RARA-AVIS: Fortune/First person

From: Richard Moore ( moorich2@aol.com)
Date: 14 May 2005


One of the best things about the programmed aspects of this list is that it prompts people to try authors new to them or return to old favorites. I've admired and enjoyed Dennis Lynds' fiction under its various guises for more than forty years. But time has passed since my last foray and having Dennis as a guest here prompted me to pick up a Dan Fortune novel that I had missed before: NIGHT OF THE TOADS. What a nice read!! The older I get the more importance I place on "voice." It provides comfort to the reader, especially in a series. It is what builds a following. Favorite series become like comfort food--something that starts with an advantage of familiarity without limiting too much what may follow.

Here's a question for Dennis: how did you decide on First Person for the Dan Fortune stories? Slot-Machine Kelly was in third person as were the Mike Shayne novelettes ghosted at the same time under the Brett Halliday name. Given that much you were writing was in the third person, what made you turn to first person?

My opinion is that first person works very well for Dan Fortune. The series fits into the PI tradition very comfortably and I don't think it would have been the same in third person.

I've known people who would not even bother to read third person PI novels. Despite my fondness for the first person, I have never gone that far. But it is one of the crucial decisons that every author has to make. Hence my question to Dennis.

Richard Moore

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