James Lee Burke Interview

James Lee Burke with his horses,
Missy's Playboy and Love That Santa Fe

I don't have the words to adequately express what an honor it is to have the opportunity to interview James Lee Burke. In addition to being one of my favorite storytellers, he is a true American hero, a man who has the courage and consideration of his convictions and the eloquence to express ideas that we all would do well to consider. On top of all that, he has a wicked funny sense of humor.

Here's the interview, and be sure to stop by the FridayReads Facebook page for more on CREOLE BELLE and a chance to win a copy.

All of your books are strongly grounded in history. If you had to recommend just three books about history to a reader, which would they be?

THE YEAR OF DECISION by Bernard DeVoto, BLACK ELK SPEAKS by John Neihardt, and THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH by Eusibius

Your books are beloved by readers around the world. Do you find that the reaction to your stories is different from readers in different countries?

The books have done very well in France, Italy, Spain, the U.K, the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. I have bombed out in Germany, totally and completely, and I have no idea why. I have retaliated by refusing to eat German-made pretzels.

 In CREOLE BELLE, you challenge readers, as you have before, to examine the impact that corporations—and their actions—have on the world around us. Why is this an important theme for you?

I think we are living in remarkable times. The era of nationalism that begun in the sixteenth century is coming to an end and, in my opinion, is being replaced by corporate entities that have in effect confiscated national identities. The downside of this is that in 1914 we entered a new form of global struggle, one centered around the acquisition of energy. I believe we are walking in the same sand as the British and the French, and we'll suffer the same consequences as they.

You’ve had a lot of different jobs over the years…other than writing, which was your favorite?

The best job I had before writing was working on the pipeline. However, the best job I had as a writer and a family man was teaching. The academic world was very good to me.

In an interview about THE GLASS RAINBOW, you said, “There is no happy ending in Louisiana's story.” Do you still believe this to be the case?

Yes, I'm afraid that Louisiana's environment will continue to be degraded and its people robbed of their resources. If anyone would like to see our country's future if it is run by a petro-chemical oligarchy, they should spend a little time in Louisiana and perhaps visit the eight thousand miles of canals that have been cut from saltwater into freshwater marsh.

Along those same lines, in CREOLE BELLE, readers find a great deal of hope, of optimism, as well as challenges to ways of thinking some would tell us are“conventional” in America today. Do you see yourself as a generally optimistic person?

I believe in the essential goodness and resilience of the human family. However, our greatest strength -- namely our willingness to rally around the flag in times of duress -- is often our greatest weakness. Those who love war are usually those who retroactively revise their own failures and inadequacies by sending others off to fight and die. 

Do you listen to music while you write?

I play guitar and mandolin while I write (not all at the same time). You can always tell when I'm playing because doors are slamming all over the house. I don't know why that happens.

You have created some of the most vivid bad guys (and girls) in the history of fiction.They frighten readers to their very core…do they ever scare you?

They do. Legion Guidry is the probably the worst of the bunch.Wyatt Dixon, is his earlier incarnation, is bad, too. Preacher Jack Collins sometimes causes me night sweats because he reminds me a politician who left a heavy imprint on his country.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned recently?

That being seventy-five beats being dead.

In 2004, you said in an interview that James M.Cain, John Steinbeck, and Jack London are some of the greatest—and most ignored—writers. Are there any others you think don’t get the attention they deserve? Any new authors you’ve discovered recently whom you think show special promise and talent?

I think my cousin Andre Dubus III may be the best writer of prose in the country. His autobiography TOWNIE is a masterpiece. Ron Hansen still remain some of the best longball hitters, too.

 You’ve been married for quite a few years now, and Pearl is obviously very much the apple of your eye. What’s the secret to such a happy and long-lasting marriage?

Pearl and I have been married fifty-two years. We have four of the best kids in the world and four of the best grandchildren. I don't think anyone could have a greater gift than the people I call my family.

CRIMINAL Audiobook Tour

Welcome to the Friday the 13^th stop on the audiobook tour for Karin Slaughter’s CRIMINAL!

I’m grateful to the good folks at AudioGO for the opportunity to participate because as good as the print edition of CRIMINAL is (here’s my review), it also lends itself perfectly to audio.

I don’t think every story is perfect for audio…some stories are just better read out loud than others. For example, I think “The Wizard of Oz” series is perfect for reading aloud. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD? Less so.

CRIMINAL is perfect for audio because it has a clear storytelling voice throughout, and descriptions of people, places, and events that come alive when read out loud. Also, who doesn’t like to be told about what life was like lo these many years ago? I was a bit nervous to hear someone outside my own head giving voice to beloved characters—especially Will Trent—but narrator Kathleen Early does a super job.

I don’t get the opportunity to listen to as many audiobooks as I would like to (in part because my commute consists of walking across the living room), and so I have really enjoyed reading reviews from the other bloggers participating in this tour (links below), all of whom have more audiobook expertise than I do. Some of the participants have read or listened to Karin’s books before and some have not…it’s been kind of like a big old online audiobookclub experience, and I highly recommend following along!

Also, the CRIMINAL audiobook is featured today on the FridayReads Facebook page, complete with giveaway.

So…would you like to hear some of the audiobook for yourself? AudioGo has done something very cool with the first chapter: they gave a short clip to each blogger on the tour. So you can start with the one here…but I really recommend you begin at the beginning.

If you’ve listened to other audio clips on the tour so far, then you know that Karin Slaughter pulls no punches with the language in CRIMINAL, and so you might not want to play this one on full volume at the office.  

