Even famous authors have to deal with rejection. That’s what veteran DC crime novelist, George Pelecanos told Free Minds Book Club members who gathered in the chapel of the Correctional Treatment Facility on a recent fall afternoon.  The paperback version of his latest thriller, The Double, was released the same day and Pelecanos told the young men that against his better judgment, he had looked at reviews on Amazon.

“One woman only gave me one star. One star!” Pelecanos said, explaining how mad he had become.

“What did you do?” a 16-year-old clad in an orange jumpsuit asked him.

“I stomped around my house for quite a while,” he said to loud laughter. “But then I calmed down. You know, I always just try to use criticism to keep getting better,” he answered.

George PelecanosMembers of the Book Club had just finished reading The Cut, one of Pelecanos’ 20 books that are all set on the streets of Washington, DC. The group peppered him with questions, asking him how he knew so much about the city.

“How did you get so many facts right about the city and the people? You even know all the clubs!” one of them marveled. Pelecanos explained that he’s always watching and listening.

“I’m doing research right now,” he told them.

He said he loves to sit in veteran halls, barbershops and courtrooms and just listen to the way that people talk. “Language is poetry,” he told them.

Pelecanos described how he had worked as a shoe salesman, a bartender and a dishwasher before he started writing his first book while working as a cook in a kitchen. “I always wanted to write and publish a book. I guess like a lot of people, I just wanted to leave something to prove that I was here.” When he finally sent his manuscript off to a publisher, he didn’t hear anything back for more than a year. He was 31 years old when it was finally published. “That’s more than 10 years older than you are now. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a long life,” he told them. “If you love to write, you can do it too. It just takes hard work and desire.”

Pelecanos’ work on the HBO hit The Wire, was of huge interest to the young men, who asked him what it was like to shoot on the streets of Baltimore. They suggested he write a new television series set in Washington, DC.

A few days after the session, members of the book club said that George Pelecanos was different than they expected.

“Since he’s famous, I thought he’d be uppity and high-class,” one of them said to agreement from the others. “He was real cool though! I really liked him.”

“The whole thing didn’t feel real,” said another. “I never thought I’d meet a real author. It means a lot that he took the time to come talk to us. He made me want to be a writer too,” he said. Then he pointed back toward his cell and smiled. “Believe it or not, I started writing my first book just this morning!”

 

Check out this recent interview with George Pelecanos on NPR’s Fresh Air (he talked about visiting the incarcerated readers of the Free Minds Book Club at the DC Jail).

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