|
|
|
|
HOME
|
In this exclusive interview, Robert talks about his new characters, making bombs, and growing up on Robert Heinlein novels. Read on! Q: You’ve written eight Elvis Cole novels, and now you’ve written DEMOLITION ANGEL, a novel with a different protagonist. Why the change? A: Ha. Why not? Q: Because we love Elvis Cole! We don’t want to lose him! A: I love him, too. Believe me, ‘Elbis Cole bin berry berry good to me.’ There will be more Elvis Cole/Joe Pike novels. I promise. Q: That’s a relief to your fans. Seriously, why the change? A: I want to push myself. I want to grow, and get better at my craft. Also, I guess you could say I met this character I fell in love with--Carol Starkey--and I wanted to learn more about her, and her world. She lives in what’s called the bomb community. It’s a world filled with amazing, complex people; loony people, dangerous people, damaged people, heroic people. It takes a certain type of individual to go one-on-one with a live explosive device. Q: Okay, WE know who she is because you were kind enough to let us read the manuscript, but tell the people who’ll be reading this interview. A: Carol Starkey was an LAPD Bomb Squad bomb technician, which is about the most macho, male world you can imagine. There aren’t many female bomb techs. If you don’t know, bomb technicians are the people who put on the armored suits and try to de-arm bombs. Carol Starkey was a bomb tech until she and her partner--who was also her lover--were caught in an explosion which killed her partner, and left Carol emotionally and physically scarred. Carol wasn’t allowed to resume duty on the bomb squad, so she went to work as a bomb investigator on LAPD’s Criminal Conspiracy Section. As the book opens, it’s three years later, and Carol is holding herself together with gin, cigarettes, and Tagamet. She’s coming apart at the seams when the most dangerous case of her career falls into her lap, threatening to finish the job started three years ago. Q: This is another long book for you-- A: It’s as long as L. A. REQUIEM. Q: How long did it take you to write? A: About ten months, on and off, I guess. I had to do a lot of research, which sometimes interrupted the writing, and I toured for L. A. REQUIEM, which also interrupted the writing. Plus, it’s a big, complex novel, told from several different points-of-view. I became absolutely possessed my last three months on this thing. From the beginning of October until mid-December, I wrote twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Some days fourteen, fifteen hours. It was insane. Q: This world that you show us, of bombers and bomb techs, and how people like Carol Starkey do their jobs seems so real. Tell us about the research. A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I did an enormous amount of firsthand research, interviewing bomb techs with LAPD’s Bomb Squad, detectives with LAPD’s Criminal Conspiracy Section, and ATF agents in Washington, DC, and also in New Orleans. Then, there was the secondary research--the ATF in particular was very helpful with printed material, they gave me a ton of stuff to read. On top of that there were videos, re-enactments, and the research I did on the internet. This internet stuff, though only a small part of the book, was among the most frightening. There are hundreds of sites with tips and techniques for building improvised munitions, sites that cater to people who have a, ah, fascination with this stuff. Q: Can you give us an example of the kinds of things you learned? A: You mean, like, how to build a bomb? Q: Yeah, like that! A: First thing I learned when I began the research, the first time I met with the commander of LAPD Bomb Squad, and then, again and again with every other person I interviewed, is how concerned these people were that I not be instructional in this book. You know, these are the men and women who have to actually deal with these things. Their lives are at risk. They didn’t want to share certain information with me, then have me put it in a book that some lunatic might read, and use it to build something that could hurt people. Q: So what you’re saying is that there isn’t a blueprint in the book on how to build a bomb. A: Yeah, that’s right. I held that close as an obligation on my part. There are just enough facts and details in the book to create a realistic feel, but I consciously left out other details. In some cases, I misrepresented the methods by which bomb techs do their jobs because its better that potential bad guys not know exactly what they’re up against. See, if a smart bad guy knows what he has to beat, then he can figure out a way to beat it. So I made some changes in the way that bomb techs do their business. Q: Such as? A: Well, if I told YOU, then it kinda defeats the purpose. Let me put it this way--the capability of real bomb techs exceeds the capabilities I portray in DEMOLITION ANGEL. Q: So if someone thinks they can build a device like Mr. Red and get away with it, they’re wrong. A: Dead wrong. Literally. Q: Duh. Okay. Starkey’s world certainly felt real. You made those scenes so authentic that it felt as if we were really there with her. A: I think that’s probably from the small things I learned, which are real. The human things. Like how hot it gets when they’re wearing the armored suit. There’s that moment when Charlie Riggio leans over, and the sweat rains down off his face to obscure the Lexan face shield. Or the way the actual LAPD Bomb Squad squad room is filled with bombs and ordnance and rockets and things, or the way the detectives at Spring Street sneak cigarettes in the stairwell. Little details that make the fiction I’m creating seem real. That’s what I’m looking for when I do research. Finding a moment like that is like finding treasure. Q: When we were reading the book, which we did in one sitting, by the way-- A: Thank you. Music to my ears. Q: When we were reading it, we were thinking, wow, what an incredible movie. We understand you’ve sold the film rights. A: Yeah. It was an outright buy, not an option. Columbia/TriStar and a producer named Laurence Mark saw the book before anyone else, and went nuts for it. Larry’s an incredible producer. He did AS GOOD AS IT GETS, SIMON BIRCH, and JERRY MAGUIRE, so when I heard that he was the guy, I got excited, and we made the deal. Q: We understand you got--what’s the proper term here?--serious bank. A: I never talk about the money. I never have. I know that some writers do, but I don’t. It’s nobody’s business. Q: Well, we read some accounts. A: I know that the deal was front-page news in some of the trade papers and publishing magazines, but I still don't like to talk about it. I guess when these deals reach a certain level, they become news, but that kind of public display makes me uncomfortable. Q: Are you going to write the screenplay? A: Yeah. Q: So you can protect the book? A: (laughs) The only way a writer can protect his book is to not sell it to them. The book is the book; a movie is a different beast. It is its own art form. Film is a visual medium that impacts upon the audience differently than written words. How a film touches you is different than in the ways a book touches you. What I want to do is to take these characters and situations I’ve created, and translate them into a wonderful screenplay, which can then be translated into a terrific film. Q: Who would you like to see play Carol Starkey? A: There are any number of women who would be terrific in the role. Sandy Bullock, Helen Hunt, Jodi Foster are the first names that come to mind. It’s going to be a strong role, a real tour-de-force for an actress. Q: Okay, you sold DEMOLITION ANGEL to Columbia, but you’ve always refused to sell Elvis Cole. A: That’s right. Q: Why? A: You know, the one kind of led to the other, in this case. Larry first approached me because he wanted to buy Elvis and Joe, and develop them as a television project. I turned him down. That’s just something I will not consider. Q: That’s our question. Why sell DEMOLITION ANGEL, but not Elvis and Joe. A: DEMOLITION ANGEL is a stand-alone novel. As much as I love the characters, I don’t expect to write more novels about Carol Starkey. I know enough to never say never, but, at least right now, I’m thinking it’s a one-shot. Elvis Cole is eight books, with more books to come. He is my life’s work; my collaboration with my readers. I want to preserve that collaboration; I’m concerned that committing him to film will change the collaboration. Q: But...you know enough to never say never. A: I’ve turned down eighteen or nineteen offers. That’s how many times I’ve been approached to sell the rights to Elvis and Joe. After a while, it starts to look like ‘never.’ Q: Wouldn’t it help you sell more books? A: A successful motion picture would. Look at Jeff Deaver’s THE BONE COLLECTOR. James Ellroy’s L. A. CONFIDENTIAL. Television, I’m not so sure. A big miniseries with a flood of advertising might provide a bump in sales if your publisher got on board with it. A weekly television series, even a successful series, might not. They have different audiences. Q: Okay. But if your experience with DEMOLITION ANGEL is really positive . . . if it becomes the kind of movie that you hope it will . . . would that cause you to reconsider your position about Elvis and Joe? A: As far as a film, well, maybe. But television is currently structured in a way that simply can not help me. Forgetting the artistic part of it now; just the business part--I would have to have a very special deal that would return the rights on Elvis and Joe to me even if a pilot were filmed, which is not something that currently happens. Q: We can tell you that many of your readers would love to see a movie with Elvis and Joe. We would! A: I understand that, and appreciate it. Believe me. Maybe you can nag me into it. Q: We’ll try. Here’s something from the earliest reaches of your career that we’ve been wanting to ask you about -- A: (interrupts) Early reaches. I like that. Suddenly we’re in a segment of Mystery Science Theater. Q: You’re a bestselling author of contemporary crime fiction, but your first few professional fiction sales were science fiction stories. How did you get from science fiction to thrillers? A: On a bus? Q: We hate a smart ass. A: I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy. Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, people like that. Heinlein was a major, major influence on me, not only on my work, but on me as a boy trying to become a man. So much so that I’ll return to his work every couple of years and reread those books which mean the most to me. Q: Which are your favorite Heinlein novels? A: THE DOOR INTO SUMMER, HAVE SPACE SUIT: WILL TRAVEL, STARSHIP TROOPERS, FARNHAM’S FREEHOLD, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, SPACE CADET, STARMAN JONES. Man, I love those books. Q: Were you a science fiction fan? A: I was into storytelling, and touching other people through the stories. Still am. I drew my own comic books, I wrote stories, I letter-hacked to fanzines, I made scores of Super-8 movies. The science fiction connection is probably what steered me to prose fiction. In those days, the early 70s, there was a very real market for science fiction short stories, much more so than for mystery fiction. I was reading huge numbers of short stories, some of which, like Harlan Ellison’s work and Samuel R. Delany’s work, truly inspired me. So I started writing and submitted and getting rejected. Q: That was when you were in high school and college? A: Yes. Q: You once said that the Clarion Writers Workshop was pivotal in your development as a writer. A: Yeah. That was 1975. The Clarion Writers Workshop was started at Clarion State College in 1968. It moved to Tulane University in New Orleans, then finally Michigan State in East Lansing sometime in the early 70s. I went in ’75. Q: What was Clarion like? A: Then, it was like a literary boot camp. You had to apply to get in. They selected twenty-five of the applicants, based on submitted work samples. The workshop was six weeks long, with a visiting instructor each of the six weeks. Each of the instructors was an working professional writer. My six were, in order of appearance, Samuel R. Delany, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny, Joe Haldeman, and the last two weeks were Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight. Q: That’s an amazing list. A: It was incredible, a stunning experience on many levels. The twenty-five of us were locked away in the basement of Abbott Hall, where the task was to write stories every day, as fast and as hard as we could. You’d finish a story, turn it in, then, still bleary from lack of sleep, you’d get hammered by twenty-five other screaming dedicated talented maniacs. We called it ‘the circle.’ You’d have to sit through the circle. Some of it could get personal and vicious, too. We had people fling stories at each other. We had people literally set pages on fire. Man, it was great training for Hollywood. (laughs) Q: SUNSET EXPRESS was dedicated to Leonard Isaacs, Kate Wilhelm, and Damon Knight. A: That’s how much this experience meant to me. Lennie Isaacs was the director of Clarion the year I went. He’s the person who admitted me. He opened the door. Kate and Damon became counselors to me, there at the end of the workshop, and for a year or so after. They saw something in my work, and worked with me, and helped me along. Kate Wilhelm was editing an original anthology at that time, and bought one of my stories from the workshop. WITH CROOKED HANDS. It was my first sale. I got fifty bucks. I still have a copy of that check. Q: A far cry from the Columbia/TriStar deal. A: (laughs) Well, you know, the one led to the other. Q: What are you working on now? A: I’m working on the screenplay for DEMOLITION ANGEL. After that, I’ll write the next Elvis Cole novel. Q: We can’t wait to read it. A: Neither can I. CLICK HERE FOR
ROBERT CRAIS' BIOGRAPHY |
