Interview with Cory Lynn Fayman Today, Juanita Watson, Assistant Editor of Reader Views talks, in an interview, with author Corey Lynn Fayman, about his new book mystery thriller novel “Black’s Beach Shuffle.” Corey has been a professional musician, songwriter, sound designer, educational technologist, and multimedia developer, and has outlived any number of rock and roll bands and Internet start-ups. He lives in San Diego, where he teaches interactive design and multimedia. Juanita: Welcome to Reader Views Corey, and thanks for the opportunity to talk with you about your debut novel. Would you start by telling us what happens in “Black’s Beach Shuffle”?
The next morning a friend of Rolly’s, solicits his investigative services on behalf of the company. It seems a special computer disk that contains company secrets has disappeared and the company wants to hire Rolly to find it. Apparently, no one but Rolly knows about the dead body. Rolly reluctantly agrees to take on the case and soon finds himself in over his head, dealing with a motley crew of suspicious characters including an excitable surf-dude CEO, a mysterious financier, nudist computer geeks, a pornstar secretary, the local police, insurance investigators, and a harmonica-playing goon. Since it’s a mystery, I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. Suffice to say Rolly eventually connects the dots in spite of his reservations, while at the same time managing the daily stress of an overprotective mother, angry club owners and malfunctioning drummers, as well as his constant struggle to resist alcohol and other vices of his trade. Juanita: I understand “Black’s Beach Shuffle” is the first in a trilogy. What direction are you going in with the series? Corey: I’ve got two more books planned for the Rolly Waters characters. As I thought about them, I realized they formed a kind of San Diego Trilogy, since each book revolves around a different sense of what if feels like to live in San Diego today. The first book revolves around the postcard beaches and high-tech, high-finance businesses of North County. The second book, “Border Field Blues” looks south to the border. Rolly gets involved with right-wing talk show hosts, illegal immigrants, endangered bird populations, foreign bride services, and video gamers. The third installment, “Slab City Rockers,” involves dirty cops, historical racial tensions, a reclusive rock star, and a group of hippies living “off the grid” in the desert east of San Diego. Juanita: Why did you decide to begin your writing career, and, why this book? Corey: Boredom. I’ve always been involved in some sort of creative endeavor, whether it was playing in a band, working in live theater, or designing and producing interactive multimedia projects. But somehow I’d fallen into a job that was strictly administrative, not creative. I’d been a fan of the detective novel form, particularly Ross McDonald for the psychological underpinnings of his plots, and his use of language. I also enjoy reading Tony Hillerman and the way he gives a sense of place to his novels, while still creating an entertaining mystery. The character of Rolly Waters just appeared to me, not full-blown of course, but he kept showing up in my thoughts. I decided to see what I could do with him, as well as trying to incorporate what I loved about reading McDonald and Hillerman. As I went along, the book started feeling a little like a comedy of manners, as well. I’m not sure where that came from. Juanita: Corey, you’ve had a very diverse career and are now diving into writing. Would you elaborate on your background, as well, how it has influenced your trilogy? Corey: Well, I was a club musician for fifteen years, and I got to know it pretty well. I know a lot of musicians, guys my age, who still do it, in spite of the fact that it’s a hard life and not a very good living. In some sense this book and the other two in the trilogy are a kind of love letter to the folks who keep doing it. Playing on stage with good musicians is a great feeling. There’s nothing else like it. Everything else about the job is lousy, though. So I wanted to acknowledge that, both sides of it. The Internet start-up aspect of Black’s Beach Shuffle probably wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t worked at MP3.com, which had one of the fastest rides, both up and down, of any company in the late 90’s dotcom ride. It’s rare that you get to work with so many smart, ambitious and just plain colorful people in one place. Although the book isn’t really about MP3.com, I did want to capture some sense of that craziness. Of course becoming a teacher has taught me one really useful thing when trying to write a novel – patience. Juanita: Rolly Waters is your lead character, and like yourself, has a very interesting background. Would you tell us more about Rolly? Corey: Rolly Waters is an aging blues-rock guitar player who almost made it to the big time, but through a combination of his own personal issues, mistakes and just plain bad luck never really made it. Emotionally, he feels like he’s just woken up from a very long dream and he’s trying to make sense of things. He’s trying to take things one step at a time, managing his sobriety, getting to know his parents, deciding what’s really valuable to him. At the same time, he keeps getting pulled into crazy situations, like the case he has to deal with in the book. Rolly really is a very good musician. There are a lot of them out there, in your town and mine, men and women who can play as well as anyone, but for whatever reasons haven’t put together a full-scale career. Juanita: Being that Rolly is a musician, does he bring a rock-n-roll atmosphere to this story? Corey: Well, it’s the reality of the rock-and-roll life that I wanted to use to set the tone. Moogus, the drummer in Rolly’s band, is a guy who’s still trying to live the rock-and-roll life, playing every gig he can land, chasing women half his age, sometimes successfully. Moogus is not willing to give up one bit of what he had when he was twenty-five. So I use him in contrast to Rolly, who’s trying to figure out how much of that life he has to put up with in order to still play his guitar, which is what he really cares about. Juanita: How is the dotcom culture portrayed in “Black’s Beach Shuffle” and what are you revealing about this elusive industry? Corey: We seem to be heading into a second phase of this business after the crash, and I think the industry has matured some. People are looking forward, planning things out a little better, thinking about real business. Nobody, and I mean nobody, really knew what was going on the first time around. People just knew they had to get there before the competitors did. But it was really hard to figure out what the ‘there’ was. Juanita: Would you tell about Eyebitz.com, and the new product they are ready to launch? Corey: Well Eyebitz is a fictional company, although I did base some of my ideas on the infamous Pixelon, which was one of the major scam stories of Internet 1.0. Eyebitz basically a web-based video company, which claims to have come up with all sorts of ways to mine data from web users viewing habits. It’s not too different from what the Google/YouTube convergence may bring. We’re not very far from being watched as we watch, in this weird open-ended way. Juanita: Who are the other significant characters in “Black’s Beach Shuffle”? Corey: Well, there’s Ricky Rogers, the young CEO who’s really kind of a surfer dude. There’s Ricky’s mysterious, and much older financier, King Gibson. There’s a femme fatale named Alesis Amati who’s managed to find a job in the Eyebitz family, and a harmonica-playing goon named Little Walter. There’s also a clothing-is-optional computer programmer named Curtis Vox. These are just the people Rolly has to deal with as suspects. In daily life, he still has to manage his relationship with his mother, his band, cranky club owners and his ex-girlfriend. You can see why he gets a little stressed out. Juanita: Corey, where do you think new computer technologies will be heading in the future, in terms of marketing and/or making businesses more money? Corey: I think anybody’s guess is as good as mine. But it’s all going to happen even faster than you think. Many of the ways you do things now will seem antiquated in two, three, five years. Juanita: “Black’s Beach Shuffle” is set in San Diego, which is actually your city of residence. Would you comment on the significance of San Diego to this story? Corey: If San Diego were a human character, it would be a dumb blonde, a really sweet, likable dumb blond who manages to do okay in the end. I get to say that because I’ve lived here a long time. I wanted to contrast the “regular” folks in San Diego with the vision most people have of the beach, the sunshine, etc. I liked the idea of contrasting guys who play blues at night in the clubs with people living in glass houses over the beach. San Diego has become a big city, and it has these contrasts of culture that people might not associate with it. Juanita: Is there a typical “day in the life of a San Diego dot-comer”? Corey: I’m not sure what’s typical these days for a dot-commer, but I expect nothing has changed. The one thing that’s typical is there is no typical. Business goals and technologies have a way of changing quickly. The only advantage for a dot-commer living in San Diego is they can run out and surf when there’s a big swell, build their schedule around that. Juanita: What are your thoughts on similarities between you and Rolly? What do you like about his character? Corey: Rolly’s trying to be a better person, one day at a time. He owes people and he doesn’t want to let them down. That’s his mantra, that, and playing guitar better, becoming the best musician he can, not just technically, but emotionally, expressively. That’s what’s important to him. I haven’t made some of the big mistakes Rolly’s made, but I’d like to live by his plan. I want to be a better person, a better musician and a better writer. At least one of those will get you out of bed every day. Juanita: How does it feel to write and publish your first novel? Was it what you expected so far? Corey: It was a lot more fun than I expected. There were tough days, to be sure, but I was surprised by how much fun I had. I really want to do it now, even more. Juanita: Corey, when can readers expect the second installment in your trilogy? Corey: I should have the final draft finished by Fall of this year. After that just depends on the agents and publishers. Juanita: How can readers find out about you and your endeavors? Corey: They can check out my website at www.coreyfayman.com. They can sign up for my e-mail list, listen to some music, or take a look at some of my projects. There’s also a “Rolly’s World” blog, which has some postings about the “real” places, people, music, etc. from the book. I just posted a Google Earth tour of the book, so you can see where Rolly goes during his adventures. Juanita: Thanks so much for talking with us today Corey. We have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about “Black’s Beach Shuffle” and encourage readers to look for your book at local and online booksellers. Before we depart, do you have any last thoughts for your readers? Corey: Well, I’d love to hear any feedback from readers, whatever they have to say - comments, questions, or if someone just wants to talk about any of the topics in the book, be it blues guitar, the Internet, San Diego, mystery fiction or just comparing notes on the process of writing. I’d be glad to talk about any of it. Listen to interview on Inside Scoop Live |
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