Helter Skelter author Vincent Bugliosi calls M. William Phelps "one of America's finest true-crime writers," and Radio America states Phelps is "the nation's leading authority on the mind of the female murderer." Phelps is the author of 12 books and has appeared on dozens of national radio and television programs, including Court TV, The Discovery Channel, ABC's Good Morning America, Biography Channel, History Channel, Fox News Channel, USA Radio Network, and ABC News Radio.
Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with M. William Phelps about his latest book, Deadly Secrets, and his upcoming thriller.
Tell us about Deadly Secrets and why it's such a fascinating read.
When you have the local police lieutenant's wife murdered in the parking lot of her church after choir practice, a few nights before Halloween, by a woman she's been having lesbian relations with, you have to scratch your head ... I could not have made this up, and if I did, no one would believe me. And, wouldn't you know, the story takes place the town of Pleasant Valley.
Dawn Silvernail, the killer whose crime is profiled in Deadly Secrets, refused to speak to reporters about the case but granted you exclusive interviews. Why do you think she trusted you with her story?
Because she knew I would give her a voice, and tell her complete story for the first time. No one had offered Dawn this opportunity. Charm helps. I spent some time flattering Dawn, making her feel comfortable with me. She was a bit standoffish. She was in a prison with a woman I had written about previously who told her not to trust me. I had to remind Dawn that she was taking the advice of a woman who had murdered four of her children, mummified their remains, and carried them around in boxes for 25 years.
Contributing editor Janice Gable Bashman chats with M. William Phelps about his latest book, Deadly Secrets, and his upcoming thriller.
Tell us about Deadly Secrets and why it's such a fascinating read.When you have the local police lieutenant's wife murdered in the parking lot of her church after choir practice, a few nights before Halloween, by a woman she's been having lesbian relations with, you have to scratch your head ... I could not have made this up, and if I did, no one would believe me. And, wouldn't you know, the story takes place the town of Pleasant Valley.
Dawn Silvernail, the killer whose crime is profiled in Deadly Secrets, refused to speak to reporters about the case but granted you exclusive interviews. Why do you think she trusted you with her story?
Because she knew I would give her a voice, and tell her complete story for the first time. No one had offered Dawn this opportunity. Charm helps. I spent some time flattering Dawn, making her feel comfortable with me. She was a bit standoffish. She was in a prison with a woman I had written about previously who told her not to trust me. I had to remind Dawn that she was taking the advice of a woman who had murdered four of her children, mummified their remains, and carried them around in boxes for 25 years.
You stated you rely on letters you get from fans, e-mails, the news, and television to find the murder cases you cover in your books. What key factors do you look for when considering a case for a book, and what ultimately makes the decision for you?
Like Harlan Coben's fiction, I tend to focus my books on stories with a strong foundation in family, and how the lives of that family revolve around one particular tragedy, which ultimately transforms, or redeems, some members, but destroys others.
Tell us about your writing and research process.
The former is rather pleasurable; the latter can be torture. Occasionally, although all the elements of a book are there for you, those elements don't want to come together. You cannot invent circumstances, or create transition, so you are forced to do more research. Getting people to talk can be difficult. But you persist.
Your true crime books are based on facts, which could make for a very dry and uninteresting read, yet you manage to draw in readers time and time again. How do you take factual information and make it so compelling?
Most important, you have to know the case inside and out. You study every facet of it, especially the people. Generally, it's events that take place before or after a crime that allow you, as the writer, to create tension and mystery--to build up to a particular moment. When I interview sources, I ask them questions about everyday life. As they answer, I am thinking, where can this anecdote go in the narrative? A lot of times, I'll write a note to myself, End chapter here .. begin chapter there ... The mysterious elements of a case emerge as you dig deeper into the lives of the players. This is why it's important to know the story before you begin to commit to a narrative structure. I may write half of a book before I realize I have found the opening. Timelines don't always have to end up on the page in chronological order.
You stated that "the challenge is to write a different book every time... [You] don't want to get into a cookie-cutter pattern of churning out true crime books." How do you accomplish this goal?
I look at the aspects of a case that were not part of the news coverage and build my narrative from that exclusive reporting. I want to tell true stories that put the lives of victims up front. Victims get lost in the tabloidish folly of trials and cable news coverage. I believe a person's life is as interesting as a person's death.
Also, if you look at true-crime books in general, you'll see that many of them open as if the book was a travel brochure. I'm guilty myself of this (in some of my early works). I aim to begin the story somewhere in the middle: I want to plop the reader down into a place and hook him or her immediately with an intriguing part of the crime. It takes a lot of research. One thing I can certainly feel good about is that my books could never be considered "cookie-cutter." I work hard at not being put into that box (or cookie jar, rather).
I understand you are writing a thriller featuring a Boston police detective. Can you give us a short preview?
I must say, thriller writing has been rough business for this nonfiction author. In the fiction I want everything to be as authentic as possible. Suffice it to say, I have this broad base of forensic and criminal knowledge to harvest. More than that, I want my protagonist, Detective Jake Sundance Cooper, to be unique, which has proven to be the challenge. My editor has been extremely helpful, and it's been a humbling experience for me. The first book is about a serial killer dubbed "The Optimist" by the Boston Globe, and the plot centers around the Catholic Church, a rare flower, several legless and heartless victims found along Boston's Freedom Trail, and the corruption of Boston's Big Dig.
Contributing editor, Janice Gable Bashman, writes for leading
publications, including "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market," "US
Industry Today," "Food & Drink Quarterly," "The Wild River Review,"
"Bucks," and others. Her serial feature "Thrill Ride: The Dark World of
Mysteries and Thrillers" (co-written with Jonathan Maberry for the
"Wild River Review") includes interviews with Barry Eisler, Lawrence
Block, Steve Hamilton, and other thriller and mystery writers. She is
working on a thriller, "Vengeance," and her writing won multiple awards
at the 2007 Philadelphia Writer's Conference.
Like Harlan Coben's fiction, I tend to focus my books on stories with a strong foundation in family, and how the lives of that family revolve around one particular tragedy, which ultimately transforms, or redeems, some members, but destroys others.
Tell us about your writing and research process.
The former is rather pleasurable; the latter can be torture. Occasionally, although all the elements of a book are there for you, those elements don't want to come together. You cannot invent circumstances, or create transition, so you are forced to do more research. Getting people to talk can be difficult. But you persist.Your true crime books are based on facts, which could make for a very dry and uninteresting read, yet you manage to draw in readers time and time again. How do you take factual information and make it so compelling?
Most important, you have to know the case inside and out. You study every facet of it, especially the people. Generally, it's events that take place before or after a crime that allow you, as the writer, to create tension and mystery--to build up to a particular moment. When I interview sources, I ask them questions about everyday life. As they answer, I am thinking, where can this anecdote go in the narrative? A lot of times, I'll write a note to myself, End chapter here .. begin chapter there ... The mysterious elements of a case emerge as you dig deeper into the lives of the players. This is why it's important to know the story before you begin to commit to a narrative structure. I may write half of a book before I realize I have found the opening. Timelines don't always have to end up on the page in chronological order.
You stated that "the challenge is to write a different book every time... [You] don't want to get into a cookie-cutter pattern of churning out true crime books." How do you accomplish this goal?
I look at the aspects of a case that were not part of the news coverage and build my narrative from that exclusive reporting. I want to tell true stories that put the lives of victims up front. Victims get lost in the tabloidish folly of trials and cable news coverage. I believe a person's life is as interesting as a person's death.
Also, if you look at true-crime books in general, you'll see that many of them open as if the book was a travel brochure. I'm guilty myself of this (in some of my early works). I aim to begin the story somewhere in the middle: I want to plop the reader down into a place and hook him or her immediately with an intriguing part of the crime. It takes a lot of research. One thing I can certainly feel good about is that my books could never be considered "cookie-cutter." I work hard at not being put into that box (or cookie jar, rather).
I understand you are writing a thriller featuring a Boston police detective. Can you give us a short preview?
I must say, thriller writing has been rough business for this nonfiction author. In the fiction I want everything to be as authentic as possible. Suffice it to say, I have this broad base of forensic and criminal knowledge to harvest. More than that, I want my protagonist, Detective Jake Sundance Cooper, to be unique, which has proven to be the challenge. My editor has been extremely helpful, and it's been a humbling experience for me. The first book is about a serial killer dubbed "The Optimist" by the Boston Globe, and the plot centers around the Catholic Church, a rare flower, several legless and heartless victims found along Boston's Freedom Trail, and the corruption of Boston's Big Dig.
Contributing editor, Janice Gable Bashman, writes for leading
publications, including "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market," "US
Industry Today," "Food & Drink Quarterly," "The Wild River Review,"
"Bucks," and others. Her serial feature "Thrill Ride: The Dark World of
Mysteries and Thrillers" (co-written with Jonathan Maberry for the
"Wild River Review") includes interviews with Barry Eisler, Lawrence
Block, Steve Hamilton, and other thriller and mystery writers. She is
working on a thriller, "Vengeance," and her writing won multiple awards
at the 2007 Philadelphia Writer's Conference.
