Library Journal

The Killer Genre
By Wilda W. Williams - April 15, 2007
New talent and publishing initiatives for mystery readers.

Start-up Colorado publisher Capital Crime Press found rousing success in 2006. "In our first year [of business], we had six new authors making a splash," says senior editor Alex Cole. Robert Fate's Baby Shark, a gritty noir crime novel set in 1950s Texas that is a finalist for Foreword magazine's 2006 Book of the Year, got the biggest bites, along with Troy Cook's comic crime caper, 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers, named a "Killer Book" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association (IMBA) and nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery at this year's Left Coast Crime convention in Seattle.

Cole, a former film producer, likens publishing to the movie business, pointing out that independent production companies more often discover new talent than the big conglomerates because it is easier for them to take risks. "We want to do the same thing in publishing," he states. "We want to be the ones who discover the amazing new talents of today."

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Mickey Spillane's no-nonsense approach helped me with tone, and I took to heart Elmore Leonard's and Stephen King's advice to kill my darlings and excise adverbs. And if I can ever learn to turn a phrase as well as Joe Lansdale, I will die a happy man. Add to that Barbara Seranella, Janet Dawson, Barbara Fister, Noreen Ayres, my mother, my wife, two sisters, and a daughter who all have taught me how strong women behave, and you have it. I also wished for a protagonist who reaches beyond what is commonly expected of a normal woman while staying within the bounds of the realism required by traditional crime fiction. Kristin bleeds the same as the rest of us, but you have to be tough to make her bleed.

Your sequel, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues (LJ 2/15/07), debuts in May. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone has had a long run as a private investigator and hasn't aged much at all. Do you foresee a similar fate for Kristin?

Kristin is 17 on the first page of Baby Shark and 19 at the end. She is 21 in the second book. The plan, if Kristin agrees to it, is for her to age slowly—wouldn't we all like that? I think she will get tougher as she goes along, if only to survive. But how Kristin resolves her emotional wounds only time will tell.

Baby Shark was the talk of the Internet, touted on mystery discussion lists like DorothyL and Yahoo groups like 4-Mystery-Addicts. Were you surprised by the response, and how do you think the Internet affects book sales?

It was a test, really, asking to be read on sites inhabited by serious readers and writers who discuss crime fiction without holding back their opinions. I jumped in because I wanted to learn if my debut novel was going to be accepted by an audience larger than my family, friends, and publisher. Internet mystery sites—blogs and online magazines with reviewers and large followings—are important, too. I believe the net affects book sales in a meaningful way. Readers who email me and approach me at book conventions and festivals come from all over the world. If that's not an example of the power of the Internet's word of mouth, I'm not sure what is. And was I surprised by the positive reaction to Baby Shark? You bet I was, and delighted, too.

Not many writers can boast of winning an Academy Award for Technical Achievement, or of being a model or a chef. You've obviously taken the long and winding road to writing a book. What led you to crime fiction?

We're the result of many influences, aren't we? Where and how we are raised and all that time out in the world. So, sure, eight years as a marine, then studying at universities here and in Europe, working as a roughneck in the Oklahoma oilfields and a fashion model in New York, being a chef in L.A. and a sales exec in Las Vegas, writing and producing films, working in motion picture special effects—to anyone paying attention, this means stories to tell. Why a crime thriller series? I like to read it, so that is why I chose to write it.—Stacy Alesi, Boca Raton, FL

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Let's Do Lunch - The World According to J.B.

Musings from the mind of J.B. Thompson, author
and soccer Mom

3.09.2007

Yes, I know ... it's been too long. If you're dropping in after having been gone for a while, welcome back! The decor has changed a bit here in the Lunch Room, so feel free to have a look around.

I'm very excited to have Robert Fate as my guest today, and I know you're going to love him as much as I do. So find a seat, order a glass of iced tea, sit back and enjoy ...

Robert Fate, author of BABY SHARK and BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES (May 2007), is a member of The Writers Guild of America - West, Mystery Writers of America, the Los Angeles and National chapters of Sisters in Crime, and the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers.

[JB] So, here we are at last! First, let me congratulate you on BABY SHARK and BEAUMONT BLUES - these are fantastic books.

You've written poetry, short stories, magazine articles, journals, stage plays, and TV and Motion Picture scripts, and if I may quote, you've said, "it was a long, scenic road to novels." Can you share a little of that journey with us?

[Robert] For you, JB, anything. Let's see. I have made up stories as long as I can remember. My older sister encouraged my imagination by taking me to two double features on most Saturdays as I was growing up. Writing plays and skits started early, too, and seemed a natural thing to do. Acting was a part of that, too. I was in so many school plays I am amazed that my peers didn't rise up and put a stop to it - enough of him, already. So, I have always been a writer - and it has taken different forms. Here's an example. A friend of mine became head writer for a soap opera - and that's not an easy feat, let me tell you. Anyway, he called me in L.A. and asked if I would come to New York and write scripts with him. I requested a week to watch the show (since I had never seen a soap) and called him back. "It's all middle," I said. "No beginning. No ending. All middle." Anyway, I did it. And I gained a lot of respect for the writers of soaps during the time I did it, too. Just like anything else, it's all work, work, work. I guess my point is that each time an opportunity to write something has presented itself, I have seriously tried to meet the challenge. You know, learn the form and write. And then, finally, came the novel - a format that had always frightened me. My good friend, Bruce Cook, told me to stop whining and get busy. Uh huh, well, it still scares me, but as usual I will stick with it until I learn how to do it.

[JB] Tell us a little about Kristin Van Dijk - you do such a wonderful job of portraying this 17-year-old girl from her own point of view - what made you decide to take this approach with your protagonist?

[Robert] Who knows where ideas come from? But I think Kristin grew from a desire I had to do something different. I wanted to write crime stories. I was sure of that, and it seemed to me there were enough well written burned out cops, hard drinking P.I.s, and rogue assassins, so maybe a young woman - nice working class background, but with a few issues. It might work - if she could somehow be dangerous enough to take her adversaries off guard. So then it was a matter of approach, wasn't it? Since I value realism I wanted Kristin to become a believably tough customer right before our eyes - high school girl grows up fast, but remains vulnerable. If the young men we send off to war can be trained to kill, why can't a young woman be trained in a similar fashion? But why would she learn to kill? What would give her the desire, the resolve? Thus was born the story Baby Shark: a woman's worst nightmares, the recovery, and the revenge. And, from that, a protagonist for a series - well, there was the part about how does a guy my age write for a young woman. That was the most exacting work, but putting an ear to it got it done. Growing up, I knew my mother and two sisters were strong, intelligent women. My wife and daughter are strong and intelligent, as are my women friends. You're a writer, JB. You know. It's research and rewrites until it meets the standard you've established.

In reference to the point of view - I like the idea of Kristin and the reader moving at the same speed, hearing, seeing, smelling - experiencing everything together. I like the urgency that it creates. And besides, one head is plenty for me to be into.

[JB] Why set the books in 1950s Texas?

[Robert] The 50s and Texas - well, I knew that I didn't want drug dealers or cell phones or computers in my stories, so that was part of why the 50s. Also, I liked that period after WWII when women were being asked to go back home and be wives and mothers, after Rosie The Riveter has just shown them how to earn the same money as a man doing the same kind of work. It wasn't all Ozzie and Harriet like TV and movies would have you believe, although women still had doors opened for them, and men took off their hats and stood when a woman entered the room, etc. The 50s were a time of decision for women, an edgy time, when many believed the bounds of convention needed some pushing around, while others thought women should "stay in their place." I wanted Kristin to be a woman ahead of the curve, and the 50s seemed perfect for that. Women were growing wings, but they weren't flying yet - the 60s and 70s would see women breathing oxygen.

And Texas? If you have traveled the state you know the drama that exists there in the geography alone. From the eastern forestland to the western prairies to the high planes of the Panhandle - the state has it all, and also it's just big. Big in an anything-is-possible kind of way. It's seriously wild and woolly there. People carry guns in Texas. Don't think they don't. They especially carried guns in the 50s. If you will recall, national public figures were being assassinated in Dallas in the mid-60s. I rest my case.

[JB] You've studied extensively, including at universities in Greece and France. How did living in a different culture influence you?

[Robert] It made me sooo sophisticated. Uh huh. I suppose I could carry on about being humbled by the art and architecture, but the fact is I was eighteen and nineteen when I was living in Japan, Korea, and China and in my early twenties when I was living in London and Paris and not that much older when I was living in Greece. So, rather than being humbled, I was mostly blown away - or maybe stunned would be a better way of putting it - by environments and situations that could not have been more different from those I knew as a boy in Oklahoma. The people, I came to learn quickly enough, were pretty much the same everywhere. That is why a good story works universally. I am asked how proficient my French is, since I lived in Paris for two and a half years and studied at the Sorbonne, and I remind folks that until they have heard French spoken with an Oklahoma accent, they haven't lived. Once in Paris, a butcher shop owner had me wait a minute while he called his wife from the back room. When she appeared, he asked me to ask for the chicken again. He either thought an accent as bad as mine deserved a larger audience, or he knew that he would never be able to imitate it.

[JB] Among the various jobs you've held over the years, you list an oilfield roughneck and a TV cameraman in Oklahoma, a fashion model in New York City, and a chef at a "chi-chi" L.A. eatery. What was the most interesting or unusual job you ever held and what made it so?

[Robert] Hands down, writing novels is the most interesting work I have ever done. I not only love doing it, it involves everything I have ever experienced, everyone I have ever known - as well as fictional characters. I have never been more challenged, never taken my work more seriously, and never been as anxious to sit down and get to it. Now, unusual - that's a different matter. Helping to develop an underwater vehicle? Dubbing English dialogue onto the sound tracks of French films? Working on the construction of a 13' tall animated Tyrannosaurus Rex? Filming Hawaiian waterfalls from a helicopter? Shoveling wheat in a Kansas grain elevator? Acting in a film with Penn & Teller? Frankly, JB, I don't know.

[JB] Let's talk about the Oscar. As a Hollywood F/X technician, you received an Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Sci-Tech Award for Technical Achievement (1984). Our readers would love to know more about this impressive honor. Without giving away any trade secrets, can you tell us a little about the screen design that earned you and Jonathan Erland this award? Is it being used today?

[Robert] The screen design and construction that earned us an Academy Award was part of a projection system that was developed to accommodate objects that were widely different in size. An example would be the huge worms and the normal-sized actors in the film Dune, or actors working against a backdrop of outer space, as in 2010. My wife, Fern, and I spent a wonderful year in Mexico while I oversaw the construction of two screens that were 38' tall and 104' long. They were built in place on sound stages at Churubusco Studios. It was an honor to have the Academy's recognition, and the evening Jon and I received our awards was quite memorable. I particularly remember how lovely Fern looked in a beautiful silk dress.

No, the technology is no longer in use. It has been replaced by CGI, computer generated images.

[JB] I love the story about Penn Jillette's nickname for you. Would you share that with our visitors?

[Robert] Sure. It is quintessential Penn. In 1984 or so, Fern, and I met with Penn & Teller, the Bad Boys of Magic, in advance of doing a theatrical project with them. At that meeting Penn asked me which I preferred being called, Bob or Robert? I said that I didn't care what he called me. And he said, "All right then, I'll call you Fluffy." So "Fluffy" I have been all this time. It teaches a lesson about being wishy washy, I'll tell you that.

[JB] Okay, the dog and four cats I understand, but how is it that a turtle helps with the empty nest thing while your daughter is away at college?

[Robert] What a life Pharrell, the turtle, has at our house. He owns a heat lamp, a delightful waterfall, and a piece of flat-topped furniture on which he suns himself between swims. Who ever had it so good? But let me tell you about this guy. He is all personality when my wife and daughter approach him, but hides under his furniture when he catches sight of me. So, that would imply he is a good judge of character, as well as being a Riviera bon vivant, would it not? So, naturally I want to be his friend. So, you see, the challenge of getting on the guy's good side is a full-time job for me now that Jenny is away at school. I think I'm making progress. However, my wife said recently, "I wouldn't put my hand in the water, if I were you." Stay tuned.

[JB] You're hard at work on the third installment of the Baby Shark series, but you say you're "being a fussbudget about the title"? Are you having trouble deciding on it or agreeing on it?

[Robert] It was back and forth with friends and publisher, but I ended up getting what I wanted. My disaster or my success, as it turns out. The discussion centered on the second word in the title. No one argued against Panhandle, it was what followed it that caused the heat. Caravan was considered too soft. The fear was the book would be mistaken for a cozy. "Too many brutal murders for a cozy," I pointed out. "Oh, go ahead then," I was told. "You'll see." I don't know. What do you think, JB? Does Baby Shark's Panhandle Caravan sound like a cozy or just a musical comedy? We could up the number of dead bodies if that would help.

[Personally? I think anyone who's read the books will picture a line of vintage 1950s midnight blue Cadillacs with pistols hanging out the windows, heading for north Texas ...]

[JB] What's next for Kristin? You've said you're going to stick with the novel writing for at least the immediate future - are you planning to continue the Baby Shark series a while or do you see yourself writing something different in the coming years?

[Robert] Kristin has some more adventures in her cue case, but there is a standalone I have in mind, too. Maybe I can slip it in somewhere over the next year or so. I would like to. It's a story that contains some woo woo, as a marvelous online mystery group likes to call the paranormal. But, for right now, as long as Kristin has something new to say, I think I'll stick with her.

[JB] Bob, thanks so much for stopping by the Lunch Room. It's been a pleasure having you here!

[Robert] It has been my pleasure JB - but one question for you about what you served at lunch today.

[JB] Yes?

[Robert] How did you know that I liked fried okra?

Robert Fate's BABY SHARK is available from Capital Crime Press through your favorite bookseller. BABY SHARK'S BEAUMONT BLUES will be released in May. Visit Bob's website at www.robertfate.com.

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NORM GOLDMAN INTERVIEW

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Robert Fate, author of Baby Shark. Good day Robert and thank you for agreeing to participate in our interview.

[Norm] Robert, please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background.

[Robert] You know, Norm, setting my stories in an around Fort Worth was no accident. I was born in Oklahoma and had kin in Texas. After graduating high school, it was the Marine Corps, and then all over the place while I was using up my G.I. Bill. I'd work a while, then go to school wherever I was California, Oklahoma, France, New York, Mexico, Greece. So, I had many different jobs during my early years of travel and adventure. I was always writing, of course, and some of that ended up on TV and in movie theaters. I also worked in motion picture special effects and was fortunate enough to have been rewarded with an Academy Award for technical achievement. But it's writing novels that has created the most interest for me I believe I ve found my passion.

[Norm] How did you come up with the ideas for Baby Shark? What methods do you use to flesh out your story to determine if it would be salable?

[Robert] In the 1950s and still today in some places a girl hesitated to admit being raped out of fear that she would be made responsible for what happened to her. What were you doing there? Look at the way you were dressed. You were just asking for it. All women know that what I'm saying is true. My idea was straightforward. I thought there should be a young woman who goes from being a victim to taking charge of her life at a time in history when it wasn t all that common.

As far as being salable I felt that if I did not allow the story to slide either into comic book fiction or melodramatic theatrics women would not be fearful of identifying with the heroine even if she were doing rather atypical things.

[Norm] Can you tell us how you found representation for your book?  Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections?

[Robert] Well, I went the regular way, I think. I mean I sent letters and chapters and sometimes a full manuscript to agents and I got back what I called good, bad, and indifferent rejections. Bad is bad. Indifferent was no response. But good rejections were letters from agents that I will never throw away. These agents actually told me what they liked and disliked and why. I heavily edited my novel before sending it out again and the suggestions offered by the good rejections played into the new version.

Also, by the time I was ready for a second attempt at representation, I'd had the opportunity to speak to a number of smaller presses. I found that I liked what they were offering not everyone's cup of tea, perhaps. But I liked what I heard. When I spoke to Capital Crime Press in particular, I felt confident that if they would have me, I wanted them. They offered me a deal, I took it, and I haven't been sorry.

[Norm] What challenges or obstacles did you encounter while writing your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

[Robert] Challenges and obstacles? Kristin, the protagonist in Baby Shark, goes from age 17 to age 19. I am not a woman and I am not in my late teens. The advantage I had was that not all young women speak the same way, have the same interests, or have been exposed to the same life-changing events and influences. In other words, it was really a matter of establishing who she was in a truthful and believable way and the rest would take care of itself. She's seventeen going on thirty, Kristin's dad says. You look nineteen, all right, Otis says later in the story. But you talk older. You carry yourself like an older woman, too. So, the characters in the book helped me out with that challenge, too.

[Norm] Do you recommend other authors find a niche or specialty? What have been the rewards for you?

[Robert] I think having a voice you re comfortable using is very important. Not all, but many of the opinions of my main characters are my opinions, as well. Perhaps the rewards would be that when your protagonist wins, the author wins a little, too.

[Norm] How much real-life do you put into your fiction? Is there much you in there?

[Robert] Oh, there are places I remember as a boy and as a young man places my characters get to visit again for me. Weather patterns that may sound fictitious, but are skies that I recall or wind moving over fields of grass or the activity of wild animals that were so plentiful across the prairies of Texas and Oklahoma. Sounds and scents that are as real to me today as they ever were when I first experienced them. I'm sorry, Norm. Did I get carried away there?

[Norm] How did you approach writing Kristin, Henry and Otis? Did you plan them out or did they evolve as you wrote the book?

[Robert] Great question. Well, I wanted an unlikely trio. A young, inexperienced woman who has lots of room to grow. A middle-aged Chinese immigrant who has lost much and has decided to lose no more, and a world-weary ex-cop-turned-P.I. who is more concerned with justice than law. There were no tight plans in reference to these three they have taught me more than I will ever be able to teach them. I over-wrote and then cut, cut, cut.

[Norm] You include some very detailed dialogues in the book. Philip Gerard in Writing a Book that Makes a Difference states that it is not simply sufficient to record the way people actually talk. It is important to construct dialogue that is concentrated, shaped, and dramatically moving, in a manner that we rarely hear in a real-life conversation. Do you agree with this and how did you apply this principle in your novel?

[Robert] Philip Gerard knows what he's talking about. Shaping dialogue cannot be overemphasized. Reading aloud and listening to what you have written are important, too. Each of us, writers and non-writers, are capable of wonderful moments in conversation. A child opening and closing her little hands and saying, I want something. I want something for my hands. How can that be improved? Listen, listen, listen.

[Norm] What would you say is Kristin's greatest strengths and weaknesses?

[Robert] Kristin is nineteen at the end of Baby Shark and twenty-one at the beginning of Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues. Knowing who she has become after a couple of years may be a surprise and will certainly interest the readers of this crime series. Her strengths and weaknesses are built into her associations, her loyalties, her friendships, her connections to her past all elements of danger to a woman with one foot in the world of crime... oh, oh. I hope I haven't given anything away.

[Norm] What is next for Robert Fate?

[Robert] Let's see Beaumont will be out in the spring of 2007 and by then I should have the major work completed or be finished with Baby Shark's Sooner Weekends. So, it's writing and getting about to signings, shows, expos and checking in with you, of course. It's so nice to have you interested in my work. I thank you for that.

[Norm] Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

[Robert] I hope to meet some of your readers and my readers as I get around reading and signing.

[Norm] Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.

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Mysterious Musings
Julia Buckley

How a Mystery Writer Views the World.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Robert Fate on His Name, His Mystery Series, and Why His Book Works in a Post-War Setting

I've been lucky enough to chat a bit with Robert Fate via e-mail. He has a special place in my heart, because although I only met him briefly at Bouchercon, he was the last person I saw when I drove away on the last day, and he raised a hand to wave at me. Since he looks a bit like a prophet, and his name is Fate, this seemed like very good juju.

Here I ask Robert about himself and about his book, Baby Shark.

[JB] Fate is actually your middle name. Why did your parents choose it? Were they fans of mythology? Or did they just like the concept?

[Robert] Well, Julia - my mother had a brother named Fate. My Uncle Fate had an Uncle Fate, and the way I understand it, somewhere way back there the name was related to the Marquis de Lafayette. That always made my father laugh. He claimed the only thread of truth in that story was that no one on my mother's side of the family could spell Lafayette. I'm sure you didn't mean to bring up a sore subject, but there you are.

[JB] Your book, Baby Shark, has garnered many positive reviews, has an interesting premise, and a great title. What did you think of first-the title, or the plot?

[Robert] Actually, the character came first. The idea of a young woman shooting pool appealed to me. And, if she were say a smart, well-read young woman who through circumstance finds herself in and out of west Texas pool halls for a year or two while traveling with her father, a pool hustler - hmmm. A situation like that would keep it from being an occupation forced on a young woman in the 1950s. Further, I thought it was kind of cool. Maybe she would be an interesting character full of contrasts. Maybe a character that readers hadn't met before.

The plot came next, but it depended on the character. I kept visualizing a Greyhound bus pulling away leaving a cloud of dust and grit through which we begin to see a figure emerging-walking toward us-telephoto, slow motion-a young woman in boots, tight blue jeans, a short Levi's jacket, sunglasses-a loner, confident, sexy-carrying a pool case-crossing the highway-a dry, west Texas afternoon. The filling station behind her becomes visible as the dust settles-some men watch her-the cars in the station are 1950 models. The story needed to be set in a time before cell phones, before CSI, before the issues that define present day crime fiction. Her "things" were going to be a pool cue and a pistol.

After that, it was the plot-what were women's worst nightmares? The title is Kristin's nickname and simply seemed logical as some point.

[JB] Your protagonist, Kristin Van Dijk, is only seventeen; she survives a brutal attack, vows to hunt down the men who killed her father, and teams up with Henry, a Chinese American who is also out for revenge.

First, how did you happen to create such an authentic voice for Kristin? Do you have a daughter, perhaps, who inspired some of her behaviors?

[Robert] Kristin's voice was not easy and still requires vigilance to keep her honest. I do, in fact, have a daughter who turns eighteen next month. And I'm sure that helped-certainly in establishing some habits and responses. But not so much voice. Remember, the time is 1952 through 1954. Kristin is nineteen and a half at the end of Baby Shark-but she burns a lot of life in those two years. The language was different, the slang, the regional dialects-that all continues to be a consideration.

[JB] Second, what steps did you take to keep Henry from becoming a stereotype? (Which I think you succeeded in doing).

[Robert] Here's the thing, Julia. I want readers to lose themselves in the story, and I feel obligated to not shock them with false-sounding dialogue or references that are not authentic. That's where candid critique comes in handy. I'm fortunate to have some friends who keep me honest.

Henry Chin - Hank, as Otis calls him, is pure imagination in one respect, but in another, a combination of people I have known who didn't start their lives in the U.S. Henry is the guy next door who came from somewhere else and is much smarter than most give him credit for being. He learned English late and will forever speak it with an accent. But how he speaks is not who he is. His unselfish love for Kristin. His heroism and loyalty. I think those attributes and others give him dimension and distance him from stereotype. He is a character necessary to the story first and a Chinese/American second.

[JB] Your prose is stark, yet suggests great depth. Has this always been your writing style, or is it just the style you wanted for this novel?

[Robert] The writing style evolved from a desire to make the story and characters paramount. I wanted the writer to disappear. Especially since Kristin is telling the story. She's well read and had a literate father who influenced her. She could use "high falutin' talk," as Otis would say. But she chooses not to. And she isn't critical of how others speak. Her father taught her to be observant. Harlan, the grifter, Sarge and Albert, her teachers, added to that talent of watching and listening. It was borne out of necessity-her desire to survive, but it molded her persona, too. The writing style in Baby Shark is an attempt to be true to Kristin. It's her story.

[JB] The title has more than one meaning. Which is the dominant meaning for you? The pool shark, or the baby with lethal teeth?

[Robert] You're a lot of fun, Julia. Well, let's see. It was important to Kristin to earn a nickname in the male-dominated pool halls of Texas in the 1950s. She looks like an angel, shoots like the devil, and they call her Baby Shark. But, you're right-like she says to herself when she stands up to Otis early in their relationship. "I haven't spent the past year and a half learning to take crap off people." She knows that to be taken seriously she must now and then show her teeth. So, to answer your question-I never want readers to forget that Kristin shoots pool, but it's that pistol in her back pocket that makes her dangerous.

Well, thanks for calling me fun. I like to think so. :)

[JB] Have you been a writer all your life?

[Robert] Pretty much. Poetry, short stories, stage plays, magazine articles, journals, screenplays, TV scripts, and finally, the novel. I sincerely believe that the crime novel was where I should have always been-but whacha gonna do? I just got here. I'm really liking it. And I'm sticking around.

[JB] Kristin has three basic "teachers" after her attack, all of them men. Was it important to put this girl in a world of men so that they were her victimizers AND her helpers? Or was it just more realistic that everyone around her was a man because she chose a male-dominated lifestyle?

[Robert] The strongest consideration in reference to Kristin's transformation from victim to trained killer was that it be believable. She is given a year and a half to make the transition, which is realistic if the student is motivated. Baby Shark's dedication to study was predicated upon her desire to never be afraid again. But even so, her first attempt at revenge with Scarecrow turns into a fiasco. Again, the aim was for realism. The transition is rocky. It ain't magic and it doesn't happen over night. Her teachers are men because realistically, especially in the 1950s, they were the teachers available. A WWII vet, a Korean vet, older professional men. Without a hairdresser, a café owner, and an occasional waitress Kristin would have been hard pressed to have had any women in her world.

[JB] Your book is set in 1953. Why did you choose this time period?

[Robert] The 1950s were a transitional period for women. The era is often played for its innocence, though it was anything but that. Rosie the Riveter had just shown American women that they could do the same work as men and-here's a concept-earn the same money. So, when women were asked to go home after WWII, many simply didn't want to. The prevailing attitudes toward women in the 1950s were influenced by late nineteenth and early twentieth century thought. Men came to their feet when a woman entered the room. They opened doors for them, removed their hats. Lots of ritual, but it was a double standard and women knew it. There was an unspoken tension in society that gave an edge to the '50s that I wanted to explore. Daddy's little girl could also be a hell-raiser, but not many wanted to admit it. And, most importantly for Baby Shark, it was a time when women were blamed if they were raped. It was their fault. What were they doing there? Why were they dressed like that? They were just asking for it. Women know what I'm saying is true.

[JB] What sorts of things have you done to promote Baby Shark? Do you feel your PR is bearing fruit? And by fruit I mean money? :)

[Robert] The usual, I think. Book conferences to meet other writers and fans. Bookstore signings. Magazine ads. Lots of Internet-which is more amorphous than the other avenues, but might be the most important. Bearing fruit - ah, yes. Well, I have been fortunate in one particular direction. The readers at DorothyL have been kind to Baby Shark. That is to say, they began telling each other to give it a try. It's a gritty story, and not everyone's cuppa, but DLers give a book a fair chance. So their promotion has been good for sales. And 4MA, too, has given the book a critical opportunity. The reviews, the interviews have helped. Hell, I don't know, Julia. Baby Shark has been around twenty minutes, really. It was only published in September, but it has gotten some buzz so something is working. Are you as confused by what I am saying as I am? Aren't you glad you asked that question?

