with Mike Pace
We are delighted to welcome author Mike Pace to Omnimystery News today.
Mike's new suspense thriller, One To Go (Oceanview Publishing; December 2014 hardcover and ebook formats), has a most intriguing premise, and we recently had the opportunity to talk more about it with him.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about Tom Booker, the lead character in One To Go.
Photo provided courtesy of
Mike Pace
Mike Pace: Tom Booker is the protagonist of One To Go. Tom is 30ish and grew up in a safe leafy suburb of Washington D.C.. After college Tom worked as an inner-city schoolteacher and loved the job. However, after being pressured to do so by his wife's family he attended Georgetown Law and now is on the fast track to partnership in a prestigious Washington law firm. He divorced his wife when he found out she was having an affair with their pediatrician. They have a seven year-old daughter named Janie. Tom drinks a lot but won't consider the possibility he has a problem. Tom has never held much less fired a weapon.
OMN: One To Go is a stand-alone thriller. Did you consider making it the first of a series?
MP: I'm a big fan of Hitchcock. His formula of inserting an ordinary guy into an extraordinary situation appeals to me because, hopefully, the reader might more easily identify with an ordinary protagonist compared to a detective or a secret agent. That said, my protagonists are all related — cousins with the same last name — and will make cameo appearances in subsequent novels. I'm certainly not against writing a series in the future and I'm a big fan of Harry Bosch, Jack Reacher and Gabriel Allon to name a few.
OMN: How do you go about finding the right voices for your characters?
MP: So far my protagonists have all been male like me. However, my books always include a substantial love interest so your question is one I've considered. When writing a female voice, the challenge for a man is to avoid clichés, i.e. "all women are more sensitive so all women characters have to show more emotion." The best female characters are those who, like male characters, are multi-layered and go against type, e.g. the insensitive, unemotional female detective who can kick your ass. I make sure my wife and daughter perform a deep scrub on all of my female characters before sending a manuscript to my agent and they've been very helpful.
OMN: Into which fiction category would you place the book?
MP: One To Go is a crime thriller with just a dash of paranormal. I suppose that's a cross-over.
OMN: Tell us something about One To Go that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
MP: The small kernel of the idea came from a PSA on TV warning against the dangers of texting while driving. From that kernel sprang a crazy bunch of unrelated ideas, some focused, most very fuzzy. What if by texting you caused an accident? Let's make it more dramatic. The accident occurs on a bridge and it involves a school bus. No, a school bus has too many victims, so how about a minivan. Wait! And to really ratchet it up, what if we put the driver's kid inside? And then, instead of tipping over into the river below, what if time stood still, freezing the van on two wheels? And … and … how about this? The driver's given a chance at a re-wind! And then what if …? I changed the protagonist from a cop to a young lawyer. I also wanted to explore how a normal guy would react to an extraordinary situation. (Shades of Hitchcock.) Tom Booker is not troubled, was not raised in an at-risk environment and has no parent issues. He grew up in suburbia with two loving parents, got a good education and never shot a gun in his life. So how would this kind of normal American guy handle having to become a serial killer to save his daughter? I couldn't wait to get to my desk every morning to see how he was doing.
OMN: How would you tweet a summary of the book?
MP: When a young lawyer accidently causes the death of 5 innocents, including his own daughter, he's given a chance for a "rewind." All he has to do is kill 5 random strangers instead.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
MP: We all write what we know to some extent. Like Tom, I was an inner-city schoolteacher before I went to law school, worked in a big firm, and served in the criminal justice system. Like Tom and all parents, I always assumed I would do anything to save my child, so the question posed by the book — would you really do anything? — is one that I find very chilling.
