Let's begin with a brief synopsis of Cody McFadyen's new release: The Darker Side:A lie. A long-ago affair. A dark desire. Everyone keeps secrets they take to the grave. No one knows this better than FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett. But what secret did a reclusive, young woman hold that led her to public murder? And what kind of killer is so driven and so brazenly daring that he'd take the woman's life on a commercial airliner thirty thousand feet in midair and leave nothing behind but a small souvenir?
Sound intriguing? I'd buy this book from that teaser -- and did.
Writing about serial killers is inherently dark in nature and few authors can pull it off. Cody McFadyen's in that exclusive group. Serials are perhaps the most frightening people walking the Earth. Many of them are devoids -- people who feel little or no emotion. For whatever reason, they didn't develop what we all take for granted; elation, sadness, love, anger. In devoids, all of those vital emotions are missing, or more accurately stated, short circuited. They kill, often kill gruesomely, just so they can feel even the smallest spark of emotion.
It's not difficult to imagine the types of questions McFadyen must receive from his readers about his research. I can envision McFadyen replying with something like: "Well, it's bit violent and bloody, but you get used to it." In all seriousness, there's a wealth of information about serial killers out there, but to be a successful novelist in this specialized genre, the writing has to be passionate and come from within.
Come from within? Yes, from within. There's a dark streak inside all of us, the trick is tapping into it without getting lost. Cody McFadyen walks that fine every day, and walks it tall.
When asked the most common question all writers face: Where do you get your ideas from? McFadyen's heard all kinds of responses. "I'm envious of the writers who know... but I suspect they are few and far between. The truth, for me, is that they fall out of the sky. They're an amalgamation of the life I've lived, the people I've known, the books I've read, the movies I've watched, the songs I've loved... and often all at oblique angles."McFadyen uses his television time wisely. "I watch a lot of true crime shows. I watched one recently that was telling the story of this poor woman who'd been kidnapped by a man and his wife and imprisoned for six or seven years. I won't go into all the horrible details, but suffice to say, it sparked something. What I ended up writing had little, if nothing, to do with the original story, but it started the ball rolling."
"I once sat down and wrote out an idea for a story. It was a good idea -- and I thought -- an original one. A few days later, I was watching one of those true crime shows and there was my idea -- in real life. Something that had happened years ago. I'd never heard the real life story, but the parallels were downright spooky. I'd come up with an idea for a story. A real life killer had executed this idea years before. Did we both get our inspiration from the same place? Maybe, sometimes, ideas come from a dark little man in a dark little room who sings and claps his hands and laughs while we dance to his tune."
McFadyen keeps a notebook with him and uses it to jot down ideas. "I have a little book, designed originally to be a diary, that I carry with me as I putter around the house or on the road. It comes upstairs with me to my office when I am writing there. I carry it back down with me to sit on the coffee table as I watch TV or fall asleep on the couch. It goes next to my bed at night before I go to sleep. I use this notebook to jot things down that I'm afraid - no, make that terrified - I'll forget. Ideas or snippets of ideas of things to use in the book I'm writing. I also use it to write down ideas or random images that come to me at times."
It's something McFadyen wouldn't want to misplace, for obvious reasons. "I worry sometimes about losing this notebook. I think if a stranger found it, he or she would probably turn it into the police in a panic. Because of the nature of what I write, sometimes, the snippets can be twisted." An example:
There is darkness everywhere. Even when the sun is out. Your grocer's smile, as he rings you up, may seem benign, but it's a lie. He kills young boys and buries them in his basement, with the same hands he uses to bag your groceries.
Here are a couple more:
The stars are never quite as bright as when I'm killing someone. It's when, for me, the moon's at its fullest.
There comes a time in every man's life when he must go down in flames, where he must explode, publicly, in a display so disastrous that it will be talked about for years to come, told as a cautionary tale to generations yet unborn.
The serial killer either has no fear of spiritual accountability, or does, but has resigned himself to hell.
Talking about these spontaneous concepts, McFadyen says: "Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to put these 'serial killer thoughts' in quotes as I wrote them in my book! Some are random. I have no idea where they come from, why they came and how (if ever) they'll be used."
Whatever the genre, I think it's a good idea for a writer to keep -- at a minimum -- a small pad and pen with them. I do, although my mental notes are more benign and usually have to do with my main character's way of looking at the world.
McFadyen's chosen a tough genre. People don't want to read about pure gore, it's pointless and it turns them off. The trick is finding the right balance of showing the reader just enough without crossing certain lines. We all have vivid imaginations and a great writer allows the reader to decide how much he or she wants to see. I once heard a great line at a writers conference. "Write for your reader, not for yourself." That really rang true for me, and I know it rings true for McFadyen as well.
Cody Mcfadyen was born in Texas in 1968. He designed websites before selling his first novel, Shadow Man, in 2005. He has since had a second book - The Face of Death - published. Both were international best sellers. He lives in Southern California with his two black labs, often referred to as 'The Black Forces of Destruction.' He drinks coffee (copiously), plays guitar (badly), and reads (voraciously). He abhors adverbs in writing, except when used in short bios like this one. More information about Cody McFadyen and his books can be found at www.codymcfadyen.com
Contributing editor Andrew Peterson is working on the next
novel in a planned series featuring Nathan McBride, a former Marine Corps sniper
and ex-CIA operative. Born and raised in San Diego, California, Andrew attended
La Jolla High School before enrolling at the University of Oklahoma, where he
earned a B.S. Degree in Architecture. Andrew and his wife Carla, live in Central
California. More information about First to Kill by Andrew Peterson, can be found at AndrewPeterson.com
