Reed Farrel Coleman writes:
My first novel was published about fourteen years ago. My first poetry was published thirty-three years ago. But not until I got on an elevator at this year’s Left Coast Crime without my name tag, did someone actually recognize me. Man, it was the weirdest thing hearing those words, “You’re Reed Farrel Coleman, aren’t you? I’ve read all your Moe Prager books and I just love them.” I almost had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t one of my relatives playing a joke on me. Nah, my relatives aren’t that funny.
The thing is, it drove home the point about how writing has always been about the writing for me. The fame and fortune fantasies were gone by the time my second novel started appearing in remainder bins everywhere. Then again, when you’re initial dream is to be a poet, you accept obscurity the way monks accept silence and prayer. I always say that getting published was God’s way of getting me in touch with my own insignificance. So when a small press decided to take a chance on my early work, it was a major leap up. Maybe someone might actually read something I’d written.
Perhaps my most poignant “overnight sensation” story took place about five years ago when the hardcover of Walking The Perfect Square was reviewed by Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times. It was very early on a bitterly cold Saturday morning and I was parked in my oil truck outside 43 Robert Street in Patchogue, Long Island. Yes, I remember the address. My brother Jules called me on my cell phone and told me he’d just stolen his neighbor’s Times and he read the review to me. It was a great review and helped me get my Viking/Plume contract. That said, I hung up the phone, dragged the hose to the fill pipe, and made the first of twenty deliveries I had that day. I still deliver home heating oil in the winter. Overnight sensation -- yeah, right!
Reed Farrel Coleman is the author of several novels, including the Moe Prager series, the most recent of which is The James Deans.
Don't miss Mystery Ink's interview with Reed Farrel Coleman.
