What does the title of the novel mean?
“Gutshot straight” is a poker hand where you have to draw a single card rank to make a straight. In other words, you've got a five, six, eight, and nine, which means only a seven will give you what you need. Basically, hoping to land a gutshot straight is usually a pretty reckless gamble. My novel's not about poker, but it IS about characters who are do quite a bit of reckless gambling. But I don't see that as always a bad thing – when you're trying to make big changes in your life, really change who you are, sometimes a reckless gamble is your only play.
Where did you get the idea for GUTSHOT STRAIGHT?
I wanted to take a well-known fairy tale and use it as a starting point for a contemporary crime story. Gina was a character I’d been wanting to write about for a long time, and she seemed like a good fit for Snow White. And I liked the notion of putting the focus of my story on the Huntsman, the working-class stiff who is sent to kill Snow White but ends up letting her go. He seemed like an interesting character to me, and I’d always wondered what happened to him after he disobeyed orders. If his fate is in the original story or the Disney version, I don’t remember it.
So why aren’t there seven dwarfs?
The last thing I need, trust me, is to get sued by the Walt Disney Corporation. So I just used the fairy tale as a starting point, not a map. And how dumb and gimmicky would that have been – a stick-up guy with a runny nose, a stripper with narcolepsy? In my hands, at least, it would have turned out dumb and gimmicky.
Are any of the characters in the novel based on real people?
A couple. One of the characters, I’m not going to say which one, is based almost entirely on my wife. Another character – Dick “the Whale” Moby, murderous Las Vegas strip club owner – was inspired by a real-life strip club owner I encountered several years ago. That’s a funny but deeply-harrowing-at-the-time story I am not prepared to tell at this time.
How did you choose Panama for one of the settings?
I decided to pick a place that I wanted to visit so I could justify (to wife and IRS) a trip there. So I picked Cartagena, Colombia, because it sounded really cool and interesting and apparently not as dangerous as you might think. I started researching flights, and discovered that to get to Cartagena, from where I live, you have to go through Panama. I had absolutely no desire to visit Panama – like one of the characters in my novel, I pictured pock-marked military strongmen and a big concrete ditch – but since I had to overnight there, I started reading about it. And discovered Panama was this amazingly great place (jungles with monkeys and sloths, beautiful beaches, an old quarter like Old Havana, water you could drink, etc.) with a truly fascinating history. So before long I was a lot more amped about Panama than Cartagena, changed my locations, and booked a research trip.
In what might be considered a narrative twist, it turned out I didn’t get a chance to take the research trip to Panama until I’d already written and sold my novel. It was kind of a strange experience – in some ways the real Panama was exactly like the one I’d researched and imagined, in other ways definitely not. But it’s a great place, with lots of monkeys and sloths, great stuff to see and do, a fascinating and beautiful canal, and very few tourists (at least in the rainy season, which – "rainy season" – is the understatement of all time). I almost didn't survive the trip, due to the rain and the good-natured but basically insane cab drivers, but it was well worth it and made me happy I'd chosen Panama as the location. My book was still being edited, so I was able to add in some stuff from my trip. Like the meal Shake and Gina eat at Manolo Caracol – my friend and I ate that exact same meal.
Who is your favorite character in Gutshot Straight?
The one based on my wife.
“Gutshot straight” is a poker hand where you have to draw a single card rank to make a straight. In other words, you've got a five, six, eight, and nine, which means only a seven will give you what you need. Basically, hoping to land a gutshot straight is usually a pretty reckless gamble. My novel's not about poker, but it IS about characters who are do quite a bit of reckless gambling. But I don't see that as always a bad thing – when you're trying to make big changes in your life, really change who you are, sometimes a reckless gamble is your only play.
Where did you get the idea for GUTSHOT STRAIGHT?
So why aren’t there seven dwarfs?
The last thing I need, trust me, is to get sued by the Walt Disney Corporation. So I just used the fairy tale as a starting point, not a map. And how dumb and gimmicky would that have been – a stick-up guy with a runny nose, a stripper with narcolepsy? In my hands, at least, it would have turned out dumb and gimmicky.
Are any of the characters in the novel based on real people?
A couple. One of the characters, I’m not going to say which one, is based almost entirely on my wife. Another character – Dick “the Whale” Moby, murderous Las Vegas strip club owner – was inspired by a real-life strip club owner I encountered several years ago. That’s a funny but deeply-harrowing-at-the-time story I am not prepared to tell at this time.
How did you choose Panama for one of the settings?
In what might be considered a narrative twist, it turned out I didn’t get a chance to take the research trip to Panama until I’d already written and sold my novel. It was kind of a strange experience – in some ways the real Panama was exactly like the one I’d researched and imagined, in other ways definitely not. But it’s a great place, with lots of monkeys and sloths, great stuff to see and do, a fascinating and beautiful canal, and very few tourists (at least in the rainy season, which – "rainy season" – is the understatement of all time). I almost didn't survive the trip, due to the rain and the good-natured but basically insane cab drivers, but it was well worth it and made me happy I'd chosen Panama as the location. My book was still being edited, so I was able to add in some stuff from my trip. Like the meal Shake and Gina eat at Manolo Caracol – my friend and I ate that exact same meal.
Who is your favorite character in Gutshot Straight?
The one based on my wife.
Q&A
Photo copyright J.D. Merryweather
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