PW: Is it true your horror thriller Jinn started in a college writing seminar?

Matthew B.J. Delaney: Right. At Dartmouth, I'd originally started out as pre-med, and about 10 minutes into pre-med, I realized that was not where I wanted to go. So I ended up majoring in economics, and then I got into a very small creative writing class. I submitted a small writing sample to the class, was accepted, and that sample sort of grew into Jinn.

PW: Why did you choose to set the first part of the novel in the Pacific during World War II?

MD: The setting stemmed from an article I read once which stated that during World War II, in the Pacific Theater, combat took place on islands that had for the most part been previously unexplored. And it was the GIs in the field who actually came into contact for the first time with many unknown species of plant and animal life in the dense jungles. This idea intrigued me, that American GIs would stumble upon some new form of life—some creature, some evil which had been trapped or even imprisoned on one of these unexplored islands, forgotten maybe for thousands of years—something worse than the war itself.

PW: Was the 1997 movie The Relic much of an influence on Jinn?

MD: There are similarities between Jinn and The Relic—both have an ancient evil that springs from an unexplored jungle and lands in a modern city, almost a King Kong plot device. For me, though, Jinn becomes a novel about a creature whose true danger comes less from its physical strength and more from its ability to morally corrupt and manipulate the characters involved.

PW: Were you influenced by H.P. Lovecraft? The concept of incredible antiquity seems very Lovecraftian.

MD: Not in particular. Of course, I was aware of him when I was growing up. I was always interested in thrillers, not so much straight horror. Stephen King was probably as much horror as I would get. I always liked the crime genre—Mickey Spillane and even Michael Crichton.

PW: How do you feel about mixing genres—horror, crime-thriller, even a bit of science fiction?

MD: When writing, I felt very comfortable doing this. I would say I have yet to define myself as a writer; I'm still young, still trying to figure out what's the best way to go about it. It's sort of like the time period—if I get into one particular mood when I'm writing where I just have an interest in crime, I'll start on that. Then I'll move on, and try to get back to the horror, and start doing other genres, mystery-thriller, and so on.

PW: You mentioned Spillane. Any other crime writers that influence you?

MD: I loved the early crime writers. Dashiell Hammett—he was incredible. The Maltese Falcon—both the book and the film, of course. I always thought the old Alfred Hitchcock books—the ones that he used to sponsor—had great material.

PW: The ones ghost-edited by Robert Arthur?

MD: Right. I'm really a fan of the short story, because I think that is writing at its best, most perfect form. You can learn so much about writing from the short story form: it's to the point, it's condensed.

PW:Jinn has been optioned for movies.

MD: It was optioned for Disney, which is weird. But Disney owns Touchstone, so...