Punk bands and LA bus rides: an interview with Wayne Arthurson

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 223rd overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome award-winning First Nations author Wayne Arthurson to Crime Watch. Wayne lives in Edmonton and has worked as a newspaper reporter, a drummer in a rock band, and as a freelance journalist. He is the bestselling author of more than a dozen books including literary novels, non-fiction, and crime fiction. Like the hero of his award-winning Leo Deroches mysteries, Wayne is the son of Cree and French-Canadian parents. 

Wayne's non-fiction books have covered topics including the world of spirit animals and totems, the rich history and inventions of First Peoples, and reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in relation to the experiences of those affected by the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system. His crime fiction has won the Alberta Readers' Choice Award, the Alberta Book Publishing Awards. Last year, Wayne won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novella for THE RED CHESTERFIELD, a book which 'humorously disrupts the tropes of crime fiction'. 

But for now, Wayne Arthurson becomes the latest crime writer to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH WAYNE ARTHURSON

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

I’ve always had a fondness for Benny Cooperman, Howard Engel’s creation. Not super well-known internationally, Engel’s mysteries were far different from the hardboiled and spy stuff I read as a kid and teen, and Cooperman came from a part of Canada faraway from mine, culturally and geographically. But the Cooperman books were probably the first crime novels I read that were set in Canada and featured a Canadian detective.

2. What was the first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I can’t recall this type of book. Reading has been so much a part of my life as long as I remember, it’s been like breathing for me.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

I was a journalist, copywriter, magazine editor, freelancer and ghostwriter for about 15 years before my first debut crime novel was published. I also had a number of short stories published, heck, I even had a literary novel (FINAL SEASON) published nine years before my debut crime novel. Though its existence did cause a bit of a ruckus in The Arthur Ellis Awards (the Canadian crime writing awards) when my actual first crime novel, FALL FROM GRACE, came out. 

My US publisher, unaware of my first novel, entered it in the category for Best First Novel in the Arthur Ellis Awards. When I pointed out to the award organizers that it wasn’t my first novel, and thus not eligible for that award, they pulled it from contention. But when we asked if they could move it to the Best Novel category because it was just a simple mistake, they refused to even move it over the first Best Novel section for some administrative reason. Obviously you can tell this situation still annoys me 10 years later. 

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I have a number of typical leisure activities, but I’ve been a drummer in a few local Edmonton bands for 25 years. In the 90s, I was a punk band that actually recorded albums, went on tour, sold merch, opened for some big punk rock names. But  now, it’s just a hobby, middle-aged guys just having fun, maybe playing a gig or two a year. Though with Covid, I haven’t played drums since March 2020. 

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

Edmonton is one of the major arts capitals of Canada. Sure from the outside, people think we’re a big hockey town (we are) or kind of boring cause we’re a bit isolated, at the junction of the prairie and northern boreal forest, and partly powered by the oil and gas industry, but the amount of art that happens in this town, literary, music, theatre, visual, you name it, is stunning for a city of this size. And a lot of the art is grassroots driven. The city is also massively supportive, the Edmonton Arts Council gives millions each year in grants to individual artists and arts groups, professional or amateur. I always tell people that in Edmonton, no one thinks it weird that you’re an artist. 

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I’m not egocentric enough to believe that my life is worth being made into a movie. 

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My first novel, FINAL SEASON, is always special, cause it’s the first time. So it will always have a place in my heart. But now, my most recent book, THE RED CHESTERFIELD, is my fave because I decided to try something different, in style, how I wrote it and how I wanted to turn over and play with some of the tropes of crime fiction while still honouring the bits that make the genre great. And the response to the book has been great, people understanding what I was attempting and enjoying it, and even finding things in the story that I didn’t notice when I wrote it. Though I never say that, I always claim I meant to do those things. 

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

When I got the phone call from the publisher saying they were going to publish my first book, I was in a state of shock for several minutes and had trouble finding the words to tell my wife what had happened. I had been writing professionally for almost 15 years by then, working fulltime while still pursuing the novel dream. And I was 38 years old and had been writing novels since I was about 20 so it was a massive dream come true after those years of hard work. But to celebrate, after I called my parents and my sisters, etc, to tell them the news, my wife and I went out to nice dinner at a nice restaurant on the next weekend.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

Sharing a stage with Denise Mina, Ian Rankin, Peter Robertson and Stuart MacBride at the 2012 Vancouver Writer’s Festival was a highlight. I also did a book launch where I did a reading and then had my band play a gig afterwards, So tiring, not just doing two different types of shows but the load in and out of the gear. I’m not important enough to have roadies. 

But probably the weirdest experience was at the LA Times Book Festival. I was set to do a signing at the Mysterious Galaxy booth but one of my daughter’s fave authors at the time, Mo Willems, was also doing a signing just before. So I stood in a line of about 300 people, hoping to get a signature from Mo before my signing was to start. Barely made it. On top of that, I didn’t want to pay the $60 that it cost me to take a taxi from my hotel to the festival so I shocked my LA writer friends by announcing I would catch a bus. “No one rides the bus in LA,” one said, “Especially through downtown.” But I did and apparently a lot of people do ride the bus in LA because in the 90 minutes it took me to get back to the hotel, I couldn’t find a seat and had to stand all the way. 

Thank you Wayne, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can find out more about Wayne Arthurson and his writing here, and follow him on Twitter.