Ash Clifton

Ash Clifton grew up in Gainesville, Florida, home of the University of Florida, where his father was a deputy sheriff and, later, the chief of police. He graduated from UF with a degree in English, then got an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona. He lives in Gainesville, with his wife and son. Clifton writes mystery, thriller, and science fiction novels.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My book is a neo-noir P.I. novel, and I wanted the title to have a slightly retro, pulpy feel. Twice the Trouble fit the bill. It evokes, I hope, the deliberately melodramatic titles of famous P.I. mysteries like The Big Sleep and The Moving Target. So, I’m proud of my title in that regard.

And, of course, it’s a pun on the main character’s name, Noland Twice, which came to me out of the ether for reasons I cannot fathom.

What's in a name?

Names are poetry. It’s that simple. Even if a character’s name is not an outright-metaphor (one of my favorites is a villain named Loveless in a William Gibson novel), the mere sound of a character’s name should, ideally, generate some kind of vibe regarding their essence.

I like my main character’s name, Noland Twice, for all kinds of reasons, but mainly because it’s unusual and yet easy to say and remember. I also think some of my other characters’ names are equally suggestive of their nature: Faith Carlton, Karen Voss, and Arthur Valkenburg.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

I suspect that my teenage self would not have been nearly as surprised as my college-age self. In my teens, I was consuming huge amounts of genre fiction (science fiction, mysteries, horror), and Twice the Trouble would have fit right in. Later, when I was an English major in college, I was much more serious (okay, pretentious) and determined to write “pure,” literary fiction.

However, I think even my college self would have found some things to admire in Twice the Trouble. It’s a genre novel, but I tried to write it in almost exactly the same way as I would a literary novel—with a lot of attention to detail, atmosphere, and character.

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

Endings are much easier, for me, and I suspect the same is true for many writers. Flannery O’Connor said that the ending of a novel should fall into the reader’s hand like a piece of ripe fruit. Everything in the novel should lead up to the conclusion in a way that, in retrospect, feels inevitable, yet surprising. When I got to the final pages of Twice the Trouble, the last line just came to me, and I thought it was really good.

Beginnings are, of course, totally different. You’ve got a blank page, with nothing to go on except a few vague ideas. (I think this is true, basically, even for writers who obsessively plan-out their novels—a technique that sounds depressing as hell.) To make things even worse, the opening pages, and especially the opening lines, are incredibly important in terms of grabbing the reader’s attention and pulling them into the story. So, yes, I work very hard on openings.

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

Like a lot of writers, I have a semi-autobiographical novel sitting on my computer’s hard drive, where it will probably remain forever. In that novel, the main character is essentially…well…me. (This fact made my life even more absurd when I got rejection letters that read, “We like the writing, but we don’t really like the MC that much.” To which I wanted to reply, “Hey, I don’t like you all that much either!”)

For Twice the Trouble, I deliberately set out to write about a character that was very different from me, at least on the surface. Noland is athletic, brave, hot-headed, and mildly pathological. (And he knows Kung Fu.) I am the opposite in all these respects. However, Noland is also smart, literate, clever, and occasionally funny, which are characteristics that, hopefully, I share, to a lesser degree.

So, I guess one could say that Noland is a blend of my actual self and my fantasy self—with a few big flaws thrown in.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The crime films of Michael Mann were a big influence. Mann’s characters are smart, tough, and highly skilled people (mostly guys; mostly criminals). They’ve got a job to do, and they’re gonna finish it no matter what. Noland is very much in that mold. He’s an anti-hero who sees himself more as a technician than a sleuth.

Music was also an influence, particularly when I was trying to get into the half-crazed, demented state-of-mind that Noland frequently occupies. I listened to a lot of Soundgarden, Depeche Mode, and The White Stripes. In particular, “Seven Nation Army” is perfect for getting inside the head of an unbalanced, semi-pathological character. (I mean that as a compliment, Mr. White. Sir!)

Visit Ash Clifton's website.

My Book, The Movie: Twice the Trouble.

The Page 69 Test: Twice the Trouble.

--Marshal Zeringue