Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi. I’m Tim Rees and my background is military and after that BBC drama. I’ve made a lot of films and drama series with the BBC, most notably, Mimosa Boys, a Play For Today written from my diary and letters. I left the BBC to focus on writing novels, but life kept getting in the way – I had to earn money and then there’s relationships. I’m happiest writing and being in love with a beautiful woman, but both those options are incompatible, at least for me, so now I’m focused on writing. My first novel was about an African American running for the White House. I wrote that thriller in 1997 and the hook line was: “A scenario of why Colin Powell failed to run for the White House.” I got an agent very quickly and flew to New York to sign a deal with HarperCollins. Everything fell through because of the perceived controversial subject matter. One vice president of a major publishing house wrote to me and stated I was stretching credulity to breaking point and beyond. He referred, of course, to the fact of my suggesting America would ever have a black president. For some years after that I found myself in another relationship and when that predictably failed, I returned to writing, but this time I thought I’d be smarter and get my foot in the traditional publishing door first by writing a memoir I suspected would quickly get published as it involved the Falklands war and a few anecdotes about the British royal family. In Sights: The Story Of A Welsh Guardsman was published by The History Press in 2013. Since I have written two novels. WTF will be perceived as controversial by many and it is certainly an adults only novel, but Delphian is firmly in the thriller genre, although it is a bit different.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I wrote Delphian because I wanted to expose the hypocrisy that is vivisection, yet I accept the argument that if I had a child dying of cancer I would be desperate for a cure. Thus the story begins with someone’s child being used as a vivisection subject.
I also wanted to create a character that was a cross between Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and Forsythe’s The Jackal. Although I think Vincent, the starring rogue British agent, has ended up more like Timothy Olyphant’s Hitman with the addition he’s a master of disguise.
And I wanted the story to have international, commercial appeal. When I write a novel I’m very much thinking about film and write every scene as if I’m watching it in a movie. So for the atmosphere of Delphian I drew heavily on the Scandinavian TV series The Bridge and I have tried to marry that with the unrelenting pace of the Bourne film series. The readers will judge whether I’ve been successful, but it was fun trying.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know what you mean by unusual as my writing habits are usual to me. I suppose it isn’t usual for a thriller writer to allow the characters to lead the way with regard plot. When I begin a story I have absolutely no idea how it is going to finish. I know the points I wish to make, but everything that happens are decisions made by the characters themselves.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
In most recent years Clancy, Grisham and Child. But stories I read and re-read in my youth were Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs and when I was very young I devoured Enid Blyton’s Swallows and Amazons and Mary O’Hara’s trilogy, My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead and The Green Grass Of Wyoming.
What are you working on now?
Another thriller that again stars Millie Hind and Vincent.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook and Twitter.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Finish the novel before you show it to anyone or ask anyones advice. Go with your gut. Writing is all about self-belief.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Rewrite and rewrite and rewrite…
What are you reading now?
Life Or Death by Michael Robotham.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have already adapted Delphian into a three two-hour episode series for TV and WTF has been adapted to a two-hour film. I want to make a return to film making.
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