Author Ed Jakubik’s Novel, The Doll Collector – a Compelling Psychological Thriller – Available Online June 1st
Back in 2003, freelance writer Ed Jakubik’s former high school English teacher inspired him to pen his first book. Ten years later, that work is complete. Ed signed a publishing deal with Nashville based Dunham Books. Now, they are releasing his psychological thriller, The Doll Collector. The story focuses on a detective’s search for a disturbed individual who abducts young girls and leaves doll heads at the crime scenes.
The novel will be available for purchase in an ebook format on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other online outlets, starting June 1st. With other psychological thriller novels being made into films such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Da Vinci Code, it is possible The Doll Collector will follow in their footsteps.
You can learn about author Ed Jakubik and The Doll Collector by reading the highlights and or listening to the entire CYInterview below:
Listen to the entire Ed Jakubik CYInterview:
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Ed shared with us his reflections on the seven year process leading to the publishing of The Doll Collector. He shares his challenges and provides advice for those who want to write their first work of fiction:
“The best advice I can give is don’t give up. Don’t listen to the naysayers. There were people along the way who told me, ‘It’s crazy. You’ll never break into the industry. Even if you do finish a novel you’ll never get representation. It’s a cutthroat industry. It’ll chew you up and spit you out.’ I had this it feeling the whole time I wrote, constructed and had a lot of fun developing this novel. I didn’t even look at it as work. I looked at it literally like I said as a labor of love. So therefore, my advice is if you know you’re onto something, you’ll know it. I mean your insight, your intellect will tell you to keep pushing forward and that’s my advice, just push forward. …
The biggest challenge is also is actually taking the time and making sure you’re putting your best foot forward and bringing your best work. You don’t want to rush it. You don’t want to put a timetable on it. You just actually want to put together the best possible work that represents you and what you’re looking to accomplish and I think that’s also a big error. People tend to you know put a timeframe on, they’ll write a book in a year and that’s that, those time frames never workout. I put a three year deadline, it took me seven. So don’t ever rush it. Just let it happen.”
To understand how an author sets out to write a book about a psychopath who kidnaps young children, the first time novelist shares with us what inspired him:
“The one author who truly inspired me was Thomas Harris. I read Red Dragon back in summer of 1987. I just remember it having a profound effect on me. And there was nothing more, I think, believe it or not pleasing, as crazy as it sounds, pleasing, when you’re reading something, watching a film when you’re really uncomfortable, when you’re in that point where you feel literally squeezed. And you know it’s a fictional story, but you feel almost pressured and squeezed and you start to squirm and you see. I think that’s the sign of a really, really good work.”
As far as how he was able to write something so disturbing, Mr. Jakubik tells us this:
“It’s not for the faint of heart no doubt about it, but it’s, you know I think it’s conditioning. I think if you read enough, if you, you know what? Turn on the news every day. I mean, pretty much every headline, story’s a horrific crash, a murder, a kidnap, whatever the case may be. I just did a ton of research. I did research on serial killers. I did research, I literally wanted to know what made people tick. I think that’s really important. …
I think a lot of stories lack the back story and they leave it to your quote unquote imagination. I did a little more research. I went into the psychology of how people think, how they act, how they are conditioned through an environment to act a certain way. … I really found that every serial killer ever since the dawn of, since the dawn of time since we’ve been tracking them, wasn’t born that way. They’re actually conditioned.”
Ed talks about how one of his goals for the book was to show how a family unit can breakdown and that can lead to a child growing up into a disturbed adult who does some really horrific things:
“That was one of the goals. What actually happens when a family is pulled apart and the psychological effects thereafter and you know it’s, I wanted to make it as real and as authentic as possibly from a fictional work in regards to the psychology, the human psyche and how people actually react in stressful situations, incomprehensible situations like our protagonist is put in this story and I think it bodes well.”
Speaking about The Doll Collector being made into a movie, the writer says he would not have penned this story unless he thought he had something that could be a big psychological thriller. As far as who would play the main characters in a film, Ed sees someone like Matt Damon or Gerard Butler playing Detective McManus and believes someone like Nicholas Cage could play the kidnapper.
“I wouldn’t have written a book if I didn’t think so. I truly, when I began developing these characters, my goal was to have readers actually envision the project, envision page by page. Really build your own character assessment on what they may look like, what they may act like, what they may speak like and that was a really important goal of mine. And I wanted to literally create not only a psychologically twisting read, but I wanted an easy read. I didn’t want to make it too challenging in regards to developing the characters where they’re a little too complex and they tend to lose people, so yes without a doubt. I think they could 100 percent, this could easily be converted into an award winning manuscript [sic: script].”
It might not be far into the future that The Doll Collector becomes a film. According to author Jakubik, Harvey Keitel as well as other notables have been made aware of his work prior to its publishing date. It will be interesting to see what the end result of seven years of hard work leads to for the author. Things are looking promising:
“I was fortunate enough to have people who put me in touch with Mr. Keitel’s people and the book was forwarded to him. I also have a gentleman by the name of Stan Pottinger who has written five NY Times bestsellers. Stan was cordial enough to actually read the book and agree to give me an endorsement which will be on the cover come the release date. It was nice without a doubt. It makes you feel, it almost puts, it’s icing on the cake in regards to the project itself. It’s a real special feeling. I felt great that they were willing to at least entertain it.”
You can find more information about Ed Jakubik and his book The Doll Collector here.
You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com
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