Yesterday's winners: Flora Church & Liz Milliron win a copy of Kris Frieswick's THE GHOST MANUSCRIPT, and Kris thanks everyone for their great advice. (Flora, Liz, go to my web site; my contact page has my email... send me your mailing addresses so Kris can send you a book.)
HALLIE EPHRON: It's always exciting when a new series and its writer start generating the
kind of buzz that's accompanying S. A. Lelchuk's SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN. The series features Nikki Griffin, not your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore's shelves and stacks, where she luxuriates in books and the comfort they provide, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. Men who've hurt the women they claim to love. Clearly what's selling the book (already optioned for film and TV) is the main character. So here's Saul to talk about Nikki.
S. A. LELCHUK: Hello, Jungle Red community!
My protagonist, Nikki Griffin, has been compared to Lisbeth
Salander and Jack Reacher, which was so exciting for me, as a huge fan of both
those series. There are plenty of differences, of course: Nikki lacks the dark,
pure vengefulness of Lisbeth, and certainly the kind of raw power and physical imposingness
of Reacher.
I wanted a character who is larger than life in some ways –
able to dish out punishment to 
those who deserve it – but also susceptible to
the same fears that probably most of us have felt.
those who deserve it – but also susceptible to
the same fears that probably most of us have felt.
Uncertainties about career, worries about relationships,
feeling not in control of her emotions and reactions, this intense, sometimes
blinding loyalty to those she loves… to me these things are fairly integral to
who Nikki is.
A few readers have liked that Nikki doesn’t have to trade
emotion, especially empathy, for toughness, and that’s been great to see,
because that was a big part of how I envisioned her. I hate the notion that
toughness needs to mean cold-heartedness or aloofness.
One reviewer compared her to Becky Sharp; in fact, Nikki
even worries aloud about this similarity. But, as she is reminded in the book, even
though they share a … definite single-mindedness, Nikki is ultimately driven by
empathy, by a desire to protect. She’s gone through this horrific childhood
tragedy, and in her mind, she failed to be there when it mattered. She bears a
lot of guilt, and might never be able to fully let go of the idea of
protectionism—even if she sometimes can’t help but take it to an extreme.
Sometimes I feel writing and insomnia go together, as Nikki
might say, like gin and olives. I first came up with Nikki at about 3:00 am one
morning, and by the time I fell asleep at 6:00, I had the rudiments of who she
was. That day I happened to be starting a solo cross-country drive from New
Hampshire to California.
Turns out that meandering, solo road trips through remote
parts of the country are not only a guaranteed way to feel deep gratitude for
the invention of satellite radio, but also a pretty perfect way to wrestle with
the beginnings of a book! I wrote the first scene in an Applebee’s in Eerie,
Pennsylvania, continued in the prairie around the Badlands in North Dakota, 
through
Yellowstone, the Southwest, and so forth. If time allowed, before every new
book I’d drive cross-country alone.
through
Yellowstone, the Southwest, and so forth. If time allowed, before every new
book I’d drive cross-country alone.
The suspense/mystery genre is a little terrifying, because
so much amazing stuff is already out there! The challenge for me was: how to
find a bit of ground that maybe hasn’t been fully stepped on, and yet also pay
homage to writers I love? I think having Nikki run a bookstore allowed me to get at
the latter, and it’s been great seeing the responses from book-lovers who enjoy
the literary references.
Only so much can go into a single, 300-ish page book, so I’m
delighted this is the start of a series. Getting to explore more backstory,
bring back favorite characters or introduce new ones – these are very fun
things to play with. Hopefully Nikki will be around for a long time!
HALLIE: I'm a huge fan, too, of Jack Reacher and Lisbeth Salander. What a power couple they make!! AND adding the bookstore sands the edges.
Anyone else out there who found a road trip a fertile time for coming up with great ideas?
If you're in Phoenix near The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Saturday at 2PM, drop by and hear Saul talk about SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN.
Anyone else out there who found a road trip a fertile time for coming up with great ideas?
If you're in Phoenix near The Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Saturday at 2PM, drop by and hear Saul talk about SAVE ME FROM DANGEROUS MEN.
