This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast. More what You Hear
weekday afternoons on the Drive. New York Times number one best selling author Joe
Nesbo has his latest release, which is as timely as the season. It's
called The Nighthouse and it's his first ever horror novel. Joe, good to
have you along today. What Hitchcock did for taking a shower, you do
for answering the phone, Yeah, thank you, thank you. It was
actually the starting out idea of the whole novel was that prime call that two
boys do a little in the novel, and it's the wrong time call because
what happens is that the boy starts getting sucked into the receiving end of the
of the telephone and soon is gone. So it was it was actually the
working title of the novel was the Meat Eating Telephone. It ended up being
instead. Yeah, that that had that title. That gave away a little
too much probably, well not really, it was. I think the publishers
thought it was too funny. I I actually thought for that it for a
long time, but they insisted that it should be called The Nighthouse. So
in the end I gave him, uh, celebrating and showcasing his gifts for
immersive settings and memorable characters. Joe Nesbo has a new first horror novel.
It's called The Nighthouse. We're talking to him about it now, what what
inspired you to write something in this genre as opposed to your previous genres?
Well, up until now, I'm probably best known for writing mystery stories.
Who's done crime novels. It's sort of a hard boiled detective style with my
protagonist Harry hole this. But then again, I've written I'm in short stories,
children's books, and uh, for me, it's the story. The
I D four story is is my only boss, And it just happened that
I. I had this idea one morning about like you open with the prank
call and this meat eating telephone, and I realized that, Okay, so
my boss has given me in order to write this novel, I will have
to obey. So I I sat down and I started writing about this Richard
Loved who is set to his uncle and aunt after his parents died in a
house fire. Early on, we're not told exactly the circumstances of that fire.
Well learn that later, but he is is this guy who is not
is not very a very likable boy and definitely his his classmates they hate him.
Uh. And when they make this Frank call him and and his friend
Tom, he's accused of being responsible for Tom's disappearance, and later on also
and other classmates Mat disappears and so he's he's hunted by the police and uh.
He's also hunted by the owner of the Nighthouse, which is kind of
the monster in this story. The Nighthouse is the name of the story.
It's a novel. When the voices called don't answer, Joan Nesbo is with
us uh and he as as with many of the of the horror novels and
your colleagues like Grady Hendrix and Stephen King, there's a bit of coming of
age in the story as well. Mhm. Yeah, it seems like that
is the tradition of the horror story. And this is the story that I
wanted, you know, well, within the tradition of the horror story.
And it seems like teenagers goes well together with the horror stories. Maybe it's
something about the innocence of being a teenager. I mean, the American tradition
is that if you're not a virgin, you are going to die early on
in the horror story, and I just love those those rules of the the
horror story to have that very defined genre. For some people that that limit
their creativity. For me, it's the opposite that. I mean, I
before I became a writer, I was was a songwriter, and I just
loved writing, you know, three and a half many pop songs, three
verses and refraining also very you know, strict rules and uh and and genres
and and in the case of the Nighthouse, I also give myself the liberty
of playing with those rules and and at times breaking those rules. So maybe
not a spoil A little bit of warning to the warning to the readers is
that not be too sure that what you're reading is really what's going on,
because this may be a book about a book about the book. The book
is the night House. When the voice is called, don't answer. Joe
nesbo is with us. He's the author. You mentioned the creative process.
Let's talk about that for a moment with you. Are you the type that
keeps a notebook where you write down ideas as they come to you or is
it more organic than that. I mean, I'll write down the ideas in
a notebook, but I'm more like when I come up with an idea,
if I'm not working on something else, I will get to work straight away
and just you know, start a synopsis. And it's not like a couple
of pages. The synopsis will, if you know, often be fifty pages
long, and I will normally I'll do that in you know, a few
days, and so I will first have a first draft of a story,
and then I will really work that draft. So before I write chapter one
of the story, I will have maybe a synopsis that is one hundred pages
long with bits of dialogue in it. For me, I mean, writers
are are different. Some are work more like they get morning and they sit
down by the blacktop or pipewriter and they you know, so let's see what
is going to happen today. And some writers that works fine, and they
you know, they have they write great stories. But for me, I
like the feeling that I can tell my readers, you know, come sit
closer because I have this great story to tell you. It's not something I'm
making up as we go along. I have everything prepared. I know exactly
whoever we going. Trust me. I like that there's a writer. Actually,
I guess I like that as a reader, also to the feeling that
you know, this is a story that that is being retold, It's already
there, the kind of stories that you know Mark Twain will tell you,
or those great American you know, storytellers will The Night House, a novel
by Joe Nesbo, become the next great American story. You'll have to decide
by reading it for yourself and Joe Nesbo, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation