Mark Rubinstein Blog

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A Conversation with David Morrell, the Master of the Modern Thriller

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David Morrell is the author whose debut novel, First Blood, written in 1972, became a best seller, which spawned the Rambo film franchise, starring Sylvester Stallone. David has written 28 novels and his work has been translated into 26 languages.

He is acclaimed for his action-packed novels, including Brotherhood of the Rose, Desperate Measures, and The Naked Edge, to name a few. His latest novel, Murder as a Fine Art, is an historical thriller set in Victorian England.

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Writer to Writer: A Conversation with Raymond Khoury

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Raymond Khoury is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Last Templar, The Templar Salvation and The Sign. Born in Lebanon, Raymond and his family were evacuated from Beirut’s civil war, and fled to New York when he was 14. He worked as an architect and investment banker before becoming a screenwriter and producer for networks such as NBC and BBC. Since the success of The Last Templar, his debut novel, he has focused solely on writing fiction. His works have been translated into over 40 languages. Rasputin’s Shadow is his sixth novel.

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A Book and Its Cover

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We’ve all heard the old cliché, You can’t judge a book by its cover. While that’s probably true many potential readers do decide whether to look inside a novel based solely on its cover.

First, it’s important to make a concession. If the writer’s name is Stephen King, John Grisham, Sue Grafton, James Patterson, Janet Evonovich, or one any of a cadre of best-selling novelists, the book’s cover barely matters. Virtually anything written by these authors will be read by millions of people. The usual marketing tools aren’t necessary.

But for the overwhelming majority of novelists, the book’s cover matters enormously.

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The Power of a First Sentence

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I’m often struck by the opening sentence of a novel or short story. It can draw me in and set expectations for what’s to come. This isn’t always true, of course, but a story’s first line is the author’s opening salvo. It may be a “hook” or may operate on a more subtle level, if it does at all. The first sentence can foretell something about the story, or may set the tone for the entire work. Some first sentences have a magnetic power and draw me in, raising my curiosity, nearly forcing me to read on. Others simply strike me because they resonate on some deep level of which I’m unaware. The opening sentence may be a clue about how I will spend a number of hours.

I’ve gathered 14 first sentences from randomly chosen novels, and one from a short story. They’re presented in no particular order. Some are famous opening lines; others are not. Some presage what’s to come; others don’t. I think each one is interesting in its own way.

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The Violent LIfe of a Crime-Thriller Writer

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As an author of crime-thriller fiction, I’ve occasionally been asked about violence in my novels. Typical questions range from, why is so much violence in your books? to another, more personal one: Is violence part of your personality or is it totally contrived for your novels?

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Write What You Know

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We’ve all heard the old dictum: “Write what you know.”

In a very general sense, that’s probably true, but there’s much more to writing novels than sticking with those areas with which you are familiar by virtue of training or education.

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The Magic of a Novel

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We’ve all had the experience of reading a novel and being caught up not only in the story, but in the characters (think of Gone Girl and Catcher in the Rye). It’s partly a matter of having an interest in one or another genre, but most of us have enjoyed novels that are not from our preferred reading landscape.

There are probably several reasons why a novel can grab and hold you so you’re sorry the read is coming to an end.

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Writer-to-Writer: A Talk with Simon Toyne

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Simon Toyne is the author of the highly acclaimed Sanctus trilogy. Simon graduated from Goldsmith’s College in London with a degree in English and Drama. He worked in British television for nearly 20 years as a producer. In 2007, he left television and moved with his family to France where they lived for six months. He returned to the U.K. and continued writing, while free-lancing in television to help pay the bills. That is, until Sanctus, the first novel of the trilogy was completed and became an international best-seller. It was followed by The Key and the recently released, The Tower. All three novels have been translated into dozens of languages and are read all over the world.

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