Interview with Michael H. Rubin
When did you become interested in storytelling?
The novels that are published under the name “Michael H. Rubin” are actually jointly written by my wife, Ayan, and me. We became interested in storytelling during our daily morning power-walks, which we start at4:30 a.m. During those walks we started creating characters and backstories for them, and soon we discovered we had enough material for a novel. That’s when we started writing fiction.
What was your first book/story published?
Our first novel, the historical thriller THE COTTONCREST CURSE, was released in 2014 by a university press. At the American Library Association’s annual meeting in 2015, it was announced that our book had won the IndieFab Book of the Year Gold Award as the best thriller/suspense novel published by a university or small press. The novel is not only available in hardcover, as an ebook, and as an audio book, but it also has been picked up by Suhrkamp, a major German publisher, who translated it into German and released it across Europe.
What inspired you to write CASHED OUT?
My wife and I had two ideas that we wanted to combine into a page-turning legal thriller.
First, we wanted to write about a lawyer who, unlike every other protagonist in a legal novel, refuses to defend someone for murder—in this case, his estranged ex-wife. But, whenever he says no to her, something worse happens to him.
Second, we wanted to write a story that revolves around the universal tension all communities face—how to balance the need to attract large industries that provide good paying jobs with the concern that such industries might create environmental and health hazards for workers and those living in surrounding neighborhoods.
These ideas came together in our latest novel, CASHED OUT, which was released by our publisher nationally in August of this year.
What is your favorite part in CASHED OUT?
The way people speak often reveals more about who they are than physical descriptions, especially in CASHED OUT, in which the narrator is the protagonist. Our favorite parts of CASHED OUT are the scenes with lots of dialogue, where each character’s voice is unique and distinct and where each personality shines through.
What would your ideal career be, if you couldn't be an author?
I’ve been fortunate enough to have had many careers. Novel writing is an avocation. I’m currently a full-time trial and appellate attorney and help manage a law firm with offices from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the East Coast. I’ve been a professional jazz pianist and have played in the New Orleans French Quarter. I’ve also been a radio and television announcer.
In addition, my wife Ayan, who co-authors the novels with me, spent many years in television production, has been a script writer a developmental editor for non-fiction books, and a non-profit consultant.
We’ve both had a wide variety of experiences that we’re able to incorporate into our novels.
What well-known writers do you admire most?
As an author of thrillers and mysteries, you would think that my three favorite writers would all be all authors in the same genre. Of course, John Grisham, Scott Turow, David Baldacci, Lee Child, James Patterson, and Michael Connelly, to name just a few, are wonderful. But, perhaps surprisingly, my three favorite authors, the ones I most admire, are Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Ray Bradbury.
Charles Dickens wrote his novels in serial format, composing a chapter or two at a time. Those chapters were published in weekly or monthly magazines, and readers anxiously awaited each edition to find out what happened next. Dickens initiated what we now call “cliff hangers,” chapters so enthralling that thousands upon thousands hungered for the upcoming installment to be published. Dickens also created characters so compelling that, more than 150 years later, we still enjoy reading about them and are still moved by tales of such memorable individuals as David Copperfield, Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, and Fagin. Dickens inspires me both to write chapters ending in such a way that the reader thinks, “Okay, I’ll just go ahead and read a few more pages of the next chapter to find out what happens,” and to devise memorable characters who leap off the page and into your imagination.
Mark Twain was not only a remarkable humorist and observer of life, but he was also able to write in such a way that the reader understood more than the narrator of the story appears able to do. Consider, for example, Huck Finn. Although the novel is told through the eyes of Huck, who is only 13 or 14, the reader is able to comprehend what is going on and the motivations of those with whom Huck interacts much better than Huck can. Twain inspires me to write novels in which the reader sees the implications of some things that the characters themselves do not.
Ray Bradbury wrote what is often referred to as science fiction or fantasy, but his novels, such as Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and Dandelion Wine are rightly treated today as literature. Bradbury showed that one can write literary fiction within the confines of what some would see as a limited genre. He wrote clearly and movingly. He said that he admired Eudora Welty for her “remarkable ability to give you atmosphere, character, and motion in a single line.” Bradbury did all of that in prose so readable that one does not ever see all the effort it took to achieve these goals. Bradbury inspires me to carry readers along on top of the wave as the plot crests, without getting snagged in the undertow of too many adjectives or asides.
For these reasons, as an author of thrillers, I continue to be moved and inspired by Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Ray Bradbury.
Do you have any other books/stories in the works?
We have completed the manuscripts for our third and fourth thrillers. Our next novel, ENFLAMED, revolves around a small-town deputy sheriff deep in South Louisiana who must race against the clock in an attempt piece together clues arising from seemingly disparate events in time to thwart a major terrorist attack. After ENFLAMED, we have SANCTION, a cat-and-mouse thriller between a female detective and a disbarred lawyer played out in the seedy side of New Orleans.
Get your copy today!
Cashed Out
by Michael H. Rubin
Thriller
August 15, 2017
One failed marriage. Two jobs lost. Three maxed out credit cards. “Schex” Schexnaydre was a failure as a lawyer. Until three weeks ago, he had no clients and no cash — no clients except for infamous toxic waste entrepreneur G.G. Guidry, who’s just been murdered, and no cash, except for the $4,452,737 Guidry had stashed with him for safekeeping.
When Schex’s estranged ex-wife, Taylor, is accused of Guidry’s murder, she pleads with Schex to defend her. He refuses, but the more he says no to Taylor, the deeper Schex gets dragged into the fall-out from Guidry’s nefarious schemes, ending up as the target of all those vying to claim Guidry’s millions for themselves.
About the Author:
A nationally-known speaker and humorist as well as a full-time attorney, Michael H. Rubin has had a varied career. He has also been a professional jazz pianist in the New Orleans French Quarter, a radio and television announcer, and an adjunct law professor. His debut novel, “The Cottoncrest Curse,” received the Book-of-the-Year Gold Award at the annual meeting of the American Library Association in 2015 and was named the top thriller/suspense novel published by a university or independent press. Rubin is the winner of the Burton Award, given at the Library of Congress, for outstanding writing, and is a member of the Author’s Guild, the International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Association of Crime Writers.
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