Bookreporter Interview
Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett faces two different kinds of rampaging beasts --- one animal, one human --- in THREE-INCH TEETH, the riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box. In this interview conducted by Michael Barson, a former publicist at G.P. Putnam’s Sons who worked with Box and is now the Senior Publicity Executive at Melville House, Box talks about the challenges he faced writing the first two entries in this series, his portrayal of the bureaucrats in Wyoming that serves as comic relief in his books, and the characters he’d like to focus on more in future installments.
Question: THREE-INCH TEETH is your 24th Joe Pickett novel, most of which have become national bestsellers and even hit #1 in several cases. As you look back on this acclaimed body of work, do you recall the Joe Pickett book that gave you the most difficulty writing, and why?
C. J. Box: The earliest books (OPEN SEASON and SAVAGE RUN) were probably the most difficult, simply because they were the first two in the series. It took me a while to get my sea legs, to establish a protocol of a book a year in a brand-new series. I had never thought about a series at all (who wants to read about a Wyoming game warden, anyway?) until the first book contract for OPEN SEASON, which included two more novels featuring Joe Pickett. It wasn’t until the third book, WINTERKILL, that I recall sitting back and saying to myself, “You’re doing this now. You’re now a published novelist. This is your new life.”
I’d be lying if I said every book since then has been a breeze, but it’s so much easier to go to work every day knowing more about how publishing works. And occasionally, like with THREE-INCH TEETH, it almost feels like the book writes itself.