PW: Your novel [Man Eater] begs comparison with those of Elmore Leonard. Is he a primary influence?
Ray Shannon: Absolutely. I've read quite a bit of his work, and I feel that he's the inventor, so to speak, at least the modern inventor, of the modern serial comic ensemble crime novel.
PW: Where exactly does writing fit on today's Hollywood food chain?
RS: Pretty low. It should go without saying that the writer has been considered expendable by the production community in Hollywood for the longest time, and he or she is very easily replaced, more often than not without cause. In the end, it all begins with the writing, which is what makes the treatment of writers in Hollywood rather ironic. You can put all the other pieces together, but if you don't have somebody to write that material, you don't have a movie, or TV show. So the writing is indispensable, good writing even more so. But from the writer's standpoint, that's the most frustrating thing about being in the business, that the thinking regarding writers is totally upside down.
PW: Why did you choose to write under a pseudonym?
RS: You might say this is a form of reinvention. I existed in my genuine self previously, and there were some misconceptions about who I am and what I'm capable of in my writing that I wanted to address, and this seemed like the best way to do it.
PW: You seem to use satire and violence equally. Why?
RS: I don't know that it was a calculated decision, I guess that's just the way it came out. When you write a crime novel, obviously you want suspense to be a key element. I suppose you could have suspense without a certain level of violence, but I think in terms of the contemporary crime novel, you have a certain amount that would appear to be necessary.
PW: How would you describe the interaction of the book and film industries today?
RS: Unfortunately, I think one is becoming more and more like the other. There was a time when the book industry and the film industry were totally separate entities, not only in terms of their end product but in terms of their behavior. But more and more you see the book industry mimicking the business practices of the film industry in terms of how the material is produced and how it's put out there for the audience. In terms of what is viable product and what is not, there was a time when if you could write a good book, your chances of getting it published were pretty good, and I think that's less and less true because, again, the book industry emulated the film industry, and it's looking more and more for a specific type of book as opposed to one that has literary merit.
PW: Will the stars of Man Eater move to the big screen, or return in another book?
RS: I have no plans to reuse those characters, and it was never my intention to do so. Needless to say, if millions of readers decide they want to see those characters again, they'll twist my arm sufficiently to get me back to the machine, and I'll consider a sequel. But at this point in time, there's neither a film of the book in the works nor a sequel.
