Rick Mofina

Rick Mofina's latest novel is The Burning Edge.

From his interview by L.J. Sellers for The Big Thrill:

How much and what kind of research did you do with the FBI to write [The Burning Edge]?

I’d written to the FBI’s New York Field Office, with a request for help. The office was extremely busy but agreed to try to accommodate my request. It was during ThrillerFest when I was in New York City that I set up the appointment to visit 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. I had already submitted my questions in advance. At the office, I met with a few agents who made time for me and responded to my questions and my follow-up questions. They also gave me a little tour and were extremely pleasant, professional and helpful.

During other trips to New York I also spent a lot of time on the street talking to people. I befriended a NYPD officer who I stayed in touch with. He was also extremely helpful. There is nothing like face-to-face contact and live, on-the-street research. You just gain so much more.

This story features your recurring reporter Jack Gannon, but you also have a series about another reporter, Jason Wade. How are these characters different and what are the creative advantages of having both?

I have three series actually. The first, a five-book series, features Tom Reed, a reporter with the San Francisco Star who is mid-career and struggling to keep his marriage and family together. Then came the Jason Wade trilogy. Jason is a rookie with the Seattle Mirror, who put himself through college. Then we meet Jack Gannon, blue-collar guy from Buffalo, New York, who realizes his dream to work at a major newswire service based in Manhattan. All three are...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Rick Mofina's website.

The Page 69 Test: Every Fear.

My Book, The Movie: A Perfect Grave.

The Page 69 Test: Six Seconds.

The Page 69 Test: Vengeance Road.

Writers Read: Rick Mofina.

My Book, The Movie: The Panic Zone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Susan Sherman

From a Q & A with Susan Sherman about her debut novel, The Little Russian:

The Little Russian is such an impressive debut novel and certainly does not fall into the category of “write what you know.” What was your inspiration for the subject matter of the novel?

Sherman: The Little Russian is based on the experiences of my grandmother in Ukraine, which was called Little Russia at the time. Hers is an amazing story of survival, strength and courage during the Russian Civil War. Everyone in my family has a version of her story and everyone thinks their version is the right one. An inevitable part of any family reunion is the traditional running argument over which story is right.

How old were you when you first heard your grandmother’s story? Who told you? How did you feel about it? Were you old enough to understand the concept of being a part of living history?

Sherman: I was seven or eight when my father first described how my grandmother bribed a peasant to hide her in a hay wagon and smuggle her and Sam over the border. I changed it to a river crossing in the book. After that I heard snippets of stories from my father and uncles; the time she was caught in the middle of a battle between the Whites and Reds, traveling the countryside by rail as a peddler, and finding out that my grandfather was looking for her from a rag dealer. But it wasn’t until I was actually working on the book and doing extensive research, did I come to understand what horrors my grandmother had lived through and what an amazing woman she had been. I don’t think anyone in my family realized the kind of strength it took to survive the Russian civil war and what a tiger she had to become to keep her children alive.

When did you decide you wanted to tell the story as a novel?

Sherman: For years I wanted to tell this story, but...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Alexis M. Smith

Alexis Margaret Smith grew up in Soldotna, Alaska, and Seattle, Washington. She attended Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, and Goddard College, where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing.

From a Q & A with the author about her debut novel, Glaciers:

How long have you been working on Glaciers? Do you remember how it began? How has it evolved from the beginning?

I have been working on Glaciers for the last five years, with some breaks. It began as a series of prose poems about my childhood in Alaska. I was in my second or third semester of the MFA in Writing program at Goddard College. During the winter residencies I would fly out to Vermont from Portland for a week of true winter. Walking through the snowy woods to the library, listening to the creaking trees and feeling the cold on my face, really brought me back to being a kid on my grandparents' homestead outside Kenai.

The story has evolved a lot. When I started writing I was a footloose twenty-something bookseller, and now I'm a homebody thirty-something single mom. In the early days of writing, there was so much more angst--mine and Isabel's. The first year as a mother knocked the impulse to navel-gaze right out of me. My focus, and Isabel's, turned outward, to other people's stories.

Many writers have a few practice novels in the drawer. Is this your first novel?

No other novels in the drawer--just drafts of this one. This was my practice novel, in many ways. I learned so much about writing and being a writer from this book. Practical things like, how to write at the laundromat (and other unlikely places), and how to trick your brain into forgetting the internet (key: keep a big dictionary handy). And, other things, too--structural and stylistic and thematic things--but the most important thing being that writing a novel is more about getting shit done than about being a certain kind of thoughtful, articulate, creative person.

