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J.F. Penn

When Will The World End? 7 Of The Strangest End of Days Predictions

January 31, 2017 By J.F. Penn

2017 looks like being the ideal year for End of Days predictions.

end times

After all, some conspiracy theorists believe the beginning of the End Times will start 70 years after the return of Jews to Israel. Since the UN mandate saw the re-establishment of Israel in 1947, that makes 2017 a potentially interesting year.

But it wouldn’t be the first time that a particular year was seen as the gateway to Armageddon. The European outbreak of the Black Death in 1346 was widely held to be a sign of an impending apocalypse.

Nostradamus made several apocalyptic prophecies, but one prediction attributed to him actually placed Armageddon in July 1999.

Even Sir Isaac Newton made an End Times prediction. As well as being a scientist and mathematician, he also had a belief in the occult. Sadly, scholars only gained access to his papers on alchemy and the Bible in 1991.

Newton fixed Doomsday in 2060, but he didn't set an exact date. He admitted that any human interpretation of the Bible could be flawed.

Many other thinkers have made predictions – and subsequently revised them when the date passed without incident. The 18th-century Puritan minister Cotton Mather predicted the End of Days on three separate occasions!

But Armageddon isn't restricted to Christianity.

Many faiths have a form of apocalypse within their theology. In Norse mythology, Ragnarok marked the end of both the world and the gods. The next age would begin with two humans hidden inside Yggdrasil, the world tree.

And perhaps the most famous recent apocalyptic prediction was that of 2012. According to popular thought, the world would end since the Mayan calendar appeared to finish in 2012. Hollywood gave us a CGI-heavy apocalypse movie – but 2012 certainly didn't usher in the End of Days.

end of days arkane thriller
The Thousand Years are Ended

Morgan Sierra is now battling to stop Armageddon in my thriller, End of Days. So it seems pertinent to ask… what are 7 of the strangest predictions of the End Times?

1) Mankind would create Armageddon through the Large Hadron Collider (2008)

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has a complicated relationship with theology. That's probably due in part to the search for the elusive Higgs-Bosun, otherwise known as the God particle.

If mankind can recreate the Big Bang beneath Europe, then what happens to God?

Some theorists worried that the LHC could potentially create black holes from the collisions between hydrogen protons. The scientists in charge of the LHC claimed that any black holes would be too small – and brief – to make any impact.

But in March 2008, Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho were so worried they even filed a lawsuit against the LHC. The scientists had to produce a safety report before they could fire up the collider.

The LHC was turned on in September 2008 and so far the world as we know it hasn't ended. And no black holes have been detected.

shiva nataraja
Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance

But CERN is also the home of the 2m tall Lord Shiva statue that features in Destroyer of Worlds. He represents the creation and destruction of the cosmos. So perhaps the LHC could yet unleash Armageddon…

2) A hen predicted the End of Days in Leeds (1806)

This is perhaps one of the strangest doomsday predictions of all. In 1806, a hen started laying eggs inscribed with the words ‘Christ is coming'.

Word soon spread of the avian prophetess. Visitors inundated the village to examine the eggs. Religious panic gripped Leeds, with believers seeking to right wrongs before Judgment Day.

The religious fervor was not to last. A group of skeptical gentlemen visited the hen while she was laying her eggs. After some examination, they realized someone had been inscribing the eggs with corrosive ink. The eggs were forced back into the hen to perpetuate the ruse.

With the lie exposed, apocalyptic mania died down. Hopefully, the hen went back to her normal routine too!

3) The world would end with the Great Fire of London (1666)

17th century Christians were nervous about the year 1666, containing as it does the digits 666 – the number of the Beast.

When the Great Fire of London broke out on September 2, 1666, some thought the End of Days was upon them.

The fire destroyed 87 parish churches and 13,000 homes. It came the year after the devastating outbreak of the Black Death that decimated London – surely a sign of impending doom.

Yet only 10 people apparently died. Instead, the damage was financial. The estimated value of the destroyed property is around £1.5 billion in today's money.

Rather than ushering in the End Times, the Great Fire of London gave birth to the insurance industry. Not quite so thrilling!

4) Halley's Comet would cause an apocalypse (1910)

Halley's comet makes an appearance in our skies roughly every 76 years. But in 1910, some believed the comet would actually cause the end of the world.

The predictions this time came from Chicago's Yerkes Observatory. They'd detected cyanogen gas in the comet's tail. A French astronomer, Camille Flammarion, announced the gas could actually end all life on Earth when the planet passed through it.

Less fanciful scientists denounced his claims, but the anti-comet business was already in full swing. Panic-stricken buyers snapped up gas masks, pills and even umbrellas designed to shield the user from harm.

More skeptical Americans staged parties on rooftops to watch the comet pass by.

meteoriteNo one knows if Earth did come into contact with the comet's tail. But no one appeared to suffer any ill effects. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle allegedly based his 1913 novel, The Poison Belt, on the events.

In a more unfortunate turn of events, another comet was believed to herald the End Times in 1997. The Heaven's Gate cult drank vodka and barbiturates when the Hale-Bopp comet passed close to Earth. They believed a spaceship hid in its tail, ready to whisk them away from the impending apocalypse.

The 39 victims of the mass suicide were wrong.

5) The end of the world can be predicted with numerology (1843-1844, 1994, 2011)

Harold Camping didn't exactly make weird predictions for End of Days. He just made a lot of them.

That's as many as 12 different prophecies, all based on biblical numerology. In 1992, he predicted the world would end in 1994.

When that didn’t happen, he calculated Armageddon would occur 7000 years after the flood of the Old Testament. That placed the End of Days on May 21, 2011.

When the world remained in one piece, he pushed his prediction to October 21, 2011. He claimed his maths was wrong.

And Camping wasn't the only preacher to revise his predictions. In 1831, William Miller believed the Second Coming would occur in 1843. He based his claims on his ability to ‘crack the code’ of the Bible.

As many as 100,000 people believed him. When the supposed date came and went, Miller claimed the End Times would happen in 1844 instead.

One follower even wrote, “I waited all Tuesday, and dear Jesus did not come … I lay prostrate for 2 days without any pain—sick with disappointment.”

key secretsThe affair even became known as ‘The Great Disappointment’.

6) Armageddon will follow 2 days of snow in Italy (2017)

The southern resort of Salento is noted for its warm and welcoming climate. According to the philosopher Matteo Tafuri, two consecutive days of snow in the town would herald the End of Days.

His prophecy reads like a Dan Brown riddle;

“Salento of palm trees and mild south wind, snowy Salento but never after the touch. Two days of snow, two flashes in the sky, I know the world ends, but I do not yearn.”

Known as a sorcerer, Tafuri was apparently a practitioner of alchemy, herbal medicine, and even astrology.

Tafuri made his prediction in the 16th century. In those days, the climate in the region was famously mild. But in early January, southern Italy saw fresh snow – two days in a row.

