There’s a viral blog event going around called the Next Big Thing where writers talk about what they’re working on now or what’s coming out soon. I’ve been tagged by Matt Coyle, author of Yesterday’s Echo, Find out about Matt’s Next Big Thing here.
My next book is Pushover. It’s the fifth in my series featuring sexy, savvy investment counselor and amateur sleuth Iris Thorne who prowls the streets of L.A. in her vintage Triumph sports car in the “greed is good” 1990s. Pushover will be out in late February 2013.
1. Where did the idea for the book come from? Mercy. Who knows where book ideas come from? When asked about where his songs come from, Willie Nelson said: “The air. The air is full of music.”
2. What genre does your book fall under? Mystery/Suspense/Romance
3. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For Iris Thorne, I’d like someone smart, sexy, and witty yet down-to-earth — a Tea Leoni type. For her boyfriend, Garland Hughes, a younger Harrison Ford. For Iris’s ex-fiance, Todd Fillinger, I see Matt Damon.
4. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? Iris’s ex-fiance Todd lures her to post-Soviet Moscow on a business venture and to settle personal issues, but after Todd is gunned down in front of her, Iris returns to L.A. and learns the City of Angels can be more dangerous than Moscow when Todd’s dangerous legacy threatens to destroy her.
5. Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?
I am represented by my longtime agent, Robin Rue at Writers House.
6. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About six months. But I do many rewrites.
7. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are influences from movies and books. It’s sort of Vertigo meets The Maltese Falcon meets Bullitt.
8. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
In the late 1990s, I read a story about an American businessman who’d traveled to Moscow to pursue business ventures in the emerging Russian market. He was machine-gunned to death on a street in front of a hotel. The incident stuck with me.
9. What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest? I believe of my five Iris Thorne mysteries,Pushover has the most adrenaline-fueled plot. It’s lean and mean.
I’ve tagged Petrea Burchard to talk about her Next Big Thing which she’ll do on Wednesday, January 16, 2013. Petrea’s acting career morphed into writing with Act As If, her online humor column about the acting life. Camelot & Vine is her first novel. January 16, check out Petrea’s Next Big Thing here.
