…they are willing and able to pay reasonably in hard currency, there will be no legal copies of my work in Russian. 

Crescent Blues: In some circles, writers who are reasonably prolific are looked down on, considered less serious. Do you ever experience this, or have your critical  success, and the awards and award nominations you've received helped offset it?  

Kaminsky: I have no interest in dealing with those circles who would look down at writers who are prolific. I cannot change their minds with examples -- Simenon, for example -- or argument. There is, however, absolutely no correlation between how long it takes to write a novel or script and how good it is. Bad writers often take years to write a book. Good writers often take a few weeks to write a book.  

People who read my work can judge for themselves whether they like it or not and how good it is. I hope and expect that judgment will be made on the basis of how good they think the book is rather than how many books I have written.  

Speaking of prolific writers, what about Shakespeare? There are many fine writers who write as much or more than I do. I am a great Joyce Carol Oates fan, as she knows. She is certainly prolific. I have little patience with literary aesthetes.  

Crescent Blues: Did you or your publisher ever consider issuing the Rostnikov series or either of the two subsequent series under a pseudonym?   

Kaminsky: I have, from time to time, discussed with my agent the possibility of writing something under another name. I have always decided not to do so. I am proud of what I write. I want my name on it. If I were not proud of my work, I would not want it published under any name. 

Crescent Blues: Since in addition to several dozen mysteries you've also produced works in film history and criticism, you must be an incredibly disciplined writer. Can  you tell us a little about how you have achieved this -- does it come naturally,  or do you have to work at it?   

Kaminsky: I have to -- as my wife will tell you -- work very hard at the discipline of writing. It is odd. I hate to go to my computer. I delay. I wait till deadlines creep up on me and then I begin my work. When I actually sit down and start writing, I love it. I write with passion. I write as a reader. I make myself laugh. I frighten myself  and I make myself cry. I want to know what will happen next and I am a bit at a loss when a book is done. I then start my cycle again. 

Crescent Blues: In 1990, you launched a third series, featuring Abe Lieberman, a sixtyish Jewish police detective, and his partner, Bill Hanrahan, an alcoholic fifty-something Irish Catholic. What was the spark for this? Did you have a desire  to write mysteries set in present day America, or was it more a desire to write about the specific characters of Lieberman and Hanrahan?   

Kaminsky: As for Lieberman and Hanrahan, yes, I wanted to write a contemporary series. I also wanted to bring my former boss and another mentor Don Siegel, the film director (Dirty Harry, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Shootist, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Coogan's Bluff, The Beguiled, etc.) to life as a character. Lieberman is Don. He looks like Don, talks like Don, thinks like Don. I liked the friendship between a Jew and an Irish cop being explored, and I liked the opportunity to write about the personal lives of characters to a far greater extent in this series than in any other I write. 

Crescent Blues: The Toby Peters books are told in first person, while the Rostnikov and  Lleberman books are in third person. Was there a reason for the change -- do you prefer one point of view?   

Kaminsky: The Toby Peters novels are told in the first person because they come from and echo a tradition of first-person private eye novels, films, television shows, radio shows. The Rostnikovs and Liebermans are cop novels, also from a long tradition, which are told in third person moving between characters. I have also written two thrillers (When The Dark Man Calls, Exercise in Terror) in which the story is told in the third person from inside the mind of the central character, in both cases a woman. 

Crescent Blues: The Peters, Rostnikov, and Lieberman series all seem to feature men who are noticeably older than you were at the time you began writing them -- is there a  reason for this?   

Kaminsky: Alas, my series characters are not generally older than I, at least not when the series starts. You flatter me in thinking that I am younger than they are. A check of any of a wide variety of reference books will reveal the cruel truth of my age. 

Crescent Blues: You've now also begun writing a mystery series featuring Jim Rockford of the former Rockford Files TV series. How did this come about?   

Kaminsky: I was approached to do the Rockford books. I was flattered and happy to do it. I was a great Rockford files fan. Rockford and Harry Orwell are my all-time favorite television private eyes. There was no problem writing the two Rockford books. I knew the characters intimately from having lived with them on the television screen for years. I viewed the Rockford TV movies before I wrote my first novel in the series only because I wanted the Rockford I wrote about to be the Rockford people were watching. My Rockford is the distinctly older James Garner. 

Crescent Blues: Are most of the people who read the Rockford Files books fans of the TV series, or are some people meeting the character of Jim Rockford for the first  time?  

Kaminsky: I have no idea who is reading the Rockford novels other than fans of mine and the series. A check of Amazon.com suggests that people who read the Rockfords are often led to read my other work too.  

Crescent Blues: Do you find it easier or harder to write about one of your characters as the series continues? 

Kaminsky: I find it easiest to write about Lieberman and Hanrahan, though once I begin a novel, whoever I am writing about comes to life. I am currently writing a novel about a short, sad, balding Italian-American process server in Sarasota. He and the characters who surround him have come to life easily. 

Crescent Blues: How difficult is it to balance the desire many readers have to come back to a favorite character and find him unchanged with the desire you may have as a  writer to have the characters grow or develop over time?   

Kaminsky: My characters age and change as my series' continue. I can't worry about what some readers may think. I hope they agree with me about what I have done. In any case, I can do no differently. 

Crescent Blues: Have your working methods changed over the years?   

Kaminsky: My work methods have changed. I described earlier how I currently work. When I began, I immediately, even before receiving contracts, began to write steadily at least two or three hours a day and on weekends, but that was long ago. I far prefer to work in the mornings. 

Crescent Blues: What about the world of publishing, and specifically mystery publishing -- how has it changed?   

Kaminsky: The world of publishing and the mystery have changed several times since I began. The big change is that when I began… 

Stuart Kaminsky - continued