Idea for DEAD LIGHT

With the April 4, 2013 launch date of Dead Light approaching, a number of people have asked how I got the idea for the book. The story began as a screenplay entitled, The Flickering. The germ of the idea for the screenplay came from my Hollywood manager and friend, Rob Kesler. Rob had read about Vicary’s 1957 experiment with subconscious marketing through the flickering light of a movie projector. We thought there might be a story idea there. Originally, the story centered wholly on a group of students and a sinister theater owner who kept his hypnotized victims hidden in a secret room below the theater. (Still a good idea, by the way.) Two cops were minor characters. As the story evolved, the roles of the cops grew and we fell in love with the Estin and Tucci. The focus on the flickering projector raised the question: what would happen if light from lots of everyday sources became a weapon of death? And I was off to the races. Like real germs, idea germs are all around us, ripe for the picking.

 

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