Why did you choose to have the novel take place over only one day? What benefits do you have as a writer with this structure?

I'll admit to being a big fan of Mrs. Dalloway, so that was a huge influence. I love how Virginia Woolf uses...[read on]

Visit Alexis M. Smith's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Erard

Michael Erard's new book is Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners.

From his Q & A with Nataly Kelly at the Huffington Post:

Nataly Kelly (NK): Why did you write this book?

Michael Erard (ME): The changing linguistic world needs polyglots! We need to know what makes them tick so we can find out how to reproduce or mimic what they are able to do. We also need to get a grasp on our own fascinations (and suspicions) of massive multilingualism. This was a topic that had never been covered from a scientific perspective. In hyperpolyglots you have people who are running in essence a natural experiment into the limits of language learning, but no one, until now, has examined the results of that experiment.

NK: What exactly is a hyperpolyglot?

ME: I started my investigations with the definition that a hyperpolyglot is someone who speaks six or more languages, based on work by Dick Hudson, a University College London linguist, but that ought to be revised upward, to 11 languages or more.

NK: How fluent does one have to be in each language to be considered a hyperpolyglot?

ME: There's a myth that hyperpolyglots have all of their languages to an equally high, native-like level, but this isn't the case, just as it's relatively rare to find bilinguals who are perfectly balanced in both of their languages. Hyperpolyglots have varying degrees of proficiency in their languages, depending on lots of factors. To be clear, the...[read on]

Learn more about the author and his writing at Michael Erard's website.

The Page 69 Test: Um...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Cannell

Michael T. Cannell's new book is The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit.

From his Q & A with Jeff Glor:

Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?

Michael Cannell: Photographs drew me into this story originally. While working as an editor at The New York Times I saw a compilation of photos from the European racing circuit in the 1950s. Back then many drivers came from prominent European families. Wives and groupies sat in the pits wearing Capri pants and tight cashmere sweaters. But the glamour was closely accompanied by a dark aspect. First I was seduced, then obsessed.

JG: What surprised you the most during the writing process?

MC: Today we live in a safety-conscious culture. It's hard to fathom the dangers that drivers routinely faced half a century ago. For the most part, they drove without flameproof coveralls and roll bars. Their helmets were flimsy cork constructions. Believe it or not, they did without seat belts; the drivers wanted to be free to leap from the car if it burst into flames. Most shocking of all, they often raced with brakes so depleted that they would hardly have stopped a bicycle.

JG: What would you be doing if you weren't a writer?

MC: My first job out of college was...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Samuel Park

From a Q & A with Samuel Park about his debut novel, This Burns My Heart:

This novel is based on your mother’s story. What inspired you to write it down?

Something really extraordinary happened to my mother the day before her wedding: another man tried to get her to choose him, instead. She was equally attracted to him, but what woman in her right mind goes off with a stranger the day before her wedding? So she said No, and once her own marriage turned into shambles, she began to wonder, “What if.” As a writer, I thought that was an irresistible hook for a novel, and couldn’t resist fictionalizing it. Who was that man? What was their relationship like? Did they ever see each other again? The question that kept coming back to me was, What are the consequences and reverberations of our choices? What does it mean to pick X, instead of Y? Do you still have the life you were supposed to have, or is it another life altogether?

Was your mother involved in the writing process? How much is true, and how much did you fictionalize?

My mother didn’t know I was writing a novel inspired by her life. If I had told her, I would’ve become too self-conscious to continue. She turned out to be ok with it, which was a relief. My mother did ask, however, not to tell people which parts were true, and I’ve really stayed true to my word. It’s been a balancing act—being honest about my inspirations, but also respecting her privacy. I would say that this is a book that is inspired by my mother’s life and her spirit, but at the end of the day, it’s a work of fiction. The characters were borne out of my imagination, and all the real life events were rearranged for dramatic effect.

Did you have to do research on Korean language and customs? How much of your history and culture is a part of your life today?

I read a lot of books, and...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Samuel Park's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: This Burns My Heart.

Writers Read: Samuel Park.

My Book, The Movie: This Burns My Heart.

--Marshal Zeringue

Anna Funder

Born in 1966, Anna Funder is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She worked as an international lawyer and in public relations for a German overseas television service in Berlin. Her first book, Stasiland, won the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction in the United Kingdom.

Funder's new novel is All That I Am.

