Rachel Pollock

Rachel Pollock asked Erik Larson:

I'm a huge fan of your books & always enjoy not only your writing & the depth of research evident on the page, but the way you use structure itself (for example, the wild ride of bouncing back & forth between stories in THUNDERSTRUCK just waiting for them to converge in a sort of apex, like a wireless tower.) How do you approach structuring your books on a macro level?

Erik Larson Structure is very important. I start out with a broad sense of how the story will go, but it's only once I have a completed a rough draft that I am able to do the tinkering that really makes the story fly. At that point I literally cut the book into pieces and lay it all out on the floor of my home, and move pieces around. That was especially true with Devil in the White City which was an incredibly difficult narrative to build. And frankly, on the eve of publication I was pretty sure I had failed!

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Chris

Chris asked Erik Larson:

I recieved an advance copy of Dead Wake through Read It Forward and have been preparing a review, when for a different reason I picked up Edgar Rice Burroughs' The Land That Time Forgot. I was struck by the similarities between the U-33 sinking the ship and the U-20 sinking the Lusitania, and wondered if you have ever read this particular Burroughs novel, which was published in 1918?

Kathy

Kathy asked Erik Larson:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

James Poch

James Poch asked Erik Larson:

Erik: I am a big fan of your work and look forward to reading Dead Wake. A few years ago the UKs Daily Mail reported that divers had explored the Lusitania wreck and found that the ship was carrying secret war material as the Germans had alleged all the time. Carrying the war material lead some to believe that it was a valid target. Does your book address this find and opinion? Thank you again for your work.

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