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BIO
Ridley Pearson is the author of more than twenty novels, including the New York Times bestseller KILLER WEEKEND; the Lou Boldt crime series; and many books for young readers, including the award-winning children's novels PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, PETER AND THE SHADOW THIEVES, and PETER AND THE SECRET OF RUNDOON, which he cowrote with Dave Barry. Pearson lives with his wife and two daughters, dividing their time between Missouri and Idaho.
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INTERVIEW
 July 2, 2009
Ridley Pearson is the author of over 20 novels for both adults and young readers, including THE DIARY OF ELLEN RIMBAUER, PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS (co-written with Dave Barry), KILLER VIEW and KILLER WEEKEND. In this interview with Bookreporter.com's L. Dean Murphy, Pearson discusses what prompted him to write his latest, KILLER SUMMER, as a heist novel, and describes the real-life inspirations behind the book's setting and characters. He also gives insight into his writing process, professes his love for villainous characters, and explains how he got started writing children's books.
Bookreporter.com: KILLER SUMMER marks the return of Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming, following KILLER WEEKEND and KILLER VIEW. What inspired you to write these intriguing mysteries? Did you know KILLER WEEKEND would be the start of a series, or did you consider it to be a stand-alone novel at the time?
Ridley Pearson: Several years ago my agent, Amy Berkower of Writers House, and I were discussing subject matter for my crime novels and I mentioned an annual business conference in Sun Valley that brings in the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet (no relation to Jimmy). Amy had read a piece in the New York Times that same week about the fire power at the conference and she suggested I tie it to a thriller and that I start a new series based on my 25 years of living near Sun Valley. I've known the real-life sheriff there for years, and have served on boards with him. Since I'm a research nut, I thought having that kind of insight into law enforcement in a small but very wealthy and diverse community could make for a long series of exciting novels. I hope that turns out to be the case!
BRC: Why do you make your villains such despicable, unlikable characters at the beginning of each novel?
RP: Do I? Since writing the Lou Boldt series (that I hope is continuing) I've tried to paint villains as full characters, not cardboard cutouts. In some of the novels, the villain is even sympathetic in a creepy way (KILLER WEEKEND comes to mind). But at the same time, I have a real love for villainous characters --- the selfish, willing-to-do-anything, desperate geniuses who see law as an elective, not a required course.
BRC: How can Sheriff Fleming be so cool when his deputy is romantically involved with the mother of his children before the divorce is final? How does this affect the psyche of Fleming?
RP: Walt Fleming's deputy is sleeping with his ex-wife, which didn't help their marriage any. Fiction is about conflict. The Wood River Valley is a very small place. There's a lot of "inbreeding" in terms of relationships. I thought about offices where people have relationships and then cool them, and in building Walt's fictional character, I wanted to give him a couple of real hurdles to overcome. One of these is Tommy Brandon and his wife Gail having a relationship. Another is the unexplained death of his brother, Robert. He struggles with his father who thinks he isn't living up to his potential. Hopefully all of this helps shape Walt into an interesting character that you want to come back to. I know that I do as the writer.
BRC: Without giving away too much of the plot, what inspired the Learjet idea? Did US Airways Flight 1549 fuel the idea? Or was it the D.B. Cooper skyjacking?
RP: My story lines have had the odd fortune of overlapping with reality. This has been happening for a long, long time now. I write about something, and six months later it's on page 1, often just as the book is publishing. Who knows exactly why or how it happens, but once again, I was well into the third draft of KILLER SUMMER when a scene involving a bird strike played out in the East River of New York City. My editor, Christine Pepe, and I immediately exchanged e-mails --- "It has happened again!"
BRC: Why do you choose wine as one venue of intrigue? Why specify the wine being a gift to John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, when Adams defeated Jefferson in the 1796 election and narrowly lost in the 1800 election? Is this a spoof of the 2000 presidential election?
RP: It's not a political comment so much as a reflection of the research I do. I stumbled upon a story about a pair of TJ-owned bottles of wine selling for six figures. Since Sun Valley hosts one of the most lavish wine auctions in the country each summer, I immediately knew what I wanted to write: a heist novel involving the wine auction. I love heists, and I've never written a heist novel. It was a lot of fun for me.
