Wendroff's new novel is What Goes Around.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Michael Wendroff's website.
I think my title, What Goes Around, does quite a lot. First, I believe potential readers complete the thought (Comes Around), and immediately involving your readers in a "conversation" puts you ahead of the game. It also piques interest, as the immediate questions raised are what occurred that requires retribution, and what will occur for the "comes around." Lastly, it sounds like a thriller, and indeed the reader will be taken through very thrilling twists and turns.
Note, this wasn't the original name of the book. Its draft name was The Perennial Plan, which ties into the surprising ending. But my publisher, who is great, thought we could do better, and the team there came up with What Goes Around, which is much much better.
What's in a name?
All of the character names in my novel are purposeful.
Jack Ludlum is an amalgam of Jack Reacher (my male protagonist is very similar, at least to start) and Robert Ludlum, the best-selling author of the Bourne novels, etc. It's a homage to both--in fact I stayed at Robert Ludlum's house when I was very young, and watched him write his 400+ page novels by hand on yellow legal pads. Luckily, I was able to write What Goes Around on a pc!
There are other characters in my novel, like Officer Nefesh and Chief Gil Gulim, whose names mean something vital to the story in another language--but I won't reveal that until you've read the book!
Lastly, the evil doers in my novel, Incels, white supremascists, etc., as well as some of the good guys like FBI agents, are all named after a form of real people's names that have been involved in the different groups.
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
I don't think my teenage self would be surprised at all. I was a voracious reader of thrillers because my stepfather, now deceased, was a literary agent, so I got all his clients books for free and devoured them --in fact, I read the little known first ever novel by Dean Koontz, called After The Last Race.
I started college, NYU, at 16, and while I took plenty of English classes, I was in the business school. It was when I received my MBA, I combined my two loves, as I wrote my thesis on "Marketing in the Publishing Industry." The industry's trade journal, Publishers Weekly, published excerpts from it, so I actually got paid for my thesis!
But the most fun I had in writing the thesis was interviewing editors at the major publishing houses. In fact, once I had to interview Michael Korda, who was thenEditor-in-Chief at Simon & Schuster, and he kept me waiting quite some time. But when he finally opened his door, who walks out but Truman Capote! Lots of fun meeting him.
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
They are both equal for me, because they share similarities. My goal is to make the reader never want to stop reading, to force the reader to want to keep turning pages. I do that by having a cliffhanger ending on almost all chapters. The cliffhanger can be physical, psychological, or emotional. Then, I try to make the first sentence of the next chapter very intriguing. So the endings and beginnings are written to achieve the same objective.
Of course, my favorite ending is when I've written the story out, have fully edited it, and can then finally write, The End.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
I definitely see myself in some characters--I have the same birthmark and same situation that arose as one of my key characters.
Most of my characters though, are a world apart from me, and required my doing tons of research. I think the best form of research is actually talking to people involved in the various professions, which I did. I don't think I spoke to a serial killer, but then again...
I also found the connection an author has with his characters to be quite interesting. I became very emotionally involved with some of them. In fact, there was one that my plot outline called for killing off, but I just couldn't do it. No, I'm not crazy. Well, maybe a little.
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
This book was inspired by what happened the moment I was born. I was put on my mother's chest, she looked deeply into my eyes, and she said, "Nice to see you, again."
The "again" part always intrigued me, and since I always wanted to write a thriller, I knew someday I would combine the two. And I did!
The Page 69 Test: What Goes Around.
--Marshal Zeringue