This anthology will collect noir and hard-boiled style stories from some of Wattpad's brightest authors, as well as some up-and-comers that I think we'll be seeing a lot of in the future. This dark group will spread their stories across several diff...
Mike, your story Milk Money had me cracking up. It was an almost loving way of taking the piss out of the unstoppable tough guy trope. Do you remember the first time you encountered the noir style? How did it affect you as a writer?
I'm not too sure when the first time was, but Joseph Tugger from Milk Money was definitely inspired by/a parody of the Jack Reacher character, who I love, and John Puller (David Baldacci's knockoff character). I've only read one John Puller book, but it was still pretty good.
Other than that, I definitely took some influence from badass, over-the-top heroes from '80s and '90s action movies—you know, how they deliver great, often darkly comic one-liners with impeccable timing.
The most impactful noir story I've encountered actually came from a pair of video games—the first two Max Payne games. I played the hell out of those growing up, and they more than likely influenced me in some way or another, for this story and others.
Oh, Max Payne was some good times! That made Remedy Studios one of the game devs I always look forward to new stuff from. Noir is such a great style to mash-up with various genres. What drove you to tackle it from a satirical angle?
Comedy was my original love when it comes to writing stories. Growing up, every time an assignment in school required some element of creativity, I would always try to make it funny in some way. That continued into my high-school creative writing class, until my teacher challenged me to write something that wasn't funny. So I wrote a horror story. Since then, I've been dabbling in both—sometimes combining the two, sometimes not. Writing a funny story makes me feel good. It gets me high, in a way.
For this particular story—I saw the anthology making its rounds in my newsfeed. It looked interesting and I wanted to take part, but I wasn't really getting any ideas. I had been thinking a lot on the first Joseph Tugger comic-crime novel at the time, and it hit me that I should write a prequel short story. The ideas started flowing—that it would take place all the way back when he was only eight years old, that it would for some reason involve milk money, that he would be brutally violent even while still in school—and, well, they wouldn't stop flowing, so I had to write it to make them stop. There were some tropes I had in mind, mainly things used in the Jack Reacher books, so I tried to parody them.
Reacher is a terrific influence for that kind of outrageous, tough-guy character. When I read your story, I was picturing Marv from Sin City, trying to fit behind a grade school desk. Glorious. Which elements of noir do you find the most satisfying to weave into your stories? (i.e. dialogue, characters, narrative, etc.)
I loved doing the snappy dialogue, especially when it was so snappy and serious it was snort-worthy. Writing despicable characters comes easy, and writing a hero who often uses way, way too much force than necessary is just plain fun to me. The cynical sort of I'm-tired-of-this-shit-but-what-can-you-do narration is enjoyable to do, possibly because I'm a bit cynical to begin with—but more likely, for this particular story, because it was all wrapped in a veneer of comedy.
Yes, and I think once the character gets in your head, it seems like the dialogue and mannerisms flow so easily. Do you see yourself coming back to the noir/hard-boiled style in future works? And speaking of future works, what projects have you got on deck for your readers?
Most definitely. Specifically more Joseph Tugger stories, but I do have some ideas rolling around my skull that seem a bit noir.
As far as immediately, though, I've always got something going. Right now I'm working on a kind of "origin story" for Tugger—it's called Terror Tot and takes place when he's four years old and a mere five-foot-seven. After that, I've got a meta-story for @LayethTheSmackDown's Epic Tales from Beautiful Minds, where I'm the leader of the WattPunk team. That one's called The People Vs. Wattpad. Other than that: more Tugger shorts; soon I'll be working again on the first Tugger novel, Learning Curve; and, of course, you can always find me each and every month with a brand-new story for the latest issue of the sci-fi WattZine Tevun-Krus, @Wattpad's longest-running WattZine (issue #40 just came out, dedicated to GreenPunk).
I think we could all use a little more Tugger in our lives. Thanks for being a part of this anthology and bringing your unique take on noir with you!
If you'd like to read more about Tugger, from the mad mind of Mike Marsbergen, check out Tugg This : A Joseph Tugger Anthology.
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