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One Book Interview #50 – David Hambling (Author)

February 5, 2018 by andygraham Leave a Comment

The One Book Interview hits its half-century this week and we have a great set of answers to celebrate.

(There may be a moderate amount of alcohol consumed sensibly later too.)

Author #50 is an author of both fiction and non-fiction.

His technology journalism has appeared in New Scientist magazine, Aviation Week, Popular Mechanics, WIRED, The Economist, The Guardian newspaper and others.

His novels have their roots in the myths and legends that stalk the streets and fields of South London.

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Norwood, London – David Hambling

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. It’s a rip-roaring adventure – and arguably the first superhero story. The protagonist has multiple secret identities and the best technology money can buy, including ultra-accurate pistols and concealed body armor. But there’s more to it than simple adventure; it works on other levels as well, and as a study of the art of vengeance and its effect on the revenger it has never been bettered. It’s a real swashbuckler, but it is also a lot more, with some striking characters rather than just placeholders and truly memorable scenes.

Reading a work like this, you start to appreciate how the standard of popular fiction has declined over the last 170 years, and how much we can learn from earlier writers. Dickens and Shakespeare may not be to everyone’s taste, but Dumas is a joy. The phrase ‘entertainment for all ages’ fits perfectly.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

You mean as well as the Bible and the complete Shakespeare?  (The traditional literary gifts on Desert Island Discs).

If I was marooned on Mars I probably wouldn’t survive long enough to do any reading, and if I did survive I would probably be concentrating on staying alive and getting home rather than poring over literary works…

…but if I had to pick a stunning, long book to re-read, I’d pick Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. It’s an epic trans-European WWII sci-fi adventure with bizarre Nazi goings-on centered around the V-2 rocket attacks on London. It also manages to pack in esoteric lore, Pavlovian psychology, plenty of sex, and a great cast of characters. While the central story features a mission to discover the secret of a mystery device fitted to a V-2, subplots spin off in all directions. It’s a book that bears a lot of re-reading, and Mars – reached by rockets directly descended from the V-2 – might be a good place for it.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles may not look promising – you’ll find it in the literary fiction section. It’s a surreal horror story which starts with a missing cat and gets steadily darker and weirder as the protagonist’s wife vanishes, and he gradually learns more about the forces working against him. It all centers on an ancient well, now dry, which he descends and starts to dream strange dreams.

The evil is subtler and menacing than in in genre horror (though there is a certain amount of gore), and there’s an amazing flashback as one character recounts his experiences during the Japanese campaign in Manchuria during the 1930s. (Spoiler: it was not a happy time for any of those involved).  There is philosophy, but there are also surprising dashes of humour… one character’s impassioned diatribe about microwaved rice pudding reads like a stand-up comedy routine.

Murakami’s work also bears distinct traces of HP Lovecraft and his notion of Cosmic Horror, and for me that it very much a bonus.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

Never ask a parent to choose between their children!

As an author you’re always going to be most excited about the one you’re writing now. I’m just in the final edit stages of Master of Chaos, the fourth of the Harry Stubbs series. This is a sci-fi adventure set in 1920’s London involving Cthulhu-mythos mischief, with the lead character going undercover to work in a mental institution. Madness and mayhem abound…as usual there was a mountain of research to be boiled down and distilled, and some complex plot mechanics going on, plus this time I tried to do something more ambitious with the writing itself.  Overall, I feel I’m getting better.

Hence, of the books that are in already in print the one to recommend is the third Harry Stubbs, Alien Stars, in which our hero is searching for what his employer believes to be the Holy Grail – and which turns out to be something far more alien, and far more dangerous to our world.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

“Godel Escher Bach: an eternal golden braid.” by Douglas Hofstader is perhaps the most mind-expanding book I have ever read. It takes some intriguing mathematical ideas, in particular self-reference and paradox and shows how they apply to everything from music to the way that DNA replicates, and of course Escher’s amazing ‘impossible’ images, taking in Zen, human (and artificial) intelligence, meaning and meaninglessness.

It’s a far more whimsical book than this bare summary makes it sound, with the subtitle “a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll,” and it is, to coin a phrase, a book that makes you think.

It even inspired some of the core ideas in my latest work, Master of Chaos.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

Professionally, the most inspiring books are the bad ones. Reading a good book makes me think I should just give up; reading a terrible one makes me think, “dammit, I can writer better than this!” and inspires me to try.

For me, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a truly great bad book. It’s tautly written and the plot has you on the edge of your seat. It’s a real page turner…but the contrived plotting, cardboard characters and clunky dialogue had me howling with disbelief. (And don’t get me started on his legal but questionable misappropriation of the historical research by Baigent, Leigh and others).

I’m never going to write The Count of Monte Cristo, but I hope that any writer worth their salt who encounters Dan Brown will think “maybe I can do something in this vein, but not quite so terribly.”

To be fair, I have not read any of EL James ‘Fifty Shades’ series, so there may be even more stupendously great bad books out there, and I’m sure every reader will have their own favourite. I have enough inspiration for the meantime though, thanks.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

That would have to be The Elder Ice. It’s short – barely a hundred pages – and introduces Harry Stubbs, a former heavyweight boxer and sometime debt collector in 1920s South London. Now trying to make it working for a legal firm. Harry is tasked with tracking down a legacy left by a polar explorer – real life Antarctic legend Ernest Shackleton, who lived in this area.

Shackleton left behind a pile a of debts and hints that he has discovered something valuable, and much of the story centers on the question of what he could have brought back which was worth more than its weight in gold…which also kills people…

You can find David here.

David Hambling aims to bring authentic 1920s Lovecraftian horror to Norwood, his corner of South London, a little-known and haunted place where taxis dare not go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: English, Interviews Tagged With: #amediting, #amwriting, #author, #crime, #detective, #dystopian, #fantasy, #grimdark, #thriller, horror, horrorfiction

One Book Interview #19 – Jason Parent (Author)

June 19, 2017 by andygraham 2 Comments

Hot on the heels of last week’s 18th birthday celebration, the One Book Interview is back to business as usual. Today, I’m very happy to be taking part in a book tour for an exciting author by the name of Jason Parent. His new book  A Life Removed is out now. I had the pleasure of reading an advance copy not so long ago. You can find out what I thought of it tomorrow, but for now, here is a taste of what Jason likes to read when he’s not writing. (Interestingly, three of his choices made the top twelve list in last week’s 18th birthday book summary.)

Good people of the Internet – Jason Parent.

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

The Stand, by Stephen King – It is a genre-defining tale of good versus evil that should be required reading.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

The Martian, by Andy Weir – I’d need some chance of being able to grow potatoes. Of course, I’d probably also need potatoes.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

Robert McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series. Historical fiction, not quite horror or my usual cup of tea, but altogether perfect.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

My books vary so much in genre and tone that my answer to this question changes daily. But so as not to cop out, I think Wrathbone and Other Stories is one of my best works.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

Tucker Max’s I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. The book never answers the question whether beer is, in fact, served in Hell, so I have made it a life-long ambition to drink as much beer as possible before I get there. I’m guessing it’s all mimosas and umbrella drinks down under the earth.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

Not Tucker Max’s books. Stephen King’s On Writing has made me re-examine my craft.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

That depends on how dark they want to go. I have a couple of novellas priced at $0.99 to allow potential readers to give me a try. But my novels are all stand-alones, so my latest, A Life Removed is as good a start as any (and happens to be set earliest chronologically).

You can find Jason at: www.authorjasonparent.com

In his head, Jason Parent lives in many places, but in the real world, he calls New England his home. The region offers an abundance of settings for his writing and many wonderful places in which to write them. He currently resides in Southeastern Massachusetts with his cuddly corgi named Calypso.

