January 5, 2026 • 23 mins
A past he can’t escape. A secret that won’t stay buried. A murder that changes everything.
It’s 1980, a time of peace and tranquility on a legendary island off the coast of New England. Inhabiting the island is a vibrant cast of locals that includes scallopers, tradespeople, and a mysterious recluse -the wealthiest man in Massachusetts. But that peace is shattered with the murder of a prominent lawyer, a pillar of the community.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.
It’s 1980, a time of peace and tranquility on a legendary island off the coast of New England. Inhabiting the island is a vibrant cast of locals that includes scallopers, tradespeople, and a mysterious recluse -the wealthiest man in Massachusetts. But that peace is shattered with the murder of a prominent lawyer, a pillar of the community.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When it comes to podcasts listening. If you value the
power of choice, you're gonna love Arrow dot net. It's
not just one podcast where you throw everything, including the
kitchen sink into it. It's all broken up to fit
your lifestyle. Arrow dot net A R R O E
dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello and good morning everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning. This is James Saucer calling James.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Doing great? Thank you man.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Somebody who says they're living great like that, I mean
that usually means that that's a choice, and that's something
that you have to step into every day to live
up to your expectations.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's absolutely right. It's all attitude.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
How do you do that as a writer, because you know,
as authors, we are in the we're locked in every
day on receiving. How is it that you're able to
take what you receive as that writer and then relinquish
it to us because now it's like, oh my god,
all that smolders is what you're putting in our imaginations
and we're growing with it now.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you know it has to do with It goes
to a number of things. Part is your values, you know,
some of it is the values you have for kindness,
for understanding and toward seeing how people work, you know,
how they take things out and put them out. But
part of it also is simply the desire to express,
you know, this incredible gift we've been given of life,
(01:22):
you know, and to express what it is like to
deal with other people, to have emotions, to make mistakes,
to learn and grow. All that's a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
True crime has become that place where people like to
hang their hats. In fact, it's gotten to the point
now where police forces across the nation, as well as
court cases and things, are relying on a lot of
people who study words like yours inside these books because
they think they can crack the case. And the thing
about it, though, James, is that they are cracking cases.
And I think it starts with you guys, the authors.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well thank you. You know. Part of the fun of
writing a mystery like this is having hidden messages, comes
cryptic cryptic notes, and you know, of course I work
that into the novel some and there were some little
quotes along the way that sort of I won't give
the pot away, but that which if the reader can
solve that along the way, they can begin to understand
(02:19):
the crime and the motivations.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, my mother used to call it brain games. Do
you think that this is a brain game towards challenging
your brain in the way of, you know, figure out
the puzzle and put it together. He's given it to you,
now do it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's exactly right. It is a brain game. But it's
also what I was trying to do in this book
is partly a brain game with the cryptic clues and words,
but also the emotional piece of putting the emotions together
and understand how some character might do this for reasons
that you might understand, but they might be more extreme
than you are. For instance, in these actions.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
To step back into the year nineteen eighty, I lived
that period. I was a kid that was growing up
in a pair of brand new adult shoes. I mean,
I mean the way that you bring this together and
then you plant the story inside New England. Now you
have my attention, because New England has always been that
fantasy place for so many.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh I'm glad to hear that. And you know, we
we have my wife and my family, and I've lived
in New England for we moved to the little island
of Nantucket in nineteen eighty year round. So we know
the dynamics of island life. How people think they know
everything about everyone else, but they may not know the
deepest secrets, and that adds some intrigue.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, see, that's the one thing I've always wondered about islands.
When you live on an island, do the secrets stay there?
Like Hawaii? I mean, do they really stay there? And
how do they penetrate other areas of the world if
people are keeping it a big island secret.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, that's true, and it used to be said that
gossip on an island like Nantucket was bigger than anywhere
else because it was spread out to the shores and
then bounce back. But now with social media and all
the internet, secrets do tend to go around the world.
But you know, once they get released.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know, one of the things that you that you
talked about this that's sticking to my gut right now
is the fact that you said that you had to
sit there and you come up with all these different
little I always call them easter eggs, give them something
to hold on to to try to figure it out.
How do you play that out in your planning? Because
I do a d frag journal where I'm sitting there
taking notes breaking down scenes. Here's the reason why. Here's
why I can't do this. I need to introduce a
(04:24):
new character. Get on it right now. What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh boy? You know I want to say that. One
reason I thought it would be a challenge to write
a mystery was I'd have to plan it all ahead
of time to give me a lot of discipline. But
so that I had the plan set up, and then
halfway through the first chapter the whole thing collapsed. No,
because what happens is the characters come to life and
act in ways that you don't expect. New characters show
(04:50):
up and they start acting in ways you don't expect.
And then on top of it, along with that, you
have to embed your clues, which is just a lot
of fun to figure out. Okay, here's where we are.
Here's what we'll bring the reader to the next point
where they know enough but not too much. It's just
a it's a balance, James.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It's a game that we play as writers. Do you
not think so? And everybody else just happens to buy
into the idea.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Absolutely, it's a game, but it needs to be a
sympathetic game because you don't want to be cruel to
the reader. You want to but you want to bring
them with you, but also keep them in suspensius because
that's so much of the fun.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Do you ever want to put yourself on the stand
when it comes to court cases inside your storylines because
the author knows who did it, you know, and you
need to tell us inside this court room who did it?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Right now, that's a great point, you know. I modeled
this mystery after Agatha Christie, who's my mother's favorite author. Yes, yeah,
after my mother's favorite author. So I read a Baker's
dozen of books and I and I took notes on
what are her strategies. One was to have like five
or seven suspects, all of whom have a possible motive,
(05:57):
all of whom at opportunity. And also she and Bed's
little details in daily life that you think are not
important until it turns out they're very important, as you learned.
But so so the interesting thing for me is I
thought that Agatha Christie must have planned out everything ahead
of time. Yeah, and when my plan collapsed, I thought,
oh no, I've let down Agatha. But it turns out
(06:18):
in one of her greatest mysteries, it's called Crooked House.
She didn't know until she was halfway through who the
murderer was. Yeah, so that was fascinating to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
See, I always envision Agatha Christie on a train with
a writing instrument, and whatever happens in her moment of
stream thinking, it could become a part of the story,
or it becomes the story. I just figure her as
being just a stream thinker receiving what is in the now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think you're right about that absolutely. And you know,
after her divorce and remarriage, she was traveling around the
world a lot, and she used those locations, you know,
Death on the Nile, the Oorenta Express, all those different locations,
and the things she liked was and inclosed environment like
a train or an island. Because then it's like I
(07:09):
was mentioning that people know each other but they don't
know everything.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Wow, we have something in common. You have a passion
for Agatha Christie. I was blessed with the Agatha Christie
mont Blanc writing instrument back in the Earth that latter
part of the nineteen nineties, and so Agatha Christie has
been such a major inspiration. I only use that writing
instrument when I know it's time to start a new project,
because I know the spirit of Agatha Christie is inside
(07:33):
that writing instrument.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Oh that's awesome. And you know, one of the ways
I wanted to honor Agatha Christie was I have the
narrator and main character be her great great nephew. Yes,
which is fictional, but so he believes that she is
helping him along the way to solve the crime. You know,
he hears a voice in his head. He thinks Agatha
is helping me, which is really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
How did you develop Peter Christie? And because I mean,
I mean, I know what it's like to develop a character.
I usually sit down with pick of Johnny Depp and
everybody else who's in Hollywood and try to figure out
the character that way. But I mean, when I read
about Peter a it's almost like I know this guy,
but I don't. He's not Johnny Depp, he is himself.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, well, he just sort of came to me. Really.
Some of the details autobiographical, Like the novel starts with
him overhearing his father abusing his mother and which which
is a very painful thing to talk about, because that
was that's part of my autobiography. So I understood this
character from the inside out. The arc of his life
(08:33):
was different from mine, but I felt like I felt
really connected to him, and I felt like it gave
some emotional depth to his journey as he tries to
get his life together and solve the crime.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Wow, and chronologically, how were you able to piece that together?
Because I mean, that's one of the things that a
lot of writers, especially those that are hiding in their
bedrooms or their offices right now, they've got something they
just don't know how to release it. But yet you
had the courage enough to say, Okay, I've created this story.
Now it's time to give it its next step forward.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
That's always a tough one, isn't it is somebody's you
want to you want to keep it close to the heart.
So what helps for me is I finished a rough
draft and I give it to six or eight friends
of different ages, different genders, and get feedback, and if
first of all, it helps me improve it, but second
of all, if I feel like it's connecting with them
and I can do some rewriting and improve it's some more,
(09:24):
then I'll feel confident to release it.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Please do not Move. There's more with James Seltzer coming
up next, the name of his book, All That's Smolders.
We are back with author James Seltzer.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
All right, you got to be honest with me, James,
because you know when when you base your story loosely
on the people around you. I know what happened with
me with my book Conversation with the Devil and my friends,
they disconnected from me.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They go, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Why would you write that about me?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And I never got to talk to them again because
they held it so personal. How are you keeping it
on a professional level more than a personal level.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Well, so that's a great, great question I want to
say for all writers. For most of the although Peter
Christy had some of my autobiography, most of the characters
they're not based on people. I know, they're maybe a
tiny piece of a person, another piece of another person,
but they're piece on what I understand about island life
and the secrets people hold, the ways they need to
(10:24):
see each other in three hundred and sixty degrees, because
you interact in so many ways, and so I was
able to and partly, as you would probably know, the
force field of a mystery novel demanded certain sorts of
characters with certain sorts of motives, and that might lead
them to be the murderer. So all that came together
(10:46):
as a sort of a gestal thing.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Do you believe in the theory that the writing universe
reaches out to you to put characters in a book,
because it's like, it's like one of my last books
was based on somebody who I saw in a comic
book store in New York City. The meeting last said
maybe two and a half minutes. But yet she's got
a whole book that she doesn't know about that was
written about her.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Oh that's awesome. Yes, I do think that happens, and
I think it happens both externally like that and then
you internalize them and also just from characters coming to
you as you're right, they just seem to come out
of the ether, and yet you feel you know them
as people and you're getting to know them better.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Do you giggle like a child? I mean, come on, seriously,
it's like meeting a brand new friend.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It is absolutely wow. And in fact, that's one reason
I'm going to write a sequel, because I want to
get back with these characters.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Wow, let's talk about that book cover, because I mean,
I know we're not supposed to judge a book by
its cover, but it does give me energy and it
also serves as what we call in radio a billboard.
