Charles Purcell's Blog, page 6
July 11, 2017
Author Q&A: Charles Purcell
Who are you?
Charles Purcell … lover, fighter, retweeter.
Also a journo with 20-odd years of experience, mostly with the Sydney Morning Herald. Oh, and author of two books: The Spartan and Game Of Killers: The Spartan.
Where are you from?
I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.
Tell us about your new book, Game Of Killers: The Spartan.
It’s the sequel to the 2014 ebook military thriller, The Spartan.
What’s the plot precis?
“Millions died in the United States when a weaponised plague was unleashed upon the world. Now a new menace threatens the country just as it begins to recover.
The perfect assassin’s tool has been stolen from America’s high-tech labs.
No one is safe … not even the President.
And in the hands of the assassins’s leader is a legendary lost sword: the Honjo Masamune.
Now Tier 1 soldier the Spartan and his ex-Mexican policewoman partner Teresa Vasquez must save the President from being murdered by a bold new enemy – one that seems to be constantly ahead of them every step of the way.
If the President is killed, America will be brought to its knees and the world plunged into war. Plus the ghosts of the past have come to haunt the Spartan: Mexican cartels out for blood, elite operatives chasing revenge and a scarred US General looking to end their deadly grudge match forever.
Can the Spartan and Vasquez defeat their enemies and save America itself?”
Is it inspired by real-life events?
Yes. Particularly the so-called Thucydides Trap: that when a rising power replaces another one, the usual outcome is war. It has happened many times in the past, from Athens and Sparta to Germany and Great Britain.
In this case, we’re talking about the potential for conflict between China and the US. That is the ever-present backdrop for both of my books … what exactly it might take to tip them both into war.
You’re interested in history, then.
Yes, very much so. I studied history at both high school and university. I particularly loved ancient history. I don’t want to live like a Spartan – I’m too much of a pleasure-loving Athenian, fond of my modern comforts – but I do admire the Spartans.
Tell us about your hero, The Spartan.
He’s a Tier 1 soldier, mid-thirties, 250 pounds of tight muscle, cobalt blue eyes, steely brown hair shaped in a buzz cut.
His partner is Teresa Vasquez: special forces trained operative, possessor of the world’s only set of invisibility combat armour, late twenties, brunette, beautiful, smart.
Their job: protecting the United States from all its enemies, both domestic and foreign. And there are a LOT of enemies that fall into both categories.
You’ve written before about the age of the hero being over. How does that apply to the Spartan?
I feel he’s a lot like Ray Donovan, the baseball-bat wielding fixer from the TV series of the same name … a man whose time has passed.
Liev Schreiber once said of Ray: ““Ray is working on old software, functioning in a world that no longer appreciates men as breadwinners and warriors. And there is a lot of pain in that.”
The Spartan is a bit like that: a soldier and a warrior in a world where there’s not much of a place for warriors anymore.
I also feel he’s a bit like The Punisher, Frank Castle, a man on a lonely quest few understand. I love this quote from an emissary of The Hand from Punisher Max: Homeless, as he refuses to take the contract to kill The Punisher: “Frank Castle is an endangered species. And one does not hunt an endangered species. One preserves it. And marvels at its beauty. And on the day it finally succumbs and dies, one mourns its passing, knowing we may never see its like again.”
We like to admire these heroes, but essentially they are people at war with a world that fears and hates them. As Liev says, there’s a lot of pain in that.
So I like to think I’m paying homage to this endangered species before it disappears forever and all the fighting is done by robots or artificially enhanced soldiers.
You’re not a fan of the idea of the Singularity, then?
No. It sounds like a nightmare.
What was the toughest part about writing your book?
Overcoming the hoodoo of the “difficult” second novel.
What was the saddest thing you ever saw as a journalist?
I once saw a star of a comedy series that was huge in the ’80s and ’90s sitting at a comic book convention booth … and no one was going up to him to get his autograph. The look on his face said it all.
You’ve interviewed a lot of famous people: Chris Rock, Robert Downey jnr, Kathy Griffin, Jason Alexander. What quote from one of them stayed with you forever?
When I spoke to Woody Allen about what made him happy … and how we all distract ourselves from the knowledge that one day we will die.
He said: “It’s like what Auden said about death being the distant sound of thunder at a picnic: that’s what [life] is, you’re at a picnic but there’s a distant sound of thunder. You know some day you’re going to die.”
You’re a newspaper journalist. Are newspapers dying?
No. They just smell a bit funny, like a zombie extra from The Walking Dead.
Will there be a third book in the Spartan series?
Maybe. I have some ideas. I particularly liked what Hugh Jackman did with Logan.
What writers do you admire?
Lee Child, Mario Puzo, Don Winslow, Shane Kuhn, Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, John Birmingham from Australia, the guys from The Onion, Hilary Mantel, Tina Fey and probably too many to mention.
What’s something people don’t know about you?
I once hugged Lou “The Original Hulk” Ferrigno.
His arms were soft and strong. I felt so safe.
Any final words?
I hope you enjoy reading Game Of Killers: The Spartan as much as I did writing it.
Game Of Killers: The Spartan is now available as an ebook here and Print On Demand novel here. You can also buy the first instalment, The Spartan, here.
July 10, 2017
Silence of the Lamby … aka why Lena Dunham’s dog “mini crisis” tells me that Western civilisation is doomed
A few months ago, while I was getting my four-wheel drive serviced, I glanced upon a photographic history of the nearby suburb.
It pictured a group of stout men with grim faces and even grimmer axes, sporting the type of beards that real working-class men used to have before they became a hipster affectation of the soft-handed men of the middle classes.
“These men worked for 14 hours a day, seven days a week for years to clear the forests for the foundations of the suburb,” said the blurb underneath.
Holy shit, I thought. Fourteen-hour days for years on end … that’s some Japanese salaryman-style commitment. It reminded me of just the type of people who built the foundations of the modern world.
They were, to quote the Chinese phrase, folk who knew how to “Chi Ku” … to eat bitterness. To endure hardship and continue despite the most pressing of difficulties.
Like Grandpa Simpson once said, people were tougher in the old days: tough enough to fall 8000 feet onto a pile of jagged rocks and jitterbug that same night. They were people in horrible and grim and unrewarding circumstances who just stayed the course because … well … that’s what people of both sexes did in Grandpa Simpson’s day.
Which brings us to Lena Dunham and her dog Lamby. The Girls star is being excoriated on the interwebs for her decision to give up Lamby to a canine rehabilitation centre after “four years of challenging behaviour and aggression that could not be treated with training or medication or consistent loving dog ownership”.
I’m not here to pile on Dunham. Enough people are doing that already. Go read the full articles on the net.
Yet it does make me ponder about the modern world’s inability to endure the unendurable … to face the unpalatable … hell, to chow down on the rasher of shit that previous generations were served every day.
I’m thinking about the slaves that powered the first democracy of Athens and the first superpower of Rome.
The generations of waifs and orphans who had their fingers severed working the Spinny Jennies of the Industrial Revolution.
The workers buried alongside the railroad tracks and great bridges of the West.
The generation that dodged rats in the trenches and marched towards machine guns in World War I.
The soldiers and civilians that starved and froze in the foxholes of Stalingrad.
The factory drones who spent their entire lives working in soul-crushing and repetitive tasks.
The husbands and wives who stuck it out in loveless marriages, dulling the pain with Bex and sex and liquor, because that was just what one did.
They had no other option to endure.
And it is these people that are responsible for the success of societies all over the world. Today – and not just in the West – we seem to have lost the ability or willingness to eat bitterness.
Are we just not that tough anymore? Has peace and prosperity turned us from mighty Spartans to soft, pleasure-loving Athenians?
Are we addicted to the comforts of our iPhones, our plasma-screen TVs, Swedish furniture, Thai chicken green curries and non-iron shirts?
Or am I prematurely predicting the end of Western civilisation because of it?
You tell me.
My new thriller Game Of Thrones: The Spartan is now available here and Print On Demand here.
July 9, 2017
*&%^ it, Al: five reasons why Deadwood should be your next boxset bingefest
We talk a lot about great shows that were prematurely cancelled – Sense8 anyone? – but one of the most tragic cancellations in my lifetime was slow-burn hit Deadwood.
This is how the real Wild West was – a violent bacchanal of sex, gunfights, fistfights and heavy drinking, its bloody, muddy streets populated by uncouth, desperate men and women seeking their fortune during the Dakota gold rush of 1876.
David Milch’s epic Western is regularly namechecked as one of the best TV shows ever, ranking 23 in Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Greatest Shows Of All Time.
It is also regularly namechecked along with Firefly, Carnivale, Party Down, Arrested Development and Freaks And Geeks as a series cruelly cut short before its time, cancelled after its third season yet with rumours of a Deadwood revival movie refusing to die.
Like its superlative stablemate Rome, its prohibitive production cost contributed to its cancellation. However, the critics were and continue to be enthralled.
“After watching the pilot episode of Deadwood, I got up, lowered the blinds, dimmed the lights and burned through the rest of the DVD in a fugue of wonder and excitement,” wrote New York Times critic Allesandra Stanley.
“I didn’t leave the series until the next day, staggering limply into the harsh sunlight like Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend.”
Now here’s why YOU should love it, too.
What it’s about
When gold is discovered in the Black Hills of Dakota, thousands flock to the region to find their fortune. An illegal gold town springs up almost overnight … attracting gamblers, gunslingers, gold hunters, outlaws and businessmen. One man seeks to control it all – saloon owner Al Swearengen (Ian McShane).
Five reasons why you should watch Deadwood
Ian McShane.
We recently saw him as “Mr Wednesday” in American Gods and as a pacifist priest in Game Of Thrones, but the Lovejoy star’s true tour de force was as saloon owner, whoremaster and unofficial frontier town kingpin Al in Deadwood.
He is the magnificent hub around which the marvel of Deadwood revolves.
Al is based on a real-life person.
So is Sheriff Bullock, Will Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and more. Even Al’s place of business the Gem really existed.
The Bullock Hotel, built by Seth Bullock, stands to this day.
There’s authenticity dripping out of every conversation, every scene, every card game, every set in Deadwood.
Deadwood itself.
Like Al, Bullock and Hickok, the town of Deadwood was real, shining brightly albeit briefly in Wild West history. The producers do a magnificent job of bringing Deadwood to life. It’s the unofficial star of the show.
The language.
Deadwood could just be – scratch that, IS – the sweariest show on TV. If you had a dollar for every mention of a certain C-word you’d be a rich man. (Actually, you wouldn’t. But you would have about 273 dollars.)
The f-bomb is also dropped close to 3000 times.
Besides that, the dialogue is a magnificent combination of high Shakespeare and low saloon talk. Al’s profanity-laden conversations with Wu (“hang dai!”) are worth the price of admission alone.
Al’s monologues are also eminently quotable. Such as: “Pain or damage don’t end the world. Or despair, or fucking beatings. The world ends when you’re dead. Until then, you’ve got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man … and give some back.”
It was ahead of its time.
Boxset bingewatching? Shows like Deadwood and The Wire virtually invented it. The 2004 series helped herald the new Golden Age Of Television, started by 1999’s The Sopranos and including The Shield, Buffy The Vampire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and much more.
My new thriller Game Of Thrones: The Spartan is now available here and as Print On Demand here.
July 4, 2017
Why action heroes are an endangered species
“Ray is working on old software, functioning in a world that no longer appreciates men as breadwinners and warriors. And there is a lot of pain in that.”
That’s Liev Schreiber talking about his eminently watchable LA “fixer” Ray Donovan in the superlative series of the same name.
I often think about his perceptive words as I see the changing roles required of men in modern society.
Because Liev is not entirely wrong.
The golden age of the warrior is passing.
Like mutant Wolverine riding off into the sunset in swansong Logan, the era of the lone tough guy riding into town to solve everyone’s problems with fists, guns or baseball bats is increasingly threatened.
Man’s one great advantage – his physical strength – is being eroded in a world where machines can perform manual labour faster and more efficiently.
On the big screen the fantasy still exists. We are continuously deluged with movies about mighty (albeit increasingly more-than-human) heroes, the latest iterations being the Avengers and X-Men series.
Yet back in the real world, the modern-day military superstar isn’t the human soldier: it’s the drone, delivering death from above, the missiles and cannons deployed by operators thousands of kilometres away from the battlefield.
These cubicle warriors pushing buttons in airconditioned comfort are not Wolverine of Ray Donovan types: rather they are ex-air force pilots, sent in to command the machines that have made them obsolete. There are now more drone pilots being trained than those that will ever see the insides of a cockpit.
For politicians scared of the bad press of humans coming back from overseas deployments in bodybags, the increasing use of drones is a blessing: not to mention the billions saved in ongoing human medical bills and pensions.
We stand on the cusp of an explosion in autonomous weapons systems and AI. How long before enhanced tactical devices – the proper robots of science fiction lore and Terminator fever dreams, not just drones and border-guarding sentries and SWORDS weapons platforms – will be employed en masse in combat?
