BIO

Peter Abrahams is the best-selling author of A PERFECT CRIME, THE TUTOR, THE FAN, and LIGHTS OUT, for which he received an Edgar® Award nomination. Mr. Abrahams makes his home in Falmouth, Massachusetts, with his wife and four children. This is his first novel for young readers.

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AUTHOR TALK

June 16, 2005

In this interview Peter Abrahams, author of several critically acclaimed adult novels, talks about DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, his first book for children. He explains why he thinks audiences can relate so well to his 13-year-old super sleuth protagonist, recalls the six "laws" that his mother taught him about writing, and offers readers a sneak preview of BEHIND THE CURTAIN, the second installment in the Echo Falls series.

Question: You have written several critically acclaimed adult novels including THE FAN, A PERFECT CRIME and THE TUTOR, but DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE is your first book written for children. Did you find this to be a difficult transition? Which audience do you prefer writing for?

Peter Abrahams: I loved writing this book. The truth is I didn't think much about the transition. The story unreels before the eyes of a 13-year-old girl, so the language of the book is her language. As for audience, it's tremendously gratifying to be entertaining young readers.

Q: Do you have a particular writing philosophy that you follow?

PA: I'm very persnickety about writing. I have a million rules, but they all boil down to trying to do something original on every page.

Q: Ingrid Levin-Hill, the 13-year-old super sleuth and star of the Echo Falls series is a very multifaceted and believable character that the target reader can really relate to. Why do you think that is? Is she based on a particular person from your family?

PA: Certainly the fact that I have four kids --- two boys, two girls --- was a big help in keeping things real. There are lots of dark patches in childhood, but what I remember most about my own is the feeling of exhilaration that comes with waking up to the world of human life. What surprised me was Ingrid's take on things --- that part wrote itself.

Q: Everyone seems to be in love with all of the characters in this book --- especially Grampy. Did anyone in your own family influence your writing? And if so, how?

PA: My mother was a writer and taught me a lot when I was very young. A few years ago, I wrote down what she'd taught me in the form of Enid's Laws. There are six of them.

1. Organization is everything.
2. Fiction is about reversals.
3. Torment your protagonist.
4. Push everything as far as you can without contriving.
5. Always advance the story.
6. Be original.

Later I added a seventh: Be playful.

Q: Stephen King has noted you as his "favorite suspense novelist" and you've been compared to such mystery greats as Hitchcock, Grisham, Coombs, and Diehl. Were you a mystery reader when you were growing up?

PA: I read all kinds of things, including mystery, but pure adventure was my favorite --- pirate stories, lost in the Arctic, hacking through deep jungle, all that.

Q: Fans of DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE will be thrilled to know the second book in the Echo Falls series is in the works. What we can expect from BEHIND THE CURTAIN? Is it true that just as the first book has references to ALICE IN WONDERLAND this one plays to the Oz fans?

PA: In BEHIND THE CURTAIN, Ingrid and her friends are putting on the scene where Dorothy, Woodman, Lion and Scarecrow discover that the Wizard is a fraud. At the same time, a terrible threat has come to Echo Falls, even insinuating itself in Ingrid's family. When it's almost too late, Ingrid realizes that she literally doesn't know the half of it. I can also reveal that math continues to be Ingrid's undoing and that a piglet on Grampy's farm plays an important role.

Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.

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