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The Story Tellers
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 5, 2021
I loved this book it is a solid five stars for me. Some of my favorite authors talking about writing, what could be better. I related to these great interviews, (especially the one with John Sanford, I connected with him, in his writing discipline). This book reveals the writing world and what the authors go through, a glimpse into their lives and how they rose up in publishing. Sometimes great novels have a feeling about them, that because they are so good they are created somewhere out there in the ether without a human touch. These essays make them real. If you love novels and you want a peek behind the curtain to see how the sausages are made (I know a mixed metaphor), that this book is for you.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
August 8, 2021
Inspired by five years of interviews he did for his Huffington Post blog; writer Mark Rubinstein has edited a collection that is a who’s who of the greatest thriller writers of the past several decades. His questions range from probing to essential to just plain bizarre --- and everything in between. If you love books and reading like I do and call the Thriller genre your home away from home, then this collection of interviews by Mark Rubinstein will have you feeling like a kid in a candy store.
It's hard to not give anything away and there are far too many authors to focus on in the parameters of one book review. Instead, I am going to provide a handful of Q&A passages from some of the authors Rubinstein interviewed. Trust me, there are oodles of more great Q&A bits in this collection to keep you reading and re-reading for days.
The first of the forty-seven authors interviewed is Lee Child, who did not begin the Jack Reacher series until he suddenly found himself unemployed at age 40.
Q: Is it true that you created Jack Reacher from the smoldering embers of your own rage after you were let go by Granada Television?
A: It’s probably more accurate to say the adventures Reacher gets into are the product of that experience…One basic rule that applies is: it’s not the writer who decides whether a character is cool; it’s the reader who makes that decision. If the writer tries to force things – or lead the witness, as it were – the result is an embarrassing failure. So, really, I just metaphorically closed my eyes and wrote that first book, Killing Floor, and Jack Reacher emerged.
Lisa Gardner is famous for making it as a published writer at a very early age.
Q: What made you begin writing at the age of seventeen?
A: I had no idea how hard it is to write a novel, let alone how impossible it is to get one published. On the other hand, I had an idea for a murder mystery. So, I wrote it.
Q: How did you manage to get published by age twenty?
A: My first lesson in publishing: my book did sell, and I earned just enough money to buy a computer, and even then, I had to wait for the computer to go on sale. But it was still absolutely amazing to hold the finished novel in my hands. It gave me goose bumps.
A personal favorite of mine, Dennis Lehane, talks about the novel that finally put him over.
Q: So, Mystic River changed your writing life?
A: Yes. It changed the perception of me as a writer – almost overnight. I was viewed as a literary writer. Until that point people thought, “He produces really well-written genre novels.” That was my label. After Mystic River I was suddenly writing literature.
It was interesting to find out what Michael Connelly thoughts were about the comparison between himself and his primary creation, Harry Bosch.
Q: You’ve said that you and Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch share some similarities. What are they?
A: It depends on which Harry Bosch book you’re reading. I’ve been so lucky to have written about him over a period of twenty years. When I first began with him, I didn’t know if it would ever be published. So to make it interesting and fun, I wrote about a guy completely opposite of me. He’s a smoker, I’m not. He’s an orphan; I come from a big family. He’s never been lucky in romance; I’ve been married for a long time.
Iconic author David Morrel is asked about the work that put him on the map.
Q: Rambo is an iconic name in our culture. Amazingly, First Blood was your debut novel. How did your first novel become such a wild success?
A: I wrote First Blood, allowing of course, that it was a very topical subject because there were so many returning Viet Nam veterans in 1972. So, it was an attempt to reinvent the action book. The response was overwhelming. It was well reviewed in virtually every major newspaper and magazine.
Many readers might be curious to learn that Patricia Cornwell has no medical training.
Q: Your Kay Scarpetta novels are so richly detailed in medical forensics, it’s hard to believe you’re not a physician. How did you learn so much forensic pathology?
A: People sometimes mistakenly call me “Dr. Cornwell”. I was an English major in college. For thirty years, I’ve been a self-educated student of medical forensics, ballistics, and all things related. It’s my avocation. I constantly cruise the internet looking for new information. I have consultants on who I rely for the latest technologic advances. I also do field research. For one novel, I went to a Texas firing range to test high-tech assault rifles and ammunition, the things readers will find in the book. That’s how I continue to learn.
Author Harlan Coben was questioned about a recurring theme in his work.
Q: Many of your novels involve someone who’s gone missing. Actually, Harlan, I view you as the “Master Of the Missing Person.” What draws you to this scenario?
A: I think it’s an intriguing scenario. Just think about it: a missing person could be alive or dead. You don’t know. There’s always hope. I love writing about hope. Hope can make your heart soar or can crush your heart like an eggshell.
Probably one of my favorite modern writers and playwrights is David Mamet. Having both scene and acted in his work, his writing has a unique cadence all its’ own.
Q: Your dialogue has been considered a form of street poetry.
A: Maybe so. I wrote an essay about rap music, which is the operative poetry of our time. Speaking of street poetry, it has many precursors. I’ve been reading this great book by George MacDonald Fraser, a Victorian writer. He quotes many of the old Scottish border ballads that were simply folk music of the times. It was clear he was influenced by and immersed in Sir Walter Scott. He was regurgitating the Scottish border ballads.
Scottish author Ian Rankin discusses how he was perceived at the start of his career.
Q: Ian, your first John Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, was classified as genre fiction. I understand you thought it was more in the realm of Robert Louis Stevenson’s fiction. Tell us about that and your views of genre fiction.
A: I was working on a PHD in the Scottish novel and was interested in Scottish writers of the past, many of whom wrote dark psychological novels. One is Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh is still a Jekyll and Hyde city, as are most cities in Scotland. It’s one thing to the tourists and something else entirely if you live there. The darker side is just below the surface.
I was curious to learn how the late, great Clive Cussler got his start as a writer.
Q: I understand you first began writing fiction just to fill your time. Will you tell us about that?
A: Well, it all started when my wife found a job working nights as a secretary and dispatcher at the local police department. After work, I’d come home, fix dinner for the kids, put them to bed, and then wander around the house. There wasn’t much to do. I said to myself, “Well, I think I’ll write a book.” I then researched all the heroes and villains in the Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Travis McGee books. When I finished, I asked myself what I could do that would be different. Since I was very familiar with the sea, I thought I’d put my hero in and around water. That’s how Dirk Pitt was born.
The last author I will highlight is my old friend, Jon Land.
Q: I’ve read many of your novels, and they’ve all tied the protagonist’s present investigation to events that occurred many years earlier. Tell us about these connections of past and present.
A: I’ve always believed what William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In this future-obsessed culture, we forget how vital the past is. In the Caitlin Strong series, I use the past to highlight the tradition of the Texas Ranger’s in Caitlin’s family. We see how crimes were solved in 1883, in the 1930’s, and in the present. It shows that no matter how things may change, they really stay the same.
I could go on and on. What I can say is that this is the most interesting and engaging work of non-fiction I have read in ages, literally filled with golden nuggets of history, background influences, and revelations on every page. I envy the reader who goes on this great adventure and inhaled THE STORY TELLERS as I did. If these writers were not your fancy, you also can choose from interviews from: James Rollins, Sue Grafton, Stuart Woods, Tess Gerritsen, Meg Gardiner, Kathy Reichs, J.A. Jance, Jonathan Kellerman, and I could go on and on…
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
It's hard to not give anything away and there are far too many authors to focus on in the parameters of one book review. Instead, I am going to provide a handful of Q&A passages from some of the authors Rubinstein interviewed. Trust me, there are oodles of more great Q&A bits in this collection to keep you reading and re-reading for days.
The first of the forty-seven authors interviewed is Lee Child, who did not begin the Jack Reacher series until he suddenly found himself unemployed at age 40.
Q: Is it true that you created Jack Reacher from the smoldering embers of your own rage after you were let go by Granada Television?
A: It’s probably more accurate to say the adventures Reacher gets into are the product of that experience…One basic rule that applies is: it’s not the writer who decides whether a character is cool; it’s the reader who makes that decision. If the writer tries to force things – or lead the witness, as it were – the result is an embarrassing failure. So, really, I just metaphorically closed my eyes and wrote that first book, Killing Floor, and Jack Reacher emerged.
Lisa Gardner is famous for making it as a published writer at a very early age.
Q: What made you begin writing at the age of seventeen?
A: I had no idea how hard it is to write a novel, let alone how impossible it is to get one published. On the other hand, I had an idea for a murder mystery. So, I wrote it.
Q: How did you manage to get published by age twenty?
A: My first lesson in publishing: my book did sell, and I earned just enough money to buy a computer, and even then, I had to wait for the computer to go on sale. But it was still absolutely amazing to hold the finished novel in my hands. It gave me goose bumps.
A personal favorite of mine, Dennis Lehane, talks about the novel that finally put him over.
Q: So, Mystic River changed your writing life?
A: Yes. It changed the perception of me as a writer – almost overnight. I was viewed as a literary writer. Until that point people thought, “He produces really well-written genre novels.” That was my label. After Mystic River I was suddenly writing literature.
It was interesting to find out what Michael Connelly thoughts were about the comparison between himself and his primary creation, Harry Bosch.
Q: You’ve said that you and Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch share some similarities. What are they?
A: It depends on which Harry Bosch book you’re reading. I’ve been so lucky to have written about him over a period of twenty years. When I first began with him, I didn’t know if it would ever be published. So to make it interesting and fun, I wrote about a guy completely opposite of me. He’s a smoker, I’m not. He’s an orphan; I come from a big family. He’s never been lucky in romance; I’ve been married for a long time.
Iconic author David Morrel is asked about the work that put him on the map.
Q: Rambo is an iconic name in our culture. Amazingly, First Blood was your debut novel. How did your first novel become such a wild success?
A: I wrote First Blood, allowing of course, that it was a very topical subject because there were so many returning Viet Nam veterans in 1972. So, it was an attempt to reinvent the action book. The response was overwhelming. It was well reviewed in virtually every major newspaper and magazine.
Many readers might be curious to learn that Patricia Cornwell has no medical training.
Q: Your Kay Scarpetta novels are so richly detailed in medical forensics, it’s hard to believe you’re not a physician. How did you learn so much forensic pathology?
A: People sometimes mistakenly call me “Dr. Cornwell”. I was an English major in college. For thirty years, I’ve been a self-educated student of medical forensics, ballistics, and all things related. It’s my avocation. I constantly cruise the internet looking for new information. I have consultants on who I rely for the latest technologic advances. I also do field research. For one novel, I went to a Texas firing range to test high-tech assault rifles and ammunition, the things readers will find in the book. That’s how I continue to learn.
Author Harlan Coben was questioned about a recurring theme in his work.
Q: Many of your novels involve someone who’s gone missing. Actually, Harlan, I view you as the “Master Of the Missing Person.” What draws you to this scenario?
A: I think it’s an intriguing scenario. Just think about it: a missing person could be alive or dead. You don’t know. There’s always hope. I love writing about hope. Hope can make your heart soar or can crush your heart like an eggshell.
Probably one of my favorite modern writers and playwrights is David Mamet. Having both scene and acted in his work, his writing has a unique cadence all its’ own.
Q: Your dialogue has been considered a form of street poetry.
A: Maybe so. I wrote an essay about rap music, which is the operative poetry of our time. Speaking of street poetry, it has many precursors. I’ve been reading this great book by George MacDonald Fraser, a Victorian writer. He quotes many of the old Scottish border ballads that were simply folk music of the times. It was clear he was influenced by and immersed in Sir Walter Scott. He was regurgitating the Scottish border ballads.
Scottish author Ian Rankin discusses how he was perceived at the start of his career.
Q: Ian, your first John Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, was classified as genre fiction. I understand you thought it was more in the realm of Robert Louis Stevenson’s fiction. Tell us about that and your views of genre fiction.
A: I was working on a PHD in the Scottish novel and was interested in Scottish writers of the past, many of whom wrote dark psychological novels. One is Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Edinburgh is still a Jekyll and Hyde city, as are most cities in Scotland. It’s one thing to the tourists and something else entirely if you live there. The darker side is just below the surface.
I was curious to learn how the late, great Clive Cussler got his start as a writer.
Q: I understand you first began writing fiction just to fill your time. Will you tell us about that?
A: Well, it all started when my wife found a job working nights as a secretary and dispatcher at the local police department. After work, I’d come home, fix dinner for the kids, put them to bed, and then wander around the house. There wasn’t much to do. I said to myself, “Well, I think I’ll write a book.” I then researched all the heroes and villains in the Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Travis McGee books. When I finished, I asked myself what I could do that would be different. Since I was very familiar with the sea, I thought I’d put my hero in and around water. That’s how Dirk Pitt was born.
The last author I will highlight is my old friend, Jon Land.
Q: I’ve read many of your novels, and they’ve all tied the protagonist’s present investigation to events that occurred many years earlier. Tell us about these connections of past and present.
A: I’ve always believed what William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In this future-obsessed culture, we forget how vital the past is. In the Caitlin Strong series, I use the past to highlight the tradition of the Texas Ranger’s in Caitlin’s family. We see how crimes were solved in 1883, in the 1930’s, and in the present. It shows that no matter how things may change, they really stay the same.
I could go on and on. What I can say is that this is the most interesting and engaging work of non-fiction I have read in ages, literally filled with golden nuggets of history, background influences, and revelations on every page. I envy the reader who goes on this great adventure and inhaled THE STORY TELLERS as I did. If these writers were not your fancy, you also can choose from interviews from: James Rollins, Sue Grafton, Stuart Woods, Tess Gerritsen, Meg Gardiner, Kathy Reichs, J.A. Jance, Jonathan Kellerman, and I could go on and on…
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter
August 14, 2021
Reading Mark Rubinstein’s collection of author interviews is like going to one of those fabled, literary circle cocktail parties. I felt like a party-crasher eavesdropping on juicy conversations.
I really enjoyed getting the inside scoop on these acclaimed mystery and thriller authors. From an author’s memory of a book reading where no one attended to another author’s strict adherence to not including a location that he hasn’t visited, The Storytellers is an excellent look at the mystery and thriller authors we readers love.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com
I really enjoyed getting the inside scoop on these acclaimed mystery and thriller authors. From an author’s memory of a book reading where no one attended to another author’s strict adherence to not including a location that he hasn’t visited, The Storytellers is an excellent look at the mystery and thriller authors we readers love.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. For more reading recommendations, visit Book Junkie Reviews at www.abookjunkiereviews.wordpress.com
October 29, 2021
Lots of useful tips by incredibly prolific thriller and crime authors. Many of them claim that writing is the only profession that never gets easier as each new book requires to be just as good or as fresh as those that preceded it.
December 12, 2021
A series of fascinating interviews with some of today's leading suspense and thriller authors.
January 8, 2022
I just want to read all these authors. I might even try Ace Adkins writing the Spenser books. So interesting to listen to.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews