Tim O'Mara, Editor of Down to the River

I’ve told my favorite Bouchercon story here more than once. My second favorite Bouchercon story took place in Cleveland. The Beloved Spouse™ had made me a long-sleeve black T-shirt with “WWASD” on the left breast and “What Would Al Swearengen Do?” across the back. I was at the bar waiting for a drink when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see a guy I’d never seen before. First words out of his mouth? “I want that shirt.”

And so was born my enduring friendship with Tim O’Mara. I didn’t know he was a writer at the time, so it was doubly tickling to learn how good he was once I got a look at his Raymond Donne books, crime fiction tales starring a former policemen who now teaches in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. We share a love of baseball, have both worked in public education (Tim retired a few years ago), and share many warm thoughts about the 1960 World Series. (Tim because the Yankees won their three game by scores of 16 – 3, 10 – 0, and 12 - 0; me because the Pirates won the Series on Bill Mazeroski’s home run, still the only seventh-game walk-off in over a hundred years of Series play.)

Tim’s more than a good friend and outstanding writer: he’s a man of conscience. This comes through in the topics he takes on in his Raymond Donne books,  and even more so in the anthology that dropped today, Down to the River, in which I am flattered to have been asked to participate.

Tim took time form his hectic schedule to answer a few questions.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us a little about Down to the River. What can we expect?

Tim O’Mara: With Down to the River the reader can expect to be exposed to some rather diverse voices in crime fiction. Some of the authors have been around for a while, others are some of the hidden gems in crime fiction, and a few are first-timers. I also want the reader to come away with an appreciation for America’s waterways, not only as great locations for crime fiction but as the precious and fragile natural resources they are.

OBAAT: The authors all donated their stories for the benefit of American Rivers.org. What’s the deal with them and what brought them to your attention?

TO: American Rivers educates the public about our waterways and the threats they currently face. The current administration has done away with lots of regulations that protected our rivers. Americans should be more informed and involved in this and understand that this affects all Americans regardless of political affiliation. American Rivers helps make that happen. They also lobby to keep the protections we have for out rivers in place.

OBAAT: What’s the hardest part about pulling together a project such as this?

TO: This was my first time editing at this level. I worked with twenty-two other writers to help make their stories better. I had to be very careful that any edits I suggested were presented respectfully and in the spirit of improving the story. I also needed to be mindful of not rewriting anything because that’s the way I wanted it to be written. Every single author was appreciative and more than willing to make this the best anthology it could be. (Maybe the best anthology ever?)

OBAAT: All you told the authors was that a river had to be involved somehow in their story. How broad a range of stories did you get and how geographically diverse were the rivers in your stories?

TO: The diversity of writers and their stories is the thing I am most proud of with Down to the River. Just like every river has its different twists and turns, so does every story in this book. I could have easily had two dozen stories about the Hudson River—blocks away from my home in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen—but I believed it would be much more interesting to learn about other rivers and other parts of the country. I was right. I not only received crime stories, I got a few science fiction pieces, some fantasy, and a touch of horror. A good book should surprise the reader; I didn’t know it was going to surprise the editor.

OBAAT: How did you decide who you wanted as contributors and how hard was it to get them to sign on?

TO: Again, I wanted as much diversity as I could get. I asked writers I knew from Bouchercon and Thrillerfest and other conventions. I knew a lot of the writers’ works before asking them to contribute, but some I just had to trust. I have two writers—Marcie Rendon and Maria Kelson—who were recommended by another author who was too busy to contribute. Again, what a nice surprise and I believe I made two new friends in the process. Every writer who contributed said Yes pretty quickly and made that part of the process smoother than I could have hoped.

OBAAT: What part of molding the anthology did you enjoy most?

TO: Working with the authors was as much a learning experience for me as I hope it was for most of them. Some stories needed a period here and a comma there while others needed more work. “Molding” is a good word, Dana. The stories were all effective when I received them; my job was to chip away where needed and add when I wanted more. The process taught me a lot about my own writing and self-editing skills.

