Local writer finishes late author’s work

After a three-year battle with prostate cancer, prominent author – Vince Flynn – died in June 2013, leaving a wife and family incomplete without a husband and father. He also left his latest work in the Mitch Rapp series incomplete.

But devastated fans can be assured, the story doesn’t end there.

Kyle Mills is a well-known New York Times best-selling author whose books have widely ranged in style and subject matter. Readers can thank him for turning the pages for Flynn.

“The selection process, how do you get selected to pick-up somebody’s work part-way through and finish it?” asked Eyewitness News anchor Todd Kunz.

“The Flynns called and just asked if I’d be interested, and I thought it’d be a really fun thing to do. I was a huge fan of Vince’s and a huge fan of the Mitch Rapp character. So I sent them a proposal, and obviously, they liked it, because here I am,” said Mills.

“But the challenge of getting inside somebody’s head, inside their voice, using their voice. How does that process work?” asked Kunz.

“A lot of research. It helped that I was a big fan already, but I actually went back and read the entire series again, 6,512 pages, I looked. And just that process of doing that, taking notes on everything, you know, the character’s weapons choices, everywhere they’ve been, everybody they’ve had a relationship with, right down to Vince’s word choices, how he laid out action sequences, all that,” said Mills.

Mills said he really wanted to do something special with Flynn’s books, where no one would be able to tell the difference.

“So he wrote only three pages of the book. I wrote everything else. So the challenge to people is to figure out which three pages,” Mills laughed.

Mills said it was really difficult and gave himself 15 months to finish the book.

“I don’t really write much like Vince. Our processes are completely different. Anytime I started slipping into my own voice, I could look at it and think, ‘Well, that’s a good chapter if it was my book, but it’s not a good Vince Flyyn chapter.’ And I’d throw it out and start over again,” said Mills.

Kunz asked about the writing process and the biggest challenge a beginning author might face and how to get over it.

“Not being able to finish. Don’t ever go back and look at anything you’ve ever done until you’re finished. People will write a chapter and then they’ll think, ‘Naw, there is something about that chapter that I don’t like.’ And then they’ll go back and what you do is spend three years writing one chapter. So push through to the end. If what you wrote on a particular day is garbage, happens to me all the time, fix it later,” said Mills.

Mills left the banking and finance world to become an author. He now has 15 books to his name, including this latest one. For Flynn fans, he will also be writing the next two books in the series, something Flynn would be glad to know won’t close the book on hero Mitch Rapp.

“The Survivor” will be released Tuesday, Oct. 6. As a side note, Mills also continues the Jason Bourne series for Robert Ludlum. His newest, “The Patriot Attack,” was released Tuesday, Sept. 29.