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
MP: I start off with a ten-fifteen page treatment to establish the main characters, the principal plot and subplots. I begin writing a "pre-draft" (usually about 60,000 words). There I develop characters, add characters, cut characters and flesh out the story. I begin the pre-draft with the expectation large chunks of it will be changed or dumped. While in the pre-draft I name all characters, even minor ones, while in subsequent drafts I'll drop many names so as not to confuse the reader. After the pre-draft I'll write a new "first" draft. I keep a yellow-pad next to the computer and as I write if a problem arises I jot it down on the pad rather than stopping and losing my rhythm. Thereafter, I print a copy and "drawer it" — put the manuscript in a drawer for a period of at least two weeks. When I pull it out and read it I'm always amazed at how much more work needs to be done. After a number of drafts I'll send out the manuscript to an outside professional editor for feedback. Then it's polish, polish, polish.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
MP: Internet, consulting experts and my own experience serve as the main research sources. I found researching the catwalk around the top of the Capitol Rotunda challenging. You have to be accompanied by a congressman to gain access. I found a Congressman to volunteer; however, two days before out appointment the Architect of the Capitol closed the catwalk for up to two years to perform needed repairs, so I had to rely on photos and interviews of people who'd been there.
OMN: How true are you to the setting of One To Go?
MP: My book takes place in Washington and since I know the town well, I've tried to be as true to real life as possible with only a few geographic deviations. I believe if you're using a real place a writer owes it to his readers to be as accurate as possible.
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world at our expense to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
MP: I'm tempted to say any Caribbean island where after a morning of writing I could lounge the afternoons away on the beach sipping an adult beverage. But probably I'd pick a boat trip up the Amazon River. The colorful characters, the breathtaking setting, add in a few crocodiles and a swarm of piranha — the book would write itself.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your stories?
MP: Skiing, golf and independent film. (I'm on the board of the Annapolis Film Festival.) So far, none of these activities have made their way into a book, but I'm working on a new treatment that would combine two of the three.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author? And what might you say to an aspiring writer?
MP: As a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Mystery Writers of America I've benefitted from invaluable advice from fellow authors writing in the same genre. I remember Catherine Coulter telling me once, "At the end of the day, there are no rules."
I have been fortunate in that the criticism I've received has been uniformly constructive.
The best advice I can give a new writer is, It's not ready yet. Throughout years of schooling we're conditioned to the "turn it in" experience. That is, you do your homework or complete a test or write a term paper and you turn it in. Shortly thereafter, you get it back with a grade. When you write your first manuscript there's a compelling desire to turn it in. You've been working months and months. You've completed a number of drafts. Your family and friends, including your girlfriend who's an English major, love it. Okay, an agent or publisher might have a few tweaks here and there, after all that's their job, but all in all what you've completed is great. Sorry, but it's not. You must arrange for one or preferably more outside edits, even if you have to pay for it. In fact, I'd say especially if you have to pay for it. A professional editor will not worry about your feelings (although I've found they've developed a certain expertise in informing you that a chapter of your manuscript is crap in a nice way) and their advice will be invaluable. Also, drawer the manuscript for at least two weeks. (If memory serves, Stephen King drawers his manuscript for six weeks.) You'll be astonished how much more you'll see after staying away for a couple of weeks.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a thriller writer and thus …"
MP: If you're a male thriller writer you picture yourself saying, "If you are a thriller writer you like your women crazy and your coffee black," but in real life you feel blessed to have a wonderful wife who's stable and supportive, and you prefer your coffee with crème and sugar.
OMN: How did One To Go come to be titled? And were you involved in any way with the cover design?
MP: The title came about rather easily, but to go into detail would require a spoiler alert, so I'll just say when you read the book the title will make sense.
Oceanview Publishing uses George Foster to design their covers, and George did an amazing job. (He was selected to design Pope Francis's book cover.) We went through a number of iterations, but in the end George came up with an ingenious design that portrayed the Washington setting and the key role of the protagonist's cell phone, then "jiggled'" the image to convey a paranormal element. The red, white and black colors make the cover pop. I love it.
OMN: What kinds of feedback have you received from readers?
MP: I love all feedback because it means a reader is engaged. The most common question (as is likely the case for all authors) is "where did you get the idea?" As noted above, the germ of the idea came from a PSA about texting while driving. Also, like me anyone who's a parent has at some point said they'd do anything to save their child. I wanted to push the envelope and come up with a situation where that conviction is truly tested.
OMN: Suppose One To Go were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing Tom Booker?
MP: Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy. Leonardo DiCaprio was once asked to identify his toughest role, and he surprised many by saying Titanic because he had to play someone who was normal. The actor who plays Tom would have to establish him as a normal guy, but I think Charlie would be up to the challenge.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young?
