Q&A With Ash Clifton 

I am delighted to be doing this Q&A with mystery & speculative fiction author Ash Clifton! Ash has had short stories published in The Missouri Review, The Massachusetts Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, and StepAway Magazine. Ash’s novel Twice The Trouble is an Edgar Nominated mystery novel! A mystery that I can’t wait to solve by reading it! 😉 

Q: Ash, would you give a brief description of Twice The Trouble & talk about where the idea for the novel came from?

A: Thank you, Bianca! Twice the Trouble is a noir mystery about a private investigator named Noland Twice, who lives and works in Orlando, Florida. He’s a former star athlete who specializes in helping shady clients find missing people and/or missing money. 

I got the idea after receiving my umpteenth rejection for one of my literary novels, the latest of which was very autobiographical. I decided to write a totally different kind of story, about a guy very different from myself.

I wanted to write a mystery because I’ve always been a fan of mystery fiction, and I thought that the P.I. sub-genre, specifically, was the closest to what I was used to writing (gritty, realistic fiction). Plus, I thought it would be fun. And it was.

Q: What drew you into writing mystery and speculative fiction? I know I enjoy reading both, especially the mystery! 

A: I was about ten when my mom bought me a leather-bound copy of the complete Sherlock Holmes stories by Authur Conan Doyle, and I was hooked. I loved the way mysteries keep you engrossed in the story—not just because you want to see Whodunnit, but also because you want to see the cool way that the hero figures out Whodunnit. That is, I love the inherent drama of mystery fiction.

As for speculative fiction, I didn’t read much fantasy as a kid. But I consumed huge amounts of sci-fi. All kinds. My favorites were Arthur C. Clarke and Larry Niven. As with a lot of young people, I was drawn to sci-fi because it has the best aspects of fantasy (i.e., adventure in strange worlds) but with the added appeal of being grounded in science (at least, in theory). For nerdy kids who love adventure and science, sci-fi is a no-brainer.

Q: Congratulations on having your short stories published in The Missouri Review, The Massachusetts Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, and StepAway Magazine! What’s it like having your short story fiction published in those publications?  What is the submission process like for anyone wanting to have their short story work published in those publications? Do you prefer writing short story fiction or novels more?

A: Thank you! My first short story was published in one of the best literary journals in America, The Missouri Review, and I am very proud of that. (MR is also a personal favorite of mine.) And I’m very proud of the other magazines where my work has appeared, too. 

But my short stories tended not to sell very often. Many of them were not short enough (around 5,000 words), and a bit too dark. Finally, I figured out that my preferred form is the novel. And, at some point along the line, I decided that I wasn’t interested in writing anything that didn’t have a strong story—an honest-to-God plot. I don’t know why I came to this conclusion. I just did.

So, I found myself writing mystery and other kinds of genre novels. I still think of them as literary works because I write them exactly as I would a literary short story or a literary novel, except that they have some recognizable plot tropes. 

Q: What lessons & emotions do you hope readers feel after reading your work? 

A: Well, mystery novels are a form of entertainment, so obviously I want the reader to feel entertained. In fact, I want them to be engrossed, so much so that they forget that they’re reading a novel. 

Most of all, though, I want to give the reader a sense of another life—that of the main character. I want the reader to feel like they know what that (fictional) person’s thoughts are, what their feelings are, and what it’s like to be them. At the risk of sounding pompous, I think this is the highest calling of fiction: to let the reader experience the life of a different person, with a different life story. 

This is true even for (or maybe especially for) novels with complicated or unsympathetic characters.

Q: Can you reveal details about any short stories and novels you are currently writing right now? 

A: I am currently working on a stand-alone mystery novel about a woman who is trying to find a missing college student. In some ways, it’s a very Alfred Hitchcock kind of story, in that the main character is an ordinary person who finds herself thrust into a dark and dangerous tale. However, it’s a bit different from such stories in that she has a very dark past, which she is trying to process by solving the mystery.

Q: How long does it take you to write short stories and your novel Twice The Trouble? Are any of the characters & worlds within your stories taken from bits and pieces of real people and places?

A: It usually takes me about a year to write a novel. That’s three drafts. The first one is totally free form with very little backtracking and editing. The second is when I go through it one more time and fix all the problems I can find. The final draft is toughest because I read it aloud to myself in twenty-minute chunks. After each chunk, I fix everything that sounds terrible (which is most of it, sadly).

Almost everything in my books has some origin in real life, but always transformed, in some way, by my imagination. For example, I set Twice the Trouble in Orlando because I lived there for a while in my twenties, and I was surprised by how seamy its underside is, despite being the home of Disney World and all that. 

I made my main character a former athlete because I’ve happened to meet a couple of former Florida Gator football players over the years, and on both occasions, I was impressed by how otherworldly they are, physically. How graceful and capable. So, Noland Twice became a former gator.

Q: If Hollywood were to get the rights to Twice The Trouble if they haven’t already, who would be your dream cast to play the characters you created? 

A: It’s funny you ask because I just saw Dune: Part II, and I was very impressed with both Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler. They’re both great actors, and they’re about the right age to play Noland and/or Kiril. (Maybe they could flip a coin?) Of course, they would both have to work out a lot.

Anyway, that’s my dream cast. 

Q: If there was ever a sequel to Twice The Trouble, what would the characters be doing right now?

A: I am working on a Noland Twice sequel, actually. All I can say is that it’s about a new case in which Noland tries to find and stop a blackmailer/murderer. Once again, Noland has a shady client. And both Kiril and his brother Freddy play significant parts, again.

Q: What would your advice be for anyone writing a great mystery? What is your advice for aspiring authors on how to deal with self-doubt, negative reviews & unsupportive family and friends? 

A: I’ve had exactly one novel published, so I’m no expert. But my main advice for anyone trying to write a mystery—or any kind of novel, really—is to think about what kind of stories you like to read. Then, try to write one like that. 

Art students spend years looking at the works of the “old masters” and trying to paint like them. Writers should do the same. Copy the masters (old or new), or whatever kind of book you’re into. That’s not being derivative; that’s just being an artist. Also, whatever you end up with will inevitably be your own, unique creation because it came through you.

There is another reason to copy “the masters,” too. If you try to write like the writers you love, you’re more likely to have fun. To take some joy in the act of writing. And that’s the key to dealing with self-doubt and lack of support from others. If you love writing, you won’t need support. You’ll just do it. Because it’s fun. 

And why not? Writing doesn’t cost anything, except in terms of time and mental effort. If you’re having fun, you’ll keep doing it. Over time, you’ll have even more fun, and you’ll get better. And, someday, somebody will like your work.