This month it's my pleasure to feature two of the industry's most influential and talented authors, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They've successfully collaborated on many blockbuster thrillers, such as RELIC (also a motion picture), STILL LIFE WITH CROWS and BRIMESTONE, to name a few.
Their latest release, CEMETERY DANCE, continues their joint venture in fine style. In it, Pendergast--the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent--returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult. Here's a quick snapshot:
William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security cameras confirm, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.
Sound intriguing? Even if I didn't know the quality of their writing, I'd buy the book from this premise. It's the kind of story thriller enthusiasts love.
CEMETERY DANCE benefits from their long collective experience working together, and even today they sometimes disagree on things. A book usually starts with a conversation. One or the other (usually Child) prepares a rough outline and then they allocate the writing of the rough draft chapters, usually along various plot threads or sequences. They'll bounce ideas (and manuscript) back and forth until all the rough edges are gone. They never adhere rigidly to an outline, which allows their stories to evolve. New ideas are spawned along the way. The trick is keeping the story moving forward along the main trunk line while being open to new plot twists and directions. It's a high-wire juggling act, but they pull it off nicely. They both feel strongly about not cheating their readers with a book that is un-engaging or unbelievable. We've all read books where we say, "come on, that's lame." Not so with Preston/Child. They're both acutely aware of the issue and use each other as check valves to ensure the end product is top notch. It is!
Their latest release, CEMETERY DANCE, continues their joint venture in fine style. In it, Pendergast--the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent--returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult. Here's a quick snapshot:William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Eyewitnesses claim, and the security cameras confirm, that the assailant was their strange, sinister neighbor--a man who, by all reports, was already dead and buried weeks earlier. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private--and decidedly unorthodox--quest for the truth. Their serpentine journey takes them to an enclave of Manhattan they never imagined could exist: a secretive, reclusive cult of Obeah and vodou which no outsiders have ever survived.
Sound intriguing? Even if I didn't know the quality of their writing, I'd buy the book from this premise. It's the kind of story thriller enthusiasts love.
CEMETERY DANCE benefits from their long collective experience working together, and even today they sometimes disagree on things. A book usually starts with a conversation. One or the other (usually Child) prepares a rough outline and then they allocate the writing of the rough draft chapters, usually along various plot threads or sequences. They'll bounce ideas (and manuscript) back and forth until all the rough edges are gone. They never adhere rigidly to an outline, which allows their stories to evolve. New ideas are spawned along the way. The trick is keeping the story moving forward along the main trunk line while being open to new plot twists and directions. It's a high-wire juggling act, but they pull it off nicely. They both feel strongly about not cheating their readers with a book that is un-engaging or unbelievable. We've all read books where we say, "come on, that's lame." Not so with Preston/Child. They're both acutely aware of the issue and use each other as check valves to ensure the end product is top notch. It is!
What I like most about the Preston/Child books is the perfect blend of technology, history, and a really great story, not to mention deep and believable characters. I lose sleep reading their books, so I've instigated a new policy: No Preston/Child after 10PM, if I go longer, I end up reading well into the AM hours and I'm trashed the next day. It's a self protection mechanism -- yes, these guys are that good! And they have almost 15 million books in print to prove it.
They met through a connection to New York City's American Museum of Natural. Child took a behind a scenes tour and what he saw fascinated him. Child recalls his visit. "The curator brought a group of us down these narrow hallways and into a vast, dimly-lit storage chamber. It seemed to go on forever, cabinet after cabinet stretching from floor to ceiling. And every cubbyhole of every tier of every cabinet was filled with butterflies, some of them fabulously rare, some extinct. I was told of other, even more fabulous places: the dinosaur bone storage room in the basement, the greatest dinosaur graveyard in the world. Grinning teeth, claws that could rip an elephant in half. That's when I thought: this place would make a really great book."
Child was a book editor at the time. "I became friends with Doug Preston, who wrote a column about the museum in Natural History magazine, and asked him to write an armchair tour of the museum, behind-the-scenes: the museum few if any visitors ever see. He wrote the acclaimed DINOSAURS IN THE ATTIC and I edited it. It's still in print."
