Anthony E. Zuiker

<p><i>CSI: Crime Scene Investigation</i> creator <font color=yellow>Anthony E. Zuiker</font> prides himself on being on the cutting edge of entertainment, looking forward to the next great way to reach the masses. He embraces technology in all its forms, from using <A class="link" HREF="http://twitter.com/zuiker">Twitter</a> to writing his first <A class="link" HREF="http://www.thewrap.com/article/csi-guy-tries-make-history-digi-novel_4409?page=1 ">blog</a> to typing out entire scripts on his Blackberry. He's not afraid of taking risks, either, as evinced by his latest project: the first digital novel, <i><A class="link" HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525951253/trektoday">Level 26: Dark Origins</a></i>, which will be published on September 8th by Dutton. The digital component comes in with <A class="link" HREF="http://www.level26.com/comic-con/">level26.com</a>, an interactive website which launches on July 23rd. Among other things, the website will feature twenty "bridges"--two-three minute scenes that will give readers a glimpse into the world of the book and allow them to see the characters come to life.<p>"It all started with the writers' strike," Zuiker says. "The second the writers' strike started and we weren't on what I call the hamster-wheel of television, I went back to Vegas for a couple of months. It was at that point when I could complete a thought and say, 'What's next? What is the future of where technology is going? How do I bridge Hollywood and Silicon Valley?' I've been thinking about that for years. I was ridiculed by a lot of people for focusing on that before its time, but I'm glad I did because I'm really at the forefront of it. And at that point, I saw a lot of multimedia beginning to converge and that's how I thought, how do you take publishing and converge it with motion pictures and converge it with the web and make it one experience?"<p>For Zuiker that meant spending some time in his head with the serial killer at the center of his novel, Sqweegel, who is able to contort his body to fit into the smallest of places--allowing him easy access to his victims. "It all starts with character over concept, so it all started with the character of Sqweegel," Zuiker reveals. "What would it be like if we had a serial killer that was wearing a forensic-proof bodysuit? When I was in Japan traveling with my wife, I saw a special on TV about serial killers and they said the rank of serial killers goes from 1 to 25. And that's based on manner of death, mode of death, geography, intelligence, etc. And I said why don't we just unlock a new level of fear and make Sqweegel level 26?"<p>A truly terrifying creation, Sqweegel maims, rapes, and kills at will. "I get messages on my Facebook that say, 'I don't want to be inside your head!'" Zuiker shares. "Being a success in Hollywood means that you've been through a lot of psychological trauma to make it. Every artist goes through a lot of psychosis when they're a success. And some go to a therapist, some go to the liquor store; I write. Therapeutically through my writing I've launched a villain that's not nice. So that is in the spirit of my <i>CSI</i> audience, and something different that you haven't quite seen before. It's one thing to write about a guy who shaves all his hair off; it's another when he has a forensic-proof custom-made bodysuit. And then [you have to] try to wrap a compelling character around catching him, who's flawed and damaged and then let the story take you where it will."<p>That character is Steve Dark, a tormented young man whose beloved foster family was slaughtered by Sqweegel, driving Dark out of Special Circumstances, the elite law enforcement unit he worked for and into an early retirement. "[He]'s loosely based on <font color=yellow>Steve Darkman</font>, one of my fraternity brothers at Arizona State, who's this really good-looking guy who got all kinds of girls," Zuiker says. "And I said, what if [the hero is] a good-looking guy named Steve Dark, who's an ex-Quantico CSI whose whole family was murdered by Sqweegel. He left the business and then he's sucked back in by the villain." Zuiker drew on even more personal influences when creating Dark's personality. "I think there are a lot of undertones of me in Steve Dark," he notes. "It's really about a guy who's doomed to do this. From the abandonment [he suffered] from the very beginning, he grew up with a profound sense of trying to right the wrong and I think he's a guy who loves action, and there's no better action you can get than working in Special Circs, which is dealing with all the most horrific crime cases, the ones you don't hear about on television, the ones you don't read about in newspapers. That is, there's a rush in a job [like that]. It comes with a consequence: it's dangerous. It's psychologically dangerous and when it hits too close to home, you just want to get out, but you realize you can never really get out, you can never really hide. Something's going to suck you back in to where you have to go back to that dark place."<p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full interviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/interviews/anthony_zuiker4.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>

 

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing, Kristine.

I haven't done much reading lately, and crime novels aren't really my thing (despite my taste in TV shows ) - but the Level 26 books do sound interesting. We'll see if I give in and give the digi-novel a go come September.

BTW, I didn't know there would be six books - okay, I probably read that at some point in the past, but when I read something the other day, I thought it was going to be three. Maybe it was just that he'd only signed on so far for the first three with Dutton...Or maybe I'm just slow and can't read properly. :lol:

 

I'm with ya, Blackflag. That is really bothering me too. I guess they forgot the ensemble part of the show.