Interview with John Burns, author of The Glass Alibi (NICK SLOAN CRIME THRILLERS BOOK 1)
Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview John Burns, whose novel The Glass Alibi we featured on July 12.
The short answers are: the adaptation was much more difficult that I had thought. To understand what must transpire you have to understand the formatting of each form. A screenplay is written in active present tense, that is everything is happening right now. The camera sees all, and the actors have their lines and the interplay of emotions. Whereas a novel like The Glass Alibi is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator who knows all but reveals only what is necessary to motivate the scene.
The entire feel of a novel begs for descriptive narrative, whereas in a screenplay, economy paints the picture that plants the seeds of inspiration for the producers and the director. It is the director who makes the artistic decisions: the look, feel, even the emotion of the actors' lines and ultimately the vision of the whole picture. Readers, on the other hand, want descriptive narrative. The trick is how to go from mode to mode while keeping the same storyline, the same character personalities and the same tension without the story losing a sense of itself.
As a writer, you won four REMI awards in one night at the Houston International Film Festival. Please can you tell us something about that?
As a writer, you won four REMI awards in one night at the Houston International Film Festival. Please can you tell us something about that?
I was floored. My scripts were submitted without my identification attached. Each script was assigned a number and submitted to a panel of producers and movie industry professionals. Months passed before the award notifications came into my office. The surprises kept coming as each award notification was separated by several days or weeks. I won in three categories: (1 bronze) comedy, (2 silver) drama and (1 gold) for animation.
The Glass Alibi is described as Noir, Pulp Fiction, and set in San Francisco. What atmosphere did you want to evoke and what makes it specific to that city?
The Glass Alibi is described as Noir, Pulp Fiction, and set in San Francisco. What atmosphere did you want to evoke and what makes it specific to that city?
Noir by description means dark and dangerous. I guess the stuff one might expect from films like The Big Sleep, Double Indemnity, and The Maltese Falcon. Things like melancholy, alienation, bleakness, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia. The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Houston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor is possible the greatest of all American produced films Noir. It takes place in San Francisco. I live in San Francisco, so what better place to put my story than in one of the greatest cities the world has ever known?
Tell us about your protagonist, Private Eye Nick Sloan. What sort of man - and detective - is he?
Tell us about your protagonist, Private Eye Nick Sloan. What sort of man - and detective - is he?
He’s the type of guy who looks like he can be easily taken in by the sob story and or money. But underneath is a guy that’s tough as shoe leather— his look and awkward manner hides a shark that will not be corrupted or influenced to go on ‘the take’. He likes putting the bad guys in jail, but he also has a heart and knows who needs to be saved from the gallows.
The story begins when a beautiful woman, Elizabeth Burnett, shows up at his office and enlists his help, but soon Sloan finds himself in deep water. How does he set about solving the crime?
The story begins when a beautiful woman, Elizabeth Burnett, shows up at his office and enlists his help, but soon Sloan finds himself in deep water. How does he set about solving the crime?
He investigates which means he gathers information against what he been told. He’s been at it a long time and is not easily fooled. He is a man and Elizabeth Burnett is a wealthy, gorgeous and vulnerable-looking temptress, who was raped and who had a millions stolen from her. Her story is as real as the beauty Sloan must ignore to evaluate the situation. He knows well enough to take things a day at a time.
The plot concerns a killer (or killers) who murders victims according to the Seven Deadly Sins. Is there an element of dark humour in that idea?
The plot concerns a killer (or killers) who murders victims according to the Seven Deadly Sins. Is there an element of dark humour in that idea?
Not in that idea. Greed, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth are the sins and they all come into play in The Glass Alibi. Elizabeth is not as she seems and her friends and lovers (as wealthy as they are) are not so innocent, to say the least.
The milieu is that of ultra-wealthy San Francisco socialites. Is the reader on the side of the victims - or the killer?
Beauty and wealth can always sway one’s evaluation of a person, good guy, or gal. That is the quagmire Sloan must wade through to find the truth or face the consequences.
The story is set in 1982. How is that date significant?
The story is set in 1982. How is that date significant?
I could have set it in the 1950’s and it would have been much the same. I chose the 80’s because America had grown up since the 50’s I grew up in. There were virtually no cell phones in the early 80’s and for this current generation of readers, that time belt is one they can relate to; it’s sort of their ancient history.
You were born in 1945 and your bio hints at an adventurous and unconventional life. Can you tell us more?
You were born in 1945 and your bio hints at an adventurous and unconventional life. Can you tell us more?
I grew up in post WW2. We were the last generation to live through rationing, and the sting of the Great Depression. Television did not exist. We went outside to play. We walked to school. My imagination was my best friend. We actually grew up in a time of innocence and security and never experienced the horrors of mass shootings and what the current generations must accept as the new normal. I grew up in an America I honestly wish everyone could experience. I got to travel the world and live in fascinating places when the world was not so overpopulated or crazy.
As a former cable TV Executive, you set up the first cable production featuring the films of director Akira Kurosawa. What led to your interest in Kurosawa and his movies?
As a former cable TV Executive, you set up the first cable production featuring the films of director Akira Kurosawa. What led to your interest in Kurosawa and his movies?
When I was a kid I got to go to the movies on Saturday. It cost 25 cents—the price of admission, a box of popcorn and a soft drink. The program always included a Newsreel that was sandwiched between cartoons and a Serialize movie. I never wanted to miss an episode but the newsreels were the only look at the world outside of where I lived. I was fascinated by the newsreels, the information they contained, and movies and film making in general. I guess that fascination has never gone away.
As a result, I’ve always sought better stories and film making techniques. Kurosawa mesmerized me. His films became a study for me and for some of the greatest film makers of my time. Hidden Fortress was the film George Lucas used to create Star Wars. John Sturges based The Magnificent Seven on The Seven Samurai. Clint Eastwood, directed by Sergio Leone, used Kurosawa’s Yojimbo to create A Fistful of Dollars, and Sanjuro to create For A Few Dollars More. I still prefer Kurosawa’s work to any of the Hollywood producers who either credited him for his cinematic genius or outright stole his work. The performances of Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai and Takashi Shimura are priceless and incomparable to anything that’s ever come out of Hollywood, all because of their natural talent and the direction of Akira Kurosawa.
For film buffs, Kurosawa’s little-known, 3 hour and 5 minute film Red Beard is, without a doubt, one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen. It leaves one shaking in wonder at the human condition and haunts one for weeks after viewing it. Kurosawa shaped the way I directed my actors and by directing those same thespians, I became a better writer.
You mention that you loved telling stories as a child, and have never ceased. Has the story-telling impulse changed over the years?
You mention that you loved telling stories as a child, and have never ceased. Has the story-telling impulse changed over the years?
No. Not one bit.
Again in your bio, it says you studied creative writing and screenwriting, produced and directed for San Francisco’s Bannam Palace Theater, and created RadioMystery.com. What can you tell your readers about these things?
Again in your bio, it says you studied creative writing and screenwriting, produced and directed for San Francisco’s Bannam Palace Theater, and created RadioMystery.com. What can you tell your readers about these things?
Each of these situations were individual experiences in how they contributed to the development of my skills as a writer/director and producer. Writing scripts, producing and directing for Radio Mystery was entirely different than writing, producing and directing for live theatre. There are similarities but it would take a book to describe the differences. I can say each was wholly gratifying in their own way. I prefer live theatre.
Are there any writers of crime or other fiction whose work you love, and who have influenced you?
Are there any writers of crime or other fiction whose work you love, and who have influenced you?
A very short list includes: Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Dick Francis, Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, Agatha Christie, Robert B. Parker, Jeffery Archer and James Clavell. Really… the list is almost endless.
Have you any plans to write a sequel to The Glass Alibi?
Have you any plans to write a sequel to The Glass Alibi?
The second of my three Nick Sloan novels. Again, it’s adapted from my screenplay. It’s called Blue on Battery Street.
What are you planning to do next?
What are you planning to do next?
My plate is pretty full right now, but I’d like to go back to Paris for six weeks in the Fall.
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About John Burns:
John Burns is the author of The Glass Alibi, a hard-boiled crime/thriller, set in the hard times of the 1980's.
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