From her Q & A with Arifa Akbar at the Independent:

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

I'm obsessed with Tolstoy at the moment. The problem with reading 'Anna Karenina' is that everything else just pales. To be so rapidly and completely inside his characters' minds is incredible.
* * *

Which fictional character most resembles you?

I don't think I'm like him but I like [Richard Ford's] Frank Bascombe. I like his tentative, meandering, allusive mind, the gentleness of him, the indecision and the wondering.
* * *

Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

The real Dora Fabian [on whom 'All That I Am' is based]. I' m very interested in the people who do the right thing. They deepen our understanding of what it means to be human, they show an extraordinary concern that prompts self-destructively brave behaviour.

Read the complete Q & A.

Anna Funder's Stasiland appears on Steve Kettmann's list of ten of the best books on Germans and Germany.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Lescroart

Bestselling author John Lescroart's new novel is The Hunter.

From his Q & A with J. Sydney Jones:

Let’s start things off with a discussion of your own crime scene. What’s your connection to San Francisco?

San Francisco has always been a special place for me. Growing up on the San Francisco peninsula, I always looked to the city as the location where everything important seemed to happen. I attended college there for a year, and have lived there on four separate occasions, always driven out by the weather. In spite of that, my wife and I are fortunate to have a pied-a-terre now on Russian Hill, and we try to get down there at least a few times each month.

What things about San Francisco make it unique and a good physical setting in your books?

While every place is unique, San Francisco has its own distinctive character that lends itself to fiction. Its topography is truly romantic, its politics Byzantine (to say nothing of just plain bizarre), its food miraculous. Additionally, it is large enough to give the novels a kind of universal spin, and small enough to feel personal.

Did you consciously set out to use your location as a “character” in your books, or did this grow naturally out of the initial story or stories?

I...[read on]

The Page 99 Test: John Lescroart's Betrayal.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matt Rees

Matt Rees is an award-winning crime novelist and foreign correspondent. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed Omar Yussef crime series, including The Collaborator of Bethlehem. He is also the author of Cain’s Field, a nonfiction account of Israeli and Palestinian society. Rees lives in Jerusalem.

From Rees's Q &A with Jeff Glor about his new novel, Mozart's Last Aria:

Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?

Matt Rees: I've always loved Mozart, but his music became more important to me when I was working as a foreign correspondent for Time magazine during the Palestinian intifada. The violence I witnessed and experienced disturbed me. I was in some ways traumatized. My reaction to trauma was to lose my temper to a crazy extent. When I listened to Mozart, I felt calmer. So I used to drive around the West Bank and Gaza listening to this beautiful music, not thinking about the killing and the threat that lay around the corner. I took a break from covering the intifada to visit Austria with my wife - we were looking for a place that was the anti-intifada, organized, peaceful and beautiful. We happened to pass through a small mountain village where, I learned, Mozart's sister, Nannerl had spent her married life. I visited her house and saw that she looked exactly like her brother. Naturally that got me thinking about plot opportunities. But I also felt called by her, as I stood at the edge of the lake at the bottom of her garden. Called by a talented woman who had been consigned to this backwater while her brother achieved fame in the Imperial capital. I wrote the book for her.

JG: What surprised you the most during the writing process?

MR: I learned to...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Matt Beynon Rees' website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Mozart's Last Aria.

The Page 69 Test: Mozart's Last Aria.

Writers Read: Matt Rees.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andrea Cremer

Andrea Cremer's books include the "Nightshade" trilogy--a "fantastical, feminist saga of witches and werewolves."

From her Q & A with Susan Carpenter at Jacket Copy:

Jacket Copy: One of the things readers relate to with "Nightshade" is the double standard applied to Calla and Ren. Ren's allowed to be a playboy, but Calla, whom he's supposed to marry, has to remain chaste. That's a double bind that doesn't only exist in fantasy but continues to thrive in the real world as we kick off 2012. Why is that idea alluring to you?

Andrea Cremer: I'm very much a feminist, and as a girl I was so needing strong young women to be heroines to me in the books I read. Eowyn in Lord of the Rings, I lived for the moment when she ripped off her helmet and said, "No living man am I!" I wanted a character with all those qualities, but the parameters of society were constantly around her telling her she couldn't do that. You're allowed to be a warrior but only to a certain extent before she would have to submit to someone else, and that someone else was always going to be a man.

JC: That brings up another idea you tackle -- society's fear of the powerful female and its desire to suppress her. Calla needs to prove she's the pack's alpha, but there are forces working against that.

AC: Sexuality and sexual awakening were key for...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue