Writing What You Know, Or Writing What You Want to Know by Carl Vonderau

You’re supposed to write about what you know. So what do you do if you’re a banker and you write about crime? You have to make up a few things if you want to keep your job. In my first book, Murderabilia, the protagonist’s father was a serial killer. No, that wasn’t part of my family history. That meant I had to research what happened to the children of serial killers.
Without exception they all had very hard lives. The next challenge then was to combine that background with the knowledge I brought from my banking career. That’s where the fun part came.

Here was the premise. Suppose my protagonist had changed his name and no one knew that his father was an infamous serial killer. He worked for a prestigious bank that only dealt with high-net-worth families. Then he was accused of killing a woman in the same way his father would. Just so you know, only the banking part was from personal experience.

 Money laundering was part of my next book, Saving Myles. In that one I blended some of what I knew, some of what I learned about, and some of what I made up. Many years ago, my wife and I sent our son to a residential treatment center. He is doing fine now and gave me permission to use some of what he went through in my book. Sending your teenager against his will to a treatment center is one of the hardest things a parent will ever do. Those emotions formed the core of the book.

 I also didn’t see many novels that realistically covered money laundering. I had a few clients in my banking days that might have had money laundering in mind, but none of them ever did it with me. So I enrolled in courses from an institution that trained financial services people in how to spot it. The other students were from banks, brokerages and the U.S. Treasury. They probably wondered whether the “writer” among them was actually building his chops so he could launder for a cartel. That gave me some ideas…in the book, that is.

 Mexico has a highly organized kidnapping industry. I traveled all over Latin America, including Mexico, and never come close to being kidnapped. So I talked with the FBI to learn how they could help. As it turns out, unless you’re murdered or from a very prominent family, the FBI usually has to work with local Mexican authorities. They can’t negotiate for you or talk directly with the kidnappers. Then I had to research the victims. My friends at the YMCA in Tijuana arranged for me to talk with a man who had been kidnapped. His abductors were from the same barrio where he grew up and he knew them. Because his family paid too slowly, they cut off his toe and sent it to them.

 Putting that all together, here is what I came up with in Saving Myles. A star banker and his wife have had to send their troubled teen to a residential treatment center. When Myles returns he seems to have totally rehabilitated himself. Then he sneaks off to Tijuana and is kidnapped. The only way his parents can save him is to become involved with money laundering at a sketchy bank.

 Sometimes the way to create a unique thriller premise is to get the right mix of what you know, what you learn, and what you make up.

Carl Vonderau grew up in Cleveland. After majoring in economics and dabbling in classical guitar in college, he made a career in banking. Carl has lived and worked internationally and put his foot in his mouth in several languages. He brought his banking expertise to his two thrillers, Murderabilia, and Saving Myles. He has won Left Coast Crime, Pencraft, American Bookfest, National Indie Excellence, and Independent Press awards. Carl is a board member of the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Blackbird Writers, and helps nonprofits through San Diego Social Venture Partners.

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