DLC: I want to welcome to my blog and introduce everyone to a fellow New Yorker, Wayne Zurl author of the police mystery Scrap Metal & Murder.
Welcome Wayne. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
WZ: In the age of the dinosaur I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Actually, most people called it the age of baby boomers. A few years after my arrival, the family moved to Long Island where I grew up and worked for forty-six years, interrupted only by a pesky thing called the Vietnam War.
Welcome Wayne. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
WZ: In the age of the dinosaur I was born in Brooklyn, New York. Actually, most people called it the age of baby boomers. A few years after my arrival, the family moved to Long Island where I grew up and worked for forty-six years, interrupted only by a pesky thing called the Vietnam War.
After separating from active duty with the Army, I remained in the reserves and muddled around looking for a career in the civilian world. In 1972 I was appointed to the Suffolk County (NY) Police Department where I spent twenty years—thirteen of them as a section commander supervising investigators.
When I retired, my wife, Barbara and I and our only child, an aging Scottish terrier, left New York for the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. Today we’re still in the same house we built in 1992.
DLC: There's a song in there somewhere but I digress. =) So after so many years serving in the military and then in law enforcement what led you to becoming a writer?
WZ: To occupy my time in retirement, I began volunteer work at the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area in Vonore, Tennessee, helping with their living history program and writing publicity to promote their annual events. Studies of the fort’s role in one of my favorite periods of history, The French & Indian War, led me to write twenty-six non-fiction articles eventually published in magazines. It felt great seeing my name in print and better when I received compensation for my work, whether it was a free subscription to the magazine or a check.
WZ: To occupy my time in retirement, I began volunteer work at the Fort Loudoun State Historic Area in Vonore, Tennessee, helping with their living history program and writing publicity to promote their annual events. Studies of the fort’s role in one of my favorite periods of history, The French & Indian War, led me to write twenty-six non-fiction articles eventually published in magazines. It felt great seeing my name in print and better when I received compensation for my work, whether it was a free subscription to the magazine or a check.
While I never felt a passion toward writing, it had been an important part of my life for years. From writing after-action reports as a soldier to the endless piles of narrative required from police officers.
In technical/professional writing one thing is certain—you are judged by what you write, while the reader may not have met you prior to seeing your report. I was always too egotistical to submit anything with my signature attached which I didn’t consider a best effort.
DLC: Who are some of your favorite authors?
WZ: A gift of James Lee Burke’s novel, BLACK CHERRY BLUES, set me on the path of reading modern police and detective stories. Burke is still one of my favorite authors. His ability with descriptions and character development is extraordinary.
I also admire the late Robert B. Parker whose Jesse Stone series pushed me into writing fiction. With a great deal of hubris on my shoulder, I thought if Parker could write about an ex-LAPD detective turned chief of police in a small department in Massachusetts, why couldn’t I write about a retired New York cop transplanted in Tennessee? After all, I had police experience and Parker didn’t.
I enjoy reading anything from Nelson DeMille, that other guy from Long Island who writes mysteries, and for historical fiction, I read Bernard Cornwell. For good old-fashioned hard-boiled detective stories, I love Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout.
DLC: That's a great set of authors. So enough about them, tell us about YOUR book. =)
WZ: My most recently published novelette, SCRAP METAL & MURDER, was released in September by Mind Wings Audio as an audio book and simultaneously by Amazon as a Kindle Book.
In it, I tried to incorporate several of my favorite elements: The noir sound of those post-war mysteries, the ending style of a Nero Wolfe novel, and the premise based on a case I worked myself. In this story, I start with a rash of scrap metal thefts; similar to something I investigated back in the 1970’s, precipitated by war driving the cost of copper and brass into the stratosphere. A similar condition exists today after years of Middle East campaigns.
This story quickly turns from a straight forward burglary investigation to a sticky homicide when the complainant, a building contractor, is found murdered and dumped into the basement of a home under construction. The investigation turns up more suspects than the protagonist ever wanted. A rival builder under state and federal indictment, his beautiful and unfaithful wife, the victim’s widow and her lover, and the scrap metal thief lead the parade. In the end, our hero assembles the players and exposes the killer.
SCRAP METAL & MURDER and all my stories feature ex-Detective Lieutenant Sam Jenkins, a retired Long Island cop who, during his mid-life crisis, takes on the job of chief at Prospect PD, a small department in a small city in East Tennessee.
DLC: So I imagine you drew a lot from your experience on the force when writing your stories?
WZ: Twenty years of police work in a crowded and busy area provides plenty of subject matter for fictionalized and embellished stories. I transplant my New York experiences into Tennessee and cast them with likenesses of the unique and colorful local characters I meet almost daily.
I currently have seven (7) novelettes under contract with Mind Wings Audio. Four have been published and I expect another, BY THE HORNS OF A COW, to be released just before the holidays. These are all Sam Jenkins crime stories that fit in anywhere in the chronology of his time at Prospect PD.
DLC: Too cool. Are you working on anything right now?
WZ: The prequel of all those and my first effort with fiction, A NEW PROSPECT, an 81,000 word novel, is under contract to be traditionally published by Black Rose Writing with a target release date of January 20th 2011. I was thrilled when a publisher expressed an interest and I’d have a real book in print.
DLC: Kudos to you my friend! Keep them coming. So I imagine there are authors reading this interview that are struggling to get their work noticed. What advice do you have for them?
WZ: When I began writing fiction I grasped two of the elements necessary to be a writer, enthusiasm and material. In two years, I roughed out six novels and ten novelettes. I lacked polish and an understanding of the publishing business. Several published authors told me, “You don’t’ have to be good, you have to be marketable.” That idea disturbed me, but it seemed to be reality. Then I learned how many bestselling writers took ten years or more to sell their first book. My advice to anyone who wants to write and sell their work is look up tenacity in the dictionary and come to terms with giving that aspect 110%. Another author said, “Tenacity often trumps talent.”
DLC: Great point.
WZ: Other important things: Know what’s currently wanted by publishers and how they want to see it written. You may construct the finest novel, but if it’s in the style of the 1980’s, you’ll be sitting there with three hundred pages of great prose no one will buy. Find a place to workshop or get competent help with your work. Two (or more) heads are not only better than one, they’re essential. And NEVER give up. Learn to live with rejection and then go out there and submit again . . . and again.
I went through oodles of agent queries before I decided to pursue the small and traditional presses who accepted submissions directly from authors. I had gotten down to the last four possibilities when I received my “greetings” letter and a contract. Hang in there.
DLC: Preach it Wayne! lol I appreciate your heart and tenacity. That will bring you far in this business. Sounds like you are well on your way up the ladder but tell us some of the struggles you've faced.
WZ: After four years of dabbling in fiction I think each novel or novelette I write presents me with the same challenge. I have to take a real police experience and transpose it to something more exciting than fact and somehow fit it to the template a publisher wants.
Writing mysteries or crime stories or police procedurals allows me to engage in a basic maxim of literature: Write about what you know. I know investigations. Now, I know Tennessee, and the Smoky Mountains are ripe not only to be a backdrop for the stories, but they can almost become a character—much like Los Angeles became a character in Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe stories and novels.
DLC: What's next in the works?
WZ: For the future, I’m expecting at least two more audio books to be published in 2011. After workshopping the second novel length book in the Sam Jenkins series, A LEPRECHAUN’S LAMENT, I’m currently working on the revisions. When I’m finished, I’ll take on the task of selling it.
DLC: Well I'm sold Wayne and I'm sure there are many readers who will want to find out more about you and your books. Where can they go?
WZ: Anyone interested in learning more about Sam Jenkins or his biographer (me) can visit my website, www.waynezurlbooks.net. They’ll find a list of available books with links to all those who sell them, a photo gallery of the places these stories take place, and a few unpublished works available as eBooks directly from me.
DLC: Wayne, I just want to say it's been a pleasure doing an interview with you and you've been a great inspiration. Keep on writing and I wish you great success. I can say, "I knew him when..." lol
Blessings,
Daniel L Carter
Author of The Unwanted Trilogy
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