Thrillers Call Attention to Endangered Ecosystems

Interview: Jon McGoran, Author of Doyle Carrick ecological thrillers Drift, Deadout, and Dust Up

CQ: Your Doyle Carrick books are fast moving, suspense-filled eco-thrillers, but how much were you motivated to call attention to our endangered ecosystems? Do you think fiction can help shine a light on environmental issues, or other important public issues?

JMcG: I’m proud to be a part of a long tradition of fiction that explores timely and controversial topics. To me, the issues that I incorporate into my books are not just important, but fascinating and compelling in their own right.

But I think what they add to the story must always be second to making sure they don't detract from the story. My job first and foremost is to tell a good story with compelling, engaging, believable characters, a well-constructed and propulsive plot. That said, I do think the issues add to the story, rather than get in the way.

Thrillers often borrow danger and menace from real world issues — terrorism, the Cold War, other political threats. It’s a complex world we live in, and I think there are many aspects of how it works that have sinister aspects, not the least of which is corporate control over such elemental aspects as food, information and the environment.

CQ: In Dust Up Doyle goes to Haiti. Your writing skillfully captured the atmosphere and flavor of the island. How familiar were you with Haiti before writing the book, and how much research did you need to do? Any advice to fellow authors on the best way to capture the essence of a place?

JMcG: Thanks! I honestly didn’t know too terribly much about Haiti before I decided to set the book there, but I did a lot of research before I started writing it, and actually went there while I was writing. That helped immeasurably, and I think made it a better book. That’s an extravagance that isn’t always possible though, so failing that, I would say research, research, research. And as far as capturing the feel of a place, there are a lot of visual tools on the Internet, like Google street-view and Google Earth, and YouTube videos from all over the world, that can be tremendously helpful not just in exploring places where you have never been, but in drilling down into places that you might not know as well as you thought you did.

CQ: Readers have gotten to know Doyle Carrick. He’s smart, funny and ready to jump in to right a wrong. What was your inspiration for him?

JMcG: There is a definitely a lot of me in Doyle, but I think there is in all my characters. When I was creating Doyle, I wanted him to be funny, because that is important in characters I like to read, and especially important in character that I am going to be spending a lot of time writing. But I also wanted to make him very flawed (like me!) and human. I think Doyle has a certain innocence or naiveté about him that bristles when he sees a wrong left unrighted. He is sometimes childlike in his perceptions of what is right or wrong, or unfair. I find it endearing.

CQ: Who and what inspires/influences/informs your writing?

JMcG: Current events mostly. I am constantly bombarded with ideas for stories, and it irks me to no end that I cannot write more of them.

CQ: In this age of social media, does the feedback you receive from readers influence you?

JMcG: I’m sure it does. Getting positive feedback from people who really like my books is always great, and I’m always grateful to people who take the time.  And there have been occasions when readers have told me about little-known phenomena or new developments on issues that I’m interested in or like to write about, and that is always great. It’s wonderful that social media and email, etc., makes it so easy to have such a rich dialogue with readers today.

CQ: When you’re not writing what do you enjoy doing?

JMcG: Reading, cooking, binge-watching good TV, spending time with my wife, my son, and my dog, and, of course, freaking out over the state of the world and our politics.

CQ: Can you tell us about what you are currently working on? Can we expect another novel in the Doyle Carrick series?

JMcG: I just finished a media tie-in novel for the TV show The Blacklist, which will be out in March. I have also been collaborating on a couple of scripts - a TV script with Erik Arneson and a screenplay with David Greenberg and Sloan Seale. I just had a story called The Key Man in Beat To A Pulp and I have a story called Strange Harvest coming out in an anthology of stories about Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger character, written by other authors (and featuring Joe Ledger and Doyle Carrick). I’m very excited that my YA science fiction thriller, Spliced is being published later this year and I am working on another near-future science fiction political thriller that I’m very excited about.

CQ: What are you reading?

JMcG: Terrence McCauley’s Sympathy for the Devil, Ray Daniels’ Terminated, Chuck Wendig’s Invasive and Megan Abbott’s Fever, all of which I’d been wanting to read for some time, and which I enjoyed very much. I also just read Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Water Knife, which was tremendous. Right now I’m reading Chris Holm’s excellent The Red Right Hand, the follow-up to his amazing The Killing Kind.

http://www.jonmcgoran.com/