Ask the Author: Stephen Hunter
Answered Questions (15)
Stephen Hunter
I had the 'new approach' first; that's where I RIPPER started. I wouldn't have written the book without it. At one point someone said to me, "Steve, are you aware that there are ALREADY 2,000 Ripper books out there?" Well, actually, I was, but being shameless and fearless I crashed ahead, manly because the "new approach" was so beguiling to me, I couldn't deny it. Thus, "I, Ripper," take it or leave it.
Stephen Hunter
I needed a vacation. Whitechapel seemed like an interesting spot.
Stephen Hunter
Good question, not sure of answer. I didn't make a special effort to keep them separate but I think as I've gotten older I've gotten free-er as a novelist and I make remarks or insert joke or ironies that were my stock in trade in film criticism. Good thing, bad thing? Again, I don't know. You tell me.
Stephen Hunter
No Swagger movies in works for now, though DIRTY WHITE BOYS is due for a movie soon and HOT SPRINGS is "in development" (?!!?) As for Mark's Bob, I think it was a credible performance by a capable young star, but of course my Bob was older, a Nam vet, with a complex family past, and yes, I missed all that.
Stephen Hunter
I have very intense policies on a variety of Jack theories, including Ms. Cornwell's, and I have a theory of my own on who historical Jack was but it's took complex to go into here. I do hope to find a venue for this argument, whether it's via Simon and Schuster or some other sponsor, or self-published on the Net (you can make a lot of money that way, am I right, people?) Whatever, with that project and the book of Charles, it's going to be a busy year.
Stephen Hunter
Seen a lot of the History Channel stuff and though it's shallow, it's usually compelling. Can't figure out why they don't use ME as a talking head, I could use the pub. (I do appear, talking head and all, on Michael Bane's GUN STORIES on Outdoor Channel.) I also can't figure out why HC hasn't done something on the 1950 Truman Assassination attempt, upon which I wrote a book. I could use the money and even more pub.
Stephen Hunter
Outline, outline, outline. I have to know where it's going and why before I commit to the long trek.Don't want to be struck for a plot twist at 3 a.m. Only bad things can happen. Write on computer, a Dell, I think, use what used to be called WordPerfect and is now something else. Computer is dedicated, not connected to net so I don't go wandering off on Japanese porn sites in the middle of the afternoon.
Stephen Hunter
Finding the rhythm. Everyone has to sound unique, and none of them can sound like me. If you don't get that, he'll never come alive, no matter how much description you pile on.
Stephen Hunter
Very good film, and it pushed my principle idea of sniper as human being with vulnerabilities and connections to society,as opposed to a robotic killing machine. I think that's my contribution, not that others wouldn't have made it sooner or later. I wish the filmmakers had done a little bit more on some of the shooting aspects, like explaining what he'd have to do to make a very long shot like the one he did,but I do understand that it's tough call between technical accuracy and putting general audience to sleep. But believe me, it takes more to hit at a mile than cranking your elevation knob out to max!
Stephen Hunter
I am yes and yes, though I don't hunt any more (arthritic hip, reluctance to fly, too much walking). I shoot a lot, love it and probably need it. The guns have always been a reliable provocateur to my imagination. In fact, each book probably either starts with or quickly choses a certain specific gun as its central icon. I've got a doozy for the the Charles book in mind.
Stephen Hunter
He started out as Hathcock, but never came alive, so I had to loosen up and see where HE wanted to go. Four drafts and five years later, it was finished. And when I was done with that book, I wanted to know more, so I wrote some other Bob books. Then I wanted to know about his father, and the only way to learn was to write the Earl books. Now I'm thinking about a Charles Swagger book, Charles being the Darth Vader of the Swaggers, Bob's grandfather, Earl's father. I've also plotted an origins book, tracing the Swaggers back to Revolutionary War Times, but the war in the south, dark and bloody, where WE were the Viet Cong and won by outbleeding an industrial nation. Nobody wanted to buy it, alas, and I realize now it will probably never get written, but I do have a very good explanation of the Swagger family gene for the firearm dating from that period, which I would like to get into print somehow, believing that you guys would find it interesting. One problem: I hate the shoes of the revolutionary period, all those buckled heels over silk hose. No thank you. As a Bass Weejun kind of guy, I would put my characters in boots or moccasins, thank you very much.
Stephen Hunter
The sniper was the "Faustian intellectual" of war, who knew more than anyone but whose activities earned him nothing but exile. I found that very provocative. I used the great USMC hero Carlos Hathcock as a model; CH had lost his spotter in Vietnam, and so it wasn't a sniper I was creating, it was a sniper riven with grief. I found that very interesting, far more so than an invulnerable Rambo type of goon.
Stephen Hunter
Quite the contrary, I find it exhilarating. For some reason, I'm at my best in a "closed system" and setting something within the parameters of historical reality is extremely pleasing to me. On other hand, could NEVER write something like "Dune" or anything from Roger Zelazny because the lack of rules would give me so much freedom I'd sputter and choke.
Stephen Hunter
I believe not. I have been disappointed how uninterested the conspiracy people are in my speculations. It's like they committed to a joint CIA-Sears, Roebuck-Albanian Boy Scout theory of the plot, and anything else is unreal to them. I think they need to get out more.
Stephen Hunter
When I read, I loved le Carre (cold war le Carre, that is), Ambler, many of the other Brits, Chandler, Connelley, the great Richard Condon, Lee Childs, and of course Thomas Harris. I read lots of stuff called "literary" as well, from Updike to Fowles to the US Greats (esp. Faulkner and Hemingway), Mailer, Malamud, all the post-war guys, loved "The Young Lions," loved "The Caine Mutiny," loved "Run Silent, Run Deep," loved "The Naked and the Dead," loved loved loved "Catch-22."
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