Some commentators noted Tafuri's prophecy and the freak weather, claiming January 2017 as Armageddon. Thankfully no one has fulfilled the ‘two flashes in the sky' criteria yet.

But Tafuri seems more likely to have predicted climate change than the End of Days.

7) The world should have ended on New Year's Day (2017)

A story broke on 30 December 2016 that the world was predicted to end on January 1 2017.

The Sword of God Brotherhood originally made their prediction several decades ago. Their belief apparently stemmed from a vision of Gabriel. The group claimed the archangel told them the date. Already known as doomsday preppers, they would be safe during the End of Days. The Brotherhood was thought to have disbanded in 1985.

pope francis
Pope Francis

But they aren't the only group to cite 2017 as the end of the world. Author Nicholas C. James notes that the Book of Daniel puts Armageddon in a Jubilee year. Such years occur every 50 years, according to the Old Testament.

2017 is the 120th Jubilee year.

If that wasn't worrying enough, a 12th Century Irish bishop made a prediction that 112 popes would follow the election of Pope Celestine II in 1143.

end of daysPope Francis I is the last of those – and apparently the final pope before Armageddon.

Whether the final two predictions come true remains to be seen.

If you’re reading this post in 2018 you’ll already know!

But in the meantime, you can always find out how Morgan Sierra deals with the Great Serpent in End of Days, out now in ebook and print formats.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: apocalypse, end of days

15 Weird and Wonderful Religious Relics

January 20, 2017 By J.F. Penn

I'm fascinated by religious relics. They appear in a number of my thrillers because they hold so much meaning for believers, and many of them are really strange.

religious relicsRelics are sometimes used to give to weight to political posturing and they’re sometimes pressed into service for more nefarious reasons … So maybe, just maybe, they hold a lot of their own power too.

But there’s no denying that some relics are just bizarre.

From dried blood to severed heads, mummified hands and even preserved footprints, here are 15 of the weirdest and most wonderful religious relics around the world!

1. The Turin Shroud, Turin

Believed to be the burial shroud of Jesus, this linen cloth bears the image of a man – apparently that of Christ himself. While radiocarbon dating places it in the medieval period, many believe the image is far more detailed when viewed as a negative. Conspiracy theorists consider that such an image would be difficult to forge in the medieval era.

The Shroud even has its own website, which describes it as ‘the single most studied artifact in human history.' But the Shroud is incredibly delicate, so it won’t be shown again until 2025.

2. The body of St Francis Xavier, Goa

Francis Xavier was a 16th century Roman Catholic missionary in Goa, India. He also worked in Japan and China, among others, but he’s most famous for his work in India. Most of his body is on display at the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Goa, India. You’ll find him in a glass container and he’s been in there since 1637.

His right forearm was detached in 1614 and is now at the Jesuit church in Rome, Il Gesù. Another arm bone, the humerus, is in Macau, having been kept there for safety instead of going on to Japan.

destroyer of worldsThe Basilica of Bom Jesus, and indeed the Saint's body, appear in my ARKANE thriller, Destroyer of Worlds, as Morgan and Jake race to stop an ancient weapon being unleashed.

3. The Buddha's Tooth, Kandy

A left canine was allegedly taken from the Buddha's funeral pyre in 543BC. According to legend, only the tooth remained following his cremation. It's currently housed at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Wars have been fought over it since whoever possesses the tooth has the right to rule the island. It's only displayed on special occasions, but it's said to perform miracles whenever anyone threatens to destroy it.

4. Muhammad's Footprint, Istanbul

The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul houses a number of Muhammad's relics. They include a signed letter, a sword and bow, his footprint and hair from his beard. According to legend, his beard was shaved after his death by his favorite barber.

His footprint allegedly made a lasting impression wherever he went and prints are displayed all over the Middle East. Some remain in situ, but the Istanbul print is preserved in the museum.

5. The Holy Right Hand, Budapest

holy right
The Holy Right hand of St Stephen, Budapest

The Holy Right Hand is thought to have belonged to King Stephen, the first Hungarian King, who died in 1038.

His death provoked unrest and his followers worried that his body might be desecrated. When he was exhumed, they discovered his right arm was perfectly preserved.

His arm was added to the Basilica's Treasury. It was stolen and kept in Romania for a while, though it’s now back in the Basilica of St. Stephen in Budapest.

A chronicler noted that while it was in Romania, the hand wore St Stephen's ring. The Holy Right Hand on display doesn't wear one and doesn't look like it's ever worn one. Some wonder how genuine the Holy Right Hand actually is …

In my political thriller One Day in Budapest, the Holy Right is stolen and a right-wing faction move against the Jews of the city, as they did in the dark days of the Second World War. The right is rising …

6. Mary's Holy Belt, Prato

Most religious relics seem to take the form of body parts, but the Virgin Mary left her belt behind instead. Her handwoven belt is kept in a silver reliquary in Prato Cathedral. The arrival of the relic allowed the Cathedral to add a transept and a new chapel.

According to legend, she gave the belt to the apostle Thomas before she ascended to Heaven. That’s Doubting Thomas – and the Virgin allegedly gave him her belt as physical proof of her ascension. The belt, known as Sacra Cintola, is displayed five times a year in the chapel built especially to house it. In centuries gone by, it was venerated by pregnant women.

7. St Catherine's Head (and thumb), Siena

One of Italy's two patron saints (along with Francis of Assisi), St Catherine died in 1380 at the age of 33. But she died in Rome. When the people of Siena requested her body for burial, the request was denied. A group of her followers decided to exhume her anyway to return her to Siena. According to legend, she was decapitated because they couldn’t conceal her entire corpse.

When the body snatchers were apprehended, guards found only rose petals inside their bag. The guards let them go, and St Catherine’s followers returned to Siena. The rose petals turned back into her head and it is is now displayed at San Domenico Basilica. Her head remained in Siena, but three of her fingers and a foot went to Italy, a rib went to Florence, and her hand and shoulder blade went to Rome.

florence
Florence

8. St Antoninus' body, Florence

St Antoninus was a popular priest in Florence, getting by with only the bare essentials of life. He was so popular that Pope Eugene IV wanted to make him an Archbishop, and he threatened to excommunicate Antoninus when he declined the offer.

St Antoninus died in 1459 but his body wasn't immediately embalmed as it should have been. Left to the elements for eight days, his body didn't decompose. His followers took this as a sign of his incorruption, so he was placed in a glass coffin to display his divinity. You can see his corpse at the Church of San Marco.

9. Shrine of the Three Kings, Cologne

The bones of the Three Wise Men apparently rest in the ornate gold-plated sarcophagus inside Cologne Cathedral. According to legend, their remains originally lay in Constantinople, before being taken to Milan, then Cologne in 1164. The shrine is the largest reliquary in the western world. Some of the images on the shrine depict the dawn of time, as well as the Last Judgment.

cologne cathedral
Cologne Cathedral facade

It was damaged when it was hidden in 1794 to keep it from French revolutionary troops, but it was largely restored during the 1960s. Cologne is so proud to house the Three Magi that there are even three crowns on the city’s coat of arms.

