Charles Salzberg is a novelist, a journalist, and an acclaimed writing instructor. He has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City. His freelance work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series, including Swann's Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel, and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair.
His new novel, Man on the Run, follows master burglar, Francis Hoyt, who walked away from his arraignment in a Connecticut courtroom and is now a fugitive who has to figure out what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. So he heads west to Los Angeles, where he meets Dakota, a young true crime podcaster who happens to be doing a series on Hoyt. At the same time, he’s approached by a mysterious attorney who makes Hoyt an offer he can’t refuse: break into a "mob bank," and liberate the contents.
Charles Salzberg stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:
When I started writing for magazines, I had no journalism background other than being a big fan of magazines like Esquire, GQ, New Times and The New Yorker, plus three months working in the mailroom at New York magazine.
I learned pretty quick there are essentially two different approaches to research. The first, embodied by my friend Tom, is to do as much research as possible on a subject before you start the interviewing process. Tom reasoned that knowing as much about a subject as possible will help the interview process, by opening up subjects for discussion you might otherwise miss. But for me, there was a downside to that approach: I was afraid if I knew too much about a subject, I might not ask the questions that might need to be asked, because I already knew the answers. Instead, I treated interviews more like organic conversations, uncovering all kinds of information and it encouraged me to ask questions I might otherwise not think to ask. It also resulted in me paying more attention to those answers, which resulted in sometimes having the conversation head in unexpected directions. The other looming concern was that to rely too much on information already in public domain, is potentially tricky because not all information out there is true. I was also afraid that if I knew all the answers before even asking the questions, I’d get lazy or, even worse, bored.
There was another potential problem inherent in researching and that is it’s often hard to know when to stop, which means you often wind up with so much research that when it comes time to write, you’re paralyzed. How much information does the reader need to know? Is it possible if I know too much about a subject that I’ll never get out of the weeds, which means never actually writing. Will I go down too many rabbit holes, much of what I find out totally unnecessary? Will all this research result in asphyxiation by information?
In journalism, it’s extremely important to get all the facts right—for obvious reasons. But in fiction, it’s just as important. There’s nothing that’ll turn a reader off more than finding inaccuracies, even those as simple as having a character drive down a one-way street in the wrong direction. And if you have any thoughts about getting away with inaccuracies, forget about it, because inevitably there’ll be some reader out there (usually more than one), who’ll catch you red-handed.
My latest novel, Man on the Run, required me to not only get inside the mind of Francis Hoyt, a master burglar, but it also meant I had to take a crash course in how to burgle a house, and how to elude alarm systems. Hoyt was a character in an earlier book, Second Story Man. He sprung from an article I read in The New Yorker way back in 2004. “The Silver Thief” chronicled the career of master burglar Blane Nordahl. For some reason, that article stayed with me and when, almost fifteen years later, I decided to do a book about what I think of as America’s obsession with winning, with being the best, sometimes at any cost, I decided to create a master burglar who is obsessed with being the best in his field. And so, I began researching everything I could on burglars. As a result of that research, I discovered another legendary second story man, Alan Golder, known as “The Dinnertime Bandit.” He only robbed houses at dinnertime, when he knew the chances were good that everyone was in the house, which meant all the valuables were upstairs, waiting to be plucked.
I never intended to revisit Francis Hoyt, but after completing the novel I was working on at the time, Canary in the Coal Mine, I was looking for my next project. For some reason, Francis Hoyt kept popping up. What, I wondered, happens to Hoyt after Second Story Man ends? Having escaped from the authorities, he’s on the lam. Where would he go? What would he do next? And so, from that curiosity arose Man on the Run.
During the pandemic, I discovered true crime podcasts. I listened to dozens of them, many the result of deep-dive investigations. It sparked an idea: What if a true crime podcaster decided to do a series on Francis Hoyt? And what if he found out about it? What would he do? And so, another character entered the picture: Dakota Richards, a former newspaper reporter who starts her own true crime podcast.
I knew nothing about the ins and outs of podcasting, so I did what I’d do as a journalist: I contacted a podcaster, Lauren Bright Pacheco, and she was happy to cooperate. I peppered her with dozens of questions about the ins and outs of podcasting. What equipment would my character need? Did she work alone? What editing skills would she require? How do podcasts make money? Lauren was happy to answer all my questions.
At one point, near the end of the novel, I needed a particular location where Hoyt could get rid of a hot car. I’ve been to L.A. many times, but that isn’t the kind of information I ever picked up, so I called up my friend, Janet, told her what I was looking for, and she came through with the perfect spot.
Generally speaking, because I’m one of those annoying people who doesn’t outline plots, I have no idea where I’m going when I sit down to write. As a result, I tend to research on the fly. When I reach a point where I need to do research, I’ll stop and do it.
You can learn more about Charles Salzberg via his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Man on the Run is now available from Down & Out Books and via all major booksellers.
