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In this Month’s Issue:
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- BURIED SECRETS in Stores June 21!
- Ripped from the Headlines? Not Exactly...
- Tools of the Trade: My New Chair
- HIGH CRIMES Returns in Paperback March 1
- Where I've Been, Where I'll Be
- Congratulations, and Another Chance to Win
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BURIED SECRETS in Stores June 21!
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Snow in Boston couldn't prevent the delivery of a box of advance copies of BURIED SECRETS last week, with a version of the cover that's going on the finished book. Even after 10 books, that moment when the books arrive never gets old.
BURIED SECRETS hits stores in the US on June 21, and in the UK on June 23. Between now and then, I'll be giving away advance copies through this newsletter, through my Facebook fan page, and through my Twitter account (@joefinder). Stay tuned for chances to win!
There's a lot going on between now and June, though, so keep reading . . .
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Ripped from the Headlines? Not Exactly...
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Someone asked me again just the other day: how much of your books are based on real-life events?
It's a fair question. After all, story ideas are everywhere. In the past couple of weeks, anyone reading the news has seen reports of a major FBI takedown of organized crime, a young woman returned to her family 20 years after being kidnapped as an infant, and the increasingly mysterious story of a defense contractor whose body was found in a Delaware landfill.
And if someone asks me whether it's too far-fetched to make my main character a "private spy," I can just refer them to this New York Times article about Duane R. Clarridge, an ex-CIA operative who runs his own global spy network.
Thriller writers are always paying attention to these stories, spinning them around and turning them into fiction. That's interesting, we think, but what if it happened this way? Or we hear a perfectly innocent story and think, Yes, but what if someone decided to turn that into a crime?
BURIED SECRETS starts with the kidnapping of a teenaged girl whose father, Marshall Marcus, is a billionaire hedge fund manager. As it turns out, Marcus' hedge fund is an elaborate Ponzi scheme - and some of his clients are extremely dangerous people.
So the obvious question comes up: is Marshall Marcus based on Bernie Madoff? Well, yes and no. As I wrote the book, the story of Bernie Madoff played out in newspapers and television reports and even a nonfiction book or two, detailing the decades-long fraud that cost people their life savings and ended in imprisonment and tragedy.
But as I was cleaning out some old files the other day, I ran across my first memo to my editor, outlining the plot of BURIED SECRETS before I'd even started to write. The Bernie Madoff scandal broke on December 11, 2008.
The memo to my editor? Dated December 10, 2008.
Maybe I should be a security consultant . . .
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Tools of the Trade: My New Chair
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Pictured from left to right: Humanscale Freedom Task Chair, Hitler's chair, and the chair used by Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter.
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"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."
- Mary Heaton Vorse
Nabokov might have done all his writing standing up, but not me. Like most writers, I use a chair.
A good chair matters. When a book's really cooking, I probably spend more time in my desk chair than I do in my bed. A desk chair needs to be durable and comfortable; it needs to lean back, but it needs to be stable. It needs to swivel, and it needs to roll.
For years, my writing chair was a Steelcase, which I loved. So it feels almost disloyal to say I've just gotten a new one I love even more, a Humanscale Freedom Task Chair. It's extra tall, to work with my ergonomic keyboard and oversized monitor, and it has a headrest, for when I lean back (but not too far).
What we think of as the essential desk chair, with wheels and a swivel, is a relatively recent innovation, less than 200 years old. Charles Darwin put wheels on the chair in his study in order to move between specimens without having to stand up, but we apparently owe the swiveling, wheeled chair to the railroad industry, which needed them for employees who had to move between tasks in a station.
Otto von Bismarck imported that design to the German parliament during his time as Chancellor, but its popularity only stretched so far. A desk chair belonging to Hitler, used for the signing of the disastrous Munich accord in 1938, was auctioned off in London in 2006. Take a look - it doesn't even have wheels, much less a swivel.
Choosing a new chair the Oval Office has become a tradition for incoming U.S. presidents. This site features copies of the chairs used by Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and more. You can even buy a replica of the chair used by William Howard Taft, famously our largest president; the catalog copy tactfully describes it as "an armchair with a particularly dignified relationship to the human form."
Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, as it turns out, used the same chair, "a major engineering breakthrough" - but, I note, lacking a headrest. If where you stand is where you sit, what does it mean that President Obama's chair looks like the first President Bush's, and that Bill Clinton's looks like Ronald Reagan's?
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HIGH CRIMES Returns in Paperback March 1
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My fourth novel, HIGH CRIMES, will be back in stores on March 1 in a new mass-market edition. I'm looking forward to this in the same way I'd look forward to seeing an old friend.
So far, HIGH CRIMES is the only one of my books to have made it to the silver screen. I love the movie - and even have a cameo in it - but it differs from the book in important ways. You ought to read the book and see the movie, so you can judge for yourself!
To make that easier, I'll give a paperback-DVD combo of HIGH CRIMES to one lucky reader, chosen at random from among the correct responses to this question: What is the name of the actress who plays Claire Heller Chapman in the movie HIGH CRIMES? Email your response with your full name and mailing address to Claire@josephfinder.com by February 11 for a chance to win.
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Where I've Been, Where I'll Be
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It was great to escape from snowy Boston to Jensen Beach, Florida for the Martin County Library's annual BookMania! event on January 22. I was one of 24 authors who spoke to enthusiastic crowds about books and reading. Scott Eyman, books editor of the Palm Beach Post, moderated a panel discussion called "Villains and Solders and Spies Oh My!" with Ted Bell, C.J. Box, Jamie Freveletti, Michael Harvey and me.
As February begins, I'm heading out to Chicago to participate in this year's Love is Murder convention, February 4-6 at the Interncontinental Chicago O'Hare. The convention includes sessions with agents for aspiring authors, and I'll be one of seven featured authors giving insights and advice about the writing life. My panels include "How to Write and Maintain a Series Character;" "Agents and Thrills: Not Cops, Not PIs, But Still on the Job for Someone Else;" and "Movie Mania." Jon Land and I will interview each other before dinner on Saturday, and I'm equally flattered and embarrassed to wind up the conference on a "Cute Guys panel" on Sunday morning. After that, I'll be the guest at the Midwest MWA meeting on Sunday at 11:00.
If you're in the Chicago area but can't commit to Love is Murder - commit, get it? - I'll be speaking at the Vernon Area Public Library in Lincolnshire, IL on Thursday, February 3 at 7:00 p.m. It's free, but you need to register. Sign up online or call 847-634-3650. The Vernon Area Public Library is at 300 Olde Half Day Rd, Lincolnshire, IL.
The BURIED SECRETS tour will start on June 21, and we're just starting to put that together. If you know of a store I should visit, send your suggestions to joe@josephfinder.com with the subject line "Tour suggestion," or leave your recommendations on my Facebook fan page.
Then comes Thrillerfest, the annual gathering of the International Thriller Writers in New York, July 6-9; and after that, I cross the Atlantic for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, July 21-24. These are two of my favorite events, and I'll have plenty more to say about them between now and then.
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Congratulations, and Another Chance to Win
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My Facebook fan page has been a goldmine of free stuff lately. Congratulations to John Poindexter, Mark Vetter, Angela Nance Payne, and Libby Scheffler, who've all won free audiobooks in the last month. Congratulations too to Danny Duncan, winner of a BURIED SECRETS bound manuscript.
Sandie Van Dyke won the signed library of Joseph Finder titles for knowing the answer to December's trivia contest, which asked for the names of Nick Conover's children in COMPANY MAN: Julia and Lucas. You still have time to enter the trivia contest for January and February - What is the name of the CEO's personal assistant (and Jake Landry's ex-girlfriend) in POWER PLAY? Send your answer via the Contact Form on my website by February 28 for a chance to win a signed copy of PARANOIA.
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Hope the year's starting well for all of you. Keep in touch! You'll find me on Facebook, on Twitter @joefinder, and you can always send me email at joe@josephfinder.com. Stay warm, and happy reading!
All the best,
Joe Finder
P.S. And please, spread the word by forwarding this newsletter to friends you think might be interested.
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