Robert Liparulo is an author you should know. His first two suspense thrillers Comes a Horseman and Germ, released in 2005 and 2006 respectively, have both been optioned for film. DeadfallLiparulo’s third novel, is slated for a November release, and although book four is unfinished, he has already sold the film rights to Phoenix Pictures. I am pleased that he agreed to talk with me about his writing.

Liparulo: Mace Neufeld, who has produced all of Tom Clancy's movies, and General's Daughter, and a whole slew of successful films, is producing Comes a Horseman. They’re still trying to get a good script. They’ve rejected two scripts by two prominent scriptwriters, is my understanding. So, they're not at the casting stage yet. I have no idea who they have in mind. I did get a chance to talk with Mace about the script. I suggested another twist at the end, one that’s not in the book, and he seemed to really like it. Aside from that, I don’t have any input. I get to go to the premiers….I’m just biding my time and watching. Hollywood sometimes moves ten miles a minute, sometimes at a snail’s pace. Often, a lot of behind-the-scenes activity goes on, but it’s stuff that can’t be talked about publicly until contracts are signed and announcementsmade.

Red Eagle Entertainment, a relatively new but well positioned production company, is making Germ. Right now, they have Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time in production. They're putting something like $100 million into it - nothing to sneeze at. They said they want to put Germ on the same track. I’m writing the screenplay, so I do have more input this time.

But in Hollywood, scripts get polished and re-written all the time; I’m not expecting the movie to be exactly what I write. When the offers started coming in, I asked Morrell and a few other authors who had sold to Hollywood what I should do. Their advice was to take the money and run. They said it only hurts to try to influence how your stories will be interpreted on the screen. You gotta let it go. Except for the Germ screenplay, I've been able to do that. I'm comfortable that I've done my job and the movies will be what they will be. At the last meeting I had with them, which was just a few weeks ago, we talked about who in the film community has expressed interest, mostly which directors. I can’t say anything now, but if it goes the way it seems to be going, it’ll end up being pretty big, in terms of talent and its “presence” in theaters.

For the next book, Deadfall, I intentionally veered away from the conspiratorial globetrotting chases that made up so much of Germ and Comes a Horseman. It’s more of an action/adventure/survival story, a la First Blood (Rambo) and Deliverance. It’s still a suspenseful thriller, as the first two are, but instead of the intrigue coming from a lot of twists and turns in the plot, it comes from the question, 'How in the world are these guys going to survive—or will they?' Several producers are looking at it now. I’m optimistic about its chances of getting sold and made. It’s actually more movie-like than my previous books.

It’s a political thriller. (Slated for release July 2008.) Mike Medavoy at Phoenix Pictures bought the rights. I just spoke to a big-name director the other day who wants to direct it. If he gets on board, it’ll elevate the project to a new level. I’m pretty excited by the early interest it’s generating.

I’m working on the political thriller right now. The novel after that will be one of two I’ve got simmering in the back of my mind: a big high-concept story more akin to Horseman and Germ; or the first in a sniper trilogy I’ve been planning for a while. The sniper story is more intimate, but I truly like it a lot. The main character was introduced in Kill Zone, the short story that appeared in James Patterson’s anthology called Thriller.

I majored in creative writing at Weber State University. I never wanted to be or imagined myself as a journalist. But when I got married shortly out of college, I followed the money; at the time, that meant freelancing magazine articles and newspaper stories…. I’m curious about everything, as writers should be…. Over time, the things that really interested me started to become apparent: military and police operations, travel… relationships, not just romantic relationships, but father/child, siblings, friends… Novel writing is where my heart is. It’s what I was designed to do, so when I could focus solely on writing novels, I let all of the magazine writing go.

As an investigative reporter, I learned how to research well, and I got over the fear of picking up the phone and calling someone in authority when I needed some information. These skills helped when I started researching Comes a Horseman. I wanted to be as factual as possible, to give the fictional side of the story a strong foundation in fact.

As a magazine writer, I learned to be economical with words, to write tightly and make sure few words said a lot. So, everything I needed to be a good journalist translated very well into fiction.