BRC: You painfully examine the passing of the father of Fleming’s teenage nephew, Kevin, and how Kevin wants only to remember his father’s life, not death. This is personal for me. Do you draw upon a specific incident for this philosophical exploration?
RP: I lost by own father last year. I've been working with the theme of Bobby's death for several books now, and when I lost my dad I finally had the emotional depth to draw upon and try to write about it. It's a short passage --- the dinner scene --- but maybe my favorite of the novel.
BRC: Is photographer Fiona Kenshaw based on someone you know? Was there a specific real-life incident regarding the logging truck, and Fiona’s observation?
RP: The Stevie Wonder accident was, in part, responsible for the use of the logging truck. I tell the story of his recovery from that accident, and nearly always choke up doing so. (Look it up! It was something like 15 years ago now.) Logging is a big part of that area, and that log home business is right in the heart of Bellevue, and I've known Bob Parker for what seems like forever. "Write from what you know."
BRC: Is likable John “Cowboy” Cumberland based on a real person?
RP: I have a dear friend, Clarence Stillwill, in the Sun Valley area, and I've been trying to work him into the books for years. John has a lot of Clarence in him.
BRC: You live part-time in the Sun Valley area and may interact with Sheriff Walt Femling. Is he a friend? How much do you identify with the fictional Walt Fleming? Is your life in Idaho a comfort zone in which real-life incidents spur ideas?
RP: Walt is a long-time friend of mine. He works with me, almost on a daily basis, on the books, which I hope brings a realism to the events. Mind you, his real life is nothing like Walt's in the books. We joke about that, but I know it's hard on Jenny, his wife, and Jerry, his father, both of whom are direct opposites of the characters I've painted in the novels.
BRC: Did the story change at all along the way, or did it roll as you conceived it? And with that in mind, do you outline?
RP: I'm an outliner, yes. The stories don't always follow the outline exactly, but they're pretty close. Invariably, plot points and character issues reveal themselves along the way; the writer has to pay attention to that, and I do. I seem to often rewrite the ending, even though I start with one in mind.
BRC: I take it that writing novels is more satisfying than your career as a musician and songwriter, but then again I might be wrong. I know you still play with the Rockbottom Remainders. Do those moments of music strike a chord with another side of your creativity?
RP: Playing in the Remainders has been one of the highlights of my life. I *love* those moments. Becoming friends with the members of this band has been a blast. We are still an awful band, but don't tell anyone.
BRC: What led you to become an author?
RP: Starvation. Good thing no one told me that most writers starve the same as musicians....
BRC: Do you have a favorite novel that you’ve written?
RP: I think your most recent is always the one you attach to: KILLER SUMMER!
BRC: Can you share a bit about how you came to write children's books? How do you divide your time between your adult and children's projects, and do you work on both projects simultaneously?
RP: My kids grew up. You read to them every night and as a writer, you think: "I can do that. Maybe.... "
BRC: What are you working on now, and when might readers expect to see it?
RP: The follow-up to KILLER SUMMER --- its working title, KILLER SILENCE.
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AUTHOR TALK
 May 2004
In this interview Ridley Pearson, author of THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES, talks about the characters and setting in his long-running mystery series featuring Seattle police lieutenant Lou Boldt. He also discusses the process of writing his novels and future projects that are in the works.
Q: What do you do when you don't feel inspired to write?
RP: I guess I'm not an inspirational writer as I treat writing like a job --- that is, I rise each and every morning, ready to tackle the blank page. There are days, of course, when I know it's going well, and many days when I know it is not, but I stay in the chair. I don't use inspiration, or lack thereof, to leave my chair and say, "It's not working today." Deadlines require discipline. To get five drafts of a 500 page manuscript completed in 12-14 months requires many hours in the chair.
Q: Would you have written your characters differently if you realized they would become part of a series? If so, what would you have changed?
RP: The Boldt series evolved from a stand-alone (UNDERCURRENTS) in such an organic way that I barely saw a series coming. It's too far along now to know if I would have/could have changed anything. I allowed Boldt and others to age and grow, and I'm glad for it. Boldt doesn't age quite as quickly as the rest of us, but lucky him. It's the relationships between these characters that has surprised me --- and in this way, these characters really have written the books on their own in many places, and I've felt much like a spectator. Sounds odd, probably, and I'm not sure I can explain it, but it's the truth, and is an incredible process.
