Series writer deadly serious about craft

By Jane Dickinson, Special to the Rocky

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Stephen White, best-selling writer of a 16-novel crime series set in Boulder featuring psychologist Alan Gregory, will be the guest of honor at Left Coast Crime's gathering. The Denver resident's latest book, Dead Time, hits stores next week. He'll appear on an 11 a.m. panel Friday and will be interviewed at 11 a.m. Sunday in the convention's closing event. The author, whose novels draw on his more than 15 years as a clinical psychologist, talked crime fiction with Rocky mystery reviewer Jane Dickinson.

Are you reading any mysteries?

"I adore crime fiction, which is one of the reasons I started writing it. I used to read everything and everybody. I just couldn't turn the pages fast enough. (But of late) I recognize the architecture of a story and see plot twists coming. I could pick out a red herring at 20 paces. It stopped being enjoyable." White also finds that reading crime stories while writing a crime story works against his effort to hold on to the voice of a novel. "It would be like listening to music while composing."

Why are there so many crime fiction fans?

"In addition to the joys that accompany reading any good fiction - the language, the escape, the immersion in the sense of elsewhere and other - crime fiction offers context around the inexplicable and sometimes horrifying. When troubling things occur in the world - in our neighborhood, in our country, overseas - we are often left without explanation, and without any satisfying conclusion. Well-written crime fiction provides more: In addition to the answer about the who, a well-crafted story offers context, insight and understanding about the why.

"Take the Timothy Masters/ Peggy Hettrick tragedies. Reality, often incomplete, leaves many of us hungry for insight into the events that led to the murder of Peggy Hettrick, and eager to understand the motivations of the law enforcement personnel who were involved in putting the case together against Tim Masters. I think people read crime fiction partially because good stories don't leave those voids."

Would you agree that Colorado writers have been a growing part of the mystery writing genre?

"When I started writing, there were only two other published crime fiction writers in Colorado - Diane Mott Davidson and Rex Burns," said White, who added that recently someone said there are now 16.

Crime fiction is essentially light reading, with a corpse. How does its traditional, even formulaic, structure work for you?

"I came into the field not aware of the underlying architecture of crime fiction. My books have in some ways annihilated that structure," said White, who through the course of 16 novels since 1991 has used two narrators in one story, plotted events out of order and used multiple changes in time and points of view. "Crime fiction is incredibly elastic and readers are malleable. As long as you've got good stories and characters, readers will let you go along and change things . . . I can think of no ideas I've had as a writer that I haven't been able to use."

Would you agree that crime fiction would not be considered serious literature in some circles, say, The New York Times Book Review?

"I reject the thought that crime fiction can't be serious literature . . . the quality of the creative notion that the author brings to the page (is what determines the importance of a book). Crime fiction must be both entertaining and enlightening. I have to have something important embedded in the story to keep me interested as a writer."

You have a long-running series, with a huge following. Is that limiting for you as a writer?

"Part of the bounty of being an accidental writer of a series is that readers get attached to the story and characters, like watching The Sopranos. That gives me a built-in audience and my publisher a built-in edge in marketing." Although it limits some literary directions, White says he has been "blessed by editors and publishers who encourage me to play with the series form as well as the genre form. With most of the good things in life, there's a price to be paid. If someone had said 20 years ago that I would write 16 novels, I would have said, 'No way.' It's been a source of great good fortune."

What's your take on book conventions such as Left Coast Crime?

"It's readers talking to readers and writers talking to writers. It's also a way to celebrate the genre . . . ( Left Coast Crime is) a wonderful way for writers to connect with each other and more importantly to talk to readers, answer questions and say thank you. It's a fine thing."

"When troubling things occur in the world . . . we are often left

without explanation . . . Well-written crime fiction provides more: In addition to the answer about the who, a well-crafted story offers context, insight and understanding about the why."