Author Spotlight: James Grippando

There's no one way to tell if you've "made it" as an author of captivating fiction. You can be prolific, yet never quite prolific enough to satiate your rabid fan base. You can create a series with a character (Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck springs to mind at the moment) that critics have called, "John Grisham meets Robert Ludlum." Your work can climb international bestseller lists in multiple languages. Your novels could be lauded by reviewers worldwide. You might branch out from thrillers and suspense and try your hand, with success, at a novel for young adults. One of your short stories might be anthologized in a collection featuring the writing of some of the most eminent thriller writers on the planet.

All of those things, individually and collectively, are sure signs your decision to pursue writing popular fiction was a sound career move.

All of those things, individually and collectively, are true of James Grippando, today's guest under the intense hi-beam that is Gazalapalooza Author Spotlight.

But there's another indicator that's at least equally plain proof you've touched a nerve among countless readers. And that's when the correct answer to a New York Times Crossword Puzzle is the title of one of your novels. On June 14, 2005, Grippando's novel Under Cover of Darkness was the correct answer to 38 Across.

Now that's "making it" as a novelist.

Grippando's latest suspense novel just came out this month. Published by Harper, it's a stand-alone book titled, Need You Now. In his typically enthralling style, Grippando tells the story of Patrick Lloyd. Lloyd is a young financial advisor who, with his enigmatic girlfriend Lilly Scanlon, risk all to expose a deadly $60 billion ponzi conspiracy that oozes from Wall Street's gleaming skyscrapers far into the dark heart of Washington, D.C.

What better way for Gazalapalooza to commemorate Grippando's new release than with a cordial invitation to bask in the blinding gleam of the Author Spotlight? Fortunately for us all, the esteemed author graciously accepted the invitation. Without further ado, let's see how well Mr. Grippando fares under the spotlight's fiery glare.

Gazala:    In my omnipotence, I've sentenced you to be stranded alone on a desert island for offenses best left unnamed. In my beneficence, I've decided to allow you a limited amount of reading material to make your stay a little less bleak than it would otherwise be. I'll spot you your religious text of preference, and the collected works of William Shakespeare. In addition to those, name the one fiction book, and the one nonfiction book, you'd choose to take with you, and why you choose them.

Grippando:   For fiction, since  you’ve already spotted me the complete works of Shakespeare, I’ll take Goodnight Moon. It reminds me of everyone I would miss while stuck on that island—from my own kids to my grandparents. Plus, if you were to ask me if there is one book I wish I had written, it would be this one. 

For nonfiction, my high school English teacher gave me one of the most unforgettable books I've ever read, the Pulitzer Prize winning play, "A Man for All Seasons." It's the story of Sir Thomas Moore, who was tried for treason and beheaded after he refused on principle to sign an oath approving the marriage of King Henry VIII to Ann Boleyn. I still have that book. It became especially meaningful to me in the early years of my legal career, when I was young and naïve and appalled to discover how many witnesses lied under oath. People complain that lawyers are always trying to trip them up with their clever questions, but in my experience witnesses too often had to be tricked into telling the truth. In my most cynical moments as a trial lawyer, I'd go back to Sir Thomas Moore and the sanctity of an oath. It's just one of the many ways I'm so often reminded of my high school English teacher. That would be a comforting feeling on my desert island. 

Gazala:   Your latest novel in an excellent and gripping thriller titled, Need You Now. I've read it. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it highly. Shockingly enough, however, from time to time my bare recommendation doesn't always motivate a book's potential reader to become a book's actual reader. Tell us something about Need You Now, and why its potential reader should make the leap and become its actual reader. 

Grippando:   My favorite thing about Need You Now is the sense of place. It's marketed as a "Wall Street thriller," but the feel of New York is what I'm most proud of. And I don't mean the typical hallmarks of Manhattan that find their way into every book set in the city. I just got an e-mail the other day from a "New-Yawker" who was convinced that I must have grown up in Queens near the Lemon Ice King of Corona and "spaghetti park." He was downright wistful about his old neighborhood, and he couldn't believe that some guy from Florida could capture the feeling of that place. Yes, Need You Now is a page turner...but slow down a little, and enjoy some of those moments.

Gazala:   What are books for?

Grippando:   Free, if we don't do something about Internet piracy.

Gazala:   W. Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no on knows what they are." Do you agree, or disagree, and why?

Grippando:   I go with Upton Sinclair on this one. Legend has it that he was the keynote speaker at a Harvard University graduation ceremony. His topic was, "the key to writing a great novel." After being introduced by the university president, he walked to the lectern as the crowd gave him a warm reception. Finally the applause silenced. He looked out into the audience and said, "Why aren't you at home, writing?" Then he returned to his seat and sat down. In my view, that's the one and only rule for writing the novel. 

Gazala:   There are profoundly unsettling noises in my basement I have to go check out. Ask yourself a question, and answer it.

Grippando:   All right, here goes. Q: All the characters in Need You Now have something to hide. Do you think everybody has something to hide? A: Yup. In my second novel, The Informant, one of my characters says, "The only people who can be totally honest with each other are lovers or strangers. Everyone else is just negotiating." I believe it. Don't you?

Grippando's Need You Now is available everywhere. If you'd like to do yourself a big favor and order it from Amazon, all you have to do is click here.

Tear Down the Walls

For authors it's always intriguing to study the current throes of the "traditional" book-publishing business model. Rules and practices are fluctuating rapidly in almost every aspect of the business, from the ways books are published to the ways they're acquired and read. This places authors in a landscape as rosy as it is daunting to maneuver as they toil to capture the attention of potential readers.

In days gone by not so long ago, by the far the best path for an author to gain notice and a shot at fame and fortune was steadfastly treading the "traditional" route of book publishing. Many argue that the traditional route remains the best choice, and to some extent (at least right now), that might be true.

The question is, why was it ever true at all?

The answer is in those recently bygone days, and for many decades preceding them, the traditional publishing houses largely and most efficiently controlled the means of production, distribution, and marketing of books released for mass commercial consumption. Once an author contracted with a publisher for a book's publication, the publisher arranged for the book's editing and polish, its cover art, and its pre- and post-release reviews. The publisher arranged the book's physical production. The publisher had the wherewithal to get the book stocked on national and international retail shelves. The publisher had the money and means to market the book domestically and abroad before, during and after its release.

In the Internet Age, the traditional publisher's control in those matters is no longer as weighty as it used to be.

Authors now have access to a robust and growing array of means to have their books professionally edited and produced. Many independent publishing houses can arrange for "fully-returnable" book distribution to retailers via the likes of Ingram, and Baker & Taylor. (And as Kindles, iPads and Nooks abound and gain popularity, the necessity of producing physical books at all dwindles proportionately.) Any author reasonably familiar with social media, and possessing sufficient time and resources, can devise and implement a marketing campaign to support her work as vigorous as just about any rolled out by a traditional publisher.

So barring for the limited purposes of this post the undeniable benefits that accompany economies of scale, the traditional publishers don't enjoy any particular advantages in physical book publication and distribution, and only one (as we'll see below) in marketing. Yet at the moment, for sure, most independently published authors would be elated to move their books into the hands of traditional publishers.

Why?

Because not even the Internet Age has stripped from traditional publishers their one clearly invaluable power -- they have been for many years, and remain today, the arbiters of popular reading taste in the mass commercial markets. Whether rightly or wrongly so isn't relevant. It simply is so.

The popular music business is the traditional publishing model's first cousin, so a brief stroll into the music arena is illustrative. When I was a teenager, my family moved between two continents in the mid-1970s. Whether I was in Massachusetts or England in 1976 and 1977, just about every kid I knew had a copy of Peter Frampton's live double album, "Frampton Comes Alive." Record stores on both sides of the Atlantic displayed reams of promotional collateral devoted to the record. American and western European radio stations kept cuts from the album in heavy rotation for nearly two years without interruption. The album became a phenomenon that fed on itself, until for my generation owning the record was a commonplace rite of teen passage.

Alternatively, had the record label not so aggressively stamped the record with its seal of approval, the odds were only a small fraction of us would have ever heard of it, much less bought it.

A&M/Polygram was the record label that made "Frampton Comes Alive" successful. The label, which operated much the same way a traditional book publisher does to this day, excelled at convincing record-buyers that Frampton's album was good, and worth purchasing.

Frampton wasn't unheard of before "Frampton Comes Alive" was released. He had previously been a member of  the well-received band Humble Pie, and released four solo albums between departing the band and "Frampton Comes Alive." Neither individually or collectively did those four solo records remotely approach "Frampton Comes Alive" in sales. Was "Frampton Comes Alive" a great record, or one of the "best" ones released in the mid-1970s? Was it truly superior to hundreds of other contemporaneously-released albums in its and other genres, including Frampton's own previously released material?

Well, that's a matter of taste, isn't it?

Exactly.

In 1976 and 1977, A&M/Polygram was a formidable tastemaker in popular music. The average radio station, music store and record buyer had neither the time nor inclination to scour through hundreds upon hundreds of albums released around the time of "Frampton Comes Alive" to seek out lesser-publicized gems. The record label did this for them.

The major record labels were gatekeepers. Their imprimatur was perceived, to a significant extent and whether justifiably or not, as a pledge of product quality on which stations, stores and buyers were willing to rely. And this is only one example of labels' highly effective gatekeeping and tastemaking efforts before and since "Frampton Comes Alive." (I selected this specific example because it rekindles such fond memories of my youthful miscreancy in the 70s. You'll just have to indulge me.)

The only superpower that traditional book publishers still have today is that power of tastemaking.

Online retailers like the behemoth Amazon.com have millions of traditionally and independently published books for sale. As of this writing, independent e-book publisher/distributor Smashwords.com has "3,764,692,764 words published." Yet even a cursory glance at the current major bestseller lists will return almost exclusively the names of authors who are very well-known and widely read, and have been for years. The premier book review outlets (i.e., The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, major television programs and magazines, etc.), as well as book stores and book buyers, have neither the time nor inclination to scour through hundreds upon hundreds of books released every month to seek out lesser-publicized gems by lesser-known authors. As they have for decades, they rely on traditional publishers do the sifting for them.

Hence, at least originally and in considerable part, the remarkable success of Meyer's Twilight, or Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or scads of other "phenomenon" books. The underlying business model that made worldbeaters of Twilight and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the same one that propelled "Frampton Comes Alive" to such lofty heights.

I know many authors, both traditionally and independently published. I don't know one who wouldn't crave his or her book to be reviewed by The New York Times. And The New York Times, like The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and other major newspapers, magazines, television stations and radio programs, very rarely shine any light on independently published books. The Washington Post, for one, declines to review independently published books as a matter of stated policy, and it's far from alone in this regard.

My friend Marvin McIntyre recently released his debut novel, a great thriller titled Insiders. His book is professionally edited and produced, and it's distributed "fully returnable" via Ingram, and Baker & Taylor. It has earned great feedback from Internet review sites and online reader reviews. But his sales didn't take off until he was able, through his own professional connections, to get Insiders reviewed by Barron's.

I know it's the Internet Age. There are tens of thousands of web-based book review sites. Some are very good, some not so much. Some have lots of readers, but most have few. There are so many online book reviewer sites splintering readers' limited time and attention that none of those sites have aggregated sufficient gravitas to be a national tastemaker. None of them alone (and even some thousands of them put together) yet have the reach and prestige to launch a book's sales the way a single, brief mention in  The New York Times can.

The way to The New York Times' book review pages and their precious ilk is still, and for all meaningful intents and purposes is exclusively, via the traditional publishers. Relations between traditional publishers and the front-line prestigious book review outlets remain tight and cozy. The publishers will battle to the end to keep it that way, as it's the last vestige of their old-world value proposition that continues to matter. For the near future it seems in the reviewers' interests to perpetuate this status quo too, since it obviates the need for them to invest limited resources in seeking and evaluating independently published books that are as good as, if not far better than, the ones shilled by the traditional publishers.

These are the last walls between very talented but independently published authors and the widespread attention they justifiably deserve. Those walls won't stand forever. The sooner they crumble, the better it will be for everyone who loves to read books.

  "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..."

