An Interview with Dietrich Kalteis, Authof of Crooked

 Dietrich Kalteis is a regular visitor to this page, with good reason. He’s a fine writer whose books are always fresh and never predictable. He’s also a good friend and always an interesting interview. His newest book is Crooked. That’s the title. The book looks like any other book. Except for the cover, which is unique to Crooked. You get the point.

One Bite at a Time: Welcome back to the blog, Dietrich. It’s always a pleasure to have you. Crooked deals with the life and crimes of notorious Depression-era bank robber Alvin Karpis. The era did not lack for notorious bank robbers. What attracted you to Karpis?

Dietrich Kalteis: Thanks for inviting me, Dana. It’s nice to be back.

When I was researching for my novel Call Down the Thunder, also set in the same era as Crooked, I came across an archived newspaper article about Karpis and the Barkers. I looked up more about them and became intrigued in the gang’s crime spree and their evasion from the law which spanned over five years, making them the longest-running criminal outfit back then. I saw there was a story waiting to be told.

OBAAT: Avoiding any spoilers, did you learn anything about Karpis that surprised you? Or about the Barkers?

DK: Alvin Karpis was smart and exceptionally good at avoiding capture. Using a number of aliases, he set up various bank accounts, had stashes and a solid network of underground connections around the country. For instance, he and the Barkers sought safe haven in St. Paul where they were under the protection of a corrupt police chief, that is as long as they committed their crimes outside of his jurisdiction. Along with Fred and Doc Barker, Karpis used an alternating cast of midwestern criminals for their crimes.

One surprise about the gang was that Kate “Ma” Barker wasn’t the brains of the outfit as portrayed in the movies Bloody Mama and Killer Brood, or as stated by J Edgar Hoover after her untimely demise. Bank robber and gang associate, Harvey Bailey once stated, "Ma Barker couldn't even plan breakfast.”

OBAAT: I know you do a lot of research for your period pieces. How much of Crooked is true, how much is fiction, and how much is conjecture?

DK: The timeline of their crimes is accurate. I did cherrypick my way through a lot of archived material, using the moments that I felt would best bring the story to life. Of course, interactions between the characters are all conjectured, and their conversations are a play on how I imagined the characters to be.

OBAAT: In recent years you’ve written several historical novels. What provoked and sustained this interest? (Full disclosure: I’ve had an itch to write one myself but the research required has put me off so far.)

DK: Significant social and political corruption along with the 1906 San Francisco earthquake made for the perfect backdrop for House of Blazes. The isolation and desperation of the Dustbowl times on the Central Plains were ideal for Call Down the Thunder. The hard times of the 30s seemed right for both Under an Outlaw Moon and Crooked. The punk music scene of the late 70s became the perfect backdrop for Zero Avenue. And the taxi wars of Chicago during prohibition formed the background for my upcoming novel Dirty Little War. For me, setting needs to add atmosphere and interest, and it’s a bonus if it helps build tension and pace as well.

OBAAT: Your dialog sounds as much like two people talking as any writer I can think of. Any tricks or suggestions you can pass along to others looking to improve?

DK: I keep a notebook with detailed descriptions of each of the characters, including detailed backgrounds, and I find images that I attribute to them. As I’m working through the early drafts, I get to know them. And as they start to flesh out and come to life, it feels like they start talking on their own. That’s when I know I’ve got it right.

OBAAT: You have enough of a catalog now for the following question to have relevance: which of your books should someone unfamiliar with your work start with if they want to get a good idea of your style to be encourage to read more? Beside Crooked, I mean. The new book is always a given.

DK: I suppose it really depends on what a reader is looking for in a story. I’ve written about bounty hunters, smugglers, gangsters, pot growers, ex-cops, punk rockers, and about relationships from hell. If a reader prefers a story with more heart I’d likely suggest Nobody from Somewhere, the story of a dying old man who rescues a runaway teen. If a story based on real events appeals to a reader, then I might offer Under an Outlaw Moon, which is based on real-life bank robbers Bennie and Stella Dickson.

