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Behind-the-scenes with Wendy Corsi Staub...and a free book giveaway! (Part 1)
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Today, I am honored to welcome New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub, whose new book, Dead Before Dark, was released on Tuesday. Publishers Weekly has called it “intense,” noting that readers will be rendered “helpless to stop turning pages until…the chilling conclusion.” (You can read the full review here.)
Staub, who is the author of more than seventy novels, received the 2008 RT Award for Career Achievement in Suspense. Three of her titles—In the Blink of an Eye (2002), The Final Victim (2006), and Don’t Scream (2007)—have won the Washington Irving prize for fiction from the esteemed Westchester Library Association.
Currently in the midst of a continuing fifty-state book tour, Staub will visit cities throughout the country this summer. If you can’t catch her on the road, fear not. Beginning on Monday, May 5th, she will be hosting an exclusive read-along on her social-networking site. Visitors will get the behind-the-scenes scoop on Dead Before Dark, and members will have the opportunity to compete for prizes in the daily trivia contest.
Until then, this self-professed “small-town Catholic girl from a big, wholesome family” opens up to Hartford Books Examiner about reaching that dark place that evil spawns from. (Cue evil laugh…)
1) Dead Before Dark is your 13th adult suspense novel. It, perhaps more than any other, seems to adhere to "the same, but different" philosophy in that it has all the trademark WCS elements but is also more intense and may surprise long-time readers. Was that your intent?
Yes, absolutely. I hate being able to guess the endings of books and movies, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. As a suspense author, I work really hard to fool the reader, so that when the villain is unmasked at the end, it’s truly a surprise. At this stage in my career, however, my longtime readers are on to my tricks, and it’s more challenging than ever to stay one step ahead of them and keep them guessing. When I set out to write DBD, I knew I would have my work cut out for me, and that the only way to pull off the big surprise would be to shift gears a bit. I won’t say anything more than that, as I don’t want to give away too much.
2) Dead Before Dark is a sequel to 2008's Dying Light, though it can easily be read as a stand-alone. Both books feature psychic Lucinda Sloan and Cam Montgomery, each of whom has visions-one of the future, one of the past. This is an ingenious idea! What was the inspiration for these characters?
I grew up near the birthplace of spiritualism, Lily Dale, NY, a town almost entirely inhabited by psychic mediums. I’ve written several novels featuring the town as a setting and psychics as characters: my adult thriller IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, and my Young Adult paranormal series LILY DALE. In the process of researching those books, I’ve gotten to know several working mediums. Despite their extraordinary gifts, they’re just regular people living everyday lives, and I really wanted to portray that in my novels. Many of the mediums I know have been instrumental in law enforcement cases, so that element also found its way into DYING BREATH and DEAD BEFORE DARK—Lucinda is a psychic detective. Through my research, I learned that psychics have their own unique way of seeing things—their own “psychic shorthand,” or specialty. I tried to depict that in the sense that Lucinda mainly sees things that have already occurred, while Cam foresees future events. But in real life, it’s not typically as cut-and-dried as that.
3) Your villain, known as the Night Watchman, is a serial killer along the lines of Zodiac or Jack the Ripper. I know you and can attest that you are a perfectly docile person. So...how does a wife and mother get to such a dark place?
I was born a small-town Catholic girl from a big, wholesome family. Nothing horrible ever happened in my childhood, but I was always afraid it was going to. If you worry about things enough, they can’t happen to you—that was my philosophy. So I suppose it was fear and paranoia that led to my fascination with the “dark side.” That, and a healthy dose of natural curiosity (some might call it nosiness), which is very common in writers. Even as a kid, I was obsessed with “unsolved” murder cases like Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac, etc. I was dying to know what really happened.
4) Speaking of the Night Watchman, he leaves a trail of victims across the United States. Do you have any plans to drop a body in CT any time soon? (If so, I can probably help you find good hiding places...)
Well, the new thriller I’m writing at the moment—tentatively titled LIVE TO TELL, due out in early 2010—does have a character who lives in Connecticut. Her subplot will play a major role in the planned sequel, so you never know!
5) You are well known among your readers for your ability to hide the bad guy (or girl!) in plain sight. How do you continue to do this after so many books?
I’m fascinated by the concept that we can never really know another person, no matter how it might seem. To me, there’s nothing more frightening than discovering someone you trust isn’t who you thought they were. I have used that theme repeatedly in my novels. A key component is to write scenes from the villain’s viewpoint without giving away whether it’s a male or female. It isn’t easy to write entire scenes without pronouns, but it helps to keep my readers guessing!
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Be sure to check back tomorrow for part two of my interview with Wendy Corsi Staub. Until then, leave a comment below for your chance to win a signed copy of Dead Before Dark!
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