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When is the last time you took a chance and stepped
out of your comfort zone? It’s hard to do, isn’t it? We seem to be so set in
our ways that we forget what it’s like to experience that exhilarating
feeling when we stumble upon something new. Whether it pertains to
your personal or professional life, stepping out of the box entails an element
of risk that we all too often try to avoid.
 As
many of you know, I am a romance writer, reader, and lover! If a book doesn’t
have an element of romance somehow intertwined in the plot, I’m really
not interested. So it goes without saying that when John Lescroart’s
latest release, BETRAYAL, came across my desk, I was this close to
passing on it. Luckily for me, I gave it a second glance.
I
must admit, I have the privilege of working with some of the most talented
marketing and publicity people in this business who consistently challenge
me to take my column to the next level. This month’s jewel epitomizes
my journey. Who would have thought that a military suspense novelist would
wind up becoming a Jen’s Jewels?
To
say BETRAYAL is a page-tuner would be an understatement.
Not only was I blown away by John’s multi-faceted layering in his
writing, but also I loved the way in which he brought an element of romance
to the plot. This
novel is a shining gem. Find this book in our catalog.
So
without further ado, please go grab yourself something warm to drink and get
to know my new friend, John Lescroart. And, don’t forget to look for
the trivia question at the end of the interview. Dutton has
generously donated books for five lucky readers. Good luck!
Jen: Your path to becoming a writer took many side trips
before your big break. In addition, you are well-known not only for your writing,
but also for your musical talent. Please give us a brief overview of your educational
and professional background.
John: I’m afraid that I had that
most difficult of upbringings for a would-be artist – a happy and extremely “normal” childhood. Of
course, coming of age in the ‘60s, “normal” would not exactly
apply today – I was far freer and more unsupervised than most young
people are today, and this extended to my internal life. I went to
Serra High School (alma mater of Barry Bonds and Tom Brady – but also
I was a classmate, good friend, and Model UN teammate of Bill Keller, Pulitzer
Prize winning Managing Editor of the NY Times). My college years were
challenging. I started at UC Santa Cruz in the second year of its existence
and had to leave after only one quarter due to lack of money. I then
went to the College of San Mateo for a semester, transferred to the University
of San Francisco for my sophomore year, and then to UC Berkeley for the last
two – I finally graduated with a BA in (what else?) English Literature.
After
school, I went to work at the phone company graveyard shift, writing short
stories, sketches, and songs (all unpublished). I also
sang in clubs in the San Francisco bay area, both solo and in various groups. After
two years, realizing I wasn’t really cut out to be a
junior executive, I quit the phone company and took off for Europe,
paying my way by singing and guitar playing. Three years of that,
during which I also wrote what eventually would be Son of Holmes, and I went
to LA to make it large in music. When that didn’t happen, I returned
to the Bay Area and formed Johnny Capo and His Real Good Band, and we gigged
regularly all over the place.
At thirty, I gave up the active music career, and wrote Sunburn,
which won the Joseph Henry Jackson Award for Best Novel by a California author. But
it didn’t get published, so I started the “day job” routine – i.e.
work that would keep me alive and allow me to write. Bartender, moving
man, house painter, occasional music sideman, office worker, fundraiser,
technical writer, logistics consultant, word processor and then WP supervisor
at a law firm. That took up about fourteen years. Then, at age
46, I had a hit with The 13th Juror, and have been writing full-time ever
since.
Jen: Many authors have that “Ah! Ha! Moment” when the
stars are finally put into alignment and their career is launched. Please
tell us about that journey and especially the significance of your body-surfing
experience at Seal Beach.
John: During the years in LA, I was working three jobs: writing
from 6-8 in the morning, word processing from 9-5, then doing pick-up word
processing at law firms in downtown LA from 7-11. Long days. But
I was getting published, so wasn’t too unhappy, although frustrated
with the lack of commercial success. One day, I went bodysurfing at
Seal Beach and – as always happens – got a good wipeout or two
with a lot of seawater getting into my sinuses and eustachian tubes. The
next night, I had a fever of 104 and Lisa, my wife, took me to the emergency
room, where they told us I had spinal meningitis. The prognosis was
death in about two hours. Obviously, that didn’t happen, although
I was mostly unconscious in the ICU for eleven days, and then took another
month before I could function normally. During that recovery time,
and returning to the day job later, I decided that it was time to do either
make it or break it as a writer. This was the “Ah! Ha!” moment. Working
eighteen hour days just wasn’t cutting it anymore. So we moved
from LA (too expensive and crazy) to Northern California, and I wrote full
time for the very first time in my life, pouring everything I had into a
legal thriller (although I was not a lawyer) called Hard
Evidence. That
book, amazingly to me, had strong foreign sales, and prompted my publisher
to get excited about the next book, The 13th Juror, which became
my first NY Times Bestseller.
Jen: We live in a society obsessed with instantaneous gratification
and I think even some aspiring authors expect their careers to just happen.
