Today I’m sitting down with my friend Melody
Clark to talk about her new book, Shamus
Bead and the Cure for What Kills You. I read Melody’s first book, Shamus Bead and the Clockwork Resurrection
Man and thoroughly enjoyed it. She was kind enough to let me get a sneak
peek at the new book, and it’s just as good. The first book is available now (click on the book image below) and you can preorder the new book, which will be released on November 14.
First off, can you give us a quick description
of the Shamus books?
They are
Victorian steampunk mysteries set in the London of Sherlock Holmes, with
numerous knowing winks and nods to that subgenre. The two main characters, Professor Shamus
Bead and medical Doctor Jeptha Lawton, are gay men in a relationship, which
they must obviously keep hidden. They
would be seen as deeply subversive people by the culture of the times, and yet
they are the only ones who are ideally suited to face the plagues of those
times, both literally and figuratively.
Professor Bead is chief epidemiologist for the Royal Epidemiological
Society. Doctor Lawton is his
supervising partner. Their Moriarty is
death and disease, which were rampant in Victorian England, due to pollution
and many other factors.
At one
point in my new novel, Shamus is asked what their number one enemy is and he
says “ignorance.” In some ways, I don’t
think the US has ever fully escaped the Victorian period. We’re a big country where ignorance can slip
into small places and fester. Even
though Shamus is based in the UK, we’re still fighting the same kind of nemeses
here in our country now. We all repress
parts of culture that are vital for us to thrive and survive. We never know where the cure for cancer will
crop up. We need as many minds from as
many different perspectives as possible.
That’s also what Shamus addresses in theme and content.
You’ve created a very caring relationship between these two men, something uncommon now but even more so back in their time. What was it that inspired you to write so fully about these two very different men?
The central relationship is everything in novels. The characters have to care about each other in order for the reader to care about them and invest in their further adventures. Many fictional characters are clothed on the page – I mean, they exist as a kind of proper form of who those characters are. I wanted an honest depiction of their relationship. As Shamus emerged as a more graceful and delicate persona, Jeptha became even more of a strong and soldierly fellow in my mind. He had a protected young adulthood, in terms of growing up in English boarding schools, but he was still as preyed upon as Shamus was living in the streets. I wanted Jeptha to be a full partner, too. I didn’t want any Nigel Bruce dotty Watson interpretations being made. Shamus needs Jeptha as much, if not more, than Jeptha relies on Shamus.
How did you ever get the idea for this cross
between Johnny Depp and Sherlock Holmes?
I wanted to
write a Sherlock Holmes pastiche as I have had a deep love of the original
stories since I was a child. The legal
waters are murky for a Sherlock pastiche, so I set about creating my own
character to honor that same tradition.
Shamus Bead the name even suggests Sherlock Holmes. The name Jeptha Lawton is similar to John
Watson. Shamus and Jeptha live on
Orchard Street, which is the name of the street that Baker Street turns
into. There are a few other touches that
wink at the reader. But they are very
different and unique characters.
As I’ve
written him, Shamus has evolved into a much more fragile fellow than Holmes
ever was. He is even more of an outcast
in his own way. The more I wrote him,
the more he became Johnny Depp-like in my mind in terms of the characters Depp
plays – that same kind of deeply sensitive outsider with a poetic grace who
must deal with the real world while speaking his own language. Bless them, characters have a life of their
own. They will be what they will be,
regardless of our wishes. They’re like
children in that way.
I can vouch for the truth of that. Does Shamus or Jeptha ever surprise you?
All the
time. One incident in the first novel
involved a line where Shamus is chided by Jeptha for not bringing the right gun
to a gunfight – as if Shamus would have any knowledge of guns. Shamus says something to the effect that next
time he’ll bring his really big gun.
Anyway, as I wrote the ending, I realized Shamus really did have a
bigger gun – and I don’t mean that in a phallic sense – and he takes it out to
use it. When Jeptha acts surprised at Shamus
wielding the big gun, Shamus says to him, but I told you I had one. Jeptha replies, yes, but I thought you were
joking. Well, so did I when I wrote the
first scene, but Shamus surprised even me.
The books have a very authentic feel to them, both in the writing and in the descriptions of the areas of London. I particularly enjoyed the dialog, as well. What kind of research do you have to do for the period?
I’m a stickler for realism so I research tiny details. It’s important to me that the language be precise. Too many Holmes pastiches and novels in that tradition are written in a 21st century North American idiom. I also want to be accurate to the place and time. For the new novel, The Cure for What Kills You, I had to do a lot of research about the Victorian London Zoo for what amounts to one brief scene. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the Bank of England too. :) But the mystery fans are very, very canny readers. They know if you have chops or not.
Do you have more adventures planned for
Shamus?
At least
three more. The next one will bring
Shamus and Jeptha to the World’s Fair – the World’s Columbian Exposition in
Chicago – or the White City, as it was called.
The original idea was to link infamous Chicago serial killer H. H.
Holmes to the Ripper, even though that had been done before, but the DNA test
proving Jack the Ripper’s identity put the kibosh on that. My husband was born and raised in Chicago, in
the area H. H. Holmes lived and worked in, so it was his suggestion. Now I’m having to regroup the idea around
the propaganda war between Edison and Tesla, and the irrational nonsense Edison
was bandying about to frighten people away from Tesla’s more visionary
ideas. It’s a rich tapestry from which
to draw.
Sounds like great fun and full of promise. I'll look forward to that! Tesla is actually very timely these days, so that will make for an interesting story.
You write across several genres and do both
fiction and non-fiction. Do you have a favorite genre, style, or subject?
My father
was a racist, I’m ashamed to say, so my siblings and I were sent to private
schools to evade his noon day devil, namely busing. Due to this fact, I learned to read from
McGuffey Readers, which are these 19th and 20th century primers created for
elementary school learners. They consist
of very serious English language literature – Milton, Byron, and the like. Partly because of that, I think, I evolved a
sort of formal voice in a lot of my work, which has especially served me with
Shamus, though I have radiated away from that in later stuff. I write what haunts me. I’ll become involved in a group of characters
or a theme.
What’s your editing process?
My problem
is I overedit. Pace in plotline is
everything for me. I have written eight
page scenes that I cut out to hasten the pace of the plot. My novels are quick reads because of it. I have learned to relax a little with my
hacking and slashing of verbiage. This
Shamus is a more robust novel than the first one. I then have a couple of beta readers whose
work I greatly respect go over it for me.
Beta readers keep writers from looking like silly putzes. Anyone who doesn’t use a beta reader is
putting herself at a disadvantage.
I can heartily agree with that. Beta-readers save us from ourselves many times. I find that interesting that you would sacrifice so much for the pacing, but I also understand. Without pacing, even the best writing can flounder.
Do you design your own book covers or do you
contract with a designer?
I select
the images used, but I have a wonderful designer.
You publish under your own imprint. How did
that develop?
I have
published professionally in non-fiction and romance genres. I had two novels with an agent that couldn’t
be placed for the same reason most aren’t placed these days – there is simply
no market unless you have an established name.
I had always written romance under pseudonyms. One friend with an established name had no
trouble selling her work, but my friend Wendy Rathbone, a very fine writer,
couldn’t place her manuscripts either.
That kind of thing.
Anyway, I
researched and became very wary of a lot of small electronic publishers. Many of the supposed companies are author
mills that churn out product the way that some people list merchandise on
Ebay. Post 100 listings, sell a certain
percentage, turn a profit. When one of
my editors at one of these small epublishers didn’t know a fairly obvious
literary reference I used, I became even more concerned. Of course there are genuine epublishers with
great reputations, but there are too many more that are nothing but scams
preying on young authors. What I made
on one of my epublished novels in a year amounted to what I have made
self-publishing my very first title.
Thus, Melody Clark Books was born.
I named it that because I have a bad memory. :)
What kinds of books do you like to read?
I love
mysteries, true crime, science fiction, horror, fantasy, etc. I’m a fairly eclectic reader. My Kindle TBR pile is legendary.
We all know how helpful reviews are,
especially for indie writers. Do you reviews influence your own reading
choices?
It all
depends upon the reviewer. If I read a
book a reviewer has recommended and don’t like it, I will seriously kick the
tires on any other titles she or he praises.
I’m very wary of the big review places.
Too much covert marketing goes on there – people propping up their
friends and knocking competitors. I
generally advise friends to place little stock in reviews of that kind. I rarely believe any Amazon reviews on
non-fiction, for instance. I’ll listen
to the recommendations of my friends before any review.
What’s next for Melody Clark?
I’m
starting work on a series I’m calling CARREFOURS, which may be a YA
series. It’s about a system of villages
that are self-sustaining, that generate their own power, food and other
resources, that then become the target for big corporations trying to turn them
back into consumers. My main female
hero is a strong and resilient young woman named Shaysan. My hero, Abraham, is from a Kabalist
settlement nearby. Fun ensues. :)
I’m also
finishing up my sequel to A Room in the House of the Ancestors, which is about
being an American in a post-American Exceptionalism era. It was inspired by my own genealogical
research. I went in expecting the
typical Heniz 57 conglomeration most Americans expect their history to
entail. Aside from my Cherokee ancestry,
I found something very different. Nearly
all my non-NA lines led back to Great Britain.
Of course, the melting pot of cultures that comprise Great Britain and
Ireland goes without saying, but I had hoped for a recent Russian nobleman or a
runaway slave or something exotic. All I
saw was a genealogy filled with English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh people ––
stereotypically American. My cousins
include John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, for instance. If there’s such a thing as an Uber-Yank, it’s
me.
So I began
to think about what that means to be a British-American – and many, many of us
are. We don’t even have cultural
language for it. Brits don’t recognize
us. Even Irish-Americans are
later-period immigrant descendants. My
Irish family came over here as early immigrants or Scots-Irish slaves. This is something that will become more and
more an issue for us as the future unfolds.
The ending of the first “A Room in the House of the Ancestors”
completely changed on me – the main character, Eddie, was supposed to kill
himself, as a kind of tragic commentary of learning the truth inside the
lie. His family absolutely refused to
let me dispatch him though. I kept
coming up with dialogue – other writers will know how it is – where they made
the case for Eddie’s survival. So the
result has been a somewhat more sentimental universe than I had intended, but
I’m having fun with it. Eddie Lives.
What would you like your readers to know about
you?
That I
write the best book of which I’m capable of at any time. A good book is in the eye of the
beholder. Not everyone will like the
same writers. But I do what I can with
what I have.
Where can we find out more about you?