MP: I've always loved mysteries, thrillers and smart horror, and have read them since I was very young. (Sometimes I'd have to read them under the covers with a flashlight because my mother was afraid they would give me nightmares, but they never did.)
OMN: And what do you read today for pleasure?
MP: I love so many series writers I hesitate to single anyone out. I love Preston and Childs' Pendergast, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch, Lee Child's Jack Reacher, Dan Silva's Gabriel Allon, early Jason Bourne, early Jack Ryan, Patricia Gussin's Laura Nelson, and Ward Larsen's David Slaton, just to name a very few. Stephen King's a master. (Much to many of his fans' chagrin critics have tagged his later books with that dirty word, "literary.") David Balducci and Gayle Lynds are great, and David Morrell's Murder as Fine Art is a masterpiece. Steve Berry's works are not only thrilling, but after finishing you feel like you should receive credit toward a masters in history.
I'd been warned that one of the downsides of being an author is I would find myself reading as a critic and struggle to escape into a book as a normal reader. Thankfully, most of the time I'm able to successful immerse myself in the world created by the writer due to the many talented authors out there.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
MP: Channeling my inner curmudgeon, here's the top five words or phrases that bug me:
1. Exact same. What's the difference between two things that are the same, and two things that are the exact same?
2. Teenage singing contestants who refer to their life's "journey." You're only fifteen, you haven't had time for a journey!
3. Awesome. Awe means an overwhelming feeling of reverence, a powerful, jaw-dropping sense of wonder. The Grand Canyon is awesome, the Northern Lights are awesome. A double cheeseburger is not awesome.
4. Reality TV. It's not reality.
5. Sports interviewers who rely on the leading "how" question: "How exciting is it to be in the playoffs?" "How disappointed are you that you suffered a knee injury?" First, the question presumes the interviewee is indeed excited, disappointed, concerned, etc. Then the interviewer asks for a measurement. "How concerned are you?" Compared to what? Using what measurement? Zero to fifty with zero being completely unconcerned, not disappointed, completely unexcited, to fifty being I'm as concerned as I would be if a nuclear bomb was about to drop? Just once I'd love to see an interviewee respond with a simple number. "Forty-two." Let the girl with the microphone in her hand figure it out.
OMN: What's next for you?
MP: A medical thriller, and, inspired by Steve Berry and David Morrell, a historical thriller. A feature film script I wrote a number of years ago has just been optioned by a major producer, so I'll be involved in advancing that project as well. Also, hopefully this summer my wife and I will finally be able to find time to take a long-planned trip to Scandinavia.
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Mike Pace was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Illinois on an art scholarship, and graduated with a BFA degree.
He taught public school in Washington D.C.'s inner city, while attending law school at Georgetown University. At Georgetown he was selected to the editorial board of Georgetown's law review. Upon graduation, he clerked for a federal judge in Washington. Thereafter, he was appointed to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. In that position he prosecuted numerous cases, including those involving murder and rape.
He left government service to join a large Washington law firm where he specialized in commercial litigation. He subsequently took a position as general counsel to a national environmental services company headquartered in Annapolis, MD. After several years, he resigned in order to practice law part time, thereby allowing him the time to devote to his first love, creative writing. He lives on the Chesapeake Bay with his wife and two dogs, Blueberry and Scout.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at MikePaceBooks.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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One To Go
Mike Pace
A Suspense Thriller
Tom Booker is a new attorney at a powerful Washington law firm. Texting while driving across Memorial Bridge, he loses control and crashes into an oncoming minivan carrying his own daughter and three of her friends. The minivan tips up on two wheels, about to flip over into the Potomac. Time freezes, he's alone on the bridge. A young couple approaches and offers him a re-wind. The crash would be averted, the children saved. All he must do is kill someone every two weeks — anyone — a "soul exchange." A moment later, Tom is back in his spinning car, but averts the deadly crash. He laughs about the hallucination, attributing it to bumping his head on the steering wheel when his car came to an abrupt stop.
But his encounter wasn't a hallucination. Two weeks later, the minivan driver is brutally murdered. Tom receives a text: one down, four to go. He has never shot — much less owned — a gun in his life, and now must turn himself into a serial killer or his daughter and her friends will die.
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