Like most freelancers, I had written just about everything: articles, brochures, film scripts - and a series of short radio shows for kids. A friend of mine let me know that Tommy Nelson was looking for writers for a series of kids’ novels. I contacted the editor and sent her some samples. Nelson ended up not doing the series. A while later the editor called up and said she’d liked my samples, and had I ever considered novels for adults? I had just spent the past six months working on a spec manuscript — about a third of what became Comes a Horseman — sent her that. Nelson (WestBow) bought it and here we are.

Well, aside from believing that women are very capable, I don’t know. I think it has less to do with creating admirable female characters than with creating admirable human characters. I want my protagonists to reflect the qualities of God, even if they don’t realize those characteristics come from Him. I’m not into the anti-hero stories where the very person we as readers are supposed to admire is pretty much a scumbag. I’m not saying that admirable people don’t have flaws — my protagonists have plenty — I just think that at their core, under the flaws, they’re decent people with hero-like traits.

Maybe just because in the majority of fiction male protagonists seem to either have all the fun or do all the dirty work. Plus, women in fiction often come off as being nurturing at the expense of being decisive. But in my experience, women are extremely decisive. Being able to make that choice to kill is something I think they can do, maybe even better than men can because of that decisiveness.

I haven’t had anyone comment on that. Many very good writers use offensive language only sparingly - Lee Child, David Morrell, Thomas Perry. And because the suspense/thriller genre is fast-paced, in which the characters are under life-and-death pressure to accomplish some great feat within a set time, there’s often not much chance for them to have romantic flings. When they do, it seems forced and unreal, at least for me. Stephen King didn’t write a sex scene until Gerald’s Game, which was a decade into his career, and it was to show critics that he could pull it off. So there’s not a great difference between what I’m leaving out and what’s left out of most suspense/thriller fiction anyway. Of course there are exceptions - Chuck Palahniuk and Leonard Elmore come to mind. But most readers realize that’s their style, not the epitome of what this genre should be.

My experience in journalism taught me to research well and deeply. It’s often what you find just beyond where others would have stopped that turns out to be the gem that gets readers excited about your stories. I read voraciously. I subscribe to about two dozen magazines. I clip interesting articles. I go to specialty bookstores and publishers, like Paladin Press, which carries reprints of federal agent handbooks and things like that. I call experts to chat about what my characters are up to and what they need to fulfill the objective of the scene. In the case of the China Type 64, for example, I found it mentioned in a book about spies. I called my friend, Larry Hama. He’s a writer for Wolverine, X-Men and G.I. Joe comics, and he’s encyclopedic about firearms. He helped me through the details.

Luco Scaramuzzi is a dark character - he’s either a well-positioned thug or the Anti-Christ. In what way does your perception of the Anti-Christ color Luco’s character?

There is no shortage of literature on what people think the Antichrist will look like and be like. For example, handsome and charismatic, because he charms so many people. After a while, I got the picture of George Clooney. Now that’s one charismatic guy. Then I started thinking, what if George Clooney wasn’t a celebrity, but a hustler, someone who used his charisma to swindle and rob and cheat. That’s Luco.

That’s a tough question for me because I never adjusted my writing for the purpose of appealing to one market segment or another. I honestly write what I would write regardless of readers, publishers and markets. I trust that I’m right where God wants me to be. I write what I want to read, and I think that’s key. I’ve read general market suspense fiction since I was a kid. As an adult, I’m offended by graphic sex scenes and heroes who are very un-heroic. I wanted all the suspense and action and technical stuff, but without those offensive elements. That’s what I wrote, and it’s what I would write if I were writing for Random House.

There’s a place for the kind of fiction that I’d call more traditionally Christian. I don’t think people ought to change what’s in their hearts to write, regardless of how much that may limit their appeal. Write what God wants you to write. Then you’ll be in your sweet spot and write so well your stories will transcend markets.

I believe it’s absolutely necessary to have an internet presence. Today’s readers are sophisticated. They want more information about a writer and his work than you can fit on a postcard or in an ad. If you can direct them to a website that has reams of information, you’ve kept the marketing piece simple and attractive, and you are still able to satisfy our society’s insatiable desire to know more. Even if the website is graphically simple, get one. It doesn’t have to break your bank. My first website was designed and hosted by the Author’s Guide — I was a member — for something like fifty bucks.

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