By Ian Walkley
Aficionados of the epic fantasy series THE DARK TOWER will be delighted at the April release (from NAL) of THE DARK TOWER COMPANION by Bev Vincent, the foremost authority on Stephen King’s evolving magnum opus. Whether you are a fan who has followed Roland’s journey or are discovering it for the first time, THE DARK TOWER COMPANION gives a fascinating overview of the series and an inside look at the creative process of one of the world’s most popular authors.
Featuring interviews with Stephen King, Ron Howard, DARK TOWER expert Robin Furth and others, Bev Vincent reveals THE DARK TOWER’s influential literary origins, examines its connections to the vast majority of King’s other novels, explores the expanded universe, catalogs the major characters, locations and concepts, and includes a travel guide to the story’s real-world locations.
This ultimate compendium has been described by the master Stephen King himself as: “…a valuable tool for exploring the series. Both newcomers and frequent visitors to Mid-World will be informed and delighted.”
more »
It was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to get into the Black Tower. I had no crampons, harness or rope, and security on the top floor was tighter than that inside a Swizz bank. I considered going the traditional route: up the elevator, through the gauntlet and into the lion’s den. But that way was madness. Lew Wasserman was the legendary creator of Universal Studios, the long-reining king of Hollywood, friend of Cleveland’s Silent Syndicate, and he hadn’t gotten that far by being nice and open.
So, I swallowed hard and did what every non-fiction suspense author does: I requested an interview.
And I was summarily rejected.
That was about 13 lucky years ago, after I signed a deal with a New York publisher to write Lew’s biography called MR. AND MRS. HOLLYWOOD: EDIE AND LEW WASSERMAN AND THEIR ENTERTAINMENT EMPIRE. Who knew that the kingpin never gave interviews?
Like many movie legends, aspects of Lew’s reputation turned out to be false. I eventually interviewed the man in his Tower, but only after several years and 450 interviews. Hollywood has an arcane pecking order with all the intrigue and betrayal of a Borgia Court. But I wasn’t a thriller fan for nothing. As a reporter, I turned to the tactics I’d read about in the nail-biting novels penned by so many ITW friends. To wit:
more »
TOP SECRET
Do not read further—classified materials. Reading this interview may improve your writing and help you land that next big advance due to the clandestine techniques learned herein.
Please join me in welcoming former CIA agent, J.C. Carleson in her interview tell-all.
J.C. Carleson has written WORK LIKE A SPY, a business advice book that is as applicable to the publishing world and thriller writing as it is to Wall Street.
In Work Like a Spy, author J.C. Carleson applies lessons learned from her years as an undercover CIA officer to the business world. Quite simply, the techniques used in the clandestine world are broadly applicable, universal methods for getting what you want from other people.
In the business setting, you may be seeking a new job, a promotion, a big sale, or a regulatory ruling in your company’s favor. Whatever it is that you seek, someone has the power to give, and this book will teach you new strategies to get it. Broken into three parts, WORK LIKE A SPY includes an introduction to the basic skill sets used by CIA officers, clandestine methods that can be applied at the organizational level, and techniques that can be applied to specific business situations.
more »
Have you ever wondered why some books are adapted into movies, and others aren’t? Or wished you could sit down and talk to the people whose stories have been adapted–and pick the brains of the people who adapted them?
In this book, author John Robert Marlow has done it for you–interviewing book authors, playwrights, comic book creators and publishers, as well as the Hollywood screenwriters, producers, and directors responsible for adapting fictional and true-life stories into Emmy-winning TV shows, Oscar-winning films, billion-dollar megahits and smaller independents. Then he talked to the entertainment attorneys who made the deals.
He came away with a unique understanding of adaptations, which he shares in this book: which stories make good source material (and why); what Hollywood wants (and doesn’t); what you can (and can’t) get in a movie deal; how to write and pitch your story to maximize the chances of a Hollywood adaptation; and how much (and when) you can expect to be paid.
MAKE YOUR STORY A MOVIE contains the distilled experience of storytellers whose works have earned over $50 billion worldwide.
more »
By Amy Shojai
In a former life/day job I worked as a legal secretary and have the utmost respect for attorneys. So I was delighted to interview author and attorney Leslie Budewitz about her award-winning nonfiction book designed to help fiction authors “get it right.” Her BOOKS, CROOKS & COUNSELORS was the 2011 Agatha Winner for Best Nonfiction and 2012 Anthony and Macavity Nominee.
Leslie has tried cases before judges and juries, resolved cases in mediation and arbitration and has experience in everything from personal injury and child abuse litigation to multi-million dollar corporation issues. Leslie also writes mysteries and understands what fiction authors need to know about the law to effectively incorporate these details in the story.
Thriller novelists get to make stuff up, but it needs to ring true and include enough real world details to engage the reader. So I asked Leslie about her writing process and how her work can help authors of thriller fiction.
more »
In D.P. Lyle’s new release, MORE FORENSICS AND FICTION the reader will discover answers to questions such as: How do hallucinogenic drugs affect a blind person? If snake venom is injected into fruit, would that cause death? How would you perform CPR in a helicopter? What happens when someone swallows razor blades? How long does it take blood to dry? Can DNA be obtained from a half-eaten bagel?
more »
By Gary Kriss
OK, here’s the question: whadda you get when you mix together a death by cattle stampede, a three-shot suicide, a love child, a secret city and two medical examiners threatening law enforcement with firearms?
Get it right and there’s a bonus.
Hint: it’s not an episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
But the latest episode of “Keeping Up With Diane Fanning,” called by some “the Queen of Real Life Crime Writing”—ah, that’s a different story, one that’s darkly detailed in HER DEADLY WEB just out from St. Martins.
more »
By Diane Holmes
An Interview with thriller master, Jon Land, about his latest book, BETRAYAL.
Jon Land’s BETRAYAL (Forge, January 3, 2012) is a stunning, true-life thriller that pits a lone, fearless FBI agent against the gangster who betrayed the mafia, fooled the FBI, and got away with murder… all while under the FBI’s protection.
…What “untouchable” agent Elliot Ness did to Chicago gangster Al Capone…
…What FBI agent Melvin Purvis did to notorious bank robber John Dillinger…
more »
by Jeff Ayers
MANY GENRES, ONE CRAFT: LESSONS IN WRITING POPULAR FICTION features 65 essays on writing genre novels for success in the mass market. All the contributors have taught or studied at Seton Hill University’s unique MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program, including such award winning thriller and suspense writers as Tess Gerrittsen, David Morrell, Michael Arnzen, Gary Braunbeck, Victoria Thompson, David Shifren, Pat Picciarelli and many more. Divided into sections on “Craft” “Genre” and “The Writer’s Life,” the book covers the entire range of the profession.
more »
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Speart to discuss her real-life thriller, WINGED OBSESSION, as she shares her personal experience—going under cover—to successfully tackle the intrigue, mystique and seedy world of illegal butterfly trading.
more »
Bestselling criminologist R. Barri Flowers delves into the dark world of prostitution in his latest book, Prostitution in the Digital Age: Selling Sex from the Suite to the Street, where he tackles the commercial sex trade industry and its influence on society. Flowers is known for exploring crime and legal issues in his work, covering topics such as murder, female crime, sex crimes, and more. He also writes crime fiction (Murder in Maui and Justice Served), teen mysteries (Danger in Time and Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay), and true crime (The Sex Slave Murders).
more »
In examining the careers of communist and liberal actors, screenwriters, playwrights, and directors in Hollywood from the late 1920s to the present, this book uses studio and PCA correspondence, FBI files, film and theater reviews, and other sources to reveal how all of these artists were concerned with and active in the cinema of social protest.
more »
By Mark Terry
Laura Caldwell has written chick-lit, international suspense, and romantic suspense, but now she’s turned her considerable talents to the book she believes she was “mean to write,” a nonfiction story about a young man who was wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
In the book Long Way Home, Caldwell tells the story of Jovan Mosley, a Chicago kid who in 1999 was falsely accused of and arrested for taking part in a fight that resulted in a death. Even though he claimed innocence, the Chicago police bullied the 19-year-old into a confession. Then, says Caldwell, “They sent him off to a jail that’s probably the worst in the country. It’s basically a holding cell where you wait for trial. You just wait around and try not to get killed. The system lost him and he spent five years and ten months without trial.”
more »
Janice Gable Bashman and Jonathan Maberry have unleashed a torrent of terror in their new nonfiction release, Wanted Undead or Alive: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil, from Citadel. The book is a far-ranging investigation into the nature of evil and a fascinating history of our preoccupation with the struggle between light and darkness. Publisher’s Weekly calls it a “fantastic and inventive approach to the world’s oldest war (and) a gripping and informative work.”
more »
The most riveting reads in history meet today’s biggest thriller writers in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads.
Edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads examines 100 seminal works of suspense through essays contributed by such esteemed modern thriller writers as: David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, Katherine Neville, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, R. L. Stine, and many more.
more »
In the new book THE MEASURE OF MADNESS-Inside the Disturbed and Disturbing Criminal Mind (Citadel Press/July 2010), forensic psychologist Dr. Cheryl Paradis draws back the curtain on that fascinating world and revisits twenty-one of the most intriguing, puzzling, and challenging cases she has handled in her multifaceted, twenty-five year career including that of a battered woman, a psychotic arsonist, an accused cannibal and a wide range of liars. Paradis relays these real-life whodunits with much of the dialogue relayed verbatim from her records and presents a compelling account of the relationships between mental illness and violence, innocence and guilt, criminal and victim, and individual and society.
more »
by It has happened to all of us. You’ve read hundreds of thrillers and finally you decide you could write one as good as that last one. You’re ready to try your hand at creating a bestseller, but you don’t know where to start. The answer may be to pick up a copy of the newly-published second edition of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Novel by Tom Monteleone.
more »
The most riveting reads in history meet today’s biggest thriller writers in Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads.
Edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads examines 100 seminal works of suspense through essays contributed by such esteemed modern thriller writers as: David Baldacci, Steve Berry, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, John Lescroart, Gayle Lynds, Katherine Neville, Michael Palmer, James Rollins, R. L. Stine, and many more.
more »
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.