The Skiatook Sessions, Pt.1

Victor Gischler -- the only Edgar-nominated author in all of Skiatook, Oklahoma -- is no stranger to the silly blog interview. The man pioneered it, at least in crime fiction circles, in his much-missed "World's Worst Blog." So it is only appropriate that Gischler be forced to dance to his own music. As mystery fans in Birmingham, Albama once famously told Victor: "Dance, Monkey Man! Dance!"

Secret Dead Blog: Shotgun Opera is a great title. I was jealous the moment I heard it. Clearly, this Book Four in your "Gun Quartet" (Gun, Pistol, Squeeze). You've been planning this "gun title" thing since you were 12 years old, haven't you?

Victor Gischler: Actually, when I followed up Gun Monkeys with The Pistol Poets, the folks at Bantam Dell assumed I had a plan like that, so they were surprised when I turned in a novel called Mariachi Static. They said, "Uh .... where's the gun title?" We talked about it and settled on Suicide Squeeze as a "sort of" gun title. After all, sooner or later I'd run out of combinations. Uzi Bastards? Derringer Dudes? It would get tiresome after a while.

SDB: You've espoused "going Bruckheimer" whenever the going gets rough in a novel. Is this you being silly, or is there a glimmer of real advice in there?

VG: Was it Chandler who said if things get slow have a guy with a gun walk into the room? "going Bruckheimer" is the 21st Century version of that, I guess.

SDB: Rumor has it you were briefly a horror writer before moving into crime fiction. Well?

VG: Not in the "scary" horror sense, but yes. I have a book called Three on a Light which consists of very tightly connected short stories featuring private eye Dean Murphy. As the result of a cursed Zippo lighter, he finds himself involved with vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. I found two small publishers for it on two differnet occasions but it seemed like something would always happen to flush the deal. Some of the individual stories are floating around the web. I'd love to find a publisher for the book but it' sort of a tough sell maybe ... mixed genre. Not quite a novel but more than just a collection. I've also written other horror, sci-fi, fantasy stories. Some were published, but many weren't. I definitely have some ideas for an eventual return to these genres.

SDB: Tell us another rumor about you that is completely true.

VG: Are there rumors about me? I haven't heard any. Let's start some. I need the publicity.

SDB: How did Shotgun evolve? I seem to remember you telling me, over beers, that you wrote a gonzo outline first, and then plowed in. (Then again, we *were* having beers.) Lift the hood and give us a glimpse at the Gischler Story Engine.

VG: Well, here's how it worked at Bantam Dell ... at least for me. They wanted to see a synopsis before I started writing. This was a complete creativity buzz kill. I like to jump into a novel and start writing. I hate to summarize and outline. But I'm a cooperative guy, so I sat down and spilled out a really good, really detailed outline. All they liked was the title. So I spent two weeks pulling other ideas out of my ass until they liked one. The final novel was based on a short paragraph about fives sentences long. They said, "That's the one. Write that." So then I had to sit down and figure out a novel to live up to those five sentences.

To be continued...