TITLE: Three Steps to KOREATOWN BLUES
By Mark Rogers
“As usual, I was the only white guy in the place.”
I had the first line of my crime novel KOREATOWN BLUES. From
there the writing flowed; a series of 1,000 word days and a first draft in two
months. But it took several steps to get to that first line.
#1
First, there was a solo stint in a one-room sublet in LA’s
Koreatown that went on much longer than originally planned. The room had one
window that looked out on a brick wall close enough to touch. I could stand it
for a couple of nights at a time and then I’d have to escape. I took to going
to a Koreatown nightclub a few blocks away. As far as I could tell the club had
no name, just a plastic sign out front that said “Wine Beer.”
Inside, the Korean regulars welcomed me and yes, I was the
only white guy, which was usually the case the months I frequented the club.
They handed me a microphone within minutes of my sitting down at the bar and like
that I was singing a karaoke version of “Yesterday.” Much like my protagonist
Wes in Koreatown Blues, I began dropping in most nights for a couple of Hite
beers and to sing a few songs.
My nights drinking beer and singing karaoke led to a
one-sided romance with a Korean barmaid (I held up my side) and lots of glimpses
into Korean culture. This served me well when I was writing KOREATOWN BLUES,
while research filled in the missing bits.
Some wild things never made it into the novel, like the guy
who insisted on playing the drums on my head with his chopsticks, until I raised
my fist and called him outside; or the Korean who sang an impassioned version
of the love theme from Titanic, “I Will Go On” and then at song’s end pulled
out an envelope from inside his shirt: X-rays showing his inoperable lung
cancer.
