John Knoerle won Mayhaven's Award for Fiction for The Violin Player, a novel of suspense. He lives and works in Chicago.

You won Mayhaven's Award for Fiction with The Violin Player. I am always curious, where did you hear about the award?

I heard about the award from a writer friend.

Did you think you would win?

Not in a million years.

The Violin Player is a strange twist on your interest in genealogy. Let's put it this way, it's not for the faint of heart. What ever possessed you?

I was drafted by a Great Aunt to research my mother’s side of the family. I got hooked, finding relatives born as far back as 1760, generating this enormous family tree. I was clicking through it on my computer one day when I came upon my personal family page. As I stared at the blank slot for my date of death a strange thought occurred. What if it was filled in, with some date in the near future? That strange thought led to The Violin Player.

The manuscript has style, and I remember being fascinated by the first few pages. Again, what ever possessed you?

Well, writing from the POV of a psychopath is fun. You get to say the most outrageous things. But it also gets to be quite unsettling after awhile, as the character takes hold. Let’s just say that my wife was very happy when I finished the book.

OK. You've written a spine-tingling suspense, tell us about your background.

I grew up a Catholic boy, eldest of four kids. I attended Jesuit high school, Georgetown University and UCSB.

Where did you grow up?

Cleveland, Ohio, until I was twelve. Then we migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, Menlo Park, CA.

Did you read much as a child?

Just the usual comic books and Hardy Boys’ mysteries.

Did you write?

No.

When did you begin to write?

I began writing material in college for a comedy troupe at UCSB known as the DeLuxe Radio Theatre. We did live shows and a weekly radio program.

You've done other things too. Tell us about that.

I worked as a DJ in Santa Barbara then moved to LA and did stand-up comedy in the glory days of Robin Williams and Jay Leno. I wasn’t very good. I started a radio commercial production company called Sound Concepts. I also wrote several screenplays, one stage play, and worked on A Prairie Home Companion before I felt I was ready for the ultimate challenge—the novel.

And you published a book in 2003, didn't you?

Yes, Crystal Meth Cowboys. It’s been pretty well-received.

Is it in the same genre as The Violin Player?

No, it’s a police procedural with a lot of rude and crude cop humor, a real ‘guy’ book. It’s loosely based on a member of our comedy troupe who went on to be a cop, if you can believe that.

Are you writing full time?

Except when I take time out to produce radio spots. Can’t quit my day job. And I hope we can produce an audio version of The Violin Player in 2005.

Are you sticking with novels?

Yes. For a writer of fiction a novel is as good as it gets.

You used an interesting way of delivering your story, moving between the stalked to the stalker. How did this evolve?

I’m not sure. But I wanted to contrast the intensely narrow interior world of the psychopath with the wider societal world of his victim, so I wrote the stalker in first person and the rest in third person.

This would make a dandy movie, as you must realize. Lots of good character roles. Any ideas on casting?

This was a favorite parlor game in LA. At the risk of sounding obnoxiously presumptuous I would say Tim Robbins as Walt and James Spader as his stalker. Oh, and Charlize Theron as Laura. A guy can dream, can’t he?

What would you say to procrastinating writers who need to get off center and begin getting their thoughts down on paper?

I would say, most heartlessly, that a ‘procrastinating writer’ is an oxymoron. Writers write.