CJ Box Interview

Q. Three Weeks to Say Goodbye has just been published, could you tell us a little about the storyline?

A. After years of trying to have a baby, Jack and Melissa McGuane’s dream has come true with the adoption of their daughter Angelina. But nine months after bringing her home, they receive a devastating phone call from the adoption agency-Angelina’s birth father, a teenager, never signed away his parental rights and he wants her back. Worse, his father, a powerful Denver judge, wants him to own up to this responsibility and will use every advantage his position of power affords him to make sure it happens. When Jack and Melissa attempt to handle the situation rationally by meeting face to face with the father and son, it is immediately apparent that there’s something sinister about both of them and that love for Angelina is not the motivation for their actions.

As Angelina’s safety hangs in the balance, Jack and Melissa will stop at nothing to protect their child. A horrifying game of intimidation and double-crosses begins that quickly becomes a death spiral where absolutely no one is safe…

Q. I understand that you based the idea on something that happened to friends of yours, is this correct?

A. Correct.  Luckily, my friends made wiser choices than Jack and Melissa and everything turned out all right.

Q. Where do you generally get your ideas and inspirations from?

A. I start with dilemmas I’m mulling over: cultural, environmental, sociological.  After doing the research, I try and figure out a way to build a compelling storyline that will pull the reader through the issue in an interesting way.

Q. I admit that you are new author to me, what else have you written before this book, and what are the similarities and differences?

A. I’ve written ten novels in a crime novel series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett as well as another stand-alone thriller called Blue Heaven.  The books have done extremely well in the US are are in 23 languages.

Q. Are there any other genres that you could see yourself writing?

A. I honestly don’t think in terms of genres.  I think in terms of novels that are interesting and compelling.  I’ll let others classify them.

Q. I often see crime books described as ‘plot driven’ – do you think it’s just as important to have interesting characters, or can a good plot alone fuel a book?

A. I suppose the plot alone can fuel some books, but I’m not a fan of them.  If a reader can’t identify closely with the characters I can’t see how the novel will really resonate.  A book like that is like empty calories.

Q. As a writer, do you also enjoy to read – do you think it’s important to be a reader as well?

A. I read constantly and widely.

Q. Which authors do you enjoy – do you read within your own genre, or look for something completely different?

A. Here is a (too long) list:

- Thomas McGuane
- Ken Bruen
- Cormac McCarthy
- Flannery O’Conner
- Elmore Leonard
- Joseph Heller – Catch-22
- Steven Ambrose
- Raymond Chandler
- Dennis Lehane
- Annie Proulx
- Tom Wolfe
- James Lee Burke
- Donna Leon
- Richard Russo
- Harper Lee
- Ivan Doig
- Anton Chekhov (short stories)
- Thomas Berger
- Farley Mowat
- Herman Melville
- Wallace Stegner
- Edmund Morris
- Michael Kelly
- John Sandford
- Denise Mina
- Jess Walter
- Michael Connelly
- Richard Price
- A.B. Guthrie
- Charlie Huston
- Steig Larsson
- T. Jefferson Parker
-Deon Meyer

Q. You’ve won a number of awards for your books, how important are these to you, and is there one which stands out for you?

A. I’d have to say the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2008 for Blue Heaven is the most special.  I was nominated for the same award for Best First Novel for Open Season in 2001 but didn’t win.

Q. How important do you think it is for authors to have a website, and/or promote themselves?

A. I think it’s integral these days for authors to be able to interact with readers.  Therefore, websites are essential and other social media as well.

Visit the Official Website

Guest Post: Writing Dialogue by Bill Walker

Bill Walker is the author of A Note From An Old Acquaintance, published earlier this year, and soon to be reviewed on the BCF Reviews Blog.

One of the most difficult aspects of writing, in my humble opinion, is dialogue.  It is also one of the most important.  In fact, I would wager that most people wouldn’t care to read a book without it.  So, how does one develop an ear for dialogue?  After all, we hear people around us speak all day long, every day.  Dialogue should be a snap, right?  Wrong.  In real life people speak in fragments that would look awful on the printed page and sound even worse in the reader’s mind, and I’m not even counting if it makes sense or not.  Your dialogue must serve the story and can’t afford to waste time going off on tangents like all of us do in real life.

When I first endeavored to write professionally, while I could turn a decent descriptive phrase, or two, dialogue was my weak point, my Achilles heel, as it were.  It sounded phony, stilted and wooden.  No matter what I wrote, I hated the dialogue.  And then I started using a technique that seems to work for me.  I started casting my characters in my mind, using either real people, such as people I knew or famous actors and actresses, or simply vivid constructs, and assigned them voices and accents.  I then deliberately imagined each scene as a little movie of the mind, to be played over and over again as I tried different lines of dialogue.  Now, this may seem like a no-brainer, but this may not work for everyone.  Because of my desire to be a filmmaker I tend to think cinematically.

