Prime Time Replay:
Mitchell Smith
on Sacrifice
MsgId: *omni_visions(6)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:00:57 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Hello, everyone, wherever in the world you may be seeing this. Welcome to another edition of Omni Prime Time. My guest tonight is novelist Mitchell Smith. He is perhaps not a familiar name to many who browse this show, but he should be; and after tonight, I hope he will be.
MsgId: *omni_visions(7)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:02:11 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Hello, Ed.
MsgId: *omni_visions(8)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:09:52 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Mitchell Smith is a writer of many parts... His most recent novel is the dark, intense, extremely cinematic "SACRIFICE" (Dutton). It's about a decent man who just happens to be a retired bank robber. Except he comes out of retirement for one last, big score. With the money buried, he leads a normal life, waiting for the heat to die down. But then he receives word from his ex-wife that their only child, an adult daughter, has been killed by a notorious Florida serial killer.
MsgId: *omni_visions(9)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:10:48 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Ed, are you missing.
MsgId: *omni_visions(10)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:11:22 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Protagonist Tyler Pierce determines to use all his resources--and his knowledge of life on the other side of the law--to seek justice. The plot's satisifyingly complicated--so care the characters.
MsgId: *omni_visions(11)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:12:00 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Hello, Mitchell--I was lost. Now I am found. Thanks to a server error on my screen.
MsgId: *omni_visions(12)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:13:16 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
What a relief.
MsgId: *omni_visions(13)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:14:24 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Some biographical material about the author: Mitchell Smith has led the not untypical, extremely varied professional life of an accomplished writer. Along with such recent novels as "SACRIFICE," "STONE CITY," "KARMA," "DAYDREAM," and "DUE NORTH," he's written a variety of pseudonymous work, including a science fantasy novel and a whole posse of westerns. More about those later. He was also once a Cold Warrior, working in Berlin with Army counter-intelligence.So here's the deal. I'll be talking with Mitchell Smith for an hour or so; then my producer Ellen will open up the chat to all who would like to participate and ask questions. So be thinking... Now. Mitchell, the press handout for "SACRIFICE" makes an interesting semantic point by crediting you with a number of books, but distinguishes between your "thrillers" and your "novel." How do you react to this sort of peculiar pigeon-holing?
MsgId: *omni_visions(15)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:20:40 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I understand it from an economic viewpoint since genre separation is important to publishing, but to me as a writer it isn't important. I try to write serious novels on subjects crucial enough to require some violent actions so I don't really pay attention to the separation between thrillers and mainstream novels. Any plot development important enough to drive a mainstream novel is also important enough to drive the physical action of a thriller. We go to the basics of greed, love, fear.
MsgId: *omni_visions(18)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:25:22 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
A friend of mine read "SACRIFICE" and agreed with the blurb comparing your work to Elmore Leonard's, but opined that your characters were a hell of a lot more likeable than Leonard's. How do you approach the balance of characters and plot? What tends to drive which?
MsgId: *omni_visions(19)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:27:46 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I think it is essential that your characters be as solidly human as possible even the best plot is like an empty room if you do not have real people in it. A character I think should ideally be strong enough and complete enough so there are limits to what the author can make the character do. In that sense after a novel's opening the characters should gradually influence the plot and the novel's action more and more.
MsgId: *omni_visions(21)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:33:22 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
I'll be slightly circumspect in this question. In "SACRIFICE," you--the writer--deliberately sacrifices an extremely sympathetic character. Is this a calculated effect? Or more a phenomenon that seemed demanded by the novel?
MsgId: *omni_visions(22)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:37:02 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
It is not a calculated effect, but it is an inevitable action. In any novel "thriller" that involves violent conflict (and this can run the gamut from Hamlet to GI Joe comics,) out of that violence comes inevitable loss and that important loss usually involves an important character -- otherwise we haven't lost enough and the action hasn't been important enough.
MsgId: *omni_visions(23)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:40:08 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
"SACRIFICE," it seems to me, is an extemely colorful and highly realized novel that could, granting the film gods' favor, be translated to a terrific film. Are there any signs of that happening?
MsgId: *omni_visions(24)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:41:46 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
No signs on "SACRIFICE," yet, but "STONE CITY" was bought for Dustin Hoffman for a film. AS usual there are long delays in start up but I do hopeto see it done.
MsgId: *omni_visions(25)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:46:09 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
"STONE CITY" is another genuinely strong novel which, I think, is still available in paperback from Onyx. It's one of the most vividly realized portraits of life in a prison society I've read. Out of curiosity, have you seen OZ, the new HBO cable series about prison culture? Interestingly enough, one important character is a college professor who is sentenced after killing a young girl in a drunken driving accident. Both your novel and Barry Levinson's series have striking tonal parallels, at least. I'm not suggesting it's a matter for lawyers, but I thought the similarities striking.
MsgId: *omni_visions(26)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:50:56 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
No I haven't seen the television production of OZ. I hear it is quite effective. In "STONE CITY" I tried to concentrate the essence of all prisons to create the jail of jails. To do this rather than visiting a penitentiary myself, I read the memoirs of men who spent decades in prisons across the country as well as books by prison guards and adminstrators, who do their own kind of time.
MsgId: *omni_visions(27)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:51:02 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Oops, my mistake. The college professor is in "STONE CITY." The equivalent character in OZ is a lawyer.If "STONE CITY" was purely researched through written accounts, your distillation of prison life and the attention to detail is absolutely amazing. In your other recent work--do you travel and interview to gain research? Or is it again through winnowing the printed page?
MsgId: *omni_visions(29)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:56:26 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I do sometimes travel -- not to gather detail, but the climate of a place -- the light the color, the place's weather -- then I DO use printed material for research for the good reason that facts that have been gathered, winnowed and written down ten to be more precise and more useful.
MsgId: *omni_visions(30)
Date: Thu Jul 31 22:58:15 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
I've got to ask--has your a-while-ago background in the intelligence community contributed to any of your fiction?
MsgId: *omni_visions(31)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:00:41 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
No, I don't think it has. The reason being that I've never done a book in which either the Army or intelligence work was involved. My experiences, not very dramatic, did enable me to appreciate the work of writers who did deal in cold war conflict and espionage.
MsgId: *omni_visions(32)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:02:35 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
One of the bits in "STONE CITY" that tickled me was the prison librarian, a mass murderer who has spent some stir time writing a science fiction epic called "LORD OF TRADES." You've had some cyclical reading experience with sf, true?
MsgId: *omni_visions(33)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:06:22 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Yes, I found SF to be very important in my development as a writer. It is a literary mind expander. I began with Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov years ago. Stopped reading it for a long while and have recently started reading it again. Niven and Pournelle, S.M. Stirling, Gibson,Neal Stephenson, and of course Gene Wolfe.
MsgId: *omni_visions(34)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:07:58 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Your list of writers is unimpeachable. Have you any interest in writing any sf again? Again, referring back to that long-ago pseudonymous novel. Any chance that one will be reprinted as your present reputation increases?
MsgId: *omni_visions(35)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:10:16 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I wouldn't know about reprints. That being publisher's business and that is that. But I would like to do a science fiction novel and for that matter, though I've done 12 westerns, I'd also like to do another
MsgId: *omni_visions(36)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:11:29 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Were you to do another sf novel, do you have some idea what variety it might be?Let me make a lateral announcement here. If my producer will do the honors, we'll open this up to all who care to participate. Remember, you'll have to leave and re-enter this chat. Please remember to sign any posting.
MsgId: *omni_visions(38)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:14:02 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
It would have to be more concerned with human actions in a future rather than technical manipulations of that future since I do not have the scientific background to handle it otherwise.
MsgId: *omni_visions(39)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:14:23 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Umm, Ed, We found out you don't have to leave and come in again. But please _do_ sign your name.
MsgId: *omni_visions(40)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:21:35 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Outside of your recent sf explorations, where do your reading tastes lie?
MsgId: *omni_visions(41)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:21:53 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Mitchell, what kind of novel are you working on now? And when do you expect it to be out?
MsgId: *omni_visions(42)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:25:44 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Two questions at once:Aside from SF I tend to enjoy rather traditional. well structured work -- Nabakov, Patrick O'Brian, Cozzens, and Jane Austen.
I am working on a novel called "REPRISAL." It concerns a woman whose family is being carefully murdered one by one for no rational reason at all. The woman is a caver and attempts in the book to explore the outer darkness as she has explored the darkness below.
MsgId: *omni_visions(43)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:27:31 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
The dozen westerns... That intrigues me. Why westerns?
MsgId: *omni_visions(45)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:30:18 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Probably because as a beginning writer those were the easiest books to get accepted and be paid for. I did a series of twelve and I gound them intersting and useful to do. The requirements of the genre in a sense freed me to relax in telling the story.
MsgId: *omni_visions(44)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:29:01 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
I'm delighted that you're writing another novel from the woman's point of view. I really enjoyed "Due North" and was impressed by your female protagonist. You may not realise it but your interviewer, Ed, is also terrific at writing from the female pov.
MsgId: *omni_visions(47)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:34:10 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
It is an interesting question how one sex can write convincingly from the point of view of a stretch of the imagination that fortunately rings true.
MsgId: *omni_visions(46)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:32:30 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
I'll hope that "REPRISAL" is scheduled soon. Do you ever teach, writing or otherwise?
MsgId: *omni_visions(48)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:35:26 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I think "REPRISAL" will be out in the spring and no, I haven't done any teaching. Though I think that teaching writing requires a specific talent in itself.
MsgId: *omni_visions(49)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:35:39 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Do you "listen" to women to try to figure out how their "voices"(I don't mean literal) are different from men?
MsgId: *omni_visions(50)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:38:03 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
No, I wouldn't dare try to study them in that way. I just let a combination of observation and affection blend to produce a character.
MsgId: *omni_visions(51)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:38:20 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Because I've read a lot of bad novels and short stories by men trying and failing miserablly at capturing the female voice.
MsgId: *omni_visions(52)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:39:59 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
Even though you don't formally teach, I wonder if your experience might suggest some advice for newer, aspiring, ambitious writers in our audience.
MsgId: *omni_visions(53)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:40:09 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Any more police procedurals (like Daydreams) in the works? that was the first of yours I'd read.
MsgId: *omni_visions(54)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:43:35 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
1) As far as beginning to write is concerned I can only trust my own experience which was to choose a genre, a specific genre, that I felt comfortable and use that genre as an arena in which begin and finish and sell one, two or three novels. I think that musicians USED to call it learning your chops.2) Concerning police procedurals, I don't think I will do another. "DAY DREAMS" seemed to complete that area for me.
MsgId: *omni_visions(55)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:46:51 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
In these days of much-publicized super-chain maneuverings, the much-heralded death of print (or at least the midlist), publisher mergers, and all the other things beyond writers' control, should newer writers pay a lot of attention to the business side? Or just let the devil take the hindmost and concentrate on writing?
MsgId: *omni_visions(56)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:49:50 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Most writers are hopeless at business and are well advised to write, write, write! It is their strength. And publishers, no matter how bottom line oriented, must have written work to publish.
MsgId: *omni_visions(58)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:52:28 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
We're running out of time, but maybe a question or two more. I'm curious how you pick your projects. How does a novel such as "SACRIFICE" generate for you? Or "REPRISAL?"
MsgId: *omni_visions(59)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:55:05 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
I think my ideas come from the same junction that most writers' idea come from: when character meets difficulty and the clash and struggle to resolution commences.So I look for situations that are important to people. Situations involving, honor, money, social issues such as abortion (which is dealt with in "SACRIFICE") -- I look fo a social whirlpool and sail my chracters into it.
MsgId: *omni_visions(60)
Date: Thu Jul 31 23:57:46 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
To me, you're an intelligent, thoughtful writer who never forgets to entertain. Where would you like to see yourself professionally in another decade or two?
MsgId: *omni_visions(61)
Date: Fri Aug 1 00:00:28 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Still writing, turning out books that I am proud to have done. And I hope to see a healthy and vibrant world of writers mining our magnificent English language and having a ball.
MsgId: *omni_visions(62)
Date: Fri Aug 1 00:04:36 EDT 1997
From: ed_bryant_mod At: 204.133.96.2
All right, then, we're at the end of the hour and it's time to say good night. I want to thank my guest, Mitchell Smith, for these two hours of conversation. Look for his latest novel, "SACRIFICE" (Dutton), in book stores now--and watch for "REPRISAL" next spring. Tune in next week, August 7th, when I'll interview Tananarive Due, writer of "MY SOUL TO KEEP," and join my colleague Jim Freund as he chats with Dan Simmons on August 14th. Producer Ellen, technical ace Paula, thanks. And again, thank you to Mitchell Smith.
MsgId: *omni_visions(63)
Date: Fri Aug 1 00:05:26 EDT 1997
From: EllenDatlow At: 38.26.29.32
Thank you all, and to all a good night.
MsgId: *omni_visions(64)
Date: Fri Aug 1 00:06:09 EDT 1997
From: Mitchell_Smith At: 204.210.219.65
Thank you Ed, Ellen. I had fun.
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