Jason wrote:
"Like Seymour, when I wrote my first novel I had no idea I
was writing noir. When I started sending the novel out to
agents and publishers I called the book "a psychological
thriller," and when that didn't work I called it "a dark
suspense novel." That didn't work either. Then I got a
rejection letter that said "Sorry, we don't publish noir at
this house," and I thought, Hey, great idea! I sent it out
calling it "my noir novel" and it sold. So maybe it's true
that you can learn from your rejections."
I'm curious. You're obviously very well read in noir now.
Were you when you first started writing? It seems that most
artists start by, if not exactly imitating, wanting to be
like someone else or as good as someone else, with a
particular model in mind. For instance, in a Washington Post
interview a few days ago, Jonathan Lethem said that, far from
being insulted when people said his first book was like a
cross between Dick and Chandler, he took it as a compliment
that he had acomplished what he set out to do. Did you see
yourself as following in the footsteps of any particular
writers then? Were they noir or did they come from a wider
spectrum of writing?
Mark
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