Generally Horrible Questions: Scott Montgomery

MysteryPeople's Scott Montgomery

Our first bookseller profile for 2012 is the mystery guru and driving force behind MysteryPeople, the store-within-a-store at Austin's BookPeople.  Scott reads lots and lots of mysteries, the tougher the better.  (Secretly we think he loves The Cat Who series, but he won't cop to it.)  Let's ask him a bunch of questions and see if we can make the tough guy cry.

Generally Horrible Questions: Scott Montgomery

1.  How did you get into the bookselling business?
I was in LA's The Mystery Book Store so often I got mistaken for an employee. [That's funny--Liz is regularly mistaken for a Random House employee.]

2.  Favorite mystery/thriller of all time?

James Crumley's The Last Good Kiss. [...Yeah, we're not touching this one.]

3.  Three desert island books? 
Lonesome Dove, True Detective by Max Allan Collins, and HW Brands' great Theodore Roosevelt biography TR. All good, long books.

4.  What are you currently reading? 

I'm juggling four books--an involving thriller called The Dispatcher, James Carlos Blakes' engaging look at Missouri border guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson, The Wildwood Boys, The Professionals which is living up to its hype, and Elmore Leonard's Raylan.

5.  What is your favorite part of your job?

Money for nothing and your chicks for free...oh wait, that was Dire Straits cover band days. The friendships with the authors and customers. [Gianna claims to see Scott chatting up the ladies all the time.  They MAY be talking about books....]

6.  What books changed your life? 

Swag by Elmore Leonard, The Day The Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton, Reed Farrel Coleman's Walking The Perfect Square. [So...no Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb?]

7.  What is your second favorite bookstore? 

Murder By The Book in Houston. Like any good niche bookstore they're out there to promote the genre and not just sell stuff.

Scott with author
Reed Farrel Coleman

8.  What did you want to be when you grew up?

A veterinarian.  [Great! Someone can start administering Zorro's medications!]

9.  I have never read ______________ and I'm so ashamed.

Jackie Collins.

10. The most important question on the list: Liz or Gianna?

Liz. It's that warm, open personality. [The correct answer is always Liz.]

11. Choose one: Craig LaMorte (Gianna’s nephew), Craig Johnson, Craig T. Nelson, Craigslist, Daniel Craig,  Craig Biggio or you know what the hell….Larry Craig?

Author Craig Johnson

Selling Craig Johnson's books pays my rent, so I'll so with him. That said, I'm a big fan of James Bond and Coach. [What, no love for Mr. Wide Stance?]

12. Which mystery series should we all be reading? 

Reed Farrel Coleman's Moe Prager series. I always suggest the first book, Walking The Perfect Square, when people say the genre can't be literary. It suppresses my instinct to yell or punch. 

13. Last good non-mystery book you’ve read?

HW Brands' American Dreams;  great look at the US from the atomic bomb to Obama.

14. Coolest author you’ve ever met? 

You two broads are trying to get me into trouble since many of my friends are authors. Outside of the writers I normally hang out with, George Pelecanos. He's the definition. The man writes, walks, and talks cool. [Scott is the only person who can call us 'broads' and not risk injury.]

15. If you could be any detective in any novel, who would it be? Please don’t say Stephanie Plum….

Since the best detective writers have haunted or wounded heroes, I'd be Richard Prather's Shell Scott. He was oddly good looking with a white buzz cut and piece of his ear cut, drove a cool car, always had a great quip, never seemed to want for cash, and slept with at least two great looking babes in under 180 pages. Don't know if I'd want to be him when the was naked on top of the hot air balloon. [There's a mental image that'll linger.....] 

Here's Scott recommending blog pal Taylor Stevens' newest book and upcoming MysteryPeople at BookPeople event.

Keep Austin Noir.

Generally Horrible Questions: Taylor Stevens

In honor of the release of her new novel, The Innocent, we decided to subject author Taylor Stevens to some unwarranted torture and ask her some questions.  Taylor broke onto The New York Times bestseller list with her first novel, The Informationist, which unleashed protagonist Vanessa Michael Munroe on the world.  A huge fan of Robert Ludlum, Taylor set about creating a book series in the vein of Ludlum's Jason Bourne, but with a bad ass woman at the center.  Other things to know--Taylor grew up in a religious cult, has lived all over the world, and therefore has limited formal education and pop culture references.  She lives in Texas now, and will be touring to some of our favorite bookstores soon.

