Marcus Sakey’s thrillers have been nominated for more than fifteen awards, named New York Time’s Editor’s Picks, and selected among Esquire’s Top 5 Books of The Year. His novels Good People and Brilliance are both in development as feature films.
First of all can you tell us a bit about your latest book, Brilliance?
The book started with an idea: what would happen to the world if 1% of the population were born with tremendous gifts, akin to savant-ism?
These ‘brilliants’ would be able to jump the world forward in many ways. But they would also be making the other 99% of us obsolete…
While some of the brilliants have amazing abilities–they can sense patterns in the stock market, or read the deepest secrets from your body language–they are the farthest thing from superheroes. They’re just people for whom these gifts are an attribute, like hair color, or height.
And yet these gifts define the way the rest of us look at them, and shape the whole course of their life…and ours.
Can you tell us a bit about the film project?
I had good fortune there. We sold the rights at auction, with six different studios participating. In the end it went to Legendary Pictures, the folks behind Inception and 300 and Watchmen and the Dark Knight and Pacific Rim and…
As you can imagine, I’m delighted. But even more so once I read the script, which was penned by David Koepp, one of the most successful screenwriters of all time. It’s dynamite.
You touch upon themes that seem very relevant in today’s world. Do you have a message?
Part of the fun of writing is having messages. Without them, it’s all gunfights and car chases, and none of it means anything. By placing this in an alternate present, I was able to satirize a number of social issues and explore some touchy political topics.
The most prevalent themes of the book are about how we deal with difference, both personally and on a broader social level. My feeling is that the most dangerous people are always those who take a hardline position–and nothing inspires that sort of extremism like difference.
With this novel, will you say that your writing is moving into a more science fiction direction?
Honestly, I don’t focus on what my writing is called. I don’t mean to sound artsy and pretentious, I just really can’t think of things in that way. For me, the point is telling a story that keeps people up past bedtime, while hopefully exploring ideas that resonate.
That said, I’m a huge sci-fi fan, always have been, so if you want to call me a sci-fi writer, it would make my day.
Tell us a little bit about the cover art for your books. Who design it? What makes you choose a particular cover?
It’s been different for different books. The industry is changing, and authors now have more opportunity to be involved in decisions like that.
For Brilliance, the design was created by a tremendous artist named Jeroen ten Berge. He and I worked closely on it, which is my way of saying I babbled in broad, vague concepts, and he kicked ass over and over until we landed on this design.
If you can’t tell, I love this cover.
How do you market your books?
I’m not really sure that you can. I’ve tried everything–mass mailings, parties, blog posts, social media, book tours, Facebook ads, even hosted a television show–and never really seen any measurable success from it.
Ultimately, I think a writer’s time is best spent writing the finest novel they can.
What is the hardest thing about writing?
The bad days, when you’ve lost faith. It happens in every book, multiple times, and there’s really nothing you can do but gut it out. If you finish, you can fix it; if you quit, there’s nothing to fix.
What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
I delight in the good ones and try to ignore the bad ones. There’s really not much else to do. I do wish that reviews were less like book reports. There was an era when reviewers had something to say about a book, when they painted context and drew conclusions. Many reviews these days are little more than plot summary.
For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
No preference. They both work, and it’s the stories I’m jonesing for, not the medium.
What kind of books do you read, any favourite authors?
I read pretty much exclusively fiction, but other than that, there are no boundaries. I think that’s why I try to ignore the genre questions–if a writer is good and their tale is compelling and thoughtful, I really don’t care what you call it.
As for favorite authors, well, how long you got? David Mitchell, Joss Whedon, Elmore Leonard, Frederick Pohl, David Foster Wallace, Richard K. Morgan, Dennis Lehane, Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Cunningham, Paulo Bacigalupi, Colin Harrison, Tom Stoppard, Tim O’Brien, Philip Roth, George Pelecanos, Aaron Sorkin, Jeannette Wintersen, Kent Anderson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arthur Phillips, Tom Perrotta, Ian McEwan, Cormac McCarthy, George Saunders, Pete Dexter, William Golding, Thomas Pynchon, Jim Harrison, Richard Price, George R.R. Martin, Laura Lippman, Michael Chabon, Jerzy Kosinski, James Crumley, William Gibson…
What’s next?
The sequel to Brilliance. It picks up shortly after the first book ends, and in it we watch the world not just get closer to the precipice, but actually tip over it. I’m having enormous fun putting society through the wringer.
You can visit Marcus Sakey at his website.
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2013
