Richard Godwin's Blog, page 9
September 22, 2013
Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Mark Chisnell
Mark Chisnell writes high octane thrillers. He has a new novel out, The Sniper, available September 25th. It is about an assignment for a young US Marine Corps sniper who comes up against an intervention. Mark met me at The Slaughterhouse where we talked about his protagonists and crime fiction.
Tell us about your new book.
My latest book is The Sniper, and it is available for pre-order for a 25th September release. It’s a short story (12,000 words or about 36 pages) featuring the central character from my ‘Janac’s Games’ thrillers; The Defector and The Wrecking Crew.
The action focuses on an assignment for a young US Marine Corps sniper, Paul Robert Janac. It’s a simple task made dangerous and ultimately deadly by a startling intervention. A pulse-pounding manhunt through the Vietnamese jungle follows that leaves Janac with a life-or-death choice.
This is the first of several stories that will follow Janac’s progress from the Vietnam War to drug trade dominance, to the place where we meet him in The Defector – these stories are the origins of Janac’s Games. This is the moment when it all begins to unravel for a good and decent soldier.
How far do your protagonists have to step outside the law and why?
I tend to write books that isolate the main protagonists somewhere beyond the reach of the normal rule of law – high in the mountains, at sea, or on the run from the SS in Nazi Germany for instance. Of course, this also places them beyond the reach of any help from the normal places – the police – and forces them to fall back on their own wits and abilities to survive whatever threat I’ve dreamt up for them. Inevitably they have to step outside the law and sometimes outside accepted moral behaviour to survive. I think it’s this last part that links my books thematically. When there’s no one else around to help, how far will you go and what will you do to survive?
Do you think the expectation for authors to write something ‘original’ is misguided?
Essentially, yes, because there’s a theory that there are just seven basic, original plots (see this link for an explanation; http://lenwilson.us/seven-stories/). If you believe that to be true, which I do, then everything is ultimately derivative and there are no new stories left to be told. Of course, within those parameters, then there is a great deal of scope for originality in the writing, the tone, the characterisation and so on. When you find that kind of originality it’s great, but in the end, it’s still one of the same seven old, old stories – so striving for originality for its own sake is pretty pointless.
Do you think much crime fiction sanitises crime?
I’ve just finished reading a book called ‘Violence: A Writer’s Guide’ by Rory Miller, a U.S. prison service employee with SWAT team experience. His message was very simple – crime in general, and violent crime in particular is a lot uglier, messier, and more brutal than it’s generally portrayed in books and movies. And having read his accounts of criminal violence, I’d have to agree – so yes, I think that some crime fiction does sanitise crime. Having said that, there has been a long-standing trend towards greater realism and there are plenty of very hard-to-read accounts of violent crime in the bestseller lists, so I think that this is something that’s being corrected.
What do you make of the E Book revolution?
I think it’s been a fantastic thing in many different ways. On a personal level, I love my Kindle and the access it gives me to a vast range of books wherever I am, and whatever time it happens to be. At a professional level, it’s reenergised my fiction career in a way that I wouldn’t have thought possible five years ago – I’m one of those people who’s much better suited to self-publishing than traditional publishing, and the coming of the Kindle and Kindle Direct Publishing has made that a proper, respectable business. And finally, I think it’s been a genuine revolution, one day we might come to see it as just as important a step in democratising access to mass media as Caxton’s printing press. It’s been very clear from the types of self-published authors and books that have been successful that the traditional publishing industry just wasn’t providing the books that many readers wanted.
Graham Greene wrote, ‘There is a splinter of ice in the heart of a writer.’ What do you make of his observation?
I’ve never been quite sure what to make of this quote. On the one hand, I think that good writers need to be able to observe people clearly, and this means maintaining a certain amount of distance – so the ice splinter will come in handy. On the other hand, when it’s time to start writing about people it’s essential to be able to walk in their shoes, to empathise and feel what they feel – so the ice splinter needs to melt. But then, if you’re not going to go crazy suffering for your characters, then you’ll need the ice splinter back when you shut down the word processor!
How detailed an understanding of the military do you have?
My only understanding of the military is through research – having said that, I am something of an obsessive in this area, and I do have a tame ex-Royal Marine and security consultant on-tap as a source for the details. I’d like to think I get most of it right, and so far I’ve only had one letter of complaint. It was from an ex-policeman who thought I’d got a couple of things wrong about the investigation in my historical novel, The Fulcrum Files – but that’s an area that’s always fraught!
Who are your literary influences?
When I was a teenager I read everything that had been written by Alistair MacLean and Ian Fleming, and I guess they were the original inspiration for writing thrillers. In particular, MacLean tended to put his characters in isolated situations and then present them with a threat or a problem, and I can see that style of story in my own books.
The other consistent thread in my books is probably the element of moral dilemma, and I have George Orwell to thank for the idea that books can have big ideas – I read Animal Farm and 1984 when I was 14 or 15 and they had a huge impact.
Finally, I’d also have to mention Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I read this book just before going to college and it had a major impact – not least, it prompted me to change out of a pure science course to one that combined science with philosophy. It was during the philosophy lectures that I came across the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and that formed the core of the plot of The Defector.
Do you think moral philosophy has any place in academia post Wittgenstein and if not should it?
I don’t think anyone should have the final word on anything, anywhere – even Wittgenstein!
What’s a genre that you don’t normally write that you would consider trying?
The historical fiction was a big step into a new genre for me, and it made me realise how much work you have to do on these books. I have yards of books on my shelves that I had to read to get the historical detail right in The Fulcrum Files. So I don’t know that I want to swop genres again anytime soon, but if I did it would definitely be Science Fiction. I don’t read it much these days, but my top two or three movies are Sci-Fi (Blade Runner at #1), and I did a physics and philosophy degree originally, so I’m fascinated by all those ideas of alternative worlds and realities.
Thank you Mark for an insightful and versatile interview.
Links:
The Sniper is due out on 25 September 2013. Pre-order now on iTunes, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Visit Mark’s website for news, inside information and to sign up for new-book alerts: http://www.markchisnell.com/
Or connect with Mark Chisnell at:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/markchisnell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.chisnell.writer
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/markchisnell
September 15, 2013
Quick Fire At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Valerie Laws
Valerie Laws is a crime writer and experimental artist who famously spray painted poetry onto live sheep. She has degrees in Maths/Theoretical Physics and in English. Her new novel is called The Operator. Valerie met me at The Slaughterhouse where we talked about mainstream medicine and criminality.
Tell us about The Operator.
‘Now, this won’t hurt…’ We know what that means! But what if a doctor liked to cause pain? This is the second Erica Bruce and Will Bennett crime thriller. A sadistic orthopaedic surgeon is found dead, surgical spikes hammered into his head and hands. Erica wades in to protect his suspected soon-to-be-ex-wife, but soon it appears someone’s giving doctors a taste of their own medicine – murdering surgeons to mimic the operations they perform – a killer the press call ‘The Operator’.
THE OPERATOR reunites Erica Bruce, small but fierce alternative health therapist and journalist, with tall, dark athletic Detective Inspector Will Bennett. They’ve still got chemistry but are too often at loggerheads to get together properly though Erica’s interested elsewhere too! The setting is the north east coast of England: historic castles and rural beauty mixing with seedy seafront winebars, from the lighthouse at Wydsand, where Erica lives, to the mouth of the River Tyne itself, venue of a dramatic set piece where the mighty, hostile North Sea tests Erica to the limit. It’s darker than the first book, THE ROTTING SPOT, and more erotic too, and has plenty of witty Geordie banter.
What are the limitations of mainstream medicine in your opinion?
Mainstream medicine has made great strides but is hampered by several issues. One, lack of empathy in some medical staff, not considering the patient as a person, especially when they are undergoing a traumatic life-changing, or life-ending, event or great suffering. Surgeons in particular can come across this way, I’ve experienced it myself when disabled by a car crash and I’ve heard similar stories from many people over the years. Medicine’s not just about putting right mechanical faults. And it’s good medicine to remember that the body must heal itself, and to do that efficiently, the person needs to feel respected and valued and cared for. Luckily, times are changing, and medical students are being encouraged to retain empathy rather than having it bullied out of them as used to happen back in the day. In THE OPERATOR I look at several styles of surgeon, the arrogant god-complex type and the empathetic, caring sort.
The other main issue is money, and profit for drug companies – GPs and prescribing staff can seem to be using drug companies’ catalogues, looking up symptoms, there you go… many older remedies have been scorned out of use after years of working well, as they don’t bring in big profits, perhaps more doctors could question this. Newer remedies which cost more are brought in – then patients are blamed when the NHS struggles to pay for them. Research money seems to be always spent on seeking a wonder drug or immunisation, which will bring in big money for pharmaceutical companies, rather than some possibly quite simple and cheap preventative measure. Erica Bruce uses homeopathy, which is being attacked and discredited though it was once conventional medicine in the US – one of its strengths is the concern given to the patient in all their aspects.
How effective do you think the law is in dealing with criminality in the medical profession?
After the Harold Shipman case, probably pretty good on the whole! He got away with wholesale killing for a long time – the respect for the medical profession, the serial nature of doctor/patient interaction, so each patient with suspicions thinks they’re the only one – and there’s probably, as in all hierarchies or fairly closed worlds, a tendency to close ranks against accusation. THE OPERATOR’s sadistic surgeon relies on this ethos to get his kicks with impunity. Of course Doctors, Consultants, Nurses etc must be under stress and fearful of making a mistake which would have dreadful consequences, and they are only human. There have been heartbreaking cases recently emerging of hospital trusts creating an atmosphere where patients are neglected, not only emotionally but physically, starved of water for example – the media covered a case where one man had to ring 999 in desperation, the hospital sent the police away, and he died. Many people died in those kind of hospitals needlessly and/or in misery and pain and humiliation. No criminal charges ever seem to emerge from these kind of cases. Arguably, they should. And in my view it’s criminal what this government is doing to our precious NHS. These failing hospitals stories get a lot of media coverage since the Con-Dems took over – one can only hope that’s not to destroy public confidence in the NHS being workable, so we’ll protest less when it’s hived off into profitable private companies. I’m sure such a thought would never enter their heads.
What are you working on now?
I’m busy marketing the ebook of THE OPERATOR, and as the paperback’s coming out next February, I’ll be organising gigs and events all over the place – if anyone’s got an event or festival going on, let me know! I’m working on plotting the third Bruce and Bennett crime novel, lots of ideas for that. I’ve also got my next poetry collection (my 13th book) coming out next year so I’m working on that, with a separate lot of gigs and performances to be arranged.
Thank you Valerie for giving a perceptive and informative interview.
Links:
The Operater (Bruce And Bennett Crime Thriller) is in Kindle format on Amazon UK, US, IN and all other Amazon platforms
The Rotting Spot (A Bruce And Bennett Mystery) is in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon UK and US, and in Kindle format on Amazon IN and all other Amazon platforms
Valerie Laws’ Amazon Author page has links to all her other books: UK and US
Valerie can be found at her website and on Twitter: @ValerieLaws
September 8, 2013
Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Douglas Wynne
Douglas Wynne is a horror and dark fantasy fiction writer. He is also a musician and martial artist. His latest novel, Steel Breeze, was released in July 2013.
Douglas met me at The Slaughterhouse, where we talked about Samurai Culture and gun Culture.
Tell us about your new book.
Steel Breeze is a high-tension crime thriller about Desmond Carmichael, a novelist and single father who lost his wife to a brutal murder in a small New England town. One year later he has reason to believe that the wrong man was convicted of the crime and that someone is stalking him and his four-year-old son. He receives cryptic messages in the form of origami and haiku, which point toward a serial killer obsessed with samurai culture. But not only is Desmond up against a killer, he’s also struggling to maintain custody of his son. His in-laws and a local police detective think he’s delusional at best, and possibly even guilty of his wife’s murder.
How have you used Samurai culture in the novel?
The idea for the book grew out of my interest in martial arts and in particular my study of Iaido, the Japanese sword art. I thought it would be cool to write a villain who’s essentially a modern day samurai serial killer with a lethal skill set and a highly refined level of perception. That premise led to questions about his origins and backstory and ultimately brought some Zen philosophical elements into the story, as well as some World War II history. There are a lot of details about the ceremonial aspects of samurai sword culture woven into the plot, and I even ended up learning how to fold origami butterflies for the bookstore events, so that was fun.
To what extent do you think the ritualistic behaviour of the serial killer in Steel Breeze is prevalent in serial killers generally?
That’s a good question. My understanding is that it’s not as common as most fiction and film would suggest. But one interesting thing I found in my research was that there is a subset of mass murderers who identify themselves with a certain ideology, and then use the trappings of that ideology to create an identity that makes them feel like heroes in their own narrative. Elliot Leyton’s book Hunting Humans touches on this, and he suggests that these killers are kidding themselves, that their motives are ultimately more personal than political. The D.C. Snipers are a good example, where both Islam and a regimen of Taoist sexual and dietary rules figured into the killers’ missionary lifestyle. I took that case as one model for my bad guys, who are also a young apprentice and his manipulative mentor.
If conditioning may be a clue to the serial killer’s identity in your novel and his honour as a Samurai may be twisted by his pathology in either an alien culture or within itself, what do you make of the great Japanese author Yukio Mishima’s legacy? His work displayed a blending of modern and traditional aesthetics that broke cultural boundaries, with a focus on sexuality, death, and political change. He is also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d’etat and he famously said “We live in an age where there is no heroic death.”