 

Dietrich Kalteis, Author of Call Down the Thunder

One of the blogging highlights of any year is the launch of Dietrich Kalteis’s new book, which means another chance to interview him. Dieter is someone more writers should aspire to: not only an award-winning author but a mensch, a person I have never seen the bad side of, nor do I know anyone who has. His new book, Call Down the Thunder, launches next Tuesday and is a bit of a departure for him. I could tell you about it, but it’s going to be a lot more entertaining and enlightening if he does it.

One Bite at a Time: Dietrich, welcome back. It’s always a pleasure to have you here on One Bite at a Time. Let’s get started with the quick, 100 words or less, description of your new book, Call Down the Thunder.

Dietrich Kalteis: First off, thanks very much for having me back, Dana.

Sonny and Clara Myers struggle on their Kansas farm in the late 1930s, a time the Lord gave up on. The land’s gone dry, barren and worthless. And the bankers, greedy and hungry, make life even more impossible, squeezing farmers out of their homes. The couple can wither along with the land, or surrender to the bankers and hightail it to California like most of the other farmers. But Sonny comes up with a way for them to stay on their land and prosper while giving the banks a taste of their own misery.

OBAAT: Ninety-four words; very good. You go back to the 1930s for this story. Any particular reason for that time period?

DK: I chose the period because the hardships of the time added so much to the story. And there’s this feeling of isolation as they’re in the middle of nowhere with little money, no phone, and no electricity. The couple struggles with their marriage, trying to keep the farm from the bankers, dealing with other challenges that come along, all the while trying to survive the drought and dust storms that had been happening for nearly the past decade.

OBAAT: Interesting that you mention no phone or electricity. I’m working on a Western—sporadically—and find that the absence or things we take for granted now provides both opportunities and challenges. Were there times where you had to work around something because of the lack of a modern convenience like a phone? Or the flip side, where the absence of something provided you an opportunity that would have been difficult in a more contemporary story?

DK: Well, I had to work out a few details that we take for granted nowadays. Like when Clara wants to make a phone call to her mother living across the state. She has to get to the general store ten miles away, borrow the phone there, get connected through an operator, which at the time was very expensive.

I think the absence of modern conveniences like plumbing and electricity worked to get across that feeling of isolation, and made the characters more vulnerable to everything they have to deal with. 

OBAAT: What challenges did you find in writing a period novel? Anything unexpected?

DK: There’s always a lot of research that needs to be done in an historical novel, and I found it quite interesting. I think the hardest part for me was distilling it all down. Going through archived newspapers, historical as well as personal accounts, I came up with so much that I wanted to include, but I had to leave out a great deal of it. I was afraid it would start to sound more like a history lesson than a novel.

OBAAT: Does this mean there might be another book coming that set in this period? Not a sequel necessarily, but another book that spends time with something that interested you in your research but didn’t make it into Call Down the Thunder.

DK: Interesting you should say that, Dana. When I was doing the digging for this one I came across a true story about a couple of bank robbers, lesser known than Bonnie and Clyde, but they did top the FBIs most wanted list after robbing just one bank. So, I found out everything I could about them and wrote the story. It’s now been signed with my publisher, and I can’t say too much more about it at this point other than it should be out sometime after the next one, likely in 2021.

OBAAT: Interesting you should say that, as honking about this book put me a little in mind of when Elmore Leonard stepped back into the 1930s for The Hot Kid. We’re both Leonard devotees and I see a lot of potential for that one.

As you dug into the research, did you find the period foreign to you, or did you see similarities to what you learned about the Depression to how we live today?

DK: When I researched the story I surrounded myself with newspaper articles of the time, personal as well as historical accounts, and hundreds of old black and white photos, so I became immersed in that time, and no, it didn’t feel foreign at all.

There are similarities between then and now, and I guess we all feel we struggle in our lives at times so we can relate to the story, although the hardships they faced back then hit ten on the dial.

OBAAT: I remember newspapers. Mostly I remember them as great ways to get news from places other than Washington or the state capital. Nowadays it seems that most “local” papers are virtually volunteer operations that tell about upcoming scout and PTA activities, or some club putting out flowers for Mother’s Day. Did you see a lot of differences between the papers of the period and the news as it’s covered today?

DK: I guess newspapers of today have become second tier. And while news is delivered much faster these days, it seems people had more trust in the printed word back then, as in “They wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.”

There sure was a difference how news was received. In major centers, people read the morning paper over breakfast, or while sitting on a bus on the way to work. The radio was becoming a staple in many households and a source for what was going on in the world. And just imagine going to the movie theatre to watch the news. A long way from catching it on your smartphone and scrolling through your social media feed.

OBAAT: This has been great fun. I look forward to your new books almost as much for these interviews as I do reading the books. We know the bank robber story is on deck. What are you working on now?

DK: Before the story of the bank-robbing couple, I’ve got one coming out sometime next year that will take readers on a wild ride through northern British Columbia and into Alaska. It’s about the girlfriend of an aging gangster who wakes in the old guy’s bed, and above his rasping snores, she hears a burglar in the hall. Getting her handgun, she confronts him, recognizes him as the wrongly dismissed chauffeur looking for some payback, knowing the gangster stashes money in the house. She hesitates, considers a couple of ways she could go. And knowing where the money’s stashed, she says, “Take me with you.”

Right now, I’m working on a new one set in present-day Vancouver involving a retiree, a runaway, a couple of casino crooks, and one killer motor home.

And I’d like to say thanks, Dana, for taking the time to put together some great questions. It’s always fun to drop in.

Dietrich Kalteis, Author of Poughkeepsie Shuffle

Dietrich Kalteis is the award-winning author of Ride the Lightning (bronze medal winner, 2015 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best regional fiction), The Deadbeat Club, Triggerfish, House of Blazes (silver medal winner, 2017 Independent Publisher Book Awards, for best historical fiction), and Zero Avenue. His novel The Deadbeat Club has been translated to German, and 50 of his short stories have also been published internationally. He lives with his family on Canada’s West Coast.

Dietrich and I have been friends since we got together at Bouchercon several years ago. (Exactly which Bouchercon is lost to the alcohol-shrouded mists of time.) It’s always a treat when he stops by the blog. His blog, Off the Cuff, is also a pleasure, especially the multi-person discussions he runs from time to time, which I can’t think of any other blogs doing.

One Bite at a Time: Let’s get this out of the way right at the start so it doesn’t hang over the entire length of the interview: With a title like Poughkeepsie Shuffle, people are going to want to know if anyone picks their feet. You know, they’re in a hotel, they sit on the edge of the bed, take off their shoes…

Dietrich Kalteis: Man, I like the way you think, Dana, but no, there is no feet picking going on in any hotel. But, funny that you mention it because there is a scene where a couple of the main characters drive down from Toronto and end up picking up a couple of hookers in a hotel, the two women in the late-night bar calling themselves Miss Right and Miss Right Now. Of course, things don’t work out as planned in the hotel room when instead of getting their rocks off, our boys get ripped off.

  

OBAAT: Jeff Nichols is described as “a man strong of conviction but weak of character.” There’s a hint of cognitive dissonance there. Tell us a little about him.

DK: J Jeff’s likable, but somewhat bullheaded, the kind of guy who refuses to let the lessons of past mistakes get in the way of a good score. He sees what he wants and goes for it, the kind of underdog we’d like to see succeed. After getting his release from the infamous Don Jail, he tries to rekindle a relationship with his ex, Ann Ryan, making his way in the world by taking a job at a used car lot in a part of town called the Junction. But, it soon proves to be not enough to keep them afloat. So, when the lure of easy money comes along, he gets himself mixed up in a gun smuggling ring, smuggling guns across the border.

OBAAT: Your previous novels have focused on Canada’s west coast, around Vancouver, mostly, and dealt a lot with drugs. This time we’re in Toronto and it’s guns. Why the move?

DK: I grew up in Toronto, and I usually go back once a year or so, and I’m amazed at how much the city has changed since I lived there. Urban expansion, taller buildings springing up along the 401 and the Gardner, with roadways around the city expanding to extra lanes, some that didn’t exist at all when I lived there. It’s still a great city, but, it’s sad in a way to see some of the places l remember torn away. So, I wanted to bring some of that back and set the stage for Poughkeepsie Shuffle, weaving in those sights and sounds and bringing back a grittier, but character-filled Toronto, the way I remember it back in the mid-eighties, back when nobody knew what a condo was.

And it’s just across the lake from Niagara and Buffalo, with easy access to the US, making it the perfect setting for a story revolving around gun smuggling. What sparked the gun angle was an article I read about a gunrunning ring that operated between upstate New York and Ontario, eventually being taken down by the OPP, working alongside several U.S. law enforcement agencies. Another element that worked into the story was the increasing gang violence that I remember hearing about on the radio and reading about in the paper. 

OBAAT: We’ve talked about our admiration for Elmore Leonard before and the synopses of your books could very easily have been Leonard stories. The affinity is in the writing, yet you never sound as if you’re knocking him off. How are you able to show the debt without falling into imitation?

DK: It’s flattering to be compared to somebody you admire, and no doubt, I’ve been both inspired and influenced by Elmore Leonard’s work, along with other greats like George V. Higgins, James Crumley, Charles Willeford, Donald E. Westlake, and Hunter S. Thompson. To me, reading the greats is about inspiration, not imitation. It’s about transcending those influences, developing my own style and voice, honing strengths and knowing weaknesses, and finding what works.

OBAAT: Another thing you share with Leonard is strong female characters. Frankie Del Rey was the core of Zero Avenue. What’s the deal with Ann Ryan?”

DK: Ann Ryan’s tough like Frankie del Rey, but she’s more of a home body, and her fuse is longer. She’s better at taking the crumbs, at least at first, believing in Jeff to make good on promises to give her a better life. She wants to believe one of his schemes is going to pay off. Of course, everybody’s fuse is only so long, and when she tires of Jeff’s schemes, she puts her foot down, and she’s pretty tough. Frankie on the other hand, never relied on anybody to give her what she wanted, always ready to kick down some doors and just take what she was after. 

OBAAT: Time for a hard question. Two things come to mind when I think of controversies in writing nowadays: diversity and cultural appropriation, which can be like the proverbial rock and hard place. As a white man, you earn kudos for your strong female characters. (At least you should.) Do you ever wonder, “I’m not a woman; how can I write this scene from her point of view and not be accused of writing what I can’t possibly know?”

DK: I wasn’t sure I could pull off writing a female lead character before I started writing Zero Avenue, but since I write about people, and since half of them are women, I thought I’d give it a shot. I liked that Frankie, being a woman in the late seventies, seemed more challenged than a male getting into the music business, that is until you get to know her. Once I got going, it seemed to work, so I just kept going, writing from her perspective, revealing my inner Frankie.

For Poughkeepsie Shuffle, I wrote it in first person from Jeff’s POV. So, Ann is largely seen through his eyes. Writing in first person did have limitations, mainly I couldn’t shift from one character’s perspective to another’s. But it allowed for Jeff’s biases to come through, and that often made it funnier, like when her family comes to visit, all those thoughts in his head. But, again, once I got rolling, I liked the way writing in first person was going.

OBAAT: Let’s talk about point of view a little. How did you decide to write Poughkeepsie Shuffle in first person? When you write in third, what are the things you consider when decided whose POV to choose for a scene?

DK: I hadn’t written a novel in first person before, and I wanted to try it since it’s primarily Jeff’s story, and it just seemed to be the way to go. Usually, I like to write in third person, it’s like being the camera in a movie. It’s flexible and lets me move around and offer more insight, get into different heads by switching the POV from one character to another. 

OBAAT: Dieter, it’s always fun to chat with you. What’s on the horizon now that Poughkeepsie Shuffle has made its appearance?

DK: The next one’s done and with my publisher. It’s called Call Down the Thunder, and it’s set during the late 1930s. The story centers around a married couple with some unique ways of surviving the dustbowl days of Kansas. And I’ve got a short story called “Bottom Dollar” included in the Vancouver Noir anthology by Akashic Books, coming out this November. Right now I’m working on a new novel about a guy who’s on the run after stealing a gangster’s money and making off with his woman. 

A Conversation With Dietrich Kalteis

Dietrich Kalteis is unique. I can’t remember the last time he and I didn’t get together at Bouchercon, except this year it’s in Toronto and he won’t be there even though for once he won’t need a passport. (I will, but not to get into Canada. I’m an American citizen and need one to come back. Go figure.) Well, okay, the reason he can’t go is because his latest book, Zero Avenue, launched yesterday, so he has promotional stuff to do. To me, what better way to promote a new work of crime fiction than to go to the largest gathering of crime fiction devotees in the world—where, among other promotional opportunities, he could buy me a drink—but I guess not everyone has the marketing chops I have. (Amazon didn’t just give me that $7.52 I made last month, you know.)

Dieter has like no biographical information online, so suffice to say he’s a disarmingly charming guy whose serene demeanor in no way reflects the content of his books. I could go on, but it’s better if we let him do it. He’s good with words. Very good.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about Zero Avenue.

Dietrich Kalteis: Zero Avenue is set during the early days of Vancouver’s punk rock scene.

It follows Frankie del Rey, who aspires to launch her music career and raise enough money to cut a demo record and take her band Waves of Nausea on the road. To make ends meet she mules drugs for a powerful dealer named Marty Sayles. Things are going well when she gets in a relationship with a Johnny Falco, owner of a struggling club on the Downtown Eastside. That is, until Johnny decides to raid one of Marty Sayles’ pot fields. When he gets away with it, Frankie’s bass player finds out about it and figures that was easy enough and rips off another one of Sayles’ fields. When he goes missing, Johnnie and Frankie try to find out what happened. Meanwhile Marty Sayles comes looking for who ripped him off the first time — a trail that leads straight to Johnny and Frankie.

This is the first novel where I tried writing a female lead character, and at first I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, but once I got going I had fun with it, and it worked out well.

OBAAT: You hooked me with the name of the band. Waves of Nausea sounds like something Carl Hiaasen would come up with. You must have been but a child when punk cut its teeth in Vancouver. What made you pick that period and how did you research it?

DK: I wasn’t in Vancouver during early those punk days, but I was around. Jesus, I remember when Brian Jones was in the Stones. And the setting seemed perfect for a crime story because the punk scene was so raw and angry, and Vancouver was such a polite, sleepy backwater town back then, so there’s this natural tension. It was also a time before Google Earth, Google Maps, and satellite imagery, back when pot fields were a lot easier to hide.

As far as research, there are some great books that helped with the details: Guilty of Everything by John Armstrong, Perfect Youth by Sam Sutherland, I, Shithead and Talk-Action=Zero, both by Joe Keithley. And there was Bloodied but Unbowed, a documentary by Susanne Tabata that’s jam-packed with clips and tales from Vancouver’s early punk scene.

OBAAT: You’re a Vancouver guy, so you sit perilously close to the border with Baja Canada, or what many here refer to as the United States. With a country that close ten times the size of Canada, who do you feel is your audience? Or do you have a single reader in mind? Or just don’t give a fuck and write what you like and hope for the best?

DK: I do give a fuck, and I write the kind of stories that I would personally like to read. And they tend to be crime stories that end up on the gritty side with a little dark humor tossed in. I’ve used settings on either side of the border, so I hope the stories appeal to readers who like that type of story too. 

OBAAT: You’re one of the few people I know who diched his day job and jumped feet first into writing. Did things go about as you expected, or did you find a lot of surprises once you made the leap?

DK: When I ditched the day job about ten years ago, I wasn’t sure how far the jump was. I just knew if I was ever going to do it, I had to take that leap. And there were some surprises along the way, although most of them have been good ones — like getting that first novel accepted. Signing that deal was a rush, one which never gets old from one novel to the next. And like you, Dana, I’m blessed with a beloved spouse who is totally supportive; and without that, I might still just be talking about taking the jump.

OBAAT: You’ve said before that tone is what keeps you reading a book, by which you meant voice and pace. What is it about the tone of a book—or an author—that makes it the key element for you? We agree on this by the way. I’m just wondering how you came to that point.

DK: The voice is the personality of the writing, it’s what makes each author sound unique. It’s the way a writer combines syntax, pace, character, dialog, and all the story elements to pull the whole thing off and come up with an individual style.

When I read a book where the author’s voice resonates with me, I often find it’s hard to put it down, and that’s like magic. And when I find an author that I really connect with like that, I just want to read everything they’ve ever written, and then reread it all.

OBAAT: I know a lot of writers who don’t read fiction when they’re working on a book because they’re afraid it will influence their work in progress. As someone so closely attuned to voice and style, do you cut yourself off from such potential influences, or do you not worry about that?

