#BookmarkThis: Eric Jerome Dickey dishes on 'Finding Gideon'
Fans have been waiting since 2009 for the return of Gideon, the sexy and mysterious hit man who stars in five of Eric Jerome Dickey’s best-selling novels. Gideon’s now back and battling international mercenaries in Dickey’s latest thriller, Finding Gideon (Dutton). The author spoke with USA TODAY’s Carly Mallenbaum and took fan questions on Facebook Live as part of the #BookmarkThis series. Here are the highlights:
Q: Tell us about your new book.
A: It’s actually a sequel to Resurrecting Midnight. So it’s a lot of adventure. Gideon is an assassin and we have this whole gallery of characters in his universe, from con men to killers to lying mothers. When you say it, it sounds like, “Oh my god, these are horrible people.” But when you read it they bring so much suspense and drama. I think they’re so unpredictable. They don’t have the moral compass that Joe Average or Jane Average would have.
Q: What took so long to bring Gideon back?
A: It wasn’t intentional, this delay. I actually had started working on this Gideon book immediately after Resurrecting Midnight but got derailed because I had to do a couple other projects. And I had a couple of false starts.
Q:Who is your favorite character to write about?
A: Oh gosh. I really enjoy writing about Shotgun. He’s on Gideon’s team; he’s this huge, hulking ex-boxer who’s illiterate. He’s illiterate but he knows how to survive. If we lost all power, he knows how to get food out of the ground. A lot of people, if there’s not a Trader Joe’s around, they’re going to starve to death. I don’t judge him if he’s read Faulkner or not. Also, Shotgun, being a black man in the South, there are other things he has to be able to do to survive as well. You’re part of a subculture and you have to participate in, survive and deal with another culture. That’s just reality.
Q:What’s the key to writing erotica without it sounding too clinical but also not too graphic? How do you find that balance? Are you best friends with a Thesaurus? You do make it sound sexy.
A: Thank you, thank you! I’ve read bad erotica; even reading bad erotica, you learn from that. (Bad erotica) sounds really clinical, like you’re writing about two machines functioning. You leave out the emotional aspect of it. (With good erotica), hopefully it feels believable. You can tell it's working, especially with an erotic scene, when you give it to your friends and you say, "What do you think about this?" and they say, "Give me more."
Q: If the Gideon series were to be made for TV or the movies, who would you cast to play him?
A: People have associated actors with Gideon when they’ve talked to me and I’ve just played along (laughs). A lot of times who’s cast is the hot guy of the moment, the heartthrob of the moment, and my thing would be someone who could actually do the role. I would be big on casting an unknown.