I haven’t read Mishima yet, but it seems like he was a uniquely Japanese kind of Renaissance man: actor, poet, novelist, martial artist, dissident, all-around hardcore motherfucker. Since I can’t speak to his work in an informed way, I’ll just mention that when I found out about him during the research for Steel Breeze I was horrified to learn how his ritual suicide went wrong. The assistant who was supposed to decapitate him repeatedly failed to make a clean cut and had to call in a third man to finish the both of them. Yeesh!
As for there being no heroic death in our age, I’ll have to get the context, but I disagree. I think any self-sacrificing death for the sake of another is heroic. But it seems like he was lamenting the fact that you could no longer die for an emperor or lord, and in demilitarized Japan you couldn’t even die for your country. Mishima had some of the same impulses as my villain, but he also had plenty of artistic outlets and ended up only doing violence to himself. Serial killers, on the other hand, are usually frustrated and taking it out on a social group that they feel has done them wrong. Hitler was a failed painter, right? Mishima also wrote, “Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.” And that could easily be an epigram for my killer.
Oh, also, he and I have the same birthday on January 14th!
Do you think serial killers should be given the death penalty or incarcerated and studied?
I’m a Buddhist, so I’m against the death penalty. I do believe in trying to learn from even the most monstrous people in order to better understand the causes and conditions that bring about evil.
In the US, pro-lifers have argued against government funding for clinics that provide abortions because it makes all tax payers complicit in something that violates the ethics of many. I can understand that because I feel the same way about the death penalty and drone strikes against civilians. At least capital punishment is decided on a state-by-state basis in the US. I think when the message you send society is that we all need to get blood on our hands to battle evil, you just perpetuate cycles of violence and learn nothing. But it’s hard to not be emotional about these things. A few weeks ago we saw the arrest of a man in Florida who had been planning to kill and eat a child. My first reaction as a father was, “Put him down.” And that’s someone who hasn’t even acted on his sick impulses. Of course, lawmakers are supposed to rise above mob impulses.
What are your views on gun culture in the US?
Gun culture, huh? I get the feeling I’m about to loose a few Facebook followers. In Steel Breeze the murders are committed with swords and the guns don’t make much difference but that’s fiction. I own a few swords for martial arts training, and I suppose they could be defined as “arms” protected by the 2nd Amendment, but my feelings about the sword are summed up by Obi-Wan Kenobi: Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.
I think it’s telling that in our culture it’s taboo to show sex on TV, but not murder. It says something about our values, and about what we really fear. We wouldn’t dream of letting kids have dildo toys (and my God, I’m not suggesting it!) but gun toys are everywhere. That which gives life must be hidden, but that which takes it away is fetishized.
We’ve always fetishized objects that make us feel powerful: fast cars, loud guitars, motorcycles, and certainly guns. But guns are different because they’re designed for the sole purpose of killing, and yet the subculture surrounding gun ownership has become a form of entertainment unto itself in addition to all the fake guns that pervade movies, TV, and video games. Meanwhile guns have become industrialized. More sold per year, more shots per second. And as long as you have easily obtainable mass produced weapons of mass murder being flashed at the public in sexy media from all sides, it’s naive to think you won’t continue to see pervasive gun violence in America that exceeds all other countries, including many war zones.
Does it make me a radical liberal if I don’t like the fact that I’m no better off sending my kid to school in a suburban American neighbourhood than I would be shipping him off to Somalia for an education?
My views on this are as moderate as those of most Americans. I support the 2nd Amendment. I support the right to self-defense. I don’t think we need to take all of the guns away. But assault weapons have no place in civil society. They empower any psycho with no training whatsoever to snuff out dozens of innocent lives in a matter of seconds before anything can be done about it. No civilian needs that kind of firepower.
The only quasi-rational argument I’ve heard for it is that the founders wanted to ensure that the people could stand against a tyrannical government in a second revolution. I understand the concern that our government could go totalitarian, but the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned us about is now so pumped up on steroids that it’s way too late to outgun the government. That ship has sailed. And yet it seems like the same people who always want the United States to have the world’s biggest military budget are ironically the ones who also want to prepare for their own little Alamo against the government. They want to “support the troops” while also stockpiling weapons for a showdown against the troops? Well, I’ve got news for you: Your AR-15 won’t help you in that scenario because they’ll target your house with a Hellfire missile from a drone five miles out. Your money is better spent on books about Gandhi. There are other ways to take down empires.
So if the reason I need to accept machine guns in my neighborhood is because some tea bagger has the paranoid fantasy that he’s going to need them for the apocalypse, then you know what? Fuck that guy. Not good enough. If your highest concern is being armed to the teeth when civilization falls, then you are not part of the conversation about preserving a civilized society.
Do you think the technologised age we live in creates paranoia?
Technology is a double-edged sword when it comes to paranoia (haha, I’m determined to mention swords in every answer). On the one side you have exposure to every spectacular tragedy within minutes, which gives us all a sense that the world is a more dangerous place. When I was a kid, we didn’t have 24-hour news networks, and you didn’t hear about every child abduction in the country. These days parents are afraid to let kids walk to the school bus. On the other side you have more information about other cultures and a heightened awareness of the basic humanity of people who are different from you, which seems to be eroding racism, nationalism, and homophobia, and creating a greater sense of interconnectivity, a sense that we’re all in this together. Whether or not immersion in technology makes you paranoid probably has more to do with your personality going in. Oddly, we don’t seem to be paranoid enough about all of the data mining and surveillance because we keep on voluntarily sharing our info. We seem to be addicted to connection, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.
How hard to you think it is for the Western mind to understand the concept of Buddhist dualism?
If we’re talking about how Zen techniques are supposed to result in a kind of direct perception that transcends dualistic subject/object experience, then I think that’s difficult to grasp for anyone, regardless of culture, because it’s an experiential thing cultivated through a practice that goes beyond concepts. They express it as “not one, not two,” and it contradicts your everyday view of the world no matter who you are. But I’m just a student of these ideas, and I sure haven’t attained it…except maybe once on acid. Maybe.
Or are you talking about mind/body dualism and where Buddhist philosophy differs from, say, Descartes? I’m not that well read on the western version of the problem and I’m not sure if I understand all the terms, but it seems like Descartes arrived at something similar to Buddhist thinkers when he decided that mind and body are of two entirely different natures. For him this was a sort of proof that the mind could exist without the body, but he had trouble explaining their interface. I guess he was trying to prove that an afterlife must exist if the mind (soul) doesn’t arise from the body and is independent of it.
In Buddhism there’s a similar argument, but they don’t bring God into it. Instead they posit a beginningless cosmos and argue that a moment of consciousness can only arise from a previous moment of consciousness and therefore a continuity of consciousness must exist that precedes your birth and can be traced back to previous incarnations.
I think both are hard to understand! And I think consciousness research is a frontier that science is about to have a lot of fun with.
Does your killer know what the sound of one hand clapping is?
No. He’s very unenlightened.
What are you working on now?
Well my first book dabbled in supernatural horror, and my second is a straight up crime thriller, so now I’m doing full-on cosmic horror with a Lovecraft influenced book. But I think what you don’t do in a book is at least as important as what you do, so I have a list of Lovecraftian tropes that I’m determined to avoid at all costs. So far I’m having fun with it.
Thank you Douglas for an insightful and great interview.
Links:
Steel Breeze in paperback and Kindle formats on Amazon US and UK
Steel Breeze trailer direct link
August 28, 2013
Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Steve Alten
Steve Alten is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels that characteristically deal with situations of extreme emergency and crisis affecting humanity. He has a new novel out. The Omega Project, set in a future when the world’s oil reserves run out, leading to war and mass starvation, is another high octane emergency thriller. Steve met me at The Slaughterhouse, where we talked about the future and identity.
Tell us about The Omega Project.
Robert “Ike” Eisenbraun and his fiancée, Andria survived the Great Die-Off of 2020-2025 when the world’s oil reserves ran out, leading to war and mass starvation. Five years and five billion deaths later, mankind attempts to begin anew, devoting its remaining resources to fusion energy – a clean-burning system that requires Helium-3 to forge a stable reaction. One problem: He-3 only exists on our moon and Jupiter’s ocean moon — Europa. Man is ill-equipped to exist in near-zero gravity; the mining equipment will be operated remotely using GOLEM, a super computer programmed by Ike to “protect and preserve the human race.” All goes well until the computer determines the mined He-3 isotope to be unstable and takes it upon itself to jumpstart a mission to Europa. GOLEM designs Oceanus, an underwater habitat, and selects six men and women — including Andria — for the six year mission.
Has GOLEM gone rogue? Ike is charged with finding out – he will join the Omega crew on a 45-day training mission beneath the Antarctic Ice Shelf where the crew will spend the last thirty days of the prep cryogenically frozen. Ike is forced into his cryogenic pod by the men, who accuse him of working as a spy for the coal industry.
Time passes. Ike awakens to find Oceanus collapsing into a sea trench, the ice gone, the world changed dramatically. Either he is still asleep, caught up in a vivid Omega dream – or 12 million years have passed.
Do you think the future is more frightening than the past?
The question is relative to how far you go back or ahead. In the near future society will be hit with the reality of PEAK OIL. Translated — world oil reserves peaked in 2005. When the oil runs out there will be a massive food shortage, followed by starvation, anarchy, and nightmares categorized in THE OMEGA PROJECT as the Great Die-Off. We can avoid the G.D.O. if we prepare, only we won’t as the world’s corporations are vested in the problem, not the cure. Then there’s an asteroid threat in 2028…
Do you think we are the victims of the economy?
Victim is a term that infers we are innocent. I feel the economy and society’s problems are a result of our negative actions — greed, ego, etc. When we transform from selfish to selfless, things will get better.
To what extent does The Omega Project challenge notions of identity?
What will our planet look like 12 million years from now? How will a potential cataclysm in 2028 affect the future? How will it affect evolution? What species will replace man? These are questions that are answered in the pages of THE OMEGA PROJECT. Publishers Weekly calls THE OMEGA PROJECT “an exuberant thriller.” I wrote it as part entertainment, part warning.
Our news stories are inundated with petty issues, political corruption, and royal births. THE OMEGA PROJECT deals with a major speed bump that – unless we prepare now — will lead to a Great Die-Off, followed by something far worse.
The novel opens with a foreshadowing — an actual press conference which occurred on March 11, 1998 when an administrator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab refuted Harvard astronomer Brian Marsden’s prediction that Asteroid 1997 XF11 might impact Earth on its pass on October 26, 2028. The news story received worldwide coverage, with scientists assuring people that by NASA’s calculations the asteroid would come no closer than a moon distance away. Ah. . . but what if this very real mile-in-diameter asteroid struck the moon?
The story’s protagonist becomes our eyes and ears to world events leading up to the 2028 cataclysm as well as an Earth freed from the shadow of man. I spent long hours researching post-human evolution as well as the aftermath of a major asteroid strike on the moon and its potential effects on Earth. At the same time I kept my creative license, describing exotic backdrops, bio-diverse fauna and food chains that had never been penned before. In the end, it comes down to our identity and future as a species and how we relate to one another.
How much is the fear of evolution and its threat to humanity part of the novel?
There is a very real threat to humanity; evolution is what happens after the event takes place. So the hero awakens 12 million years later in a post-human world and now he must a) survive and b) figure out what happened. His decisions will affect the planet for millenium to come.
What skills are necessary for your protagonist to survive?
The protagonist is the man who invented ABE, the Amalgamate Biological Enhancement chip he had surgically implanted in his brain stem. Like a computer, our brain was designed to process information – in our case about 400 billion bits of information a second. We’re only aware of an infinitesimal percentage of that storehouse of memory because our brain must adhere to the programming limitations imposed by the blinding forces of our perceived reality – a reality anchored by natural selection and the weight of our evolution as a species. While there are exceptions to the rule; photographic memory. . . Mozart composing music as a child – solving abstract problems of logic or recalling previously read texts was not a skill our ancestors required to survive while hunting and foraging. Furthermore, the human brain cannot relay to the mind what our senses cannot perceive, and our senses lie to us during every waking moment. As an example — our planet is rotating on its axis as it soars through space at a speed exceeding eleven hundred miles a minute. And yet, we feel nothing. Why? Because our senses lie to us; concealing the velocity from our brain. The walls of this train possess atoms, each a universe unto itself, and yet we cannot perceive of the micro any more than the macro. If our senses cannot perceive it, Ms Helms, then for us it does not exist, and yet it does. What is needed is a pair of neural spectacles that will allow us to see. Enter ABE, a bio-chip that allows its user to direct his or her thought impulses to the parts of the brain best suited to download, comprehend, store, and retrieve the information. Think of ABE as a television remote control, one that uses thought energy to enable its user to channel surf or immediately dial up their desired program or app. ABE’s temporal lobe setting stimulates memory, allowing its user to create his or her own data base in the time it takes one to listen to a language CD. Read a book and you’ve memorized the text; engage ABE’s dictation unit and you can record a letter or even a novel and simultaneously download it to anyone else who possesses an ABE chip. Program ABE’s self-diagnostic app and your brain will boost your body’s immune system to prevent cancer or cure virtually any ailment. Immortality is within our reach; ABE bridges the gap between human frailty and human perfection; unfortunately it doesn’t come with an app that conquers human ignorance.
Is there a particular event that has changed your life and influenced your writing?
Picking up and reading a TIME article in Aug. 1995 about the Mariana Trench spurred the idea for my first novel; MEG and kick-started my career.
Do you think publishing is learning necessary lessons epitomised in the rise of Amazon?
I think book sellers were affected more, which hurt all of us.
What are you working on now?
The sequel to THE LOCH. It’s a crossover novel that teams Zachary Wallace (Loch) with Jonas Taylor (MEG) and sets up for MEG 5; NIGHT STALKERS.
What makes you angry?
Politicians who care only about being reelected, hypocrites.
Thank you Steve for an informative and perceptive interview.
Links:
Visit the Macmillan Publishers site for all things Steve Alten and The Omega Project:
Read – more about The Omega Project, an excerpt, reviews, and more
Connect – find links to Steve’s site and social websites
Buy – direct from the publisher
Or find The Omega Project at Amazon US and UK, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository and more online stores here
Find out more about all Steve Alten novels here
August 21, 2013
Chin Wag At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Keith Nixon
Keith Nixon has written a gritty hard core novel in The Fix. The author’s debut moves like burning oil and is packed with realistic and funny dialogue. Set in 2007, it deals with the events surrounding investment banker Josh Dedman who is fired when millions go missing from the bank. Keith met me at The Slaughterhouse where we talked about money laundering and crime fiction.
Tell us about The Fix.
The Fix is my debut novel. In its simplest form The Fix is a multi-layered tale of crime and dark humour in one neat package.
It is set just prior to the financial collapse of 2007. The protagonist, Josh Dedman is fired when £20m goes missing from the bank he works for. Josh has no friends to speak of, other than a Russian tramp who claims to be ex-KGB and an irritating careerist he meets on the train one morning. Unknown to Josh he’s being followed by the mysterious Mr Lamb. His cheating girlfriend dumps him, then Josh’s sociopathic boss, Hershey Valentine, winds up dead and he’s the prime suspect and his life really goes off the rails…
How pervasive do you think money laundering is in the UK?
Interesting question as ironically I touch on money laundering briefly in my second, as yet untitled, book and follow-up to The Fix. Money laundering is at its simplest is the legitimising of cash generated from criminal means. It is probably more pervasive than any of us realise as witnessed recently as in the press about well known comedians and their illegal tax avoidance scams. I’ve seen one piece of data saying that the US loses $100 billion a year to money laundering activities, an incredible amount.
The UK’s involvement is two-fold, first there’s the front for the money laundering process. This is typically a business where the vast majority of the financial transactions are in cash – strip clubs, casino’s and… beauty salons. However the UK is also involved in the movement of the cash. Although small island locations like the Caymans are often cited, understandably criminals like to go through the very large financial centres where millions of transactions occur daily. This includes the UK, New York, Tokyo and Switzerland. The financial institutions are supposed to tip-off law enforcement agencies if they see any suspicious movements of cash and anything over the value of $10,000 (although this thresholdvaries from country to country) which leads to my favourite phrase – smurfing. This is where multiple cash transfers occur at just below the threshold and proves someone at least has a sense of humour.
Is there a particular incident that has changed your life and influenced your writing?
Absolutely yes – I was made redundant just over four years ago. The lead up to the execution wasn’t pleasant, it was a very difficult period of my life. However, there’s always a silver lining to every thunderhead and what I ended up with was three-fold. First lots of inspiration and material for The Fix. Second was a change in writing style. Previously I’d written historical fiction novels and comedy / drama screenplays, but when pulling The Fix together my prose was immediately sharper, shorter, more focused. Third was settling in the crime genre where overall I feel a lot more at home.
What do you make of the E Book revolution?
I’m a big fan of the e-book revolution primarily because it provides choice to the writer and the reader (ironically my day job is to convert print customers from analogue to digital) by largely eliminating barriers to entry. On the upside, writers that were previously blocked from readers by agents & publishers now have free market access. Therefore readers get wider choice and, often, new writing styles. On the downside a lot of dross reaches the market and it is difficult for the reader to select authors amidst all the noise. All in all a significant change that was overdue.
Graham Greene wrote ‘There is a splinter of ice in the heart of a writer.’ What do you make of his observation?
Greene, to me, is saying writers need to be coldly focussed on writing as an activity. I would also interpret it in three ways:
1) Being clinical in the treatment of your characters – if someone needs killing, do so, favourite or not
2) Be hard on the storyline – if something needs cutting, do so
3) Be committed to writing as a craft, even if this impacts on leisure time
I see truth in all three perspectives, to do anything well takes dedication and commitment – writing is no exception.
What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on the follow up to The Fix. In it Lamb and Konstantin return. It’s another murky tale of murder and betrayal – crime mixed with humour. I hope this will be out in the early summer.
I also have a historical fiction book being edited, I wrote this several years ago. It’s utterly different to the crime novels…
What makes you angry?
It takes a lot to make me angry, annoyed regularly, but angry rarely. Generally it’s abuse of position or power that gets up my nose, people who think the rules of life don’t apply to them, regardless of the consequences to others. It’s a constant element in the news – the banking sector scandal, Syria, MP’s expenses, the Jimmy Saville affair, etc. Unfortunately the list goes on and on. This is a central theme in The Fix and it’s as yet unnamed follow-up.
Do you think much crime fiction sanitises crime?
I suspect in the vast majority of cases, yes. Reading, and therefore writing, about a crime is very different to actually experiencing it and / or living with the consequences thereafter.
What advice would you give to yourself as a young man?
I’d give myself several pieces of advice – worry less because everything works out in the end, family and friends are more important than work, get writing you idiot.
What else is on the cards for you this year?
A couple of projects – I’m in the process of re-drafting the follow up to The Fix (as usual the title is the last element to be defined). Lamb and Konstantin return. I also have a historical fiction book in edit that I’ll release. I also intend to write a novella on some of the history on Lamb and Konstantin’s history, but I’ve been struck by a silly idea for another crime humour novel… ah, decisions, decisions…
Thank you Keith for an eloquent and insightful interview.
Links:
Get a copy of The Fix
Amazon.com, paperback and Kindle
Amazon.co.uk, paperback and Kindle
Kobo, ePUB
Find Keith Nixon at his blog, on Books & Pals, his Amazon.co.uk author page, Facebook and Twitter
August 4, 2013
Quick Fire At The Slaughterhouse: Interview With Jack Ketchum
Jack Ketchum needs little introduction, he is an author who has arguably redefined horror. Jack has a new novel out, ‘The Woman’ which he co-wrote with Lucky McKee. It is a primal novel that explores the line between law and the forces it tries to contain. Jack met me at The Slaughterhouse where we talked about his new release and the role of the primitive within horror fiction.
Tell us about The Woman.
I wrote THE WOMAN with filmmaker Lucky McKee. We’d seen Pollyanna McIntosh’s ferocious performance in OFFSPRING and decided she needed a film all to herself, so we decided to do both screenplay and book at the same time, with Lucky doing the heavy lifting on the script and me doing it on the novel, going back and forth with pages on both. I’d killed her character off in my screenplay for OFFSPRING but Polly was so good that the director, Andrew Van den Houten, wouldn’t let her die, and I’m glad of his decision. She’s the last of a tribe of cannibals along the coast of Maine and she’s wounded. One day a shady country lawyer’s out hunting. He sees her, comes back and captures her and introduces her to his family by chaining her up in the root cellar. He figures it will be very interesting to tame her. The question then becomes who’s worse? This feral woman or this “civilized” gentleman? And how does his family take it? His wife, teenage son and daughter and his little girl?
To what extent do you think fear of the primal or the primitive evokes that thing called horror and why?
The primal’s very horrific. For two reasons. First, there’s the “otherness” of someone or something that appears utterly untamed and is thus wholly unpredictable. Ever see a wolf up close and personal? Those beautiful, scary eyes? But maybe more importantly, there’s the deep down recognition that without scruples, ethics, the “laws” of civilization, we might just go the same way ourselves — and like it. We’re horrified at what men and women are capable of doing when let off the leash. And rightly so.
You have said that your love for Elvis helped you through your formative years, have you ever thought of incorporating him into one of your fictions?
He already got a mention in my novel THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. But I think BUBBA HO-TEP pretty much said it all.
What else is on the cards for you this year?
A collection of essays on other people’s writing and a book of poetry. I’m working my way down the ladder of financial success, see? That’s the plan. But I’m having fun. After that I’ll try to pull myself up by my own bootstraps again with a new book of stories and maybe next year, a novel.
Thanks Jack for a great interview.
Jack Ketchum photo © Steve Thornton
Links:
Find everything Jack Ketchum at his website: all his novels, novels adapted to film, awards, social media links, the whole nine.
Pick up a copy of The Woman at Amazon US and UK or see Goodreads for other online stores.
All editions and covers for The Woman are here.
