Dave Zeltserman

Jacob Stone is the byline chosen by award-winning author Dave Zeltserman for his new Morris Brick series of serial-killer thrillers. His crime, mystery and horror fiction has won top praise and has been translated into six languages. His novels Small Crimes and Pariah were both named by the Washington Post as best books of the year. Small Crimes topped National Public Radio's list of best crime and mystery novels of 2008 and is being made into a feature film.

Stone/Zeltserman's latest novel is Deranged, the first Morris Black thriller.

From his Q&A with Emma R. Murphy for the Needham Times:

How did you get your start writing novels?

While in school and later working as a software engineer, I never would've imagined having a story or novel published. But I always read a lot from very early on—first science fiction and fantasy, and then mystery and crime fiction, and at different times I'd be drawn to writing. My early attempts were pretty bad, but somewhere along the way I found my voice and started writing short stories that I thought could be published, and when they were, I started my first novel, "Fast Lane," which was a pitch-black noir crime novel. I was working sixty hours a week as a software engineer then, and it took two years to write it in whatever spare time I could find, but eventually "Fast Lane" was published, first in Italy, and then by a micro-press in the US.

Where do you get ideas for your books?　

The ideas for my short stories and novels come from...[read on]

Visit Dave Zeltserman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Deranged.

The Page 69 Test: Deranged.

Writers Read: Jacob Stone.

--Marshal Zeringue