Yup, still glad. And it sounds like you're on your way to great success with the book.

[JB] You've lived all sorts of places. What's the most beautiful place in the world?

[Robert] You're right. I have traveled, and that provides memories. Most beautiful? There was a stand of autumn birch I recall on the way up Mount Olympus-perhaps that qualifies. But was it more beautiful than a stone garden I visited in Kyoto? An early winter morning in the Luxembourg Gardens with the light just right, or an evening on the beach in Zihuatanejo? I quit. It has to be more about who you are with, doesn't it? That's what makes a place beautiful. So I'll think on that, Julia.

Okay.

[JB] You mention on your website that you were once a fashion model. Well, naturally your picture explains why a handsome man like you would get the job, but why fashion? Was it to pay bills, or did you enjoy the fashion scene?

[Robert] I moved to NYC. I was writing a musical comedy with a friend. I needed to earn a living. A girlfriend of mine was a model. She introduced me to some photographers. I put together a book, made the rounds, began working. I earned my living as a fashion model for three and a half years. Finished the musical comedy. Couldn't sell it. Moved back to LA. My biggest success as a model was when I landed the cover of the NY Times Menswear Magazine. "Look," I told my painter friend Robin Bright. "There are thousands of me all over the city today." "Uh huh," he said. "And tomorrow we'll go over to Fulton Street and watch 'em wrap fish in you." That's what true friends are for.

[JB] You were also once a chef. Do you cook for your wife?

[Robert] My wife didn't cook, so yes I cooked for the first twenty-five years of our marriage. Then, without preamble, she said she was going to do the cooking from then on. Just got tired of fried okra was my guess. So, she took over the kitchen some five or six years ago and I have to tell you, she's a great cook!

[JB] What are you writing now?

[Robert] I'm about four chapters into the third installment of another Baby Shark story. Book two, Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues, will be in bookstores May 2007. Book three, if the crick don't rise, will be in bookstores November 2007-the title is Baby Shark's Panhandle Caravan-kinda rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

It really does!

[JB] Whose writing do you admire?

[Robert] Joe R. Lansdale. How could anyone improve on the opening of "Sunset and Sawdust?"

[JB] If Baby Shark were set in the present instead of the 1950's, what would be different?

[Robert] Well, today and the 1950s differ in every way you can imagine in reference to "things." But Kristin would still be confronted with the same emotional and physical challenges, wouldn't she? I'm not sure I can picture that precisely-she is such a child of postwar America, just a step ahead of the Baby Boomers, charging headlong into the sixties.

[JB] How can people find out more about you and your writing?

[Robert] At http://www.robertfate.com/ there is a lot of stuff about Baby Shark and some stuff about me. And an email address that I always respond to. I like hearing from readers.

[JB] Thanks so much, Robert.

[Robert] No-thank you, Julia. Loved your questions.

Posted by Julia Buckley Tuesday, November 14, 2006

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Front Street Reviews

Interview with Robert Fate, author of Baby Shark and Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues

Well folks, this is my interview with the charming Robert Fate. It is short you say? There is a good reason for that. When it comes to promoting his books, Mr. Fate is one of the hardest working authors. So he has done many interviews and each one is better than the next. So our advice is to Google "Robert Fate" and check out some of the other great interviews out there. You will find out two important facts:

1. Robert Fate is a really funny guy.
2. He has a turtle named Pharrell.

But to add to the info, and so I did not feel left out, I decided to ask Mr. Fate two questions:

[FSR] If you could get anyone in the world (dead or alive) to read your book who would it be and why?

[Robert] Well, Barb, that is a really scary question and here's why. Let's say I admire a living writer and would very much like the approval of that writer. You know, nothing major. Just an ataboy would do the trick. Ataboy, Bob. Go get 'em would do nicely. But, what if the writer I admire didn't think I deserved an ataboy? Hello - that's not pretty. See what I mean? So, what am I left with facing a question like yours? I can take a chance that the admired writer never learns that I want to know his/her opinion of my book and give you a name. Or... I could name a deceased relative that loved me, but thought I was a bit of a scatterbrain and now I am a published author... you get the picture. That would work-an honest answer, an equally weighted choice. What to do? And there are rumors that writers are insecure. You know my mother told me that my father said once that if I drowned to look for me upstream. I was the last of six children and kind of a surprise to a mother forty-five and a father fifty-five. They may have spoiled me-in fact, I'm sure they did. I lost my dad to cancer when I was sixteen. So maybe he might be the right guy to whom to hand a copy of Baby Shark. Yeah, I'm liking this direction. This one is for you, Dad.

[FSR] What is the one question no one has asked you in an interview that you wish they would?

[Robert] Do you ever read your own books?

You know how actors are always asked if they watch their own films? The answer is - sure, I read my own novels and it's painful. Because what I see are the changes that I would make if I could. I can't speak for all writers, but I'll bet most would agree that a book is never finished. There's always something. When I'm writing the book and after it's written, I read it aloud. My wife will come to the door and ask me what I'm ranting about. I'm talking to Bob, I say. I call myself Bob when I'm talking to myself. You're frightening Pharrell, she says. Which reminds me - do you or any of your readers know where I can get earplugs for a turtle? So, yes. I read my own books and I read them aloud. Another reason I am driven to read my own books is that after reading a review, good or bad, I have a tendency to ask myself if the reviewer is talking about my book. What did the reviewer mean by that? Is that really the underlying motif of my book? That sort of thing.

Thanks, Barb. It's always a pleasure to face a grilling by you.

Reviewed by Barb Radmore, March 2007

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murder.booklocker.com

Interview: Robert Fate
April 2nd, 2007

[Cheryl] What can you tell a novice writer like myself about creating your characters?

[Robert] Your question makes me wonder how I do that. I suppose, since I want to tell a story, that desire causes the creation of characters. I begin thinking of the idea, or event, or incident that feels as if it could be a story, and that thinking leads to the "actors" that are needed to tell the story. I'm sure it's the same for you.

As the story idea develops, so do the characters. How bad does the antagonist have to be? It depends on the story, doesn't it? Maybe not so bad if it's a children's story. But if the story is hardboiled crime, perhaps the evil the bad guy is capable of is limitless.

It must be like painting a picture. If the red is too vivid, tone it down until it works within the overall goal of the picture. So, it looks as if the answer to your question is this - I block in the character in a gross manner and allow the demands of the story to provide the finer qualities as it goes along.

[Cheryl] Did you write bios for each? Like backstories, etc.?

[Robert] Not really. The bios come later after I've gotten to know the characters. They're strangers at first - again, the story that is being told will require certain thoughts, actions, reactions from the characters. We may surprise ourselves from time to time, but mostly we can predict what we will do or say given this or that provocation, because we are who we are - raised the way we were raised - influenced by this or that or this person or that.

Well - reverse that. I need a woman who would do this or that and not blink an eye. I want a young man to do this or that and have great misgivings about his actions. What made them be the persons I require for my story? How can I justify their actions? So, that construction would be their bios, I suppose; but totally arbitrary.

The important thing for me is to tell the story in a believable way no matter how wild the situation may become. That calls for believable characters who breathe hard when they climb stairs fast, get blisters if they run in shoes without socks, and think things over much in the same manner as the rest of us - or not, if the character is so foreign to us that we are perplexed about his or her actions until they are explained. How could a sane person do that? our heroine asks herself, hinting to the reader that she may be facing a maniac.

[Cheryl] How did/do you keep track of all the characteristics/preferences - especially doing a series?

[Robert] If there are details that are important to the story or plot, I might have to make special note, but once I "know" the characters it's no harder to keep track of them or their preferences than it would be a member of the family.

[Cheryl] Were there any surprises when you put two of your characters side by side in the novel?

[Robert] Characters can write themselves sometimes and that can lead to good surprises or bad, but I think the thing to keep in mind is the need for conflict.

Without conflict the reader will yawn in your face. So I would say when you put characters together if they get along too well, you're not doing it right. They don't have to bicker, unless they do, but allow characters to change their minds, just as everyone we know does. Allow them to make mistakes, just as everyone we know does. What would surprise me would be if the characters didn't take each other to task occasionally for one thing or another.

I tell a story of when I was working as a fashion model in NYC and went over to see a dear friend of mine carrying a copy of the NYTimes Men's Wear Fashion Magazine. "Look," I said to him, "I'm on the cover. My picture is all over the world today." "Hmmm," he said to me. "And tomorrow over on Fulton Street they'll be wrapping fish in you." He is still my dear friend and that's why. That little bit of conflict between friends was for my own good. Characters should surprise each other.

[Cheryl] Robert Fate is the author of Baby Shark and Baby Shark's Beaumont Blues. Visit his website at http://www.robertfate.com/

Meet Bob at Murder in the Grove.

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