And so began one the most successful collaborations of the thriller genre, one that's accomplished primarily through phone conversations and encrypted email exchanges. It works well despite the physical distance between them.
Authors are often asked: Where do you get your ideas? From an interview just after RELIC was released, Child offered this. "There are lots of ways, because there's so much material out there! For example, some of the scariest things happening today are taking place in science laboratories deep inside museums and research facilities. The public doesn't hear about them. So Doug and I paw through medical and scientific journals, looking for really gruesome, frightening stuff. Reality is always more terrifying than fiction, you know. We talk to the scientists who are working on the cutting edge. And we've come across stuff that would scare the pants off you. Scientific discoveries that, if you knew about them, would really make you nervous. So our job is to make you very, very nervous."
I asked Preston what he thought was more elemental to their craft, story or character?
"Generally we start with a plot. These are thrillers, which are plot-driven books. And then we populate it with characters, old and new. But we often find a character hijacking the story, seizing it and taking it off in a different direction while we chase after him hollering for him to come back. So in that sense the characters can also be fundamental. I would say the plot is more elemental in a building block sort of way. Without plot, you have no story. But a story without characters can still be a story... especially if you have aliens or robots in it!"
People have always been fascinated with museums, children and adults alike. There's something magical about them. From the same interview, Preston talks about their mystique:
"It's the building. The catacombs of Rome are a cakewalk compared to natural history museums after midnight. For example, my journalistic work took me all over the American Museum. I used to work late, and sometimes I walked through the halls at night, when only the emergency lights were on. The Dinosaur Hall, with the black skeletons throwing crazy shadows across the floor, their teeth gleaming in the dimness. Or the dark cases of the African hall, the masks leering at you. Or the dire wolves and saber-toothed cats. And the Museum is incredibly vast. It's physically larger than the Empire State Building. Nobody knows how many rooms there are in the Museum. Even after working their eight years, I still got lost. The place is a treasure trove of the bizarre. For example, there are twenty thousand skeletons in the Museum. One curator covered the entire wall of his office with skulls. Another has all four walls of his office lined with jars of dead bats."
And I thought authors were a strange bunch. An office lined with jars of dead bats? Maybe it's better if we don't know too much about these curators, although I must admit to a certain level of morbid curiosity.
Think of the Preston and Child stories--and collaboration--as Indiana Jones meets mad scientist. I think it's a terrific combo. Child likes the technical aspects while Preston pursues the adventurous parts. Nothing is absolute and of course they share duties, but there's an old expression: If it's not broken, don't fit it.
For kicks, I asked Preston to come up with a short story based on the following randomly generated elements:
1) An ape costume
2) A ten pound bar of platinum
3) A 300 pound cross-dresser
4) And a missing rock hammer
"The year, 1910. A failing traveling circus is touring dusty towns in Nevada. Cryptic markings stamped on an old platinum bar hidden in an ape costume in an abandoned trunk in a ruined dance hall leads our hero, the down-and-out ex-fat-lady Fanny Dimples, on a wild journey into the Silver Mountains, where she discovers the entrance to a cave marked with an rusty rock hammer--thus discovering the fabled Comstock Hoard."
I shook my head and took my hat off to him. There's a story there. It's a micro example of how Preston molds elements of adventure and history into something we can wrap our arms around.
(Child responds: "damn it, Doug! Now you've given away the plot of my next solo book!")
Is there any lighthearted dirt on Child? Well, indeed there is! Preston offered this:
"Linc bought an average looking Mercedes sedan that had been meticulously but invisibly souped up to racing car standards, and he habitually goes out on the highway and blows away bankers, hedge fund managers, and others of that ilk he finds tooling around in their Maseratis and Corvettes like they own the road. I've even heard he raises his martini glass to them as he whizzes past..."
Child strenuously denies this, particularly the martini glass part. "I'll school a Corvette whenever I see one just on principle, but I leave the Maseratis alone."
To be fair, I asked Preston if there was any dirt on himself he was willing share... His response? Nothing but the lonely sound of crickets. I guess we'll just have to use our imaginations. After all, he did work in a museum!
Child offered to provide plenty of dirt, but then at the last moment clammed up. "I'd forgotten that Doug promised to shade our 50/50 profit split to my advantage if I stopped talking about all his personal peccadilloes," he explained.
CEMETERY DANCE promises to deliver another intriguing story and it's certain to be a crowd pleaser. I'll keep an eye out for that Mercedes!
Douglas Preston is a Research Associate at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, a member of PEN New Mexico, and a board member of the School of American Research in Santa Fe. He counts in his ancestry the poet Emily Dickinson, the newspaperman Horace Greeley, and the infamous murderer and opium addict Amasa Greenough. Preston and his wife, Christine, have three children, Selene, Aletheia, and Isaac. They live on the coast of Maine.
Lincoln Child is a dilettante by natural inclination. His interests include: pre-1950s literature and poetry; post-1950s popular fiction; playing the piano, various MIDI instruments, and the 5-string banjo; English and American history; motorcycles; architecture; classical music, early jazz, blues, and R&B; exotic parrots; esoteric programming languages; mountain hiking; bow ties; Italian suits; fedoras; archaeology; and MMORPGs.
Contributing editor Andrew Peterson
is working on the next novel in a planned series featuring Nathan
McBride, a former Marine sniper. FIRST TO KILL is a finalist for the
Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards for Best First Mystery. Andrew
enjoys flying helicopters, scuba diving, long range target shooting,
and a very sad round of golf. He also works as a volunteer
firefighter. Andrew and his wife Carla, live just north of Paso
Robles, California. More information about First to Kill by Andrew Peterson, can be found at AndrewPeterson.com
They met through a connection to New York City's American Museum of Natural. Child took a behind a scenes tour and what he saw fascinated him. Child recalls his visit. "The curator brought a group of us down these narrow hallways and into a vast, dimly-lit storage chamber. It seemed to go on forever, cabinet after cabinet stretching from floor to ceiling. And every cubbyhole of every tier of every cabinet was filled with butterflies, some of them fabulously rare, some extinct. I was told of other, even more fabulous places: the dinosaur bone storage room in the basement, the greatest dinosaur graveyard in the world. Grinning teeth, claws that could rip an elephant in half. That's when I thought: this place would make a really great book."
Child was a book editor at the time. "I became friends with Doug Preston, who wrote a column about the museum in Natural History magazine, and asked him to write an armchair tour of the museum, behind-the-scenes: the museum few if any visitors ever see. He wrote the acclaimed DINOSAURS IN THE ATTIC and I edited it. It's still in print."And so began one the most successful collaborations of the thriller genre, one that's accomplished primarily through phone conversations and encrypted email exchanges. It works well despite the physical distance between them.
Authors are often asked: Where do you get your ideas? From an interview just after RELIC was released, Child offered this. "There are lots of ways, because there's so much material out there! For example, some of the scariest things happening today are taking place in science laboratories deep inside museums and research facilities. The public doesn't hear about them. So Doug and I paw through medical and scientific journals, looking for really gruesome, frightening stuff. Reality is always more terrifying than fiction, you know. We talk to the scientists who are working on the cutting edge. And we've come across stuff that would scare the pants off you. Scientific discoveries that, if you knew about them, would really make you nervous. So our job is to make you very, very nervous."
I asked Preston what he thought was more elemental to their craft, story or character?
"Generally we start with a plot. These are thrillers, which are plot-driven books. And then we populate it with characters, old and new. But we often find a character hijacking the story, seizing it and taking it off in a different direction while we chase after him hollering for him to come back. So in that sense the characters can also be fundamental. I would say the plot is more elemental in a building block sort of way. Without plot, you have no story. But a story without characters can still be a story... especially if you have aliens or robots in it!"People have always been fascinated with museums, children and adults alike. There's something magical about them. From the same interview, Preston talks about their mystique:
"It's the building. The catacombs of Rome are a cakewalk compared to natural history museums after midnight. For example, my journalistic work took me all over the American Museum. I used to work late, and sometimes I walked through the halls at night, when only the emergency lights were on. The Dinosaur Hall, with the black skeletons throwing crazy shadows across the floor, their teeth gleaming in the dimness. Or the dark cases of the African hall, the masks leering at you. Or the dire wolves and saber-toothed cats. And the Museum is incredibly vast. It's physically larger than the Empire State Building. Nobody knows how many rooms there are in the Museum. Even after working their eight years, I still got lost. The place is a treasure trove of the bizarre. For example, there are twenty thousand skeletons in the Museum. One curator covered the entire wall of his office with skulls. Another has all four walls of his office lined with jars of dead bats."
And I thought authors were a strange bunch. An office lined with jars of dead bats? Maybe it's better if we don't know too much about these curators, although I must admit to a certain level of morbid curiosity.
Think of the Preston and Child stories--and collaboration--as Indiana Jones meets mad scientist. I think it's a terrific combo. Child likes the technical aspects while Preston pursues the adventurous parts. Nothing is absolute and of course they share duties, but there's an old expression: If it's not broken, don't fit it.
For kicks, I asked Preston to come up with a short story based on the following randomly generated elements:
1) An ape costume
2) A ten pound bar of platinum
3) A 300 pound cross-dresser
4) And a missing rock hammer
"The year, 1910. A failing traveling circus is touring dusty towns in Nevada. Cryptic markings stamped on an old platinum bar hidden in an ape costume in an abandoned trunk in a ruined dance hall leads our hero, the down-and-out ex-fat-lady Fanny Dimples, on a wild journey into the Silver Mountains, where she discovers the entrance to a cave marked with an rusty rock hammer--thus discovering the fabled Comstock Hoard."
I shook my head and took my hat off to him. There's a story there. It's a micro example of how Preston molds elements of adventure and history into something we can wrap our arms around.
(Child responds: "damn it, Doug! Now you've given away the plot of my next solo book!")
Is there any lighthearted dirt on Child? Well, indeed there is! Preston offered this:
"Linc bought an average looking Mercedes sedan that had been meticulously but invisibly souped up to racing car standards, and he habitually goes out on the highway and blows away bankers, hedge fund managers, and others of that ilk he finds tooling around in their Maseratis and Corvettes like they own the road. I've even heard he raises his martini glass to them as he whizzes past..."
Child strenuously denies this, particularly the martini glass part. "I'll school a Corvette whenever I see one just on principle, but I leave the Maseratis alone."
To be fair, I asked Preston if there was any dirt on himself he was willing share... His response? Nothing but the lonely sound of crickets. I guess we'll just have to use our imaginations. After all, he did work in a museum!
Child offered to provide plenty of dirt, but then at the last moment clammed up. "I'd forgotten that Doug promised to shade our 50/50 profit split to my advantage if I stopped talking about all his personal peccadilloes," he explained.
CEMETERY DANCE promises to deliver another intriguing story and it's certain to be a crowd pleaser. I'll keep an eye out for that Mercedes!
Douglas Preston is a Research Associate at the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, a member of PEN New Mexico, and a board member of the School of American Research in Santa Fe. He counts in his ancestry the poet Emily Dickinson, the newspaperman Horace Greeley, and the infamous murderer and opium addict Amasa Greenough. Preston and his wife, Christine, have three children, Selene, Aletheia, and Isaac. They live on the coast of Maine.
Lincoln Child is a dilettante by natural inclination. His interests include: pre-1950s literature and poetry; post-1950s popular fiction; playing the piano, various MIDI instruments, and the 5-string banjo; English and American history; motorcycles; architecture; classical music, early jazz, blues, and R&B; exotic parrots; esoteric programming languages; mountain hiking; bow ties; Italian suits; fedoras; archaeology; and MMORPGs.
Contributing editor Andrew Peterson
is working on the next novel in a planned series featuring Nathan
McBride, a former Marine sniper. FIRST TO KILL is a finalist for the
Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards for Best First Mystery. Andrew
enjoys flying helicopters, scuba diving, long range target shooting,
and a very sad round of golf. He also works as a volunteer
firefighter. Andrew and his wife Carla, live just north of Paso
Robles, California. More information about First to Kill by Andrew Peterson, can be found at AndrewPeterson.com
