Todd Strasser, Sound Shore
Author of Fallout out in September
Does Westchester ever make its way into any of your works? Oh, yes. I’ve set nearly a dozen books in the mythical town of Soundview, which appears to have an uncanny similarity to Larchmont/Mamaroneck/Rye.
What do you use for inspiration? Alimony, child support, gambling debts, a weakness for dance hall hussies, fast cars, fine wine, and, of course, the horses.
What was the biggest change that’s ever happened to one of your manuscripts between first draft and final copy? Back in the 1970s, while writing my first novel, Angel Dust Blues, I read that many bestselling books (at that time) featured either cocaine or Nazism, so I added a plotline involving a former Nazi living in Colombia who was smuggling cocaine in a submarine to the north shore of Long Island. My editor advised me to get rid of him and I did so. Ironically, smugglers now use submarines for just that purpose. I just hope none of them are Nazis.
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