Megan Kelley Hall: June 2009 Archives

In SHANGHAIED, Eric Stone's fourth in the Ray Sharp series of detective thrillers set in Asia--a series based on true stories and described by Lee Child as "bizarre but believable, tough but tender, and fast but considered. Highly recommended." -- Hong Kong's been handed back to the Chinese. Ray Sharp's whole world is changing. Carnivorous Tibetan monks are worried about what a Chinese bank is doing with their money. A murderous, sociopathic veteran of the U.S. invasion of Grenada, along with his twin comely kung-fu bodyguards, Floss and Betty, figure into it. As does a painful dumpling accident, drugs, sex and rock and roll, along with the usual coterie of business moguls, hookers, friends and foes. And the return of Ray's Chinese-Mexican colleague and pal, the diminutive Ms. Wen Lei Yue.

Eric's previous series books include Flight of the Hornbill, Grave Imports and The Living Room of the Dead. He is also the author of Wrong Side of the Wall, a true-crime / sports biography. Eric worked for many years as a journalist in the U.S. and Asia, covering everything from economics to crime; politics to sex, drugs and rock & roll. He once wrote an advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual (English-Chinese) fashion magazine.

Eric sat down with Big Thrill contributing editor Megan Kelley Hall to discuss his intriguing writing career and his next novel, SHANGHAIED, from Bleak House books.

Eric, how has your career as a journalist helped you with your novel writing?

It has given me an appreciation for how truly strange the world is. My books are loosely based on stories that I covered, or am very familiar with, from my work in Asia, so I've had a chance to put  my experiences into play in plots, locales, characters, pretty much every element of my books. The hard part is that in my novels, everything needs to make sense - unlike in the real world. As a journalist, if I could back up what I reported with research, it didn't matter how bizarre or illogical something was. Truth really can be stranger than fiction. A novel requires more logic. If my readers feel that something doesn't make sense, they lose patience with it. And, on a technical level, I've got a lot of experience with deadlines and writing every day, so I don't agonize too much over the actual work involved in writing.