A Conversation with Scott Blackburn

Southern Crime at its best

One of the best books I read in 2023 was Scott Blackburn’s debut novel: It Dies With You.

Here is the short review I wrote as soon as I closed the book:

You will root for Hudson Miller, Scott Blackburn’s protagonist in It Dies with You. He’s been suspended from boxing after an unfortunate incident, he barely makes a living as a bouncer/bartender, and he crashes on a friend’s sofa because he can’t afford to live anywhere else. Then his estranged father is murdered and Hud goes back to the small North Carolina town he left a long time ago. Not planning to stay, he doesn’t have warm feelings for the locals. Needless to say, Hud’s plans will change.

This is a solid story, well told, a classic mystery that takes the time to get into the characters’ heads. It elegantly avoids some annoying trends of current crime fiction: violence, shock for the sake of shock, piling up plot twists, relentless action with too little depth.

I was curious to hear what Scott was up to these days and invited him for an informal conversation. This is what we talked about.

M.E. Proctor: I want to ask you about the salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part, that is at the center of It Dies With You. When I think about these places, I have flashes of movies, where a guy gets dumped in a car, the car goes in the crusher, and is reduced to the size of a Rubik’s cube.

Scott Blackburn: The salvage yard idea came pretty organically to me. A friend of mine once told me that two generations of his family had a big inheritance dispute over a salvage yard that was worth well over a million dollars. At first, I thought it sounded like a great piece of family drama, then I considered the criminal possibilities of such a setting. What better place to hide an illegal cache of weapons or a body than a graveyard for vehicles? Then, of course, those big-ass car crushers add worlds of possibilities...

M.E.: In the book, Hud Miller learns that his father was murdered and that he’s inherited the salvage yard. It’s a business he knows nothing about. Luckily there’s Charlie Shoaf who seems to have been around as long as some of the carcasses on the lot. He’s a colorful contrarian and he steals the show.

S.B.: Charlie Shoaf is my favorite character, and he’s probably the most authentic to my experience growing up in the rural South. Back in my hometown, we still have a full-service gas station, and it’s where I used to go for oil changes and inspections. Inside the gas station is a spectacle; the walls are lined with antique signage and framed maps and pictures of the fictional town of Mayberry (the setting for the Andy Griffith show.) What’s more intriguing is the cast of characters that hang out at that station—for no other reason than to gossip and shoot the shit. Most of these regulars are seventy-plus-year-old men who are a combination of crotchety and hilarious, their conversations chock-full of wisdom and Southern colloquialisms. Charlie is an amalgamation of all those men and other wise-cracking locals that I grew up around.

M.E.: I live in East Texas, in a rural area, and I know what you mean. There’s the guys hanging at the barber shop chatting away, and the guys that gather around to dispense wisdom every time something happens in the neighborhood. Tell me a bit about where you grew up…

S.B.: I grew up in Trinity, North Carolina, which I consider to be a small town—although there are over 7,000 people. It’s within miles of much bigger cities like Greensboro and High Point, where I currently live. Trinity is an economically diverse town with plenty of its landscape dedicated to farming, and for some reason, seems to produce an absurd number of NASCAR drivers given its size (I can name at least five.) Different aspects of the town certainly show up in the fictional towns that I write, such as Flint Creek. 

M.E.: On social media, I saw that you were working on short stories, which I think is new for you.

S.B.: Last year I had a piece of short fiction published in Dark Yonder, and I am currently submitting another short piece. To be honest, I only write short fiction as performance pieces for Noir at the Bar readings. Both of the aforementioned stories are examples of that. I cleaned them up for publication because I didn’t want them to forever exist in the abyss of my hard drive. That being said, I have great respect for short fiction and the skill it requires to do it successfully.

M.E.: I write short fiction as a change of pace from being deep in a book. I find it helps me clear my head. What’s new for you on the book front? 

S.B.: I’ve already written a second, unrelated novel titled The Less You Know that I’m super proud of. It is being pitched as Breaking Bad by way of Wiley Cash, and it involves a recently fired English teacher who takes a side job (that ends up being tied to a dangerous biker gang) to help raise money for his wife’s fertility treatments. As of today, my agents have been shopping the novel for eleven months, so I’m hoping for good news soon. I also just finished a draft of my third novel, All Your Yesterdays, which is about an adjunct professor (and former MMA star) who is teaching a prison literature course; when one of his recently released students is murdered, he takes it upon himself to dig for the truth.

M.E.: As a reader I’m always eager to see more from the writers I love but I know how long it takes to get a project out there.

S.B.: What I’d like to relay to fellow writers is that there is no rush to publish. Whether you are on your first or your fourth book, patience is key. There’s a recent trend on social media of people posting that they gave up on traditional publishing due to a few months of unsuccessful querying. The sentiment seems to be “I just didn’t want to wait any longer” or “traditional publishing is broken.” I’d say to people: take your time, polish your work, and never lower the bar.

M.E.: “A few months of querying” … the writers I know who read this post must be laughing right now! If you crave instant gratification, this writing gig is not for you. What’s the best place to get your book?

S.B.: The Penguin landing page is the best, it shows all the options, in paperback, eBook, and audiobook.

M.E.: Thank you for the conversation, Scott. People can also find more about you on your website at: www.scottblackburnwords.com

The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2024 are open for nominations!

This is your opportunity to nominate your favorite crime books and TV shows of the year. Entries close on November 6. If you could nominate Love You Till Tuesday by M.E. Proctor in the “indie” category, that would make me massively happy! The “indie” is designed for books published by small independent presses, like my publisher Shotgun Honey. You don’t have to pick a favorite for each category… click here for the form. Thank you!

And if you haven’t read the book yet, here’s where you can find it and leave a much appreciated rating.