Author Interview with Christopher Meeks
Sponsored by Virtual Book Tours
Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books. I am pleased to share my interview of
Christopher Meeks with you. Thank you
for visiting and please come again.
Publisher: White Wiskers Press (June 15,
2013)
Category: Mystery/Thriller/Suspense, Crime
Thriller
Tour Date: Mid May- Mid June, 2013
Available in: Print & eBook, 242
pages
Interview
:
Thank you for joining us here at Books,
Books, and More Books today, Mr. Meeks.
Please tell us about yourself and your writing.
I grew up in Minnesota,
which was a frozen wasteland in the winter and the humid Amazon in the summer,
but I didn’t question the weather or the place because it was just where I
was—with three brothers, my parents, and a number of friends. Spring was E.E.
Cumming’s mudlucious, puddle-wonderful
place, and the fall was ablaze with foliage colors. Things changed.
In high school, I was
most interested in filmmaking, but I’d discovered poetry, too. I went off to
college at the University of Denver to be a filmmaker, but my first elective in
poetry writing had me revel in word imagery. I thought I could combine my two
passions of film and poetry with either short story writing or screenwriting,
and I loved doing both. I loved science, too—chemistry and physics.
The great thing about
college is that when you follow your bliss, no one is there to tell you can’t
take chem labs, poetry workshops, music appreciation, psychology, and golf all
at once. I couldn’t get enough. I wasn’t in college to make the dean’s list but
to try subjects out. The fact I landed good grades was a by-product of my
interests.
It was with that same
sense of brio that I moved to Los Angeles—that’s where the films were being
made. There’s something great about naiveté. It gets you to do things that if
you fully researched it, you might not do otherwise. My parents were worried at
how I’d manage a big city, but I was sure that I’d get a job screenwriting not
in two weeks, but maybe two months, and soon I’d be directing quality films. I
told them I’d get a job in a camera store or something until I connected with
Hollywood.
And that’s what I did.
I worked at the Pan Pacific Camera Center, which was used by big-time
photographers. I saved up money and one weekend rented 35mm film equipment to
shoot a black-and-white eight-minute film that I thought worthy of an
Academy-Award short. When the fire department shut me down for not having a film
permit at my own apartment, I decided then and there to forget about directing
and just write because I didn’t need no stinking permit to do that.
I went to a graduate
writing program at USC to explore more, and I wrote a novel, a screenplay, and
a stage play. I secretly wanted to be a novelist, but until I could get good
enough, I thought the great thing about movies and plays were their
collaborative nature. If dialogue didn’t work, then actors or directors might
suggest something better.
After USC, I had three
plays produced, and I also made headway into screenwriting. However, I saw
screenwriters who made a great living at it and never had a film made. Or if a
film was made, the script was changed so much—and credit was shared with so
many people—that it wasn’t their story anymore. Screenwriters are low on the
pecking order, and the interns seem to do most of the reading and initial
decision-making. It’s a difficult medium in which to be a happy writer.
One of my optioned
screenplays had the producers so eager for it, but then once they had it, they
changed it from a man in prison who learned how to channel himself into a
spirit in order to leave prison at night to learn who set him up, to a woman
who would channel herself to find a boyfriend.
It took steps to get
there, but the process was so ridiculous, I found much more pleasure in
playwriting. Playwrights are revered. I loved it—but there’s so little money in
playwriting, and it’s so hard to get second productions. My play Who Lives?, however, received a great
second production and won five Ovation nominations, the top theatre awards in
L.A.
Long story short: in
between my plays and screenplays, I wrote short stories for myself, pushing to
get better in fiction. When those started getting published, I moved into
fiction exclusively. I have two collections of short fiction published and now
three novels. I also started teaching in 1994, and I find a wonderful balance
between teaching, writing and having a family of my own.
Please tell us a little bit about your
upcoming release.
As a writer, I give
myself challenges. Blood Drama is my
first thriller, but I’ve always liked reading them, and I just wanted to write
a book where the tensions are high and the pace is fast. The story is about a
graduate student in theatre who is taken hostage in a bank robbery gone awry,
and he’s got to fight for his life.
What character was your favorite to write
about and why?
I’m partly known for my
unusual characters, but I never start out thinking “quirky.” People in real
life have an inkling of what they might do, and most people follow that
inkling, falling into things, then remain there. I love exploring the interface
between desire and accepting what you have. My characters evolve.
Thus, I started with my
graduate student, Ian Nash, wanting to write a dissertation on playwright David
Mamet, but forces come at Ian. He loses his girlfriend, he’s kicked out of
graduate school, and then he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time--at a bank
robbery and taken hostage. He fights to survive.
What I didn’t know when
I first conceived the book was that the FBI is in charge of bank robberies. I
soon created a kick-ass FBI agent named Aleece Medina who was so strong that I
had to find a way for Ian and Aleece to intersect.
Why did you decide to write in this genre
and this storyline?
As I said, it’s where
my own interests took me. Mysteries and thrillers also have a lot of readers,
and I knew I could match my style with this genre.
What do you hope that readers can take
away from your stories?
That there’s hope. That
you can do things if you really want to.
Are you currently working on anything?
I’m writing a mystery, Ten Days to a Bad Habit.
Where can readers find you?
Go to my website,
www.ChrisMeeks.com or my blog on www.RedRoom.com
Any upcoming events?
I will be reading from Blood Drama at the publication party at
Book ‘Em Mysteries in South Pasadena on June 1.
Thanks, Mindy, for
having me here.
Contacts:
June
1st publication party at Book 'Em Mysteries bookstore in South Pasadena, CA
website
Other:
Blood Drama Web Tour Schedule
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Review
This
was a quirky book. I felt dragged along
on the adventure, a slightly off-kilter but enjoyable ride. Nash is a whiner who needs to grow up, and
during the course of this adventure he does.
His whole life is upended and he is mad at everyone because it is their
fault that things are not following his plan… which I’m not even sure he knows
what it is. He is one of those perpetual
students who just doesn’t want to grow up because they enjoy being a child.
Then he
is taken hostage during a bank robbery and FBI Special Agent
Aleece Medina enters his life in her brash no nonsense way. Aleece isn’t sure what to do with Nash. His life is in danger, he needs protecting,
she’s attracted to him and annoyed with him in the same instance. Her zest for life may be just the thing Nash
needs to get his act together… if they survive.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I started
reading this book, but this book is in a class by itself. The heroes are deeply flawed. The villains, with one glaring exception, are
really not all that bad… in fact at least one or more are motivated by
honorable intentions. The author knows
just how to turn a phrase to make you take a second look at a situation you
thought you understood, only to find that perhaps it’s not what you thought at
first, or even second, glance.
I give this book 4.5 out of 5 clouds.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
Thanks again for taking part in the tour and hosting Chris!
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