Author Interview: Tony Wirt
- Michael Bradley
- Jun 24
- 5 min read
Tony Wirt is an author and a University of Iowa graduate whose first published work came in first grade when his essay on Airplane II: The Sequel appeared in the Lake Mills Elementary School's Creative Corner. He's worked as a sportswriter, a movie ticket taker, and has even mastered how to make little curly thing on top of a Dairy Queen soft serve cone. His first book, A NECESSARY ACT has been called "a refreshing new twist on serial killer fiction." And the praise doesn't stop there. His follow-up books, JUST STAY AWAY and PIKE ISLAND have both received equal accolades for compelling thrillers. Tony has a new book, SILENT CREEK, coming in October.
Let's start with by talking about your first publication. Tell us a bit about your essay on Airplane II: The Sequel. What kind of deep insights did you offer your readers about the movie?
So, like many of my generation, I may have grown up with a lack of supervision. Because of that, around the age of six, I found Airplane 2 on HBO and thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. Shortly thereafter, my first grade teacher tells us about The Creative Courier-sort of an elementary school ‘magazine’ we could contribute to. She said we can write about anything we liked, so I was going to write about my favorite movie. I remember walking up to her desk to ask how to spell ‘sequel’, and she asked why. I told her what I was working on and I’ll always remember the bemused look on her face as she decided if she was going to let me do it or not. She did, and the rest is Lake Mills Community School history.
Your debut novel, A NECESSARY ACT, asks the question, how far would you go to stop a serial killer before he starts to kill? Some might consider this to be a quagmire of ethical implications. What led you to tackle such a deeply philosophical and ethical concept?
There’s a lot of research that suggests serial killers share certain traits as kids, and I’ve always loved those ethical dilemma stories. So, there’s your ethical question…if you see those traits in someone, what should you do? What CAN you do? It’s obviously a tricky situation. But apart from that, I’ve always liked the idea of unintended consequences in stories. Once again, this traces back to my unsupervised access to HBO as a kid. I used to love the show Tales From the Crypt, and a lot of those stories were very Twilight Zone-esque in the way that there was usually a monkey’s paw-style twist for the main character. So I took the ethical question, then reminded myself (and readers) that even the best intentions can go horribly wrong.
What was the biggest lesson you learned from writing that first book?
It’s hard to pick just one, because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I started writing A NECESSARY ACT. The biggest thing, though, was probably persistence. I was naïve enough to think after you typed “THE END” on that first draft you were pretty much done. But then I learned about rewrites, and beta readers, and more rewrites, and querying, and rejection, and more querying, and more rejection. I ended up not getting an agent, so I decided to self-publish that one, and learned about hiring cover artists and developmental editors, about print costs and marketing. All those lessons helped when I wrote PIKE ISLAND, which landed me the greatest agent in the world…but then died on sub. So I took the lessons from THAT experience and wrote JUST STAY AWAY, which ended up landing me with Thomas & Mercer. It would have been so easy to quit at any point, but I had a dream I didn’t want to let go of, so I didn’t.
Your new book, SILENT CREEK, releases in October. Without any spoilers tell us something about your book that we won't find in the jacket copy or PR material?
SILENT CREEK wasn’t supposed to exist. It was just another abandoned half-manuscript buried on my hard drive, but the book I wrote as the follow-up to PIKE ISLAND ended up being a little similar to another book Thomas & Mercer had just put out, so they asked for something else. We pitched a few other ideas, but they weren’t interested in those. Eventually my agent asked about SILENT CREEK, and I said I’d liked it but couldn’t think of an ending. Always supportive, she said “You’ll think of something” and pitched it. They bought it and asked for a fairly tight deadline, bringing an all-new level of panic into my life. After a week or so of struggle, I took a long bike ride to clear my head. At some point, I realized I’d written myself into a corner, so if I backtracked a little and took a different turn, it could open a few doors. By the time I got home I had it all plotted out, and I gotta say I’m really excited about how things ended up. You never know when a book can rise from the dead.
Let's talk about your writing style for a moment. Every writer has specific nuisances when it comes to writing. Some outline, some don't. Some have a special place where they write. Tell me a bit about your writing process.
I don’t outline, but I do have a notebook full of scribbled down half ideas like “car chase but bikes” and “murdered by cat?”. As for the actual writing, I can’t write at home with all the distractions of looming laundry and stuff like that, so I go to a local coffee shop with a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. I pick my music carefully, too. For example, the main character of my current WIP is a bit of an older guy from a small Minnesota town, so I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Aerosmith…stuff that HE would be listening to.
What can we expect from you in the future? Are you working on any new projects?
I’m actually really excited about my current WIP, probably because I just started and it still has that ‘new idea smell’. I don’t like to talk specifics until I actually have a first draft done (I’m superstitious that way), but it’s definitely the most emotionally rich story I’ve written. Hopoefully you’ll get to read it someday!
Finally, give me a list of your top three all-time favorite books.
That’s hard, so I’m gonna break it down a little…
Favorite I read as a kid - Misery by Stephen King
Favorite I’ve read as an adult - Razorblade Tears by SA Cosby
Favorite I’ve read this year – The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
To learn more about Tony and his books, you can visit his website at www.tonywirt.com. You can also follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
You can pre-order his upcoming novel, SILENT CREEK at these retailers.
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