Be Very “Afraid”

I first became aware of thriller writer Joe “J.A.” Konrath when the British e-zine Shots featured his short story “A Fistful of Cozy.” That was back in 2004, when he was also debuting the novel Whiskey Sour, which introduced his series character, Chicago Police Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels. I’ve since enjoyed Konrath’s short stories, even nominating one (“Epitaph,” from the 2007 ITW’s Thriller anthology) for a Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Award last year. Apart from his fiction, his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, is something that I read avidly. I am impressed with Konrath’s enthusiasm and insight into the marketing side of the fiction-selling racket.

Surprisingly, other than publishing a handful of short stories here in the UK, Konrath (shown at right) has been shut out of the market on this side of the Atlantic over the last few years. So I was rather amused by a recent turn of events in his favor.

Last year, Konrath posted online the synopsis of a book he had recently sold and was rather excited about. I was impressed by that précis (from which I quoted in a Rap Sheet post last month about Martina Cole’s latest book-launch party). But strangely, after that I heard nothing more about Konrath’s supposedly forthcoming standalone. Understandably curious, when I bumped into the author at Bouchercon in Baltimore, during Lee Child’s party at Lucy’s Irish Bar, I asked him what had become of the book that so intrigued me. Konrath was surprised, because as he explained, the novel was actually going to be released first in the UK--my turf--by Headline Publishing, so I ought to have known of its progress. Then again, he explained that it was being published under a pen name, “Jack Kilborn.” Maybe that’s why I had missed hearing of it.

Sure enough, when I returned to London, I contacted Konrath’s brilliant Headline editor, Vicki Mellor, who kindly sent me a review copy of Kilborn’s Afraid. I saved it for reading on Halloween night, which was appropriate. Reviewing it later for Shots, I noted that “it is probably the most violent novel I have read at a single sitting in recent memory.” (I’m still wiping the bloodstains off my bookmark.) And I added this about the plot:

The plot is just so engaging that I defy anyone who reads the back of this book not to grab it off the shelf in one scoop, and then read it in one sitting. Five serial killers under the employ of the US military and codenamed ‘Red-Ops’ are ‘engineered’ for sending behind enemy lines to terrorise and destroy civilians [a sort of homemade Terrorist brigade]. Problem is that en route to a mission, their helicopter crash-lands outside a small town ironically called ‘Safe Haven’ in Wisconsin. There’s only one road in, and one road out and soon the phone-lines are cut as the serial killers do what they do best, torture and terrorise this small town. There is no escape as the US Army form a military cordon around the town preventing anyone [who may have witnessed, or survived the carnage within] from escaping.

As a horror novel, it does just that, horrify because the violence is hardcore, with the brutality written in a dispassionate style, but the strength of this bloody tale is the level of characterization not only of the hideous killers, but also of the townsfolk who try and understand the sheer scale of the calamity that they face. A worrying aspect that heaps the anxiety onto the reader is that everyone in this novel could be expendable. As the killers round-up the townsfolk in the high-school under a ruse, we soon realize that the helicopter crash may not have been an accident. The elderly sheriff [a former Vietnam Vet] finds himself at the epicenter of the carnage. Together with a handful of resourceful townsfolk, the sheriff realizes that these killers may be after one of their own. A conspiracy lies at the heart of this novel, but it will take the death of hundreds, and I mean hundreds of innocent people before the truth emerges.

Not long after enjoying Afraid, I contracted Joe Konrath and arranged for a brief interview. I wanted to know more about why this Chicago-area author used a pseudonym for his new novel, what his fascination is with the horror genre and techno-thrillers, and how it happened that the British won the rights to publish Afraid so far ahead of the Americans.

Ali Karim: Welcome Jack, or should I call you Joe?

J.A. Konrath: I’ll pretty much answer to anything, so either is fine. You can also use “Hey, buddy” or “You, with the glasses.”

AK: Let me say that I was just knocked out by Afraid. So, can you tell us how you came to write this horrific techno-thriller?

JAK: Thanks for the kind words. I’m a huge horror fan, and the Lieutenant Jack Daniels thrillers I write in the U.S. under the name J.A. Konrath have a lot of horror elements in them. But those books also have their lighter moments, and I wanted to try a novel that was pure terror--no pulled punches. So I made a list of things people feared. There were some obvious ones, like fear of death, or the dark, or drowning, or enclosed spaces, or fire; but also some more specific fears, like your children getting hurt, trusting a caregiver, a spouse dying, being helpless.

Then I took those fears to the Nth degree.

My personal prediction is that one quarter of those who start reading Afraid won’t have the courage to finish it. I included something to scare just about everyone.

AK: Afraid is being issued this month in Britain, by Headline, but it won’t be available in the States--your own country--until April. How did that come about?

JAK: Headline is a smart publisher, and I’m thrilled to be working with them. [Editor] Vicki [Mellor] is one of the best in the business, and by acquiring Afraid, she’s also proven herself to be one of the bravest. I think it’s tremendous that I have the opportunity to terrorize folks across the pond before the U.S. gets a taste.

AK: As you mentioned before, your work is often peppered with slices of humor. How did you manage to restrain yourself when writing Afraid, as it has few laughs?

