Interview with Rick Mofina
by Jon Jordan
Rick's Web Site

JON:  You have a very interesting background. Let’s start with your hitchhiking to California from Canada when you were a teenager. What made
you want to do this?

RICK:  It was 1975, the Vietnam War was winding down. I was still in high school east of Toronto. It was a time when young people strapped on a backpack and saw the world on $1 a day. I hadn’t really been many places and being a writer, I figured I needed an adventure. California and Berkeley were
still resonating as ‘happening’ places. So off I went. Alone, across Canada and down the U.S. Pacific coast. I arrived at a time when the San Francisco police were on strike, so that might have set the stage for my crime fiction. I left my heart there and returned several times. I think the fact I completed such a long, solitary trip also gave me the stamina for going the distance with a novel.

JON:  You eventually ended up studying both journalism and American detective fiction, and now after working for some thirty years in journalism you are writing novels. Was it a long journey?

RICK:  Yes. I started in news in the 1980s at The Toronto Star before moving on. During that time, it took me several years to understand what I wanted, or needed, to write about. I had written and abandoned a few novels. Supernatural, straight literary types and other genres. Then one day, reluctantly, I was assigned to my newspaper’s police beat. Unless you’ve done this kind of work, nothing prepares you for it. You see what cops, paramedics, firefighters, emergency experts see. For me, as a reporter by day, novelist by night, a light had been switched on. Covering human tragedies and dramas up close was overwhelming. But on another level, having a university degree in English Literature, Journalism, and having studied religious responses to death and American Detective Fiction, I felt I was equipped to try to make sense of what I was experiencing. To try to convey through fiction, the truths I’d learned. That’s how I came to write my first Reed-Sydowski book, If Angels Fall, which was published by Pinnacle of New York in 2000, and kicked off the series which will see Number 5 come out summer 2004.

JON:  If you don’t mind my asking, why did it take so long to get to writing the novels?

RICK:  I was always writing since I was maybe seven years old. It is an affliction. My first novel was written when I was 18. Others followed. It wasn’t until some 20 years later that I became a published novelist, if you will.

JON:  This past fall in Austin was your first Bouchercon. How was it for you as a first time attendee?

RICK:  It was exciting. I recommend it. I was on a panel called, New Voices. Bouchercon introduced me to the wonderful mystery community, which is kind of like this world unto itself, with many nations. You meet and learn so much in a short span of time in an atmosphere that is just plain fun. What stuck in my mind is how everyone, including legends in the field, made time for you. People were willing to share with and help each other with advice, support, you name it. I felt welcomed into the fold. As a first-timer, you don’t forget that. I plan to be in Las Vegas in October and Toronto next year.

JON:  What’s the strangest experience you’ve had as a reporter?

RICK:  There’ve been many. One quiet night I was working alone in the newsroom on the cop beat when a call came in for me. It was a convicted murdered who was calling from prison. From the psych ward. I didn’t know him, but I had written about him. That night he confessed to me how he tricked his way to get access to a telephone because he needed to talk to somebody outside of the institution. So, I said, talk. He then went into to every detail, every vile, disgusting detail, of how he abducted two young women then held them hostage in a suburban home. Then he told me exactly how he murdered one but decided to let the other live. He was not remorseful, or even emotional. He just wanted me to have a clear accounting. Then he hung up. My spine rattled for hours after. I had trouble sleeping that night. That’s only one strange experience from the beat.

JON:  It’s common knowledge that most paperback originals don’t get the kind of publicity that hardcovers do. What type of things are you doing to help promote the books?

RICK:  Well, interviews like this (Smile). I’ve set up a website, which is expertly managed (by Cincinnati Media). I go to conferences. I go to local book signings. I’m basically pretty shy, but all you’re trying to do is to do is let people know about your work. In June, my third book in my ongoing series, Blood of Others, won the Arthur Ellis Award as Best Novel.

JON:  Your job has taken you all over the world. Is there any place that you would like to go back to when you are not working?