Q: Why did you choose Seattle as a setting for the Boldt books?
RP: Seattle was where I first made contact with sources within law enforcement: the police, a medical examiner, a forensic psychiatrist, and others. Boldt became a character that wouldn't let me go --- he stayed in my consciousness, and I wanted to explore him more deeply, as suddenly a series was born. I have a great love and affection for Seattle and its people; it's a marvelous, varied place, with interesting crime and interesting settings. I'm lucky to have it.
Q: In THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES, you made Liz Boldt a much more central character. Do you think Daphne Matthews will continue to be a big part of Boldt's work and life and therefore your books?
RP: Daphne Matthews has been a character that has always intrigued me, because the more I try to get to know her, the more she eludes me. I could write an entire series based just on her, I think, because of this elusive quality of hers. I appreciate the sexual tension between Daphne and Boldt and there are times I'm writing a book and I'm convinced they will end up in bed together again --- so that's never out of the question. But Liz and Lou have come to form a strong marriage --- they've been through a lot of tough cases together, and I think they're just growing stronger every book. It has been interesting to me, as the creator of the series, to see Daphne's interest shift (to LaMoia, for instance --- that was entirely unexpected and unplanned!) and I know she holds more surprises for me and readers alike.
In THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES there is a confrontation between Daphne and Liz Boldt that sets things on a new course. I'm eager to see where that leads.
Q: You're involved in so many things besides writing novels. Tell us a little bit about that, and what you've enjoyed doing the most.
RP: I've had many great opportunities present themselves --- several came to me, instead of me chasing them. Among them: PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS, a prequel to PETER PAN co-written with humor columnist/author/speaker Dave Barry (Sept. 2004); a series for Showtime (The Culture), still not green-lit but we're hoping; an upcoming documentary for Animal Planet: Wild Justice, on a crime lab that deals only in crimes against wildlife, and a young-adult novel slated for Sept. 2005.
Q: I've heard you say that THE BODY OF DAVID HAYES is about forgiveness. Do you usually have a "theme" like this when you write?
RP: For the past four or five novels I've focused on an emotional theme, yes. I've always worked on outlining my character arcs --- so each character has someplace to start, emotionally, and someplace he/she is headed. Adopting a theme for the novel has been good for me; it keeps me rooted and reminds me that the overarching emotions of these characters are focused on a particular quality, a human quality that is sometimes desired, sometimes not, sometimes achievable, sometimes not.
Q: When you begin a book do you know how it will end or do you let your characters find their own way?
RP: Most of my novels are outlined thoroughly, and therefore I know the ending. That said, I've not used my outlined ending for any of the past three books. I've written it, sure. And I've thought that was the ending. But by the time the novel has had time to linger, I've gone back and written the last 80 or 100 pages over --- sometimes using as many as three different endings. But having an ending when you start at least lets you aim for something --- and that helps a writer meet a deadline, and keep the book on the rails.
Q: Do you eavesdrop on other peoples' conversations to get ideas? What's the best story you've ever overheard?
RP: I'm horrible at dinners out in public because I'm always listening to the conversation at the next table. I spent nearly ten minutes once sitting at a bar in NYC scribbling down a man's lascivious descriptions of a woman --- so hot! so hot! --- that I about needed a cold shower. Then he finished his description by telling his companion that "she was the best schnauzer I've ever had," and I realized I'd been drooling over a DOG!!! Serves me right.
© Copyright 2004, Ridley Pearson. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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PAST INTERVIEW
July 27, 2001
Ridley Pearson, popular author of the Lou Boldt thrillers, leads a busy life both in and outside of writing. His newest thriller, PARALLEL LIES, features new characters and a wealth of information about a nostalgic form of transportation --- the train. Learn what inspired the staging for his new novel, why he made a recent trip to the Yukon, and more in this interview with Bookreporter.com's Joe Hartlaub.
TBR: PARALLEL LIES deals with trains, a mode of transportation that a lot of Americans would consider to be anachronistic, yet which has a number of advantages over other forms of travel which have become, perhaps, more conventional. What attracted you to trains as the subject for a suspense novel?
