A Visit with Mark Troy

Mark Troy lived in Thailand for five years as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English and supervising student teachers. He also traveled extensively in South East Asia, India and Nepal. After earning his doctorate from the University of Hawaii, he worked for several years in education research before joining the staff of Texas A&M University.

Mark, you’ve lived in a number of exotic places. Which setting sparked your interest in writing fiction?

The first spark occurred while living in Thailand. I was doing a lot of reading and discussing books with other volunteers. I tried some stories, but they were terrible. I caught the spark again after we moved to Hawaii and I had finished my dissertation. By that time I decided that I wanted to write mysteries. The fact that there were very few Hawaiian mysteries struck me as something that needed rectifying. I was also inspired by the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki, which is the spot where the first Charlie Chan story was set. The bar at the Halekulani is named for The House Without a Key and is the best place in Honolulu to grab a martini at sunset.

How did your Hawaiian woman private investigator come about?

My first attempts at mysteries had a main character who was an amateur sleuth and a lot like me. He had a job as a junior researcher at a large university. He wasn’t any kind of an action hero so I added a secondary character, an ex-cop, to supply the action. Thinking there ought to be some romance, I made this character a kick-ass babe. The first smart thing I did with the story was submit part of it to a writing workshop. This was shortly after moving to Texas. The workshop was led by Joe R. Lansdale, whom I was not familiar with at the time. Lansdale hated the main character, didn’t think much of the story, but he liked the woman, Val Lyon. His first two suggestions were to keep the story in her point of view and to write it in the first person. After talking to him about it and giving it a lot of thought, I decided to try it. It turned out to the best thing I did.

The Shamus Awards convinced me to make Val a private eye. I was following Lansdale’s advice, writing the story from Val’s POV when I learned about the Shamus Awards. I looked up the past winners and nominees and realized I’d read most of the books and that the authors were writers I greatly admired. I decided at that point that I should write what I liked to read, so I changed from writing amateur detective stories to private eyes stories.

Did your own participation in sports convince you to write your recent release, Game Face?

I don’t participate in many sports. My main sport is running, which I have not written about. I did skydiving for a few years and that inspired one of the stories in the collection, but that’s the only one. My wife and I watch a lot of sports, though, especially basketball. When I created Val Lyon, my wife suggested that since so many female sleuths were runners, Val should have a different sport. So, I made her a basketball player who had played in college and professionally in Europe. That background and a lot of armchair sports-watching led to these stories. Three of them were inspired by articles in Sports Illustrated.

Tell us about the book.

Game Face is a collection of eight short stories, all featuring Val Lyon as the detective. Seven have been previously published in various magazines, e-zines and anthologies. One story is original to this collection. I wrote that story because I wanted readers who had read the published stories to have a reason to buy this book. There’s also some great interior art. It’s available for all the major ebook readers and in trade paperback.

Although sports provide the backdrop, I don’t consider these sports stories in that they are not about winning and losing. They are about greed, lust, and murder. More cheating takes place in bed than on the court in this collection. The title refers to Val’s dominant attitude of competing to win. The games are afoot and Val had better have her game face on because her opponent is Death and he scores first every time.

What’s your day job and when do you schedule your writing?

I do research on institutional effectiveness at Texas A&M University. Most of my work involves surveys of students and faculty, course evaluations, and assessment of academic programs. Eight to five I’m heavily involved in statistical analysis. Outside of work, I do my writing. I think the two—statistical analysis and writing fiction—are complementary. Statistics is all about people. It’s one way of learning about people. So is writing fiction. I write to learn about these characters.

Do you outline your fiction or do you wing it?

Both. I start with a few notes about the story, which usually include some background on the characters and some statements about the main plot points and the central idea. As I write, I’ll add more information on the characters and list more plot points as they occur to me. From time to time I will look at the plot points and rearrange them as necessary. I used to put the points and the notes on index cards, but now I use Scrivener, which has virtual index cards. By the time I finish the first draft, I have a pretty good outline to aid in the revision.

What’s the most difficult aspect of writing for you and what do you enjoy most?

The first draft always seems to bog down at some point. I start to question the story and the writing. Sometimes I find it hard to get motivated. If I don’t have a set time to write, I might not get anything done.

I enjoy revising. Once I have a draft completed, I enjoy turning it into something good and exciting. I also like letting a story take me to new places and discover new things. A lot of that comes with research.

Who most influenced your own work?

Joe Lansdale set me on the path I’m on now. John D. MacDonald, Robert Crais, Robert B. Parker, Greg Rucka and Marsha Mueller are some of the writers I really admire.

Advice for fledgling writers?

Don’t write what you know. Write what you don’t know. [Research your subject]

Thanks, Mark.

You can visit Mark Troy’s website: http://wwwl.marktroy.net and his blog sites: http://hawaiian-eye.blogspot.com and http://makeminemystery.blogspot.com    He’s also on Facebook: Mark Troy as well as Twitter: Skywritermt