Episode 52: Paul D. Marks

Destination Mystery

Teddie Matson had a golden life, until her path had the misfortune of crossing mine. I sat staring out the window of my office, k.d. lang playing in the background. It was a while till the sun would set, that golden hour when everything takes on a gilded glow. Golden hour is the time when the light hits just right in the early morning or late afternoon. The time when movie cinematographers most like to shoot. The light is tawny and warm. Gentle. It makes the stars shine brighter. Golden hour is the time when Teddie Matson was killed. -- Paul D. Marks, White Heat I had so much fun talking to author Paul D. Marks about his novels, his short stories, and his encounters with the LAPD. Paul's noir sensibility and love of Los Angeles come out in everything he does, but nowhere more than in "Ghosts of Bunker Hill," his short story which was nominated this year for the Macavity Award and which you can read right here. Paul has his own website, where you can keep tabs on his current and future projects. He also blogs at Criminal Minds and SleuthSayers. Social media buffs can find him on Facebook and Twitter. Paul gives a shout-out to classic authors, including Raymond Chandler, David Goodis, Ross MacDonald and John Fante, as well as masters of the short story genre, Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Cheever. As a fan of classic noir myself, I have to say I see the connection between Raymond Chandler and Paul's work. The mean streets of L.A. may have gotten more congested, but there's still a dark side to sunny California, and Paul explores it in much of his work. Transcript is below. Enjoy the interview! -- Laura ****************************************************************************************** Transcript of Interview with Paul D. Marks Laura Brennan: My guest today is the author of the Shamus Award-winning mystery/thriller, White Heat. But Paul D. Marks is perhaps best known for his short stories. He was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Reader’s Award Poll, and his work, which tends towards Noir, has been widely published, recognized with multiple awards, and anthologized. His story, Ghosts of Bunker Hill, from the November 2016 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, is currently nominated for a Macavity Award. Paul, thank you for joining me. Paul D. Marks: Well, thank you for having me, Laura. I'm glad to be here. LB: In the reviews of one of your novels, one of the reviewers said that, essentially, you are the master of all things noir and Los Angeles. So, you do, you really seem to love Los Angeles. PDM: I do like Los Angeles, probably partly because I was born here and grew up here. My mother and family -- her side of the family goes back a long ways. And when I was a kid, it was still a little bit of Raymond Chandler's LA. He was still around, although I wasn't conscious of him. He was around and Los Angeles, as I remember it as a child, was kind of how he described it in his books, especially the later books like The Long Goodbye. I think just growing up here, by osmosis you get the ambience and the feel of the place and that comes out in my writing. LB: Is he what drew you into noir? PDM: Probably what drew me into noir is movies. As you probably know, he wrote a couple of really great noir movies like Double Indemnity and The Blue Dahlia. So I'd watch the movies and you see "The Big Sleep, based on a novel by Raymond Chandler," or "Dark Passage, based on a novel by David Goodis." And my mom had this double volume of mystery books, I can't remember the name of it. And if I recall, the first story or first novel in this collection was The Big Sleep. So one day, I guess I was intrigued by this sinister-looking collection of stuff and I had seen the movie The Big Sleep, and I went and I read the novel in that collection and I was hooked. After that, I read everything I could by Raymond Chandler and he's still my favorite. I love David Goodis, too.