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| Robert Ellis |
I received the
following email yesterday, and realized that this is as good a way as any to talk
about what I write and the way I do it.
Hi Robert,
I'm one of your biggest fans and
wish like hell you would write faster! I was on your website yesterday and saw
that your next thriller CITY OF ECHOES introduces us to a new main character,
Matt Jones. I'd been hoping for a new Lena book (I've read all three at least
four times) and was just wondering why you're writing about someone else.
Can't believe I have to wait until
August 25 to read your new book!
-- Sally Bernhardt, San Francisco,
CA
I have always enjoyed
the comparisons some reviewers make between my work and writers I admire. But
my stories aren't really drawn from any mold I know of. They're more of a
hybrid in the way they move--part detective story, part crime fiction, but
everything built around the thriller genre. The mix wasn't created
artificially. It just came to me as a natural process while writing THE DEAD
ROOM. I liked this hybrid structure, and felt it set me apart from others. But
what it also allowed me to do was create fully realized characters and a fast
plot at the same time. It was the first thing my creative editor said after she
read CITY OF ECHOES six weeks ago. How does a writer create great
characters and a knock-down-drag-out plot at the same time?
Let's get real and be humble! Besides
a handful of editors, no one else has read the book yet! Still, it's my belief that
my editor's question should be the goal of every writer who cares about the
genre and is trying to push it forward.
The way I try to intensify
character and plot at the same time is by making my protagonist vulnerable and
placing he or she in jeopardy. For me, vulnerability and jeopardy are the two most
important keys to the thriller aspects of my novels. In THE DEAD ROOM, the
protagonist is Teddy Mack, a young civil attorney who has just graduated from
law school, has no experience in criminal law, but gets dragged into a horrific
murder case by his boss. In the Lena Gamble novels, the same rules apply. In
CITY OF FIRE Lena has just been promoted to the homicide table. In THE LOST
WITNESS and MURDER SEASON, she's in a continual state of learning and
progressing, yet her life, her survival, just like Teddy Mack's, is an open
question until the last page
One great advantage, or
should I say result, is that characters experiencing an ordeal like this come
off extremely real. Why? Because a really good thriller is in essence, a
character study. But there's also a price to be paid. A long series following a
single character would never work for the same reason that we can only lose our
virginity once. A hybrid story requires a certain amount of fresh meat!
And this was one big
reason why I wanted to introduce you to a new character, Matthew Trevor Jones.
CITY OF ECHOES is set in Lena Gamble's world of LA and Hollywood. The
background characters that Matt works with are in fact the same background
characters from the Lena Gamble novels. As a writer, I have to say that it was
great fun. But the key to this story, my favorite story so far, is that when we
meet Matt, it's the very first night in his career as a homicide detective.
Matt's promotion to Hollywood Homicide went down that very day. He's a rookie,
he's green, he's vulnerable, and most important of all, he's in a great deal of
jeopardy, his survival uncertain to the last page.
CITY OF ECHOES will be
published August 25, 2015. Although we don't have cover art just yet, the novel
can be pre-ordered at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, and Amazon Germany (English
Edition).
Sleep Loose,
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