Co-authors of "The Putt at the End of the World"

May 25, 2000

Les Standiford and Ridley Pearson, two of nine authors of “The Putt at the End of the World” chat about the task of writing a novel with more authors than primary characters.

Page 1 of 8

TWBookmark: Welcome to TimeWarnerBookmark! Warner Books and The Talk City Network are proud to present our special guests for tonight, Les Standiford and Ridley Pearson, two of the nine authors of "The Putt at the End of the World," an ensemble tour de force of suspense, romance, and hilarity on the links. Three golfers receive an invitation from a multibillionaire for a game that ends with an apocalyptic final round that will determine the fate of the world. Welcome to Talk City, Les and Ridley!

Les: Glad to be here!

Ridley: Always a pleasure!

TWBookmark: How did the concept for this book come about?

Les: Since I'm the one that pulled the team together, I guess it began with me. I was approached by Rob McMahon at Warner Books because he knew I had done a similar serial novel called "Naked Came the Manatee" with 13 Florida crime writers, and they were interested in doing a similar pass-along book, with a national cast, on a really important subject this time! (That being golf.) I set about putting together this group of writers - that was the first task - and Ridley was one of them. I had the concept - well, it was purposefully vague, like that old party game where someone begins a story and the next person in line carries the story on, and part of the fun is seeing how it all turns out. So, all we had from Warner was the concept - golf. I was the first writer in line and Ridley was the second. I created three characters - no plot at all, beyond the spectre of a golf tournament - and Ridley then created the plot!

Star Pacer: "The Putt at the End of the World" is a chain novel. Les, how did you decide upon these particular authors for the book?

Les: Well, they had to be golfers And, technically, everyone met that requirement in that they had at least HELD a club. And the other major requirement from my point of view was that they had to be from among my personal favorites, people I could count on, and whom readers could count on.

Hugo: What was the process like in terms of how each chapter was passed along to the participating authors?

Ridley: The interesting thing about a pass-along novel is you don't know what's coming, and so the experience is one of great surprise when the 30+ pages arrive, or if you're the sixth or seventh author, the 200 or 300 pages arrive. You read them and decide where it goes from there. It was really quite an amazing experience!

Page 1 of 8