Jay Amberg's Blog, page 8

Interview, Dialogue: Between the Lines with Susan Wingate

Next Tuesday, October 15, I will be live on the air with author and podcast host Susan Wingate. Please listen here at 12 pm Central time. Susan is a joy to talk with; you can listen to my previous interview, for Bone Box, here.

THD: Serkan in the gardens

Serkan walks through the gardens of Gülhane Park and contemplates his family.

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Walking along the stone path in Gülhane Park, Serkan Boroğlu smiles wryly at a circular flowerbed planted to resemble a nazar boncuğu, the blue and yellow and white talisman that protects believers from the evil eye. Though the park runs for a long way below Topkapı Palace’s outer fortification walls, he has never been here before. His clients always loved his tours of Topkapı Palace and nearby Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque, but none of them, nobody ever, asked to spend a serene hour or two strolling here among the tall trees and multihued gardens. And it never once occurred to him to suggest a sojourn here. His sister might like it—no, though it’s peaceful, it is managed and manicured, not natural and not nearly wild enough for her. And his mother would want to dig it all up just to find shards of lost civilizations.

THD: Tuğçe at work

Here we have Tuğçe Iskan, working late at the Ankara Ministry of Culture, right after the Bergama bombing.

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Shortly before midnight, Tuğçe Iskan stares at her computer in the windowless Ankara Ministry of Culture office that she shares with seven others. Despite the horrific news from Bergama, she is the only one still here working. Her colleagues left several hours ago, but she has stayed, culling through the media coverage, the official reports, and scores of files, old and new. Her memory is pretty much photographic, and she is already noticing patterns in the information, some of which she will share with her boss.

Iskan, a large woman, tall and solidly built, sits back and runs her fingers through her short blonde hair, scratching her scalp. At the office, she wears long-sleeved blouses buttoned to the collar partly to discourage her colleagues, all men, who seem obsessed with her figure, and partly to cover her tattoos, which she has chosen not to share with them. Now, though, both sleeves are rolled up. On her left forearm, in bold letters, is Ataturk’s dictum, “My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth, and the teachings of science. Superstition must go.” On her right is, “The greatest war is the war against ignorance.”

THD, Windy City Reviews

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“Truly showcased Amberg’s talent of getting into the mind of his characters and creating strong empathy among his readers.… A spellbinding story that will have readers on a rollercoaster of emotion as they follow the many characters through terrorist attacks and treasure hunts. If you like suspense mixed with historical fiction and topped with some action and adventure, then I highly recommend this book.”

Great new review of The Healer’s Daughters on Windy City Reviews. Thanks to Starza Thompson for her thoughtful and thorough response.

THD, illustration x, acropolis in Bergama

This next illustration is not included in The Healer’s Daughters. It’s Jonathan Smith’s majestic rendition of the acropolis in Pergamon (present day Bergama).

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THD blog tour, giveaway

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The iRead giveaway for The Healer’s Daughters ends this Friday. Enter here to win free books or an Amazon gift card.

THD, research photos, acropolis in Pergamon

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Though not as famous as the acropolis in Athens, the acropolis in Pergamon (present day Bergama, Turkey) was its cultural and architectural rival. The ruins of Pergamon’s Temple of Trajan are still stunning today.

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THD blog tour: Reading is My Passion review

[image error]On the final day of The Healer’s Daughters blog tour, we have a wonderful review from Betty Taylor of Reading is My Passion.

“Terrorism, antiquities, power, goddesses, brutality, corruption, revenge…survival is uncertain. I found myself holding my breath, awaiting the outcome.

Amberg created characters that, good or bad, evoke an emotion from the reader. Complicated family relationships. Anger, heartbreak…both emotions hit me time and time again. Superb writing.”

I sincerely appreciate all the reviews and hard work of the bloggers on this tour. It’s been a fun time. Remember, the giveaway is open for five more days. You can enter to win here.

THD blog tour: My Reading Journeys

The Healer’s Daughters is featured at My Reading Journeys. The reviewer is still reading; hope she enjoys the book.

Below is an interview that should be posted soon.

Q: Do you like chocolate?

A: I am a serious fan of dark chocolate. My current addiction is TCHO 70% Cacao (“with rich chocolatey notes”).

Q: Where do you write?

A: Over the years, I have gradually become able to write almost any place. I do, though, have a favorite place—Guanajuato, Mexico. Almost every year, I run away from my home in Chicago to GTO because I am able there to turn off all the clocks and to eat a lot of sunlight, neither of which I can do regularly in the American Midwest. I can write within each day.

Q: Do you write every day?

A: When I’m in writing mode, I need to write every day. If I let the work go for even one day, I run the risk of losing the story’s momentum. I used to have to write early in the morning before the normal diurnal chaos of my life intruded, but I have gradually become able to write at other times. I’m still, though, impelled to work every day.

Q: How long have you been writing?

A: I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. When I was in graduate school, I wrote a piece for The English Journal about the history of my writing from first grade through the beginning of college. The early doggerel was especially painful to revisit, but the piece did provide evidence that I was always writing.

Q: Do you experience writer’s block?

A: I’ve never experienced writer’s block for an extended period, but I have intermittently gotten stuck. I find that a long walk, a ramble, works wonders. My unconscious (and, for that matter, my conscious mind) works better on the problem if I’m outside wandering around.

Q: What advice do you have for young writers?

A: Two thoughts: 1. Write. A writer writes. That’s what a writer does. Write every day. Sit down to the task even when it’s not going well. 2. Read. Read voraciously! Not just the classics. Not trash, but everything else. You really will learn as if by osmosis.

The Healer’s Daughters blog tour: JBronderBookReviews guest post and review

“Following the past of the artifacts and people just trying to survive kept me engrossed with the story. There are several threads that wrap around and around until you can see that one or two threads keep them entwined.

This is a wonderful read and one I recommend to anyone that likes a great thriller with a history twist added in.”

Thanks for JBronderBookReviews for the great review (and cat). There’s also a guest post up, discussing the three female protagonists of The Healer’s Daughters.

The Healer’s Daughters is my sixth thriller. In each of the previous five, there was a central character, an American male of a certain age, who eventually figured out what was really going on—and, in the case of America’s Fool, saved the world.

In The Healer’s Daughters, I axed that male character. The story, set in Turkey, focuses on three women who are battling criminal oligarchs, corrupt officials, and ISIL terrorists. Having a male character ala Charlie with his Angels seemed both silly and superfluous. Making that character American would have been egregiously jingoistic. The story is, I hope, far more interesting because of the subtraction of that sort of male character.

In this moment in history in various places around the world, bright energetic women are pitted against old male autocrats. I can’t, of course, predict how any of these conflicts will play out, but we are, I believe, at a tipping point. The Healer’s Daughters is my attempt to explore both the characters’ reasons for stepping up and the consequences, positive and negative, of their actions. The women at the center of the story have a certain power to act, but they must still deal with the effects, intended and unintended, of their actions.

There are three additional important female characters in the novel. All of them pay an exceptionally high price for the violence wreaked upon their cities. The green-eyed wife and mother in ISIL-controlled Raqqa, Syria has little control over her life and almost no choice about what she must do. Little Mehmet’s mother, Hafize Suner, also has no say whatsoever in the events in Bergama that destroy her family. The third woman, Özlem Boroğlu’s mother, provides the perspective of an older generation. She does not act as her daughter and granddaughter do, but she understands some things that they are only starting to grasp.