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From Crimespree
Magazine No. 11, March/April 2006
A
View From the Other Side:
A Literary
Critic Talks About His
Fiction Writing Experiences
An Interview with Henry Kisor
By Michael A.
Black
M. Black: Today I'm interviewing Mr.
Henry Kisor,
who's
the book editor and literary columnist of my favorite newspaper, the
Chicago Sun-Times. After having read Henry's reviews for a number of
years, I was surprised to find out in 2003 that he'd written a mystery
novel. I picked up Season's Revenge and enjoyed it
immensely.
This past December his second novel, A Venture into Murder,
was
released. It features the same character, Porcupine County Deputy
Sheriff Steve Martinez, a Native American lawman who has a  healthy
respect for the deep woods of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Mr. Kisor,
thank you the opportunity to interview you.
H. Kisor: Many thanks for the
opportunity to be
interviewed!
Black: Let's get right down to brass
tacks. You've
spent
your whole life as a newspaperman. Plus, you've written three
nonfiction books. Why did you choose to write a novels rather than more
nonfiction, and why mysteries in particular?
Kisor: I had a filing cabinet full of
research for a
nonfiction book about the Upper Peninsula -- it was going to be my
fourth book -- but I could not find the heart, the core, of the story.
I thought perhaps the tale of a serial killer could be the framework on
which I could hang the book, but the only serial killer I could find
dispatched just two victims. Not much of a serial killer. Then one day
it came to me that I could create my own story, and the mystery genre
seemed the best to work with. I've been a mystery reader for a long
time and felt comfortable writing one. Besides, I'm getting on in
years, and field research for the kinds of nonfiction books I do --
about railroading and aviation -- is getting physically harder. Writing
mysteries comes more from the imagination than it does research,
although the latter is of course important.
Black: And why did you decide to write
about the
Upper
Peninsula of Michigan? Isn't it a lonely and remote place where not
much goes on?
Kisor:
You remember
the
movie "Fargo" and its advertising tagline: "A lot goes on in the middle
of nowhere." The same thing is true of the U.P. It's lonely and remote,
but a remarkable lot goes on there. I discovered that over 37 summers
on the shore of Lake Superior.
Black: Your protagonist, Steve Martinez,
is Lakota
Sioux
by birth, but he was adopted and brought up in a white culture on the
East Coast. Why did you choose to give him that kind of background?
Kisor: I'm deaf, but was brought up in
the hearing
culture. People expect me to know sign language, but I don't. Often
they find that hard to deal with because it upsets their expectations
and assumptions. Steve is also caught between two stools. He looks
Indian but thinks white. People often don't know how to take that --
and sometimes he doesn't, either. I had a good time transferring some
of my experiences, both good and bad, as a
deaf-man-in-the-hearing-world to a Lakota-in-the-white world.
Black: Your mysteries seem almost
low-key, with
little of
the breakneck plotting we've become accustomed to in recent years. Why
is this so?
Kisor: I'm a dinosaur, I guess. To me,
character
development, building of detail and honing of prose style are as
important as the plot. The Upper Peninsula is a character in my novels,
not merely a vague background setting, and it's important to me to
paint its details. I try to emulate one of my favorite writers, P.D.
James, whose stately mysteries move slowly in the beginning but grab
you by the throat at the end.
Black: I've noticed that your books
involve things
that
happened long ago that are tied into the mystery in the present. Sort
of like the sins of the past coming back to roost. Would you care to
comment on that?
Kisor: It's true. Present-day life does
not exist in
a
vacuum. It is deeply affected by what has gone before. Much of the
history of the Upper Peninsula is dark and violent. The place is full
of fascinating secrets, and people have long memories. All this is gold
for the mystery novelist.
Black: The description of Steve's
experience in the
absolute darkness of the Venture Mine in your second book is both
frightening and fascinating. How did you research such a scene?
Kisor: Some years ago my wife and I took
our boys
deep
into a cavern in the Black Hills. It was a beautiful, mesmerizing place
-- until the guide, to show us what pitch blackness was really like,
turned out the lights. I very nearly lost my cool. And, many decades
later, when as a student pilot I flew into dense cloud -- which you
might call pitch gray, so featureless was it-- I experienced exactly
the same intense discomfort, the sensation that I did not know which
way was up. For Venture I pulled out those two memories and melded them.
