A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Paul Martin Midden received his MA and Ph.D. from St. Louis University and practiced clinical psychology for over thirty years. While in practice, he worked in multiple intensive settings, including hospitals and residential care centers, and in 1992, he founded an independent treatment center that provided broad-based treatment for many psychological and behavioral disorders. Paul’s other interests include historic restoration, travel, fitness, and wine tasting. He and his wife Patricia reside in a renovated 1895 Romanesque home in St. Louis designed by Theodore Link.
In Riley, Midden's recently published psychological suspense thriller, writer Riley Cotswald gets way more than she bargained for when she finally leaves her husband and has a fling with the socially challenged Edward. After she rebuffs him, he begins to stalk Riley and then resorts to the Dark Web to find ways to retaliate against her, leading to events that are complicated, intense, and completely unforeseen.
Paul Martin Midden stops by In Reference to Murder to take some Author R&R about researching and writing the novel:
My latest novel, Riley, has a lot of action; but for the most part the action takes place in the confines of the characters’ heads.
I am not sure I would call my preparation for this book ‘research’ as such. It was more like focused thinking. As with the characters in the book, the ‘research’ took place mostly in my head, in a way not dissimilar from how the action in the novel unfolds. Fortunately, after spending thirty years as a practicing psychologist, it’s a crowded field up there from which to select events.
On the many wonderful things about being a psychologist (‘shrink’ in common parlance, although I’ve never been fond of that appellation) is accompanying people in their personal journeys to enhance their lives. It involves a huge amount of listening as well as a substantial amount of patience. Both of these have most often been well-rewarded.
And then there is the inescapable fact that my own life and history were not exempt from the same rich field.
None of this is person-specific: I have no idea where my own experience leaves off and that of my sometime patients picks up. There are obvious places in the novel where women do things that I cannot do as a man. But overall, I have learned that we humans are more similar than we are different one to another. And the broad base of commonality is both wide and deep.
All of this sounds like arm-chair research, and to a certain extent it is. But whoever said that sitting in an armchair thinking is a useless endeavor? While it may look easy from the outside, anyone who has undertaken it with any degree of seriousness knows it can be a treacherous activity indeed.
Treacherous? I am afraid so. Thinking poses often unexpected surprises: what if what I had been taught about religion, for instance, was wrong? What if what I thought about my spouse was inaccurate? What if I realize I was blind to the obvious depression/alcoholism/anxiety/ sociopathy of my partner? Thinking can change your life. And it can have major consequences.
And beyond that, thinking can lead to big screw-ups. We humans are hard-wired, it appears, to do unwise and often stupid things. It is unavoidable. And often when we are in the midst of some felonious ‘mistake’ (so called after the fact in most cases, depending on how mortifying the consequences might be) we are filled with powerful self-righteousness. We thought we were doing the right thing. Even when we were not.
Humans are so interesting.
But back to the action: Isn’t it the case that much of the time we spend on this planet is filled with activity that would justifiably be called ‘mental’? We think about things; we form opinions; we change our minds; we behold beauty with a sense of awe and wonder; we chase people who register as attractive in our minds. Sometimes, we let our fantasies override our good sense (if we are lucky). In short, we live inside our heads. 24/7. Even when we are asleep.
So while events outside the minds of my characters (charming phrase, that; as if I own them) do happen, they only make sense when framed against the backdrop of their interior, mental behavior. Just as it is for all of us.
You can learn more about author Paul Martin Midden and his books via his website. Riley and his previous novels are available via all major booksellers.
Comments