ITW introduces our new web-site and the monthly magazine section THE BIG THRILL

Thrillers are compelling because they function on a level you understand instinctively. They can be just as rich and textured and challenging as any other literary form, but at heart they're real, and they cut to the quick.

In short, they communicate. So it made sense to a few of us around here to try to put together a web-site that tried to do the same thing. Here, from this point on, is how things work...

Death of a newsletter

We know some of you adored getting that long, and very well put together newsletter we used to mail you. But the truth is a lot of you didn't find time to open it because there was probably so much other stuff demanding your attention too. And then you hit delete, and it was out of your inbox, gone for good. Do you know what you missed? Probably not...



So the newsletter, as it was, has been put to rest. The competitions, the goodies and giveaways will remain in return for your interest in being signed up to the ITW news machine. But instead of a long chunk of text to read, we will send you a short, pithy summary each month guiding you to something, we hope, much more interesting altogether...



The Big Thrill

A monthly magazine. On the web. Here. Now. You're reading it. A bunch of articles designed to inform, entertain and from time to time annoy the hell out of you, because anger is a part of this writing business too, an important part sometimes.



Big Thrill will let our authors talk about their work, their influences, what bugs them, what inspires. It will be aimed, very deliberately, at the reading audience out there, not fellow writers. If you want to know how to find an agent or seek greater comprehension of Aristotle's rules on the three-act structure you're looking in the wrong place.

The Blog

It seems to take a lifetime to see a book go from manuscript to print. We're impatient too. So impatient that a month is sometimes too long to wait. So for those instant things - a rant, an event, some quick news, a tip to pass on - we now have a blog where the ITW membership can communicate instantly to the world at large.

If you're a reader, we hope all this will give you greater insight into the kind of books that make up the most popular genre in fiction of the moment. How do you find your way around? Simple, just hit the menus at the top of the screen, or the browsing tools in the right sidebar. Going to Latest Features does what it says. Or you can choose to browse articles according to their subject area - from discussions on location and general thriller chat, to new book listings and opinion pieces. These will change over time as new ideas come on line: remember Da Vinci here. This is all loose and fluid, and we rejoice in that fact. In a month's time you'll see some other new goodies too, and we'll keep on adding as time goes by.



If you're a writer outside ITW we hope you'll find one more reason to join. And for those in the fold, we trust you'll see this can turn out to be quite something, a living library and archive about the thriller genre that will grow every month, and be archived for generations to come. Unlike a newsletter, you see, articles don't disappear. They simply go further down the queue. If you want to find something on a particular author, just use the search engine - and it will track down pieces no matter how old, or what they're filed under.



And don't forget we're not just about the written word either. As the pre-eminent R.L. Stine demonstrates in this issue, the web is about audio too, and video as well. The choice really is yours. We're endeavouring to set up one of the coolest, slickest, easiest communications vehicles for a writers' organization on the web, one that works 24/7, gets updated monthly, and runs around the globe.



A lot of the hard work - building the engine - is now pretty much done. What remains is the easy stuff. This is a community of writers, remember? And now you have the chance to communicate directly with the world at large, launching your own books, in your own words, with your own take on how they came about.



How? If you're an ITW member just e-mail us at editorial@thrillerwriters.org and we will send you the magic key to file your own stories, under our overall editorial control naturally. It's easy, it's quick and it's free too, and it means your new books will get automatically listed on the fastest-growing writers' organization site on the web.



We hope you find this to your tastes. But let us know, whoever you are. At the foot of every story there's a comment form where you can tell us, and make your own public observations on what you read here. Writing is about listening too. And we are.

The legendary R.L. Stine, creator of some of the most memorable children's scary stories of recent times, has produced a new story for the internet... and we're delighted to say he's given ITW the privilege of introducing it to the reading world.

Bob Stine's books have entertained and thrilled a generation of children... and how many other authors can claim to have their own 4-D movie showing at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and Tampa and Seaworld in San Antonio and San Diego?

This is the first project he's worked on with his son Matt, a musician and sound designer who directed the actors, wrote the original music, did the sound effects and edited the whole production. Click below to listen now, or you can download the entire story to listen to later. For more info and creepy fun check out the official R.L. Stine website.

Listen now

{mp3}kidbehindthedoor{/mp3}

Download audio (26mb)

Hit 'read more' to see the production credits.

THE KID BEHIND THE DOOR

A Story by R.L. Stine

A 27 SOUND ENTERTAINMENT Production

Produced and Directed by Matt Stine



The Cast

SAM...........................Jillian Sanders

MONICA....................Kari Geddes

AUNT RHONDA.........Quinn Casavale

DOUGIE....................Baird Wallace



Original Music & Sound Effects by Matt Stine

David Morrell, SCAVENGER, and the Creative Journey. An interview with Mark Terry

 

Bestselling author and ITW co-founder David Morrell has a new thriller, SCAVENGER, about to hit the shelves. In this nail-biting story, the heroes-or perhaps survivors is a better word--from CREEPERS, Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert, return, caught up in what Morrell calls "a desperate, high-tech scavenger hunt for a 100-year-old time capsule." It could also be compared to TV's "The Amazing Race" if the contestants were wearing plastic explosives that could be detonated by remote control. Yeah, it's that kind of book-high tension, high concept, and creepy.

Morrell took time to talk to ITW staff contributor Mark Terry about SCAVENGER, promotion, and the creative journey.

MT: Is there any particular reason you wrote a sequel?

DM: When I had the idea for SCAVENGER, I decided that the people forced to hunt for the time capsule would be chosen because of their amazing ability to survive: mountain climbers who endured a harrowing ordeal on Mt. Everest, a woman who floated for 3 weeks with a little girl in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean, a marine aviator who was shot down over Iraq and hunted for weeks by insurgents. I got to thinking that the main characters in CREEPERS, Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert, had shown they were in this league by surviving the nightmare of the Paragon Hotel, and hence they too would be logical candidates to be conscripted into the hunt. In a way, SCAVENGER's premise insisted that I include them. But the two books are different. The primary emotion of CREEPERS is the claustrophobia of the hotel whereas SCAVENGER emphasizes agoraphobia and the overwhelming expanse of a mysterious valley with a sky so wide that the characters feel small and vulnerable.

MT: What was your research like for this book?

David: For a change, I didn't need to do a lot physically. I read a newspaper article about time capsules, and I got so interested in the subject that I started doing Internet searches for time capsules and learned about the Crypt of Civilization and the Westinghouse Time Capsule in Flushing Meadows, New York. They're not scheduled to be opened for almost 6,000 years. But at least their location is known. In contrast, thousands of time capsules have been lost. One town alone lost 17 of them. What's in them? What did their creators think was important enough to send to the future? An expression kept occurring to me: "Sometimes the past is buried for a reason." The more I learned about time capsules, the more excited I got about doing a novel in which I could try to communicate my enthusiasm about this amazing, eerie subject.

MT: What are your views on book promotion?

DM: I've noticed that many writers, having joined ITW to help their careers, don't take the opportunities that the organization provides for them. One exciting idea that I thought was underused involved David Hewson's explanation about how to do one's own podcast and post it online. I don't think enough writers took advantage of that. Writers ask, "What can I do to get ahead?" But it's my impression that many are passive about their careers, and then they can't understand why their work doesn't get noticed.

I've taken a cue from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said that he expects to spend as much time promoting a movie as he spends to make it. So that's basically 3 months. Now, I don't expect any author to spend a year promoting a book that takes a year to write, but I don't know why 3 months in chunks would be unreasonable. That is, in fact, what I found myself doing.

I look back to when my first novel FIRST BLOOD came out in 1972. Authors weren't expected to do anything. We wrote the book, and then we worked on the next book, and we hoped for the best. Then in the late 1970s somebody said that authors should go to bookstores and do signings. That was a new thought. Later, in the 1980s, going on a publicity tour was another new thought, and maybe visiting wholesaler warehouses if that opportunity arose. In this decade, the Internet became a marketing opportunity. New tactics are being invented all the time. But we need to realize that we can't rely on our publishers to promote us. They do their best, but in recent years, publicity staffs have been downsized, and there aren't enough publicists to handle all the work.

When I teach writers' workshops, I tell all my students that when they submit books to agents and editors, they need to attach some sort of marketing plan. This plan should address the non-fiction subject of the novel in such a way that it indicates the audience for the book and how that audience can be informed about it. If you Google the book's subject, how many hits do you get? How can you use the Internet to promote the book on sites devoted to the non-fiction subject of the novel?

Using the same logic, when I do interviews, I almost never talk about plot. Journalists and media people hate it when authors talk about plot. Summarized plot is boring. What interviewers want is a subject that can be discussed almost as if it's a topic in a magazine or a newspaper. The non-fiction topic of SCAVENGER is time capsules. Those mysterious messages to the future so fascinate me that I can talk about them for hours, especially the Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University. My hope is that I can make readers curious enough to pick up the novel and learn how time capsules function in the story.

MT: What keeps you writing?

DM: I have these persistent stories that keep coming into my head. They demand to be told. I get so excited about them that I want other people to share them. It's an obsession really, and I don't know how to shut it off. I'm really riding high on the adrenaline rush of the creativity.

MT: You've had a long and successful career. Do you have any suggestions about how we other writers can survive-and I'm putting an emphasis on the word "survive"-a writing career?

