm a romance writer and am allowed to use this word in regular conversation) this story would be. The first sentence of the book pulls in you and the rest of it holds you by the throat and won't let you go. (See: Liz's Sunburn)
Do you come up with characters or story first?
When I wrote Bad Things Happen, I started with the character of David Loogan, a man with a dark past that's hidden from the reader for most of the book, and only revealed toward the end. So the character definitely came first, and the story grew up around him. I also had a background as an editor, which came into play in the setting of the novel, which centers on a series of murders involving the writers and editors of a mystery magazine called Gray Streets. The second book, Very Bad Men, evolved in a similar way. I knew I wanted to write another book featuring the characters from Bad Things Happen—Loogan and Ann Arbor detective Elizabeth Waishkey—but the story didn't really take off until I developed Anthony Lark, the villain of the piece. Lark was fun to write because he's dark and disturbed. He's obsessed with a long-ago crime, the robbery of the Great Lakes Bank, and he's trying to kill off three men who took part in that robbery—men who, on the surface, don't pose a threat to him or to anyone else. So part of the fun is uncovering Lark's true motives.
Was Bad Things Happen your first book to be published?
Yes, it was the first to be published, but not the first book I wrote. My first novel was an odd hybrid: part crime novel, part romance, part coming-of-age story. It ended up being 850 pages in manuscript, and when I queried agents about it I got some good responses. People liked the way it was written, but they told me what I should have known already: that no one was going to publish it. It was too long for a first novel by an unknown writer. It's still unpublished, but I learned a lot from writing it. And the experience led me to try writing a more straightforward crime novel. Incidentally, that first novel was called Liars, Thieves, and Innocent Men, and it makes a kind of cameo appearance in Bad Things Happen, where one of the characters, Sean Wrentmore, has written this giant, unwieldy novel that eventually causes a lot of trouble, in ways that I won't give away here.
The sequel, Very Bad Men, takes us a little further along with Hero and Heroine (again, *flashes romance writer get away with these words card*). David and Elizabeth get enmeshed with what I would call a pretty complex storyline of past crime and present-day coverups. When you wrote the first book, did you have this follow-up in mind?
I wrote Bad Things Happen as a stand-alone novel, but the people who read it early on thought that the characters would be good for a series, and I found that I had more stories to tell about them. So I didn't have Very Bad Men in mind from the start; it came later. The first book centered around Gray Streets, and the murder victims (and suspects) were mostly writers or people who worked for the magazine. I went in a different direction with Very Bad Men, which deals with the fall-out from a seventeen-year-old bank robbery. So the characters who figure into the plot are more diverse. There's the former sheriff who foiled the robbery all those years ago, and his daughter, a popular politician. There's a fifteen-year-old boy, the half-brother of one of the bank robbers, and there's an elderly senator who's about to retire. There's also a young reporter who's writing a story about the robbery. Her friendship with David Loogan—and her mysterious disappearance—are central to the plot. What's more, in Very Bad Men, the identity of the killer, Anthony Lark, is known to the reader from the beginning, and many scenes are written from Lark's point of view, which gives the book a whole different dynamic.
Oops, bad host: your glass is empty. What's next?
Another one of the same. Are you trying to get me drunk? Oh damn am I that obvious? Why yes, dear, I am.
Did you set out in life to become a successful published author? If not, what was your career before this?
I studied philosophy in college and worked for many years as the editor of an academic journal that published scholarly essays by philosophers, political scientists, economists, and law professors—which was exactly as exciting as it sounds. After about eight years of that, I was ready to try something new, so I quit that job and took up freelance work in order to find time to write. It took a long time—ten years—but I finally published my first novel in 2009.
You know I kid you about this more than is probably necessary, BUT I think you should spice up your next book a little. You know, give us some details about David and Elizabeth and what is no doubt some kink in the bedroom. C'mon you know you wanna. Can you say "Ann Arbor collaboration?" Okay, I will agree to ghost write those bits. *winks to readers*
Well, Elizabeth is a detective, so she has handcuffs. You can use your imagination from there… Oh Honey, you think I'm kidding don't you? We'll talk more later...*pats his hand*
I understand there is a third book in this series. What sort of "BAD" is in the working title? Can you share any more about it with us?
I'm working on the third book now, and it centers on the murder of a female law student at the University of Michigan. Elizabeth has a stronger role in it than in the previous books, and we see more of her working to solve the case. But David gets involved as well, naturally. The working title I've been using is The Girl in the Rain. I don't know if that will last. If the publisher wants "Bad" in the title, it might end up being A Bad Rain. I'd say keep 'Bad' in the title for certain. Bad Girl in the Rain would work....snickers.But seriously I can't wait to read more from Elizabeth. She rocks. And has a kick ass first name, of course.
Finally, what are your goals as a writer? Become the Janet Evanovich of Ann Arbor based mysteries? I love it, if so. If not, what comes next for you? What's your current WIP outside of David's stories?
I'm focusing now on this third David Loogan book, to the exclusion of everything else. I've got a contract for another book after this one, but I don't like to look too far ahead. Eventually I'd like to try a nonseries book, maybe something set in upstate New York, which is where I'm from originally. But for now I'm happy to be writing about my own noir version of Ann Arbor.
And for a nightcap? What can I pour you?
Well, if it's a nightcap, it should be Wolverine Dark. Thanks, Liz!
My pleasure and honor.Hope to see you again soon! Now about that Tap Room book signing party??cheersLizFind Harry Here:http://www.harrydolan.com/
http://www.facebook.com/harrydolanauthor
http://twitter.com/harrycdolanOooo here we are again! I'm such a fan grrrrl.
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