Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A Little Q&A with Reed Farrel Coleman

Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager series is not to be missed. The latest installment, Innocent Monster, hits the streets on October 5, and Reed was kind enough to drop by and to a little Q&A here on the blog.

BC: I was reading on your website about the new book, and I see the title is Innocent Monster, so I'm guessing it's about vampires, right?

RFC: Is this where I stick needles in my eyes? Christ, am I sick to death of vampires. Charlaine Harris is like the nicest person alive, but can she please make it stop? Seriously, Innocent Monster is pretty far away from your basic vampire book.

BC: Okay, I guess I was wrong. I noticed that Booklist gives it a starred review that says it's "pretty much note-perfect," so where do the musicians come in?

RFC: On cue, I hope.

BC: Kidding aside, I remember that at the 2004 Bouchercon in Toronto you were campaigning to "Save Moe." Can we assume that Moe has been thoroughly saved and will be around for a while?

RFC: I think it’s a safe assumption. I’m already at Moe #7, Hurt Machine.

BC: Tower, your collaborative novel with Ken Bruen, was a big success. Any plans for another collaboration with Bruen or anyone else?

RFC: We have tossed around the idea of a Western. A loony Irishman from Galway and a Jew from Brooklyn … makes perfect sense to me. But Ken’s so busy these days, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

BC: When you start a novel, do you have an outline handy, or do you prefer to wing it?

RFC: I am the king of winging it. Outlines kill me, so I avoid them at all cost.

BC: What about social networking? Do you think Twitter and Facebook are necessary for writers? How do you use them?

RFC: Unfortunately, I think they are necessary evils. I like socializing the old-fashioned way, but I’m on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve updated my website.

BC: What other writing projects can you tell us about? Poetry, maybe?

RFC: I’m now a co-editor of The Lineup, a poetry magazine that focuses on crime poetry. I have a stand-alone being shopped around. I’ve discussed some collaborations and I hope to do a short story anthology for Busted Flush.

BC: Thanks for the visit, Reed, and we all hope Innocent Monster sells a million.

RFC: Me too.

* * *

Reed Farrel Coleman’s Innocent Monster (Tyrus Books, Oct. 5, 2010) is the sixth in his Moe Prager series. Reed has been called a hard-boiled poet by NPR’s Maureen Corrigan and the noir poet laureate in the Huffington Press. He’s published eleven novels—two under his pen name Tony Spinosa—in three series, and the stand-alone Tower co-written with award-winning Irish author Ken Bruen. He’s won the Shamus Award for Best Novel of the Year three times, won the Barry and Anthony, and twice been nominated for the Edgar Award. He is a co-editor of The Lineup and was the editor of the anthology Hard Boiled Brooklyn. You can reach Reed on his website, Facebook, or Twitter.

3 comments:

Gerald So said...

For those interested in The Lineup: Poems on Crime, as mentioned by Reed, here's a link to The Lineup blog.

Cullen Gallagher said...

You and Reed should start a comedy duo (or at least collaborate on a novel together).

Looking forward to Moe's latest adventure.

Unknown said...

I like the comedy duo idea!