They're setting up the date for us to get into
that book and to start reading. But that cover is
so important. And what I felt on your book cover
was the morning after. It's am I wrong in this?
(11:55):
Because I feel like it's like all of this has happened.
This is the morning after. Welcome to the first step
of your brand new beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh guys, that's a great way to put it. I
love the cover the more. Yes, the publisher, Morgan James,
came up with this cover. They sent me four possibilities,
and as soon as I saw this one, I went, wow,
that's it because it has intrigued in it. It's beautiful.
It's a beach scene, but it has a dark blue
quality that's just gorgeous to look at. And it has
a hint there's footsteps leading down through the sand, so
(12:25):
you know something has happened.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
M putting the book together, releasing the book and getting
ready for the next project. We have got to be
I don't want to say numb to a project. But
in a way we've always got to be available. How
is it that you're able to handle those different personalities
or is it just something you have to say, I'm
an artist, I'm weird. I accept it. Next, what's up next?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Well, if you do have to be accepting of everything.
But there are different gears you change. Certainly from being
sitting off by yourself for a couple of years writing,
then talking to people, and then getting into the next book,
you're changing gears again, of course, And so I find
for me when a new project, I have to sort
of dip my toe in the lake for a while,
like just an hour here, an hour there, and then
(13:09):
once it starts to go, I can really jump in,
but it's a tough process to get back in.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Well, you're writing in all that smolders it really. I mean,
as a person that likes to listen to stories, is
I wish there was a way that you could go
through each chapter and explain why things happened. But at
the same time I fear that our interpretation is going
to be different from your interpretation. But at the same time,
I always want to know what the artist is thinking,
because when you take out a scene, which sometimes can
(13:38):
be a wineglass moment. You take out that scene, But
did you really need to do it? And then I
want to know, you know the director's cut, what happened
here that all of a sudden it fell off the page.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. And those are the things
you're always dealing with, And certainly after you write, you
go back and look at that. But in the process
of writing, I just sort of trust that the story
will lead me in the right direction. And usually it
does once I've been getting going. Usually it does if
I get astray. You know. Part of its being emotionally
(14:09):
in touch with the with the with the work that's
unfolding there, you know, And it's it's sort of a
mystery in a way.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You deal with scalpers in this How did you step
into that world? Because that seems to be one of
the sneakiest, untrusting but we need them kind of a world,
and yet you step into that monkey Well.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, you know, when we moved here in the nineteen
eighty two, we had one child, we had two more
on the way. Very soon. I was I wanted to write,
but I knew I needed to help help out the
family with some money. So I actually found a job
as a commercial scholoper.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And and to be able to do that though, I mean,
it's I mean, that's once again it seems like that
you're setting the world up for creativity. In other words,
you can receive so much and you're making people's lives
so much greater by what it is that's moving through you.
I mean, that's an agreement between you, yourself and whoever
else you are as a personality.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah. So basically a lot of what I've received in
life does come through in the book, and one of
them was the chance to be a commercial scolloper. I
worked with this great old native of Nantucket Byron Coffin,
who captained all over the world, but he was back
now catching scallops. So I learned a ton about the
water and about how it all works, and it was
(15:29):
just a great opportunity. Other things like there's a big
scene at the end that involves an explosion or near
explosion with a propane tank. Yes, and we as a family,
we had that happen. So and the terror of the
sound of that propaine, you know, gushing out like a
(15:49):
tornado out of the tank was something that stuck with
me so deeply and viscerally that I knew I was
going to have to work that into the climax of
this story.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh my god, I got to tell you how much
that rocked my world because an r V and that's
one of my biggest fears on the planet, is that
something like that happens with a propane tank. And then
to see that someone's writing about it, it's like I
sat there, I went, Okay, just look at it from
a distance, study what happened, What are the repercussions, How
are we going to grow from this? And it just
gives you that opportunity to experience life basically.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, Yeah, it definitely did. Living through we had to
you know, the fire department can we had to evacuate
two blocks of people. You know, we had to go around,
I mean, the whole thing. It's terrifying. But it ended
up working out well because I had internalized that it's
just such a scent that I could bring it forth
into the book.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
So funny that you say that, because up in the
nineteen eighties, I was in Billings, Montana, and I was
mowing my lawn and I hit the gas line with
the lawnmower, and that swooshing out of the ground is
still planted inside the ears of my head. I can
still hear it, I can still smell it, and the
fear that I felt in that moment of something going
and kaboom is still with me.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I totally believe it because I'm in exactly the same
place with this. It's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Wow. So now when it comes to going back to
nineteen eighty, the continuity of going back to nineteen eighty,
I know that what happened in my book Halloween seventy eight,
and that is is that I got the paint wrong
on the walls at the police station. I had to
go back there inside the creative persons. The reader or
the listener would have never known that, but I did
as the author. How do you deal with those situations
(17:29):
where you know that it's not right and you could
let it go, but you can't.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Oh, that's a great question. I did do some research
to go back to that time, but mostly it was
in my memory. For instance, I knew what a scallop
boat was like, it's totally implanted in there. I had
to remember, okay, how far along what sort of clothing
were people wearing. Can I remember that? Oh yeah, yeah,
(17:56):
that's right. My wife and I got this first thing
is a new thing called a down jacket.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yes, oh my god, oh my god, all that. Yeah,
being from Montana, I know exactly what you're talking about.
