Before
launching into a career as an author, Alan Orloff worked on nuclear submarines,
facilitated technology transfer from the Star Wars program, and learned how to
stack washing machines three high in a warehouse with a forklift. (Clearly it’s
not the appliance stacking that has best served him as a writer, as he and I
have that in common.)
Midnight Ink
published his debut mystery, Diamonds
for the Dead in 2010, which earned a nomination for
an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Alan published two more novels with
Midnight Ink, Killer
Routine in 2011 and Deadly
Campaign in 2012, a duology in his Last Laff
Mystery Series. He has also self-published a number of horror and darker
thrillers as Zak Allen, including The
Taste (2011), First
Time Killer (2012), and Ride-Along (2013).
His latest
suspense novel, Running
From the Past, was
a winner in Amazon’s Kindle Scout program and was published just this past
March by Amazon’s new imprint, Kindle Press.
His short
fiction has appeared and is scheduled to appear in Needle: A Magazine of Noir (2013), Shotgun
Honey Presents: Locked & Loaded
(Both Barrels, Book 3)
(One Eye Press, Spring
2015), Jewish
Noir (PM Press, Fall 2015), and Chesapeake Crimes: Storm Warning
(Wildside Press, Spring 2016). He’s been a guest editor for SmokeLong
Quarterly, and has served on the editorial selection panel for Chesapeake
Crimes’ latest collection, Homicidal
Holidays.
In recent news,
he was featured in The Mystery Writers of
America Cookbook by Kate White, published in March with Quirk Books.
When he isn’t
busy writing, Alan can be found teaching fiction-writing workshops at The
Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Alan S. Orloff: After selling his company for
millions, Colby Walker takes his family—and his son’s friend Jess—on vacation,
wanting nothing more than to unwind in the sun and surf. But he spots the
alarming signs in short order: Jess’s downcast eyes, a familiar passivity, and
angry red welts marching across the boy’s bare back. Walker understands what
they mean because he’d been that boy, many years ago.
He’d suffered
in silence, too.
Can Walker
stand by and let the torment continue? Does he trust the authorities—the same
ones who had failed him in his youth—to take care of Jess?
Hell no.
With Jess in
tow, Walker packs up the minivan and takes his family on the lam, keeping one
step ahead of Jess’s cruel father and unhinged ex-con aunt. When the stakes
escalate and his headstrong actions put people’s lives in jeopardy, Walker must
finally conquer his past before he can save those he loves.
He can run no
longer.
OBAAT: Where did you get this idea, and what made it worth
developing for you? (Notice I didn’t ask “Where do you get your ideas?” I was
careful to ask where you got this
idea.)
ASO: I don’t remember where I get many of my ideas, but I do
remember where I got this one—on the beach! I was on vacation with my family,
and we’d brought along one of my son’s friends. As I watched them frolic in the
surf, I wondered what would happen if I just plain out refused to take the
friend home. If we simply took off for parts unknown. I’d also just finished
reading John Gilstrap’s excellent first novel, Nathan’s Run (which is about a kid eluding those pursuing him).
Those two themes merged in my head, and I’d come up with the germ of my plot.
OBAAT: How long did it take to write Running From the Past, start to finish?
ASO: The first draft probably took about three months, then
another three or four months to revise it. Then it sat on my hard drive for
about four years, because, well, it sucked. After those four years, though, I re-read
it. I liked the story and I liked the characters. But the prose was hideous. So
I opened two Word documents on my computer—one was the manuscript and one was
blank. And I retyped every single sentence until I got the novel into shape.
OBAAT: Ah, the Raymond Chandler method: Don’t revise so much as
rewrite. This is something I may need to look into in more detail.
Where did Colby
Walker come from? In what ways is he like, and unlike, you?
ASO: Nowhere specific, I made him up like I make up most of my
characters. Like me, he cares about his family and the welfare of others.
Unlike me (I hope!), he makes some questionable choices along the way. Another
big difference: Walker had a terrible childhood, while mine was perfectly
pleasant.
OBAAT: In what time and place is Running From the Past set? How important is the setting to the book
as a whole?
ASO: The book is set in the present, and most of the action
takes place at the beach and in the woods. I chose the woods because I wanted
the isolation, and I wanted Walker to be a fish out of water, compared to the
antagonists.
OBAAT: How did Running
From the Past come to be published?
ASO: My previous agent liked the book, but didn’t know exactly
how to position it. We put it up on Wattpad for a while (as part of a mystery
novel feature), so it got a fair number of views, but eventually we took it
down. It never got submitted anywhere, mostly because I was busy with other
projects. When the Kindle Scout program came along, requiring a completed
suspense novel with a professionally-designed cover, I was ready! I figured
there was no downside so I submitted it there. After a 30-day American Idol-type
campaign, it was selected by Amazon and published by Kindle Press. I have
nothing but great things to say about the experience—I got a thorough copyedit,
the people are great to work with, and if there’s one company that knows how to
sell books, it’s Amazon!
OBAAT: What kinds of stories do you like to read? Who are your
favorite authors, in or out of that area?
ASO: I read a lot of crime fiction, but I also enjoy YA,
horror, and science fiction. There are too many great authors out there for me
to list.
ASO: I came to the writing game fairly late in life. As a
teenager, I hated all my English classes. In college, I majored in engineering
so I avoided more English classes. Twenty years went by. Then about ten years
ago, I decided to give writing a try. Working out, so far!
OBAAT: How do you think your life experiences have prepared you
for writing crime fiction?
ASO: Well, there was that time I knocked over a 7-Eleven…Actually,
I can’t think of any specific experiences that shaped my writing, but as I got
older, I gained more wisdom and perspective about the human condition. I guess.
OBAAT: What do you like best about being a writer?
ASO: Underwear Friday.
OBAAT: Who are your greatest influences? (Not necessarily
writers. Filmmakers, other artists, whoever you think has had a major impact on
your writing.)
ASO: As a kid, I started reading science fiction, then
graduated to horror, before finding crime fiction. Isaac Asimov, Stephen King,
Dean Koontz, Robert B. Parker were early inspirations.
OBAAT: Do you outline or fly by the seat of you pants? Do you
even wear pants when you write?
ASO: I’m an outliner. I think that if I tried to write by the
seat of my pants, I’d end up in a dark, dead-end alley somewhere in Brisbane.
No, I need to know where I’m going. How else would I get there? As for whether
I wear pants, see previous answer.
OBAAT: Give us an idea of your process. Do you edit as you go?
Throw anything into a first draft knowing the hard work is in the revisions?
Something in between?
ASO: I start at the beginning and keep typing until I hit THE
END, never stopping to go back and edit (sometimes I’ll take a break to eat and
sleep). Understandably, my first draft is always a steaming hot mess. When I
calm down, I dig into the revisions.
OBAAT: Do you listen to music when you write? Do you have a theme
song for this book? What music did you go back to over and over as you wrote
it, or as you write, in general?
ASO: No music. Silence works best for me.
OBAAT: As a writer, what’s your favorite time management tip?
ASO: BICFOK—Butt In Chair, Fingers On Keyboard. In other words,
sit down and write! I write to a daily quota. Once I hit my quota, I get up and
do something else. I’ve been known to get up in the middle of the sentence, if
I’ve reached my word count.
OBAAT: If you could give a novice writer a single piece of
advice, what would it be?
ASO: Well, BICFOK is pretty good advice (for me, anyway), but
I’d encourage all writers to hook up with a critique group so they can get
worthwhile feedback on their work. Invaluable.
OBAAT: Generally speaking the components of a novel are
story/plot, character, setting, narrative, and tone. How would you rank these
in order of their importance in your own writing, and can you add a few
sentences to tell us more about how you approach each and why you rank them as
you do?
ASO: In order: character, story/plot, tone, narrative,
punctuation, a readable font, then setting. Just my personal ranking. For me,
it’s all about a character faced with some sort of personal crisis. The tone,
or voice, is vital to get that story across in the most effective/entertaining
way.
OBAAT: If you could have written any book of the past hundred
years, what would it be, and what is it about that book you admire most?
ASO: There are some that come to mind: Ender’s Game, The Lock Artist, Firestarter, Defending Jacob, but if
I had to pick only one, I’d choose Jurassic
Park. What a fantastic hook!
OBAAT: Favorite activity when you’re not reading or writing.
ASO: I watch a fair amount of TV. I exercise. I like to play
poker. I cook. I eat.
OBAAT: What are you working on now?
ASO: I could tell you, but then I’d have to hire someone to
kill you (I’m not much on doing the wet work myself).
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