An Interview with Dietrich Kalteis, Author of The Get

 Dietrich Kalteis is a critically acclaimed, award-winning author with nine novels and over fifty published short stories to his credit. “Credit” is the right word, as they are all excellent. I’m not typically someone who feels the need to read a book as soon as it comes out; Dietrich is on the short list pf those I bump to the top of the queue. As fine a friend as he is an author, Dietrch lives with his family on Canada’s West Coast.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome back to the blog, Dietrich. It’s always a treat to have you, and not just because it typically means you have a new book out, though, of course, you do. What’s the skinny on The Get?

 

Dietrich Kalteis: Thanks for having me back, Dana. It’s always a pleasure. Here’s the premise: Lenny Ovitz has plenty of secrets. He works for a volatile crime boss, is drowning in debt to the wrong people, and he’s certain his soon-to-be ex is aiming to screw him over. Somebody is going to have to get whacked.

 

OBAAT: Lenny Ovitz has more irons in the fire than is prudent. How did he get spread so thin and what does that say about his personality?

 

DK: In Lenny’s line of work, taking chances is part of the game, and in order to get out of the protection racket, he’s got to take even bigger risks. Along with his partner, Gabe, they borrow a lot of money from a loan shark and buy a block of slum buildings which Lenny sees as a promising investment, one that will allow him to become legit. Unfortunately, his timing couldn’t be worse — his wife, Paulina, is about to ask for a divorce; and his partner, Gabe, is about to go down on a double homicide. Something that will definitely upset Lenny’s plans and put his cool to the test. 

 

OBAAT: Lenny’s wife, Paulina, is the object of his – well, certainly not affection. She’s also tired of his multi-layered duplicity? (Triplicity? Tetraplicity?) You don’t write female characters who sit back and take any more than they have do. What’s her backstory and what will that tell us about her?

 

DK: She’s smart and cultured, and she’s basically a good person. She’s made one big mistake in her life — Lenny. And that’s one faux pas she’s bound and determined to correct. And Lenny’s about to find out that her gentle nature has some teeth.

 

OBAAT: You’re back to writing historicals, this time in Toronto in the 60s. What led you to that place and time?

 

DK: I remember going to Kensington with my parents as a boy, all the sights and sounds of a place that were very different from anything I had ever experienced: open markets and food I had never seen before, meat and poultry hanging in the shop windows, people haggling and speaking all kinds of languages — not like anything this kid had ever seen at our local Loblaws. It felt like I was transported someplace else, and that always stayed with me. In coming up with the storyline for The Get, I knew Kensington would make the perfect setting. 

 

OBAAT: Last year we spoke a little about the influence Elmore Leonard has had on your (and my) writing; you referenced the “other authors who inspired and influenced me along the way.” Name a couple, and tell us how they influenced you.

 

DK: There are so many great authors writing today, present company included, but I’ve had some old favorites going way back. Elmore Leonard is definitely one. And there’s Charles Willeford, James Crumley, and George V Higgins on that list. Maybe I’m dating myself here, as they wrote mostly back in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. The times they wrote about seemed simpler and they were all masters at creating settings, misfit characters, and writing dialogue too. And I really appreciated that each of them had an underlying sense of humor that always showed through in their writing.  

 

OBAAT: Fun question. Off the top of your head, what are your five favorite crime novels? Not necessarily the five best crime novels, but your favorites.

 

DK: Okay, I won’t pick any from the authors noted above, and although these are not all crime novels or hot off the press, they are the best novels that I’ve read so far this year: Slow Horses by Mick Herron, the first in the Slough House series. It was published by Soho Crime in 2010, and it’s about a group of screw-up MI5 agents trying to redeem themselves. It’s also a great Apple Original series into its second season. Then there’s 2022s Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy, a brilliant follow-up to The Passenger, both from Knopf. Thirdly, there’s Drive by James Sallis. It was published in 2006 by Harvest, and it’s a blast. I really enjoy reading Sallis. Published this year by Ecco, The Trackers by Charles Frazier is a tale about an artist trying to find a rich man’s wife. It’s set during the Great Depression, and it reads like a modern-day classic. To round out the list, I’ve picked Old Babes in the Woods, a new and charming collection of shorts by Margaret Atwood, from Doubleday.

 

OBAAT: Last question, as always. What does the next year portent for you?

 

DK: I’m putting the finishing touches to a new crime story, and I have another one complete and coming out next year from ECW Press, pub date unknown at this time. It’s called Crooked, and the story follows the real life and times of Alvin “Creepy” Karpis. 

