Interview with Crime Writer Tom Vater: S. 6, Ep. 7

Debbi Mack interviews crime writer Tom Vater on the Crime Cafe podcast. For your podcasting needs, I use and recommend Blubrry Podcasting. I also recommend Stitcher Premium, if you’re a fan of podcasts. If you like true crime or crime fiction, there are loads of podcasts out there for you. And with Stitcher Premium you can listen to the exclusive archives from Criminology or bonus episodes from True Crime Garage. You can also listen ad-free to episodes of your favorite podcasts. I’ve subscribed, and for only $4.99 a month, it’s nice to have ad-free entertainment. Just go to www.stitcher.com/premium and use the promo code, CRIMECAFE, to try it out absolutely free for a month. We did it again! This week, there’s a transcription of the show notes. Click here to download a copy in PDF. I originally ran this interview on my own YouTube channel. My apologies for any variations in the sound quality. Debbi (01:55): I'm interviewing another crime fiction author. His name is Tom Vater and he's a journalist and author. So he is located in Bangkok and writes about that place and writes some very interesting stuff. So I would like to welcome you on, on the channel Tom. Hi. Tom (02:21):Thanks, Debbi. Thanks very much for having me on the show. It's wonderful to meet you on this amazing technology we're using, and it's great to talk to you. You're about six, 7,000 miles away or even more so it's amazing that we can actually do this. You at the beginning of your day and me at the end of it. Debbi (02:42): Yeah, I know. I think I've always been amazed at this sort of thing. So my assumption is that you started with journalism and went into crime writing? Would that be correct? Tom (02:56): Well, actually it sort of happened hand in hand, because the first article I ever wrote for a newspaper was in 1997, for a paper in Nepal. And while I was there, I started thinking about writing my first novel, The Devil's Road to Kathmandu, which then eventually came out in 2004. So it, it kind of happened at the same time. But but I, I would say that, you know, between the pieces of fiction, I write, there are long gaps for professional reasons. And so mostly most of the time I have a day job, I do journalism. And when I have some months off, then I can sit down and write a novel. Debbi (03:43): So you're primarily a journalist who also does crime writing. Tom (03:48): Yeah. You could say that. I also own a a small publishing house Crime Wave Press, which is a crime fiction imprint based in Hong Kong, which does mostly books. And we've published about 32 titles by all sorts of authors, many of them from the U.S. So that's, that's my other gig. So I kind of do three different things. I'm a crime fiction writer. I, I'm a very small press publisher with just one partner and I've written four crime fiction novels and a bunch of short stories. Debbi (04:22): I'm interested in the fact that you do so much stuff. I'm also interested in, in the notion of, of, of, of a journalist going into this sort of thing, because the tradition of journalists going into fiction writing is historically something I've always been kind of intrigued by, which is why I majored in journalism actually, because of my interest in writing and in fiction in general. What made you choose crime fiction in particular as a genre? [G]enre fiction kind of makes it easy to, because it's got many established rules and tropes and conventions, and, and so in that sense, it's quite conservative. So you, as a writer, there's a lot of things to hold onto when you're writing your first novel, because it has to go a certain way, if you're gonna follow crime fiction conventions. Tom (05:01): I think there's probably several things. One is genre fiction kind of makes it easy to, because it's got many established rules and tropes and conventions, and, and so in that sense, it's quite conservative. So you, as a writer,