You know, that down jacket was what saved a lot
of us up there. And when it would get down
to forty below zero.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I can believe it. Yeah, it was such a great
advance in the world. It really was. It was a
great And then I remember there were things like oh yeah,
credit cards. Oh my gosh, there was a time when, yeah,
they weren't electronic. You know, they ran it through this machine,
you know, all that stuff, and you go back to
that and of course pre internet.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Oh yeah, it seems like a simple life. But I'm
not willing to give up what we've got today to
go back to nineteen eighty. But I'll let you the
author take me back there.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yes, and it does. It does offer certain opportunities like,
for instance, people aren't always looking at their cell phones.
They're looking at each other. Yeah. Oh, so that's good
for characters and the phones themselves. You know, when people
get on a phone, they couldn't be called anywhere they
had to, you know, go into their house to where
the phone was and pick it up.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Wow, what is your daily discipline? Because I've got to
be behind my writing instrument by seven am. Nothing happens,
not even the studio. Until I've written for the day.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'm about nine to three. That's sort of works. It
works best for you. For years, I was a teacher,
so I would actually work like from you know, five
until seven or so. But now now that I'm not teaching,
I find that it works best. You know, I'll do
the exercising and stuff when I get up in the morning,
get my head cleared, and then just just lock in
there about nine.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Speaking of being a teacher only because my teacher is
a retired teacher. Often wonder though, as a teacher or
an instructor, do you find that you're reaching people more
outside that classroom because you can casually get into a conversation,
or do you think you did a bigger job when
you're in that classroom.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Well they're both, they're both big, but yes they are
on an island. Especially, being a teacher is wonderful because
you get to know many families in many different ways,
and your students now they're growing up and they're you know,
they're talking to you about writing, and they're reading your
books and you know, giving them as gift. It's a
wonderful sort of complete circle feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Did you write with music going on in the background,
because there's a melodic edge to your writing in the
way that I mean, I feel music. And I sit
there and I wonder if this were to turn into
a movie, what would the soundtrack be. Would it be
a Brian Adams soundtrack? Would you put a Bieber in
there somehow, some way, because he's kind of softened up
the storytelling? What would you do?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh gosh, that's a great question. First of all, I
didn't write with music, but I am a musician. I
play fo gutar, but mostly classical guitar. So I love
music and I feel like one of my greatest strengths,
if I have any as a writer, is that there's
a musical feel to the to the lines. But as
far as a musical background for if there's a movie version,
(20:42):
I don't know. I guess it would have to be
eighties stuff, wouldn't it. Yeah, And maybe seventies and eighties,
you know, But Brian Adams, I see what you're saying
about that that's possibility.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, but it would have to be like the deep cuts,
because I think even when Footloose came out, you know,
those weren't like songs that we were used to hearing.
They set the standard of a new thing. You know,
even with dirty Dancing, it was all so new to us.
It was like I'm jumping on this train.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's exactly right. Yeah, that's true. It was like that. Yeah,
so hard.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Are you going for a series on Netflix or are
you going to go for like a two to two
and a half hour movie here?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I don't know what do you recommend? I would see
see more of a movie, but I don't know. You know,
we have a Nantucket author who is incredibly successful, Alan Hildebrant,
and she's been going the Netflix route and you know,
very successful, Like what was it called a Perfect Couple? Yeah,
that did a lot of runs. So I don't know.
I sort of like the idea of movies, you know,
(21:37):
it's I know, they're sort of they're seeding their territory
to TV in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, I just wish I knew what the psychology was
behind these binge watches because to me, it slows down
the story to the point of I need to read
a book because if I now that I have slowed
down because of the binge watching, I can take in
a book a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah. I know what you're saying exactly. It does slow
things down, and it can add stuff that's not as
important as it is when you have a really well
paced movie.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, Where can people go to find out more about you, James?
Because I like your style, I like everything that you're
doing here and can't wait to find out what your
next step is.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Oh, thank you so much. So I have a website,
James soulzerauthor dot com. Of course you can get the
book anywhere you know. They're sold online and many bookstores.
And my sequel is going to be taking place twenty
years later in the year two thousand, with many of
the same characters, and so we'll see what the changes are.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh. I can't wait to see what happens to you
as the author when you go through that evolution, because
you think life is moving fast. Now be the author
of a story like this. Thank you, Wow, Well, please
please come back to this show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
James.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh, thank you so much. This was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Will you'll be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Okay, okay, thank you again.
When it comes to podcasts listening. If you value the
power of choice, you're gonna love Arrow dot net. It's
not just one podcast where you throw everything, including the
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dot net. Enjoy your exploration. Hello and good morning everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning. This is James Saucer calling James.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Doing great? Thank you man.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Somebody who says they're living great like that, I mean
that usually means that that's a choice, and that's something
that you have to step into every day to live
up to your expectations.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
That's absolutely right. It's all attitude.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
How do you do that as a writer, because you know,
as authors, we are in the we're locked in every
day on receiving. How is it that you're able to
take what you receive as that writer and then relinquish
it to us because now it's like, oh my god,
all that smolders is what you're putting in our imaginations
and we're growing with it now.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, you know it has to do with It goes
to a number of things. Part is your values, you know,
some of it is the values you have for kindness,
for understanding and toward seeing how people work, you know,
how they take things out and put them out. But
part of it also is simply the desire to express,
you know, this incredible gift we've been given of life,
(01:22):
you know, and to express what it is like to
deal with other people, to have emotions, to make mistakes,
to learn and grow. All that's a big part of it.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
True crime has become that place where people like to
hang their hats. In fact, it's gotten to the point
now where police forces across the nation, as well as
court cases and things, are relying on a lot of
people who study words like yours inside these books because
they think they can crack the case. And the thing
about it, though, James, is that they are cracking cases.
And I think it starts with you guys, the authors.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Well thank you. You know. Part of the fun of
writing a mystery like this is having hidden messages, comes
cryptic cryptic notes, and you know, of course I work
that into the novel some and there were some little
quotes along the way that sort of I won't give
the pot away, but that which if the reader can
solve that along the way, they can begin to understand
(02:19):
the crime and the motivations.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well, my mother used to call it brain games. Do
you think that this is a brain game towards challenging
your brain in the way of, you know, figure out
the puzzle and put it together. He's given it to you,
now do it.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
That's exactly right. It is a brain game. But it's
also what I was trying to do in this book
is partly a brain game with the cryptic clues and words,
but also the emotional piece of putting the emotions together
and understand how some character might do this for reasons
that you might understand, but they might be more extreme
than you are. For instance, in these actions.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
To step back into the year nineteen eighty, I lived
that period. I was a kid that was growing up
in a pair of brand new adult shoes. I mean,
I mean the way that you bring this together and
then you plant the story inside New England. Now you
have my attention, because New England has always been that
fantasy place for so many.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh I'm glad to hear that. And you know, we
we have my wife and my family, and I've lived
in New England for we moved to the little island
of Nantucket in nineteen eighty year round. So we know
the dynamics of island life. How people think they know
everything about everyone else, but they may not know the
deepest secrets, and that adds some intrigue.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, see, that's the one thing I've always wondered about islands.
When you live on an island, do the secrets stay there?
Like Hawaii? I mean, do they really stay there? And
how do they penetrate other areas of the world if
people are keeping it a big island secret.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Well, that's true, and it used to be said that
gossip on an island like Nantucket was bigger than anywhere
else because it was spread out to the shores and
then bounce back. But now with social media and all
the internet, secrets do tend to go around the world.
But you know, once they get released.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You know, one of the things that you that you
talked about this that's sticking to my gut right now
is the fact that you said that you had to
sit there and you come up with all these different
little I always call them easter eggs, give them something
to hold on to to try to figure it out.
How do you play that out in your planning? Because
I do a d frag journal where I'm sitting there
taking notes breaking down scenes. Here's the reason why. Here's
why I can't do this. I need to introduce a
(04:24):
new character. Get on it right now. What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh boy? You know I want to say that. One
reason I thought it would be a challenge to write
a mystery was I'd have to plan it all ahead
of time to give me a lot of discipline. But
so that I had the plan set up, and then
halfway through the first chapter the whole thing collapsed. No,
because what happens is the characters come to life and
act in ways that you don't expect. New characters show
(04:50):
up and they start acting in ways you don't expect.
And then on top of it, along with that, you
have to embed your clues, which is just a lot
of fun to figure out. Okay, here's where we are.
Here's what we'll bring the reader to the next point
where they know enough but not too much. It's just
a it's a balance, James.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
It's a game that we play as writers. Do you
not think so? And everybody else just happens to buy
into the idea.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Absolutely, it's a game, but it needs to be a
sympathetic game because you don't want to be cruel to
the reader. You want to but you want to bring
them with you, but also keep them in suspensius because
that's so much of the fun.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Do you ever want to put yourself on the stand
when it comes to court cases inside your storylines because
the author knows who did it, you know, and you
need to tell us inside this court room who did it?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Right now, that's a great point, you know. I modeled
this mystery after Agatha Christie, who's my mother's favorite author. Yes, yeah,
after my mother's favorite author. So I read a Baker's
dozen of books and I and I took notes on
what are her strategies. One was to have like five
or seven suspects, all of whom have a possible motive,
(05:57):
all of whom at opportunity. And also she and Bed's
little details in daily life that you think are not
important until it turns out they're very important, as you learned.