10. The cloak of Muhammad, Kandahar

This is more of a powerful religious relic than a weird one. The Kerqa, believed to have been worn by Muhammad, is kept at the Shrine of the Cloak in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Some tales say the cloak was used to solidify a political treaty in 1768.

Others say that Ahmad Shah saw the cloak in Bukhara. Its keepers wouldn't let him borrow it, so he had a rock planted near by. Ahmad Shah told them he would never take the cloak far from the rock…then promptly took both the rock and the cloak back to Kandahar.

In more recent times, Mullah Omar, the then-leader of the Taliban, wore it in front of his followers. But the cloak hasn't been seen in public since 1996.

11. The Blood of San Gennaro, Naples

St Gennaro was beheaded by Emperor Diocletian in 4th century. His dried blood is presented to local residents and pilgrims at Naples Cathedral on September 19, December 16 and the first Sunday in May. They wait for the blood to liquefy, making this a grisly religious relic.

As the patron saint of Naples, the liquefaction of his blood is thought to signify a miracle and protects Naples from disaster. In 1527, it failed to liquefy and Naples suffered an outbreak of plague. In 1980, they were struck by an earthquake. The relic was even venerated by Pope Francis in March 2015.

12. The Heart of St Camillus

bones catacombsSt Camillus started out life as a soldier and a gambler. He later repented and devoted his life to caring for the sick. After being denied entry to the Capuchin order thanks to a leg injury, he established the Order of Clerics Regular, Ministers to the Sick. They specialised in assisting injured soldiers on the battlefield. A large red cross was a symbol of the Order – centuries before the Red Cross was formed.

Many were so struck by his charity that they thought it must have left an imprint on his heart. So after he died, his heart was removed and preserved with salt. This religious relic is definitely more weird than wonderful. It’s now kept in a gold and glass container and it even went on tour. It visited Thailand, Ireland and the Phillippines.

13. The hand of St Teresa de Avila, Ronda

St Teresa de Avila reformed the Carmelite Order, and after she died, her remains were found to be incorrupt. Her left hand became a relic, but it was seized by General Franco in 1937. St Teresa had once been a contender for Spain’s national saint, and Franco used her during the Spanish Civil War as an ideal of traditional Spain.

According to legend, he kept the hand by his bedside until he died in 1975 – allegedly while holding the mummified hand. It now rests at the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced in Ronda, Andalusia.

14. The Holy Foreskin, currently missing

Yes, it really is as weird as it sounds. As many as 18 different churches have laid claim to having the skin from the infant Jesus's circumcised penis since the Middle Ages. St Catherine of Siena even claimed to wear an invisible foreskin as a ring.

But the most notorious Holy Foreskin was kept in the town of Calcata, near Rome, until it disappeared in 1983. Its whereabouts are still unknown.

cross15. The Tongue and Jaw of St Anthony, Padua

At the age of 35, St Anthony of Padua succumbed to ergot poisoning – also known as St Anthony’s Fire. He sealed himself in a small cell under a walnut tree and waited to die. He actually died on the way back to Padua where he was buried in 1231.

32 years later, his followers pried open his vault. Most of his body had turned to dust, but his tongue was strangely still fresh. Many believe this is a testament to the power of his words while alive.

St Bonaventure had St Anthony’s tongue, lower jaw and vocal chords mounted in a metal shrine. His tongue even went on a tour of UK churches in 2013.

You can visit a lot of these strange and sometimes unsettling religious relics. Just remember that they have meaning for many believers, so always be respectful. And who knows what weird experiences you might have when you see them?

Filed Under: Articles, Unusual Places Tagged With: relics

ARKANE Book Research In Israel With Thriller Author J.F.Penn

December 6, 2016 By J.F. Penn

ARKANE book research in IsraelLast month, I spent a couple of weeks traveling around Israel doing book research for End of Days, ARKANE #9. You can watch a video specifically of Jerusalem's Old City here. The video below is a montage from the whole trip. You can watch it below or here on YouTube and there are notes underneath.

Some highlights from Israel, November 2016

The video starts in Tel Aviv, in the old port of Jaffa, famous for Simon the Tanner's house, and the fabled port where Jonah left for Nineveh and was eaten by the whale. It was beautiful weather on the Mediterranean and I enjoyed working on the balcony in the warm!

We headed north to Galilee and visited Megiddo, the Biblical Armageddon, famous because 26 cities were built and destroyed there. A tunnel dug to a nearby cistern kept the inhabitants in fresh water when they were under siege, and the city's lives are vividly recorded in The Source by James Michener, probably the book that has influenced my writing the most.

churchofholysepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

After a quick visit to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, we went to the Church of Multiplication, which I loved for its translucent alabaster windows. Gorgeous!

Then on to Nazareth for the modern Church of the Annunciation, full of amazing modern art and wonderful architecture. I was thrilled to find a stained glass window of the brazen serpent on a rod [00:55] and the verse from John 3:14 in Latin, translated as “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” I use this verse in End of Days to reference a particular stained glass window in Salisbury Cathedral, so it was fantastic synchronicity to find it here.

We crossed over to the West Bank to visit the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where we visited the cave where tradition holds that Mary gave birth. The church was under (much needed) restoration for the first time in 600 years but you could seek glimpses of the mosaics under the scaffolding. That night, I enjoyed some Cotes de Bethlehem red wine …

We headed out to the desert to visit Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Then up Masada, the ancient fort that eventually fell to the Romans, but not before the last remaining Jewish rebel committed suicide. Better to die than spend a life in captivity. Freedom before slavery. A place that still inspires many. You can still see the outlines of the huge Roman encampments below on the desert floor.

end of days arkane thrillerA quick dip in the super-buoyant Dead Sea (as featured in Gates of Hell!) and then onto Jerusalem. There are just a few pictures here, including a windy moment on the Mount of Olives looking towards the Temple Mount, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the 4th century cistern of St Helena (which I use in End of Days), the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall. You can also join me for a more substantial video of a walk around the Old City of Jerusalem here.

Then the starkly beautiful Negev Desert. It was an amazing trip and much of it enriches End of Days and provides a backdrop to other books in the ARKANE series.

You can see all the pictures from the Israel trip here on Flickr.

Check out End of Days, available for pre-order now and coming in ebook, print and audiobook in Jan 2017.

Filed Under: Book Research Tagged With: arkane, israel

Exploring The Inevitability of Fate With Crime Thriller Author, Clare Mackintosh

December 2, 2016 By J.F. Penn

Exploring the Inevitability of Fate with Clare MackintoshClare Mackintosh’s debut novel, I Let You Go, was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller for 12 weeks, and was the fastest selling title by a new crime writer in the UK in 2015. It also won the Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award for 2016. Translated into more than 30 languages, it has sold over 500,000 copies.

clare-mackintoshClare’s latest book, I SEE YOU, is for sale now.

USA Today bestselling thriller author J.F.Penn interviewed Clare for The Big Thrill. This article first appeared in The Big Thrill on 31 August 2016.

You were in the police for 12 years. How does that experience shape your crime writing?

I loved my police career, particularly the variety. I spent time as a community beat officer, a detective, a custody sergeant, shift sergeant, and operations inspector, including qualifying as a public order commander. I worked in communities I would never otherwise have had experience in, which gives me much more breadth of knowledge for my writing. Working in the police obviously also gives me a head start in terms of building authentic police characters and settings, as well as feeling comfortable writing about police procedure and forensics—although there’s still a lot I have to check.

More than anything, I think that there is a commonality between being a police investigator and being a storyteller. In the police my job was to get to the truth; to write down witness accounts and victims’ statements, to interview suspects, and to present as full a picture as possible to a court. I go through the same process as a writer; I pull together all the different threads of a story, and present them to my readers. It’s their job to get to the truth, just as a judge and jury have to. I Let You Go was inspired by a real-life case—a hit and run in Oxford, England—although the story that unfolds is pure fiction.

You’re British and much of I Let You Go is set in Wales. How did the landscape shape the story ideas?

iletyougoA huge amount. My main character, Jenna Gray, is traumatized by the hit and run that happens at the start of the book. She is grieving for her son and runs to a rural village in Southwest Wales to try and put her life back together. This part of the book is set in a real place called Three Cliffs Bay. It’s the most beautiful sandy beach, encircled by three high cliffs, with a caravan park at the top. Jenna feels safest and happiest when she is outside, anchoring herself with bare feet on sand, or hands against rock, and she builds an income by taking photographs of messages written in the sand. In this way the setting is an integral part of the story, and as Jenna’s past catches up with her the landscape becomes much more threatening.

You’ve had tragedy in your life. What aspects of you are in your characters? How has writing helped you?

[Read more…] about Exploring The Inevitability of Fate With Crime Thriller Author, Clare Mackintosh

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: author interviews, crime, thriller

A Walk Through The Old City Of Jerusalem With Thriller Author, J.F.Penn

November 21, 2016 By J.F. Penn

Walk through Old JerusalemIn November 2016, I did a book research tour of Israel for ARKANE #9, End of Days. As part of that trip, I visited the Old City of Jerusalem and some of the sites that I've used in previous ARKANE books, as well as those central to the End of Days plot.

You can watch the short video below [2 min 46], or here on YouTube, and there are some trip notes below the video.

The opening picture was taken on a very windy day just before a storm arrived on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a popular (and very expensive) place to have a grave as Jews believe that the Messiah will arrive here at the End Times.

joanna penn jerusalem
J.F.Penn at the Western Wall & Temple Mount

The video opens at the Damascus Gate and then we walk into the Arab Quarter through the souk (market). We left the street sounds in the video so you can hear the noise of the city, from Arab street vendors to the muezzin call, from text messages to the chant of Christian pilgrims and the tune of a saxophone.

You'll see Muslims and Jews in distinctive traditional clothes, as well as a group of Christians carrying a cross along the Via Dolorosa. I make some cameo appearances taking selfies in the narrow walkways 🙂

There's an Armenian pottery, a chapel at the 7th Station of the Cross, souvenir stalls in the bazaar and then we enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the holiest places in the Christian world. Tradition holds that it was the place Jesus was crucified, then anointed and buried, and then where he rose again.

Stone of Anointing at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Stone of Anointing at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

You might see some Indian pilgrims rubbing money on the Stone of Anointing, some of the chapels within the church, and then we go upstairs onto the roof of the Holy Sepulchre.

This is where the Ethiopian Coptic church have their shrine and I actually like the open simplicity far more than the cluttered chapels below. This group of monks feature in Stone of Fire as my first visit there back in the 1990s made a huge impact on me.

We went down into the 4th-century cistern of Helena, the mother of Constantine, who was responsible for turning the Roman Empire to Christianity. There are a number of cisterns under Jerusalem, but most are prohibited for use because of the security risk. I use these cisterns as a key part of the plot in End of Days. You'll see by the size of my grin on the video how thrilled I was to be able to visit one 🙂

end of days arkane thrillerThen we walked on through the souk into the Jewish Quarter towards the Western Wall, the most sacred place for Jews. On top of it, you can see the Dome of the Rock, a sacred shrine for Muslims and closed on the day we visited so you just get a distant shot. People pray at the Wall and put prayers into the cracks.

At the Wall, there were a number of boys having their bar mitzvah. At 13, a boy is no longer considered a minor and should fulfil the commandment's of the Torah. The boy will read a passage from the Torah, carried in scrolls in the silver cases you can see. It's quite a celebration with sweets being thrown from the women's side of the wall. 

You can see all the pictures from the Israel trip here on Flickr.

Check out End of Days, available for pre-order now and coming in ebook, print and audiobook in Jan 2017.

 

Filed Under: Book Research Tagged With: arkane, israel, research, research trips

Conspiracy Thrillers And The End Game With Raymond Khoury

July 14, 2016 By J.F. Penn

Conspiracy Thrillers with Raymond KhouryRaymond Khoury is a New York Times bestselling thriller writer and award-winning screenwriter. Raymond’s latest book is The End Game and you can find him at www.RaymondKhoury.com.

raymondkhouryUSA Today bestselling thriller author J.F.Penn interviewed Raymond for The Big Thrill. This article first appeared in The Big Thrill on 1 July 2016.

Although you grew up in the US, you’re originally from Lebanon, which was once described as the Paris of the East, and now is more known for civil war. How does the Middle East and your experiences there flow into your writing?

Growing up there and going to architecture school during the civil war years has had a huge on my view of life, and by extension, on my writing. The urgency, the pacing, it all comes out of living under such conditions. The cynical worldview too, I suppose, though that’s countered by an immense appetite for life that arises when you see firsthand how fragile everything can be. It also gave me a pretty thorough understanding of how international conflicts play out, how politics affect the situation on the ground, of dirty tricks and terror tactics and all kinds of manipulations.

lasttemplarMore directly, it certainly was a driving factor in my first book, The Last Templar, where I was curious about the historical basis of our major religions–in the Middle East, millions of people are manipulated into wars and generational hatred by politicians who use religion as a driver, but these people generally know very little about the historical basis of the religion in whose name they’re willing to kill (or die). My second novel, The Sanctuary, deals with longevity medicine and the desire to live longer, but it’s set in Beirut, Iraq, Turkey, during the war of 2006.

Your books could be described as conspiracy thrillers, with Templar Knights, secret agencies and religious orders. What fascinates you about these topics and how do you manage the line between people’s faith and possible conspiracy?

