Quantum Leap, Perry Mason, and Baseball

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Okay, we LOVE having new guests on Jungle Red. And sometimes we introduce them, with much fanfare and admiration. Sometimes we simply say: take it away, new guest!

But today--something completely different. I was researching Scott Shepherd, whose amazing thriller THE LAST COMMANDMENT is out right now, and I found an article where he was interviewed.

So, then, Reds and Readers, my jaw hit the floor. And I thought--you know? I’ll let my pals here on JRW have the fun of meeting him the same way. (And then read his wonderful post, and see an amazing photo.)

So lean in toward your screen, and read this. Whoa.

“Q. Hollywood can be tough but you’ve had a very successful career running hit shows like The Dead Zone, The Equalizer, Miami Vice and Quantum Leap. How did you end up in the entertainment industry to begin with?

SCOTT SHEPHERD: Like I mentioned, I was raised in a Hollywood family – going back three generations to the 1920’s. My father, Richard Shepherd was a producer (films like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “The Hunger”), an agent (he started CMA), and ran a couple of studios (Warners and MGM). My maternal grandfather, William Goetz started 20th Century Fox, ran Universal and was a prolific producer of films including “Sayonara”.

And his father-in-law, my grandmother’s father, was Louis B. Mayer who made more hits than one could count – so I grew up seeing those kind of stories. With all of them being producers, I wanted to distinguish myself for my own work—thus became a writer.

For my first decade in the business, I didn’t really talk about my family, wanting to be accepted on my own terms. Two dozen TV shows later and four times as many scripts, well, it’s a legacy I’m still trying to embrace but certainly willing to talk about because there are a ton of interesting stories. "

HANK: I know this is NOT the most amazing thing about the above, not by any means, but may I just say--QUANTUM LEAP? One of my favorite shows of all time. Oh. Thank you, Scott.

And now, Reds and readers, here’s more from our amazing guest.

And I’ll give a copy of THE LAST COMMANDMENT to one lucky commenter!


IT’S NOT A RADIO SHOW

by Scott Shepherd

I’ve always loved mystery books and thrillers. It started with my paternal grandmother bringing me a couple of Hardy Boy books on her twice-a-year visits to California from Kansas City. I gobbled them up and always loved the last page which teed up their next adventure – “Frank and Joe didn’t know it but soon they’d be caught up in The Mystery of the Old Mill.”

Scott's actual books!

This led to reading Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason books and then Ross MacDonald where I completely embraced this art form. Decades later I’ve collected close to ten thousand of them, always intending to write a series of my own.

But you might say I got derailed by television.

No real complaints. In three decades plus, I’ve worked on over two dozen series and been the show-runner on half of them. But it didn’t stop me reading the books I adored. And nothing compared to getting to work with writers I admired over the years – Stephen King, Karin Slaughter, and Harlan Coben to name a few—and adapting their tales for television.

As a result, a funny thing happened. Being someone who really never outlined much, as structure was something that came fairly easily (thank you reading tons of detective fiction and plotting out TV dramas), I was suddenly writing thirty to forty page outlines in prose, basically novellas that turned into the scripts we shot.

So, a few years back, encouraged by my novelist friends, I rolled up my sleeves and took a stab at finally writing a book. Two of them actually, that both sold—but neither in my beloved mystery/thriller field. Looking back, I think I was wondering if I could make that transition from television to mainstream fiction before attempting it.

I got enough positive feedback that I finally decided to try my hand at an idea that had been a movie in my head for close to thirty years. And thus, The Last Commandment was born – the first in a series of mystery novels.

Now, with the book being released this July, and its sequel (Till Death) in the pipeline for the summer of 2022, I realize I’ve reached a logical moment in my career—embracing the type of books I’ve read my entire life by learning my craft working on television shows with characters we invited into our homes each week. Much like our favorite authors serve up an annual dish featuring their beloved protagonists to avid readers like myself.

Except there were distinctive differences between the two mediums.

Photo courtesy: Brad Mitchell Cohen

I’ve often said, that if I were to write my autobiography about writing for television, it would be entitled It’s Not a Radio Show.

The first thing I realized about writing a novel was that it is a radio show. Description was suddenly my ally—and part of my job was to utilize all five senses for the reader, not just relying on sight and sound.

Then, there’s football versus baseball. Why suddenly bring up sports, you ask? Because I came to think of writing for television as an NFL game—there’s a timed structure to it. Four quarters, sixty minutes, the game plays out under those strict parameters—much like how a television show is under a similar constraint of time. Your characters have to do something that feels genuine but fits in between commercials or a given limit of minutes.

Novels, on the other hand, resemble a baseball game. It starts when it starts, and ends when it ends.It might be a tight pitcher’s duel that is over before you know it. A slugfest that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Or it might go into extra innings, with a slew of additional pages that keep you wondering when an unexpected denouement will finally occur. Time is actually your friend.

Luckily, I’m a fan of both sports—so there’s room in my life for both.

But I’ll let you in on a little secret. As a lifelong ardent Dodger fan, I’ve been hooked on baseball ever since I was a toddler and saw my idol Sandy Koufax pitch a perfect game. And I’ve had a love affair with the mystery novel for just as long.

It’s always nice when things come full circle.

I know I’d be more than happy if it was baseball season on the radio all year long.


HANK: Oh, you ALL! SO much in here! The Hardy Boys--did you read those? And I grew up watching Perry Mason on TV--my lawyer-dad would not let us say a word while Perry was on. Baseball! Love baseball. (I’m in Boston, after all.)

And so much to learn from television--I would not be an author without having written TV news stories for the past forty years.

And did I mention how much I love Quantum Leap?

So, Reds and Readers, what was your favorite element of his blog? And what should we ask Scott? (Sounds like he knows about exactly the stuff we care about, right?) Pssst: Ask him about Bruce Springsteen.

And a copy of The Last Commandment to one lucky commenter!

***************

Here’s where we usually put a bit about the book and a bio. But instead, I really want you to hear it from Scott himself. So here’s more of that interview. 

Q. How did the idea to write a mystery based on the Ten Commandments (now titled THE LAST COMMANDMENT) come about?

SCOTT: Strangely enough, I’ve had this particular idea in my head for close to thirty years – where it started out as a movie –with two cops (Scotland Yard and NYPD) being fish out water with a really cool girl in between them. I wanted something to drive the story, a puzzle of some sort, and at some point, someone the two of them would go after together – and the Ten Commandments appeared in my head. By the time I decided to turn it into a novel, I didn’t have much more – just the first murder in the book – and well, the last.

Q. Do you base your characters on people you know or are they entirely fictional?

SCOTT: The three characters in this book series are pretty much fictional, but have some aspects that I’ve drawn on from my life. Grant, at 60, has the perspective that I do now at that age – so a lot of what he thinks and feels comes from there.

Also, one of the first TV series I did was “The Equalizer” and the lead in that show, the late Edward Woodward was wonderful and I have to admit that Grant is easy to write for me, because I could so see Edward, god rest his soul, doing it such justice.

Rachel and Frankel on the other hand are a sort of representation of me and my wife’s courtship and relationship back thirty years ago – although neither one of us is a journalist or a cop. But I’ve stolen (or paid homage) from us for sure.

Trace Your Writer DNA

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Have you tried any of the genealogy sites? DNA is one way to figure out where you came from.

But there's another way. A writer DNA test. And the amazing Vanessa Lillie is tracing hers today.

But wait wait wait. Before we do that: Vanessa's new book, her debut LITTLE VOICES, is a spectacular (and chillingly disturbing) study of family, and parental love, and how far someone will go to get what they, and have they life they dreamed of.

DO NOT read this book--unless you are up for a non-stop fabulous page turning experience.

Anyway. The terrific Vanessa Lillie--here we are with Daniela Petrova, who I am also trying to lure here to the Reds page--has been tracing her author roots.

(And read on for a giveaway!)

Rhode Island; Small state, big stories
              by Vanessa Lillie

Rhode Island may be the smallest state, but many big stories have been created here. As a Rhode Island author (as of October 1st when my debut was published), I wanted to share a few highlights from our author card catalog.

Let’s begin in the summer of 1845 with a tragic romance starring Providence Poet Sarah Helen Whitman. Imagine her wearing her beloved coffin shaped necklace and tending her rose garden under a midnight moon.

Along stumbles Edgar Allan Poe, who notices her, a moment passes between them, but he doesn’t stop. Then over six months: she writes a poem about him; and he repurposes an old poem and puts her name on it; letters are exchanged; he boards a train after a nearly deadly dose of laudanum to see her, and recuperates in Providence. A whirlwind engagement includes graveyard walks and meetings at Providence’s Athenaeum Library (pictured).



Poe promises sobriety, and fidelity, and both are (likely) broken leaving Whitman to end the engagement. A few months later Poe is dead, and Whitman continues publishing poems throughout her lifetime. She also writes a biography in defense of Poe who believed had been harshly criticized and mischaracterized by his biographer. (Read more here: https://edgarallanpoeri.com )



Next we go forward about 40 years to a man Stephen King called "the twentieth century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." He’s the creator of the tentacled Cthulhu, Mr. “I AM PROVIDENCE” H.P. Lovecraft. Born in Providence, he lived most of his life here. From an early age, Lovecraft was reading and writing, typically darker stories that reflected a childhood he characterized as difficult (his family home is pictured). His father passed away in a mental institution, and Lovecraft likely suffered from depression most of his life.




He was relatively unknown during his life, but when he wasn’t writing for pulp magazines, he was writing letters to more famous author-friends, called the “Lovecraft Circle,” who borrowed his ideas (with permission) and worked them into their stories. It’s estimated Lovecraft wrote over 100,000 letters in his four decades of life. These friends carried on his name after his death and his prominence rose among horror and weird fiction readers.



While his influence and stories created legions of fans and followers and even an annual convention in Rhode Island, it’s important to note some of Lovecraft’s earliest writings are xenophobic and racist. He was heavily influenced by Poe, and a marker in Swan Point Cemetery for him reads: I AM PROVIDENCE.

Jumping ahead another few decades, we head to the coastal town of Kingstown, Rhode Island where Jhumpa Lahiri came to America from London at the age of three, remaining there until she graduate high school and went onto college.

In an interview with the University of Rhode Island where her father worked as a librarian, she said of growing up in the Ocean State: “From childhood, I always loved the ocean. I felt that being close to the sea is a basic human need. … There’s something so powerful about the element of it, the distinction between the land and the water, the force of the water and what it represents in contrast to the land.”



Rhode Island has made many appearances in Lahiri’s fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award winner, Interpreter of Maladies. Themes of identity, informed by her feeling out-of-place as an Indian-American in a predominately white town, also influenced her best-selling book, The Namesake. Most recently her best-selling book, Lowlands, also takes place partly in Rhode Island.



Returning to thrillers, Edgar and Macavity award winning author Bruce DiSilva set his mystery series in Rhode Island featuring Providence reporter Liam Mulligan. DiSilva was himself a journalist for the Providence Journal and Hartford Courant during his forty year career. In DiSilva’s debut, Rogue Island, Mulligan is investigating a series of arsons in his old working-class neighborhood of Mount Hope in Providence (pictured).



Next is Lisa Gardner, bestselling author of over twenty novels, that include New York Times best-sellers and five adapted for movies. She lived in Rhode Island for several years, and the smallest state had in impact on her writing. For example, her fifth novel, The Survivors Club, focused on a Rhode Island State Police Officer. She did extensive research with local officials on a well-known case where an entire family disappeared from their home in wealthy Barrington, RI.


Gardner was also the keynote speaker at the Rhode Island Authors Expo last year, and I was so pleased to get an opportunity to hear her speak and get a signed copy of her latest book. She also gave me great advice for my debut-day: “Treat yourself. I prefer bling, myself.”

We’ll end with my debut thriller, Little Voices, also set in Rhode Island. The story centers on a new mother who is struggling postpartum, but also determined to solve the murder of a friend.

That terrible crime is in Swan Point Cemetery, near the Seekonk River, where Poe and Whitman often walked on their ill-fated courtship, and likely were engaged there as well (based on her poem about the moment). Not far away is the marker honoring H.P. Lovecraft.

I often walked through Swan Point myself with my newborn son, imaging a story about a new mother solving a crime. And, now that my debut has arrived, I’m honored to join these incredible authors inspired by the smallest state.


HANK: And whoa. Little Voices is truly chilling!

So, reds and readers, who is in YOUR reading or author DNA? In my veins, I'm connected to Sue Grafton, and Edith Wharton, and Shakespeare (a very old connection), Scott Turow, and Mary Willis Walker, and my writing-imaginary-sister Lisa Scottoline. Geographically? Hmm. Boston is: Dennis Lehane. Peter Swanson. Lisa Gardner. Tess Gerritsen. And yeah, gotta say, Robert B. Parker.

How about you?


And a signed copy of LITTLE VOICES to one lucky commenter!

LITTLE VOICES


The voice in her head says he's guilty. She knows he's innocent.

Devon Burges is in the throes of a high-risk birth when she learns of her dear friend's murder. The police quickly name another friend as the chief suspect, but Devon doesn't buy it--and despite her difficult recovery, she decides to investigate.

Haunted by postpartum problems that manifest as a cruel voice in her head, Devon is barely getting by. Yet her instincts are still sharp, and she's bent on proving her friend's innocence.



But as Devon digs into the evidence, the voice in her head grows more insistent, the danger more intense. Each layer is darker, more disturbing, and she's not sure she--or her baby--can survive what lies at the truth.

Vanessa Lillie is originally from Oklahoma, but now lives in Providence, Rhode Island with her husband and dinosaur aficionado four-year-old son. She's smitten with the smallest state, and enjoys organizing book events and literary happenings in the city's robust creative community.


www.vanesslille.com


www.facebook.com/vanessalillieauthor


www.instagram.com/vanessalillie


www.twitter.com/vanessalillie