Okay, RC, Ive read all the Elvis Cole novels, and one thing is bugging mewhere on earth did you get the title to your first book, THE MONKEYS RAINCOAT, and what does it mean?
Again, we went to the source and asked RC to explain: The title. I get asked this a lot. The title comes from the Basho haiku quoted at the beginning of the novel: Winter downpour; Even the monkey needs a raincoat. Basho was a retired samurai who became a poet. I read this stuff because, well, I read this stuff. And think about it. A winter downpour is a storm. In Japanese haiku poetry, a monkey represents a man, or the soul of a man (man being non-gender specific.) A raincoat is something with which you protect yourself. So here was my thinking: If Ellen Lang was the monkey, and her storm was the hell she was going to live through in this book, then her raincoat would be Elvis Cole. Therefore, Elvis Cole was the monkeys raincoat. Just a little writerly-type poetry at work…
