My first two novels, “Kiddo” and “Boss,” are autobiographical novels about growing up in Los Angeles. The setting serves as the backdrop for the stories but the novels are very much character based. After I moved to New York City to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism I remained in New York, where I worked as a Broadway critic, television columnist, magazine writer, ghost writer and writer for television and films. My first series of murder mysteries, eight novels featuring the celebrity ghostwriter Stewart Hoag (including my Edgar Allen Poe Award winner, “The Man Who Would Be F. Scott Fitzgerald”) focus largely on the celebrity whose life story my hero had been hired to craft. Many of the novels take place in New York. Two are set in Los Angeles, one in London. Again, the setting serves mostly as a backdrop.
It wasn’t until I began my current Berger-Mitry mystery series that the setting became a truly major factor in my writing. I’ve now written eight novels about the unlikely romance between Mitch Berger, an overweight Jewish film critic from New York City, and Des Mitry, who is a black and beautiful Connecticut State Trooper. I just said that the books are about Mitch and Des, but in truth they are also about Dorset, the fictional historic New England village on the Connecticut shoreline that is the setting for the novels. I have based Dorset on the lovely village of Old Lyme, where I have lived for the past 25 years in a 200-year-old carriage house.
Old Lyme is the first small town I’ve ever lived in. I’m an outsider and am fascinated by the place. It has customs, rhythms and a language all its own. Many of the same families have lived here since the 1600s. Everyone, it seems, knows everyone else or is related to each other. Everyone, it seems, knows about secrets long buried. For me, the Dorset setting of the Berger-Mitry novels is as important to the series as my lead characters are.
What is a setting from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this setting to and why are they similar?
I’m a huge fan of John O’Hara’s Gibbsville short stories. He understood deeply just how intimately the lives of small town people are interwoven. I’ve always aspired to portray the lives of my Dorset characters with such insight. I’ve also been influenced by the Maigret mysteries by Georges Simenon. Even though the Maigrets take place in Paris Simenon does a truly remarkable job of dissecting daily life on one small street or in one apartment building to show us how the ups and downs of its residents are all interconnected – just as they are in a village.
How would you describe the way you introduced this setting to readers of your story?
I introduced readers to Dorset through Mitch’s eyes. He arrives in Dorset after the death of his wife on a weekend getaway assignment for the travel section of his newspaper. His editor thinks it would be good for him to get out of the house. Mitch, a child of the streets of New York City, has spent very little time out of the City. He shows up in Dorset a stranger in a strange land. He is mystified, fascinated and enthralled by the place. Ends up renting a cottage on a private island called Big Sister. Also ends up finding the runaway husband of his landlady buried in his vegetable garden. When Connecticut State Trooper Des Mitry – herself a stranger in a very white strange land – shows up to investigate the crime there are immediate sparks between she and Mitch. They fall in love and here we are eight books later, going on nine, with Des and Mitch now woven into the fabric of Dorset themselves.
How would you describe the integration of characters and setting in this story?
Aside from Mitch and Des, who are both outsiders, the characters and the setting are so interwoven that they are practically one and the same. I can’t think of many of the characters existing anywhere except Dorset, and Dorset just wouldn’t be Dorset without them living there.
How would you describe the interaction of story and setting in this story?
Interesting question. Often, I find that when a murder takes place in Dorset – and since these are murder mysteries a murder most definitely does take place – the root cause is the collision between Dorset’s tight-lipped, secretive New England past and its roiling, Facebook present. In other words, the setting is integral to the plot.
How much research did you do for the setting of this story, and what did that involve?
As I mentioned, I’ve lived here for 25 years. It wasn’t until I’d lived here for about ten that I began to think about writing about this place. I have gotten to know many, many people and they have told me many, many stories. Small town gossip is a wondrous thing to behold. Often, I base my stories on events that have actually happened here.
To what extent would you describe the setting of this story typical or atypical of the settings in your fiction stories?
The Berger-Mitry stories are quite a bit different than my Hoagy stories. The Hoagy stories are about people who thirst for the limelight and will do anything to anyone to achieve their goals. The Berger-Mitry stories tend to be about people who are trying to avoid that harsh limelight -- hush something up, bury it, lock it away – only to discover that they can’t.
How do you usually decide on or develop a setting for your fiction stories?
I tend to write about wherever it is I’m living. I began my working life as a journalist and to a certain extent I remain a journalist. I’m an observer of the world that is around me.
To what extent do the settings of novels you read have an impact on why you read them, and why?
As a reader I am most strongly attracted by a writer’s voice, which is to say his or her style, point of view, observations and wit. If I don’t feel a strong, immediate personal bond between us then I know I won’t be interested in the story – no matter where it happens to be set.
Author website: www.davidhandlerbooks.com
No comments:
Post a Comment