Michael McKinley

Michael McKinley, writer, director, Papist, and award-winning documentary producer, is interviewed for The Confession Book.  

Name: Michael McKinley

Most recent book: The Penalty Killing: A Martin Carter Mystery

Where did you grow up? 

Vancouver

Where and what did you study? 

I studied English Literature at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and then I did it again at St. John’s College, Oxford. I really wanted to be left alone to read, as long as I could swing it.

Where do you live and why? 

I live in New York City. It’s a wonderfully rich place for a writer—indeed, some of the things you see as you wander about here need to be toned down to pass muster with a fiction editor.

Of which of your books or projects are you most proud? 

The next one.

Describe your morning routine. 

I wake at 6:30, and help get my daughter ready for school. We set out together for the subway at 7:30, and get to school a little after 8. I drop her off, then grab a coffee and make my way back to my office, which is in my house. I’m at my desk by 9 or so. And after reading a couple of online papers—The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Vancouver Sun, so I can continue my tortured relationship with the Canucks hockey team –I get to work.

What is a distinctive habit or affectation of yours? 

I take long baths and catch up on reading in the tub. My family calls me “the dolphin.”

What is your favorite item of clothing? 

A black wool sweater that my wife made for me when we first met and I forced her to watch hockey on TV with me. She felt she should be doing something useful while thus press-ganged, and so she did.

Please recommend three books (not your own) to your readers.  

Isle of Joy, by Don Winslow (wonderful Valentine to Manhattan in the late 1950s, and a great spy novel)

Solomon Gursky Was Here, by Mordecai Richler (riotous tale of an epic Canadian swashbuckler)

Berlin Noir Trilogy by Phillip Kerr (fascinating series about a police detective in Nazi Germany)

What book do you wish you had written? 

The Gospel of Mark. It’s the earliest account of the life of Jesus, probably written around 70 CE by someone who knew him, or met him, during a time of cataclysmic war with Rome during which Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple, was destroyed. I would have loved to have been that proximate to a person and events which have been the dominant force on human history to date.

Do you have a writer friend who helps and inspires you? David Gibson, author of The Coming Catholic Church, and The Rule of Benedict, both indispensable if you want to understand the mind of the Catholic Church in the twenty-first century.  David and I have worked on several documentary films for CNN, and we live near each other, and frequently subsidize many worthy local saloons.  I call him "il miglior fabbro" which loosely means "the better craftsman" in Italian.  Dante used it to describe the troubador Amaut Daniel, and T. S. Eliot used it in his dedication of The Waste Land to Ezra Pound.  So David's in good company, and he's not a Fascist.  

What is a place which inspires you? 

Sainte-Chapelle, that miracle on the Île de la Cité in Paris.

Name a work of art, in any medium (book, film, painting, etc) which inspires you. 

The Godfather— timeless, beautiful, tragic, and a perfect example of how what could have been “just another gangster movie” was elevated to the realm of myth by a genius director.

Describe your routine when conceiving of a book and its plot, before the writing begins. 

I write an outline. I try to explain, in one sentence if I can, the dramatic point of each character, and each chapter. I also collect research for my various projects, and then read what I’ve assembled to flesh out the outline. Then I begin, and watch with amazement every time as the story takes over the plan and goes off in unexpected directions.

Describe your writing routine. 

9-5, Monday-Friday.

Do you have any unusual rituals associated with the writing process? 

Yes, my mental health breaks often involve a visit to the most excellent game, Plants vs. Zombies.

Is there anything distinctive or unusual about your work space? 

I have my father’s ashes on a shelf in my office. Keeps me company—and the whole thing in perspective.

Besides the obvious, what do you keep on your desk? 

A little glass dolphin that my daughter gave me. We swam with dolphins in Hawaii last year, and it reminds me of warmer climes during chilly times.

 

What is the view from your favorite work space? 

Brooklyn.

What do you do when you are stuck or have temporary writer’s block? 

I play Plants vs. Zombies and answer email.

Describe your ideal day. 

I take my daughter to school, I get in a full day of writing, and then I make a nice dinner for my family and catch up with everyone while we eat.

Describe your evening routine. 

After dinner, it’s bathtime, storytime and bedtime for those who will be attending school the next day, and then my wife and I usually catch up with something we’ve DVRd.

What do you do to relax? 

I read, play piano, hang out with family/friends, go to a gallery or museum, watch movies, and watch hockey/football/soccer. I’m looking to get back into playing recreational hockey again.

What is guaranteed to make you laugh?  

My wife. She’s very funny.

What is guaranteed to make you cry? 

I don’t really cry. I’m sure that’s a deep psychological problem—or maybe it’s just being Irish. I do get upset when I learn about any harm that has come to a child, and given that a child dies of hunger every five seconds, I’m upset a lot.

Do you have any superstitions? 

No, because I’d be really good at having them, so I avoid them. Which is probably a superstition.

What is something you always carry with you? 

My father’s ring.

What is your favorite snack? 

Hawkins Cheezies. Scandalously, you cannot buy them in the USA (well, you can buy them online, at a mark-up), so when friends visit from Canada, they know they will receive the utmost of my hospitality in exchange for this delicacy. When we run out, I like popcorn with Parmesan on it.

What phrase do you over-use? 

“We know how it ends.”

What is a gadget/object/collectible that you could not live without?  

The dishwasher. I miserably worked as a human one, once, and I thank that machine for its existence every time I push the start button.

If you could have a meal with any author, and any one other public figure who you do not already know, who would you choose? 

I would like to have a bite with Tom Stoppard, the world’s greatest playwright, and with President Barrack Obama to say bravo and please keep the bar high. You have many more supporters than you know—difficult though it is to hear amidst the noise of the nutjobs and bigots.

If you could bring back to life one deceased person, who would it be and why? 

William Shakespeare. It would be a passing good time, methinks, to hear what he thinks of the industry his work had become. And of course, to ask him who really wrote his stuff (kidding, kidding).

Is there a fictional character with whom you identify? 

There are too many—every time you read a great one, or see a great one, they illuminate something about your own life. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Sydney Carton.

Tell us a funny story related to a book tour or book event. 

I once asked an actor friend to appear at a book festival and read for me while I was on my honeymoon, and he did, and at some social function afterward convinced a woman in attendance that he was really me, and engaged in carnal embrace with the damsel. I think that’s called lose-lose.

 

What would you do for work, if you were not a writer? 

I’d be a musician. Or a chef. Or a musical chef.

What advice would you give to an aspiring author? 

Read everything and write daily.

What would you like carved onto your tombstone? 

"The End"

Tell us something about you which is largely unknown and perhaps surprising.  

I’m fascinated by World War I and have studied it obsessively. I still can’t quite believe that it happened, but it certainly still influences the world we live in.

What is your next project? 

I’m just finishing The Valley of the Shadow, my next Martin Carter book, then I’m going to write a thriller about the banking world, and a novel about—ta da – World War I.