Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson is an American writer best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. His new mystery, The Black Stiletto, will be available in September.

From his Q & A with Julia Buckley:

Hi, Raymond! Thanks for talking with me on the blog. THE BLACK STILETTO has an interesting premise: that a middle-aged man, going through the belongings of his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, finds out that she is The Black Stiletto—a masked avenger from the mid-20th century, similar to Batman in terms of her legendary status.

How did you come up with this idea?

You know writers can never answer the question “how do you come up with your ideas?” ! I’m not really sure where the idea came from. I can remember talking to my literary manager/agent Peter Miller over a meal and we were discussing what I should attempt next. This was a few years ago. He kept telling me how most of the book-buying public were women, so I should come up with something that would appeal to women. Right then and there, I facetiously said, “How about a female superhero? It could appeal to the geek crowd; go for the ‘True Blood’ and ‘Twilight’ audiences.” Afterwards, I started thinking about it, and the story just flowed out of me. It was one of the easiest books I ever wrote.

You write the novel from the point of view of Judy Cooper (The Black Stiletto), her son, and an antagonist. What made you choose these particular vantage points?

It had to be from Judy’s point of view, naturally, since she’s the protagonist. Since I was telling two parallel stories, one in the past and one in the present, it made sense for the second narrator to be her grown son. So really, there are two protagonists and two different storylines. The third voice, the antagonist, was brought in primarily to...[read on]

Visit Raymond Benson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue