Q&A WITH Burn Notice: THE FIX AUTHOR TOD GOLDBERG

Q: In a few sentences, what is the book about?
A: It's about the normal things: love, hate, redemption, money and justice. And banter. Lots of banter. There are two main storylines, however: The first concerns a woman named Cricket O'Connor who comes to Michael looking for help. The man she married has run off with her fortune, but Michael has real doubts that the man she married is actually the man she has married. The search for the true identity of Cricket's husband leads Michael, Sam and Fiona on a winding search that reveals more than just a bad romantic relationship, but also a criminal enterprise worth millions and millions of dollars. The second issue concerns a woman from Michael's past – a Russian spy – who may have some clues to his Burn Notice, but also, certainly, poses a threat to his life.

Q: How did the idea for the book evolve?
A: The honest truth is that it all started one afternoon in December when Matt Nix and I sat down at a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in LA and gossiped for about three hours. It should be noted here that Matt and I have lived in the periphery of each other's lives for about twenty years – we first met when we were both in college and we're introduced to each other by my oldest friend, who happened to be in the same fraternity as Matt. There are other odd intersections, but I'm forbidden by international law to mention them. At any rate, after our three hours of gossip concluded, I told Matt that I wanted to see Michael unravel a complex issue of misappropriated identity – something he is well acquainted with – and that I really wanted to see Fiona shoot at Sam's car for reasons as yet unknown, and that I wanted Sam to blow up something large, all of which Matt thought were excellent ideas. The original plot, however, changed significantly between idea and execution. My early notes indicate that I'd planned to have Nate fall in love with Cricket…and, well, that certainly doesn't happen…

Q: Did any interesting research go into the writing of this book?
A: Despite a physique that might suggest otherwise, I'm not actually a Navy SEAL or covert operative, so I wanted to get some insight into how people who are those very things think. It's important to me to be able to convey the logic of a person who has a particular skill set so that I might know what they'd say or do in a given situation. So I read a lot of books written by former spies, but the most fascinating book I read was about the mental aspect of killing and war called On Killing.

Q: Are there any inside references that most readers would not know?
A: I put a few Easter Eggs in the text, absolutely. I did it for the really ardent fans of the show as well as for fans of my previous books and the books written by my family – my brother Lee writes the MONK books, but has also written something like twenty other books and is a television producer as well, while my sisters Linda Woods and Karen Dinino are very well known artists who've written two-bestselling books. I also stole a line of dialogue from an email sent to me by Michael Wilson, the show's Consulting Producer, which I hope he'll find funny, because he really is an ex-covert operative and I don't want to be disappeared. Part of it is for the fun of discovery for the readers, but also for the fun of writing those things in. It's a nice little wink-wink.

Q: Michael Westen has a very specific tone. How would you describe that tone?
A: Michael is exceptionally smart, which I think makes him unique – he has a particular world view that is both cynical and realistic, but rooted in life experience. He knows things you don't and that allows him to be a few steps ahead of every conversation. Capturing that on the page without it coming off as snarky is difficult in a general sense because if you go overboard, he can come off as just a jerk. Go too soft, he becomes sentimental. On the screen, Jeffery Donovan can convey so much just by sighing or rolling his eyes or pausing with a spoonful of yogurt, but on the page you have to do more heavy lifting. So I tried to capture that tone by diving into his head more, showing how he processes information – in essence, the reader will get to see why he sighs or rolls his eyes, by getting into his head, understanding why he's sighing, essentially. His tone changes depending upon the scene, too: With Madeline, he's bridging between angry and frustrated; with Fiona, there's the great sexual tension that influences not only what he says, but how he moves; with Sam, it's like watching two old friends sitting on a bench together who tolerate each other's idiosyncrasies because they really love each other, but who also have no filter. They can say anything to each other.

Q: Is there a specific character you enjoy writing for?
A: I loved writing Sam. There are three sections of the book written from his perspective and each one was a hoot for me. And, oddly, I really loved writing Barry. Perhaps it's because they are both wildcards – you're never sure what they might say or what they might do. And that's fun to write.

Q: What were the difficulties of writing your first Burn Notice book?
A: Initially, it was capturing Michael's voice. The voiceovers that the writers use in the show are really unusual because they are all in second person ("When you're a spy…") which gives the show a real narrative feel that is uncommon in television and uncommon in general when looking at voiceover, which tends to be more expositional in nature. So I wanted to have that same vibe on the page. It took some tinkering. Because the novel is in first person, I also was really cognizant of the fact that this would be the first time fans of the show would get to live inside Michael's head for an extended period, so getting his thought process down so that it would feel organic was a bit of an initial stumbling block. Matt got a lot of midnight emails that began "Do you think Michael would think…"

Q: What is your background? What other novels have you written?
A: I wish I was one of those writers who had a biography that said, "Tod Goldberg was a shrimp boat captain, a probation officer and spent five years in Micronesia teaching macramé," but alas, it is not to be. I come from a family of writers – in addition to my siblings, who I mentioned above, my mother was a journalist and author, my father was in television news, my uncle Burl Barer is an acclaimed writer of true crime – so writing has been a part of my life since birth. I've published three previous books – the novels Fake Liar Cheat and Living Dead Girl, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery, as well as the short story collection Simplify, which won the Other Voices Short Story Collection Prize and was a finalist for the SCBA Award in Literature. A new collection of my stories will be released in 2009. In addition to all of that, I also direct the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center, am a book critic for a number of newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Las Vegas CityLife, and manage to still have time to spend with my wife Wendy, my dogs and my PS3.

Q: What else would you like to see Michael Westen do?
A: I'd like to see him eat more protein. I'm worried that he'll get scurvy from eating only yogurt.

Q: How much did you know about covert ops before writing this?
A: Probably no more than your average reader of spy thrillers and the like, but enough to realize that James Bond was a joke and would likely have died long before ever being forced to make Moonraker at the very least. I know a lot more now and only wish I could live my entire childhood over again!

Q: What question would you like Michael Westen to answer?
A: "How do you never lose your sunglasses? I'm constantly setting mine down and forgetting them. And, can I borrow the Charger?"