Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a long time foreign correspondent and consultant for humanitarian organizations working in war zones and disaster areas. I have a previous life as an Arctic Bush Pilot and before that as an airforce interceptor pilot.
While I have written many documentaries for television and radio in Canada and Britain, I have only recently turned my skills to novel writing.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Cobra Flight is set in the High Arctic and it draws heavily on my life and experiences in that region.
For such a barren land it has an amazing number of modern legends and tales associated with it. Any number of strange things are said to have happened in the High Arctic; lost airliners, abandoned nuclear facilities, strange military encampments and activities, and endless tales of international espionage and subterfuge.
Much of that plays into the plot of Cobra Flight and I am myself unsure which parts of the thriller are my invention and which come from real life.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My writing process by most standards is odd.
As a result of years of journalism in strange and hostile places, under the demands of unreasonable editors and producers, I have learned to write under any circumstances, at all times, and with only the writing tools at hand.
I am not one for having a “special pen” or a handcrafted leather notebook, or a bespoke laptop. I can and do write in cramped noisy environments like a ship’s hull, the back of a speeding truck, or the din of a head hurting nightclub in Marrakech.
In the quiet of my own home I work at whatever computer I have in front of me. That includes an ancient and well loved CP/M Kaypro which cannot connect to anything, a couple of AlphaSmarts made for school kids, any one of four Chromebooks that I mainly use for travel, and two Apple machines I bought specifically for their ability to run Scrivener. The Macbook is the workhorse writing machine and the iPad Mini with a Bluetooth keyboard is just for travel and only contains the Scrivener iOS version.
Oh, and I almost forgot, I also dictate writing when I am out and about on hikes with my Border Collies.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My writing influences are widespread, if not altogether catholic. But, in my preferred genre of thriller writing I would name Gavin Lyall, Brian LeComber, Nevil Shute, and Hammond Innes. Close behind would come Lee Child, John D MacDonald, and many others.
What are you working on now?
The sequel to Cobra Flight will be Shark Flight. It follows directly on from the first book and the planning for a third is in progress.
In addition, I am in the midst of writing a modern science fiction novel set in the Cobra Flight universe and a more traditional dark murder mystery in the wilds of Upper Michigan.
I have also started a non-fiction book about my adventures as a correspondent and consultant in war zones titled The Disaster Tourist.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
While I fully endorse the need and obligation of writers to get involved heavily in the promotion of their own works I must confess to a general ignorance of the best techniques and practices. But it seems clear to me that unless an author is willing to spend some money on advertising and some effort at self promotion then obscurity can be the only result.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to people just starting out is heavily influenced by my training and background in television, radio, and print journalism. In that world there can never be any acceptable excuse for not producing a story on time. There is no such thing as “writers’ block” in that world. There is always a way to meet a deadline and to think otherwise is rank heresy.
You do not need a special chair, a quiet office, a congenial coffee shop, or some magical piece of music softly playing in the background. If you start thinking of such things you are actively and wilfully sabotaging the writing process.
Writing can be taught and it gets better, not easier, the more you write. If you must, buy just one book on writing practice. Any more than one book on writing will turn into two shelves of contradictory nonsense. I would recommend anything on writing by James Scott Bell.
Read your heart out in your favourite genre. Read until your eyes close on themselves at night, read when you cannot write. Read anything and everything.
Do not buy a special writing computer until you have proven to yourself that you have what it takes to be a writer.
At the least, you only need pen and paper — actually, on that point let me say that you can get by with less.
I have lived and worked in Aboriginal Canada for years and I have met many story tellers who conceive and compose their tales in their heads and then produce them in front of people eager for tales and wonder and enchantment.
Never forget that The Iliad, and The Odyssey, both by Homer were oral poems of such power and impact that they are vividly remembered today. They were not composed outside of Homer’s head.
The world’s oldest thriller is The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in some unknown writer’s head four and a half thousand years ago.
Pick a computer, any computer. Find a writing program — any will do. And write, and write.
If you won’t free yourself from the tyranny of writing groups, technology, and your own personal insecurities then please just give up. No shame; it’ll be for the best.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice is almost a secret in itself because so few people will give it the attention it deserves.
The Secret is: “If you cannot tell someone what your story is about (novel, script, memo etc) in one short declarative sentence then you do not have a clear idea of what it is you want to write, and you shouldn’t start writing.”
One sentence, (with at most, one subordinate clause,) and you can write a million word novel if need be.
The other bit of advice I got as a cub reporter back when every editor was a man, smoked a foul cigar, and without doubt beat his wife, has stuck with me through tedious parliamentary debates, rambling scientific conferences, mind numbing public relations presentations, and the body freezing terror of combat operations.
It was, “Just write the goddamned story! Worry about it later.”
And that’s what I do when I run into a writing roadblock, a lack of research, a fear of inadequate writing ability; I just write the “goddamned story”. It always, always, works out.
What are you reading now?
I am reading the latest from Ben Aaronovitch in his Rivers of London series. His knowledge of London (where I used to live) is spot on and his understanding of British police procedure and police culture is impeccable. Just a brilliant writer.
I am also re-reading some of John D MacDonald’s Travis Mcgee works because I am so in awe of how he could construct a sentence that carries a Sherpa load of meaning and portent without ruining the sentence.
In the same vein, I am re-reading Dick Francis in an attempt to understand how he was able to bury important plot points into the dialogue of his characters without without tipping off the reader unnecessarily.
What’s next for you as a writer?
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?
Desert Island books. Hmmm.
I would have to have books that would bear repeated if not obsessive re-reading. A John Grisham novel wouldn’t cut it because there would be no way to get the cat back in the bag after the first reading.
I would opt for an old and much discredited non-fiction work that really excites my imagination with the provocative ideas it puts forward about how human thought and language developed. So, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes would be in my survival bag.
A book that also delves deep into our origins and which does it with a lucidity of writing that is exceptional is, “After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC” by Steven Mithen. It is breathtaking in scope, impeccably accurate in its science, and the sort of book that you feel compelled to set aside after every paragraph just so you can think about what you just read.
And the third book would be whatever omnibus edition of Biggles short stories I could get into the survival bag. I, and many many other fighter pilots of a certain age grew up on Biggles stories and novels by Capt W E Johns. Melodramatic, formulaic, and predictable as they were, the Biggles stories inspired generations of school boys to buckle down to their studies so they could qualify to enter the airforces of the world and train as fighter pilots.
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