JAK: I really tried to keep all levity out of Afraid. I wanted it to be a fear machine, with no time-outs or reprieves. But, when editing it, I did find a few smiles in the text. I didn’t put them there intentionally---it’s just that the book is so unrelenting, that some of the over-the-top scenes can be viewed as black humor.

AK: Did you worry about some of the more visceral events that occur during the attack on Safe Haven?

JAK: Not “worry” so much, as try not to wallow in gratuitous violence. Recent horror movies seem to embrace the “splatter porn” mentality, where the violence in prolonged and unflinching.

There have been many terrific horror novelists who have gone this route, such as Jack Ketchum and Ed Lee from the States, and UK writers like Shaun Hutson and Graham Masterton. I love these guys, don’t get me wrong, but I believe that less description can also be frightening. A book is a movie that plays in the reader’s head, so I offer just enough description to let the reader picture the scene. Many terrifying things happen in Afraid, but I tried to keep the graphic depictions to a minimum, preferring to let the reader fill in the blanks themselves.

AK: Why use a pen name with Afraid? And, incidentally, is Jack Kilborn related to thriller writer James O. Born?

JAK: Afraid is a different type of book, with a potentially different audience, so we decided to use a pseudonym for it. We picked “Jack Kilborn,” because a lot of people call me Jack anyway, confusing my name with my series character’s name, and “Kilborn” can be shelved next to “Konrath.” The fact that it also seems to degrade Jim Born, who is a friend of mine, is just a happy coincidence.

AK: While reading Afraid, I sensed the influences of Michael Crichton, Ketchum, Dean Koontz, and Stephen King, as well as dashes of Robert R. McCammon, David Morrell, and F. Paul Wilson. Are you a longstanding fan of techno-thrillers?

JAK: King and Koontz really invented the “town rises up against evil” genre, and I’ve always been a huge fan of both authors. Ditto McCammon, whose Stinger [1988] provides one of the greatest examples of this plot.

Morrell invented survival horror, not only with his Rambo novels, but with The Totem and Testament. F. Paul Wilson may be my favorite writer, and Jack Ketchum is still 10 years ahead of his time.

As for Crichton, I’ll be mourning his passing for quite a while. He was an influence on me as well as on others who have been an influence on me, such as James Rollins.

AK: And what of your horror-fiction influences?

JAK: I mentioned Graham Masterton, who I believe is the greatest contemporary horror author. James Herbert is another genius. There are some fabulous underground horror scribes who have strong cult followings in the U.S., like Jeff Strand and Wrath James White, who are going to make serious waves in the future.

AK: Going back to the late Michael Crichton, would you care to comment on his work? Do you have any favorites among his many films and novels?

JAK: I just watched Westworld again, and it’s still cutting-edge more than 30 years later. Crichton was more than a terrific storyteller; he was a visionary who understood the fears inherent in new technology and how it would affect individuals as well as society. Jurassic Park [1990] is a perfect book.

AK: Will J.A. Konrath’s Jack Daniels mystery series continue?

JAK: I’ll keep writing them as long as people keep buying them.

AK: Does the same go for Kilborn and the techno-thrillers?

JAK: Kilborn is working on something top-secret right now, which is very much in the same style as Afraid. In fact, it even features a character from Afraid. Headline will again be the UK publisher.

AK: Your blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, is required reading for anyone starting to write in the genre. How do you manage your time, given that you’re also active on Facebook and MySpace, and going on tour and doing library events? Tell me the truth: Have you figured out how to produce a clone?

JAK: Sleep is overrated.

AK: I see that you’ve put up some unpublished work on your Web site. One of those stories is an interesting techno-thriller called Origin (available here in PDF format). What has the take-up been on those offerings?

JAK: Origin, The List, and Disturb are very much techno-thrillers, but for whatever reason they never found a home. So I make them available for free on www.jakonrath.com. They’ve each been downloaded several thousand times, and I get a good amount of fan mail about them. Web sites shouldn’t be advertisements; no one likes ads. People like information and entertainment, and giving it to them for zero cost seems like a smart way to recruit new fans.

AK: I saw you at Bouchercon in October. Tell me, what did you most enjoy about that Baltimore experience?

JAK: Great seeing you as well, Ali. It’s always fun to hang out with peers. And since my Jack Daniels novels are all named after drinks (Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, etc.), I usually get quite a few free ones. It makes me wonder if perhaps I should write a book called Filet Mignon.

AK: Finally, what books have passed over your reading table recently that you particularly relished?

JAK: If you enjoyed Afraid, read Pressure, by Jeff Strand. That’s a seriously twisted book. Killing Red, by newcomer Henry Perez, is a fantastic debut thriller. And watch out for Abandon, by Blake Crouch, which is amazing. Besides the authors I’ve already mentioned, I read everything by Barry Eisler, Tess Gerritsen, Marcus Sakey, Alex Kava, Lee Child, and too many others to name here.

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You can read a sample chapter from Afraid here. And if you’re American, and really can’t wait until April for the U.S. edition of the novel, why not enter this competition to win a British first edition? Also, Shots will soon be running a feature piece on Jack Kilborn, and Headline Publishing is expected to offer three more copies of Afraid as the prizes in an associated contest. Stay tuned.