The topics in Ricochet touch on some fairly delicate areas, (also some potentially dangerous areas). Was research difficult? How did you do your research?
I go straight to the experts when writing my books, so Ricochet relied heavily on law enforcement advisors, including several Police Chiefs and FBI Agents. I also depended upon a famed pathologist’s recommendation regarding carbon monoxide poisoning and tobacco poisoning. With the explosions, I read newspaper accounts of past explosions and watched video available on the Internet.
The themes that you use in Ricochet are somewhat haunting. Could you see this as a reality?
I was initially concerned that I could be giving terrorists ideas so I broached the subject to each of my law enforcement advisors. They all said exactly the same thing — that they knew the terrorists had already thought of this scenario (with the malls) and Homeland Security had been working on the issue. The recommendation from each person was to go ahead with the book.
I mentioned earlier that I have a theory about authors and their characters. My guess is that P. M. Terrell has an Aunt Jo - she is too cute to not exist. Am I right?
Aunt Jo was actually named after my mother, who was always called “Jo.” My mother was the feistiest person I ever knew. She passed away in January 2007 and I miss her tremendously. The house is an actual house that my Aunt Florene lives in, in Sunnyside, Tennessee. My father and my uncle built the house with their own hands around 1940. My aunt was born in the house at the top of the hill and the land at its base was given to her by her father when she married, so she has never lived anywhere except that hill… and she is in her 90’s now.
Postscript: This is an author that you should keep your eye out for, in my opinion it is only a matter of time before we see P. M. Terrell on the best seller lists.
Article comments
1 - Nukapai
Writing is definitely addictive, in the way that scratching a scab is addictive. ;)
More seriously: it's quite chilling to think that mystery and crime novelists may have to face the moral dilemma of whether there will be copycats.