Mark Rubinstein's Blog, page 20
January 5, 2015
“Trust No ONe”: A Talk with Jayne Ann Krentz
Under seven different pseudonyms, Jayne Ann Krentz has written more than 120 romance novels. Many have been bestsellers. Now, she uses only three names: Jayne Ann Krentz when writing contemporary romantic-suspense; Amanda Qu
ick for historical romance-suspense; and Jayne Castle when penning paranormal romance-suspense.
Trust No One, a contemporary romance-suspense novel, features Grace Elland, a creative marketing assistant to a Seattle-based motivational guru. Grace discovers her boss’s body,...
December 31, 2014
‘Rain on the Dead” A Talk with Jack Higgins
Jack Higgins is one of the best-selling authors of popular fiction in the world. He is often considered the architect of the modern thriller. His breakthrough novel, The Eagle Has Landed, written in 1975, sold more than 50 million 
copies. He’s penned more than 83 novels which have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 55 languages.
Rain on the Dead, featuring the recurring hero Sean Dillon, finds Dillon in the crossfire of an Al Qaeda attack on a former American president....
"Rain on the Dead" A Talk with Jack Higgins
Jack Higgins is one of the best-selling authors of popular fiction in the world. He is often considered the architect of the modern thriller. His breakthrough novel, The Eagle Has Landed, written in 1975, sold more than 50 million copies. He’s penned more than 83 novels which have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 55 languages.
Rain on the Dead, featuring the recurring hero Sean Dillon, finds Dillon in the crossfire of an Al Qaeda attack on a former American president. The assassination attempt is thwarted, but an elusive terrorist known as The Master is intent on obliterating his target. Dillon must stay a step ahead of the terrorist in a world where the rules of war have changed, and everyone can be marked for annihilation.
You’ve written more than 20 novels featuring Sean Dillon. What do you think is the secret of his appeal?
Robert Browning, the great Victorian poet, said, “Our interest’s on the dangerous edge of things: the honest thief; the tender murderer; the superstitious atheist.”
This sums up the style in which I write and about which the readers comment. Readers like my characterizations. Character is everything in a Jack Higgins novel. And you’re never quite sure if somebody is totally good or bad. It’s always a mixture of things.
Sean Dillon first appeared in Eye of the Storm in 1992 as an ex-IRA man who became a gun-for-hire. He was hired to blow up the English cabinet on behalf of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. I think what happened was this: the public took Sean Dillon to their hearts. I realized I’d saved a character I’d intended to eliminate. However, my wife convinced me to keep him alive. Yes, he’d been a bad man, an assassin, but then, so was Richard III. (Laughter)
Before the book was published, on my wife’s advice, I changed the last chapter of the book, so rather than die as happens to most bad guys, Sean Dillon vanished into the night. That was twenty-one Dillon books and four movies ago. I think allowing the character to be multi-dimensional—good and bad—made the difference for readers, and that’s the basis for his appeal.
Jack Higgins is a literary pseudonym. Over the years you’ve used names such as Martin Fallon, Hugh Marlowe, James Graham and Jack Higgins. Why not your own name, Harry Patterson?
Using different names was part of one stage of my life. There was a lack of money. I’d been educating myself on the side, and trying to keep a family going. I knocked out relatively short thrillers, the kind of novels Chandler used to do. They had to fit into the very busy schedule of my life.
It was no use for me to be with a publisher who would publish only one book I’d written each year. Rather, I wanted a return on everything I wrote. That was where those different names came in. I was very driven to write, and couldn’t get enough books turned out. Between 1959 and 1974, I published thirty-five novels, sometimes putting out three or four each year. I would write something very quickly—usually in about eight weeks. My publisher told me the public wouldn’t tolerate an author writing more than one book a year. So, I’d write another and we’d use a different name on it to see what would happen.
That’s where James Graham came from. By the time I wrote The Wrath of God, I was teaching at James Graham College. The publisher rang me up and said, ‘We love this book but we need a different name on it.’ The only thing I could think of was James Graham, the college. So that was it.
The other pseudonyms derived similarly; they were names taken from various aspects of my life. Only later, when Jack Higgins became famous with the publication in 1975 of The Eagle Has Landed, did we reveal the identity of the author of the earlier books. And we stayed with that name, Jack Higgins.
Legend has it that in 1975, your life was transformed by a single telephone conversation. Will you tell us about that?
In 1975, I was talking on the telephone to a publisher in England, a very old-fashioned sort of fellow. He didn’t take to the way I’d written The Eagle Has Landed. In that novel, I wrote a prologue to the novel in which I was walking through a little village church, looking for a certain character and discovering by chance, German soldiers buried there. It was a device I used to introduce the main story.
After the call, I put the phone down and went to check some papers. I then decided to make another phone call. When I picked up the telephone, I could hear the conversation going on at the publisher’s end of the line. For some reason, the call hadn’t disconnected. To my astonishment, the chap with whom I’d been speaking was commenting on my having written myself into the book’s prologue. He said it was ‘a load of rubbish.’ He thought they should delete it and start the novel at a later point.
I was taken aback but said nothing. I simply spoke with my agent; we agreed I was dealing with a publisher who didn’t see the true possibilities for the novel. That incident completely changed my mindset about dealing with publishers. I discovered I could be in the hands of people who weren’t doing their best for me. As a result, I became much more involved in the publishing process, and began dealing more effectively with the London crowd. I then got a new agent, Ed Victor, who was always on my side. He was wonderful at analyzing things and helped my career enormously.
I’ve been told your desire to write was born partly out of your passion for literature, and partly to prove you could amount to something. Will you discuss that?
Harry Patterson, that’s me, had a Scottish father whom I never knew. My mother left him after three months, and we moved to Belfast, the city where she had been raised.
We were very poor. I shared a room with my great grandfather, who was bedridden. I discovered I was able to read at age three. I would read the newspaper to the old boy. He had some books lying around. One of them was Oliver Twist. I remember picking it up and reading it, and although I didn’t understand everything, I loved it. I discovered at a very early age that I just loved reading.
Keep in mind, for the first twelve years of my life, I was raised amidst the IRA turmoil. Life on the Belfast docks was rough. Guns and explosion were all part of my childhood. It was like growing up on a shooting range.
Because of poverty, life was very difficult. Eventually my mother remarried and we moved to Yorkshire, England. I went to a decent high school, but my step-father decided I ought to be working. He and other people in my early life didn’t think I would amount to very much.
I started work at fifteen. I was a truck driver, a factory worker, and held many other jobs. In my spare time, I went to night school. I spent three years in the army as a non-commissioned officer. I discovered I had sharpshooting skills, and a very high IQ, when I got a look at my records. I realized I had some potential. I also saw that other people were financially far better off than we were. I didn’t start college until I was twenty-seven years old, and after getting two degrees, became a college professor.
I became interested in writing as a boy, and entered a short-story competition in a local newspaper. Although I didn’t win, I got a letter from a local author who said, ‘I just want to say to you, you are a writer.’ I never forgot that little exchange. I began writing novels in 1959, when I was thirty years old. I realized once I started writing, it kept flowing out of me.
I achieved a modicum of success after one novel was sold for film rights. After the sale, we bought a lovely Edwardian house. My wife and I had four children, and I was writing at night. But there was a problem: the typewriter could be heard throughout the house, and disturbed the children’s sleep. I decided the best way to improve the situation was to not use a typewriter, but to write by hand. I’m still doing that to this day.
But yes, I felt I had to prove my self-worth, and thinking back on it all, writing novels was the way I could do it best.
If you could have dinner with any five people living or dead, from history or the world of literature, who would they be?
I’ve known some very fine actors. I was blessed by meeting and having dinner with Richard Burton. He would definitely be one guest. I particularly liked the actor, George Peppard. There was something very special about him. He could be both serious and humorous. I’d love to have Deborah Moore and her father, Roger Moore, to dinner He’s a splendid actor, and was superb in the role of James Bond. I’ve immersed myself in Charles Dickens. I guess it relates to my childhood and having been a little boy reading Oliver Twist. Having read a biography about Dickens, I feel a deep affinity for him after reading about his early years, the poverty, and the rotten jobs he had as a youth and young man.
I think these people would make an excellent dinner group.
Congratulations of having penned Rain on the Dead, another Sean Dillon thriller sure to top the bestseller lists.
Rain on the Dead, featuring the recurring hero Sean Dillon, finds Dillon in the crossfire of an Al Qaeda attack on a former American president. The assassination attempt is thwarted, but an elusive terrorist known as The Master is intent on obliterating his target. Dillon must stay a step ahead of the terrorist in a world where the rules of war have changed, and everyone can be marked for annihilation.
You’ve written more than 20 novels featuring Sean Dillon. What do you think is the secret of his appeal?
Robert Browning, the great Victorian poet, said, “Our interest’s on the dangerous edge of things: the honest thief; the tender murderer; the superstitious atheist.”
This sums up the style in which I write and about which the readers comment. Readers like my characterizations. Character is everything in a Jack Higgins novel. And you’re never quite sure if somebody is totally good or bad. It’s always a mixture of things.
Sean Dillon first appeared in Eye of the Storm in 1992 as an ex-IRA man who became a gun-for-hire. He was hired to blow up the English cabinet on behalf of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. I think what happened was this: the public took Sean Dillon to their hearts. I realized I’d saved a character I’d intended to eliminate. However, my wife convinced me to keep him alive. Yes, he’d been a bad man, an assassin, but then, so was Richard III. (Laughter)
Before the book was published, on my wife’s advice, I changed the last chapter of the book, so rather than die as happens to most bad guys, Sean Dillon vanished into the night. That was twenty-one Dillon books and four movies ago. I think allowing the character to be multi-dimensional—good and bad—made the difference for readers, and that’s the basis for his appeal.
Jack Higgins is a literary pseudonym. Over the years you’ve used names such as Martin Fallon, Hugh Marlowe, James Graham and Jack Higgins. Why not your own name, Harry Patterson?
Using different names was part of one stage of my life. There was a lack of money. I’d been educating myself on the side, and trying to keep a family going. I knocked out relatively short thrillers, the kind of novels Chandler used to do. They had to fit into the very busy schedule of my life.
It was no use for me to be with a publisher who would publish only one book I’d written each year. Rather, I wanted a return on everything I wrote. That was where those different names came in. I was very driven to write, and couldn’t get enough books turned out. Between 1959 and 1974, I published thirty-five novels, sometimes putting out three or four each year. I would write something very quickly—usually in about eight weeks. My publisher told me the public wouldn’t tolerate an author writing more than one book a year. So, I’d write another and we’d use a different name on it to see what would happen.
That’s where James Graham came from. By the time I wrote The Wrath of God, I was teaching at James Graham College. The publisher rang me up and said, ‘We love this book but we need a different name on it.’ The only thing I could think of was James Graham, the college. So that was it.
The other pseudonyms derived similarly; they were names taken from various aspects of my life. Only later, when Jack Higgins became famous with the publication in 1975 of The Eagle Has Landed, did we reveal the identity of the author of the earlier books. And we stayed with that name, Jack Higgins.
Legend has it that in 1975, your life was transformed by a single telephone conversation. Will you tell us about that?
In 1975, I was talking on the telephone to a publisher in England, a very old-fashioned sort of fellow. He didn’t take to the way I’d written The Eagle Has Landed. In that novel, I wrote a prologue to the novel in which I was walking through a little village church, looking for a certain character and discovering by chance, German soldiers buried there. It was a device I used to introduce the main story.
After the call, I put the phone down and went to check some papers. I then decided to make another phone call. When I picked up the telephone, I could hear the conversation going on at the publisher’s end of the line. For some reason, the call hadn’t disconnected. To my astonishment, the chap with whom I’d been speaking was commenting on my having written myself into the book’s prologue. He said it was ‘a load of rubbish.’ He thought they should delete it and start the novel at a later point.
I was taken aback but said nothing. I simply spoke with my agent; we agreed I was dealing with a publisher who didn’t see the true possibilities for the novel. That incident completely changed my mindset about dealing with publishers. I discovered I could be in the hands of people who weren’t doing their best for me. As a result, I became much more involved in the publishing process, and began dealing more effectively with the London crowd. I then got a new agent, Ed Victor, who was always on my side. He was wonderful at analyzing things and helped my career enormously.
I’ve been told your desire to write was born partly out of your passion for literature, and partly to prove you could amount to something. Will you discuss that?
Harry Patterson, that’s me, had a Scottish father whom I never knew. My mother left him after three months, and we moved to Belfast, the city where she had been raised.
We were very poor. I shared a room with my great grandfather, who was bedridden. I discovered I was able to read at age three. I would read the newspaper to the old boy. He had some books lying around. One of them was Oliver Twist. I remember picking it up and reading it, and although I didn’t understand everything, I loved it. I discovered at a very early age that I just loved reading.
Keep in mind, for the first twelve years of my life, I was raised amidst the IRA turmoil. Life on the Belfast docks was rough. Guns and explosion were all part of my childhood. It was like growing up on a shooting range.
Because of poverty, life was very difficult. Eventually my mother remarried and we moved to Yorkshire, England. I went to a decent high school, but my step-father decided I ought to be working. He and other people in my early life didn’t think I would amount to very much.
I started work at fifteen. I was a truck driver, a factory worker, and held many other jobs. In my spare time, I went to night school. I spent three years in the army as a non-commissioned officer. I discovered I had sharpshooting skills, and a very high IQ, when I got a look at my records. I realized I had some potential. I also saw that other people were financially far better off than we were. I didn’t start college until I was twenty-seven years old, and after getting two degrees, became a college professor.
I became interested in writing as a boy, and entered a short-story competition in a local newspaper. Although I didn’t win, I got a letter from a local author who said, ‘I just want to say to you, you are a writer.’ I never forgot that little exchange. I began writing novels in 1959, when I was thirty years old. I realized once I started writing, it kept flowing out of me.
I achieved a modicum of success after one novel was sold for film rights. After the sale, we bought a lovely Edwardian house. My wife and I had four children, and I was writing at night. But there was a problem: the typewriter could be heard throughout the house, and disturbed the children’s sleep. I decided the best way to improve the situation was to not use a typewriter, but to write by hand. I’m still doing that to this day.