Dietrich Kalteis, Author of Nobody From Somewhere

 Dietrich Kalteis is the critically acclaimed author of ten novels and winner of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel for Under an Outlaw Moon. He enjoys life with his family on Canada’s West Coast.

 

I met him at Bouchercon several years ago and took to his writing immediately. He’s always a good interview and I look forward to each of his books almost as much for an excuse to interview him as I do for the book. Almost.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome back to the blog, Dietrich, and thanks for having me on “Off the Cuff.” (Don’t look for it, folks. It hasn’t run yet.) Let’s start with what you’d like people to know about your new book, Nobody From Somewhere.

 

Dietrich Kalteis: Nice to be back, Dana. Thank you.

 

Here’s the pitch: Long retired cop, Fitch Henry Haut, is terminally ill and living

out his final years alone. As he sits in his favorite diner enjoying the meatloaf special, he watches as a young girl steps in, getting the attention of two rough-looking men at the counter. Seeing them, she runs off and they give chase.

 

His cop instincts kick in and Fitch follows, catching up with them in the parking lot. As the two men try to force her into their vehicle, Fitch manages to get the upper hand, and he and the girl take off in his broken-down Winnebago.

 

The girl is Wren Jones, a runaway from an abusive foster home. She tells him how earlier that day she came to overhear the two men going on about a casino robbery they just committed, and how this was the second time she got away from them that day.

 

Fitch realizes the men will come hunting for them on account of what the girl knows, and that the ailing rig he’s driving won’t be hard to spot. A bond forms as Fitch and Wren struggle to escape out of town, both aware that time is not on their side.

 

 

OBAAT: You have essentially three storylines in this book.

1. Valentina’s crew rips off the Chinese businessman.

2. The triad decides to get even.

3. Wren and Fitch’s accidental involvement with the crew

 

I know from having spoken with you before that you don’t outline. How did you keep the pacing so well organized while flying by the seat of your pants?

 

DK: From the first draft, there was an awareness of the balance between description and pace. I tend to keep the descriptions lean and that helps with the pacing. When I had the first pass complete, I went back over it and did the usual necessary trimming, getting rid of whatever didn’t work and tightening up what did. When I’m choosing details from my research, I’m looking for what will give the biggest bang as far as visual impact, and what will lend authenticity. Once I was basically happy with the story, I did a time outline and went back over it, just to be sure it all made sense, so it’s a little like outlining in reverse.

 

 

OBAAT: Your three previous books were period pieces. What brings you back to contemporary life?

 

DK: I got the idea for this one while I was walking along the North Vancouver waterfront a couple of years ago, an area where boondockers were parked around a couple of city blocks slated for redevelopment. I met a man who was living out of his rusting motor home, and we got to talking. A friendly, colorful character who gave me some insight into his way of life. It opened my eyes, and I was intrigued by his stories, and as chance would have it, I ran into him a couple more times before he pulled stakes and moved on. I loved his tales of life on the road, traveling through the province and up and down the coast. He became the jumping off point for the Fitch character in the novel.

 

 

OBAAT: Looking into the Way-back Machine, when you were first here in 2014, I asked what piece of advice you’d give to yourself as a novice writer. That was after your first book (Ride the Lightning). You begged off, saying that you still considered yourself a novice. The next year I asked the same question when we spoke about The Deadbeat Club; same answer. Now it’s been eight years and ten books, so no shirking: What piece of advice would Today Dietrich give to Fledgling Writer Dietrich?

 

DK: I appreciate the persistence, Dana. I guess the best advice my today self would have would be something that was expressed to me by my publisher, Jack David, back when the first book was coming out. He told me not to guess at trends, or at what the next best seller may look like — just to do my own thing and to write the best story that’s in me.

 

 

OBAAT: We’ve spoken before about the influence Elmore Leonard has on both of us. It’s been a while; are there elements of your writing that are less influenced by him than before? More influenced? Anything he did you’ve decided to stay away from?

 

DK: There have been other authors who inspired and influenced me along the way, but he was one of the greats, and his writing was certainly an early influence. And it still is. I just reread Riding the Rap, a true crime classic and a goldmine of inspiration, not to mention a master course on how it’s done.

 

Anything he did you’ve decided to stay away from? Some of what he touched on those decades ago may seem like hot-button issues these days, yet, a certain amount of grit is required for a crime novel to feel authentic. So for me, there’s sometimes an awareness, a fine line between offending a nowadays reader and writing what feels real.

 

OBAAT: The obligatory last question: What are you working on now?

 

DK: I’m working my way through another period piece, this one set in Chicago during the roaring twenties: a time of prohibition, gangsters, lingering tension from the aftermath of a smoldering race riot, and rival businessmen shooting it out in the streets.

 

Thank you again, Dana. It’s always a pleasure.

 

Dietrich Kalteis, Author of Under an Outlaw Moon

 

I met Dietrich Kalteis through mutual friends at Bouchercon several years. It was a fortuitous introduction. In addition to being an outstanding writer, Dieter is as nice a person as you’re going to met, even by Canadian standards. His new book Under an Outlaw Moon, dropped earlier this week from ECW Press, which provided the perfect opportunity to see what he’s been up to.

 

One Bite at a Time: Welcome back, Dietrich. It was great to leave you alone on the blog for your previous visit, though The Beloved Spouse™ commented you left the seat up. What’s the quick and dirty on your new book, Under an Outlaw Moon?

 

Dietrich Kalteis: The novel’s based on the true story of Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. He’s out for kicks and she longs to feel wanted. When they pull a bank robbery to celebrate her sixteenth birthday, the ensuing fireworks are more than they ever bargained for.

 

OBAAT: Your three most recent books are period pieces: Under an Outlaw Moon and Call Down the Thunder are Depression-era pieces; Cradle of the Deep is late 70s. What is it about times past that’s drawing your attention?

 

DK: The setting comes about depending on the story that I have in mind, wanting the perfect time and place to set the story’s mood. 

 

The seventies was the right for Cradle of the Deep. A woman flees from her gangster boyfriend, running off with the gangster’s ex-chauffeur. Jumping into the front seat of the gangster’s Cadillac, they take off. Of course, there was no GPS, cell phones, or satellite networks back then that would betray them. As the couple races through northern British Columbia, heading to a remote town bordering Alaska, they are being hunted by a stone killer sent by the jilted gangster. The remote setting creates a dead end, and adds to the peril they find themselves in.

 

Call Down the Thunder is the story of a couple who are on the verge of losing everything due to hard times, and they’re pushed to the wall. The bleakness, desolation, and threat of danger surround their life on the struggling farm back in Dustbowl times.

 

While researching that story, I stumbled across the true story of Ben and Stella Mae Dickson, a couple of real-life bank robbers from the same era. I was intrigued by their story and decided it was one that wanted to be told.

 

OBAAT: UaOM is based on a real couple. Is this the first time you’ve done this? What was it about these two outlaws that attracted you?

 

DK: Yes, it’s the first time I’ve written about real people, getting to know them and their story through a lot of research. They weren’t vicious killers, just two young people in the wrong place at the wrong time, landing on the FBI’s most wanted list, and ending in the crosshairs. 

 

OBAAT: I don’t suppose you ever tire of being linked as a writer to Elmore Leonard. (I know I wouldn’t.) In one of our earlier interviews, you cited him and James Ellroy influences. Has that changed, or evolved? If not, are there different things about their writing that influence you now?

 

DK: Every now and then I get the Elmore craving, rereading one of his novels. And I’m still catching up on a couple of Ellroy novels that I haven’t read yet. There are many authors and books that draw me in, and the wonderful thing is there are so many great ones out there. Lately I’ve been reading Walter Mosley, Tim Dorsey, Daniel Woodrell, James Lee Burke, and Reed Farrel Coleman’s Parker books — all of them inspiring.

 

Outside the crime genre I’ve been reading Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, Donn Pearce, Saul Bellow, Thomas Berger, Salman Rushdie, and Tom Wolfe to name a few — and all highly recommended.

 

OBAAT: I know you like to make up stories as you go. Have you ever been well into a book and realize you’ve written yourself into a corner? If so, what do you do. (Asking for a friend.)

 

DK: Dear friend of Dana: I don’t usually paint myself into a corner, but I’ve had to back up a few times. It usually starts with a single idea, to which I create the characters I want to see involved, and I write it scene by scene. I’ve balled up my share of paper and reworked chapters and changed direction midstream, but that’s all part of the process, and it’s how I get it to where I want it to be. On a second draft, I usually write a timeline, a way of checking the sequence of events. It’s what works for me.   

 

OBAAT: The standard concluding question: What are you working on now?

 

DK: Right now, I’m shaping a few ideas for a new novel, and I’m at that ‘I don’t know if this will work’ stage. And I have one more complete and set to come out next Spring from ECW Press. It’s called Nobody from Somewhere, a crime tale set in Vancouver in present time. There’s also got another crime story complete and signed after that. And I’ve just sent in a historical novel, based on another true crime story.

 

Many thanks, Dana, for inviting me over. You ask the best questions.

 

Dietrich Kalteis, Author of Cradle of the Deep

Dana’s gone off and left me the keys to the place, asking me to do a guest spot — and that’s a true honor.

 

I’m not sure the best way to work this, but first I’ll find his liquor cabinet, then I’ll just get comfy and ask myself some questions. 

 

So here goes:

 

Is there a central idea or thread that runs through your books?

 

Small-time crooks can lead to big-time misadventures.

 

What attracts you to writing the kinds of stories you write?

 

I like letting unwitting characters loose in uncertain situations, letting them tell it from their own shaky points of view, with me just following the action and seeing how it all ends up. It makes for fast-paced action, dark humor, mixed with unexpected twists, and accented by the heavy thump of ill-luck.

 

Tell us about your writing routine and how you approach the craft.

 

As for routine, I get up early most mornings and I start writing. Coffee must be involved, and I’m not sure how many words I get to the gallon, but it’s my fuel of choice at that early hour. And I’ve always got some music playing.

 

There’s no word count that I shoot for. Sometimes I crank out a lot, other days I only write a few pages, and as long as they’re good pages, then I’m happy with that.

 

I often write the first draft in longhand. It’s a mess to sort out with margin notes, scribbles, circles and arrows, but there’s something natural about writing by hand. For the subsequent drafts and any major edits, Mac beats pencil every time.

 

Mostly, I don’t plan out the stories before I start writing. I rely on instinct. A single idea for a scene kicks it off, leading to the next, and I write my way to the heart of it as more ideas keep coming along. By working like this, I end up with something much better than anything I could have pre-planned ahead of time.

What’s one thing you’ve learned since you started writing?

 

I learned from the first Bouchercon I attended — where I met Dana and his lovely wife Corky — to always have an elevator pitch ready. A well-known Canadian author came up to me before one of the panel discussions and asked what my debut novel was about, and I gave him the deer-in-the-headlight look and stumbled on with, “Uh, um …”  

 

Since then, I’ve learned to always have a pitch ready. In fact, here’s the one for the new book, Cradle of the Deep.

Getting into bed with the wrong guy can get you killed.

Wanting to free herself from her boyfriend, aging gangster “Maddog” Palmieri, Bobbi Ricci concocts a misguided plan with Denny, Maddog’s ex-driver, a guy who’s bent on getting even with the gangster for the humiliating way in which he was sacked. 

Helping themselves to the gangster’s secret money stash, along with his Cadillac, Bobbi and Denny slip out of town, expecting to lay low for a while before enjoying the spoils. 

Realizing he’s been betrayed, an enraged Maddog calls in stone-cold killer Lee Trane. As Trane picks up their trail, plans quickly change for Bobbi and Denny, who now find themselves on a wild chase of misadventure through northern British Columbia and into Alaska. 

 

Time is running out for them once they find out that Trane’s been sent to do away with them, or worse, bring them back — either way, Maddog will make them pay. 

 

Is there a point about the new book you’d like folks to be aware of?

 

Mainly that it’s published by ECW Press, will be released on November 3rd, and available in print, e- and audiobook formats.

 

How did you come up with the story idea?

 

The initial idea stemmed from a short story I wrote a couple of years earlier about two protagonists, Bobbi and Denny, who bump into each other in the middle of the night, each trying to rob the same gangster’s house. For Bobbi it’s the crime boss she’s been seeing, a thrill at first, but now she’s seeing him as a total bore. After discovering where he hides his stash of cash, she started getting ideas. For Denny, it’s revenge for being sacked as the crime boss’s driver — fired in the middle of a downtown street — kicked out of the car while beautiful Bobbi sat watching from the back seat. Denny had heard rumors that the old guy kept a lot of cash hidden in his big house, and he gets ideas of his own.

 

The short piece wanted to become longer, so I let it evolve, and more scenes just kept coming as I wrote — like the naked people in Whistler, and the car chase over the thin ice of a deep lake. A dead-end northern town where the locals don’t pay taxes and shoot at anyone speeding down their main drag. There’s a crazed war vet buzzing the treetops of the hinterland in a water bomber. A grizzly beating up a Ford Cortina, and a stone killer sent by the gangster to hunt down the pair.

 

I was in Oakland while I was still working on it, and I saw a piece of art depicting tattoos of ancient mariners. One of the images had the words “In the Cradle of the Deep” woven around an anchor and chain. I loved the phrase and it just worked so well with the story, and I knew I had my title.

 

Well, Dana’s nearly out of scotch, and that’s about it for me. If you pick up a copy of the book, I do hope you enjoy it. 

 

And thank you again to Dana for letting me sit in. It’s always fun dropping by.

(Editor's Note: It's always a pleasure to have you, Dieter. The book sounds like great fun. I'm looking forward to it.)