Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Sort of always wanted to change the world! That’s why I worked on the frontline with recently-arrived people, single moms and high school drop outs. My magic wand would spread the idea that there is a silver lining in every cloud. Sometimes we focus too much on the clouds. When I was thirty-four, I lost the use of my right arm for two years. After hard work and lots of yoga, acupuncture and a special diet of pig’s feet, I started dancing tango to strengthen the muscles around my spine. A really bad experience spawned one of the best things in my life. Tango did wonders for our couple life too. So my injury led me to tango.
Why do I write? Since reading “The World According to Garp” by John Irving many years ago, I have been intrigued by the effect of childhood tragedy on grown-up relationships. My first book inadvertently ended up being an exploration of just that problem. Without knowing it, all of my characters lost parents in childhood and their behavior reflects various shades of that reality. What’s weird about it is that I didn’t plan to do that. It just happened.
In my 20s, I wanted to be a serious writer and I travelled around the world carrying a guitar that I couldn’t play and a diary full of, I hate to admit it, constipated prose. Did reading those stilted lines stop me from writing? Not at all, it just made me want to improve. I wrote my first novel at 32. It is still sitting in a drawer covered with scratched out sentences. I love to look at it because it shows me how far I’ve come.
So what made me write Tsunami Connection Book 1 of the Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series? Two things did it. First, when I was listening to the news coverage of the Boxing Day Tsunami in Aceh Province, Indonesia, I had a flash.
Really, the story came to me in an instant. Before I begin, I mean no disrespect for the lost lives, broken families and suffering experienced by Indonesians by using this idea. It is all fiction. The tsunami was a catalyst.
Now, Aceh Province is known for its radicalized stance on fundamentalist issues. Let’s set the scene here: Remember it’s not long after we all watched the Twin Towers falling on September 11th. What if some big power believed that Osama was in Aceh, training insurgents and wanted to get access to him? What better way than to inundate the place with a tsunami and then be responsible for rescue?
The US had the only helicopters in the area for two weeks after the disaster. My hypothesis or premise held water. All I needed was a weapon. So I invented one and put it on a rogue Russian Akula submarine. A book was born that day. Now the problem remained of how to make my work different from the mass of stuff out there? I studied the market and decided that a woman Mossad agent that headed up an ultra-secret group of sleepers would fit the bill.
Kefira, meaning young lioness, danced onto my pages. Oh! I forgot to mention something. I am a tango maniac. Dance with my wife 15 hours a week and have done so for 16 years. My secondary goal was to write about Argentinean tango. Giving Kefira the role of professional dancer left her free to travel, perhaps not inconspicuously, but nevertheless free to be a spy, a sleeper.
An amazing thing happened when I wrote a thriller. The genre freed up my creativity. When I wrote pure fiction, I always got caught up in personal issues because the characters became fragments of my entourage and me. Espionage thrillers freed me up. I no longer had to think about whether or not the people in the story came from my life. I had no military experience and knew no spies. Why write about spies then? After all we should write about what we know, shouldn’t we?
For 35 years, I have been a voracious reader of espionage fiction. The cold war lived in my mind constantly, even when I travelled in the East Bloc in the late 70s. My experience was vicarious and enchanted. The technology, the action and the characters in books by Le Carré, Deighton, Clancy and Lustbader among others, animated my reading life. As I said earlier, I wanted to differentiate myself from the crowd so I wrote a woman protagonist, made her a serious dancer, and stabbed at writing a post-cold-war espionage novel. I must have succeeded because I have just signed with a publisher to translate Tsunami Connection to be released in Turkey and Germany. It’s only a small run of books. Who knows, my wildest dreams are coming true.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My new book, Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Techno Thriller (Book 2 of The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series), hot off the presses, takes my writing journey in a familiar but new direction. What if a paradigm-shifting nanotechnology changed everything? Would the world of spies change and how would those changes unfold? The book started as a series of flashbacks roughly inspired by the Sci-Fi great Robert Heinlein’s Starship Warriors film. To my pleasant surprise, the words in the first draft flowed onto the page with fun and pleasure. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I learned I desperately needed an amazing editor if I wanted to continue in the writing game. Why? ‘Cause it takes me at least six drafts to get it right. After some rough starts with Internet-based editors, I lucked into someone who filled the bill. Chris Roper, my editor, has 30 years of successful writing experience, using various pseudonyms and has just released his first novel, The Gyrfalcon File: An Edward Morgan Novel. . By what stroke of luck Chris decided to work with me I am not sure, but I am very happy he has. This game is all about collaboration. I start the idea, but it is a group effort of writing, editing, beta-reading and proofing that makes the final product.
