with J.J. White
We are delighted to welcome author J.J. White to Omnimystery News today.
Set in 1962, JJ's new novel of suspense is Prodigious Savant (Black Opal Books; October 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) is centered on such a character, a 17-year-old boy who, awakening from a coma following brain surgery, possesses several savant talents, including art, music, mathematics, and memory.
We recently had a chance to catch up with the author to talk more about his book.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the central character of Prodigious Savant. What is it about him that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
J.J. White
J.J. White: Gavin Weaver is a 17-year-old every kid in 1962 Burlington Vermont who struggles with the same issues all teenagers deal with in the middle class everywhere. Despite being good-looking and athletically gifted, he is still somewhat shy and introverted. He wants to go to college, become a professional ballplayer, and marry the girl he's loved since childhood. This changes when this ordinary teenager is thrust into extraordinary circumstances as an injury to his head leaves him a genius in mathematics memory art and music.
This character appealed to me because I thought it would be interesting to place the additional pressure of suddenly waking as a genius to the already imposing pressures teenagers have to deal with.
OMN: Do you see Gavin returning in a sequel?
JJW: I like to write books with happy endings and so I presume in order to have a recurring character you would have to end the book either with a cliffhanger or some unresolved issue that might ruin that happy ending. I imagine I might change my mind if mollycoddled enough with a good steak in a couple of beers.
OMN: Give us a summary of Prodigious Savant in a tweet.
JJW: An average teenager in 1962, Vermont, wakes from a coma as a genius, with none of the dangerous mental side-effects. Well, almost none.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
JJW: Many of my thoughts and experiences are in the book. The Little League pitcher in the first chapter is me. The explosion that takes place in the beginning of the book actually happened. The protagonist in the book becomes a genius but the boy who actually was in the explosion in Burlington, Vermont was blinded for life.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
JJW: When I first began writing novels I would outline every scene. I was trying to copy Jeffery Deaver who outlines his books for nine months, then writes the book in a month, and then spends the last two months of the year in the South of France. This didn't work out for me as my characters seemed stilted and shallow. Instead, I now think of the beginning and the ending of the book and write only a paragraph describing each chapter. Then as I write, I see my characters up on a stage in front of me acting out their parts. I try to write quickly to keep up with them, which is difficult, since I write by hand.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
JJW: I can't afford to travel to the settings in my novels so I use the Internet and the local Reference Library for most of my research. I also try to interview those who have experienced what my characters' experience. This was particularly difficult to do when researching Nisei, a historical novel I wrote about the Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Troop in WWII. Most of the Nisei are dead or too old to be interviewed, so I obtained the majority of my information from the University of Hawaii's website on the troop. In my upcoming thriller, Deviant Acts, I used a great deal of my relatives' experience in the Vietnam War along with information obtained from the Internet.
OMN: How true are you to the settings?
JJW: Prodigious Savant takes place in Burlington, Vermont, Boston, New York, Moscow and many other milieus. I tried to stay true to the geography and character of these settings as much as possible. I took a few liberties on interior settings such as concert halls in Boston and Moscow. Hopefully, no one will check to see if I got it right. I suppose as long as the book doesn't reach the popularity of The Da Vinci Code I'll be okay.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, at no cost to you, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
JJW: Since the book I'm working on now takes place in 1948, Brooklyn and Berlin, Germany, I would like someone to build a time machine and send me back to those days of big cars and no deodorant. That not being the case, I'd still like to visit both locations to interview residents who were children in 1948.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into your books?
JJW: I enjoy golf, tennis, bowling, and surfing. I surprisingly read only two books a year, but I listen to about seventy audiobooks a year on my commute to work every day. I've used golf in my upcoming thriller Deviant Acts and tennis in the one I'm working on now. In Prodigious Savant, I have my protagonist playing a lot of chess, but I'm terrible at it. I imagine a chess expert will tell me just how ignorant I am of the game if they ever read the novel.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author?
JJW: Dennis Lehane gave me two pieces of advice that have helped me tremendously. He said to write my book in three acts with a life-changing event in the first act, escalating trouble in the second, and an agreeable resolution in the third. I try to fashion all my novels after that advice. He also said to never give up your day job unless your writing forces you to. I assume that meant that you should only quit your day job if you succeed well enough in writing to live off it. My advice to aspiring writers is to try to outlast your critics and keep writing until their criticism turns to praise.
OMN: Is J.J. White a pen name?
JJW: My real name is John Joseph Daley White but I use J.J. White for my novels. I chose that pseudonym to try to throw my mother off track, afraid she might find out her son uses profanity in his books. Also, I write children's picture books under my real name, so I don't want kids to confuse me with the guy who writes crime fiction.
OMN: Tell us more about the book's cover. Were you involved in its design?
JJW: The book cover for Prodigious Savant was designed by my brother, Edward, who has worked in the desktop publishing business for years. I guess talent must run in the family. I especially like having him do my covers because he doesn't charge his little brother what he does other clients.
OMN: Suppose Prodigious Savant were to be adapted for film. Who do you see playing the key role?
JJW: When my book is adapted for film, I would like Leonardo DiCaprio play the lead. Unfortunately he's forty-years-old now and my protagonist is seventeen, so that's out. I'm sure Disney will have some good-looking teenager bust out of TV and into the movies soon, so the part will be his.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
JJW: My family wasn't poor, but they didn't have a lot of money for books, either, so I grew up reading encyclopedias' my mother bought at the grocery store, old Shakespeare plays, and whatever else was laying around the house. As I got older, I checked out a lot of spy and sci-fi novels in the library. I think the spy novels affected my writing the most since my books move along at a fast pace and usually have short dialogue and spare exposition.
OMN: You mentioned that you listen to more books than you read. What kinds of books appeal to you as an adult?
JJW: I try to alternate between literary and other genres. I'll read a classic and then go on to a historical fiction book or maybe a thriller. I like to mix it up to broaden my scope of knowledge. I think I'd be bored limiting my reading to one particular genre.
OMN: Create one (or more!) Top 5 lists for us.
JJW: Top 5 Favorite Books:
1) The Godfather. 2) Moby Dick. 3) The Shining. 4) To Kill a Mockingbird. 5) In Cold Blood.
Top 5 Favorite Authors:
1) Edward Rutherford. 2) Joseph O'Connor. 3) Stephen King. 4) Jeffery Deaver. 5) Mario Puzo.
Top 5 Places to Visit:
1) England. 2) France. 3) Australia. 4) Tahiti. 5) Italy.
Top 5 Foods to Try:
1) Sushi. 2) Duck. 3) Escargot. 4) Poi. 5) Bouillabaisse.
OMN: What's next for you?
JJW: Black Opal Books will be releasing my next novel, Deviant Acts, sometime around the middle of next year, so I'll need to prepare for that. It's a crime thriller that takes place in the dirty 70s. The next book to be released after that will be a historical fiction book, titled Nisei. It's about a Hawaii Nisei in the 1940s who joins the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Troop, the all Japanese-American unit that fought in Europe and was cited as the most decorated unit in WWII. After that's published, I'm going to see if my agent, Jeannie Loiacono of the Loiacono Literary Agency, can peddle The Penitent, a crime novel I'm in the process of writing now.
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J.J. White has penned five novels and over two hundred short stories. He has had articles and stories published in several anthologies and magazines including Wordsmith, The Homestead Review, The Seven Hills Review and The Grey Sparrow Journal. He has won awards and honors from the Alabama Writers Conclave, Writers-Editors International, Maryland Writers Association, The Royal Palm Literary Awards, Professional Writers of Prescott, and Writer’s Digest.
He enjoys writing, surfing, golf and tennis. He lives in Merritt Island, Florida with his understanding wife, editor, and typist, Pamela.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at JJWhiteBooks.com, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Prodigious Savant
J.J. White
A Novel of Suspense
According to Dr. Darold A. Treffert of the University of Wisconsin, there are fewer than one hundred reported cases of prodigious savants in the world. Those few who possess the savant syndrome all have an island of brilliance that allows them to excel in some remarkable talent. Unfortunately, they all share various developmental disabilities.
Imagine going to sleep one night as a normal person of average intelligence and waking the next day in possession of several genius level abilities. In 1962 Vermont, seventeen-year-old Gavin survives a horrendous explosion, six hours of brain surgery, and thirty days in a coma, to awake possessing not just one savant talent, but several, including art, music, mathematics, and memory, and all without suffering any of the usual mental disabilities associated with head trauma.
His newly acquired abilities thrust him into the public eye as the amazing "Whiz Kid" from Burlington; a moniker he detests. At first excited by his new celebrity, he eventually drifts into deep depression, burdened by a domineering father, his paranoia that someone's trying to kill him, and his increasing tendency for violence.
His genius, paranoia, and increased hallucinations result in some strange and extraordinary encounters with the icons of the 60s, including Bobby Fischer, Nikita Khrushchev, Edward R. Murrow, John Chancellor and even a tragic meeting with John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Gavin's odds look slim that he will survive not only his external trials, but also his inner conflict keeping him from the one thing he desires most, the girl he's loved since childhood.
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