Magna cum Murder

Crime Writing Festival

in association with

CrimeFest

October 24-26, 2014 

The Columbia Club, Indianapolis, IN

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Q&A with John Gilstrap!
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Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana

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Magna cum Murder
Kathryn Kennison, Director

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Jama Kehoe Bigger
Diane Watters

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Q&A with John Gilstrap!

 

Magna cum Murder intern Chase Brammer recently interviewed Guest of Honor John Gilstrap. Here's Part 1 of a very interesting conversation:

 

Many of your fans know you've held many jobs - journal editor, volunteer firefighter, safety engineer, screenwriter -- just to name a few. Do you see yourself with any new careers later in life? How have your jobs affected the development of your writing over the years, from your youth to adulthood?

 

It's one thing to want to be a writer-I've felt that my whole life-but it's something else entirely to have something to write about.  Those early careers (and my current Big Boy job) exposed me to a lot of grist for the creative mill.  Think about it: I've run into burning buildings, I've saved lives (and failed to save a few), and I've delivered two babies.  I've worked at explosives processing plants where my duties included the disposal of old energetic materials.  I've managed hazmat leaks, I've been shot at, attacked with knives, and fallen through a floor during a fire.  I have also held the hands of children as they watched their parents die, and I've done the same for parents as their children pass.  Those experiences began when I was 23 years old, and continued for decades.  I think they affect my writing as much as they affected my life.  How could they not?

 

As for embarking on yet another career, while it's never wise to say never, this time never is pretty close.

 

Jonathan Grave is the quintessential thriller badass. He is uncompromising, unafraid and always gets the job done, while still maintaining his humanity and friendships. What do you admire the most in Grave?

 

I admire Jonathan's uncompromising sense of right and wrong, and the degree to which that sense differs from the modern concept of legal versus illegal.  He believes that the rules are stacked against the less powerful, and he's in a unique position to level the playing field.  I also admire his undying devotion to his friends and his missions.  He's the man I wish I could be, living a life that I would never want to live.

 

Will you continue writing Jonathan Graves novels, or do you have new protagonists planned after End Game? (End Game is Gilstrap's newest book, coming out this July.)

 

If readers keep reading him, there are many adventures left for Jonathan.  In fact, I'm toying with the idea of starting a young adult series that is set in Resurrection House, the school Jonathan runs for the children of incarcerated parents.  I think there are a lot of opportunities for really compelling stories in that setting.  I hope for Jonathan and his world to be a part of my life for a long time.

 

One of your pet peeves is technical inaccuracy in fiction. Are you ever tempted to fudge the details in order to further a plot?

 

Rick Horgan, my very first editor in this business, told me to never let truth get in the way of telling a good story.  I've taken that advice to heart ever since.  As a novelist, my job isn't to project reality as it is, but rather to project fiction that will resonate with readers as feeling real.  To that end, I cheat all the time, but I work hard to cover my tracks.  It's one thing to roll the dice and play with reality, but it's another thing entirely to get things unintentionally wrong.  That pisses me off and embarrasses me.  The most egregious example for me was in Hostage Zero, where one of the main characters' backstory is that of a "Marine Corps Medic."  As a Navy brat, I've known my whole life that there is no such thing, that Navy corpsmen are attached to Marine units to provide combat medical service, but somehow, it slipped through scumteen levels of editing. I can't count the number of emails I have received from perturbed current and former Marines, and every one of them tears my heart out.

 

No Mercy, the first in the Jonathan Grave series, takes place in Indiana and involves the abduction of a Ball State student. Did your experience with Magna cum Murder and Indiana inspire this plot at all?

 

I have a genuine fondness for the Midwest in general and Muncie in particular.  I've had a lot of good times in that town, and the town itself reminds me of solid American values.  The plot demanded a Midwestern setting and a college student, and Muncie and Ball State were the only ones I knew.

 

*** Our conversation with John will continue in the next Magna E-newsletter!

 

(Chase Brammer is a junior at Ball State University, majoring in  Spanish and Biology.)

Why attend Magna?

 

"There are many elements that make Magna cum Murder special, but if I had to pick just one, it would be how well  writers, aspirants, and readers interact." ~ Jeffery Deaver

 

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Magna cum Murder XX

October 24-26, 2014

The Columbia Club

Indianapolis, IN

 

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