The Art of The Promo

This week's rant will 100% NOT be about selling your books. Sorry, we all know the best way to do that is to spam strangers via DM. That's how King did it and that's how all of us should do it.

Moving on.

No, what I'm talking about is something I learned from professional wrestling: the promo. In wrestling, a promo is short for "promotional interview", a dialogue or monologue used to advance a story line. For anyone unfamiliar with wrestling, but familiar with guys like Hulk Hogan, these were the segments where all his veins popped out his neck and he called everyone 'brother'.

The promo, while entirely about conveying a story as broad as humanly possible (and really, just to sell tickets) is still a storytelling tool. That said, it is an incredibly POWERFUL storytelling tool. That broad scope. The simple to understand motivations, the very distinct line between the good guy and the bad guy - all vital tools to help you build out not only your own stories, but mostly importantly, your characters.

Now, I know a lot of folks look down at professional wrestling and at times, rightfully so, but I'm the type of person that not only enjoys the medium, but I've found opportunities to help my own writing via the use of storytelling within the medium (the violence itself is a big help for writing action, but that's for another rant).

So why is the promo helpful (to me)? Think about a promo as sort of a character sheet. Quite often, these performers need to leverage these shouty speeches as a means of not only selling the show but selling their character. Each iteration of these promos needs to not only be as accessible as possible, but they need to somehow carry a story along with them. At it's very base nature, the promo is both extremely simplistic but can become nuanced enough to build an entire character from.

Take our 80s icon above. You might remember the Hulkster was all about prayers and vitamins and all that junk, but beyond all the jingoistic nonsense and corporate morality, you can gain a pretty quick idea of who our hero is supposed to be. Is it cliche? Holy shit yes, but it's still a character sheet and the character is telling the story.

Which is why I'm a fan of using promos when I'm building characters. It's one thing to write out a background for a character, but it's another thing to let them speak for themselves. A monologue conveying my characters' motivations and emotions about the story they are about to embark on can be immensely helpful not just in giving the character depth but in discovering their voice. Trust me; you haven't lived until you paced in your office and read off three paragraphs as a character simply stating what they want, why the want it, and what they will do to get it - loudly. You'll spot contradictions, find the seeds of larger motivations and character arcs, and opportunities to explore headier concepts.

Just don't work yourself into a shoot, brother.

Google it.

Angel Luis Colón is the Derringer and Anthony Award nominated writer of 5 books including his latest novel HELL CHOSE ME. In his down time, he’s edited an anthology or two, hosted a podcast, helped edit the flash fiction site Shotgun Honey, and has taken up bread baking during the pandemic because why the hell not?

Keep up with him on Twitter via @GoshDarnMyLife

Roller Derby and Mystery

I’m happy to welcome A.J. Devlin back to Do Some Damage today. We’ve known each other since meeting at Bouchercon in Toronto several years ago. Back then, he was a yet-to-be-published writer. Now he’s an acclaimed, Lefty Award-nominated author whose second novel came out Friday. I’ve been waiting impatiently for it ever since I read the first one in his series. Imagine my delight when I found out it’s about bad-ass roller derby queens.

A.J.’s been compared with Carl Hiaasen, and I couldn’t agree more. Here he is with more on Rolling Thunder. - Claire

By A.J. Devlin

“I’m the Queen!”

“You’re gonna die!”

“Cross my path?”

“You’re gonna fly!”

That is an actual chant used during warm-up by some women’s flat-track roller derby teams, one that I borrowed and utilized in my latest mystery-comedy novel Rolling Thunder.

The first book in the series – Cobra Clutch – is set in the world of independent professional wrestling and tells the story of “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead, an ex-pro wrestler turned sleuth in Vancouver, looking for a kidnapped pet python being held for ransom.

For Jed’s follow up adventure I wanted to maintain the quirkiness inherit to a fringe sport but also showcase something completely different – which is why it made total sense to me that a wrestler character from the first book could very believably trade in the squared circle for the ferocity of flat-track roller derby. Both pro wrestling and roller derby have a taste for the theatrical, from their monikers to their costumes to the sometimes-brutalizing way in which these amazing athletes punish their bodies.

But there’s something special about roller derby that really sets it apart from anything else – and if I had to boil it down to a couple of words, I would have to say female empowerment. As the father of a particularly spirited five-year-old daughter, I can already imagine my little girl kicking butt and taking names on the flat track, competing in a truly unique and competitive sport while simultaneously celebrating her womanhood. Roller derby – or as the ladies call it, just “derby” – is a punk rock, anti-establishment, counter-culture sport. It features blood, sweat, and tears, but it’s also more than that. In the words of Jack Black from School Of Rock, it’s about “sticking it to the man.” Roller derby is fierce and fun and allows its competitors the freedom to embrace their inner badass while also reaping the benefits of a team sport.

Everything about roller derby is awesome. This is why I layered in as part of the plot for Rolling Thunder a narrative in which some wealthy investors are flirting with commercializing the sport and trying to take it mainstream. Similar to independent professional wrestling, roller derby isn’t about broad appeal or watering down something edgy in order to make it more appealing or palatable to the masses. The sport of roller derby answers to no one – and if you don’t like it then as far as the skaters, coaches, and fans are concerned, you can take a damn hike.

The sport of roller derby also offered a kind of a mirror effect for “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead, who himself is considered a bit edgy and outside the norm (as an atypical detective). Like roller derby, Jed does things his own way, often ruffles feathers or butts heads with authority figures, and answers to no one but himself. I had a blast writing Jed as he navigated his way through this raucous sport, and it was fun to see him both amid familiar surroundings but also completely out of his element at the same time.

I was incredibly fortunate to have my high school classmate, multimedia journalist, and former skater with the Terminal City Rollergirls of Vancouver not only proof-read but also advise me as I wrote the next chapter in the “Hammerhead” Jed mystery-comedy series. I was quite frankly spoiled by my friend Jenna Hauck – aka “Hydro-Jenna Bomb” – and her incredible insight and feedback. Just knowing that a retired roller derby player of her stature and strong woman and mom of her caliber not only approved of but also liked Rolling Thunder meant the world to me.

While I intend to keep taking “Hammerhead” Jed on new adventures and throwing him into different arenas while continuing to push him out of his comfort zone, there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when a person who has lived a life in the world in which you’ve done your best to research and are trying to do justice gives you the thumbs up.

Just like independent professional wrestling, women’s flat-track roller derby is a spectacle that needs to be seen to be believed. So, if you get a chance, check out a game if you can, because I guarantee you every woman on the track competing is there for one reason and one reason alone – to embrace and celebrate what makes these warrior women the passionate and powerful people they are.

You can find Rolling Thunder through an independent bookstore at Indiebound, at publisher NeWest Press, or on Amazon. 

 A.J. Devlin grew up in Greater Vancouver before moving to Southern California for six years where he earned a B.F.A. in Screenwriting from Chapman University and a M.F.A. in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. COBRA CLUTCH, the first entry in the “Hammerhead” Jed ex-pro wrestler turned PI mystery-comedy series, was nominated for a 2019 Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery and won the 2019 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel.

 

New Crime Fiction - Cobra Clutch

I met A.J. Devlin at last year’s Bouchercon in Toronto. When he started telling me about his debut novel, I was immediately hooked. A former pro-wrestler gets dragged back into the dirty underbelly of that world and the criminal side of Vancouver. Plus, snakes! Here’s A.J. to tell us more. - Claire

By A.J. Devlin

There really is nothing quite like pro-wrestling.

Part soap opera, part stunt show, part live-action improv – no other sport or form of entertainment can really match the distinctive, multi-hyphenate combination that is professional wrestling.

I must say, it’s kind of perfect timing for me to be able to write this guest blog post on the heels of Wrestlemania, the biggest professional wrestling spectacular in the world, as well as after the always rowdy post-Wrestlemania episode of Monday Night RAW, and this week’s release of the incredible HBO Andre The Giant documentary. Thank you to author Claire Booth and the Do Some Damage crime writing blog for the opportunity.

There were indeed a few factors that inspired my debut pro-wrestling mystery-comedy novel Cobra Clutch, of which I would like to share.

The first was real life behind-the-scenes professional wrestling documentaries and biographies that gave me a glimpse into the reality of the business. The original inkling of an idea for an ongoing mystery series first came to me after I watched the 1999 movie Beyond The Mat, which featured a spotlight segment on WWE Legend Jake “The Snake” Roberts. As a boy growing up I had watched Jake “The Snake” absolutely electrify 90,000 plus fans at Wrestlemania III, only to find him in this film to be an out-of-shape, down on his luck, former pro-wrestling legend struggling with addiction and wrestling in a barn in a remote corner of a rural U.S. state for a handful of cash (I also highly recommend following up Beyond The Mat with the recent and very inspirational documentary The Resurrection Of Jake “The Snake” Roberts, where he courageously overcomes his personal demons and is inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame).

How could someone who was once so dynamic, talented, and larger than life have such an epic fall from grace? That was my first exposure to the dark underbelly of professional wrestling – an industry rife with catastrophe where dozens of pro-wrestlers have died before the age of forty due to endless amounts of overdoses, addictions, suicide, accidents, steroid abuse, and even murder.

Despite how cartoonish and over-the-top at times professional wrestling can be, that ridiculousness is regularly offset by real-life tragedy. And even the wrestlers who are able to avoid the aforementioned afflictions still spend three hundred plus days on the road, enduring tumultuous personal lives, with many divorces and broken families resulting due to the demands of the job – yet they still do it. Willingly. Day in and day out, because they love it so much. And, incredibly, most seem to have no regrets (to truly appreciate this dedication I suggest watching the ESPN 30 For 30 documentary Nature Boy about Ric Flair).

That is the second thing that attracted me to setting a mystery novel in the world of professional wrestling – the fierce, potent, and perhaps even sometimes illogical passion these people have for their craft. As a writer who has spent the last nineteen years trying to break through and become a professional, I very strongly relate to being driven by such a passion. Something that is literally in your veins and that you are driven to relentlessly pursue, regardless of how unlikely achieving that dream may seem.

My late professor, mentor, and friend, Academy Award Nominated screenwriter and crime novelist Leonard Schrader, was the person who really turned me onto mystery novels as an alternative to screenwriting. While studying writing for film at Chapman University and later The American Film Institute, Leonard and I spent many late nights at a Hollywood diner collaborating together on screenplays and sharing our mutual obsession for great storytelling. However, I will never forget his words when he presented me with the first three Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mysteries, a series written by one of the all-time great crime writers Robert Crais, as a graduation gift for earning my M.F.A. in Screenwriting from the AFI: “Never forget that a screenplay is a blueprint for a film, of which many hands will make their way into the pot, whereas a novel will always be a complete piece of work.”

One of the most rewarding things for me personally about getting published has been being able to dedicate Cobra Clutch to Leonard, and I like to think that the book itself is a fusion of one of his many, many, talents (creating complex and damaged protagonists) with my classic Canucklehead personality (quirky and sarcastic).

Finally, the third and final element that led me to conceive of and eventually write Cobra Clutch is that for years I have been a big fan of what I have dubbed the “hybrid-athlete detective” mystery sub-genre. From Harlan Coben’s ex-basketball star turned sports agent-amateur sleuth Myron Bolitar, to Tom Shreck’s boxer-amateur sleuth Duffy Dombrowski, to Jeff Shelby’s surfer-detective Noah Braddock, to Martin McKinley’s ex-hockey player-amateur sleuth Martin Carter – there were many different sports playing key roles in shaping these protagonists personalities. However, I realized that to the best of my knowledge no one had ever written a mystery featuring an ex-wrestler-amateur sleuth before and from there I was on my way. The last puzzle piece that fell into place before I started writing “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead’s first adventure was the realization that in order to do justice to a mystery set in the world of independent professional wrestling I had to capture both sides of the coin with regards to the industry – the sometimes absurd in-ring antics and the consistent outside-the-ring tragedy – which is why humour became a vital and essential part of the story and why I prefer to call the book a “mystery-comedy.”

In conclusion, I would just like to say that professional wrestling has a lot in common with mystery novels, or with any fiction really, because in the end, the best matches are the ones that tell the best stories. Shawn Michaels achieving his boyhood dream of becoming WWE Champion for the first time, The Undertaker carving out arguably the greatest achievement in sports entertainment with “The Streak,” or Daniel Bryan’s recent return at last week’s Wrestlemania and re-igniting the “Yes! Movement” while telling a great story inside the squared circle with his athleticism and unique in-ring style – because at the heart of both, it’s simply what it is all about.

“Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead thought he’d traded the pro-wrestling world for the slightly less dangerous one of a bar bouncer and errand boy for his father’s detective agency, but the squared circle wasn’t quite done with him yet. When his former tag-team partner draws upon their old friendship for help in finding his kidnapped pet snake, Jed finds himself dragged back into the fold of sleazy promoters, gimmicky performers, and violence inside and outside the ring. As the venom of Vancouver’s criminal underworld begins to seep into Jed’s life, a steel chair to the back of the head is the least of his problems. Cobra Clutch is available on Amazon or iTunes.

A.J. Devlin grew up in Greater Vancouver before moving to Southern California for six years where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood he moved back home to Port Moody, BC, where he now lives with his wife and two children. Cobra Clutch is his first novel. Find him on Facebook, or on Twitter @ajdevlinauthor.