Harlan Coben

And I said-

I just want an opinion on it.

Like, where do I go with it from there?

And she passed it on to somebody else.

And next thing I knew, they wanted to publish it.

So I got published actually very quote unquote easily once I got published.

And I was given $1,500 advance, $1,500 American dollars.

Not that bad, given... It wasn't that good either, but I didn't care.

I really wasn't... I still don't.

I know it sounds phony.

I've never done anything... I've never done any writing things for the money.

I've certainly been financially compensated quite well, but it was just such a thrill to get published.

It was one of the great moments of my life, really.

No.

In fact, I just finished my next book that'll be out in September.

It's called Plot Twist, a memoir on writing, where I sort of did what Stephen King did with On Writing or Anne Lamott did, where it's a book on how to write mixed in with a memoir from my life, some of the stuff we're talking about, the story of my grandfather disappearing for two years, my parents' death,

Things like the nuclear missile base I mentioned, all these things are in the book and how they made me write, how those things, my real life ended up showing up in the fiction and how I write.

So no, I don't, there's not a formula other than writing.

I'm always trying to make it suspenseful and a thriller.

One of my favorite writers, a man named Elmore Leonard, who wrote The Big Short, maybe people remember that movie and some other greats.