October Murder with McBain
November Murder with McBain
December Murder with McBain
Rob: Welcome to the January installment of Murder with McBain. Evan, great to see you!
EdMcBain: Great to be here again.
Rob: This month, since it is the FIRST of the year, we thought our topic would be "Firsts." So, first things first -- how was your Christmas?
EdMcBain: Great! Yugoslavian friends came over with their kiddies. A fine time was had by all. And you guys?
Natalie: A wonderful Christmas--too much snow, though. It won't stop.
Rob: Once I shoveled the coal out of my stocking ....
EdMcBain: No snow here, for a change.
Natalie: I can send some your way.
EdMcBain: Uh... thanks, no.
Rob: Plans for New Years Eve?
EdMcBain: Home alone, caviar and champagne, watching the ball fall on TV.
Natalie: Alone with your wife, you mean?
EdMcBain: Of course!
Rob: There is a picture of Dick Clark aging somewhere -- that's my theory!
EdMcBain: I believe it.
Rob: Okay -- since we're doing firsts here, I would like to start off with your first -- your VERY first -- published novel. What was it, what was it about, and why did you write it?
EdMcBain: I think it was Find the Feathered Serpent-- sci-fi for young adults. My agent brought it to me. Said I could do it. Lester del Rey wrote the outlines for the entire series. John C. Winston published.
Rob: And when was this?
EdMcBain: 1952? I was a mere strip of a lad.
Natalie: Evan, who is the first character you ever "killed" off in a book?
EdMcBain: Does it have to be in a book? Can it be in real life?
Natalie: Unless you want the police involved...
Rob: Let's start with the books -- we want this column to run a while!
EdMcBain: I jest.
Natalie: Phew!
EdMcBain: It was probably in a short story. I wrote about a hundred of those before any books were published.
Rob: And that begs the question: What was the first short story you sold, and to whom?
EdMcBain: I think it was Welcome Martians! Again, sci-fi. And probably to Science-Fiction Quarterly, a pulp. Again 1952. I got a quarter of a cent a word -- about what I get now. Or it may have been Silent Partner. Same magazine.
Natalie: What was the "first" equipment you used to write? A typewriter? Pen and paper?
Rob: Quill and parchment?
EdMcBain: Chisel and stone, outside the cave. But, seriously, folks ... a typewriter. Learned to type the minute I chose writing as a career. I figured it would be an essential tool.
Natalie: And your first computer? And did you find it easy to switch from typewriter to computer?
EdMcBain: First computer around 20 years ago maybe? Excuse me, am I on This Is Your Life?
Rob: As a matter of fact ....
Natalie: This is the "firsts" of your life...
EdMcBain: Where are my first two wives? And the ghost of Christmas past?
Rob: We won't be going there. Where we WILL be going is your first 87th Precinct book, Cop Hater.
EdMcBain: Cop Hater, okay. Shoot.
Rob: Why did you write it, and did you have ANY idea it would turn into a series of fifty-plus novels, and counting?
EdMcBain: I was approached by Pocket Books, Inc., who'd published The Blackboard Jungle. Wanted to know if I'd done any mysteries, and did I have any ideas for a series? I came back with the idea of a conglomerate cop hero in a mythical big city. Sound familiar, anybody out there in TV land?
Rob: I can think of three or four thousand series that might fit that bill....
EdMcBain: They gave me a contract for three books, to see how it would go. Bandersnatch is number 53! I can thank Anthony Boucher of the New York Times Book Review for superb reviews of the first three.
Natalie: And speaking of the New York Times, which was your FIRST book to hit the bestseller list?
EdMcBain: A Hunter novel, actually. Strangers When We Meet. The first McBain was Kiss, years later.
Natalie: So Evan made it before Ed...
EdMcBain: Ah, yes. Well, Evan was born before Ed, you know. And is better looking besides.
Rob: And while we are on "firsts" -- you have bounced through a number of nom de plumes -- what was your first, and why did you choose to publish under a pen name?
EdMcBain: I was working for the literary agent Scott Meredith. I was still using my birth name, hadn't yet changed it legally to Evan Hunter. Whenever I submitted a story under the old name, it got bounced. I started using pseudonyms: Hunt Collins (for Hunter College), Richard Marsten for my three sons, Ted, Mark, and Richard. Pseudonyms, they bought. Go figure.
Rob: And, unless of course there are outstanding warrants on it, I gotta ask: What was your first name?
EdMcBain: Actually, I was using Evan Hunter before I changed to it legally. I LOVE that name.
