Amazon.com: How did you begin writing? Did you intend to become an author, or do you have a specific reason or reasons for writing each book?
J.O.: I began writing in desperation -- I kept flunking my engineering courses at the University of Pa. while getting straight A's in a subject entirely alien to me: English. Then a criminology professor took us on a field trip to a penitentiary and I discovered that the place was filled with guys who looked just like me. That began a lifelong interest in what makes criminals, how to detect and avoid them, how not to raise them, how to live in a culture that is becoming increasingly criminal in nature. In my 26 books and hundreds of articles, I've written about everything under the sun, but my last seven books have been about crime.
Amazon.com: What authors do you like to read? What book or books have had a strong influence on you or your writing?
J.O.: I enjoy authors who write seriously about crime -- non-embroidered, non-embellished true journalism. I mean authors like Darcy O'Brien, Fox Butterfield, Pete Earley, Jim Schulte, Harry MacLean, Shana Alexander, Lowell Cauffiel, T. J. English and others. The strongest influence on my reporting has come from Joseph Mitchell, A. J. Liebling, John Bartlow Martin, John McPhee, Gerold Frank, Dr. Frederic Wertham, Dr. Hervey Cleckley, John Hersey and Red Smith. The strongest influences on my writing have been James Joyce, E. Annie Proulx, J. B. Priestley, R. F. Delderfield, James M. Cain, John O'Hara, James Thurber, Earl Thompson, Stendhal, Ford Madox Ford, Tolstoi, and of course the greatest of them all: Bill Shakespeare.
Amazon.com: Could you describe the mundane details of writing: How many hours a day do you devote to writing? Do you write a draft on paper or at a keyboard (typewriter or computer)? Do you have a favorite location or time of day (or night) for writing? What do you do to avoid--or seek!--distractions?
J.O.: My writing habits are so lousy I hate to commit them to paper. I might write for 12 hours straight and then go fishing for a week. I might go fishing for 12 hours straight and then write for a week. I write at all hours of day and night. I've worked on a computer for at least a dozen years, starting on a Lanier Word Processor that cost $15,000 and crashed every hour and a half. I wouldn't know what to do without one. I can't imagine how Keats and Tolstoi and all those other dudes got along without at least one megabyte of memory. They must've had huge craniums.
Amazon.com: Do you meet your readers at book signings, conventions, or similar events? Do you interact with your readers electronically through e-mail or other online forums?
J.O.: Lately I've been flogging Salt of the Earth and meeting my readers under any and all conditions, including at least two dozen signings and a raft of radio, TV and press interviews. I'm also active on CompuServe's Author and Crime forums, and on Internet's true crime and book review newsgroups.
Amazon.com: When and how did you get started on the Net? Do you read any newsgroups such as rec.arts.books and rec.arts.sf.written, mailing lists, or other on-line forums? Do you use the Net for research--or is it just another time sink? Are you able to communicate with other writers or people you work with over the Net?
J.O.: I've become so dependent on the Internet for research that I think I'd just quit and become a sanitary engineer if I had it to do all over again.
Amazon.com: Feel free to use this space to write about whatever you wish: your family, your hometown, hobbies, favorite places, where you've lived, where you went to school, what jobs you have had, your last (or planned) vacation, your favorite color/food/pet/song/movie, what books you'd take to a desert island, what you intend to do before you die, or what you think of just about anything.
J.O.: Before I die I would like to take some small part in the rehabilitation of the so-called "true crime" genre, which to my eyes has become more like the "false crime" genre. So many embroidered and embellished works are being published as fact that it's tilting the whole genre away from true journalistic competence. As an Edgar judge last year, I discovered that in this morass of compost some really good stuff is being published -- though not necessarily being read. Four great examples are Darcy O'Brien's Power to Hurt, Fox Butterfield's All God's Children, Jim Schutze's By Two and Two, and Pete Earley's Circumstantial Evidence (Edgar winner). I recommend them all. And throwing modesty to the winds, I can tell you that the New York Times has published two very favorable reviews of Salt of the Earth, for which I'm grateful, and the other reviewers have more or less followed suit.