S. 3, Ep. 11: A Chat with Crime Fiction Author Vincent Zandri

The Crime Cafe

Debbi Mack interviews crime fiction author Vincent Zandri. The transcript is below, if you'd like to read it. Or download the PDF copy and read it later. Debbi: Hi everyone. This is the Crime Cafe. Your podcasting source of great crime, suspense and thriller writing. I’m your host, Debbi Mack. Before I bring on my guest, don’t forget that you can buy the Crime Cafe Nine Book Set and the Crime Cafe Short Story Anthology for only $1.99 and $.99 each. Just go to my website, debbimack.com and click on “Crime Cafe” where you’ll find the buy links. While you’re there, please subscribe to the podcast on either iTunes or Stitcher, and if you’re watching this, you know that we’re on YouTube as well, so you can subscribe to that channel. Now having said that, it’s my great pleasure to bring on best-selling author, Vincent Zandri. Vince, I am so thrilled to finally have you on my show and to meet you this way, so to speak, after so many years of our first contact online. Vincent: I know it’s been so long. Debbi: So, thanks for coming on. It’s been many years and I remember one time you saying that you would love to meet and even though we haven’t gotten to meet in person, it’s nice to be able to do this. Vincent: Oh, Deb, I was probably just flirting with you at the time. Debbi: [laughs] Well, that’s very nice. That’s very kind and I’m quite, I guess, what’s the word...flattered. Vincent: Oh you can’t even think…you’re speechless. Debbi: I’m speechless [laughs]. Vincent: Well, truth be told, I was in awe of your first book and it did so well and you were like one of the groundbreakers who was one of the first people to like, “You know what? I’m not going the traditional route. I’m totally going to do this.” And, boom, you hit the New York Times with a great, great, great noir novel. So that’s why I was in awe of you, to be perfectly honest. Debbi: Oh, well that’s really nice of you to say. I am flattered Vincent. That’s kind. Interesting that you bring up genre because how would you describe your writing in one sentence? Are you mainly a thriller writer, a noir writer, a mystery writer, adventure? Vincent: If I had to sum it up in one sentence, I don’t know, this might sound namby-pamby, but I like to write what I like to read. Debbi: That sounds good. Vincent: Simple…yeah, and it’s as simple as that. You know, sometimes there’s like the literary Vince, a book like When Shadows Come, which Thomas & Mercer did which…like my mother or even some of my best fans will be like, “Huh? What was that book about?” And then there’ll be books like, The Shroud Key, for instance which I did under my own label which…and they’ll be like, “Oh my god, you’ve got to go to the next page, you’ve got to go to the next page, gotta go to the next page, gotta go to the next page,” and you eat it up like potato chips, right? Debbi: [agrees] Vincent: And then there’s the Vince who writes like psychological suspense like, I don’t know. Name one of my…The Remains for instance, which is like my big ass seller I guess and I even wrote that from a female perspective which is just sort of relentless. It’s sort of a combination of like, it’s got hardboiled in it. It’s got romance in it. It’s got adventure in it. It’s got that Hitchcock, psychological suspense in it. So it’s got all of it in there and now even more recently, I’ve ventured into (and I blame Richard Godwin for this) but I ventured into erotic noir a little bit. Debbi: Wow. Vincent: Yeah, which I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off and I’m still not entirely sure if I’ve pulled it off. Debbi: [laughs] Vincent: But, the reviews have been good and to me it was like, well a lot of noir and hardboiled fiction has a lot of sex in it anyway so just take it a step further. But I think it’s kind of working because and I think the plot is good. But anyway, the point being that I’m still experimenting. Debbi: Yeah.