RP: Four different research points attracted me to trains, and high-speed trains as a subject for a thriller. The first was the Angel Resendez "Railroad Killer" manhunt, several years ago, when authorities had to search 33,000 miles of railroad track to catch a hobo, or "rider," and pulled it off. The second was the discovery that 750 people die each year on or along railroad tracks, and that the figure does not include vehicular fatalities. The third was the reoccurring phenomena of derailed freight trains. They happen with such regularity that as a fiction writer I began to see a story where several were known to be connected and a national manhunt already underway for the person responsible. The last was a NYTimes article about Amtrak testing a bullet train between NY and Washington, DC. When I read that article, I knew I had the third act of my novel.
TBR: PARALLEL LIES also contains a wealth of information concerning train travel and the industry in general which even a regular user of transportation trains would be unaware of. How were you able to get what appears to be "insider" information about the train industry?
RP: The Internet provided me with a wealth of information concerning the railroad industry. My library research accounted for much of the technical information on trains themselves. And a particularly frightening train ride, thirty years ago, accounted for my "hand's on" knowledge of hanging onto moving trains.
TBR: You are possibly best known for your novels featuring Lou Boldt. Was there any factor in particular that caused you to feature a character other than Boldt for PARALLEL LIES?
RP: PARALLEL LIES takes place on a national canvass. It wouldn't have been appropriate for the Seattle based characters in the Lou Boldt series. Setting is extremely important to me. I like to treat it as a character in the novels. PARALLEL LIES required a national setting, and therefore stand-alone characters.
TBR: PARALLEL LIES is a fascinating novel because its two main characters are diametrically opposed --- Peter Tyler, a good man working for some bad people; Umberto Alverez, himself a good man driven to desperate acts to achieve justice --- yet somehow the reader is left wishing for the success of both men. This is a difficult type of maneuver for an author to successfully accomplish, though you did so quite handily. Was the idea of using two opposing forces actually working toward the same goal as the driving focus of a novel something that you had considered and nurtured for a long time or an idea conceived all at once?
RP: The "theme" of PARALLEL LIES is truth, whereas for MIDDLE OF NOWHERE it was betrayal and trust. From the beginning of my outlining this novel, it was obvious to me that the visual theme was the twin set of tracks meeting on the horizon. I therefore put Tyler on one track, Alvarez on the other, knowing they would "meet", at least in illusion, by the end, each assuming characteristics of the other. I tried to heighten the "speed" of that concept as the novel progressed.
TBR: You recently traveled to Fort Yukon, Alaska, and spoke to elementary school children there about being a writer. I personally thought that this was a terrific thing for you to do, since the area is somewhat isolated and not even considered as flyover territory for most authors. How did this trip come about?
RP: I attended a mystery conference called Left Coast Crime. Through that meeting a number of authors were asked to volunteer their time to go into the bush of Alaska and bring the word of writing to students. I was one of fifty-some authors who volunteered. The program was a terrific success, and a highlight of my year.
TBR: You're presently on a fairly ambitious tour of the United States in support of PARALLEL LIES. What has been your favorite city on this tour, and why? And what city would you have liked to have your itinerary include which wasn't?
RP: I'm an ambitious "tour-er," having been known to tour 30 cities in 36 days. This year's was small by comparison, 11 cities in 14 days. Trying to name a favorite city would be like naming a "best friend." Do best friends really exist? Each city and the corresponding bookstores have friends I've known for years. Hopefully, I'll continue touring for many years to come. I LOVE getting out and speaking to and hearing from readers. One of the great benefits of http://www.ridleypearson.com/ has been this interchange with readers.
TBR: Peter Tyler in PARALLEL LIES is a complex, interesting character, a guy with a lot of career baggage that he has hopefully overcome. Will we be seeing any more of him in the future?
RP: No plans at the moment. PARALLEL LIES is in development at Columbia/Tristar for a 2 hour TV movie. They may have something to say about sequels!
TBR: Do you have any more books in the works featuring Lou Boldt?
RP: Summer 2002 is ART OF DECEPTION. I'm in the 2nd polish of the 3rd draft, and I'm excited by the novel. Looking forward to next summer already!
TBR: Do you have any other characters which you have created which we might see in a novel or ongoing series in the future?
RP: I'm constantly thinking about this, but I have no such novels planned at the moment.
TBR: Have you read anything in the past six months which you could recommend to your readers?
RP: Val McDermid's PLACE OF EXECUTION and Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER. YOU CAN'T MISS with either of these novels.
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