Stephen Carter: Not Your Average Writer

By Felicia Pride, Blackvoices.com

Stephen Carter, national bestselling author of 'New England White' and 'The Emperor of Ocean Park,' has returned with his third novel, 'Palace Council,' a whirlwind thriller that keeps readers captivated through its 500 plus pages. Not an easy feat. But Carter is not your average writer.

The Yale professor turned novelist is one of a handful of writers who has experienced both sides of the coin: critical and commercial success. Blackvoices.com caught up with Carter to talk about the thrill of writing.

More than Words: As a Yale law professor, what made you start writing literary thrillers?

Stephen Carter: "Why thrillers?" is the easy question. I write thrillers because they are fun to write, and fun to read. "Why fiction?" is a harder question. I remember wanting to write fiction even back in elementary school, when I would write what I called my "stories" in little notebooks. Most of the stories were science fiction. Years later, serious characters began rattling around in my head. Eventually, I had to let them out.

MTW: John Grisham called your first novel, 'The Emperor of Ocean Park,' "beautifully written and cleverly plotted." Did you imagine that your writing would receive such critical and commercial acclaim?

SC: Never. Never. I continue to be astonished by the generous responses to my fiction. I have wanted to write novels since I was a boy. To be able to do exactly that, and to find an audience, thus fulfills a childhood dream.

MTW: Part of 'Palace Council' takes place in several locations including Martha's Vineyard and Harlem, two places with rich African American history. What made you use these places as settings?

SC: I wish I understood my own creative process better. I set out to write a thriller, I came up with intriguing characters, and the characters then, in a sense, dictated the locales and the action. Certainly well-to-do African Americans of the generation of Eddie and Aurelia, my hero and heroine, would of necessity have passed through these places.

But, of course, they move in a world that grows increasingly integrated as the novel proceeds, and most of the action is in that larger world.

MTW: Although the book is first and foremost a thriller, it does make subtle socio-political statements, including flipping stereotypes on their heads. What are some thoughts that you wanted readers to take away?

SC: I am trying to entertain, not teach. Certainly I have given a lot of thought to the ways in which the battles (violent and non-violent) of the 1960s laid the groundwork for the current era, but I really have not concealed any messages in my story. Lots of readers assume that when characters hold political opinions, they must be the opinions of the author. Not so! They are the opinions of the imagined characters, nothing more.

MTW: 'Palace Council' features prominent as well as controversial figures like Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover, Jack Kennedy, and Langston Hughes. Was it difficult to fictionalize these real people into characters?

SC: Difficult, but fun. I did a lot of research to try to get the characters right, even though of course I invented dialogue and scenes for them. For the most part, I tried to humanize them. But Hoover was difficult to humanize.

MTW: The book's hero Eddie Wesley is a rising literary star. The heroine, Aurelia Treene Garland, becomes a literature professor. Are these characters based on or inspired by any writers you admire?

SC: I try hard not to base my characters on real people, but I suppose that behind each of them stands several generations of black writers and thinkers who strove hard to build their reputations in a time when that was not easy to do.

MTW: Where does your inspiration come from to write such complex mysteries?

SC: I wish I knew. I can only say that I begin with the characters, and, in a sense, let the characters lead me into the story.

MTW: There's no doubt that all three of your novels could be made into movies. If 'Palace Council' was made into a film, what actors and actresses would you like to see play the roles of Eddie and Aurelia?

SC: An enjoyable speculation, but one I prefer to leave to my readers!