"Q&A With Ben H. Winters"

January 18, 2021

Book: Golden State

Photos Credit: Nicola Goode

Author: Ben H. Winters

Author Bio:

Ben H. Winters is the author of the novel The Quiet Boy, which will be published by Mulholland/Little, Brown in the spring of 2021. He is also the author of the novel Golden State; the New York Times bestselling Underground Airlines; The Last Policeman and its two sequels; the horror novel Bedbugs; and several works for young readers.

His first novel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, was also a Times bestseller. Ben has won the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. Dick award in science fiction, the Sidewise Award for alternate history, and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire. His writing has appeared in Slate and in the New York Times Book Review. He also writes for film and television, and was a producer on the FX show Legion. He lives in LA with his family.

Ben's next book “THE QUIET BOY” comes out May 18, 2021.

1. What is the secret to holding and maintaining suspense throughout your novels?

"The great thriller writer Lee Child has written brilliantly on this subject; suspense is not a matter of what the secrets are, but how they are handled. Implicitly or explicitly, ask your readers questions: not just who did the killing, but why did they do it, and will our hero figure it out in time, and why is the hero so afraid of the dark, and what is the hero’s relationship with this man who he keeps hanging up on? Pose questions, and have the patience and the trust in your readers to hold off on giving answers. Tease, and then satisfy, tease some more, satisfy some more.

2. What excites you most while writing your novels?

Stumbling onto hidden truths about the characters, or plot swings, that I didn’t see coming. I always do a lot of outlining, and I think I know everything, but I don’t. Some parts of the book are buried in my brain somewhere, and it’s always fascinating when, by accident or by dint of hard work, I disinter them.

3. Many of your fans and readers feel that your novels would be excellent movies or television series, of your catalog of novels, which story do you think would be the most interesting to watch on screen?

Well that’s nice of those people! I actually think The Last Policeman would make a hell of a movie; Golden State would be a great TV show. But you ain't worry about that too much, you gotta just write ‘em to be read.

4. With that being said, are there any films that have inspired your work?

I’m much more influenced by books I've read and authors I love, than by film. That said, I sure do love Chinatown, and I sure did learn a lot from it in terms of crime-story structure. So let’s say Chinatown.

5. What has made you the proudest following the reception and the critically acclaimed response of “Golden State”?

Oh, man, thank you. I did very much like that some reviewers saw fit to compare the idea-world of the novel to Orwell and 1984. That makes me very pleased. If I can ever get away with smuggling some Big Ideas into my crime plotting, I’m a happy guy. I think people had a feeling of what I was up to with this one—it’s a noir, it’s a thriller, but it’s also a meditation on our relationship with the truth, and with the government.

6. At what point in your life did you realize that you wanted to be an author?

Probably when I was in about the fourth grade. I used to write these very short stories about a pig named Piggy Wiggy, who would always die at the end in some outrageous way, and my friend Victor Chang illustrated them. They were quite a hit at Seven Locks Elementary school, and I realized, "oh I’ve got something of a superpower here. People want to see the next installment. This is cool." Of course it was a long road from there to here, but that may be the starting point.

7. Where does the inspiration for your stories come from?

Everywhere. The news, conversations, other books and stories I like. Dreams. People are always very curious where authors get their ideas, but for my money getting ideas is the fun part—the hard part is turning an idea into a story, turning a story into a draft, and then a draft into second draft, third draft, etc. I love starting. I could start all day long. The finishing is the hard part, man.

8. It has been said that you, write novels that "entertain the mind and excite the spirit’.” What does that mean to you?

Who said that? I mean, I like it. I like it a lot. I hope it’s true. A good book should have us leaning in, wanting to find out how it ends, and then we can’t stop thinking about it when it’s over. The books I most love are those I still think about, years later. Think about them with fondness, glad to have known them, almost as you do an old friend.

9. What’s your best advice for getting over writer’s block?

Just sit down and write. Don’t worry about writing perfectly, or even well. Prop open a favorite book in front of you and type out the first chapter of that. Type nonsense words. Think of random stuff that might happen and write that. You can’t wait for the muse. You gotta start going, move your fingers, type. The muse will catch up with you.

10. What’s the best book you have read this year so far?

This year? Well it’s early in 2021, but I’ve already read three great books — Mary Toft, by Dexter Palmer (a new favorite author of mine), The Mirage Factory by Gary Krist, and American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson.

11. What’s the best advice you have ever received on happiness?

“Time is what we want most but use worst.” — William Penn

12 . Do you plan on writing more books in the future?

Oh, yes. Many, many more. I am working on one right now, as a matter of fact, and I’ll return to it when I’m done answering these lovely questions!