An Interview with Kurt Newton

In the lead-up to the launch of The Black Beacon Book of Mystery in June, we’ve asked our contributors to answer a few questions so you can get to know them better. Let’s unravel the mystery behind the stories together. 

First question, inevitable perhaps considering the pandemic...how are you coping?

Good. Where I live, the cases are few and far between. Hopefully, it will stay that way. Still, it has changed the way we go out in public, that's for sure. We might be wearing masks as standard attire from here on out.

Is there a story behind your contribution to The Black Beacon Book of Mystery? What inspired you to write this mystery? 

Back in 2002, Michael Arnzen and I were the first two poets to sign with a new publisher called DarkVesper Publishing. My collection THE PSYCHO-HUNTER'S CASEBOOK was the first title, to be followed by Michael Arnzen's collection FREAKCIDENTS. An idea was hatched that Michael and I should write some cross-promotional material to help get the press off the ground. I wrote a short story mashup involving freaks and a detective hired to find one freak in particular called "The Freak-Hunter's Casebook." Unfortunately, the editor/publisher of DarkVesper disappeared from the scene (nothing nefarious, just in over his head) shortly after my collection was published, leaving Michael Arnzen and his collection in the lurch. Such is the small press. Michael's collection had no trouble finding another publisher. In 2005, "The Freak-Hunter's Casebook" eventually sold to an anthology called EMBARK TO MADNESS.

There are many ingredients in "The Freak-Hunter's Casebook" that are taken from my life growing up in rural Connecticut. I was a Cub Scout. The Devil's Hopyard is an actual place. I remember attending a circus sideshow as a kid, at a time when freaks were still on display. I'm also well-versed in small town attitudes and small town law enforcement.

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?

Living on the eastern side of Connecticut, I've always wanted to go to Providence and do the H.P. Lovecraft tour of his literary places. Haven't done that yet. Another bucket list tour would be to visit Baltimore and check out Edgar Allan Poe's hangouts.

What are the key ingredients for a ripping mystery story?

I like the grit, to feel the cold rain, to be on edge as to what could be around the next corner. It's that feeling of being lost at sea but knowing that, if you just keep going, circumstances will bring you to where you need to go. 

Do you have a favourite fictional sleuth?

My dad was a big Sherlock Holmes fan and we watched a lot of b&w Basil Rathbone movies when I was a kid. My brother and I also used to stay up late sometimes and watch Charlie Chan Theater on an all-night Boston TV station. A lot of those memories are more nostalgic than inspirational.

Tell us about a real mystery you have solved or would like to?

I know for a fact that I buried a metal lunchbox full of childhood odds and ends in the backyard of the house I grew up in. What odds and ends, I don't remember. One day, I'll return with a metal detector and find that lunchbox. And when the current owners of the property return home one night to find a series of holes dug in their backyard, they'll have their own mystery on their hands.

What are you writing now?

I always have several short stories in the works, a novella or two that needs my attention, and always a novel at some stage of near-completion. Lately, however, I've been focused on poetry. Not sure why. But the pendulum will swing and I'll be back at completing the short stories (while starting new ones) and pushing the longer works further along. It's a long, meandering process, but I do manage to get things done.

Where can we follow or contact you online?  

There's Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kurt.newton.56), Twitter (https://twitter.com/kurtdnewton), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/kurtdnewton), and my
Amazon Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/Kurt-Newton/e/B006VYUMUM). I'm of an older crowd, so Facebook is where you'd have the most luck.