poisonedpeeps

The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix just published this interesting piece on the Kellermens and their upcoming appearance here at the Poisoned Pen at 7 PM next Tuesday, the 16th of September. Take a minute and check it out. The link is below.

https://www.jewishaz.com/arts_features/arts_culture/the-family-business-of-crime/article_8ad3cae4-3879-11e4-9304-001a4bcf6878.html

Author Interview Questions

Kira Peikoff author, NO TIME TO DIE

www.kirapeikoff.com

1. NO TIME TO DIE focuses on a 20 year-old woman who stopped aging at 14 years-old ““ where did you get this idea?

A few years back, I saw a documentary on Discovery Health about a young woman who had inexplicably stopped aging. She was almost 20 years old but had stayed frozen as a toddler her whole life, baffling doctors and scientists alike. The case caught my attention because I’ve always been interested in medical mysteries, and like many people, I’m also fixated on the promise of eternal youth. Yet staying young forever, as welcome as it might be, could also be a curse. I decided to explore it further in a novel, but I didn’t want my protagonist stuck as a toddler without much mental or emotional capacity.  So I decided to trap her in the worst possible page for maximum drama and frustration. What could be worse than 14?

2. Do you think scientists will find a cure for aging?

Some leading researchers believe the end of aging is within reach–perhaps in the next century. One respected scientist, Aubrey de Gray, thinks that the first person who will live to age 1,000 is already alive now.

3. How did you choose the thriller genre?

I feel into it by accident. When I started writing fiction, I gravitated toward stories with high stakes, increasing tension, cliffhanger chapters, and a fast pace. I didn’t actually intend to write in any genre, but after I wrote my first book, I realized I’d written a thriller.

4. NO TIME TO DIE offers some great surprises, twist and turns. Who are your biggest influences in the thrillers and suspense genre?

Michael Crichton, Michael Palmer, Lisa Unger, Gillian Flynn. If you want to get old-school, I would add O. Henry and one of my favorite books as a teen: The Scarlet Pimpernel.

5. As a writer, how can you explore differently in your works of fiction vs. your non-fiction articles for publications?

The threshold for exactness is much looser in fiction. In non-fiction, I am careful to be extremely accurate in my reporting. Accuracy to a journalist is like steadiness to a surgeon. You’re useless without it. (You won’t accidentally kill anyone–one nice thing about being a writer–but you might damage someone’s reputation by misrepresenting a source.) In fiction, there’s greater freedom to stray without that kind of accountability. I try to stay as true-to-life still as I can, but I do have to stretch and imagine a lot, which makes it more fun and also a hundred times harder.

6. NO TIME TO DIE ““ how was the book title chosen?

 My wonderful late mentor, Michael Palmer, suggested the title to me when I told him I was stuck on a title. (Titles are impossible.) Everyone at the publishing house immediately liked it, so we went with it. It’s extra meaningful because Michael died shortly after I turned in the final manuscript. It was one of the last novels he read.

7. In NO TIME TO DIE, one of the main reasons scientists are busy researching defying aging is because: they have a back story. Many have a loved one they wish could have lived longer  ““ it’s a very human side to all the scientific lab work involved ““ was your writing process different when explaining the scientific lab work vs. the human and emotional side of your characters?

Yes, writing about the lab work was more of an intellectual challenge, because I had to figure out how to incorporate real-life details with fictional ones. It was like a puzzle. Writing about the human side came more naturally. I tried to tap into how I might feel in their place, and why I might do what they were doing, so I could access that yearning and vulnerability.

8. What do you hope readers will gain from reading NO TIME TO DIE?

First and foremost, that they will be transported on a thrilling and satisfying journey with characters they’ve become invested in. Then: that they’ll possibly think about their own positions on the controversial subjects the book raises, and finally that they will be shocked by the big twist ending.

Ace Atkins: The Story of the Returning Soldier

Ace Atkins is a former journalist who received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a series of articles investigating an old unsolved murder. He has written more than a dozen novels, among them the Quinn Colson series, about an Army Ranger who returns from Iraq and Afghanistan to become sheriff of his native Tibbehah County, Miss. (The author also resides in Mississippi with his family.) The fourth in the series, The Forsaken, was released July 24.

Atkins was also chosen by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the late author’s popular series about famed private eye Spenser. The latest installment, Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot, was published in May.

Some nonfiction writers say they have a hard time writing fiction because they’d have to make everything up from scratch, while some fiction writers say they struggle with writing nonfiction because they have to stick to the facts and can’t shape the story to their liking. You’ve done both. Which form do you find easier?

