ROBERT URICH FANBOARD

Hier mal ein allgemeiner Sammelthread über Robert B. Parker's Auftritte im Radio oder in sonstigen Audio-Specials, in denen er Interviews gegeben oder an Diskussionen teilgenommen hat.

Anlässlich zum 75. Bestehen des Hammett Roman's "The Maltese Falcon" diskutiert Parker hier zusammen mit "Richard Layman" vom Hammett Estate. Er taucht ungefähr ab der Hälfte auf.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4492312

Solltet ihr noch weitere kennen oder finden, dürft ihr die hier posten. :)

Hier auf dieser Seite habe ich auch noch mal 2 Audio-Interviews von und mit RBP gefunden:

http://www.wiredforbooks.org/robertparker/

Scheint eine recht alte Webseite zu sein, von daher werde ich demnächst mal reinhören. Scheint sehr interessant zu sein!

Habe ein seltenes Interview aus dem Jahr 2005 gefunden indem Eric Berlin, RBP einige interessante Fragen gestellt hat. Da Teil 2 und 3 schon gelöscht und nicht mehr aufrufbar sind, sollte man sich den ersten Teil der noch online ist so schnell wie möglich durchlesen.

http://blogcritics.org/dumpster-bust-interviews-robert-b-parker/

Habe hier noch ein Interview mit Robert B. Parker auf einer nicht mehr existierenden Seite gefunden.

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1) I would say that your most famous work has to be the Spencer series. How would you describe Spenser.

1. I've spent thirty books describing Spenser, all I have to add to that is that he's a little taller than I am.

2) How has Spenser changed since you first started writing him?

2. Sine I don't reread my books, I have no way to know. I would assume he has because I have. I am less of a wisely, less physical than I used to be. I understand myself and everything else better than I did when I began.

3) Do you plan to continue to write Spenser?

3. I plan to write a new Spenser every year and publish him every spring, until I fall over at the keyboard.

4) In recent years you’ve added two new series to your repertoire, the Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone. Is there a different approach to writing women characters?

4. The approach is the same. I need some help from Joan on some of the particularly female matters -- make up, sex, interior monologue. But the things which unite us are considerably more important than those which divide us.

5) What brought about the two new series?

5.Sunny was commissioned by Helen Hunt to be the basis for some films (which project is currently in limbo). Jesse because I wanted to try a character younger, less evolved, a cop, and tell it from the third person.

6) You also write books out of the different series. Are these books things that you just need to get out of your system, or subjects that interest you? Is the writing process any different with the stand alones?

6. I occasionally write a stand alone book because I want to, something which interests me, something that might make a fine novel, something that might stretch me a little as a writer. These books are usually done, between and around the franchise books and thus take longer. They tend to be more experimental. In these books I am willing to do research.

7) You’ve had quite a few books put done by Hollywood. Any sage advice for someone dealing with Hollywood for the first time?

7. Take the money and run. Don't try to save your story. You can't.

8) If “The Robert B Parker” movie was ever made, who would you want involved in the movie? And who would you cast in it?

8. Joan would have to produce the RBP movie. She and my sons would have to write and direct. No one else would have a clue. I would be played by Tom Cruise.

9) How important a role does Boston play in the Spencer books? Do you think they would work in a different setting?

9. Boston is just where I live. So I use it as location. If I lived in Milwaukee, I'd use it as location. The books would work the same.

10) Did you enjoy teaching?

10. I did not enjoy teaching.

11) Was it a bit daunting to write Raymond Chandler’s character Phillip Marlowe?

11. Finishing the Chandler book, and writing a sequel was a bit daunting, maybe more for me than others because I admired him so.

12) Of all the books you’ve written, which is your favorite book, and which id your favorite Spenser?

12. All Our Yesterdays is my favorite book ( I think it my best). I don't have a favorite Spenser. They are all part of a continuum

13) Looking back, is there any thing in your life you would change if you could?

13. There are a number of things I'd change. But not if I had to change other things. This too is a continuum. In large outline, I've done everything I ever wanted to do, and have been particularly wise in my choice of wife and sons.

14) What do you think is the coolest part of being a writer?

14. Coolest part of being a writer is the autonomy. I stay home, write what I want to, send it in and they pay me.

15) You probably get asked a whole lot of questions by a whole lot of people. What question do you get asked the most?

15. Where do I get my ideas.

16) When you aren’t writing, what kind of things occupy your time?

16. I swim, lift weights, watch baseball and Law & Order, read some non fiction, eat out with Joan, visit my sons, reason with Pearl III.

17) Does a lot of thought go into your book titles? And does the publisher give you input on them?

17. Sometimes the titles are easy, sometimes they aren't. My publisher helps choose them as needed (my editor chose WALKING SHADOW).

18) What was the happiest day of your life, so far at least?

18. When I married Joan, when my sons were born.

19) I understand that you are working on a book about Jackie Robinson. Can you tell a little bit what it’s about?

19. The Jackie Robinson book will be fiction. It imagines a white bodyguard employed to protect Robinson, and experience racial bigotry as if he were black.

20) Do you read mysteries? Do you have any favorite authors?

20.I don't read much fiction, though I greatly admire Elmore Leonard.

21) What is the one thing always in your refrigerator?

21. Orange Juice, fruit, whole wheat bread.

Quelle: https://web.archive.org/web/20030123042544/http://www.mysteryone.com/RobertParkerInterview.htm

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Meiner Meinung nach hätte er ruhig ausführlicher auf die Fragen eingehen können. Aber waren schon ein paar interessante Antworten dabei. Dass Parker keinen Lieblings-Spenser-Roman hat, wunderte mich aber sehr.

"I plan to write a new Spenser every year and publish him every spring, until I fall over at the Keyboard".

Ziemlich unheimlich, wenn man bedenkt, dass es genauso gekommen ist ???.

Den gleichen Satz brachte er auch in einem anderen Interview dass ich hier mal gepostet hatte (das war glaube ich im Cole & Hitch Unterforum).

Die Aussage hört sich schon beängstigend an. Hatte er etwa eine Vision oder Vorahnung das so etwas in der Art geschehen wird.  ???

War insgesamt gesehen ein seltsames Interview mit ihm. Hat mir in der Gesamtheit nicht so zugesagt. Parker wirkte irgendwie lustlos und unhöflich. Sein Verhalten dem Interviewer gegenüber wirkte schon barsch. Dabei waren die Fragen doch interessant. Seine anderen Interviews gefielen mir weit besser als dieses.

Kann nicht nachvollziehen warum der Herr ihn als "Real Gentleman" bezeichnete (wohl aus Höflichkeit)  :hmm:

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Habe hier noch ein weiteres Interview gefunden, hier kommt er sympathischer rüber:

https://web.archive.org/web/20020513032145/http://thecolumnists.com/miller/miller57.html

Ja, fand auch, dass er auf die Fragen recht barsch und knapp reagierte.

Die anderen Interviews die ich hier vorgestellt habe, sind besser. Da antwortete er viel ausführlicher und war generell besser gelaunt.

Hier hatte er wohl keine Lust, so kam es mir jedenfalls vor.

Stimmt, der Unterschied zu den anderen Interviews ist auffällig.

Habe noch ein weiteres Parker-Interview auf einer verschollenen, heute nicht mehr existierenden Seite gefunden:

https://web.archive.org/web/20080123114508/http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/fivepages.shtml

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MysteryNet:  What compelled you to write crime fiction in the first place?

Parker:  I have no idea. Probably reading Raymond Chandler early and often. It wasn't a conscious decision. I remember when it came time to write the first novel, I just sat down and wrote it. I didn't think what shall I do, shall I update, shall I transfer the crime story from Southern California? I just wrote The Godwulf Manuscript. Once you do that and someone buys it and publishes it, you tend to write another one.

The other answer is it's what I know how to do. As I have occasionally demonstrated, I know how to write something else but the market forces tend to make that less appealing as time goes on. The experience with All Our Yesterdays is a case in point. This is not to say I'll never do anything but the series. I have laying around someplace a novel about Wyatt Earpe which I'm about 150 pages into. I don't even have a contract for it. It is just sort of one of my hobbies. Unless fate intervenes that will someday see the light of day. I do so well now that I can do things that aren't profitable.

MysteryNet:  Where did the character Spenser come from?

Parker:  I suppose he came from Marlowe to start with. I think in The Godwulf Manuscript I was trying to be Raymond Chandler and make another Philip Marlowe. I have moved away from Marlowe/Chandler. At least there is a sufficient distance between us. I'd say that is where Spenser came from. I still am a great fan of Raymond Chandler. He's a wonderful writer.

MysteryNet:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a series?

Parker:  The advantage is that it probably replicates, for lack of a better word, real life more than most fiction because most people have a history and know people and come and go and you have a chance to play with the characters and not just the protagonist. It gives you the opportunity to develop--lapsing back into academe for a moment--a whole fictive world. Gee, I love saying that now, just keeping my hand in. Fictive world!

MysteryNet:  Throughout your career you've done single novels outside the series, like All Our Yesterdays. What do they allow you to do?

Parker:  Well, they allow me to write about protagonists who are different than Spenser or to write about people in the third person, which for writers means more than for readers, but the point of view for me is a large element. It's very interesting to me to play with it. I couldn't write a novel dealing with the Irish troubles over three generations like I did in All Our Yesterdays in Spenser's voice. The time management in that novel was the most interesting of all the things I had to do and the most complicated. It's like being able to bench press 300-pounds when I was in my late fifties, I wanted to see if I could.

Love and Glory allowed me to play with boy meets girl, boy gets girl back, in ways once again that Spenser wouldn't permit. Wilderness allowed me to write a protagonist whose courage was severely suspect. By now it would be a little hard for Spenser to suddenly go yellow. I did a third person in the Jesse Stone novel in large part because it will be interesting over the years to work with a third person persistently in a series which I have never done before.

MysteryNet:  Do you have a writing procedure? For instance, do you outline your plots?

Parker:  Yeah, I sit down every day and write five pages on my computer. At some point I found that not outlining worked better than outlining. The outline had become something of a limitation more than it was a support. When I did the Raymond Chandler book, Poodle Springs, which was in the late eighties, I was trying to do it as Chandler did it, and since Chandler didn't outline then I thought I won't outline. If you read Chandler closely you can see that he didn't outline. What the hell happened to that chauffeur? I would recommend to the beginning writer that they should outline because they probably don't have enough self-confidence yet. But I've been writing now since 1971 and I know that I can think it up. I know it will come.

MysteryNet:  What do you think that you do best?

Parker:  I guess probably I am the great economist. I don't waste much in the way of language. Was it Harold Pinter that they called the great compressionist? I would lay claim to that in my own area of expertise. It is probably what I do best. Say a lot in a little. Put the most meaning in the fewest words.

MysteryNet:  Your prose is among the smoothest in crime fiction.

Parker:  I have heard that. I don't read about myself. I don't read reviews. I will not read this interview, however telling it may be, and I don't look at tapes of myself on the Today Show or when I'm on Larry King. My wife Joan keeps track of what's being said in the press, but she doesn't tell me unless she thinks I need to know. I like that old Hemingway line. If you believe the good stuff they write about you then you have to believe the bad. I've chosen not to pay attention.

MysteryNet:  You recently edited The Best of American Mystery Stories. How is the state of the American mystery story?
 
Parker:  I think the state of the mystery story is probably quite good. There are a lot of good writers doing it and the environment is acceptable. It is a good time when good writers can write detective stories without feeling they are debasing themselves. It used to drive Chandler crazy that he didn't get more respect because he wrote mystery stories. and his anger was probably justifiable because he was better than people gave him credit for.

Duke Ellington, I think, once said there are two kinds of music: good and bad. Duke preferred good. Well, I think you could say that about literature.

MysteryNet:  So you would see little difference between mainstream fiction and crime fiction?

Parker:  Not at its best. There is nothing going on in a Spenser novel that would prevent me from writing something as good as "The Bear," except that there is a limit on my ability. The form doesn't limit me, my ability limits me. My imagination is not as large as Faulkner's. The difference between Small Vices and let's say The Great Gatsby is once again a difference in quality not of subject matter. Gatsby is after all rather a mystery story, or a detective story, and if you could change Nick Caraway to a detective what would have been the difference? That's my rap on the difference between one kind and another. I don't think there is. It's good or it's not good; or it's better or it's worse.

MysteryNet:  Most of your books deal in various ways with social issues. Is the crime novel inherently a social kind of fiction?

Parker:  It probably is inherent because the detective novel is embedded in the fabric of the culture in so many ways. Because the detective story at the most elementary level is about human interaction, somebody kills somebody, somebody steals something belonging to somebody else, and another person tries to find out about it and because the focus of the search is into the culture and into the community and into the social fabric, it allows the protagonist to move across the full range of society. It gives you the opportunity for social criticism, in ways a novel which was not about this search for this hidden truth might not necessarily happen to.

MysteryNet:  In what ways are the Spenser books playing off the traditions of the hard-boiled detective story? For example how is he different from Marlowe?

Parker:  Well, Spenser has a love life, has a context, and has friends. He's not unhappy and he's not isolated. He doesn't say get me off this frozen star, as Marlowe does in one of the books. The loneliness is the price Marlowe pays for his integrity. Spenser is able to maintain it in context unlike Marlowe who has to remain separate in order to remain pure. I suppose that more than anything else separates them.

MysteryNet:  Did your doctoral thesis which included material on Hammett and Chandler influence your own writing?

Parker:  No. It's the other way round. I wrote the doctoral dissertation because I'd already done all of the reading. I had read all that stuff and everything around it by the time I was twelve, fourteen-years-old. The pulp magazines were still flourishing in my childhood, and I was very taken with it all. So that when it came time to do a doctoral dissertation I thought, since I've done all the reading in this area, why not write on it?.

It took me two weeks to write my doctoral dissertation, which is what it was worth. It was about the right amount of time. It's not terribly good, but it was sufficient to get me a Ph.D. and free me from the toils of freshman comp. The fact that I wrote this doctoral dissertation and then became who I am is far less significant than it would appear. I would have been exactly who I am had I not written that doctoral dissertation. But while I am not pro academic, I found getting the Ph.D. very useful and one of the most productive and enriching things I ever did.

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Bester Satz von Parker: I don't read this interview.  :totlach:

Das er noch nie Reviews von seinen Romanen gelesen hat, kann ich mir nur schwer vorstellen. Wollte er nie erfahren, was andere Leute über seine Werke denken?

Auf jeden Fall ein gutes Interview in dem Parker mal ausfürlich, statt kurz und knapp, die Fragen beantwortet hat.

Wirklich interessantes Interview.
Vielleicht hat er es tatsächlich so gehandhabt, dass er Joan hat lesen und entscheiden lassen, was er davon wissen muss.

Möglich wäre es. Ich kann es mir vorstellen, aber finde es dennoch unüblich. Ich habe jedes Review zu unseren Alben gelesen und ich denke mal, dass es die meisten Schriftsteller auch so gehandhabt haben. Parker war da wohl echt eine Ausnahme.

Ich fand es auch sehr interessant! Hervorheben muss ich die Antwort auf die vorletzte Frage, wo er auch von Spenser's Privatleben spricht und wo er Spenser mit Marlowe verglichen hat - wie wir vor einigen Tagen in einem anderen Thread.

Sehr geniale Interviews!!!!!!

Interessant finde ich immer wieder, dass viele Romanautoren selbst nicht gerne lesen....klar, kann ich andererseits auch verstehen :D Aber habe ich jetzt schon mehrfach gelesen / gehört.

Habe ich auch schon von mehreren Autoren gehört. Parker schrieb in dem einen Interview weiter oben ja, das er zwar schon gerne gelesen hat, aber wenn dann bevorzugte er wohl Sachliteratur. Zumindest hört sich das so an, wenn er sagt "I don't read much fiction".

Aber Elmore Leonhard mochte er ja...kann ich verstehen - muß da gleich an "Justified" denken :D

Auf einer nicht mehr-existierenden Seite namens Bankrate habe ich noch ein Interview mit Bob gefunden, was noch nicht gepostet wurde. Hier ist es:

Bankrate: It hardly seems possible that your first Spenser novel was published 30 years ago. You were teaching then at Northeastern University in Boston. How did your academic colleagues respond to your fiction debut back then? Was it considered imprudent (or worse) to work in the mystery genre? Did you have a plan B if you had not been published?

Parker: My colleagues had long since decided I was not appropriately academic. But, since I was a tenured professor, it wasn't of much concern what they thought. Once I was published, several others attempted a novel. Most failed. I had no plan B. Hell, I didn't even have a plan A, I was just feeling my way along. Still am.

Bankrate: When did you know you had hit "the big time" where you had to count the zeros on the paycheck or pinch yourself? Were you prepared to handle sudden good fortune, i.e., with some sort of investment strategy? What has been your general approach to managing your money?

