Mark Westmoreland
A Mourning Song
DOSSIER: If Burt Reynolds, one of your all-time personal “heroes,” was still alive and read MIDNIGHT RUNNER and then insist that he personally star in the movie adaptation, what do you think you could possibly set your creative sights on next after hanging out with him on set for six months and then collecting all the Oscars for Best Everything? Seriously, how could you focus on writing a new story after something like that?
WESTMORELAND: I guess I’m lucky this is nothing more than a hypothetical situation since Burt has already passed on because like you said, how does someone top this sort of success? This isn’t just the mountain top, it’s Sinai, where there’s lightning and thunder and the voice of God.
But, honestly, maybe I’ve taken one too many of Kirby Smart’s halftime speeches to heart because my mentality is to celebrate success for 24 hours, then move on and get back to work. The problem with success is that if you bottom out in it, you’ll build a home there and never leave.
For me, the fun isn’t even in the success. It’s in the work. I wake up every morning and chase the dragon, attempting to recreate the high from the morning before and the morning before that. One of the beauties of writing is the high that comes with it is always achievable. It’s not like drugs where the first one is the best one.
DOSSIER: Are you the first (or only) person you know who was offered a debut book deal over (then) Twitter? Have you heard of anything crazier than that in publishing?
WESTMORELAND: Ha! I forgot all about this.
I remember being at work and a friend texting me to ask if I’d logged onto twitter yet because if I hadn’t I needed to get on there to see some good news. I assumed he’d landed a new book deal. He’s the type of guy who doesn’t just come and tell you what he has going on.
Anyway, I open Twitter to see my notifications blowing up. Shotgun Honey had announced a set of releases for 2021 with A VIOLENT GOSPEL scheduled for September or October. Shortly after I received an email from Ron Earl Phillips apologizing for not reaching out to me first and praying to God that I hadn’t already signed a deal with another publisher.
I hadn’t.
A VIOLENT GOSPEL was written specifically for Shotgun Honey. If they’d have rejected the book, I don’t know that I would’ve sought publication for it elsewhere.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Music/silence/surrounded by your two dogs while they chew on a copy of A VIOLENT GOSPEL?)
WESTMORELAND: I write Monday through Saturday at 5 o’clock in the morning.
It starts with rolling out of bed after my alarm goes off. I feed our dog, Munson, then brew myself a cup of black coffee. Usually I’m drinking Smartass by Kicking Horse Coffee or Breakfast Blend from Topeca Coffee Roasters here in Tulsa, whichever my local grocery store has in stock.
After Munson’s gone back to bed, I head to my office, open the window blinds, and do two to three read throughs of what I wrote the day before. Then I write until I lose steam or get too stir crazy to sit anymore. This usually happens around 7am.
I have to write in complete silence. If I can’t hear my thoughts, I can’t put words on the page. When I’m too distracted to hear myself, I read and reread the paragraph I finished with the morning before until I’m able to dig a sentence or two from the ethereal place where words live. Once that happens, I’m good to go.
DOSSIER: After you “just went for it” and got a blurb for your debut A VIOLENT GOSPEL from S.A. Cosby, who you didn’t personally know at the time, what has that done for your aspirations in getting blurbs for MIDNIGHT RUNNER? You going for Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, or Francis Ford Coppola next?
WESTMORELAND: This may or may not be common knowledge but I’m Garth Brooks-level Shameless. Shortly after my agent extraordinaire, Chris Bucci, took MIDNIGHT RUNNER out on sub, I asked him if he was cool with me asking S.A. Cosby to blurb the book.
Shawn, being the prince he is, has given the book some amazing praise. I’m excited for when I’m given the go ahead to share his thoughts on the book.
Now, to answer your question, I do have a hit list of three to four other writers I’m going to ask for blurbs once the time comes. These authors have all written books that influenced the writing of MIDNIGHT RUNNER or influenced my voice and style.
DOSSIER: You first wrote fantasy and moved into southern crime fiction. You also were strongly engaged in the Pentecostal church movement and even went to a bible college. Did the Pentecostal way lead you to or away from writing fantasy, and is there a connection to why you transitioned into crime? The Dossier (after having past connections to a different bible college) sees the potential connection between some preachers and crime fiction, but you can set the record straight.
WESTMORELAND: Actually, the Pentecostal church/Bible college had no influence on my desire to write fantasy fiction. That actually came about because I’d decided to start reading again.
When I’d stopped reading, I was a huge fan of the Dragonlance Chronicles. I dove back into those for a time but wanted to read something more adult. I won’t name what series I moved onto but the first book’s ending was a direct ripoff of The Empire Strike Back. This pissed me off to no end. After I’d stewed, I decided I could write something better and my writing journey began.
It took around five years of writing fantasy for me to realize I wasn’t good at it at all. Luckily, around this time, I discovered David Joy, Wiley Cash, Tom Franklin and a handful of other Southern writers. I identified so hard with Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter that I knew I’d found my place in fiction—writing about home.
The Pentecostal influence came with A VIOLENT GOSPEL. I’d stalled out on a project and considered abandoning writing altogether until I’d begun reflecting on my Pentecostal upbringing and the influence that attending Bible college had on me. Writing that book was a way to reckon with my beliefs. It took some time but eventually I was able to pry my personal theology from the hands of a corrupt organization.
There’s more to come with that. I’m brainstorming an idea for a crime novel set in a Bible college now. But, shhhh, I haven’t pitched it to Bucci yet.
Website: itsmarkyall.com | Amazon author page
Jeff Circle 