But yes, I felt I had to prove my self-worth, and thinking back on it all, writing novels was the way I could do it best.
If you could have dinner with any five people living or dead, from history or the world of literature, who would they be?
I’ve known some very fine actors. I was blessed by meeting and having dinner with Richard Burton. He would definitely be one guest. I particularly liked the actor, George Peppard. There was something very special about him. He could be both serious and humorous. I’d love to have Deborah Moore and her father, Roger Moore, to dinner He’s a splendid actor, and was superb in the role of James Bond. I’ve immersed myself in Charles Dickens. I guess it relates to my childhood and having been a little boy reading Oliver Twist. Having read a biography about Dickens, I feel a deep affinity for him after reading about his early years, the poverty, and the rotten jobs he had as a youth and young man.
I think these people would make an excellent dinner group.
Congratulations of having penned Rain on the Dead, another Sean Dillon thriller sure to top the bestseller lists.
December 11, 2014
Tom Clancy, "Full Force and Effect" A Talk with Mark Greaney
Mark Greaney, co-author with the late Tom Clancy, of three previous Jack Ryan novels, now has written Full Force and Effect, a novel demonstrating prescience about world events.
In the book, North Korea’s unstable young dictator wants to get his hands on the money needed to acquire a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States. But first, he must eliminate the man who stands between him and his goal—President Jack Ryan. He must also deal with the operatives working for the under-the-radar security agency known as The Campus.
You co-authored Tom Clancy’s last three novels. Full Force and Effect is the first Jack Ryan novel you’ve written alone. How did your experience working with Tom Clancy inform this solo effort?
I’ve read all his books beginning with Patriot Games. That gave me a leg up when we collaborated on the three books. I know what a reader expects to find in a Tom Clancy novel. When we worked together, I never tried to copy his style. From having written with Tom, I certainly know the voices of the different characters. Once I began this novel, I told myself not to do anything differently from when we collaborated, except this time, I would be taking the entire project all the way through. Working with him gave me the confidence to take this project on, and write an aggressive story.
You have degrees in political science and international relations. How did you make the transition to writing thriller fiction?
Those degrees gave me confidence in my ten year career as a waiter and bartender. (Laughter). At first, I didn’t do much with them. I worked on a book for fifteen years before finishing it. I was working in the international medical devices field, but always hoped I could become an author. My first book was published in 2009, when I was forty-two years old. It’s taken a long time to get to where I am now.
International relations always interested me. I was a huge reader, primarily of non-fiction in the areas of the military and espionage. Patriot Games was the first thriller I ever bought. After reading that novel, I realized you can enjoy yourself while actually learning something. Tom Clancy could impart so much knowledge while telling a great story. That exposure grew into my ultimately becoming an author, myself.
How did your collaboration with Tom Clancy begin?
I’d had my own books published. It turned out my editor at Berkeley was also Tom Clancy’s editor at Putnam. Tom was looking for a new co-author. My editor went to my agent who then asked if I would like to co-author the next Tom Clancy book. I wish I could say I was excited, but the truth is, I was terrified. (Laughter). After I caught my breath, I offered to “try out” because there were some other authors also in the running. I wrote twenty-five pages, handed them in, and soon thereafter, I was in Baltimore meeting with Tom Clancy.
Your novels have so much information about military technology and up-to-the moment political developments. Does any government agency insist on vetting your books before they are published?
No. I don’t think they can do that because I’m a civilian. I’ve had non-classified briefings at the Pentagon. I’ve gone to Washington, D.C. to attend symposia and various think tanks. A U.S. citizen can do that. In 2012, Tom and I wrote a book called Threat Vector. One think tank I attended in Washington, D.C. was comprised of admirals who formerly had been in charge of our Pacific fleet. There’s an amazing amount of unclassified material available to a writer. Experts with whom I speak often say, ‘I’ll give you the non-classified’ version of what I know.’ I turn it into fiction. I hope I get things right, but I have little doubt I get some things wrong. But after all, it’s fiction. I often tell these people not to worry about my getting too close to home with this kind of information. I ask them not to underestimate my ability to misunderstand or make mistakes.
Full Force and Effect deals effectively with national security. What do you now see as the greatest threat to U.S. national security?
In my opinion, the greatest threat is Russia’s Vladimir Putin. I see him as more of a threat than ISIS. Putin has influence in Syria. The Russians are heavily involved in weapons proliferation in South America, Asia, and the Middle East. I know we hear things about China’s power, especially relating to cyber warfare, but my research indicates it’s really in China’s interest to work with us. Vladimir Putin is more of a loose cannon whose self-interest involves working against us for many reasons.
In your novels, the line between corporate and national security intelligence operations can become quite thin. Are they becoming more intertwined today?
Yes, very much so. Dana Priest of the Washington Post wrote a book called Top Secret America in which she detailed people in corporate America who have top-secret security clearances. There are no checks and balances, such as those placed on government groups. While I’m quite laissez faire in my view of things, there can be a danger in that. Full Force and Effect, describes one such malevolent force, a private American security company working secretly with the North Koreans. In Washing, D.C.’s beltway, there are thousands of non-descript buildings staffed by people who have military or intelligence backgrounds. If people in those companies began working against the interests of the U.S., there could be a problem. The bottom line for these companies is money.
What would you do if you weren’t a writer?
I tried very hard to get into the Air Force through Officer Candidate School, but it was a time when the military was drawing down. I wanted to get into the cryptologic language end of things because I love foreign languages. I’d have liked to have worked in a military intelligence venue; or in the State Department. I probably would have worked for the government, either in diplomacy or intelligence. I guess a good deal of my writing is wish-fulfillment.
Will you continue the Jack Ryan novels; move back to writing books like your Gray Man series; or do both?
It looks like I’ll be doing both. Right now, I’m working on the fifth book in the Gray Man series. I’ve also agreed to do another Clancy book for next December. For a while, I’ve been writing two books a year. There’s a point in each product cycle where I tell myself I’ll never do this again. Right after I turn the book in and I have that high from having completed the job, my editor comes after me for another book. He knows how to play me like a fiddle.
What has surprised you about the writing life?
What’s really surprised me is how people want to talk about what they do and know. I was hesitant to interview people when I began writing these books. I’d been a bit reluctant to reach out and ask people for favors. But I’ve learned that people really love to talk. They aren’t even necessarily people who love books. Virtually any person I’ve contacted, in any walk of life, has been happy to provide a wealth of information. That’s really surprised me.
What do you love about the writing life?
Even four or five years before I got my first book deal, it occurred to me that I loved what I was doing—writing. And it struck me, even back then, how much I loved the one hour before work every morning when I’d go to the coffee shop to write. It was my favorite hour of the day and was what I most looked forward to doing.
The awareness hit me back then: I was approaching middle age and hadn’t yet been published. I realized I could be writing for the next fifty years—not be successful as it’s conventionally defined—and it would still be what I loved doing. Nowadays, I love when I walk my dog, I’m thinking about the book I’m working on. I love the process of my mind getting sucked into the book I’m writing. It’s where I want my mind to be. My favorite part of the writing process is the absorption in the creative task.
Congratulations on writing Full Force and Effect, another thriller combining military history, technology and over-the horizon prescience about world events.
In the book, North Korea’s unstable young dictator wants to get his hands on the money needed to acquire a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States. But first, he must eliminate the man who stands between him and his goal—President Jack Ryan. He must also deal with the operatives working for the under-the-radar security agency known as The Campus.
You co-authored Tom Clancy’s last three novels. Full Force and Effect is the first Jack Ryan novel you’ve written alone. How did your experience working with Tom Clancy inform this solo effort?
I’ve read all his books beginning with Patriot Games. That gave me a leg up when we collaborated on the three books. I know what a reader expects to find in a Tom Clancy novel. When we worked together, I never tried to copy his style. From having written with Tom, I certainly know the voices of the different characters. Once I began this novel, I told myself not to do anything differently from when we collaborated, except this time, I would be taking the entire project all the way through. Working with him gave me the confidence to take this project on, and write an aggressive story.
You have degrees in political science and international relations. How did you make the transition to writing thriller fiction?
Those degrees gave me confidence in my ten year career as a waiter and bartender. (Laughter). At first, I didn’t do much with them. I worked on a book for fifteen years before finishing it. I was working in the international medical devices field, but always hoped I could become an author. My first book was published in 2009, when I was forty-two years old. It’s taken a long time to get to where I am now.
International relations always interested me. I was a huge reader, primarily of non-fiction in the areas of the military and espionage. Patriot Games was the first thriller I ever bought. After reading that novel, I realized you can enjoy yourself while actually learning something. Tom Clancy could impart so much knowledge while telling a great story. That exposure grew into my ultimately becoming an author, myself.
How did your collaboration with Tom Clancy begin?
I’d had my own books published. It turned out my editor at Berkeley was also Tom Clancy’s editor at Putnam. Tom was looking for a new co-author. My editor went to my agent who then asked if I would like to co-author the next Tom Clancy book. I wish I could say I was excited, but the truth is, I was terrified. (Laughter). After I caught my breath, I offered to “try out” because there were some other authors also in the running. I wrote twenty-five pages, handed them in, and soon thereafter, I was in Baltimore meeting with Tom Clancy.
Your novels have so much information about military technology and up-to-the moment political developments. Does any government agency insist on vetting your books before they are published?
No. I don’t think they can do that because I’m a civilian. I’ve had non-classified briefings at the Pentagon. I’ve gone to Washington, D.C. to attend symposia and various think tanks. A U.S. citizen can do that. In 2012, Tom and I wrote a book called Threat Vector. One think tank I attended in Washington, D.C. was comprised of admirals who formerly had been in charge of our Pacific fleet. There’s an amazing amount of unclassified material available to a writer. Experts with whom I speak often say, ‘I’ll give you the non-classified’ version of what I know.’ I turn it into fiction. I hope I get things right, but I have little doubt I get some things wrong. But after all, it’s fiction. I often tell these people not to worry about my getting too close to home with this kind of information. I ask them not to underestimate my ability to misunderstand or make mistakes.
Full Force and Effect deals effectively with national security. What do you now see as the greatest threat to U.S. national security?
In my opinion, the greatest threat is Russia’s Vladimir Putin. I see him as more of a threat than ISIS. Putin has influence in Syria. The Russians are heavily involved in weapons proliferation in South America, Asia, and the Middle East. I know we hear things about China’s power, especially relating to cyber warfare, but my research indicates it’s really in China’s interest to work with us. Vladimir Putin is more of a loose cannon whose self-interest involves working against us for many reasons.
In your novels, the line between corporate and national security intelligence operations can become quite thin. Are they becoming more intertwined today?
Yes, very much so. Dana Priest of the Washington Post wrote a book called Top Secret America in which she detailed people in corporate America who have top-secret security clearances. There are no checks and balances, such as those placed on government groups. While I’m quite laissez faire in my view of things, there can be a danger in that. Full Force and Effect, describes one such malevolent force, a private American security company working secretly with the North Koreans. In Washing, D.C.’s beltway, there are thousands of non-descript buildings staffed by people who have military or intelligence backgrounds. If people in those companies began working against the interests of the U.S., there could be a problem. The bottom line for these companies is money.
What would you do if you weren’t a writer?
I tried very hard to get into the Air Force through Officer Candidate School, but it was a time when the military was drawing down. I wanted to get into the cryptologic language end of things because I love foreign languages. I’d have liked to have worked in a military intelligence venue; or in the State Department. I probably would have worked for the government, either in diplomacy or intelligence. I guess a good deal of my writing is wish-fulfillment.
Will you continue the Jack Ryan novels; move back to writing books like your Gray Man series; or do both?
It looks like I’ll be doing both. Right now, I’m working on the fifth book in the Gray Man series. I’ve also agreed to do another Clancy book for next December. For a while, I’ve been writing two books a year. There’s a point in each product cycle where I tell myself I’ll never do this again. Right after I turn the book in and I have that high from having completed the job, my editor comes after me for another book. He knows how to play me like a fiddle.
What has surprised you about the writing life?
What’s really surprised me is how people want to talk about what they do and know. I was hesitant to interview people when I began writing these books. I’d been a bit reluctant to reach out and ask people for favors. But I’ve learned that people really love to talk. They aren’t even necessarily people who love books. Virtually any person I’ve contacted, in any walk of life, has been happy to provide a wealth of information. That’s really surprised me.
What do you love about the writing life?
Even four or five years before I got my first book deal, it occurred to me that I loved what I was doing—writing. And it struck me, even back then, how much I loved the one hour before work every morning when I’d go to the coffee shop to write. It was my favorite hour of the day and was what I most looked forward to doing.
The awareness hit me back then: I was approaching middle age and hadn’t yet been published. I realized I could be writing for the next fifty years—not be successful as it’s conventionally defined—and it would still be what I loved doing. Nowadays, I love when I walk my dog, I’m thinking about the book I’m working on. I love the process of my mind getting sucked into the book I’m writing. It’s where I want my mind to be. My favorite part of the writing process is the absorption in the creative task.
Congratulations on writing Full Force and Effect, another thriller combining military history, technology and over-the horizon prescience about world events.
Tom Clancy, “Full Force and Effect” A talk with Mark Greaney
Mark Greaney, co-author with the late Tom Clancy, of three previous Jack Ryan novels, now has written Full Force and Effect, a novel demonstrating prescience about world events.
In the book, North Korea’s unstable young dictator wants to get his hands on the money needed to acquire a nuclear missile capable of hitting the mainland United States. But first, he must eliminate the man who stands between him and his goal—President Jack Ryan. He must also deal with the operatives working for the un...
December 3, 2014
"Woman with a Gun": A Talk with Phillip Margolin
Phillip Margolin graduated from the New York University School of Law School and worked for many years as a criminal defense attorney, a profession inspired by his having read the Perry Mason novels. An Edgar-nominated novelist (even while working as an attorney), he became a full-time writer in 1996. He is well-known for his short stories; the Amanda Jaffe and Brad Miller series; and for his many standalone novels.
In Woman with a Gun, an aspiring novelist, Stacey Kim, is mesmerized by a photograph at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The image captures Stacy’s imagination and raises compelling questions in her mind. Obsessed with finding answers, Stacey learns the woman in the photograph was suspected of having killed her millionaire husband on their wedding night, but the ten-year old murder remains unsolved. Stacy decides to explore this mystery as fodder for her novel.
