Dennis Lehane Up Close and Personal

A couple of Bouchercons ago I was made aware of a well-known author I had not heard of by a certain ocean-dwelling creature, I mean, lovely lady named Janet. She was so excited to get her hands on his latest that I knew there had to be something special about this guy. His name is Dennis Lehane (Shutter Island, Mystic River, Moonlight Mile, among others). There was a certain amount of subterfuge involved during the incident but it all worked out in the end. I had discovered an amazing author! 

I love hearing other authors speak, hearing about their journey, their inspiration, hopes and dreams, the good and the bad. It motivates me, and gives me hope.

So I was excited to hear that Dennis Lehane was appearing at a local library. Of course, I found out pretty late, and in a weird sort of way. I am on Facebook, but stuff flies by so fast I miss most of it, especially since I am not on it with any regularity. Four days before I found out about Dennis Lehane I had about five minutes to kill so I checked FB, and saw a posting from Hallie Ephron with a string of comments below. One of the people asked if it was true that she was going to be at the Clifton Park Library. Since we have a Clifton Park nearby, I went to the CP library's page to see for myself. I have taken one of Hallie's workshops, and it was amazing.

When I pulled up the library's home page, there was an announcement for Dennis Lehane. And you had to register. I immediately registered and the confirmation email came quickly. I was on the waiting list. Oh well. Three hours later I was in!

It was a packed house. Mr. Lehane began by reading from his latest book, out October 2, called Live By Night. I had already read it due to the aforementioned subterfuge (it was an ARC) and enjoyed it. After he finished reading he told us about his inspiration for this book about gangsters, watching Jimmy Cagney movies with his uncle when he was a kid. When he visited Ybor City he found his setting.

He talked about his Irish family, and their love of storytelling. He grew up surrounded by people who knew how to tell a story and had an interesting relationship with facts: they didn't like them.

He also prefers stand alones because, as he explained, it's a lot of work putting a new character on the page for the first time. But once the character works on the page, the sense of discovery is wonderful.

Someone asked him what his favorite book was (of those he's written), and he actually has three. The Given Day, Live by Night, and Mystic River. The reason he gave was that these three novels have the shortest gap between what was in his head and what landed on the page.

So I'd like to thank Janet for turning me on to Dennis Lehane. If you haven't read him yet, what are you waiting for?