RICK:  A few actually. California and Texas. I loved Kuwait, Qatar smelled like flowers. Senegal in Africa had exotic beaches. I wouldn’t mind going back into the prison in Jamaica, that was a haunting place. And as much as I hate the cold, Nunavut near the Arctic, was a very spiritual region of the world, where it can be so quiet you can hear your heart beating.

JON:  Tom Reed and Walt Sydowski, how did these two characters come about?

RICK:  Tom Reed is a compilation. I think he embodies the sins and virtues (yes there are virtues) of every hard-driving new reporter I’ve ever known. Every aspect about him is drawn from someone’s reality somewhere. Then I push him as far as I can. He works well with Walt Sydowski. He represents
every grizzled detective I’ve ever met, including one or two with the SFPD Homicide Detail and some Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators. And he stands as a foil and father-figure to Reed. I’ve used some of my father’s actual biography in shaping Sydowski, in that my dad is Polish. He was a child when the Nazis invaded Poland. So I’ve given that background to Sydowski. Other elements I gleaned from other detectives, including one whose dad was a barber and another who breeds canaries.

JON:  What is the biggest difference in writing techniques between the novels and your reporting, aside from the obvious fact and fiction aspects?

RICK:  Novels allow you to drill deeper. To probe a person’s thoughts. Journalistic objectivity, in that sense, goes out the window. Journalism still allows you to convey many things against impossible deadlines. Still, some of the best writers, and copyeditors who help them, are found in newspapers. But crime fiction allows you to go deeper into characters, themes, the actual soul of a story. And maybe on that level you do get closer to some universal truths. For example, a news story in good hands can convey quite powerfully how sickened a homicide detective is, say, over a child murder. But the novelist can take you further. The novelist can take you into the detective’s heart, make you feel what he or she feels witnessing an autopsy, or informing an inconsolable parent, or questioning a lying suspect, or grappling with their own anguish at night when their head touches the pillow and sleep is a fugitive.

JON:  If some one came right up to you and asked “why should I read your books?” what would you say?

RICK:  Because they don’t cost much and my family could use the income. To be serious, I think they stand as a straight-from-the-heart effort to deliver a well-crafted product. They’ll make you think just a tad about some deeper things. Moreover, they’re easy, fast reads that will not only entertain you, but introduce you to well-defined characters. People who, no matter if you love or hate them, will be good company for a few hours.

JON:  Do you plan to continue with the series, or do you have other books floating around in your head as well?

RICK:  Yes. More people discover the series with each new book. My fourth No Way Back, was recently released and the next one is the fifth. It’s set for release in summer 2004. I’d love to stay with Reed and Sydowski. They’re like friends. There’s a lot more in store for them. And like anyone, I would enjoy doing some stand alones, including something supernatural. In fact, I have a few ideas for a number of things. We’ll see how it all unfolds.

JON:  When you are covering a story that is especially harsh is it hard to distance yourself from it? And is it hard to put it aside when you go home?

RICK:  Absolutely. On the gut-wrenching ones, you feel as if the story had just cost you a little piece of your heart. I’ve seen and experienced things I’ll never forget, things that will always haunt me. I mean, some of the stuff you just don’t talk about, or even tell people about. You might joke about it with other reporters, or cops, or people who’ve experienced the similar things, but that’s only a way of coping with it, so is the crime fiction, I guess. One wise friend told me that my books are my therapy, my way of going back over some of the stuff I’ve seen and, in the classic detective fiction tradition of restoring order to chaos, write proper endings to tragedies.

JON:  Your books seem to be more about the characters than the actual crime element in the books. Do you find that the crime fiction format lends it self to character studies more than other genres?

RICK:  Not necessarily. Above all, a good story is a good story, which includes believable sympathetic characters, regardless of the genre. What was it F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, action equals character, or character equals action. I guess an argument could be made that with crime fiction, you’re writing about people at the most dramatic point in their lives, so how they respond shapes their character. If the drama is compelling then the two go hand in hand. Think of a character as a car, an interesting car that you get to know really well. You know one tire is bald, or the sound system’s great, or the thing never let’s you down in the dead of winter. But this car is like a friend. Then think of the plots or crime elements as the gas, well, all you have to do is put the two together and you’re in for a ride.

JON:  What do you like to do with your free time?

RICK:  I’m kinda boring and quiet. I try to remind my family that I do exist. I like to go for walks with my son, play Crazy 8s with my daughter. Watch movies with my wife. We go for country drives when we can. I like to shoot the breeze with reporter and police friends. Read.

JON:  What’s the nicest thing you’ve heard from a reader?

RICK:  Well there’ve been a lot of nice comments, like ‘you kept me up all night,’ and ‘you need to write more books faster’. But one that stands out came from a lovely handwritten letter from a woman in Indiana. Seems she was on vacation in the west and bought my first book, If Angels Fall, in a used book bin for 25 cents. After reading it, she liked it so much, she cut me a personal check for the full cover price, $7.00, which she’d attached to her letter. She told me I’d earned it. I was blown away. I thanked her. And yes, I cashed the check, but I’ve kept a photocopy that I intend to frame some day.

JON:  Do you have any bad habits?

RICK:  Author answer: None. Author’s wife’s answer: Many.

JON:  Do you read mysteries? And if so, who are some of your favorite authors?

RICK:  Sure. There are so many to like. I mean when a writer’s hitting all the right notes, even a beautiful sentence can carry a book for me. I won’t go through the usual list of favorites. But I enjoy Dostoyevsky. Hugh Garner, did some hard-boiled stuff that was not bad and a book often overlooked
is William Peter Blatty’s Legion, the follow up to The Exorcist. Lieutenant William F. Kinderman, the D.C. homicide detective, is a very well-drawn character we met in the original. He evolves well in the sequel. I loved the procedural stuff. It was masterfully done.

JON:  What are we going to see Tom and Walt working on next?

RICK:  Without giving too much away, a SFPD Homicide detective is murdered in the opening pages of my forthcoming book in the series. That case will send Reed and Sydowski on separate investigations that take them into the heart of the homicide detail, Reed’s newsroom and a few other murky places. That’s set for summer 2004 release. We’re still fine tuning the title.

JON:  What’s tougher, writing the first draft of a book, or doing rewrites?

RICK:  First draft. Cause you’re drilling through rock. After that, you can get down to chipping away and polishing, which is rewriting. It’s a different process entirely. You can then come at your story it with a little bit of perspective and objectivity, which will help you find the rough edges. But you cannot do any of that until your first drill through rock, which is the first draft, which I find the tougher of the two stages.

JON:  Have you ever had a situation where you found something out as a reporter, but couldn’t write about it?

RICK:  Yes. Several times. Things about a homicide case. And I came across some other matters which I won’t be able to talk about until all the people involved have died.

JON:  What is your favorite movie and why?

RICK:  The old sci-fi movie, THEM! The opening scenes of that film in which police find a little girl wandering from some horrible aftermath in the desert in an trance-like state, are absolutely spellbinding. Just classic storytelling. I never tire of it.

JON:  If someone sees you at a convention and wants to get your attention, what is the easiest way to do that?

RICK:  I loved your books, will you sign the truckload I’ve just purchased.

JON:  If you could go back and change something in your past, would you?

RICK:  The Justice Department already took care of it. I’m kidding. Maybe, I might have pushed this writing thing a little harder, like starting when I was two, rather than waiting until I was ten. Seriously, there is an old Chinese proverb about every person eventually finds their own path. So the short answer is no.

JON:  What do you like most about being a writer?

RICK:  Well, it’s not just one thing. It’s a number of things. Like writing the words “the end”, or hearing from readers. Especially those who’ve enjoyed the story and have bought all your books, and have told others to buy your books. I guess it’s connecting with readers, and the crime fiction community as a whole. But I have to tell you, next to hearing from readers who enjoy your work and encourage you do produce more, for a writer there is nothing like the day when you learn your mss. is going to be published. You’re walking on air for a while after that.

JON:  What’s the one thing always in your refrigerator?

RICK:  Cheese. It’s so good. It is usually amid a forest of opened bottles of water at various levels. Our kids can’t seem to finish the one they’ve started.