Book Launch | Mark Rubinstein Blog

‘House of Spies,’ My Talk with Daniel Silva

July 11, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Daniel Silva is the international award-winning author of the Gabriel Allon series which has topped the New York Times’s bestseller list many times. He burst onto the literary scene with his debut novel, The Unlikely Spy, which became a bestseller.

He soon began writing books about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli art restorer, assassin and spy. These novels have been translated into twenty-five languages and are available in more than thirty countries. Before becoming a novelist, Daniel was the Chief Middle East Correspondent for UPI in Egypt, and the Executive Producer of CNN’s Crossfire.

In House of Spies, London is the target of a horrific ISIS attack. Though coordinated brilliantly, there is one loose thread which leads Gabriel to the south of France where contact is made with a wealthy Frenchman and a British former fashion model. Gabriel must expertly engineer the situation to fight the global war on terror.

You completed “House of Spies” just before the recent ISIS attack in London. And last year, you completed “The Black Widow” just before the Paris attack. Is this prescience or do you have connections in the world’s intelligence communities?

It’s a little of both. Anyone who seriously follows these issues knew ISIS was desperate to attack the United Kingdom. ISIS painted a bulls eye on the UK. There were twelve or thirteen plots British intelligence and security services thwarted and disrupted, but it was only a matter of time before one slipped through the cracks. The Director General of MI 5 told the British people point blank there would be attacks in Britain. That’s why I chose to use Britain as a jumping off point for this story. While I was deeply saddened to see certain aspects of my book actually happen, I was not at all surprised.

“House of Spies” involves two fascinating new characters—one is Jean-Luc Martel. Tell us a bit about him.

Jean-Luc Martel is a wildly successful French entrepreneur who is in the hospitality industry—restaurants and hotels. That’s all a cover for his job as a drug trafficker.

After the eruption of the Arab Spring, and the eventual toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, ISIS set up shop along the Libyan coast, moving huge shipments of hashish and narcotics into Europe.

In my book, Jean-Luc Martel’s drug network is doing business with ISIS.

This presents Gabriel Allon and his allies an opportunity to penetrate ISIS indirectly by enlisting France’s biggest drug dealer as an unwilling asset of Israeli and French intelligence.

Among other things, the book explores the very real subject of coerced recruitment of assets.

The other new character is Olivia Watson. Tell us about her.

Olivia Watson is a former British fashion model who left the industry with some expensive habits, shall we say. She wasn’t in great financial shape and wanders down to St. Tropez where she works in a small art gallery. She meets Jean-Luc Martel. They form a partnership. He sets her up in business in a posh art gallery, but the gallery is a front for a giant money laundering machine for his drug enterprise.

Is there some significance to your having decided to make Gabriel Allon, a spy-assassin, and also an art restorer?

When I created Gabriel, I wanted him to have a distinct and prominent “other side” to his character. He had been a gifted painter, until he lost his will to create art because of his work as an assassin for Israeli intelligence.

Art restoration not only provides the perfect cover for him, but allows him to stay connected to art, which is his passion.

He’s a complex man, and it’s important to me that the reader see him in all his dimensions.

At the time I was creating Gabriel, I happened to be having dinner with one of the world’s foremost art restorers. He helped me turn this Israeli assassin into a restorer of Italian masterpieces.

You publish a new book during the second week of each July. Is there any significance to that date?

If you look at the publishing calendar, many authors publish books around the same date each year, whether it’s John Sandford, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, or myself. We all have our ‘slots.’ Mine became the second Tuesday of July. I’ve had at least ten books published on that day: it helps the industry with such things as production schedules and ordering; and hopefully, I’ve got readers who know to look for my next book at that time.

How long does it take you to write a novel?

Roughly, from Labor Day until April Fool’s Day. I finish my draft by about March first, and spend the next month rewriting and editing.

Do you have first readers for your novels?

I rely on two people only: my wife, and Lewis Toscano, my editor. Lewis has been editing my manuscripts and making them better since I was a twenty-four-year-old kid.

I’ve learned you write in longhand on a legal pad. Is that true?

Yes, that’s true.

Why not use a computer for that first draft?

