Being Allowed to Wander: A Conversation with Randy Crew
Randy Crew is the author of the new cozy murder mysteries series, The Four Seasons. It was a pleasure to be able to talk to him about, among other things, his inspiration, his writing life, and his relationship with his characters.
Bradley Sides: First of all, Randy, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions for us over at the AWC. Before we discuss your The Four Seasons series, do you mind sharing your story of how you became a writer?
Randy Crew: Glad to, Bradley. Writing and history were the subjects I consistently did well in during my school years, and throughout my life, I usually kept diaries. In my experience teaching creative writing at a junior college in my later years and participating in many different writer groups over those later years, people who keep diaries are natural writers. Then at Auburn, besides the required physical education courses, I only got an A in a class called “Business and Professional Writing.” Even that class was a challenge because, to this day, I am a terrible speller. So, it wasn’t until I was in my 50s and spell check was invented that I felt it was time to scratch that writing itch. And the itch was to write my first novel, A Killing Shadow. It was only during the four years it took me to write A Killing Shadow, and I was in my 50s then, that I felt like I had become a writer.
BS: You are the author of two previous military action-adventure novels. Your new series shifts into a different territory. What inspired you to turn your focus to this series?
RC: With both A Killing Shadow and One-way Mission, I wanted to leave a written document behind that would belie the myths and untruths told by Hollywood and the media about those of us who were in Vietnam. In those two novels. I told the truth as I knew it—the good, bad, and the ugly—but I did it in a way that would be an engaging, fast-moving action-adventure story with a mystery line, a lot of humor, and drama. Once I got that out of my system, years went by, a granddaughter was born, the itch returned, and I decided it was the time to have fun and write something light and playful—such as cozy murder mysteries—something my son could enjoy now and, in time, my granddaughter could enjoy. She’s already an advanced reader like her daddy was, so it won’t be long.
BS: For you, how does your writing process differ from writing a standalone novel to shaping a series?
RC: Everything I’d read about being a creative writer of novels said a series was more attractive to agents and publishers than a standalone, so those first two novels were intended to be a series. A Killing Shadow is actually two books in one, and One-way Mission is the sequel, the third book in the series. So, I’ve always written with a series in mind.
BS: I’ve mentioned your new series, The Four Seasons. Do you mind sharing with our readers what it’s about—and what they can expect to uncover as they begin it?
RC: Oh, sure, glad to. They are cozy murder mysteries, each one set in a different season of the year, from Halloween 1955 to the summer of 1956. Starting with book 1, the Trick-or-Treat Corpse, retired homicide detective Nathan B. Hawke, from Dallas, Texas, tells the story of his junior high school adventures with the occasional corpse. The reader will discover life in the small town of Southern Pines, North Carolina, a golfing Mecca today, along with Pinehurst, but a sleepy little town in 1955. They’ll also discover a much more civil and respectful time in our country’s history when good manners were important, and children respected their parents and elders. This was also a time when children were allowed to wander, have outdoor adventures without wearing helmets and kneepads, and exercise their imaginations. They could even make mistakes, fall down, get hurt, get back up and press on. I have a counseling background, so I also couldn’t avoid slipping in some life advice, usually administered by Nate’s grandfather, the WWI vet with the mustard-gas-damaged lungs. His advice is usually related to Nate’s relationship with his older sister, the teenager who thinks she’s ready for love, or the village bully who is on Nate’s path to school every morning.
BS: Let’s talk about “Nate,” your protagonist. What inspired him?
RC: As “Nate” explains in the prologue, he had an unfortunate reputation in his junior high days that inhibited his crime-scene credibility, so when he and his dog Superman stumble into their first corpse in “Boris” Barrow’s woods—that’s the elderly recluse in the spooky Victorian mansion who looks like Boris Karloff—nobody believes him. Nate decides to clear his name and prove to the local police and others that he has matured since his days as a liar and prankster, so he sets out with a couple of school friends and his spunky mom to find the murderer. And keeping his promise to his mom, a Korean war widow, to never lie to her again is a constant challenge for him. But it doesn’t keep him from lying to others. For Nate, the truth is so boring when a clever lie here and there can get you out of a lot of trouble.
Also, Nate isn’t the only protagonist. These four books are called the Four Seasons series, but each is also referred to as “A Nate and Superman cozy murder mystery.” Superman, Nate’s mutt with the bloodhound nose, is a key player. He’s the key player, according to him. He’s a detective dog with attitude.
BS: Is it emotionally different for you to be with a character for so long? With a story of a standalone novel, we get to know characters and then let them go. With your current work, though, you’ll be with Nate for multiple books. I imagine there’s a deep connection there, right?
RC: Oh, yeah. I went to junior high school in Southern Pines, North Carolina. I lived and roamed the woods and town where Nate lives, so while I am not telling my story—I never found a corpse—I am showing life as a junior high school student in 1955 and 1956. Those were good years for me; lots of good memories of neighbors, community, baseball, boy scouts, and camping. And I had a troublesome sibling like Nate. I also remember a bully, a difficult paper route customer, and a few other unsavory characters, so while writing these books, at every page of the manuscript, I ask myself, Yeah, that’s what you remember, Randy, but what if…
BS: For many writers, place functions like a character. In establishing your setting, did you view it with this kind of depth?
RC: I’d like to think so. Southern Pines was a unique place. There was the rich, country-club set, mostly people from the north who had a second home there so they could play golf. They generally lived on “the hill,” and then there were the textile mill workers who lived around the town. In the rural areas, you had the salt-of-the-earth farmers, but you also had the bootleggers and car-strippers. I had children from all walks of life in my class; several of them are key players in my books.
In these stories, Nate is in a single-parent family because his father was killed in Korea in 1952. Fortunately, my father returned from two tours of duty in Korea, so again Nate is not me, but a friend of mine in my Southern Pines class lost his father in Korea, so with Nate being in a single-parent family, in a way, I’m telling my friend’s story. Plus, with my father gone a lot, my mother was the head of our family several times in my life, so I’m familiar with the single-parent environment.
BS: Are you working on other writing projects as you finish your series? Or is your focus solely on Nate and the crew for the foreseeable future?
RC: I’m locked in on Nate’s story right now. I’ve finished books one and two, The Trick-or-Treat Corpse and the Christmas Tree Corpse, and I’ve started book three, the Centerfield Corpse, but after book four, the Campfire Corpse, I have considered a new series that will be set in Hawaii.
After we lived in Southern Pines for two years, we moved to Oahu, Hawaii. One of my junior high friends there was John Chestly. We called him John “Moochly” because he was always mooching food off the rest of us on camping trips. One day, while we swam in a beautiful Hawaiian stream that ran through some grazing land, Moochly bumped into a dead horse. That was the kind of stuff that happened to him, so I’ve been wondering…what if Moochly had bumped into a dead man or woman?
BS: Before I let you go, what advice do you have for writers out there who might just be getting started on their own paths to publication?
RC: Join a local writer’s group. Stay active in AWC, go to conferences, and study creative writing. Oh, and use active verbs in your writing. When I first decided to write my first novel—and my reasons for doing so go a lot deeper than what we’ve had time to cover here—the first thing I did was take a class in creative writing at the local junior college. After that first class, I knew I belonged in the writing community. Next, I went to the local library and checked out every book they had on creative writing. I was on fire; I’d found my calling, so to speak.
BS: Thank you again, Randy, for your time, and congratulations on your The Four Seasons series!
Randolph Crew is a former Marine pilot with two published military action-adventure novels based on his 793 combat missions. He holds an MA degree in counseling from Webster University and a BS degree in Business from Auburn University. Now retired and mellowed (his words), he’s having fun writing cozy murder mysteries for ages 10-110. His mysteries take place in Southern Pines, NC, where he lived when he was a junior high student with a reputation. For recreation, he enjoys hiking the great outdoors in his home state of Alabama. You can find him there or connect with him on our contact page. He’d like to hear from you.