A THOUSAND CUTS
A Max Starkey Thriller
BY GREGORY POIRIER

Interview

Before we get started talking about your writing, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do for a living (if you’re not a full-time writer) what hobbies you have, etc. Whatever you’d like to share to introduce yourself.

I was born and raised on Maui, where I spent my childhood on a hippie commune. I went through the Hawaii public school system. I still consider Hawaii to be my home although I don’t get back as much as I would like to.

I have been earning my living as a writer since 1992, and somewhat even before that. When I was at UCLA in the late 1980s I seized the opportunity to write some low budget biker movies that paid very little but which were a great education.

As for hobbies, I have always loved movies and they are my passion. I’m addicted to Turner Classic Movies (TCM). My wife also shows me a lot of Russian movies, and we enjoy hiking and visiting interesting places like antique shops and quirky independent bookstores. I read at least two books a month, usually more, and I am an avid Lakers fan. I am in my 30th season as a season ticket holder.

1. What appeals to you about the genre that you write? 

If you are asking about my novel, it is a mash up of two genres that I really  enjoy, and I tend to read and watch a lot of things in this area. I read a lot of  Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter, James Patterson and Robert Crais. My novel is an attempt to mix a noir attitude with a modern action story. The set  up is very noir, but it is completely contemporary and moves quickly.

If you are asking about my screenwriting, the answer is a little different. I  have written films that have been produced in almost every genre; drama, comedy, action, children’s movies, historical drama, noir, animation, and even a faith based film. I just love movies, and while Hollywood tries incessantly to pigeon hole you (I spent years as “the action guy”) I have resisted that and have done pretty well at varying my output. The only things I haven’t done are romantic comedy and horror. I have a horror script out there now which will  hopefully be produced, and romantic comedy remains on my bucket list. Interestingly (at least to me), I find it much easier to have a strong and specific voice in my novel than I can in my pictures. I am focusing on the Max Starkey series for the immediate future, but in success (fingers crossed) I will try different genres in fiction as well.

2. Are you a plotter or a pantser (one who writes “by the seat of your pants”)? 

Honestly, a little of both. I know the beginning and I know the ending, and I  tend to plot out the first third or so very precisely, but the whole fun of writing  is being surprised by where it takes you. This is easier in fiction than it is in screenwriting. Scripts are constrained by a lot of things; time, page count and structure being the most obvious. I suppose I am what you could call a  classicist; my scripts adhere to a fairly rigid three act structure. There isn’t a lot  of space within a 110 page script to follow side stories or minor characters, and anything you do write in those areas will be the first things cut in editing  when the movie is running long. You also get a lot of notes from directors, actors, producers, studio people, etc. Plus a lot of time you are writing to  budget, specific locations, or the limitations of certain actors.

There is an art to screenwriting, but the people who have long careers, like me, tend to think of themselves more as craftsmen or women. I know how a script  is supposed to go, and I will not take any job unless I know I can deliver it. The art lives within the structure, or the structure frees the art, however you  want to say it.

Fiction gives you a little more freedom to play. There is an entire storyline in A Thousand Cuts about a young woman being stalked by a tiger which was completely spontaneous. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t think of it in advance, it just happened and it turns out to be one of my favorite parts of the book. You could never do that in a movie script, there just isn’t enough room, you have to  stick to your protagonist.

3. What is your favorite part of writing? 

Finishing.

In all seriousness, my favorite part is when I’m surprised by it. I’m sure you’ve heard other writers say it, but when it feels like you are taking dictation and it just pours through you. I love the parts where I laugh, or pump my fist, or jump out of my chair and say “Yes!” I love being taken unawares by my  writing.

4. If you had to give up writing and do something else, what would you do instead? 

There really is no answer to this question. I’m a writer, this is all I do, all I’ve  ever wanted to do and all I can do. If I had to give it up and do something else I’d be screwed.

5. What’s your favorite meal of the day?

Dinner. My wife is a great cook.

6. Which are your favorite characters to write, the female characters or the male  characters? Why? 

I don’t really have a preference, I love all my characters. I do try to write strong female characters because I have known a lot of strong women in my life, and women get short shrift in most stories. This is especially true in movie scripts. A screenwriter will introduce a male character by saying, “He’s strong but sensitive, he went to Annapolis but became disillusioned with army life after a traumatic experience, etc”, and then introduce the female character this way: “She’s hot but doesn’t know it. Could have been a model but chose to be a soldier.” That tells us nothing about this character except that she’s nice to look at, which you don’t need to say anyway because it is a movie and they’re going to cast someone pretty.

I endeavor to make my female characters as complicated and interesting as my male characters, and to not define them by their looks or their relationships to men. A Thousand Cuts is a love triangle, or rectangle really, so the female characters do think about the men a lot, but the men think about them a lot too. And the women kick some serious ass.

7. If you had a superpower, what would it be, and how would you use it? 

I would want to be fluent in every extant language on earth. And I’d use it for evil, obviously.

8. Many writers dream of having the ideal location to write. If you could live anywhere in the world or live a particular lifestyle, where would you be answering  these questions right now? 

I tend to write all over the place. I write well in restaurants, hotel lobbies. I wrote the season finale episode of a TV show while sitting in a video village on the set, and I wrote the third act of a movie on a flight from LA to Paris. The Max Starkey series is designed to be international, and ideally I would like to spend two or three months wherever the book takes place while I write the first draft. We’ll see.

9. Do you have any rejection stories to share? Reviews that meant something special to you? 

I have more rejection stories than I can count. A fun one is one I rejected; I was offered a book to adapt and I just couldn’t see it. I said, “This book is about math, how in the hell do you make a movie about math?” So I passed. That book was A Beautiful Mind, the movie won a bazzillion Oscars. The truth is, it found the right screenwriter. Akiva Goldsman wrote an amazing script because it spoke to him in a way it didn’t speak to me.

As for reviews, I have only experienced my films being reviewed, I haven’t gone through it with my novel yet. Some are good, some are bad, what are you going to do? Siskel & Ebert gushed about how incredible my script was for Rosewood, and then a couple of years later Ebert said Tomcats was the worst piece of trash ever made (curiously, I get more people telling me how much they loved Tomcats than any other movie I’ve ever done). I appreciate what critics do but at the end of the day the audience/reader decides.

10. Tell us about your next book & when is it being published? 

A Thousand Cuts comes out on April 28th of this year. It is the story of an ex-CIA officer named Max Starkey, who is now working as a fixer for a criminal syndicate. His ex-lover and her husband, who happens to be his old agency nemesis, pull him into a heist stealing four thousand pounds of gold from a dictator who is about to be deposed. Everyone is double crossing everyone else, and Max is on everyone’s hit list. It’s really fun, if I may say so.

The second Max Starkey book is near completion.