Beau loves LOVE

 

This week, Beau spotlights Love and Other Criminal Behavior by Nikki Dolson.

The collection starts with "Georgie Ann" a tale of kept women, betrayal, fake friends, and oh, so much blood. Nikki doesn't pump the breaks before throwing the reader into the ring in "Take the Hit," where Kendra must go back into the boxing ring and throw a fight if she hopes to fulfill her dream of having a family.

In "Sunrise," Nikki takes us to the desert to die. But not before unwinding the lost loves, regrets, and complicated relationships all plaguing one family, as two cousins try to decide whether they'll let their beloved Uncle join his late first wife.

"Our Man Julian," is about a washed-up actor who is cultivating a wild San Diego garden, and a lifetime of loneliness and regret. Hit with the reality that he will die soon with no savings and nothing to offer the daughters he loves but barely sees, he plans an outrageous kamikaze mission. But can a man who's survived it all really turn off that survival instinct?

Love and Other Criminal Behavior will keep your heart pumping fast, right up until it's broken.

Get yours

A conversation with Nikki Dolson

 I fucking love Nikki Dolson. 

In my time writing, she has become not only one of the best writers I know (If you've not read her stuff, I recommend her absolutely amazing story, The Mistress), but a friend, too. The kind of friend you can call at 1 AM because some real dark shit has gone down and you're sitting in your car outside the hospital. When I refer to this woman as The Queen, I'm not fucking around. I mean it, wholly and truly. She is amazing. 

The Queen

It occurred to me a few weeks ago, that maybe some of you know of her (I mean, everyone has heard of Nikki Dolson at this point, right?!?) but you might not know her. So Nikki and I, we had a conversation, and I'm going to share it with you all now. 

Paul J. Garth 

Nikki, you're known as one of the best short story writers in the community. Literally, every writer I talk to says how much they love your work. So, the first thing I want to ask is this: If I were putting an Avengers style group together of the best crime writers out there, who would you pick to be on the team with you?

Nikki Dolson

OMFG

Paul J. Garth

It's totally true though.

Nikki Dolson

I would throw up the Cosby signal (picture a giant SAC like the bat signal lol). I would call on Dennis Tafoya and Scott Phillips. I would beg Megan Abbott and Faye Snowden and Laura Lippman. And put out one Hail Mary call out to the one and only Walter Mosley.

Tbh there is be such a long list of writers I would want. I am a mere student and these are the ones I look to when I’m stuck and frustrated with my own work.

Paul J. Garth 

One of the things I I love about talking about writing with you is you have such depth in terms of the things you read and the writers you admire. That list above feels both unlike one anyone else could give, but also right. Like you read it, and you're like, what the fuck else could you want?

Okay, so, you brought up Mosley, who I also adore. Let's get into this. If you had to recommend a Mosley novel to someone who had never read him before, what would you recommend?

Nikki Dolson

I read to learn new things and understand my own work better too. Faye Snowden writing is relatively new to me but her story in BAMS was so great. Somebody said read widely and I try to find a new writer every year.

Go to classic Mosley is Devil in a Blue Dress. You can’t go wrong with Easy Rawlins. My favorite series of his are the Leonid McGill books. Maybe it’s just the modern setting that I like more. I’m just starting the Last of Ptolomey Gray after seeing the first episode of the new television series. He is a beautiful writer. His characters rise up off the page and whisper in your ear. So that’s three lol 

Paul J. Garth 

One of the best things about Mosley is who all of your recommendations are right and excellent, but I still think I'd go with something different. Down the River Unto the Sea, specifically, because the main character, Joe, rides such a perfect line between being a guy who used to be a cop and a guy who is still feeling out what he thinks is possible or acceptable.

Nikki Dolson

Yes!

Paul J. Garth 

Okay, lets talk about your writing for a second. There are a couple of topics I want to touch on, Vegas, Hitters, death, and relationships. But lets stay at the beginning. How do you start? Plot, character, an image? Something you're thinking about?

Nikki Dolson

Often it’s a scene or just a line of dialogue that pops into my head. Sometimes I’ll think on it for awhile to see what comes of it. Lately I’ve been getting ideas about plot: A meets B then makes a terrible decision. Then it’s weeks (months or years) of turning it over and trying to fit pieces of things I come across or that interest me into the slots. You should see the post-it notes stuck to my monitor. Or my notes app! Endless fragments of ideas jotted down over the course of my work day.

Paul J. Garth 

I imagine it might look pretty similar to mine! Im intrigued by what you said about time. Sometimes, and I've had this happen to me a lot lately, I'll get an idea for a story, and I'll know it's a great idea, but when I sit down to write it, it just... it doesn't come.  And, lately, I've been thinking that that just means I'm not ready to write it. Not yet. But eventually, when my subconconscious has turned over some small part of it that Im not even aware of yet, it will come. So, can you tell us, do you have any stories that you have published that started like that, and walk us through the process?

Nikki Dolson

Most recently is my story Neighbors which started off as an idea about two married couples at odds. My notes app says I started thinking about it in Sept of 2018 that I came back to again in January 2019 with more detail:

“Two married couples. 

One husband, A1, invests their savings into the other husband’s, X1, business/scheme. X1’s wife discovers that the money they had is completely gone and she goes to the A1’s house to cry about the deceit to A1’s wife. 

That evening A1’s wife tells A1 about their friend’s broken marriage. A1 reveals that he invested their money and it’s now gone too. “

I kicked around the idea one night with Shawn (Cosby) and one day these characters finally had names and lives. Then it still took me all of 2019 to write it. I am officially a slow writer now. 

There was a time where I churned out pages constantly. Now it seems I write a chunk then let it sit and then I revise it that not until I understand what story I’m really trying to write. It’s rarely just about the crime anymore. 

Paul J. Garth 

As a fellow member of the slow writers club, I understand exactly what you mean. The crime is there, but it's always secondary to something else. And a lot of the time, the crime is born of that other thing, so it needs to be deeply understood by the writer.

Here is where I point out to everyone reading that NEIGHBORS was in BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE, and encourage everyone to read it.

I wasn't planning on asking this, but I'm really curious: Tell me about finding out about that. Was it an email? A phone call? Did you celebrate?

Nikki Dolson

It was an email from Steph Cha. I absolutely thought someone was fucking with me! I could not believe it was true. I told Shawn about it (dear reader, I tell Shawn Cosby everything).  Then I ran to Twitter to see if anyone else had received notification and there was nothing! So I sat on it for a few hours. Once I really believed it was true I tweeted about it. Then it seemed like everyone else started posting about their acceptances and to have all of these amazing writers were in the antho too—I mean fucking Laura Lippman and Alex Segura!!! It was genuinely an amazing moment for me. It was a fabulous few days of love and joy on my Twitter TL.

I cried when I heard the audiobook of my story.

BAMS was definitely on my bucket list. Now my story is included in an audiobook too. I just need someone to buy the film rights lol 

Paul J. Garth 

They’d be dumb not to.

Okay, we’ve both covered more ground than I thought we would and also talked more in depth than I expected. I guess that can happen when two people like talking to one another 🙂 so let’s do one more question: I always want to talk to you about relationships and Vegas, but I’ve noticed another theme in your work: hit men and hit women. What is it that draws you to contract killers? Is it the wild card element they bring, or that they’re entirely based on stepping over lines other characters would flinch at?

Nikki Dolson

I think it’s just that I love a good hit man story. Whether they are guys doing bad things but are not otherwise terrible people (Lawrence Block’s Keller is easily my favorite hit man) or guys just following orders who later find a line they refuse to cross and decide to do the right thing (Mark Strong’s character Sorter in Guy Ritchie’s Revolver) or guys who like what they do because they want to hurt people (Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, book and movie) I just love diving into stories with these kind of characters. But they are just characters to me. They aren’t real so I’m more amused by them than I am afraid. 

And as for hit women, all of this applies but women are never the ones doing this work in fiction unless it’s the punch line (James bond) or the twist (old woman kills guy then walks away because who would suspect her?) or it’s the amnesia victim who had time to find her true calling as a gentle wife until she remembers her murderous job (long kiss goodnight—which I fucking LOVE). It’s a little thrilling for me when it’s a hitwoman because it’s never supposed to be us. 

Which brings me to a ciswoman’s ultimate goal in life—the wife: I am always more interested in the wife who killed her husband because I could never do that! I have been a wife. I have been angry with my husband. I would sooner disappear than physically hurt him. But, the woman who would who could plot the demise of the person they love, had kids with, planned a life with, now she is someone who terrifies me more than a hit man. I can imagine her standing next to me in line. Waving hello to me at school drop-off. She is a real person and I will always want to know her story. Give me the unhappy suburban wife with an axe to grind and three dozen cupcakes to make for her kids third grade class before she goes to bed. That is high drama. Maybe she just leaves him or maybe she poisons him, butchers his body and stores him in the freezer in the garage. 😃 

Paul J. Garth 

Well now I’m going to be sideeying all the garages in my neighborhood, asking myself, “have I seen that dude lately?” But for real, the marriages in your work are always so wonderfully present; the women are empathetic and understandable but, you have a way of adding that extra sliver of grit to them that makes it totally believable they’d be willing to kill or maim. I’m still remember the first time I read The Mistress and how the ending just absolutely slapped me in the face. That it was all done in second person speaks to your skill. 

Okay, I had a lot more questions for you, but we’re probably getting low on space, so, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to ask one more question, and then maybe we can keep talking and do a part two. 

With that, Nikki, I know you’re a night owl like me. So, late night writing session. What’s your stimulant of choice? Are you drinking coffee after midnight, wine, or just diving through the wee hours with determination and willpower?

Nikki Dolson

Determination, willpower and a little fear. I want to write stories that move people but mostly I don’t want to disappoint. So I’m always afraid I’ve written a stinker. I want to be as good as my favorites. I’m not there yet. I’ll never be that good but it’s what keeps me up late revising a story.

Paul J. Garth 

Of course you take a throwaway question and give the best damn answer possible.

You're the damn best, Nikki. Thanks for taking the time to talk, and I hope we can do it again soon!

Nikki Dolson

You’re such an excellent writer. I am honored you asked me. This was so fun!

Nikki Dolson on the drags and the glimmers of publishing

By Steve Weddle

Nikki Dolson's new collection, Love and Other Criminal Behavior, is a wonderful group of stories. I've been a fan of her work for a while, so it was an absolute treat to be able to read all these stories in one collection.

Here are the details:

The collection starts with "Georgie Ann" a tale of kept women, betrayal, fake friends, and oh, so much blood. Nikki doesn't pump the breaks before throwing the reader into the ring in "Take the Hit," where Kendra must go back into the boxing ring and throw a fight if she hopes to fulfill her dream of having a family.

In "Sunrise," Nikki takes us to the desert to die. But not before unwinding the lost loves, regrets, and complicated relationships all plaguing one family, as two cousins try to decide whether they'll let their beloved Uncle join his late first wife.

"Our Man Julian," is about a washed-up actor who is cultivating a wild San Diego garden, and a lifetime of loneliness and regret. Hit with the reality that he will die soon with no savings and nothing to offer the daughters he loves but barely sees, he plans an outrageous kamikaze mission. But can a man who's survived it all really turn off that survival instinct?

Love and Other Criminal Behavior will keep your heart pumping fast, right up until it's broken.

Nikki Dolson was kind enough to answer some questions I had, so let's get to it, shall we?

***

Steve Weddle: This collection spans quite a few years and publications. What drove you to choose these stories for this book? 

Nikki Dolson: I have a writing teacher who insisted it was beyond time for me to put together a collection. I’d been poking at the idea for awhile and once I had a publisher interested, I put together the stories that made sense to me. 

I’d read a collection of short stories in 2015 called American Housewife by Helen Ellis and it was everything I wanted my collection to be. She had funny little flash fiction up against longer, deeper stories. I realized that my traditional ideas of what made a collection were based on writers who didn’t write like I did. So all of my stories aren’t crime. There’s not always a dead body. But I think they work together. 

These thirteen stories are the best representation of my writing without the false notes of other writer styles I tried, of structures I did poorly.

Nikki Dolson

SW: You have a wonderful technique of starting a story in the present, then dropping back into the past for background, and repeating that process throughout the narrative so that the reader is gifted with layer upon layer of storytelling and character development. Is that technique something you've worked on or has it come naturally?

ND: I’m glad you say think it works! I LOVE backstory. I want the reader to know everything I think I know about a character, but it can bog down a story or stop it cold. When I revise I am always trimming down the back story in favor of forward momentum. Man, it’s hard.

SW: On the other side, is there anything you've learned in your journey as a short story writer, either in the writing itself or the business of writing, that you wish you hadn't learned? 

ND: I wish I’d never learned the hard truth that publishing is a business, that publishing can be misery. Chasing after royalty statements and payments is such a drag. Indie publishing is hard for everyone involved, but damn if it doesn’t seem like writers are the ones getting beat down.

SW: What is it about the length of the short story that you find appealing, and how do you know when you need to develop something longer or when you need to cut back to something shorter?
ND: Of late, I’m writing stories for anthologies which often come with a max word count. Trying to tell a story within those constraints is hard sometimes. Left to write without an end publication in sight, my stories hover around 6,000 words.

SW: As you've been publishing stories for years, is there anything you wish you'd known a decade or more ago that you've recently learned? 

ND: I’m figuring out that I don’t need to catch up to anyone. I’m not behind. I’m maybe not where I’d hoped I’d be after fourteen years, but I’m not in a bad place. I can see little glimmers of future books ahead of me. 

Pick up your copy of this wonderful collection at your local indie or wherever fine books are sold.

Beau Is Back

Today, Beau Johnson considers Nikki Dolson's ALL THINGS VIOLENT.

Once upon a time, Laura Park was a normal college sophomore with her best friend at her side. A year later, Laura was on a deserted road on the outskirts of Las Vegas killing a man. 
She didn’t expect to get away with it but she did with the help of a stranger named Simon who took her in, liquored her up, and broke her down. 
Soon the ambitious Simon introduces her to Frank Joyce, a man who would teach her how to become a stone-cold professional killer. 
Laura learns her deadly trade and earns her money. Twenty-six years old and she thinks she’s found her happily ever after. Sadly it all falls apart when Simon leaves her for another. Now some other woman, blonde and polished, all shiny and new, is living Laura’s happy life.
Heartbroken, but knife always at the ready, Laura waits for any opportunity to get Simon back. The question is, when she gets her chance, will she take it? 
In Laura’s world anyone can become a target, loyalties can shift in a blink of an eye, and when everyone is homicidal, people are definitely going to die.