I do use a computer for parts of that first draft, but I sit comfortably and quietly while I write in longhand. I think better by writing in longhand. I love the quiet atmosphere of it. I prefer not staring at a computer screen all day. For me, the pace of putting words on paper with the human hand lets me form my sentences as I go. I end up with a skyscraper-tall pile of legal pads by the end of a book.

I’ll tell you something: you could go through those papers and pull out large sections of the novel written in one take from beginning to end. For me, writing in longhand produces a far more polished first draft than I could ever produce by typing on a keyboard. I think it has to do with the slower pace of physically executing words and sentences. Thoughts go from my brain to my fingers and onto the paper via my pen.

All your novels, have plot twists and explosive turns. Do you usually pre-plan them or do they arise as you write?

For the most part, they arise as I write.

I don’t outline at all. My first draft is my outline. [Laughter]. I tried outlining once and felt it was a complete waste of time.

Tell us about the deal with MGM Television to turn Gabriel Allon’s adventures into a series. And why TV instead of a feature film?

It’s the deal I’ve been waiting for. We’re moving forward at full speed.

I had to make a basic choice: film versus television.

That decision became easy when I considered having the prospect of twelve hours of a television series devoted to Gabriel Allon versus two hours of film.

There’s a vast amount of material to capture and explore, and I’m fascinated by the prospect of seeing some of the older material updated.

Television has become quite innovative, and I think it was the way to go.

You once said you wanted Gabriel to live solely on the page. What changed your mind?

For many years, I was convinced Gabriel should live only on the page.

But, after The Black Widow was published, I was inundated with so many offers, I was finally able to feel pretty confident that the offer I would ultimately select would get the complex character of Gabriel and the tone for the series done correctly.

Do you see Gabriel Allon continuing for many more books?

That’s a difficult question to answer. Let’s just say that I’m working on another Gabriel Allon novel right now. [Laughter].

Congratulations on penning “House of Spies,” another electrifying novel about one of the most intriguing protagonists on the planet.

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‘Heartbreak Hotel,” A Conversation with Jonathan Kellerman

February 27, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Jonathan Kellerman, the bestselling author of forty-one crime novels, is known to mystery-lovers everywhere. With a doctorate in psychology, Jonathan has applied his knowledge not only to his novels, but to those he has co-written with his wife Faye, and son, Jesse. All three of them are bestselling authors. Additionally, he has written two children’s books and many nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children, and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He’s won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony Awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award.

Heartbreak Hotel, is the latest novel in Jonathan’s acclaimed Alex Delaware series. Along with Sue Grafton’s “Alphabet series” The Alex Delaware series is one of the longest running on the literary landscape.

Heartbreak Hotel begins with nearly one-hundred-year-old Thalia Mars asking Alex to come to her suite at the Aventura, a luxury hotel with a checkered history. Thalia asks him questions about guilt, criminal behavior and victim selection. When Alex inquires about her fascination with these issues, Thalia promises to reveal more in their next meeting. But when Alex shows up the next morning, Thalia is dead in her suite.

Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis find themselves peeling back many layers of Thalia’s long life, and nearly a century of secrets slowly emerge—secrets that unleash an explosion of violence.

Alex Delaware has evolved over the years. Tell us a bit about that evolution.

It’s funny because it wasn’t a conscious decision to have Alex evolve over time. People reading the earlier books are in a better position than I am to see the changes in him. I rarely read my earlier books unless I’m doing research for accuracy. My son, Jesse, said the earlier books are a bit more literary, there’s more verbiage and description in them than in the later novels.

While I don’t age Alex in real time, he’s mellowed out over the years. Maybe you’re the better judge than I am. Maybe he’s mellowing as I’ve mellowed over time. [Laughter]. I must say, I don’t want him to lose his edge. I still want him to be compulsively driven because that’s what drives a crime novel forward. I don’t think there’s anything more boring that a crime novel in which the protagonist is really laid back.

The dialogue in Heartbreak Hotel is edgy and realistic. Talk to us about the importance of dialogue in your novels.

Dialogue is interesting. When I first started writing novels, I felt creating dialogue was a weakness of mine. I thought my strengths were playing with language and description. I’m a visual person. I’ve been a serious artist for most of my life. I was able to paint and draw like an adult when I was ten. I tend to perceive the world in a visual manner.

