{"id":1002,"date":"2018-12-31T15:12:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:12:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T15:12:10","slug":"lone-star-listensauthor-interviews-by-kay-ellington-lsll-publisher-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ListensAuthor interviews by Kay Ellington, LSLL Publisher"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to Texas. She is the coauthor, with Barbara Brannon, of the Texas novels The Paragraph Ranch<\/span>A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\n

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7.16.2017\u00a0 Mystery novelist Bill Crider: More than a hundred books later, still writing every day (and that includes holidays)<\/h1>\n

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For more than four decades Bill Crider<\/span> has had a following of Texas readers\u2014and for more than twenty novels Crider\u2019s Sheriff Dan Rhodes has been holding his own with the likes of such sleuths as Stephanie Plum and Kinsey Milhone. The Alvin, Texas, \u201cretiree\u201d whose most recent novel came out in August talked with us via email about writing, Sheriff Dan, and what\u2019s next, in this week\u2019s Lone Star Listens.<\/span><\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: <\/span>Bill, you\u2019ve been a successful author for four decades. Your life began in Mexia in 1941, the year of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What was it like growing up in a small Texas town in the forties and fifties, and how did it inform your writing?<\/p>\n

BILL CRIDER: <\/span>There\u2019s no question that there\u2019s a lot of Mexia and my upbringing in my books. Mexia was the kind of town where you began first grade with sixty or so other kids and when you walked across the stage to get your diploma twelve years later, most of those same kids walked with you. It was the kind of town where kids were free to roam all over, on foot or on bicycles, and where they played outside from daylight until dark in the summertime unless their mothers (like mine) demanded that you stay inside during \u201cthe heat of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

I listened to a lot of baseball games in the heat of the day. Movies were cheap, and we had two theaters. Everybody went to the Saturday matinee at the Palace, where there was always a double feature, usually a couple of B-westerns, along with a serial, a cartoon, a newsreel, and some previews of coming attractions. The audience was often rowdy, but nobody seemed to mind much. Later on a new, air-condtioned theater was built, and the rowdy days were over. If you want to know what high school was like, watch American Graffiti.<\/span> I think every town in America must have been like that in the \u201950s. I miss the old days, but you have to realize that I was a middle-class white kid who wasn\u2019t \u201cwoke\u201d in the current sense of the word. That didn\u2019t come until about my senior year in high school and especially my freshman year in college, when my eyes really got opened.<\/p>\n

How many books have you written? I counted more than sixty.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m one of those unorganized people who doesn\u2019t keep a list. I suspect that the number of books under my own name and others is approaching 100, but I\u2019m not really sure. It\u2019s probably best that I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

After getting your master\u2019s at UNT, then attended UT Austin, where you were awarded your PhD where you wrote your dissertation on the hard-boiled detective novel. When and how did you discover for your affinity for mysteries?<\/p>\n

I went from NTSU (as it was known at the time) to UT, where I got my doctorate, and then I taught at Howard Payne in Brownwood for a dozen years. Anyway, I discovered my affinity for mysteries, crime, and spy fiction when John F. Kennedy mentioned reading Ian Fleming\u2019s<\/span> James Bond novels. Up until then I\u2019d read mostly science fiction and fantasy, but after James Bond there was no turning back for me.<\/p>\n

Your debut novel, Too Late to Die,<\/span> a Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery, was published in 1986 and was winner of the 1987 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. How did your first big break come about?<\/p>\n

I could (and often do) turn this into a long and complex story, but I\u2019ll give you the short version. At an MWA [Mystery Writers of America] party in Houston I met Ruth Cavin<\/span>, who was at that time an editor at Walker. I talked to her about my book, and she asked to see it. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve written thirty years\u2019 worth of books about Sheriff Dan Rhodes, including your most recent Survivors Will Be Shot Again<\/span> (St. Martin\u2019s, 2016). Tell us about Sheriff Rhodes, where he\u2019s been, and what the latest book is about.<\/p>\n

As far as the books go, Sheriff Rhodes hasn\u2019t been anywhere. He\u2019s always been sheriff. The town around him has changed a lot, though, and I like to think that the town is as much a character in the book as the sheriff or anyone else. The books, to me, are really about the town and the people and the changes there as they are about the sheriff and the crimes. In Survivors, Sheriff Rhodes is investigating a murder that grows out of a series of thefts in a thinly populated part of the country, but the town is soon involved. There\u2019s even an alligator in this one.<\/p>\n

After grad school at you moved to Alvin where you were chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at Alvin Community College until you retired in August 2002 to become a full-time writer. I\u2019ll ask you the question I ask every academic\/author. Can writing be taught\u2014why or why not?<\/p>\n

At Howard Payne I did teach a creative writing course, but I doubt that I ever taught anyone to write. In fact, I had so many doubts that on moving to Alvin, I was relieved to learn that there was already an established creative writing course taught by a talented and popular teacher named Gilbert Benton,<\/span> so I wouldn\u2019t have to teach the course there. I think you might be able to teach the mechanics of writing, and you might be able to teach things like narrative structure, but I\u2019m not sure you can teach anybody how to write a story or a book or a poem. I\u2019m pretty sure I couldn\u2019t, at any rate. I suspect that Gilbert Benton had more success than I did.<\/p>\n

