A large chunk of the fiction D. Scott Apel has written consists of his series about California private eye Alec Smart. The five books (so far) of the series are The Uncertainty Principle?; The Infinite Mistress; Detective, Comics; Jobs of Work and Hollywood, Ending. (Scott has a habit of using commas in his book titles, so I've resorted to using semicolons in that title list to try to make each title clear).
The Uncertainty Principle? is the first book of the series and I have listed the other titles in order. I asked Scott if he believes it is necessary to read the books in order. He replied, "The Alec Smart books can be read in any order, although there is a through-line of his relationship with his girlfriend that culminates in their marriage at the end of Detective, Comics. There's a difference between the order in which I wrote and published the books and the year in which they take place, but the books can be read in any order."
The Uncertainty Principle? is notable because it includes fictional depictions of Robert Anton Wilson, Arlen Riley Wilson and Philip K. Dick. Here is my interview with Scott about the book.
Here is Scott's description of his guidelines for the series:
"Early on, when I began brainstorming these novels, I determined to attempt to follow a trio of requirements for any entry:
"First, each needed an odd plot. I got so sick of murders, serial killers, kidnappers, extortionists, heists, and so on -- the standard fodder in most modern mysteries -- that I wanted to come up with ideas that were as original as I possibly could. In The Uncertainty Principle?, for example, the plot revolves around a science fiction writer who hires Alec to find out why everything he writes comes true. In The Infinite Mistress, a ditzy North Beach dancer who's been being hypnotically regressed into "past lives" brings Smart the few facts she's recalled and asks him to determine whether her experiences are real or just fantasies. In Detective, Comics, Smart's client is a 13-year-old genius-level comic book magnate who hires him to retrieve a stolen Batman comic. And so on.
"Second, whenever possible, I wanted to base the characters on people I know. I'll admit this began as a necessity: In 1979, I had no idea how to create an original, realistic fictional character, but I realized I knew several people who qualified as unique characters and who I knew well enough that, with a bit of fictional enhancement, could serve as characters in a novel. You can see this easily in The Uncertainty Principle? in which Bob and Arlen Wilson, PKD, and Robert Heinlein become fictionalized -- not to mention "Casey Bragg," based on my old college friend Kevin Briggs, and "Sean Fox," my co-founder of our college humor magazine. Alec's lovely red-headed girlfriend Laurel was based on The One Who Got Away; if I couldn't land her in real life, I could at least create an alternate universe in which my alter ego could have a relationship with her. In The Infinite Mistress, Alec's client is based on Carol Doda, the first topless dancer in North Beach in the '60s, with whom I had a laughter-filled interview in the early '70s. She made such an impression on me that I used whole chunks of that interview as dialogue in the book. IM also introduced James J. Ferrette IV, aka "Jimmy the Ferret," also based on a friend -- my most outrageous friend. Although I had to add a bit of fictionalization to his resume, much of what is said about him was drawn from real life.
"Finally, the third self-imposed requirement is that I wanted to use the series to memorialize places in Silicon Valley that I loved, many of which have disappeared. In UP?, I set a scene in Recycle Bookstore, where I worked for about 3 years, for example. (And related to Point 2, the gorgeous blonde who appears in that chapter was my then-girlfriend, and the trio playing Deathfuck 2000 were co-workers). A couple of scenes in The Infinite Mistress take place in an abandoned Western-themed amusement park in San Jose, where I worked during the summer between high school and college, but which was priced out by spiking land values and was torn down to become a condo complex. Jobs of Work includes a scene set in my favorite restaurant of all time, the Mexican eatery El Burro in Campbell, which went out of business in the late 20-teens, long after I'd moved to Hawaii. These places not only provide local color but also allow me to pay tribute to their passing.
"And a final addendum: There is one additional requirement I try to employ while writing any fiction, which also has three parts: Each paragraph (and if possible, each sentence) should serve at least one of these three functions:
1) move the plot forward; 2) develop the character; and/or 3) provide some local color (partly to assist the reader in visualizing the scene or location, and partly because of Point 3 above). I don't always live up to my own guidelines, particularly if one would force me to cut a good line or joke, but these guardrails are handy for keeping me on track from being (as I'm sure you noticed) overly verbose."
The Uncertainty Principle? includes a bookstore clerk character who is actually Apel's description of himself. But I asked Scott if the detective Alec Smart isn't also an alter ego of sorts.
"Oh, yeah, of course, Alec is an alter ego. I've always thought of him as more extroverted than I am (since he goes out and runs around solving mysteries rather than sitting in his office writing about them) but not quite as smart as me (since I made up both the problems he has to solve and the solutions), which makes him vulnerable to occasionally saying and doing stupid things -- more than me, anyway -- I hope -- and occasionally failing to understand what's actually going on (which is essential to the plot of The Infinite Mistress, for example)."
All of the Alec Smart books remain available online. The ebooks from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon are very cheap. I am currently reading an ebook of The Infinite Mistress which cost me about $1. I assume everyone knows that you don't need a Kindle or Nook tablet to read such ebooks, you can use your smartphone with the Nook app (for Barnes and Noble ebooks) and the Kindle app (for Amazon ebooks).
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