The Next Next Big Thing
Before Thanksgiving, Joe D’Agnese “tagged” me in his Next Big Thing blog post forcing me to answer questions about my latest writing project. Thanks, Joe. After that exhausting task, I’m still supposed to have enough energy left to stir five of my comrades-in-arms to do the same thing. Wheels within wheels…
To top it all off, this was supposed to happen in a week. Well, good things come to those who wait. A few days late, I’m here to answer the questions and (hopefully) pass the baton.
The writers I tend to hang out with aren’t the blogging type, so we’ll see how far this goes. I may end up posting their answers these same questions on my site as well. Those five will mention five of their trusted allies, and so on and so on. So…
1) What is the title of your next book?
The Suspect.
2) Where did the for the book idea come from?
I was thinking about a concept in judo, wherein a person can allegedly use their opponent’s strength against them. It felt to me a particularly counterintuitive concept, a lot like the way Christianity strikes me. I wanted to explore that idea of equating strength to weakness, and that force I came up with holding under the microscope was racism — it’s a kind of “superiority complex” people have. Can it be their undoing…?
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Despite the above, The Suspect is a thriller. A psychological thriller if that can be considered its own genre.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Funny you should ask; The Suspect began life as a screenplay and I’m happy to report we’ve just finished shooting the feature film version, so I actually was one of the few writers in history in a position to choose who played the parts. Happy to report I landed my top picks — Mekhi Phifer (“8 Mile”), Bill Sadler (“The Shawshank Redemption”) James McCaffrey (“Rescue Me”) and Rebecca Creskoff (“Hung”) are the leads.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
An African-American man with no ID is found wandering in a small, all-white town mere minutes after that town has experienced its first-ever bank robbery, but things aren’t what they first appear.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
This book will likely be put out by the publishing division of our production own production company, which you may well consider falling in the self-published arena. But we don’t rule out the possibility that one of the studios that also has a publishing division (there are several; Disney and Hyperion jump to mind) might want to acquire the rights to both.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Translating the script format to the novel was a matter of five weeks going at the rate of about 1000 words a day. An easy enough clip, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. In scripts, you’re restricted to sight and sound — the senses involved in film. You never fully appreciate the novel’s x-ray ability to take you inside thought and emotion until you adapt a screenplay into one.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
For structure, Ira Levin’s first novel A Kiss Before Dying. For theme, John Ball’s In The Heat of The Night. Outside the genre, Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire for character.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’d been angry for a while about how much attention The Usual Suspects had gotten over the years. I liked it as a concept, but I felt it didn’t deliver on its promise, that it took the easy way out. In particular, people seemed to be so blown away by the Kevin Spacey character, when all I saw was a guy lying for 95% of the film, somewhat randomly, then revealing he’s a different guy than the lies led you to believe. There just wasn’t much “there” there. A wasted opportunity, I believe if they could’ve made the middle of the movie connect with everything, rather than just acting as a stall, it would’ve been much more worthy of the attention it received. From this observation sprung the thoughts that eventually led to this story.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
In the middle of working toward a film version of this story, I was offered the opportunity to co-author a book with Martin Luther King Jr.’s longtime friend and speechwriter. That book, Behind The Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed America ended up being a critical piece of the package we took to investors, my insight into the racial tension in America had some Big 6 Publishing backing, so that helped people take The Suspect seriously.
Now I’d like to introduce five new writers to you. For now, please check out their latest releases. I’ll check in with them to see if they’ll be posting their answers on their own blogs or sending them to me for spotlighting:
John-Paul Bernbach
Peter Eisner
Jay Pillard
Cari Kamm
Derek Roché
Oh, and just to say thanks for dragging me into this, here’s a link to Joe D’Agnese’s well-regarded latest: The Mesmerist
To top it all off, this was supposed to happen in a week. Well, good things come to those who wait. A few days late, I’m here to answer the questions and (hopefully) pass the baton.
The writers I tend to hang out with aren’t the blogging type, so we’ll see how far this goes. I may end up posting their answers these same questions on my site as well. Those five will mention five of their trusted allies, and so on and so on. So…
1) What is the title of your next book?
The Suspect.
2) Where did the for the book idea come from?
I was thinking about a concept in judo, wherein a person can allegedly use their opponent’s strength against them. It felt to me a particularly counterintuitive concept, a lot like the way Christianity strikes me. I wanted to explore that idea of equating strength to weakness, and that force I came up with holding under the microscope was racism — it’s a kind of “superiority complex” people have. Can it be their undoing…?
3) What genre does your book fall under?
Despite the above, The Suspect is a thriller. A psychological thriller if that can be considered its own genre.
4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Funny you should ask; The Suspect began life as a screenplay and I’m happy to report we’ve just finished shooting the feature film version, so I actually was one of the few writers in history in a position to choose who played the parts. Happy to report I landed my top picks — Mekhi Phifer (“8 Mile”), Bill Sadler (“The Shawshank Redemption”) James McCaffrey (“Rescue Me”) and Rebecca Creskoff (“Hung”) are the leads.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
An African-American man with no ID is found wandering in a small, all-white town mere minutes after that town has experienced its first-ever bank robbery, but things aren’t what they first appear.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
This book will likely be put out by the publishing division of our production own production company, which you may well consider falling in the self-published arena. But we don’t rule out the possibility that one of the studios that also has a publishing division (there are several; Disney and Hyperion jump to mind) might want to acquire the rights to both.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Translating the script format to the novel was a matter of five weeks going at the rate of about 1000 words a day. An easy enough clip, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. In scripts, you’re restricted to sight and sound — the senses involved in film. You never fully appreciate the novel’s x-ray ability to take you inside thought and emotion until you adapt a screenplay into one.
8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
For structure, Ira Levin’s first novel A Kiss Before Dying. For theme, John Ball’s In The Heat of The Night. Outside the genre, Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire for character.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’d been angry for a while about how much attention The Usual Suspects had gotten over the years. I liked it as a concept, but I felt it didn’t deliver on its promise, that it took the easy way out. In particular, people seemed to be so blown away by the Kevin Spacey character, when all I saw was a guy lying for 95% of the film, somewhat randomly, then revealing he’s a different guy than the lies led you to believe. There just wasn’t much “there” there. A wasted opportunity, I believe if they could’ve made the middle of the movie connect with everything, rather than just acting as a stall, it would’ve been much more worthy of the attention it received. From this observation sprung the thoughts that eventually led to this story.
10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
In the middle of working toward a film version of this story, I was offered the opportunity to co-author a book with Martin Luther King Jr.’s longtime friend and speechwriter. That book, Behind The Dream: The Making of the Speech That Transformed America ended up being a critical piece of the package we took to investors, my insight into the racial tension in America had some Big 6 Publishing backing, so that helped people take The Suspect seriously.
Now I’d like to introduce five new writers to you. For now, please check out their latest releases. I’ll check in with them to see if they’ll be posting their answers on their own blogs or sending them to me for spotlighting:
John-Paul Bernbach
Peter Eisner
Jay Pillard
Cari Kamm
Derek Roché
Oh, and just to say thanks for dragging me into this, here’s a link to Joe D’Agnese’s well-regarded latest: The Mesmerist
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