Press Release Interview
How does a judge pivot from law to writing novels?
It's a mystery to me. The first Monday of my retirement, I started writing fiction and haven't stopped. I had never even considered writing novels until the weekend before I started writing my first one, Pinch Hitting. I got the kernel of an idea and just started writing it.
Tell us about your writing process.
Ha! There is no process. I just write. I don't outline, I don't have a list of characters, I have almost no idea where a story is going or who's going to be in it. I get a tiny idea, then I write until I'm done, then spend three times as long editing. I am what I've since learned is called a "pantster," as opposed to a "plotter." I did not intentionally pick this method. I didn't even know it was a method. It just came naturally to me, perhaps because when I was a judge, I often began writing orders before I knew what my decision would be.
How did you get the idea of a novel based on the famous walks Einstein and Gödel took together?
I was planning to get a doctorate in math--number theory--before I dropped all that and went to law school. So I've always been interested in Gödel's set theory work and, of course, his famous incompleteness theorems. I thought a spy story where understanding those theorems was the key would be fun.
There is a big surprise three-quarters into Killing Einstein, which we won't reveal. Was that plot turn planned or also a seat-of-the-pants thing?
Seat-of-the-pants.
What research did you do for the book?
None, until after I finished the draft. Then, as part of the long editing process, I read several biographies of Einstein and of Gödel, and also did a bit of research on Benson House, where U.S. counter-intelligence broadcast double agents' faked reports to the Germans. I also had to refurbish my memory about Gödel's theorems, as well as accessible ways to convey them to lay audiences.
There is a kind of optimism and humanity in each of your novels, which seems very much against the grain of most modern fiction, and certainly surprising coming from someone who has seen in his professional life the worst humanity has to offer. How did you manage to have that gentle optimism come through--and it does in spades--in a book about murderous Nazis?
Remember, I'm just the scribe. You'll have to ask the author. And while you're at it, ask him how he can write such sweet books and then turn out the latest ones, darker than dark.
Are these new novels in publication?
Not yet. The publishing part of the whole process is very much an afterthought for me. I know it shouldn't be, but it is, just like marketing is. It is very hard for me to pry time away from writing to do these other necessary chores.
You need an agent.
Feel free to get me one.