Interview with Robert McCammon
Note: In March 2012, Subterranean Press posted a three-part interview with Robert McCammon to promote the release of The Providence Rider. The interview is no longer available on their website, so it’s presented here.
One of the books we’re most excited to be publishing this year is The Providence Rider, the fourth installment in Robert McCammon’s standalone historical thriller series featuring “problem solver” Matthew Corbett. This book continues to take Matthew in exciting and surprising new directions, and we think readers will love it, whether they’re new to the series or have been following it all along.
The Providence Rider begins in the winter of 1703, with Matthew still haunted by his lethal encounter with notorious mass murderer Tyranthus Slaughter. When an unexplained series of explosions rocks his Manhattan neighborhood, Matthew finds himself forced to confront a new and unexpected problem. Someone is trying—and trying very hard—to get his attention. That someone is a shadowy figure from out of Matthew’s past: the elusive Professor Fell. The professor, it turns out, has a problem of his own, one that requires the exclusive services of Matthew Corbett. The book releases in May and we have several editions available for pre-order.
We asked Gwenda Bond to put together an in-depth interview with Robert about the new novel and the series in general, which we’ll be sharing in three parts.
Gwenda Bond: The Providence Rider continues to raise the stakes for Matthew Corbett and his companions. When you were writing the first novel did you already have an inkling of the larger story that would develop over the course of the series, or has its direction surprised you?
Robert McCammon: I had an idea that I wanted Matthew to be a continuing character, but I wasn’t sure where I was going with him. Before I began The Queen of Bedlam, I decided I wanted a larger story “arc,” something that would tie the books together. I would have a cast of familiar characters, people who would come and go and might pop up in surprising places, and of course I wanted it to have a feeling that the reader was part of this world, would come to know all the “people”, the locale and such, and hopefully become invested in Matthew’s further adventures. Actually when I came up with the character of Professor Fell, everything came together. Now I know exactly where I’m going, though I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to get there, which is fun for me. I do know what the series is “about”, and slowly that will be revealed. Actually the revelation has begun in The Providence Rider. I even have the last scene of the series in mind…and the final line, as well.
GB: This book travels further afield than we’ve been yet, showing us a locale far from early New York. How did you choose the setting of Pendulum Island in the Bermudas?
RM: The Providence Rider is set in winter but I didn’t want it to be all cold and snowy. So we have a little of that, but then we go to the Bermudas. I wanted there also to be a more “exotic” locale for the first meeting between Matthew and Professor Fell. Certainly this is Fell’s own “turf.” Also by moving the story from New York there are all sorts of different possibilities for interesting—and unexpected—scenes. And The Providence Rider has a “marine theme,” so there’s that too. I also just thought “Pendulum Island” sounded very cool…and sinister. My nod of appreciation to Edgar Allan Poe.
GB: What type of research have you had to do as you create the vivid historical world of the series?
RM: Oh, my research! Wow…well, what haven’t I researched? A small listing: lanterns, coaches, the gaits of horses, tinderboxes, firearms, money, food, clothing, trades, types of buildings, Indian tribes, sailing ships (and right there is a tremendous amount of research), period language, accents, European history in this time period, medicine, drugs…I mean, really! But the trick about all this research is that you as the writer have to know much more than you’ll ever use in the books. You just have to be assured that you have a firm grasp on the subject…while knowing that you will always be far from an expert on any of this but that there IS an expert for everything under the sun and they will be glad to blow you out of the water for any mistake.
GB: Several of the characters we meet in this book are truly memorable Dickensian-style grotesques. Was it fun getting to come up with such a frightening cast of criminals?
RM: The most fun. Matthew has to be matched against some very foul villains…or he wouldn’t be the “champion of justice” he sometimes is a little too anxious to be. But that’s a great part of the fun of this series…creating these diabolical, eccentric and “off-the-wall” villains to pit Matthew against. You get to let your imagination have free rein in terms of coming up with “nasties.”
GB: Can you give your fans a (spoiler-free, of course) hint about what to look forward to next?
RM: The River of Souls goes back to the Carolina colony, when Matthew is hired to escort a young woman to a local ball. That’s set up in The Providence Rider. I’m thinking right now that The River of Souls will be two books in one, a combination of comedy and tragedy with the first part being comedic and then leading into the tragic section. But all very exciting, fun and certainly never, never boring! It ends with a startling cliffhanger…
Gwenda Bond: Often it seems like series protagonists don’t change much, but Matthew’s character has deepened and grown from book to book. The Providence Rider finds him in a dark place still coming to terms with the events of Mister Slaughter. Will we continue to see that trend?
Robert McCammon: Yes. I want Matthew to be a living character. The books will continue to be spaced, in Matthew’s world, only a few months apart. So there’s going to be carry-over from book to book, and some of the events of one book will continue to have resonance in the next. I think Matthew should always have to “pay” for his bad decisions, and he should not ever be let off lightly for anything.
GB: What do you find different about writing your historical thrillers and your pieces set in contemporary times? Or do you approach them the same way?
RM: In the historical work you can play with language. You can be sly. You can set up scenes that reflect current events. Some readers will get this, some won’t…but it’s there. Actually, there’s a lot going on in every Matthew book. There’s political and social commentary not only about that day and time, but about our day and time as well. So…really…the historical work is much more fun to play with than the contemporary…you can just enjoy the language, doing puns and such, and let it rip!
GB: Vincent Chong is providing some phenomenal illustrations for the new book, as he did for Mister Slaughter. How do you think those enhance the story?
RM: I think they’re excellent. I wanted them to be similar to the Sidney Paget illustrations in the Strand magazine for the original Sherlock Holmes stories. I think Matthew is “Sherlockian” but he’s also an “action hero.” The best of both worlds, I believe.
GB: One of the things that makes the Matthew Corbett series so rich for readers are recurring characters like Berry and Hudson Greathouse. How is it getting to revisit those characters and give them stories as well?
RM: I miss them when I’m not writing about them. I will say that in the future there will be a collection of short stories with Hudson as the leading character in one or two of them. Also possibly someone “new” who joins the team of problem-solvers in The Providence Rider.
GB: Do you have a favorite character to write besides Matthew?
RM: Hmmm. Hudson is interesting. Also Lord Cornbury. I enjoy writing about Gardner Lillehorne, a real “prisspot,” and his nasty little henchman Dippen Nack. Apologies here…I have a book that lists the names of everyone who lived in New York in this time period, and Dippen Nack was a real person. So, apologies to his spirit. An aside: the name Providence Ryder also appears in that same book of the colonial New York census. Now, of course, I’m going to really enjoy writing about Professor Fell and discovering what he’s “about.”
Gwenda Bond: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve uncovered in your research for the Matthew Corbett stories? Was there anything in particular you worked into The Providence Rider?
Robert McCammon: I suppose the most awesome thing I’ve discovered, during the research for Speaks the Nightbird, was the amount of incredible labor and risk to carve settlements out of the forest and the swamp. Really, what a task that must have been! And, many of the settlements—someone’s dream—failed to take hold. Also researching colonial New York has been fascinating. The history of Wall Street…of the Great Harbor…of the small town that grew into a city. Amazing. I’ve learned a lot about the Indian tribes in that era too, and that’s been very rewarding.
The most surprising thing? How educated people were. There was a high priority on education and on reading in this period. It always surprises people when I remind them that one of the great pieces of history writing in the world, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, was a six-volume series whose first volume was published in 1776. An amazing feat. The gentleman had no Internet to pursue his research!
GB: These books do a great job of including characters that would typically have been left out in stories from the historical period in question, like the former slave Zed. Is that something you specifically set out to do?
RM: Absolutely. I want to be true to the time. “Political correctness” is the enemy of history-writing.
But I think “political correctness” can lead to forgetfulness, of not appreciating the great scope and the trials and tribulations of history. Parts of the past were dirty, grimy, gritty and ugly. Also very beautiful, graceful and breathtaking. You’ve got to be able to write about everything.
GB: The touches of humor throughout the book definitely enhance the reader’s enjoyment. Do those flow organically into the story from these characters?
RM: I hope they do! As I say, I enjoy playing with the language. And some of the situations and characters allow humor, as well. I don’t think I could write about Lord Cornbury without throwing in awful puns and Matthew’s skewed observations. I think the touches of humor make the “hard parts” of the books more vivid and meaningful. Again, you’ve got to be able to write about everything…and include in the mix the comic as well as the tragic or…often…the horrific.
GB: Matthew is very appealing as a hero because he’s still learning as he goes, and sometimes in addition to doing the rescuing needs saving himself. Is the type of character that doesn’t always have the answer right away and sometimes needs the help of allies more interesting to you than the type of hero who is always right and a “lone wolf”?
RM: Matthew is a young man, but in many ways he’s still a “boy.” He is still learning about the world. He is still innocent, and this makes him an interesting challenge for Professor Fell, who would love to corrupt Matthew and bring him into the criminal fold. More on this aspect of their relationship later. No, I don’t want Matthew to have the answer to everything. I want him to make mistakes. I want him to sometimes get too puffed up about himself, to stumble and fall and pick himself up. I want him to say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing, at the wrong time. I want him to be far from perfect. But also struggling to get better, to do his job better, to truly become the “champion” for people in need that he wishes to be. He’s a fighter, but I want to sometimes have him down on his knees trying to figure out what hit him. In essence, I want to make him as human as possible with all of a real person’s failings and frailties. That’s my Matthew.
GB: Can you give readers a little teaser about the new novella that will be included with the limited edition?
RM: Oh, sure! Death Comes for the Rich Man stars Matthew in an “off-beat” story. It has a little touch—or maybe more than a little touch?—of the supernatural. This may be an area I want to explore further, while keeping a balance between realism and the supernatural. I used to love old Hammer horror films set in the colonial period, with the cloaks, the tricorn hats, the clattering coaches at midnight and the fog-shrouded atmospheres. I may be letting a cat out of the bag here…or showing just a little bit of its ear, as applies to Matthew’s future adventures…so I should probably now just be quiet about that.
I wasn’t asked this, but I will share this with you. Since the “Matthew series” is my take on the detective series, I include in every book the name of at least one fictional detective. Some are hidden, others are out front to see. There are very obvious ones in both Mister Slaughter and The Providence Rider…but to catch them, you have to know your history…of the fictional detective in mystery literature. Cheers!