In my Examiner.com interview with Mark Allen Smith we discussed the story behind his new Geiger series novel, “The Confessor.” The novels are considered literary thrillers, but the plots are defined by the characters. Smith said, “When I’m working on a book, I very often listen to what my characters say and write it down. Kind of schizzy, yes—because I live with my characters 24/7. I even dream about them. They really do take on a kind of reality in my life. Their presence is constant, whether I like it or not.”
Where most thrillers are built on heart-pounding plots, Mark Allen Smith feels his novels are different. He said, “I love weaving a suspenseful story, but my chief interest is exploration of character. I get more satisfaction writing about what goes on in someone’s heart and head, the why of the story, than I do creating a nifty twist, the what. And the reason for this, as a mentor once taught me, is that ‘character is plot.’ I always try to keep focused on the characters and let their pain and passion determine their journey and fate.”
Smith said he had a minor epiphany while writing “The Confessor.” He said a significant part of the plot and action takes place in Paris, which is one of his favorite cities. “I’ve been there five times, but I’m light years away from knowing it well.”
I’m a stickler for detail.
Thanks to Google Maps and other resources readily available on the internet, Mark Allen Smith took many virtual trips through the streets of Paris, touching down on rooftops, looking in store windows, sitting on a park bench. He said, “I’ve used these tools a zillion times for more mundane purposes—but this was different. I’m a stickler for detail—I don’t like to fudge when writing about real places and situations, and at one point, it just hit me—how remarkable it was to be able to put Geiger through his paces from my desk in New York City.”
While the internet can do many things, it still can’t reproduce the intensity of a situation experienced in person. One such situation occurred while Smith was working on a profile of a hospital emergency room nurse.
“The hospital gave our crew—the cameraman, sound man and me—an extraordinary amount of freedom. Late one night a man was brought in having suffered a massive heart attack. We followed the event from the arrival of the ambulance at the dock right into a cubicle as the doctors and nurses tried to save him…while his wife waited just outside the door.
“It was the most intense experience I ever had on the job—the urgency, the sound and action, the literal life and death nature of the moment. Tragically, the man died on the table. I’ll never forget the cameraman panning from the man’s face to the line going flat on the monitor.”
This type of experience taught Smith to operate on what he calls “automatic pilot mode” to function while under duress. Of course, all of his experiences were not so intense. He said, “I did a profile on ‘Capt.’ Don Leslie, the sword swallower. I arranged a session at a hospital x-ray room, Don drank some Barium, and we videoed him on the x-ray screen as he swallowed his sword. Definitely one of the coolest things I ever came up with!”
Want to learn more about the Geiger novels? Go behind the story in my profile at Examiner.com.
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