Here are all the blog tour stops:

Monday, July 9: Literate Housewife 

Tuesday, July 10: Teresa’s Reading Corner

Thursday, July 12: Book Addict Reviews 

Friday, July 13: You Are Here

Monday, July 16: Geeky Blogger’s Book Blog

Tuesday, July 17: You've GOTTA Read This!

Wednesday, July 18: Alison’s Book Marks 

Thursday, July 19: Jen’s Book Thoughts

And here’s the clip:

An Open Response to An Open Letter

Today on Dead Guy, I'm responding to a post chastising book bloggers.

MURDER FOR CHOIR by Joelle Charbonneau

Let me start by being very clear: I have never seen the TV show Glee, and I can’t imagine any circumstances in which I ever will. It just doesn’t hold any interest for me. And I don’t read a ton of “cozy” mysteries; I prefer some gore in a story.

And yet, I really enjoyed MURDER FOR CHOIR.

MURDER FOR CHOIR’s heroine, Paige Marshall, is a talented opera singer who, though no fault of her own, is back in her hometown Chicago suburbs residing with her Aunt Millie and coaching the show choir at Prospect Glen High School.

If you, like me, are not a Glee-watcher and have no idea what a show choir is, watch this.

Into this pastel-colored existence comes…a murder! Dead animals! The scariest poodle on the planet! A pink car! Breaking and entering! Costumes! A gay dude who might not be gay! Snotty kids who might—or might not—not be murderers!

Wait…what?

Well, see, that’s the fun of MURDER FOR CHOIR. It’s not exactly what you might expect. Is it realistic? Nah, not really. Is it going to give you nightmares? Only if you have seriously deep-set issues, likely requiring medication. MURDER FOR CHOIR is a super fun read. Heck, it’s even a little informative for us non-Glee-ites—and given Joelle’s personal history, I have no doubt that each detail is 110% accurate.

I can’t really compare MURDER FOR CHOIR to other books in the cozy sub-genre because, as mentioned, I don’t read a whole ton of them. But I can tell you this: This is a fun story, with characters that are deeper than one might expect and about whom you might be surprised to find yourself caring so much. I read this book several months ago, and not a week has gone by since that I haven’t seen something that reminded me of Paige, Aunt Millie, or one of the wacky cast of characters running through  MURDER FOR CHOIR.

Joelle Charbonneau paints these folks in bright colors, and with a sharp brush. The result is that readers will see themselves in some (or, for the multi-personality-inclined, all) of them. For example: I was a kid when Elvis Presley died, and I was certain beyond any doubt that he had been murdered. I mean, a famous dude could not possibly die from peanut butter sandwiches (hey, I was a kid). So just in case the murderer showed up at my house, I started putting fingerprint powder (aka, the dust from the pencil sharpener) on all the windowsills.

My point? Who among us has not fancied ourselves a detective at some time? In MURDER FOR CHOIR, Paige takes things just a little further, detecting beyond her—and everyone else’s—comfort zone. In so doing, she becomes an everywoman hero, one I was rooting for all the way.

Author's website: www.joellecharbonneau.com

Buy the Book:

CRIMINAL by Karin Slaughter

A new book by Karin Slaughter is always cause for celebration for me (and my cats, who are also especially fond of her stories, because they have excellent taste). Her character Will Trent is one that occupies a special place in my heart because for all his many positive attributes, he is flawed…he is human. He has a past, and he has secrets.

If you’ve read any of the books featuring Will Trent, then you also know the other characters that feature in his stories, including medical adviser and love interest Dr. Sara Linton, his partner Faith Mitchell, his boss, Amanda Wagner, Faith’s mom, Evelyn, and Will’s wife, Angie Polaski. You’ll be happy to hear that they’re all back in CRIMINAL, in ways that will leave readers breathless.

CRIMINAL is the story of two cases. In one, which happens in the present day, a young woman is missing. Amanda won’t let Will work on the case, which is driving him batty. This case is intertwined with the story of a similar disappearance that happened in 1975, when Amanda and Evelyn were cops with the Atlanta Police Department, at a time when women were still relatively new to the force. I really don’t want to spoil any of the story for you, and so the only other thing I’ll tell you is that both these cases are tied to Will’s (and Angie’s) past and his secrets, both those he has kept and those kept from him.

I’m not normally a fan of stories (or movies or TV shows, for that matter) that happen in two different timeframes, but Slaughter weaves the two together with such incredible grace that even linear readers like me will have no trouble following both. The picture she paints of Atlanta in 1975 is perfectly detailed—neither too meticulous nor too hazy —and every aspect rings true, probably because Slaughter researches as well as any author ever has. When I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book, too, I realized that part of her skill in bringing the mid-1970s to life is probably because of her age. She and I were born the same year (within days of each other, I hasten to add), and I grew up with a fascination about this timeframe, in which my mom was a professional in what had been an all-male industry (newspapers).

Anyone who knows me knows too that I’m generally not a big fan of “feminist” rhetoric. It’s not that I think women should be oppressed—not at all—but rather than the rhetoric often times rings untrue to me. I mean, my mom didn’t have a career to make a political statement; she worked because my parents needed the money and because she loved writing and was good at it. Through each of her female characters, Slaughter brings the difficulties faced by modern pioneer women to life without for a single moment being preachy.  

If you have any doubt at all that Karin Slaughter is one of the finest storytellers America has ever produced, CRIMINAL will erase it. The plot is both intricate and detailed, one into which readers will happily fall.

Click here to read Karin Slaughter's "How I Write" piece in The Daily Beast



Author's website: www.karinslaughter.com (be sure to check out the cool videos on her site here)

Buy the Book:

Karin was very kind to do an interview with character Will Trent with me last year. You can read it here.

Watch the trailer: