Reed Farrel Coleman
Mystery Readers NorCal chapter has been lucky to have both Reed and Ken as guests at our Literary Salons (aka At Homes) at my home in Berkeley, CA, but at different times. Check out the At Home Online interviews with Reed (interviewed by Megan Abbott) and Ken (interviewed by Reed) on the Mystery Readers website.
Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman have both been twice nominated for the Edgar Award and between them have won almost every other American mystery writing award including the Shamus, Barry, Anthony, and Macavity. In addition to TOWER’s movie option being sold, Ken has had an amazing year. His THE GUARDS, LONDON BOULEVARD, and BLITZ have all been adapted for the screen. Reed’s 6th Moe Prager novel, INNOCENT MONSTER, will be published by Tyrus Books in October 2010. coque iphone New paperback editions of SOUL PATCH with a foreword by Craig Johnson and of EMPTY EVER AFTER with a foreword by SJ Rozan will be published by Busted Flush Press in 2010.
Almost from the day Ken Bruen and I met seven years ago at Partners and Crime Books about auspicious beginnings Greenwich Village, we boucles doreille acier inoxydable had kicked around the idea of writing together. coque iphone coque iphone x We were big fans bracelet pandora orchidee of each other work and often joked that Jack Taylor was sort of Moe Prager inside out. Ken had granted me permission to use Jack Taylor in two short stories for Jack Crimespree bracelet pandora multi cordons Magazine and for Moe Damn Near Dead. coque iphone disney iphone 11 case So when Ken approached me with a serious offer to write a book together, I assumed it would be a Jack and Moe book of some sort. Wrong! Of course I said yes before Ken told me what he six boucles doreille had in mind. Besides, even after Ken described what he had in mind childhood friends from Brooklyn, Nick and Todd, whose fates are inextricably linked, fall into a life of low level crime didn blink. What, I wondered, could be so hard about that Stupid me.
Six months after I said yes, I got a one line email from Ken rare thing from a man whose emails in those days tended to be the length of a football field. collier argent The email read, at it, brother. Attached to this terse note was Nick narrative. That it, nothing else: no assortiment boucles doreille suggestions on how to proceed, no advice, no nothing. It was like getting a model airplane kit with only half the parts and without the instruction booklet. star wars iphone 11 case Suddenly, saying yes without thinking about it didn seem like such a brilliant idea. I joked many times that at that moment bracelet pandora argent et or rose I understood how my wife must have felt six months after we were married. Nonetheless, I was committed and had a book to finish.
At first, I confess, I was daunted. We all heard the Buddhist line about choisir la taille de son bracelet pandora the sound of one hand clapping. My task was to figure out how to be the other hand and to change the sound so as not to simply double the volume. After all, he could do his own voice better than I could. iphone 11 case And as his section of the book was one character narrative, I figured out that the form of the book would bracelet pandora avec clips be a dual narrative: Nick then Todd Beyond that, I had nothing, but instead of seeing it as Ken torturing me, I chose to see it as Ken challenging me to push myself past my limits, to push myself harder. I just had no idea bracelet pandora fermoir mousqueton how c discount bracelet pandora hard hard was going to be.
First thing boucles doreille hiboux I did boucles doreille perle noire was absorb Nick narrative as if I were preparing to take over that character pierre pour bracelet pandora life. coque huawei In so doing, I realized that what the book needed was more than a simple dual narrative. What it needed was a parallel narrative; Nick and Todd giving their POVs on the same period in time, about the same events, involving the same characters. Think the movie Casino. I would give Todd a life that alternated between diverging from and converging with Nick Easier said than done. Think about writing a novel with a timeline, characters, events, settings that are not of your own creation. Believe me, I wasn optimistic that I could manage it.
Several months later, I had Todd narrative. That narrative appears in Tower essentially unchanged. What I noticed as I wrote was combinaison bracelet pandora that Ken had written Nick narrative with spaces between the lines. His narrative was sparse and lean and left me room to develop both protagonists, not just Todd. coque huawei What at first appeared to me as Ken abandoning me on an island with no escape was, in the end, something rangement bracelet pandora very different. What Ken had done was to let me do the showy stuff, to crash the cymbals as the book crescendos. He had done a lot of the boucles doreille en forme de rose heavy lifting, but done bracelet pandora cuir occasion it quietly. If he had written Nick narrative densely, I would have had nowhere to take it and the book wouldn have worked. I liken it to the bracelet pandora hommes movie Rain Man. coque iphone Dustin Hoffman had the part on which everyone attention is focused, but it was Tom Cruise (and I am no fan of Tom Cruise) who did the heavy lifting.
Yet, when the two narratives were in place, Ken and I agreed the book wasn finished. It was of a piece, but not a whole bracelet pandora 590744cz book. coque iphone xs It needed context. coque iphone We struggled nearly as long to come up with a solution as it took us to write our narratives. coque samsung First we agreed to try a prologue, a page out of catalogue bracelet pandora my style book. We both contributed to it and we got it to work, but the book still lacked the necessary context and balance. Well, if you have a prologue, you might as well have an epilogue, right Great in theory, a nightmare in practice, because no matter what we tried, nothing worked. We had balance, but still no context. Finally, when we were both ready to just give up, we hit upon introducing a third narrative voice, a voice of a character who had appeared earlier in the book. Ta da!
Tower was the hardest thing I ever taken on in terms bracelet pandora espaceur of writing. I think Ken would agree that neither of us anticipated the difficulties we would run into along the way. I don prix bracelet pandora disney think either of us would suggest doing a collaboration this way. It certainly isn for the faint bracelet pandora ebay hearted. Working on this project created the only real strain on our friendship (long ago resolved) we have ever taille pour bracelet pandora experienced. Yet it is difficult to argue with the results. It is not for Ken or I to judge Tower merits, but it is a unique book. coque huawei I don think that debatable. The movie option was sold even before Tower was published. diy iphone case The project suggested the form of the collaboration and the form of the collaboration directly affected the end results. What I can say is that none of the tension between Ken and I during the creation of Tower had anything to do with ego. We never disagreed over who had final say. coque samsung There were no pissing contests.