A book jacket typically is designed after the manuscript is completed. But that’s not so for Woman with a Gun. Tell us about that.
People always ask me where I get my ideas. This one is really easy to answer. I was in Georgia giving a keynote address at a writers’ conference. After having breakfast in Palmer’s Village Café, I went to the restroom to wash up. On the wall, was the most amazing photograph I’d ever seen. It was taken from behind and showed a woman in a wedding dress standing at the edge of the ocean; she was barefoot, looking out to sea from the foam line. Behind her back, she was holding what looked like a western six-shooter.
I began wondering what the photo depicted: did she kill her husband on their wedding night? Is she going to commit suicide? Is she waiting for a boat to come in so she can murder someone?
I was so fascinated by the photograph, I ended up buying it. At that point, I had the name of my next book, Woman with a Gun, and the cover of the novel. The only thing I didn’t have was the story. I had my agent insert a clause in the contract saying the publisher had to use that photograph on the book’s cover.
And in writing the novel, you constructed a scenario with the character, Stacey Kim, in a situation similar to yours.
Yes. The hardest thing for me is getting an idea big enough for a 400 page book. Once I have an idea, I do an outline and flesh it out. But getting an idea that’s complex enough to become a novel can be difficult. So, I had this photograph—and the book’s future cover—but I had no idea what the story would be about.
I started thinking, ‘What if the photograph was of someone suspected of murder?’ I thought about it a bit more, wondering what would cause a bride to kill her husband on their wedding night. That really got my brain going, and I developed the notion of someone seeing this photograph and becoming obsessed with learning what happened. And she discovers the photograph involves a ten year-old unsolved murder. I then constructed a situation where what happens to Stacy Kim in the novel, is what happened to me when I saw the photo. That’s how I worked my way into the book’s plot.
In an essay, you said you realized while writing Woman with a Gun, it became “decidedly noir.” Will you tell us about that?
I try to make every book totally different from my others. Sure, in every novel I’ve written, there’s a lawyer and a murder. But working within that framework, I try to do something unique and unanticipated with each book. As I was writing Woman with a Gun, I realized it was starting to read like a noir novel. There’s a relationship between Jack Booth—a smoking, drinking, hard-nosed, womanizing prosecutor—and Kathy Moran, the photographer who took the picture of the woman with the gun. I always loved the Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald books. I didn’t intend to write a Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade type book, but I realized I was drifting in that direction. I’d never done something like that and wondered if I could pull it off.
Sometimes, the characters take over and shape the story. That’s what happened with this book. I was making Booth more like the gritty, tough-guy private eyes in the noir novels. The novel drifted into this type of writing. It seemed to happen on its own. It’s really weird.
I sometimes teach writing classes and tell my students ‘An idea is tiny, but a book is big.’ I mean someone seeing a photograph in a museum and being intrigued by it, is a tiny idea. But the book is three-hundred pages. The idea expands. I liken writing to a Chinese box puzzle, where if you push one piece into the square, it knocks another piece out. So you’ve got to figure out how to push the pieces in, so each side of the cube is smooth. For me, that’s what writing a book is like. You realize if you add one piece, something else won’t work. You keep slogging away trying to get everything to mesh.
What did being a trial attorney in the criminal venue teach you about human nature?
A lot. (Laughter). Let me give you an anecdote. My first bestseller in 1993 was Gone But Not Forgotten. There was a production omission which resulted in there being no author’s photo on the hardcover edition. When I was on a book tour, people came up to me and questioned my being the author. They apparently thought anyone who wrote that book must be deranged. While reading the book, they had nightmares and couldn’t read it alone. I was puzzled about why the novel was so scary. I didn’t intend it to be that way.
Six months after I retired from my practice, a friend asked if I would be co-counsel on a murder case. I told him I’d retired and was writing on a full-time basis. His next words were ‘It must be nice to associate with normal people all day.’
A light went on in my head. I realized that in Gone But Not Forgotten, I’d created this horrible serial killer. But actually, all I did was describe the guys I’d been having lunch with for twenty-five years: serial killers, sociopaths, bank robbers, and drug dealers. For me, they weren’t scary. They were my clients, the guys I got to know very well.
Of course, most people never come in contact with such people. I realized exposing readers to the world of sociopathic killers was frightening for some of them. So, there were many things about being a lawyer that helped with my writing, but one was the contact I had with these unusual people.
Do you think contact with criminals over the years tainted your view of human nature?
Not really. Growing up, I was in all the ‘bad’ classes in school. Some of my classmates were sort of similar to the guys I represented in my practice. So, my world view has been somewhat like that all these years.
Actually, I’m pretty upbeat about people. Only a small percentage of humanity is comprised of really bad people. I think most people are pretty decent. When you’re a criminal defense lawyer, prosecutor or police officer, you’re constantly immersed in criminality, and you may develop a skewed view of humanity. But I think I was able to put these things in context in so far as my real life is concerned. I do think my immersion in the criminal law venue left me a bit more wary of people, in general. After all, I was constantly around people who cheat, lie and steal for a living. And, by the way, that’s the stuff of novels.
Some of your protagonists have dealt with issues of conscience when defending the accused. How did you feel about your role as a criminal defense lawyer?
For two years, I was in the Peace Corps in Liberia. At the time, it was a horrible dictatorship with no rule of law. If the government didn’t like you for any reason, the secret police could come in the middle of the night, drag you to a concentration camp in the bush, where you’d be tortured or killed. You had no right to remain silent; no right to an attorney; and there was no right to challenge your accuser. Because of that experience, I developed a deep appreciation for the rule of law and due process. Our justice system is not perfect, but it’s a lot better than in most other places.
When I represented someone, I felt it was crucial to give even the most awful person a fair trial—whether it was a terrorist mastermind like Osama bin Laden or a serial killer like Ted Bundy. If everyone gets a fair trial, people will have faith in the system. Once people lose that faith, you get revolution. I’ve always felt the system is far more important than any individual case. Even when I knew a client was guilty, it was my job to make certain that if he was convicted, it wasn’t due to phony evidence or perjury. I felt I was something of a referee; I made sure the prosecution and judge acted fairly and respected the rule of law. So, for me, representing evil people was not a problem.
Who are your legal heroes?
Louis Brandeis was the guy I really admired. I didn’t really have legal heroes. I just loved being a lawyer.
Which writers influenced you as a youngster?
Earle Stanley Gardner and the Perry Mason books influenced me so much, they made me want to become a lawyer. The Ellery Queen books were another early influence because I love puzzle mysteries where there are clues. I try to do that in my own books; I leave clues about the killer’s identity so the reader can pick them up as the novel unfolds.
Whom do you enjoy reading now?
I read three books a week. I read everything. I don’t like this ‘genre’ business. It’s either a good book or a bad one. The guy I idolize is Joseph Conrad. I hate him because he didn’t even speak a word of English until he was in his mid-twenties when he moved from Poland to England; and I know I’ll never write a single sentence as elegantly as he routinely did. Dickens is a favorite, too. I’ve also loved Robert Caro’s four volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. It’s actually a page-turner. I enjoy Michael Chabon’s books. I thought The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson was an astonishing book.
