Curtis Ippolito
Burying the Newspaper Man
A dead body. A dark past. An ordinary man with everything to lose. Marcus Kemp is a regular beat cop living a normal life in San Diego, California. Until the day he makes a shocking discovery: a dead body in the trunk of a stolen car.
The Writer’s Dossier 5/19/2025 – The big Curtis Ippolito interview
DOSSIER: In BURYING THE NEWSPAPER MAN, you feature a beat cop in San Diego. What kind of cop research did you do to get your Marcus Kemp character right? Did you do a ride along, do you have cop friends, or is there a dark side to your lengthy arrest record we need to know about?
IPPOLITO: I did a couple things. First, yes, I went on a police ride-along on an overnight shift in Ocean Beach, here in San Diego. This is where the inspiration for the novel hit me. We’d been driving up and down the coast, through the neighborhoods, and then the officer I was with got a hit on a stolen vehicle. He instructed me to watch from a distance, so I did. He slowly and methodically approached the car, making sure no one was inside. When he popped open the trunk, I thought, “What if there’s a dead body inside?” There was no body, but it got me thinking what if there was and what would make this officer try to find the killer, not to bring him to justice, but help him get away with murder. So, the ride-along was instrumental in both story ideation and helping me get the feel of riding around in a rust bucket cruiser, seeing police procedure first-hand, the way beat cops talk and think, etc.
The second thing I did was after I finished the manuscript, I connected with an active San Diego PD officer who I interviewed. I ran things in the book past him to ensure accuracy, pummeling him with questions for over an hour. He was a great sport and only required a cup of coffee to share his knowledge with me.
California burritos and Cutwater margaritas
DOSSIER: You’re very involved in writing conferences and writers groups like Sisters in Crime National, as well as your local chapter. What are your local meetings like? More importantly, is there punch and pie?
IPPOLITO: Our San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime is called Partners in Crime. Right now, we’re meeting primarily over Zoom, which is great since we do have members that live out of the region and out-of-state. We do hold one or two in-person events each year, including presentations by subject matter experts and authors, But sadly, there is no pie and punch. If anything, here in San Diego it would be California burritos and Cutwater margaritas. That might get pricey, though. Maybe we should do a bring your own for one meeting.
As far as what our meetings are like, they’re laid back. This is Southern California, after all. We’re always striving to provide informative presentations and balance the content to satisfy the needs of both our reader members and writers.
Writing by longhand
DOSSIER: Where and when do you like to write? It’s a San Diego beach, isn’t it? Some little boardwalk you’ve found where you can get everything right, right?
IPPOLITO: Man, now my answer is going to be so boring! Cause writing at the beach does sound ideal and like something I would do. Unfortunately, if I wrote at the beach, I would never get anything done. I would get distracted by watching the waves and the people. I do go to the beach when I need inspiration, though. Our beaches have peak people watching. Need funky? Ocean Beach. Families and tourists? La Jolla. Jocks and college kids? Pacific Beach.
I’m a writer by day, as well, (non-profit marketing/communications) so what I’ve found that works best for me is to do my fiction writing at the end of the workday. Waiting until the end of the workday allows me to think about what I’m working on throughout the day so that when quitting time comes, I’m ready to write. I write longhand for about an hour or however long things are flowing well. After I finish, I type up what I wrote into my manuscript. This gives me fresh eyes on what I just wrote. And then the next day, I usually reread what I wrote the previous day and tinker with it then as well before I start my new writing session. Boring. Told you.
That first Anthony Award nomination
DOSSIER: You’ve been a finalist for the Anthony, Macavity, and Derringer awards. That’s pretty impressive. What do you remember about being notified of your nominations, and what are you doing now to make sure you win next time?
IPPOLITO: The nominations have been pretty unreal, honestly. Unfortunately, winning is totally out of my control. I just have to hope the quality of whatever is nominated resonates with those voting. While winning would be great, I am so grateful for every nomination I’ve received.
I would say my first Anthony Award nomination stands out the most. It was for the San Diego Bouchercon in 2023, and the organizer was Kim Keeline, who also serves on the Partners in Crime board. So, when I received an email from her notifying me that one of my short stories was nominated it didn’t click. I thought at first it was board business. Then I scrolled down and saw my name and story title listed with the other nominees and just sat there stunned. It was a great feeling.
The Last Word
DOSSIER: Is there anything else you’d like to reveal in your Dossier today? (We like headline-making breaking news and it gives our graphics department something to do other than play video games all day.)
IPPOLITO: Sure, the kind and wickedly cool folks at Rock and a Hard Place Press brought me on-board to help edit a crime climate change anthology called, “On Fire and Under Water.” Submissions have closed, so we’re reading through all the stories, and I have to say I am stoked by the absolutely killer stories we received. This is a crucial time in Earth’s history, with the effects of climate change dominating headlines and showing us in real time it was anything but a hoax. This anthology will explore the ways climate change denialism and inaction have put everyday people in peril. We are targeting September for publication, so keep your eyes open for when it drops.
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