When that happens – when we outsource the fighting to the machines – part of the identity of man as warrior will also disappear. One of the critical pathways man has used to prove his strength, worth and courage for millennia will disappear.
No doubt it will be an emasculating experience.
Once again The Simpsons, like the Trump presidency, has predicted the future.
I give you this quote from The Secret War Of Lisa Simpson: “The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today, remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots.”
The tale of Sparky The Hero Army Electrician does not excite the synapses of the male mind as much as say Conan The Barbarian. How will Hollywood make these technological functionaries seem heroic?
I have seen other signs at the coming action-man obsolescence in popular culture: in particular, the anti-hero The Punisher, whose widely anticipated TV series is coming soon to Netflix.
To quote the emissary of The Hand from Punisher Max: Homeless, as he refuses to take the contract to kill Frank “Punisher” Castle: “Frank Castle is an endangered species. And one does not hunt an endangered species. One preserves it. And marvels at its beauty. And on the day it finally succumbs and dies, one mourns its passing, knowing we may never see its like again.”
My own hero The Spartan feels the same psychic pain as Frank Castle and Ray Donovan. He is also an endangered species … and he knows it.
It is our duty to marvel at his heroism, along with that of Frank and Ray.
And on the day these heroes die, we will mourn their passing, know that we may never see their kind again.
My new military thriller Game Of Killers: The Spartan is available as an ebook here and a paperback here.
July 3, 2017
Get set for S7 of Game Of Thrones with the ultimate GOT quiz
Are your friends “raven” about your fan knowledge of Game of Thrones? Or, like Jon Snow, do you know nothing about George R.R. Martin’s fascinating world? Take our GOT challenge and find out just how well you know Westeros and its stars.
What song did they play at the “Red Wedding”?
a) The Eternal Duty of The Knights Watch
b) Wrecking Ball
c) The Rains Of Castamere
d) The Bear And The Maiden Fair
What is Tyrion Lannister the unofficial god of?
a) Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things
b) Tits and Wine
c) Dwarves, Drunkards and Unwanted Sons
d) Disco
What are the names of the Stark dire wolves?
a) Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, Prancer, Rudolph
b) Rebel, Standfast, Lady, Proudmane, Osha
c) Toto, Astro, Cujo, Benji, Lassie
d) Lady, Ghost, Summer, Nymeria, Shaggydog, Grey Wind
Why does Jon Snow “know nothing”?
a) He never knew his real mother
b) He didn’t finish high school
c) He doesn’t understand women
d) Internet connections in Westeros are spotty at best
What does the “R.R.” in Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin stand for?
a) Ronald Reagan
b) Raymond Richard
c) Ronald Reuel
d) Richard Ryan
What does “Valar Morghulis” mean?
a) Valour is its own reward
b) Do you want fries with that?
c) All men must die
d) We are the watchers on the Wall
What is Ned Stark’s sword made out of?
a) Mithril
b) Adamantium
c) Damascus iron
d) Valyrian steel
Complete this sentence: “the night is dark and full of …”
a) Candy
b) Terrors
c) Turnips
d) White walkers
What are the names of the Khaleesi’s three dragons?
a) Balerion, Vhagar, Meraxes
b) Sunfyre, Vermithrax, Ghiscar
c) Smaug, Toothless, Puff the Magic Dragon
d) Drogon, Rhaegal, Viserion
Who built The Wall?
a) Bran the Builder
b) The First Men
c) The Nights Watch
d) Pink Floyd
Answers: 1. C; 2. B; 3. D; 4. C; 5. B; 6. C; 7. D; 8. B. 9. D; 10. A.
10 right – Jon Snow
9 right – Tyrion Lannister
8 right – The Khaleesi
7 right – Cersei Lannister
6 right – Arya Stark
5 right – The Kingslayer
3-4 – Hodor
1-2 right – “Stupid” Ned
0 right – Reek
My military thriller The Spartan II is out now.
July 2, 2017
June 26, 2017
Top 10 Game Of Thrones spin-offs we’d like to see
Dance Of The Dragons
This Targaryen civil war has it all … siblings fighting over the throne, heaps of exciting battles and yes, combat on dragonback. Imagine whole eps devoted to massive Battle Of The Bastards-style fights.
Rise Of The Faceless Men
Today they are the servants of the Many-Faced God, master assassins feared the world over. Yet once they were slaves who worked in the mines. How did they throw off their shackles to become the killers only mentioned in whispers? We’re imagining something like the Cylons overthrowing their human masters in Battlestar Galactica.
The Doom Of Valyria
Once upon a time Valyria was a prosperous and thriving culture, a hub of advanced knowledge and the maker of swords that can kill White Walkers. Then the Valyrian Freehold was destroyed during the Doom Of Valyria, a cataclysm of fire, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. We’re thinking last days of Pompeii here.
Robert’s Rebellion
This is the show most likely to get the green light; the war against the Mad King, set decades before the events of Game Of Thrones. There’s so much scope to this; Ned Stark and his sister, the Battle of the Trident, the Tower of Joy, and, of course, the epic finale … Jaime killing the Mad King and thus earning his title of Kingslayer.
Aegon The Conqueror
Or “how the Westeros was won”. The epic story of the first Targaryen king of Westeros, who forged a new empire out of fire and blood.
War For The Dawn
Winter has come before; thousands of years ago, the White Walkers tried to end all life in Westeros. This is the amazing story of how mankind first defeated their ancient foe.
The Brotherhood Without Banners
Now that the Hound has teamed up with the Brotherhood he’s made them cool again (we love the Hound: he has the best lines on the show). Plus they’re lead by a man who can come back from the dead just like Jon Snow. There’s a rollicking tale waiting to be told.
The Andals Cometh
Daenerys is always going on about being “Queen of the Andals” … along with more titles than you could safely write on a Starbucks cup. But who were these people who invaded Westeros thousands of years ago? Rich material awaits to be mined.
Birth Of The Night’s King
According to legend, the Night’s King was the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. Come discover the terrifying truth of how he became the undead scourge of Westeros.
The Final Days Of The Mad King
What of the last days before Jaime stuck a sword in his back? And what of the idea that Bran’s time-travelling meddling drove him mad in the first place? This could either be a single series in itself or the climax of the aforementioned Robert’s Rebellion.
My ebook military thrillers The Spartan and the new sequel are available here and here.
June 15, 2017
The day I shook Keanu Reeves’s hand
It was like cool jazz.
The grip of an FBI agent paid to surf.
The secret handshake of slacker Ted.
The touch of saviour Neo.
And the gesture of one of Hollywood’s most interesting actors ever.
It was the day I shook Keanu Reeves’s hand at the Sydney Opera House at The Matrix Revolutions launch in 2003. Then a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald, I had found myself in the VIP section along with co-star Jada Pinkett Smith, producer Joel Silver and Reeves. I spoke to Smith about her Matrix video game (I enjoyed it), saw Paris Hilton at the bar … and then it was on to Keanu.
The meeting was remarkable for several reasons.
Firstly, Keanu looked almost EXACTLY like he does on screen. Having met a who’s who of Hollywood in the flesh, I can tell you just how rare that is. He looked handsome and healthy, his eyes penetrating and full of secret depths.
I congratulated him on the movie and thrust my hand towards his as he lay on a couch. His grip was soft yet strong. Looking into his eyes, I sensed he was a man of deep humanity – an impression only furthered later by learning more about his incredible life and times.
For a second I felt like his bro. I felt like Bill from Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure: Bodhi from Point Break; Morpheus from The Matrix.
Every meeting one has with an interview subject – particularly a Hollywood star – involves a type of energy exchange. After a killer interview one is left with a type of high, not only if the star has delivered great quotes, but also from the contact with the extraordinary individual themselves. It is almost a type of osmosis: as if we temporarily absorb some of their luminescence, their star power, their charisma.
With Keanu I felt all this and more.
I was recently reminded of our meeting – and his hands – after seeing John Wick 2, seeing those hands in action, striking down bad guys in close-quarters combat or shooting his foes in an excitingly fighting style not seen in recent cinematic memory.
John Wick is the action franchise the world needs right now: the spiritual successor to the Bourne films, a celluloid kinetic explosion of action and intrigue.
“Have you ever walked out of a film so struck by awe and wonder your skin is abuzz?” wrote critic Angelica Jade Bastien.
“Has a film ever left you so joyful and drunk on adrenaline that it made you more hopeful about the world?”
Wise words and true.
Particularly if you’ve shaken the star’s hand.
My new military thriller Game Of Killers is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
June 2, 2017
May 31, 2017
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