Jon Land

Andrew Peterson interviewed Jon Land for ITW. A sample of their dialogue:

You're good friends with David Morrell of the famous Rambo series. How did that come about? You've had numerous discussions with David about the role of the "thriller hero." Are there certain lines you feel thriller heroes shouldn't cross when pursuing their goals (the bad guys.)

(Laughs) Now that's a funny story! David Morrell was one of the writers (along with Stephen King, Clive Cussler and Robert Ludlum) who made me want to write thrillers. So I'm at the first ThrillerFest in Phoenix, I don't know anybody, and one morning after working out he and I ended up in the hotel gym whirlpool together. And I realize here I am talking to one of my idols, and he couldn't be more kind or gracious. No one has done more for our form or genre than David, who's proven that thriller writers can be terrific novelists as well. Which brings me to your next question. One of the things I've really explored in both my last two books, THE SEVEN SINS and STRONG ENOUGH TO DIE, is the nature of ambiguity in my heroes. Both Michael Tiranno and Caitlin Strong have plenty of demons in their closets, defined as much by their flaws as their strengths. Both will go as far as they have to get what they want. They don't define any limits for themselves when it comes to preserving their own moral codes, but they pay a steep price for that.

I really like Caitlin Strong, a modern day Texas Ranger. What is like writing a female lead role? I think you've got her personality perfectly portrayed--I was going to say "you've got her nailed" but that just doesn't sound right! I'm hoping we'll see more stories with Caitlin?

Well, first and foremost...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Victoria E. Bynum

Victoria E. Bynum is the author of The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies.

From a Q & A about the book at her publisher's website:

Q: There seems no end to books about the American Civil War. What does The Long Shadow of the Civil War offer that is new?

A: Although Civil War books about the home front are not new, this is a new sort of home front study that focuses on three communities from three different states. Rather than close with the war and Reconstruction, The Long Shadow of the Civil War follows individual Unionists and multiracial families into the New South era and, in some cases, into the twentieth century. This historical sweep allows the reader to understand the ongoing effects of the war at its most personal levels.

Q: What led you to combine three Civil War home fronts, all noted as areas of violent disorder, in one study? Why these three?

A: Most basically, I combined them in order to provide in-depth comparisons of the communities within the same volume. But there's more to it than that; the communities have important links to one another. The North Carolina Piedmont was the ancestral seedbed of migration into what became Jones County, Mississippi. Later, East Texas attracted many non-slaveholding Mississippi families seeking a less-developed piney woods region.

All three regions exhibited fierce Unionist activity during the Civil War, with brothers fighting in separate deserter bands across state lines in two of the communities. So, combining them in one study provided a wonderful opportunity to identify common characteristics of Southern Unionism, while also showing how different geographic settings influenced the nature of the inner civil wars.

Read the complete Q & A.

Visit Victoria Bynum's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emily Woof

Emily Woof has acted in such films as The Full Monty, Velvet Goldmine, and Wondrous Oblivion.

Her debut novel, The Whole Wide Beauty, will be published in the US in May by W.W. Norton.

From her Q & A with The Independent:

Choose a favourite author, and say why you like her/him

Richard Ford is one of my favourite writers, and I really love Chekhov; he is so kind to all his characters.

* * *
Which fictional character most resembles you?

The cute answer is that I would apsire to be Mrs Dalloway but I probably end up being more like Mrs Pepperpot.

* * *
Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

Some of the mums that I know that manage life brilliantly, working and looking after the kids and running a home and staying sane.

Read the complete interview.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mark Terry

Mark Terry is the author of three Derek Stillwater novels, The Devil's Pitchfork, The Serpent's Kiss, and The Fallen, as well as two standalone novels, Dirty Deeds and Dancing in the Dark.

From a Q & A at his website:

Who are your influences?

Presumably this question refers to literary influences, otherwise I have to say my parents, my brother, my sister, my wife, my children, my dog, every teacher I've ever had, every person I've every met, every book I've ever read...

In terms of literary influences, I got my inspiration to try writing from an essay by Stephen King called something like "The Making of a Brand Name." But the writers who most influence my writing style and the types of stories I like to write are Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, David Morrell, the late Ross Thomas, John Sandford, Dick Francis. I like what I guess you could call a propulsive type of writing--I want the plot to move right along, in other words. But the list of writing influences never really ends and it's best not to get me started unless there's a cold beverage in front of me. In which case I'd be glad to talk books for hours or until the bartender kicks us out. Randy Wayne White, Peter Lefcourt, J.A. Konrath, Elmore Leonard, Lawrence Block, Paul Levine...

Read the complete Q & A.

Read chapters 1-6 of The Fallen, and learn more about the book and author at Mark Terry's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Fallen.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Hynes

From James Hynes' brief Q & A with Gregory Cowles at the New York Times:

“Next” has an amazing ending, which keeps us guessing until the last page. In their reviews for The Times, Janet Maslin and Claire Messud both allude to it without giving anything away. But in the age of spoilers on the Internet, how can you keep the ending secret from readers determined to track it down?

The short answer is, you probably can’t. The day after Janet Maslin’s review of the book ran, I checked the traffic on my Web site, and Google Analytics told me that out of all the search terms that led people to the site, two-thirds of them were variations on “James Hynes Next spoilers.” Not to give anybody any ideas or anything. Spoilers have always been with us, of course: years ago, I was waiting in line for the opening night of “The Empire Strikes Back,” and some jackass leaving the previous showing — I still don’t know if he did it deliberately, or he was just excited — blurted out “Darth Vader is Luke’s father!” It’s just that now, of course, you don’t have to wait for serendipity to happen, you can go looking for somebody to ruin it for you. And I’m no better than anybody else: a friend of mine e-mailed me about a recent film that has a similar ending to my book’s, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was, and in 30 seconds, I was reading the ending on the Internet. The best I can do to discourage people is leave you with this parable from my favorite Peanuts cartoon: it’s a Sunday strip, and Charlie Brown is watching TV. Lucy comes up behind him and says, “What are you watching?” And Charlie Brown says, “ ‘Citizen Kane.’ I’ve never seen it before.” Lucy waits a few excruciating panels, savoring the moment. Then she says, “Rosebud was his sled,” and walks away, and Charlie Brown goes (what else?), “Aaaaaggghhh!” This exquisitely agonizing scenario encapsulates the entirety of the spoiler experience: it’s awful when it happens, but it’s probably inevitable. All you can do is ask yourself, would you rather be Lucy or Charlie Brown? Not much of a choice, I grant you, but wouldn’t you prefer at least the hope of pleasure to the cheap and fleeting satisfactions of meanness? (And to your readers who have never seen “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Citizen Kane,” my profound apologies.)

Read the complete Q & A.

Read an excerpt from Next, and learn more about the book and author at James Hynes's website and blog.

Hynes is the author of The Lecturer’s Tale, Wild Colonial Boy, Publish & Perish (all New York Times Notable Books of the Year), and the novel Kings of Infinite Space. He lives in Austin, Texas.

The Page 69 Test: Next.

--Marshal Zeringue

Philip Kerr

Scottish novelist Philip Kerr is the author of the acclaimed Bernie Gunther crime series and other novels. From his interview with crime fiction maven J. Kingston Pierce at The Rap Sheet:

JKP: What was your original conception of Bernie Gunther, and how do you think he’s evolved since that point? Is he still the man you imagined him to be in 1989?

PK: I wanted a German Everyman figure. That’s what I wanted him to be. That’s what he still is. … He’s a vehicle for political insight and philosophical conjecture. And for my own black sense of humor. ... I think of him as a little like Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress. He’s weighed down by a great burden called sin; he’s looking for the shining light; he mounts the hill of difficulty; and along the way he meets Apollyon.

JKP: Would he be somebody you’d like to know as a friend?

PK: Lord, no. Bernie is like me in that he doesn’t have any friends. … I don’t feel the lack of friends, you understand. What I do doesn’t really encourage friendship. My only real friend is my wife. I seem quite friendly, however. I smile and chatter away and can work a room. Anyway, Bernie is an extension of my own inadequate personality, so I can’t imagine being friends with myself.

JKP: At what point did you realize you were writing a crime-fiction series? And were you hesitant about taking on such a project?

Read the complete interview.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sandra Beasley

Sandra Beasley won the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize for I Was the Jukebox, selected by Joy Harjo. I Was The Jukebox is out this month from W.W. Norton.

From her Q & A with Vrzhu:

Vrzhu: I like the going back to older poets you mentioned. Who's the earliest poet you find yourself going back to, or sympathetic with? Besides just experience, is there some way you have these poets (like Hopkins or Eliot) come alive for you?

Sandra Beasley: In Fall 2009 I taught a writing class at the Corcoran College of Art + Design; teaching is an exception, rather than the rule. I soon realized that contemporary poets who I found interesting, based on the ferocity of voice, did not engage the students; what they liked were poets who offered something structural they could unlock. William Shakespeare, Seamus Heaney. On one hand, they disdained the technical terminology of meter and rhyme; on the other hand, they sat up in their chairs when I could prove that the craft techniques served a higher thematic purpose. The week we looked at elegy, we considered poems by both Dylan Thomas and Marie Howe. Thomas's villanelle is all about thundering imperative; Howe's is all about ambivalent dialogue. I love Marie Howe, but they preferred Dylan Thomas. It was a challenging dynamic, and it made me think a lot of which "older" poets I loved, and why. I think T. S. Eliot and William Carlos Williams have a lot to offer with repeat visits. They also have just enough texture in their biographies to provide grit, without so much drama (a la Anne Sexton or Ted Hughes) as to be distracting.

Through a series of coincidences, 2009 was also a year of Emily Dickinson for me--scads of exposure to her biography--which makes me newly aware of her feistiness, her pride, her calculations of correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson. She was no fool and no simple recluse. Those short, lyric poems must be understood as telegrams, composed in the Morse code of a rock skimming along the surface of a much deeper lake. Whitman, on the other hand, took some basic philosophical beliefs and stretched them out on the loom of societal experience. I think he was as savvy as he was smart. It's funny how often these two poets are paired in literary critique as an asexual Odd Couple. They come alive to me in the sense that the older I get, the more I understand their writings in the context of biographical pressures. Some days it feels like a great insight. Some days it feels like a terrible fallacy.

Read the complete interview.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Chabon

From Michael Chabon's recent conversation with Bobby White for the Wall Street Journal:

WSJ: The Bay Area has been home to writers such as Jack London and Jack Kerouac, who were known for their wilderness and countercultural writing. What are Bay Area writers known for these days, and how has the local literary scene evolved?

Mr. Chabon: The diversity here makes it difficult to pin down what writers here are collectively known for, but I can say it's a very vibrant and fun and collegial scene. There are all sorts of social events that occur that allow a very fluid communication between people. Part of the collegiality comes from how there is an interconnectedness among the different institutions that put on literary events.

If I were pressed and had to point at something as the embodiment of San Francisco's literary culture, I would point to Dave Eggers and his operation, which is at the heart of the scene. (Mr. Eggers, author of the best seller "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," has founded a nonprofit focused on improving literacy.)

WSJ: What many of those writers in the past had in common was that they were poor. Can starving writers afford to be in the Bay Area these days?

Mr. Chabon: The cost of living...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

R.L. Stine

R.L. Stine's many books include Say Cheese and Die!, Be Careful What You Wish For, Monster Blood, and Night of the Living Dummy.

From his interview with Andrew Peterson for ITW:

As a kid, you read horror and watched horror movies. Why do people enjoy being scared--why do we read horror novels and watch horror films?

We all like to have creepy adventures and face untold horrors--when we know we're safe at the same time. We all have that wonderful feeling of relief when we wake up from a nightmare and realize it was only a dream. Horror movies and books allow us to enjoy the nightmare because we're aware the whole time that we're not experiencing real horrors.

This is a metaphorical question, but do you ever get emails from parents who've caught their kid reading your books under the covers with a flashlight--after lights out? How do you respond?

I receive many letters from parents who tell me their kid never liked to read--and then they caught them reading Goosebumps or Fear Street under the covers late at night. That's always a thrill for me. You know, my career really isn't about terrifying kids--it's all about motivating them to read.

If you could change one thing or aspect of the publishing industry, what would it be and why?

I'd...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

David Aaronovitch

David Aaronovitch is a British journalist and Times of London columnist. His new book is Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.

From Aaronovitch's Q & A with Thomas Rogers at Salon:

What prompted the book?

There is a specific moment I mention in the book, when a very intelligent man turned to me during this long car journey and with a kind of mischievous pleasure tried to convince me that the moon landings never happened. I listened to him about the photographic reasons why so-and-so shot was impossible and something else couldn’t happen — I found myself wondering what the attraction of this was for him. To fake something like the moon landing would be incredibly difficult if not completely impossible. Why do clever people believe dumb things?

People put an enormous amount of resources and commitment into these stories, and large numbers of people believe them. A Venezuelan professor recently claimed that the United States caused the Haiti earthquake with an underground nuclear test. What kind of background evidence is there for that? None. But these kinds of stories are ubiquitous.

In recent years, people like the birthers and the 9/11 truthers have gotten a lot of press coverage and pop-cultural play. Are we in a new golden age of conspiracy theories?

I think we live in a more conspiracist period. There’s no question there are more of them, and they’re more global, and they take off more quickly. They’re also more complex and relate to virtual communities rather than real ones. I think it’s because of global interdependence. We live a global period, and there’s a huge temptation among people to believe there is a master plan, because otherwise the suggestion is we’re interdependent and the world is chaotic — and that’s a mindfuck.

There are entire societies where the default position is to believe in conspiracy theories, like in...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue