Changing writing styles is like an actor taking on a different part.
Evan Hunter
I enjoy what I do every minute of the day, even when the going gets tough. When I first began writing, I used to work at a desk in the bedroom, of a small development house. My three sons all under the age of 3 would come running in and out of the room every minute.
It's hard to write an Evan Hunter novel because I really am starting from scratch. I'm assuming a new voice each time. The McBain voice is set.
My first wife kept calling me Sal, and I finally said to her, 'Why do you think I changed my name, honey? I really didn't like the old name.'
I've never been a cop nor hope to be a cop, thanks.
I only knew one thing about policemen: they were inhuman beasts. The problem was how to turn them into likable, sympathetic human beings. The answer was simple. Give them head colds. And first names. And keep their dialogue homey and conversational.
You just touch on things. You don't go round the room describing the furniture.
I never take ideas from the headlines. I feel that if a story is good enough, a real story that is, then it's already been covered by the media, and if it's not good enough, why would I want to bother with it?
I know that all cops are not sterling characters. But you have to have someone to root for. I balance it with rotten cops who will take a bribe, who will beat somebody up.
Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.
It's a matter of style. The Evan Hunter style and the Ed McBain style are very, very different.
I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I had to write a lot to earn a living. Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.
I was a blond-haired kid with blue eyes, growing up in an Italian ghetto. I had a very high IQ. In elementary school, I skipped ahead twice. I was 10 years old when everyone else was 12.
A detective sees death in all the various forms at least five times a week.
I think of myself as a softy. I think the 87th Precinct novels are very sentimental, and the cops are idealistic guys.
I would certainly never suggest that any lesbian should be ashamed of her sexual preference.
Readers are what it's all about, aren't they? If not, why am I writing?
It seemed to me... that the only valid people to deal with crime were cops, and I would like to make the lead character, rather than a single person, a squad of cops.
I have a book coming out in September, for example, where the plot concerns counterfeiting, and I had to do a lot of research on that. Or on any legal matters, for example, I have to do a lot of research online.
I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot.
I try to keep all my novels in print. Sometimes publishers don't agree with me as to their worth.
I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I'm now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones.
Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.
When I started writing, most of the police department in New York City, especially above the rank of detective, were Irish, Irish-American. I thought it would be more interesting... to use the actual ethnic background in New York City at the time.
Mystery fiction was considered a stepchild of literature.
