Ask the Author: Lew Watts
Answered Questions (3)
Lew Watts
Rex Stout's magnificent, curmudgeonly, character, Nero Wolfe, is unmarried, and the most obvious description of "couple" would be how he relates to his assistant, Archie Goodwin, the narrator. For me, I have always been more drawn to Wolfe's relationship with his chef and household "majordomo," Fritz. Whenever Fritz appears, sparks seem to fly, often related to a disagreement over food, of which Wolfe is a serious consumer. But behind this volatility, Stout manages to show (not tell) deep mutual respect between the two. In Fritz' case, his devotion to Wolfe is obvious, yet there is always a slightly selfish element—when Fritz worries that Wolfe's detective work load is slowing, it is because his salary depends on it. Ultimately, it is a complex, inter-dependent, relationship that, on the surface, frizzles with tension, yet underneath is built on love...as with many marriages.
Lew Watts
Besides trying to promote my new novel, "Marcel Malone," I have begun sketching out a new novel based on the discovery of a human pelvis in the badlands west of Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. It is very early days and I'm sure my initial ideas will evolve, but two of the main characters have already taken life inside of me.
Lew Watts
My new novel, "Marcel Malone," started as a lighthearted exploration of something a psychologist friend mentioned to me—the idea of forcing someone with a fear of rejection to sign up with a dating agency as a way of progressive immunization. I was in the process of writing this as a one act play when a reviewer of an earlier novel manuscript wrote to me saying I was unlikely to get it published ("too serious for a first novel"), and then asked if I was working on anything else. And so the one-act play transformed itself into the novel, "Marcel Malone."
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