outinprint.net

Rob Byrnes is the author of five novels including the brand new release, Holy Rollers (Bold Strokes Books), which features gay criminals, Grant Lambert and Chase LaMarca.  Rob is originally from Rochester, New York and now lives with his partner in West New York, New Jersey where he has a view of the Manhattan skyline and the occasional jet plane that lands in the Hudson River. 

Hi, Rob.  First, from your books, your blog, and your Facebook posts, I have gathered enough evidence to know for a fact that you’re hysterically funny.  What early influences helped form your sense of humor?   Who or what (TV shows? Films?) do you find hysterical? 

I tell you this at the risk of sounding a bit too precocious, but, when I was growing up, I was a huge fan of silent comedians.  Especially Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.  To the extent my characters seem to always be in a “Huh?  What?  This is happening to me?” mode, those pioneers probably get some credit.  Or blame.  Your choice.

These days, I have nothing against TV or film – I will argue any day that some of the sharpest contemporary writing is on the small screen, and I only stopped going to movies when the VCR and DVD brainwashed people into thinking the theater was their living room – but I’ve fallen away from pop culture.  Still, my tastes in comedy are eclectic and erratic: loved Mel Brooks’s “The Producers” and “Young Frankenstein;” despise many of his other films.  Love the knife-sharp repartee of “All About Eve;” watch the low-brow “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” at least once a year.  Hell, I’m even one of the last people standing who laughs out loud at “Desperate Housewives”… although maybe not when the writers want me to laugh.

And if I’m ever paralyzed and can do nothing but watch TV from a hospital bed for the rest of my life, bring me DVDs of every episode of “The Match Game” and “Green Acres” – and a case of white wine – and I think I’ll be a pretty content paralyzed-in-a-hospital-bed kind of guy. 

Congratulations on your new book!  Could you tell us what you’d like readers to know about Holy Rollers and about your characters, Grant and Chase?  

Grant and Chase are a very committed couple with all the occasional baggage that comes with that.  But in addition to a bed, they also share a vocation: they’re criminals.  Not necessarily competent criminals, but they get by.

In Holy Rollers, they learn about seven million dollars stashed in the safe of a right-wing mega-church in Virginia, and decide that money should be theirs.  Of course, complications ensue. 

What do you enjoy about taking characters who should, technically, be the bad guys (since they’re criminals) and making them the good guys?   What kinds of reader reactions have you gotten about Grant and Chase?

I’m glad you mentioned that Grant and Chase are technically bad guys, because sometimes book publicists and marketing people skip over that.  They aren’t fun-loving scamps; they’re men who’ll steal your laptop or car – ideally both – without a second thought or a pang of conscience.  If your Christmas presents are in the trunk of the car, all the better.  They can put the loot on eBay!

I’ve long been a huge fan of Donald E. Westlake’s “Dortmunder” crime caper series and wanted to put a gay spin on the genre with my fourth book, Straight Lies, which introduced Grant and Chase.  The key to making it work – and making the reader root for the criminals – is to make their adversaries even more heinous than they are.  In Straight Lies, my criminals were up against a manipulative actor, a sleazy tabloid editor, and a pedophile cop; in Holy Rollers, they do battle with the leaders of the mega-church and officious suburban neighbors.   By comparison, they become the good guys.  If Grant and Chase were stealing from average people, they’d be unsympathetic.

I’ve been gratified by the reaction of readers, who appreciate both the gay twist on the crime caper genre and the fact that Chase, Grant and their gang are decidedly not the types of people typically found in gay literature.  They live in glamour-free neighborhoods, scrape by financially, suffer from an overload of bad luck… oh, and they steal for a living.

If Grant and Chase stole your car, and they checked your radio pre-sets, your glove apartment, your trunk, and so forth, what conclusions do you think they’d come to about you?

I’m sure they’d discover I’m very disorganized and eclectic, and I’d like to think they’d appreciate that.  All the way to the chop-shop.

Some of the last names of your characters, like Lambert or Cochrane, sound rather familiar.  Do you use the names of your friends mostly just for fun or does it help you anchor your characters in some way?  What are some of the reactions you’ve gotten from friends when they learn about the characters that share their last names?

As you know, writing can be a lonely activity.  To entertain myself and readers, I’ve borrowed the names of many friends over the years.  In the case of the writers whose names I’ve appropriated, it’s also my way of paying tribute.  That said, when I see Grant Lambert in my head, he looks nothing like the novelist Timothy J. Lambert; and Lisa Cochrane – the wealthy lesbian realtor who sidelines in crime for the thrills – isn’t the writer Becky Cochrane.

Giving a character a name like “Mrs. Jarvis” or “Mr. Scribner” – to use two examples from Holy Rollers – does help bring them to life in my head.  I’m not a big believer in physical descriptions – for the most part, I try to write so the reader can conjure up his or her own mental image – but it makes it much easier for me to create a character when I have a model.

I’ve also created an alternative reality in which many characters cross over from book to book.  For example, gay FBI Agent Patrick Waverly appears in Holy Rollers, and was also a character in my first novel, The Night We Met.  Two characters – publisher David Carlyle and mystery author Margaret Campbell – have managed to work their way into all five of my novels, although sometimes only in passing.

What can I say?  It keeps me amused.

I lived in Virginia for six years and had Eric Cantor as my congressman, so I know can be a crummy place to be gay or liberal.  But what’s your take on the state, and what led you to choose it as the setting for the Cathedral of Love in Holy Rollers? 

For the past 16 years, my life has been centered around Manhattan, so that’s what I tend to write about.  Still, I have seen a little bit more of the world than that, and – really – my characters needed to get out more. Virginia was a good fit because I know it.  For years before he moved to New York, my partner lived in Arlington, and my brother has a home in Loudon County.  It was also the perfect location for a mega-church.

And if I joke about a proliferation of McMansions and Walmarts in Northern Virginia, it’s done with affection.  I actually like what I’ve seen of Virginia.  Of course, I don’t have to live there…

What parts of the writing process do you find the easiest or, perhaps, the least excruciating?  And which parts drive you craziest?

Here’s where a great Dorothy Parker quote is useful: “I hate writing.  I love having written.”  And I seriously hate almost everything about the act of writing.  I hate the blank screen in front of you; I hate the typing; I hate the mental blocks; I hate the discipline… or, in my case, lack thereof. I know a writer isn’t supposed to admit these things, but there you have it.

Obviously, I find some pleasure in the process, though, because no one has a gun to my head… and the financial rewards are hardly keeping me in this business. I enjoy the exhausted feeling at the end of a productive weekend when I’ve made real progress.  I love that “aha” moment when I’ve worked through a plot point that seemed unsolvable.  I love that moment when you’re surprised by your own creativity.  And as much as I loathe writing the first draft, I actually sort of enjoy the revision process.

Every time I finish a manuscript I tell myself, “Never again.”  And then that inner voice starts nagging me…

Which books have you read recently (or not so recently) would you recommend?  Are there any books you’re looking forward to?

I should take a pass on this question, because I could list recommendations for hours and not scratch the surface.  I’m also trying to write my next novel – staring at the blank screen, thinking of Dorothy Parker – so I’ve fallen a bit behind in my reading. But I’m very happy to tout my friend Jeffrey Ricker’s wonderful first novel, Detours, and anything by Greg Herren and Josh Aterovis. I recently read with Michael Graves (Dirty One) and Laurie Weeks (Zipper Mouth), and can’t wait to dive into their books.

For readers who are interested in the crime caper genre, I’d also recommend devouring the Westlake series.  He passed away a few years ago, so there won’t be anymore.  But what he left behind is wonderful. 

I sometimes ask interviewees what they would choose if a genie granted them a wish, but in honor of Grant and Chase, let’s say you get a criminal genie. (He wears prison stripes.) He says he has the power to let you get away with a high stakes crime scot-free.  Of course, you can turn him down, but what capers might you ponder?

I’d like to steal the next Michael Thomas Ford manuscript, please!

If there’s an interview question that you’ve always wanted to be asked, could you tell us what it is (and answer it, too)?

Q: Are you really as arrogant and self-involved as you seem online?

A:  I’m sorry, were you talking to me?

Thanks very much, Rob! 

Keep up with Rob at  http://www.robbyrnes.net/