Spotlight Profile
October 2006
Steve Kelner, Ed.M, Ph.D is a motivational psychologist, writer, and management consultant specializing in top leadership, who writes nonfiction, science fiction and mysteries whenever he can stay awake later than his daughters. After helping his mystery-author wife Toni L. P. Kelner finish her first book, she suggested he teach other writers about motivation. Instead of sensibly writing a quick pamphlet, he spent years studying published authors. The result is the book Motivate Your Writing!, from University Press of New England www.upne.com. He speaks to writers' groups, conferences, and anyone else who will listen. See his website, www.motivateyourwriting.com.
IC: How does a motivational psychologist with a love of science fiction become president of the Internet Chapter of Sisters in Crime?
SK: Um...very carefully? I love mystery, too, don't get me wrong; among my favorite authors are Dorothy Sayers and Rex Stout, and even in science fiction I love "crossover" mystery/SF stories, especially the Lord D'Arcy stories of Randall Garrett. My own novel (more below) is a crossover as well, of course.
At first, I didn't join SinC when Toni did, out of a sense that it was more for her benefit as a female mystery writer than it would be for mine. Over time, I decided that was silly, and that I could make a stronger supporting statement by joining myself, and that it would have direct benefits for me as well, as indeed it has! Of course, I liked referring to myself originally as a "brother-in-law-in-crime." I've participated on the SinC list for many years now, going back to pre-Web days on GEnie (back when you had to chisel your emails out of stone), and tried to be a positive presence, so I felt quite privileged when it was suggested I become president. Then, of course, people had to vote for me!
IC: How does it feel to be the first male president of the chapter?
SK: I feel proud! So much for the morons who think that SinC is "anti-male" -- usually men who feel threatened. Makes for a great punchline, too. "Yes, I'm president of the Internet Chapter of Sisters in Crime -- but since it's the Internet, they think I'm a 20 yo SWF..." No, actually, when I use it for humorous purposes, it's generally to emphasize the point that SinC is for everybody -- which is indeed how I feel about feminism in general. To diminish any single group is to diminish all people.
IC: What has your experience with SinC been like?
SK: Positive beyond all imagining. Seriously, I've learned a lot, made some friends, and got to appear at a lot of events. New England Sisters in Crime is quite active, and recently started co-sponsoring a small conference called the New England Crime Bake with Mystery Writers of America, which is consistently very high quality -- and I don't just say that because I've appeared there! (www.crimebake.org)
IC: What do you hope to achieve during your tenure as president? What do you feel your most valuable contribution will be or has been?
SK: I kind of feel that being a male president who doesn't screw up may be accomplishment enough, but so far we've managed to upgrade the website and transfer the list to a new provider, so it's been rather busier than I had thought. I hoped and still hope to keep the dialogue going on aspects of writing and publishing while maintaining our so-far admirable record of not flaming. I've spent some time quietly addressing "netiquette" behind the scenes, as in preventing excessive BSP. I've been told I'm a responsive president, and that's really all I expected to do. There's a great team of people who do all the heavy lifting; all I do is announce things, call for votes, and wear silly virtual hats.
IC: According to your blog, in addition to your work as president, you have finished your (first?) novel--a Southern ex-Confederate vampire detective novel. Can you tell us about the book?
SK: Twist my arm! First, let me describe the book, then I'll describe how it came to be.
In The Last Damned Vampire, Tom Jackson is a former Confederate soldier and spy who became a vampire deliberately to help beat the invading Yankees. Vampires used to hide, but the development of readily available artificial blood, coupled with the development of a "Cure" that enables them to come out in the sunlight, have brought vampire society into the public eye, at least in the US.
But Tom isn't having any of that. He's suspicious of the Cure, and after a long and bloody "life" he stays alone brooding in his house out in the countryside of North Carolina, growing night-blooming flowers and not doing much else. One day he gets a visit from an old friend -- one from his old regiment, in fact, who is a big wheel in the Vampire Senate. American vampires threw off the European monarchist manipulators long ago and set up a democracy of their own. This friend asks Tom for a favor: to put on his investigator hat once again and find out about what's been happening to Cured vampires, because a lot of them are dying -- explosively. With the help of FBI Agent Rozamond Vencker of the Unusual (Supernatural) Crimes unit, and the mysterious Dr. Caine, a very long-lived Germanic "preternatural biologist," he's got to figure out who's blowing up vampires, and why, and the entire American Vampire government may be at risk...
It was frankly inspired by Charlaine Harris' wonderful Southern vampire mystery series featuring Sookie Stackhouse. Having grown up in the South, there is a sense of immediacy to the Civil War still present there -- it's not always accurate, because it's become mythology, but it is real to the people in a way it isn't in other parts of the country. So the idea of having someone from that time in the modern day was irresistible. The specific trigger was something Charlaine did with a former Confederate soldier, now vampire, who spoke to a Daughters of the Confederacy meeting. I loved everything about that, and it set me thinking. I'm a long-time reader of Civil War history, particularly narrative history, and I was comfortable enough to write the story of someone who had survived from that time, and play with how he would think and feel today. So I started with a former Confederate soldier, Tom Jackson, who otherwise is nothing like Charlaine's character at all -- at least I hope not! -- and set up a universe based on my own quirks and notions. I next came up with a title, which is unusual for me, and went from there. I decided to experiment with my own writing, based on a couple of techniques from my book Motivate Your Writing! -- see, I practice what I preach -- including writing from first to last in order, not skipping around as usual, and writing every single night I was in town. For this book, for me, it worked great. I'm now looking for an agent for it. Whether it goes or not, I enjoyed the process of writing it -- which is my whole point of my nonfiction book -- so that's good. I'm already 25,000 words into the second, Werewolf at the Door.
IC: How did you become interested in motivation in general and motivating writers in particular?
SK: Hm, good question. Well, I could say that it's related to my own motivation, which is true but unsatisfying. Starting with my undergraduate thesis, I was interested in love and friendship, and indeed my doctoral dissertation is about types of interpersonal motivation. I joined a consulting firm founded by my mentor, one of the truly great minds of psychology (the late David McClelland), and got more into other motives, for leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship, etc. However, I think being a writer from an early age also triggered some of this -- to write about people you have to know what makes them tick, and then they can collide interestingly. I also played in and ran (and designed!) a lot of roleplaying games, which sharpened my awareness and also helped me think about ways to simplify the complexities of a person down to a manageable set of drives and goals, as well as creating plots.
As for motivating writers, I started by helping Toni, and somewhere around her second or third book she pointed out that this could work for other people as well and I ought to spread it around. I started interviewing and assessing motives of other writers we knew. Being a writer myself, it was certainly a topic of personal interest! And as I've said, I've even used techniques on myself.
IC: Do you find motivating writers different from motivating other groups of people? If so, in what ways?
SK: The short answer is No and Yes. The longer answer is that writers share the same motives as anyone else (though published writers do tend to have a particular pattern), hence No, but that they have particular issues related to their profession which most people don't need to grapple with, hence Yes. (I'm working on a motivation book with a broader audience, in fact, and plan to mine a good deal of Motivate Your Writing! One of the key issues for writers is how they are perceived by people in general. Because everyone speaks, everyone tends to assume they can write, because isn't that just writing down words? "If I just had the time, I could sit down and write a book." Nonsense! You have the potential, nothing more. But that means a writer's hard work is often less appreciated. It's also bound up in the way people see creativity, which means many writers often start out with the compulsion to create through writing, but think they are utterly incapable of achieving it because of the ridiculously high standards set for what "creativity" is. Creativity is inherent in the human animal -- it's part of daily life. Writing harnesses it in certain ways. No one has to read anything but the last draft, you know -- but lots of people don't know, and take the first draft as indicative of ultimate quality, which it isn't.
IC: You have been writing since the age of ten. Do you have any tips on how to get children today more interested in reading and writing?
SK: Tell them stories! Read them stories from the earliest possible age! And don't be snooty about what they read, because if you read anything you're better off than those who read nothing. I think it was Mark Twain who said that the person who won't read has no advantage over the person who can't read. Fortunately, both our children read like mad -- the genes hold true! We read to them every night. Maggie now reads to herself instead, and both read on their own for fun. The key is for them to enjoy it, so it won't be a chore when they have to read things for school. Ripping good stories like Harry Potter or Sherlock Holmes or The Hobbit are the kind of things that will addict children for life. How many of us were addicted to something like Nancy Drew? I read my mother's copies, which had Nancy riding in her roadster. I loved 'em. I remember to this day the exact book that hooked me on science fiction: Robert Heinlein's Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Writing comes as a natural consequence, at least it did for me. Our house may be exceptional, because with both parents writing, there's nothing strange about writing: they certainly don't see authors as mysterious godlike beings. I've co-written little children's books with my daughters, which we basically did as bedtime ad-libs, and then edited later. I've considered publishing them, when I get a chance. I think that gets them engaged as well, by experiencing the creative process for themselves.
IC: Who are your favorite authors? Do they have anything in common? What draws you to a particular writer's work?
SK: Toni L. P. Kelner, Dorothy L. Sayers, Robert A. Heinlein, Julian May, and J. R. R. Tolkien are probably the most re-read authors I have; J. K. Rowling and Rex Stout are close. I read quickly and frequently, so this is a tough question for me. Let's see: E. E. "Doc" Smith, Randall Garrett, Larry Niven (the Gil the ARM stories are good mysteries, too), Niven & Pournelle as a team, James Blish in the SF category; Arthur Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Peters, Charlaine Harris, Jasper Fforde (brilliant and strange), Barry Longyear, Michael Crichton, Frank Herbert. God, I know I'll dig up more if I just think about it two more seconds, so let me try to tackle the other part of your question. I am a fan of competence; I like characters that are good and smart -- hence Lord Peter, Toni's Laura Fleming and even more so her new character Tilda Harper, all of Heinlein's characters, Julian May's host of people, Aragorn and Frodo, etc. I like the classic Nordic and American conceptions of the hero: the brave individual going up against evil/City Hall/etc., and pulling it off. I like humor -- I tend to be put off by overly solemn stories or characters, whereas a wisecracking hero wins me right over, like Archie Goodwin. Toni's just written a short story I like a lot, with a couple who are both pretty witty, Thin Man style. So I'd sum that up as: smart, brave, funny characters with principles.
And I have to say good writing and a distinctive voice helps a lot. Being a fanatic reader, sometime actor, and the son of an English teacher have given me a refined ear for dialogue and language. I need a really good plot or story to carry me through clunky dialogue. Similarly, I simply can't read stories written by someone in a deceased author's universe -- I can always tell how they are different, especially since they are usually very distinctive "voices" to begin with. I've made exceptions to that; the most successful one I can think of is Jill Paton Walsh's completion of Dorothy Sayers'
Thrones and Dominations . It felt like a Sayers book that hadn't been fleshed out fully, but it read like Dorothy Sayers nearly all the way through -- an impressive achievement.
IC: You are married to mystery author Toni L.P. Kelner, who was last month's Spotlight. Do you think having two writers in one household makes things easier or more difficult? In what ways?
SK: For us, it's easier: we read each others' work and offer thoughtful criticism, we understand the issues from the inside and can offer sympathy, and we respect each others' different strengths and tap into them. We even tried writing together once, on a graphic novel, which was I think refined agony for Toni, though I didn't mind as much. (I'm used to collaborating on projects in my regular job.) Nevertheless, we could do it. You can potentially get into the "Deathtrap" problem, where one writer is on a roll and the other one is getting more and more frustrated hearing you tap at the keyboard, but that's not usually a problem. It happened once recently, but what it did was spur the other into doing some writing despite being tired, so that's a good thing. Even if one of us didn't write, we'd still read each others' work. I can't imagine doing it any other way -- though I know many do.
IC: In your blog, you mentioned that Toni did some editing of your novel. Was it easy to accept literary criticism from your wife?
SK: As easy as criticism ever is, and easier than it would be from anyone I didn't respect as much as Toni. She did a remarkable thing for me, which was a line edit. That's a lot of work, and I really appreciated it, because it made the book better in small ways as well as in big ways. Nearly everything she suggested, I just did without question. Of course, when you fall in love with a concept or snatch of dialogue, and it doesn't work, you resent being told, but that's just natural. We can at least be polite with each other long enough to accept the painful truth that the criticism was right rather than expressing our annoyance at having our genius questioned.
