Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tim Dorsey, "Hurricane Punch" author: Mr. Media Interview, Pt. 2
ANDELMAN: One of the great themes in the book, of course, is media convergence, the idea that McSwirley has an unused video camera in his bag at one point comes into play. I wonder if you could spell “convergence” for me and use it in a sentence appropriate to the book.
DORSEY: Spell convergence?
ANDELMAN: Yes.
DORSEY: Now I am trying to think of a joke here. It’s basically, convergence. I’m sorry, can we edit this out? I can’t think of a glib line there.
ANDELMAN: You want to skip the spelling part, the “Are You as Smart as a Fifth-Grader” part of the interview?
DORSEY: I was just about one synapse away from a joke, and I couldn’t make it in real time there, so….
ANDELMAN: Is convergence a bad thing do you think as you think about it and you look on it?
DORSEY: Not in concept, but it can be in execution. I mean, in concept, it can be great. Now we’re playing “Inside Baseball” with a lot of people who aren’t….
ANDELMAN: Yeah, I know.
DORSEY: But if it’s simply used as a cost-cutting measure to get more work out of less people, then it’s terrible, because in a lot of respects, media tends to be natural monopolies or semi-natural monopolies. I know this is business, it’s a capitalist country, which is great, but there used to be sort of a tacit contract with the community that we would fulfill a function of casting light on politicians and the powerful elite who would prefer to have their business done behind doors. I guess the fewer people you have and the less experienced they are in investigative reporting, the more that function doesn’t get performed. So that’s my concern. I know that sounds very trite and I’m beating my chest, but…
ANDELMAN: Well, you can only respond to the questions that are thrown at you.
DORSEY: There you are.
ANDELMAN: Hurricanes, of course, play a very big part in the book, and for people who haven’t read it yet, the title is Hurricane Punch, and obviously there’s a tropical drink on the cover of the hard cover, but the book is really about a guy who loves the thrill of the hurricanes and also the media coverage of hurricanes. Do you have any good personal hurricane stories? Have you been evacuated, for example?
DORSEY: Absolutely, and as a matter of fact, that’s how the book came about. I was getting to ready to write that book, and I was working on the outline of a book that had certain elements but non-hurricane elements of it, and that was in the 2004 season. Little did I know that 2005 was just around the corner, but what happened was, as I was starting to write the book, I couldn’t get it on track because we were, literally, constantly either evacuating…. We have relatives in Vero Beach, and either they were evacuating over here, or we were evacuating over there like constantly. Constantly getting supplies, putting down shutters, putting up shutters, zipping across the state, taking in relatives. It became a routine lifestyle. And then during that, I’m a news junkie, so I always have CNN or MSNBC or something on.
ANDELMAN: Oh, yeah. We had a similar experience here in that I think for about six weeks, we had a good deal of our stuff packed in the back of a U-Haul trailer, and we were set to go at any minute to leave, and the time we finally were evacuated, I remember we went to Ocala, which is about 90 miles north of here. We seemed to be quite safe, and then suddenly the one hurricane was headed towards us there, and my family in Sanford, Florida, my wife’s family, invited us and said, “Come here, we’re safe here.” And we said, “No, it’s too late, we’re going to stay here,” and they got hit. So yeah, the book on that level was just so dead-on to the experience, both the way people react and the way you’re completely powerless, but also the media coverage of the storms is just…
DORSEY: A hoot!
ANDELMAN: It is, and frankly, being still in the media, I don’t know how they would do it any differently, because you’ve got to go and plant yourself at a place and think you’re either going to get great footage or nothing’s going to happen, but you’re still there, and you have to report, and you captured that so well. It was one of the things I really loved about the book is that it’s inane, but it’s necessary.
DORSEY: What killed me is, I think it was in the 2005 season where Key West, I guess Key West got brushed. I mean, they had massive damage from the storm surge from a storm that really didn’t hit them wind-wise, but as it went by, the surge backwashed on them, and they really got hurt. But during a lot of the footage of that and the couple of storms that brushed them… And you know, iIf you know Key West, you could predict this, is there would be a reporter out there on live TV, and they’d be just like people walking behind them with drinks, and they’re out in a monsoon, and it’s just a scream.
ANDELMAN: To change the subject just slightly, I mentioned that you have done something like 800 personal appearances, and you’ve obviously gotten very good at it. If people go to timdorsey.com, they can see that you have hats and t-shirts for Serge and for the books. It’s become a whole little cottage industry. Do you like the appearances, and how do you make them work so well for you?
DORSEY: It’s interesting. At first, you have to try to sell your name and all that, and now it’s just like meeting with a bunch of friends each place I go. We just get together and have fun. And you know how it is when you have your certain group of friends, and basically the people you end up friends with are the ones with similar senses of humor. I mean, after just spending enough time each time you get together with some friends, you just start cracking up over stuff. And with these books, it kind of brings out people of like minds when it comes to humor, and so we just get together. I have discussions, and we end up cracking each other up, and they give me a lot of great material. We had a good time this last tour with a lot of the current news that was going on. But if anything, the readers make it work, because they are already pulling for me, and they want to talk about Old Florida and Serge, of course, and the people that they love that he’s bumped off.
ANDELMAN: Do you remember the first time someone showed up with the “S” tattoo?
DORSEY: Yeah, a couple of people have been Serge tattooed, and they’ve emailed me their photos. The one I specifically remember was at a book signing where I didn’t see the person until the person in front of them had their book signed, and then the next person stepped up in line. And if you know the books, you know that… It was a guy, and he was dressed in a blue NASA astronaut jumpsuit, and he was carrying a silver briefcase. Of course, you know, that’s Serge. That was great, and then I had in southern Palm Beach County at a Barnes and Noble just on this last tour, I had two women show up. One was “Sharon,” the stripper from Florida Roadkill, and the other was “Molly,” the love interest in Torpedo Juice.
ANDELMAN: Wow.
DORSEY: Yeah. They showed up, and one had like a bag of white powder. It was just crazy.
ANDELMAN: Have you optioned any of these yet?
DORSEY: Yeah. We currently have an option. We have optioned Florida Roadkill, which essentially means that they have dibs on the series because the way it works is if you have a character throughout the books, they are entitled to any of these other books if they want to use material.
ANDELMAN: Is there any activity on the option?
DORSEY: You know, I have no idea. This is the third time we’ve optioned it, and you can option it a million times, and they don’t make it, or just out of the blue, one day you hear they’re about to go into production. I’m so busy with the books I don’t check with them. I guess they’re glad, because I don’t know how other authors are, but I’m sure they don’t want to be bothered by the guy who wrote the thing, they just want to….
ANDELMAN: In reading, it would seem that it would make a great series like on Showtime or HBO where they could deal with the themes. Obviously, I am sure you would be thrilled to have a movie made, but the material would really lend itself to an adult-type of ongoing program, I would think.
DORSEY: Well, I wouldn’t argue with anything they would like to do.
ANDELMAN: I got you. I understand that the paperback edition of Big Bamboo is due out any day, or is it out?
DORSEY: It literally just came out, so you’re correct.
ANDELMAN: All right, so we’re right on top of that. And you’ve finished the next book, number 10?
DORSEY: Yes.
ANDELMAN: Does it have a title?
DORSEY: No, not in stone. I have a couple of things I am playing with, but as in the past, if I cast something aside, I might use it two or three books down the road, so no, we don’t have a finalized title, yet. This is “Untitled Book Number 11” is how we’re talking about it.
ANDELMAN: Oh, is that one number 11?
DORSEY: Yes.
ANDELMAN: Oh, okay, I guess I got my count wrong. So Hurricane Punch was number 10?
DORSEY: I apologize. Literally, on the computer screen in front of me is number eleven.
ANDELMAN: Ah.
DORSEY: That’s number 10. Number ten’s done, and I’m working on number 11.
ANDELMAN: Okay. So my count is right.
DORSEY: See, this is, yes, you are correct. That’s what happens when you get…. because literally because of the long lead time, you’ve got pretty much three going on constantly. One year you’re either wrapping up or touring for, one’s being edited, and the next one you’re writing.
ANDELMAN: It’s a good thing to know what you’re doing next. Now, is there anything you can tell us about number 10, including when it will be out but also what direction Serge….?
DORSEY: It’ll be out next January. There are a lot of other parts of Florida, but it takes place quite a bit in the Tampa Bay area. Serge and Coleman are back, for those who follow the series. And you don’t have to know any previous books, each one should stand alone, but if anybody has read Triggerfish Twist, which was another Tampa Bay book, it picks up with a lot of those characters, reunites them, because I enjoyed that storyline and those characters.
ANDELMAN: I know that was always the great thing I loved about the John D. MacDonald books years ago which took place in Florida that even though the character in the one series was recurring, you could pick up any book and get into it and know what was going on, and I think you’re right. It’s the same thing with these books. Any other hint of what’s going to happen that you want to tease a little bit? Is there an Evelyn Wood version?
DORSEY: Let me think here. For those who are familiar with the series, Coleman will finally meet Lenny, and Johnny Vegas, the accidental virgin, is back by popular demand. It’s funny, because I go on the book tour, and I almost feel like an oldies rock act. They will call out requests for the next book, which character they want, some of the supporting cast they want back, so those guys are back. The E Team is back, the older women, the Davenports are back, so are the DS brothers, who are running the cheesy Hammerhead Ranch Motel over in Pinellas.
DORSEY: I don’t want to give anything away, but I need a character, and I’m not sure… Either I am going to make a new character, or I am going to bring back one of several, and he’s in the running, but he might be a dark horse at this point.
© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
ANDELMAN: One of the great themes in the book, of course, is media convergence, the idea that McSwirley has an unused video camera in his bag at one point comes into play. I wonder if you could spell “convergence” for me and use it in a sentence appropriate to the book.
DORSEY: Spell convergence?
ANDELMAN: Yes.
DORSEY: Now I am trying to think of a joke here. It’s basically, convergence. I’m sorry, can we edit this out? I can’t think of a glib line there.
ANDELMAN: You want to skip the spelling part, the “Are You as Smart as a Fifth-Grader” part of the interview?
DORSEY: I was just about one synapse away from a joke, and I couldn’t make it in real time there, so….
ANDELMAN: Is convergence a bad thing do you think as you think about it and you look on it?
DORSEY: Not in concept, but it can be in execution. I mean, in concept, it can be great. Now we’re playing “Inside Baseball” with a lot of people who aren’t….
ANDELMAN: Yeah, I know.
DORSEY: But if it’s simply used as a cost-cutting measure to get more work out of less people, then it’s terrible, because in a lot of respects, media tends to be natural monopolies or semi-natural monopolies. I know this is business, it’s a capitalist country, which is great, but there used to be sort of a tacit contract with the community that we would fulfill a function of casting light on politicians and the powerful elite who would prefer to have their business done behind doors. I guess the fewer people you have and the less experienced they are in investigative reporting, the more that function doesn’t get performed. So that’s my concern. I know that sounds very trite and I’m beating my chest, but…
ANDELMAN: Well, you can only respond to the questions that are thrown at you.
DORSEY: There you are.
ANDELMAN: Hurricanes, of course, play a very big part in the book, and for people who haven’t read it yet, the title is Hurricane Punch, and obviously there’s a tropical drink on the cover of the hard cover, but the book is really about a guy who loves the thrill of the hurricanes and also the media coverage of hurricanes. Do you have any good personal hurricane stories? Have you been evacuated, for example?
DORSEY: Absolutely, and as a matter of fact, that’s how the book came about. I was getting to ready to write that book, and I was working on the outline of a book that had certain elements but non-hurricane elements of it, and that was in the 2004 season. Little did I know that 2005 was just around the corner, but what happened was, as I was starting to write the book, I couldn’t get it on track because we were, literally, constantly either evacuating…. We have relatives in Vero Beach, and either they were evacuating over here, or we were evacuating over there like constantly. Constantly getting supplies, putting down shutters, putting up shutters, zipping across the state, taking in relatives. It became a routine lifestyle. And then during that, I’m a news junkie, so I always have CNN or MSNBC or something on.
During that whole period, I was also bombarded with just the surrealness of reporters covering hurricanes. Either they are standing out where nothing is happening trying to make it exciting, or they’re brainlessly standing where they should never be.Anyway, it was just how my life was during the writing of that book, which, by the way, we were extremely lucky. I mean, my family dodged a lot of bullets. My in-laws from Vero Beach got clobbered a couple of times. They lost electricity for weeks, the roof, etc., etc. Over here, we did exceptionally well.
ANDELMAN: Oh, yeah. We had a similar experience here in that I think for about six weeks, we had a good deal of our stuff packed in the back of a U-Haul trailer, and we were set to go at any minute to leave, and the time we finally were evacuated, I remember we went to Ocala, which is about 90 miles north of here. We seemed to be quite safe, and then suddenly the one hurricane was headed towards us there, and my family in Sanford, Florida, my wife’s family, invited us and said, “Come here, we’re safe here.” And we said, “No, it’s too late, we’re going to stay here,” and they got hit. So yeah, the book on that level was just so dead-on to the experience, both the way people react and the way you’re completely powerless, but also the media coverage of the storms is just…
DORSEY: A hoot!
ANDELMAN: It is, and frankly, being still in the media, I don’t know how they would do it any differently, because you’ve got to go and plant yourself at a place and think you’re either going to get great footage or nothing’s going to happen, but you’re still there, and you have to report, and you captured that so well. It was one of the things I really loved about the book is that it’s inane, but it’s necessary.
DORSEY: What killed me is, I think it was in the 2005 season where Key West, I guess Key West got brushed. I mean, they had massive damage from the storm surge from a storm that really didn’t hit them wind-wise, but as it went by, the surge backwashed on them, and they really got hurt. But during a lot of the footage of that and the couple of storms that brushed them… And you know, iIf you know Key West, you could predict this, is there would be a reporter out there on live TV, and they’d be just like people walking behind them with drinks, and they’re out in a monsoon, and it’s just a scream.
ANDELMAN: To change the subject just slightly, I mentioned that you have done something like 800 personal appearances, and you’ve obviously gotten very good at it. If people go to timdorsey.com, they can see that you have hats and t-shirts for Serge and for the books. It’s become a whole little cottage industry. Do you like the appearances, and how do you make them work so well for you?
DORSEY: It’s interesting. At first, you have to try to sell your name and all that, and now it’s just like meeting with a bunch of friends each place I go. We just get together and have fun. And you know how it is when you have your certain group of friends, and basically the people you end up friends with are the ones with similar senses of humor. I mean, after just spending enough time each time you get together with some friends, you just start cracking up over stuff. And with these books, it kind of brings out people of like minds when it comes to humor, and so we just get together. I have discussions, and we end up cracking each other up, and they give me a lot of great material. We had a good time this last tour with a lot of the current news that was going on. But if anything, the readers make it work, because they are already pulling for me, and they want to talk about Old Florida and Serge, of course, and the people that they love that he’s bumped off.
ANDELMAN: Do you remember the first time someone showed up with the “S” tattoo?
DORSEY: Yeah, a couple of people have been Serge tattooed, and they’ve emailed me their photos. The one I specifically remember was at a book signing where I didn’t see the person until the person in front of them had their book signed, and then the next person stepped up in line. And if you know the books, you know that… It was a guy, and he was dressed in a blue NASA astronaut jumpsuit, and he was carrying a silver briefcase. Of course, you know, that’s Serge. That was great, and then I had in southern Palm Beach County at a Barnes and Noble just on this last tour, I had two women show up. One was “Sharon,” the stripper from Florida Roadkill, and the other was “Molly,” the love interest in Torpedo Juice.
ANDELMAN: Wow.
DORSEY: Yeah. They showed up, and one had like a bag of white powder. It was just crazy.
ANDELMAN: Have you optioned any of these yet?
DORSEY: Yeah. We currently have an option. We have optioned Florida Roadkill, which essentially means that they have dibs on the series because the way it works is if you have a character throughout the books, they are entitled to any of these other books if they want to use material.
ANDELMAN: Is there any activity on the option?
DORSEY: You know, I have no idea. This is the third time we’ve optioned it, and you can option it a million times, and they don’t make it, or just out of the blue, one day you hear they’re about to go into production. I’m so busy with the books I don’t check with them. I guess they’re glad, because I don’t know how other authors are, but I’m sure they don’t want to be bothered by the guy who wrote the thing, they just want to….
ANDELMAN: In reading, it would seem that it would make a great series like on Showtime or HBO where they could deal with the themes. Obviously, I am sure you would be thrilled to have a movie made, but the material would really lend itself to an adult-type of ongoing program, I would think.
DORSEY: Well, I wouldn’t argue with anything they would like to do.
ANDELMAN: I got you. I understand that the paperback edition of Big Bamboo is due out any day, or is it out?
DORSEY: It literally just came out, so you’re correct.
ANDELMAN: All right, so we’re right on top of that. And you’ve finished the next book, number 10?
DORSEY: Yes.
ANDELMAN: Does it have a title?
DORSEY: No, not in stone. I have a couple of things I am playing with, but as in the past, if I cast something aside, I might use it two or three books down the road, so no, we don’t have a finalized title, yet. This is “Untitled Book Number 11” is how we’re talking about it.
ANDELMAN: Oh, is that one number 11?
DORSEY: Yes.
ANDELMAN: Oh, okay, I guess I got my count wrong. So Hurricane Punch was number 10?
DORSEY: I apologize. Literally, on the computer screen in front of me is number eleven.
ANDELMAN: Ah.
DORSEY: That’s number 10. Number ten’s done, and I’m working on number 11.
ANDELMAN: Okay. So my count is right.
DORSEY: See, this is, yes, you are correct. That’s what happens when you get…. because literally because of the long lead time, you’ve got pretty much three going on constantly. One year you’re either wrapping up or touring for, one’s being edited, and the next one you’re writing.
ANDELMAN: It’s a good thing to know what you’re doing next. Now, is there anything you can tell us about number 10, including when it will be out but also what direction Serge….?
DORSEY: It’ll be out next January. There are a lot of other parts of Florida, but it takes place quite a bit in the Tampa Bay area. Serge and Coleman are back, for those who follow the series. And you don’t have to know any previous books, each one should stand alone, but if anybody has read Triggerfish Twist, which was another Tampa Bay book, it picks up with a lot of those characters, reunites them, because I enjoyed that storyline and those characters.
ANDELMAN: I know that was always the great thing I loved about the John D. MacDonald books years ago which took place in Florida that even though the character in the one series was recurring, you could pick up any book and get into it and know what was going on, and I think you’re right. It’s the same thing with these books. Any other hint of what’s going to happen that you want to tease a little bit? Is there an Evelyn Wood version?
DORSEY: Let me think here. For those who are familiar with the series, Coleman will finally meet Lenny, and Johnny Vegas, the accidental virgin, is back by popular demand. It’s funny, because I go on the book tour, and I almost feel like an oldies rock act. They will call out requests for the next book, which character they want, some of the supporting cast they want back, so those guys are back. The E Team is back, the older women, the Davenports are back, so are the DS brothers, who are running the cheesy Hammerhead Ranch Motel over in Pinellas.
DORSEY: I don’t want to give anything away, but I need a character, and I’m not sure… Either I am going to make a new character, or I am going to bring back one of several, and he’s in the running, but he might be a dark horse at this point.
© 2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.
Labels: Hurricane Punch, St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, Tim Dorsey
¶ 12:08 AM
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