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1) You’ve just started a new series, featuring Whit Mosley and Claudia
Salazar. What can you tell us about it?
It's much more of a suspense series than a traditional mystery series,
like my earlier work. Whit Mosley is a judge in a small county on the
Texas Gulf Coast. He also serves as county coroner, and takes a sometimes
unconventional approach to death inquests. His partner on most investigations
is Claudia Salazar, a very capable, by-the-book investigator who's trying
to build a better life for herself. Their different approaches to a case
put them in conflict. But they are also good friends, with a history between
them, and they care a lot about each other. The first book in the series
is A KISS GONE BAD, just out in October. The second is called BLACKJACK
POINT and will be out in late 2002.
2) Why did you start a new series instead of continuing with Jordan Poteet?
NAL asked me to write a brand new series for them. It's as simple as
that. I also wanted to write with more of a suspense orientation than
the Jordan books would allow, ones that had characters with an actual
duty to be involved in a crime investigation.
3)What made you pick Texas for the new series?
I think the Texas Gulf Coast has been ignored by most Texas-based writers.
I love the coast--I think coasts attract interesting people, because you
have one world (land) meeting another (sea), and in those littoral zones
you get all sorts of energy and characters. It's life on the edge, of
sorts. Certainly the people living on the Texas Gulf Coast will be the
first to say they are a quirky lot. And many writers have used the Florida
Gulf Coast as a setting; I thought it was time the so-called "Third
Coast"--the Texas coast--with its own beauty and collection of oddballs--got
attention as well.
4) This is your fifth mystery novel. Have you written anything else?
Short stories?
I've written two stories featuring Jordan Poteet that have been published,
and one story featuring Whit Mosley that was in an anthology called AND
THE DYING IS EASY, just out in summer 2001. I've just finished two
suspense short stories--not with Whit or Jordan--that I wrote just for
my own pleasure, and I'll probably send them off to the magazines early
next year. I have a goal to write five short stories in the next year.
That's a huge goal for me, because short stories--good ones--are much
harder than they appear.
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5) How did you first get started writing?
My grandmother taught school for 37 years, and she was a book fanatic.
She gave me a Big Chief tablet when I was little--four or five years old--and
I started filling it with stories, writing with one of those big fat blue
Husky pencils. I continued filling Big Chiefs as a child, and was also
an accomplished fibber at "show-and-tell", where I would tell
stories about me and the cowboys in Montana having adventures. (I have
never been to Montana, but it sounded too cool.) I wrote 500-page manuscripts--by
hand--in high school, really dreadful garbage. I got serious about writing
a book when my stepfather and I had a long talk and he asked me how long
it would take me to write a book. I, like an idiot, said three months.
So he said he'd support me for three months if I wanted to quit my job
and write. That was the beginning. That first book I wrote-in five months,
not three--stunk to high heaven, but it showed me I could finish writing
a book and served as a lab to learn the most common mistakes and how to
recognize and avoid them. The next novel I wrote, DO UNTO OTHERS,
sold to Ballantine very quickly and went on to win a couple of awards.
6) Who are some of your favorite writers?
I am always sure I will forgot someone in answering this question, but
here goes (and these are not all suspense writers): Eudora Welty. Patricia
Highsmith. Elmore Leonard. Dennis Lehane. Ruth Rendell. Harlan Coben.
Stephen King. Sharyn McCrumb. Carl Hiassen. John D. MacDonald. Charles
Dickens. Larry McMurtry. I'm forgetting someone, I'm sure. There are so
many good writers. You can tell I have wide-ranging tastes from the above
list.
7) Do you follow a schedule when you write? So many pages a day, certain
time of day?
Mostly I write in the mornings, from around 8-12. I try to do five pages
a day when I'm really chugging along.
8) How do you approach research for your books?
With great trepidation. I generally don't know what I need to know until
the story has taken some shape in my mind, and then I'll go and do research.
I have a freelance researcher who helps me chase down primary sources.
Other times I find an expert. Like for A KISS GONE BAD, two of
the characters are retired porn stars and I needed to know how the financial
side of that industry worked.
So I found, via the Internet, a guy who was a porn star/director/producer
to answer my questions about the business side of porn. The guy was a
scream, very funny, far more likeable than I ever thought he would be.
(This probably helped him in recruiting talent.) He gave me a lot of details--funny,
human details, even for such an exploitative business as he was in. (such
as his mother working as his accountant while thoroughly disapproving
of his oeuvre.) He helped me make the characters become more alive, be
more precise in their thinking and their view of the world.
For BLACKJACK POINT, my next book, I needed to know about forensic
archaeology and found a professor at a nearby university to walk me through
a hypothetical dig for skeletal remains. (There are only two board diplomates
in FA in Texas, so I was lucky one was only a half-hour away.) He showed
me pictures of a real dig, with dirt carefully being cleared away from
three skulls. "That's Madelyn Murray-O'Hair and her family,"
he said--obviously, a nationally famous murder case that was open for
years until the family's remains were found. He's worked all these kinds
of incredible cases. He's going to be able to share information of a texture
you won't find in a book. So usually, if you can find an expert to talk
with, that's the most preferable route. But be as prepared as you can
be before you interview an expert, so you don't waste their time.
9) What kind of things do you like to do in your free time?
Spend time with my wife and my kids. Read. Travel. I'm so incredibly boring.
But I'm happy.
10) I’ve heard other authors say that mystery/crime fiction is more
work to write because you need to follow a logical path and have a conclusion
that wraps things up well. Any thoughts on this?
I think every book needs to follow a logical path, crime fiction or not.
The characters must stay true to themselves as they change and grow, and
that should present a logical path for the writer to follow--while still
surprising the reader. It gives the story required structure--the bones
upon which to hang the flesh of the fiction. I think writers of any kind
ignore this at their peril.
11) Do you have any thoughts on the role the internet plays in writing
and marketing?
The Internet helps more with research than anything. I found web sites
and e-forums for all sorts of interests or research points--you just have
to confirm what you find on the Internet, because some of it isn't credible.
In terms of marketing--with so many writers hawking themselves on mystery
chat boards and such, I think the authorial noise level has gotten to
where it's much harder to get noticed on the Internet than before. I have
a web page--www.jeffabbott.com--and I did get lots of emails from new
readers right after KISS came out. I think that's because my web site
was listed at the back of the book. So that's valuable to stay in touch
with readers, and to provide them with more detail on your work. More
than anything, the Internet is valuable for staying in touch with writer
friends who are scattered around the country.
12) What kind of things influence your work?
Family. The web of relationships that exists in small towns. Any topic
that captures my interest for an extended amount of time, like treasure
hunting did for BLACKJACK POINT. The need to feed my family and
pay the mortgage.
13) What kind of movies do you enjoy watching?
I love movies, all kinds--suspense, comedies, foreign films. I think two
suspense movies I've particularly enjoyed in the past few years were Steven
Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT and Anthony Minghella's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY.
Of course, both of those were based on books by writers I particularly
admire. My favorite comedies of all time are YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and MONTY
PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. My favorite foreign films are DAS BOOT-- just
unbelievably tense and claustrophobic, set on a German U-Boat--and GALLIPOLI,
an amazing Australian film about friendship and war, set during WW1.
14) Do you enjoy doing personal appearances? Signings and conventions?
Sure. It's very nice to meet readers, and I'm certainly appreciative of
their support. Crime fiction fans are unbelievably loyal and kind. They
are great people.
15) Are there any downsides to being a writer?
None that aren't greatly outweighed by the benefits. Writing is very hard
work, but totally rewarding. People do, in a funny way, tend to think
writing is nothing but glamour. When A KISS GONE BAD hit the USA
TODAY bestseller list--my first time to hit such a list--my friends said,
"What did you do to celebrate?" Perhaps they thought Donald
and Ivana jetted down to party with me. The truth: I changed diapers,
helped my wife clean the house, worried about a rewrite I was about to
start on a new book. (Yes, we did celebrate later.) Writing is self-employment.
You are your own business, which can be a challenge.
16) Do you pay attention to reviews of your books?
I try not to, whether the review is good or bad, because it is, after
all, just one person's opinion. A KISS GONE BAD was my first book
out in five years, and it got absolutely glowing reviews, by far the best
of my career. It's hard for a paperback original to get reviewed at all,
so I probably paid a little more attention than I would have otherwise,
simply because I hadn't had work reviewed in so long and I did not expect
to get any reviews. But if the reviews had been horrible, I would have
just read them once, put them in a file, and kept writing. Every writer
gets bad reviews at some point, and you can't let it derail you.
17) With the publishing business changing, less publishing houses as
an example, how important is a good agent and a good editor?
Absolutely critical. Your agent has to be well-informed of who's the right
editor at the right house and have a deep understanding of what's happening
in the markets. Your editor has to be your champion within the house.
Your editor and agent also need to have a strong sense of story structure--that
can be a huge help in ironing out problems in a manuscript, especially
one aimed at a more mainstream audience.
18) How would you describe a perfect weekend?
On the coast with my family and close friends, beautiful weather, lots
of great food and conversation, good wine or cold beer, a good book to
read. The coast in question could be in Texas, Hawaii or Australia, three
of my favorite places.
19) Do you have a website?
Yes. www.jeffabbott.com. It includes
readers' guides for all my books, news, info for the press, and special
sections for readers and for writers.
20) What’s the one thing that’s always in your fridge?
Tabasco sauce.
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