As writers, we tend to be hermits. We closet ourselves in our caves, then tap away for hours at a time at our keyboards. It’s a good day—and maybe night—when no one interrupts us, when the wife, or husband, and the kids stay out of our caves.
Write a book with a partner? That’s unsettling.
For most of us.
But not for Michael Black.
He’s got three crime novels in his bag that he’s written with others, and a fourth and maybe more on the way. He talks about it here.
More books with writing partners out there for Michael Black
Out since last October is a comedy crime novel Michael Black wrote with Law & Order: SVU star Richard Belzer, the book titled I Am Not A Cop!
After extensive phone conversations early on in the project, Belzer invited Black to come to New York—to talk. “You can stop by the set,” Belzer said.
“Suddenly, I could see myself in a guest appearance,” Black told the audience at a book signing at Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore in Forest Park, Illinois, “playing a homeless guy or man hanging on a strap, riding in the subway.
“But I got there at the time of the writers’ strike, and they’d shut production down .”
No television stardom, not even for the briefest moment under the Klieg lights. So Black stayed at his keyboard as he does now.
How his participation in the Belzer book came about is a story in itself. A couple years ago another celebrity, whom Black prefers not to name, wanted to write a crime novel and needed a writer to work with him. His agent put out a call to Martin Greenberg of Tekno Books, for a writer to do the job. Greenberg contacted Black and several others.
He asked each writer for a story idea, and Greenberg and his staff liked what Black proposed. In time, they decided he was the person and asked Black for a detailed treatment. He provided that and did several revisions to incorporate changes and ideas Greenberg and his staff wanted. They accepted the final treatment and told Black to start writing the novel.
He did. He rolled 70 pages out of his word processor, but then something happened. The celebrity lost interest, so Tekno shelved the project. If it doesn’t restart, Black wants to get the rights back for the treatment and those 70 pages.
“I grew to like story,” he said. “I hope I get the chance to finish it someday.”
Several months passed and Greenberg contacted Black with another celebrity project, this one a crime novel that would involve Richard Belzer whom fans of NBC’s Law & Order: SVU know as Detective John Munch.
“I was a big fan of Richard’s work,” Black said, “both on SVU and Homicide: Life on the Street. I told Marty I was definitely interested. I think he saw that I could deliver the goods as far as writing a book with somebody, that I could help Richard make it the kind of book he wanted.”
Black had no reservations about taking on a project with another celebrity. “Not after I talked with Richard. He’s an author himself, and, as a stand-up comic, he’s used to writing his own material. I figured he’d be easy to work with and serious about completing the project.”
Black won’t tell how much of the book is his and how much is Belzer’s, but only says they worked on it together. “Richard likens our writing relationship to Ezra Pound—me—revising T.S. Eliot—him. We both worked hard on the project to make it the kind of novel we envisioned from the start.”
Black nailed Belzer’s voice.
“I read Richard’s book, JFK, UFOs, and Elvis, Conspiracies You Don’t Have to Be Crazy to Believe, watched all the old shows that I could get, and really studied his mannerisms and how he talked because the main character in the book is Richard Belzer,” Black said.
“The man you see on television and Richard are pretty much one and the same. That’s him, quick-witted, cutting and urbane. He uses words like a rapier.”
Black added something of his own to the story, lots of martial arts for the fictionalized Belzer, something that is a trademark of Black’s private eye, Ron Shade. “When USA Today asked Richard about that [the martial arts moves], he said, ‘Oh, that’s from Mike Black. He’s a black belt and in the book I’m imbued with his skills.”
There is a second Belzer/Black crime novel, I Am Not A Cop Or A Psychic. It’s finished and with the editors. Simon & Schuster will likely bring the book out in October.
Will there be a third book?
“Richard is talking about the possibility of I Am Not A Cop! being made into a theatrical movie or a TV movie, so we’ll have to see how things go on that,” Black said. “But I’d love to do another book with him.”
Black is in negotiations for a novel that he may co-write with another celebrity, but says he’s not at liberty to talk about the details.
What he will talk about is Dead Ringer, the crime novel he co-wrote with Julie Hyzy, a friend and president of the Midwest chapter of the Mystery Writers of America. Hyzy is the author of two series, one that includes the White House chef and the other, Chicago-based reporter Alex St. James.
Eight years ago, Black and Hyzy joined the same writers group—the Southland Scribes which meets at the Borders store in Orland Park, Illinois, and the Orland Park Library. Each likes the work of the other, so the two also gather weekly outside of the group, to critique one another’s work.
Black’s desire to write with another author traces back to when he was a teenager. “I read a book, Double in Trouble, by Stephen Marlowe and Richard S. Prather—the Chester Drum and Shell Scott detective series—and I always admired their work. Stephen Marlowe was very gracious. He gave me a blurb for Windy City Knights.
“When I corresponded with him, I asked him a lot of questions about working with a writing partner. It intrigued me. I told this to Julie. She seemed interested, so we went ahead with it.”
They wrote alternating chapters, always in the first person of sleuths each had developed in their solo books. For Black, that was private detective Ron Shade, and for Hyzy, Alex St. James.
It was easy enough to do in the first chapters, but in later chapters in which both characters appear, each writer found themselves having to write the voice and actions of their colleague’s character.
Black and Hyzy have different writing styles. Black is a planner. He outlines his books. Hyzy does not. She writes where the characters and inspiration lead her. On occasion, it led her in directions Black had not anticipated.
“At a certain point I knew we had to stop to plan out the rest of the story” Black said. They did and finished the book, as much friends as they were when they launched the project.
Total writing time? A year, because both were writing books of their own at the time. “So it was kind of like writing one and a half novels for each of us.”
Five Star, a Gale/Cengage imprint, Black’s and Hyzy’s publisher for others of their books, brought out Dead Ringer in November of last year.
Black knows the seamy side of life, the kind of stuff of his novels. He’s been a cop for more than 25 years. He started as a patrolman and along the way has been a patrol supervisor, worked with a tactical squad, been an investigator, a raid team member, and a SWAT team leader. Black currently is a sergeant with the Matteson, Illinois, Police Department. He works in administration.
To find out more about Black and his novels, go to his website: www.MichaelABlack.com
© Jerry Peterson.
