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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780515124064 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 12/01/1998 |
| Series: | Badge of Honor Series , #7 |
| Edition description: | Reissue |
| Pages: | 592 |
| Sales rank: | 318,163 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.19(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.27(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Hometown:
Coppell, TexasDate of Birth:
November 10, 1929Place of Birth:
Newark, New JerseyInterviews
On Tuesday, January 20, 1998, barnesandnoble.com on AOL welcomed bestselling author W.E.B. Griffin. Millions of readers have been captured by the rich characters and crackling realism of W.E.B. Griffin's military and police dramas. Now Griffin promises no less in book seven of the Badge of Honor series, THE INVESTIGATORS.
JainBN: Mr. Griffin, we're honored you decided to join us tonight to chat about THE INVESTIGATORS! Thanks so much. We have many audience questions, so if you're all set...
W E B Griffin: Thank you very much. Pleased to be here.
Question: You have over a hundred titles to your name. Do you ever take a day off writing?
W E B Griffin: No, not really. . .up to three days, after that you feel guilty.
Question: What other writers do you most admire?
W E B Griffin: I think that Tom Clancy is the best storyteller to come down the road in a very long time. My heroes, when I was a very young man -- I had two -- were William Bradford Ewey and John Masters.
Question: How would you describe your political disposition?
W E B Griffin: I'm somewhat to the right of Louis XIV.
Question: Do you have a preference between writing fiction and nonfiction?
W E B Griffin: Well, no. I've done both. I like nonfiction, but I'm not very good at it.
Question: What do you think of the television show "M*A*S*H"? What about the movie?
W E B Griffin: The movie was brilliant. But the television show was far too liberal to me, and did not reflect what really went on in a M.A.S.H. hospital in Korea. Dr. Hornberger [Richard Hooker], who died about four months ago, had been a M.A.S.H. surgeon, and I had been part of a M.A.S.H. unit in Korea. The movie was brilliant, but what they showed on television was not true.
Question: You dedicated THE INVESTIGATORS to retired Sergeant Zebulon V. Casey of the Internal Affairs Division of the Philadelphia Police Department, with the words "He knows why." Who is Sergeant Casey, and can you tell us "why"?
W E B Griffin: Sergeant Casey was a brilliant policeman who learned early on in his life that he was physically ill. The minute he applied for promotion, he knew he'd fail the physical, and be out of there in a minute. So he stayed a sergeant and never applied for promotion. But he was a brilliant policeman, and well respected...he was the one who got me to Philadelphia, and who arranged for me to work with the Philadelphia Police Department.
Question: Why Philadelphia?
W E B Griffin: Well, that's where Sergeant Casey was from, and my family was from Philadelphia, so I felt a little connection with it.
Question: You've written a lot about stock-car racing. Does your interest in the sport extend beyond observer status?
W E B Griffin: No, I had a very good friend who was a driver. And I experienced that vicariously. His name was Jim McMichael -- he's now dead -- but he was a first-class race-car driver. Through him, I got to meet a lot of people who raced, and they were very good, very nice people.
Question: What is your aviation and armor experience?
W E B Griffin: I'm an armor soldier who got involved in aviation. I'm a member of the Order of St. George, which is an honorary armor thing, and I was an army aviator.
Question: Did your interest in writing begin when you were a combat correspondent in Korea?
W E B Griffin: Yes. One of my combat correspondents was a man named John Sack, who was a very literary man, a very good writer, who told me that there's no reason I wouldn't be able to write well, so I tried it.
Question: I understand Tom Clancy is a big fan of yours. Is the feeling mutual?
W E B Griffin: Oh yes, I think Tom Clancy is the best story writer to come down the path in a long time. I really admire Tom Clancy. He moved from being a real estate man to the world's most popular writer, and he handled that with great class. And he can tell a story very convincingly, better than I think I can do. And he writes about some very important issues, and really makes people think.
Question: The role that the noncommissioned officer plays has been highlighted very well in your military books. What is it that made you want to explore it? Is it underrated?
W E B Griffin: Well, I was a sergeant. I was never an officer. And I appreciate the role that sergeants play in the army. I think it's very misunderstood. You could say I think like a sergeant, I guess. I was a sergeant.
Question: Do you ever return to Germany? Do you find yourself shocked by how much it has changed since you were stationed there?
W E B Griffin: Yes. My wife and I went there last year, and it was an absolute shock. There are no more Americans in Berlin, and the buildings that I was in are empty and guarded by a German policeman. I walked across the Unity Bridge, between Berlin and Potsdam. And the last time I was there I was armed with a submachine gun, and now it's just another bridge. And at one time it was the Mouth of Hell.
Question: Will you resume your Corps series and the Pacific conflict?
W E B Griffin: I just delivered the manuscript of a new Corps book. It's called IN DANGER'S PATH. It's about a secret radio base we had in the Gobi Desert.
Question: Where did C. W. Lowell originate from?
W E B Griffin: Oh, a number of people. He was a composite character. But I later learned that there were a number of men like that in the army. The man who made guns, Bill Ruger, called me up one time and said, "I thought you might like to know that I buried Craig Lowell." A man he knew who was very much like Craig Lowell.
Question: W.E.B., was MAGIC, the secret interception of Japanese codes during World War II, a real operation as in the Brotherhood series?
W E B Griffin: Yes, it was. And one of the people who broke the code was "Whizzer" White, who is now a Supreme Court justice.
Question: Did you ever run across Elvis Presley when you were stationed in Germany?
W E B Griffin: No, no. I knew his father-in-law, who was a lieutenant colonel. He was very unhappy that his 16-year-old girl was in love with a rock 'n' roll guy.
Question: Did you spend time with the Philadelphia Police Department to do research for THE INVESTIGATORS?
W E B Griffin: Oh, yes. A good deal of time. I spent a great deal of time. And everything I write about the Philadelphia police is read by about a dozen cops, ranging from patrolmen to the Deputy Commissioner. That's pretty accurate stuff.
Question: Of all your many books, Mr. Griffin, do you have a favorite?
W E B Griffin: No.... The one I'm working on now is my favorite. I like the Argentine books. I'm having a great deal of fun writing that.
Question: Do you have a favorite Clancy book?
W E B Griffin: I think the first one was probably the best -- the Russian submarine book - THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. But he's written other things later that are just as good.
Question: Is the type of police corruption you depict in THE INVESTIGATORS based on anything you came across in your research, perhaps in Internal Affairs case files?
W E B Griffin: Oh, that was a real story. There was a real dirty five squad in narcotics. And most of them went to jail. What I wrote was fiction, but there were a lot of parallels between what I wrote and the truth.
Question: Have you ever considered returning to writing fiction for young adults?
W E B Griffin: No, I seem to have lost interest in that when my own children stopped being children. It was almost as if I was writing it for them. And I just lost interest as they grew up.
Question: I heard that you don't have any plans to write any more Brotherhood of War books. Is this true? Why don't you want to continue this series?
W E B Griffin: That's essentially true. I finished the story. I finished, actually, twice. I wrote six books originally, then I went back and wrote two more. There's just nothing else to write.
Question: What type of research do you do for your novels? How does your research vary between your police books and your Marine books?
W E B Griffin: Well, I'm very fortunate in having some good friends in the Marines, so it's very easy to just get stories from them. Otherwise I have to make it up. The police books are more difficult, the Argentine books are still more difficult. It depends what I have in my head. I can write about army aviation fairly easily, because I used to be an army aviator. It depends.
Question: How did you get your start in writing?
W E B Griffin: I was driven to write, almost like an obsession. If I knew what I know now about the business, I wouldn't have started it, because it's a very difficult business to get started in. But I did it in ignorance, and got lucky.
Question: There is such little information on your background. I am curious to find out if you served in the USMC, or were you ever a police officer?
W E B Griffin: No, I was a soldier. And I really have the feeling that writers should be read, and not heard from. I don't think who the writer is is very important. Obviously if you don't know what you're talking about you shouldn't be writing. But beyond that, I really don't think the individual writer's personal details are of any real interest to anybody.
Question: What was the most surprising thing you learned about either yourself or your characters while writing THE INVESTIGATORS? Did anything catch you totally off guard?
W E B Griffin: No, not really. That was based on a real story. And all I had to do was make a fictional story of it. So none of that was really surprising. And I'd also seen some of the guys who'd gone to jail. The sad thing about police corruption is that it so embarrasses the good cops. And normally they're not bad cops, they're just stupid.
Question: As a retired Marine I could almost put names to some of your characters. Were some of them based on real characters in the Corps?
W E B Griffin: Well, the same answer to the Brotherhood. No, they were composites. There's one story I like to tell. I was once sitting with a lifelong companion in my kitchen. And he asked me what I'm writing about, and I said the Marine Raiders. And he said he was the president of the Marine Raiders. And I'd had no idea. And after doing two years of research, I got it all from him. And he'd done a raid on an island, and so everything in that book came straight from him. You can't get that stuff from books. You really have to know somebody who's been there.
Question: Do you have a favorite character with whom you feel a personal bond?
W E B Griffin: No, not really. No. The answer is no.
Question: When can we expect to see one of your books made into a movie?
W E B Griffin: Probably never. It costs too much to make movies out of my books, and they wouldn't have too much of an audience, I don't think.
Question: Do you think police corruption is a serious problem in Philadelphia? What about in general?
W E B Griffin: Well, it's a serious problem, sure. I don't think Philadelphia is worse than anywhere else. But it's certainly a problem. If people don't trust their own police, then you've got a serious situation. Which is why so many good cops really get embarrassed and take it so hard. It'd be like finding out your mother or father was immoral. But I'd say about 98, 99 percent of cops are straight.
JainBN: Here's a nice comment from the audience. . .
Question: As an active-duty Army MP, I have enjoyed all your series. I believe that they portray both the military and the law enforcement life in a realistic manner. Thank you, and please keep them coming.
W E B Griffin: Thank you. That's very nice. Thank you.
Question: What is the writing process like? How long do you afford yourself on each piece of work?
W E B Griffin: Well, you give yourself as much time as you need. I write every day. I seldom stop for more than three days. And I really am unhappy if I have to stop working.
Question: What's the most exciting new project you have on your horizon?
W E B Griffin: The Argentine books. The Nazis in Argentina. They're really fascinating. It's a really fascinating story that I don't think anybody has ever told before.
Question: I have enjoyed both of your new series about the OSS. Are they to continue?
W E B Griffin: Oh yes, oh yes. Oh yes. I'm about to start another one. I actually started it already. A new Argentine book I started a couple of days ago. Actually, I really started it six months ago. A couple of days ago I sat down and actually started to write it.
Question: W.E.B., I was born 12 years after World War II ended, but through your stories I feel like I was there! How do you make it so real for your readers?
W E B Griffin: That's what I try to do. That's very very nice to hear you say that. I'm glad to hear it. Because it is very hard to do. To make it understandable to somebody a couple of generations later.
Question: Do you have any comments about the development of your character, General Fleming, in the Corps series?
W E B Griffin: Characters tend to develop themselves as you get into them. They really become alive, and you don't have to worry about what they're going to say. You know what they're going to say.
Question: Solving crimes using forensics and lab research fascinates me. Any interest on your part for a book?
W E B Griffin: It doesn't make for a good story. I share the fascination, but it's kind of hard to write a book about it.
Question: Mr. Griffin, is there a web site fans of your books can go to? Did you have a hand in its development?
W E B Griffin: No, but I'm glad the question was raised. Sergeant Casey has got one. Oldness overtook him, but he's got one for me. He's a very great man, and he's the one who keeps me straight about the police in Philadelphia.
JainBN: Please visit the above-mentioned web site at http://www.nmark.com/webgriffin. Mr. Griffin, thanks so much. We loved having you here tonight. Please come again upon the publication of your next book.
W E B Griffin: Thank you very much. Goodnight.
JainBN: Fans of W.E.B. Griffin, please remember to visit Mr. Griffin's web site at http://www.nmark.com/webgriffin for any further questions you might have. Thank you and goodnight.
