Killers

“Me neither.”

“I believe I can fix that.” Luther had returned.

He held a red plastic container.

“I’ve read that in most witch burnings, the victim died quickly from smoke inhalation,” Luther said. “Or from breathing in the fire itself. So I’m going to try my best to keep the flames on just the lower parts of your bodies.”

Luther poured gas on them. Donaldson turned his head, caught Lucy’s eyes.

“You know what, little girl? I never should have picked your ass up.”

“Hitchhiking can be dangerous, D,” Lucy said.

They reached for each other and held hands as they burned.

For the continuing adventures of Luther, read Desert Places, Locked Doors, Break You, Shaken, and Stirred, the upcoming Jack Daniels/Andrew Z. Thomas thriller by Blake Crouch and J.A. Konrath

For the previous adventures of Lucy and Donaldson, read Serial Uncut by Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn

In Which Blake and Joe Interview Each Other About the Experience of Writing KILLERS…

Joe: So here were are again. Back in 2009 we wrote SERIAL as a kind of experiment. We each created a serial killer, wrote a section without showing each other, then pitted our creations against one another to see who would win. I’m astonished that a simple 7000 word story done for our own amusement has garnered so much attention. We sold film rights, audio rights, appeared in an anthology with Stephen King (SHIVERS VI), and have given away over 350,000 ebooks. Why do you think so many people liked that story?

Blake: I think most people have a dark side, and that stories like this give them an opportunity to safely explore it.

KILLERS turned out to be quite a bit longer than SERIAL, or even really what we intended.

Joe: We had more to do in KILLERS. In SERIAL, we had to establish our baddies, then try to kill each other. In KILLERS we had to establish them, help them escape, pit them against each other, then bring in Luther. Speaking of Luther…

Blake: My favorite villain I’ve written (although Lucy is a close second) in terms of sheer writing fun. One of the interesting things we did with KILLERS, was take these two depraved human beings, two hunters (Lucy and Donaldson) and then turn the tables on them. Make them the hunted. Make them victims.

Joe: I was kinda feeling sorry for them at the end. Remind me why we brought Luther into this, other than to punish our characters.

Blake: Luther is going up against Jack Daniels in the upcoming novel we’re working on called STIRRED, which will conclude both your JD series and my Andrew Z. Thomas series. At the end of SERIAL UNCUT, Luther sees Jack Daniels on the television, talking about Donaldson. He figures if he’s going to go up against this very formidable cop, he should drop in on Donaldson and find out about their run-in (which occurred in the novella TRUCK STOP).

Joe: Luther also knew Lucy from your novella BAD GIRL. Both BAD GIRL and TRUCK STOP were combined with SERIAL to create SERIAL UNCUT. We also brought in Mr. K (the villain from my seventh JD novel, SHAKEN) and Taylor (from AFRAID and TRAPPED.)

Blake: One big, psychopathic family.

Joe: So, will we do the same thing with KILLERS? Make a KILLERS UNCUT?

Blake: I think the chances are very good that a KILLERS UNCUT will appear in the mid-March - April 2011 timeframe.

How was writing KILLERS different from writing SERIAL?

Joe: One thing we did, which I loved, was use Dropbox and Google Docs. We used Dropbox previously with Draculas (co-written with Jeff Strand and F. Paul Wilson). Dropbox is a program that lets people share the same document by saving it in a folder that appears on both people’s computers. But Google docs was new.

Blake: Google docs made the collaboration experience even better, I think, since it allowed us to type in the same document at the same time, and edit each other as we worked. With SERIAL, we wrote it by sending emails back and forth, which now seems kind of clunky. We also kept the instant message feature of Skype open while we wrote so we could ask questions and make comments as we went along.

Joe: I loved it. As with SERIAL, we didn’t read each other’s set-up scenes. So I had no idea how injured Lucy was, if she was lying, if she had weapons, etc. When we both wrote the third part, together, we were really trying to figure out what the other person was thinking. It was a lot like playing chess.

Blake: I was able to trick you into thinking Lucy was paralyzed from the waist down, and that impacted how Donaldson treated her in the final section. Also, I had Lucy hide a few crucial items in sensitive places…

Joe: When Lucy mentioned where the handcuff keys were, I IM’ed you and said “You gotta be fucking kidding…” Turned out to be a pretty fu

Let’s talk for a moment about point of view.

Blake: We each wrote our opening scenes (prior to Lucy and Donaldson getting together) from a perspective called 3rd limited, which means you write through your character’s eyes, and narrative is colored by their feelings, their view of the world, and the characters they interact with. But once Lucy and Donaldson got together, the game between you and I was on. For us to write in 3rd limited would have given away what our characters were pla

Joe: What you see is what you get. And we didn’t read each other’s opening section until after we finished the novella.

Blake: That was a fun experience, finally getting to see what you had done with Donaldson.

Joe: I made myself wince when he was taking off his arm brace.

Blake: That was one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve ever read. What is it with you and bone manipulation?

Joe: Have you ever broken a bone? Hurts like hell.

Blake: Never. Only cracked ribs, and it was miserable. The pain lasted for months.

Joe: Your opening with Lucy looking at her ski

Blake: Is this the most intense, disturbing stuff we’ve written to date? More so than the original story, SERIAL?

Joe: I du

Blake: Definitely the most graphic, and that’s not surprising since it deals with the aftermath of a terrible accident that couldn’t have happened to two more deserving people.

Joe: The original SERIAL has more than a hundred 1-star reviews on Amazon…

Blake: I think it’s possible this could top that.

Joe: Those 1-star wonders were written by people who got SERIAL for free and had no idea what to expect. I’m guessing anyone who picks this up will know what’s in store.

Blake: Boy, I hope so. Will Google docs change how people write?

Joe: We did this interview with Google docs. It’s pretty cool technology. Two writers, working on the same page at the same time, is certainly something I never expected to be able to do. I also didn’t expect it to be so intuitive, and so much fun. Easy, too.

So in KILLERS UNCUT, I want to bring in Alex and Charles Kork (serial killers from the Jack Daniels books), Sheriff Eisenhower (from ENDURANCE), Mr. K (from SHAKEN), and Jack herself. Who are you going to include from your backlist?