I don’t think I really came into my own as a writer until I started to blend the two for my novels. My first four books were somewhat surreal, and it wasn’t until I started using my background as a reporter in my fiction that my stories took on an added dimension. My fifth novel, White Shadow, really changed everything for me in my writing style and approach to novels. I work much in the same way now with my Quinn Colson books.

That much said, I also still write stories for magazines, and the challenge–and the fun–is the hunt for the truth and those little details.

For novels, I take a huge amount of inspiration from the filmmakers of late ’60s and early ’70s and their commitment to realism. I don’t like to write characters; I like to write about people. I don’t really have a favorite. I enjoy alternating between fiction and reporting with the challenges and pleasures of each.

Why did you decide to write about the plight of the American soldier returning home after being at war?

My longtime editor at G.P. Putnam asked me to consider developing a series character in contemporary times. Coming off four novels based on true stories set long ago, I was searching for someone specific to the South, where I live, and who offered an exciting story to play out in future books.

This was in 2010, after nine years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. By this time, you’re talking about many thousands of young people who served their country–sometimes on multiple tours–returning home in big numbers. I kept on running across a lot of guys like Quinn in Mississippi. Some of them were friends in town who served in the [National] Guard; some, professional soldiers you’d meet here and there, once at a playground while our kids played together. The story of the returning soldier is as old as The Odyssey and as contemporary as the Billy Jack movies. It just seemed a perfect fit for these times and deep Mississippi.

The voice of the Spenser novels is different from the one in the Quinn Colson series. After you finish a book for one series, how much down time do you allow for the mental shift before you start work on the other series? Do you ever find one voice bleeding into the other?

That’s probably the toughest challenge I have. Spenser is unique and the style of the books is much different than my own. I probably have a harder time getting into the Spenser books because I’m thinking, “What would Robert B. Parker do?” With Quinn, there isn’t that added level of mental gymnastics.

Writing Quinn is as easy as slipping into a pair of well-worn cowboy boots. I usually take off a week or two to adjust. Listening to a different soundtrack–Spenser’s jazz to Quinn’s classic country–certainly helps.

You’ve said you write the Spenser novels in the spring and summer, so logic says you write the Colson books in the fall and winter. Is that a conscious decision to write the grittier novels when days are colder and darker?

That’s a great question! But it’s not my decision. It’s just how the production schedule falls. But no doubt some of the ominous feeling in the Quinn books comes from the lonely winters down South. It’s hard to be too brooding over a nice spring or summer day in Oxford, Miss., or in Boston.

Readers’ reactions to the Colson novels have included relief that your characters are multifaceted instead of caricatures. What are some of the biggest misconceptions you’ve seen in stories about the South?

Wow. That would take all day. I’m not a real fan of the way the South is portrayed in movies or TV. We always fall somewhere between Steel Magnolias and Mississippi Burning. As you’ll see in The Forsaken, I’m not an apologist for the Deep South’s rotten history. But as far as the New South, I like to show the complexity of the people. It goes back to what I learned from my favorite authors and those filmmakers from the 1970s. You write about the real stuff, not those redneck stereotypes. (Although I must admit some people I come across are even too wild for a comedy routine or my books.)

William Faulkner is among your influences, and characters in the Colson series even have Faulknerian names like Bundren and Varner. If the Colson books were taught in schools, what would be the course overview and the topics and themes you’d expect to see covered?

I’ve been fortunate to have some of my books taught in high school and college courses. For the Quinn novels, I think there’s much to discuss on the classic journey of the hero (along with studies on Joseph Campbell, who is a big part of my work), redemption, race, religion and, mainly, hypocrisy and greed. One thing that never changes in the South is the evil that rules when good men and women do nothing. I admire anyone, like Quinn and Lillie, who challenge an old and ingrained system.

What’s happening with the Quinn Colson TV pilot script you wrote with your wife, Angela?

The project is being developed with veteran Hollywood director/producer Jeremiah Chechik [Burn Notice; Chuck]. The process can be long and slow and we have a high level of hope the stories can be translated intact. All of us want to see a faithful telling of the Quinn stories and the world of Tibbehah County.

You have a complete John D. McDonald collection, including a novelization he wrote of a Judy Garland movie. If you were to write a book based on a movie, what would it be?

I’d like to do a novelization of 1973’s White Lightning. It’s a classic Southern action film with so many elements I love. I continue to draw a lot of inspiration from this film. —Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, blogger at Pop Culture Nerd