Charlie Stella at the Shade bar in NYC, August 2013
Q: Should I refer to you as a "mystery author" or an "author of crime fiction" or some other moniker?
Call me what my wife called me recently: "a very loving, very generous, big hearted, somewhat insecure, macho man with sociopathic tendencies."
Q: You've written eight novels. At what point in your writing career did you feel like you were really a writer?
Your pop-in-law, Dave Gresham, was my first writing mentor and one of the two guys I owe the most to this life (the other being a football coach, Stew Yaker), convinced me to send my manuscript to the Scott Meredith Agency. I paid for the read, but they signed me. I think most writers, if not all, are inherently insecure, so there are times when I still wonder about this writing thing I do. I guess when I came close about seven years before I was published, except I was so floored by the rejections the Meredith Agency sent me. I couldn’t recognize that two of the rejections asked for more work from Mr. Stella. Or maybe it was being called Mr. Stella that scared me away. The only times I was referred to as Mr. Stella prior to those rejections was in Catholic School when one of the nuns would catch me sleeping in the back of class or in church.
Q: Your fiction is full of serious, scary violence. Do you have experience with violence in real life?
Nothing as dramatic as what I write about in the novels. I’ve been arrested for two assaults, and I’ve thrown and caught a few dozen punches in my earlier years, but that was part of the game. I caught something on the back of the head once and woke up in a Jersey City park a few hours later, but that was a learning experience (never go looking for somebody without backup). I’ve also swung a Louisville Slugger a few times, but I consciously aimed low, except for once when I was being tested from above. That time I used a steel telescope club and took out some teeth. The victim was a deadbeat using a fugazy badge to scare off collectors. He must've bragged to the wrong people about how he was getting over. The Louisville Sluggers were used on one guy who used his hands on a woman, and two deadbeats (separate problems).
Q: Since I'm a librarian, I'm always curious about research that writers do for their books. Do you research your people, places, etcetera? Do you travel to places you write about?
I research quite a bit as far as location and history. I did a pretty intensive mapping of the areas I used on Long Island for Johnny Porno. I also had to do a ton of research on the time period, including using the library at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn for its microfiche archives. JP is a crime novel about the mob’s influence in the first big porno, Deep Throat. The idea for the book was born of a great documentary on the film, Inside Deep Throat. I actually enjoy the research aspect of writing crime novels. I wasn’t as careful early on about all the details, but I sure am now. I’ve learned over time that the devil really is in the details ...
Q: Totally inappropriate, rude question: can you tell our readers something about the money you've made from your books?
My biggest crime novel advance was for $10K minus the agent’s cut (I sometimes made twice as much from a single week of bookmaking), and it’s gone downhill ever since. I don’t mind as much now as in the past, but mostly because since I retain the rights to my first six novels, I see something every few months from the ebook versions. Enough for a couple of dinners and tips, but I think most writers are forced to realize at some point that this thing we do is either a labor of love and/or pride. Some radio interviewer once asked me which was more important, a good review or a big payday. I chose review. He called me a hopeless romantic. He was right.
Q: Another rude question (seems like they are my favorite): On your website, you mention being married "a few times." Just how many times have you been married? Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands. How do you compare?
I’ve been married four times, but it could easily be five. One woman I dated for a couple of years had the good sense to tell me, “Hell no, pendejo.” It took me a long time to grow up. I was busy trying to prove myself, and for all the wrong reasons. Basically, I was a jerk. A street life brought money, and money brought a really false sense of purpose. I was living a life I thought I was supposed to live, and I missed out on a lot with my kids because of it. I was a provider, not a good father. On the other hand, it gave me inside knowledge to write mob novels (and I could afford to go to the opera sometimes twice a week). My life changed the day I met my current wife (I’m her third husband), Ann Marie. We’re married 12+ years now and have been together since 2000. We’re lucky to have found each other. She’s made all the difference in my life, and I’d be lost without her. I think she likes having me around because I can make her laugh, and I’m good for ballast during hurricanes.
Q: What's the worst job you've ever had?
Hmmm ... probably construction when I was a kid. Great job for the money and exercise, but I’m as useless as they come when it comes to doing work I consider boring. I was a laborer and I appreciated the jobs no end (two summers while I was in high school), but I really hated getting up in the morning, taking a bus and two trains into Manhattan. I actually worked on Trump Tower next to St. Patrick’s cathedral. All that billionaire sheetrock? I carried some of it, but it was all I was good for. I could carry sheetrock and taper mud, but I once dropped a door on an old timer’s shins and I still have nightmares about it. He was so gracious about the accident, but I know he was in pain. Some of the other men on the job probably wanted to toss me off the hoist. I couldn’t blame them. The toughest transition of my life was adjusting to a legitimate income again after earning tax free street coin. That took me a couple of years.
Q: What do you like to eat for breakfast?
Day old semolina bread dipped in my third cup of coffee, followed by 4-5 scrambled eggs, and a big chunk of provolone cheese. And then I need to smoke my pipe (at least 3 bowls).
Q: What are you reading right now?
The manuscripts of other writers. Some fellow graduates from the MFA program I was enrolled in, and some from writers looking for blurbs, etc. The last published novel I read was Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham.
Q: What's the best: getting the idea for a book, working on the manuscript, finishing the manuscript, selling the manuscript, or holding the published book in your hands? You can only pick one.
Working on the manuscript.
Q: Have you ever taken a couple of young, impressionable teenagers to Atlantic City on a whim? Did they have a good time? Have they been telling the story of that night for two decades and counting? [The answers to these are yes, yes, and yes.]
Oh, those crazy kids ... there were probably more brains in the car that night (minus mine) than is fair ... Do you really still talk about that night?
Of course we do! It's entered the family lore.
(For more about Charlie Stella, visit charliestella.net/.)
I am delighted to know thereafestill someStella novels I haven't read yet. My favorite so far is Cheapskates. Being a Jersey boy this often feeels like avisit bome
Posted by: Robert Lopresti | September 29, 2013 at 08:54 PM
For the record, Robert, Cheapskates is my favorite of mine too ... I wrote it while we lived in Perth Amboy while they were redoing the harbormaster's office ... a scene out of The Sopranos ... 6 guys sitting in chairs taking the sun for about 8 months ... and all those Joe Vas signs everywhere you looked ... I remember telling my wife we were going to see a 60 Minutes special on Mr. Vas some day ... I think that happened ... it's a good country, America.
Posted by: Charlieopera | October 01, 2013 at 08:10 PM