I only explored religion and the discrepancies between history and faith in the two Templar novels. In a completely different way, I explored the link between organised religion and politics in the US in The Sign. I think the Templar novels were mostly well received and appreciated, even by readers who would describe themselves as very religious. I think they were novels that promoted a message that was essentially a positive one, that said what a religious is based on and stands for, and the acts of those who are actually running the show nowadays (or in the past–as in, say, the Borgias), are two separate things. One’s about a message, a moral code, a way of approaching life’s big issues. The other is human nature, and it can be anywhere from its best to its worst.

sanctuaryThe same goes for The Sign, but I think I made the mistake of perhaps too-bluntly stating my political opinion in that novel, which I felt very strongly about, and that didn’t sit well with many readers who didn’t share my partisan preference. I don’t regret what I wrote at all, I’m very proud of the book and it’s many readers’ favorite (we’re even discussing a possible movie adaptation at the moment), but with hindsight, it may not have been a great move from a commercial point of view.

What are your obsessions and the themes that keep coming up in your writing?

Betrayals by governing forces. Ageing and death. Making the planet a safer, better place to live for our kids.

French toast.

As a screenwriter, you wrote The Last Templar and also worked on other TV shows like Spooks (which I love.) How do novel writing and screenwriting compare and which do you enjoy the most? How do they both fit into your creative life?

Thanks (re Spooks)! I’m very proud of the show, and the experience was a pleasure because the production team (Kudos) were just great to work with on a human level. Novels and screenwriting are very, very different… I enjoy both, although if I had to choose one discipline, it would be writing novels. They’re so much more involved, bigger, richer, meatier. Every character needs to be imagined in full spectrum, every little detail around them needs to be thought out, researched. In a screenplay, I can write “Ext.- Paris street, 17th century, Day”, describe a character walking down a street in one line, and that’s enough. We don’t know what’s going through his mind and I don’t need to describe what the city and the street life looks like. In a novel, that line of description, even if it becomes just one paragraph, is a ton of research. So it’s a lot of work, but it’s so engrossing.

the signThe characters become your best friends, your constant companions, you’re living every moment with them throughout the long writing process. Screenplays are much more bare-boned. Of course, the story is paramount in both, you need to concoct and tell a great story in both. But the scale is massively different. You’d lose a lot of what’s in my books if they were adapted into a 90-to-120-minute movie. I imagine them more as 4-to-6-hour miniseries (my novels tend to run 125-150,000 words, a film script typically has around 15,000 words in it).

Furthermore, what I type is what my readers read. Every word. It’s a selfish process with as little interaction as I like. Screenplays, on the other hand, are just the blueprint of the final show (or movie). Directors, producers, network execs, actors, editors, cinematographers… everyone has an impact on the final show. It’s storytelling by committee and the final show rarely, if ever, looks like what I imagined in my head when I wrote it. Which is why I tend to stay away from the set and never watch anything I’ve written after it’s filmed.

Tell us a bit about your latest book, The End Game and how it fits into your other books.

The End Game is my fifth novel about FBI agent Sean Reilly, who we first met in The Last Templar. I didn’t set out to write a series and my second and third novels were standalones. I had begun writing book four (The Devil’s Elixir), also a standalone, when I had the idea for a Templar sequel. I put Elixir aside and brought back Reilly (and his paramour, the archaeologist Tess Chaykin) for The Templar Salvation, and when I went back to Elixir, I realised it was a perfect Reilly story, only when I got back into it, I felt something was missing. Then it hit me: it should be in first person. Up until then, I had always written in the third person. So I reworked what I’d written of it, and it just flowed from there.

endgameWhile writing the ending, I came across a question Reilly had to ask, and it would remain an open issue for him: he was given the name of someone he’d want to track down, but that would be for another book. So the next book, which became Rasputin’s Shadow, was seeded. And the same thing happened again: while writing the last chapter, I thought of something that would seed the next story: a question about Reilly’s father, who we know (well, those of us with elephantine memories who had read The Last Templar) had killed himself when Reilly was ten. This is The End Game: a standalone story about a past conspiracy that Reilly gets sucked into while investigating his dad’s death.

So, as a very long-winded answer to your question (are you regretting asking it yet?): The End Game gives Reilly closure on two issues that were seeded in previous books; it’s his end game. Where he goes from here is a whole new ballgame…

How much of you is in your characters?

My friends tell me they can hear my voice when they read Reilly's dialogue as well as his internal ramblings now that I write him in first person. I doubt they feel the same way when they read what he actually does–I can't imagine that I'd be the most valiant or heroic FBI special agent. That said, I do think there's a lot of me in my writing in general–the asides, the points of view concerning all kinds of things, the humour when it has a natural place to slot in. Even when the focus is to make sure every character has their own “voice”, their defined persona, I guess some of me always manages to seep in.

Do you travel for research? What are some of the settings that bring your books alive?

I've been an avid traveler all my life and I've been lucky enough to have experienced a lot of the places I've written about, particularly in Europe and in the Middle East, although not necessarily on actual research trips. But I do rely a lot on what I'd call second-hand research–basically reading about whatever setting I'm using. The resources available to a writer nowadays are such an amazing tool, I can't imagine how much harder it must have been before the internet and mail-order books arriving within a day.

devilselixirWhat are your favorite thriller novels and what are you reading right now?

Marathon Man by William Goldman is definitely in my top 10 of all time, even if my one meeting with him was rather unpleasant and I can't say I'm fond of him as a person, but his writing is outstanding. What else? I remember fondly discovering several authors who remain huge bestsellers, in the earlier days of their careers, when it all felt very fresh and original to me: John Grisham's The Firm remains exceptional; James Patterson's Along Came a Spider, Lee Child's Killing Floor, Harlan Coben's Tell No One (although I think I liked No Second Chance even more), Nelson DeMille's Plum Island, Michael Connelly's The Poet;

But maybe I read too many and I now find it hard to motivate myself to read (or finish) such books. It takes something different, like Don Winslow's excellent Savages, or Stephen King's outstanding 11.22.63 (which I would call a thriller), or Gone Girl, to hook me.

Reading now? Not too exciting, sadly, as it's mostly research about the Ottoman empire, for my next book…

You can find The End Game in print, ebook and audiobook editions at all stores and at Raymond’s website, www.RaymondKhoury.com.

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: conspiracy

London Detectives, Psychometry and Crime Thrillers. Interview On It’s A Mystery Podcast

June 22, 2016 By J.F. Penn

Interview with JF PennI was recently interviewed about the London Crime Thriller trilogy on It's a Mystery Podcast with Alexandra Amor. Click here for the full audio interview.

Transcript of Interview with J.F. Penn

Alexandra: Hello mystery readers, I’m Alexandra Amor and this is It’s a Mystery Podcast. I’m here today with J.F. Penn. Hi, Joanna.

Joanna: Hi, Alexandra. Thanks for having me on this show.

its a mysteryAlexandra: Oh, you’re so welcome. It’s so great to have you here. So for the uninitiated, I’ll just tell them a little bit about you.