But so so the interesting thing for me is I
thought that Agatha Christie must have planned out everything ahead
of time. Yeah, and when my plan collapsed, I thought,
oh no, I've let down Agatha. But it turns out
(06:18):
in one of her greatest mysteries, it's called Crooked House.
She didn't know until she was halfway through who the
murderer was. Yeah, so that was fascinating to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
See, I always envision Agatha Christie on a train with
a writing instrument, and whatever happens in her moment of
stream thinking, it could become a part of the story,
or it becomes the story. I just figure her as
being just a stream thinker receiving what is in the now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I think you're right about that absolutely. And you know,
after her divorce and remarriage, she was traveling around the
world a lot, and she used those locations, you know,
Death on the Nile, the Oorenta Express, all those different locations,
and the things she liked was and inclosed environment like
a train or an island. Because then it's like I
(07:09):
was mentioning that people know each other but they don't
know everything.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Wow, we have something in common. You have a passion
for Agatha Christie. I was blessed with the Agatha Christie
mont Blanc writing instrument back in the Earth that latter
part of the nineteen nineties, and so Agatha Christie has
been such a major inspiration. I only use that writing
instrument when I know it's time to start a new project,
because I know the spirit of Agatha Christie is inside
(07:33):
that writing instrument.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Oh that's awesome. And you know, one of the ways
I wanted to honor Agatha Christie was I have the
narrator and main character be her great great nephew. Yes,
which is fictional, but so he believes that she is
helping him along the way to solve the crime. You know,
he hears a voice in his head. He thinks Agatha
is helping me, which is really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
How did you develop Peter Christie? And because I mean,
I mean, I know what it's like to develop a character.
I usually sit down with pick of Johnny Depp and
everybody else who's in Hollywood and try to figure out
the character that way. But I mean, when I read
about Peter a it's almost like I know this guy,
but I don't. He's not Johnny Depp, he is himself.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, well, he just sort of came to me. Really.
Some of the details autobiographical, Like the novel starts with
him overhearing his father abusing his mother and which which
is a very painful thing to talk about, because that
was that's part of my autobiography. So I understood this
character from the inside out. The arc of his life
(08:33):
was different from mine, but I felt like I felt
really connected to him, and I felt like it gave
some emotional depth to his journey as he tries to
get his life together and solve the crime.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Wow, and chronologically, how were you able to piece that together?
Because I mean, that's one of the things that a
lot of writers, especially those that are hiding in their
bedrooms or their offices right now, they've got something they
just don't know how to release it. But yet you
had the courage enough to say, Okay, I've created this story.
Now it's time to give it its next step forward.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
That's always a tough one, isn't it is somebody's you
want to you want to keep it close to the heart.
So what helps for me is I finished a rough
draft and I give it to six or eight friends
of different ages, different genders, and get feedback, and if
first of all, it helps me improve it, but second
of all, if I feel like it's connecting with them
and I can do some rewriting and improve it's some more,
(09:24):
then I'll feel confident to release it.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Please do not Move. There's more with James Seltzer coming
up next, the name of his book, All That's Smolders.
We are back with author James Seltzer.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
All right, you got to be honest with me, James,
because you know when when you base your story loosely
on the people around you. I know what happened with
me with my book Conversation with the Devil and my friends,
they disconnected from me.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
They go, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Why would you write that about me?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
And I never got to talk to them again because
they held it so personal. How are you keeping it
on a professional level more than a personal level.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Well, so that's a great, great question I want to
say for all writers. For most of the although Peter
Christy had some of my autobiography, most of the characters
they're not based on people. I know, they're maybe a
tiny piece of a person, another piece of another person,
but they're piece on what I understand about island life
and the secrets people hold, the ways they need to
(10:24):
see each other in three hundred and sixty degrees, because
you interact in so many ways, and so I was
able to and partly, as you would probably know, the
force field of a mystery novel demanded certain sorts of
characters with certain sorts of motives, and that might lead
them to be the murderer. So all that came together
(10:46):
as a sort of a gestal thing.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Do you believe in the theory that the writing universe
reaches out to you to put characters in a book,
because it's like, it's like one of my last books
was based on somebody who I saw in a comic
book store in New York City. The meeting last said
maybe two and a half minutes. But yet she's got
a whole book that she doesn't know about that was
written about her.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Oh that's awesome. Yes, I do think that happens, and
I think it happens both externally like that and then
you internalize them and also just from characters coming to
you as you're right, they just seem to come out
of the ether, and yet you feel you know them
as people and you're getting to know them better.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Do you giggle like a child? I mean, come on, seriously,
it's like meeting a brand new friend.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It is absolutely wow. And in fact, that's one reason
I'm going to write a sequel, because I want to
get back with these characters.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Wow, let's talk about that book cover, because I mean,
I know we're not supposed to judge a book by
its cover, but it does give me energy and it
also serves as what we call in radio a billboard.
They're setting up the date for us to get into
that book and to start reading. But that cover is
so important. And what I felt on your book cover
was the morning after. It's am I wrong in this?
(11:55):
Because I feel like it's like all of this has happened.
This is the morning after. Welcome to the first step
of your brand new beginning.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh guys, that's a great way to put it. I
love the cover the more. Yes, the publisher, Morgan James,
came up with this cover. They sent me four possibilities,
and as soon as I saw this one, I went, wow,
that's it because it has intrigued in it. It's beautiful.
It's a beach scene, but it has a dark blue
quality that's just gorgeous to look at. And it has
a hint there's footsteps leading down through the sand, so
(12:25):
you know something has happened.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
M putting the book together, releasing the book and getting
ready for the next project. We have got to be
I don't want to say numb to a project. But
in a way we've always got to be available. How
is it that you're able to handle those different personalities
or is it just something you have to say, I'm
an artist, I'm weird. I accept it. Next, what's up next?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Well, if you do have to be accepting of everything.
But there are different gears you change. Certainly from being
sitting off by yourself for a couple of years writing,
then talking to people, and then getting into the next book,
you're changing gears again, of course, And so I find
for me when a new project, I have to sort
of dip my toe in the lake for a while,
like just an hour here, an hour there, and then
(13:09):
once it starts to go, I can really jump in,
but it's a tough process to get back in.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Well, you're writing in all that smolders it really. I mean,
as a person that likes to listen to stories, is
I wish there was a way that you could go
through each chapter and explain why things happened. But at
the same time I fear that our interpretation is going
to be different from your interpretation. But at the same time,
I always want to know what the artist is thinking,
because when you take out a scene, which sometimes can
(13:38):
be a wineglass moment. You take out that scene, But
did you really need to do it? And then I
want to know, you know the director's cut, what happened
here that all of a sudden it fell off the page.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. And those are the things
you're always dealing with, And certainly after you write, you
go back and look at that. But in the process
of writing, I just sort of trust that the story
will lead me in the right direction. And usually it
does once I've been getting going. Usually it does if
I get astray. You know. Part of its being emotionally
(14:09):
in touch with the with the with the work that's
unfolding there, you know, And it's it's sort of a
mystery in a way.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
You deal with scalpers in this How did you step
into that world? Because that seems to be one of
the sneakiest, untrusting but we need them kind of a world,
and yet you step into that monkey Well.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Well, you know, when we moved here in the nineteen
eighty two, we had one child, we had two more
on the way. Very soon. I was I wanted to write,
but I knew I needed to help help out the
family with some money. So I actually found a job
as a commercial scholoper.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And and to be able to do that though, I mean,
it's I mean, that's once again it seems like that
you're setting the world up for creativity. In other words,
you can receive so much and you're making people's lives
so much greater by what it is that's moving through you.
I mean, that's an agreement between you, yourself and whoever
else you are as a personality.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah. So basically a lot of what I've received in
life does come through in the book, and one of
them was the chance to be a commercial scolloper. I
worked with this great old native of Nantucket Byron Coffin,
who captained all over the world, but he was back
now catching scallops. So I learned a ton about the
water and about how it all works, and it was
(15:29):
just a great opportunity. Other things like there's a big
scene at the end that involves an explosion or near
explosion with a propane tank. Yes, and we as a family,
we had that happen. So and the terror of the
sound of that propaine, you know, gushing out like a
(15:49):
tornado out of the tank was something that stuck with
me so deeply and viscerally that I knew I was
going to have to work that into the climax of
this story.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Oh my god, I got to tell you how much
that rocked my world because an r V and that's
one of my biggest fears on the planet, is that
something like that happens with a propane tank. And then
to see that someone's writing about it, it's like I
sat there, I went, Okay, just look at it from
a distance, study what happened, What are the repercussions, How
are we going to grow from this? And it just
gives you that opportunity to experience life basically.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, Yeah, it definitely did. Living through we had to
you know, the fire department can we had to evacuate
two blocks of people. You know, we had to go around,
I mean, the whole thing. It's terrifying. But it ended
up working out well because I had internalized that it's
just such a scent that I could bring it forth
into the book.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
So funny that you say that, because up in the
nineteen eighties, I was in Billings, Montana, and I was
mowing my lawn and I hit the gas line with
the lawnmower, and that swooshing out of the ground is
still planted inside the ears of my head. I can
still hear it, I can still smell it, and the
fear that I felt in that moment of something going
and kaboom is still with me.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I totally believe it because I'm in exactly the same
place with this. It's terrifying.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Wow. So now when it comes to going back to
nineteen eighty, the continuity of going back to nineteen eighty,
I know that what happened in my book Halloween seventy eight,
and that is is that I got the paint wrong
on the walls at the police station. I had to
go back there inside the creative persons. The reader or
the listener would have never known that, but I did
as the author. How do you deal with those situations
(17:29):
where you know that it's not right and you could
let it go, but you can't.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Oh, that's a great question. I did do some research
to go back to that time, but mostly it was
in my memory. For instance, I knew what a scallop
boat was like, it's totally implanted in there. I had
to remember, okay, how far along what sort of clothing
were people wearing. Can I remember that? Oh yeah, yeah,
(17:56):
that's right. My wife and I got this first thing
is a new thing called a down jacket.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Yes, oh my god, oh my god, all that. Yeah,
being from Montana, I know exactly what you're talking about.