OBAAT: You can’t leave here without me asking you if there are any Raymond Donne books on the horizon. I miss him.

TO: Yes! I’m currently working on my fifth Raymond Donne book, The Hook. This time around I’m tackling some smaller issues: White Nationalism and the opioid epidemic in America. I’m also putting in some a Ray’s journalist girlfriend’s pieces. That’s new for me as all the Raymond books are in the first person. I wanted to do something different to keep myself—and I hope my readers—more interested in the series.

Bouchercon 2017: Friday

With my panel behind me and a fairly relaxing evening at the bar under my belt, Friday showed great potential. It did not disappoint.

Friday October 13

10:00 Urban Noir: City Settings where, despite the light pollution, there is darkness

Susan Calder did a nice job navigating through a challenge for any moderator: a panelist who rambles and forgets there are four other people up there. The rest of the panel picked their spots well and made it an educational and entertaining hour. To wit:

Tim O’Mara: If you own you call his neighborhood Clinton; it you rent it’s Hell’s Kitchen.

Michael Harvey wondered why most psychological thrillers are set in the suburbs. Gary Dvorkin: The suburbs may have taken over noir as the cities Disney-fied themselves.

Tim O’Mara: The street people who left Times Square had to go somewhere. Many of them wound up in his neighborhood.

Tim O’Mara grew up in Long Island and knew his first black person in college. His daughter grows up amidst far more diversity and has far fewer fears.

Tim O’Mara: In New York, “Writer’s block” means 2 or 3 writers live there.

Michael Harvey: “Urban noir” is the accumulation of individuals’ small evils.

Michael Harvey: When asked what something in his book means, he says that’s up to the readers, who must filter everything through their own experience.

Michael Harvey: There’s great ambiguity in life and people are too interested in putting labels on things, especially in America. You don’t know anything until you understand you know nothing.

This provoked a general back and forth on how impulses we’ve all had are based on potentially misinterpreting situations can inform what our characters do. In a book things can happen you’d wait the extra beat for in real life.

Michael Harvey: Genre labels have gone too far. There’s only good writing and bad. That’s how books should be shelved: “Good Writing” and Shitty Writing.”

11:30 Sweet Revenge: Writers who have used revenge as a motivation for their work.

Well, damn, people. We write crime. Who hasn’t used revenge, both as a character’s motivation and as a way to get back at the jackass who took the last Cinnabon at the airport? Mike McCrary hit a good balance of darkness and wit in leading an excellent panel through more than its share of thought-provoking comments.

Stuart Neville: Revenge is a flawed concept. It never works and just feeds on itself.

Stuart Neville: Plot is the consequence of characters’ desires. Revenge is always a strong motivator and its results always have consequences.

Stuart Neville: Revenge as character motivation is almost always about self-worth. Could just be a matter of someone feeling shamed.

Michael Wiley: The best revenge may be for the person to always have to look over their shoulder. Used The Last Good Kiss as an example.

Stuart Neville: Revenge takes many forms. In Ratlines, it’s the hero telling Otto Skorczeny he knows Skorczeny is a phony.

Stuart Neville: Trading Places is a great revenge story.

Stuart Neville: The IRA now lets the highest-level informants alone because the press would be too bad.

Victoria Helen Stone: It’s easier for a betrayed spouse to project his or her anger and desire for revenge onto the other man/woman instead of onto the spouse, who is the person who actually betrayed them.

Stuart Neville: The Irish exchanged justice for peace and a lot of people were put off because acknowledged killers got away with it and ended up in good positions.

Elizabeth Heiter: A funny revenge story can work. (Especially is the person seeking revenge isn’t very good at it.)

2:00 Mysteries of Toronto: Get to know the blood-soaked streets on Toronto

Okay, so not as blood-soaked as we might have been led to believe. An all-Toronto panel spoke to a mostly Toronto audience about crime in—you guessed it—Toronto. While the panel was fun and informative, most of the comments were of a “you had to be there” nature. One that stuck out came during a discussion of media coverage, from John McFetridge: People involved in newsworthy events always remark on how incomplete the coverage was, yet people form firm opinions based on those accounts.

3:30 Government Agencies: Authors writing about military or other government agencies

Who says people associated with government agencies have no sense of humor? Lots of good insights delivered with tongues often planted firmly in cheeks. Joseph Finder set the tone by admitting he made a gun mistake in a book once.

Gwen Florio: That’s the worst mistake you can make.

Joseph Finder: Second worst. The worst is killing a dog.

J. J. Hensley: Bolt-Action Remedy is the best-selling biathlon mystery in the world. Unless one of you publishes one tonight.

Mike Maden (seconded by JJH): You don’t study counterfeit money to identify it; you study real money. That way you can testify about what’s wrong with the counterfeit, as there a million ways to do it wrong. (Original comment by Maden was intended to show why to read the best fiction in your genre.)

This was a good panel but I had to leave early to make it to

4:20 20 on the 20s: Scott Adlerberg

Scott spoke about his new book, Jack Waters. Scott is one of those guys you’re never quite sure what the next project will be like, and this one is another departure, a historical novel about a man who, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to give a fuck. If you’ve never had the pleasure of seeing Scott speak or read in person, rectify it. You’ll thank me.

4:40 20 on the 20s: Montreal Noir

Akashic continues its series of [Your City Here] Noir anthologies with Montreal, edited by John McFetridge and Jacques Filippi. A mix of stories, half of which written by Anglo authors and half by Francophones intended to capture the multicultural vibe of the city. McFetridge and Filippi know what they’re doing, the authors on hand knew what they were about, so it looks like another success for Akashic.

By then I was exhausted, and the serious drinking was yet to come. More on that later.

March's Best Reads

Spring training brought some baseball-themed reads. None of them disappointed. The non-baseball-related book kicked ass, too.

Nasty Cutter, Tim O’Mara. Raymond Donne is back in school for the fourth book in the series. He’s the kind of teacher I like to think I would have been had I stuck with it: no-nonsense but with a soft interior. Having taught in a city school myself, I know O’Mara has the feel and atmosphere just right. He also handles the “amateur sleuth” problem as well as anyone currently writing them. Donne has the background to come by the skills he shows honestly and the position to have opportunities thrust upon him. The supporting cast provides both input and resources without reaching for anything. This is a well-written solid series that deserves a lot more attention than it gets.

The Kid From Tomkinsville, John R. Tunis. I first read Tunis’s Brooklyn Dodgers books when I was a kid. Now I fully appreciate them. Young adult sports fiction in the 1940s was typically Frank Merriwell stuff. Tunis was the first to put an edge to them. Yes, Roy Tucker comes out on top in the end, but not before a freak injury endangers his career, the team’s manager dies in a car wreck, and the star pitcher gets his drunk on and almost throws Roy out a window. Much darker stuff than was typical of the time, and now I’m old enough to appreciate the writing as well.

Tomato Red, Daniel Woodrell. Starts out more like a Charles Portis novel than Winter’s Bone, which is fine. I love Charles Portis. Then an unexpected but not unreasonable plot twist comes out of left field and everything changes. Woodrell has a gift for creating less than sympathetic characters and still elicit the reader’s empathy. Maybe it’s his ability to show they’re not bad people, but they can’t catch a break and have a tendency to act out at inopportune times to become their own worst enemies. Whatever it is, he lays it out in beautiful prose that never draws attention to itself and places you in the Ozarks and the story. A wonderful writer.

Moneyball, Michael Lewis. I assumed he had a gift for explaining unnecessarily arcane subjects like Wall Street from The Big Short and Flash Boys, though I could only guess at how well I understood because I knew so little about the topics going in. Baseball is something I know quite a bit about, and he crushed this one, too. Lewis knows exactly how much context to supply and where to put it, and a writing style that is conversational but never sloppy. People who know me well will wonder how it took so long to get to Moneyball. It’s because I do know some baseball and Lewis had to convince me he wasn’t just some dilettante slumming in the sports world. I’m well and truly hooked now. There are lessons well beyond baseball here.  

