Sean Beaudoin's YA mystery, You Killed Wesley Payne was featured in my March column and remains a book I have not been able to forget. I honestly was not sure just what Sean was doing when I started reading - was it supposed to be set in another world, an alternate American high school, some kind of twist on standard SFF? I wasn't sure but I did know that the voice of protagonist Dalton Rev-Romain (and his compelling mission to help his brother) could not be ignored. Bit by bit, as I fell deeper into the chaos of a contemporary high school that makes Sunnydale look downright civilized, I found myself laughing at all that Sean was wiling to do in this mystery/satire/drama/comedy/flat out fearless take on life as an American teen. Here's a bit of my review:

As he follows clues and challenges the status quo, Dalton discovers that Salt River High runs on a top-down system of graft that has teachers charging for grades, everyone selling information or promises, and all the wheels greased by the readily-available energy drink Rush. With a new sidekick (good for humorous asides if nothing else), his trusty "Private Dick Handbook," and the occasional assistance of Cassiopeia Jones (new head of the "Foxxes," with Jenny One, Two and Three), Dalton works his way through the clues and discovers what Wesley Payne was hiding, and why it mattered so much that he had to die for it. The mystery has all the prerequisite twists and turns, the characters are outstandingly deep and original and Beaudoin peppers the text with so many witty remarks that it reads like Gilmore Girls on acid. "She was absolutely smoking. She was disco atomic. She was Fat Man and Little Boy." Or another favorite: "A kid wrapped himself in duct tape and went all INXS in the end zone? It could happen." The cops are named Estrada and Hutch, a significant clue is found in "The Ballad of Mary Surratt," and everyone runs around yelling "I swear to BOB!"

You Killed Wesley Payne is a ride like no other and I was quite pleased that Sean could share some time with me about his remarkably inventive book.

CM: I hate to ask "where do you get your ideas from" because everyone asks that but seriously - where in the heck did you the idea for this book? It is not just a noir mystery but an off the rails satire of everything high school that manages to blend Bogart and Bacall with some His Girl Friday with the mother of all mean girl dramas plus a healthy dose of homefront realism that just blew me away. So I have to know how this book got into your head.

SB: Well, it's true, I do get asked that all the time. In order to answer somewhat differently, I'm going to talk about His Girl Friday. What a great movie! The dialog sparkles. Cary Grant is amazing. Ralph Bellamy is as Ralph Bellamy as he could be. Of course, that movie is a remake of The Front Page, and it was originally written as a play, so it's no wonder the lines are so great.

I'd like to be able to pretend I was one of those people who know exactly what they're doing all the time, but the truth is I'm not. I mean, ever since I first got a whiff of YA as a genre I thought "A YA noir would be excellent!" But I almost wanted to read it as someone else's book more than write it myself. It took me 5 years to get around to seriously considering it. And then I wrote the first few lines and....fell down the noir hole. I will say that I'm a huge movie geek, and the French noir of the 50's and 60's really influenced me. The movie Elevator to the Gallows in particular was how I always wanted YKWP to feel. Even though I don't think I was remotely successful, that was a definite jumping off point. Dalton Rev was whistling dissonance (actually Miles Davis) in his head the whole book, even if he never admitted it on the page.

CM: I totally get the Miles Davis - there is a jazz tone to a lot of the conversation also (actually there's almost a Cab Calloway-ness to how it flies it if that makes any sense).

SB: Oh, yes, Cab Calloway is there the whole time, his hair standing straight up, holding a baton and orchestrating the mayhem with a series of hi-de-ho's.

CM: Back to His Girl Friday which I adore and have right here with me and watch a couple of times every year just because. One of the things that really struck me about WESLEY PAYNE was the pacing - it zips along and not because of cliffhangers but the speed of the dialogue. You have a rhythm that is about more than just what the characters say but how they say it. The only contemporary comparison I've seen is the Gilmore Girls. Did you have any trouble keeping up the speed without losing control of the plot? In fact how much (or little) did you plot the book out first? Did you have to remove any plot threads along the way?

SB: Well, I've never seen Gilmore Girls, but now I think I should. To be honest, I never really thought of it as warp speed. To me language is either "explain-y and boring" or "funny and brisk." Middle ground? Leave that to Chaucer! Of course, I was often going for the clipped style and lack of exposition that is the calling card of noir dialog and crime fiction pacing, but mostly it was just to avoid falling in the dull trenches of trying too hard to do anything specific at all. For good or ill, that's just how the words come out.

I plotted the book with about ten pages of notes and then just dove in. The characters surprised me numerous times demanding that additional things happen or that they get more screen time, and mostly I let them have their way. Those who hated the book are no doubt now saying "See! I told you he had no idea what he was doing!" and in a certain sense they're right. I sort of feel like YKWP was the novel in which I learned how to write a novel.

CM: Can we talk about influences? The Hammett and Chandler are there but so is some punk rock and more than one 80s teen movie (on acid) and the "Lee Harvies" which pretty much represent the biggest paranoid government conspiracy of all time. Clearly you are a man in touch with pop culture, and while I know from past interviews you've mentioned watching noir films with your father I have to ask for some specifics. Personally, my heart belongs to KEY LARGO but I could add a half dozen other movies to the list in a second as well as a ton of books. A. Ton. What are your favorites from noir and beyond?

SB: Well, you and I should probably go on a Bahamian Reference Cruise together, where you sit on the Lido Deck the whole time and quote dialog from The Breakfast Club (on acid) and Out of The Past and quiz each other on Clash and Misfits songs, if only because my heart belongs to Key Largo as well. Seen it innumerable times. I was for many years desperately in love with the idea of Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, and it really hasn't waned that much. I wanted to LIVE in that movie, even as a pre-teen, hanging out with Walter Brennan and playing poker on the boat. I can't explain exactly why I didn't want to live in Star Wars like all my friends, but there you have it. I used to dub movies on blank VHS tapes when I worked at a video store during high school, which was expressly forbidden by the manager. Back in the early days of VCR's, it was kind of unusual to have your own little home library. My friends would come over and we'd watch three Phoebe Cates movies in a row. I still remember the lineup on a few of those tapes, and will run them by you--not necessarily as my favorites--but a good indicator of where my head was at at seventeen: one was The Thing (Carpenter remake), Clockwork Orange, Woman in The Dunes, Sweet Smell of Success, and Re Animator. Another was Blade Runner, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Billy Liar, Band of Outsiders, and Avenging Angel.

CM: Oh this is fun - and mostly because I think we were separated at birth. You had me with His Girl Friday but when you threw Blade Runner in here I just about swooned. (Fortunately my husband is as addicted to classic SF as I am so it's not like I'm leaving him for my imaginary affair with you but STILL.) (Okay, done embarrassing myself now.)

SB: Imaginary affairs are the best kind. That way I get to picture myself as James Spader in a shiny 80's blazer and you can be either Molly Ringwald or Jamie Gertz. I suspect this affair involves a lot of time spent over pancakes at various retro diners, as well as endless pregnant pauses and meaningful squinting.

CM: Molly Ringwald! *grin* It's interesting to me that on some level this has been a book that has lived in your head for decades - not the specifics but the idea of it. WESLEY seems to be the book you were looking for when you were a kid. (And yes, I can totally see who Phoebe Cates inspired.) So you held your love of noir all this time. What's interesting is that while you say you get bored easily, you still stayed with what you love. (Clearly noir does not bore you.) Did you feel like there were necessary elements to give the book it's noir "flavor"? Not that you had a list or anything but what did you feel like had to be there to make it the homage it turned out to be?

SB: My friends and I were all desperately in love with Phoebe Cates. Or maybe that was just me. And maybe I still am.

I guess I feel like I've seen so many films and read so many books with touchstones in crime/noir that I'm reasonably conversant in it. Call it Gunsel Esperanto. I speak GE enough to order in restaurants and ask directions to the subway, so it wasn't much of a problem summoning conventions when needed. If anything, there was way too much stuff I wanted to put in the book and had to prune it back so it wasn't so reference and slang-heavy. There could really have been twice as much of that sort of action. Mostly, I think I just wanted an excuse to make up my own slang instead of appropriating it from Chandler or Billy Wilder. For instance, using "Where's the opera?" to mean "What's your hurry?" filled me with glee for a week. Probably it gave most other people acid reflux, but you can already tell by my sales numbers that I'm only writing for myself. And my cousin Frank, who lives in the basement.

CM: I can see that you are a witty writer, that you have a rapid fire way of turning a phrase and propelling the narrative along (this isn't just to make you feel good - anyone with half a brain can see it in your work) but WESLEY PAYNE is about as unusual a book I've come across for teens in a long long time. There isn't a lot of noir out there (Judy Blundell - who is fabulous - is the only other author who comes immediately to mind) so were you concerned at all about finding an audience? Do you think today's teens are open to noir?

