Ten questions for David Corbett
David Corbett is a critically-acclaimed author with his own fascinating back-story: as a PI he investigated high-profile criminal cases involving fraud, drugs and murder. He is also a highly esteemed writing teacher and author of a book on craft that several prior blog guests have recommended. Thanks David for joining us!
1. Please tell us about your debut novel.
The Devil’s Redhead was based on a number of individuals and situations I encountered while working as a private investigator—specifically a number of cases relating to a group of marijuana smugglers operating out of the San Diego area known as the Coronado Company. The outfit was made up of navy brats and Vietnam vets who became the most successful smuggling operation on the west coast. One leader of the group in particular inspired my imagination. He had four apartments in various cities around the world, none of which was furnished with more than a futon and a very good stereo system—he wasn’t in it for the money; he was in it for the adventure. He also saved the life of a friend and the friend’s wife when their boat exploded in the Sausalito marina; swimming through flames (gasoline is lighter than water), he suffered third degree burns over half his body getting his friends to safety, then vanished before law enforcement could figure out who he was. I thought a man like that could carry a book, and proceeded from there.
2. I’ve read that only 4% of the people who start a novel, finish writing it. Why do you think you beat the odds?
I had good material, and was encouraged by writers and agents and editors at the Squaw Valley Writers Conference.
3. Was your debut novel the first book you wrote? (Any prior efforts hiding on your hard drive?)
It was indeed my first novel, though it went through a variety of iterations. After being turned down three times by an agent who’d asked to see it (and two revisions), I was about to chuck it in a drawer and consider it my “training novel.” A friend, incredulous I’d only sent it to one agent, asked to see it. He said there was too much good with it to abandon it, and provided some excellent revision notes. I tried once more with the same agent, she once again passed, and I began looking elsewhere.
4. What helped you become a better writer? Any books or resources you found helpful?
I was part of a writing group with Donna Levin, and she and other members of the group helped immensely. As noted above, I also attended the Squaw Valley Writers Conference and gained some excellent guidance from faculty there. Overall, I abided by Saul Bellow’s dictum, “Writers are readers inspired to emulation,” and tried to learn from the writers I most admired: Robert Stone, Richard Price, Pete Dexter, and Jim Crumley. I didn’t start referring to how-to books until my second novel, when I realized writing by the seat of my pants would not do for a sophomore effort.
5. What was your process like getting an agent?
See my answer to #3 above. I met that first agent at Squaw Valley, and solicited two other agents I met there, both of whom turned me down. The friend who gave me such excellent revision notes was running a smaller conference in Reno, and invited me up. I met my first agent, Laurie Fix, there. She said she wasn’t taking new clients, but changed her mind when she read my manuscript. “You didn’t tell me you were this good.”
This book has been highly recommended by several authors featured on this blog
6. How did you celebrate when you learned your book would be published?
I didn’t. I got the news the book would be purchased by Ballantine when my late wife was in the final stages of her ovarian cancer. She died six weeks later.
7. What was the most exciting moment involving the publication of your debut novel? (The moment you first saw the cover? The call when you learned when it was being published? When you cashed your advance check?)
As you can imagine, given my answer to the preceding question, I was rather numb during that first year. Also, my acquiring editor was fired shortly after signing me—she was an older, well-respected woman in the business, and was let go to cut costs. I then inherited a woman whom one agent I know described as “the worst editor in the history of publishing.” She too left the scene before my pub date, but she did fight for the cover I wanted. And when I finally saw that they had used the picture I’d suggested for the cover, I was very pleased. I learned of that decision from my third and final editor, Mark Tavani, who has become a real force in crime-thriller publishing. Unfortunately, I didn’t really fit in his portfolio, and though he did his best for me, after four books I was let go due to lack of sales.
8. What’s your best advice for someone who wants to be published?
Turn around and run.
Seriously, it’s a hard road, the competition is fierce, the business is fickle and centered on money not excellence (except where the two intersect), and there is always another writer waiting in the wings to take your place. Prepare yourself for rejection, frustration, and ambiguity. If, after all that, you still feel “inspired to emulate” the writers you admire, I can’t and won’t stop you.
9. What are you currently reading? Or, what's one of the best novels you've read lately?
I’m on a John Le Carré kick right now, and have just finished Agent Running in the Field, Absolute Friends, and Our Kind of Traitor. I am in awe of his writing on every level.
10. What are you working on now? Any projects coming out soon?
My latest novel is a real departure from my previous work, and is making the rounds with agents right now. I’m currently working on the follow-up (my first attempt to write a series.) Here’s the pitch for the novel, which is titled The Truth Against the World:
Oisín, a hero of the Fenian Cycle from Irish myth, did not suffer the fate widely attributed to him in the old stories (and Yeats’s classic poem). Instead, he’s been cursed to live and die over and over until he learns “the wisdom of all the world.” Having visited and revisited earth for over 3,500 years, he’s seen and suffered much, but not without retaining a dark Irish wit.
Having given up on his own salvation—it turns out the curse as worded is a trick—he’s dedicated himself to helping unfortunate souls blessed with the spark of genius. In his current incarnation, in which he goes by the name Shane Riordan, this dedication falls upon on a young poet and artist named Georgina O’Halloran.
A fragile but incandescent spirit, Georgie has been robbed of a brilliant work fashioned after the Book of Durrow, with many of the old Irish stories reimagined and illustrated magnificently. It was intended as a gift for her professor—who was also her lover. But the older man cruelly broke things off; Georgie fell into a depressive tailspin, requiring intermittent institutionalization; and the professor published the book as his own work. It’s become an international sensation, due in no small part to the money behind it, which has an insidious agenda: the book and video game spinoffs are used to promote the ideal of the Great White Warrior, enlisting recruits in a racial war that will rebuild America as a Caucasian capitalist autocracy.
With Shane’s help, Georgie emerges from her psychological down-spiral and dedicates herself to confronting her ex and retrieving her masterpiece—a quest that will entail a perilous journey across the entire expanse of an America descending into violent civil war.