Gary Lovisi is a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award nominee for his crime fiction. He is the editor of HARDBOILED magazine, the toughest little crime magazine in the world. HARDBOILED recently won the Western Writers of America Spur Award for publishing the Best Short Story of 2010 by John Nesbitt. Lovisi's most recent books are ULTRA-BOILED (Ramble House) a collection of 23 of his hardest crime tales; BAD GIRLS NEED LOVE TOO (Krause Books), a fascinating compendium of sexy paperback pulp and noir cover art and blurbs, and MORE SECRET ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Ramble House), new stories of the Great Detective.
Can you sum up Driving Hell's Highway in fewer than 75 words?
It's a hard crime surreal romp though darkest America with a man who has no future and can't remember -- or doesn't want to remember --- his past. It's probably better that way. He's always driving, guiding his old warwagon down the highway and along the way he meets all kinds of dangerous and very strange people, some good, some not so good. It's a wild ride!
What was your motivation for writing it?
I always wanted to write this type of 'on the road' type of book but in a crime noir package. I'm afraid it came out a bit more violent and wild than I thought it would. It starts out so nice, too. It ends up... well, rather nasty.
Who designed the cover?
The cover art was designed by the fine people at Wildside Press. This book is 1/2 of an original novel in their new Wildisde Mystery Doubles series (#4), and is backed with another fine novel, DEVIL'S PLAGUE by Michael R. Collings, so any reader will get a real bargain with this two-in-one book if they like hard crime fiction and violent goodies. Like I do.
How important is the title?
I think the title and cover art or design are always important but not crucial to the success of a book. As an author I have little control over the cover but I do pick my titles very carefully. They have to sing to me, have some inner pull and meaning, and get attention. I have another book coming out from Wildisde which will be 1/2 of a new Mystery Double. The title on that one is VIOLENCE IS THE ONLY SOLUTION and as the title implies, it is a kicker! Two pulp crime novels of mine were HELLBENT ON HOMICIDE and BLOOD IN BROOKYLN. All fine titles, and very cool hard crime books. They were fun to write too.
Do you enjoy writing?
I do enjoy writing, but it is a lot of work and takes time to get things right -- or just they way I want them. I wish I could do even more writing, I like hard crime but also many other genres and have written in all of them from science fiction, fantasy and horror, to westerns, and of course, a lot of non-fiction about books, authors, and cover artists. For instance I have a new Sherlock Holmes novel coming out next year. It's a very cool, very tough book, true to Holmes and Watson but really compelling. I also have two Moon Man stories coming out in the future, he's a rather quirky 1930s pulp hero, and I've completed two new stories about him that are great fun.
However, my first love is hard crime fiction and noir, and DRIVING HELL'S HIGHWAY fits that description with a vengeance. The road is open and lonely and you never know what you'll find out there. The book is available now in hard copy trade paperback from Wildside Press and through Kindle. This is my first Kindle book but I am sure that many more of my hard copy books will soon be available as e-books so be on the lookout for them.
For more news or information about me or my work take a look at my website: www.gryphonbooks.com
Sounds awesome. Would Lovisi be so kind as to tell me how to get Hardboiled. I haven't seen an issue in years and did not know that it was still coming out.
ReplyDeleteSure, Hardboiled is still being published. We are up issue #43. Single Issues
ReplyDeleteAre $10.00 each plus postage, or a four issue subscription, including postage, is is just $35 (in USA, $45 in Canada, $55 all other countries). Each issue is loaded with original hard crime and nior short Stories. They are available at www.gryphonbooks.com. Or by writing to us at Gryphon Books, PO Box 280209, Brooklyn, NY 11228 USA.