Today, author Allan Leverone talks about his craft and his love of the thriller! Please welcome him to the Fantasy Pages.
Why I Love (and Write) Thillers
A few weeks ago, you featured a guest post from the beautiful and talented Becky Due, explaining why she loves (and writes) contemporary romance. When you were kind enough to offer me an opportunity to introduce myself and my work at Fantasy Pages, I thought it might be kind of cool to rip off her post do the same thing. So today, with apologies to Ms Due, I’m here to explain why I love (and write) novels in the thriller genre.
Lee Child. Barry Eisler. Clive Cussler. Michael Connelly. Ian Fleming. Scott Turow. Sophie Littlefield. Michael Crichton. John Grisham. What do these and dozens of other thriller authors have in common? They write pulse-pounding fiction, novels of suspense where the odds are stacked against the hero, where some horrible fate awaits a person or a group of people if this one person, often a regular guy or gal, isn’t able to decipher often seemingly indecipherable clues and prevent a disaster, often of global magnitude.
Usually the chosen person doesn’t want the responsibility, isn’t up to the challenge, would like nothing more than to pass it off on someone else.
And, oh yeah, most of the time the clock is ticking; time is running out. Saving the world isn’t for the faint of heart, you know.
I grew up an insatiable reader. I enjoyed mysteries, read plenty of them and still do, but even as a young boy I gravitated toward the ones where the hero faced an element of danger. It wasn’t enough, at least as far as I was concerned, for the Inspector to unmask the killer. He had to read the clues and stop the fiendish perpetrator before he killed again, maybe even before he killed our hero. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple just didn’t do it for me.
It’s unsurprising, then, that when I got this crazy notion in my head that I was going to write novels, I would gravitate toward the genre I’ve loved reading my entire life. No literary fiction here. Nothing against those novelists that end up on Oprah’s couch because they write four hundred pages of thought-provoking fiction where nothing much happens, but it’s not for me.
I want to see my hero get beaten down psychologically—and, sure, I can admit it, maybe even physically—and see if he has what it takes to struggle back to his feet one more time, against the odds, and fight the good fight. I want to see her face down treachery and betrayal and soldier on despite being set up by her best friend for a murder she didn’t commit. I want to see him struggle against his own basest instincts and maybe, just maybe, do something right in spite of himself.
I want action and suspense, dammit, and I want it with all my genre-loving soul.
Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online. His debut thriller, titled FINAL VECTOR, is available February 2011 from Medallion Press. For details, please visit www.allanleverone.com or his blog at www.allanleverone.blogspot.com. Don’t forget to join him at Pump Up Your Book’s March 2011 Authors on Tour Facebook Party on March 25. Visit his virtual book tour page at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/01/16/final-vector-virtual-bookk-tour-february-march-2011/ for more information!
Why I Love (and Write) ThillersA few weeks ago, you featured a guest post from the beautiful and talented Becky Due, explaining why she loves (and writes) contemporary romance. When you were kind enough to offer me an opportunity to introduce myself and my work at Fantasy Pages, I thought it might be kind of cool to rip off her post do the same thing. So today, with apologies to Ms Due, I’m here to explain why I love (and write) novels in the thriller genre.
Lee Child. Barry Eisler. Clive Cussler. Michael Connelly. Ian Fleming. Scott Turow. Sophie Littlefield. Michael Crichton. John Grisham. What do these and dozens of other thriller authors have in common? They write pulse-pounding fiction, novels of suspense where the odds are stacked against the hero, where some horrible fate awaits a person or a group of people if this one person, often a regular guy or gal, isn’t able to decipher often seemingly indecipherable clues and prevent a disaster, often of global magnitude.
Usually the chosen person doesn’t want the responsibility, isn’t up to the challenge, would like nothing more than to pass it off on someone else.
And, oh yeah, most of the time the clock is ticking; time is running out. Saving the world isn’t for the faint of heart, you know.
I grew up an insatiable reader. I enjoyed mysteries, read plenty of them and still do, but even as a young boy I gravitated toward the ones where the hero faced an element of danger. It wasn’t enough, at least as far as I was concerned, for the Inspector to unmask the killer. He had to read the clues and stop the fiendish perpetrator before he killed again, maybe even before he killed our hero. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple just didn’t do it for me.
It’s unsurprising, then, that when I got this crazy notion in my head that I was going to write novels, I would gravitate toward the genre I’ve loved reading my entire life. No literary fiction here. Nothing against those novelists that end up on Oprah’s couch because they write four hundred pages of thought-provoking fiction where nothing much happens, but it’s not for me.
I want to see my hero get beaten down psychologically—and, sure, I can admit it, maybe even physically—and see if he has what it takes to struggle back to his feet one more time, against the odds, and fight the good fight. I want to see her face down treachery and betrayal and soldier on despite being set up by her best friend for a murder she didn’t commit. I want to see him struggle against his own basest instincts and maybe, just maybe, do something right in spite of himself.
I want action and suspense, dammit, and I want it with all my genre-loving soul.
Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist whose short fiction has been featured in Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Shroud Magazine, Twisted Dreams, Mysterical-E and many other venues, both print and online. His debut thriller, titled FINAL VECTOR, is available February 2011 from Medallion Press. For details, please visit www.allanleverone.com or his blog at www.allanleverone.blogspot.com. Don’t forget to join him at Pump Up Your Book’s March 2011 Authors on Tour Facebook Party on March 25. Visit his virtual book tour page at http://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2011/01/16/final-vector-virtual-bookk-tour-february-march-2011/ for more information!
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