with Burt Weissbourd
We are delighted to welcome novelist Burt Weissbourd to Omnimystery News today, courtesy of JKSCommunications, which is coordinating his current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find his schedule here.
Burt's second novel is In Velvet (Rare Bird Books; May 2014 hardcover), a thriller set in some of North America’s wildest country, and one in which a local detective and a Chicago cop take on a corrupt sheriff, a pathalogical poacher, and a lethal black ops manager to solve a ghastly mystery and restore the natural order in Yellowstone National Park.
We recently had the chance to catch up with Burt to talk about his books.
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Omnimystery News: How do you categorize your books? And do you think there is any advantage to labeling your books as such?
Photo provided courtesy of
Burt Weissbourd
Burt Weissbourd: I would characterize my books as character-driven thrillers. An example of a character-driven thriller that I admire is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's an especially interesting example because Lisbeth is such a strong, unconventional and memorable female protagonist. She wins us over before we're even aware of it, pulls us into the story, lets us know that there will be wildly unexpected turns and visceral emotional intensity. This could never be accomplished with plot alone.
I think there are real advantages to this kind of specific labeling because it creates more realistic expectations and attracts readers who like these kinds of character-driven stories. Specifically, although my book is a mystery, it is not necessarily for the reader who's looking for Agatha Christie.
OMN: Tell us more about the setting for In Velvet. How important is it to the story, and how true are you to it?
BW: In Velvet is set in and around Yellowstone Park. I do move and rename features within the park — such as a hot spring pool — though I don't change the geography or the park boundaries. I also create a fictional town, North. However, Yellowstone Park couldn't be more important to the book. Two themes of this book are the importance of wild places and the importance of protecting wildlife. If the wildlife are at risk in Yellowstone Park, where could they possibly be safe? In this story, the wildlife, the physical beauty, and the landscape of the park are all profoundly important to the characters and the plot.
OMN: Have any specific authors or books influenced how and what you write today?
BW: When I first decided to become a film producer in 1974, I called Ken Millar (Ross Macdonald) and asked him if he'd write a screenplay for me based on one of his books. We chose The Instant Enemy, and Ken wrote a long treatment. We hired another screenwriter to write a screenplay, then Ken came back to the project and wrote a screenplay of his own. I worked closely with this "grand master" between 1975 — 1979. We met often and discussed all aspects of the project. It was an extraordinary experience for me, and a lot of what I know about character-driven thrillers and writing psychologically complex characters I learned from Ken.
OMN: Have any films had the same impact on your writing style?
BW: Klute, The Clockmaker of St. Paul, The Wind and the Lion, The Deerhunter are good examples. These are all character driven thrillers that helped shape the way I think about writing. I was a film producer before I started writing and I worked with Andy Lewis, who, with his brother Dave, wrote Klute. For me, this movie defines what a character-driven thriller can be. I was often asked: "Is it a love story or is it a thriller?" My answer was always: "It's both — a love story and a thriller." Andy, along with Ross Macdonald greatly influenced how I think about storytelling and character development.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? And have any of these found their way into your books?
BW: I am an avid and passionate fly fisherman. Since 1987, I've fished 30-50 days a year in Montana with my children. We've fished all over the state and spent many, many days and nights in Yellowstone Park. One of the highlights of those years is a horse pack trip 9 miles up the Lemar River in Yellowstone. Very wild country and even Emily, my non-fishing seven-year-old daughter, caught lots of wild trout.
The male protagonist, Rainey, in In Velvet came to Montana as a fly fisherman and became a fly fishing guide. The book begins with Rainey, thigh-deep, casting a yellow stimulator in the Gallatin River in Yellowstone Park. He lands a fourteen inch rainbow trout and as he releases it, I write, "Releasing that fish became, for Rainey, a punctuation mark, a simple period ending an era. That little trout was the last thing he remembered before seeing an unlikely thing — the thing that started it all — floating downriver, right toward him."
So, yes, my interest in fishing found its way into this book. Moreover, my years in the park and on wild rivers were the genesis of In Velvet and infuse the book with my love of wild country.
OMN: What's next for you?
BW: Teaser, the sequel to Inside Passage, takes Corey and Abe into the interconnected worlds of private school kids and the runaways who roam Seattle's streets. Billy attends the Olympic Academy, where two friends, Maisie and Aaron, are experimenting with sex and drugs. They've become close to Star, a streetwise seductress who leads them down a treacherous path. Despite the best efforts of Abe and Corey, Maisie is abducted by the diabolical "Teaser," a man determined to take revenge on her father, his former cellmate. Teaser is a mystery to everyone except Abe and Corey, who alone realize what they must do to rescue Maisie. They contrive a plan that shocks even them.
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Burt Weissbourd is a novelist, screenwriter and producer of feature films. He graduated from Yale University with honors in psychology. During his student years he volunteered at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris and taught English to college students in Thailand. After he graduated, he wrote, directed, and produced educational films. He began a finance program at Northwestern University Graduate School of Business but left to start his own film production company in Los Angeles. He produced films including Ghost Story starring Fred Astaire and Raggedy Man starring Sissy Spacek. He's a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1987, he founded an investment company that he still runs.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at BurtWeissbourd.com or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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In Velvet
Burt Weissbourd
A Suspense Thriller
The northwest corner of Yellowstone Park is closed for bear management, and Rachel, a bear biologist, is discovering some very startling animal behavior — grizzlies denning in June, swans at their wintering grounds in summer, what appear to be Irish Elk, an extinct species, with huge palmated antlers.
There are also horrific mutations in the young — elk calves with no front legs, earless bear cubs, and eaglets without wings. What has gone wrong? Why is this area closed? Who's covering up these animal abnormalities in the Park?
