With Ladder in Hand, Gayle Lynds Went Dumpster Diving

Had she not, would the International Thriller Writers organization exist today?

Bestselling spy novelist Gayle Lynds likes doing research. No where was that more evident than when she was looking for ideas for her very first thriller under her own name (she’d ghost-written several).

While reading her morning newspaper, she came across a story about the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the largest private bank in the world. It was caught in a scandal of international money laundering and self-dealing.

But it wasn’t until several days later that it occurred to her, that story was great material for a novel. In fact, it was exactly what she needed. “I was fascinated, especially with all the links to espionage,” to say nothing of all of the rich and powerful people and international locales. Perfect for a thriller manuscript. 

She looked around the house and realized she’d already thrown out all of her old newspapers. “I realized the newspaper stories would be perfect for Masquerade (her first novel under her name). I never had a lot of shame when it came to good research.”

So, she did what every enterprising young writer does. She went dumpster diving in the Mesa neighborhood of Santa Barbara.

“I got a ladder. I jumped in. It was behind a strip mall, and I began digging for newspapers.”

Her fascination with financial crimes didn’t stop there. A little over a year later she and her husband were in Las Vegas at the poker table when an electronic ticker in the casino announced American investor George Soros had broken the Bank of England, earning himself a billion dollars in a single day. 

“I was winning at seven card stud. It’s bad form to leave a poker table when one is up a lot, but I grabbed my chips and excused myself. Ribbing and boos followed as I hurried off. My brain was afire. I knew I could use the bones of the story somehow in Masquerade, and now I had to figure out how.”

This time, instead of looking for the nearest dumpster, she ran to the nearest newsstand and purchased several papers. She hurried to her hotel room and immediately started reading. “I knew from the get-go that it’d give me what I was looking for.”

And it did. That was the beginning of Masquerade, and her successful writing career. Not only was Masquerade her first thriller, but a New York Times bestseller that put her on the map. And in so doing, she eventually, joined with Rambo’s creator, novelist David Morrell, and started the International Thriller Writers, now the largest writer’s organization of any genre.

Now think about this. Had she not gone dumpster diving that day, which eventually launched her novelist career, would she have ever gotten together with David Morrell? And if not, would ITW exist today?

I’m Rick Pullen, former investigative reporter, magazine editor, and author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice. I’m also a magazine columnist and feature writer. Currently, I’m working on my next crime novel and a non-fiction book about many of the authors who appear in Idol Talk.

Literary Agent Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management represents my work.

Thanks for reading Idol Talk! Subscribe for free or support my work with a paid subscription. — Rick Pullen