DM: This is my thirty-fifth year as a published author. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about Clint Eastwood and the remarkable stages in his career. He started in TV, and then he went into the spaghetti westerns, and then he was Dirty Harry, and then he decided to be a director. I'm stunned that he recently directed a subtitled Japanese movie. The guy is what, 76 years old? I think he's a role model to us all because he sees his career as a creative voyage. Things that interest him make him go in various directions, and he's always evolving. I think this is very important for a writer to bear in mind. It's tempting to keep repeating something that's successful, but I believe that eventually readers say, "I get the idea. I guess I've read enough of that." For our psychological benefit as writers, it's important to keep things fresh.

For example, all of my fiction involves action and suspense, but there are clusters of books in which I looked at thrillers in very different ways. I did THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE series, for instance. That was a serious attempt to write spy novels. And then I did a couple of thrillers in which artists were the main characters. In BURNT SIENNA, the main character is a painter who finds himself in a life-and-death conflict with an arms dealer. In DOUBLE IMAGE, the main character is a photographer who falls in love with a woman in a photograph taken all the way back in 1933. It's my only explicitly sexual book. Now, in CREEPERS and SCAVENGER, I'm writing mixed genre novels that are thrillers with the eerie tone of horror novels but without anything supernatural in them.

I'll evolve from that, too. One day I'll say, "Gee, I did that, but I wonder what else I can do." In fact, after more than ten years, I'm about to return to the spy novel, but with a difference. Next year's book will be THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS. It's a modern action thriller that reinterprets the traditional Nativity story from a spy's perspective. Meanwhile, I also wrote a six-part CAPTAIN AMERICA comic-book series that explores the serious theme of the burden of being a superhero in today's troubled world. The first issue comes out this fall. I loved using the stop-action technique of comic books to learn a new way to tell a story.

What I'm saying is that to go the distance, to be around a long time, you need to change and adapt, to morph in ways that keep you interested and make readers curious about where you'll take them.

That's one theory. The other is never to be complacent. I'm always mindful that the person most in charge of my career is myself. Agents, editors, and publicists, as helpful as they are, have other people to take care of. Each author is a fraction of their clientele. But our careers happen to us one hundred percent, and ultimately we need to try to assume as much responsibility as possible for what happens to our books.

David Morrell is the award-winning author of FIRST BLOOD, the 1972 novel in which Rambo first appeared. Co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization, he has written numerous best-selling novels, including THE FIFTH PROFESSION and THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE (the basis for an NBC miniseries that premiered after the Super Bowl). His LESSONS FROM A LIFETIME OF WRITING discusses what he learned in his thirty-five years as a published author. To learn more, go to www.davidmorrell.net .

 

DAVID CORBETT on political parallels ancient and modern that shaped his new thriller set in El Salvador

My latest novel, BLOOD OF PARADISE, took form after a chance reading of Philoctetes, an obscure drama by Sophocles. In the original, oracles advise the Greeks that victory over Troy is impossible without the bow of Herakles. Unfortunately, it's in the hands of Philoctetes, whom the Greeks abandoned ten years earlier when he was bitten by a venomous snake while the Achaean fleet harbored briefly on its way to war.

Odysseus, architect of the desertion scheme, must now return, reclaim the bow, and bring both the weapon and its owner to Troy. For a companion, he chooses Neoptolemus, the son of his slain archrival, Achilles.

Neoptolemus, being young, still embraces the heroic virtues of his father, and believes they can appeal to Philoctetes as a warrior. But Odysseus-knowing Philoctetes will want revenge against all the Greeks, he himself in particular-convinces Neoptolemus that deceit will serve their purposes far better. In essence, he corrupts Neoptolemus, who subsequently tricks Philoctetes into relinquishing his bitterness to rejoin the Trojan campaign.

The tale has an intriguing postscript: It's the corrupted Neoptolemus, by killing King Priam at his altar during the sack of Troy, who brings down a curse upon the Greeks even as they are perfecting their victory.

I saw in the Greek situation a presentiment of America's dilemma at the close of the Cold War: finally achieving unrivaled leadership of the globe, but at the same time being cursed with the hatred of millions. Though we have showered the world with aid, too often we have done so through conspicuously corrupt, repressive, even murderous regimes, where the elites in charge predictably siphoned off much of that aid into their own pockets. Why did we look the other way? The regimes in question were reliably anticommunist, crucial to our need for oil, or otherwise amenable to American interests.

We live in a dangerous world, it is said. Hard, unpleasant choices must be made, and hand-wringing apologies are for the weak and defeatist. Besides, America is the one reliable force for freedom in the world, it is said, by many of the same people who now embrace an exceptionalist America marching boldly into the new century with unapologetic military power, uninhibited free-market capitalism, and evangelical fervor-most immediately to bring freedom to Iraq.

The historical template for this revanchism is Central America-specifically El Salvador, trumpeted as "the final battleground of the Cold War," and championed as one of our greatest foreign policy successes: the crucible in which American greatness was re-forged, banishing the ghosts of Vietnam forever.

There's a serious problem with this formulation, however: It requires an almost hallucinatory misreading of history.

Our "success" in El Salvador was in fact a stalemate, despite the infusion of billions of dollars. The regime and its officer corps were so corrupt and sadistic that American advisors remarked candidly there was no way the government could prevail against the guerrillas. And the civil campaign waged to win the hearts and minds of the populace was embraced during the eventual peace negotiations not by our allies, but by the enemy-and the talks themselves were brokered by the UN, not us.

Despite all that, cannot it be said, as Dick Cheney claimed, defending our Iraq strategy, that El Salvador is now "a whale of a lot better" because of our efforts? True, the nationwide network of informers has disbanded, so people can express criticism of the government without fear of abduction, torture, and murder. But the local elites retain almost total immunity from civil or criminal redress; agrarian reform has stalled; child labor is endemic as is child prostitution and the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation; a shadowy Mafia of ex-military men runs the major rackets, with an expanding population of gang members, many deported from America, creating a criminal underclass that has raised El Salvador's murder rate to one of the highest in the world. Neo-liberal economic polices further skewed wealth toward the oligarchy, and the middle class has withered. Seven hundred people a day leave El Salvador for America, and the economy would collapse without money sent home by these expatriates.

But there is another parallel between Central America and Iraq even more insidious, even beyond the "Salvador Option" by which we trained aggressive anti-insurgent commando units that devolved into death squads. As part of our anti-Communist pushback, we funded the Nicaraguan Contras, drug-dealing mercenaries known for preferring raids on unarmed villages to frontal combat with Sandinista troops, with a particular penchant for raping teenage girls ("the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers," said President Reagan). No one expected the Contras to prevail; their purpose was to demonstrate that the Sandinistas could not protect the populace or even maintain basic services. And who has copied this strategy? The jihadists and insurgents in Iraq. Like the victims of, yes, a curse, we find ourselves trapped in the exact same position as our previous enemies. Not even Sophocles could have devised it more neatly.

All of which leads to a brief summarizing glance at two of the characters in Blood of Paradise, Jude and Clara.
Like Neoptolemus, Jude allows himself to be seduced by a morally questionable elder into a reckless scheme. In a sense, he stands for all of us: An everyman who wants to do good in a world he knows needs plenty of it, but who also suspects that to accomplish that end a few nefarious deeds must be indulged. He wants to believe as well that one can withstand such evil, rise above it, even as one does its bidding: Good intentions, sound character, and professional skill will prevail over necessary compromises with immorality. Who knows, it might even be fun - kick ass, take names, shake hands with the devil but don't let him hold your wallet. We're Americans after all, blessed by God and history. How can we not prevail?

Clara - Salvadoran war orphan, rape victim - sees the matter differently. She ultimately understands that only through real sacrifice can the future possibly redeem the past. Being deeply religious, like many Salvadorans, she sees this call for renunciation as the challenge of the crucifixion. And so, in the end, she finds the heart to act upon her conviction-not in an empowering act of violence, but a selfless, agonizing act of love.

David Corbett is a former private investigator for the San Francisco firm of Palladino & Suitherland, as well as a novelist, screenwriter, and poet. His first book, The Devil's Redhead, was nominated for the Anthony and Barry Awards for Best First Novel of 2002. His second, Done for a Dime, was named a New York Times Notable Book and was nominated for the Macavity Award for Best Novel of 2003. "It Can Happen" (from San Francisco Noir), was nominated for a Macavity Award for Best Short Story of 2005. His latest novel, Blood of Paradise ("a Quiet American for the new century"-John Connolly) appears in March, 2007.

What does a world renowned brain and neurosurgeon do when he has free time? Write amazing medical thrillers, of course!

One day while sitting in a committee meeting that oversaw the selection of a computerized medical record system that would eliminate dangerous mistakes, Wyler came up with the hook for his first novel, Deadly Errors. He remarked, "What if the computer system used to prevent such errors was flawed? From 44,000 to 98,000 people die in hospitals each year from preventable medical errors, making this the country's eight leading cause of death-higher than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. There's good evidence that computerized medical records decrease these kinds of mistakes."

Inspired by the success of his first novel, he was having lunch with his editor to pitch ideas for his next novel when she suggested writing a novel about keeping a detached head alive. I thought, "Where did that come from? I then started playing around with the idea and loved it."

Wyler's second novel, Dead Head, opens with brain surgeon Russell Lawton kidnapped by terrorists. They have also abducted his little girl and to insure she stays alive, he must capitulate to their demands. They want him to design a computer that can use brain waves to create speech and manipulate robotic body parts. The leader of the terrorists has been in a horrible disfiguring accident and they plan to use Lawton's device to learn their leader's bold plan to create havoc. Lawton is running out of time and torn between helping the terrorists to keep his daughter alive but potentially killing thousands of others if the bold plan comes to fruition.

Wyler's high concept thriller isn't as over the top as it might seem. Many of the ideas utilized in the novel are medical reality. "There are at least two companies presently trying to produce commercial brain/computer interfaces. In other words, they have devices that can convert brain activity into electronic signals that control robots or robotic devices."

The potential for science involving this type of work is enormous. Currently, the device manufactured by Neural Signals helps people with paralysis from diseases like ALS or high spinal cord injury so they can communicate. The other company in this field, Cyberkinetics, uses this equipment to help quadriplegics manipulate a robotic arm. "Some of their patients can now do a variety of tasks, like communicating by email. Think about how much that might mean if you were paralyzed."

As interesting as the story is, Wyler can't ignore the moral implications. "As a neurosurgeon I have a hard time understanding how such an invention could be applied to humans or animals. If the concept was to temporarily keep a head alive so it could be transported to a donor body, I still don't "get it." Maybe I'm missing something, but I doubt it."

One of the proofs that this science is more reality than fiction is the patent that was filed on May 19, 1987 called A Device For Perfusing An Animal Head. "The patent makes for some very interesting and bizarre reading. I really can't imagine what that machine might be used for. Allegedly, the inventor's name, Chet Flemming, is false. The story is that he did this in anticipation of significant blowback and wand to spare himself and his family grief.

When asked why a successful neurosurgeon writes medical thrillers on the side, Wyler responded, "Cause I gotta. The other answer is because practicing neurosurgery doesn't really allow a heck of a lot of creativity, so I channel that urge into my writing. I've always been an avid reader, so it seems natural to try to write."

Wyler has turned in the manuscript for his next novel, Fatal Recall. He wanted to add, "Kudos to David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, and all the other great writers who founded ITW. I love the genre and applaud the concept of promoting it as much as possible."

-- Jeff Ayers

Allen Wyler wanted to be a physician from an early age. As a professor at the University of Tennessee and highly skilled neurosurgeon, he also dreamed of writing novels. He fulfilled both wishes, his second with the publication of the acclaimed medical thriller, Deadly Errors. Allen lives in the Seattle, WA area and has just finished his third novel.

Dr. Jonathan Kellerman says: Ignore Your Past At Your Own Peril

"I stand here as living proof that some good comes out of obsessive-compulsive behavior," says New York Times bestseller, Jonathan Kellerman, whose newest thriller, Obsession dives into dark psychological arenas of obsessive-compulsive behavior and follows a twisting trail from L.A's sleaziest districts to its overblown mansions.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when psychologist, Dr. Alex Delaware, successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now at nineteen, she returns to him again after her aunt and adoptive mother, Patty Bigelow, makes a deathbed confession of murder. (Tanya's mother abandoned her when she was three and was later killed in a motorcycle accident).

Kellerman likes to say he writes whydunits and whodunits. But in Obsession, he asks: Did the murder even happen? Was there a crime?

Delaware recalls Tanya's aunt as a single, self-less E.R.nurse struggling to raise a child on her own, someone seemingly incapable of the terrible crime she has admitted to committing. But for Tanya's peace of mind, he agrees to investigate and enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis. As the two search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred, suddently, a real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past where secrets-and bodies-point to a history of desperation, vengeance and a legacy of evil that refuses to die.

Delaware, himself a bit of a obsessive-compulsive personality, is driven to solve crimes," says Kellerman, "because crime is a serious business."

And Kellerman admits to sharing some of these type-A qualities with Delaware.

"Yes, I have some obsessive-compulsive tendencies," says Kellerman who says he was a bit of a neat freak at an early age. "My mother never had to tell me to clean my room."

Dr. Jonathan Kellerman has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to over two dozen bestselling crime novels. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and his wife, author Faye Kellerman, live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include novelist Jesse Kellerman.

Here are some of the new books from ITW authors that haven't been mentioned elsewhere in this month's issue of THE BIG THRILL. If you're an ITW member with a new original title coming out make sure to send us the details through the address on the contacts page. And look out for new opportunities to promote your work through this site directly, coming soon.

