St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 208

"All of my characters have more interesting lives than I do," Nevins says, "because I have them get involved in life-threatening situations, which basically I don't "I haven't gotten involved in murder cases. No one's taken a shot at me or any of the things that happen to Loren or Milo or the other characters of mine." Indeed, he describes his life as quite ordinary. He was born in Bayonne, but grew up in Roselle Park, N.J. His he has never thought about becoming a full-time writer. Academic life complements artistic life ideally, he says.

"I have forged out that mix between security and freedom, which I like very much," Nevins says. To become a full-time writer is "too much like being a gambler, and I'm not a gambler. Writing is a very risky business." Loren, Milo and Gene are the risk-takers in the Nevins household. (Continued from Page 12) the sun, and it would seem like five minutes had gone by and the whole evening was over. "Without Fred sort of leaning on me to write mysteries, I never would have done it, I'm sure.

I didn't have any burning desire on my own to do it until I met Fred. I never dreamed that I could." Nevins broke into mystery writing in the Department of First Stories in Ellery Queen magazine, edited by Dannay. But despite his success since, For most people, there is. There's your job, and there's what you like to do. "I like what I'm doing.

I enjoy teaching, I enjoy writing, I enjoy editing, I see movies, I watch television, I read, I like music. But it's not as if they are some kind of escape from some awful drudgery that I do for a living. That's just not me." Just who "me" is is difficult to characterize. "I do so many different things," Nevins says. "I am whatever I'm doing at the moment." He compares himself a little to his character of Milo Turner, the con man who is a great impostor, taking as many identities as possible in the course of a single story.

"I guess I do that kind of thing, too, because I've got a lot of identities," he says. "If there's any kind of connection between me as a writer and Milo Turner as a character, that's it. "But I am not any one of these, and maybe I'm not even all of them. It's fun to be lots of different identities in the same life. It's the only way you can beat the fact that you only have one life to live." mother worked as a homemak-er and as a substitute teacher; his father had a white-collar job for a chemical company.

The roots of some of his major interests as an adult Westerns, film noir, movie serials, television sprang from his idle hours as a youth, hours of not just watching but absorbing the stories and images he saw on the screen. Viewers can find "lots of interesting meat in Westerns and other things, too," Nevins says. For example? "In my law and film seminar, we spend a couple of weeks running some Westerns that were made in the Depression and that talk about the ways in which the themes of law, lawyers and justice were perceived," he says. "You can learn from these pictures." Universities frequently call on Nevins for talks on movies or for special film programs. And he's often glad to oblige.

But when the talk turns to his own recreation these days, he refuses to answer because "that kind of question sort of assumes there's a big distinction between work and play. MI AS CASH I I I Showm VISIT OUR HEW SHOWROOM IN PLAZA FR0HTENA0 Center entrance next to the information desk i it 1 1 1 1 xAT. III CUSTOM DESIGNED CLOSETS PANTRIES MEN'S, WOMEN'S CHILDREN'S CLOSET COMPANY AUFOWJIA You will save 20 on our wide selection of in-stock and special order upholstery, sofas, sectionals and chairs. Now through Nov. 4th.

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