Brad Smith

Brad Smith was born and raised in southern Ontario. He has worked as a farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic, roofer, and carpenter. His novels include Shoot the Dog and other Virgil Cain mysteries, All Hat, which was made into a major feature film, and One-Eyed Jacks, which was shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett Award.

Smith's new novel is Rough Justice.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:

I am reading three things, two of which I just finished.

Did you ever have a title in your head that you kept telling yourself you really needed to read and then never got around to it? Well, A Confederacy Of Dunces was such a book for me. It took me years to finally read, and then I went through it like greased lightning. One of the great comic novels of the 20th century, with a protagonist so preposterous, nasty, shallow, mean-spirited, oblivious and utterly vain that you can’t help but love him. (Yes, I realize I just described Donald Trump but trust me—Ignatius J. Reilly is a different cat) John Kennedy Toole’s masterpiece.

I also just read an ARC of Dana Spiotta’s new Innocents And Others. Terrific read, about film-making and myth-making and friendship and telephones. Excellent book.

I’m working on a novel set in 1910 Montana and so I picked up We Pointed Them North, a memoir by E.C. “Teddy “Blue” Abbott, a real life cowboy who trailed cattle herds from Texas to Wyoming and Montana back in the early days, circa 1870-1890. An authentic telling of the rough and tumble times of a genuine cowpuncher, far removed from some of the far-fetched depictions in the movies.

Visit Brad Smith's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Dog.

My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Dog.

The Page 69 Test: Rough Justice.

My Book, The Movie: Rough Justice.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laurel Saville

Laurel Saville has a BA in English Literature from New York University and an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Writing Seminars at Bennington College. Her new novel is North of Here.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Saville's reply:

I’m reading a textbook called Perspectives on Animal Behavior. I’m getting a certificate in Applied Animal Behavior, and it is the required text. I’ve always been deeply interested in animals, the human animal connection, and how our innate egoism and culture have created severe limitations in our understanding of the complexity, depth and nuance of other animals’ social structures, emotions and communication. I also work with two shelter/rescue organizations as a volunteer. My primary interest is dogs and how to train and rehab them – and often, more importantly, their guardians – so everyone has a happier, more fun relationship.

The book and course focuses on “animals”, which we usually think of as “other” than us, but of course we’re animals too, and we all share the bulk of our fundamental biological underpinnings. Reading works like this is a great brain break from novels. I know novel reading is relaxing for most people, but since I write them, it’s hard to turn off the internal editor, critic, and trying-to-learn-from-others thoughts when I’m reading fiction. So, somewhat counter-intuitively, some science non-fiction is a splendid mental escape for me.

Visit Laurel Saville's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dexter Palmer

Dexter Palmer's first novel The Dream of Perpetual Motion was selected as one of the best fiction debuts of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews. His new novel is Version Control.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Palmer's reply:

One of the most interesting things I read last year was The Library of America's four-volume set The Civil War Told by Those Who Lived It. It's a recounting of Civil War history assembled from contemporary documents, each one introduced with a paragraph or two of neutral commentary, enough to provide the necessary context for the reader who's not a Civil War historian.

There is a singular pleasure in reading a history comprised of mostly unmediated primary sources (even if you can sense the editors' presence in the selection of the pieces and the order in which they are placed). History seems different when recorded from the point of view of someone who didn't know how things would turn out--encountering the Civil War from the perspective of someone in the midst of the events in 1863 is oddly suspenseful, even if the end result of the conflict is widely known. One wonders how so many people could think that slavery was not that bad; one wants to warn Abraham Lincoln not to go to Ford's Theater.

Recommended, if you are an interested layman, and if you have the time. (I read it on and off over seven or eight months: it's easy to pick up again after leaving it alone for a while, or to read in tandem with something else.)

Visit Dexter Palmer's website.

Writers Read: Dexter Palmer (March 2010).

