Exclusive Interview with Steven Zell
Steven Zell can best be described as one of those writers who are hard to pin down, with a talent and an eclectic nature, he makes a journalist’s job much easier since we can ask questions that are offbeat and receive answers that are anything but generic. Steve has taken the road less traveled, and that has produced a colorful and exciting body of work.
He 
took some time from his busy schedule to chat with us about his career, writing, and his latest projects.
TSM: Why do you think the public is fascinated with medical examiner thrillers—I feel you’ve touched a cord.
SZ: We tend to come in contact with death at an impressionable age, and even if that first experience isn’t as tragic as the loss of a friend or family member, if it’s something so simple as clearing brush and finding a pair of nearly featherless wings beneath, or biking past a broken animal lying on the side of the road, it shocks, mystifies, even repulses us.
The idea is that there are a special few who’ve grown up with the same hopes, dreams, and heartbreaks we all do, who willingly choose not only to routinely stare death directly in the face but dissect it, determine its cause, and do everything in their power to bring justice if justice is due, is almost miraculous. After a few years of pre-med and a light scratch at the surface of forensic pathology at the LA Crime Lab…I know I could never do it, but I am fascinated by the people who can.
TSM: For Mantis, how difficult was it to rewind 1968 Los Angeles?
SZ: I had a head start. I grew up during the 60s in the Arizona desert listening to The Beach Boys, dreaming of “catching a wave.” Our family vacations often landed us in Los Angeles or down the coast in Del Mar, La Jolla, or Coronado Island. I wasn’t in LA for the Watts riots or the Bobby Kennedy assassination, but I felt those events very, very deeply. When I moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to, uh…be a rockstar…(yeah, that worked out well…), many of the familiar landmarks were still there. Since I began work on the Mulhenney & Poole series, filling in the gaps with old photos, maps, and news articles has been a lot of fun!
TSM: Who are some of your favorite noir authors?
SZ: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler
TSM: What was the path you took that turned into becoming an author?
SZ: As a kid, I loved reading The Hardy Boys detective series, also Jack London and Jim Kjelgaard’s books where dogs were the heroes. DC and Marvel comics were huge influences on me, and I loved creating and drawing my own comics. I never did make what you’d think would be a natural leap into graphic novels, but that’s on my radar now. I became an animator and digital animation tools instructor during my time in LA and a session vocalist. Oddly, session-singing and songwriting with my friends Robin and Judithe Randall, whose work included a lot of the music for Baywatch and the rock ballads I ended up singing for the show, led to my first “serious” attempt at writing a novel. Judithe lent me her copy of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire. Not surprisingly, my first serious attempt at writing was a vampire novel – and the most important lesson I learned from that experience (after 400 pages) was never to start a novel again until I already knew the ending.
TSM: There is a certain level of mysticism in your work, where does that come from?
SZ: Growing up in Arizona with ghost towns and Native American ruins to walk through– the artwork, jewelry and architecture, Kachina Dolls, Apache, Navajo, Hohokam, and even Anasazi lore were all around me. The RedRock area, including Sedona and Jerome, has always been a mystic place. Juxtapose that against a Catholic upbringing, and you get a sense of how mysticism and spirituality can become a dominant force in people’s lives – sometimes wonderful and uplifting, and sometimes terrifying.
TSM: What are you working on now?
SZ: Happy to say I’m onto book three of the Mulhenney & Poole series. This one involves quite a bit of research on blood and genetics for Medical Examiner Sara to deal with. Readers familiar with my book, Running Cold, which introduced Deanne Mulhenney, may have some idea where I’m going with this one since the main events of Running Cold take place right as MANTIS ends…
TSM: I’m an amateur cartoonist, so I’d love to hear about your career as a professional.
SZ: That’s great! Cartooning is wonderful for a lot of reasons – it’s entertaining, it’s a powerful tool for pointing out flaws in society and government, and for a writer, thinking as a cartoonist can help you pare away extraneous detail and focus on what’s important. As far as my career went, I’m just glad I survived all the early 3D Expo and Siggraph parties! Man, yank animators out of the studio for one week each year, drop them in New Orleans over an open bar, and it’s amazing what can happen! Those parties toned down quite a bit over the years, and they’re not always in N’Awlins – though, man, N’Awlin’s Siggraphs were especially fun!
Like everything else I’ve been lucky enough to be part of, I probably didn’t follow a normal path. My first job in animation, as a digital animation and FX instructor, came as a result of being found passed out over an SGI (Silicon Graphics) workstation. I was just beginning to learn the tools at the RFX Digital Media Institute, and the founder, Ray Feeney, decided I was either insane or dedicated. Ray allowed me to study there free of charge to see which it was. I ended up teaching software animation and FX tools for the LA area production houses and working as a professional animator – one funny fact is I was one of the lead animators on what some folks believe to be one of the worst animated productions ever – The Nuttiest Nutcracker. The production “process” of that masterpiece was a story in itself – we wore shirts with the phrase, F* it, Ship it! emblazoned proudly on the front. One day…I’ll have to tell that entire story…
TSM: What are you reading now?
SZ: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. It might seem like an odd choice – but it is a detective novel…more or less. Can’t say that I love it. I love quirky humor, but it can get in the way if you’re not careful, and I think some of his dialogue goes overboard for the joke.
TSM: Are you an outliner or a person who starts that page and keeps it going until you reach the end?
SZ: After my initial writing fiasco, I completely outlined WiZrD – only to find that, as my characters grew and interacted with each other and became more real, some of the decisions I’d outlined for them to take no longer made sense. I realized then that outlines can trap you. For me, the most important thing is to know how the story ends – but even with that, if character development takes me to an even stronger ending, that’s where I’ll go. The characters have to dictate the story, and they have to live and breathe for that to happen. Outlines have their place, but writers have to know when to let them go.
TSM: What advice do you have for that author who has that manuscript and has no idea what to do with it?
SZ: Have a friend you trust will tell you the truth read it. Granted, there are a lot of friends who, bless their hearts, want to tell you what you want to hear – that’s not who I’m talking about. It’s not about vanity – it’s about “hey, I didn’t get this part,” or “you’re using their when you mean there.” It may seem like small things, but you need to hear that before you let anyone who may have a hand in actually publishing your manuscript anywhere near it.
After that – be bold!!! Be ready for rejection! Send it out. Local writers’ groups can be helpful. I would try every avenue possible for utilizing the traditional publishing route – but understand traditional publishing does not guarantee success – they have their own problems, internal fights, fights with distributors, political bias – the list goes on. If you believe in your manuscript and can’t find a traditional agent or publisher willing to take it on, don’t be afraid to self-publish – just understand you are going against a powerful, heartless machine that is afraid of losing its grip. Yes…these people have egos and hold grudges – they are also very, very fearful of being rendered irrelevant.
Recognize “the odds are forever NOT in your favor.” If you believe in yourself, fight the odds.
TSM: How important is social media in putting your book in front of an audience?
SZ: More important than I would like it to be. But…it is the face of things. I’d rather write novels than blog. I know that social media sites use algorithms that can promote or kill you. It’s a tough, tough world out there for the truly creative.
TSM: I’d love to know if you ever use that voice of doom on people!
SZ: Hah! I always felt sorry for actors on Baywatch who saw me on set and might have only recently been told this was their final episode :). I try to use my singing voice for good, not evil – but Hell…there is always that one person you’d like to destroy…
TSM: You’re a theatre person, what are some of the plays you’ve enjoyed?
SZ: Wouldn’t you know it – Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorites. I have to admit theatre is like baseball and golf for me – I’d rather play it than watch it. It’s hard for me to sit in an audience. My favorite plays were the original ones written by Scott Carter (later to be known for Politically Incorrect), Bob Campbell, and Ken LaFave for The Invisible Theatre in Tucson – Bim & Bom, Careless, State of Affairs…
TSM: How do you come up with all those original ideas for your works?
SZ: A lot of them spring from actual experiences I’ve had but taken to an extreme. I’m a “what if…” person. Whenever I experience something that touches me, I think, “well…that could have gone horribly wrong…” and I piece together what that would look like. I tend to make connections between things that likely shouldn’t be connected at all. Also, I’ve been blessed and cursed with extremely vivid dreams and nightmares since I was very, very young. What’s odd about those dreams is that they seem to take place in a connected world.
TSM: Growing up, was writing one of your dreams?
SZ: It was one of those things I just more or less did. Singing is what I love to do most, and I’ve always done that. I’ve always sung, I’ve always drawn, and I’ve always written – whether it was plots for comic books, skits my friends and I performed in school, or short stories – for whatever reason, I’ve always needed to create, and writing was just one more creative outlet.
TSM: The best thing that writing a novel happened to you?
SZ: Seeing my first novel, WiZrD, in the Phoenix Public Library on the shelves next to the books I read as a child. That was awesome.
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