Twenty (One) Questions with the Authors of Triple Shot

I’ve said for years the greatest and longest-lasting effect e-books might have on literature is to make novellas financially viable as a form. Instead of being either too short or too long for wither of the main formats, e-books would release the novella from the price and size constraints by removing them altogether.

I still think that’s true, but left out another possibility: get a group of talented authors—three should be sufficient—and hook them up with a publisher who’s willing think outside the box. (Down & Out comes to mind.) Voila! You got yourself a collection of novellas.

Triple Shot launched August 15 from Down & Out Books and OBAAT is lucky to have not one—not two—but all three of the authors here for a special Bonus Question™ edition of Twenty Questions. Each author gets seven questions, with some overlap to be sure no one is bullshitting us.

So, in alphabetical order, here are Ross Klavan, Tim O’Mara, and Charles Salzberg to talk about Triple Shot.

Ross Klavan’s novel, Schmuck, was published by Greenpoint Press in 2014. He recently finished the screenplay for The Colony based on the book by John Bowers. Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, his original screenplay, Tigerland, was directed by Joel Schumacher and starred Colin Farrell. He has written screenplays for InterMedia, Walden Media, Miramax, Paramount, A&E and TNT. As a performer, Klavan’s voice has been heard in dozens of feature films including Revolutionary Road, Sometimes in April, Casino, In and Out, and You Can Count On Me as well as in numerous TV and radio commercials. In other lives, he was a member of the NYC alternative art group Four Walls and was a reporter covering New York City and London, England. Ross’s contribution to Triple Shot is Thump Gun Hitched.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about Thump Gun Hitched.

Ross Klavan: A freak accident forces two L.A. cops to play out a deadly obsession that takes them from back alley payoffs to hard time in prison, then deep into the tunnel networks south of the border to a murderous town that’s only rumored to exist. Before the last shot is fired, everything they thought was certain proves to be a shadow and everything they trusted opens into a trap.

OBAAT: I hate to ask where writers get their ideas, but where did you get this idea? Damn.

RK: One of my guilty pleasures is that sort of gritty style Western, you know, where everything gets peeled away until the characters are left to face off with what’s usually the worst of their own selves. So I wrote one. Added to that, there was a guy I met who was a private hand-to-hand combat instructor who was hired by the military and police. He said that he’d once been a cop but did something really stupid at a cop party and spent a year locked up. I always thought that might be useable.

OBAAT: How did you get involved in Triple Shot?

RK: Each of these pieces was on the way to publication for another company that went under. Tim, Charles and I all know each other from NYC and know that nobody wants to pick up the bar tab. I think it was Tim O’Mara who came up with the idea for the compilation for Down and Out Books, who’ve been terrific. Tim had a great idea and we didn’t even buy him a drink. I guess we’ll have to.

OBAAT: You’ve written both novels and screenplays with success. How different was it to write a novella?

RK: It seemed sort of like the bastard child of a screenplay and a novel. You can’t waste time or words. I wanted it to move and I wanted to keep the writing very physical…so that, too, was a way to mix what you can do in a novel and a film.  

OBAAT: You have quite a creative range, as you’ve acted in addition to you novels and screenplays, and worked on short documentaries. Which is your favorite and how do they influence each other?

RK: I can’t choose a favorite but everything influences the other. In a way, you’re always doing the same thing but in a different form, sometimes pushing the body into words, sometimes words into the body, but you’re always working on rhythm and timing and sound and image and how to make a world and people that somebody can get lost in…including yourself. 

OBAAT: Who are your greatest external influences? (Not necessarily writers. Filmmakers, other artists, whoever you think has had a major impact on your writing.)

