M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. The first book in her Declan Shaw PI series, Love You Till Tuesday, came out from Shotgun Honey, with the follow up, Catch Me on a Blue Day, scheduled for 2025. She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly. She’s a Derringer nominee.
Russell Thayer’s work has appeared in Tough, Roi Fainéant Press, Guilty Crime Story Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Close to the Bone, Bristol Noir, Apocalypse Confidential, Cowboy Jamboree Press, Shotgun Honey, Rock and a Hard Place Press, Revolution John, Punk Noir Magazine, Expat Press, The Yard Crime Blog, and Outcast Press. He received his BA in English from the University of Washington, worked for decades at large printing companies, and currently lives in Missoula, Montana.
Bop City Swing: –
San Francisco. 1951 – Jazz is alive. On radios and turntables. In the electrifying Fillmore clubs, where hepcats bring their bebop brilliance to attentive audiences. In the posh downtown venues, big bands swing in the marble ballrooms of luxury hotels.That’s where the story begins, with the assassination of a campaigning politician during a fundraiser.
Homicide detective Tom Keegan is first on the scene. He’s eager, impatient, hot on the heels of the gunman. Gunselle, killer for hire, flew the coop, swept away in the rush of panicked guests. They both want to crack the case. Tom, because he’s never seen a puzzle he didn’t want to solve, no matter what the rules say. Gunselle was hired to take out the candidate, and somebody beat her to it. It was a big paycheck. It hurts her professional pride and wallet.
Book link: Bop City Swing is available in eBook and paperback – On Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Bop-City-Swing-Proctor-Thayer/dp/B0F4DSSQ9V/
What is the most challenging part of your writing process? Russell: I’m always bubbling with ideas, but I also suffer from an egregious lack of discipline. Fully retired from regular working life, you’d think I have all day to write, but I’m involved with the care of an ailing parent. And there are movies, yardwork, ball throwing for the dog, books, straightening pictures on the wall, and baseball on TV. Distractions. My problem is that I haven’t been able to settle into a writing schedule. I don’t think I could have finished Bop City Swing without the example set by the hard-working Martine Proctor. She keeps me on task, and it’s much appreciated.
M.E.: Russ paints me as a schoolmistress with a ruler, but I used to be a terrible procrastinator. I’ve fixed that problem by giving myself deadlines. Sometimes, I make them too tight, flirt with burn-out, or chafe at life interruptions. Cross my fingers; I’m still standing, but yes, I tend to take on too much, and I run ragged. Time management is a constant challenge.
What are you currently working on? Russ: Martine and I are rolling down the rails toward finishing a sequel to Bop City Swing. It’s wilder than the first book—lots of research into organized crime and Kansas City locales. I’m loving it. Once we complete the master document, I’ll be fine-tuning a few more stories for the Vivian Davis/Gunselle collection I’m pulling together. If I’m not too distracted.
M.E.: Yep, the Bop sequel is chugging along. I also have short stories coming out in anthologies. They’re in editing stages. The next installment of the Declan Shaw PI series, Catch Me on a Blue Day, comes out in September, so I’m writing essays and interviewing. Another Declan book is in submission, and I’m considering creating a collection of science fiction and horror stories. And I’m keeping up with the Substack newsletter every other week. Did I mention I tend to load my plate?
How do you come up with character names? Russ: Many of my crime stories take place in the 1940s, and I try to give them the feel of the old movies I adore. I often search the cast lists of classic Hollywood films and extract names that strike me as being of that period. Vivian is the sultry anti-heroine at the center of Bop City Swing, but her birth name is Mildred, which was popular in the 1920s. As a teenage runaway, she made the change out of necessity, choosing a more elegant moniker to create a commanding new image of herself.
M.E.: Most of what I write is contemporary, and I like ‘plain’ names, such as Billy, Danny, Max, and Annie. I find the trendy names annoying; they also quickly feel dated. Tom Keegan in Bop, and many other stories, is a direct tip of the fedora to Gabriel Byrne’s character, Tom Reagan, in Miller’s Crossing. The name of my Houston detective, Declan Shaw, came out of the blue. I just loved the sound of it. A hard snap followed by a sensual sigh. It defines the character. When it fits, you know it.
