Author’s in it for long haul
JAMES Patterson’s like crabgrass. All over. TV ads. Bestseller lists. 2010, Author of the Year. He’s sold more than 280 million books. His latest is “Invisible.”
“Call me James if you’re from England. Otherwise, Jim. My mother was a teacher and librarian in Lexington, Mass. I worked the night shift in a hospital so I started reading. Stuff like ‘The Hardy Boys.’
“I’m no literary snob. My awards are in the freezer. My gig is telling stories, which means I’ll never retire. Some people haven’t imagination, whereas inventing’s my strong suit. I see things. Ripping through daily newspapers, who knows, maybe something gets implanted.
“Take Malaysia’s missing airline. The damn plane went down in the jungle. Nobody’s on it. Where the hell are the people? Aliens didn’t come. That’s a story. Start thinking. I asked one friend for an idea. He came up with nothing. Me, I never go dry.
“In ’77, rejections came quickly. My first novel had 31 rejections. And then it won the Edgar Award as the best first mystery.”
How did “Invisible” come about?
“The market’s cluttered. Every network does police stories, robberies, crime twists, suspense stuff. Dark realistic ones come from Scandinavia. So to do something different, I picked someone invisible. The invisible person was the story.
“I have a 5inchthick folder. If something interests me, with a No. 2 pencil I put half a dozen ideas on paper. My assistant types it triple space, then I write between the lines. I go through three to four chapters in 10 minutes, plot an outline but only onetwo scenes. A 60 to 80page outline, three or four drafts, takes maybe a year. Important is the imaginative side.”
What’s he think about the Kindle? “Change is happening too fast. Devices are great, but I like reading a book. I like protecting the book.”