J. F. Penn is the New York Times and USA today bestselling author of thrillers with a supernatural edge. Oxford educated, British-born J.F. Penn has traveled the world in her study of religion and psychology. She brings these obsessions, as well as a love for thrillers and an interest in the supernatural, to her writing. Her fast-paced ARKANE thrillers weave together historical artifacts, global locations, a kickass, protagonist, and a hint of the supernatural. The London Psychic series, which is what we’re going to talk about today, features British detective Jamie Brooke alongside psychic researcher Blake Daniel as they solve dark crimes around London.

We’re going to talk mostly about the London Psychic series today. I’m a big fan of police procedurals, and so these were the books of yours that I wanted to read the most. I finished “Desecration” a week or so ago.

Tell us a little bit about Jamie Brooke. You know, it was kind of heartbreaking to read Jamie’s story, and I was curious about what drew you to her.

Desecration-Cover-EBOOK-LARGE-360x570Joanna: It’s funny. I wanted to write a straight crime novel. That was what I went into this, because my ARKANE series is kind of action adventure.

I moved to London when I started writing this, I’ve moved from Australia. I was back to London after I think it was 11 years. And I wanted to do something in London, so that was kind of the first thing. I wanted to write a crime novel.

Then, and it’s a bit of a little longer story, but I’ll do it anyway. Back in London, I’m excited about getting to know the city again. And I went to the Royal College of Surgeons, along to a medical specimen museum. And you’ll know from the book, the opening few scenes are set here as a dead body is found in the Royal College of Surgeons surrounded by all the medical specimens. And when I visited that museum, I felt very disturbed by the whole atmosphere, and I decided that this visceral feeling was what I wanted to capture in a crime novel.

I really started with a setting, which is how I often write
. What would be the weirdest thing here? It would be a dead body, although it was surrounded by body parts, it would be someone who’s actually been murdered. And then the interesting idea of all those — who are the body parts in the jars anyway? Where did they even come from, and kind of thinking along those lines.

Once I have the setting, I was like, “Okay, so I need a policeman or a policewoman,” and that was when I started thinking about Jamie. I write strong female characters. It was probably always going to be a woman, and I didn’t even know how it happened that she had she had a child. I think because I was thinking about bodies and the idea of the physical self versus the real self, and it’s not a spoiler at all to say that Jamie’s daughter has a very severe illness and is in basically terminal care, because of her genetic issue. So then you think okay, what does a career woman who is now a single mom to a really sort of dying daughter? That sets the scene for all kinds of stuff.

I don’t really know where she came from, except that she rides a motorbike, and I don’t but I would love to.
You know she’s kind of a kickass female character is what I always write. So yeah, that’s where she came from. And I don’t have a daughter, dying or not. I don’t really know where that came from, but I think it’s very important for the book, that the daughter is there and there’s a lot of the plot that has to do with the daughter.

Alexandra: How do you think Jamie is different than Morgan Sierra? Because Morgan Sierra is quite kickass too, and one thing I noticed about Jamie is that because of what she’s going through in the book, her walls are really up, and as the book progresses, they go up even further. And she says, in the book, in fact that when people are trying to express sympathy to her at one point that she can’t even let that in.

What are the differences or similarities between Morgan and Jamie?

Joanna: Well, I think partly, I don’t know about other people, but I write as a sort of alter ego, to the main characters, to try and figure out what I think about the world, and things, topics like the meaning of the physical body. I could only tackle that through writing a story about it, and actually thinking.

For me, Morgan Sierra was always more like James Bond, you know, less emotional resonance really. She has a twin sister and niece who she cares about, and a mentor and friends that she cares about, but she has sex in my books. You don’t see it. She has sexual encounters, as in Morgan Sierra is much more separate, I guess, and a sort of action figure.

Whereas Jamie has a real job, she’s more real life, I guess. She’s a single mom. She smokes. She’s got acquaintances, but it’s really hard to find time to have friends when you’ve got a daughter in care and a job as a Detective Sergeant and everything.

There is a very magic element to her relationship with Blake Daniel, but they both are very scarred people, so that’s a longer story over there the three books. I think Jamie is, as you said, much more vulnerable, although yeah, she grows over the books. But I do really do bad things to Jamie. She has really a tough time. It’s a tough role to play.

Alexandra: You mentioned Blake. Let’s talk about him a little bit too. I was really intrigued by that character. And in the author’s note at the end of the book, you talk about the idea that sparked Blake’s talent; he’s a reluctant clairvoyant, and he can touch objects and feel or see a bit of their history.

Tell us a bit about him and what sparked that character.

Joanna: Again I really wanted to write straight crime novel, because everything I’ve written before has a supernatural element. And what was so crazy, you know, I knew I needed a sidekick character, someone for Jamie to spark off. And I just couldn’t get this psychic idea out of my head. And I go to the British Museum a lot and had been visiting a lot, and I’m fascinated by the fact that all the objects in the museum, like If you were a researcher and he could somehow see the past of an object, that would make you a really cool researcher.

And also my sister-in-law is Nigerian, so my brother, who’s white, British like me, married in Nigerian, and so I’ve been thinking about mixed race characters, and wanting to bring the essence of London, which for me, is mixed race. London’s just elected a Muslim mayor, first European Muslim mayor, which is to me, the melting pot of London. So a character like Blake, who’s half-Nigerian and half-Swedish, so it’s a mixed race character, I kind of say he looks like a disheveled boy band. He’s quite hot really.

The idea of a psychic often in fiction, on TV as well as books, is a woman. And it’s mainly portrayed as a woman, and so I wanted a male character as a psychic.The problem is there isn’t really a good word for it, but as you say, clairvoyant, but he really doesn’t want to have this ability to touch things, and he’s kind of jolted into the past. But what it gives me as an author is a chance to write historical chapters without writing a historical novel. So as a plot device, it’s actually really good.

And then what I wanted to do is bring in that what can he see in the past of the object associated with the crime that could give Jamie clues, even though you could never use it in evidence, because the police can’t do that.
I guess he was born from a sort of sense of wanting to include the museum, wanting to think about these objects. And also this antique ivory figurine which is like an anatomical Venus was used to teach anatomy, back in the 16th, 17th century. You could take the little body parts out, the little miniatures. It’s quite weird, really.

Day-of-the-Vikings-Cover-LARGE-EBOOK2-360x570It’s starts with that, but over the books, his ability to read the history of objects plays into the story. In “Day of the Vikings,” which is a novella that spans both series because Morgan Sierra goes to the museum, and meets Blake Daniel. We get the history of the Viking attacks on Britain in a modern thriller.

[The London Detective books] are a trilogy, “Desecration,” “Delirium,” “Deviance”. I had thought I was going to write an ongoing crime series with Jamie. But what happened by the third book is she’s actually left the police. She’s a private investigator. The arc, her arc pretty much winds up, but Blake, I think, will go on to be his own separate thing. And readers have said, “Are you taking Blake north,” because there’s stuff about his father and his history in Scandinavia. I have this whole set of new possible series with Blake, because I find his ability quite addictive myself. It would be something I would love to have, and some people have it.And in fact, I have had psychics email me and say, “How did you know how that felt?” And I was like, “Well, I imagined it a bit like I imagine killing people and stuff like that.” You know, it’s called imagination. But it was great to get that right, because that’s important.

Alexandra: Yes, exactly. That’s fascinating. Nice to have that kind of feedback. And then you anticipated one of my questions. I was going to ask if the books would carry on. It’s fantastic to know that Blake might take the books off in sort of another direction.

I can see that his talent would be such a good fit for you, because you’re such a history buff, and you love research so much.

Joanne: Yeah. And it’s funny because I… I was actually thinking in the day, why don’t I write a historical novel? But I think, for me… Have you ever read any Barbara Erskine?

Alexandra: No.

Lady of HayJoanna: There’s an author called Barbara Erskine, whose book “Lady of Hay” was the first one I read, and I think I read it when I was a teenager, it’s quite you know is quite old now because I’m quite old. But she has this similar time track where she has one story in the present, and one story in the past.

I don’t think I ever want to write pure historical. But as you say, I love having the modern day based on history in some way. And to me, the research process is kind of what I love most or a part of the process is finding out all this cool information and doing that research in, like the three London psychic books. Getting to know London at a different level was part of what made it so interesting.

Alexandra: I learned so much about London that I didn’t know just from reading “Desecration.” So the caves under the city, I mean, I thought you must be making this up. And then when I read the author’s note, no, you weren’t.

I know how much fun research is for you, and now that you don’t live there, do you go back? Or do you do most of it your research online now, do you find?

destroyer of worldsJoanna: Yes, so my latest book, “Destroyer of Worlds” is set in India and we were in India a while back. I’ve been writing other things. For Blake going north into Norway and maybe Iceland, I will plan a trip there. London, I finished the trilogy, so I finish the cycle of those three London books, specifically. Although in “Destroyer of Worlds,” I blow up Trafalgar Square in the first scene. The ARKANE headquarters is in London, so I will always bring London in a bit, but I feel like I’ve exorcised some kind of London addiction that I had with those three books.

The last one, “Deviance,” is about the whole history of London being built on the sex trade, which is just fascinating. How much of it is on the backs of those women who are basically buried in a graveyard that’s unconsecrated, because even though the bishop took the money from these women, they weren’t allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. So these scandals the lie beneath London are so fascinating.

Now, I’ve moved west, so I’m living in the West Country, there’s a real sense of pagan England, out west. I’m quite near Glastonbury, which is a big, kind of weirdy place. It’s quite near Wales, Stonehenge. In fact, the other day, I went to a church service. I took my cousin’s children to church for a thing, and we had this ancient ceremony where we circled the church and hugged the church. And it’s called clypping the church. And I was like, “I have never heard of this before.” This is some kind of ancient pagan ritual that has been incorporated into the Christian service.

Alexandra: Wow.

Joanna: I know, and I was just like, “Okay, that’s going in my list of things to look at.” So I’m actually thinking, and I’ve got another character in mind completely, a man this time, who will somehow investigate pagan mysteries that I’m starting to research. That’s kind of like what I’m looking at next. So I think where I’m living now will spark this whole different series of books. It will have some kind of mystery aspect, a thriller aspect, a supernatural one. This pagan England, which you think should be dead is not dead.

Alexandra: And so speaking of research then, there are a lot of themes in “Desecration” that were quite dark and things that go on that were disturbing. Do you ever have trouble letting go of what you’ve learned or seen?

So for example, you talk about Torture Garden in “Desecration,” which is a real thing, a fetish club. And so when I was preparing for the interview, I went to the Torture Garden website. There’s a big warning on the front page, and so I actually backed away. I thought, I’m a little bit vanilla myself, and I thought… you can’t unsee stuff.

What’s it like for you? Are you ever troubled by what you learn?

Delirium-360x570Joanna: It’s a really good question. And let’s just be clear, Torture Garden is a sex fetish club. It is not actually a place where people are tortured. I just want to make it clear to people. It’s an act of lifestyle choice to be able to go. Let me also say I never went. I did that one online. And also like my tattoo stuff, and the skin trade that goes on in your “Deviance” and the sex trade, I don’t do everything that’s in my books, really important to say.

But yes, so I think the thing that sparked the whole series, this feeling of being disturbed when surrounded by specimens in a museum. That visceral feeling of being disturbed is kind of what I wanted people to feel and then question why. And that’s, I think, the whole point of the book is to say, “Why are we disturbed when there is a body part, say, someone’s leg in a jar?” Because I think most of us know that when you die, your body is not you. Whatever you believe religion-wise, faith-wise or nothing, I don’t think we believe that we are the dead body.

Alexandra: Yeah.

Joanna: The person is not left when the physical body is dead. So why therefore are we disturbed about what people do with the dead body. And I’m a donor, so I’ve basically said, “When I die, take anything you want.”

So why then do we still feel disturbed by babies in jars, for example? And it’s sad in one way, but also, the whole basis of our medical society is based on this type of research of doctors cutting into bodies and learning, so that we can have an operation on a live body.

In terms of forgetting what I’ve seen, I think I almost wanted to try and go so deep into the process that I unlearned the feeling of being disturbed. It’s like, “Okay, now I really understand why the body part is in the jar, how that helps me, how that helps everyone, but also to fathom why we’re disturbed that way.” I use the Bodies Exhibition in New York which are plastinated corpses. Corpse Art, for example, which is a site that’s really weird and kind of disturbing.

But the other thing is, I would say, just generally as a writer, for me, as soon as I’ve written it down. It’s out of my head.

Alexandra: Okay.

Joanna: I’ve interviewed quite a few horror writers. I don’t think “Desecration” is horror. It is crime thriller. There are some aspects of it, as you say, are a bit disturbing, but many crime novels have disturbing aspects, and there’s no torture porn as such.

But when I talk to horror writers who do write a lot more graphic stuff, they’re the nicest people, they really are, and the most psychologically healthy. I actually think that when we exorcise our thoughts onto the page, they disappear. And now I actively choose to visit specimen museums, that I really love all that. Anatomy stuff and anatomical history is just so fascinating. So that’s kind of how I do it. I sleep very well at night, and I am fascinated by the macabre, I guess.

Alexandra: One final question I just wanted to talk about, because these books are police procedurals, and you do mention in the author note at the end of “Desecration,” that book is a little bit light on the whole procedural side, because Jamie actually is removed from the case partway through. But what was it like for you as an author doing research about how the police departments work? I’ve talked to other authors, an author recently, Darryl Donahue, who was a police officer, and so he’s kind of got it made when it comes to writing about that kind of work.

<h3?what research=”” did=”” you=”” do=”” to=”” find=”” out=”” how=”” an=”” investigation=”” takes=”” place?<=”” h3=””>Joanna: Well. So I wouldn’t say that they’re police procedurals. Basically, there is really only one scene that’s kind of a crime scene, and that’s the beginning. I did research that. You can just do your on Google, like how does the police work, and how do they say… warrant card and all this, the type of language.