In addition to Sheriff Dan Rhodes books you\u2019ve written a variety of mysteries and Westerns. What is your creative process like? How have you managed to write so many books?<\/p>\n

The secret to writing a lot of books is the old clich\u00e9: Put the seat of the pants in the seat of the chair. For years I wrote every day after getting home from my teaching job, and I mean every day, including holidays and my birthday. I\u2019ve slowed down considerably since then, however. My creative process usually consists of coming up with a title and an opening sentence and then going from there. So far that\u2019s worked out okay.<\/p>\n

How has publishing changed since you started?<\/p>\n

You could write a book in answer to that question. We\u2019ve had the purchase and consolidation of most of the major houses, not to mention the eBook revolution. Let\u2019s just say that almost nothing is the same as when I started and let it go at that. I feel like a dinosaur.<\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019re retired what authors, do you enjoy reading? Specifically, what Texas authors do you enjoy reading?<\/p>\n

I enjoy so many writers that it would be impossible to list them all. As for Texas writers, even that list would be so long that if I made one I\u2019d leave someone out. Joe R. Lansdale<\/span> has been a friend of mine for going on 40 years now, and I never miss one of his books. I suspect I\u2019m one of the few people who can claim to have been reading James Lee Burke<\/span> since before he became famous. I still have my paperback copies of a couple of his books I bought in the late \u201960s and early \u201970s. He wasn\u2019t a crime writer then, but he was already great in my eyes. Here are some of the Texans I read, but I know I\u2019m missing a few: Carole Nelson Douglas, Chris Rogers, David Lindsey, Dean James (who\u2019s decamped to Mississippi), George Weir, Harry Hunsicker, Jan Grape, Jay Brandon, Jeff Abbott, Kay Finch, Livia Washburn, Margaret Moseley, Reavis Wortham, Susan Wittig Albert, Susan Rogers Cooper, Terry Shames, Tim Hemlin, <\/span>and a host of others. What\u2019s a little amusing about this is that back when I started writing, I was one of a few Texans doing crime fiction. Now there must be hundreds.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Bill Crider?<\/p>\n

Next I need to finish the book I\u2019m working on, tentatively titled \u201cThat Old Scoundrel Death,\u201d a Sheriff Rhodes book. After that, who knows? Maybe it\u2019s time to retire. Or not. I\u2019ll see how I\u2019m feeling when the book\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

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Praise for
Bill Crider\u2019s novels<\/h1>\n

“Like the rest of Crider’s long string of Dan Rhodes novels, the latest keeps you guessing and chuckling.” \u2015Kirkus Reviews on Between the Living and the Dead<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is easy to see why Crider has had a following through twenty prior Dan Rhodes mysteries. The characters could easily become beloved friends in the vein of Stephanie Plum\u2019s sidekicks or Kinsey Millhone\u2019s neighborhood buddies, especially to the lover of cozies.\u201d \u2015Writers\u2019 League of Texas on Half in Love with Artful Death<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBill Crider writes some the finest traditional mysteries around. He is a first rate plotter who also knows how to pace his material. Such a mixture of mystery, humor and even an occasional horrific moment give his work its unique mastery.\u201d \u2015Ed Gorman, on Survivors Will Be Shot Again<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnthony Award\u2013winner Crider\u2019s 20th mystery featuring sheriff Dan Rhodes…offers the usual enjoyable combination of witty help from dispatcher Hack Jensen, minor crises like a hog loose in Hannah Bigelow’s house, the theft of hair extensions from Lonnie Wallace’s Beauty Shack, and a major crime or two….Rhodes, often embarrassingly compared to fictional sheriff Sage Barton, successfully emulates that action hero in the clever and satisfying resolution.\u201d \u2015Publishers Weekly<\/span> on Compound Murder<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cKudos to Crider for his 20th entry (after Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen<\/span>)…. As expected, humor and comfort are part of the mix.\u201d \u2015Library Journal<\/span> on Compound Murder<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince 1986, Crider of Alvin has been turning out novels in his Dan Rhodes series about a sheriff in fictional Blacklin County who solves folksy mysteries involving barbershop quartets and beauty parlors. This twentieth installment finds Rhodes dealing with the murder of a college instructor, but rest assured, the main character still finds time to ruminate about such Texas glories as his beloved\u2015and now discontinued\u2015Dublin Dr Pepper.\u201d \u2015Texas Monthly<\/span> on Compound Murder<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoyable . . . Rhodes’s encounters with the overly enthusiastic amateur sleuth Seepy Benton and his inability to persuade his colleagues and neighbors that he bears no resemblance to fictional crime-busting sheriff Sage Barton are continuing sources of fun.\u201d \u2015Publishers Weekly<\/span> on Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen<\/span><\/p>\n

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Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers. Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}