Today, we have a special guest post from Melodie Campbell. The Library Journal says this about Melodie`s third novel, The Goddaughter (Orca Books): “Campbell`s crime caper is just right for Janet Evanovich fans. Wacky family connections and snappy dialogue make it impossible not to laugh.“ With that intro, let’s get right on Melodie’s post.
THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE – In a Mob Comedy, How Close is Too Close to Home?
It all closed in on me at the launch of THE GODDAUGHTER mob caper in Hamilton. Eighty-five people stood waiting.
The local television station had cameras in my face. So far, it had been an easy interview focused on my awards and comedy career. The fellow was charming. I liked him a lot. Then he dropped the bomb.
“So…have you ever met a member of the mob?”
I didn’t like him so much anymore.
Yikes! Hesitation. A lot of feet shuffling.
“Yes.” I said, very precisely. So precisely, that everyone in the room laughed nervously. “In fact, I had to wait until certain members of my family died before getting this book published. ‘Nuf said.”
The ‘nuf said’ was the closure. He got it. Being a smart lad, he even let it drop.
But it made me think about how close you want to get in a book to real life.
As writers, we research a hell of a lot. Of course, I did research for The Goddaughter series. Some of the study was pretty close to home, as I riffed on memories from my childhood. But I write comedies, so perhaps the expectations aren’t as great for me to be entirely accurate. Good thing about that.
In the screwball comedy THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE, I am not very close to real life. Gina must get back fake rings from some of her best clients. So she masterminds a bunch of burglaries that go…well…wrong. It’s great fun, and rather innocent on the grand scale of criminal activities.
But I do cut pretty close to the wire in describing Hamilton. The streets are real. The names of the neighborhoods are real. I even describe the location of the restaurant where the mob (in my books) hangs out. I changed the name, of course, because the last thing I want is readers thinking this hot resto is really a mob hangout. And besides, it’s fun when fans email me to say, “When they all meet at La Paloma, did you really mean XXX?” Readers feel they’ve been part of an in-joke.
How close is too close? Here’s what I’ve learned. You never want to offend anyone by:
- Using real names of mobsters past or present. They have ways of finding you. Even the dead ones. We are Sicilian, after all.
- or
- Using a street number that is real and can be tracked down. Especially if you are describing a call girl establishment. Believe me, this is not cool. Mrs. Harmon hated it. Mrs. Murphy, on the other hand….but I digress.
So in THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE, I want you to feel Hamilton. To smell the smoke of Steeltown and experience the ambiance of a post-industrial city in decline. Like parts of New Jersey, The Hammer is rife with delightfully quirky areas that lend themselves perfectly to a mob caper.
I love this city with character. And I hope that comes through in THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE.
Melodie Campbell has over 200 publications and was a finalist for the 2012 Derringer, and both the 2012 and 2013 Arthur Ellis awards. She is the Executive Director of Crime Writers of Canada.
THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/kmgjgsf
THE GODDAUGHTER on Amazon http://ow.ly/dnObH
Follow Melodie’s comic blog at www.melodiecampbell.com
And while you’re at it, why don’t you leave a comment for Melodie. She and I would both thank you.
I have met some mob connected individuals, but, although a mob boss appears in my Eve Appel Mystery series, I’ve made certain he is unlike the real people. I don’t need a visit late at night nor do I want a chipmunk head in my bed!
Chipmunk? Thinking smaller, I see. Thanks, Lesley, for the comment.
Laff! Chipmunks of the world thank you, Lesley.
My series is based in New Orleans, and revolves around a prosecutor, which was my real life for several years, so I have the same problem trying to determine how real to keep certain elements. I’ve come to the conclusion that using a certain block of a street gives enough of a location without pinpointing an address, and using real names is strictly off limits. I used to think that waiting until the parties involved had been indicted would be sufficient, but the judicial process is slow, especially federal court where most of our public officials end up, so it’s easier and faster just to make up a new name, change the age and maybe the race or sex or the person to make them a fictional character.
Holli Castillo
Good advice. Once things settle down, they don’t want someone bringing it back up. Sometimes, it’s best not to be in the spotlight. Thanks for the comment, Holli.
My lawyer told me it’s never a good thing to get too close to real cases, so I would agree, Holli. In fact, all my plots are made up.
I love comedy in any form, Melodie, and I know I’m going to like reading The Goddaughter’s Revenge. I have one writing student who invents new, criminal characters all the time, improbable ones in funny plots, and I think they’re based on her own imagination, not real-life mobsters. Then I have another (former) student who writes crime fiction, based on actual gangsters, some of whom he knows from his years spent in jail. I won’t say why. There’s some humor in what he writes, but it’s minimal. I know enough not to ask questions, so he trusts me. He uses a pen name, is short, with hair implants to hide his bald head, and is always accompanied by his huge German shepherd attack dog. I’m not making this up. If I ever write a mystery, I think I’ll use this real life character in the book.
Thanks, Jim, for hosting Melodie today!
Eileen, thank you for commenting! In my fiction, I never use ‘real’ characters…safer that way . But the past inspires my fiction, definitely.
So you’re warning us not to get on your wrong side, Melodie? Not gonna ask no questions.
Laff! Oh, I was able to use that all through high school and university, to warn off unwanted attention
My mother knew Family when she worked in insurance claims. She only ever spoke about them in general terms… no names, now addresses, no confidential details. Well, she wouldn’t have shared confidential details about any case she worked on but somehow we knew this was different. One thing she did impress on us though was that most of the people she dealt with were charming, funny and only scary when you crossed them. That’s one of the reasons I find Melodie’s characters in the Goddaughter books believable. (Okay, a little over the top sometimes but it’s comedy.)
Anyway, to whoever said THE GODDAUGHTER’S REVENGE is on a long list of TBR books, make a note to bump it up the list when the real craziness of life gets you down. You won’t regret it.
Alison, thank you! I write strictly to entertain, and the biggest compliment a reader can give me is to tell me that they enjoyed the escape. I leave the moral lessons to other writers (as must be obvious, since my ‘heroine’ is a mob goddaughter…:)
Melodie and Jim, loved the post…gotcha nuf said. augie
Thanks for commenting, Augie! Hey, is anybody else finding the captcha equations here more challenging? I keep going, hey! I have to work backwards!
Melodie, Your books are a lot of fun, and made even more so by your post. Thanks!
Thanks, Marja! I’m ‘out of the closet’ so to speak 🙂
Great interview and sounds like a lovely lady and a fun writer. Good job. I like the simple book design, something I’m thinking about these days.
Elaine, I love that book cover, and in fact have it blown up and mounted on my office wall. Orca did a stellar design, and it fits the book perfectly. Thanks for commenting!
Melodie, your Goddaughter books sound like great fun, and they’re both high on my long list of books to look forward to. This is a good post, with sound advice about how to stay out of trouble. No sense risking litigation or revenge murder. All my mysteries are inspired by episodes from my past, so the scenery is recognizable and the ideas behind the stories reflect changes that really happened to my attitudes. But I make sure to make up all the plots and invent all the characters. My forthcoming HOOPERMAN, for example, is inspired by my days as a bookstore clerk in the 1970s, but I made the plot a lot more exciting and dangerous.
John, we walk that line, don’t we? Everything in our life experience is fodder. I use the past as inspiration, but yes, I write from imagination. It makes for better fiction 🙂