ROBERT  ELLIS

T H R I L L E R   F I C T I O N

Where Do Your Ideas Come From?


I think ideas start with curiosity, but probably end up coming from the way we deal with what we’re going through in our day-to-day lives. There’s something to be said for the mindset that you’re “in the hunt for a new idea.” Maybe a book or a movie sparks something. Maybe something someone says lights up your imagination. Or maybe we’re in between things and get the proverbial “sudden flash.” Either way or anyway it happens, as a writer in search of a new story, I’m writing things down and paying attention. The idea for that chilling discovery at the lake in The Dead Room came when I mentioned how much I enjoyed spending time at the lake to a friend, and she and her friend told me what was really underneath the water. It blew me away. With The Girl Buried in the Woods, I needed to deal with the burden of an image I’d carried since I was ten years old and heard that a girl’s body had been found in a shallow grave about a mile from my house. I can still see what I saw then in my imagination. I think ideas come from every aspect of your lives.

How Long Does It Take You to Write a Book?


When I’m able to write, I write quickly. From start to finish, it usually takes about ten months. The first three months or so are spent fleshing out ideas and doing research. I love this part of the process. I’ve worked with the FBI, forensic specialists in numerous crime labs, taken the “morgue tour” with a medical examiner (very scary), and spent time with homicide detectives in Washington and Philadelphia, but mostly, Los Angeles with two detectives from the Robbery-Homicide Division. Getting to a completed first draft usually takes about six months. The last half of The Love Killings was written in a single month to meet my editor’s deadline. I wrote one finished chapter every day for thirty-one days. Writing quickly worked out for The Dead Room as well. And for anyone wondering why Matt Jones looks up and counts the number of ceiling tiles during the autopsy in City of Echoes, it’s got a lot to do with me taking that “morgue tour.”

How Do You Make Your Characters Seem So Real?


I really believe that the characters we invent come from the people we’ve met along the way. The more, and the more varied, the better. One of my favorite things about writing novels versus writing screenplays is the feeling that, in a novel, I’m creating an entire world. A complete world that’s as vast as the one we live in. That means that every character living in this new world brings something unique to the plot and theme. They’re an individual. They have wants and needs, and it’s important that readers know these details as soon as possible. For me, their motives in the story are much more important than what they might look like or any personal habits they might have. Once the reader knows what’s at stake for the character, what they want in the story, the character seems to step out into the open. You feel like you know them.

What Authors Influenced Your Writing?


I started by reading general fiction, popular stuff. My parents were readers, and I began by going through their stacks. John Updike, J.D. Salinger, Flannery O’Conner, Saul Bellow, William Golding. With the help of my uncle, I found Hermann Hesse, and with friends, I discovered John Steinbeck, Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, and then Colin Wilson. I remember dedicating a summer to reading everything Mark Twain had ever written. At some point I stumbled onto One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which I mentioned in The Girl Buried in the Woods. I think it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. I feel the same way about Ken Follett’s A Dangerous Fortune. One of my favorite short stories is The Guest, by Albert Camus.

What About Crime Fiction?


For me the first real step into crime fiction came when I was a film student and read the interview between Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock. In the book Hitchcock talks about his favorite writer being John Buchan, someone I had never heard of. Hitchcock was talking about his devotion to the author and his love for the Richard Hannay series. There are six books in the series, including The 39 Steps, all written at the very beginning of the genre almost a hundred years ago. And they’re all gems, even now, along with a standalone by Buchan, The Powerhouse, which is one of my personal favorites. The next big turn for me was the discovery of Elmore Leonard. Novels like Unknown Man #89 and The Switch changed everything for me. Outrageous characters doing outrageous things. I loved it, and I think it’s become a trademark of my own books. Still, at this point, I’m a long way from becoming a writer. One day I came home from college and went to visit my father. All he ever read was history. At the time he was working on his master’s degree at Villinova University. But that night he was reading Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. He was out of his mind excited. I can still hear him laughing with delight, “The wheelchair scene, Bobby. You’ve got to read the wheelchair scene.” Well, I did, finally, and that’s how I became lucky enough to write The Dead Room and City of Fire and everything else since then. Had my dad lived long enough to read my books, I think he would have loved them.

What Advice Would You Give New Writers?


Read the books you love more than once. I think it’s important to get a feel for how things are working, and it can’t be done in a single pass. And if possible, try not to read a book in one sitting or one day. I know that’s difficult for some. But for a new writer, a story needs time to settle in. A night’s rest in the middle of a good book seems to work for me, and it usually makes tomorrow a great day. Finally, for someone aspiring to become a storyteller, I think studying films will sharpen your skills. In a film, the story is right in front of us. How the writer tells that story is plain to see. But novels are more complex than that. In a novel, especially a good one, the story is often difficult to separate from the author’s style and voice, or even the imagination of the reader. To put it another way, if the story doesn’t work in a movie, there’s nothing the director or actor or cinematographer can do to save the movie. It’s a bad film and everyone in the audience knows it. But in a novel, success or a lack of success could be the result of any number of issues. Studying films and getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t could be the difference.

I Sent You an Email but Never Heard Back.


Hearing from readers is one of the best parts of my day. Your emails aren't filtered through a third-party and come straight to my inbox. If a week has gone by and you haven’t heard from me, then the only reason I can think of is that the message bounced. Try sending me another and let’s see what happens.

What About Writing Organizations?


There are three professional organizations that go out of their way to support writers, readers or anyone else interested in crime fiction that I’ve found helpful since the very beginning. All three are worth checking out.


Sisters in Crime … https://www.sistersincrime.org/


International Thriller Writers … www.write2thrill.org


Mystery Writers of America … https://www.mysterywriters.org

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Don't You Publish a New Book Every Year?


I’ve had a few good breaks when I could publish every year. And I’ve had periods when writing wasn’t possible for me. It’s never been a lack of desire on my part, and I don’t offer this as an excuse as much as I do a recognition of the challenges I’ve had to face and overcome. Most of them, beyond my family issues as a teen, come down to a single day when I was twenty-four years old, a horrific car wreck, and the injuries I received that sometimes make writing difficult for me even now. (More information about this question is available here.)