The philosophy of Ferrigno

It’s been a while since Bob Cornwell, Tangled Web’s interviewer about town, offered up a nice meaty profile. But now he offers up a fresh interview with Robert Ferrigno, whose books have a good following in the UK but haven’t as yet broken out (though hopefully soon.) Ferrigno dishes about his early life, how he got started as a writer, and the change of direction he’s made for his current project:

“It’s an alternate history,” reveals Ferrigno, “set in Seattle 30 years in the future. It’s a political thriller with the usual assortment of my bad guys and bad girls, just… different.

Seattle in the here and now is a little too smug, a little too clean and a little too whitebread for my tastes as a fictional locale. The nice part about writing about Seattle in the future is I’ve managed to transform it into my own little private hell.” He adds, “it is, honest to Jesus, the best thing I’ve ever written:”

Economic considerations aside, why is it still necessary to write, I ask him. “To clarify my thoughts and fears,” he says, “to make sense of that which makes no sense, to hear word rhythms, to read a book that has never been read before.” And by what criteria does he judge his own work? “What moves me,” he replies, “what seems elegant and electric and most of all true.”

Also of note are Ferrigno’s thoughts on Sonny Mehta, the editing giant who’s worked on Ferrigno’s last four crime novels:

I’ve done four books with Sonny,” replies Ferrigno. “ The first two he literally line edited with me, a very rare occurrence today and particularly from such a high calibre editor/publisher. I learned more about writing from Sonny than anyone else. The last two books have been more `conversationally edited’ meaning we sit around and talk about the book as a whole and he tells me what he likes and what he wishes there was more of. It’s been a great ride. I’ve always felt like the stand up comedian in the clubs who makes the band laugh. This is considered highly dangerous because the band are the hippest guys in the room so thre assumption is that if they’re laughing, no one else gets the joke. I feel I don’t have the number of readers I would like, but the fact that Sonny asked to work with me indicates somebody gets what I’m doing.”