Pageonelit.com: How did the Jason Keltner
series get started? How was this character created? I always
find it interesting from where a character's name came from --
How did you come up with the name Jason Keltner?
KEITH: I don't really remember where the
name came from. "Jason" is a name not uncommon in my
generation, and I thought it worked for the character. "Keltner"
-- I don't know that it had any very interesting genesis; I just
came up with it, and it stuck.
Pageonelit.com: THE NIGHT MEN deals
in hate crime -- It's very interesting subject to tackle especially
with the recent Trade Center tragedy. Have you had any personal
experience with hate crimes? If so, when and what? Did you do
any research on the kind of people who perform hate crimes?
KEITH: One of the sources of THE NIGHT MEN
is my own memory of being fifteen or so and staying up all night
to protect our house from vandals. This was in North Hollywood,
not Sunland; but I'd established earlier in the 
series that the character
whose house is vandalized in THE NIGHT MEN grew up in Sunland.
I hate research, so I don't do much. I know who was behind the
problems my family had in North Hollywood, and I have strong
beliefs about the banal nature of evil. That was sufficient hate
crime research to carry the book.
Pageonelit.com: In your opinion, Is THE
NIGHT MEN your most complicated book in the series --There
are three intertwined stories in it?
KEITH: It is the most technically
complex book, and also the most emotionally and psychologically
complex. These two kinds of complexity are really the same thing;
the unusual structure allows for a psychological element that
couldn't have been there otherwise. I'm happy with it, both as
just a story I'd want to read, and as a marriage of unusual form
and content.
Pageonelit.com: Your setting for THE
NIGHT MEN is New York, but you as well as the character are
from California. I really like your descriptions of the city
and how you compare it to California? What brought you to NY?
Has your feelings for the city changed since 9-11? How?
KEITH: Thanks. We moved to New York a little
over three years ago so that my wife could advance her opera
career. My opinion of the city hasn't changed, but everyone here
suddenly found ourselves in the same big foxhole, which has a
way of forging bonds. I am not patient with the "New Yorkers
are the bravest people on Earth" nonsense I've heard since 9-11, since I
think just about any community in the world would pull together
after such a terrible event; however, it didn't happen in any
community in the world -- it happened here, and community feeling
certainly has increased, including mine.
Pageonelit.com: In your opinion, how has
New York changed since 9-11?
KEITH: The World Trade Center's not there
anymore, and we're at war. Everything else is just details. Besides
the "missing" flyers, the frightening job market, and
people being a little more polite, nothing else seems that different.
People are uncertain, but nothing awful has actually happened
since September 11.
Pageonelit.com: What do you miss most
about Southern California? What is the oddest thing you find
about living in New York City?
KEITH: Besides friends, weather, and just
being home, I miss certain foods. There are things that you just
don't see in New York City: Cobb salads, good Mexican food, apple
fritters, maple bars, sourdough bread, diet root beer... Most
restaurants have "Cobb salad" on the menu, but it bears
no resemblance; you get a green salad with a chicken breast on
it. I'm not sure what the
oddest thing is about living here. In Los Angeles, my office
was along the beach walk in Venice. It would take a lot to be
odder than that.
Pageonelit.com: Jason Keltner is always
reading a book or making references - Any reason why we never
know what the book is about or title? I would guess Keith Snyder
is a lot like Jason in this regard? What are you reading right
now? What do you like in a book?
KEITH: In THE NIGHT MEN, the important
thing isn't what book he's reading; it's that he doesn't feel
it's the right book and can't concentrate on it. There are hints,
so a couple of people might get it, I suppose, but the book is
not named because it's not important. Jason probably wouldn't
even remember what he was reading if you asked him, in this case.
I just finished MYSTERY AND MANNERS by Flannery O'Connor.
Asking what I like in a book is like asking what
I like in a woman. There's just not an answer. Some women, I
don't like at all -- and those do tend to have common characteristics;
but those I like, I like for different reasons. Some have great
comic delivery; some are graceful; some are tough; some are shapely;
some are brilliant; some are warmhearted; some are cynical; some
are good dancers; some know how they make mozzarella. Same with
books. I don't have criteria; I just see what appeals to me in
each case.
Pageonelit.com: I know you just got back
from Bouchercon -- For those who don't know what is Bouchercon?
And would you give us a brief discription of your experience
(the high points) this year?
KEITH: Bouchercon is the biggest of the
yearly mystery conventions. It was held this year in Washington,
DC. There were two high points; one was the unsanctioned panel
that SJ Rozan and I organized about the effect of Sept. 11 on
writers. (Audio from this gathering will be up on the web shortly;
anyone who wants to know where to hear it -- or who'd like to
be on my mailing list -- is invited to email me.) The other was
a late-night private conversation in my room, about books. As
much as I like Bouchercon, sometimes being an author in a crowd
of readers can be too much for an introvert. (And yes, I am an
introvert. I can only be outgoing for so long before I have to
hide in my hotel room.)
Pageonelit.com: What I like most about
your books is the stretch and growth of the characters from one
book to the next --- Take away SHOW CONTROL and the Keltner
series doesn't have any dead bodies -- So, why do you think your
books continue to sell in the mystery genre? Do you consider
yourself a "mystery writer"? Why or why not?
KEITH: Thanks. My books continue to sell
in the mystery genre because Michael Seidman, the mystery editor
at Walker, likes them enough to keep publishing them, and they
have crime of some sort in them, so he can keep publishing them
as mysteries. As for whether I consider myself a mystery writer,
I really don't give it much thought. I don't write formula books,
so I'm not a "mystery writer" in the pejorative sense;
if you want to call my books "mysteries" -- and I could
make the argument either way -- 
then I'm a mystery writer.
I'm most comfortable in the spaces between genres. My books aren't
mysteries the way Agatha Christie's books were; but whether they're
mysteries the way Keith Snyder's books are, I have no idea. I
just write books I'd want to read and let other people worry
about what to call them.
Pageonelit.com: Briefly explain this quote
from you, "Jason gets my drive, my self-examination,
and my tendency to keep quiet even when I shouldn't...."
KEITH: Jason's learning. Having a girlfriend
changes things.
Pageonelit.com: Which do you prefer: writing
novels or composing music, and why?
KEITH: I don't think about which I prefer. Sometimes I
do one; sometimes I do the other. I've started -- hesitantly
-- a very large project that might allow me to both write and
compose.
Pageonelit.com: Woollymammoth is your
day job --- Where did the name Woollymammoth come from for your
company? And, briefly, what do you do in your day job?
KEITH: I needed a name for my company, and
I remembered having drawn a little cartoon woolly mammoth in
my sketchbook. So I named the company Woolly Mammoth, and that
was my company logo. I do graphic design by day, and sometimes
some commercial music. I just had email today, out of the blue,
about doing music for an educational children's product. I'm
looking forward to starting on that; I'd rather put my time and
talents into something that actually has some potential for a
net gain for the species. I spent some time last year as a high-level
producer at a couple of dotcoms where the money was excellent,
but the whole thing was just stupid. The dotcom crash had to
happen; too many of thebusiness ideas were flat-out dumb.
Pageonelit.com: Let's see you write, compose,
make short films and work as a freelance graphic designer. What
can you not do?
KEITH: Predict where next month's rent will
come from.
Pageonelit.com: Tell us about your film
work? What films have you produced? What kind of films would
you like to make in the future?
KEITH: I'm in post-production on SELL
IN HELL, a short comedy that I wrote/directed/produced with
my friend and collaborator Blake Arnold. We were also partners
on 1 IS FOR GUN, a short detective comedy that won a small
award at a small film festival. On September 13, 14, and 15,
I went out with a video camera and shot in and around New York
City, and posted mini-documentaries
on the web so people in other places could see what it was like
to be here. They're linked at
http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith/writing.
I'm working on something new, but it's still fragile as a concept,
so I don't want to talk about it yet.
Pageonelit.com: You are married to Kathleen,
an opera singer, who you say in your dedication for THE NIGHT
MEN, "Everything is always for Kathleen, whether she
wants it or not." Tell us about Kathleen? Does she help
any when you are constructing a story?
KEITH: She does help. She's the person I
talk to when I get stuck. None of her suggestions are ever immediately
usable, but her way of thinking is so different from mine that
she sparks ideas I wouldn't have had otherwise. She's able to
help me look in directions that don't occur to me.
Pageonelit.com: Any plans for your next
book? Will you stay with Jason Keltner or move on to someone
new?
KEITH: I never know until I start the next
one!
filmmaker,
1 is for Gun, a short film Keith co wrote/produced/directed,
and for which he composed and produced the musical score, won
a silver award at the 1998 Atlantic City Film Festival. Session
52, another short film he co-produced and scored, screened at
the New Orleans and Bombay festivals. His first book was published
in 1996. Show Control Mystery Scene said it was "a
highly impressive first novel of rare quality." Other novels
followed, Coffin's Got The Dead Guy On The Inside, and
Trouble Comes Back. The principal talent at Woolly Mammoth
Multimedia,