~~ Robert Frost ~~

Author Spotlight: Alan Orloff

The area where I live and write is a roiling cauldron of dazzling literary talent. As you might expect given the plethora of politicians, staffers, judges, lawyers, bureaucrats, spies, lobbyists, judges and military folk who comprise the epicenter of this place, the vast majority of tomes produced around here are very, very serious. For example, try losing yourself in a few scintillating pages of An Annotated list of Literature References on Carpets and Rugs 1940 to 1963 (Dept. of Agriculture). Or perhaps you'd prefer curling up with a dog-eared copy of Distinguishing Bolts from Screws (U.S. Customs and Border Protection). True, every so often the ceaseless political and personal scandals abounding in our nation's capital produce some delightfully bawdy material for the bestseller lists. Be that as it may, "funny" isn't the first thing that springs to mind when "Washington, D.C." comes up in a game of word association. At least, not funny as in ha-ha.

Against such a somber backdrop, native Washingtonian author Alan Orloff's "Last Laff" series is a refreshing departure. His just-released book, Deadly Campaign, is the second entry in Orloff's series (coming hot on the heels of the series' debut, Killer Routine). The novels feature the amateur sleuthing of troubled stand-up comedian and comedy club-owner Channing Hayes, and are set in and around Washington. Orloff will be the first to concede he doesn't write the series to punch his ticket to the Comedy Hall of Fame. Still, his books are sprinkled liberally with sly humor and good jokes, in addition to being engaging thrillers.

To celebrate Orloff's new release, I invited him to visit Gazalapalooza for a fresh installment of Author Spotlight. Rather than pretending he doesn't know me, or faking his own death, we're fortunate he graciously accepted my invitation. Without further ado, let’s get this blazing spotlight fired up and test Mr. Orloff's antiperspirant.

Gazala:   In my omnipotence, I've sentenced you to be stranded alone on a desert island for offenses best left unnamed. In my beneficence, I've decided to allow you a limited amount of reading material to make your stay a little less bleak than it would otherwise be. I'll spot you your religious text of preference, and the collected works of William Shakespeare. In addition to those, name the one fiction book, and the one nonfiction book, you'd choose to take with you, and why you choose them.

Orloff:   Thanks for not mentioning my transgressions (embarrassing!). Would I be allowed to trade the works of Shakespeare for the works of Stephen King? If not, then I’ll take The Stand as my fiction choice. It’s a great book, and it’s long enough that I’ll forget most of it by the time I reach the end (making it ideal for re-reads). For nonfiction, I’ll take the Guinness Book of World Records. That should keep me entertained, and who knows, it may inspire me to try to break a record or two.

 

Gazala:   Your latest novel is an excellent and gripping thriller titled Deadly Campaign. I've read it. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it highly. Shockingly enough, however, from time to time my bare recommendation doesn't always motivate a book's potential reader to become a book's actual reader. Tell us something about Deadly Campaign, and why its potential reader should make the leap and become its actual reader.

Orloff:   First off, let me say that your recommendation should sway readers. I mean, from where I sit, you have excellent taste and judgment! My main goal with Deadly Campaign was to write an entertaining story with fun, three-dimensional characters. At the same time, if I could provide readers with a glimpse into the world of stand-up comedy, as well as skewer a few make-believe politicians, then so much the better. I’ve lived in the D.C. area most of my life, so I know something about the sordid stories associated with those walking the corridors of power.

Gazala:   What are books for?

Orloff:   Oh, where to start? Books are for entertaining, enlightening, enchanting. Liking, loving, lusting. Transporting, teaching, training. Enough alliteration? How about, “Books are for everyone to cherish in their own special way"? (Or is that too Mr. Rogers?)

Gazala:   W. Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Do you agree, or disagree, and why?

Orloff:   Actually, there are at least a dozen rules, but no one knows what the additional nine are either. Ba da bing. I believe there’s too much subjectivity/individuality involved in the writing/reading process to sum up the process with a tidy set of rules. If something works for a writer, then it works. Period. Ask ten writers how they write a novel and you’ll get eleven answers (at least). And that’s a good thing. Otherwise, one novel might read too much like the next (and the next and the next…).

Gazala:   There's someone at my door. Ask yourself a question, and answer it.

Orloff:   (If it’s a Girl Scout, could you please order me a box of Samoas?) My question to myself: What’s the best part about being a writer? Aside from the lax dress code and flexible working hours, I’d have to say the best part about being a writer is the opportunity to share your work—your ideas, your visions, your stories—with readers. Of course, working in sweats is pretty sweet!

