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You’re Invited to Dinner with Famous Authors

November 28, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Over the years, I’ve interviewed many well-known authors, and we’ve discussed their writing careers as well as some aspects of their personal lives. One question I sometimes ask has been “food for thought” for many writers, and their answers often reveal much about them. Readers of my blog seem to especially enjoy this query, and the responses it engenders:breughel

Here’s the question: You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite any five people, living or dead, real or fictional, from any walk of life. Who would they be?

Here are responses from some well-known novelists:

Alex Kava: I would start by inviting Harper Lee because To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book. It would be amazing to be able to talk with her. Then, I’d invite Alfred Hitchcock because I love using the Hitchcockian approach to suspense thrillers—bringing the readers to the edge and leaving them there. My next guest would be Scout Finch. Can you imagine Scout contradicting some of the stories as Harper Lee would be trying to tell them? Amelia Earhart is fascinating, so I’d invite her. And the fifth would be Jack London, a real ‘dog person,’ because I just loved Call of the Wild.

Michael Connelly: An obvious one would be Raymond Chandler. The other one is easy: my father passed away before I was published and had any success, so I’d like to have a meal with him now. I was very close to a cousin who passed away when we were twelve. I’d like to catch up with her. And maybe I’d like to meet the real Hieronymus Bosch. But, he might throw soup at me for taking his name.

Daniel Silva: Churchill would be there. I’d invite George Orwell who might be coughing and wheezing and not feeling well but I’d love to talk to him.  It would be fun to have FDR along with Churchill—to have the two leaders who saved the world sitting at the same table. How about inviting the acerbic Graham Greene? And then, I’d love to have Hemingway join us. Can you imagine the amount of drinking going on with Churchill and Hemingway there? [Laughter]. I’d watch the whole evening explode.

Laura Lippman: I’d invite Stephen Sondheim. I’d love to have Ferran Adrià, the chef from el Bulli, a seminal figure in the world of cooking. My husband would be there because I love him, and he’s great company. I would also invite a friend who’s the most provocative, no-holds-barred person I know, Rebecca Chance; and I’d love to invite Michelle Obama. I wouldn’t invite any dead people because I’d have to spend so much time bringing them up to speed on stuff. Imagine saying to Shakespeare, ‘The other day, I Googled someone…’ and he would look at me like I’m insane [Laugher].

Reed Farrel Coleman: I’d invite Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, Marilyn Monroe, T. S. Eliot, even though he’d hate being with so many Jews. [Laughter]. And then I’d invite my grandfather. He apparently loved me, but I don’t remember him. He died when I was very young.

Tess Gerritsen: I would ask Cleopatra. She’s a fascinating character who could purportedly twist men around with her intellect. I’d also invite Margaret Meade. And then, I’d ask Amelia Earhart. I’m really interested in accomplished and interesting women. [Laughter]. The funny thing is I don’t find writers all that interesting. We writers live in such a world of imagination, we’re too busy to go out and do things ourselves. I’m most interested in people who’ve done things. I would also like to have the young King Tut at the dinner. And last, but certainly not least, I’d invite Genghis Khan.

Robert Crais: I’d probably invite a couple of painters. There would also be a couple of architects. Painters and architects fascinate me. I think we all do the same thing: it’s just that their mediums are different. Their brains work in a different way and I’m fascinated by that. I’d also invite someone like Ray Bradbury or Robert Heinlein, science fiction writers. They would see the world very differently than I do.

Karen Slaughter: I’d invite Flannery O’Connor. Then, I’d have Margaret Mitchell and Truman Capote, two Southern writers. I’d invite Bill and Hillary Clinton because they could get any one of those other guests to talk and be interesting, even if some of them had a little too much to drink or if they were typically shy writers. I’ve met both Clintons. Bill has an amazing mind, and Hillary really has it together. It’s incredibly impressive when you’re a woman and meet another woman with so much to offer.

Robin Cook: I’d invite David McCullough, a wonderful historian, writer and conversationalist. I’d invite Simon the Magician—the bad boy in the Bible. From St. Peter, he tried to buy the ability to cure. I would have to invite Jesus of Nazareth. If one wants to believe the stories in the New Testament, he was the most amazing healer of all. I’d invite Upton Sinclair whose book, The Jungle, changed something really bad—certain public policy. And, I’d invite FDR. He probably had the best chance of all presidents to get us a rational national health policy.

Catherine Coulter: Georgette Heyer, a British author who died in 1972. She’s the one who invented a sub-genre called the Regency romance. Then, I’d love to have Agatha Christie for dinner. I would love to have dinner with Charles II. And I’d want to meet the modern Plato—the same philosopher, but brought into contemporary times. And then, maybe Edward I. He’s very much alive in my books—he’s a character for me—and I’d just love to ask him questions about how he deals with my other characters. He lives on in my own private little realm of ideas.

David Morrell: Thomas De Quincey would be high on my list as would Benjamin Franklin. My mentors, Philip Young and the screenwriter Stirling Siliphant who wrote Route 66 would be there, too.  If we’re talking about the great minds, I think St. Thomas Aquinas would be at the table.

Patricia Cornwell: I’d love to have dinner with Dickens. And with Agatha Christie. I’d love to have met Lincoln. I’m so sorry I never got to meet Truman Capote. I think In Cold Blood is one of the greatest true-crime books ever written. I think dead people might be my specialty [Laughter]. And then there’s Harriet Beecher Stowe because she and I write basically about the same thing: abuse of power, whether it’s slavery or anything else.

Harlan Coben: Well, I’d love to have my parents with me. If I chose writers, I’d invite those I’ve known personally, who have passed away: David Foster Wallace, Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, and Ed McBain. They were writers whose work I admired greatly, and whom I personally admired enormously.

James Rollins: I would love to sit down with Michael Creighton. When I wrote Subterranean, the book right above me on the shelf was Jurassic Park. I had no formal training in writing, so I used Jurassic Park as a template. I’d love to meet Howard Carter, the archeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. Mark Twain would make for some very entertaining conversation. It’s a poorly kept secret that I have written fantasy novels under the pen name of James Clemens. Plato or Socrates would round things out and we’d have a great mix of people.

Let me ask you, the reader, the same question: whom would you invite to dinner. I’d love to read and share your responses.

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews Tagged With: Alex Kava, Catherine Coulter, Daniel Silva, David Morrell, Harlan Coben, James Rollins, Karen Slaughter, Laura Lippman. Reed Farrel Coleman, Michael Connnelly, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Crais, Robin Cook, Tess Gerritsen

“Black Scorpion” A Conversation with Jon Land

April 7, 2015 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

CJon Land c, Todd StephensJon Land is the prolific author of more than thirty-five books. His thriller novels include the Caitlin Strong series about a fifth-generation Texas Ranger, and the Ben Kamal and Danielle Barnea books about a Palestinian detective and an Israeli chief inspector of police. He has also penned the Blaine McCracken series, standalone novels, and non-fiction. Jon was a screenwriter for the 2005 film Dirty Deeds. He is very active in the International Thriller Writers Organization.

His latest thriller, Black Scorpion: The Tyrant Reborn is the second book featuring the character, Michael Tiranno, a myth-worthy hero created by Fabrizio Boccardi with whom Jon collaborates in this series. Michael (known as the Tyrant) must deal with a newly-surfaced enemy based in Eastern Europe—a powerful organization, Black Scorpion, involved in human trafficking and other crimes on a global scale. The leader, Vladimir Dracu, has set his sights on America as his next target. Black Scorpion has also taken hostage Michael’s lover, Scarlett Swan. Michael has limited time to save Scarlett, Las Vegas, and the entire United States.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

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Filed Under: About Books, creativity, Huffington Post Column, Interviews Tagged With: David Morrell, Harlan Coben, Hercules, heroes, Lisa Gardner, myths, novels, Stephen King, storytelling

Flesh and Blood: A Fascinating Talk with Patricia Cornwell

November 15, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-11-12-PatriciaCornwell-thumbPatricia Cornwell is the internationally bestselling and award-winning author of 33 books, the most famous and widely read being the 22 novels of the “Kay Scarpetta” series.

In Flesh and Blood, Kay Scarpetta notices seven shiny pennies, all dated 1981, placed on the wall behind her Cambridge house. She soon learns of a shooting death nearby, where copper fragments are the only evidence left at the crime scene. Scarpetta links the murder to two other deaths in which the victims were killed by a serial sniper. The victims had nothing in common, but seem to have a connection to Scarpetta herself.

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Filed Under: About Books, creativity, crime, doctor, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, medial thriller, novel, On Writing Tagged With: Agatha Christie, creativity, Dan Brown, Dickens, forensics, Harlan Coben, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Kay Scarpetta, Lee Child, Lincoln, Michael Connelly, Truman Capote

Naming Characters in Your Novel

November 9, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-11-08-Rose2-thumbWe’re familiar with Shakespeare’s famous lines from Romeo and Juliet in which Juliet says the names of things don’t matter; the important thing is what they are.

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet

While that’s very true in botany, in fiction, characters’ names may matter a great deal. A name can become a device by which a reader visualizes, hears, and even senses a particular character. The name hopefully becomes the essence of a character as the reader traverses the story’s arc.

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Filed Under: About Books, On Writing Tagged With: Hannibal Lecter, Harlan Coben, Romeo and Juliet, William Styron

‘Terminal City’: A Talk with Linda Fairstein

June 18, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-06-15-LindaFairsteincreditPeterSimon-thumbLinda Fairstein needs no introduction. For more than two decades, this former prosecutor was Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She tried many “ripped from the headlines” cases and is considered America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence.

Her 15 previous Alexandra Cooper novels are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her 16th is Terminal City, a suspense potboiler, once again featuring prosecutor Alex Cooper and her team who are in a frenzied quest to track down a serial killer who may be a mass murderer and terrorist.

 

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Filed Under: About Books, crime Tagged With: Courtrooms, Grand Central Terminal, Harlan Coben, Lisa Gerdner, Lisa Scottoline, Manhattan District Attorney, Michael Connelly, mole people, NYC landmarks, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Robert Crais, Sex Crimes Unit, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer

“Graveyard of Memories”: A Talk with Barry Eisler

March 8, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-03-09-BarryEislerchoose-thumbBarry Eisler’s John Rain novels are the “Tiffany” of assassin-oriented, suspense thrillers. The recently released Graveyard of Memories is a prequel to the other novels in the John Rain series. At the story’s outset, Rain, 20 years old and fresh from Vietnam, is a courier for the CIA. He suddenly finds himself threatened on all sides: he must survive the yakuza (the Japanese mob) and other imminent sources of danger. He falls in love with Sayaka, a beautiful wheelchair-bound young woman. Balancing love and the horror of what he must do to survive, John learns his trade craft to become a master assassin. We witness his unfolding maturity as he attempts to stay alive without totally losing the sensitive, soulful and remorseful aspects of his persona.

Quoting from Graveyard of Memories: “I was too young to know that some memories don’t fade, or age, or die. That the weight of some of what we do accumulates, expands, coheres, solidifies. That life means coming to grips with that ever-present weight, learning how to carry it with you wherever you go.”

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Filed Under: About Books, crime, Huffington Post Column Tagged With: assassins, backstory, barry-eisler, character-driven novels, erotica, Game of Thrones, genre fiction, Harlan Coben, House of Cards, James Ellroy, John le Carre, john-rain, Lee Child, literary fiction, Michael Connelly, plot-driven novels, The Sopranos, the-detachment, Walter Mosley

A Good Story is Disturbing

February 4, 2014 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

2014-02-03-disturbing2-thumbAs David Mamet told me, “If Hamlet comes home from school, and his dad’s not dead, and asks him how school was, it’s boring.”

As a psychiatrist and novelist, I’m aware that all good stories are disturbing. No matter how beautifully written or “literary,” a novel resonates deeply because the storyline tugs powerfully at us. It upsets, confounds and presents chaos, conflict, imbalance and upheaval — either within its character’s mind or circumstances.

As readers, we crave instability, disturbance, and uncertainty. They make us care about the characters and the outcome. We live vicariously through the anguish, turmoil and trouble the characters endure in a quest to reorder chaos — the disequilibrium — propelling the story.

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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column Tagged With: books, Books news, Cinderella, Conflict, David Mamet, David Morrell, Disturbance, fear, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Hamlet, Harlan Coben, Ian McEwan, Jane Hamilton, Janet Evonovic, John Irving, John Updike, Lisa Gardner, Philip Roth, Snow White, Stephen King, The Illiad, The Odyssey

Writer to Writer: A Conversation with Raymond Khoury

November 3, 2013 by Mark Rubinstein

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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Filed Under: About Books, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, On Writing Tagged With: Author Interview, BBC, books, Books news, Brad Meltzer, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Harlan Coben, Lebanon, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, NBC, Nelson DeMille, novels, oliver-stone, Rasputin, Raymond Chandler, Raymond Khoury, Russia, Screen-Plays, Screenwriting, Stan Lee, Steve Berry, Steven Spielberg, Thriller, Thriller Writing, Writers, writing, Writing Tips

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