SB: Oh, but it does make me feel good. Thank you. A lot of the reviews for Wesley Payne revolved around the notion of its originality (translation:no dystopic hottie were-girl hero) and how it's not necessarily for all tastes (translation: four percent market share). Either way, I take that as a huge compliment. The bottom line is that I get bored easily, and if I'm writing a book where I'm not simultaneously entertaining myself, I will mentally wander, and then six months later look up and have just completed a debutante shopping novel. Of course, it'd be great to sell an assload of books, but I really have no idea how to consciously court a wider audience. I sincerely hope my lack of commercial intent comes across on every page. Essentially, I know exactly what kind of books I dismissed as crap when I was seventeen, and I'm pretty much just trying to keep that dude happy. But I also think there's a component to YA marketing that intimates sales are equivalent to being intellectually coddled. Actually, it's probably true to some extent. But I think there is a much larger and more voracious audience than we credit. In fact, I'm sure of it. Judging by the letters I get, pretty much every seventeen year old in 2011 is vastly smarter than I was at that age. I guess I'm just hoping that I don't have to find them. I want them to find me. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Or maybe I'm just lazy. In the end I figured I don't need to pen bestsellers, I just need a large enough following so that the smart-ass word geek fans have plenty of room to look down on mouth-breather types that are just with me for the swearing and breasts.

As to your last question, I think today's teens are open to being called anything but "today's teens." Actually, I think they're open a combination of laughing like hell, a crockpot of unusual characters, and being entertained in a challenging way. If that comes from noir or zombies or anything else, so be it.

CM: It's interesting to me - as a reviewer - how many people have pointed out how different your book is. It's like we can't believe that a book so different can come out in YA right now. There are trends and then there is the epic monster that paranormal romance has become for this age group. You clearly wrote the book you loved - the one you wanted to read when you were 17. Frankly, I responded to it as the 17 year old I used to be who watched all those movies on Sunday morning while ducking church with my mother. (If we kept the tv turned down low and our mother didn't wake up then my brother and I were spared an hour and a half of boredom. We knew we were risking hell but were willing to take the chance.) So tell me, as someone who wrote a book like absolutely nobody else, that happens to be a lot like a major trend from years ago, is there a chance for noir to return in popularity? Tell me the cast for your dream noir movie circa 2011.

SB: Well, as I said, I am heartened to be thought of in that way. I want to put out books that are original, funny, and daring because those are the books I wanted to read then and those are the books I want to read now. Whether I'm successful or not is for other people to decide. As far as noir returning to popularity, I don't think it ever really went out of style. Even ten year-olds know who Humphrey Bogart is, and (usually lousy, but still) noir homage movies are made all the time. One comes out practically every week. It's more of a post Tarantino-inflected noir world, but the skeleton of the foundation is still right there for everyone to see, should they care to.

My dream noir movie is, it should be no surprise, the Ruben Fleischer-directed version of You Killed Wesley Payne. And it here's the cast:

Dalton Rev-Romain Duris
Cassiopeia Jones-Bai Ling
Macy Payne-Michelle Williams
Lester Bucharest-Zach Galifianakis
Kurt Tarot-Glenn Danzig
Jeff Chuff-Tiny Lister
Mom-Monica Bellucci
Dad-Robert Downey Jr.
Turd Unit-Cristoff Waltz
Wesley Payne-Zachary Quinto
Elisha Cook-Ricky Gervais
Hutch and Estrada- Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts
Principal Inference-Christina Hendricks
Lu Lu Footer- Natalie Portman (on stilts)
Miss Honey Bucket- Kristin Wiig

CM: Oh - and dish on the next book - are we staying with noir or moving into a different direction?

SB: Unless Wesley Payne becomes a bestseller (it still can! Go out and buy three copies right now!) I doubt there's going to be a sequel, although I did plan all along to do a second book called Cassiopeia Jones, in which she takes over the business and it's all from her perspective and Dalton Rev is just a peripheral character. Picketing and yelling through bullhorns outside the Little, Brown offices could still make a sequel happen, should any random group of two thousand fans be so inclined to man the barricades.

As far as next books, I just signed a deal with the entirely awesome Candlewick Press for an anti-zombie zombie opus called The Infects, which will be out Fall 2012. It has already been called "one of the three best books of the twentieth century." Which either means I am on the verge of being very rich, or that my mother has only read three books. The good thing about The Infects is that there's no fake slang or clique charts, just straightforward sex, violence, bad language and zombie gorging. So, you know, a total buzzbomb of mom-disapproval.

I also have a punk rock band saga called Wise Young Fool coming out with Little, Brown Spring 2013. It too is straightforward in style, and is essentially the literary version of an amp cranked to max, an extended encore, and a spontaneously exploding drummer. Also, the lead guitar player has a crush on a girl so it's breaking new ground plot-wise. Totally honestly, though? I'm really proud of this book. I can't wait until it comes out.

There are two other interviews today - at Bildungsroman and The Happy Nappy Bookseller. I have direct links & sample quotes at the Master SBBT schedule!

[Post pic: His Girl Friday (1940) Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy; Elevator to the Gallows movie poster; Cab Calloway; Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not; Key Largo movie poster.]