Author R&R with Mike Monson

Mike Monson is co-editor of the crime e-zine All Due Respect, along with Chris Rhatigan, and also the author of his own short fiction. His latest literary creation is the noir novella The Scent of New Death, about successful, unassuming bank robber Phil Gaines who marries a young, wild, and very kinky local bar maid. When the new bride runs off with Phil's business partner and his life's savings, he pursues them across the countryside as they lose themselves in a psycho-sexual killing spree.

If you're wondering how a writer researches topics like that, Mike stopped by to take a little Author R&R (Reference and Research) to explain:

My novella The Scent of New Death, did not require a lot of special, in-depth research.

It is the story of revenge among criminals in the Central Valley of California, specifically in and around the town of Modesto and a little bit in the Bay Area communities just east of San Francisco. Since I had lived in Modesto for about 20 years when I wrote it, and lived or worked in the Bay Area even longer than that, I didn’t have to do a lot of research to capture the settings. Here, though, by bullet points, is the research I did conduct:

• Bank robbery. My main character was a career bank robber, a very successful bank robber. Now, I am not a bank robber and I never have been a bank robber. All I knew about it was what I saw in the news and on TV and in movies, or read about in books. However, I felt certain that all of that information was romanticized and inaccurate. So, I went on the internet and read every article I could about actual bank robbers. Then, I found that the FBI site has a lot of information on real-life bank robbers. From the FBI I found out that the overwhelming majority of bank robbers are drug addicts who are not professionals, and who only rob banks because they are desperate for money. These criminals almost always get caught within six hours. There was another large group as well, and these were the non-addict, semi-professional bank robbers who were often able to pull off a dozen or more bank robberies before an arrest. But, this second group, according to the FBI, would almost always get caught eventually, as long as they kept pulling robberies. This was because of a few basic errors. So, the sort of person I was writing about – a man who could make a living for 12 years robbing banks while escaping detection – may not even exist in real life. But, I figured that since I was writing fiction, I could create such a person. The person I created, Phil Gaines, was notorious in the criminal community partly for the fact that he was that rare person, someone who actually defied the odds and made a living on bank jobs. I made him a guy who was as aware as I had become about all the reasons bank robbers get caught and who made sure to not make all the usual mistakes.
  
  
• Pawn brokers. Two important characters in the book were Carl Schmitz and Jack Dixon. The two had grown up together. Carl was a rich man who owned three pawn shops in Modesto. Jack was a thief and a fence. I needed for Jack to be resentful and jealous of Carl because Carl was rich while Jack was just getting by. So, I went to various State of California sites to find out the law regarding pawn brokers. I found out that if a person has a felony record or any record involving stolen goods, they can never get a pawnbrokers license in the state. This worked perfectly for me. As I wrote it, since Jack was a felon, and Carl was not, only Carl was able to get a license, thus preventing Jack from progressing as a legitimate business man.
  
  
• Geography and hiking. I did have one major bit of geography to research. I needed my character to hide out in the mountains and forests east of Modesto, near Yosemite. He needed to ditch his car, walk many many miles off-trail and out of sight of roads; camp near a small town; have breakfast in that town; somehow get all the way to the San Francisco airport using only cash and then over to Berkley on the BART train; and then get off on the right stop where there would be a Walgreens to buy a throw away cell phone near a place he could eat a snack that would have the news on the TV. And, I needed him to get on the right street from there that would take him up to the Berkeley Hills (you know, where Grandpa Zeke and Millie live in the TV show Parenthood?) I needed him to do all of this by just after 12 p.m. Again, I was able to use the internet. I knew of a road near Yosemite called Evergreen. I had Phil drive up that road in his Jeep and then hide the vehicle about a mile from any pavement. I knew of a foothill town called Groveland and it was perfect for me. And, from the spot where he ditched the car to Groveland was about 20 miles, so I had to do research to find out how long it takes the average person to walk 20 miles off-trail. Then, I found a breakfast place in Groveland on Yelp and I found a transportation company that would drive people all the way to the San Francisco Airport. I called this company and found out how much the drive cost and how long it took. Then, the rest, the Walgreens etc., was easy. By the time I was done I felt confident my depiction of events was entirely accurate and reasonable, which is very important to me.
  
  
• Zen in America. This wasn’t too hard because I already knew a lot about the subject from my own practice in Zen centers and from voracious reading and participation in internet forums. But, I did at one point have to give a character a Japanese Zen name. It turns out that there are websites for exactly that purpose, that provide a long list of typical Zen names for monks and priests and the English translation of same. This was very helpful.
  
  
• Guns. I gave Phil Gaines a Colt .45 automatic. I didn’t know that was what it was, I just had a picture of the gun he’d use in my head and I searched the internet until I found the gun that matched my imagination. Then, I learned everything I could about the gun in case I’d need any special facts in the narrative. Also, I wanted Phil to have a small gun that he could conceal, and, again, I found the perfect one on the internet that I was able to describe with absolute accuracy.
  
  
• Lock picking. At one point I needed Phil to very quickly and professionally pick a lock. And, again, I wanted his method to be accurate and I wanted to be able to describe it in perfect detail. Guess what? There are a lot of articles about lock picking, even instructional videos on YouTube. I found a common technique using something called a ‘bump key.’ It was reasonable for Phil to know how to do this and reasonable for him to have the proper equipment with him at all times. Again, this worked out great.

For more information about Mike and his writing (what he calls his "dark and creepy crime stories), check out his website and blog, which also has links to where you can purchase The Scent of New Death and his other fiction.