Please welcome back Steve Liskow to the blog today. Like Tom Milani who recently shared his experience of writing his short story, A Hard Night In Hamburg, for the Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties anthology, Steve Liskow has a story in the anthology. Today he shares the background for his tale, Kick Out The Jams. Edited by Michael Bracken, the book is currently scheduled to come out in April. One gets the feeling that April is destined to be a busy month for anthology readers.
Some time ago, Michael Bracken posted a submission
call for Groovy Gumshoes, Psychedelic PIs in the Sixties. He encouraged
writers to use a real historical event in the story, and I graduated from high
school in 1965, so I knew the turf.
But what major event? We saw several assassinations, the
Cuban Missile Crisis, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Vietnam, Woodstock…so many
choices. I wanted one nobody else would select so I’d stand apart.
Then I remembered the riots.
I attended Oakland University’s summer session in
1967. Oakland County lies just north of Detroit. About 85% of the Oakland
students were residents of the Detroit Metropolitan area, and many lived on
campus to avoid the commute.
One Monday morning in July, CKLW radio reported that police
had raided a “blind pig” Sunday night. By Monday afternoon, organized
resistance swept the city. My dorm mates and I watched the television coverage
as the fires grew and demonstrators kept fire fighters at bay with bottles and
rocks. The Detroit police actually had radio stations stop playing the Doors’
“Light My Fire,” number three on the charts.
Over the next four days, 100 blocks burned, including
the homes of two of my dorm mates. One watched his house collapse on ABC
evening news. I don’t remember his name, but I still see his face.
My room mate at the time became an attorney in
Detroit, and I asked him to email me pictures. I had a Detroit map because my
Woody Guthrie series is set in Detroit already. I had albums by the Motown groups,
Bob Seger, The Amboy Dukes, The Stooges, and the MC5. The following winter, the
MC5 recorded their first LP live at the Grande (pronounced GRAN-DEE) Ballroom
in Detroit, including the song “The Motor City’s Burning.” They performed at
the Grande the weekend after the National Guard arrested thousands of people.
Their famous (censored) album cut was “Kick Out The Jams,” introduced by the
singer as “Kick Out the Jams, Mother F#*@&s,” the last part being sloppily
dubbed to “brothers and sisters,” but not until the record’s second pressing.
There was my title. I gave my PI a case following a
radical young woman who had a lot to do with starting the fireworks. I wrote
the first draft in two days and kept polishing the dialogue and details.
It will appear in Groovy Gumshoes sometime in
April. I hope you’ll pick up a copy and take a walk down memory lane, even
though there are some dark spots along the way. That’s what noir’s all about,
innit?
Steve Liskow © 2022
Steve Liskow (www.steveliskow.com)
has published 16 novels and 40 short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery
Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Tough, Mystery Magazine, and various
anthologies. Before Covid-19 appeared, he conducted fiction writing workshops
at libraries throughout central Connecticut. He has appeared on panels for both
MWA and SinC, and blogs on Sleuthsayers.org. He has been a finalist for both
the Edgar Award and the Shamus Award, has won Honorable Mention for the Al
Blanchard Story Award four times, and was the first two-time winner of the
Black Orchid Novella Award. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Barbara, a
costumed tour guide at the Mark Twain House.
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