 

HARDCOVERS

A POISONED SEASON by Tasha Alexander

LADYKILLER by Meredith Anthony and Lawrence Light

PEOPLE OF THE NIGHTLAND by W. Michael Gear & Kathleen O'Neal Gear

HADES by Russell Andrews (Peter Gethers)

VINNIE'S HEAD by Marc Lecard

COVER-UP by Michele Martinez

THE MISSING by Chris Mooney

KNOCK OFF by Rhonda Pollero

KILLING SKIES by Simon Read


TRADE PAPERBACK ORIGINALS

THE VAMPIRE OF VENICE BEACH by Jennifer Colt

INTIMATE DANGER by Amy J. Fetzer

WITHOUT A WORD by E.C. Sheedy


MASS MARKET ORIGINALS

FEAR NO EVIL by Allison Brennan

DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE by Christine Goff

JUSTICE FOR A RANGER by Rita Herron

RECKONING by Jo Leigh

A NECESSARY RISK by Kathleen Long

MCKETTRICK'S PRIDE by Linda Lael Miller

A WICKED SNOW by Gregg Olsen

THE DOLLMAKER by Amanda Stevens

FORGE OF THE MINDSLAYERS: THE BLADE OF THE FLAME Book 2 by Tim Waggoner

24/7 by Joanna Wayne

ACCIDENTS WAITNG TO HAPPEN by Simon Wood

NEW MOON by Rebecca York

 

James O. Born uses his law enforcement background in his novels

All my novels are based on my experiences in police work. The plot lines are fiction but the details of investigations and tactics are realistic. In Walking Money I used my time on a SWAT team during Miami riots as a backdrop to the story. In Shock Wave, the case of IRA members who tried to buy a stinger missile from federal agents acted as a catalyst to the story. And a corruption case I worked on at one of Florida's major prisons was the basis of Escape Clause.

Possibly the most frequent question I get is whether Bill Tasker, the hero of my first three novels, is modeled after me. Aside from the same day job as a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (the investigative arm of the state police), there is little similarity. He's divorced, dedicated, diligent, daring and dashing. I'd hate to say I'm none of those, but, unfortunately, I am none of those things. But I still get the question from readers, writers and news people. I am harassed at work, where my e-mails are sometimes answered with a "Sure thing, Tasker" or "What would Bill Tasker do?"

I find it funny and, believe me, I'm just happy someone knows who the hell Bill Tasker is. But a couple of years ago I had an idea for another character. In real life I often work closely with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or more widely known as simply the ATF. Like a lot in police work, one of the reasons I do this is I have close friends there with whom I enjoy working. I occasionally work undercover buying guns from defendants and have been working on a bombing case with them that has opened my eyes to a new area of investigation.

I wanted to use all this experience, so my editor and I discussed several story lines and characters. One thing I wanted to ensure was that there would be no confusion between my new character and me. ATF agent Alex Duarte is a twenty-nine-year-old former army combat engineer who has never been married and lives in the garage apartment behind his parents. In his first novel, Field of Fire, Duarte must unravel a complex serial bombing case while juggling a developing personal life. Sort of what happens to real cops all the time.

Duarte is based on several cops I've known. His parents are immigrants from Paraguay. He's a little naive with women and recognizes his limitations in some areas of police work. He's tall, good-looking and intelligent. I made him the exact opposite of me.

The week before the Field of Fire came out, a local TV station sent a camera crew to follow me at work and while I worked on next year's book. The reporter knew my history and had interviewed me on real cases over the years. He had read the books and is an extremely bright guy. I couldn't have been happier with the whole situation then he opened with his first question with, "Is Alex Duarte based on you?"

That's right, my next novel is about an anorexic, female Mountie who uses her psychic abilities to solve crime committed in Alberta. I dare someone to confuse her with me.

James O. Born is a former US Drug Agent and an Agent with FDLE. He has been a member of the International Thriller Writers since its inception. Field of Fire is the first Alex Duarte book released by Putnam. The second, Burn Zone is due in February of 2008.

This is a promo video for Reed Farrel Coleman's new Moe Prager mystery Soul Patch which will be published by Bleak House in April 2007. More details from www.reedcoleman.com.

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Heather Graham's Explosive Spirits

In Heather Graham's newest thriller, The Dead Room, archeologist Leslie MacIntyre is caught between the living and the dead. She barely survived an explosion in Manhattan that killed her fianc, Matt Connolly. But since that terrible time, MacIntyre gained a disturbing ability to communicate with ghosts.

At night, her fianc speaks to her in her dreams.

A year later, MacIntyre returns to the fatal New York scene to investigate a newly discovered burial ground at Hastings House where the explosion occurred. Not only does the team of archeologists uncover ancient bodies but some of the bodies are far too contemporary. MacIntyre faces a deadly design that threatens the city's women, including MacIntyre herself.

At night, her fianc speaks to her in her dreams, warning her, offering clues to the truth...

Asked if she believes in ghosts, Graham hesitates and says she likes to think that there's something more.