DK: I always read while I’m working on a novel, which for me is most of the time. If I didn’t read when I was writing I’d never get to read. I think reading something well written not only entertains but inspires me to write. 

OBAAT: The “inspires [you] to write” comment hits home with me on multiple levels. Sometimes other fiction doesn’t just inspire me, it suggests things. For example, reminders of what someone else does well can trigger a thought that I’ve become a little lazy in some way. Even more, I’ve picked up plot suggestions from other books in the nick of time. Not that I plagiarize anyone, but some trick or twist I’ve read somewhere can be adapted to my situation and become useful to me. The climax of my first Nick Forte novel, A Small Sacrifice, was inspired by the ending of the film Three Days of the Condor, though the situations are so different one could hardly call it a copy. Have you ever had that happen?

DK: I get what you mean. What inspires me can spark my own ideas. Sometimes it comes from something I read, but also from something I see or hear, anything around me really. It might send me thinking, well, what if this happens … And it’s partly why I don’t plot a story in advance. These sparks might come along when I’m working on a story, as the whole thing’s taking shape, and it might give birth to a new idea or a twist. And that’s probably better than anything I would have come up with if I just sat down and outlined the whole story before I started writing. I mean, it’s just so organic, and that’s just something that works for me.

OBAAT: When we chatted in 2014 the question arose “Does writing ever seem like work to you?” Your reply:  The only time writing ever seemed like work was when I gave myself a crash course in grammar back when I started out five years ago. I studied a half dozen grammar texts and kept a notebook which I still refer to from time to time. I thought since I was working with words and called myself a writer, I ought to at least know where to put the commas and stuff.

This put me in mind of what I consider the greatest bit of dialog ever written to describe the public’s perception of writers, Bo Catlett explaining to Chili Palmer how easy it is to write a screenplay:

“You asking me,” Catlett said, “do I know how to write down words on a piece of paper? That’s what you do, man, you write down one word after the other as it comes in your head. It isn’t like having to learn how to play the piano, like you have to learn notes. You already learned in school how to write, didn’t you? I hope so. You have the idea and you put down what you want to say. Then you get somebody to add in the commas and shit where they belong, if you aren’t positive yourself. Maybe fix up the spelling where you have some tricky words. There people do that for you. Some, I’ve even seen scripts where I know words weren’t spelled right and there was hardly any commas in it. So I don’t think it’s too important. You come to the last page you write in ‘Fade out’ and that’s the end, you’re done.”

Chili said, “That’s all there is to it?”

“That’s all.”

Chili said, “Then what do I need you for?”

(Get Shorty, by Elmore Leonard. Page 143.)

That’s a long way to go to get to this question: Do you ever find bits of your stories showing up in your life? When I was working on Wild Bill, The Beloved Spouse™ said she could tell who that day’s POV character was by the way I talked when I came downstairs.

DK: That’s funny about your wife being able to tell the day’s POV character by the way you talk when you come downstairs. I think I get that. When I finish writing for the day, I sometimes feel like I’m in a fog, like I’m waking up from the story and coming back down to earth. 

And sometimes I stick bits of my real life in my stories — like something I experienced or just heard or read, with some fiction thrown in. I often jot little notes, like when somebody says something that I can use in a story I’m working on. Little bits drift in all the time, and I don’t want to miss them, so I write them down.

And you’re right about that scene from Get Shorty and the great dialog. What works is how simple and real it sounds. It’s a great example of how Elmore Leonard was just a master of the game.

OBAAT: You and I are both strongly influenced by Elmore Leonard, who once said he strove to get out of the way so the reader is unaware Leonard is writing at all, yet few writers are as easily identifiable as he. Why do you think that is?

DK: He just had this amazing voice, and he said if his writing sounded like writing, he rewrote it. He wanted to let the point of view of his characters come through, so he got out of their way so they could plot their own course and make their own decisions, good or bad. Doing that really let their cleverness or dumbness show through. And I think that’s one of the great lessons one can take away from Elmore Leonard.

OBAAT: Thanks for a great time, Dieter. I’m looking forward to seeing you at Bouchercon in Toronto. (You will be there, right?) Till then, what’s on the agenda for you writing-wise?

DK: After Zero Avenue comes Poughkeepsie Shuffle which takes place in Toronto in the mid-eighties and centers on Jeff Nichols, a guy just released from the infamous Don Jail. He lands himself a job at a used-car lot and finds himself mixed up in a smuggling ring bringing guns in from Upstate New York. Jeff’s a guy who’s willing to break a few rules on the road to riches, living by the motto, “why let the mistakes of the past get in the way of a good score in the future.”

I won’t make it to Bouchercon this year, I’ll be on the West Coast promoting the new book, but hopefully we’ll be able to catch up at next year’s Bouchercon in St. Petersburg. And thanks very much, Dana, for having me on One Bite at a Time. It was a lot of fun.

Twenty Questions With Dietrich Kalteis

Dietrich Kalteis’s first novel, Ride the Lightning, won the bronze medal for Canada West Regional Fiction at the 2015 Independent Publisher Books Awards. (Dietrich answered 20 Questions about Ride the Lightning on its release.) ECW Press will unveil his new book, The Deadbeat Club, on October 1, just in time to accommodate the throngs at Bouchercon, where he will appear on the panel, “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Heroes & Antiheroes,” on Sunday, October 11 at 10:00. Dietrich runs a regular feature on his blog called “Off the Cuff,” where crime fiction writers can get together and shoot the shit on the topic du jour. They’re always such good reads not even my occasional appearances can sink them.

Dieter took time out from getting ready for Bouchercon, promoting the book, and preparing to cross the US-Canadian border to submit to 20 Questions.

One Bite at a Time: Tell us about The Deadbeat Club.

Dietrich Kalteis: The story takes place in Whistler, BC. Grey Stevens takes over the family business after his uncle passes away. The nature of the business is growing pot, and he ends up growing a strain which creates demand among the locals and tourists. Soon everybody wants to get their hands on it, including two rival gangs coming up from Vancouver to take over the business and squeeze Grey out.

OBAAT: One DK to another, 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.)

DK: I liked the idea of Whistler as the setting for a crime story since it’s isolated, two hours north of Vancouver, and it’s known as a party town. I came up with the main character, Grey Stevens. He’s a laid back guy who just wants to grow pot, snowboard the cold months and bike the warm ones – an unwitting protagonist who finds himself in trouble after he saves a girl from a beating at the hands of one of the gang members coming up from Vancouver to squeeze him out of the pot trade. I liked the idea of dropping Grey into both a budding relationship and into the middle of a turf war. I wanted to see him develop as a character and see how he handled what was coming at him.

OBAAT: How long did it take to write The Deadbeat Club, start to finish?

DK: From first draft to sending it off to my publisher took about nine months. Then there was the usual time spent in editing and copy editing.

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

DK: So far, I haven’t based characters on anybody I know, so Grey is pure fiction. He just developed into the perfect reluctant hero as the story developed. He’s likable and does enough of the right things, so I think readers will empathize with him.

OBAAT: In what time and place is The Deadbeat Club set? How important is the setting to the book as a whole?

DK: The story is set in present time, and Whistler is important as the setting since all the characters are funneled into this mountain playground, clashing with each other with nowhere to run.

OBAAT: How did The Deadbeat Club come to be published?

DK: It’s the second of a three book deal with ECW Press. All three stories are set in British Columbia, but outside of the Dara Addie character – who started out as a minor character borrowed from Ride the Lightning, and ends up as Grey’s love interest – there’s no connection between the stories.

OBAAT: Your writing has been compared to Elmore Leonard, and, frankly, you look more like Elmore Leonard than any other living author. Is that a conscious choice, to emulate him, or did it just kind of work out that way? In essence, how much of an effect did Leonard’s work have on yours? (The writing, not your personal appearance. Unless plastic surgery was involved. Then we want to know every juicy bit.)

DK: All natural, all me, no enhancements. Over the years, I have read everything Elmore Leonard ever wrote, a lot of it more than once. I don’t intentionally try to emulate him, but like him, I incorporate dark humor and characters who are often unwitting and on the shady side.

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

DK: I read a lot of crime fiction, and some of my favorite authors are James Ellroy, Robert B. Parker, Donald Westlake, Robert Crais, Carl Hiaasen and George V Higgins.

