A Good Thriller discussion

As a great fan I am looking forward to Tom Wood answering our questions on 14th July.

Hope many of you will take part.

I'm a huge fan too!! Looking forward to the event.

i love tom woods books

Get ready with your questions...

Do you want them in advance, Sean?

You can add your question when you want.

Add them here? Where?

In this thread, Barbara. Just fire away with your questions! :-)

Hi Tom! Was researching all the details about guns, rifles, snipers etc hard? Did you find it on Google or did you have some other source? (Er - a sniper?) The reason I ask is that I joined a sniper forum to try and get info myself for one of my books and was thrown off!

Hi Tom! How many more Victor books do you have planned? Do you plot them out beforehand or just write?

Tom, I am a big library user, and I am having difficulty finding most of your books. Is there anything I can do on my end?

I am a big fan and a heavy library user. I am having trouble finding your books is there anything I can do on my end.

Victor is a very unusual and interesting character. I hope that we get to read a lot more of his exploits.

Thank you for making time for us. Johnnie

Right now publishers are negotiating terms with libraries. so it really depends on the library and their specific deal with a publisher. Very frustrating at this point...

Tom why did you change your last name?

Johnnie if you want a library to purchase a material for it's library collection they should have some type of form for you to request they make a purchase. Also does your library support interlibrary loan? Try that method if your library uses it with other libraries in your area. To correct a previous comment libraries don't generally purchase directly from publishers. Most Libraries use a direct supplier like Baker and Taylor and it's competitor. However any book that goes out of print no matter the type of book cover, your library won't be able to purchase it no matter what company your library uses. Regrading ebooks for 3M or Overdrive is a total different matter and that is where publishers play monopoly by allowing their titles in electronic format and your library has to 3 or more X higher prices than what you see on book retailers web sites. My local library will allow me to buy new books for them to be added in circulation that they can not purchase.

Hi Tom,

thank you for joining the group and agreeing to do a Q & A for my group.

I have a few questions.

1. Which is your favourite of your own books so far.


2. Who are some of your favourite authors to read.

3. It is your intention to keep Victor's background reasonably secret, re where he is from, I know we get hints.

4. Do you travel to do research, like to NY for you latest book.

Scott wrote: "Tom why did you change your last name?"

To echo Scott's question-it was a bit of a challenge to find your first book in the U.S under a different title and last name. How did you choose Hinshelw and how do you pronounce that?

Perri wrote: "Scott wrote: "Tom why did you change your last name?"

To echo Scott's question-it was a bit of a challenge to find your first book in the U.S under a different title and last name. How did you cho..."

Perri, my library's copy of The Killer shows Tom's last name as Hinshelwood.

Brenda wrote: "Perri wrote: "Scott wrote: "Tom why did you change your last name?"

To echo Scott's question-it was a bit of a challenge to find your first book in the U.S under a different title and last name. H..."

Haha-there's a tag covering up the last part of the name. Now it makes a lot more sense!

I"m about a third of the way through The Killer and finding Victor such an interesting character. Ice cold killer but (view spoiler)[ feels a need to go to confession (hide spoiler)]. Self aware enuf to realize he's alive but not really living. I can't imagine a life where you'd have to be so constantly paranoid-how animals must live, constantly hunting, hunted-but with no social input- a most human craving. Why would anyone choose this life? There are surely easier ways to make good $ -embezzling, blackmail, kidnapping... ;)

Welcome to Tom who has joined the group today, all ready for the big day tomorrow.

As mentioned above, while reading these books I have wondered why have these not made it to the big screen.

My question who would you like to play " Victor"

My choice would be Jim Caviezel from "Person Of Interest", tall, muscular, dark haired, calm, always smart, sounds perfect for the part !

Since I'm new to this group I learned only yesterday about the BOTM and the Q & A so I grabbed a copy of the book last night and got about 40 percent until now. I hope I can finish till tomorrow :-)

My first question:
When Victor stopped at his chalet he played Chopin (best composer ever :-) ). - Is there a reason you decided for Victor to play piano and choose this particular composer?

I suppose more questions will come up later.

BTW Sean, I think Jim Caviezel is great choice ;-)

Waves to Tom - who's probably still asleep! Thanks for coming to answer our questions today!

He probably is!! I'm sure he'll be along later. :)

Hi Tom. My questions are:

1. Can you tease anything about Victor 6?

2. Do you have a general direction mapped out for Victor's character development through the series or are you just plan from book to book?

3. Do you know how many more books you will write about Victor?

4. Could you imagine yourself writing some kind of Victor origin story, or a book where his whole backstory is revealed?

5. What does your daily writing process look like?

That was it for the moment, Thank you!

Hey everyone, thanks for having me. I shall try to answer all the questions in the order they were asked, but I reserve the right of silence if there is anything I want to keep to myself!

Hi Barbara, I've definitely surfed a few open forums for research, but like most authors I use a variety of sources including Google, but also books, my own knowledge and some experts. For example, when writing The Game I received an email from a martial arts instructor who complemented me on the realism of the fight scenes. I asked him if he would take a look at what I was currently writing and he agreed, so I sent him all the hand-to-hand scenes I was working on and made suggestions as to what would be more effective. My emails with him led to be train in Krav Maga (a practical self-defence system). This expanded my knowledge vastly and almost every technique Victor uses in The Darkest Day is based in what I learned (although Victor implements those moves A LOT better).

I really don't know how many books I'll write, Barbara. I guess as long as people want to read them I'll keep writing. I probably plan 50% of a book and write the rest on the fly.

Hey Johnnie, I'm afraid I have no suggestions on what you can do regarding libraries. Sorry.

Carolyn: interesting question. I'm really not sure. I guess I've always found antiheroes and villains more interesting than heroes and so Victor grew out of that preference. But there was no lightbulb moment.

The film rights have been acquired and there is a script so maybe one day, but Hollywood is a notoriously slow beast.

Hi Scott, I didn't change my name. I was originally published in the US as Tom Hinshelwood, and then when a UK published purchased the book they decided to shorten the name to Wood to make it fit better on a paperback. Then my US publisher thought this was a great idea and also decided to shorten the name. I could have fought it, I suppose, but I trusted they knew what they were doing.

Hi Sean.

1: That's incredibly difficult to answer. Actually, it's impossible because each has elements I like and don't like. So I'm going to dodge my way around it and say The Hunter was the most fun to write because I had no deadlines and no pressure, and The Game was the fastest to write so arguably the easiest.

2: My favourite authors would be Tolkien and Bernard Cornwell. I don't read many thrillers these days as reading them feels a little too close to work! But I read every Lee Child book the week it comes out.

3: I have no plan for this, but I suppose by the time the series has ended then everything will have been revealed, although the reader will have to piece it together.

4: I'm not a big traveller, and would be dirt broke if I flew to everywhere Victor went! But like with other research, some is firsthand experience, some is garnered from the internet and other sources.

Hinshelwood is my surname, Perri, so I didn't get to choose it!

It's pronounced Hin-shell-wood.

I wish I had written The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, Carolyn. I wish I had that amazingly rich imagination that Tolkien had.

As for character: Jack Reacher so I knew everything, could beat anyone up and be irresistible to women.

Good question, Perri. Victor didn't choose his current existence, but it crept upon him bit by bit. In The Enemy he says, when describing the life of the assassin he's interrogating '...each time the voice in your head gets quieter until you can't hear it any more. Before you know it, you're a contract a killer.' In the same book, when asked why he doesn't retire, he says something like 'I've made too many enemies. If I retire I'll get soft and slow. I won't see them coming when they track me down.'

I do my utmost not think about casting. Because I will have no control over it if a film ever happens and because I don't want to picture any particular actor when I'm writing Victor. I would prefer an unknown to play him, but I know that almost certainly wouldn't happen.

Agnieszka: Victor had a life before he was an assassin, and the piano is part of that. I chose Chopin because, like you say, he was a great composer, and because much of his work was for the solo piano I felt that was a good representation of Victor's solitary existence.

Hi Bobo

1: In no.6 (as yet untitled) Victor is sent to assassinate a Serbian warlord. That's all I can tell you right now.

2: I have no direction mapped out for Victor's character. It's been ten years already since I wrote the first draft of the first book and my own personality has changed enormously in that time. I wouldn't dare plan that far ahead.

3: Answered above somewhere.

4. I very much doubt I would write a prequel book. I know many people would like one, but I don't think they would actually like the results.