My wife Faye is an auditory writer. She has an amazing ear and can imitate people after hearing them speak once. I learned to write dialogue from Faye, and from reading Elmore Leonard. I realized when you write dialogue, it must sound like people talking. But of course, it’s not like people talking because when they talk, the conversation is replete with ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ and pauses. Dialogue in a novel is an artifice in which you construct a false reality. I learned to keep it snappy and to open my ears to what people say and how they say it. The rhythm of dialogue came easily to me because I’m a musician and understand cadence and timing. Over the years, I’ve tried to make the dialogue better, because I don’t want it to seem stale. I think I’ve improved writing dialogue by listening to people talk and by keeping the dialogue brief, avoiding too much running on and on.

In Heartbreak Hotel, Alex’s internal thoughts and descriptions often reflect on issues larger than the novel itself. An example: “Some cops toss a room with the abandon of deranged adolescents. My friend’s grooming may come across as hastily assembled but he puts things back exactly where he found them.” Your novels not only tell a story, but serve as a vehicle for commentary about life. Tell us about that.

I think that’s just naturally the way I see the world. You as a psychiatrist and I as a psychologist must acknowledge we got into this field because we see things in multiple dimensions.

I never set out to write a ‘message book,’ but things concern me, and by dealing with larger issues, I hope to elevate the story beyond it being just a good crime novel. And, I call what I write a ‘crime novel’ rather than a mystery, because the story is always propelled by the crime.

Of course, my experience as a psychologist informs my writing. For example, as someone who worked with children in oncology, an event like a terrible cancer diagnosis can become a catalyst for unlocking all kinds of other issues. That awareness colors my writing in the sense that a specific crime can open up a Pandora’s box of reactions. Every crime impacts people, and trauma can bring out the best or worst in them, whether in a novel or in real life.

Alex Delaware had a difficult childhood. As psychologists, both he and you know the indelible effects of the past on current functioning. How does Alex’s past affect his present life?

I developed and evolved Alex’s past as I got to know him better by writing books about him. When I wrote the first one, When the Bough Breaks, which was published in 1985, I had a certain notion back then about Alex. I never thought I’d get published or that it would become a successful series. I learned about Alex along with my readers, and things began falling into place. I parcel his childhood and all of Alex’s personal history into the books very judiciously. In some novels, he’s a protagonist; in others he’s a consulting psychologist. Of course, his past has impacted his interest in psychology and in wanting to set certain things right.

You once said, “Psychology and fiction are actually quite synchronous.” Tell us more about that.

I think both involve attempts to better understand people.

As a psychologist, I love my work because I learn about people and what drives them.

As a writer, I get to play God by creating characters, and then get to see how they react to difficult situations.

What unifies psychology and fiction is they are both avenues to explore more about the human condition.

If you could read any one novel again as though reading it for the first time, which one would it be?

“I’ve never been asked that question. [Laughter] That’s a tough one. The Count of Monte Cristo was the seminal novel in my life. I read it as a youngster. It struck me as an amazing book. There was so much going on: adventure, comradery, relationships and revenge.

What’s coming next from Jonathan Kellerman?

I’m working on the next Delaware novel. Jesse and I have a book coming out called Crime Scene. It’s the beginning of a new series. I always wanted to write a novel about a crime scene investigator, which is what this novel concerns. Jesse and I wrote it together and we’re now outlining the second one.

Congratulations on penning Heartbreak Hotel, another Alex Delaware mystery that goes far beyond its genre. It’s a compelling psychological crime novel with deeply imagined characters told in a literary style that kept me turning pages to the very end.

Mark Rubinstein’s latest book is Bedlam’s Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope, a medical/psychiatric memoir.

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‘Debt to Pay,” A Talk with Reed Farrel Coleman

September 13, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Reed Farrel Coleman, a best selling author of 24 previous novels, has penned the popular Moe Prager series as well as other well-received books. He’s a three-time winner of the Shamus Award, and has won the Macavity and Barry Awards, among others.

Robert Parker, considered by many to have been the dean of American crime fiction, was the author of seventy books, including the series featuring Chief Jesse Stone.

After Parker’s death in 2010, Reed Farrel Coleman was chosen to keep this immensely popular series alive.

