Speaker 1 00:00:57 You are listening to write on radio on K FFA I 90.3 FM and streaming live on the
[email protected]. I'm Annie Harvey. On tonight's program, Liz Olds talks with author Aaron Philip Clark about the second book in his Trevor Finnegan series, blue Like Me Meet. Take it Away. Liz.
Speaker 0 00:01:27 Karen,
Speaker 2 00:01:27 Are you there?
Speaker 3 00:01:29 I am. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2 00:01:31 Yes, I can. Thanks for coming on tonight on radio tonight.
Speaker 3 00:01:36 Oh, thank you for having me. Happy to be here. Welcome,
Speaker 4 00:01:39 Welcome, welcome. Why don't we start with your reading from blue like me?
Speaker 3 00:01:45 Sure. Uh, I'll go ahead and start with chapter one, November, 2016, Venice, California. Not everything's a victim. Some places around here still cling to life, classic diners, coffee shops, dive bars, and time worn lodges like the Surfside Motel, which hearkens back to the 1950s when road tripping families occupied rooms. Then came the free loving bohemians, and now dope sick junkies selling sex for money and drugs. It's how the motel survives kept afloat by a steady stream of sex workers and Johns who rent rooms by the hour located north of Lincoln, blocks away from the million dollar homes the motels dismally kept with white paint, chipping from stucco and a decrepit sign, advertising free cable tv. I sit parked on Rose Court in front of a quick change oil shop. The street is sprawl, is a sprawling graveyard, a failed businesses, a neighborhood that's gone under ground zero for what could have been. I surveilled two L LAPD officers from the driver's seat of my 68 Ford Falcon Futura. The Falcon doesn't raise suspicion. It's forgettable primer gray with speckled rust of what gearheads call cancer. It's the type of car that blends in on any street. If I park in a blue collar neighborhood, the Falcon is rarely the only classic on the block, needing a paint job and wealthier neighborhoods. It's easily a restoration project for a collector in Venice. It fits in either category.
Speaker 3 00:03:24 Through my camera's Zeiss lens, I watch officers Chris Garvey and Brian Yida sit inside their parked black and white outside room 16 Garvey gets out of the unit. He's a tall white man with a physique that says he prefers weightlifting over cardio yida. A dark-haired man swings the passenger side door open and vomits, scoping the parking lot. Garvey doesn't look up, doesn't look, doesn't look put off by his partner's. Nasty showing. He reaches into the back seat and pulls out a cuffed red-headed girl who looks barely old enough to buy cigarettes. He spins her to face the car, presses his pelvis against her backside and grins. He moves her hair to the side and speaks into her ear. I don't need to be a lip reader to know the words repulse her, but the nights can chill to the bone, especially for girls wearing tight fitting bikini tops.
Speaker 3 00:04:16 Denim shorts cut high above their thighs and slip on gum sho sneakers made famous by skateboarding Z boys. I focus the lens on their legs, which are covered in sores and bruises. The girls look spin sickly. I snapped three medium shots, adjust the lens for a closeup on the cop's face faces, and take three more pictures. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the girls are everyday surfers. Not an uncommon site in the area known as the ghetto by the sea. Girls suspend their days, lying on the beach, occasionally riding the waves and scoring coke. The thought of them running turning tricks and bathrooms and motels wouldn't enter my mind. Garvey uncuffed the girls and slips money into the redhead's back pocket. The girls walk into the motels lobby. The officers get back into the, into their patrol car. Garvey behind the wheel. When the girls return, they pass the black and white and walk upstairs to room 18.
Speaker 3 00:05:11 Garvey drive to the side of the building. I start the Falcon, pull out and enter the motels parking lot. The patrol cars parked near a dumpster where someone has discarded a stained mattress in mini fridge. I watch the officers get out, climb the stairs and ready themselves for what a waste them in the room. The knock on the door. They knock on the door, it opens. I snap pictures a few dozen. They enter the room, the redhead shuts the door, and I know what comes next. The shots aren't enough. Every private eye knows the casket doesn't close without the money shot. I note two security cameras, one near the lobby's door and the other amounts on a wall pointing toward the stairs. There's nowhere to be sure. There's nowhere to be sure if they're functioning, but I always presume they are. I adjust my hat's brim so it draws a heavy shadow over my face.
Speaker 3 00:06:00 Lift the collar of my jacket to shield my neck and cheeks and get out of the car camera in hand. Walking upstairs, I can hear voices, giggles, and central moans. As I approach room 18, I reach for the door handle, hoping the redhead kept it unlocked. I turn it slowly and push the door creaks, but I'm confident it's gone unheard. Given the increasingly loud moans, the room feels like a humid mourning, and there's a distinct smell. Unpleasant, right bodies are contorted folded like origami, two queen-sized mattresses. I squeeze, I squeeze my camera through the cracked doorway and gently press the red button. The light meter alerts me that the indigo glow from the TV isn't enough for full exposure. Dammit. If only the girls had had turned on the vanity light over the sink, I'd have something to work with. I set the camera to audio oh, to Otto aware that the next shot will produce a flash.
Speaker 3 00:07:00 I've got two minutes, maybe three. Once the pictures have been taken before Garvey and Yida suspend their cordes and come after me, I push the button. There's a blinding white flare. The shutter rapidly opens and closes, taking several pictures a second. What the hell Garvey says, pushing the ne naked girl off him, she shrieks bouncing from the mattress to the floor. Son of a bitch. He yells, searching for his underwear buried in the sheets. I take another picture of Garvey's ready flake face, slam the door, and run downstairs to the Falcon. Before getting in, I looked back to see Yida with his gun drawn, making his way downstairs with Garvey close behind yess agile In a way, Garvey isn't, it seems to slide down the steps as if they were gre with bacon drippings.
Speaker 4 00:07:48 Aaron Philip Clark authored a blue like me a uh, an excerpt from the book. Um, why don't we start, you know, you've got a lot of really nice complex characters in there, and the most complex is Trevor Finnegan. Of course. Why don't you introduce us to him?
Speaker 3 00:08:05 Sure. So Trevor Finnegan is a ex l a p d officer, uh, in the first book Under Color of Law. We understand why he's an ex officer by the end of that book, <laugh>, because he essentially gets himself in such a situation that he can no longer be a police officer. And so now he's become a private investigator and he's working with a civil rights attorney. And what they've done is they set up kind of a tip line for people who can, and it's not quite, not quite a tip line, it's more, it's a email, but essentially people can reach out to them if they wanna report wrongdoing by law enforcement, and they don't feel comfortable going to the L A P D or the sheriff department or whoever they think, uh, may be, uh, able to provide some oversight if they see an officer doing something uh, wrong. And so Trevor has been investigating some of these. He essentially spends his day sifting through some of these leads. And the ones that kind of pan out, um, or seem like they could be legitimate, are the ones that he spends his his nights kind of investigating, um, uh, to see if there's some credibility there. Um, and so he, he essentially is, is in some ways trying to redeem himself, uh, for some of the actions that he took as a police officer where he didn't uphold, uh, uphold his, uh, mandate.
Speaker 4 00:09:27 Yeah. Uh, the first episode that includes Riley and, uh, the Sally Mon Mon Eos. Uh, why don't you describe that? It's just this at the beginning of the book, I don't feel like it's a spoiler, and you can tell us kind of what happens and what sets off the whole, uh, or, uh, story arc of the book.
Speaker 3 00:09:49 Sure. So, uh, Trevor, his ex-partner Sally Munoz, and, um, it has come to the attention of the law firm that she potentially may be, uh, a dirty cop. And so he's tasked with having to surveil her and her current partner, uh, Martin Riley. And so he veils them to Venice Beach. And he essentially is kind of blending in as best he can, but he is watching them. He really has no clue what he is watching them for, uh, particularly simply because he just knows that there could be some something there that, uh, may reveal itself. And so he essentially is watching them as they enter, uh, a cannabis dis uh, distillery. And so, um, he is surveilling and they come out and Martin Riley is struck down by an assailant. And so Trevor quickly goes from this private investigator to eyewitness his cop instincts kick in.
Speaker 3 00:10:49 He actually is armed. He decides to get involved, especially because his ex-partner Sally is, is, uh, wounded as well. So the assailant takes off. Um, Trevor then tends to Sally as best he can, but he also takes off after the, the assailant. Uh, a gun battle ensues in the parking lot, and the assailant essentially gets away. Trevor quickly realizes, Hey, you're not a cop anymore. In fact, the LAPD is not a huge fan of yours. You probably should leave the scene immediately. Um, and he does that only to have Sally track him down later, uh, knowing that he was an eyewitness and essentially, um, demanding, uh, that he help her, uh, figure out who shot her, her partner.
Speaker 4 00:11:36 She feels kind of, uh, uh, left alone or abandoned, right?
Speaker 3 00:11:42 Yes, very much so. Um, you know, the relationship with police officers in terms of the, the partnership is very strong. Sometimes it could even be, um, stronger than a marriage in the sense that the two individuals can spend more time together than someone may spend with their spouse. So she has a strong connection to Riley. Uh, he also looked after her, um, after she returned from, uh, her maternity leave and had moved over to, uh, kind of narcotics and vice squad. And so she feels the absence of Riley having witnessed his murder. Um, part of it is she's, she's very much in shock. Uh, and then also she's grieving, but she's not allowing herself really to go through any of that, um, because she's so kind of hell bent on figuring out who killed her partner. And she believes she, she believes she knows who did it. Um, and it's, it's it without giving a whole lot away, um, it's really where she focuses all her attention. Um, it's only once Trevor comes into the, to the picture that we realize Sally may not be correct, um, in her suspicions.
Speaker 4 00:12:58 Uh, let's, uh, change gears a little bit. Talk about Trevor's relationship with his dad.
Speaker 3 00:13:04 Sure. So Trevor has a very complicated relationship, uh, with his father Sean. And they, you know, Trevor lost his mother at a very young age, so his father was tasked with raising him. And his father, uh, is retired L a P D. And his father, in some ways did the best he could, but also caused quite a bit of trauma, uh, for Trevor as he was growing up. And so, Trevor's need to become a police officer has a lot to do with he and his father's relationship. And so there's a lot of resentment there. Uh, there's a lot of blame. And I think Trevor's misfortune as a police officer, his father feels like that some of that is due to how he raised him. Um, and so, you know, while his father is, is, uh, this alcoholic who ha has been a functioning alcoholic even when he was a cop, but now it's kind of spiraled out. He's having, um, some health difficulties on account of alcoholism and, uh, he's getting to the point where Trevor's quite concerned, um, maybe more concerned, uh, that he has been in the past, uh, about his father. And so he does rely on his father, though, because his father still has good cop instincts and he does bounce, you know, cases off of his father and tries to see what insight he can provide. Uh, but he's constantly, Trevor's constantly trying to get his father's approval. And I, and that comes at a cost.
Speaker 4 00:14:47 Los Angeles is also a big character in this, uh, book. Uh, why don't you talk some about your relationship with Los Angeles and how it becomes a character in the book?
Speaker 3 00:14:59 Sure. So I grew up here in La la uh, primarily, uh, Pasadena, so within LA County, although I've lived through different parts of LA off and on. And so oftentimes when I'm writing, I like to pull from some of the neighborhoods that I have, uh, experience with, uh, either lived or worked. And, um, Venice is a place where I actually is close to where I was going to grad school. So there's a chunk of the book that does take place on what we call the West Side, uh, which is Venice and the beach communities. And so I really wanted LA to be a character, uh, in the book, and I wanted to make sure that I kind of layered the city the way that I, that I see it, um, which is many layers. Um, and it's a very interesting and, and, uh, robust and dynamic kind of place.
Speaker 3 00:15:58 Uh, there's this sense that anything could happen, you know, in LA at any given time. And so, um, you know, I definitely wanted to, to make that the centerpiece, uh, so that it feels like, like there's some sprawl to the city. It feels like Trevor really travels. Um, you know, one of the things that was important was to make sure that people understand in the book that it does take him a while to get places. So <laugh>, there's quite a bit of traffic. So sometimes, you know, I may, I may read a review and it'll say, you know, well, it took him three hours to get, you know, to this place. Well, that's, that's realistic <laugh>, you know? Yeah. So, you know, if you don't, you know, you're not in the carpool lane, you gotta deal with, uh, regular old traffic. So, um, you know, LA is, it's, it adds a, I guess, a layer of tension there.
Speaker 4 00:16:48 And you were in law enforcement in la
Speaker 3 00:16:51 Yeah, so I did a year with the, uh, L A P D, uh, and then ultimately went out on injury and, um, decided to go back to my original career, which was as a educator.
Speaker 4 00:17:03 Oh. And where do you teach, or what do you teach writing, or, I noticed on your website that you do do, uh,
Speaker 3 00:17:10 Consultations,
Speaker 4 00:17:11 Reviews of writing, consultations, that's the word I'm looking for. Uh, so what kind of, uh, stuff do you do with your education? Sure.
Speaker 3 00:17:19 So I teach creative writing, uh, UCLA a and I, uh, also teach, um, when I can, um, courses that are kind of focused more on mystery. So I teach, uh, mystery, kind of Mystery 1 0 1, uh, which is a kind of a foundational course that kind of goes through the history of, of noir, uh, and mystery fiction. And I teach a, uh, fiction introduction to fiction course, uh, where we read a novel and we, uh, discuss it and we talk about different genres and, uh, the students are able to hopefully kind of start their own book in that course.
Speaker 4 00:18:00 Uh, we got about six, seven minutes left, but I wanna ask a couple of questions. Uh, blue Light Me Can Stand Alone, but it's also part of a series. And I'm wondering, uh, if it's, if your original novel started out as a part of a series, or if it was kind of the second part of the series kind of came just out of, uh, uh, the first one without you really planning on it. And then, uh, do you like standalones or do you like series better to write?
Speaker 3 00:18:33 Well, so originally, yes. So the Trevor Finnegan, um, I guess story Arc was meant to be, is meant to be a series. So ideally I see maybe, uh, maybe two more books. I think, um, it, it wasn't meant to be a very long series, not like a Easy Rollins, but who knows? Things can change. But, um, that's originally how I kind of saw it, you know, maybe five or six books total. Um, but when I was writing Under Color of Law, the first book, uh, I really started this to think about the second book at the same time. So I started to outline the second book as I was writing the first book. Uh, and so I was able, as soon as I was done with Under The Color of Law to kind of roll into writing the second book. Um, I do like standalones. I mean, I'm writing, uh, I just finished the standalone, um, uh, last month. And so I'm, I'm in the process of kind of doing some edits and uh, then I'll hop back into the Trevor Finnegan world. Uh, but I wanted to kind of take a, a break and do something different. Um, the Standalone is a retelling of the talented Mr. Ripley set in the world of hip hop music. And so, um, I wanted to kind of do something that was a little bit away from the, uh, the police thriller.
Speaker 4 00:19:54 And what prompted you to do, um, the Trevor, uh, then again, books in first person?
Speaker 3 00:20:00 Well, I really wanted the reader to have a vicarious experience with Trevor. I wanted them to feel like they were in his shoes and experience everything kind of in real time. And so I tried to get as close to that as I could. And so I really felt like, you know, the close, uh, first person, uh, present tense was the best way, uh, to do that. Um, and really get a sense of his, uh, interior, but also what he's experiencing.
Speaker 4 00:20:29 Did you pretty much know in advance what was going on? Or did you have to do a lot of research to, uh, get back into the knowledge of the, uh, L A P D or how did that work?
Speaker 3 00:20:42 No, I mean, luckily, um, it's still relatively fresh. I also still have quite a few of my, my training manuals. So if I did get stuck, I could kind of just, you know, have a quick refresher. So I use that as reference. And then I also have family members on the job who are police officers. So if I ever kind of need to, um, if I get stuck or I'm not too sure, uh, how to navigate something, I can, I can ask one of my family members. I mean, some things obviously are, are, are going to be fictionalized and kind of invented simply because if I showed how it really happens, uh, I'm not so sure how many people would be very interested in that, cuz it could be kind of mundane, <laugh>. So, you know, going to court and things like that, you know, oftentimes we take that out of the book, you know, because it's just, it doesn't necessarily serve the plot. So, you know, there's always gonna be some creative license there.
Speaker 4 00:21:41 In terms of genre, you feel like it's a straight up pi or do you feel like there are aspects ofir to it? Or how, uh, is that working for you?
Speaker 3 00:21:52 I definitely feel like these are noir novels. I mean, I, I, I kind of own it proudly, you know, that I am a, uh, I guess a neo noir, uh, author and, you know, within the publishing world, noir is kind of a word that, or genre that's kind of frowned upon cuz the thought is like that, uh, the readership is not that large as if you were writing a straight mystery or a thriller. Uh, but I like to think that I mix some of these elements so that it still is thrilling, but it does have what I say, the heart of noir, kind of the soul of noir, um, especially when I'm writing about Los Angeles. Well,
Speaker 4 00:22:36 We are coming up to the end. Uh, why don't you tell us how people can reach you, uh, website, uh, social media and et cetera?
Speaker 3 00:22:47 Sure. So my website is ww dot Aaron, a a r o n Philip, p h i l i p clark, c l a r k.com. And you can also find me on Facebook just by typing in author Aaron Philip Clark. And I'm also on Twitter and Instagram at underscore Write Me A World.
Speaker 4 00:23:11 Okay. And you said a little bit about what, uh, your next, uh, project would be, but, uh, why don't you tell us more, a little bit more about that and, uh, when we might expect to see another book by Aaron Philip Clark out on the shelves
Speaker 3 00:23:26 <laugh>. Sure. So my next novel, uh, is titled All the Smoke, and it is a retelling, highly inspired, uh, by the talented Mr. Ripley. Uh, and Minnie works by Patricia Highsmith, but it is Centers on a sociopathic teenager who rises in the hip hop industry on the heels of a stolen, uh, rhyme book. And when the owner of that rhyme book gets out of prison, uh, it brings a lot of conflict for my sociopathic uh, rapper.
Speaker 4 00:24:03 Uh, we've been speaking with Aaron Philip Clark, author of Blue Like Me and many other, uh, excellent mystery novels. Uh, Aaron, thank you so much for joining us tonight and, uh, and, uh, take good care. Good luck with your career. Thank
Speaker 3 00:24:21 You for having me. This has been great. I appreciate it.
