Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman
You’ve got questions, I’ve got some (long) answers—
Q: In addition to writing about photography and technology, have you ever considered writing fiction?—Raphael, Baltimore, MD
Yes I have. Sometime around the 2000-2002, I began writing historical mystery novels. Here’s how it went: The first book was set in WWII San Francisco and followed the adventures of a 4F police detective and a Chinese private detective who get involved in what appeared to be the racially motivated murder of an Asian woman. At the time, I was corresponding with a fan of my photography books who mentioned he was a literary agent. “Fiction?,” I asked. “Yes, he said. Then I asked if I he would take a look at my novel with the hopes he would be my literary agent. After a while he got back to me, saying that everything that he liked about my non-fiction (photography) books, like Plug-in Smart, worked against my fiction writing.
There was also some unintended side effects of writing this novel and my next attempt at writing fiction The time and energy I poured into writing fiction paralyzed my non-fiction writing to such an extent that it negatively affected my income. But I persisted… The next novel I wrote was set in post-WWII Baltimore and followed the misadventures of an ex-GI who was asked by one of his ex-Army buddies to help find his War Bride wife who went missing. It was sort of a thriller and part of the plot involved Operation Paperclip, a real-life government program where the US brought ex-Nazi scientists into the country for clandestine cold war activities. I showed the first few chapters of this book to my wife who asked “why was there so much profanity” in the book; she thought the whole thing was stupid.
One piece of advice that Quentin Tarantino had for young filmmakers was to “make the kind of movie you want to see.” I wrote the kind of books I wanted to read but it turned out that I was the only one who wanted to read them.
Miscellaneous Book Ramblings
I just finished reading two novels by William Ken Krueger—Mercy Falls and Heaven’s Keep that are some of his earlier books and they only deepened my appreciation of Krueger’s writing both as a writer and a story teller. Both are highly recommended for fans of mystery fiction especially where they intersects the contemporary lives of indigenous Americans. I just picked up his follow-up to Mercy Falls, Copper River, because the previous book ends in an interesting cliff hanger. On the guest chair that appeared in a previous post, sits a copy of Krueger’s Boundary Waters, published in 1999 and after I finish Copper River I’ll be jumping into it,
RE: Parker & Krueger: The heroes in these author’s books age differently. In the first Spenser book written in 1973 it’s mentioned that he’s a Korean War veteran, which would make him about 88 years old now. As Parker and the others who followed in writing about Spenser was getting older but the Korean War reference (1950-1953) is long gone. Spenser is not married and has a long time relationship with his girlfriend Susan, who, it is said, mirrors Parker’s own relationship with his wife. Krueger’s hero, Cork O’Connor, is married and has three children and the entire family ages—some even die—No Spoilers. All of the people age, although not in a normal chronological way. The exception to that is the shaman Henry Meloux, who is 90 years old in the early books but 20 years later is so old, “nobody knows how old he is.” Meloux is, however, a memorable character and whenever he appears in the story, you know wit;s about to get real interesting.
I’ve just finished reading Mike Lupica’s current take on Robert B. Parker’s Spenser novels, Hot Property and, in my opinion, the book feels performative. It seems, to me, that Lupica has adopted the leisurely rhythm, pacing and structure of the last several books Parker wrote before passing away and maybe that’s it’s point but I just don’t get it. I liked those latter Parker books but didn’t love them as much as his earlier work. The same could be said of Lupica’s previous Spenser books. Reality check: Hot Property has a 4.4 rating on Goodreads where “a three star rating isn’t a bad book, just average. Four stars is above average and five stars make it exceptional.” Once again I wonder if I’m getting to be a curmudgeon in my old age.
Until this most recent book, Lupica has proven himself to be a noble steward of Parker’s character and I’ve enjoyed his previous work, including the several books he wrote based on Parker’s Jesse Stone character. Jesse Stone makes a appearance in this book because he’s an old boyfriend of criminal famous lawyer Rita Fiore, who was grievously shot in the book’s beginning and Spenser and Hawk, along with the Boston cops, are bound and determined to find her assailant. She’s somehow involved in uncovering a real estate scam involving two shady billionaires, like we don’t get enough real-life shady billionaire shenanigans every day in the news. Anyway that’s the plot —no spoilers. Because I have a deep and abiding affection for the Spenser character I’ll read it all the way to the end, which I really liked. As far as the next Spenser novel is concerned, I’ll read it too, no matter who writes it.
Other books sitting on my guest chair include An Insignificant Case by Philip Margolin. I haven’t read any of Margolin’s previous novels so this is new for me; I hope I like it. Lastly there is a group of non-fiction books including The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson that is about the events leading up to the American Civil War. This book was recommended by photography YouTuber Overexposed. My favorite book about the civil war is Michael Shaara’a The Killer Angels.This book was the basis of the extraordinary film Gettysburg; read the book first; you will only enjoy the movie much more.
Another non-fiction book on my TBR list is The Zimmerman Telegram by historian Then there is ll of my recent forays into non-fiction have been disappointing, even from writers whose work I previously enjoyed. So I will give them all a hundred or so pages to see how it goes.
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