Interview with Steven M. Moore, author of the Detectives Chen and Castilblanco series, the Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries and many others

The Indie Crime Scene is pleased to interview Steven M. Moore, author of the Detectives Chen and Castilblanco series, the Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries, the Clones and Mutants trilogy, the Chaos Chronicles, Rembrandt's Angel and many other books. This interview was conducted by Dennis Chekalov.

What was your path to writing?

First, let me thank Indie Crime Scene for interviewing me.  It’s always a pleasure to do an interview because readers can get to know me as a person and not as just some weird or eccentric guy who writes lots of stories.

I wanted to be a writer at an early age.  I’ve always been an avid reader, and it didn’t take long for me to think that I could write good stories too.  Rather presumptive, of course, but that presumption stuck with me.

I began writing—first preschool comic books, then short stories and a full novel during the summer I turned thirteen.  Like many would-be writers, I postponed the publishing part in order to make a living because it’s difficult to do that as a writer.  Who knows?  That might have been a mistake, but that decision has given me some independence…and a lot to write about!  Making that decision has become more critical these days—there are so many good authors and good books today that it’s even harder to make a living as a writer.

One advantage of postponing publication for me is that I can’t ever imagine having writer’s block.  Unfortunately my muses (really banshees with Tasers) know that, so they’re always on my case to tell the next story.  My characters add their pressure too.  It makes it hard to choose what to write next, so I often have several projects going, sequentially working on them week by week.

My path was a personal one.  I don’t particularly recommend it, but I also don’t think one can just jump in when twenty and become a full-time writer.  Even a journalist would have to work up the ranks and get some experience.  Frederick Forsyth’s trajectory seems a better alternative, in fact—you can make a living in journalism, and it’s still writing. 

Tell us please about your scientific work.

            As young people often do, I started thinking about a career when I was in junior high (AKA middle school); this was after I decided I probably couldn’t make a living writing (my father had made a similar decision with his painting). I went through all the books on anthropology in our public library and decided human beings are far too complicated to study (I study them now via my plots and characters).  Science and math seemed easy, there was scholarship money available (post-Sputnik era), so I opted for that.

            A career in teaching and research overseas (South America) and R&D work (US) gave me perspectives about the human condition—students, scientists, and engineers, after create their own social groups, after all, and are influenced by and have influence on their colleagues and culture.  Travel for work and pleasure taught me about different cultures and human diversity in general, and that we human beings should realize we’re all on starship Earth together, so we’d better learn to get along.

            But your question is more specific, so I’ll add some more specific information.  Almost all my scientific work was in applied physics.  On the more abstract end, I can give you a precise definition of “entangled state,” something essential for quantum computing, communications, and information theory. On the more applied end, we could have a chat about disordered solids and how spread spectrum techniques contributed to the cellphone revolution.

Readers, don’t worry: my stories, even the sci-fi ones, don’t dwell on scientific details, but my background makes me very careful about how I extrapolate current science and technology into the future.  Some of my stories, even though they’re more conventional mysteries or thrillers, also contain this extrapolation.

You work in different genres; what’s your favorite?

            Yes, I violated the old rule to stick with just one genre, mostly because I enjoy many in my reading. I view genres just as keywords to help describe a story, so it’s natural that there’s often a mix in a single story!  Whether single genre or mix, though, I’ll hedge with my answer: my favorite genre(s) are those I’m currently writing during a particular week.  As I said above, that can change from week to week.  I stay away from romance and erotica, though.  Nothing against them; I just can’t write them.

            When I start writing, I never know what genre(s) will apply or even whether the story will become a short story, novella, or novel.  The important thing is the story.  Later on, I have to decide what the keywords are for publishing and promotion.  Readers need that information, and it’s my duty to give it to them, but I do it after the story is told, including subgenres, if appropriate.

            For my R&R reading and also reviewing, “official” (Bookpleasures) or otherwise (blog and Goodreads), my favorite genres are mysteries and thrillers.  As a young person, I was a fan of Agatha Christie and H. Rider Haggard (back then, his books were called adventures, not thrillers).  I read a lot more sci-fi back then, now not so much (too much of today’s sci-fi doesn’t pass my “reasonable extrapolation” criterion).

Please present us your series: Detectives Chen and Castilblanco; Mary Jo Melendez; Clones and Mutants; The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.

The seven novels in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” are mystery/thriller books.  Because NYPD homicide cops Dao-Ming Chen and Rolando Castilblanco have military backgrounds, they have many skills that can be used for fighting all kinds of crime, from gun smuggling to international terrorism. There’s a mix of local (NYC), national (US), and international settings too as the detectives feel compelled to fight crime at many levels.

My favorites are The Midas Bomb (a dirty bomb figures in this one, but it also deals with immigration), Aristocrats and Assassins (royals help the detectives out in a terrorism case), and The Collector (where I first consider my thesis that stolen art can be used as collateral to finance all sorts of nasty activities).  Some of these books—Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, for example—come close to being police procedurals.  Angels Need Not Apply has al Qaeda, a cartel, and a militia teeming up to create havoc; Family Affairs might make you think twice about taking a cruise; and Gaia and the Goliaths reflects my preoccupation with environmental issues.  All these novels can be read independently, but it’s probably fun to read them in order to watch the main characters grow.  (I didn’t list them in order here.)

The “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” contains my first published novel, Full Medical.  I had to learn some genetics and bioengineering to write this book.  The title of the series describes the content—these are sci-fi mystery/thriller novels (crime in the future, if you will). In the third book, No Amber Waves of Grain, I postulate a unified Korea that contains some insidious residues from the north.  By the way, the clones and mutants are the good guys in the series, and the villain in The Midas Bomb is still doing his mischief (you have to read the books to find out how he manages to do that).

The “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” will soon become a trilogy (see below).  Although I have many main characters who are strong, smart women (Dao-Ming, for example), ex-USN Master-at-Arms Mary Jo might be the toughest so far.  I’ve been rather unfair to her—she goes through a lot in this series.  The first book is more international in scope while the second takes place in the Silicon Valley.  (You’ll have to wait for the third’s setting.)  Featured throughout are Mary Jo’s friends, the MECHs (“Mechanically Enhanced Cybernetic Humans”).  I call these novels mysteries because it’s always a mystery who’s after Mary Jo.

The last series probably isn’t appropriate for Indie Crime Fiction, but I’ll include a brief note on the Chaos Chronicles: it starts in near-future dystopia and ends in the far future.  #3, in particular, features a futuristic criminal; he’s to my trilogy as the Mule was to Asimov’s (apologies to anyone who hasn’t read the latter).  I recently published a bundle containing the entire trilogy.  

 

Please introduce us your mystery novel, Rembrandt's Angel, and its main character, Esther Brookstone.

Not for lack of trying at the beginning of my publishing career, this novel represents my first venture into traditional publishing with an indie publisher (AKA small press).  Three simple reasons motivated me to do this after so many indie books: (1) Although those other books are indie, I’ve never been 100% DIY, so I always have to spring for production costs (editing, formatting, and cover art). They’re not that onerous for just one book, even if I also do print, but a small press allows me to avoid them.  (2) The final manuscript turned out to be a wee bit longer than my other novels, so I wondered if my patience might wear thin publishing it as an indie.  I might have had to eliminate those other cases that help define Esther’s character.  (I often have to pare a novel down to size, but I didn’t want to do so with this one.)  And (3) I liked the indie publisher’s catalog and authors and the prospects for some TLC and not having to go it alone.  It was an interesting, learning experience I’ll probably keep having with my next traditionally published book.

Both this novel and my novel The Collector present my unique thesis that stolen artwork can be used as collateral for other nefarious criminal activity. In Rembrandt’s Angel, Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, has to manage Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering the Rembrandt, “An Angel with Titus’ Features” (this is a real painting), stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Esther’s mission becomes deadlier and different from her usual cases in the Art and Antiques Division of the Yard (a few of those are also considered in the book). The duo takes readers on a wild tour of Europe and South America before the story reaches its climax, as they find out what the stolen paintings are used to finance. In the process, the couple’s romantic interludes become a full-blown romance.

Esther Brookstone isn’t your typical female main character.  She’s in her early sixties and thinking about retirement, but she often acts twenty years younger.  She’s also been widowed three times.  Will Bastiann, twenty years younger, become her fourth husband?  Will she give up her independent life to tie the knot?  Her colleagues call her Miss Marple, mostly behind her back, and Bastiann is compared to Poirot because he looks like the actor who played Christie’s Belgium detective (Bastiann is Dutch, but he had a French mother). The book is dedicated to Agatha and her two famous characters, by the way.

My earlier novel, The Collector, also features Esther and Bastiann in cameo roles, and he also appears in Aristocrats and Assassins and Gaia and the Goliaths. These three ebooks are part of the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.”  Rembrandt’s Angel can be considered a spinoff.  I should mention that the book and the detective series are part of a much extended fictional timeline that also includes “Clones and Mutants” and “Chaos Chronicles.”  (Yes, it’s not easy keeping it all straight.)

What, in your opinion, are the most important qualities for a writer?

            N. Scot Momaday, my old UC Santa Barbara English teacher, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Native American novelist, said it’s perseverance.  I’ll go along with that.  Another worthwhile quality: having fun writing.  If you’re not having fun, why do it?  Don’t worry too much about lots of reviews and lots of readers.  Kurt Vonnegut said novels are entertainment.  I always say that if one of my stories entertains just one reader, then it’s a success.

            As a corollary to all that, a writer still must understand the business of writing.  No publisher today is going to help much in the marketing arena.  I’m terrible at it, but we have to realize that it’s difficult for readers to discover our books—there are so many good authors and good books now, we must have reasonable expectations.  And we must help readers find our books.

What would you say, can anybody write a good book, if s(he) works hard? Or is innate talent needed to become a writer?

One great thing about the digital revolution is that it created the indie movement.  Writers frustrated by hundreds of rejections from agents and big publishers could still have their chance at storytelling.  Some, like Hugh Howie and Mark Weir, went the indie route and did incredibly well; many others, not so much, but at least we could put our stories out there.  The digital revolution also gave new life to indie publishers, or small presses, much for the same reasons.

Many people have good story ideas.  They can collect what-ifs, plot and character ideas, possible settings, snippets of clever dialogue, and so forth.  Then it gets hard.  Assembling a good story out of what’s been collected requires some knowledge about writing: the hook, how to use flashbacks and background material, creating a happy mix between narrative and action, introspection and dialogue, when to use slang and how to avoid erudite language, and so forth.  Acquiring that knowledge can be hard work.  Innate talent helps here; hard work can compensate for limitations.

Writing is like most skills: the more one does it, the better the writer becomes at doing it. No concert pianist jumps in and becomes a maestro overnight.  We should always be practicing and learning.  A lot of the latter can be accomplished via osmosis by reading a lot of books, especially in the author’s target genres, but not restricted to those.       

What’s more difficult for you — to start a book or to finish a book? Why?

Starting a novel is easy.  Finishing one is often difficult, especially when it needs a lot of background (AKA research).  Along the way, you might decide that some story element determines that the story better serves readers as a short story or novella, and not a novel.  I’ve learned to be reasonable about all this.  Also to sit on the story for a bit before making any final decisions I might regret later (like never choosing a pen name—do you know how many Steven Moores are out there?).

            Writers often fret over the “hook.”  There’s nothing wrong with going back and adding that as content, or reworking what you already have; I often do.  One problem Christie had was with denouement—hers often seem strange today (are Christie lovers going to take me to task for saying this?). Finishing a book is tricky.  I have to work at it.  If it’s any consolation, Beethoven wrote three versions of the end of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony.  I work until I believe my endings are right, but I also pay attention to my father’s maxim (he was a painter): Don’t keep reworking the painting because the colors will become all muddy.

When may we expect your next book? What will it be about?

            I have several projects that are in their last stages for publication.  Manuscripts for Goin’ the Extra Mile (Mary Jo Melendez #3) and The Last Humans are done.  The first is a mystery/thriller and is now with beta-readers; it should be out this fall or early next year.  The second is a post-apocalyptic thriller in the editing process at another small press, Black Opal Books (publication scheduled for early 2019).

I’m also working on a sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel; it will involve Botticelli.  It’s requiring a lot more research than the first novel.  With any luck, I will finish Chen & Castilblanco #8 soon; it will feature Castilblanco’s adopted son and daughter.

I’m always writing short stories and novellas, but I now tend to give those away as free PDFs (see the list at my website).  They offer readers a painless way to discover my fiction.

            My collaborator A. B. Carolan took my short story “Marcello and Me” (found in the collection Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape) and turned it into the YA sci-fi mystery The Secret of the Urns (a mystery set on a satellite of a gas giant).  That should also be out this fall sometime.  (He’s taken over all the writing for young adults, with some consulting but mostly cheering from me, and also contributes short stories to my blog.)

            I’ll stop writing when it ceases to become fun…or the Grim Reaper comes for me. 

  

About Steven M. Moore:

Steve’s interest in printed media (pre-kinder learning to read and write by filling in balloons in his own comic books, and first novel written the summer he turned thirteen) and early reading of mature sci-fi novels, mysteries, and adventures (today the latter would be called thrillers) led him at an early age to declare, “I can write entertaining and intriguing stories too.” Like many, though, he had to postpone his aspirations to support himself and later his family, so he opted for training in scientific fields—math and science seemed easy at the time, and the immediate post-Sputnik era provided the necessary financial aid as his training took him from UC Santa Barbara to UMass Amherst.

After years of academic teaching and research in the U.S. and South America, he had collected so many what-ifs, plot ideas, character sketches, themes, dialogue snippets, and potential settings that his muses (really banshees with Tasers), knowing he’d never suffer from writer’s block, told him to get busy and start publishing. After fifteen years of doing so, and the publication of many novels, he’s still going strong.

His travels around Europe, South America, and the U.S., for work or pleasure, taught him a lot about the human condition and our wonderful human diversity, a learning process that started during his childhood in California’s San Joaquin Valley. What he learned affects his storytelling, but he also learned to respect and appreciate Kurt Vonnegut’s opinion that writing fiction is an entertainment business (unlike Vonnegut, Steve doesn’t mind semicolons when used properly), reaffirming his desire to entertain with his fiction. The corollary to that is N. Scott Momaday’s confession: “I simply kept my goal in mind and persisted. Perseverance is a large part of writing.” Steve used his old UCSB English professor’s words as a mantra in his own life.

Steve also maintains an active website with weekly new content—some of his blog posts on writing have appeared around the internet, especially “The Eightfold Way”—and he has encouraged and supported other writers with book reviews (his last one was a review of Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci, found on Bookpleasures) and interviews. He’s also been interviewed on several websites, including Feathered Quill. He has a Facebook author page and is active there and on Goodreads. He is now a full-time writer and, whether writing articles, short stories, novellas, or novels, he enjoys every minute of it.

Steve has lived in California, Indiana, Maryland, and Massachusetts, as well as Colombia, where he learned to dream in Spanish and appreciate Gabo’s prose skills and Neruda’s poetry in Castellano. He and his wife now live in Montclair, NJ, just thirteen miles west of the Lincoln Tunnel.

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