Interview with Thriller Author Vincent Zandri

Moonlight Falls author, Vincent Zandri, is an award-winning novelist, essayist and freelance photojournalist. His novel As Catch Can (Delacorte) was touted in two pre-publication articles by Publishers Weekly and was called "Brilliant" upon its publication by The New York Post. The Boston Herald attributed it as "The most arresting first crime novel to break into print this season." Other novels include Godchild (Bantam/Dell) and Permanence (NPI).

Translated into several languages including Japanese and the Dutch, Zandri´s novels have also been sought out by numerous major movie producers, including Heyday Productions and DreamWorks. Presently he is the author of the blogs, Dangerous Dispatches and Embedded in Africa for Russia Today TV (RT). He also writes for other global publications, including Culture 11, Globalia and Globalspec. Zandri´s nonfiction has appeared in New York Newsday, Hudson Valley Magazine, Game and Fish Magazine and others, while his essays and short fiction have been featured in many journals including Fugue, Maryland Review and Orange Coast Magazine. He holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College and is a 2010 International Thriller Writer´s Awards panel judge. Zandri currently divides his time between New York and Europe. He is the drummer for the Albany-based punk band to Blisterz.

You can visit his website at www.vincentzandri.com or his blog at www.vincentzandri.blogspot.com.

Thank you for this interview, Vincent. Can you tell us briefly what your latest book, Moonlight Falls, is all about?

Moonlight Falls is basically film noir on paper. It´s about Richard "Dick" Moonlight, suicide survivor who now must cope with a small piece of .22 caliber bullet lodged in his brain. Because it´s pressed up against his cerebral cortex he has trouble making good decisions and he suffers on occasion from short-term memory loss. In times of stress he passes out. He could suffer a major stroke or die at any moment. So time means little to him. When he makes the wrong decision to sleep with his former boss´s wife and she later turns up brutally murdered, he believes it´s possible he might have killed her and just can´t remember it.

Can you tell us who or what was the inspiration behind your book?

I believe I was down in Manhattan promoting As Catch Can with my then Delacorte editor, Jacob Hoye (now MTV Books), when I came across a story about a man who survived a suicide attempt and lived with a piece of bullet shrapnel still stuck in his brain. At the time I was also influenced by a self-stabbing suicide art exhibit that I caught in a Soho gallery by the artist infamous artist Damien Hirst. I´ve also been fascinated with a rarely spoken about story from my family history in which my paternal grandfather committed suicide by slicing his neck open with a straight razor in front of his grown children

Is this your first published book and if so, can you tell us your experiences in finding a publisher for it?

This is my fourth published novel. I´ve had two, including Moonlight Falls, published by small publishers, or what they now refer to as, "Indy Press." The other two were pub´d by major commercial publishers, Delacorte and Bantam/Dell. In a nutshell, commercial publishers publish for money; small presses publish for love of the book and belief in the author.

How has R.J.Buckley been to work with?

By far the best publishing experience in my life. It´s as close to being a family-run house as you can get.

Do you have an agent?

Janet Benrey of Benrey Literary Agency.

Can you tell us how long it took you to write your book and also how long it took from the time R.J.Buckley sent the contract and the time it was released?

I wrote several different versions of this book between 2001 and 2008. At one time it was being represented by the William Morris Agency in New York under the title, A Body to Die For. But later on, when Janet took over, I switched the name to Moonlight Falls, which is based on the main character´s unlikely surname.

Buckley took on the manuscript (after an initial rejection!!!), last winter and it was just released in December of 2009. US/UK distribution didn´t kicked in until January 2010 however. Now the Kindle version is out as well!

Do you have any words of inspiration from other writers who would like to be wearing your shoes?

The publishing business is undergoing drastic changes. Traditional publishing is being replaced with electronic substitutes, and big print runs are slowly giving over to POD. More and more indy presses are springing up while the big conglomerations die a slow, agonizing suicide. Like an editor friend of mine in NYC told me last week, a submitted MS now has to be a "sure thing" before they will publish it.

Advice?

Work as hard as possible, be willing to adapt to the changing publishing environment and keep jabbing. Eventually you´ll get a good solid punch or two in.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in February and March via a virtual book tour. Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

Logistically speaking, it´s impossible to hit every bookstore in the nation, much less my home state. Many newspapers, including major newsprint publications, no longer maintain a budget to run book reviews (sad but true). What they do instead is farm reviews and interviews out to bloggers who then publish them on the paper´s website. When I asked my traditional publisher what was the one thing I could do to guarantee that word about Moonlight Falls was spread all over the globe, she issued two words "Virtual Tour!" She also reminded me that unlike traditional print media, online reviews, interviews, profiles and blogs remain in cyberspace forever…It´s the gift that keeps on giving.

What´s next for you?

Two new book projects being shopped as we speak:

I´ve just completed a novel called The Remains, about a woman who receives strange text messages from a man who abducted her and her twin sister back when they were kids. For decades she´s believed he died in prison. But now, 30 years later, she realizes her past has not only come back to haunt her, it´s come back to kill her.

I´ve also completed the first in a new detective series about a woman named Spike, who´s inherited a commercial construction business and who wields a framing hammer like some detectives carry a pistol. When one of her still-occupied elementary school renovation jobs becomes contaminated with a major asbestos leak, and the man responsible for the asbestos removal goes missing, Spike goes searching for him. But what she uncovers is a plot of greed, deception, lust and murder. Spike is a cool, sexy, tough, character. She also knows how to drive a bulldozer! You can´t say that about every woman you come across!

Thank you for this interview, Vincent. Can you tell us how we can find out more about you and your new book?

Thanks you and please visit my new website www.vincentzandri.com.

It´s updated daily!!!!