Sibling connection: Iowa natives combine talents to create noir fiction on fracking boom

Siblings Jennifer and Franklin Schneider worked together to create 'Black Hills,' a noir thriller featuring female protagonists trying to right wrongs in a male-dominated town in the grips of a fracking boom.

In an e-interview, the Iowa natives discuss the nature of their partnership, their influences, and the future of Alice Riley, the journalist-turned-investigator at the center of the story.

Q: Tell me how the partnership works. Do you each work on all aspects of the book or do you have separate roles (for example, does one of you plot the story while the other writes the final text)?

Jennifer Schneider: We generated the story together, sometimes jokingly over a late-night beer or afternoon coffee. For example, Franklin started with the concept of a fracking mystery, and I added the female protagonists.

Franklin Schneider: Then we had weekly or Bi-Weekly plot meetings, just throwing random ideas out, the more absurd the better. I think there's something inherently absurd about a 'plot' — reality is pretty boring and predictable — so I think it's important not to take it too seriously at first. There's an element of play that's necessary, which is why most of the meetings are at bars. Anything ridiculous enough for us to remember the next day, we add it to the outline. I bang out a first draft and then Jennifer goes through and edits, cuts, and suggests changes, and sends it back to me for rewrites. We continue in this vein until the book's done or until our disagreements are on the verge of settling into deep, lifelong grudges.

Q: What's the origin of this particular story?

Jennifer: Franklin occasionally writes for television, and a few years ago one of the cable networks he's worked for was looking for a western. He put together a pilot script, which was an early form of 'Black Hills.' It made the rounds and drew some interest but ultimately didn't go. Since the characters and plot were already developed, it seemed a shame to just throw it in the trash, so we decided to turn it into a book.

Franklin: The fact that 'Black Hills' was conceived as a western is telling, I think. The western has always been a way for America to talk about itself, and the fracking boom (which is now, at least temporarily, on the ebb) was sort of this hyper-concentrated form of the American experiment — the 20th-century or even 19th-century version. Totally unfettered capitalism in an overwhelmingly male setting. We thought it would be interesting to take that setting and populate it with 21st-century characters with 21st-century politics.

Q: The book is quite dark, and Alice is, arguably, as much an anti-hero as she is a hero. Did you set out to craft a noir tale with a deeply troubled and morally compromised lead, or did Alice's character — and the darkness of her story — evolve through the writing process?

Jennifer: We both really love the vintage mysteries of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Patricia Highsmith, and we wanted our protagonists to have a lot of moral tension. And also, I think the tone of the book and the characters grew naturally out of the setting.

Franklin: Yes, there aren't a lot of happy endings in these boomtowns, except for the oil company shareholders and the strippers who fly in on the weekends and leave on Monday with $30K in their carry-on.

Q: Is this the first book in a series? Will Alice have additional adventures?

Jennifer: Yes. Not to give anything away, but Alice's next adventure is already largely fleshed out. As the saying goes, 'character is fate,' and she's drawn into another personal case. If 'Black Hills' was about capitalism, this next book is about faith. Accordingly, it's a much more fantastical and darker book.

You grew up in Iowa and studied writing at the University of Iowa. How do those experiences influence your writing today?

Jennifer: I was in the undergraduate non-fiction writer's workshop, and Franklin was in the undergraduate fiction workshop, although our time there was separated by a few years.

Iowa has an incredible culture of literary arts, even in K-12. From a young age, we were encouraged by our teachers to write stories, make books, and attend youth writer's conferences and readings. We had passionate teachers and accessible public resources at every level.

I also think growing up in a rural area engages the imagination in a more visceral way. We had to make our own fun, and our own stories.

Franklin: Iowa has a very no-nonsense, no bull**** culture that combines the Protestant work ethic with an Old Testament belief in the corrupt nature of man. You put that all together, and I think it naturally forms the noir — a cynical but persistent protagonist who will get to the bottom of things no matter what it takes, no matter how distasteful the ultimate truth may be.