INTERVIEW: With Crime Fiction Writer, Steven Max Russo

Today we welcome Crime Fiction Writer, Steven Max Russo to Novels Alive to answer our probing questions so we can get to know him and his writing process better.

What drives your story forward in your books the most, the characters or the plot?

I believe that the characters in each of my books drive the story. In most stories, particularly crime fiction and thrillers, there seem to be the “good” guys and the “bad” guys and each character can easily be classified into one of those two categories. But in my stories, the lines often blur. A writer friend of mine, Charles Salzburg, was on one of the author panels at Bouchercon a few years back. They were discussing character development and how to write heros versus villains in crime fiction. He had just read my debut novel, Thieves, and he noted that it was one of the very few books he had read where there were no heros or “good guys” but rather all of the main characters were simply different degrees of “bad”. I think my characters view the world differently than most people and the unique way that they react to certain situations or to their environment really drives the story

If you were a character in one of your books, which would you be? The hero/heroine, mentor, villain, love interest, etc.

Wow, that’s a tough question. As noted above, most of the characters in my books are rather unsavory. The easy answer is that I get to be all of the characters in my books. When I write, in my head I take on the personality of each character. The rhythm of their dialog, the phrases they use, their world-view (which is usually quite narcissistic). I think that from the three novels I have published, my favorite character is Abigail Barnes, the main protagonist in The Debt Collector. She’s pretty and petite and funny and sometimes quite sweet. On the other hand, her job is collecting money for low-life bookies and loan sharks so she is also tough and fierce and can be quite mean, ruthless, and hard-hearted. How can you not love a character like that!

If you had the power to make any of your books into a film, which would it be and why?

One of my books, The Dead Don’t Sleep, was actually optioned for film a few years back. It’s the story of Frank Thompson, an aging Vietnam veteran from Maine who was part of a special operations unit during the war whose job was to create murder and mayhem behind enemy lines. Many years later while visiting a nephew in New Jersey, he runs into a stranger who claims to remember him from the war. Soon, a trio of psychopaths who were also in that unit decide to hunt him down and kill him for something that happened many years ago.

I thought the story as written was exciting and different. The main characters were older men who seem to be reliving the glory days of their youth. Only their glory days could be more accurately categorized as “gory” days. Frank, the main character, is easy to root for and the trio of psychopaths are truly despicable. There’s also a surprise at the end of the story, which I believe would translate well in film.

Do you sometimes write people you know into your books?

I’d have to say no, at least so far. Though I do use locations and situations I’ve been in and dialog that I may have heard from actual people in my stories. I’m from New Jersey, so most of my stories take place, at least in part, in some part of the state. I have had friends and acquaintances sometimes ask if a character in a story was based on them, but the truth is that characters and stories are usually an amalgamation of people I’ve encountered in the past or just pure imagination.

Do you surprise yourself at your ability to write the vilest villains with such believability? Which book is your most vile villain featured?

Yes! I mean overall, I think I’m a pretty nice guy, yet when I’m writing, I seem to inhabit the characters I create. I find myself thinking as they would think and their thoughts flow through my brain in their voice. Strange, right? And sometimes it’s downright scary! I guess my most vile villain, and the character that surprised me the most by inhabiting space in my head for the duration of the writing process, was Lamar Skooley, the deranged killer from my first novel, Thieves. He is slick and smarmy and totally devoid of empathy or compassion. The way he reacts to people and his environment and the things he does in the book surprised and frightened me – even as I was writing the story. I had to stop writing at times and take a break just to get away from him.

Which of your characters did you or will you enjoy killing off most?

Again I’d have to go back to Lamar Skooley.

Once I killed him off, he stopped renting space in my head (thank goodness!).

Is there a particular genre of fiction that you have always wanted to write, but haven’t yet tackled?

No, not really. I enjoy reading and writing crime stories and thrillers. I don’t always start out with the goal of writing crime, the stories just seem to naturally veer in that direction. Having said that, I believe I have it in me to write other genres. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

As with the rest of us, you have a real life to live. So, in your most recent book, what was happening in your life and how did it influence your writing?

Well, I’m an advertising writer which really isn’t all that exciting. I think my writing (like reading) is a form of escapism, moving myself and my imagination away from my everyday challenges like branding and communicating the benefits of a client’s product or service and into a world of gangsters and bookies and life and death stakes.

How much research went into your last book?

For The Debt Collector, very little, if any. It was purely my imagination on hyperdrive. Same with my first novel, Thieves. When writing The Dead Don’t Sleep, I did do some research into the Phoenix Program, an unsavory operation run during the Vietnam War which lent some credibility to the actions of the main characters during the war. I also researched various weaponry used in the book.

What’s one of the most important things you’d like your readers to know about you? What defines you most as an author?

Wow, that’s a tough question. I guess it’s being true to myself and my writing. Being an author is difficult. Being a successful author is extremely difficult. The publishing industry is a tough business. Publishers and agents are looking for books that will sell widely and make money. So they look for manuscripts that emulate other successful bestsellers. They go with trends. When I first started writing fiction seriously, Gone Girl was all the rage. The book was a huge hit and the movie was a huge hit and suddenly all these books started coming out that “felt” a lot like Gone Girl. My agent at the time suggested I write one too. I think Gillian Flynn is a wonderful writer, but I don’t want to be Gillian and I don’t want to (and can’t) write like her.

It took me a long time to find my writing voice. I hope people read my books and I hope they enjoy them.

I also hope that someday some agent will suggest to his or her client, “If you want to sell books, try to write a book that reads like Steven Max Russo wrote it!”

Tell us a little bit about the project you are working on now.

I’ve got several things in the works. One is a compilation of short fiction that I hope to get out in the next few months. I am also working on a sequel to The Debt Collector and on a new stand-alone novel.

Tell us something about your latest release.

The Debt Collector is a newly released crime thriller that’s been garnering some rave reviews – including here on Novels Alive. (Read the review here.)

Abigail Barnes is young, pretty, and petite. But don’t let her small stature or good looks fool you. She’s a collector for bookies, loan sharks, and other people who want to get paid what they’re owed.

Running from trouble in Baltimore, Abby arrives in New Jersey looking for work and gets a job collecting for a low-end bookie in Hoboken who is later found bludgeoned to death, his safe open and empty. With investment tycoon Alexander Bayne planning to move his large investment firm from New York’s financial district across the river to New Jersey, pressure mounts from the governor, the mayor, and the police commissioner to solve the murder quickly.

So the cops lean hard on local crime boss Ronnie “Slacks” Falcone to help find the killer. He learns that Abby was in the bookie’s office near the time of the murder and that puts her directly in his crosshairs. She soon finds herself being hunted by a gang of hoodlums, the mob, and the police. With all these forces allied against her, she knows she can’t run and she won’t turn herself in because even though she didn’t kill the bookie, her checkered past would still guarantee that she be sent to prison.

Abigail has no choice but to find out who killed the bookie – without getting killed herself in the process.