Michele Cook is the co-author of the critically acclaimed The Singular Menace trilogy. After working as a journalist and a screenwriter, Cook decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She teamed up with husband and Pulitzer Prize winner John Sandford to begin writing this sci-fi thriller. The first book, Uncaged, was a New York Times bestseller. The latest novel, Outrage, follows the story of Shay Remby and her band of runaway teens as they try to take down an out-of-control corporation that imprisoned her brother.

Where did you get the idea for the Singular Menace series?

The idea began with our character Twist, a graffiti artist who runs a hotel for street kids in Los Angeles. John and I were driving on the gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway when we decided to make up a young adult series, and John started with this: “What about a character like Oliver Twist, only grown up?” (Oliver Twist is, of course, the resilient orphan created by the great Charles Dickens.)

I liked the idea immediately because I’d written numerous stories about kids in foster care back when I was a newspaper reporter. “Twist could be the leader of a bunch of homeless kids,” I replied, and we went back and forth from there, building the skeleton of a series over the next few weeks. Since John has been a New York Times–bestselling thriller writer for 25 years – more than 30 bestselling books – we knew we wanted to write a teen thriller, and with a thriller you need a villain. I’d recently finished reading a nonfiction book about the Singularity – a term that’s been used for years to explain the atom-bomb-like moment when man and machine somehow meld into one – and threw out the idea that maybe our kids could go up against some bad people who want to live forever, no matter what the cost to others. John liked that idea a lot, but with this caveat: No crazy sci-fi stuff that feels unbelievable. So we decided to try and learn a bit about what’s going on in terms of real immortality research out there – and there’s a lot going on – and then make up scientists and benefactors racing against the clock to extend their own lives.

A book about radical animal-rights activists is very different from the current onslaught of vampire and zombie novels. Where did that come from?

We like “real” at our house. John and I started our writing careers as newspaper reporters, and because we’ve witnessed many weird, interesting, and dangerous situations, we know you don’t have to step into a dystopian universe to meet the enemy or fight the good fight. That said, we do have zombies in our new book, Outrage … but ours are real.

Did your career as a reporter and screenwriter influence you while writing the Singular Menace series?

Reporting and screenwriting have been enormous aids in writing fiction. First, as a reporter, I interviewed hundreds of people over the years and all that listening helped me to have a good “ear” for dialogue. Being able to write dialogue in turn helped me to write and sell my first screenplay, and screenwriting itself forced me to learn to “see” scenes in my mind and write them in an interesting way on the page.

You focused on crime and social justice as a journalist. How did that help you write Outrage?

Well, I’ve interviewed dozens of hardcore criminals and crime victims, and their stories and voices will forever be rattling around in my head, inspiring fictional scenes and people. I once spent several months piecing together a story about a young man who had been shunted through 48 different foster care homes from the age of three to 17. His tough young life taught me a dark truth: adults sometimes do terrible things to children, both intentionally, in an evil sense, but also through negligence and preoccupation with their own problems. To find my way into this young man’s story, I read his government-generated case file – some 600 pages – and tried to re-create his sad, often terrifying childhood through interviews with his foster care parents, social workers, and relatives.

Shay is one of those few strong female protagonists you rarely see in novels, especially teen fiction. How important is it to you to have female characters like her?

It’s as important and as obvious to me as breathing. Strong girls and women are all around us in the real world, so why shouldn’t they be as prevalent in fiction? John’s books have always featured strong women – both as heroes and villains – and he is grateful for the strong women in his own life, from his mother, who worked in a radio factory to feed him while his father fought in World War II, to the demanding editor we both once worked for at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, to our accomplished book agent in New York City.

Shay’s a girl who’s been hardened a bit by some tough knocks in her childhood, but who still has hope. She also has a very handy skill in mountain climbing, something she learned from living with a couple of doper foster parents back in Oregon. That skill propels a lot of the action in our story – from coming down off a 12-story building in Los Angeles after hanging a political sign for Twist, to lighting up the 45-foot-tall HOLLYWOOD sign in a publicity battle against the enemy corporation in our story.

Animal and human rights are a major theme of Outrage and the series. Are these issues important to you personally?

Yes, very much so. I was definitely drawn to journalism out of a concern for social and political justice – a very typical reason people of my generation went into journalism, inspired by the many civil rights struggles of the 1960s and ’70s. I stopped eating meat 20 years ago after turning on the television and happening upon an undercover video of a cattle stockyard in my hometown; there was a shocking amount of suffering. I don’t preach vegetarianism to friends and family – have me to dinner, I’ll eat what you make, except for the meat and fish – but if someone asks me why I stopped eating animals, I’ll tell them there’s a story behind how meat gets to our tables, and it’s not a happy one. In the same vein, I try to only buy makeup and skin-care products made by companies that pledge to not test their products on animals.

Is co-writing books with your husband difficult in any way?

For John and me, collaborating is mostly smooth sailing. Not sure why, but we think it’s because we were reporters, and reporters have to get used to handling criticism from editors and readers or you become a very miserable person. If I tell John a scene or character of his isn’t working, and maybe even tell him pretty impolitely, he doesn’t get all defensive because he knows that’s just part of us getting to a better story – trying out ideas and sometimes throwing them overboard for something better, or at least different. I think the same mostly holds true for me ….

What can we expect to see in future ­Singular Menace novels?

Oh, we are so excited about Rampage, our next book! A lot of action, a little romance, and a big and bloody conclusion.

What message do you want readers to take away from reading Outrage?

Young people today get zinged 24/7 by “messages.” Reading the Singular Menace series is a chance to get carried away by the adventures that envelop Shay, her teenage friends, and Twist as they try and save their particular corner of the universe.