IC: You seem to enjoy your work as a motivator of writers. Do you harbor any fantasies of giving it all up to write novels full time? Do you think you would enjoy the life of a full-time novelist?
SK: Well, my work isn't being a motivator of writers, that's a hobby, really. My work is as the global knowledge manager for the Talent Management and Management Appraisal practice of Egon Zehnder International, which is one of the top executive search and appraisal firms in the world. And as much as I love my job and my hobby, I have indeed harbored fantasies of writing full time. However, I don't think I would enjoy it. I work in bursts rather than steadily and methodically, which makes having whole days set aside for writing more intimidating than helpful, especially if our income depended on it. Now if Toni hits it big and gets movies made from her work, etc., I may put that theory to the test...
IC: How do you think your background in psychology influences your fiction?
SK: Massively. As noted above, I've always been interested in what makes people tick, so that is the driving force of my fiction. It helps me avoid obvious mistakes in characterization. My sixteen years as a management consultant have also given me a bank of stories about people dealing with people, some in extraordinary ways -- not necessarily to write them as they happened, but to help me see what the range of possibilities can be.
IC: Any pet peeves about writing? (When you're reading a book, is there anything that just makes you want to fling it across the room?)
SK: Inept characters drive me bananas, as I noted above; once I literally threw a book across the room because I thought it was fundamentally dishonest and manipulative as few books ever are. It was a book by a famous thriller writer whose early work I like a great deal and whose name is in that long list above. This book, however, was designed to push a political agenda (it was said in interviews!), and did it by pushing emotional buttons. However, I could
see that it was deliberately pushing my buttons, and that kind of open manipulation infuriated me. Good influence is invisible to the reader; open manipulation is insulting your intelligence. "Idiot plots" also bother me -- if I don't buy the concept, I drop the book. These days, I don't finish a book I don't like. My time is worth more than that.
IC: What is the most interesting experience you've had as a motivator of writers?
SK: Interesting? Hmm. Not sure. Most inspiring? One writer who I had given advice to had applied it creatively and improved her productivity and that of her writing group. That was awesome.
One thing that happened as I was researching and writing MYW! was a panel at an SF conference called "Fooling the Watcher," where people talked about that invisible little critic who sits on your shoulder and tells you your work is bad. For a lot of people, this chokes off their writing completely. This panel probably had over half a dozen major awards between them, and they were seriously talking about techniques like hiding their pads in an empty garbage can while they wrote or turning their monitors dark so they couldn't see what they were writing, and hence could not criticize it. I was staggered by this, because I've never suffered from the Watcher, but it inspired me to crack this problem for people, and help them see what they could do and beat the Watcher. That was definitely interesting and enlightening.
IC: Any advice for fellow members who aspire to be published authors?
SK: Keep writing, and keep enjoying it, and don't give up. If your first book doesn't sell (and don't stop at the first agent or even the tenth), then write another one and keep going. Writers write. Who cares if your first doesn't sell? Perhaps the world isn't ready for it, or you aren't ready to write it. I shelved a 110,000 word science fiction trilogy because no one wanted it. I'll go back to it some day, but in the meantime I trust my creativity to write something different!
IC: Any words for our members who are primarily readers?
SK: Hurray! Keep reading! After all, most writers don't make enough money to buy our books...! Seriously -- well, more seriously -- I welcome readers as members, because I think writing is an interesting craft and art, and I think knowing more about writers can help readers appreciate what goes on in publishing, and the fact that writers aren't going to get rich when you make maybe 35 cents per paperback sold. Besides, I find that meeting interesting writers gets me to go read their books, and the list is a good place to hear the people behind the books.
IC: You're in the Spotlight. Is there anything you'd like to address or discuss that hasn't been mentioned?
SK: Haven't I inflicted myself enough?
IC: I don't think "inflicted" is the word I'd use! Thanks for your time - and your service to SinC.
This interview was conducted for SinC-IC
by Elizabeth Terrell.
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