Ed McBain: The start of June. I was saving at the end of the day, and all at once, the computer goes blank. I still had e-mail and IM, but nothing else. The next day, EVERYTHING went. Disaster!
Rob Holden: How much work did you lose?
Ed McBain: I thought everything. The computer people rescued almost all of the data -- but they're still repairing the computer. I'm working on a spare.
Natalie R. Collins: Did you have fits of panic? I know I would have.
Ed McBain: Utter! I started working on Dina's computer, bits and pieces, all the while thinking I'd lost 200 pages of the book!
Rob Holden: How much of the book does it look like you will end up losing?
Ed McBain: Actually, about half a chapter. Disappeared into thin air. I'm now trying to assemble all the little bits and pieces. In some instances, I have the solution to a thread appearing before the investigation even starts!
Natalie R. Collins: Oh dear! Nightmare time.
Ed McBain: Oh yes! It's all there, but it needs sorting out. I was just sort of guessing at what I'd already written. I hope it turns out to be a good book. Readers may well say "Better you should have lost it!"
Rob Holden: Is it an 8-7?
Ed McBain: Yes. Titled Fiddlers.
Rob Holden: Then I am guessing that is NOT gonna happen.
Ed McBain: Let's hope.
Natalie R. Collins: Your avid fans will love it, as they do all your work.
Ed McBain: Well, not all. I got an e-mail the other day saying Bandersnatch was humorless. Oh well.
Rob Holden: Bandersnatch was hilarious -- but, I must admit, HARK! is better! Evan, do you do much of your research on the Internet and, if so, how do you work around crashes and disconnections?
Ed McBain: I do the minor research there. Like a Chinese surname, or courses at a junior college. The major stuff, I use a researcher.
Rob Holden: You have your own researcher?
Ed McBain: A man named Daniel Starer, been with me since 1982, when I was researching Lizzie.
Rob Holden: Could you tell us a bit about how that works? What the working relationship is like?
Ed McBain: I have a scene or a chapter in mind, but I'll need to know -- take Bandersnatch, for example -- how to throw a big party on a hired yacht. Dan tells me how -- what it'll cost, who the personnel will be, what kind of boat, etc.
Natalie R. Collins: That must really help in time saving.
Ed McBain: He gives me tons of stuff. Then I sort through it, and pick and choose. Much of the music biz stuff in Bandersnatch came from Dan.
Rob Holden: Does he work exclusively for you?
Ed McBain: No, no, he has many writers. Ken Follett is one of them. Nelson DeMille, too, I think. Not sure.
Natalie R. Collins: Sounds like he is trusted.
Ed McBain: He's always on the mark. And very creative, too. Comes up with
suggestions all the time.
Rob Holden: Having read a LOT of your backlist, I know that your novels prior to Lizzie were also very well researched. How is it different having somebody doing the "hard labor" of research, and do you ever miss that part of your job?
Ed McBain: I used to go to the library. Always felt guilty because I wasn't at the typewriter, writing. Internet makes me feel I'm still here. Research is great fun, actually. Always stuff coming up when you least expect it.
Natalie R. Collins: I get caught up in research, so I know what you mean. It can be fascinating and I'm easily sidetracked.
Ed McBain: Was the Mormon stuff in your novel Wives and Sisters research or lived?
Natalie R. Collins: Both. I was raised Mormon, and used many of my childhood experiences. I also have a detective friend who helped me with the police research.
Ed McBain: I thought so. Fascinating material.
Natalie R. Collins: Thank you.
Rob Holden: Most of the authors we talk to find that research is almost as important as the writing itself. How do you feel about that?
Ed McBain: I know only one writer personally who is too lazy to do research. And his books suffer for it. No names, please. Although, in my early books, like The Blackboard Jungle, I had very little research to do. Mostly autobiographical.
Natalie R. Collins: Really? Tell us more.
Ed McBain: Well, I taught briefly, and many of the incidents were either lived by me or by friends who were in similar schools.
Natalie R. Collins: You survived teaching? We are lucky to have you here! I substitute taught junior high for a while. Scary stuff.
Ed McBain: Barely survived. Quit after 17 days. Came home, threw my salary up in the air, told my wife, "I quit, hon."
Natalie R. Collins: I don't blame you. Teenagers are rabid.
Ed McBain: She said, "Good." For Second Ending, I used stuff I lived through with my best friend, who was a heroin addict.
Rob Holden: Let's talk about how you research cops for a moment. The 8-7 books are about as realistically written from the police perspective -- and I have had cops say that, it ain't just me -- as anything out there. How did you get inside their heads so completely, and how do you STAY inside there?
Ed McBain: When I first pitched the series, I knew nothing at all about cops. I spent several months riding with them, listening to them. I have a good ear, I think. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to die with cops in various cities -- NYC, of course, Houston, New Delhi, Florence, Italy. I pick up things.
Rob Holden: Uh ...
Ed McBain: Ohmigod, not "die" with cops, "ride" with them!
Natalie R. Collins: You scared me. Thought we were chatting with the ghost of Evan Hunter....
Ed McBain: I scared myself!
Rob Holden: New Delhi? As in India?
Ed McBain: Yes, as in India. Walked into the police station introduced myself, started asking questions. Cops are the same everywhere in the world. Same mentality, same senses of humor.
Natalie R. Collins: Even here in Utah.
Rob Holden: 'Cept in Utah it's a three horse call, not a three car call!
Natalie R. Collins: We have cars! Moonbuggies!
Rob Holden: I gotta ask -- how is being a cop in New Delhi compared to being one in NYC?
Ed McBain: About the only difference is frequency of crime. You guys finished with all that tomfoolery?
Rob Holden: Yes, sir. Natalie will ask a serious question now.
Ed McBain: I can hardly wait.
Natalie R. Collins: How often, now, do you ride with the cops? Or do you draw on past experiences?
Ed McBain: Never. I was in an alley in New Orleans, and everybody had a gun but me. Good guys, bad guys. That's the last time I rode with them. Next serious question!
Rob Holden: The Evan Hunters are so different from the Ed McBains. Do you alter the way you research them as well as how you write them?
Ed McBain: Not the way I research them, but yes, the way I write them. The style changes with the subject matter of each. That's why EH is so hard to pigeonhole.
Rob Holden: TV and Movies -- a LOT of your stuff has been Westerns, and they have been excellent. Particularly in the case of The Legend of Walks Far Woman, were there any particular problems or challenges?
Ed McBain: That was based on a novel. So a lot of the stuff was in the book itself. But I also had to do additional research on the Dakota Sioux. I enjoyed writing that teleplay a lot. And I thought Raquel Welch did a wonderful job.
Natalie R. Collins: I am reading Candyland right now, Evan, and have to ask how you set about researching it, and keeping the voices separate.
Ed McBain: The sex addict was the hardest voice to get. I studied books about the syndrome, and then tried to capture the compulsiveness and denial. The cop stuff was easier -- except that it was actually set in NYC rather than 8-7 Land. Dan helped me a lot with that.
Natalie R. Collins: You mentioned researching the Dakota Sioux. I just spent months researching the Navajos for my next book, and found it was difficult. Did you have a hard time finding material on it?
Ed McBain: This was still library time. I was living in Sarasota, and the university library had a lot of stuff on the Sioux, God knows why. I loved learning about them. Did you know they always had a kettle going on the fire? You could eat anytime you wanted to. Just walk over, help yourself. Do the Navajo do that?
Natalie R. Collins: No, they don't. But you should hear about the Skinwalkers. VERY creepy.
Ed McBain: Tell me.
Natalie R. Collins: They believe that they walk among spirits in The Fourth World. There are also EVIL spirits, and one is the Skinwalkers. Very evil. You don't want to mess with a skinwalker.
Ed McBain: No, I don't. But that's what I meant about the joy of research. You start looking for scalping practices, you learn about a kettle going.
Rob Holden: Having just finished HARK!, I would like to know just a bit about what kind of research you did for the Deaf Man in it -- as well as Heckler, Mischief and ... uh ... there was one more ... Eight Black Horses!
Ed McBain: And LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN.
Natalie R. Collins: GO DEAF MAN!
Rob Holden: I have nothing to say, your publicist made me swear!
Ed McBain: I love the Deaf Man. Dan Starer was enormously helpful with HARK! Told him what I needed, he went digging.
Rob Holden: But I would like to know how you got so deep inside him!
Ed McBain: Just figured how I myself would be if I was mean and also smart.
Rob Holden: You really do just have to love him -- evil as he is.
Ed McBain: I know. Women find him attractive, too. Can't figure why.
Natalie R. Collins: Women like bad boys.
Ed McBain: Is that true? I guess so. Even Fat Ollie has his admirers.
Rob Holden: Okay Evan, it looks like Mickey's big hand has left his Encyclopedia Britannica and is again reaching for his Uzi, so I think it's about time to wrap this up until next month when we will be talking about ... well, whatever our readers would like to know about! Send your questions to readersroom2@aol.com!
Ed McBain: Who'd have thought we had so much to say about research?
Rob Holden: Evan, as always, it has been a joy and a pleasure!
Ed McBain: The pleasure was entirely mine. I even learned about skinwalkers!
Rob Holden: See ya next month!
Natalie R. Collins: Bye Evan!
Ed McBain: Next month it is. Bye, Rob, bye, Nat, bye, everyone.
Copyright 2004 by ReadersRoom,
LLC. All rights reserved.
