Interview with Tim Applegate, author of Flamingo Lane

What can you tell us about your new release, Flamingo Lane?

In my new novel Flamingo Lane, to pay off an exorbitant gambling debt to the ruthless drug lord Pablo Mestival, a young expat named Chance agrees to locate – and possibly eliminate – Mestival’s former lover Faye Lindstrom, who has escaped from Mexico and returned to her hometown. Like my previous novel Fever Tree, Flamingo Lane continues to explore the classic noir themes of betrayal and revenge.

What or who inspired you to become an author?

In high school my girlfriend gave me a book of William Blake’s poems. After Blake, I read Frost and Whitman and Robert Lowell and I was hooked. All I wanted to be after that was a writer.

What’s on your top 5 list for the best books you’ve ever read?

The Sound And The Fury (Faulkner), The Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor, In Cold Blood (Truman Capote), The Talented Mr. Ripley (Patricia Highsmith, The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway).

Say you’re the host of a literary talk show. Who would be your first guest? What would you want to ask?

And what would you ask? The extraordinary crime writer Lou Berney. I would ask Lou about his research methods, and how he incorporates that research into his stories.

What’s your favorite thing about writing?

The challenge of trying to construct seamless sentences while never losing sight of the story.

What is a typical day like for you?

I’m usually in front of my keyboard by 7 a.m. Then I write, revise, and edit for the next three or four hours. The afternoons are for hikes, reading, cooking, and a glass or two of wine.

What scene in Flamingo Lane was your favorite to write?

My favorite scene in Flamingo Lane is Faye’s first evening by herself in Crooked River. Because that’s the night Faye decides that she’s not going to be defined by the trauma she went through in Mexico but by her determination to overcome that trauma.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

My philosophy is simple: Work hard, play hard, and count your blessings. Every day.

Tim Applegate is the author of the new book Flamingo Lane

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