5. Yawn. Coffee. Yawn. Scratch head. Yawn. Make notes. Coffee. Write. Tear hair out.

I'll be back in a bit to see if there are any more questions.

Thank you Tom! I appreciate that you revealed anything about Nr. 6 at all! ;) Now the next round!

1. Have you plans in your head to bring characters from the previous books back, like Basaiev or Raven?

2. How difficult is it to bring someone as skillful as Victor, in situations, where the reader really fears for him, especially as he is supposed to be more experienced every time?

3. Is it more important to you that Victor remains as careful as possible, or do you allow him some flaws in order to create more tension? (I would lean towards the later, after reading Nr. 5)

4. Will the taxi driver who knows Victor's real name play a role of some sort in the events to come?

5. Do you think Victor will meet his match, some day?

1. Basayev will definitely return. I wanted to do it before now but I appreciate not everyone has read Bad Luck in Berlin so I haven't so far for that reason. Most of the memorable characters will probably return at some point, but I don't want to write a soap opera so I want to leave enough time between appearances for that not to happen.

2. Incredibly difficult. I first realised in writing The Enemy that I'd given myself a real problem with Victor. That's one of the reasons he's been up against multiple enemies several times, to put him at a disadvantage. Same with situations out of his control.

3. He's always had flaws, despite being so careful. He's no Reacher. He makes the odd mistake and is not superhuman. I once had an email from a reader complaining that Victor can't be very good if he allowed Reed to follow him in Cyprus during The Hunter. It wouldn't be very interesting to read about him if he was perfect.

4. There are no plans. That scene came about organically during the writing process and in the same way that for fun Victor tells him his name, I had Victor act of character for the fun of it. I like the result, but if Victor really thought there was a chance he'd encounter the guy again he wouldn't have told him.

5. Define match? He was pretty much killed by Reed and had to flee from the Mossad kidon, setup by Leeson & Hart, outmanoeuvred by Anderton and that's without being tricked in The Darkest Day, but he's always found a way to survive. He certainly knows it's inevitable to be killed by one of his own kind. Time will tell.

I was wondering, if you could be any character from any of your books bar Victor, who would it be and why? :)

Tough one, Jane! Nearly every character in my books is deplorable in one way or the other. So maybe Kasakov from The Enemy as he's a billionaire.

Tom wrote: "Tough one, Jane! Nearly every character in my books is deplorable in one way or the other. So maybe Kasakov from The Enemy as he's a billionaire."

Haha good answer :P Wouldn't mind living in his Sochi holiday mansion....:D

Thanks again! Of course, I forgot that Baseiev is from Serbia!

I agree with you, Victor can't be a robot, I mean even superman has a weak spot, right? ;) He wouldn't be my favourite character if he were without any flaws! (Victor not superman)

Yeah the taxy scene felt organic too, Victor is always good for a surprise.

So let's continue. :)

1. Did you need to do a lot of weapon research for the books or is it a hobby of your's? And why did you choose the Five Seven as Victor's weapon of choice?

2. Could you ever see some kind of happy end for Victor, Or is it just not in his DNA? (Remember Fleming and Conan Doyle tried to kill off there characters too) ;)

Hi Tom, i have read 4 of your books so far. "The Hunter" being my fav so far.I cant wait to read the next one,love your style of writing, fast and very hard to put down.
Love the character Victor.

Your books are so fast they should come with an air bag.

Gerard.

Thanks, Tom. I don't know what I'd do without Google!

Tom wrote: "I wish I had written The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, Carolyn. I wish I had that amazingly rich imagination that Tolkien had.

As for character: Jack Reacher so I knew everything, could..."

Interesting that you'd say Reacher! He's a strong character like Victor but actually more intriguing - to me anyway. Perhaps keeping Victor so cold for much of the time is the key to my 'like' of him. How terrible to say you like an assassin - but I do!

Tom wrote: "I do my utmost not think about casting. Because I will have no control over it if a film ever happens and because I don't want to picture any particular actor when I'm writing Victor. I would prefe..."
Just as long as it's not a guy with the first name beginning with T and the last a C! (Sorry - but he can't be Reacher!)

I'm going to be really intrigued to see how you 'finish' the series - assuming you do. Victor isn't the type to marry, have kids and buy a little house in the country. Or is he? LOL
Do you write to a word count per day or just write how ever much you happen to write?