Rob: So do about 50 million readers.
EdMcBain: Or do you mean my birth name?
Rob: Yes, your birth name.
EdMcBain: Salvatore Lombino -- after a grandfather I never met who got run over and killed by a trolley car on First Avenue in New York long before I was born. I've never denied my Italian heritage, but I'm very glad to be Evan Hunter, believe me.
Natalie: When was the first time you really felt successful as a published novelist?
EdMcBain: Before I was published, actually. When from a phone booth I learned S&S was taking The Blackboard Jungle! I flew down 96th Street to where my then wife was in a bakery shop buying donuts.
Rob: sold as a movie before it was a novel?
EdMcBain: Before it was published, yes. They bought it from manuscript.
Rob: And that was your FIRST produced Movie?
EdMcBain: Yes. TV before then. Outside in the Sand (sci-fi again) on Tales of Tomorrow. Leslie Neilsen starred.
Natalie: I'm guessing that was BEFORE the silly Airplane movies.
Rob: Excuse me -- the WONDERFUL Airplane movies!.
EdMcBain: Oh yes. He was a serous actor. Guess what planet was the setting for Outside in the Sand.
Rob: Mars..
EdMcBain: Bingo!.
Natalie: I was going to say Utah!.
EdMcBain: Ha!.
Rob: Evan ... sticking with firsts, some of our readers -- who have spent their lives in a vacuum-- MIGHT not know that you wrote The Birds....
EdMcBain: Were they living on Mars?
Rob: I would like to ask about the first time you met Alfred Hitchcock. Could you tell us about it?
Natalie: Probably Utah.
EdMcBain: Will you STOP it, Nat, you're cracking me up!
Natalie: I will. I'm sorry.
Rob: Um ... about Mr. Hitchcock?
EdMcBain: Oh yes, Hitch. I'd done a TV script for one of his half-hour shows, met him for the first time while he was filming something quite other. Most cordial, and so long.
Natalie: Were you star struck at all meeting him?
EdMcBain: No, I'd already met Kim Novak.
Rob: Now THAT would have made ME star struck!
EdMcBain: Me, too. Anyway... Hitch. Fade out. Years later, Scott Meredith calls to say Hitch would like me to write The Birds. Write them what? A letter? A poem? And which birds?
Natalie: Now you're cracking ME up.
EdMcBain: Sorry. I'll just sit here quietly.
Natalie: No, no speak up. Here's a first question for you. When was the first time you questioned whether or not you made the right decision to make a career as a novelist? Or did you never question that?
EdMcBain: Never. I can't think of anything I'd rather be -- except a rock star. I jest.
Rob: And I have to ask -- and this is PURELY a fan question but I'm a fan, so what the hell: What is the FIRST word you intend to write in 2004?
EdMcBain: That's six days away!
Natalie: Think fast!
Rob: You gotta plan ahead! No clue?
EdMcBain: How about, "It was a dark and..." Or... "Once upon a midnight dreary..."
Natalie: Okay, last question.
EdMcBain: Already?
Natalie: Have you made any New Years resolutions?
EdMcBain: Easy. To stay alive.
Natalie: That's one you better keep, because I really like these chats! On a serious note... how are you doing, health wise?
EdMcBain: Great. Cancer-free, and dancing on daisies! I promised my wife 92, and she said what's wrong with 104? Nothing, sez I. So 104 it is.
Natalie: 104 sounds great to me!
Rob: Okay, Evan, I see that Mickey's hands are on his Uzi -- so it's about time for us to bring this to a close.
EdMcBain: They go so fast!
Rob:Funny you should mention your wife -- because we are going to give you the month off next month and instead do MURDER with MRS. McBAIN!
EdMcBain: In Serbo-Croatian!
Rob: Actually, no -- in English. And we would invite our readers to send questions for MRS. McBain to ReadersRoom2@aol.com
EdMcBain: She's scared to death.
Natalie: She'll do fine. And you don't REALLY get the month off. You have to be there with her!
EdMcBain: I will be. 104, remember?
Natalie: That's right! Thank you, Evan. This has been a lot of fun.
Rob: Evan, as always, this has been the high point of our month here at ReadersRoom, and seriously -- Happy 2004, and God bless you.
EdMcBain: Too much fun, maybe? I know I enjoyed it immensely. As always.
Rob: See you -- and Dragica, next month!
EdMcBain: Next month it is. Happy New Year, guys.
Copyright 2003 by ReadersRoom, LLC. All rights reserved.
