A Conversation with Author John Rector

with John Rector

We are delighted to welcome novelist John Rector to Omnimystery News today.

John's new novel of suspense is Out of the Black (Thomas & Mercer; August 2013 trade paperback, audiobook and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to catch up with him to talk about it.

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John Rector

John Rector: A widowed, out of work veteran, left to raise his daughter alone, agrees to help a friend kidnap a rich old man's wife. It's a bad decision.

OMN: Not that we think you may ever have been involved in the situation you just described, but how much of your own personal experience is in your books?

JR: It depends on how you look at it. A lot of people take the "write what you know" advice literally, and then they lock up when they try to write about colonizing Mars or murdering their landlord with a homemade garrote, because it's not something they "know". To me, the "write what you know" rule only means that when you write, no matter what subject you choose, you should write based on your own knowledge of how people speak and act.

I've never found a dead body in a cornfield, and I've never known anyone who became a serial killer, but I've written about both. What allowed me to write about these subjects was my experience dealing with the people in my life. I know how they talk and how they relate to one another, and I try to use that knowledge to create believable characters. I know how my characters will talk and behave when I drop them on a deserted highway in the middle of a blizzard with a corpse in the backseat, not because I've been in that situation, but because I've paid attention to how the people around me behave.

OMN: Describe your writing process.

JR: My process consists of doing whatever it takes to get to the end of a story, so I'd have to say I've done all these things at different times. In a perfect situation, I'll have a flash of an idea, and I'll outline the first few chapters and hopefully figure out certain structural story beats. Once I do that, I start writing. I use the outline as a guide, but it's not written in stone. If the story veers away from the outline, that's great. I'll adjust the outline to fit the story, but never the other way around. All the outline needs to do is keep you on track and help you get started on the bad days.

OMN: How true are you to the settings in your books?

JR: Everything serves the story. I try to keep locations and settings as true to real life as possible, but I won't hesitate to shuffle things around, or combine elements from two different places if it helps the story.

OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?

JR: Every time I think of a book or a writer who influenced what I write, several more pop up and the list becomes endless. All I can say is I write what I write because I love suspenseful, dark literature. As far as how I write, that comes from a personal aesthetic that focuses on clean, stark prose, along with simplicity and clarity. To me, that's the best writing there is.

OMN: What's the best advice and harshest criticism you've received as an author?

JR: There's no shortage of great nuts-and-bolts writing advice out there, but I think the best advice I've received — or at least the advice that's stuck with me the longest — came from an old pulp writer who I met early in my career. He told me to only take advice from people who are doing what you want to do, or who are cutting you a check. It's old-school advice from an old school writer, but it stuck with me, and it has helped me stay focused and block out a lot of negativity over the years.

As far as criticism goes, there's also no shortage of it out there. Luckily, I have a pretty thick skin when it comes to criticism from the outside, so what people say has never really bothered me. I'm infinitely harder on my work than anyone else, and the harshest, most paralyzing criticism has always come from inside my own head.

OMN: Suppose Out of the Black were to be optioned for film. Do you have any thoughts on who you would cast in the key roles?

JR: I don't think I'm the norm when it comes to film and TV. I've had three books optioned for film, but I've never given much thought to casting. I've had producers ask who I saw in certain roles, and I've always tried to be helpful, but the truth is I have no idea. As far as I'm concerned, any film or TV show based on one of my novels is someone else's project. Film is a completely different art form, and it's one I only follow casually and don't really know too much about. Maybe this'll change someday, but right now I think I'd prefer to stay focused on the books and leave filmmaking to the filmmakers.

OMN: Where might we find you when you're not writing?

JR: With two small kids, there's not a lot of time for hobbies. I've become somewhat of an expert on things like French braids, finger paints, and monster trucks, but so far I haven't written about any of them.

OMN: What's next for you?

JR: I'm finishing up a new novella, tentatively titled I Know Who Killed Mark Villen, and I have a couple full-length novel ideas in the early stages.

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John Rector's short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and won several awards including the International Thriller Award for his novella Lost Things. He lives and writes in Omaha, Nebraska.

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Out of the Black
John Rector
A Novel of Suspense

To keep the light of his life, he'll have to do some dark things …

After Matt Caine loses his wife in a car accident, all he has left is his daughter, Anna. But just as the little girl — who survived the accident — finally starts thriving, Matt's former in-laws threaten to take her away via a bitter custody battle. Desperate to keep Anna and in debt to some dangerous local thugs, Matt has no good options. But he does have Jay, one very bad friend.

Just out of jail and plagued by drug addiction, Jay tempts Matt with a foolproof kidnapping scheme. But what sounds like the perfect solution to all his problems eventually leads Matt through a nightmarish maze of betrayals and reversals, pushing him to his breaking point — and beyond. Now, with his entire life hanging in the balance, Matt makes a pledge of brutal payback.