You don't have to look too hard to find Deadly Campaign. If you want a quick and easy way to get your copy, clicking on this link will make you happy.

Hey, Baby... You Come Here Often?

How many of you lovely ladies reading this post have heard that lame line, or its functional equivalent, more times than you care to remember? I'm very sure you rolled your eyes and turned your back to the fool who uttered those words to you. I'm equally sure at least one of the thoughts you had about him was if that's the line he chose to attract your valuable time and attention, he wasn't worth your interest.

Opening lines are so important, don't you think?

That maxim applies just as much to your writing as it does to the slimy wannabe pick-up artists lurking at your local watering holes. So much so, in fact, that there's an annual fiction competition that hammers this point home without pretense of delicacy. Yearly since 1982, the English Department at San Jose State University in California holds the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Entrants compete "to compose the opening sentence for the worst of all possible novels." The contest's title "honors" British author Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel Paul Clifford is the one that actually begins with the infamous, "It was a dark and stormy night." The contest's 2011 winner is Sue Fondrie of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Her triumphant submission was, "Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories." 

Incidentally, at 28 words, Fondrie's entry was the shortest grand prize winner in the contest's glorious history. There's a reason why any journalism major is familiar with the rule that no sentence should be longer than 23 words. Shortly after World War II, the Associated Press determined that a sentence's readability declines after the 23rd word. If that rule is good enough for the AP and its millions of readers worldwide for the past 60+ years, it's good enough for you.

Authors are pick-up artists. We package our book in an attractive cover with our photo on it, along with some intriguing back-cover copy adorned by a few effusive blurbs. All this in an attempt to entice some stranger we've never met to trust us enough to leap from being a potential to an actual reader.

When that potential reader flips open your book to read the first sentence in your prologue or opening chapter, she's reading your pick-up line. Is it your best one? Is it sufficiently alluring to make her take your book home tonight?

My friend Austin Camacho is a very good and prolific author. Among other works, Camacho writes the hard-boiled  Hannibal Jones mystery series. I attended a talk Austin gave in Leesburg, Virginia, not long ago. That evening he stressed the incontestable importance of a story's opening line. He said that more than anything else, a story's first line must make a reader hungry to know more about something inside the narrative. It doesn't matter what the enticement is -- whether about a character, an event, a setting. That first line is a hook. It's an invitation that foreshadows joy or dread or adventure, if only the reader will keep reading.

An example's in order. I'm working on a short story for a national mystery magazine. It's a first-person narrative. Unless I change my mind, the opening is:

"She thinks I don't know. But I do."

 The objective of this succinct opening is to raise lots of questions, and tickle the reader's curiosity. Who is she? Who's the speaker? What does she know? How does the speaker know what she does? Why doesn't she think the speaker knows it? What's her relationship with the speaker?

Compare my opening to the hoary chestnut, "It was a dark and stormy night." The only question that comes to my mind on reading the latter is, So what? I'd have to keep reading, God knows how long, before something else Bulwer-Lytton writes might prove sufficiently provocative to seduce my curiosity. Assuming I keep reading at all, that is.

Your opening is your pick-up line. So work very hard on it. Keep it suitably brief, and make sure what it lacks in length it promises in intrigue, danger, mystery or romance.

An effective pick-up line both creates an itch, and promises the scratch. Will your first line make her roll her eyes? Or will your book be scratching her itch tonight?

 "Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got FINE written all over you." 

~~ Too Many Fools to Count ~~

Elementary, My Dear Bond

Guy Ritchie's latest addition to the Holmesian cinematic canon, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," has done fairly well at box offices in what Hollywood is describing as a generally disappointing year for movie attendance. As of this writing, the film's combined domestic and foreign ticket sales since its opening last December 16th is approaching $80 million.

So a lot of people are seeing this movie. And a lot of people, professional movie critics and otherwise, are talking about it. What fascinates me most about reaction to the new Holmes film are the countless reviews and comments I've encountered accusing Ritchie's (and actor Robert Downey, Jr.'s) interpretation of the iconic Sherlock Holmes character of being untrue to the vision of the great detective's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Typical of this reaction is Washington Post reviewer Mark Jenkins' criticism that Ritchie's film "owes more to Ian Fleming or Marvel Comics than to Conan Doyle's drawing room mysteries." Jenkins complains that Downey "plays Holmes as brainy yet highly physical," which seemingly strikes Jenkins as an affront to Holmesian orthodoxy because, "[a]s originally conceived, Holmes was a reflective sort..." I've talked with many folks who share Jenkins' disapproval of Ritchie's and Downey's sinewy portrayal of Holmes as an abomination of Conan Doyle's supposedly far gentler creation.

 Let's explore that.

Over the course of four novels and 56 short stories published between 1887 and 1927 (all of which I've read), Holmes repeatedly demonstrates awesome talents in a wide array of deadly proficiencies. He carries a pistol, and he's an excellent shot. In addition to being an expert swordsman, he disables villains with sticks, canes, and riding crops. He's a highly skilled bare-knuckle fighter, a trained boxer, and a master of the Bartitsu martial arts. Physically, "[f]ew men were capable of greater greater muscular effort," Dr. Watson says of his companion. Accordingly, anyone even passingly familiar with Conan Doyle's stories knows Holmes never shies from a fight, and is always the clear winner in every instance of the many and brutal hand-to-hand battles he undertakes in the course of his detections.

Nor does Holmes merely sit around in his flat in London's Baker Street and solve mysteries solely through exercising his remarkable intelligence after digesting facts he's told as he lolls in the comfort of his drawing room. Instead, he travels extensively throughout England and to exotic European locales to capture felons and upend their monstrous criminal (and frequently political) conspiracies. He does so at the requests of private citizens, and the British government, usually working alone while warding off the deleterious effects of his fondness for cocaine.

Ian Fleming was born in the posh Mayfair neighborhood of London in 1908. As the son of a wealthy Member of Parliament, he enjoyed a first-class education in some of England's finest schools. He was extremely well-read, and following the conclusion of World War II began to seriously pursue his lifelong ambition of being a published author. Given his background and upbringing, it's inconceivable that growing up in England in the first half of the 20th century Fleming didn't read (if not devour) Conan Doyle's Holmes stories.

Fleming's James Bond debuted in the 1953 novel, Casino Royale. Over the course of 12 novels and nine short stories published between 1953 and 1966 (all of which I've read), not to mention 22 Bond films released between 1962 and 2008 (all of which I've seen), we've come to know James Bond well. He's a lone-wolf agent of the British government who travels the globe on behalf of Her Majesty's Government to derail nefarious plots through a combination of his keen intelligence, physical prowess, and mastery of all manners of weapons, all the while warding off the deleterious effects of his fondness for alcohol.

Sound familiar?

I know there were many real people who influenced the creation of James Bond. Fleming once said Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types [Fleming] met during the war."

But there was also someone fictional who profoundly impacted the birth of James Bond. Sherlock Holmes was the first literary super-spy, if you will, and his influence on the Bond mythos is patent and unavoidable.

Mark Jenkins says Ritchie's and Downey's Sherlock Holmes is derivative of James Bond, and a misguided depiction of Conan Doyle's seminal contribution to detective fiction.

Jenkins and his ilk couldn't be more mistaken. Ritchie's and Downey's two movies hew far closer to Conan Doyle's vision than any of the more than 200 Holmes films that preceded them (most of which I've seen). And if either character is derivative in any medium, it's James Bond who owes a debt to Sherlock Holmes, not vice-versa.

Incidentally, I saw "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" a couple days ago. It's really entertaining.

I'm confident Sir Arthur would have loved it.

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement."

~~ Sherlock Holmes (from A Study in Scarlet, 1887) ~~

Author Spotlight: Raymond Khoury

Internationally best-selling author Raymond Khoury is a gifted storyteller, and a very talented writer. Each of his first four thrillers have ridden high on bestseller lists round the world. I know his next one, The Devil's Elixir, will do the same when it's released on December 22. In addition to writing fantastic novels, Raymond is generous and supportive of all his comrades in the wordsmithing community. He was instrumental in encouraging me to pursue my own authorial dreams during some protracted intercontinental phone calls between us a few years back. Yet as accomplished an author as the redoubtable Mr. Khoury is, what matters most to me is that he has been my one of my closest friends for more than four decades across three continents. We met in Beirut, Lebanon, when we were both seven years old. It's both delightful and frightful that was such a long, long time ago.

The Devil's Elixir is Khoury's fifth novel. The pre-release reviews are stellar. Booklist calls it “A fast-paced thrill-ride.” Publisher's Weekly says it's “An exciting thriller with a paranormal twist.” If that's not sufficiently compelling for you, Library Journal calls it "Big-time fun," and Kirkus Reviews raves, "Vivid, energetic scenes ensure that Khoury’s tale never falters or bores." Wow. All this for the guy I used to wreak havoc with when we were deeply errant children with gleaming futures in juvenile detention. Kind of makes you wonder...

So a few weeks ago when Raymond and I were trading missives about his latest book's release, I told him it would be a good and brave thing for him to squirm a bit under the searing lights of Gazalapalooza's occasionally recurring feature, Author Spotlight. To his credit, the man never hesitated, never faltered.

As in Spotlights past, I’ve chosen a fairly open-ended interview format permitting our target to riff freely in his replies, so you readers can get to know something about Raymond and his latest book that might not shine as brightly in other interviews. Without further ado, let’s get this spotlight fired up and trained squarely on Mr. Khoury.

Gazala:      In my omnipotence, I've sentenced you to be stranded alone on a desert island for offenses best left unnamed. In my beneficence, I've decided to allow you a limited amount of reading material to make your stay a little less bleak than it would otherwise be. I'll spot you your religious text of preference, and the collected works of William Shakespeare. In addition to those, name the one fiction book, and one nonfiction book, you'd choose to take with you, and why you choose them.

Khoury.     What, no Kindle (with the solar recharger option)? Harsh. Okay, let's start with fiction. There are so many lofty titles one could give here (The Brothers Karamasov, anyone?). I'd be tempted to take the Lord of the Rings one-volume edition. Yes, there is one, and it's only 1178 pages long. That would kill a few hours. But I'd probably end up choosing the collected writings of Woody Allen. All his nutty essays from the New Yorker magazine and others, since the 1960s, in one handy paperback. That one alone might make me avoid the first rescue ship or two. Non-fiction... Is there an Idiot's Guide to surviving on a desert island? Either that or a book about "the making of" any of the Pixar movies. I could read and re-read something like that forever.

Gazala.      Your latest novel is an excellent and gripping thriller titled The Devil's Elixir. I've read it. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it highly. Shockingly enough, however, from time to time my bare recommendation doesn't always motivate a book's potential reader to become a book's actual reader. Tell us something about The Devil's Elixir, and why its potential reader should make the leap and become its actual reader.

Khoury.     Quite simply, because it's just spectacularly magnificent. Reading it will be akin to a religious enlightenment, and any reader who dares venture into its pages will be hopelessly addicted to reading all my novels and left wandering the streets aimlessly in between books, pleading with anyone he encounters for another hit of wondrous words. Then again, I do love a damn good thriller. But seriously--I'm tremendously proud of it. It's mostly set in San Diego, it doesn't have any Templars in it (it's all present day, not a historical thriller apart from its prologue), it's the first time I've written in first person (from Reilly's point-of-view, which was such a blast to write that I'm doing it again for at least the next two books), it's got a biker gang called the Babylon Eagles and a really creepy bad guy (a drug kingpin called "El Brujo", i.e. the Sorcerer) and all kinds of weird hallucinogens, and its plot is going to be really hard for me to beat in future books...

Gazala.      What are books for?

Khoury.     I use them to build big mazes in our basement where I banish the kids when they're being too noisy. Hours of fun to be had by all. Maybe not so much the kids.

Gazala.     W. Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Do you agree, or disagree, and why?

Khoury.     One of my three rules in life is never to comment on anything W. Somerset Maugham says. It's gotten me into a lot of trouble over the years and I think some things are better left unsaid.

Gazala.      I have to take this call. Ask yourself a question, and answer it.

Khoury.     What's the recipe for the perfect mojito? No, wait. How about--who's the writer whose career you most admire? (Don't know where that came from, but I'll run with it). I'd have to say, Stephen King or Michael Crichton. King, for obvious reasons. But maybe even more so, Crichton. He was always coming up with these incredible high-concept stories, always cutting edge, an incredible imagination, just awesome fiction in terms of creating hugely memorable conceits and pulling them off with great believability. You never knew what he was going to do next, and that's a really great place to be, as a writer.