In Debt to Pay we find Chief Jesse Stone romantically involved with former FBI agent Diana Evans. When a Boston crime boss is murdered, Jesse suspects it’s the work of Mr. Peepers, a deranged assassin who has caused trouble for Jesse in the past. Peepers promised revenge against the Mob, Jesse, and one of Jesse’s cops, and against Jesse’s ex-wife Jenn. Peepers toys with the police as to the when and where he’ll strike, and Jesse knows there’s a steep debt to pay and blood will be spilled in the process.

Debt to Pay is the third Jesse Stone novel you’ve written. What was it like to take over a series written by the legendary Robert B. Parker?

It was an interesting challenge because I felt like a psychologist might feel stepping into Sigmund Freud’s shoes. [Laughter] It’s not like I took over some minor writer’s character…I tried not to worry about that reality, and decided not to try to live up to Bob’s legacy. I think writing is difficult enough without throwing more hurdles in front of myself than already exist. I realized how momentous a task it was, but my approach was to simply write the best book I could.

Do you feel you had to adhere to Robert Parker’s voice for Jesse, or were you tempted to take him in a slightly different direction?

When I was offered the opportunity, one of the first people I called was my friend, Tom Schreck. He’s an author, New York State boxing judge, a drug counselor, and a huge Robert B. Parker fan. I wanted his advice about how to go about writing these books. He said something that crystallized my approach to this series.

Tom is an avid Elvis Presley fan. He said, ‘I’ve seen all the best Elvis impersonators, but no matter how good they are, there are two things you can never get past: number one is, you’re aware it’s an imitation, and number two is, the impersonator can never do anything new. He’s trapped in the Elvis persona. His words were like an explosion in my head. I determined not to try imitating Bob, because I could never escape the fact that readers would see it as imitation. And, imitation—no matter how good—is never as good as the original. And, I could never do anything new if I was going to mimic what Bob did. I decided I’d be true to the character—Jesse Stone would act as he had in the past, but the reader would see different aspects of Jesse emerge, and the town of Paradise would evolve. So, in a sense, I use the same camera Bob did, but my focus is different.

In Debt to Pay, Jesse has given up drinking alcohol. What accounts for this turn of events?

He gives it up temporarily. If you think of Jesse Stone, you think of Tom Selleck, who played him on TV … a tall, handsome guy who’s athletic and whom women love. A reader can have trouble relating to someone like that. Everyday people relate to Jesse because he struggles, as do we all. Personal challenges are what make us human. I think it’s really important to show Jesse having serious problems with alcohol. Sometimes he succeeds, and sometimes he fails.

I’m familiar with your series’ characters: Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, and now, Jesse Stone. How do you go about formulating different characters for various different series?

My own series are easier because the best place to look for new characters is to look in the mirror. Somewhat like method acting for writing, I try coming up with some aspect of a character that I feel within myself—a flaw, an emotion, an incident—something that happens to me, and it becomes the basis for a character. It’s far more challenging to find a way into somebody else’s character. My way into Jesse was his baseball career because I’ve always been an avid baseball fan and consider myself a jock. That was my route into Jesse.

You’ve been called a ‘hard-boiled poet’ and the ‘noir poet laureate’ by various critics. What about your writing has resulted in these characterizations?

Bribery. [Laughter]. I started as a poet when I was thirteen, and it’s evolved into prose, but I’ve never lost my love for the sound of language. I’m not conscious of it while working, but when I re-read my writing, I see a certain lyricism, and know I’ve never lost the love of the sound of words.

If you could read any one novel again as though it’s the first time you’re reading it, which one would it be?

That’s pretty easy for me to answer. It would be The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. It has its flaws, but it’s the kind of writing I wish I could do. There are others like Slaughterhouse Five that come close, and if I didn’t write crime novels for a living, it would be a different novel.

What, if anything, keeps you awake at night?

The cat and the New York Mets. [Laughter].

I don’t regret things. I don’t look back and rue my decisions. I’m not a big sleeper; I sleep five or six hours at most. So nothing really keeps me up at night.

Looking back at your career, has your writing process changed in any way?

I’m not sure my process has changed, but I’ve changed as a writer. I’ve never stopped being influenced by other writers. My writing has become slightly more refined. For me, the more I write, the better I get at it. When I no longer feel I’m getting better as a writer, that’s when I’ll stop. For example, I once had an idea for a novel, but I wasn’t yet a good enough writer to tackle it. It took me five years to complete Gun Church because it took me that long to develop the skills needed to write that novel.

What’s coming next from Reed Farrel Coleman?

Another Gus Murphy novel is coming next. It’s called What You Break.

Congratulations on writing Debt to Pay, a beautifully crafted novel that captures Robert B. Parker’s world view, as it tells the tense story of a flawed but intrepid police chief who finds himself pitted against a tenacious “cat-and-mouse” killer.

Mark Rubinstein’s latest book is Bedlam’s Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope, a psychiatric/medical memoir.

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Gizmodo Interviews Me About “Bedlam’s Door” and Mental Illness

September 3, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Real Stories About Real People Show Complexity of Mental Illness

A Hungarian-born man is found ranting in the street that he is “king of the Puerto Ricans.” A perfectly healthy woman feels compelled to undergo over a dozen operations. A man in a straightjacket somehow manages to commit suicide while inside a locked psychiatric ward.

These are just a few of the compelling stories in Mark Rubinstein’s new book, Bedlam’s Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope. (You can read an exclusive excerpt here.) Rubinstein is a former practicing psychiatrist turned novelist who has drawn on his years of clinical experience to follow in the nonfiction footsteps of Oliver Sacks, shedding light on the complexities of the human mind with real stories about real people. Gizmodo sat down with him to learn more.

Gizmodo: What drove you to write this nonfiction book, after years of clinical practice and novel-writing?

Mark Rubinstein: It all came down to my wanting to tell the general public a little bit more about mental illness. When someone has a physical illness, people feel some kind of empathy, but they still respond to an obviously disturbed person with fear. It’s not just your heart, lung, or liver that’s sick—it is you. That is very threatening to people. And people don’t really understand the mental health dilemma, and the issues that mental health practitioners face.

Q: You brought a novelist’s sensibility to these stories, with composite characters and reconstructed dialogue. How much is fiction and how much is nonfiction?

Rubinstein: It is kind of a combination of fiction superimposed on a nonfictional layer of things that really happened. These were all real people and real cases—sometimes a composite of more than one person to protect their privacy. Oliver Sacks was accused of unwittingly giving away the identities of some of the people he wrote about in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

I never wanted to be accused of anything like that, so I changed everything: times, places, people, venues, even races. I didn’t even use a real hospital. Of course, I couldn’t remember all the dialogue from 30 years ago, but I created dialogue consistent with the story line. But these were all real stories and real people from people I had treated. There isn’t a story in there that isn’t true.

But the overarching theme running through most of the stories is that even with the most bizarre cases, if time is taken to listen to these people and understand their stories and background, perhaps we can offer them help. It’s all about storytelling. That’s what novelists do, and in a sense that’s what patients do when they come to see a psychiatrist: they tell a story.

Q: I was struck by your statement that even people who suffer from the same diagnosed condition can have very different stories.

Rubinstein: [Mental illness] can affect almost anybody, given certain circumstances. Some of the most successful people on the planet have a touch of hypomania. I know physicians and attorneys who don’t have full-blown manic episodes but they are filled with boundless energy. They are restless. They feel bored and unhappy unless they are facing a challenge. And they are highly successful. Take that to a more severe degree, however, and it can be completely disabling. And 100 different people can have 100 different pathways to the same diagnosable psychiatric disorder.

You contrast two very different examples of PTSD in the book, for instance.

Rubinstein: In one case, a police officer was shot while sitting in his patrol car outside a store near Tompkins Square Park in New York City. A bullet smashed through the windshield and hit him in the armpit, ruining his brachial plexus—a complicated series of nerves that serves the entire arm. He almost bled to death in the ride to the hospital, and he was crippled for the rest of his life. The depression, the PTSD, the pain he felt in his right arm—the pins and needles and tingling—was directly related to the psychic impact of that half-second of impact.

Then there is the man I call Nathan, found ranting on Delancy Street that he was the king of the Puerto Ricans. He was a carpenter, born in Hungary, and that skill saved his life at Auschwitz. He watched people disappear into the gas chambers—his family, his entire village. He was the sole survivor. But his PTSD didn’t develop until 40 years later, when he was in America and fell off the ladder while working on a roof, breaking some vertebrae in his back. He could no longer work and began having horrifying nightmares. It’s called delayed onset PTSD. So these two men came by totally different pathways to the same condition.