Generally Horrible Questions: Taylor Stevens

1. What are your three desert island books (and no, the Twilight books don’t count as just one so choose carefully)?
How to Survive on a Deserted Island, Boatbuilding for Beginners, and Pencil, Paper and Stars: The Handbook of Traditional and Emergency Navigation. I’m practical like that.

2. What is your all time favorite book?

Picking favorites is just way too much commitment.  [Hmmm...okay, there, Vanessa Michael Munroe.]

3. What is the worst job you’ve ever had?
Seriously? I was born and raised in a cult, spent my formative years as child labor and out begging on the street and you ask me what the worst job I ever had was? Oh. You mean paying job? Well, in that case, it would be handling customer service for a start-up company whose management felt that in spite of horrendous problems within the shipping department, faulty software, and procedures and “upgrades” that changed every three weeks, that the person at my desk (namely, me) was the cause of the negative customer response. I quit. Then they fired me. Then they shorted me on my last paycheck which also bounced two times before the bank tellers took pity, looked over the company account and told me that if I, wink wink, came in the day after tomorrow before nine, they should be able to get that check counter cashed for me. No, I’m not bitter. (Yes I am.) [So you never worked at Starbucks?]

4. What book can’t you shut up about?
Whatever the next book inside my head is… the one that I’m trying to figure out how to write.

5. What book changed your life?
Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Ultimatum. That’s what I was reading when the flash of aha struck and I decided to write fiction. Were there no Jason Bourne, there would be no Michael Munroe.

It’s a character codependent kind of thing.

6. What was the first thing you did when you found out you would be published?
Burst into tears and started laughing all at the same time. I was at work when my agent called me with the news, and although I probably shouldn’t have, since I couldn’t tell my boss what I really thought of the company management, I told her the size of my advance instead. Good therapy.

7. Favorite book to movie? Liz and I like to reenact The Color Purple. I’m Celie, Liz is Nettie.
I have read so few books and watched so few movies that this question is like a pop-quiz for a subject I never studied. [Not a problem.  We can act out the whole movie.  You'll love it.  Liz is Miss Sophia, Gianna is Harpo.] 

8. What was your back-up plan?
People have back-up plans?

9. Gianna or Liz?
I read your blog. I know how this game is played. The answer is always Liz. But now that I’ve fulfilled my obligation: I heart Gianna. [Liz.  Final answer.]

10. Where do you write?
Sometimes my bed. Sometimes a couch. Sometimes my desk. Kind of depends on the day and how many hours I’m in front of the computer.

11. What’s your cure for writer’s block?
Boy do I wish I had one. I feel like I experience writer’s block every single day. The only remedy I know is to show up at my desk like it’s a job, to sit at my computer and write something, anything: bits and pieces. Threads. Concepts. Until gradually there’s some material there to work with. And then I’m not allowed to do anything else until I’ve finished the words I need for the day. I go to bed, and wake up the next morning, and do that all over again. It’s a good excuse for why my house is a mess most of the time.

12. Do your kids “get” what you do? Are they amply impressed?
They do get it, but I have to admit their “amply” waxes and wanes in direct correlation to whether that day (sometimes hour) is one in which I’m

Iguazu Falls

the “worst mom in the entire world” or “the best.”

13. Robert E Lee, Robert Redford, Robert Ludlum, Robert Louis Stevenson or Julia Roberts?
I don’t understand how this is even a question. [You're right.  It's so obviously Robert E. Lee.  Gianna loves that beard too.]

14. What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done or seen?
I saw Iguazu (the waterfalls) not so long ago. That, if not the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, ranks pretty high up there. [Wait until you see Liz and Gianna's The Color Purple.  You'll never forget it.]

15. What is the total body count in The Informationist and The Innocent? 
It’s. Um. Er. I think. Um. Honestly, I have no idea. But people die. [Yes they do....]

The Innocent by Taylor Stevens

The latest thriller from author Taylor Stevens goes on sale today.  The Innocent is the follow-up to Taylor's lauded 2011 debut, The Informationist, which introduced readers to bad ass protagonist Vanessa Michael Munroe.  Gianna offers this review of the new book:

She's baaaaack...and baby she has got some demons to work out. Munroe is living on very little sleep, with her mix of brutal nightmares and her penchant for sleeping with knives next to her bed. It's actually safer that way. Funny thing, Liz also sleeps with knives next to her bed in order to protect herself from an overly "affectionate" cat named Zorro. Book coming soon. [It's important that Zorro be comfy...so very, very important.]

In Taylor Stevens' excellent follow-up to The New York Times bestselling The Informationist, Vanessa Michael Munroe has agreed to help her best friend retrieve his daughter from the religious cult he once escaped. Much of The Innocent draws from first-hand knowledge of cult life; it has been well documented that Stevens spent her childhood and young adult life in a religious cult, escaping with her children not too long ago. That fact alone takes The Innocent to another level, and the intimacy in which Taylor is able to write can not be overlooked.

Vanessa (I like to call her Michael) is kicking oh so much ass in this novel, just as much as in the first book of this series, but The Innocent offers more introspection and a bit more heart.

Everything a thriller should be - an excellent post holiday read.  

Best of 2011 Countdown: #9

Gianna:

The Informationist
Taylor Stevens
Crown

Enter the only thriller on my list! This book makes my list for several reasons but first and foremost it makes my list because it re-invigorated my love of thrillers  (and I really was sort of done with this genre).

Here is what you need to know about Vanessa Michael Munroe.

Taylor Stevens

1. She can kick your ass. Don’t test her; trust me.

2. She is smarter than you.

3. She’s hotter than you. [No one's hotter than me! Right?  RIGHT???]

4. She’s dark, she’s a loner, she’s damaged…just my type. [Why Gianna loves me...and I spurn her.]

5. She speaks over 20 languages. Told you she is smarter than you.  

Vanessa Munroe can get you the information you need… if you can pay. The daughter of a millionaire has been missing for several years and Munroe is hired to find out what happened to her. The coolest thing about The Informationist is the exotic places it takes you--Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea among others [Perfect for a family vacation!].  Munroe is an expert of infiltrating cultures, of fitting in and moving without being noticed (until she is noticed and then things go bad).  The plot is intricate, incredibly fast paced, and has several holy crap moments (lets just say Munroe’s weapon of choice is a knife). If you love Lee Child or Stieg Larsson you will not be able to put this book down. And yes, you will casting the movie in your head too.

The Informationist is available in paperback and the sequel, called The Innocent, is due on December 27^th. I am just starting The Innocent now so look for another blog on this Taylor Stevens series soon. 

Chinaberry Sidewalks

Rodney Crowell

Knopf

Gianna has already included this book on her list, so there are two votes of approval for you.  Here's what you need to know.  Did you read and like Mary Karr's The Liars Club or Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle?  Then you need to read Chinaberry Sidewalks.  Actually, I'm going to say it--Rodney Crowell's book is BETTER than The Glass Castle.  Set aside that Crowell is a singer.  I loved this book and it should be painfully obvious to anyone who knows me that I'm not a music person.  My favorite song was in The Muppet Movie for crying out loud.  Focus on the fact that Crowell is a simply brilliant writer.

Rodney Crowell performing at
BookPeople in Austin

The story of Rodney Crowell's working class upbringing in Houston and East Texas is filled with humor, love, violence, and insanity, hard drinkers and religious extremists.  It's the sort of rearing that a some kids never survive.  He encounters hurricanes in a house filled with holes, guns and fights. Crowell does survive, though, and salvation mostly comes through music.  As a 12 year-old he was playing drums in a honky tonk.  And here's where you should consider Crowell's career.  He's a genius songwriter and that genius shows through in his prose.  That genius landed him in Nashville and led to a terrific career with such luminaries as Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris, and Johnny Cash.

I like this book so much I've made it my favorite nonfiction book of 2011.  I guarantee its genius.  Read it.