RK: I think if you’re smart, you’ll let yourself be influenced by just about everything. Let me steer clear of naming writers, just for laughs, so, I’ve always loved film, even bad ones and I can watch individual scenes over and over, sometimes without sound…but of course, also, the usual great suspects like Kubrick and Scorsese and even someone a little more epic like David Lean. My wife, Mary Jones, is an abstract painter and also teaches at Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts—she’s taught me incredible things about composition that are as true for writing as for painting. Some odder influences…there’s a painter named Mark Tansey, I’ve always like his stuff. The great performance artist Allan Kaprow. There’s a teacher of theater and clowning, Philipe Gaulier. And then, besides the happenings and history of my own life, my writing’s been formed also by martial arts, tai chi, yoga, psychoanalysis and talking to people in bars all over the world.

OBAAT: If Thump Gun Hitched were made into a movie, who would play the major roles?

RK:  Y’know, I don’t want to influence any possible reader’s imagination—they’ll probably cast it better than I could. And if I actually name somebody—say, Josh Brolin—some clown in the business could say, “Gee, we were going to do this book…but Brolin isn’t available.” So cast it the way you want it and all I’d like is a small under-5.                              

Tim O’Mara has been teaching math and special education in New York City public schools since 1987, yet he is best known for his Raymond Donne mysteries about an ex-cop who now teaches in the same Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood he once policed: Sacrifice Fly (2012), Crooked Numbers (2013), Dead Red (2015), Nasty Cutter (January 2017). His short story, “The Tip,” is featured in the 2016 anthology Unloaded. The anthology’s proceeds benefit the nonprofit States United to Prevent Gun Violence. Tim wrote Smoked for Triple Shot.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about Smoked.

Tim O’Mara: Smoked is a first-person monologue from a sketchy character explaining how he came to be in the uncomfortable position he now finds himself. The structure of the story—no chapter breaks, just thirty thousand words of him talking—was inspired by Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne. The reader has to take the narrator, “Aggie,” at his word. Or not. 

OBAAT: You’re best known for your Raymond Donne series of novels. How different was it to write a novella?

TO: “…best known” is a very kind statement. Thanks. The biggest difference/challenge was creating a first-person narrator who was not only NOT Raymond, but also NOT a New Yorker. I enjoyed writing in another voice and making it a monologue instead of the usual dialogue-driven prose I usually find such comfort in.

OBAAT: How did you get involved in Triple Shot?

TO: Charles, Ross, and I each wrote a novella for an e-publisher who ran into some business issues. I had previously written a short story for Down & Out’s “Unloaded” and scheduled a meeting with its publisher, Eric Campbell, to see if he’d be interested in putting together a trilogy of the novellas. He said “Absolutely” and made the rest look easy.

OBAAT: I hate to ask writers where they get their ideas, but where did you get this idea?

TO: My lead character, “Aggie,” is based on someone in my life who lives by prevarications and rationalizations. I had his (or her) voice in my head and said to myself, “What would happen if she (or he) were put in this position?” Man, was it fun to let loose on this person and then humanize him (or her) in a way she (or he) has not been able to do in real life.

OBAAT: You’re a teacher in the New York City Public Schools by day. It’s easy to see how that has affected (for the better) your Donne series. Did your profession have any effect in Smoked?

TO: “Aggie” is basically a grown-up version of some of the kids I’ve worked with who you know are lying because their lips are moving. Beyond that, Smoked is as far away from my New York City teacher life as I’ve ever ventured in my fiction.

OBAAT: Who are your greatest influences? (Not necessarily writers. Filmmakers, other artists, whoever you think has had a major impact on your writing.)

TO: Hitchcock, for sure. He famously said, “Interesting people do interesting things.” I always keep that in mind when creating new characters or developing established ones like Raymond Donne or his buddy, Edgar. I’m also a big fan of Edward Hopper’s paintings. With a single image that—if you take the time to really soak it in—he brings up a lot of questions and tells a different story to each person. Also, I read The Friends of Eddie Coyle once a year just to remind myself how you can tell a story using mostly dialogue. 

OBAAT: What moves you most in a work of literature?

TO: Presently, I’m amazed at how certain writers use poetry in their prose. I just finished Richard Price’s The Whites, and the way he constructs a sentence can only be described as poetry. Reed Farrel Coleman also weaves poetry into his novels, as do Dennis Lehane and Megan Abbott. I’m at the stage now where—when I’m finished with a novel—I reflect and ask myself what I learned from the author. 

Charles Salzberg is the author of the Shamus Award-nominated Swann’s Last Song, Swann Dives In, Swann’s Lake of Despair (re-release Nov. 2016), Devil in the Hole (re-release Nov. 2016), and Swann’s Way Out (Feb. 2017). His novels have been recognized by Suspense Magazine, the Silver Falchion Awards, the Beverly Hills Book Award and the Indie Excellence Award. He has written over 25 nonfiction books, including From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, an oral history of the NBA, and Soupy Sez: My Life and Zany Times, with Soupy Sales. He has been a visiting professor of magazine at the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, and he teaches writing at the Writer’s Voice and the New York Writers Workshop where he is a founding member. Today he’s going to talk about his novella, Twist of Fate.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about Twist of Fate.

Charles Salzberg: Trish Sullivan is an ambitious TV reporter working in a small, upstate New York market who receives a note from Meg Montgomery, a beautiful young woman convicted of murdering her husband and two children. Montgomery claims she’s innocent and Sullivan, smelling a big story that may garner some national attention, investigates and turns up evidence that the woman has, indeed, been framed. What happens next changes the life of both women in unexpected ways.

OBAAT: This sounds like a “ripped from the headlines” story if ever there was one. Was it?

TO: Nope. I guess it could have been but it was completely made up, a figment of my runaway imagination. The idea came to me after thinking about the legal concept of double jeopardy, and I took it from there.

OBAAT: How did you get involved in Triple Shot?

TO: It’s all because of Tim O’Mara. He came back from Bouchercon Long Beach a few years ago with news of a new subscriber website that was going offer brand new crime novellas each month. They were looking to sign up crime writers and Tim convinced me it would be fun and a good idea. I then convinced Ross, an old friend of mine—we have lunch every week at Dos Caminos here in NYC. We all submitted our novellas and they were accepted, but the site never got off the ground and so we got the novellas back. It was either me or Tim, sometimes we’re confused as the same person, but I have no problem giving him the credit, who suggested we package them together. He met with Eric Campbell of Down & Out Books, Eric loved the idea, and that was that. (Editor’s Note: That checks out with what the others said. See what I did there? Separating them like that and not letting them see each other’s answers?  Reminds you of Ed Exley’s masterful interrogation of the Nite Owl suspects, doesn’t it? Oh, come on. Not even a little?)

OBAAT: You’re best known for your Henry Swann series of novels. How different was it to write a novella?

TO: Very different. I didn’t want to use Swann. I wanted to create a whole new story, a stand-alone. I had actually written Twist of Fate as a screenplay years ago with a friend of mine—it was actually optioned several times but never made. I thought it would make a better prose piece because I could go much deeper (and darker).

OBAAT: You’ve written a lot of non-fiction. How much, and what kind, of an effect has that had on our fiction in general, and Twist of Fate in particular?

TO: I started out wanting only to be a fiction writer, but I had to make a living. I knew how to tell a story, which is what magazine writing is, and so I got a job in the mailroom at New York magazine and after three months I quit, sold one story to them and another to the Daily News Sunday Magazine. I found that writing nonfiction was the best thing I could ever have done, even though I looked down on it at first because I thought it didn’t take much imagination and wasn’t very creative. I was wrong on both counts. It also taught me how to write to a word count, which meant making every word count, how to tell a story efficiently, and how to create realistic conversation and dialogue. And beyond that, it gave me ideas for fiction. Swann was a skip tracer because I actually did a profile of a skip tracer once and learned what they did and how they did it. It also taught me research techniques and I was able to indulge my curiosity by doing stories on things I knew nothing about.

OBAAT: Who are your greatest influences? (Not necessarily writers. Filmmakers, other artists, whoever you think has had a major impact on your writing.)

TO: As far as writers, probably Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Vladimir Nabokov, Saul Bellow and Dashiell Hammett. But I love films and some of my favorites are crime films, especially Goodfellas. But I’ll see every crime film that comes out, and some of them more than once. I especially like the old ones, the classics in black and white.

OBAAT: What are you reading now?

TO: I just finished reading Joe Clifford’s two Jay Porter books and I loved them. I’m also reading T. J. Stiles’s Custer biography, lots of works by students and a whole bunch of crime short stories. Next up is The Art of Fielding.

Tim O'Mara, Author of the Raymond Donne Mysteries

If you’re lucky, you know someone who is passionate about whatever it is they’re doing, even if it’s just the conversation you’re having at the time. Tim O'Mara is one of those people. He’s taught math and special education in the New York City public schools since 1987. His top-selling debut mystery Sacrifice Fly (Minotaur 2012) was nominated for the 2013 “Best First Novel” Barry Award, and his second in the Raymond Donne series, Crooked Numbers (Minotaur 2013), solidified his place among today’s most talented new crime fiction writers. His third mystery about the Brooklyn public schoolteacher who used to be a cop, Dead Red, hits the shelves tomorrow.

In addition to his teaching and writing, Tim has hosted and produced a bi-weekly reading series of poetry and prose in New York’s East Village for the past thirteen years. He received his Bachelors in Communication and Media in 1985 from State University of New York – New Paltz and his Masters in Special Education from Long Island University – Brooklyn in 1992.

O’Mara lives with his family in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen and is a proud member of Mystery Writers of America and several teacher unions.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about Dead Red.

Tim O’Mara: Dead Red is the third Raymond Donne, but the first where you see him during summer vacation, away from his school teaching job. He gets involved with Jack Knight, an ex-cop who’s now a PI, when a mutual friend of theirs is shot and killed in front of Raymond. Ray actually gets to play full-time PI in this one.

OBAAT: Where did you get this idea, and what made it worth developing for you? (Notice I didn’t ask “Where do you get your ideas?” I was careful to ask where you got this idea.)

TO: The murder victim is a recently returned Marine Reservist who served in the Middle East. I was interested in the difficulty many of our returning vets have assimilating back into civilian culture. I’m also interested in New York City politics and the people who are so good playing that game.

OBAAT: How long did it take to write Dead Red, start to finish?

TO: From first draft to final rewrite it took a little over a year. Deadlines from publishers can be wonderful things.

OBAAT: Where did Raymond Donne come from? In what ways is he like, and unlike, you?

TO: Raymond is a combination of me—a NYC schoolteacher—and my brother, Sgt. Mike O’Mara of the Nassau County Police Department. I like to say that whenever you see Raymond being kind and insightful, that’s me. When he’s being tough and investigative, that’s my brother.

OBAAT: In what time and place is Dead Red set? How important is the setting to the book as a whole?

TO: Dead Red is set in modern day Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Williamsburg is key to the plot, as it is to all three of my Raymond Donne novels. Williamsburg is part bohemian artist haven, part new families who want to stay in New York City and can’t afford Manhattan, and part low-income folks who struggle day to day to feed their families.

OBAAT: How did Dead Red come to be published?

TO: St. Martin’s/Minotaur gave me a two-book deal for my first two Raymond Donne novels. Four weeks to the day after my second novel, Crooked Numbers, came out, I got an offer for a third book. I guess they liked the numbers. (Pun shamelessly intended.)

OBAAT: You have an affinity for using names of old Yankees in your books. (Dead Red has a cop named Roy White and Raymond uses the alias of Chad Curtis.) As a life-long Pirates fan, when can we expect to see Art Ditmar?

TO: Not Art Ditmar, but I’ll meet you halfway and put in Bill Virdon. He was traded by the Yankees to Pittsburgh in the mid-fifties and was a Pirate for about a dozen years. He later went on to manage the Yankees for a season and a half in the mid-seventies. Thanks for the idea, Dana. (Editor’s Note: Art Ditmar was a major league pitcher who went 47 – 32 for the Yankees 1957 – 1961. Unfortunately—for him—he is best known for serving up the pitch Bill Mazeroski hit over the left field wall at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series, still the only walk-off, seventh-game home run in World Series history.)

OBAAT: What kinds of stories do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors, in or out of that area?

TO: I’m a crime novel fan. My faves include George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Marcus Sakey, Don Winslow. Outside the genre I like Tom Perotta a lot, and Megan Abbott, who defies genre.

OBAAT: Who are your greatest influences? (Not necessarily writers. Filmmakers, other artists, whoever you think has had a major impact on your writing.)

TO: I can’t get through a first draft without thinking if Alfred Hitchcock would approve. Whenever I create a character, I ask myself, is this person interesting enough to be in this situation and does he or she add to the narrative structure? When a reader is done with the book, are they going to think that was worth the money and time spent? That’s Hitchcock. Not only was he a great storyteller, he also felt a strong obligation to his audience.

OBAAT: Do you outline or fly by the seat of you pants? Do you even wear pants when you write?

TO: I’m a “pantser.” That being said, when I write an early scene, I often have the next, or subsequent, scene in mind. With Dead Red, I didn’t know whodunit until word 80,000—out of 100,000. Then I had to go back and make sure—as my editor Matt Martz would say—I earned it and didn’t cheat. When I write, I’m strictly a “clothing optional” kind of guy.

OBAAT: Give us an idea of your process. Do you edit as you go? Throw anything into a first draft knowing the hard work is in the revisions? Something in between?

TO: I edit as I write. I keep a notebook of scenes I have, scenes I need, snippets of dialogue, etc. When I hand in a “first draft,” it’s gone through many rewrites.

OBAAT: If you could give a novice writer a single piece of advice, what would it be?

TO: Keep writing and make sure you enjoy the process. Finish what you’re working on before “putting it out there.” Understand that what you think is a completed novel probably isn’t, but you need to get to the point where you’ve done all you can do for now and are ready to trust it to someone else.

OBAAT: Generally speaking, the components of a novel are story/plot, character, setting, narrative, and tone. How would you rank these in order of their importance in your own writing, and can you add a few sentences to tell us more about how you approach each and why you rank them as you do?

TO: First and foremost is character. The Greeks took all the plots and Shakespeare stole from them. What separates my Raymond Donne novels from all the others out there is Raymond. No one’s ever done an ex-cop turned public schoolteacher before (as far as I know). Then there’s voice. If someone else could have written my novels, then I haven’t done a good enough job getting my voice through. For me, setting my Raymond novels in Williamsburg is very important. There are so many interesting people and places within Williamsburg; it’s really a microcosm of New York City. Plot is crucial, but only in the sense that you’re taking the reader on a trip. You can’t cheat them or take the easy way out. A good reader will sense that and may not want to finish that trip—or return for another.

OBAAT: If you could have written any book of the past hundred years, what would it be, and what is it about that book you admire most?

TO: Wow, great question. Probably Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River. Not only is it a great mystery, it’s filled with characters who do bad things and you still root for them. Lehane has great respect for all the characters in that book and it shows in the writing. I don’t think there’s a stereotypical character in the entire novel.

OBAAT: Favorite activity when you’re not reading or writing.

TO: Anything outside. I live in Manhattan near Central Park and the Hudson River, and love to walk. Not only is it great exercise, it makes it nearly impossible to come down with “writer’s block.” There are so many interesting people and places in the city; each walk ends with an observation that can be put down on paper. When in Missouri—my home away from NYC—my favorite things to do are kayaking, biking, and hiking. As much as I Iove living in NYC, I need my nature fix.

OBAAT: Is there any news you’d like to share with our readers today? Anything about the series, or your books that might not be common knowledge?

TO: I’d love to share some news with your readers, but it hasn’t happened yet. To paraphrase a good friend of mine, if I ever hear I have six months to live, I want to be told by someone in TV or publishing.

OBAAT: What are you working on now?

TO: I’ve just started my fourth Raymond Donne novel, Nasty Cutter, and am developing a unit on ratios and percents for my sixth grade math class.

Many thanks to Tim O’Mara for making time to answer questions here today. Dead Red launches tomorrow (January 20).