Hi Mark Nykanen, thank's that you have taking the time to answer a few questions of Elements of Crime.

You have worked for many years as an investigative journalist. For your work as an NBC reporter, you became 4 Emmys. Why did you have left your job and devoted himself to writing?

I became bored with working as an on-air network correspondent. I'd always wanted to write and, in fact, had begun my journalism career working as an investigative reporter for "New Times," an underground newspaper that was based in Phoenix, Arizona; it is now the largest chain of alternative weeklies in North America. And the reason I walked into New Times when I was twenty years old -- besides wanting to change the world -- was that I'd always loved writing. But I quickly became immersed in muckraking -- digging out governmental and corporate wrongdoing. I moved into radio, public television, and eventually network news at NBC. Because I was a successful investigative reporter, I was highly paid; but I had an increasingly skeptical view of the value of my work, or anyone's work in television investigative journalism. I didn't see systemic change, even though my work put people in prison and forced resignations of top government officials, including the head of the U.S. Environment Protection Agency. And I think I was correct: When you look at the U.S. today, you see a country's whose systems for protecting its citizens have largely broken down. One out of five American families suffered at least one significant food shortage last year. Forty million Americans are functionally illiterate -- more than one out of ten of the nation's populace. I could go on but I won't. At the same time, I felt a powerful drive to write, so after turning down two anchor jobs that would have paid me handsomely, I settled down in a mountain cabin and started writing fiction. I had no television, only radio and books. I wrote almost full-time for ten years before I published HUSH.

You‘re honored for your first work, “ Hush “ by the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the world's most popular and most important prize for crime fiction literary works in the U.S. Your first book, and immediately an award. What did you feel ?

I would love to say that I won the Edgar for HUSH but it's not true: I won the award for writing the television documentary "The Silent Shame," which was the first network documentary to examine the sexual exploitation of children. I also reported that documentary, working undercover as a pedophile and child porn producer for six months. When the documentary aired, INTERPOL closed down targets of our investigation, which included some of the biggest producers of child pornography in the world. It was a pivotal point in my television career. It aired in prime time and won numerous awards. But it affected me deeply. Springsteen's "Cover Me" was a big hit at the time, and I remember how his lyrics resonated with me. I had seen the worst the world could offer -- not to sound histrionic, but that was how I felt -- and I needed to process what I'd been through. Keep in mind that I'd also done a great deal of environmental reporting, and seen the horrors of corporate and government abuse there, too. So it was natural, I think, for me to begin the transition to writing fiction that began after I completed "The Silent Shame;" I did the doc with producer, Chuck Collins, a close colleague for more than five years at NBC News, and the late Tommy Tomizawa, who was the documentary's executive producer. Fiction was a means of transforming all that I'd seen and learned into what I think was most important to me: telling stories that had real meaning.

How does an awards ceremony? Who informed you that you have won the prize, and how has your life and your writing changed after that?

I've been fortunate in having attending a fair number of awards ceremonies over the years, including the Emmys; I won four of them for investigative reporting. The most memorable ceremony for me was the one for the Edgar. A few standout moments: I'd gone to an acupuncturist to try to stop smoking earlier that day. When he leaned over me to insert the needles, he reeked of tobacco. I lost confidence in his ability, and after quitting for about five hours I bummed my first cigarette at the Edgar Awards. Two years later I did quit smoking, the hardest thing I've ever done physically.

Second memory: Eudora Welty, the great American short story writer, was the keynote speaker. An editor from St. Martin's Press collared me after the ceremony, gave me his card, and said to give him a call if I ever decided to write books. Then he led me to Eudora Welty, who was surrounded by admirers. He moved us right through the crowd and introduced me. She was ever so graceful with her greeting.

I lost the business card and forgot the name of the editor, but I've never forgotten that moment with Welty. Coincidentally enough, St. Martin's published HUSH, my first novel.

Is it hard to exist on such a large market, and captivate the reader with a good story?

I'm assuming that you mean that it's a challenge to make a living in the highly competitive world of thriller fiction, and that's correct. It's very difficult. But I'm also fortunate that my passion for storytelling has taken me to a part of the fiction market for which there are readers who appreciate the characters and plots that come to me. I think it's extraordinarily difficult for unpublished writers of literary fiction to catch the interest of the industry. So I'm grateful that I love writing stories that readers enjoy. For me that means writing characters with lots of depth; and coming up with plots that are unusual and eminently plausible, and have something substantive to say about our world.

Your books “ The Bone Parade “ (in German / Totenstarre) and “ Search Angel “ (in German / Der Fallensteller) are very popular in Germany and received good reviews at Amazon. Why is "Hush" never appeared in german?

I don't know the answer to that question. The foreign rights agent for TOTENSTARRE and DER FALLENSTELLER was terrific. She sold rights for those books in Russia, Italy, and France as well. Dutch rights sold for HUSH, but only after the publisher contacted my agent at the time. So I think there might have been an agent issue but I'm not sure. Regardless, the German rights for HUSH are available. Based on my experience, I think HUSH would do very well in Germany because it's another tight thriller with much of the story told from from a killer's point of view.

Many writers have more success in Europe as in the U.S.A. I have heard that the cover and the contents will be strictly controlled in the usa. Is it true?

I've certainly had more success in Europe than in the U.S., which I ascribe to the more discerning taste of European readers; I'm joking a little bit there. This is a tough question to answer because I don't know the European market well enough to make any authoritative statements. I know the U.S. market is incredibly competitive. In the world of thrillers, a book has to sell a lot of copies to be considered a commercial success; thrillers have a higher standard for commercial success than other genres. But recognizing the marketing realities doesn't really have an impact on what I do. I still write the stories that feel as if they're bursting out of me, and I write them as well as I possibly can. Nobody has ever tried to control what I write in an overt way; clearly, market forces have an impact on what gets published.

Please can you give us a little preview of your latest work? When we can expect a new Thriiler in Germany, and what kind of story it will be?

I just sold BURN DOWN THE SKY, a post apocalyptic climate collapse thriller set in a near-future world devastated by environmental catastrophe and a runaway virus that has killed most of the world's population. The publisher, Eos Books, is a HarperCollins imprint with a terrific publishing history in science fiction/fantasy. I didn't set out in a conscious way to write sci-fi -- or speculative fiction, as some authors call it -- but I'm very happy that BDTS was bought so quickly by such a venerable house. Its publishing date in the States is June, 2011. I'm optimistic that foreign rights for BDTS will be strong, and I think the German market will be very receptive to the tale. I'd certainly like to make a reappearance in Germany as soon as possible. BDTS, by the way, is the first book in a series set in the latter part of this century. It's also a continuation of the environmental concerns that have informed most of my published books. Environmental degradation formed the subtext of my earlier thrillers, and became the focus of my thriller PRIMITIVE (Bell Bridge Books), which came out in October. In BDTS, I used the best science I could find to envision what climate collapse could mean to the planet. It's a dark but extremely riveting story (the author says modestly).