I didn’t think it would be difficult to interview R.G. Belsky. He’s the author of the Clare Carlson mystery series. Book #5 in the series, It’s News To Me was published a month ago. I raced through it the same way I did the others in the series. Naturally, I was delighted when The Big Thrill , the online magazine of the International Thriller Writers association, asked me to interview him for the November 2022 issue.
No Problem
I love Clare. She’s my favorite fictional newswoman. She’s the news director at Ch. 10 News. New York City is her stomping ground as it used to be mine when I worked in the news business in the 80s. Clare is smart, ballsy, and a great investigative reporter who usually gets more involved in the stories she’s covering than she probably should.
In her fifth outing, Clare investigates the brutal bludgeoning of Riley Hunt, a brilliant, beautiful freshman who arrives in New York City from Dayton, Ohio. Riley is murdered on the street, steps from her dorm. Subsequently, Clare’s investigation draws her into a web where she has to confront not only a top city police official, but also a mob boss.
Meanwhile, at work, she finds herself in conflict with a new supervisor: a woman who cares only about ratings and who is willing to cross journalistic boundaries to get them.
Pushback?
I had a lot of questions for Belsky about Clare. I emailed him the general topic areas ahead of time so I didn’t anticipate any problems with the interview. Also, Belsky talks the way he writes: fast but smoothly and eloquently. I knew he wouldn’t be stumped for answers.
For one, I wanted to know if he ever had any pushback on Clare from his agent, editor or publisher? Clare has a very messy personal life. She’s been married three times; she jumps into bed with any stranger she really fancies, and is more interested in chasing down a big story than nurturing the personal relationships in her life.
To me, Clare has always been an accurate depiction of a female journalist working in the testosterone-driven world of NYC tabloids. BUT whenever I’m reading a Clare Carlson mystery, it’s always with the image of my agent (now my former agent) and editor looking over my shoulder and tut-tutting.
Naturally, I asked Belsky if he’d ever been advised to make Clare softer, more sympathetic –as I was advised to do with my reporter-protagonist, Jenna, in Fool Her Once?
Almost immediately, however, we veered off topic, reminiscing about the “old days.”
Full Disclosure
Belsky and I have been acquaintances, compadres in the tabloid trenches for several decades. For a couple of those decades we had the same boss, Rupert Murdoch, but worked for different publications —me at Star magazine; Belsky at the New York Post (before subsequently moving to the New York Daily News and NBC-TV News.)
After I left the Star, Belsky stepped into the position of news editor there — a job I’d held before him. I’ve attended his book launches (and blogged about a pre-pandemic event at NYC’s Mysterious Bookshop in 2019.) Meanwhile, he was the first published author to write an enthusiastic blurb for my latest thriller, Fool Her Once. We have many former colleagues in common. 
From my Amazon Author Page for Fool Her Once
Reminiscing With Belsky
So, even as I asked my first question, Belsky was recounting a conversation he’d recently had with another former Star news editor, a mutual friend. It was difficult to resist reminiscing about our pasts — working during the glory days of tabloid journalism in the most exciting city in the world
We touched on the names of a couple of oddball characters we’d worked with, and where they were now. We mentioned those who had passed on. We talked about memorable past scoops and our most spectacular failures. I recalled the humiliation of missing the story of Johnny Carson’s divorce from Joanna, wife #3.
Belsky remembered the biggest exclusive he missed at the Star. It was Vanna White’s wedding. He said that the Star’s fiercest competition, the National Enquirer, not only got the story but exclusive photos of the nuptials. “I handed in my resignation,” he added. As, of course, I had done over the missed Johnny Carson divorce story.
We both agreed that it was the reporters in the field who actually missed the stories, but, still, the buck always stopped at the news desk! And, offering your resignation was what you had to do — although in neither of our cases were the resignations accepted.
Down to the Nitty-Gritty
I loved all that the reminiscing; it was great stuff, but I wasn’t sure it was what The Big Thrill would want to publish for its readers. At a certain point, I got worried I’d run out of time to ask the questions I needed answered for The Big Thrill. Not just about Clare, but also about Belsky’s prolific output.
The journalist-turned-author has had 20 books published over the last 35 years. Over the last eight years while I’ve been writing and re-writing and revising and editing my third crime thriller, Belsky’s publisher, OceanView launched and published five titles in the Clare Carlson series. Belsky has just completed the sixth in the series, tentatively titled, Broadcast Blues.
He also signed a contract with a second publisher, Bookouture, to write three different series under the author pseudonym, Dana Perry. One series features a NYC crime reporter, Jessie Tucker. The second series stars a police detective on Martha’s Vineyard. A third will feature a female FBI agent based in a small town in Ohio.
So, I wanted to know: how does he manage to write fast enough to keep two publishers busy? How does his journalism background help in getting words onto the page? How does it help in writing what his agent and editors want him to write? What are his daily writing habits? How did Clare become a series character when he had no such plans for her? How does he make her likable even though she’s such a flawed character?
I did finally get to ask all my questions and Belsky’s responses appear in The Big Thrill in an Up Close interview this month. You can check it out here.
P.S.
For those of my readers who are too young to remember the afore-mentioned Johnny Carson: he was known as the “king of late night TV.” He was the host of NBC-TV’s Tonight show for 30 years till his retirement in 1992. And, for those not familiar with the network’s game show, Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White has been the letter-turning host of that show for the last 40 years.