--Marshal Zeringue

J. Aaron Sanders

J. Aaron Sanders is Associate Professor of English at Columbus State University where he teaches literature and creative writing. He holds a PhD in American Literature from The University of Connecticut and an MFA in Fiction from The University of Utah. His stories have appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Quarterly West, and Beloit Fiction Journal, among others.

His first novel, Speakers of the Dead: A Walt Whitman Mystery (Penguin Random House) features a young Walt Whitman’s as he finds himself in the middle of body-snatchers, medical students, and the law.

Recently I asked Sanders about what he was reading. His reply:

The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson

The Open Curtain opens when Rudd Theurer discovers a box containing letters and books that belonged to his dead father. In the letters, Rudd learns of his father’s affair, and a possible child from that affair; and in the books he finds marginalia that highlight his father’s obsession with blood atonement, a 19th century Mormon ritual aimed at apostates, gentiles, and sinners. The letters and books also help Rudd understand the reasons his father committed suicide—his father slit his throat to atone for his infidelity—and inspires Rudd’s quest to find his half-brother. Soon after he meets Lael, things go odd and Rudd finds himself involved in the grisly campsite murders, struggling to negotiate the past and the present, and losing himself in the process.

I remember telling a friend that the feeling I get when I read an Evenson story is the same feeling I get when I see a photograph of punk rocker G.G. Allin. Allen started every show by pounding his head with his microphone until all the scabs (from the previous show) on his head were bleeding. And then he took off all his clothes.

Reading Evenson’s work is experiential. It gets into you in ways that other writers simply don’t. It’s not something I like to read all the time—it’s too intense—but when I do I know I’ve landed in a different place all together.

Visit J. Aaron Sanders's website.

The Page 69 Test: Speakers of the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Handler

David Handler’s first book in the Berger and Mitry series, The Cold Blue Blood, was a Dilys Award finalist and BookSense Top Ten pick. Handler is also the author of eight novels about the witty and dapper celebrity ghostwriter Stewart Hoag and his faithful, neurotic basset hound, Lulu, including Edgar and American Mystery Award winner The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald.

His new book, the 11th Berger and Mitry Mystery, is The Lavender Lane Lothario.

Recently I asked Handler about what he was reading. His reply:

I’m currently reading What Makes Sammy Run? This is Budd Schulberg’s landmark 1941 Hollywood novel about the meteoric rise of a brash, ruthless and utterly fascinating young New York City street urchin named Sammy Glick. I’ve read What Makes Sammy Run? many times and yet I still find myself drawn to this wonderful book every few years for the brilliance of Schulberg’s insights and for the sheer delight of reading it.

Budd Schulberg was a child of the movie business. His father, B.P. Schulberg, was one of its pioneering moguls. Budd was only in his 20s when he wrote the novel, his first, yet he understood the sad, desperate hunger of the Sammy Glicks of the business better than any writer has before or since. He would go on to write another very fine Hollywood novel, The Disenchanted, based upon his ill-fated, real life screenwriting collaboration with F. Scott Fitzgerald. He also wrote the screenplays for such remarkable films as On The Waterfront and A Face in the Crowd.

Yet What Makes Sammy Run? remains Budd Schulberg’s masterpiece.

The novel is timeless. I started writing for films and television nearly a half-century after it was published and I can report to you that I was stabbed in the back myself by countless Sammy (and Samantha) Glicks before I quit to write books full time. The business never changes. The people don’t change. They may have degrees from Harvard and Yale now, but they still have that same sad, desperate hunger.

When I was a very young reporter and screenwriter in New York City I had a chance to spend two afternoons interviewing Budd Schulberg. He was a kindly, gentle man who was very generous with his time and his insights. After I’d told him about some of the screen projects I’d worked on he asked me why I was living in New York instead of Los Angeles. I remember that I gave him an easy, flippant answer: “Because I hate spending all day in the car.” He shook his head at me and said, “Come on, David, you can do better than that.” So I gathered myself and said, “Because my dream is to write a novel someday and I know that if I live out there I’ll never write it.” And he smiled at me and said, “That was a much better answer.”

