Books Just Wanna Have Fun

Mark Haskell Smith, the self-styled dean of “tropical noir,” has honed the recipe for writing a beach book. In an interview with the AP’s Tim Malloy, Smith hones the sub-genre to its finest point:

“When you’re on vacation you’ll drink a mai tai or a pina colada, and normally you wouldn’t,” he says.

“You drink it because it’s slightly exotic, it’s got a little umbrella, it’s kind of sexy, it’s in a funny-shaped mug. It’s sweet, and yet it packs a sneaky punch. And that’s what a good beach read has.”

A lot of metaphors from the Los Angeles writer involve drinks, or food, or other guilty pleasures. It comes with his literary territory.

Maybe that shouldn’t be so surprising from a writer whose books have titles like Moist, Delicious and, most recently, Salty.

If Smith’s titles are just a little bit ... different, many would find his writing advice even more so:

“With any novel you need to have a compelling character, a vivid setting, and you want to make a page-turner,” Smith says. “But if you talk about a beach read, you need a book that’s really got an element of fun. Because people are going to choose between parasailing and scuba diving and sitting on their butt reading your book.

“The Great Gatsby is a great novel but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a fun novel,” he adds. “And I unabashedly try to make my books fun to read, ‘cause then I have fun writing them.”

The full article is here.