Starting Tuesday, December 22, you can find The Devil's Elixir all over the place. For more information about Khoury, his books, and where to get them, clicking on this link is a great idea: http://www.raymondkhoury.com/books/the-devils-elixir/

The Apple Falls Close

This wasn't at all like when I taught my kids to hit a ball deep to the outfield, or how to cook, or drive. This one hit much closer to home, when my high school freshman son told me a couple weeks ago his English teacher was running a contest in class. She tasked her students with a creative writing exercise. They were each to write an original very short story that would give her the creeps when she read it. Each submission was to be written as if it weren't a complete story in and of itself, but as if it were the first chapter of a longer work. At the story's end, the reader was to be left anxious to know, what happens next?

Those of you who've had high school freshman sons, or who have them now, know that sprinting down the academic paths of least resistance is a high art form with those kids. I'm an author, and I write scary short stories, so it didn't surprise me much when my boy cornered me as I was brushing my teeth, explained the assignment, and asked me what he should write. Write whatever you'd like to, I said through a mouth full of foam over the whirring of my electric toothbrush. But there's a prize for the best story and I want to win it, he said. I replied that he'd best write a really good story then, but that I wasn't going to help him beyond a few basic tips about crafting horror stories, and checking his grammar and punctuation when he finished his writing.

He granted me a scowl, then threw his hands in his pockets and wandered off to ponder as I flossed my smile.

I read his story when he finished it a few days later. I thought it was great, and told him so. His teacher thought so, too, as did the rest of his class. Yesterday, his eerie tale won the prize for best story. Overstating my pride about that isn't possible. And so without further ado, I present to you the work of a budding young author teeming with bright promise. Enjoy.

The Long Way Home

By E. Gazala

“You must not be from around here,” Brooke said. “I’m supposed to be home before dark, and this is the long way home. We should have gone the other way. Now it’ll be dark before I get home.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back in time,” Will replied.

There was only silence between them for a few minutes.  Both of them wanted to speak, but for some reason, they kept to themselves. Finally Brooke said, “Did you hear what Turner was saying today?”

“You mean about how the anniversary of the school bus wreck all those years ago is coming up?”

Brooke nodded. “Yeah. I always think about it when I walk on this street. It happened here, you know. Gives me the creeps…”

“Really? That makes me think about…“ Will stopped talking, abruptly.

Brooke waited for Will to finish his sentence. He didn’t say anything.

Will seemed sad when she looked at him. “What were you going to say?” Brooke asked.

Will shook his head.

“C’mon. Tell me.”

“Ok, ok. I was just going to say that it makes me think about ghosts,” Will answered, reluctantly.

“That’s it? Why did you not want to tell me that?”

“I’m not sure. We just met. I didn’t want you to think I’m weird or something.”

“No! Everyone thinks about ghosts every now and then, Will.”

Will smiled weakly, as if he knew he made a mistake by telling Brooke his thought. Another silence hung between them.

Finally Brooke said, “It’s going to be dark soon. My Dad gets mad when I’m out after dark. Why did you want to come this way?”

The sky was a fading orange as the sun began to set over the tree line of the suburban neighborhood Brooke and Will were walking through. The sun was still slightly out though, and it seemed too dark and too cold for the time that it was.

“I’m not sure. I just felt like coming this way tonight,” Will said. “I like it here.”

The sun vanished behind the trees. It was getting colder and darker by the minute. A chilling breeze picked up. It swished through the trees and pushed fallen, crumbling leaves against Brooke’s and Will’s ankles.

“You’re right. You are weird,” Brooke said. She tried to make it sound like a joke, but she sounded a little nervous.

Will laughed sheepishly. “Was it really this street that the school bus crash was on? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Everyone knows that,” Brooke said. “You know, Turner said people think that some of the kids who died in the crash left their ghosts around here. He’s such an idiot.”

When Will didn’t answer her Brooke turned around. Will was gone. She looked everywhere, but she was alone, except for the silence all around her.

“Will?” she called out. Her voice was trembling

There was no answer but a single cold breath on the back of her neck.

 "The child is father to the man." 

~~ Gerard Manley Hopkins ~~