Q: In both your preface and conclusion, you talk about how mental illness has always been stigmatized throughout history. Is it really any different today?

Rubinstein: Well, today we don’t torture people. As recently as the 1950s, they were lobotomizing psychotic patients. They removed a good portion of the white matter of the frontal lobes of the cortex, and turned those people into—for lack of a better term—the walking dead. They became blunted and unresponsive to most emotional stimuli. It was done to try to improve their lot in life, but it shows how primitive things used to be.

When I was in resident psychiatry, the cops would drag a guy in and tell me, “This guy belongs in the loony bin, doc.” Even if the person was just drunk, they wanted to dump these people off in the psychiatric emergency room rather than take them to the precinct. They didn’t want to be bothered with an agitated, fulminating individual who was obviously disturbed.

What’s really changed is there is a much more scientific and compassionate approach. The popular conception of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) still exists from a famous scene in the 1974 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—Jack Nicholson with the bulging eyes and convulsions and coming out of it like a vegetable.

But they now use unipolar leads, and very low, slow pulse electricity. They administer muscle relaxants, so there is no convulsion. There is hardly any retrograde amnesia and what little there is resolves with a matter of days. It doesn’t take 12 to 18 sessions anymore, it only takes between four and six.

Q: You end on a somewhat surprising note of optimism, given that these are such very sad stories. I am curious about why you see hope for the future.

Rubinstein: No matter what kind of progress we make, there will always be people slipping through the cracks. There will always be people who either don’t want to be helped, or can’t be helped for some reason. But transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive new treatment that, so far at least, according to preliminary findings, has tremendously good effects—with no side effects or ingestion of chemicals.

Then there is the promise of gene therapy. At some point in the not too distant future, neuroscience will advance to the point where blood can be taken from a newborn child, and based on that baby’s genome, scientists will be able to predict what mental dysfunctions or illnesses that individual will have a predisposition for. Imagine if you could do that for people with a high risk of schizophrenia or severe bipolar disorder, based on the genome analysis of a two-day-old baby? It would put every psychiatrist out of business.

So in the long run, if the human race survives as a species, I think the prognosis medically [for mental illness] is very good. I am not sure that I am optimistic about the survivability of the human species, but I am optimistic in that limited way.

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‘War Hawk,’ A Conversation with James Rollins

April 19, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

James Rollins is known to millions of readers. His bestselling thrillers have been translated into more than forty languages. His books are noted for their originality, scientific authenticity and breakthroughs; as well as for being rich in historical facts and in revealing secrets ranging from findings far beneath the earth’s surface to those deep within its seas.

Along with co-author Grant Blackwood, James has launched a compelling spin-off series from his popular Sigma books. The first was The Kill Switch, featuring Tucker Wayne, a former Army Ranger, and his military working dog, Kane.

In War Hawk, the second novel in the series, a former army colleague needs Tucker’s help. She’s on the run with her son from assassins. In his efforts to help, Tucker must learn who killed a brilliant young woman—a crime whose roots go back to the most powerful people in the U.S. government. Tucker, with Kane’s help, must unravel a mystery which began in World War II and involved Alan Turing, the genius mathematician largely responsible for breaking the German Enigma code during the War.

In War Hawk, Tucker Wayne is still suffering from the psychological effects of war. Tell us about that.
One of the goals of writing the series was to explore PTSD. I wanted to examine a specific variation of PTSD, something I’d heard about while working with veterans’ organizations. It’s called moral injury.

During war, soldiers are often asked to do things defying their internal moral codes. Each of us has a moral compass built into us—one differentiating right from wrong. Because of the necessities of war, powerful strain may be put on that compass causing it to break. It can bring about a type of PTSD that can initially go unnoted, but manifests itself years later. The therapy for moral injury is different from that for the more frequently seen form of PTSD. While medication and counselling are typically given for the more frequently seen type of PTSD, medication doesn’t help for moral injury. The treatment is generally the passage of time and psychotherapy. It takes time to repair that moral compass. With Tucker, I wanted to shine a light on this aspect of the pathology.

Tucker’s relationship with Kane, his Belgian Malinois, is a central element of both War Hawk and The Kill Switch. Do these military dogs really have the intelligence and extensive receptive vocabulary depicted in the books?
They do. For The Kill Switch, I did extensive research, spoke to dog handlers, and went to Lackland Air Force base. I had a good understanding of these dogs. After The Kill Switch was published, I received some raised-eyebrows responses to the question of whether these dogs could really do what was depicted in the novel.

I inquired more deeply and learned what I was doing with Kane was completely realistic. In fact, I was told, ‘These dogs can do all that, but if anything, Jim, you’re pulling their reins back. Actually, these dogs are more capable than what you depicted in The Kill Switch.’ When writing War Hawk, I wanted to show what these dogs can truly do.

In The Kill Switch, Kane was obeying Tucker’s orders. War Hawk highlights these dogs’ true intelligence; they can think on the fly, listen to an order and make judgments in the field. When necessary, they can alter their behavior beyond the orders they were given to bring about the desired results. In this novel, Kane shows he can think independently.

What kind of receptive vocabulary do these dogs have?
A real-life military dog named Chase, an Australian shepherd, has a vocabulary of over a thousand words. So of course, Kane had to have at least that extensive a vocabulary [Laughter]. Most of these dogs have about half that vocabulary. But more amazing is this: they can link commands; they can follow a chain of commands in the exact order in which they were given. It’s also a reflection of the bond between the human being and the dog. We sometimes find when a handler is no longer in service and the dog is switched to another person, the vocabulary diminishes. But with time, as the new bond develops, that previous vocabulary is re-established.

War Hawk has incredible details about warfare technology—especially tracking and hacking devices along with ‘intelligent’ drones. Tell us about that.
In the novel, I wanted to explore drone technology because it’s been in the news. At first, I thought the notion of nearly invisible, semi-autonomous drones was pushing the envelope a bit. But as I was completing the work, I learned this had become a reality. When I began the novel, I thought I was writing something bordering on science fiction, but during the course of writing it, drone technology not only caught up but surpassed what I had envisioned. Recently, Elon Musk, the Tesla creator, and Steven Hawking have advised banning these war machines because they could be so dangerous.

Yes, in fact, some of the technology described in War Hawk, reminds me of the machines in the film, Terminator.
We’re getting to that point. A general recently announced he’s growing concerned because we’re now building drones capable of making their own decisions on “Shoot to Kill” orders. Once given the task, these machines can lurk overhead, evaluate situations and shoot on their own volition. They no longer need human guidance. It’s quite frightening to realize that we may be relinquishing human involvement and will no longer have total control over these drones, especially when we consider drones take lives.

When not working with a co-author, how do you approach the process, from doing research to producing the completed project?
Typically, I’ll spend ninety days researching the history or science to be included in the novel. I’ll also look at locations for the novel’s setting. At the same time, I build a skeletal plot to the story. By the ninety-first day, I have a rough outline and the major points of the novel are researched.

I then begin to write,, though with each day more things come up requiring research—some minutiae or facts to fill in certain blanks. It takes about six to seven months to complete the first draft; then another month or two to do a final polish. Then, off it goes to the editor.

I can write for five hours a day before feeling burned out. I typically produce five double-spaced pages daily. The rest of the day may involve some research, making calls, or going over a previously written manuscript. There’s some overlap which allows me to write two books a year.

I heard Lionsgate is turning the first book of the Sigma series, Map of Bones, into a feature film.
I’m very excited about that. The screenwriter is Joe Robert Cole.

Tell us about your work on the advisory board for a new grassroots organization, US4Warriors.
I’ve always supported veterans’ organizations. I was approached by US4Warriors which was founded by an author-friend of mine who wanted to pool the efforts of a large group of writers to support veterans. It started in San Diego and is expanding nationally. I’m on the advisory board because of my past experience with Authors United for Veterans. We have various projects; one is putting together an anthology to raise funds with the goal of getting veterans’ stories published that might not otherwise be accepted by mainstream publishers.

And with all these activities, you’re still donating time to do veterinary medical work?
Yes. One Sunday a month, I work with a group that captures feral cats in a ‘trap and release’ program. And, I can still neuter a cat in less than thirty seconds. [Laughter].

Your books have sold millions of copies. Your photograph is on the flap of each one. Has your life changed since you began writing novels?
Not particularly. Once in a blue moon, someone will recognize me which is startling. Once, someone called my name in an airport. I was shocked he actually recognized me. [Laughter]. That’s only happened three times, which is sort of a nice thing about being a writer—you have anonymity. Most people don’t really recognize an author they’ve been reading, even if it’s their favorite one.

If I’m in a public place and see someone reading one of my books, I’ll ask the person, ‘What do you think of that book?’ If they don’t like it, I’ll shrug and walk away. If they’re enjoying it, I’ll identify myself, and we’ll talk for a while.

What’s coming next from James Rollins?
I’ve completed The Seventh Plague, the next book in the Sigma series. And I’m also constructing the plot for the novel after that.

Congratulations on writing War Hawk, a gripping page-turner with some of the most vivid and tension-filled action, technology and suspense scenes found anywhere in thrillerdom. It also sheds light on the amazing capabilities of some of our best friends, dogs.

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‘Hard Cold Winter,’ A Conversation with Glen Erik Hamilton

March 15, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Glen Erik Hamilton is a native of Seattle. He grew up aboard a sailboat and spent his youth around marinas, commercial docks, and islands of the Pacific Northwest.

Hard Cold Winter, his second novel, follows protagonist, Van Shaw, as he embarks on a dangerous mission in search of a missing girl tied to his criminal past. But things don’t turn out as planned; there has been a murder, and the investigation leads to intolerable pressure coming from a billionaire businessman on one side, and vicious gangsters on the other. Moreover, a powerful, unseen player is about to unleash a firestorm on Seattle that will burn Van and his people to cinders—and it will take a miracle to stop it.

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‘Off the Grid,’ A Conversation with C.J. Box

March 9, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

C.J. Box, the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen Joe Pickett novels, has millions of fans. In addition to the Joe Pickett series, he’s written five standalones, and a short story collection, Shots Fired. He’s won multiple awards for his fiction. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

Off the Grid finds Joe’s good friend Nate living off the grid, relying solely on survival skills, as he attempts to find Muhammad Ibraheem, a rogue journalist, who has also gone “off the grid”. An ultra-secret government agency has pressed Nate into service to apprehend this suspect whose activities could lead to great bloodshed. Meanwhile, Joe’s daughter Sheridan has accepted an invitation to attend a gathering where a group of political activists have been invited. But who and what exactly are they, and what’s their real agenda?

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‘Out Of The Blues,’ A Conversation with Trudy Nan Boyce

March 1, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Trudy Nan Boyce received her Ph.D. in community counseling before becoming a police officer for the City of Atlanta. As a police officer for more than 30 years, she worked as a beat cop, homicide detective, senior hostage negotiator, and in the Special Victims Unit, among other assignments.

Out of the Blues, her debut novel, introduces newly minted homicide detective Sarah “Salt” Alt who on her first day in homicide, is assigned a cold-case murder of a blues musician whose death was first ruled an accidental drug overdose. Sarah’s investigation takes her to unanticipated encounters ranging from Atlanta’s homeless to its richest and most influential citizens.

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‘No Shred of Evidence,’ A Talk with Charles Todd

February 22, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Who is Charles Todd?

If you aren’t familiar with “his” many previous novels, you might be surprised to learn Charles Todd is the mother-and-son writing team of Charles and Caroline Todd.

Caroline has a BA in English Literature and History, as well as a Master’s degree in International Relations. Charles has a BA in Communications Studies, and a culinary arts degree.

No Shred of Evidence, the 18^th Inspector Ian Rutledge mystery, takes place on the north coast of Cornwall, where four young women are boating on the River Camel. They see a young man on another boat that appears to be sinking. While making a valiant effort to save him, he’s struck on the head by an oar. An eyewitness, a local farmer, accuses the women of attempted murder. Ian Rutledge is called in to review the case. Since the victim is in a coma, there’s no one to refute the eyewitness’s account. Rutledge must deal with competing forces in trying to determine if the women tried to hurt the young man, and what may have motivated them. Other complications arise, and very little is what it seemed to be as the investigation reveals long buried issues and likely motivations.

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