Interview With Author Mark Lindquist

Being a lady who loves sexy men gave me all the reason I needed to meet and have a chat with novelist and attorney, Mark Lindquist, as he swept through the Valley to promote his new book, King of Methlehem. The main character of the book, detective Wyatt James, becomes obsessed at tracking down the Pacific Northwest’s most notorious methamphetamine dealer, who travels under many aliases, most recently as Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks. Struggling with his own problems causes James’s hunt to be more difficult than he ever expected it would be.

King of Methlehem is set in Tacoma, Washington, where the tall (he’s 6 feet 6 inches) and handsome Lindquist and I both just happen to be from (not just a coincidence.) Since Lindquist and I are from the same part of the world, obviously the cosmos were telling us that we were destined to meet each other. And that fateful meeting happened to take place at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.

JS: When I tell Arizonans I’m from Tacoma, they give me a weird look and I have to say, “It’s by Seattle.” For those who don’t know, what’s it like living in Tacoma?

MARK LINDQUIST: It’s funny, when I went to USC, no one knew where Seattle was [We laugh together.] But that changed in the early nineties thanks to Nirvana and Microsoft. [Tacoma] is a smaller, grittier version of Seattle. The Department of Corrections started dumping a lot of ex-felons into Tacoma and Pierce County rather than into Seattle. That created this subculture of criminals and addicts.


Where did you get the idea for "King of Methlehem"?

I’m the Trail Team Chief for the drug unit in Pierce County. I’d read a lot of police reports [and] a lot of them were methamphetamine related. The first murder trial that I prosecuted was a guy who was strung out on methamphetamine and killed a child. So everywhere you look there is methamphetamine. Methamphetamine and crime go together like marijuana and the munchies [We laugh together again.] And I started to think this subculture that went with methamphetamine was interesting and I wanted to get into that.


What’s your opinion on Hollywood celebrities going in and out of rehab?

I think people like that trivialize the problem, not intentionally, but there’s something frivolous about people like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. I think watching the lives of people like Britney and Lindsay is like watching a movie or watching a TV show. No one confuses it with reality. The same way drug addiction in a movie is funny but you don’t think that’s what it’s really like.


Were you teased by your fellow lawyers when you were named as one of People Magazine’s 100 Most Eligible Bachelors back in 2000? [I flip my long blond hair off my shoulder.]

Surprisingly I wasn’t. They were just sort of stunned into silence. In my pervious life, as I call it, in Los Angeles, that was not such a strange thing. But it was so foreign to people in Tacoma that they didn’t even know what to say about it. It just seemed so odd; I’m on the same page as people like Ben Affleck.


Can we expect King of Methlem, or any of your books, to be made into movies?

God I hope so. Two of my three books have been repeatedly optioned, both Never Mind Nirvana and Sad Movies. But you want to see them made into a movie because of what it does for the book; the exposure that a movie can bring to a book. So I’m hoping, but who knows?


What actor would play the main character?

The same person [who] was suggested for Pete Tyler in Never Mind Nirvana, which was Vince Vaughn. And I don’t know if people say Vince Vaughn just because he’s tall like me [he stretches out his long limbs] or because they think he would bring the right flavor to it. But I actually think Vince Vaughn brings just the right mix of levity and gravity to a role. I could totally see Vince Vaughn playing Wyatt.


I could totally see that too…

Rating
9 out of 10 Sexy Lawyers/Writers.

For more information about this author, please visit marklindquist.net.

Scot on the Rocks

The new novel, Scot on the Rocks by Brenda Janowitz, will make any break-up seem tame in comparison. Acting like a lunatic in love completely encompasses the main character, Brooke Miller, a young New York City attorney. Planning to go to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding in Los Angeles (who is marrying Hollywood’s newest “it” girl) with her handsome Scottish boyfriend all goes to pieces days before the nuptials. Self-centered and using his accent to attract other women, the Scot (Douglas) turns their relationship on the rocks by breaking up with Brooke over a disagreement about what he should wear to the wedding. Here’s a quick summary:

Scottish Hunk: I want to wear a kilt that has been passed down in my family for many generations to embrace and celebrate my culture.
Brooke: You must hate America.
Scottish Hunk: Get out of my glamorous 32nd story SoHo condo.

This big mess unravels T-minus three days until Brooke has to put on the air of perfection at her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Who else will be her knight in shinning armor but the handsome, charismatic, best friend slash co-worker, Jack?

As The Church Lady would say, ‘That was convenient.”

This is author Brenda Janowitz’s first novel and it’s obvious. As funny and light-hearted as the novel is, Janowitz tries too hard at times to make her characters sound like they belong in this chick lit book. Janowitz applies language to Brooke, who is supposed to be from New York City, which makes her sound like she’s a valley girl from California. “’Brooke, let’s not get hysterical,’ Douglas said. Hysterical? I was, like, so not hysterical.”

Brooke, though, is a loving, clumsy and good-intentioned character, which will make any reader feel sympathy (or empathy) for her. She also confesses to being a size 10, which makes her a hero in many women’s minds.

One great lesson to take away from Scot on the Rocks is that, nowadays, it’s socially acceptable to go to your ex-boyfriend’s wedding. What’s not socially acceptable is making fun of Scottish kilts. That will only get a girl kicked out of a 32nd story SoHo condo.

Rating
7 out of 10 Scottish Kilts.