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QUESTIONS FROM READERS

Kevin O'Brien answers readers' questions about favorite authors, the release date of his next novel and the toughest book he has ever written.

J. Kaye from Baton Rouge, LA: Out of all the books you have previously written, which was the most difficult and why?

Kevin O’Brien: I had the toughest time writing THE NEXT TO DIE. It was my first thriller, and I didn’t work from an outline. It started out as the story of this old, forgotten B-actor who decides he will kill the winner of the Best Actress Oscar race. I figured I’d have fun coming up with five female characters and their individual stories. I wrote about 150 pages before I realized there wasn’t a real sympathetic lead character. Moreover, the whole idea was pretty hokey. At the time, hate crimes were on the rise here in the Pacific Northwest. I decided to make the book a conspiracy thriller, about a well-funded hate group who maligns and murders different celebrities for their political outspokenness. I kept the sad, old actor and one of the actresses (a Susan Sarandon type) as main characters.

Now, I’m not one of those authors who starts writing and “lets the characters take over,” but that’s just what happened when I was writing this book, and it annoyed the “control freak” in me to no end! I inadvertently let two supporting characters take over as the leads --- an actor accused of murdering an obsessive fan, and the struggling lawyer who comes to his rescue. The lawyer was especially sympathetic, because she had a husband with ALS and two kids to support. So, in order to maintain the right balance and let those new characters shine, I had to go back and whittle down scenes with the old man and scenes with the actress character. With all the revising and rewriting, the book took nearly three years to finish.

By the time I showed it to my editor, I was convinced the manuscript wasn’t very good. To my astonishment, he only had a few editorial suggestions. And to my further astonishment, upon its release, THE NEXT TO DIE got a terrific review in Publishers Weekly (who had loathed my first novel, ACTORS), and the book ended up on the USA Today Bestseller list. That was the start of my thriller-writing career. And for every thriller I’ve written since, I’ve started out with a very, very detailed outline! Thanks, J. Kaye, for that terrific question!

Marsha from Macon, GA: When is your next book going to be published?

Kevin O’Brien: My editor just came up with a title for my next thriller: FINAL BREATH. I’m working on the book right now. It’s about a TV-newsmagazine correspondent who realizes the subjects of her human-interest stories are one by one turning up dead. That’s all I’ll say about it for now. I don’t want to give too much away. I think my publisher will be releasing the book in December 2008, but there’s a chance it might be out even sooner, perhaps October. Keep checking my website for updates about FINAL BREATH. Visit: www.kevinobrienbooks.com. Thanks, Marsha!

Shiela from Schoolcraft, MI: Do you have a favorite author? Did you have a personal experience that helped you come up with the storyline for ONE LAST SCREAM?

Kevin O’Brien: I don’t have a single favorite author, but I have several favorites (Terry Brooks, Ann Rule, John Saul and Garth Stein, among others) who are friends of mine here in Seattle. They’ve been very supportive and helpful with my career, and they’re all on my “must read” list. I’m a Tess Gerritsen fan, too, and was thrilled when she provided a review quote for the cover of ONE LAST SCREAM. I’ve always loved Pat Conroy’s books and enjoyed meeting him at an author signing for THE PRINCE OF TIDES shortly after my first novel, ACTORS, was released (in 1987). I was kind of depressed that the publication of my book hadn’t caused jubilation in the streets or made me famous overnight. I didn’t even want to leave my apartment, but forced myself to go to my local bookstore and check out Pat Conroy. After his signing, Mr. Conroy spent a half hour talking with me about the ups and downs of publishing a first novel. He was such a nice guy and was so reassuring. Before I left, he plucked a copy of my ACTORS off the bookstore shelf, plopped his money on the register counter and asked me to sign it for him. So Pat Conroy is also very high on my list.

In answer to your second question, Shiela, when I started to write ONE LAST SCREAM, I didn’t have any personal experiences that really influenced me. But I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of twin telepathy. Every time I meet someone who is a twin, I end up practically interviewing them about whether or not they share any sensations (fear, pain, excitement, etc.) with their twin. In my thriller, THE LAST VICTIM (2006), my heroine had a twin brother, and I’d hoped to tinker with the subject of twin telepathy in that book. But there was already too much going on in the story; I didn’t want to complicate things even more.

Another thing that has always intrigued me is adoption. I think every kid --- at one time or another --- thinks he or she might have been adopted. I explored that in ONLY SON. I knew someone, years ago, who was adopted and didn’t know or suspect she had a twin sister until friends started telling her that they’d spotted her here and there --- when she’d never been to those particular places. She got a hold of her adoption records and discovered that she indeed had a twin. Well, I took that situation and ran with it, making the long-lost sister a truly “evil twin,” and I made their father a serial killer. Then I threw in the concept of twin telepathy. That’s how I developed the storyline for ONE LAST SCREAM.

Thanks for your interest, Shiela. It’s been fun answering your questions.

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