Yours took twenty years in the making. What was the most valuable piece
of advice you ever received and why?
John: The best advice I ever had came, I suppose appropriately,
at my lowest point. I had already written Hard Evidence, although
my publisher’s enthusiasm for the book was such that he didn’t
even pay me when I handed in the manuscript. I was 44 years old. I
didn’t even have a day job. Lisa was supporting the family working
as an architect at $10/hour. I figured I was done. Then my father-in-law,
Bob Sawyer, took us on a vacation to Maui. As we were barbequing on
the first night there, I asked him what he thought I should do. (Remember,
I’m his son-in-law who isn’t doing too good a job bringing in
money as his daughter’s partner.) He asked me if I still loved
writing, and I told him I did. He said, “Just keep doing what
you love. The rest will work itself out.” Upon our return
that very week, I learned that Hard Evidence had gotten a starred review
in PW, my publisher sent me my Delivery & Acceptance check (or most of
it, anyway), and I started The 13th Juror.
Jen: My readers expect me to step out of the box at times
and bring them authors they never would have discovered on their own. My audience
is primarily romance readers, so your genre of suspense is definitely not the
norm for them (or me!). I was so impressed with your writing style, your
in-depth character development, and for lack of a better term, meaty storyline. Please
take us through your writing process. Plot first? Outline? Characters? Approximately
how long does it take from conception to completion for you to write a novel?
John: Jen, these are great questions. I’ve
been extremely fortunate to have been working under contract for many years,
the last ten or so with Dutton, which has been
a tremendously supportive publishing company. So my process has become
a bit standardized: I
hand in an outline in September, write the book between then and June, and
the book then comes out early the next year. Sounds straightforward,
I know, but the reality is a bit less cut and dried. I begin with a
simple short outline and, hopefully, a title – I don’t know why,
but that seems to get things going. But then the writing begins and
usually the outline proves inadequate in many ways. Within a month
or two, I’ve usually abandoned a decent part of it – this is,
I think, because my characters begin to live and breathe and think of more
interesting things to do than I’d originally envisioned. I try
to write organically, which means I get in a certain zone where I’m
not too interested in plot anymore, except as it applies to how my characters
react. This always leads me into new and unexpected territory, and
I’ve learned to trust that instinct. Then, usually, by about
February or March, I’ve got a critical mass of plot/character/theme,
and the book starts writing itself. This has always happened, and I
can’t explain it very well, except to say that it must be a function
of putting myself in a position where good things that happen, and then recognizing
them when they kick in.
Jen: Your recurring lead character in your books is Dismas
Hardy. I just have to ask, why the name Dismas? What are your character’s
strengths? His weaknesses?
John: The name Dismas Hardy came to me when
I was very young, perhaps 18 or 19. I first heard the name Dismas because
I was raised Roman Catholic and knew that St. Dismas was the Good Thief crucified
on Jesus’ right
hand on Calvary. And Hardy just seemed to roll off the tongue after
Dismas. Now it turns out, rather coolly I think, that St. Dismas just
happens to be the Patron Saint of thieves and murderers, and so there was
a terrific thematic fit with my hero, who is after all a defense attorney. His
strengths are his prodigious memory and logic skills, dart throwing, and
a fierce loyalty combined with an equally developed sense of right and wrong,
of justice. His weaknesses are an almost pathological impatience with
stupidity, perhaps a tendency to overwork, and then to over-lubricate with
alcohol, especially when he’s under pressure.
Jen: Your latest release, BETRAYAL, takes place in
Iraq and it’s what I would classify as a military thriller. Do you have
a military background? From the military to the courtroom, approximately how
much research went into this book? Was there any section that was most challenging
to write and how so?
John: BETRAYAL was my most challenging book since The
13TH Juror. In the first place, I have no military background
at all. Secondly, I hadn’t been to Iraq. But I knew I
had to write this story. So I did what I always do – research. I
started by talking to many people who’d been over there, checking
out their photo albums, getting a feel for what was really going on (much
of which has since been coming out in the news). Those discussions
led me to my basic plot idea, but then I needed more facts about Iraqi
culture, security firms hired by the government, and so on. So I
read several non-fiction books and talked to a few of those authors. From
there, I started writing, but still found the opening Iraq section of the
book to be extremely challenging. Every page seemed to bring me to
something else I didn’t know, from military ranks in the various
services, to the exact ordnance used in HUMVEEs, to the “feel” of
neighborhoods and patrols, etc.
Jen: I think the love triangle in the novel is brilliant because
it captures those of us who want that romance aspect while softening the sections
of blood and guts needed to propel the story along. What was going through
your mind as you created Tara Wheatley? I ran the gamut of emotions concerning
my likes and dislikes of this character, which ultimately means that you
expertly portrayed the many faceted layers of her personality. Well
done!
John: Thank you. While I wanted to tell a political/moral/military
story, I knew it wouldn’t have much emotional resonance if I treated
it almost as a non-fiction piece. My goal was to make the issues of
the war personal to individual with whom we could relate. Right from
the beginning, I wanted a love triangle to be at the center of the book,
and Tara – an idealistic young woman trying to live a good life and
be a good woman – became the linchpin surrogate, in a way, for all
the “folks back home,” who are torn by conflicts arising from
the war. For Tara, this all becomes extremely personal. The issues
she confronts are complex – support the troops, hate the fighting,
deplore the fact that we need warriors, etc. I hope that we come to
understand her confusion, her loyalties, and her ultimate decision. As
you say, it’s at the core of the book.
Jen: I was intrigued with the fact that you chose to incorporate a
fictitious American security company over in Iraq into the storyline. Were
there any concerns on your part that you may have touched upon a sensitive
issue or did it just make for a good plot?
John: I wanted to touch upon this sensitive issue. In
my research, I was struck time and again by the greed, greed, greed of some
of these companies, their no-bid contracts for mega-millions, as well as
by the lack of oversight given them by anyone in the military or in the administration. Though
I went to great lengths to keep this book from having a political leaning,
I think events have proven that companies such as Blackwater were allowed
to get away with great evil in the name of national security. So, yes,
it made for a good plot, but in a larger sense, it’s really what the
book is all about.
Jen: One of the secondary characters, Mary Patricia Whelan-Miille,
steals the show at times with her strong persona and take-no-prisoners attitude.
Is she modeled after anyone in particular? What do you like best about this
character and why?
John: The real Mary Patricia Whelan-Miille,
is a neighbor of mine. She “bought” the
character name in this book through a charity auction for CASA (Court Appointed
Special Advocates) of Yolo County, a cause that I have been happy to support
as well for several years. Mary Patricia herself is quite the pistol,
and although I didn’t model the book’s character specifically
after her personality, I believe some of it must have crept in. But
as always, when I first envisioned her, she had nothing like the role in
the book that she wound up with – once the character with her name
hit the page, though, she just wouldn’t leave, and I had no choice
but to let her run.
Jen: We all know someone like Evan Scholler, one of your main characters
in BETRAYAL. He is the boy-next-door as well as the brave soldier
who will fight for our freedom. As you were writing the novel, did he take
on a life of his own? Did you feel as if he became a part of you?
John: Evan is both a hero and is, I hope, emblematic of many
of the conflicts of people who volunteer to fight and who, once in the mission,
lose a little sight – perhaps – of why they went, of the need
to carry on. And then, in spite of those doubts, continue to do as
they must. Evan is a big ball of conflict, with many weaknesses, and
yet he’s out leading his convoy every day until the duty nearly kills
him. I believe he may be the most conflicted character I’ve ever
written – I hope people will identify with him as a kind of everyman. I
know that I did.
Jen: Will Dismas Hardy make it to the big screen one day?
John: I would very much like to see that happen, but
in spite of a couple of options over the years, and eleven NY Times bestsellers in
a row, Hollywood has been reluctant to bite. I can’t figure it
out, but life is good anyway, and I don’t worry about it. If
it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen in its own time.
Jen: Are you currently at work on your next novel? If
so, what can you tell us about it?
John: I’m currently about 75 pages into my next novel,
and about all I can say at this point is that it’s a Hardy/Glitsky
book and its theme is human frailty.
Jen: Please tell us about your website. Do you participate
in author phone chats? And if so, how would my readers go out scheduling
one? Do you have email notification of upcoming releases? Do you blog? Any
scheduled appearances and/or book signings?
John: I’m very much involved with my website. I
update the homepage regularly, and try to keep my appearances and other author
events easily accessible. I’ve got all my books and my music
and everything going on there. Plus, I encourage my readers not only
to visit the website but to write me directly through it. And I answer
all the email – believe it or not – myself. It’s
a great way to stay in touch with readers! Come on by and say hello!
Jen: Thank you so much, John, for taking time out
of your busy schedule to chat with my readers. Thanks, too, for allowing
me to step out of my comfort zone to connect with a talented military suspense
writer such as yourself! It’s been an absolute pleasure. Best of luck
in 2008!
John: Thanks, Jen. As I said, these were great questions,
and I hope you’ve enjoyed my responses to them.
I hope you have enjoyed my interview with John. I encourage you to
pick up a copy of BETRAYAL at your local bookseller or library today!
Then after you have read it, please visit my website, www.jennifervido.com,
and let me know if you, too, think BETRAYAL is a definite 10!
Now, here’s your chance to win your very own copy courtesy
of Dutton
Books. The first five readers to correctly answer the following
question and e-mail me at jensjewels@gmail.com will win! Good luck!
What is the title of John’s first New York Times Bestselling novel?
Next month, I will be bringing to you an interview with one
of my favorite Southern belles, Mary Kay Andrews! You won’t want to miss
it!
Until next month…Jen |
Meet
the Author: featuring Jen's Jewels