Interview With Thriller/Mystery Author: RJ Jacobs

RJ Jacobs has practiced as a psychologist since 2003. His first thriller And Then You Were Gone, was published in 2019 and his second one, Somewhere In The Dark, in 2020.

This September, his newest thriller, Always the First to Die, will be released. Wonder Women Sixty appreciates the time he has taken out of his busy schedule to give us this exclusive interview:

I haven’t had a chance to read your first two books, but I just finished Always The First To Die – I simply could NOT put it down. When did you realize you had a talent for writing?

I started writing when I was in college.  I came up with two short and plotless novels that were absolutely abysmal.  That’s not humility, it’s true.  Some writers begin with preternatural talent but most of us have to persist through frustrations and setbacks and “keep the pencil moving” as my high school English teacher once encouraged me to do.  I think writing, like most skills, gets better the more you practice and I’ve benefited greatly from working with thoughtful, tough editors who’ve given me pointed advice along the way.  Their feedback has sharpened my writing process quite a bit.

You still have a full-time practice and long-standing career in Tennessee. What made you decide to start writing thrillers/mysteries?

The only writing classes I got to take in college were in scriptwriting.  My professor was an enormous fan of action and horror movies, and his affection for them definitely rubbed off on me.  I like to tell an exciting story.

I set aside writing fiction during grad school but always intended to get back to it when the time was right.  Just before my fortieth birthday, I decided I would give it another shot.  I bought the laptop I still use and carved out some time to start working on a novel.  Balancing full-time work, family life, and writing is definitely a challenge — I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a few years now — but fiction sometimes is a nice refuge from the patient-facing work I do.  it’s a private, imaginary world I get to visit.

How did you come up with the plot for Always the First to Die?

It’s hard to explain how ideas occur to me, they mostly seem to pop into my mind.  Sometimes I’m looking for one but other times, I’m not.  It’s like the ideas find me.  It was something like that with Always the First to Die.  A few years ago over the holidays, a relative was telling me about some legal work they’d done in the Keys and I started thinking about how unique that culture is.  It’s a place that’s really unlike anywhere else, it’s own cultural ecosystem.  A few days later, I pieced the setting together with another idea I’d been kicking around for some time:  what if a security camera captured something seemingly impossible?  How could it be explained?  One thing led to another and pretty soon I had a working plot.  I wanted to raise the stakes, of course, so I added a hurricane.

Out of the three books you’ve written, which one was the toughest to write and why?

The first was the hardest to write because I didn’t know very much about what I was doing.  I think I learn from each book about how to tell an effective story and about what readers’ expectations will be.  When you’re first starting out, it’s the huge leap of faith — there’s no agent or editor, no cover or title — those can be like guardrails on the side of a highway, helping a writer stay focused and moving in the right direction.

I’m sure you’re very busy these days working/writing, but what do you enjoy doing when you have some downtime?

It’s a busy time, for sure.  Outside of writing and work, I mostly try to spend time with my kids and get some fresh air.  The pandemic really made me appreciate being outdoors.  Running has always been a huge source of energy for me.  A few years ago, I started writing down the best parts of my day before I went to sleep, just a way of reflecting on how I was spending my time.  More often than not, the highlight of my day was a morning run — it’s very healthy and helps me keep my head screwed on straight.  Sometimes I listen to music as I go, but other times, especially if I’m on a trail, I try to stay present and clear my thoughts away.

Are there any plans for future books?

The next book should be out in fall 2023, and the working title is:  This is How We End Things.  The story is about a group of psychology graduate students running an experiment on deception.  After one of the subjects becomes unsettled, the professor in charge decides to suspend their research for the time being.  Some of the grad students side with him but others don’t and resentments bloom.  That night, one of them is killed in the department.  I wanted to write a classic locked room mystery in a setting I’m very familiar with:  an academic department.  There’s a lot of mistrust of psychology in the world, but I hope the story is a lot of fun.

Many thanks again, to RJ Jacobs for this candid and insightful interview with Wonder Women Sixty. For a full review of Always the First to Die, visit the “books/mystery” category on this site.

Always the First to Die is published by  Sourcebooks/photo provided by author.