Khaled Talib's Blog, page 12

A Horse is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course…

Got bitten by a relative’s horse recently after taking a selfie with it. Laceration on my right arm. I ended up at a Malaysian polyclinic for treatment.

The medical service in Singapore is very slow. So you’d expect Malaysia to be much slower. I mean really sloooooooow, plus their reputation for being too lax.

But I got the surprise of my life. I walked into a crowded polyclinic in a small Malaysian town. Lots of patients already. The staff seemed very calm (humored by my incident, of course).

So I registered, got an injection,met the doctor, ended up in another room for a dressing, got some medication after — and I was out in less than half hour.  I guess they won’t cast me as the next Lone Ranger.

 

 

10 Things You Didn’t Know About INCOGNITO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Incognito was inspired by my frightful incident after encountering a mysterious woman in black one cold night in Geneva. The woman had been standing outside the building as I watched her from my room window. Later, when I went downstairs, I found her in the dim foyer. She was standing frigid, staring at me. There was no one else in the foyer. I was reminded of the governess in the old movie, The Omen. It led me to create an assassin based on this character.

2. I went for a holiday to Switzerland and Italy, but the holiday turn into research work for my novel. Meeting people, taking trains, visiting historical monuments all played a part for the story backdrop. I took down lots of notes.

3. I have always been fascinated by the Pierre Lotti café in Istanbul with its spectacular view of the Golden Horn. The first time I saw the place, it was in a tourist book. As I sat drinking apple tea, I realized I could write an action scene here, which I did.

4. Guy, one of the names of the characters in the book, is based on a real person. He was the receptionist and telephone operator in the hotel I stayed in Geneva.

5. I did some fact checking, which included contacting the Mandarin Oriental Geneva. The day I wrote “The End” after finishing Incognito’s manuscript was also the day the hotel’s marketing and communications manager resigned from her job. I had been corresponding with her to fact check some details.

6. The tourist guide’s character at Villa Balbianello in Lake Como is based on a real person who led the tour during my visit. This is the villa where they filmed Daniel Craig (James Bond) was recovering with Vesper (Evan Green) in Casino Royale.

7. I chose the novel’s title “Incognito” to blend with my previous novel’s one-word title, Smokescreen, to create a signature identity.

8. The idea of dragging the Vatican into the picture is based on my encounter with a Swiss woman I met while trekking a snowy mountain in Saint Moritz. I had asked her for directions. One thing led to another and she started complaining about her neighbor, Italy. Then she blamed the Vatican for all “the problems of the Europe.” I felt she had issues, but her words prompted me to thicken the plot.

9. The mystery side of the novel was inspired by Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Robert Ludlum’s the Road to Gandolfo, which included a plot to kidnap the Pope.

10. There were two other characters that made up the specialist team sent to rescue the Pope. But I had to downsize to keep the plot focused. The character Guy was initially a hotel receptionist, but I merged him with another. The other, a young Swiss, had to be deleted.

Congratulations to the Winners

Here are the  winners of the Amazon “Incognito” Kindle Giveaway Contest, which ran from 6 June till 21, June:

Kimberly Mclaughlin
Billi Bartlett
Anna Hanson
Cathy Roa
Deanna Josephitis

Congratulations. I hope you enjoy the read.

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon Giveaway: 5 kindle copies of INCOGNITO to be won

There are 5 kindle copies of INCOGNITO to be won.

The giveaway ends 21, June, 2017 11:59 PM PDT, or when all prizes are claimed.  To participate, click here:  Amazon Giveaway: INCOGNITO

Rules apply.

Good luck!

 

 

Gun Kiss will be published by Imajin Books

Well, here’s some more exciting news. I just signed a publishing contract with Imajin Books to release my suspense-thriller, Gun Kiss, for 2017. This is a story about an A-List Hollywood movie star who gets kidnapped by a Mexican drug lord.

