News: March 2010 Archives
"Writing a book is usually a solitary occupation," NPR's Lynn Neary writes in her story "In New Serial Thriller, Everyone's Hands Are Bloody," "but when David Corbett was asked to work on a serial thriller, the opportunity was too good to pass up. The story would be a collaboration among 22 writers; one person would set the action in motion, then hand it off to another writer who would add a new chapter, taking the plot in new directions.
"Corbett would be working with some of the best writers in the business, but when it was his turn to write, he says, he realized the format of the story would drastically change the way he wrote.
"'Normally as a writer you start out doing the background on all of your characters, you do all of your research," Corbett says. "And it's a living, breathing thing in a lot of ways, in your unconscious before you even begin. Here, here you're sort of like given building blocks.'"
You can read and/or listen to the rest of Neary's piece at NPR's website.
As part of the continuing partnership between ITW and Audible.com, Audible has just released debut author Karen Dionne's science thriller Freezing Point as the newest title in their "Breakout Thrillers" program.
James Rollins Recommends
Freezing Point, by Karen Dionne
"I hate it when I read a book and go, 'Crap. I should have had that idea.' Wouldn't you know, that's exactly what happened when I picked up a copy of Karen Dionne's debut environmental thriller Freezing Point. I mean, microwaves and melting icecaps - who wouldn't' want to read that? I know I did. So I started reading, thinking, 'I'll just check the book out and see if there's anything there.'
"Before I knew it, the pages were flying by. A mysterious virus killing off researchers. Hordes of man-eating rats. Explosions, fires, tidal waves. A greedy exec with a murderous love for power, environmentalists vs eco-terrorists - it's all there. The scientific and ethical themes are fascinating, and the remoteness of the Antarctic is an ideal thriller settling. Karen's science is dead on, which puts the novel squarely within the realm of possibility and makes the storyline all the more chilling. I loved this book.
"So do what I did. Pick up a copy of Freezing Point for yourself, and see if you don't agree that Karen's a female Michael Crichton. Freezing Point is a terrific read. I highly recommend it."
You can listen to an exerpt of Karen Dionne's Freezing Point or purchase the recording at Audible's website.
ELLA--English Language Latina Authors, the nation's only book club devoted entirely to works by and about U.S. Latinas--will be reading Penny Rudolph's soon-to-be-released thriller Eye of the Mountain God as their May pick.
The group's founder Alisa Valdez Rodriguez says, "I believe a true measure of a community's equality in the greater culture is often best measured not by the art we create about ourselves--after all, we know we're terrific!--but rather by work written about us by those who do not belong to our group.
While many Latina characters in mainstream fiction by non-Latina authors painted us as stereotypical in the past, I am pleased to see that the new wave of novels by non-Latinas but featuring Latina protagonists present us a whole, well-rounded, interesting and unique individual human beings who are American everywomen. This is a major step forward, and one we should all support!
Penny Rudolph says, I am very pleased (and honored) for Eye of the Mountain God to be selected by ELLA.
The publisher, Thomas Dunne Books, describes Eye of the Mountain God as:
An explosive combination...
A woman who finds five emerald arrowheads wrapped in her newspaper,
an autistic child who knows the unkowable,
a man determined to become the American Che Guevara
Advance praise for this thriller comes from 2-time Edgar Award-winner Warren Murphy, who calls it, "An exciting thriller with a Southwestern flavor...(that) combines elements of Rudolfo Anaya's and Tony Hillerman's novels."
Read an excerpt and learn more at pennyrudolph.com
Specially published to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and Dublin becoming a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010 City-pick Dublin will be available from March 11, 2010.
Pat Mullan, who is Ireland Chair of International Thriller Writers, says "I am very pleased (and honored) to be included in this selection of fifty Irish writers. My short thriller story, Tribunal, which was published in Dublin Noir by Akashic Books in the US and by Brandon in Ireland and the UK has been selected for inclusion. Tribunal is the opening chapter of my novel, Last Days of the Tiger (available from my agent, Svetlana Pironko)."
The publisher, Oxygen Books, talks about city-pick Dublin: A truly astonishing variety of writers evoke the myriad pleasures of this legendary writers' city, bringing Dubliners, famous, not so famous and famously fictional, to life.
city-pick Dublin is introduced by Orna Ross, well-known Dublin journalist and bestselling author of A Dance in Time, who offers her own fascinating perspective on the city and its writers as Dublin becomes a UNESCO World City of Literature in 2010. 'Okay, London might have its share of good writers ... but in a straight contest - great writers per head of population - isn't Dublin the clear winner? Haven't we four Nobel Prizewinners (Shaw, Yeats, Becket and Heaney) out of only a million or so inhabitants? As well as the world's best novelist (Joyce) who should have got one too?'
ITW mystery/suspense novelist L.J. Sellers has signed with Echelon Press to publish the next two novels in her Detective Wade Jackson series, plus a standalone thriller. Echelon picked up the series with Sellers' second Jackson book, SECRETS TO DIE FOR, which came out in October, 2009. The third book, THRILLED TO DEATH, will be released in August, 2010. In this story, two young women with nothing in common disappear on the same day, then one turns up dead and Jackson discovers disturbing things about her.
"Even though it's a series, each book is unique," Sellers says. "I use different POV characters, a variety of crimes and motives, and distinctive structures. I'm especially excited about THRILLED TO DEATH because it's Jackson's most twisted case yet."
In 2011, Echelon will release the fourth book in the series, PASSIONS OF THE DEAD, and a standalone thriller, THE BABY THIEF, which features Jackson the homicide cop, but not as the main character.
In addition to writing novels, L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and occasional standup comic. Learn more about Sellers at her website: http://ljsellers.com
Three months after the imprint's launch, Ostara Publishing has issued four more titles in their print-on-demand Top Notch Thrillers series which "aims to revive Great British thrillers which do not deserve to be forgotten".
The new titles, originally published in Britain between 1962 and 1970, were selected by crime writer and critic Mike Ripley, who acts as Series Editor for TNT.
The Tale of the Lazy Dog by Alan Williams is a brilliant heist thriller set in the Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam triangle in 1969 as a mis-matched gang of rogues and pirates attempt to steal $1.5 
billion in used US Treasury notes. Time Is An Ambush is a delicate, atmospheric study of suspicion and guilt set in Franco's Spain, by Francis Clifford, one of the most-admired stylists of the post-war generation of British thriller-writers. A Flock Of Ships, Brian Callison's bestselling wartime thriller of a small Allied convoy lured to its doom in the South Atlantic, was famous for its breathless, machine-gun prose and was described by Alistair Maclean as: "The best war story I have ever read". The Ninth Directive was the second assignment for super-spy Quiller (whose fans included Kingsley Amis and John Dickson Carr), created by Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor) and is a taught, tense thriller of political assassination which pre-dated Day of the Jackal by five years.
Announcing the latest batch of reissues, Mike Ripley said: 'Our new titles are absolutely in line with the Top Notch ethos of showing the range and variety of thrillers from what was something of a Golden Age for British thriller writing. They range in approach from slow-burning suspense to relentless wartime action and feature obsessive, super tough, super cool spies and some tremendous villains. Above all, they are characterised by the quality of their writing, albeit in very different styles.
'When first published, these titles were all best-sellers and their authors are among the most respected names in thriller fiction. Many readers will welcome these novels back almost as old 
friends and hopefully a new generation of readers will discover them for the first time.'
Top Notch Thrillers are published as trade paperbacks with a RRP of £10.99
From The International Thriller Writers:
