Coben Comes Calling

July 2, 2015

Seven-Time NY Times Bestselling Author Hits TC July 9

Traverse City gets a rare treat July 9 when bestselling author Harlan Coben visits the National Writers Series. With 60 million of his books in print and seven straight New York Times number-one bestsellers in a row, Coben is one of the most prolific and commercially successful authors in the world. He’s also relaxed, engaging, down to earth and grateful for family and fans.

Such an enthusiastic response to his thriller novels, he admits, “changes life,” but he said it doesn’t change the hard work of writing.

“Writing can be tortuous. I still sit there staring at a blank page and thinking I’m out of ideas and can’t write anymore. It happens all the time,” he said.

Eventually, he pulls it all together. “I don’t like writing, but I like having written,” he said. “Most of the euphoria comes in getting it done.”

Clearly, his moments of writer’s block seldom last long. Coben typically writes a new book every year. So far, this has yielded 27 novels: 10 in the highly popular Myron Bolitar series, three featuring Mickey Bolitar, and 14 stand-alone thrillers, including his latest, “The Stranger,” in which Booklist magazine said Coben has “expertly constructed and then dismantled a time bomb of a plot.”

At his July 9 appearance, coinciding with the National Cherry Festival, Coben will have a conversation with Traverse City-based author Doug Stanton, himself a nationallyknown writer with two New York Times bestsellers to his credit and co-founder of the National Writers Series. Among other topics, the two authors will discuss the plot line of “The Stranger” — the ways a couple confronts the shocking secret on which their marriage is built.

“This is a rare chance to see a writer of his stature in an informal setting,” Stanton said. “I’ll sit down for about an hour with him and try to find out what he’s like as a person, how he writes, why he thinks his thriller novels are so popular.”

After the hosted discussion, there will be 20 minutes of questions from the audience, with a book signing to follow.

Helping the audience discover the real Coben, might not be all that difficult. Most of the time he leads a rather normal life with his pediatrician wife and four children — and judging from the barking during our interview, at least two rambunctious dogs — in the suburbs of New Jersey.

In fact, suburbs much like his own play a crucial role as the backdrop for many of his best-known thrillers. For those new to his work, that may sound like the ultimate in humdrum atmosphere, but, in Coben’s hands, just the opposite is true — very little is what it seems at first.

“Suburbs are the battlefield of the American Dream,” he said.

Coben juxtaposes the surface sense of suburban order and normalcy against often jarring, behind-the-scenes realities that emerge in surprising ways. He captures — and holds — the reader’s attention not so much with violence as with surprising, seemingly inexplicable events like sudden disappearances, reappearances of those supposedly dead, and intriguing plots leading in multiple directions. His sharply drawn characters might seem incredibly ordinary, but they soon surprise and shock readers with the complexity of their lives.

“As you get older, you know things; you’ve seen a lot,” he said.

For Coben, the suburbs are “where we go to live our lives, to do right and to raise our children,” but where — at least in his novels — “wrong still seems to Michael find us.”

His long streak of commercial success is something Coben never takes for granted.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said.

“I’m really grateful for readers like the ones I’ll meet in Traverse City. They’ve invested their money and, most importantly, their time in me. To have them passionate about my work is an honor.”

Success on Coben’s scale could, in less disciplined hands, be distracting. His thriller “Tell No One” became a highly acclaimed French movie and he has a 10-part television show, “The Five,” in Great Britain, a stand-alone work that features a Coben-esque twist: the disappearance and possible return of a young boy who may never have actually left. Coben’s trip to Traverse City – his first visit here – comes on the heels of the premiere in France of another television series, “No Second Chance,” which is based on his 2003 stand-alone novel of the same name.

In these respects, his life is anything but ordinary, but when he’s home, family obligations — taking children to school and other staples of fatherhood — keep him grounded.

“Hobbies?” he asked. “Four kids is a lot of hobby.”

With so much commercial success, he’s often asked for writing tips.

“I treat writing like a job,” he said. “When you call a plumber who has four kids, he comes out and does the job. My attitude is the same.”

Coben focuses on engaging his readers at every turn.

“I try to write books that keep you up all night — ones you just can’t put down. If you’re not genuinely moved by these characters, I haven’t done my job.”

He concentrates on what he can control — the daily task of writing — instead of the pressure of satisfying fans and critics across the world awaiting his next blockbuster.

“My advice to writers is, don’t worry about the reception you might get. That’s a huge mistake. I think it’s a much better idea to write the book you love and care about. I tell myself to just focus on writing a better book than the one before.”

Most of his initial plot lines come from situations he sees or hears about in real life.

“I’m always asking, ‘What if?’ What if your life seemed so ordinary, but then something totally unexpected happened?” Coben listens and watches the world around him with great care, which may explain why he likes to write in public places.

“I don’t have an office at home or even a steady place where I work,” he said. “I just use whatever place is working for me at the time. Sometimes it’s a coffee shop, sometimes an airplane, just as long as I’m writing well. In terms of location, it’s constantly changing. To me, it’s like riding a horse. You stay on it until you drop off. Then you find a new place.”

Another piece of writing advice he shares is to avoid the lull between books. Coben describes feeling “like an empty vessel” once a book is written and submitted. The best thing, he said, is to immediately start writing the next book.

Stanton, a longtime Coben fan, calls “The Stranger,” “a critique of modern suburban culture.”

“He has delivered a very precise portrait of America. It’s interesting. He’s taken everyone’s worst fear and shaped it into something that threatens to upend the characters’ lives.”

The National Writers Series event featuring Harlan Coben begins at 7pm, Thursday, July 9 at the City Opera House in Traverse City. Doors open at 6pm. Tickets are available at cityoperahouse. org, by visiting the City Opera House box office or by calling 231-941-8082. For an extra charge, audience members can purchase “The Stranger” for autographing at the event.