Parker: I'd say the first book to break out was "Looking for Rachel Wallace" (1980). The first best-seller was "Valediction" (1984). I judge success two ways: Is it good in my judgment (I don't read reviews) and do I make money with it? The two standards are not incompatible, but neither are they inevitable. If the book doesn't make any money, however, the impact on my wife and children is greater than it is if the book fails artistically. Until I had money to invest, I had no investment plan. Now I do. My accountant supervises a couple of different investment procedures for me. I have made money buying (sometimes rehabbing) and selling homes. But basically I let other people invest it for me.
Bankrate: Spenser always has a healthy suspicion of wealth and the wealthy in your books, a trend that continues (and rightly so) in your new one, "Bad Business," in which the Kinergy Corp. looks an awful lot like Enron. Do you follow the ins and outs of corporate scandals? What appeals (or doesn't appeal) to you about that world from a writer's point of view?

Parker: I read a couple of books about Enron, and a couple of books about other financial huggermugger. What has fascinated me is the aimless venality of it all. After you have more money than you need, why keep dealing from the bottom?

Bankrate: Was it difficult to adjust to sudden wealth yourself? Do you take an active part in managing your money? Does money in general interest you? Bore you? Why?

Parker: My wife and sons were able to adjust promptly. I am neither better nor worse for it. It allows me to give it to the people I love (above named wife and sons). Which I do. I let others manage the money, though I am not unaware of what they're doing. Money is a means to an end. It neither interests me nor bores me, any more than say gasoline does.

Bankrate.com: What areas or interests did your success with Spenser open up for you, professionally and/or in your free time? Do you feel you would have been more, less, or just as happy had you been forced to employ plan B? What would you be doing now?

Parker: Spenser got me into the TV and film business and that has been interesting, as long as I don't really need it. My happiness depends primarily on Joan and my sons, beyond that I need to have a job that allows me autonomy. Few jobs give better autonomy than staying home and typing.

Bankrate: You have been extremely successful on television, with numerous screen adaptations of your work over the years, yet it's not a medium you particularly enjoy. What has been the secret behind Spenser's success on the small screen? What's the biggest reason you prefer not to write for the screen?

Parker: I guess people like Spenser and keep hoping the TV version will be like him. Screen writing is a collaborative business and I'm not a collaborative guy.

Bankrate: Do you foresee a day when you'll stop writing and do the R word? Do you plan to write a "Spenser RIP"? Has your motivation to write changed from what started you on this journey in the first place?

Parker: I won't retire. I'll keep writing until I can't, or no one will read me. I do not have, nor do I anticipate a "Spenser RIP." My motivation hasn't changed.

Quelle:

https://web.archive.org/web/20041010200233/http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20040412a1.asp

Danke :danke:, das Interview ist ja total super :freu: :freu:.

Den letzten Part fand ich am interessantesten. Wir hatten ja mal über ein mögliches Ende der Reihe diskutiert und waren da sehr gespalten. Parker hatte ja eine klare Meinung zu einem Spenser RIP. Das hat er so in der Form nie geäußert, aber das zeigt ja auch wie sehr er selbst an der Figur gehangen hat.

Aber auch die anderen Antworten waren spannend zu lesen, war froh das Interview entdeckt zu haben!!

So sehr, wie Parker an seiner Figur "Spenser" gehangen hat, konnte ich mir auch nicht vorstellen, dass er ihn mal sterben lassen wollte.
Echt intereesant, sien Verhältnis und seine Einstellung zu Geld.

Fand ja den letzten Satz bei der Antwort auf die finanzielle Frage klasse. Das klang sehr ehrlich und ich fand es spannend zu lesen das die Seite ihm mal andere Fragen gestellt hat. So was las man nicht oft.

Ja, durch die anderen Fragesteller aus dem Finanzbereich wurden in dem Interview mal ganz andere, untypische Bereiche angesprochen.

Ja, war richtig originell und hat mir gut gefallen!

Was ich bisher vergessen habe vorzustellen, waren Fanfragen die Parker auf der Homepage von A&E anlässlich der Mantegna-Filme beantwortet hatte.

https://web.archive.org/web/20021221094644/http://www.aande.com/tv/shows/vices/messageboards.html

1. Title: Questions
Author: Edster
Date: Sun Jul 18th 8:41 AM 1999

Mr. Parker,
In your latest effort we started to learn more about Hawk's childhood, can we expect more? It would be interesting to see how Hawk became Hawk. I find it hard to believe his mother named him Hawk. Is there one book in the series that you are especially fond of? Thank you for your time, and, of course, characters.

Robert Parker: I have no master plan. Until I started to write it I didn't know what I was going to say about Hawk. There won't be a lot more about Hawk, though. Being a white Irish guy from Boston, I only really can see Hawk through Spenser's eye. I am equally fond of all the books in the Spenser series (I think a non-Spenser book -- All Our Yesterdays -- is my best work).

2. Title: Spencer
Author: Parker
Date: Sun Jul 18th 10:16 PM 1999
Sir,
Do you plot as you go, or do you outline your story first? Thanks for the great stories. They are movies of the mind to me.

RP: I don't outline. When I began I did, but eventually the outline became more limitation than support and I gave it up. Now I don't know what I'm going to write each day until I begin. Since I've been doing this for more than 25 years and since I have written 30 something books, I have developed the confidence that it will come every day. So far it has.

3. Author: Smokin Jo
Date: Mon Jul 19th 12:30 AM 1999
Who are your favorite authors and who has inspired you?

RP: My favorite authors include Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner. In those more in my line of work, I greatly admire Raymond Chandler, and Elmore Leonard. I am inspired in my writing as in all things by Joan Parker (as always, the girl of my dreams). Beyond that if you do this for a living you can't wait around for inspiration. My accountant sometimes inspires me by pointing out how much I owe the government each quarter.

4. Title: Where do your ideas for plots come from?
Author: Charles
Date: Mon Jul 19th 12:43 AM 1999
Are any of your plots/stories based on real incidents? Do you do any research as your write your stories? Please comment. I thought the movie Small Vices was wonderful. Thanks for many hours of entertainment.
Charles

RP: First, thank you for the kind words on the movie -- I thought it was pretty good myself. No, in any conscious way, my novels are not based on real incidents. I don't do research. I write only about things that I know enough about not to require research -- the exception being All Our Yesterdays (see answer to Edster above).

5. Title: Pearl the Wonder Dog
Author: PJ Ryan
Date: Mon Jul 19th 2:14 AM 1999
Joe Montegna and company did a tremendous job of delivering the smart dialogue that so defines Robert B. Parker's characters. Thanks for faithfully portraying that. Do I recognize the author's dog masquerading as Pearl?

RP: No it wasn't my Pearl, though the resemblance is striking. The movie Pearl was played by a dog named Brunswick. The real Pearl was home sleeping on the couch at the time. What you did see, if you looked closely, was the author masquerading as Ives (or maybe masquerading as an actor). You also saw the author's son, Daniel T. Parker, playing Farrell, the gay cop guarding Susan.

6. Title: 3 weeks in Spring
Author: Eric Pregosin
Date: Sun Jul 18th 11:59 AM 1999
I have enjoyed all your books, but (have not been able to find) one. Where can i find a copy of your first non-Spenser book you wrote with your wife, Three Weeks In Spring?

RP: Three Weeks in Spring is out of print. Your only hope is the library, rare books dealer, or such. If you buy it from a rare book dealer you will pay far more than the cover price.

7. Title: Question for Mr. Parker
Author: S. H.
Date: Sun Jul 18th 6:19 PM 1999
Mr. Parker, what is the best piece of advice you can give to an aspiring writer?

RP: Advice -- write it and send it to someone who can publish it. There isn't anything else to do. What you need to do in service of that advice is to find the way to write. Decide how much time each day you need, and then figure out how to get that time, and figure out a way to support yourself while you're writing.

8. Title: Based on real people?
Author: Lyn
Date: Sun Jul 18th 11:10 PM 1999
Dear Mr. Parker,
Please allow me to tell you first of all how much I enjoy Spencer. I was first introduced to the character as a kid in high school through the television series. I wondered if you based Spencer and Hawk on actual people? Thanks for the years of enjoyment.
Lyn Wilson

RP: No, neither Spenser nor Hawk is based on any real person.

9. Title: Keeping up with Mr. Parker?
Author: T. Rowe
Date: Sun Jul 18th 11:22 PM 1999
Is there a web page that keep us Robert B. Parker fans up to date on what he's working on and his latest books?

RP: Web page? I don't know. I've heard that there is, but I'm not much of an internet guy, and I've not seen it. My publisher, Penguin Putnam, Inc. maintains a Web page, I think.

10. Title: Other movies?
Author: Mistie A. Partin
Date: Mon Jul 5th 10:45 PM 1999
Dear Mr. Parker,
As an avid fan of both you and your creation, "Spenser," I couldn't help but be curious. Are there any plans in the works to make any of the other books into movies? My best to you and Joan.
Your faithful fan,
Mistie A. Partin

RP: It is our intention to make a number of Spenser movies for A&E;, as well as a number of Jesse Stone (Night Passage, Trouble in Paradise) movies for A&E.; There is also a feature film planned of my novel Family Honor, which will be out September 6. It is about a woman detective named Sunny Randall, and Helen Hunt intends to play her. Plans are to being shooting next year (fall, 2000).

Klasse, vielen Dank dafür :danke:

"I'm not much of an internet guy", das hat der Bob schön gesagt :).

Aus dem angekündigten Sunny Randall Film mit Helen Hunt ist ja leider nichts geworden.

Aber gerne doch.  :)

Bob hätte zu dem Zeitpunkt bestimmt nicht damit gerechnet, das er später mal einen Blog ins Leben rufen würde.

Das mit dem Rat an angehende Schreiberlinge fand ich auch kurz und knackig. Ich glaube, da kann man nicht viele Tipps geben.

Richtig tolle Antworten, aber vieles wussten wir natürlich schon bzw. haben das an anderer Stelle mal gelesen.

Hat mir aber gut gefallen, dass er die Fragen ernst genommen hat und auch gut darauf eingegangen ist.

War ja nicht immer so, siehe auf Seite 1 dieses Topics. Fand es daher auch gut, das er ausführlich auf die Fanfragen eingegangen ist.

Habe übrigens noch ein weiteres Interview auf einer nicht mehr existierenden Seite gefunden. Poste ixh demnächst auch. Muss das Lesezeichen im Browser erst wieder finden.  :D

Supi, ich freu mich drauf :freu:!

Hier ist es, bzw. genauer gesagt sind es zwei.  :) 

TBR: Today is the publication date for HUGGER MUGGER, which by my count is the 30th Spenser novel. When you wrote THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT --- the first of your novels to feature Spenser --- did you have any idea that almost 30 years later you and Spenser would be major literary icons?

RP: I don't think you could say I was surprised. I really didn't know enough about publishing to know what to expect. I knew the book was good; and the publisher thought it was good. By the time I turned it in I had already started another one (GOD SAVE THE CHILD). I really didn't know what was going to happen but I felt good about the book and good about the character and knew that I could continue writing about Spenser

TBR: HUGGER MUGGER brings Spenser to a very un-Spenser-like environment. Has horse racing been a long-term passion of yours, or was this an area you had to research to become familiar with?

RP: Actually, I've had no passion at all for thoroughbred racing. Approximately 10 years ago my agent, who is part owner of a thoroughbred stable, had an idea for a book which would be about horse breeding and racing. She thought it would be ideal for Joan and me, since we knew nothing about horse racing and would bring a fresh perspective to the topic. The result of this was that Joan and I went around the racing circuit and wrote a book entitled A YEAR AT THE RACES which, unfortunately, was promoted very poorly and sank beneath the notice of the book buying public. There were a couple of benefits from the project, however. One was that by luck we were able to observe the development of an extremely talented yearling colt named Summer Squall, who within a year won several awards and ultimately was named Horse of the Year. The other, of course, was HUGGER MUGGER. Joan suggested to me one day, "Why don't you use all that research into thoroughbred racing in a book?" And I did!

TBR: Was there a specific model for the Three Fillies Stables in HUGGER MUGGER?

RP: No, not at all. HUGGER MUGGER, the horse in the book, was modeled after Summer Squall, but that's where any comparison between fiction and reality ends

TBR: One of my favorite passages in HUGGER MUGGER was that in which the reader saw, through Spenser's eyes, the city of San Francisco. He --- or rather, you --- captured the essence of the city in a brief sentence or two.

RP: Just doing what I'm supposed to do! That's why I get paid the big bucks!

TBR: Do you have any plans for a Spenser novel set entirely in San Francisco?

RP: No, I really have no plan as such. I really don't know what I am going to do in terms of what a book is going to be about until I actually start writing it! I don't know what the next Spenser book will be about since I haven't started it yet. I'm not ruling out having Spenser visit San Francisco for an extended period. I would have to spend some additional time there myself to know the city better, however.

TBR: Which of the novels that you have written is your personal favorite?

RP: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS was unquestionably the best work I have ever done. And the reading public stayed away in droves. The publisher thought it would be huge, I was proud of it, other writers enjoyed it; but it is a fact that what interests other writers does not always interest the reading public. One of the more interesting episodes concerning ALL OUR YESTERDAYS was that CBS picked up the option for the film rights to it. When the first draft of the script came in, one of the higher-ups in production said, "What are all of these Irish guys doing in here?" She, needless to say, was somewhat unfamiliar with the book.

TBR: Have you ever considered writing any short stories, whether involving Spenser or not?

RP: Only once. Playboy at one point solicited me for a short story. I told them that I did not do short stories, that short stories did not work for me, or for Spenser, but they persisted. They offered good pay, an autographed picture of Hefner, that type of thing. So I wrote a short story, featuring Spenser, titled "Surrogate." And Playboy rejected it! It eventually was published but that has been the only time I have really considered doing a short story.

TBR: Which of your novels would you most like to see adapted to film?

RP: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS. By the time a book gets to film, however, it's theirs, not mine. The exception to this is the A&E adaptations. I have artistic control over those and write the scripts. And there will be more of those. THIN AIR will be shown in September, and LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE will be on next year.

TBR: FAMILY HONOR, which is the first, and hopefully not the last, of the Sunny Randall novels, has been adapted for film. Did you have any input into the adaptation and, if so, to what extent?

RP: I have no input at all. They give me the money, I give them the book. Having input into the adaptation would be kind of like selling a house and coming back three years later and saying, "Paint it this color!"

TBR: Could you tell us a little about Pearl Productions, and what projects are current being worked on?

RP: Nothing of great consequence, really. We have sponsored some local theater, as well as a dramatic presentation and a concert presented by my sons in San Francisco and Boston, respectively.

TBR: What is your academic background?

RP: I received my B.A. From Colby College in Waterville, Maine. I earned my Master in English from Boston University in 1957. I began teaching in 1962 and also began studying for my Ph.D. in literature which I obtained from Boston University in 1971. One of the reasons that I was working for a Ph.D. was that I had been advised that a professor's position at a university would give me time to write! I had heard about the nine hour workweeks and, when I ultimately acquired the doctorate and obtained a professorship, I found that to be true. When I made the decision to resign from my teaching position Joan said, "Why resign? You only have to teach on Wednesdays!" and my response was "Yes! But it's EVERY Wednesday!"

TBR: Your doctoral thesis concerned the evolution of the American Hero commencing with the colonial period and ending with 20th Century mystery writers ---including, of course, Raymond Chandler. Who in your opinion, was the first American Hero?

RP: Natty Bumpo, in THE DEERSLAYER by James Fenimore Cooper.

TBR: And why?

RP: He was really the first one who made it all work. There have, of course, been many others since that time

TBR: In addition to the Spenser novels, you have written two novels featuring Philip Marlowe; two novels featuring Jesse Stone; and the recent FAMILY HONOR, involving Sunny Randall. Do you have plans in the future for novels involving any of these protagonists, or new creations, in addition to Spenser?

RP: There will be a new Sunny Randall book, PERISH TWICE, in November of this year. That will be followed by a new Spenser novel. I plan on alternating that way for a while, writing two books a year.

TBR: What are you working on now?

RP: PERISH TWICE. I am about a third of the way toward completion of it. I unfortunately got a bit behind recently. I went into the hospital in January of this year for a major, though routine, surgical procedure. There was a major complication during the surgery, unfortunately. If not for the fact that Boston has many brilliant medical specialists, I might not be here today. I was in intensive care for several days and, in fact, am still near the end of my recovery. My wife and sons were all there during the course of my hospitalization; if there was any benefit for me from the experience it was seeing that my sons were everything that I would want my adult children to be. They were very supportive of their mother, unintimidated by the doctors. I couldn't have asked for better.

TBR: Could you share your work habits with us?

RP: I normally get up around 8 AM. I eat breakfast, read the newspaper, and read and answer e-mail. I start writing between 10 and 11 AM and write five pages per day. I'll then eat a light lunch, take an hour nap, and work on a screenplay in the afternoon. I need long, uninterrupted periods to write --- I can't write in short bursts, although Joan can. I'll then go down to the gym and work out. I should note that another of the benefits of my recent surgery was that I lost 40 pounds! Now if I can just keep it off...one of my doctors told me that what really saved my life was my lifestyle --- I work out regularly, and do not smoke or drink.

TBR: You have on any number of occasions acknowledged the influence of Raymond Chandler upon your career. You are now at the point where you may well be even more of an influence upon the genre than Chandler, especially as applicable to writers trying to break into the genre. Do you have any advice for new writers?

RP: No, not really...well, actually, two things. First of all, find a way to produce. As I described earlier, having a Ph.D. and a professorship position gave me long uninterrupted hours to write! Secondly, when you have finished writing it, send it to someone who can publish it. Don't send it to me! And don't show it to your writers' group where everyone can tell you how good or bad it is. Send it to someone who can publish it. And if they won't publish it, send it to someone else who can publish it! And keep sending it! Of course, if no one will publish it, at that point you might want to think about doing something other than writing.

TBR: Besides Chandler, what other authors have influenced you?

RP: Actually, I've been influenced on two levels. The first level was the pulp magazines, which I read the way kids today watch television, read comics, or play video games. In addition to authors like Chandler and Hammett and Rex Stout, there were many wonderful writers that nobody has ever heard of. The second level consisted of authors such as Hemingway.

TBR: You have been quoted as saying that you will keep writing Spenser novels as long as people want them. Is there really any doubt that Spenser fans will keep reading, and rereading, your novels as long as you wish to keep writing them?

RP: That sounds like a good arrangement to me. I plan to keep writing until I die. Retirement has no attraction for me. Sitting around on the beach drives me crazy! I think what disturbed me most about my recent medical problems was that I was unable to be as productive as I would have liked. I am pretty much back up to speed, however; Joan says I must be getting better because my whine is louder and stronger.

TBR: Not to be morbid, but have you written the last Spenser novel, to be published after your death?

RP: Oh no! That's not fair to the reader at all. Spenser will live forever, at least as long as people want to remember him, and me. And I don't want to work hard on a book that is not going to be published in my lifetime. I want the money now! And, of course, I want to see the book published.

TBR: Last of all: will you ever reveal Spenser's first name?

RP: No, and for a very good reason --- I don't know what it is myself!

Hier das zweite Interview: (wegen der Zeichenbegrenzung musste ich es auf zwei Beiträge stückeln)

TBR: We last spoke about six months ago; you were making a slow but steady recovery from some medical difficulties. As we're sitting here now in August 2000, what is your status healthwise?

RBP: I'm at a hundred percent. I lost fifty pounds. And while that was due to my surgery, I am back to lifting weights and have been able to keep from gaining back the weight that I lost. I am right now in the best shape of my life.

TBR: You had also mentioned that your regular writing regimen was three hours in the morning on one book, then three hours in the afternoon on the other. Are you back to that schedule as yet?

RBP: Oh yes. I write 5 pages on each; I am writing a new Spenser in the morning, and in the afternoon I am working on a couple of screenplays.

TBR: The names "Spenser" and "Parker" are synonymous in the minds of the reading public; small wonder, since you've been writing Spenser novels for an ever expanding readership for close to 30 years now. Accordingly there are some who consider it close to blasphemy that you would spend time and energy creating another character. On October 2, however, PERISH TWICE, the second Sunny Randall novel, will be published. What was the impetus for creating a new, recurring character whose novels would alternate with the Spenser novels?

RBP: Well, there are two recurring characters, actually, those being Jesse Stone (NIGHT PASSAGE, TROUBLE IN PARADISE) as well as Sunny Randall. I created these two, relatively new characters for different reasons. I started writing the Jesse Stone novels because I realized that at this point in my career it takes me three to four months to write a Spenser novel and as a result I have a lot of time on my hands. I decided to do a work in the third person narrative, which I had not done for a while, and which would feature a character who was a bit younger than Spenser and who was not quite so Spenser-like. As far as Sunny Randall is concerned, my motive, purely and simply was greed.

TBR: Greed works! It's a great motivator!

RBP: Yes! What happened was that Joan and I were in Los Angeles in 1997. I received a call from John Calley, the CEO of SONY Pictures, who wanted to know if I would be interested in listening to a proposal. It seemed that Helen Hunt wanted a female Spenser-type character to be used as a vehicle for her production company for one or more movies. Joan and I met with John, Helen, and Amy Pascal, who was President of Columbia Pictures at the time, in John's office on the old MGM lot in what used to be Louie Meyer's office. I won't pretend that Joan and I are so sophisticated that we were not impressed by being picked up in a limousine and transported to a movie lot which is full of history and sitting in on a meeting like that! Anyway, I entered into an agreement with Ms. Hunt's production company, and Sunny Randall was created soon thereafter. I wrote FAMILY HONOR and a film based on the book is in the planning stage, though I am not entirely sure what is happening with it at this point. My publisher, however, liked FAMILY HONOR and asked for more. The result of that is PERISH TWICE. What I will be doing is writing a new Spenser novel annually, to be published each spring. I will alternate in the fall between a Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone novel. This year it will be Sunny Randall in PERISH TWICE; I'll publish a new Jesse Stone novel in fall 2001.
 
TBR: PERISH TWICE is an extremely impressive work for a number of reasons. You have, in an amazingly short space of time --- two novels, however that measures out --- managed to create a character who stands quite well on her own. While the character has some similarities to Spenser --- a private investigator, based in Boston --- I never had the feeling that I was reading a Spenser novel. I felt like I was reading a Parkernovel about a female detective, without hearing any echo of Spenser in the background. Did you have much difficulty in submerging Spenser during the course of writing PERISH TWICE?

RBP: Oh yes! I certainly did. I am extremely fortunate, however, to have married the girl of my dreams. Joan was a great help. She read through PERISH TWICE and FAMILY HONOR and would tell me such things as "A woman wouldn't say it like that," or "A woman wouldn't dress that way at that type of function," things that I knew absolutely nothing about and still know nothing about! I think at this stage in my life I have learned that there are any number of things that men will never know, and can never hope to know, about women.

TBR: It has already been well-established that you write books about men quite well. What is established with PERISH TWICE is that you write about women quite well, also. While Sunny finds herself involved in a murder investigation, she also is, with some admitted reluctance, helping her difficult sister with her domestic problems and providing a shoulder to cry on for her longtime friend, while maintaining a relationship in development with her ex-husband. Some of these elements are, I think, more likely to be found in what is called with some accuracy a "chick book;" yet, I never got a sense of that in PERISH TWICE. As each scenario occurred, it wasn't emphasized as anything other than an aspect of the life of a private investigator who happens to be a woman. How did you manage to strike such a balance with Sunny Randall in PERISH TWICE?

RBP: I can't really answer that, but I'll give it a shot. I've had a lifetime of answering questions I couldn't really answer. But here it is: I have known an interesting, sexy, independent woman for some 50 years and have had many opportunities to observe her in many different situations. And one of the many things I have learned during the course of our relationship is that ultimately the things that separate women from men are less significant than the things that we have in common with each other. So what I have done in PERISH TWICE and FAMILY HONOR is to keep in mind that Sunny Randall is not Spenser, and is not a man, but is a woman, and proceed from there. I have also learned at this stage to relax. The writing comes a lot easier --- and this is advice that I would give to a beginning writer --- when you're relaxed. Relax, and don't get yourself too tense. 

TBR: The ending to PERISH TWICE was quite unique and interesting. I really don't want to give any of it away --- at all, so let me ask this: besides Ritchie, Sunny's ex-husband, Spike and Julie, Sunny's friends, and Elizabeth, her sister, will we be seeing any of the characters from PERISH TWICE in the future?

RBP: I don't know! I have no master plan. I mean, I probably will; I have brought back other characters before in the Spenser books, and some of the characters from the Spenser novels pop up in PERISH TWICE. So it could happen. It's actually harder in some ways to plan ahead that way, especially for a beginning writer. But I don't really plan it far ahead at all. I have reached the point where I know that as long as I sit down to write, the ideas will come. What they will be, I don't know. 

TBR: Which, of course, keeps the readers guessing, too.

RBP: Absolutely. 

TBR: On another topic, you have a pretty ambitious book tour starting on October 3 in which you cover both of the coasts and make a good stab at covering all areas in between. Did you have any input in setting this up? 

RBP: No; I could have had all of the input I wanted, but I really didn't want to be responsible for setting the whole thing up. And I can always say yes or no. But it's part of the process of selling books, going from city to city and signing books and meeting the readers, so I still do it. One thing I do insist upon now is travel days between cities. Back in the old days, when I was first beginning all of this I was in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle --- on the same day. I later contacted the people who set up the tour and advised them that Minneapolis and Seattle were not the twin cities! 

TBR: Are there any plans for a film version of PERISH TWICE?

RBP: There is no option on it as yet. There would be some legal difficulties, I imagine, if someone wanted to make a film of it without Helen Hunt. But nothing has happened with it as yet. THIN AIR, the Spenser novel, has been adapted for film and was on the A & E Network on September 12, and will no doubt be rerun. THIN AIR, the movie, by the way, features almost the entire Parkerfamily. Joan plays a doctor in the movie; my son Dan, an actor by profession, plays a priest; and I can be seen for a few moments as a cop asleep in a police station. The script indicated that there was a "fat cop" asleep in the police station; I changed that to "handsome cop!" 

TBR: Do you have plans for any novels or nonfiction in the future which deal with characters other than Spenser or Sunny Randall?

RBP: I do, but whether I will get along with those projects before I die, who knows? I have so many contractual obligations that I honestly don't know if I could squeeze in any additional work.

TBR: Would these be fiction or nonfiction?

RBP: Fiction. I would like to do a novel involving Wyatt Earp. I have another idea for a novel about Jackie Robinson. I have written a short story involving Jackie Robinson which will be published this year in a sports mystery anthology. But I don't know if or when I'll be able to develop any of them.

TBR: One last question: what books have you read in the past six months that you would recommend to your readers?

RBP: Besides PERISH TWICE?! I don't read fiction, other than the new Elmore Leonard novels. Right now, I'm reading REMBRANDT'S EYES, by Simon Schama. I recently read Jonathan Lear's book, OPEN MINDED, as well as THE GREAT DISRUPTION by Francis Fukuyama.

TBR: All right! As always, it has been a pleasure. Thank you! And the best of health to you in the future.

RBP: Thank you!

Quelle: https://web.archive.org/web/20041009193842/http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-parker-robert.asp#view040400

Wieder sehr interessant und aufschlussreich, vielen Dank dafür :danke:!

Ist immer wieder interessant zu lesen, dass Parker wirklich immer davon ausging, dass seine Figur Spenser ihn überleben würde...

Das waren, ohne zu übertreiben, die zwei besten Interviews von & mit Parker die ich gelesen habe. Da kam er wirklich sxmpathisch und freundlich rüber und hat auch sehr ausführlich auf die Fragen geantwortet. Das war nicht immer so und sehr spannend fand ich seine Antworten bezüglich des Rennstalls. Da waren Dinge dabei, die ich noch nicht wusste, dabei habe ich beide Bücher (Hugger Mugger & A Year At The Races).

Auch das mit Helen Hunt war sehr interessant. Sollte jeder Parker-Fan gelesen haben!

Fand auch, so offen und ehrlich war Parker selten.

Bin auch schwer am überlegen ob ich die beiden Interviews übersetzen soll. Da sind schon Stellen dabei die jeder Fan mal gelesen haben sollte.

Übertreib es mal nicht. Das ist doch ganz schön viel Arbeit und Zeitaufwand, die Mühe brauchst Du doch nicht.

Ich dachte da ja eher an Spenser. Natürlich nur falls Interesse besteht.  :)