Ask the Author: Oliver Dowson
Answered Questions (5)
Oliver Dowson
This one was easy! I made countless business trips, quite a lot of which resulted in unusual, amusing and sometimes scary experiences. I used to come back to my office and recount my tales - my colleagues were very nice, and rather than looking bored to tears keep telling me that I should write a book one day. So I did! "There's No Business Like International Business" recounts a long trip around South America, in which I faced civil insurrection, flights that nearly crashed and the risk of kidnap. The second part is the story of a trip around Southeast Asia in the company of an obstreperous colleague. It's not a business book, it's a travelogue. And it leaves me dozens of other experiences to recount in the future!
Oliver Dowson
For my latest book, "There;s no business like international business", it was just a matter of recounting real life experiences and expanding on those. Now I'm writing a novel, the inspiration mainly comes from a combination of places I travel to and books I read, thinking "what sort of characters would be in this landscape?" "How would they react?" and a million other questions like that
Oliver Dowson
I'm writing a novel which fictionalises some of the characters and places in "There's No Business Like International Business" - it's got some mystery, a bit of amateur spying and - I think - some interesting twists at the end.
Oliver Dowson
It's helped me rediscover my love of language.
Oliver Dowson
I just leave it until another time. I find there's no point staring at a screen waiting for the words to come.... I leave the document open, then when inspiration suddenly comes, I can dash off to the computer and add some bullet points which are easy to expand next time I have more time
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