Interview with Pete Hautman
by Jon Jordan
Pete's Website is here
8-30-2001

Jon:  For readers who may not have read your books yet how would you describe them?

Pete: I try to get away with simply calling them novels. If pressed, I call them crime novels. If more detail is demanded I call them comic crime novels. I sometimes describe them as P.G. Wodehouse meets Patricia Highsmith, but although those two writers influenced me, my work does not resemble theirs a great deal. Another approach is to describe them as "In the modern literary ether, I hover somewhere between Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen." But that, too, is deceptive.

Jon:  Joe Crow is a unique character. I think he is very refreshing in the mystery genre. Is Joe someone you will continue to come back to and write more of over time?

Pete: Joe Crow himself is not very interesting as a personality. That is, if you got stuck sitting beside him on an international flight, you'd better have brought a good book along. Crow was created (deliberately) as a straight man for the other characters in the books. He is a bit of a golem. Like chicken in a classical French cooking: he is primarily a bland vehicle for intricate sauces. When a patron exclaims, "Theez coq eez magnifique!" he is praising not the bird, but rather the sauce and the presentation.

I am working on a new Joe Crow novel that will be told (mostly) through the point of view of an autistic private eye, but there are two or three other books I'll be finishing first. Look for Crow's return in about four years.

Jon:  You also write Young adult books in addition to mysteries. What made you want to do this?

Pete: My first YA book, MR. WAS, was conceived and begun as an adult novel. As I got into the book, I found that the story worked best when told through the eyes of a younger protagonist, and it was published as YA.

The best reading most of us ever do happens when we are adolescents. Curling up with a good book will never be sweeter than it was at, say, age fourteen. It felt so good to be writing for that audience that I wrote two more YAs, and am working on a fourth.

The YA novels are different from my adult work in other ways. They are shorter, darker, and more plot-driven. MR. WAS and HOLE IN THE SKY revisit some classic sci-fi subgenres. STONE COLD is a tale of obsession about a teen who becomes a high-stakes poker player.

Jon:  You said MR. WAS started as an adult book but ended up as a young adult because it works better. Do you find that your books kind of take a life of their own and you follow it ? Or do you try to stick to the original plan?

Pete: Most of my books resemble the original outline only slightly. In the case of MR. WAS, I knew where I wanted the story to end. Creating a younger protagonist made the journey more interesting, both for me and (I hope) for the reader.

Jon:  Your books seem to have a lot of gambling in them. Are you a good poker player?

Pete: No. I'm the worst poker player on the planet. I bleed cash. You should definitely invite me to play in your game.

Jon:  Do you feel that the internet gives authors an advantage that wasn't available in the past?

Pete: Some writers are helped by internet marketing opportunities, others are hurt. Unfortunately, the authors who focus mostly on their writing do not benefit, while authors who put most of their energy into exploiting marketing opportunities do well. This has been happening for many years, and not just on the web. A writer who spends years crafting a quality novel will eat the dust of a hack who goes to every convention, spends hours in chat rooms, visits hundreds of bookstores and mails copious amounts of promotional materials. (Think Betamax vs. VHS.) This has been the case ever since Jaqueline Susan started hosting breakfasts for the truck drivers who deliver paperbacks books to your local Safeway. The internet hasn't really changed this aspect of bookselling, but it has intensified it.

Another effect of internet fiction marketing (and the availability of cheap, fast printing technology) is that the sheer number of books published has skyrocketed. People can only read so many books. Therefore, the average number of books sold per author has declined. It is far more difficult to make a living as a novelist today than it was fifteen years ago.

The good news for authors on the net is that on'line publishing makes it easier for a new author to get his or her foot in the door. Also, marketers such as Amazon provide some leveling for bottom- and mid-list authors. Books by Pete Hautman and John Grisham are equally available and easy to find. And genre classification is less restricting in on line stores-it's more likely a mystery reader will stumble across an author's one-off sci-fi novel.

Back to the original question: Yes, the internet offers new opportunities to authors. Is it good for authors and literature as a whole? I don't know. There are now more bad books than ever before. Are there also more good books? I do not know.

Jon:  Your new book, Rag Man sounds very intriguing, could you tell us a little bit about it?

Pete: RAG MAN is the story of man who commits the ultimate passive-aggressive act, and must change who he is to live with what he has become. Okay, that sounds pretty boring. It's not. RAG MAN is a difficult book to describe without giving away too much. It's a funny book about some not-so-funny things. Or maybe it's the other way around. Depends on who you are. Comments on the book range from "...tense and stylish..." (Jan Burke), to "...laugh-out-loud funny and deadly serious." (James W. Hall), to "...witty and light..." (Publishers Weekly). I dunno. It's a novel. It's a crime novel. It's a comic crime novel. I wrote it.

Jon:  Do you enjoy doing signings and meeting the readers?

Pete: Yes I do.

Jon:  Do you write full time?

Pete: Yes.

Jon:  Since your books tend to be comic, at least usually, do people meet you and expect you to be funny?

Pete: Sure, and that's okay with me. I can be funny at times. There is a certain type of person that finds me highly amusing. There is another type of person who simply becomes confused by my jokes. It has nothing to do with intelligence, but seems to be more a matter of world view. One serious young man, after telling me how much he had enjoyed my first three books, asked me if it offended me when my books were described as "funny." (He read them as straightforward crime thrillers.) Another fan once said she "hurt herself laughing" at a scene that I thought was rather brutal and dark.

It's fine with me if people expect me to be funny in person. What I hate is when people think that because I "have a sense of humor," they have to try to be funny too. That's painful, man.

Jon:  If you didn't write for a living, what might you be doing instead?

Pete: I would illustrate comic books or raise mushrooms or play poker. Possibly all three.

Jon:  Does it help you writing having two authors under the same roof? Do you and Mary (Logue) bounce ideas off each other, or do you try to keep your writing separate?

Pete: Mary and I met when I took a writing class she was teaching at The Loft, a Twin Cities literary organization. Our relationship was writer/writer before it became man/woman. We still share all of our writing with each other. We discuss our work at nearly every stage in the creative process, but we never rewrite each other's prose. It works.

Jon:  Have you and Mary thought about co-authoring a book?

Pete: We've talked about it, and even brainstormed some ideas. It would be a damn good book, but the relationship might suffer.

Jon:  You split up your time between Arizona and a small Wisconsin town. Do you like small towns?

Pete: Mary and I recently sold our Arizona home and bought a house in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. I like cities. Small towns are...well...where do you go for good sushi?

Jon:  If you were able to travel back to your own past and talk to yourself as a teenager, what would you say?

Pete: Don't smoke, buy IBM, be nicer.

Jon:  What kinds of things do you do with your free time?

Pete: I run, in-line skate, hunt mushrooms, bike, hike, play poker, cook...I do lots of things. This summer I raised butterflies.

Jon:  What authors do you enjoy?

Pete: I'm currently enjoying KAVALIER & CLAY by Michael Chabon. My favorite body of work is the novels and short stories of Jack Vance. I always read Elmore Leonard. I'm also fond of Patricia Highsmith, Octavia Butler, Gene Wolfe, and John LeCarre.

Jon:  You added a couple blurbs from the new book. Do you get asked to write them for other people?

Pete: All published authors get asked for blurbs. It can be a painful process. Most blurbs are simply variations on the sentence, "John Doe is a friend of mine and it would make me happy if you would buy his book." When I am emperor, I will decree that no published author shall write more than three blurbs per lifetime. Any excess blurbs will be tattooed upon his or her buttocks in 48 point Olde English script.

Of course, any blurb that you see gracing one of my covers is entirely unsolicited, genuine, and true.

Jon:  Is there any Hollywood type interest in any of your work?

Pete: Lots of interest. I have some books under option, and others are being discussed. I'd like very much to see a film treatment of one of my books. At the same time, I dread it.

Jon:  Would you want to be involved in a project like that, or would you rather sell it and be done with it?

Pete: If I may quote Kesh, the Vorlon ambassador, "Yes."

Jon:  What kind of music do you listen to?

Pete: Lately I've been hooked on Snoop Dogg, especially his CD "Doggystyle," which is great music once you get past the fact that his language and message are totally offensive. Before that, I was on a K.D. Lang binge. And before that I played nothing but the Beach Boys for six weeks.

Jon:  Readers are all different. Are you a person who needs to read books in the order they are written? And are you a library guy, or do you like to own the book?

Pete: I am more inclined to read an author's most recent work first. Unless a series of novels is clearly intended to be read sequentially (as in a trilogy) I see no reason to do so. I read the entire Travis McGee series in haphazard order and suffered no ill effects.

As for owning books, there are a few authors who have brought me so much pleasure over the years that I always buy their books in hardcover. I do this out of respect, and to offer them a pocketbook "thank you" for sharing their world with me.

I also spend a lot of time at the library. I write non-fiction work for young children, so I do a lot of research. Public libraries are the best idea Ben Franklin ever had (though I've developed a recent appreciation for the bifocal thing).

Until our recent move, I liked the idea of owning lots of books. Looking up at a wall of books made me happy. I am now reconsidering my position. Now I look at that wall of books and my back starts to ache.

Jon:  Who are some of your favorite actors/actresses?

Pete: There are a lot of talented actors working today. A good script and a good director seem to me to be more important than the players.

I'd rather give you a few movies I've enjoyed: American Pie; Eyes Wide Shut; Mad Dog and Glory, and Chinatown. On television I always watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Farscape.

Jon:  Is it true that you do not like rhubarb?

Pete: Yes.

Jon:  What's the one thing that’s always in your fridge?

Pete: Homememade chicken demi