{"id":123749,"date":"2024-02-07T10:54:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T15:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=123749"},"modified":"2024-02-07T10:55:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T15:55:16","slug":"qa-with-john-katzenbach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=123749","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A with John Katzenbach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=123749\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=123749\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-123750 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/John-Katzenbach-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/John-Katzenbach-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/John-Katzenbach.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen<br \/>\nPhotos courtesy of John Katzenbach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>John Katzenbach\u2019s career as a novelist began in 1982, with the publication of \u201cIn the Heat of the Summer\u201d, an edgy crime novel that examined the cult of celebrity, fame and media ethics. This novel was filmed as \u201cThe Mean Season\u201d with Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway. Since the publication of that first novel, John Katzenbach has written 12 other psychological thrillers and one acclaimed non-fiction book. His new novel &#8220;Jack\u2019s Boys&#8221; should be out in Spring this year. Go check out his work! <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Did you always want to be a writer growing up or a reporter?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, actually yes. I grew up loving words, loving language, loving the notion that I could create people\/characters that might come to life on a page. And, honestly, I wasn\u2019t very good at math or science (no doctor career) and being a professional baseball\/basketball\/soccer player also seemed a bit out of reach.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Who were your literary heroes as a kid and are they still your favorites now?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>As a child \u2013 C.S. Lewis (the Narnian stories) and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. \u201cThe Wind in the Willows\u201d eventually gave way to \u201cGreat Expectations\u201d and \u201cCrime and Punishment\u201d. I don\u2019t think one ever actually gives up on their childhood literary loves. But as one gets older, those loves become more sophisticated. (The difference between high school or college crushes and someone who might qualify for marriage). So, Ambrose Bierce, Flannery O\u2019Connor and William Faulkner, the great Fyodor Dostoevsky, Stendahl and Ernest Hemingway sort of push those childhood favorites aside. Not sure that\u2019s necessarily a good thing. It just happens.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Your dad was a former US Attorney General. Did this influence you to become a crime reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>My late father certainly influenced many of my choices in life. And Hart\u2019s War was based on his WW2 experiences. He encouraged me to go into journalism when I graduated from college \u2013 but maybe that was just because he wanted me to get a job. And newspapers were the only place I could think of that would pay me to keep writing. And my time as a reporter was like a graduate school education in the terrible things people can do to each other. Being a reporter is like going to the theater every day \u2013 only instead of players on a stage, real life dramas get performed in front of you.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: You left the newspaper to write thrillers and your debut novel \u201cIn the Heat of The Summer\u201d was a bestseller and won the Edgar Award. Did this success surprise you and how did you come up with the story line?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Was I surprised at the success of In the Heat of the Summer? You bet. Frankly, just getting accepted by a publisher was all that I\u2019d hoped for. And the story for that novel came to me one evening when I was sitting around with then-girlfriend, soon-to-be wife Madeleine Blais (an author and a Pulitzer winner). I was complaining about yet another wasted afternoon, when yet another person in the Dade County Jail called me up at the newspaper to explain that they were \u201ctotally innocent.\u201d It had taken me hours to discover that the \u201cinnocent\u201d person in this case had been witnessed by several others pulling the trigger, picket out of a line-up by other folks, left his fingerprints all over a murder weapon\u2026 and\u2026 and\u2026 well, I could go on. Lots of work for no story, sorry Mr. City Editor. I turned to my about-to-be wife and said, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be a lot more interesting if someone called me who was about to commit a crime, rather than already having committed it?\u201d We both looked up. Thought about that. And within days, I\u2019d arranged for a leave of absence from the paper and wrote, \u201cA jogger found the first body by the thirteenth green\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: The novel was made into a movie: \u201cThe Mean Season\u201d starring Kurt Russell. Did it do justice to your book?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been lucky\/unlucky enough to have had four of my books adapted for the screen, three in the USA and one in France. Let me say this \u2013 in each, there are moments and scenes that I think ring true. And then there are other moments and scenes that go thud! That\u2019s speaking from the author\u2019s perspective. Adapting a novel is not easy, squeezing hundreds of pages into a two-hour movie. That said, I wish some screenwriters would devote more energy to recognizing what I \u2013 or any author \u2013 was seeking to accomplish on the page and find a way to capture that for the screen.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What makes a great story in your eyes?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>What makes a great story? Great, cosmically difficult question. It isn\u2019t the setting, although that\u2019s critical. I think, ultimately, it is about the dynamics of the relationships between characters. A good story makes us feel like we would do what the characters do. Both good guys and bad guys. I suppose that\u2019s what I look for. Certainly, I hope it is what I accomplish in my books. Knock on wood.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Your 7 favorite novels of all times (not your own): What do you pick and why?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>My 7 favorite books? Very hard to say. Certainly, those I mentioned in question #2. Let\u2019s add \u201cA Tale of Two Cities\u201d. Why? The psychological tension Dickens captures between characters and the world of Revolutionary France. All displayed in exceptional prose. Also, Saint Ernest\u2019s \u201cFor Whom the Bell Tolls\u201d although I haven\u2019t re-read it in years. What better example of the conflict between love and duty and sacrifice could one come up with? Another I haven\u2019t re-read in some time: Faulkner\u2019s \u201cLight in August\u201d. Again, choices and decisions expertly played out on the page. A little more contemporary: \u201cLonesome Dove\u201d by Larry McMurtry because he weaves the weight of history into personal saga flawlessly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDog Soldiers\u201d by Robert Stone, because he managed to encapsulate so much of the dynamics of the Vietnam era into a crime story that isn\u2019t really a crime story. \u201cThe Killer Angels\u201d by Michael Shaara, just because in the most simple, evocative prose he takes an iconic and critical moment in American history and brings it, and the people who made it, alive. Just prose magic. I could go on about authors and titles \u2013 but let\u2019s put a couple of \u201cthrillers\u201d into this mix: my friend Scott Turow\u2019s \u201cPresumed Innocent\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Just brilliant both in plot, developed characters and electric prose from the opening page. Always been jealous of that one. Jealous, too of Peter Hoeg\u2019s \u201cSmilla\u2019s Sense of Snow\u201d which I insist is one of the truly great mystery-thrillers of all time, because he takes plot, obsession and nature and blends it all together. And I\u2019m not even mentioning \u201cThe Hound of the Baskervilles\u201d by the immortal Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, because anyone who wants to be writer should know about Sherlock Holmes (not the Robert Downey Jr. version from the screen \u2013 although I believe Guy Ritchie is one of the world\u2019s great directors). Sir Arthur managed to create a character that will live on the page for centuries. Now, of course, the same could be said for my friend Thomas Harris and his equally brilliant \u201cSilence of the Lambs\u201d. Another all-time favorite of mine.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What are you currently up to? I heard a new novel is coming?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have just finished the edits on a forthcoming novel \u201cJack\u2019s Boys\u201d which should be out early next year. It has already been published in Germany and other parts of Europe and throughout Latin America, so it has graced bestseller lists on different continents. Finishing means I will go fishing while the weather is still good. Alaskan salmon in wondrously remote areas with some psychiatrist friends of mine (who are great sounding boards for the psychological story issues that crop up from time to time). Shrinks, bears, wolves, caribou and acrobatic silver salmon who dislike being interrupted by a well-placed fly on their way to fulfilling their destiny. What could be more fun? As far as film stuff \u2013 well, yes. Rumblings about an adaptation of \u201cJust Cause\u201d. Other possibilities range from the small chance to maybe. But\u2026 until I see cameras, actors, director, many other folks on an expensive set and hear, \u201cAction!\u201d I don\u2019t count on anything.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Check out John&#8217;s website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.johnkatzenbach.com\/\">HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen Photos courtesy of John Katzenbach John Katzenbach\u2019s career as a novelist began in 1982, with the publication of \u201cIn the Heat of the Summer\u201d, an edgy crime novel that examined the cult of celebrity, fame and media ethics. This novel was filmed as \u201cThe Mean Season\u201d with Kurt Russell and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28132],"tags":[31839],"class_list":["post-123749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns-by-karen-beishuizen","tag-qa-with-john-katzenbach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123749"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/123750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}