In a prior life, Jason spent most of his time in front of a judge . . . as a civil litigator. When he finally tired of Latin phrases no one knew how to pronounce and explaining to people that real lawsuits are not started, tried and finalized within the 60-minute timeframe they see on TV (it’s harassing the witness; no one throws vicious woodland creatures at them), he traded in his cheap suits for flip flops and designer stubble. The flops got repossessed the next day, and he’s back in the legal field . . . sorta. But that’s another story.

When he’s not working, Jason likes to kayak, catch a movie, travel any place that will let him enter, and play just about any sport (except that ball tied to the pole thing where you basically just whack the ball until it twists in a knot or takes somebody’s head off – he misses the appeal). And read and write, of course. He does that too sometimes.

Filed Under: English, Interviews Tagged With: #amwriting, #author, #crime, #detective, #onebookinterview, #thriller, horror, horrorfiction, writing

One Book Interview #12 – Garry Rodgers (Author)

May 4, 2017 by andygraham Leave a Comment

For interview #10 we had a crime writer, for #11 we had a best-selling author, this week we have both in one person: a bestselling crime writer and blogger (they’re great posts!) who has worked as a sniper, forensic coroner, and homicide detective. His books are based on his own experiences of true crime, and have been ranked up alongside Stephen King and Dean Koontz in the bestseller charts.

Good people of the Internet – Garry Rodgers.

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Of all the self-help and motivational books, T&GR is by far the best work ever done on the science of personal achievement. The history of T&GR starts with Andrew Carnegie of US Steel/Carnegie Hall fame commissioning a young reporter named Napoleon Hill to research and write a book on the principles of success, no matter what your occupation or intention. This was in the early 1900s and Carnegie was in his later stage of life. He’d turned into a true philanthropist and wanted to leave the world with a formula on how people can better themselves – not just for richness in money but rich in spirit and accomplishment. Through Carnegie’s influence, Hill had access to the greats of the day – Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Presidents, Kings and entertainment stars. It took Hill over 20 years to produce the work – unpaid – but he produced a masterpiece that’s stood the test of time. Once you’ve absorbed the 17 principles of achievement laid out in T&GR, you live your life by them. It’s just that powerful a book.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

Hmm… let me think. Besides T&GR that’d motivate me to try finding a way off, I’d say The Art Of Happiness by the Dalai Lama. In my opinion, the Dalai Lama is the most switched-on, in-tune spiritual leader alive today. Everything the guy says makes sense to me. I guess if I were marooned on Mars, I better decide to be happy about it and his guidance would sure help a situation that’d truly suck.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

Wired For Story by Lisa Cron comes to mind. I stumbled on it in a book store and it entirely changed my writing mind. Lisa takes a scientific approach on how human brains are designed to respond to stories and how to write in the way that engage your readers’ interest. It’s not a technical book – it’s so easy to read and understand. I think every writer MUST read this book.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

No Witnesses To Nothing was my first novel. I still think it’s my best work. It’s not a book for most people as it’s long, drawn out and gets quite heady towards the end. It’s based on three true stories and is a ghost story disguised as a murder mystery. Deep down, it’s a search for the science and spirituality of the human soul.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

Think And Grow Rich, by far. Otherwise, I’d say The Magic Of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz and The Psychology Of Winning by Denis Waitley.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

The Elements Of Style by Strunk & White is mandatory reading for all writers. You need to know the rules of writing and this little book captures them all – composition and grammar that is. Once you know the rules, then it’s fair game to break every one of them in creative storytelling.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

I’d recommend reading In The Attic first if you want to get to know me and hear my voice. It’s a true story about a horrific double homicide I investigated. It’s told in first-person and takes the killer’s psychotic point of view as well. Warning, though, it’s extremely graphic.

You can find Garry at: http://www.dyingwords.net

Garry Rodgers is a retired homicide detective and forensic coroner who also served as a sniper on British SAS trained Emergency Response Teams. Now he’s an Amazon bestselling crime writer. Garry lives on Vancouver Island at Canada’s west coast and hosts the popular blogsite www.dyingwords.net.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: English, Interviews, Uncategorized Tagged With: #amwriting, #author, #crime, #detective, #onebookinterview, #thriller, #truecrime

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