Joshua Corin: Nuclear Winter Wonderland

Title:  Nuclear Winter Wonderland
Author: Joshua Corin
Publisher:  Kunati Books
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1601641601

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

In my novel NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND, Adam Weiss must rescue his kidnapped sister from a depressed terrorist intent on detonating the world on Christmas Eve.  Just your everyday roller coaster of thrills, chills, giggles, casinos, strip clubs, Mennonites, mobsters, planes, trains, boats, and female Spanish-speaking clowns. 

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

The journey my novel took to publication is almost as quirky as the novel itself.  A few years ago, a Hollywood producer found one of my scripts on a website which hosted award-winning screenplays, liked what she read, and asked me if I had anything else.  I’d just finished the first draft of NUCLEAR WINTER WONDERLAND and I sent her the first three chapters.  Twenty-four hours later, she begged me (!) for the rest of the novel.  Twenty-four hours after that (!!), she’d had the whole novel read.  She loved it, and optioned it on the spot.  This led to my acquiring my agent at ICM which led to my manuscript being sent out to publishers which led to Kunati Books making me an offer which led to where we are today. 

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

Actually, I just finished my 2nd novel.  It’s tentatively entitled GALILEO and it’s about a serial killer sniper and the former FBI agent turned Long Island housewife who holds the key to tracking him down.  Fewer giggles this time, but more bullets.  Many more bullets. 

4. What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I write every day, and by day I mean night.  When I was younger, the nighttime was the only time I could have reliable access to the typewriter/computer and I guess the habit stuck.  Plus, there’s something mysterious and magical about 3am, isn’t there?  As to outlining, etc., I don’t write until I have the overall structure of the plot, which especially includes the ending.  In a mystery/thriller, every step must build to the ending or it’s a waste of the reader’s time, which makes it a waste of the writer’s time. 

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

I love cats.  I even love dogs, although I used to be afraid of them.  Some of my favorite bookstores, such as Shakespeare & Co. by NYU,  contain cats, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.  The Egyptians worshipped cats, but then again they also inserted hooks into the nostrils of their dead kings to suck out their brains, so who knows?