Issue One: April 1 (Now Available!)
Issue Two: June 1
JAKE MAGAZINE: You’re currently studying criminal justice while working for a private investigator while writing these private eye novels. Which came first? And where does this fascination come from? How have you evolved through writing these characters, and how have they evolved as you've come to have more authentic experiences in your field?
MICHAEL J. KORYTA: I began to write with these characters when I was 19, after my freshman year in college. The genre choice simply came out of reading preference. I grew up enjoying mysteries and crime fiction and I think you naturally gravitate toward writing what you enjoy to read. I also had an interest in the profession of private investigation, and when I was 18 I began to work with Trace Investigations. The field experience has been invaluable to my writing, particularly when it comes to the details. In terms of story construction, I don’t think the experience has been so much of a factor.
JM: "Tonight I Said Goodbye" is your first novel, but have you published much before this? What have your experiences in publishing been like?
MJK: I had never published fiction before “Tonight I Said Goodbye”. I had been writing for the Bloomington Herald-Times since I was 18. I began in sports, covering high school football, then moved on to features writing and police beat reporting. The experience of writing professionally, on a deadline, and with a final product that appeared for the community each morning made my writing improve dramatically in a short amount of time.
There is a certain amount of pressure in newspaper work in general, and I think that was increased by the fact that I was so young and trying to prove myself to those who might have doubted my ability, both readers in the community and coworkers in the building. By placing a lot of personal pressure on myself to improve quickly as a newspaper writer, I improved as a fiction writer as well. Learning how to organize thoughts and transfer those to the written word, how to write concisely, and how to convey emotion while not diverting from the story are some of the elements of newspaper writing that naturally translate to fiction.
JM: A lot of detective fiction, especially in the private eye genre, relies on just what you're talking about. Being concise and 'going for the gut', for instance, instead of a more ornate or flowery style. Does this ever constrain your writing? Do you have any desire to write in another genre in order to try a new style?
MJK: I think all good writing is concise and precise rather than flowery. There are a few exceptions to that, but in general the rules that apply to good writing in a mystery novel apply to good writing, period. I don’t feel any constraints other than the limits of first-person point of view. There are benefits to first person, such as a natural sense of intimacy with the narrator, but also restrictions.
I certainly plan to write outside of the crime fiction genre at some point, but for at least the next two books I will be working with my series characters in that genre. Most of the ideas I am generating currently have nothing to do with Lincoln Perry or even the detective novel form, so I am sure I will branch out into other areas in the future.
JM: What motivates you to write? Are you driven to tell the story, is it a kind of catharsis, or something else entirely?
MJK: I write because I am a storyteller at heart. I do not have a day that goes by in which something, some element of real life, does not spark my imagination and divert me into a sort of mental narration. As long as I have been reading, I have been writing, and I would be writing whether I had any hope of publication or not. When it comes to the specific story, I am driven to write by a desire to find out how it all plays out for my characters and the situation I am about to drop them in. From there I continue to write to see where it goes, which is as much a mystery to me as the writer as it will be to the reader.
JM: That’s very interesting, especially for a mystery writer. What is the process like, if you're driving toward an end you're uncertain of? What kind of control do the characters exert during the writing itself?
MJK: Characters exert control in that I am sometimes surprised by how much I enjoy writing about a character who started out as a minor player, and how little I enjoy one who is supposed to be a critical player. When this happens, I tend to alter the story to incorporate more or less of that character. I don’t worry too much about the ending in the early stages of the first draft, but try to stay focused on what will happen in the next scene. In a second or third draft, I am much more concerned about the whole spectrum of the story.
JM: How did you approach getting this book published? Was St. Martin's press the first publisher you sent a manuscript to?
MJK: I actually had already written one novel with these characters, and I sent it to St. Martin’s because Bob Hammel, my writing mentor, had a contact there. St. Martin’s ultimately rejected that book, but the editor, Peter Wolverton, was very encouraging and promised to read anything I wrote in the future. When I finished “Tonight I Said Goodbye”, I sent it in to Pete and to the private eye novel contest. Pete liked the book and said he would buy it if I didn’t win the contest, but then I won that and received a standard contest-winner contract.
JM: How important do you think contacts are to the publishing process? A lot of people talk about networking in the business world, but do you think it’s also a fact of life for writers?
MJK: Contacts are invaluable to getting your foot in the door with a publisher, but not in selling the work. At the end of the day, it is not who you know, but what you’ve written. For example, my contacts succeeded only in getting my first book rejected. However, I may never have gotten that book to the desk of a New York editor without those contacts. The networking a writer does can be helpful, but only to an extent. The work is still the focus, and it is far better to devote your day to improving your craft than to trying to make contacts. A great book will find its way to publication, regardless of whether the writer knows everyone in New York publishing by name or if he lives in a remote Idaho cabin and has absolutely no contacts in the industry. I’d advise any beginning writer to write first, network second. A surprising number of people have asked me whether I recommend looking for an agent before you have a complete manuscript. The answer is a resounding no. Write the book, rewrite the book, polish the book, polish it again. Then worry about finding an agent.
---Michael J. Koryta is the author of“Tonight I Said Goodbye”, recipient of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Award for Best First Private-Eye novel, and a nominee for The Edgar Awards for mystery fiction. In addition to writing, Koryta is currently studying Criminal Justice at Indiana University.