Interview with Mike Nichols
by Jon Jordan

July 2002


JON: Your first book, The Waking, just came out this June. Can you
tell a little about it? How would you describe it to someone?

MIKE: It's a mystery, which to me means that it is plot-driven and that there is a crime. The crime happens to be a murder. I hope readers see the book as something more than just a crossword puzzle, however. I intentionally limited the number of characters and spent quite a large portion of the book developing them. I hope readers get a kick out of trying to solve the Whodunnit aspect, but I also hope it makes people think a little bit about issues such as how we form our desires, what envy is and how easy it is to find yourself succumbing to evil.

JON: How long did it take you to write the book?

MIKE: Way, way too long. I started way back in 1992, and worked on it sporadically (very sporadically) until about 1997. It was the proverbial unfinished novel in the drawer (or on the hard-drive, as it were) and I would pull it out every once in a while and work on it, then get distracted by a move to a different house or another baby (we have three young kids). Around 97, I finally got serious about it, and worked somewhat consistently on it in 97, 98 and 99. Finished it, for the most part, in 2000.

JON: Did your experience as a reporter help?

MIKE: In a couple ways, actually. I was a court reporter (covered Federal Courts in Milwaukee) when I started it, and still spend five days a week in a newsroom. Not everything in the book would happen in court or at a newspaper, of course. It's fiction. But the day job, I think, did help me provide a measure of authenticity. More important, perhaps, is the fact that I need to write almost every day for the newspaper in order to collect a check. Having editors scrutinize your work provides a certain discipline - a voice in your head - that stays with you when you turn on the computer at home. Listen to the voice. In the end, you will either be a writer or, I guess, the resident of an asylum.

JON: What kind of effort went into finding an agent and publisher?

MIKE: I was lucky. A colleague of mine, a great writer and a good guy, has written quite a bit of non-fiction. He has an agent and offered to pass my manuscript on to her. I didn't know it at the time, but she is one of the best in New York. (That's not just blowing smoke. Her name is Flip Brophy and she is president of Sterling Lord Literistic). Flip is a very smart reader and made a few suggestions right away that made it a better book. After I made a few changes, she sent it out and immediately got two offers from major publishers. I talked to editors at both houses and decided to go with Carolyn Marino at HarperCollins. She is fantastic.

JON: Are you working on another book? And what can you say about it? I would guess it won’t be a sequel.

MIKE: Yes, I am definitely going to do another book. I am trying to find time to finalize a detailed outline and a couple sample chapters and hope to sell the idea in the near future. There is going to be a strong element of mystery again, but it won't be a sequel. I see The Waking as a stand-alone for reasons that, when folks read the book, I think are pretty obvious.

JON: What are your writing habits like? Do you write at night, weekends? Do you have an idea where the book is going to go when you start or do you follow the characters where they lead you?

MIKE: I like to write in the morning, but it's not always possible. Jane, my wife, has been great about the whole thing but she has her own job and is usually out of the house by 7 a.m. during the school year. The kids usually get up around that same time so any writing needs to be done before that (not to mention getting the paper read). I ended up squeezing in half-hours whenever I could. It was a really inefficient way of doing a book, but I'm not wealthy and need to work. during the day.

The second question is a little tougher. The Waking is a plot-driven book, but I actually had a much firmer vision of some of the characters when I started than what they were going to do. I knew the ending early on, in other words, but wasn't always sure how to get there. I'd find myself, at times, with an idea, but no way to make the characters do what I wanted. Sometimes they just won't listen to you, so I'd have to get them to do something else. For me, it works both ways. Plot stems from character. Character stems from plot. There were times when I thought I had written something wonderful, but just couldn't fit it within the context of the book or the context of the characters involved.

JON: What kind of resources do you use for research?

MIKE: I have two friends, lawyers both, who gave me some advice on legal aspects. I called my father-in-law, a doctor, at one point to ask a medical question. Mostly, though, I read books and did research on the Internet. For example, I bought a book about Glocks on Amazon. I, as another example, found some web sites about drugs and legal issues related to prosecuting drug cases that were very helpful.


JON: As a new author, just starting to do all the peripheral things involved with being an author, how do you find it? Do you enjoy the signings?

MIKE: You were at my first signing at Mystery One. It was a helluva lot of fun for me, but I confess I could have been more comfortable with it. Since then (a couple weeks) I have done four other signings in Milwaukee and Minneapolis, and have enjoyed them quite a bit.

JON: Have you given any thought to doing a webpage?

MIKE: I might do that at some point, and make it interactive. I think the big advantage there would be feedback from readers. That's
invaluable, and I'd like to find a way to hear directly from more people about what they liked, didn't like, etc.

JON: What are some books you’ve enjoyed reading?

MIKE: Most recently: Dennis Lehane's Mystic River, James Cain's Double Indemnity, Disobedience by Jane Hamilton and The Third Option by Vince Flynn. I wish I had more time for reading.

JON: How important is it to have an understanding spouse when you are spending a lot of time in front of a keyboard working on a book?

MIKE: Beats divorce.

JON: How do you like to spend your free time? Do you have any free time?

MIKE: I write in my free time, or read, or run. I like to golf, but I suck. I used to be able to say that I had never had a lesson but last summer I decided to take a couple and now I don't even have an excuse. I still suck.

JON: What kind of movies do you like?

MIKE: Anything with Hilary Swank.

JON: Any nibbles from Hollywood?

MIKE: Yes, from Hilary Swank.

Seriously, I really liked Boys Don't Cry and that was long before Hilary and her husband, Chad Lowe, purchased an option on the movie rights to The Waking. I'm actually thinking about going and seeing Insomnia tonight. Hard to predict if The Waking will ever be a movie. I would have doubted it last winter because it rarely happens, but then my agent said Hilary and Chad had read the book and loved it. I went out to New York a couple months ago and had dinner with them and talked about the book and they are very enthusiastic about making a movie. They have been talking to a small number of people they'd like to work with and seem committed to doing something. I hope it happens, but even if it doesn't it's neat that it's even gotten this far.

JON: Looking back, if you could give advice to a teenage Mike, what would you tell him?

MIKE: Forty will be here before you know it. The cliche is true. Time flies. Find something you like, something you are interested in,
something that you think will make a difference and do that. If you do, anything can happen.

JON: Do you think it’s important to be honest with the reader, or do you prefer to treat it like a game between you and the reader?

MIKE: That's really good question with only one answer. Readers wonder throughout The Waking if Will is a reliable narrator, if he is telling the entire story, or if he is intentionally withholding details to make himself look better. I think all of us tell stories about ourselves in certain ways that make ourselves look better. That's okay. People know that. Readers know that. But in the end, you have to be honest. Will has to be honest - at least about who he is and what he has and has not done. The last thing I
want to do to a reader, someone who has trusted me enough to spend five hours or whatever reading my book, is to make the whole thing a game or a trick.

JON: Are any of your characters drawn from real people?

MIKE: Sure. And in the beginning I thought they would actually resemble those people. In the end, they didn't. They were darker in some instances, or not as capable, or just different in a variety of ways. Characters really do take on a life of their own. They become composites.

JON: Who was the best James Bond?

MIKE: When I think of Bond, I think of Sean Connery first, then Roger Moore.

JON: Was the setting of the book important? Would it have worked somewhere else? And was the setting modeled on a real place?

MIKE: It's totally fictitious, but it seemed right to me. In fact, I really don't think it would have worked someplace substantially
different. A lot of people assume Droughton is in Minnesota. It's not necessarily, although I grew up in the Twin Cities and am familiar with the area. It could just as easily be part of western Wisconsin, which runs up within half an hour of the outskirts of the Twin Cities. I started out with a slightly smaller town but thought that it was more realistic, more plausible given some of the crime and whatnot, to have a larger place. On the other hand, I wanted a city that readers could get their minds around. I won't do a sequel per se, but I might use Drougton in another book.

JON: What’s the one thing that’s always in your refrigerator?

MIKE: A pitcher of juice. I pour the kids a cup every morning, right when they get up.