Charlie Stella is a force of nature. No one – no one – has done more to advance my career, or been more supportive to me, both as a writer and as a friend. I was delighted to hear Charlie was back in the crime fiction pool and couldn’t wait to get ahold of his newest, Joey Piss Pot (available today, July 5!) so I could grill him about it.
One Bite at a Time: Not that I haven’t enjoyed your
recent books, but I was delighted to see you get back into mob fiction, as no
one writes it quite the way you do. You’ve carved out a niche for showing the
underside of mob activity, but in Joey Piss Pot you describe a lifestyle
on its last legs. Tony Soprano once said he had the feeling he was coming in at
the end of something. The characters in Joey Piss Pot are way past that,
hanging on by their fingernails, but lack Tony’s gift for introspection, so they
don’t always realize how close to the cliff they are. That’s a long set-up to
ask what it was about this idea that took root in your imagination?
Charlie Stella: I tried writing non-crime for a
couple of years and then had a burst of energy. I wrote three novels, two sold,
the other not submitted yet (don’t like the ending enough). I needed to put a couple
of runs on the scoreboard and wanted it to be familiar. I wrote Joey Piss
Pot to get back into it, if that makes sense. Then we went to Yellowstone
Park last summer and a sequel came into play from my fear of bears and the shit
our government does. Just submitted the sequel, Rapino-Amato. We shall see, but
I have a non-crime coming next April (I think), Raskin’s World. That one
is about lawyers and affairs a tragic incident.
OBAAT: You’ve done this before, but I was struck here
about how the story plays on the conflict between the mob and straight life,
with the feds thrown into create layers of story. Did you lay this out ahead of
time, just know what you wanted to do, or did you start writing and waited to
see where it took you? (Notice how I found a way around asking if you outline?)
CS: Smiley face. I always build a table of chapters
as I write (automatically in Word) and that serves as an ad hoc outline, I
guess. I wind up moving scenes by the end and/or adding or deleting some. I have
a basic idea and then let the characters/dialogue do their/its thing.
OBAAT: Joseph Gallo is the title character and very
much the focal point of the story, yet he doesn’t appear in it as much as
several others. He’s kind of the conscience of the book, and this causes him to
create more than his share of trouble. Did you set out to show that a
conscience can cause more problems than it solves in a situation such as this?
CS: That’s too deep for a Stella novel. (Another
smiley face). I wanted the back and forth between Jewish and Italian old
timers. Originally, the Jewish friend (don’t ask me for names now), wasn’t a
former cop, but that helped move the thing making him a cop. Joey is the
conscience, more or less, but it’s also a rip-off of a novel I wrote a few
years ago but never felt good enough about it to submit. I like the idea of a
guy on his way out losing fears of boogie men. Him shooting someone, for
instance, is kind of a fantasy I’ve played with for several characters. It’s
kind of like he’s playing with house money, so …
OBAAT: Interesting. The Beloved Spouse™ often
mentions that the htreat of life in prison becomes less of a deterrent as we
age.
I was struck by the name “Joseph Gallo.” Did you have any
idea of playing off of the infamous Crazy Joe Gallo of the 70s?
CS: Good catch, but Crazy Joe wasn’t in my mind at
all. The actual Crazy Joe was a big time rogue with a similar lack of fear he
probably shouldn’t have ignored. I literally go to Google and search for
whatever nationality I’m using and pick one. Gallo was easy to type. I’m
thinking some of your characters names must be in a macro. 😊
OBAAT: As a matter of fact, several of the more
common names in my books have “macros,” AutoCorrect entries that allow me to
type in only the first few letters. 😊
The Mafia – excuse me, Italian Organized Crime – has nothing
like the power it used to, but they can still kill you just as dead. How do you
see things playing out over the next ten or twenty years?
CS: That’s the thing. Anybody can kill you
just as dead. I suspect there will always be guys who are romanticized by the
old Godfather movies and/or the idea of getting respect by being associated
with the mob. The reality is no matter what happens there will always be a deal
at the end of the day that precludes most tough guys from giving up 10-20 years
of their lives (and that number may come down to 5-10). The so-called “come to
Jesus moment” when a guy realizes how fucked he is.
OBAAT: The eternal final question: What’s next?
CS: Well, there is Raskin’s World next year, then
probably (if accepted) the sequel to JPP, Rapino-Amato that takes place
in Montana (for the most part). I wrote a book called The Winks (the one I’m
unhappy with the ending), and I’ve started one called Blue Collar (mostly
non-crime at this stage). The thing is, since I have this coughing condition, I
have nothing else to do. I’m up 19-20 hours a day, working remotely and
sometimes bored to tears. Now that the hockey season is over and I await
another year of frustration with my beloved New York State Buffalo Bills … what
the hell else am I gonna do? 😊
No comments:
Post a Comment