Episode 59: Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn

Destination Mystery

Layla faced the mirror and took a deep breath. When she went out there, she had to be effortlessly confident. She certainly looked the part, in a rose-colored Givenchy dress that complemented her olive skin and tasteful diamond earrings. She'd swept her dark hair off her neck into a smooth chignon and her makeup was perfect. She'd been prepping for this night for weeks. I can do this... -- False Idols, written by Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn Coming from a TV writing background myself, I am so excited to see the Writers' Room technique used to create a book -- in this case, False Idols, published by Serial Box. The idea of serializing stories has been used by such masters as Dickens and Conan Doyle. But this one has a twist: the installments, or "episodes," are written by three different writers: Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn. False Idols is a thriller set in Cairo, in the world of high-end art theft. Thieves stealing priceless artifacts to sell on the black market and using the money to fund terrorism -- that's the network undercover FBI agent Layla el-Deeb needs to ferret out and bring to justice. It's a thrill ride with depth, as Layla struggles to keep her own sense of self while going deep undercover. It's also not their first rodeo. Lisa Klink was kind enough to be my very first interview on Destination Mystery, when her wonderful, high-octane caper, All In, written with Joel Goldman, came out. In addition to writing for one of my favorite TV shows (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so much love for that show!), she has written novels in The Dead Man series, and so much more (BATMAN!!). Follow her, @LKKlink, on Twitter. Patrick has written short stories, criticism, and a novel, Radiant Night, which will be published later this year by Adaptive. You can find his website here, and he hangs out on Twitter as @PatrickLohier. And let's not forget Diana! She has several novels for young adults, with globe-trotting teens and international intrigue. Her most recent, Blue Voyage, gets praise and nominations from around the world, including kudos from one of my favorite YA thriller writers, Lamar Giles. Here's Diana's website, here is her author Facebook page, and, since we're doling out Twitter handles, you can find her as @dianarenn. All three writers share credit for bringing into the piece the lovely concept of Kintsukuroi, or fixing broken things with gold. They also give credit where it's due to consultant and former FBI agent Robert Wittman, and give a shout-out to his book, Priceless: How I went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures, which I, too, have read and highly recommend. Finally, did I mention that False Idols Episode 01: Operation Cairo is free on Kindle? Well, I've taken care of that now. As always, if you'd rather read than listen, the transcript is below. Enjoy! -- Laura *************************************************************************************** Transcript of interview with Lisa Klink, Patrick Lohier, and Diana Renn Laura Brennan: I am so excited to have not one, not two, but three killer guests on my show today. The wonderfully talented Lisa Klink has teamed up with Patrick Lohier and Diana Renn to create a new kind of book -- one that comes out in episodes. False Idols launched with Episode 1 on January 16th. Lisa, Patrick, and Diana, thank you for joining me. Lisa Klink: Happy to be here. LB: So let me start by asking each of you just to let me know a little bit about yourselves and your writing. Lisa, I'm going to start with you because I know you started out television. LK: Yes, I did. I started out in the world of Star Trek with Deep Space Nine and Voyager. And had a great time while I was on Voyager for three seasons, and then I went on to other shows like Hercules and Roswell and Martial Law. And was in TV for a while and then switched over to, I guess, prose or novels.