Once you start doing this, and it will still take practice, the dialogue will flow more naturally, because you as the writer will inhabit the role of each character as you write them.  In effect, you become the ultimate actor.  One thing you should avoid, however, is too much dialect.  While Mark Twain got away with it, modern readers don’t want to wade through pages of words with strange and unique spellings.  Instead of making your characters more vivid, you distract the reader, pulling them out of the story.  And you NEVER want to do that, if you can help it.

Through my little cinematic technique you can use normal language, slanting a word or two, or using certain phrases unique to that character to make him or her sound Irish, for instance.  They don’t have to speak like the Lucky Charms leprechaun and in fact they shouldn’t, unless you want to stray into the land of cliché.  In any event, give my technique a try and see if it works for you.

Guest Post: Speaking Indigo by Janine Talty

Dr Janine Talty is the author of Indigo Awakening; A Doctors Memoir of Forging an Authentic Life in a Turbulent World.

As a child, Janine found herself bewildered by a world full of challenges that she could not understand. She felt isolated, unable to cope with the regular life issues that other children managed easily. She could not comprehend math or spelling-yet she could see energies that others could not see, and had levels of awareness than no-one around her possessed. She exhibited unusual artistic and healing talent.

http://indigoawakening.com/

Speaking Indigo

Indigo’s are constantly being guided by their inner knowing.  At times this knowledge runs head first into the brick wall of their free will.  You are in constant dialogue with what you know and what you think.  The knowing drops deeply into your energetic system as it does for non-indigo’s who are familiar with this level of awareness. However, for the Indigo, the choice is not for your current conscious mind to make.  All decisions come from the core instructions, the manual that you follow emphatically on faith that is based in a paradigm you have yet to create.  You continue to grow and prepare in your own unique individual ways to one day take your place in the organization of the grand planetary drama that has yet to unfold.

As the wordless knowings contained in the deepest crevasse of your consciousness continue to show up in your physical reality you have begun to question everything that is.  What is reality – really?  Is it simply the world of matter that we can touch, taste and see?  Or is it something that we have yet to discover?  The Buddhists believe that reality is whatever we chose it to be.  As yours continues to reflect the deeply held knowings that have always been with you, you realize that nothing is truly real.  This observation will help you get through the next phase of your journey.  As the world changes around us and we learn to let go of all that our human comrades have ever known, we will need to rely on this simple truth.  Nothing really matters.  It is all an illusion that has been created for our viewing pleasure and has now been manipulated to suit an agenda that is not our own.  We must know how the game is played before we are able to transform this realm back into its intended peaceful state.  You must arm yourselves with this knowledge; fore it is also part of your grooming process.  Don’t shy away from becoming familiar with the dark, for it is in perfect balance with the light.  Darkness is simply an absence of the light, that which we cannot yet see.  It is neither good nor bad.  It is just that which is yet to come into clear focus.

One of the unique qualities of an Adult Indigo’s experience is the interconnectedness their life begins to demonstrate.  Your early childhood knowings start to undeniably show up in the physical.  You cannot discredit these realities.  The senses and images of your childhood “fantasies” are in fact premonitions of a reality yet to come. You are true masters of the art of manifesting thought into form, but in your case it is a preordination that you understand and live between the cracks of being in this world, but not being a part of it.  Not only in theme, but in detail your early childhood visions take form.  As you walk through this process, even you are amazed by the accuracy of the wisdom that continues to drive you forward in the process of fully becoming who you are and what you have come here to do.  As you watch the Universal Forces yield to you all that is necessary for your unique journey you marvel at the complexity and ease in which life gives over its divinely sweet fruit.

Connecting to your mission may take some commitment on your part.  These answers do not come without a price.  Be accepting and open to follow your heart where ever it may take you.  You have learned the gift of symbolic site and can see in the darkness of uncertainty.  Some of you will need more concrete confirmations and others will trust without question.  If you are a previous inhabitant on this planet there may be some heavy karma to clear, it is all part of the process.  In order to hold the energies that will be accompanying the shift, your instrument needs to be free of any and all resistance.  These tasks are not easy and are usually accompanied by massive physical challenges.  Some will come in the form of injury or illness while others will come in as social struggles in relationships or financial survival. Take a step back and look at it from the broadest perspective.  Remember to ask “what is the lesion here?  Why have I drawn this into my experience?” In these questions you will be given the answers that will help define your true purpose at this most incredible time in our collective history.

Janine Talty, D.O., M.P.H.