Ty Miller
asked
Dave Cullen:
Dave - as a huge fan of your writing, and as a writer myself, I have to ask: how do you maintain a tether to a project for such long periods of time without questioning (maybe you do lol) whether the work is headed in the right direction or not? Do you lose motivation or interest in the project and return? Or is it a steadfast operation of sorts?
Dave Cullen
Hey Ty. Good question.
I assume you mean mass shootings, which for me gradually morphed into gun safety, for the most part. (We some stops along the way broadening out to other types of murderers, briefly.)
I've tried to leave this story so many times, and thought I had. Haha. Publishing Columbine after 10 years was the last time I was delusional. haha. Because it keeps pulling me back.
Every tragedy I became the mass murder guy the the cablenets, regular nets, other countries, documentaries, etc. pulled in. Kind of felt like an obligation to convey what I could. For the first decade, that often meant checking in with a network of some of the world's leading experts on an email chain, who would educate me on the latest, how it fit in, etc, and I was the messenger to take it to the public.
That in turn kept drawing me in deeper, and giving me a more complex understanding that made the media turn to me more. Etc.
Frankly, I never worried about heading in the right direction, because I had no desire to stay on it, and gradually moved in directions that seemed right. Especially:
I got to the point where I was fed up studying killers, and ceased to give a shit about those assholes. My only concern was how to get out of this.
That led me to get back in immediately after Parkland to meet the MFOL kids, which led to a year with them, and an unintended book. Then to Gabby Giffords, and also learning a ton from Shannon Watts.
Meanwhile, 98% of my time has been on my long-term project following 2 gay soldiers for 25 years and counting now. (They've retired.) We're editing now, and HarperCollins will publish Valentine's Day 2026.
Does that help?
I assume you mean mass shootings, which for me gradually morphed into gun safety, for the most part. (We some stops along the way broadening out to other types of murderers, briefly.)
I've tried to leave this story so many times, and thought I had. Haha. Publishing Columbine after 10 years was the last time I was delusional. haha. Because it keeps pulling me back.
Every tragedy I became the mass murder guy the the cablenets, regular nets, other countries, documentaries, etc. pulled in. Kind of felt like an obligation to convey what I could. For the first decade, that often meant checking in with a network of some of the world's leading experts on an email chain, who would educate me on the latest, how it fit in, etc, and I was the messenger to take it to the public.
That in turn kept drawing me in deeper, and giving me a more complex understanding that made the media turn to me more. Etc.
Frankly, I never worried about heading in the right direction, because I had no desire to stay on it, and gradually moved in directions that seemed right. Especially:
I got to the point where I was fed up studying killers, and ceased to give a shit about those assholes. My only concern was how to get out of this.
That led me to get back in immediately after Parkland to meet the MFOL kids, which led to a year with them, and an unintended book. Then to Gabby Giffords, and also learning a ton from Shannon Watts.
Meanwhile, 98% of my time has been on my long-term project following 2 gay soldiers for 25 years and counting now. (They've retired.) We're editing now, and HarperCollins will publish Valentine's Day 2026.
Does that help?
More Answered Questions
A Goodreads user
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Dave Cullen:
Can you give me some tips to write crime fictions ? I love reading books. But I also want to write a story .
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