You know, that down jacket was what saved a lot
of us up there. And when it would get down
to forty below zero.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I can believe it. Yeah, it was such a great
advance in the world. It really was. It was a
great And then I remember there were things like oh yeah,
credit cards. Oh my gosh, there was a time when, yeah,
they weren't electronic. You know, they ran it through this machine,
you know, all that stuff, and you go back to
that and of course pre internet.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Oh yeah, it seems like a simple life. But I'm
not willing to give up what we've got today to
go back to nineteen eighty. But I'll let you the
author take me back there.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yes, and it does. It does offer certain opportunities like,
for instance, people aren't always looking at their cell phones.
They're looking at each other. Yeah. Oh, so that's good
for characters and the phones themselves. You know, when people
get on a phone, they couldn't be called anywhere they
had to, you know, go into their house to where
the phone was and pick it up.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Wow, what is your daily discipline? Because I've got to
be behind my writing instrument by seven am. Nothing happens,
not even the studio. Until I've written for the day.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'm about nine to three. That's sort of works. It
works best for you. For years, I was a teacher,
so I would actually work like from you know, five
until seven or so. But now now that I'm not teaching,
I find that it works best. You know, I'll do
the exercising and stuff when I get up in the morning,
get my head cleared, and then just just lock in
there about nine.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Speaking of being a teacher only because my teacher is
a retired teacher. Often wonder though, as a teacher or
an instructor, do you find that you're reaching people more
outside that classroom because you can casually get into a conversation,
or do you think you did a bigger job when
you're in that classroom.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Well they're both, they're both big, but yes they are
on an island. Especially, being a teacher is wonderful because
you get to know many families in many different ways,
and your students now they're growing up and they're you know,
they're talking to you about writing, and they're reading your
books and you know, giving them as gift. It's a
wonderful sort of complete circle feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Did you write with music going on in the background,
because there's a melodic edge to your writing in the
way that I mean, I feel music. And I sit
there and I wonder if this were to turn into
a movie, what would the soundtrack be. Would it be
a Brian Adams soundtrack? Would you put a Bieber in
there somehow, some way, because he's kind of softened up
the storytelling? What would you do?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Oh gosh, that's a great question. First of all, I
didn't write with music, but I am a musician. I
play fo gutar, but mostly classical guitar. So I love
music and I feel like one of my greatest strengths,
if I have any as a writer, is that there's
a musical feel to the to the lines. But as
far as a musical background for if there's a movie version,
(20:42):
I don't know. I guess it would have to be
eighties stuff, wouldn't it. Yeah, And maybe seventies and eighties,
you know, But Brian Adams, I see what you're saying
about that that's possibility.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, but it would have to be like the deep cuts,
because I think even when Footloose came out, you know,
those weren't like songs that we were used to hearing.
They set the standard of a new thing. You know,
even with dirty Dancing, it was all so new to us.
It was like I'm jumping on this train.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's exactly right. Yeah, that's true. It was like that. Yeah,
so hard.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Are you going for a series on Netflix or are
you going to go for like a two to two
and a half hour movie here?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
I don't know what do you recommend? I would see
see more of a movie, but I don't know. You know,
we have a Nantucket author who is incredibly successful, Alan Hildebrant,
and she's been going the Netflix route and you know,
very successful, Like what was it called a Perfect Couple? Yeah,
that did a lot of runs. So I don't know.
I sort of like the idea of movies, you know,
(21:37):
it's I know, they're sort of they're seeding their territory
to TV in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Yeah, I just wish I knew what the psychology was
behind these binge watches because to me, it slows down
the story to the point of I need to read
a book because if I now that I have slowed
down because of the binge watching, I can take in
a book a lot easier.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah. I know what you're saying exactly. It does slow
things down, and it can add stuff that's not as
important as it is when you have a really well
paced movie.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Yeah, Where can people go to find out more about you, James?
Because I like your style, I like everything that you're
doing here and can't wait to find out what your
next step is.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Oh, thank you so much. So I have a website,
James soulzerauthor dot com. Of course you can get the
book anywhere you know. They're sold online and many bookstores.
And my sequel is going to be taking place twenty
years later in the year two thousand, with many of
the same characters, and so we'll see what the changes are.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Oh. I can't wait to see what happens to you
as the author when you go through that evolution, because
you think life is moving fast. Now be the author
of a story like this. Thank you, Wow, Well, please
please come back to this show anytime in the future.
The door is always going to be open for you.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
James.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Oh, thank you so much. This was wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Will you'll be brilliant today?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Okay, okay, thank you again.
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