Mark Stevens

The son of two librarians, Mark Stevens was raised in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and has worked as a reporter, as a national television news producer, and in public relations. Antler Dust was a Denver Post bestseller in 2007 and 2009. Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Book Award (2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively), and Trapline won. Trapline also won the Colorado Authors League award for best genre fiction. Stevens has had short stories published by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, by Mystery Tribune, and in Denver Noir (Akashic Books). In September 2016, Stevens was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. He hosts a regular podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and has served as president of the Rocky Mountain chapter for Mystery Writers of America.

Stevens's new novel is The Fireballer.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

From the day I started writing it, this novel was called The One. It was sold as The One. The “1” is the fastball and the fastball is Frank Ryder’s dominating pitch. I also thought The One worked because Frank is the talk of the sports world. But, no. Too generic in search engines. And it would lead in all different directions, both within book and non-book searches. Arriving at The Fireballer took weeks and weeks of going around and around with my editor, my agent, and a few friends who got pulled into the head-scratching fray.

What else was in play (so to speak)? Unhittable. Pitch Perfect. Never Saw It Coming. Payoff Pitch. A couple dozen others.

For a long time, The Fireballer was in the running. It had staying power. It covered a lot of ground because Frank throws a supremely fast pitch and, in my mind, he’s kind of burning down the joint with the issues he’s bringing to the table. It was one of those stubborn titles that stuck around and insisted on being adopted. In the end, I loved it.

What's in a name?

Frank Ryder is 22. He’s a kid. But he’s carrying so much weight with him. So much emotional baggage. I wanted him to have an old-school first name. Something classic. Something simple. And I like the hard ‘k’ sound at the end. And, to me, Ryder suggests travel—horseman, rider, long-distance. And in the course of the book, Frank Ryder travels a long way. Both his soul-searching tour to Denver, Birmingham, and Atlanta and the internal trip he takes to put himself back together.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are hard but endings are harder. However, if the beginning is the right one, then every scene (one hopes) should flow in good order toward the major crisis. And that should point the direction toward the right ending. Yes, should and should. You never know.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I don’t see how you can write a character without putting yourself into the work. I don’t see how they can be separated. Even if you programmed Artificial Intelligence to write your novel, it would still be your program.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Maybe in a broad sense non-literary inspirations influence my writing. If I hear a great song that is compelling and has something new and different to say, that might inspire me in a very general way. When I watch a movie, I might be thinking about plot and structure. But my writing influences are other writers and their books and stories. That’s the bottom line.

That magic business of putting words on a page that create images in another person’s head? If you stop and think about it, that’s a very strange process and there’s nothing else like it.

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

--Marshal Zeringue