I’ve also enjoyed books by newer-to-the-scene writers like yourself, Eric Beetner, Johnny Shaw, Joe Clifford. Paul D. Marks and David Swinson. And there are many more who I hope to read soon. Among Canadian authors, I like John McFetridge, Sam Wiebe, Owen Laukkanen, Linda L Richards, ER Brown, William Deverell and Robin Spano. Outside of crime fiction, I like anything written by Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, the Beat Generation, Edgar Hilsenrath and Patti Smith.

OBAAT: What made you decide to be an author?

DK: At sixteen, I penned my first attempt at a novel. A shoebox of hand-scrawled loose-leaf pages. It was pretty terrible, but I always held onto the notion that one day I would write. Okay, so it took a while. In fact, it wasn’t until six years ago when my wife suggested I pack up my graphics business and just start writing full time (I guess I talked about it a lot). And that’s what I did.

OBAAT: How do you think your life experiences have prepared you for writing crime fiction?

DK: Since I was a kid, I loved reading, and I loved spinning stories. I remember listening to the news or to something told to me and thinking, well what if this happened? And I still do this, gathering bits of what I hear and read for later use in my stories. I guess over the years all my own life experiences have given me more to draw on and a stronger foundation for the stories I come up with.

OBAAT: What do you like best about being a writer?

DK: I like creating stories. It’s a solo effort where I get to sit at my desk and spin scenes and create characters, mixing what I know with what I can imagine. And for me, there’s nothing better than that.

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

DK: There’s just something about a Coen brothers’ film. I love their stories and their offbeat sense of humor. I’m also inspired by any kind of art that really speaks to me, whether it’s great photography, paintings or music.

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

DK: I just jump right in (fully clothed) with an idea, toss in an appropriate character or two and start writing and developing as I go. As far as outlining, I kind of do that in reverse. After I have the first draft, I put together a kind of rough outline which serves to check timelines and sequences.

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?

DK: Something in between. Once I’ve got a scene, I usually go back over it the next day and reread and edit out anything that isn’t working before moving on to the next scene. Often ideas spring from rereading, and I carry them into future scenes. The whole thing kind of builds as I keep writing.

OBAAT: Your blog runs a regular feature called “Off the Cuff,” where you discuss various aspects of writing with Martin Frankson and Sam Wiebe, and usually, one or two guest authors. (I’ve lowered property values there myself a couple of times, and it’s great fun.) What gave you the idea for that, and how are the topics and guests picked?

DK: I wanted to write a blog with no preset questions, invite guests at random, pick a topic and just treat it like a casual conversation. It’s been going for over a year, and it’s a great way to get other authors’ views on aspects of the writing process. We’ve been fortunate to have so many talented authors like yourself who generously give their time and contribute to make the whole thing sound like we know what we’re talking about.

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

DK: Well, with two published books, I still feel like a novice, but one thing I’ve observed: no two writers seem to do anything the same way. So, someone new to the game would be well-advised to take a look at writers they admire and find out how each one does it. Then adapt what works best for them. One other thing, I think it’s important for a writer to read as much as possible.

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?

DK: I’d have to say tone first. To me, that’s the voice and the pace. That’s what keeps me turning pages when I’m reading, but let’s face it, you need all these elements to really bring the whole thing together.

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?

DK: There are so many great books, but the first one that comes to mind right now is The Rum Diary, an early novel by Hunter S. Thompson. A great tale of jealousy, treachery and lust written by a true master. If we’re talking strictly crime fiction, then I’d say George V. Higgins’ debut novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

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

DK: Watching a movie and grabbing my guitar and hacking away as I watch. I make a very lazy and crappy musician, but it’s something I like to do. I also like to paint abstracts and snap black-and-white photos.

OBAAT: What are you working on now?

DK: I’ve been working on my fifth and sixth novels like a juggler this past year, finishing a draft of one, then switching to the other, and going back and forth. I’m not sure that it’s the best way to go, but so far it seems to be working.

Lastly, I’d like to say thanks, Dana, for inviting me over to “One Bite at a Time.” I look forward to seeing you and Corky at Bouchercon.

OBAAT: We’ll be there, and we’re both looking forward to seeing you again. Thanks for stopping by.