What’s the most challenging thing about writing characters of the opposite sex? Russ: Getting the small details right. I was raised by a single mother and her gaggle of female friends. I have two sisters and have married the same woman for forty years. I’m drawn to portraying females. It’s fun to give them powerful things to do in a 1940s crime world where men usually held power. The writing group where I workshopped my female-driven short stories was made up of mostly women. If you want to make a group of ladies laugh at you, have your female protagonist wear a towel around her waist instead of under her shoulders.
M.E.: My husband is my first reader, and he’s a fierce critic. When something rankles, he tells me. Lesson learned: Men don’t giggle. (Mind you: Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon, Peter Lorre, giggles!) You have to be careful of the little unconscious slips. I’ve done theater and improv. I step in the shoes of my characters and act. It helps to feel how they move and how they talk.
What kind of research do you do? Russ: I love Hollywood movies made in the 1930s and 40s. I try to give my stories that look and feel. The clothing and hairstyles of the time are wonderful. The automobiles and the kitchens are interesting and a challenge to describe. Old photographs are a period writer’s best friend. Most of my stories are set in L.A. or S.F. I’m always studying maps for street names and photos to get a flavor of the neighborhoods.
M.E.: For the 1950s Tom Keegan stories, I scour newspaper articles and photo archives. There’s a wealth of data out there, and there are lots of rabbit holes to drop in. I recently wrote a story for an anthology with a 17th-century theme. I dug deep into a guy’s memoirs. I used little of it, but it gave me a voice. I’m sure I took a ton of liberties with history. In writing 1950, you have to be more accurate. Movie stills and production shots are useful, especially when the film was shot on location. You see signage, architecture, traffic, that sort of thing.
Looking to the future, what’s in store for you? Russ: Before my inevitable demise, I hope to see that collection of Vivian Davis stories in print. Vivian has been a colorful part of my publishing history, with nearly thirty stories issued over the last four years. I hope the future includes more Keegan/Davis adventures in novel form, and then there are all the unfinished novels from my younger days. I’m 67, so you understand my urge to tidy up what I can.
M.E.: I’ll be very happy if Russ and I can keep the Keegan/Davis collaboration going. Writing is solitary, and finding a partner is both a joy and a relief. I’m also looking forward to more books in the Declan Shaw series and I will continue to flex my imagination in short stories. Writing in multiple genres is exciting, and sometimes great, unexpected characters come out of it that I want to spend more time with.
How do our readers contact you:
M.E. Proctor is at: Twitter: @MEProctor3, Facebook: Martine Elise Proctor
Website: https://www.shawmystery.com
Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com
Russell Thayer is at: Twitter: @RussellThayer10, Facebook: Russell Thayer
M.E. and Russ, you two tell a very interesting story about writing and collaboration. I’ll have to check out Bop City Swing. Best of luck to you both.
Thank you, Michael! I feel lucky to have found a partner I can play with, we harmonize really well.
I love the idea of collaboration. I’m giving it a try myself. So far together we’ve written 70 k words and are running up to a climax. It’s satisfying. I just bought the book. I can’t wait to dive in! Come to Left Coast Crime 2026 in San Francisco!
That’s cool. Best of luck with the project! I hope I can make it over there next year, love San Francisco!
We hope you enjoy the book, Ana. And Left Coast Crime in San Francisco next year might be just the thing to help percolate some new ideas for our intrepid characters.
Such a deeper dive into the pluses of collaboration at its utmost–co-authoring a book. Thanks.
Thanks for reading, Pam!
My hats off to you both. The one time I contemplated a writing partner, in the sense of writing a book together, it quickly fell apart. It was interesting reading about your process. I could about it all day. Take care and stay safe.
Dave
Many partnership offers have come my way over the years, none ever led to anything. If Russell hadn’t come knocking twice, it probably wouldn’t have happened … serendipity!