You Made Me A Criminal

We have a great guest today – fellow mystery writer and all-round nice Brit, Simon Wood. Please make him feel welcome TKZers!
Clare

Some people give me odd looks after they’ve read something of mine. They see me, they read the stories and they merge the characters and me together and see the same person. They don’t see easy-going, Simon. They see evil-doing Simon. I’m not evil doing. I’m actually very nice. I rescue animals off the street, I pay my taxes and I’ve never held up a bank (well, not in California and besides, I was very young).
 
Consider this quote for one of my books: “Simon Wood is a criminal genius. We should all be glad he’s writing this stuff and not doing it.”
This isn’t the kind of quote I should have on a tee shirt when I visit the FBI.
That’s the problem. Readers blur the lines between the characters we scribblers create and the scribblers. I’ve been told on several occasions that I’m not a nice person based on my stories. I’ve been asked if I’ve cheated on my wife when they’ve read about a character’s infidelity. As shocking as these statements can be, I can understand them. I’ve said myself. When I tell a story, I don’t base my characters on people I know or people I’ve read about, but I place myself in the shoes of those characters and view the world how they view the world. So for all intent and purposes, I am the good guys in my stories and I’m the bad people in my stories.
But that doesn’t make it me.
I’m not living out my fantasies on page because I fear capture if I committed them in the real world. I’m not outlining my future crimes. I’m not a depraved person getting my kicks on paper. I’m nice, easy going, animal rescuing Simon. But I can conjure up crimes and motives for killing and invent people react to those circumstances and I am empathic to their sensitivities. If I was faced with the crisis of conscience that a character is faced with, I can see their point of view and follow it. That character can be a good person doing the wrong things for the right reasons or a bad person doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. I can see it from their perspectives. But am I like them? No. Would I act like them if their position? Perhaps. But the people on the page aren’t me. A lot of writers I’ve met and befriended are nothing like the people they write. Most horror writers I know are some of the most down to earth people I know. Eavesdrop on conversation at any World Horror Convention and you’re going to hear them talking about pets and their kids and not how to dismember a body a dozen way from Sunday.
Granted, characters are the writer’s alter egos and altered egos. They are the people they would like to be, possibly, but they are also the kind of people we wouldn’t like to be. But at the end of the day, there is a big distance between the writer and his darker characters—well, certainly in my case. I can’t speak for everyone.
I will no doubt be in for an interesting time with my new book, NO SHOW. Seeing as the book is inspired by something my wife did to me (or more accurately, didn’t do) on my first day in America, I’ve already had a few emails from people wondering if I’m getting back at her with this book.  For the record, no.  I got a book out of it, so I’m grateful to her—now.  🙂
At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller and like Marvin Gaye says, I need every kind of people to tell my tales and that includes the bad ones. So the next time you read a nasty character and you start comparing the writer to that character, put some distant between the two. I know we do.



BIO: Simon Wood is a California transplant from England who’s been a competitive race car driver, is a licensed pilot, and an occasional PI. He shares his world with his wife, Julie, and their longhaired dachshund and five cats. His short fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines anthologies, such as Seattle Noir, Thriller 2 and Woman’s World. He’s a frequent contributor to Writer’s Digest. He’s the Anthony Award winning author of Working Stiffs, Accidents Waiting to Happen, Paying the Piper and We All Fall Down. As Simon Janus, he’s the author of The Scrubsand Road Rash. His latest novel, No Show, is out now. To learn more about Simon, visit his website.

18 thoughts on “You Made Me A Criminal

  1. It isn’t the books that make me question you Simon…it’s the race car thing. Race car drivers have a death wish, therefore the books are merely tame fantasy.

    At least, I hope that’s the case. If my readers identify me with the heroes of my books I’d be kind of flattered, since they’re all super six-pack ab military types. If they ID me as my villains, I’d be scared more than them as the bad guys always lose and usually get really dead in the process.

    Speaking of that I heard a quote from C.S. Lewis’s stepson that when he learned his mom was marrying the author of the Chronicles of Narnia he automatically envisioned the writer as being a six-foot tall knight who wore armour about the house and rode a horse. It was rather a let down when he met him and discovered him to be rather more Elmer Fuddish than Sir Gallahadish. But he learned to love him and call him dad nonetheless.

    • Basil – I could never be as cool as Simon with the race car driver thing:) I’m still trying to convince my friends that I am not my character Ursula – though I wouldn’t mind being super rich with a butler, chauffeur and maids at my beck and call!

    • Hrm…perhaps time for a deep introspection. And maybe buy some pastel colored clothes and make your cellphone ringtone something with birdies … just ideas here.

  2. So, if I am a character in my book, and my book has not yet been published…am I non-existent?

    How’s that for deep? Multi-layered, that’s me. Sort of like your crisper blog post.

    I think you summed it up best with the idea that writers create characters they both want to be and don’t want to be. Certainly true for me.

    NO SHOW sounds interesting but I’m going to start out with ASKING FOR TROUBLE. I like short stories to get to know an author.

  3. Considering I’ve started off two short stories with variants on the line, “It took me seven years to decide to kill my husband . . .” I fully agree with this post. He is still quite alive and it have been 12 years (because poison lasagna is a dish best served cold, oh, I did not just say that!)

    Seriously, if anyone wants to associate my current MC with me, I would be totally flattered.

    Excellent post. I’ve seen this happen big time at horror and sci-fi cons where fans badger writers and actors about the trivia of their roles.

    Q: “So, how did you fee when the alien ship was destroyed?”

    A: “Um, I felt glad because it meant I could get off the set in time to beat the traffic . . .”

    Welcome to TKZ, hope to see you again.

    Terri

    • Terri – It is disappointing when your literary idol turns out not to be an awesome alien fighting dude you thought…I think comic-con must be the junkyard for many such dreams:) And my husband was less than flattered by my portrayal of the hero in the Ursula books – he tells everyone ‘that is so not me’!

  4. Welcome to TKZ, Simon. Great post. This is why we have the coolest job in the world–as writers, we get to act out our dark side without getting arrested. Come back soon.

  5. Oh goodness! If i’m my main character, then considering my WIP, I must be a telepathic cat with a bad attitude.

  6. The discerning reader knows the difference between truth and fiction. But I’ve been flattered when people ask me if I was a hairdresser because the details of my stylist sleuth’s life are realistic. If readers believe our stories hold truth, then we’ve done our jobs well.

  7. Thanks for understanding, Terri. 🙂

    Nancy: Do they? Really, do they? 🙂

    Brian: You just beat me.

    Joe: Thanks a bunch. I appreciate the welcome and for letting me gate crash.

  8. I feel your pain, Simon.

    I am under five feet, I look like a kindly Hobbit matron, and timid children and tourists looking for directions head right for me; yet, when a fan starts talking about Cadaran, the genocidal sociopath in STAR-CROSSED, they start backing away from me.

  9. Great post. I don’t think I would have that sort of problem, but it’s nice to think about. Although some recently surfaced black and white snaps of me in my late teens would make for a good example of a future serial bad person. I liked the bit about “altered egos.” Very nice.

  10. Marilynn: I never trust a Hobbit. 🙂

    Lance: I seem to have this affect on people. I believe my epitaph will be: WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?

  11. Because this book steals from my own experiences with Julie in the US. People are reading a lot into our lives. I got some interesting questions from someone yesterday. For reasons of privacy, I won’t be responding. 🙂

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