Steve Urszenyi
Perfect Shot
DOSSIER: Your book blurbs from Jack Carr, Mark Greaney, Marc Cameron, Robert Dugoni, Simon Gervais, and Ryan Steck are huge. How are you going to follow that up with your next book?
URSZENYI: I had to pay a hefty price for all those great blurbs using Bitcoin and non-fungible tokens, but that’s all gone now. So, for Book 2 (coming November 2024), I’m going to have to do a deep dive into my stores of gold-bullion, if I can remember where I buried it.
DOSSIER: What made you go with a strong female lead like Alexandra Martel for your protagonist when you came up with the story for PERFECT SHOT?
URSZENYI: To a great degree, the character ‘Alex Martel’ was informed by various women I have known and worked with throughout my career. In many ways, she is a fusion of several paramedics, police officers, nurses, and others. I owe a lot of Alex to them.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Music/silence/closet?)
URSZENYI: I do most of my writing in my office at home, but that’s mostly a convenience thing. When I started writing, I wrote wherever I could. Being a paramedic for so long, I did a lot of writing in the ambulance and at the station—anywhere I could snag a few minutes. Perfect Shot was written largely during the pandemic, so some of it was completed on military bases and other interesting locales as the team I commanded was deployed. I also enjoy the noisy and frenetic activity of a busy coffee shop. It forces me to focus on the writing, which usually makes for a productive session. Plus… coffee.
DOSSIER: From your personal involvement with the International Thriller Writers organization, what helped most with your writing – day sessions or the sophisticated evening drinking contests called networking opportunities?
URSZENYI: Nothing beats the learning that can be done in an alcohol-infused haze when you’re stumbling around the room, bumping into famous authors you’ve never met, and introducing yourself as the next great debut. It gives you so much credibility in the harsh and sober light of day when you see them all again. But seriously, I owe any progress and successes I’ve had to date to ThrillerFest and PitchFest. The structured educational sessions are unbeatable and really help to give new writers confidence and authority over their craft. And it never ceases to amaze me that established authors—best sellers and A-listers alike—are so generous in sharing their knowledge, experience, and friendship with newcomers.
DOSSIER: Who would apply a better field dressing in a hostile environment — you, with all of your real-life emergency medical experience, or your hero Alexandra Martel with her specialized training of being an all around badass?
URSZENYI: That’s easy. Leave the bandaging to me and the shooting to Alex. I would trust Alex to have my six any day of the week!
Website: steveurszenyi.com | Amazon author page
Jeff Circle 