David Housewright, author of From the Grave: A McKenzie Novel
Genre Fiction Category, sponsored by Macalester College
Each week leading up to the 33rd annual Minnesota Book Awards announcement, we are featuring exclusive interviews with our 36 finalists. You can also watch the authors in conversation with their fellow category finalists here.
In a year defined by a pandemic and its fallout, virtually everything about our lives has changed in some way. How has COVID-19 impacted your writing habits and preferences? Has the unique zeitgeist of the past year influenced your writing output in any ways that you can pinpoint?
The pandemic has changed the way I do research, pretty much blocking me from getting out and about and talking to people. Beyond that – I’ve always worked from home. My dark, dank basement office with its flickering 60-watt light bulb suspended above my PC hasn’t changed; my goal of writing 5,000 words a week still nags me.
Would you tell us one or two things about your finalist book that you are particularly proud of, and why? (Sure, it may feel a bit un-Minnesotan to say so, but it’s not boasting if we ask!)
I’m particularly proud of the research that went into From the Grave. I’ve interviewed Lord knows how many police investigators, PIs, FBI agents, ATF agents, forensic specialists, prosecutors, defense attorney, judges, etc. over 24 novels. But in this one I spoke with psychic mediums, ghost hunters, reality TV producers, and an assortment of people all dealing with the paranormal. I like to think I was able to portray them as accurately as a crime novel will allow.
We are taught, of course, that there are no such things as ghosts and most of us believe it. Fifty-five percent of the population, according to Newsweek, absolutely refuses to even entertain the possibility that spirits walk among us, that they can contact us; that they can haunt us. Forty-five percent do believe in the paranormal.
What separates these two groups are the stories.
The forty-five percent will say “This happened to me.” The remaining fifty-five percent will say “This did not happen to me” or “This happened to me but I know there’s a logical explanation if only I could come up with one.”
The more cynical among us will also point out that the paranormal is a $2.2 billion industry. They’ll suggest that because money often changes hands, accounts of paranormal activity can’t be real. It’s just people trying to sell you stuff. And there’s something to that. A little research reveals plenty of evidence of fraud.
On the other hand, there’s also plenty of evidence that suggests things actually do go bump in the night as well. I think I did a pretty fair job of relating both sides of the argument.
What do you hope that your audience learns or takes away from your book?
Despite its content, From the Grave isn’t about ghosts. I’m not trying to convince readers that spirits walk among us. I deal with a lot of other questions, instead, chief among them – what do we believe and why do we believe it and are we willing to change our beliefs in the face of conflicting evidence. And those beliefs deal much more with family and friends and the world around us than it does with the paranormal.
Minnesota enjoys a reputation as a place that values literature and reading. If this sentiment rings true for you, what about our home state makes it such a welcoming and conductive place for writers?
I believe that there are a lot of writers in Minnesota because there are a lot of writers in Minnesota. That’s an absurd comment, I know. Yet consider the crime genre as an example. Mabel Seeley leads to Thomas Gifford, Harold Adams, and Kate Green who begat Ellen Hart, Pete Hautman, Mary Logue, Margaret Frazer, Anne Frasier, Tami Hoag and R.D. Zimmerman who inspire John Sandford, William Kent Krueger, Brian Freeman, Julie Kramer and P.J. Tracy who bring us Mindy Mejia, Allen Eskens and Jess Lourey. My point being – it’s easier to write a book when you are surrounded by so many people who write books.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer with an interest in your category?
Read. I mean read everything. Read pioneers like Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, Josephine Tey, James M. Cain and Carroll John Daly. Read African-American writers like Walter Mosley, Chester Himes, Tracy Clark, Danny Gardner and Gary Phillips. Read female writers like Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, SJ Rozan, and Patricia Highsmith. Read gay writers like Ellen Hart, Dan Kavanagh, R.D Zimmerman and Peter Tuesday Hughes as well as cozy writers like Agatha Christie, Laura Childs, Dorothy L. Sayers, Carolyn Hart and Charlaine Harris. Read the new stuff. Read the old stuff. Read the dark stuff. Read the funny stuff. And somewhere in all of that you’ll find the kind of mystery that you want to write.
What you don’t want to do? Not read. Don’t be like the guys who have come up to me (more than once) and said “I’m working on a mystery” and when I asked “What do you read” replied “Oh, I don’t have time to read.” I will hold you in very low regard.
Tell us something about yourself that is not widely known! (It doesn’t have to be about your writing.)
I am a dedicated foodie. I love to cook and think nothing of spending two-three hours making a dish that my family will consume in under fifteen minutes. I once went six months without making the same meal twice until my family began demanding that I revisit some old favorites. My corn chowder, beef stroganoff, Memphis-style pork ribs and “House” pasta are always well received. Plus, I make a chicken fettuccine alfredo that’ll knock your socks off. My secret? Nutmeg.
David Housewright has won the Edgar Award and is the three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for his crime fiction, which includes the modern noir Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie series.