Novelist Don Winslow and I discuss my book and his interest in its subject matter of gambling and organized crime. I gave him a copy and he asked me to sign it for him, which was an honor.
New York Times bestselling crime novelist Don Winslow is a strong candidate for the title of the World’s Most Interesting Man. At various points, he has led safaris in Africa, taught Shakespeare in London, and worked as a private investigator in New York City’s bad old days when crack vials on the streets were as plentiful as shells on a beach.
Winslow visited the Union-Tribune this week to discuss his approach to writing to an audience of reporters and editors. His latest novel, “The Force,” is being made into a motion picture with David Mamet writing the screenplay. Winslow has written about 20 novels — all of them informed by his rich life experience and deep research.
For Winslow, his books are character-driven, not plot-driven. (“I hate plot,” he said more than once, distinguishing himself from a mystery writer.) He needs to have the characters talk to him and then he simply jumps in and starts writing. Winslow, a resident of Julian in a remote part of eastern San Diego County, works between 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (with a break for a run or walk) and typically takes only Sundays off. He said he “writes fast, rewrites slow” and does up to 14 drafts of a book.
Winslow generously signed my copy of “The Cartel,” which he suggested is probably not the best book to take on my upcoming beach vacation.
Winslow’s books are infused with real-world experience. For “The Force,” he drew on decades of relationships with NYPD officers for insight into their inner lives. As a fiction writer, Winslow is able to guarantee their anonymity and never takes notes during interviews to make sources feel at ease. “Most people want their stories told,” he said.
The novelist is an avid consumer of journalism (he reads the U-T twice a day online because his house is too isolated for print delivery) and has strong feelings about the current political scene. He says the “war on drugs” ignores that the enormous American appetite for drugs is the true source of the problem, not what’s happening in Mexico. As a society, Americans need to examine the reasons behind drug consumption and treat it as a public health problem through education and treatment. Winslow says the “war on drugs” has failed given that narcotics are more plentiful, cheaper and more lethal than ever before, and he added that we’d be better off legalizing all drugs.
Winslow is as good a storyteller in person as on the page, and San Diegans are lucky to count him as one of their own.