Universal Creativity Inc.
Author Interview with Jason Pellegrinni
Your novel, The Replacement, is
an absolutely addictive read. Can
you tell those readers who have
not read your novel, briefly, what
it is about?
What made you decide to become an author?
If I’m being honest, growing up, I never really envisioned myself being an author. My dream, starting in my teens and running through my midtwenties, was to stand on stage; playing music.
However, when a friend of mine published his own
debut novel (The Never Enders by Michael
Sonbert - Check it it!), I purchased a copy to show
my support. When reading it, I found myself thinking how cool it was that he had created this entire
novel just from something he thought up in his
head. I had a bunch of ideas floating around, at the
time, so I thought I would give it a shot. Once I got
started, I loved it. The entire process; ranging from
thinking up these stories, fleshing out characters,
and then getting it from the imagination onto the
paper is such a satisfying feeling. I have a far greater passion for it than I ever did for music.
The Replacement is a story about
two homicide detectives, Patrick
Sullivan and Jonathan Hawkins,
chasing after a serial killer that the
public has named The Surgeon.
The only problem is that The Surgeon is so good at covering his/
her tracks that the police can’t
seem to find any substantial evidence to lead them to their perp.
This causes a lot of tension between the two partners, who share
very different views on how to go
about a murder investigation.
As a thriller suspense novelist, what is your advice
to other writers in your genre on how to write a
compelling story with believable characters?
How long would you say it took
you to write it?
I created the file on January 21,
2011. I was pretty much tweaking
and doing some fine tuning as far
as editing was concerned up until a
day or two before it was released,
which was January 20, 2015. So the
whole process, from start to release, took four years.
You made mention of the tension
between Patrick Sullivan and his
partner, Jonathan Hawkins. How
would you best describe the relationship between the two?
I think the best way to describe
Patrick Sullivan and Jonathan Hawkins would be to say they can easily be compared to fire and water.
They are two people who have, by
no means, any right to be working
side-by-side with each other. Yet
they are forced to and, as one
could guess, it’s not always smooth
sailing. They share completely
different views of the job, which
only leads to a continuous building
tension throughout the story. This
adds a dynamic to the story that I
don't think could be portrayed if
the two partners got along just fine.
What inspired you to write The Replacement?
Years ago, my friends and I got the
brilliant idea to start writing screenplays. Our first attempt was at a
comedy, and, looking back at it
now, it was pretty terrible. Still,
back then, we thought we were writing gold! During this time, I came up
with the idea for a screenplay about
a rookie detective coming in to replace a retiring veteran, and