The Editor (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781548507015)

The Editor has an interesting back story. I was writing The Fingerprints of Armless Mike when I read a news story about this tragic incident up in Vermont. It concerned an act of random violence and the profound impact the act had on this one particular man's life. He was traveling north with his wife and children to spend Thanksgiving with family in the northern part of the state. A late start from New York City caused them to check into a motel room outside Bennington. That night a deranged man broke into their motel room to rob them but wound up, after a scuffle, killing the wife. The husband suffered a nervous breakdown and wound up losing custody of his children. I thought this tragedy demanded a rendering. And so I crafted a short, highly stylized novel around the above-described events. I showed the finished manuscript to my editor at Warner. She thought it a fine and tragic tale but felt it did not fit well with my other published novels (This Way Madness Lies, The Gypsy Storyteller, Full Moon Over America). My agent decided to try to sell it elsewhere and perhaps publish it under a pseudonym. This is when I first met Kate Miciak who would soon become my editor at Bantam Books. She had read This Way Madness Lies and told me it was "one of the finest novels I have ever read. Period." This from a Wellesley English major who to this day is the best read individual I have ever known. Not only has she read every important piece of literature ever written in the English language but she retains plots and characters and themes with the clarity of a savant. Kate said she wanted to buy my little book about this act of random violence that had killed one person and drastically altered the life of another. I was, of course, elated by her interest. Kate did, however, have a caveat. "I will buy the book," she said, "on one condition." "Okay," I replied. "What might that condition be?" "Well," she answered coyly, "there is one small change in the plot I would like you to make." And now I must tell you, reader, with money and prestige on the line, I agreed with little or no reflection to make that change. I agreed to sell my literary soul to the Devil. And thus began my immersion into the world of psychological suspense. That immersion produced The Caretaker, The Hancock Boys, and The Editor. And, more recently, The Affair and The Immortal. Sorry, I can't tell you the small change Ms. Miciak requested I make. To find out you'll have to read the book!