"Everybody has a ghost story," she says. "You wouldn't believe how many people come up to me at book signings and tell me their ghost stories--the straightest looking people, dressed in conservative business suits. It's amazing."

Graham, who grew up in Miami, says she's also fascinated by how much is old and underground in Manhattan. "One thing I love about New York," says Graham, "It's a huge city, so modern, yet there's Trinity, St. Paul's. It's where George Washington said goodbye to his troops. It's phenomenally historic. In Miami, we don't have that."

Heather Graham is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has published more than 100 books in different genres and is the recipient of RWA lifetime Achievement Award. Her work has been translated into twenty languages. Though she started off performing in dinner theaters, after the birth of her third child, she stayed home and began writing. Graham has five children and lives in Miami, FL. She is a Killerette in the world famous Thriller Killer Band.

Demons and Disease

The future of the human species is at stake in Philip Hawley's debut novel, Stigma, where the realm of science and death collide with devastating force.

A young Mayan boy with a blue-crescent-moon tattoo on his chest dies mysteriously in southern California. In Central America, a puzzling illness is spreading among tribal villages. Luke McKenna, a pediatric Emergency Room physician in Los Angeles, and former covert special ops commando, must discover the link between these events.

But time is running out. Demons from his dark past are about to pull McKenna and the woman he loves into a terrifying house of mirrors. Will McKenna discover the truth?

The story has strong medical elements but "it's not your typical medical thriller," says Hawley, a pediatrician in Southern California. "Stigma plays out on a large landscape, from the streets of L.A. to the rain forests of Central America."

Haley drew on his experience working in a small clinic in Central America and visiting remote Mayan villages deep in the rain forest. "We got there by mules, walking, and very occasionally a 4-wheel drive that almost always got stuck," he says.

Stigma is the first book in a series that will feature Luke McKenna. You can read an excerpt from Chapter One here.

Philip Hawley, Jr. was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up in southern California as one of eight children. He has an MBA from Harvard and is a pediatrician at Los Angeles Children's Hospital. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. Stigma is his first novel

Sandra Parshall Confronts Race Discrimination

What happens when the bones of a Melungeon or mixed race woman are found in a remote mountainous area in Virginia? What does it mean when evidence of an ax blow to her skull points to an old murder case?

In Sandra Parshall's second thriller, Disturbing the Dead, detective and Melungeon Tom Bridger becomes embroiled in this cold case and in the process uncovers revelations about his father, a former Sheriff, and other family secrets. Romance stirs the pages as well when Tom gets involved with veterinarian Rachel Goddard (see contest after the jump). Readers will remember Goddard from Parshall's 2006 novel, Heat of the Moon.

"I love stories about old cases that come back to haunt people in the present. It's my favorite type of mystery," says Parshall.

The author's interest in Melungeons dates back to growing up in the South. "I heard names such as "brass ankles" and "gypsies" attributed to this group of people," says Parshall. "Sadly, they endured years of discrimination especially in Virginia. Even today."

Shipwrecked Portuguese sailors? Intermarried Indians? Intermarried escaped slaves hiding in the mountains? Melungeons, a mixed-race people living in Appalachia for more than 400 years, are dark skinned people with light eyes and European features. In fact, no one is sure where they came from, says Parshall.

A Southerner who has lived in Virginia for more than 25 years, Parshall inherited a few sleuth genes from a not-so distant family member. "One of my grandfather's was a small town police chief in the mountains of North Carolina," she says.

You can test your own clue solving acumen and win a free copy of Disturbing the Dead by reading this excerpt and answering this question: What is the name of the prosecutor who telephones Rachel? Email Sandra with the correct answer. Be sure to include your full name in the e-mail message.

Sandra Parshall was born and raised in South Carolina. She began her writing career as a weekend obituary columnist, eventually reporting for various newspapers in West Virginia and The Baltimore Evening Sun. In the last few years, she has published two thrillers and is working on a third. Check out her group blog called Poe's Deadly Daughters where she blogs every Wednesday.

Richard Hawke takes on Celebrities, Sex, and Avenging Cops

"I had no idea (in hell) what I was going to write about until I sat down and began stirring the pot for the new book, says Richard Hawke, author of A Cold Day in Hell, his second Fritz Malone mystery. (Speak of the Devil, came out in 2006).

Sitting on his couch in New York City, his home for more than 20 years, Hawke says he considered and rejected a number of book-opening murders, essentially wandering around New York City in his head, he says, looking out his window at a light snowfall, until his eyes settled on his sweetheart's rolled up yoga mat hanging from the doorknob.

He wrote: "On the last day of her life, she took a yoga class."

It's the opening line of A Cold Day in Hell, in which a popular and charismatic late night talk host, Marshall Fox, is arrested and jailed for the murder of two women with whom he was having affairs. During trial deliberations, a yoga student, Robin, is brutally murdered in her New York apartment. The murder is a carbon copy of Fox's double murder that took place in Central Park.

How could Fox murder someone while locked behind bars?

Enter Fritz Malone, a wisecracking, Big Apple detective unimpressed with celebrities, to help NYCPD detective, Megan Lamb, solve the case. "Fritz stands decidedly outside popular culture" says Hawke, "and is refreshingly frank on the whole celebrity adoration phenomenon."

Lamb has her own issues, it turns out. Back from a leave of absence after killing a serial killer, whose victims included her lover, Lamb is still in deep pain. It becomes apparent to Fritz that Lamb's fervor in tracking down the yoga student-also a former lover of the talk host-may well include a little retribution bloodlust.

New York city is an undeniable presence in A Cold Day In Hell, and though the novel doesn't include photos, Hawke invites readers to take a photo tour of places Fritz and his cast of characters visit. Here's one spot that offered Megan Lamb a warm respite from the cold. Check out more photos here.

Richard Hawke got the writing bug while reading Batman comics as a young kid. Cold Day in Hell is the second book in his Fritz Malone series.

TIM MALEENY on how it feels when your first book has a cover no-one can miss

Sex sells.

You can't judge a book by its cover.



Turns out only one of those is true. The first is a truth as old as Eden, the second an urban myth of publishing.



This is the story of how my debut novel Stealing The Dragon got a cover so perfect it captures the very soul of my novel, down to the last hair of my female protagonist's head.

Stealing The Dragon deals with human trafficking by the Chinese Triads. The story begins when a container ship smuggling Chinese refugees runs aground on Alcatraz, its crew brutally murdered. While the police and FBI search for clues, private investigator Cape Weathers suspects his partner Sally might be involved. But she's gone missing, and his search leads from the back alleys of San Francisco to the secret societies of Hong Kong's criminal underworld. When Cape starts asking questions about her past as part of a Triad clan, someone puts a dead body in his trunk and a price on his head.



Readers and reviewers have been smitten by Sally - a half-Asian, half-American professional killer who was orphaned by the yakuza, then sold to the Triads to attend one of their "schools" for gifted young women with a score to settle. But if my publisher had told me they wanted to visualize one of my characters I would have screamed "Please, no, whatever you do, anything but that!"

That's because I didn't want the so-called "movie effect", that feeling you get when a book you love gets turned into a film and they cast someone who doesn't look at all like the character you imagined while turning the pages.



And interestingly enough, that's not where my publisher started. After my cover art was released I learned that another design had been considered, an image drawn directly from a pivotal scene in the book in which Sally must choose the path she is going to follow for the rest of her life. As part of a Triad ritual, you must step through a door that symbolizes the life you will lead. One of those doors is described in this passage:

The girls turned as one, looking at a massive circular door set into the high stone wall of the inner courtyard. The door was ten feet in diameter, made of lacquered wood elaborately carved, dragons and tigers intertwined with butterflies and cranes. The carvings became progressively more complex and dense as you neared the center of the circle, creating a sense of movement that bordered on vertigo, as if the door were some sort of vortex pulling you to the other side.

Apparently one of the original cover designs brought this door to life, a great visual metaphor for the impossible choices my character must make in order to survive. Had this been my cover design, I probably would have been delighted, if not for an evil genius named Gavin Duffy.



Stealing The Dragon is published by Midnight Ink, a mystery imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide, and speaking as objectively as possible, their covers kick ass. Somehow they find a design that perfectly reflects the tone of the writing - their covers are as distinctive and eclectic as the authors on their roster. One of the people responsible is Gavin, an insanely talented designer who searched the image banks and started manipulating type, colors and Chinese characters until he created the cover I have today. When I saw it for the first time I gasped - there on my computer screen was Sally, down to every last detail, including the expression on her face.



My publisher told me the sales force saw this cover and cheered. I felt the same way.



Sex sells.



As for whether or not the story lives up to the design, I'll leave that for you to decide, but the feedback so far suggests I'm not in any danger of being sued for false advertising. Avid reader and Edgar-nominated writer Charles Benoit recently posted this on his blog:

I bought it because I couldn't resist the cover. I know, I know, you can't judge a book by its cover but in this case you can. The cover screams exotic, dangerous, steamy and irresistible and so far - I'm only 100 pages in - it's all that and more.

Maybe you can't always judge a book by its cover, but whenever I look into Sally's eyes, I'm damn glad I wrote that book.

Tim Maleeny is the author of Stealing The Dragon, a novel set in Hong Kong and San Francisco that Lee Child called "a perfect thriller debut." His short fiction appears in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Death Do Us Part, a recent anthology from Mystery Writers of America edited by Harlan Coben. He lives in San Francisco, where he dreams of murder and mayhem.