Tracy Farnsworth

 TF - First off thanks so much for agreeing to this interview on a tight timeframe!  Welcome to TRRC’s The Mysterious Corner.  Can you tell readers a little more about yourself?

Brian Rouff - I’m 47 years old, married, two grown daughters and a new grandson (our first!) named Aaron.  Born in Detroit, my family packed up and moved to Southern California in the early ‘60’s, when L.A. was still golden.  I am a UCLA grad with a B.A. in Communication Studies.

I moved to Vegas in 1981, which makes me a long timer by local standards.  Started my own ad agency in 1987.  Since that time, I’ve written hundreds of commercials, press releases, newsletters and brochures.  A great way to hone my writing skills and get paid for it.  Like most people, I always thought I had a novel in me.  This is how I’ve chosen to handle my midlife crisis.  (Probably safer than buying a Porsche and running around with young girls.)   I’m having fun, doing signings and interviews, getting to live out my little author’s fantasy.  My ultimate goal would be to earn enough to write full time.  (Don’t tell my clients.)

TF - DICE ANGEL is your first novel, how long did it take you to write?

BR - I spent about 8 months working on the first draft of DICE ANGEL.  Because I still need my day job, I wrote in the early evenings, usually from about 5:00 ‘til 8:00.  I’d start by downing an iced tea Super Big Gulp and letting the caffeine work its magic. I found I could produce about one manuscript page per hour.  Over a period of time, you keep chipping away and it adds up.  Then, another couple of months for rewrites.  I’ve talked to other authors, and most of us agree that’s the hardest part.  By the time you’re done, you’re sick of the whole damned thing.  Luckily, I have a really great editor, a renaissance man who knows a lot of stuff.  (The check’s in the mail.)  He also thinks I’m funny, which helps.  I also have a number of friends and associates whose opinions I respect, along with my wife, Tammy.  She’s my biggest fan and best critic; when I’m writing, I bring home my daily pages and hover over her while she tries to read them…until she banishes me to another room.

I wanted to write a book that really captures what it’s like to live in this town.  Most books and movies about Las Vegas are written by “carpetbaggers,” people who come here for a couple of weeks and think they’ve got a handle on this place.  Impossible.  There’s no other city like this in the world.  We try to behave like it’s normal, and in some ways it is.  But then you’ve got the all-pervasive gambling.  Slot machines in the convenience stores and Laundromats, and a casino on every corner.  This is a company town, no less than Akron,  Ohio and Hershey, Pennsylvania.  The gambling industry calls all the shots.  Most of us have a love/hate relationship with it.  We love what it does for the local economy, but we have to put up with all the side effects of unregulated growth.  In some ways, it’s like selling your soul to the devil.  I tried to put some of that in the book.

TF - Though it does not readily fit into the realm of “cozy mystery” or “hard boiled”, its humor and easy going pace lured me in.  Then the characters actions became realistic in my mind, which led me to rapidly work my way through the story.  Are the characters and events based on people you have met or situations you have encountered or heard of?

BR - Much of the book is loosely based on real life.  If nothing else, Vegas is an endless source of material.  I’m surprised nobody’s mined it before now.  (Not since Dr. Thompson, anyway.  And that was 30 years, and God knows how many pharmaceuticals, ago).  Jimmy Delaney, my protagonist, is a composite of a couple of Irish guys I’ve known for years, one of whom actually owns a bar.  Pete, the homeless ex-stockbroker, is based on a real homeless man who hit me up for a ride to the bus stop.  (For some reason, I seem to attract all the world’s unfortunates.  My wife says it’s because I don’t look mean enough.)  As it turned out, this guy gave me a stock tip for my troubles, which I promptly forgot about.  Until it went through the roof less than a year later.  There’s a dentist out here named Poon, and that’s where I got the name for my rogue IRS agent.  Just like in Hollywood, everybody in Vegas is really something else, which is how I came to make Poon the leader of a Jimmy Buffett tribute band.  The dice angel herself came from a classified ad that ran in the back of our alternative weekly newspaper.  A woman actually claimed to bring gamblers luck at craps.  That was the hook I needed to get my story off and running.  We’ve got quite a community dwelling on the fringes of gambling, and enough desperate people to keep them in business.  Where else but in Vegas could you tell a story like this?

TF - Jimmy was a fascinating man, will he appear in future books or was this his only story?  (I admit I would like to see him return and get a little revenge on the IRS agent – I want that man out of his job!)

BR - Originally, I figured this was the end of the line for Jimmy D.  But so many people have asked for a sequel, I’m starting to think about it.  However, I have another book I want to write first.  Maybe I’ll make Jimmy a minor character in the next one, just to keep folks interested.

TF - What is up next for you?

BR - The next book will also take place in Vegas.  I don’t want to say too much about it at this point, except that it will probably be a little darker and more atmospheric than DICE ANGEL.  And the protagonist will be female, which is a little scary for me.  Luckily, I can always ask my wife and daughters for help.

TF - Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

BR - Advice for aspiring writers (keeping in mind that I’m a novice myself):

Just write.  Don’t worry about how good it is, or if somebody will buy it.  Just get it down on paper. You can always revise.

Be honest.  Concentrate on what you have to say, not what people will think of it.

Stephen King has the best advice for new writers; be a voracious reader.  Some of it is bound to sink in. (Kind of like putting school books under your pillow.)  When I read a truly great book, I get a little depressed, because I know I’m nowhere near their league.  But it does give me something to strive for.

TF - Do you find time to read?  If so, what is currently in your reading pile?

BR - My personal tastes are very mainstream, not literary at all.  When I was younger, I devoured all the Travis McGee books.  Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen are two of my favorites.  Always amusing stories, great dialogue.  Also, Ross Thomas, who passed away fairly recently.  He had a very wicked sense of humor.  I just finished Harlan Coben’s TELL NO ONE and enjoyed it immensely, especially the beginning.  Before that, UP COUNTRY by Nelson DeMille.  Years ago, my wife turned me on to Ann Tyler, not someone I would ordinarily read.  But ACCIDENTAL TOURIST seems like a perfect book to me.  Oh, and Tom Robbins, and the way he plays around with the language.  I guess the thing they have in common is they’re all subversive in their own way.  That appeals to me the most.

TF - Thanks so much for your time, it has been a pleasure.  If there is anything else you would like to mention, please feel free!  Readers who want to find out more about DICE ANGEL can go to Amazon.com or any online bookseller.

(Click here for review of DICE ANGEL)