Black: In your first novel, Season's
Revenge,
which has just been released in paperback, you have a very unusual
murder weapon. Have you had any personal experience with bears?
Kisor: All my experiences with bears
have been at
arm's
length, fortunately, watching them in the zoo or behind a fence at
roadside restaurants in the U.P. I do believe in experiencing the
things one writes about, but so far as bears are concerned, I'm happy
just to observe from a distance instead. Not that they're dangerous
animals -- they're not, so long as you allow them plenty of room.
Black: You mentioned that you have the
third Steve
Martinez novel finished. Can you tell us a little about what's in store
for him next time out?
Kisor: He's stumped about several
corpses found
secreted
in different places in the woods at different times. They are all
missing their heads and their hands -- and they are embalmed. Exactly
what crime is Steve looking at? Murder? Body-snatching? Or just illegal
disposition of human bodies? Who put them there -- and why? And why are
they missing heads and hands?
Black: That sounds interesting. Why did
you choose
to
write a series rather than a stand-alone novel, and what are the
benefits and disadvantages to doing the series?
Kisor: Writing Season's Revenge
was so
satisfying
I wanted to try another, and I wanted to find out what happened to
Steve Martinez and his friends, because they had become so real to me.
The advantage of a series is that your main characters and their
setting have already been established, and the task here is just to
develop them a bit more as well as come up with new plots. But in a
series you are constrained by the history of what has gone before --
you have to make sure the details in a new book don't contradict those
in the older book. Continuity must be maintained.
Black: Do you see doing as many books in
your series
as
say, Robert B. Parker?
Kisor: Wouldn't I ever love to! Parker
is one of my
inspirations. I enjoy the witty byplay in his novels. But he's got a
hell of a head start on me. I would consider myself lucky if I managed
to get six or seven novels written before hanging up the laptop.
Black: Do you have any plans to have
Steve visit
Chicago
in a future book?
Kisor: The idea has occurred to me. I
had a dream
once in
which Steve walked into a working-class Polish bar on the Northwest
Side and was challenged to a fight because of his Indian looks. He was
able to defuse the situation without having to resort to violence.
Something like that happened, however, in Season's Revenge,
so
I don't think I can use it again. But I'm intrigued about what might
happen when a deputy sheriff from the North Woods comes down to Chicago
seeking information about a case.
Black: Your day job is as a book editor
and
literary
critic for a newspaper. Has this helped or hindered you as a mystery
writer?
Kisor: It's allowed me to read a lot of
mysteries
and get
paid for it. I've been able to absorb some of the tricks and techniques
of other mystery writers, and to appreciate the huge range of the
genre, from the genteel literary mystery to the slice-em, dice-em
whodunit. But I've had to be careful who I read. I'd like to read other
North Woods mystery writers like William Kent Krueger and Steve
Hamilton, but I don't, for fear of unconsciously stealing something
from them that I shouldn't.
Black: Having been a book reviewer for a
number of
years,
what was it like to be on the other side of the situation, waiting for
the critics to review your first novel?
Kisor: Terrifying. Don't let anybody
tell you they
don't
read their reviews. They do, and they're elated when the reviews are
good and crushed when they're bad. One thing I've noticed is that a lot
of reviewers get things wrong -- they misstate facts about the book,
get the plot cockeyed, and get nasty because that morning some other
critic has been unpleasant about one of their own books. It makes me
realize that maybe I've done the same thing in my reviews of other
people's books. Getting reviewed, I hope, has made me a more careful
and compassionate reviewer.
Black: What mystery authors do you enjoy
the most,
and who
do you feel has been your greatest influence as a writer?
Kisor: This is a tough question, because
there are
so
many. I've mentioned P.D. James and Robert B. Parker. I also like Ruth
Rendell, I admire what George P. Pelecanos does with his Washington,
D.C., setting and what Michael Connelly does with his plots. Sara
Paretsky and Barbara D'Amato are also favorites. They have all
influenced me greatly.
Black: Henry, I've enjoyed meeting you
and doing
this
interview. I admire you greatly, both as a writer and as a man. Thank
you for your time.
Kisor: Likewise. Many thanks for doing
me the honor
of an
interview.
Michael
A. Black
is
a
Chicago area writer. His latest novel is Freeze Me, Tender (Five
Star).
Copyright 2006 Crimespree Magazine |
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