Interview with Jeff Abbott
by Jon Jordan
Jeff's Web Site

11/01

Jon:  You’ve just started a new series, featuring Whit Mosley and Claudia Salazar. What can you tell us about it?

Jeff:  It's much more of a suspense series than a traditional mystery series, like my earlier work. Whit Mosley is a judge in a small county on the Texas Gulf Coast. He also serves as county coroner, and takes a sometimes unconventional approach to death inquests. His partner on most investigations is Claudia Salazar, a very capable, by-the-book investigator who's trying to build a better life for herself. Their different approaches to a case put them in conflict. But they are also good friends, with a history between them, and they care a lot about each other. The first book in the series is A KISS GONE BAD, just out in October. The second is called BLACKJACK POINT and will be out in late 2002.

Jon:  Why did you start a new series instead of continuing with Jordan Poteet?

Jeff:  NAL asked me to write a brand new series for them. It's as simple as that. I also wanted to write with more of a suspense orientation than the Jordan books would allow, ones that had characters with an actual duty to be involved in a crime investigation.

Jon:  What made you pick Texas for the new series?

Jeff:  I think the Texas Gulf Coast has been ignored by most Texas-based writers. I love the coast--I think coasts attract interesting people, because you have one world (land) meeting another (sea), and in those littoral zones you get all sorts of energy and characters. It's life on the edge, of sorts. Certainly the people living on the Texas Gulf Coast will be the first to say they are a quirky lot. And many writers have used the Florida Gulf Coast as a setting; I thought it was time the so-called "Third Coast"--the Texas coast--with its own beauty and collection of oddballs--got attention as well.

Jon:  This is your fifth mystery novel. Have you written anything else? Short stories?

Jeff:  I've written two stories featuring Jordan Poteet that have been published, and one story featuring Whit Mosley that was in an anthology called AND THE DYING IS EASY, just out in summer 2001. I've just finished two suspense short stories--not with Whit or Jordan--that I wrote just for my own pleasure, and I'll probably send them off to the magazines early next year. I have a goal to write five short stories in the next year. That's a huge goal for me, because short stories--good ones--are much harder than they appear.

Jon:  How did you first get started writing?

Jeff:  My grandmother taught school for 37 years, and she was a book fanatic. She gave me a Big Chief tablet when I was little--four or five years old--and I started filling it with stories, writing with one of those big fat blue Husky pencils. I continued filling Big Chiefs as a child, and was also an accomplished fibber at "show-and-tell", where I would tell stories about me and the cowboys in Montana having adventures. (I have never been to Montana, but it sounded too cool.) I wrote 500-page manuscripts--by hand--in high school, really dreadful garbage. I got serious about writing a book when my stepfather and I had a long talk and he asked me how long it would take me to write a book. I, like an idiot, said three months. So he said he'd support me for three months if I wanted to quit my job and write. That was the beginning. That first book I wrote-in five months, not three--stunk to high heaven, but it showed me I could finish writing a book and served as a lab to learn the most common mistakes and how to recognize and avoid them. The next novel I wrote, DO UNTO OTHERS, sold to Ballantine very quickly and went on to win a couple of awards.

Jon:  Who are some of your favorite writers?

Jeff:  I am always sure I will forgot someone in answering this question, but here goes (and these are not all suspense writers): Eudora Welty. Patricia Highsmith. Elmore Leonard. Dennis Lehane. Ruth Rendell. Harlan Coben. Stephen King. Sharyn McCrumb. Carl Hiassen. John D. MacDonald. Charles Dickens. Larry McMurtry. I'm forgetting someone, I'm sure. There are so many good writers. You can tell I have wide-ranging tastes from the above list.

Jon:  Do you follow a schedule when you write? So many pages a day, certain time of day? Mostly I write in the mornings, from around 8-12. I try to do five pages a day when I'm really chugging along.

Jon:  How do you approach research for your books?

Jeff:  With great trepidation. I generally don't know what I need to know until the story has taken some shape in my mind, and then I'll go and do research. I have a freelance researcher who helps me chase down primary sources. Other times I find an expert. Like for A KISS GONE BAD, two of the characters are retired porn stars and I needed to know how the financial side of that industry worked. So I found, via the Internet, a guy who was a porn star/director/producer to answer my questions about the business side of porn. The guy was a scream, very funny, far more likeable than I ever thought he would be. (This probably helped him in recruiting talent.) He gave me a lot of details--funny, human details, even for such an exploitative business as he was in. (such as his mother working as his accountant while thoroughly disapproving of his oeuvre.) He helped me make the characters become more alive, be more precise in their thinking and their view of the world. For BLACKJACK POINT, my next book, I needed to know about forensic archaeology and found a professor at a nearby university to walk me through a hypothetical dig for skeletal remains. (There are only two board diplomates in FA in Texas, so I was lucky one was only a half-hour away.) He showed me pictures of a real dig, with dirt carefully being cleared away from three skulls. "That's Madelyn Murray-O'Hair and her family," he said--obviously, a nationally famous murder case that was open for years until the family's remains were found. He's worked all these kinds of incredible cases. He's going to be able to share information of a texture you won't find in a book. So usually, if you can find an expert to talk with, that's the most preferable route. But be as prepared as you can be before you interview an expert, so you don't waste their time.

Jon:  What kind of things do you like to do in your free time?

Jeff:  Spend time with my wife and my kids. Read. Travel. I'm so incredibly boring. But I'm happy.

Jon:  I’ve heard other authors say that mystery/crime fiction is more work to write because you need to follow a logical path and have a conclusion that wraps things up well. Any thoughts on this?

Jeff:  I think every book needs to follow a logical path, crime fiction or not. The characters must stay true to themselves as they change and grow, and that should present a logical path for the writer to follow--while still surprising the reader. It gives the story required structure--the bones upon
which to hang the flesh of the fiction. I think writers of any kind ignore this at their peril.

Jon:  Do you have any thoughts on the role the internet plays in writing and marketing?

Jeff:  The Internet helps more with research than anything. I found web sites and e-forums for all sorts of interests or research points--you just have to confirm what you find on the Internet, because some of it isn't credible. In terms of marketing--with so many writers hawking themselves on mystery chat boards and such, I think the authorial noise level has gotten to where it's much harder to get noticed on the Internet than before. I have a web page--www.jeffabbott.com--and I did get lots of emails from new readers right after KISS came out. I think that's because my web site was listed at the back of the book. So that's valuable to stay in touch with readers, and to provide them with more detail on your work. More than anything, the Internet is valuable for staying in touch with writer friends who are scattered around the country.

Jon:  What kind of things influence your work?

Jeff:  Family. The web of relationships that exists in small towns. Any topic that captures my interest for an extended amount of time, like treasure hunting did for BLACKJACK POINT. The need to feed my family and pay the mortgage.

Jon:  What kind of movies do you enjoy watching?

Jeff:  I love movies, all kinds--suspense, comedies, foreign films. I think two suspense movies I've particularly enjoyed in the past few years were Steven Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT and Anthony Minghella's THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. Of course, both of those were based on books by writers I particularly admire. My favorite comedies of all time are YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. My favorite foreign films are DAS BOOT-- just unbelievably tense and claustrophobic, set on a German U-Boat--and GALLIPOLI, an amazing Australian film about friendship and war, set during WW1.

Jon:  Do you enjoy doing personal appearances? Signings and conventions?

Jeff:  Sure. It's very nice to meet readers, and I'm certainly appreciative of their support. Crime fiction fans are unbelievably loyal and kind. They are great people.

Jon:  Are there any downsides to being a writer?

Jeff:  None that aren't greatly outweighed by the benefits. Writing is very hard work, but totally rewarding. People do, in a funny way, tend to think writing is nothing but glamour. When A KISS GONE BAD hit the USA TODAY bestseller list--my first time to hit such a list--my friends said, "What did you do to celebrate?" Perhaps they thought Donald and Ivana jetted down to party with me. The truth: I changed diapers, helped my wife clean the house, worried about a rewrite I was about to start on a new book. (Yes, we did celebrate later.) Writing is self-employment. You are your own business, which can be a challenge.

Jon:  Do you pay attention to reviews of your books?

Jeff:  I try not to, whether the review is good or bad, because it is, after all, just one person's opinion. A KISS GONE BAD was my first book out in five years, and it got absolutely glowing reviews, by far the best of my career. It's hard for a paperback original to get reviewed at all, so I probably paid a little more attention than I would have otherwise, simply because I hadn't had work reviewed in so long and I did not expect to get any reviews. But if the reviews had been horrible, I would have just read them once, put them in a file, and kept writing. Every writer gets bad reviews at some point, and you can't let it derail you.

Jon:  With the publishing business changing, less publishing houses as an example, how important is a good agent and a good editor?

Jeff:  Absolutely critical. Your agent has to be well-informed of who's the right editor at the right house and have a deep understanding of what's happening in the markets. Your editor has to be your champion within the house. Your editor and agent also need to have a strong sense of story structure--that can be a huge help in ironing out problems in a manuscript, especially one aimed at a more mainstream audience.

Jon:  How would you describe a perfect weekend?

Jeff:  On the coast with my family and close friends, beautiful weather, lots of great food and conversation, good wine or cold beer, a good book to read. The coast in question could be in Texas, Hawaii or Australia, three of my favorite places.

Jon:  Do you have a website?

Jeff:  Yes. http://www.jeffabbott.com. It includes readers' guides for all my books, news, info for the press, and special sections for readers and for writers.

Jon:  What’s the one thing that’s always in your fridge?

Jeff:  Tabasco sauce.