For best-selling novelist Bill Diehl, promoting each new thriller is almost as rewarding as writing it
By Ann Hyman
Times-Union staff writer, October 17, 1997
There are authors who consider the business of selling books once they are in print to be not their job, to be vaguely demeaning.
Bill Diehl is not one of those authors.
The best-selling writer of Sharky's Machine, Chameleon, Primal Fear and a handful of other thrillers for the thinking thriller reader, loves selling his books, sees it as part of the job.
And Diehl likes meeting his readers.
''They're always kind. They're not going to be there if they don't like your work,'' he said.
Diehl was in Jacksonville last week as part of a promotion tour for Reign in Hell (Ballantine, $25), out just two weeks ago and already climbing on The New York Times, the Publishers Weekly and The Wall Street Journal best-sellers lists.
Intense promotion of Reign in Hell began at a publication party at Beachview Books in St. Simons, Ga., the author's home since 1983, and continues until Thanksgiving.
'Tis the season for book promotions. More books are sold in September, October and November than any other time of the year. Publishers and libraries and booksellers sponsor book events across the country. There are fairs, festivals, read-ins, author tours, signings, lectures, luncheons.
''I'm doing the Rocky Mountain Book Fair in Denver around the first of November and the Miami Book Fair two weeks later,'' he said last Friday.
Getting there is not half the fun for the author.
''I don't like to travel at all,'' he admitted. ''Part of it is I don't like to fly and I particularly don't like to fly those little two-engine airplanes.''
The fun begins for Diehl once he is face-to-face with his readers.
Nancy Thomason is owner of Beachview Books in St. Simons.
She talked about Diehl and his readers at the publication party that launched Reign in Hell.
''He stayed an extra hour and a half because of the line. He took time to talk to everyone,'' Thomason said. ''He is an incredibly generous person with his time.''
But, aren't all authors glad to stick around and sign books as long as readers are lined up to buy?
''Absolutely not,'' she said with a wry twist.
Thomason has lived in St. Simons for more than 20 years, so she's watched Diehl's popularity balloon.
''But he's just very down to earth, a basic type person. He's never let his fame go to his head,'' she said.
Diehl, 73, wrote his first novel, Sharky's Machine, when he was 50.
Giving up his profession of journalist and photographer at 50 was a big gamble, but it paid off. Sharky was a big book, a big movie, and life has not been the same for Diehl since.
Reign in Hell is Diehl's eighth novel.
Chicago lawyer Martin Vain, the hero of Primal Fear and Show of Evil, is back in Reign, battling terrorists, armed-to-the-teeth right-wing militia and a snake-handling preacher with a dark vision of America and a dangerous way with words.
Diehl said researching the book took a long time.
''All of my books are fairly topical,'' he said. ''I don't want to just write thrillers, I want to write books that have some kind of significance, books that have something to say. I began tracking the militia groups three or four years ago, on the Internet, through newspapers.''
He described an anonymous meeting with a militia informant at a picnic table in a park in Brunswick, Ga. The man sat with his back to him. Diehl said, ''I never saw him. All I know is that he was white, had dark hair, was about my size.''
Their conversation, almost word for word, became a chapter in Reign in Hell.
Diehl also read scores of hate pamphlets published by various militia and white supremacy groups. He watched hours of surveillance tapes shown to him by a friend who is a former agent of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau. He saw militia members making hand grenades, chopping off shotguns.
He found a congregation of snake handlers in Enigma, Ga., to get an authentic view of that intense, seldom-seen religious expression.
He is confident that Reign in Hell treats snake handlers and the militia fairly and tells the truth of the militia agenda.
''The Oklahoma City bombing is what really triggered the book,'' Diehl said. ''It is what made it viable. Prior to that event, people would not have accepted it. I think now, probably, what I'm predicting is an apocalypse of some kind and I think that's possible.''
The Oklahoma City bombing proved what zealots will do in pursuit of their cause.
''And I'm always afraid of zealots,'' the author said.
Reign in Hell is Diehl's favorite of his novels.
''It says a lot about things I feel strongly about, not only about the militia movement, but about developers and polluters and so forth,'' he said.
When his schedule of events promoting the new book wind up, around Thanksgiving, he will take the rest of the year off.
''I'll start a new book in January,'' he said.
He doesn't know yet the subject.
But, Nazi money in Swiss banks interests him. So, maybe Zurich is next stop for Bill Diehl.
''Maybe,'' he said. ''Maybe not.''
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