Imajin Books in Canada is owned by bestselling mystery writer, Cheryl Tardif.

Check out No. 9 for upcoming titles Imajin Books 2017 Upcoming Titles

If you like edgy, romantic thrillers, this one is for you. Think Hollywood movie stars, paparazzi, great locations, bandidos, amigos, HSI, FBI agents and Mexican Federales and the military. A hotchpotch of everything in one hell of a book!

And I can’t wait to introduce to you my fictional movie star!

 

Today is Incognito’s Pub Day

When I set out to write INCOGNITO, I was told by industry people it was impossible to kidnap the Pope.

You can’t just write a novel and create a scene where he gets kidnapped. It has to sound believable, even though the premise is fiction.

But I found a way that sounds plausible after researching everything about the Vatican. Now, advanced readers, including one known industry personality in the United Kingdom, has this to say after reading the novel:

“The premise of such a kidnap is really darkly entertaining and sometimes I think almost highly likely!”

“Dark” seems to be the keyword as another reader left a review on Goodreads that reads, “Definitely the darkest intellectual thriller novel I’ve read this year!”

Incognito is a story about religion and politics, particularly Islamophobia, Christianity, the refugee crisis, the sudden rise of fascism in parts of Europe and NATO’s fear.

The protagonist Ayden Tanner does not believe in God. But he is assigned to find the Pope who is missing.

The question is, how much effort will he put in this mission? Will he risk his life to save someone who has nothing in common with him? Today is 15, May. INCOGNITO is out. I hope you enjoy the read.

Maybe it was Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Maybe i...

Maybe it was Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Maybe it was David Seltzer’s The Omen. All I know I had to have my own monastery. So I created one.

The small scene in Incognito took me quite a while to construct. I was not only writing the story, I was playing medieval architect.

Photo shows the Monte Cassino monastery in Italy. Reminds you of one of those virtual combat games like Counter Strike and Assassin’s Creed and whatever else that I am too old fashion to know.

Many of you know this, but I’ll just mention it anyway.They didn’t built monasteries thousands of feet above ground not for mystical reasons or in their attempt to reach God.  They built them high to protect monks from marauders.

Saint Peter’s Square: Reworking it from the Author’s Eye

 

 

 

 

Saint Peter’s square, Vatican City. Almost every religious thriller novel and movie about the Vatican will have an image of it. It has become the standard.

In fact, authors have covered almost every inch of the Vatican that’s its really tough to produce original scenes and ideas.

But I had a good creative director when I used to work a short while at an ad agency. I noticed how he saw things differently even if something had been overused. It took me a while to see how he sees things, and then an idea hit me.

I saw something at the square that jumped out at me. I realized how this could work for INCOGNITO. As with my first novel, Smokescreen, expect the unexpected.

The Crazy Singapore Taxi Driver

My driving school days experience: I got into a cab and instructed the driver to take me to the school. Halfway, the driver got into a situation with a biker. Problem with the blind spot.

But for some reason the driver got so riled up that he forgot he had a passenger in the backseat.

The driver gave chase and tried to run the biker over several times. He wound down the window and cursed the biker.

The biker looked at the driver, then said calmly, “You’re a mental case” before speeding off.

When I reached the school, the driver turned around, gave me a big smile and said, “Good luck with your lessons.”

I passed.

Angel of Death

I visited Jordan’s capital city once. I got tired after touring a bit, and decided to rest in a mosque.

I woke up an hour later to find a young Malayan student sitting with his back against a pillar. I expected him to be a student at one of the Islamic universities in Jordan. I also knew the young fellow wasn’t expecting me to speak his language because I look like everyone else in the Mideast.

So I went up to him and said in his language, “I am the Angel of Death. Your time has come. Follow me.”

The young fellow turned blue, and I had to console him that it was a prank. I found out that he’s also from Singapore, so I took him for lunch. The least I could do after scaring the X*^%*! out of him.