By THIRSTY
T. Jefferson Parker has won three Edgar
Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is the author of twenty-three
novels and numerous short stories. A New
York Times bestselling author, his latest book is The Room of White Fire.
Stay Thirsty Magazine invited him to
participate in our One Hundred Words
project by writing one hundred words about topics we suggested.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Fear.
T. JEFFERSON
PARKER:
Makes me think of Aristotle, “arousing pity and fear,” as a goal of tragedy.
Can’t help it -- I was an English major. Fear sells, though. I was also a
reporter for a while, so I know that. If it bleeds it leads, Jeff. Cover that
murder. Fear smells like formaldehyde. I’ve only been truly afraid a few times
in my waking life: taking off on big waves, being attacked by Africanized
killer bees, almost being hit by a tour bus on a tiny dirt road in the Chilean
Andes. I’m often afraid in my
dreams. My wife saves me.
 |
| T. Jefferson Parker in Chile |
STAY
THIRSTY:
Love.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: No small-bore topics here! Love is the ladder we climb upon. It’s
what gets us higher. More durable than passion, more reliable than desire, more
graceful than need. Love is at the center of all my stories. Every novel I’ve
written deals with love beginning, love growing, love declining, love sometimes
eternal and love sometimes fading away. Of all the emotions, I think it’s the
one we miss most when we don’t have it. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians
describes it beautifully. Love lets us do all the beautiful things we do. It
lets us tell stories and sing songs.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Life and death.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: Good stories let those two things compete. Hemingway’s “Every
true story ends in death?” Yeah, okay. It does seem to me that the greater the
stakes, the greater the rewards, so if death is what awaits a character who
fails the test, fails to see and act properly, then you’ve written a story that
is going to get someone’s attention. When the innocent die, you’ve opened a
whole other can of worms. This won’t apply to comedy, which I suppose is
exactly why it exists in the first place. Sometimes you can’t watch The Seventh Seal, so you watch Bananas.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Race against the clock.
T. JEFFERSON
PARKER:
I’ve written cop stories, and stories about ATF agents and FBI agents and now
I’m launching a new series of books built around a private investigator. Viewed
from the outside, these are all action characters. But in real life, these
people actually spend long hours waiting, watching, searching, analyzing,
hoping for a break or a lead or the one piece of information they need. So
writers invent a clock. You need a clock to have a race, right? The tricky part
is to make it all appear natural and uncontrived. You don’t want the ticking to
be heard, only felt.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Powerful and treacherous.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: As a storyteller, I love it when the powerful and treacherous
try to make the weaker and more honest do their dirty work. I never think of
the powerful as benevolent, just or virtuous, only selfish and greedy. Is that
cynical? Or is it a useful way to view the world? Maybe it’s as simple as David
and Goliath. But maybe, power and treachery aren’t simple at all. In The Room of White Fire, they come that close to carrying the day. In some
ways, they do carry the day. They lose the battle but they’re still in the
war.
STAY
THIRSTY: Desperate.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: Over half a million people killed and five million fled, in just
six years. Think about those numbers. That’s only in
Syria and it’s not over. I used to scoff at people who wouldn’t read the news
because much of it was bad. Now, sometimes, I join them. Or I’ll start with the
sports page, then check my small town weekly for a happy story about
scholarship winners or a 4-H Champion lamb. I’ve been writing about desperation,
crime, murder, war and terror for a long time now. Aren’t novels for escape?
Naw. Sometimes you have to charge right in.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Secret.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: Once I described a character who “firmly believed in the right
to keep and bear secrets.” I like that. I like the idea you can actually have
one. Something between you and you. Maybe take it out once in a while, look at
it, decide if it’s still worth keeping. We live in a world where secrets are bad
form, downright suspicious. And getting more so by the minute. Full disclosure
on your favorite media. Endless information, endless exposure, endless
confession, endless self. People don’t make the world a better place when they
do all that. They make it worse.
STAY
THIRSTY:
Chilling.
T.
JEFFERSON PARKER: My wife Cat had a grand mal seizure in a jet as it readied for
takeoff from Guadalajara. We deplaned and took a taxi to a hospital. By then
the seizure was over and Cat was awake and aware but shaky and afraid. The
doctor did a CT scan, and when she came in with the results she had a dignified
expression. The scan was not conclusive. She told Cat to get an MRI scan done
immediately when she got back home. She gave Cat a Bible with a passage
underlined, the page marked by one of her business cards.
Link: