Author R&R with Chris Coppel

 Chris Coppel was born in California and has since split his time between the USA and Europe, living in California, Washington DC, Utah, Spain, France, Switzerland and England. Chris has held senior operations positions for both Warner Bros. and Universal Studios. Chris also held the position of Director of Operations for UCLA’s Film School where he also taught advanced screenwriting. Chris and his wife Clare spent many years helping animal rescue with Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Before joining Best Friends, Chris was President and Managing Director of the Home Entertainment Division of Testronics in Los Angeles. Following in his father’s footsteps (Alec Coppel wrote Vertigo among many other successful movies) Chris has written numerous screenplays as well as the novels Lifetimes, Lingering, Logistics, Double Down (as C.J. Axelrod), Liner, Lucy, Lakebed, Legacy, Lodge, and Luck. Chris is also an accomplished drummer and guitarist.

His new book, Latency, just released today, is a riveting blend of police procedural and supernatural thriller. Up until now, the only monsters the LAPD had ever seen were of the human variety. When two down-on-their-luck detectives are forced to work together on a series of cold cases, they slowly begin to uncover a common thread that may hold the key to solving some of their town’s grizzliest unsolved murders. Little do they know that the same key will unlock secrets from a different dimension; one filled with monstrous creatures that should never be disturbed…

Chris stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about his writing process:

First, a little about me and my writing.

I wrote my first book, Lucy, thirty years ago, then managed to not write another word for over twenty-five years. Now I write a minimum of one book a year. While my original novel was a gentle tale (or tail) revolving around a Golden Retriever that gets stolen and has to, along with other fine hounds, escape their capturers and find a way home, most of my other works have been in the horror – ghost genres. Why do I choose to weave tapestries of dark and cloying fear? I have no idea. What I can say for certain is that I have always enjoyed a good horror story. Before I go on, I think I need to point out the sort of tale that I DO NOT define as good horror. I am not a fan of gratuitous orgies of blood and gore that start on page one and maintain that same sordid level until the very end without any benefit to the story or the setting. I find that type of horror to be the genre-equivalent of the bottom shelf romance novels that are all written according to a preordained script that dictates content, romantic interaction timeline and conclusion. Having said that, those books sell in the billions every year, so that just shows how much I know.

Horror for me must be original. I don’t find an axe wielding psychopath targeting young sorority girls to be clever or worthy of even a sample read on Amazon. I like subtlety in my horror. I also like a dash of humour, a drop of pathos and most importantly, I want the feeling of discombobulation. I want the reader to feel the same emotions as the characters. To date, I feel that my books have encompassed all those criteria.

I was questioned about how I deal with research. Firstly, the need for in depth research beyond what my imagination can provide, varies from book to book. In Lucy and in Lingering, for example, I didn’t see the need for any research at all except for a little Google map work seeking out a few locations in Southampton. In Luck and Legacy, I needed quite a lot of science, armament knowledge, Native American lore etc. I found that the internet was all the tool I needed. I also learned not to grab the first data chunk from the landing page and then think that I was, at that point, highly knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Look deeper! For example, I needed to know about sniper rifles from the 1990s. I found that by digging deeply in the Google mine then branching into YouTube for some hands-on visualisations, I was able to get a good understanding of the weapon I needed for the story.

The only book I have written that required in-person research was the one I am editing at this moment. Titled Lusas Naturae, it is set in a small coastal town in England that is close to what was one of the biggest coal mines in England. In addition, the town sits atop a plethora of subterranean tunnels that were used by pirates and smuggles hundreds of years earlier. As my knowledge of tunnels and mines is on a par with my knowledge of quantum physics, I chose to meet local historians as well as volunteer tour guides at the local mine museum. The depth (literally) and breadth of knowledge that these individuals were able to impart to me was priceless and enabled me to add a layer of texture that couldn’t have been achieved otherwise.

You can read more about Chris and his writing via his website and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  Latency is now available via all major booksellers and via publisher Cranthorpe Millner.

Author R&R with John David Bethel

 John David Bethel was a speechwriter to Cabinet Secretaries at the Departments of Commerce and Education during the Bush 41 and 43 administrations. He also served as a press secretary and speechwriter to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Additionally, Bethel worked as a communications strategist for a number of national and international public relations firms, including Burson Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe. Bethel is also an award-winning author whose novels include Evil Town, Hotel Hell, Unheard Of, Holding Back the Dark, and A Washington Trilogy, and he's been published in popular consumer magazines and respected political journals.

His latest crime novel is Mapping the Night, in which FBI Special Agents Eileen Prado and Ira Fisher are inserted into the investigation of the Upper East Side serial murders at the instigation of forces working within government who want the identity of one of the victims kept quiet. Their partners in the NYPD have their own agenda: they are hiding the true identity of the man known as The Uptown Savage.

John David Bethel stops by In Reference to Murder to talk about researching and writing the book:

 

My novels are drawn from true crime.

Mapping the Night is introduced with the scene of a boy kneeling beside the body of his mother, trying to revive her by applying a bag of frozen vegetables across her forehead. He explains to the police officers who discover him that this is how “she made me feel better when I was sick.” That haunting scene came straight from a New York City police report of the murder of a single mother. It was the first of many victims of the same killer.

The modus operandi of the perpetrator was consistent – as was his choice of victims. All were single mothers of young boys; all raped and strangled; all the murder scenes were immaculately cleaned beyond what would be necessary to erase evidence.

Having written about serial murderers in other novels, for which I did extensive research, I had a handle on the antagonist in Mapping the Night; however, I had not written about this particular type of offender. There are four types of serial killers: thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary killers and power/control seekers. In this novel, the offender is mission-oriented, meaning he justifies his murders as necessary to rid the world of people he considers undesirable. I went to work researching this particular deviant behavior and found that mission-oriented serial killers are organized, stable and clear thinkers. They can hold jobs, sometimes very coveted positions in respected fields, and they plan and commit their crimes quickly and efficiently.

With these details worked out, I needed a protagonist – other than law enforcement – who would enable the reader to identify with a “citizen” central to the action. Someone with a reason to be in the right place at the right time, meaning on the streets of New York in the middle of the night. That became Warren Winston who suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum. Translated it means he is allergic to light.

Winston lives in the dark, only leaving his apartment in the Plaza Residences on the toney side of town in the middle of the night. He wanders the upper East and West sides of the city, as well as Central Park, and knows the history and geography of these neighborhoods intricately – a vehicle to introduce and educate the reader about Uptown New York. It also puts Winston in a position to encounter the Uptown Savage.

After establishing the location for the novel, I also had to do some research on how and who from law enforcement would be handling events. That required understanding how the city is divided into precincts, who directs these precincts, and how the detectives operate within them. Special agents from the FBI would also have a role which meant research was needed to understand their involvement. There is also a political element in Mapping the Night that allowed me to mine my career in politics to add a dash of realism to that aspect of the plot.

I do my research as needed when I am writing. I do not write from an outline nor do I prepare background on the characters until I create them. Many writers work from an intricately prepared outline and prepare elaborate backstories for their characters. This provides a strong foundation that takes them from the first sentence of their novel to the final one knowing where they are going and how they are going to get there. I tried that approach but found it took the fun out of writing for me. I want to be write the way I read; being surprised about what is around the corner; how characters will react to the situations they encounter.

Long story short, I write by the seat of my pants and conduct research when it is needed to inform the plot. In some ways, this is easier and more efficient than information gathering in anticipation of what might be required to write a believable story. Oftentimes, I think writers who deep dive on research feel the need to include every bit of what they find in the novel. That can take the life out of the story. I am a minimalist.

I jump into my writing without a parachute but manage a soft landing.

 

You can learn more about J. David Bethel and his writing on his website and follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Mapping the Night is available for now via Amazon.