Since Diamond Rain was released on April 10th 2015, any clicks order link on the Amazon page would be really appreciated. In fact, any reader who takes the trouble to email me a link with an honest review of Diamond Rain on Amazon will get a gift card for Tsunami Connection (and vice versa if you read and review Tsunami Connection first). So here’s the email to get a free book: tsunamiconnectionmjg(at)gmail(dot)com. Enjoy!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I am a visual person. To stimulate my work, I collect pictures and paste them up all around my workspace. When I run out of ideas I just look around to find a place to continue. Also I love to dress up my characters for an event. List building does nothing for me, but seeing my people moving around a new scene in great new clothes inspires me.
Following up on my reading of On Writing by S. King, I try to put my characters in difficult situations instead of planning in detail. When they get themselves out of trouble in the evolving story, the tension in the scene maintains itself. As I always said s a teacher: “If I am sure where every lesson is going all the time, I can be positive that my students are bored.”
What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was twelve years old, my eldest sister gave me a copy of Battle Cry by Leon Uris. ever since finishing that book I have wanted to write a thriller about war. As I grew up Issac Asimov and Robert Heinlein took over my reading tastes. Greg Bear followed up in that same vein.
In university, I studied classical writers and English literature for 2 years before changing to become a language teacher. Aristophanes’ plays, the Iliad, the Oddessy and the theme of madness in literary characters intrigued me. A House For Mister Biswas by V.S. Naipaul almost became a thesis subject in my Master’sLevel Qualifying year at Concordia University.
I’d say that Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller ranked high in my more serious reads. Without a doubt though, as I mentioned earlier, John Irving tops the list.
What are you working on now?
Spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica and got 150 pages into a romance called Monkey Love about a 30-something, under-the-volcano-born naturalist with commitment problems who loves and preserves Howler monkeys. The place just drips family saga and romance. Warm, proud people who are unabashedly tolerant. Really. Also started the third part of my Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series. Billy’s Back spins a likeable minor character I introduced in Diamond Rain and finds him confronting a plot to import Ebola. Kefira and Thomas are on the watch too. Let’s not forget the Nanosuits either.
When I got back from Costa Rica, on a whim, I entered a thriller writing contest at a site called Author Crowd. I’ve won the last three monthly chapter instalments in my category. It’s pure futuristic fantasy science fiction. Whispering Just A Dream features a male protagonist in a dystopian nightmare.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Mu list of promo sites is deep, perhaps 50 different sites, but Vinny at Author Marketing Club supported me when I was first trying to get my book seen on the Net. He encouraged me by paying attention and taking the time to reply to my inquiries. Jim Kukral also did the same there.
Overall my experience at learning how to market my work is an ongoing affair that grows and evolves every day I am in the race. It invigorates me with showing me all the amazing Indie writers people out there that are ready to give a lending hand to other Indie writers. A truly unsung aspect of self-publishing is the network of writers connecting across the globe to make their dreams come true.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get a mailing list set up on your blog and start collecting followers way before you first get published. Write 2000 words a day. It doesn’t matter if you write your main project.Just blog, email enter fiction contests but always write every day.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write 2000 words a day.
What are you reading now?
I am reading a great book by Bob Mayer called Night Stalkers – Area 51. Bob inspired me to continue writing during a low moment during my first book, but it was Steven Konkoly who made me put pen to paper four years ago. The premise of his book, The Jakarta Pandemic, made me realize that my Tsunami Connection idea might just be doable.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Billy’s Back Book 3 of The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series spins off a minor character from Diamond Rain. Billy is in many ways Tomas, Diamond Rain’s protagonist’s, mentor. They have an old friendship that dates back to Billy’s return from Vietnam. You might say Bob ÙMayer inspired him.
On a different thread, I am exploring a romance novel called Monkey Love set in Costa Rica and am half way through it. It’s a real pleasure to be writing something romantic.
To add some spice to my writing life I jumped into a writing contest at Author Crowd and had the great good fortune to be selected from thousands three times in a row to win chapter writing contests in their thriller category. That is an on-going project.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe, Greg Bear’s Eon, Bears Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith and King Rat by James Clavell and maybe more if I could pop my kindle with my solar charger into my bag.
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