Interview with Award Winning Author Bruce DeSilva
Please welcome award-winning author Bruce DeSilva to The Writers Cabin. This is the second time I've interviewed him and this time it's for another of his great Crime Novels. He just released Providence Rag another of his Mulligan Novels. I had the pleasure of meeting Bruce at the Killer Nashville Writers Conference back in August of 2012.
Q. Tell us about your new book.
A. It’s called “Providence Rag,” the title referring to the dying newspaper where my series hero, Liam Mulligan, works as an investigative reporter. But the title also suggests a jazz tune, appropriate because the Mulligan novels are something of a song to both the city of Providence and the fading newspaper business that Mulligan and I both love. The villain is a psychopath who began murdering his Rhode Island neighbors before he was old enough to drive, but this is not your typical serial killer book. For one thing, the murders are solved and the killer imprisoned in the first 75 pages. The rest of the story embroils Mulligan, his colleagues at the newspaper, and eventually the entire state in an impossible ethical conundrum: What is a good person to do when a loophole in the law requires that this dangerous killer be set free—and the only way to prevent it is to fabricate new charges against him. No matter which side of the question you come down on, you end up condoning something that is reprehensible.
Q. What was the toughest part about basing this on a true story?
A. Finding the guts to write it. As a journalist, I spent a couple of months of my life reporting and writing a long magazine story about the real killer, Craig Price. It was such a harrowing story that when I was done, I never wanted to have anything to do with it again. But over the years, it kept working on my subconscious, the place where novels are born. When the compulsion to fictionalize the story became stronger than my discomfort about revisiting it, I sat at the keyboard and began to write.
Q. How has Mulligan changed from book to book?
A. I put the poor guy through a lot in the first two novels. In “Rogue Island,” he had to figure out who was systematically burning down the neighborhood where he grew up—literally destroying his past in the flames. And along the way, he was betrayed in spectacular fashion by the woman he loved. In the second book, “Cliff Walk,” he sought comfort in the company of another woman and was rebuffed, resulting in a painful loneliness made worse by the task of investigating the dark underbelly of the state’s sleazy sex trade. In the third novel, published earlier this month, he considers getting a dog because they are invariably loyal and not a one of them has ever lied to him. It’s no wonder that blues musicians including Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor supply the soundtrack for Mulligan’s life. The evils he sees, and the things he has to do to try to set things right, change him in other ways, but you’ll have to read the books to learn about that.
Q. Has your writing process changed since your first novel?
A. Not in the slightest. I never outline. I begin with little more than a theme. With “Providence Rag,” for example, it was “where is justice to be found when the only choices you have are both indefensible.” Then I set my characters in motion and discover the story as I go along. Curiosity about what’s going to happen next is what motivates me to put my butt in the writing chair every day. If I outlined the plot before hand, my desire to write the novel would evaporate.
Q. If your novel was chosen to be made into a movie, whom would you cast?
A. I’m no expert on the ways of Hollywood, but I suspect that the Mulligan novels are more suitable as the inspiration for a quality TV series. Most thriller movies are full of car chases and explosions, and there’s none of that in my books. But the best TV crime dramas—shows like “Justified” and “True Detective,” are more about character development and sense of place. In my wildest dreams, I imagine someone like David Simon (“The Wire”) or Dennis Leary (“Rescue Me” adapting my books for television. Leary would make a great Mulligan. He embodies the character’s smart-ass, world-weary cynicism and bad attitude toward authority.
Q. How many revisions do you normally make between the first and final drafts?I revise each chapter as I go along, so by the time I reach the last page, the book is as good as I can make it. Then my wife, the poet Patricia Smith, and my agent, Susanna Einstein have at it. Implementing their insightful suggestions makes everything I write better.
Q. Do you use Beta readers?
A. If by that you mean someone who reads the book looking for plot holes or continuity problems, the answer is no. I worked as an editor at newspapers and at The Associated Press for many years. I can handle that end of things pretty well myself.
Q. What are you working on now?
“A Scourge of Vipers,” the fourth Mulligan novel, is done and will be published by Forge in March of 2015. The book is a bit of a departure for Mulligan because unlike the first two books, which were littered with innocent victims, the only characters who get killed are people you’d shoot or strangle yourself if you weren’t squeamish about that sort of thing. When I return from a book tour to promote “Providence Rag,” I’m going to take a month off before starting book five.
Q. Do you have any advice for an aspiring writer?
A. If you’re a young person, fresh out of college or boasting a new MFA, do something else first. Tend bar. Teach school. Drive a cab. Join the army. Until you’ve lived a little, you don’t have anything to write about yet. When you are ready to begin, do not wait to be inspired. Do not stare at the ceiling and wait for your muse to show up. Treat writing as a job. Put your butt in the chair and write every day, whether you are in the mood to do it or not.
Q. Tell us about your new book.
A. It’s called “Providence Rag,” the title referring to the dying newspaper where my series hero, Liam Mulligan, works as an investigative reporter. But the title also suggests a jazz tune, appropriate because the Mulligan novels are something of a song to both the city of Providence and the fading newspaper business that Mulligan and I both love. The villain is a psychopath who began murdering his Rhode Island neighbors before he was old enough to drive, but this is not your typical serial killer book. For one thing, the murders are solved and the killer imprisoned in the first 75 pages. The rest of the story embroils Mulligan, his colleagues at the newspaper, and eventually the entire state in an impossible ethical conundrum: What is a good person to do when a loophole in the law requires that this dangerous killer be set free—and the only way to prevent it is to fabricate new charges against him. No matter which side of the question you come down on, you end up condoning something that is reprehensible.
Q. What was the toughest part about basing this on a true story?
A. Finding the guts to write it. As a journalist, I spent a couple of months of my life reporting and writing a long magazine story about the real killer, Craig Price. It was such a harrowing story that when I was done, I never wanted to have anything to do with it again. But over the years, it kept working on my subconscious, the place where novels are born. When the compulsion to fictionalize the story became stronger than my discomfort about revisiting it, I sat at the keyboard and began to write.
Q. How has Mulligan changed from book to book?
A. I put the poor guy through a lot in the first two novels. In “Rogue Island,” he had to figure out who was systematically burning down the neighborhood where he grew up—literally destroying his past in the flames. And along the way, he was betrayed in spectacular fashion by the woman he loved. In the second book, “Cliff Walk,” he sought comfort in the company of another woman and was rebuffed, resulting in a painful loneliness made worse by the task of investigating the dark underbelly of the state’s sleazy sex trade. In the third novel, published earlier this month, he considers getting a dog because they are invariably loyal and not a one of them has ever lied to him. It’s no wonder that blues musicians including Buddy Guy and Koko Taylor supply the soundtrack for Mulligan’s life. The evils he sees, and the things he has to do to try to set things right, change him in other ways, but you’ll have to read the books to learn about that.
Q. Has your writing process changed since your first novel?
A. Not in the slightest. I never outline. I begin with little more than a theme. With “Providence Rag,” for example, it was “where is justice to be found when the only choices you have are both indefensible.” Then I set my characters in motion and discover the story as I go along. Curiosity about what’s going to happen next is what motivates me to put my butt in the writing chair every day. If I outlined the plot before hand, my desire to write the novel would evaporate.
Q. If your novel was chosen to be made into a movie, whom would you cast?
A. I’m no expert on the ways of Hollywood, but I suspect that the Mulligan novels are more suitable as the inspiration for a quality TV series. Most thriller movies are full of car chases and explosions, and there’s none of that in my books. But the best TV crime dramas—shows like “Justified” and “True Detective,” are more about character development and sense of place. In my wildest dreams, I imagine someone like David Simon (“The Wire”) or Dennis Leary (“Rescue Me” adapting my books for television. Leary would make a great Mulligan. He embodies the character’s smart-ass, world-weary cynicism and bad attitude toward authority.
Q. How many revisions do you normally make between the first and final drafts?I revise each chapter as I go along, so by the time I reach the last page, the book is as good as I can make it. Then my wife, the poet Patricia Smith, and my agent, Susanna Einstein have at it. Implementing their insightful suggestions makes everything I write better.
Q. Do you use Beta readers?
A. If by that you mean someone who reads the book looking for plot holes or continuity problems, the answer is no. I worked as an editor at newspapers and at The Associated Press for many years. I can handle that end of things pretty well myself.
Q. What are you working on now?
“A Scourge of Vipers,” the fourth Mulligan novel, is done and will be published by Forge in March of 2015. The book is a bit of a departure for Mulligan because unlike the first two books, which were littered with innocent victims, the only characters who get killed are people you’d shoot or strangle yourself if you weren’t squeamish about that sort of thing. When I return from a book tour to promote “Providence Rag,” I’m going to take a month off before starting book five.
Q. Do you have any advice for an aspiring writer?
A. If you’re a young person, fresh out of college or boasting a new MFA, do something else first. Tend bar. Teach school. Drive a cab. Join the army. Until you’ve lived a little, you don’t have anything to write about yet. When you are ready to begin, do not wait to be inspired. Do not stare at the ceiling and wait for your muse to show up. Treat writing as a job. Put your butt in the chair and write every day, whether you are in the mood to do it or not.
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