Learn more about the book and author at David Handler's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Susan Meissner

Susan Meissner is a multi-published author, speaker and writing workshop leader with a background in community journalism. Her novels include Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, Secrets of a Charmed Life (a 2015 Goodreads Choice award finalist) and A Fall of Marigolds, named by Booklist’s Top Ten women’s fiction titles for 2014. She is also RITA finalist and Christy Award winner. A California native, she attended Point Loma Nazarene University. Meissner is a pastor’s wife and a mother of four young adults. When she's not working on a novel, she writes small group curriculum for her San Diego church. Meissner is also a writing workshop volunteer for Words Alive, a San Diego non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk youth foster a love for reading and writing.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’m reading British author Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins and am nearly finished. I loved her previous novel, Life After Life, which is the very cleverly told story of a woman named Ursula Todd whose life keeps beginning and ending, again and again, as if she keeps getting a do-over so that she can be in a certain place at a certain time during the hell of WW2 and assassinate Adolf Hitler. This one, A God in Ruins, is a multi-time period look at one of Ursula’s brothers, Teddy, but Kate says in her Author’s Note that this book is not really a sequel to Life After Life, but should rather be seen as a continuation of one of Ursula’s many restarted lives.

Like Ursula’s story, A God in Ruins is another intellectual and wildly artistic novel that tosses conventional (linear) storytelling out the window. This book is not your typical novel construct, where Something happens and then Something else happens, and on and on we go in chronological order until the book ends. The story is told in parts that are loosely laced together. The sections skip about in time and character point of view and there’s just enough variety to necessitate paying attention. This book isn’t for someone who wants to be fed a story, but rather one who wants to discover one.

Kate’s prose is delicious and her wordsmithing skills are stellar. She can do what few writers can do and get away with it: break the rules. I recommend A God in Ruins to anyone who wants to read something that is not the average tale, told in the average way.

Visit Susan Meissner's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Terri Blackstock

Terri Blackstock, author of If I Run, has sold over seven million books worldwide and is a New York Times bestselling author. She is the award-winning author of Intervention, Vicious Cycle, and Downfall, as well as such series as Cape Refuge, Newpointe 911, the SunCoast Chronicles, and the Restoration Series.

Recently I asked Blackstock about what she was reading. Her reply:

The book I'm reading right now is Upside: The New Science of Post-Traumatic Growth. I wish I could read fiction while I'm writing a book, but the truth is that while I'm writing, I mostly read nonfiction books for research. Right now I'm working on a series with two characters who have PTSD, so I'm reading a lot about that issue. Upside is a little different from the other PTSD books I've been reading, in that it looks at how certain people endure catastrophic trauma, yet come out happier, more fulfilled, more productive, more purposeful, more spiritual, and of more help to others. How does this work? Why is it that some are devastated and never recover from trauma, and others grow stronger? The author, Jim Rendon, digs into studies about this phenomenon, and passes along ways that others experiencing trauma might grow from the experience and rebuild their lives in more meaningful and positive ways. This isn't a book that stigmatizes those who can't quite get past the trauma. It simply offers help for them.

This is helpful in my series that begins with the book If I Run, because my lead character, Dylan Roberts, has been recently discharged from the Army after two deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, which left him with PTSD. Because he's damaged goods, he can't get a job until he's hired as a private contractor to search for a female fugitive and bring her back. But the more he digs into the murder she's accused of committing, the more he doubts her guilt. Casey doesn't fit the profile of a killer. As he grows closer to finding her, he realizes they have something in common. Casey may be a victim of PTSD too. And her flight from prosecution may have deeper roots than her simply fearing arrest.

I'm hoping to bring these two people through healing and growth as their lives intersect in this series, so the book Upside is helping with that. I think it will also help anyone who's reeling from trauma.

Visit Terri Blackstock's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: If I Run.

--Marshal Zeringue

Phillip Margolin

Former trial attorney Phillip Margolin has been writing full-time since 1996. Most of his many novels have been New York Times bestsellers.

His new novel is Violent Crimes.

Recently I asked Margolin about what he was reading. His reply:

As I write this I am 200 pages into The Edge of Eternity, Ken Follett's 1000 plus page final entry in his "Century Trilogy." I zoomed through Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, also biggies. The trilogy tells the story of our last century through he eyes of families from America, Germany, England and Russia and touches on the key events - World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, the rise and fall of Communism, etc. in a very entertaining way. I love to read books I know I could never write and the amount of research and sheer story telling ability is awesome.

I also read The Oxford Murders, a translation of a mystery set in Oxford that combines math and murder and I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes which is simply the best thriller I have read in ages.

Visit Phillip Margolin's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Violent Crimes.

My Book, The Movie: Violent Crimes.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth has lived and traveled around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K., and Canada. While on maternity leave from her job in Human Resources, Hepworth finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to write, the result of which was Love Like the French, published in Germany in 2014. While pregnant with her second child, she wrote The Secrets of Midwives, published worldwide in English, as well as in France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2015. A novel about three generations of midwives, The Secrets of Midwives asks readers what makes a mother and what role biology plays in the making and binding of a family.

The Secrets of Midwives has been labelled “enchanting” by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publishers Weekly, and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Hepworth’s debut English language novel as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing.”

Hepworth's latest novel is The Things We Keep.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’ve been on a psychological thriller binge lately. The book I’ve been recommending most is Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica. It’s dark, it’s twisty and you never know who to trust. A woman notices a young girl carrying a baby on a train station and becomes fixated on her. Eventually, she invites the girl and her baby back to her home—alienating her husband and her own daughter. Secrets buried in the past come to light explaining the woman’s fascination with the baby, and the story comes to a satisfying, if unlikely, conclusion. Kubica’s writing is accessible but smart, and I will be reading more from her.

I’ve also been reading through Diane Chamberlain’s backlist. It’s such a joy discovering an author when they have written so many books—such a list to choose from. The most recent was The Courage Tree, about a young girl with a kidney condition who goes missing at a girl scout camp. As the search party struggle to find her, it is a race against the clock to get the little girl her life saving medication. There was a secondary story that was also intriguing, and dark. This one had me flying through the pages desperate to know the ending. Once again, Diane Chamberlain doesn’t disappoint.

Visit Sally Hepworth's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Things We Keep.

My Book, The Movie: The Things We Keep.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sara Blaedel

Sara Blædel’s latest novel to this the US is The Killing Forest.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

What am I reading?

Everything! Well, almost.

I have had a passionate relationship with crime fiction ever since I was a child and my mother told me stories; ever since I started reading Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, and ever since I found out that I was pretty good at imagining scary things. Nature equipped me with a terrible curiosity, a murderous fantasy world, empathy, and a desire to investigate human relationships. Especially, that is, when they go awry, or when there is more at stake than simply the color of wallpaper.

I read a lot of non-fiction, all the more when I am researching for my books. My protagonist, Louise Rick, is a police detective, and it is imperative to me that all the forensic details and procedurals I include are captured authentically and factually. As a storyteller, the best compliment I ever got came from a Detective Inspector in Chief who, during an interview on stage, in front of an audience, turned to me and said, “Sara, you would think that you actually work here.” Of course, that made me very happy.

I am addicted to beautiful cookbooks. Yes – I read them. Cover to cover. Not always because I am preparing to whip something up and looking for instructions, but just for the fun and wonder of it.

I also thoroughly enjoy reading novels driven by characters and human stories. These elements are super important to me whether the genre is crime or broader fiction. I love when the author digs deeply and tells a story that she/he is passionate about and thinks is important. And I love a good laugh as well. Thank you, Maria Semple and Jonathan Tropper.

What I don’t read: Romance and comics. Their absences are flaws on my bookshelf.

Visit Sara Blaedel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue