The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Please welcome Mulholland Books to our publishers' corner!

Hi fellow readers!

I'm so pleased damn near giddy to announce that I'll have Matthew Quirk (The 500, The Directive, Cold Barrel Zero) and Tom Young (the Michael Parson & Sophia Gold series) dropping by this thread on Thursday, March 30th for a lively conversation about military thrillers, political conspiracies, and non-stop action. If you have any questions for either author, please leave them below.

But that's not all. While we're waiting for Quirk and Young to drop in, I'd like to give group members a chance to read Quirk's forthcoming thriller, Dead Man Switch, which comes out March 21st. I'll put five hardcovers of the book in the mail on the 15th. Interested in receiving one? Enter here for a chance to win!

I received my copy. Thank You!

Got mine, too; thanks!

Reminder: Matthew Quirk and Tom Young will be in discussion about their novels and the military thriller genre at 3pm eastern. If you have a question for these authors, please post them to this thread!

Hello all!

Hi, Matthew. Delighted to get a chance to chat with a fellow thriller author--and I'm a fan of your work, by the way. I see that we have in common a background as journalists: You worked for the Atlantic, and I worked with the Associated Press. What led you to make the move from journalist to novelist?

I'll start with a question to Tom. I loved all the details in your novels that only someone who served would know. How much of your research was picked up first person along the way, and how much do you reach out to friends from other units while writing?

Matthew wrote: "I'll start with a question to Tom. I loved all the details in your novels that only someone who served would know. How much of your research was picked up first person along the way, and how much d..."
Good question, Matt. For my first couple of novels, The Mullah's Storm and Silent Enemy, I could rely pretty much on my own Air Force training and experience. But later books took me farther from my own wheelhouse, so to speak. For example, in Sand and Fire, the main character is a Marine. I had to do a fair amount of research for that. Gotta give a lot of credit to the USMC. They were very helpful. Very patient with lots of questions from a dumb Air Force guy.

Likewise, Tom. Love your writing. It's easiest to jump when you get a little push. I was laid off in the financial crash of 2008. The timing was perfect, actually. Two days after I got the news of being let go, I heard back from an agent on some pages I had sent out months before. He told me to keep going, so I took a chance on writing full-time. I gave myself a deadline--my wedding was coming up--and it worked out just in the nick of time. I got the news on a book contract about a month before the big day.

Matthew wrote: "Likewise, Tom. Love your writing. It's easiest to jump when you get a little push. I was laid off in the financial crash of 2008. The timing was perfect, actually. Two days after I got the news of ..."
I'm glad things worked out so well for you--and for your readers, too.

Speaking of research, Matt, your novels seem quite accurately detailed. For example, in Cold Barrel Zero, we saw interrogation techniques, marksmanship, combat diving, emergency medicine, even safe-cracking. Do you do most of your research through reading, or through other methods?

Tom wrote: "Speaking of research, Matt, your novels seem quite accurately detailed. For example, in Cold Barrel Zero, we saw interrogation techniques, marksmanship, combat diving, emergency medicine, even safe..."

There is a lot of reading and research, but I had gotten to know a few special operations folks, and they really inspired the last two books, especially the non-technical elements about how they conduct themselves and their lives outside of work.

For Cold Barrel Zero, I signed up for an urban SERE course, too, which has nothing on real Air Force SERE, of course, but was a great training for that book. They "kidnapped" us and roughed us up. Then we had to escape from handcuffs and get away from trained trackers--Marine and SF vets--as they chased us around LA, all without money or phones. It was great for the tools and details, but the best lesson (especially for someone who spends a lot of time writing safe and sound in his house) was while it felt like to be terrified/exhilarated.

Matthew wrote: "Tom wrote: "Speaking of research, Matt, your novels seem quite accurately detailed. For example, in Cold Barrel Zero, we saw interrogation techniques, marksmanship, combat diving, emergency medicin..."
Fantastic. Your SERE course reminds me of a long-range rifle course I took for background research. I was out of my element there: the flyboy out in the field with a sniper rifle. Learned a lot, and also got a lot of good-natured ribbing from the former Special Forces guys who were the instructors. At one point, one of them asked me to estimate the wind. I said, "Five knots." He replied, "KNOTS? What the heck's a KNOT?"

Your prose is fantastic, Tom. Spare, at times lyrical. I was curious if that was something you set out to do deliberately: bring some literary qualities into the genre along with the heart-pounding plots?

After we do this fun stuff for research, then it's time to sit down and start the hard part: staring at that blank screen and beginning a story. So, here's an age-old question: Do you outline and plan plots ahead of time, or do you just write by the seat of your pants and let the characters go where they wish? (I fall into the latter category. I love to write--but I'd rather dig a ditch than have to write an outline.)

Matthew wrote: "Your prose is fantastic, Tom. Spare, at times lyrical. I was curious if that was something you set out to do deliberately: bring some literary qualities into the genre along with the heart-pounding..."
Thanks for those kind words. I do try to bring literary elements into my fiction. For example, I read a fair amount of poetry. (I'm completely incapable of WRITING poetry, but I enjoy reading it.) We prose writers usually worry only about the meaning of a word, but poets also consider the way a word sounds and the way it looks on the page. And I think it helps me write a better sentence when I consider those things, as well.

Tom wrote: "After we do this fun stuff for research, then it's time to sit down and start the hard part: staring at that blank screen and beginning a story. So, here's an age-old question: Do you outline and p..."

I do outline and plan plots extensively. I've found that working through the story in the outline phase really helps tighten it up. I used to be very focused on story structures, but have loosened that up quite a bit. I let the characters go where they want, but usually let them do it in the story brainstorming phase. (Slashing and burning 20,000 words that came from going down a wrong path is a painful, and unforgettable lesson).

I have gotten into writing very, very rough drafts so that I can let the characters take over and deviate from the outline a lot.

I'm curious about how you, as a seat of the pants writer, go into a book. How much do you have figured out ahead of time? Is it really just start at page one, and then you see where it leads?

Matthew wrote: "Tom wrote: "After we do this fun stuff for research, then it's time to sit down and start the hard part: staring at that blank screen and beginning a story. So, here's an age-old question: Do you o..."
I'm on the opposite end of that spectrum. With no outline at all, I start at Chapter One only with a general idea of the characters and the conflict. At that point, I'll also have a vague idea of how I want to end the story, but I'll have NO idea what happens in the middle. Often I find myself at the keyboard in mid-story thinking: "All right, what would I do in this moment, in this situation?"

Matthew wrote: "I'm curious about how you, as a seat of the pants writer, go into a book. How much do you have figured out ahead of time? Is it really just start at page one, and then you see where it leads?"
Exactly. Ahead of time, I'll have figured out the setting and the conflict. I'll also have a vague idea of how the story will end. But I won't have any idea of what happens in the middle. Sometimes, as you point out, this leads to writing down a dead end, and I have to throw out a few chapters and take a different track. But, they say the writer's best friend is the trash can. Sometime I make liberal use of it, too.

Here's a fun one: have you come across any real-life facts while researching where you thought, "This is true, but no one would believe it if I put in a thriller."

Which authors have inspired you? Any favorites? I'm a big Hemingway fan, and I never get tired of reading Mark Twain. (My novels would hardly be considered Southern Literature, but as a native North Carolinian, I'm a fan of that genre. So I like to read authors such as Robert Penn Warren, Ernest Gaines, Pat Conroy, William Faulkner, etc.)

I could tell the Hemingway influence. When I'm writing thrillers, he's definitely up there, especially in terms of that spare prose with a big punch. I love Tobias Wolff, the short story writer, who similarly will write what seems a plain story that just leaves you devastated. Charles McCarry is a writer I've gotten into recently, and for inspiration I go back to Le Carre and Graham Greene.

Matthew wrote: "Here's a fun one: have you come across any real-life facts while researching where you thought, "This is true, but no one would believe it if I put in a thriller.""
Yep. What would people say if one of us wrote a scene that involved launching a Minuteman ICBM from the cargo hold of a C-5 Galaxy? Pretty outlandish. But the Air Force really did that in a 1974 test. Parachutes dragged the missile out of the aircraft. Then when the missile moved to a vertical position, it ignited. I think the idea was to keep the Soviets guessing about where our missiles might be.

Oh Lord. At least it was on purpose. I just sneaked into a chlorine plant for book research, and it was too easy. You couldn't write a scene where the bad guys just walk in the front door.

I'll need to jump off in a minute. I've been writing up some articles tied to Dead Man Switch. I had forgotten all about the tyranny of newspaper deadlines. But this has been so fun, and thanks again Tom, for the terrific books and the chat. And if anyone cares to leave any questions, I'll keep checking back in and keeping the conversation going.

Good chatting with you, too, Matt. Best of luck with those articles--and with all your future writing projects. All the best….

You too, Tom. Thanks!

Nice! Thanks so much.

@Matthew: Loved this - you've pegged 4 of my favorite writers. I got into McCarry several years ago with his book The Tears of Autumn and then started adding more of his work to my tbr pile. I've also just finished three unforgettable stories by Greene: The Ministry of Fear along with The Third Man & The Fallen Idol.


"I love Tobias Wolff, the short story writer, who similarly will write what seems a plain story that just leaves you devastated. Charles McCarry is a writer I've gotten into recently, and for inspiration I go back to Le Carre and Graham Greene. "