![\"steve-hamilton\"](\"\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/steve-hamilton.jpg\")
<\/a>Q: One of the things I like best about your books is the way you use dialogue to tell the story.\u00a0 Do you kind of think in dialogue?\u00a0 Is that the way storytelling comes to you?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\nA: I do think dialogue is the part that comes easiest to me, yes.\u00a0 In fact, I really think that I \u201chear\u201d a character first, before I see him\/her, if that makes any sense.\u00a0 (So of course when I tried to do the biggest book yet, in The Lock Artist<\/i>, it was only natural I\u2019d have a main character who never said one word out loud.)<\/p>\n
Q: What do you feel you\u2019ve learned as a writer through the arc of your books?\u00a0 Is there an arc you have in mind for Alex?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: I honestly don\u2019t know what I\u2019ve learned, other than to maybe trust the process more, and to not worry when I have no idea where a story is going.\u00a0 Along those same lines, I don\u2019t have any kind of arc in mind for Alex.\u00a0 None at all.\u00a0 I barely know what he\u2019s going to do in the next chapter!\u00a0 I just keep going and I find out.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Q: Where do you think P.I. novels are heading?\u00a0 I\u2019ve read quite a few lately that are P.I. in form but the main character isn\u2019t actually a P.I.\u00a0 Alex kind of fits that model, as he\u2019s the most reluctant P.I. ever, and technically, he isn\u2019t one. A few recent examples would be Steve Ulfelder (mechanic) Brad Parks (journalist) and Tim O\u2019Brien (teacher, ex-cop). What seems to stick is the white knight aspect.\u00a0 What do you think about the future for private eyes in fiction?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: It\u2019s no secret that it\u2019s a tough market right now.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s tough in general, of course, but the PI genre is especially hard hit \u2013 maybe because it\u2019s the kind of writing that relies on a series and a slow buildup of readers, and that in turn requires a level of patience that most publishers just don\u2019t have right now.\u00a0 I\u2019m the current president of the Private Eye Writers of America, mind you, so it\u2019s a subject close to my heart.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve been reading the Shortcut Man<\/i> series by PG Sturges, which is very recent and also very much in the classic PI tradition.\u00a0 It\u2019s good to see that it\u2019s still possible to make it work!<\/p>\n
Q: When you plan out a novel, how far out do you structure it?\u00a0 Your books seem very meticulously assembled, if that\u2019s the right<\/i> way to put it.\u00a0 Each part of the story seems to grow organically from the part before it.\u00a0 For a reader, it feels effortless, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not.\u00a0 What\u2019s your method?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: \u201cPlan out a novel,\u201d that\u2019s good!\u00a0 And \u201cmeticulously assembled,\u201d that\u2019s even better!\u00a0 You\u2019re killing me here.\u00a0 Honestly, all I do is try to figure out a good way to start, something that sounds right.\u00a0 Like in this most recent book, Let It Burn<\/i>, it was just like, \u201cWhat would happen if Alex went back to Detroit, after all of these years?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s literally all I have to start with.\u00a0 From there, I just keep asking myself, \u201cWhat happens next?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s all I can do.\u00a0 I have absolutely no<\/i> idea where the story is going beyond the next few pages.\u00a0 I just go and hope I never get too lost.\u00a0 That\u2019s my method.<\/p>\n
Q. Your books seem to be getting steadily darker, not that they\u2019ve ever been a light read.\u00a0 Any thoughts on that?\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s a natural progression?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A:I think it might be a natural progression, yes.\u00a0 Part of that is just growing a little older, seeing a little bit more in the real world.\u00a0 It all comes out in the writing, even if it\u2019s not that obvious or recognizable.\u00a0 The first book I did after 9\/11 was Blood Is the Sky<\/i>, and I can still look back and see that in the book itself.\u00a0 Not so much the events, of course, but the feeling I had when I was writing it.\u00a0 (And maybe even a few half-hidden references, if you look hard enough.\u00a0 Like the hornets and the moose and the bats and the bears.)<\/p>\n
Q: When you started writing, did you think \u201cI\u2019m going to be a mystery writer\u201d?\u00a0 Or was this the format that came most naturally to you?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: When I was eight years old, I thought I\u2019d be a mystery writer someday, yes.\u00a0 Maybe I strayed from that original idea along the way, like around college, and thought I\u2019d \u201coutgrown\u201d it and needed to write something else.\u00a0 But funny how you always come back to that first love.\u00a0 It\u2019s the still the one kind of story that just grabs me and won\u2019t let go.<\/p>\n
Q: You\u2019ve got a large body of work now.\u00a0 Do you have a favorite of all your books?\u00a0 Any of them you aren\u2019t so fond of?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: I kinda like the second book, Winter of the Wolf Moon<\/i>, because I was able to prove to myself that I could keep doing it, after that first book (A Cold Day in Paradise<\/i>) did fairly well.\u00a0 And I kinda like The Lock Artist<\/i>, just because it was such a departure and because I had to go through so much to finally find the story.\u00a0 The other standalone I did, Nightwork<\/i>, is probably the least successful, just because the story didn\u2019t have quite the right ending, looking back on it now, and because I might have let myself become a little bit too indulgent with the references to jazz musicians who 99% of readers have never even heard of.<\/p>\n
Q: Your new book takes Alex back to Detroit.\u00a0 Is this something you\u2019ve wanted to do for a while \u2013 and you just couldn\u2019t get him downstate?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: Well, he made a brief trip to Detroit in the third book (The Hunting Wind<\/i>), but this was the first time he had to go back and deal with his past in such a direct and prolonged way.\u00a0 With everything that Detroit is going through right now, it just felt like the right time to do it.\u00a0 I mean, it was rough when Alex was a cop there.\u00a0 But now it\u2019s just a lost city.<\/p>\n
Q: I also want to ask about Vinnie.\u00a0 The way you include Ojibwe culture in the books is very natural and also very effective.\u00a0 How did you learn about it?\u00a0 Are there folks you ask when you\u2019re not sure if you\u2019ve got it right?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: I go up there at least once a year, and yes, I definitely run things by some of the tribal members, to make sure I\u2019m being accurate and respectful.\u00a0 I always try to remind people that I\u2019m telling these stories from Alex\u2019s point of view.\u00a0 He\u2019s close to Vinnie and he sees what\u2019s going on up there, but at the end of the day he\u2019s not<\/i> part of that life.\u00a0 He\u2019s an outsider, just as much as I am.<\/p>\n
Q: And what\u2019s next?\u00a0 Another stand-alone or another Alex book? \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
A: I might do something new and different again, but I\u2019m certainly not done with Alex.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine ever not wanting to know what he\u2019s up to next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steve Hamilton has visited the store since his first novel, A Cold Day in Paradise, was published in 1998.\u00a0 Since then he\u2019s been loyal, kind, and funny, and he\u2019s long been a favorite with our customers. He is our bestselling author. We love his Michigan-centric series and look forward to every novel \u2013 I was … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1058,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions\/1058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}