You’ve had so many bestsellers. What about writing over the years has surprised you?
The fact that I still love it amazes me. I’ve been doing it non-stop since 1992. I get to the office at 7:30 every morning. I can’t wait to sit down and write. I’m on my twentieth book now and you’d think I’d get tired of it, but no; I love it. I still get excited when I start a book. I wonder if I can do it again. It’s the challenge that excites me. You’d think after twenty books, I’d be pretty self-confident, but I’m not.
Can you pinpoint exactly what you love about writing?
It’s the puzzle aspect of writing. The first thing I do each morning when I get to the office is the New York Times crossword puzzle. I was a competitive chess player for years. I love Ellery Queen books, Ross Macdonald’s books and Harlan Coben’s early Myron Bolitar books for their mystery and clue elements. I love trying to construct a puzzle for the reader. That’s the most fun. It’s what I love about the writing.
If you could have dinner with any five people from history or the literary world, who would they be?
It would be dinner for two—my wife passed away about seven years ago. She was the single most amazing human being I’ve ever met. So, it would be just with her.
What’s coming next from Phillip Margolin?
I’m about 175 pages into another Amanda Jaffe book. I’ve written standalone novels and also done different series. You know, Arthur Conan Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to kill him off, but readers wouldn’t allow it. He felt forever trapped with the character and his exploits. Sometimes, a series can suffer after the first well-written, successful novel: the plots become thin, and the writer gets trapped in trying to create a life for the protagonist. I made a conscious decision to write standalone novels between my series.
Congratulations on yet another standalone novel, Woman with a Gun. I too was mesmerized by the cover photograph, and while reading the novel, referred to that picture again and again.
In Woman with a Gun, an aspiring novelist, Stacey Kim, is mesmerized by a photograph at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. The image captures Stacy’s imagination and raises compelling questions in her mind. Obsessed with finding answers, Stacey learns the woman in the photograph was suspected of having killed her millionaire husband on their wedding night, but the ten-year old murder remains unsolved. Stacy decides to explore this mystery as fodder for her novel.
A book jacket typically is designed after the manuscript is completed. But that’s not so for Woman with a Gun. Tell us about that.
People always ask me where I get my ideas. This one is really easy to answer. I was in Georgia giving a keynote address at a writers’ conference. After having breakfast in Palmer’s Village Café, I went to the restroom to wash up. On the wall, was the most amazing photograph I’d ever seen. It was taken from behind and showed a woman in a wedding dress standing at the edge of the ocean; she was barefoot, looking out to sea from the foam line. Behind her back, she was holding what looked like a western six-shooter.
I began wondering what the photo depicted: did she kill her husband on their wedding night? Is she going to commit suicide? Is she waiting for a boat to come in so she can murder someone?
I was so fascinated by the photograph, I ended up buying it. At that point, I had the name of my next book, Woman with a Gun, and the cover of the novel. The only thing I didn’t have was the story. I had my agent insert a clause in the contract saying the publisher had to use that photograph on the book’s cover.
And in writing the novel, you constructed a scenario with the character, Stacey Kim, in a situation similar to yours.
Yes. The hardest thing for me is getting an idea big enough for a 400 page book. Once I have an idea, I do an outline and flesh it out. But getting an idea that’s complex enough to become a novel can be difficult. So, I had this photograph—and the book’s future cover—but I had no idea what the story would be about.
I started thinking, ‘What if the photograph was of someone suspected of murder?’ I thought about it a bit more, wondering what would cause a bride to kill her husband on their wedding night. That really got my brain going, and I developed the notion of someone seeing this photograph and becoming obsessed with learning what happened. And she discovers the photograph involves a ten year-old unsolved murder. I then constructed a situation where what happens to Stacy Kim in the novel, is what happened to me when I saw the photo. That’s how I worked my way into the book’s plot.
In an essay, you said you realized while writing Woman with a Gun, it became “decidedly noir.” Will you tell us about that?
I try to make every book totally different from my others. Sure, in every novel I’ve written, there’s a lawyer and a murder. But working within that framework, I try to do something unique and unanticipated with each book. As I was writing Woman with a Gun, I realized it was starting to read like a noir novel. There’s a relationship between Jack Booth—a smoking, drinking, hard-nosed, womanizing prosecutor—and Kathy Moran, the photographer who took the picture of the woman with the gun. I always loved the Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald books. I didn’t intend to write a Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade type book, but I realized I was drifting in that direction. I’d never done something like that and wondered if I could pull it off.
Sometimes, the characters take over and shape the story. That’s what happened with this book. I was making Booth more like the gritty, tough-guy private eyes in the noir novels. The novel drifted into this type of writing. It seemed to happen on its own. It’s really weird.
I sometimes teach writing classes and tell my students ‘An idea is tiny, but a book is big.’ I mean someone seeing a photograph in a museum and being intrigued by it, is a tiny idea. But the book is three-hundred pages. The idea expands. I liken writing to a Chinese box puzzle, where if you push one piece into the square, it knocks another piece out. So you’ve got to figure out how to push the pieces in, so each side of the cube is smooth. For me, that’s what writing a book is like. You realize if you add one piece, something else won’t work. You keep slogging away trying to get everything to mesh.
What did being a trial attorney in the criminal venue teach you about human nature?
A lot. (Laughter). Let me give you an anecdote. My first bestseller in 1993 was Gone But Not Forgotten. There was a production omission which resulted in there being no author’s photo on the hardcover edition. When I was on a book tour, people came up to me and questioned my being the author. They apparently thought anyone who wrote that book must be deranged. While reading the book, they had nightmares and couldn’t read it alone. I was puzzled about why the novel was so scary. I didn’t intend it to be that way.
Six months after I retired from my practice, a friend asked if I would be co-counsel on a murder case. I told him I’d retired and was writing on a full-time basis. His next words were ‘It must be nice to associate with normal people all day.’
A light went on in my head. I realized that in Gone But Not Forgotten, I’d created this horrible serial killer. But actually, all I did was describe the guys I’d been having lunch with for twenty-five years: serial killers, sociopaths, bank robbers, and drug dealers. For me, they weren’t scary. They were my clients, the guys I got to know very well.
Of course, most people never come in contact with such people. I realized exposing readers to the world of sociopathic killers was frightening for some of them. So, there were many things about being a lawyer that helped with my writing, but one was the contact I had with these unusual people.
Do you think contact with criminals over the years tainted your view of human nature?
Not really. Growing up, I was in all the ‘bad’ classes in school. Some of my classmates were sort of similar to the guys I represented in my practice. So, my world view has been somewhat like that all these years.
Actually, I’m pretty upbeat about people. Only a small percentage of humanity is comprised of really bad people. I think most people are pretty decent. When you’re a criminal defense lawyer, prosecutor or police officer, you’re constantly immersed in criminality, and you may develop a skewed view of humanity. But I think I was able to put these things in context in so far as my real life is concerned. I do think my immersion in the criminal law venue left me a bit more wary of people, in general. After all, I was constantly around people who cheat, lie and steal for a living. And, by the way, that’s the stuff of novels.
Some of your protagonists have dealt with issues of conscience when defending the accused. How did you feel about your role as a criminal defense lawyer?
For two years, I was in the Peace Corps in Liberia. At the time, it was a horrible dictatorship with no rule of law. If the government didn’t like you for any reason, the secret police could come in the middle of the night, drag you to a concentration camp in the bush, where you’d be tortured or killed. You had no right to remain silent; no right to an attorney; and there was no right to challenge your accuser. Because of that experience, I developed a deep appreciation for the rule of law and due process. Our justice system is not perfect, but it’s a lot better than in most other places.
When I represented someone, I felt it was crucial to give even the most awful person a fair trial—whether it was a terrorist mastermind like Osama bin Laden or a serial killer like Ted Bundy. If everyone gets a fair trial, people will have faith in the system. Once people lose that faith, you get revolution. I’ve always felt the system is far more important than any individual case. Even when I knew a client was guilty, it was my job to make certain that if he was convicted, it wasn’t due to phony evidence or perjury. I felt I was something of a referee; I made sure the prosecution and judge acted fairly and respected the rule of law. So, for me, representing evil people was not a problem.
Who are your legal heroes?
Louis Brandeis was the guy I really admired. I didn’t really have legal heroes. I just loved being a lawyer.
Which writers influenced you as a youngster?
Earle Stanley Gardner and the Perry Mason books influenced me so much, they made me want to become a lawyer. The Ellery Queen books were another early influence because I love puzzle mysteries where there are clues. I try to do that in my own books; I leave clues about the killer’s identity so the reader can pick them up as the novel unfolds.
Whom do you enjoy reading now?
I read three books a week. I read everything. I don’t like this ‘genre’ business. It’s either a good book or a bad one. The guy I idolize is Joseph Conrad. I hate him because he didn’t even speak a word of English until he was in his mid-twenties when he moved from Poland to England; and I know I’ll never write a single sentence as elegantly as he routinely did. Dickens is a favorite, too. I’ve also loved Robert Caro’s four volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. It’s actually a page-turner. I enjoy Michael Chabon’s books. I thought The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson was an astonishing book.
You’ve had so many bestsellers. What about writing over the years has surprised you?
The fact that I still love it amazes me. I’ve been doing it non-stop since 1992. I get to the office at 7:30 every morning. I can’t wait to sit down and write. I’m on my twentieth book now and you’d think I’d get tired of it, but no; I love it. I still get excited when I start a book. I wonder if I can do it again. It’s the challenge that excites me. You’d think after twenty books, I’d be pretty self-confident, but I’m not.
Can you pinpoint exactly what you love about writing?
It’s the puzzle aspect of writing. The first thing I do each morning when I get to the office is the New York Times crossword puzzle. I was a competitive chess player for years. I love Ellery Queen books, Ross Macdonald’s books and Harlan Coben’s early Myron Bolitar books for their mystery and clue elements. I love trying to construct a puzzle for the reader. That’s the most fun. It’s what I love about the writing.
If you could have dinner with any five people from history or the literary world, who would they be?
It would be dinner for two—my wife passed away about seven years ago. She was the single most amazing human being I’ve ever met. So, it would be just with her.
What’s coming next from Phillip Margolin?
I’m about 175 pages into another Amanda Jaffe book. I’ve written standalone novels and also done different series. You know, Arthur Conan Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to kill him off, but readers wouldn’t allow it. He felt forever trapped with the character and his exploits. Sometimes, a series can suffer after the first well-written, successful novel: the plots become thin, and the writer gets trapped in trying to create a life for the protagonist. I made a conscious decision to write standalone novels between my series.
Congratulations on yet another standalone novel, Woman with a Gun. I too was mesmerized by the cover photograph, and while reading the novel, referred to that picture again and again.
“Woman with a Gun” : A Talk with Phillip Margolin
Phillip Margolin graduated from the New York University School of Law School and worked for many[image error]years as a criminal defense attorney, a profession inspired by his having read the Perry Mason novels. An Edgar-nominated novelist (even while working as an attorney), he became a full-time writer in 1996. He is well-known for his short stories; the Amanda Jaffe and Brad Miller series; and for his many standalone novels.
In Woman with a Gun, an aspiring novelist, Stacey Kim, is mesmerized by a photo...
November 19, 2014
'Crooked River' A Talk with Valerie Geary
Crooked River, Valerie Geary’s debut novel, is a coming-of-age-story, a ghost story, and a literary tale of psychological suspense. Told in the alternating voices of 15-year-old Sam and her 10-year-old sister Ollie, the novel opens with them grieving the sudden death of their mother. They move to rural Oregon to live with their eccentric, teepee-dwelling, beekeeper father. When a young woman’s body is discovered in a nearby river, their father becomes the prime suspect and the sisters find themselves in the center of a suspense-filled storm.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I did. I think I wrote my first story in kindergarten. It was about a girl who lost a red balloon and chased after it. I don’t remember how it ended. I started reading fairly young and loved getting lost in the imaginary world of books. When I was in the third grade, a writer came to my school and talked to us. That was the moment I decided it was what I wanted to do, and that resolve remained with me the rest of my childhood, and throughout high school and college. Whenever I tried finding something else to do, it never felt right. It didn’t fit with who I felt I was.
In Crooked River you combine paranormal phenomena with suspense. What are your thoughts about these separate writing genres?
I read a lot of suspense novels. It’s probably my favorite genre. When I was younger, I read more paranormal books. I do think the combination of paranormal and suspense go well together. There’s an element of suspense in paranormal novels because you never know what’s going to happen with the supernatural.
The axiom “Write what you know” seems applicable to you. I understand there are some parallels between the lives of Sam and Ollie, and your own life.
Yes. I have a sister. We’re twenty-two months apart, closer in age than Sam and Ollie are in the novel. When I started writing this book, I drew inspiration from my own relationship with my sister and the things we did as children. There are similarities, but as I wrote about Sam and Ollie, they developed their own personalities. Another important parallel is that I lost my mother when I was nineteen. I was old enough to be able to move forward, yet young enough to feel a significant loss. It was an unexpected death, as is the death of Sam and Ollie’s mother in the book. The decision to include their mother’s death came a bit later on in drafting the novel. I wasn’t sure it was territory I was ready to explore. But I went ahead, and it ended up being a catharsis for me. The process of writing about these sisters and their grief was a way to explore my own grief process.
Before Crooked River, you published short stories in literary journals and magazines. What challenges did you face in going from writing short stories to penning a full-length novel?
Probably, the biggest challenge was that of being more patient with the process. A short story is at most, five-thousand words. It’s compact. You get it done, and can feel proud of what you’ve accomplished. Writing a novel reminds me of the old joke, ‘How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time.’ If you visualize the big picture, a novel can be intimidating. The biggest challenge for me was to push myself and have enough patience to finish the manuscript.
You once said, “I feel the most me when I’m writing, and it’s been like this as far back as I can remember.” Will you talk about that?
I’ve always had trouble expressing myself verbally. I never know if what I’m trying to say is really getting across to other people. Sometimes, the words seem to just fall out of my mouth. I think I have a bit of social anxiety, and I also see the world a bit differently than most people do. When I talk, people may not understand my perspective. But with writing, I’m able to explore different parts of me that I’m not able to share in a one-on-one setting.
In an online guest post, you once described using a stopwatch to time your writing. Will you discuss that?
I started using a stopwatch when I quit my day job to start writing full-time. I struggled with discipline. It was easier to read, or look at e-mail, or think up clever tweets. Setting a timer helped me maintain concentrated periods, focused on my writing. I still use the stopwatch if I’m feeling distracted, or not really wanting to work. I’ll set the timer for an hour. The minute I start writing, I get into it; but it’s the getting started that can be difficult. The timer also reminds me to take breaks, and helps me construct my day without feeling I’m working either too much or too little.
Your writing style has been compared to those of Tana French and Laura McHugh. Any thoughts?
I’m speechless. That’s an honor. Those women write great fiction, books that are both suspenseful and literary.
You’ve said you’re a huge fan of Gillian Flynn and Kate Atkinson. What about their work inspires you?
I like how their books are readable, but challenging. They maintain a delicate balance between being page-turners while also making you think. It’s the combination of their storytelling abilities and the inspirational way they use language.
If you could have dinner with any five people, living or dead, from literature or all of history, who would they be?
I’d love to have Margaret Atwood over for dinner. Ever since I read The Handmaid’s Tale in college, I’ve been a big fan. I would love to pick her brain about writing and her career. I’d like to have Jennifer Lawrence, too. She’s been so successful at such a young age, it would be interesting to learn how she processes that. I’d invite Amelia Earhart, and ask her about her life in an era when women mostly stayed home. I would love to have Malala Yousafzei, the Afghan winner of the Novel Peace Prize. Another great guest would be Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who interpreted and guided Lewis and Clark on their expedition.
What’s coming next from Valerie Geary?
I’m writing a new book, but it’s still in the drafting process. It will be another suspense novel with a bit of the supernatural, too.
Congratulations on writing Crooked River, which has been described as a literary thriller and psychological study of the effects of loss.
Did you always want to be a writer?
I did. I think I wrote my first story in kindergarten. It was about a girl who lost a red balloon and chased after it. I don’t remember how it ended. I started reading fairly young and loved getting lost in the imaginary world of books. When I was in the third grade, a writer came to my school and talked to us. That was the moment I decided it was what I wanted to do, and that resolve remained with me the rest of my childhood, and throughout high school and college. Whenever I tried finding something else to do, it never felt right. It didn’t fit with who I felt I was.
In Crooked River you combine paranormal phenomena with suspense. What are your thoughts about these separate writing genres?
I read a lot of suspense novels. It’s probably my favorite genre. When I was younger, I read more paranormal books. I do think the combination of paranormal and suspense go well together. There’s an element of suspense in paranormal novels because you never know what’s going to happen with the supernatural.
The axiom “Write what you know” seems applicable to you. I understand there are some parallels between the lives of Sam and Ollie, and your own life.
Yes. I have a sister. We’re twenty-two months apart, closer in age than Sam and Ollie are in the novel. When I started writing this book, I drew inspiration from my own relationship with my sister and the things we did as children. There are similarities, but as I wrote about Sam and Ollie, they developed their own personalities. Another important parallel is that I lost my mother when I was nineteen. I was old enough to be able to move forward, yet young enough to feel a significant loss. It was an unexpected death, as is the death of Sam and Ollie’s mother in the book. The decision to include their mother’s death came a bit later on in drafting the novel. I wasn’t sure it was territory I was ready to explore. But I went ahead, and it ended up being a catharsis for me. The process of writing about these sisters and their grief was a way to explore my own grief process.
Before Crooked River, you published short stories in literary journals and magazines. What challenges did you face in going from writing short stories to penning a full-length novel?
Probably, the biggest challenge was that of being more patient with the process. A short story is at most, five-thousand words. It’s compact. You get it done, and can feel proud of what you’ve accomplished. Writing a novel reminds me of the old joke, ‘How do you eat a whale? One bite at a time.’ If you visualize the big picture, a novel can be intimidating. The biggest challenge for me was to push myself and have enough patience to finish the manuscript.
You once said, “I feel the most me when I’m writing, and it’s been like this as far back as I can remember.” Will you talk about that?
I’ve always had trouble expressing myself verbally. I never know if what I’m trying to say is really getting across to other people. Sometimes, the words seem to just fall out of my mouth. I think I have a bit of social anxiety, and I also see the world a bit differently than most people do. When I talk, people may not understand my perspective. But with writing, I’m able to explore different parts of me that I’m not able to share in a one-on-one setting.
In an online guest post, you once described using a stopwatch to time your writing. Will you discuss that?
I started using a stopwatch when I quit my day job to start writing full-time. I struggled with discipline. It was easier to read, or look at e-mail, or think up clever tweets. Setting a timer helped me maintain concentrated periods, focused on my writing. I still use the stopwatch if I’m feeling distracted, or not really wanting to work. I’ll set the timer for an hour. The minute I start writing, I get into it; but it’s the getting started that can be difficult. The timer also reminds me to take breaks, and helps me construct my day without feeling I’m working either too much or too little.
Your writing style has been compared to those of Tana French and Laura McHugh. Any thoughts?
I’m speechless. That’s an honor. Those women write great fiction, books that are both suspenseful and literary.
You’ve said you’re a huge fan of Gillian Flynn and Kate Atkinson. What about their work inspires you?
I like how their books are readable, but challenging. They maintain a delicate balance between being page-turners while also making you think. It’s the combination of their storytelling abilities and the inspirational way they use language.
If you could have dinner with any five people, living or dead, from literature or all of history, who would they be?
I’d love to have Margaret Atwood over for dinner. Ever since I read The Handmaid’s Tale in college, I’ve been a big fan. I would love to pick her brain about writing and her career. I’d like to have Jennifer Lawrence, too. She’s been so successful at such a young age, it would be interesting to learn how she processes that. I’d invite Amelia Earhart, and ask her about her life in an era when women mostly stayed home. I would love to have Malala Yousafzei, the Afghan winner of the Novel Peace Prize. Another great guest would be Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who interpreted and guided Lewis and Clark on their expedition.
What’s coming next from Valerie Geary?
I’m writing a new book, but it’s still in the drafting process. It will be another suspense novel with a bit of the supernatural, too.
Congratulations on writing Crooked River, which has been described as a literary thriller and psychological study of the effects of loss.
‘Crooked River’ A Talk with Valerie Geary
Crooked River, Valerie Geary’s debut novel, is a coming-of-age-story, a ghost story, and a literary tale of psychological suspense. Told in the alternating voices of 15-year-old Sam and her 10-year-old sister Ollie, the novel opens with them grieving the sudden death of their mother. They move to rural Oregon to live with their eccentric, teepee-dwelling, beekeeper fat
her. When a young woman’s body is discovered in a nearby river, their father becomes the prime suspect and the sisters find th...
November 15, 2014
Flesh and Blood: A Fascinating Talk with Patricia Cornwell
Patricia Cornwell is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of 33 books, the most famous and widely read being the 22 novels of the “Kay Scarpetta” series.
In Flesh and Blood, Kay Scarpetta notices seven shiny pennies, all dated 1981, placed on the wall behind her Cambridge house. She soon learns of a shooting death nearby, where copper fragments are the only evidence left at the crime scene. Scarpetta links the murder to two other deaths in which the victims were killed by a...