I also got a policewoman to beta read the books. She told me things link you don’t have enough people in your police team. There would be a lot more people. And I was like, “You know what? I don’t want…” That’s why true police procedurals have a lot more people who are police in them, whereas I wanted a lone detective who’s tackling the world on her own, therefore I almost removed her quite quickly so that she’s not even within the investigation aspect, although she them goes off and investigates on her own.

I didn’t want to necessarily create this whole sort of police force setup, because then it’s often about interrelationships between various police officers, and I wanted her to be a lone figure dealing with a lot of the stuff she had to deal with in the book. So that’s probably why by the end of book two, she is leaving the police. And that would be a spoiler, I see why, but then she is a private detective in the third book.

Deviance-Cover-LARGE-EBOOK-360x570I started off thinking that I was going to write this standard crime police procedural. As an author, you have to be true to what your muse wants, and my muse can’t get away from the supernatural. So essentially, that aspect of Blake’s psychic ability and in book two, “Delirium,” we go much more into his mind and is he mentally ill or is there…? He starts to see demonic things in these other realms and… I really explore his aspect as well.

That’s why I moved away from the idea of a police procedural. Also because it’s not what fundamentally interests me about it. The books are crime thrillers, because essentially, at the end of the day, a crime book is about justice. It’s about some crime happening, and justice being served to the people involved. And that to me is done over the periods of the books. Justice is done, therefore it is a crime book. There was a policewoman, but it’s not really a police procedural.

Alexandra: Right, yeah. And really, that suits Jamie’s character so well, because she seems like such a kind of a lone wolf, very independent, and thoughtful about what she’s doing.

I just think it makes perfect sense that she would eventually leave the police force, really.

Joanna: Yeah, and again, it’s funny, just saying where do the characters come from, both Jamie and Morgan and this new character I’m thinking about, this male character, this lone wolf figure, I think, is just characteristic of my work. My book “Risen Gods,” which was a dark fantasy, kind of a bit different, does have two people, but each of them have their own journey until they meet.

I think that’s just to do with me. I’m not a team player. I haven’t worked in the police. I’ve worked in jobs where I’ve been part of a team, but I think I’m much happier with these lone wolf characters. I really like Jack Reacher. I like that kind of figure. So yeah, maybe that’s why I keep writing them.

Alexandra: I bet it is. Well, this has been fantastic, Joanna. Thank you so much for being with me here today. Why don’t you tell our listeners where they can find your books.

Joanna: Sure. So most of my books are on E-book, print book, audio book, and on all the usual places, or you can go to JFPenn, F for Francis, dot-com, JFPenn.com, and you can get a free E-book, “Day of the Vikings,” if you go to JFPenn.com/free.

Alexandra: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being with me here today.

Joanna: Thanks for having me, Alexandra.

Alexandra: Okay. Bye-bye.

Joanna: Bye-bye.

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: author interviews, london psychic, podcast

Behind The Scenes Of My Book Research For Gates of Hell In Granada, Spain

May 25, 2016 By J.F. Penn

behind the scenes of book research in Granada, SpainOn a recent trip to Granada, Spain, we visited the Alhambra which I use as a setting in Gates of Hell. In this short video, you can get a taste of the atmosphere at the Nasrid Palace along with some Spanish guitar music (which I love!). Below the video, I have included an excerpt from the scene. You can also see all my pictures from the trip here.

Excerpt from Gates of Hell. ARKANE thriller #6

gates of hellThe taxi sped through the city and Morgan gazed out at the streets, busy even at this late hour. Granada sat at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Morgan was thrilled to be back. Her father had brought her many years ago, a teenager keen on discovering more about her roots. Her name came from this area, and her ancestors had roamed these craggy mountains, only an hour from the ocean in the southeast corner of Spain. This was Andalucia; the word conjured its past, the soft fullness of the Arabic Al-Andalus, a melting pot of influences from ancient Greeks, Romans and Byzantines through to Muslims, Sephardic Jews and the Catholic Church that still dominated here.

Morgan thought for a moment of her sister, Faye, back home in England. A twin in blood, but so different in looks and personality. Faye's daughter, Gemma, looked like a Sierra, with darker skin and almost black hair, more like Morgan's child than her blonde sister's. Her own family was so mixed in origin that this multicultural area of Spain would always feel like home.

alhambra
View of Alhambra palace at sunset Granada Spain

They rounded a corner and caught sight of the Alhambra, the fortress on the hill a forbidding welcome to new arrivals. The eleventh-century palace had been constructed by a Moorish emir, and even though the Reconquista of Spanish Christendom had taken the city, the Islamic architecture still remained.

They pulled up to the gates and bought tickets for the flamenco event, heading in through the wide entrance.
“Where's the dancing?” Morgan asked the ticket seller.
“In the Court of the Lions,” he said, glancing down at his watch. “The last set has just started, so you'll have to hurry.”

Morgan led Jake quickly through the terrace of the western-style palace towards the Moorish buildings beyond. The mournful sound of flamenco guitar floated on the balmy night air, and Morgan breathed in the scent of flowers from the extensive gardens. She could see across the valley to the narrow winding streets of Albaicín, where she had stayed with her father so long ago. She heard his voice telling her stories of how the cave dwellings of Sacramonte had sheltered their ancestors as blood was spilled on these streets.

Screen Shot 2016-05-25 at 5.19.43 PMThey reached the Court of the Lions, surrounded by the stunning arabesque architecture of the ancient Moorish kingdom. Slim pillars in cool ivory-colored marble led towards soaring archways intricately designed with filigree geometric shapes and Arabic calligraphy. The overwhelming sensation was light and delicate, as if the stone palace was constructed of magically spun air.

The Court of the Lions was open to the night air, a courtyard surrounded by one hundred and twenty-four white columns topped with decorated archways. In the center of the courtyard, a great alabaster fountain supported by twelve marble lions spouted water, sparkling in the subtle lighting that only seemed to enhance the otherworldly atmosphere. The courtyard was filled with people, eyes riveted on the scene before them.

court of the lions
Court of the Lions, Alhambra

A young man sat on the edge of the fountain, plucking his guitar while next to him stood two older men and a woman, singing a song of the gitanos, the Romani people of Spain. In front of them, a young woman danced with the proud stamps and hand claps of flamenco. Her scarlet dress with full ruffled skirt accentuated her dark skin and her full eyebrows arched as she turned, arms raised.

Morgan saw her face in profile and recognized the young girl in the picture in Santiago's room, the granddaughter he was estranged from. Her dance mesmerized those watching, the embodiment of duende, the soul of Andalucia that undulated through her hips and the arch of her back. Morgan had heard that true duende resonated with a heightened awareness of death and a dash of the diabolical, and there was truly an edge of darkness as Sofia moved. The shadows at her feet were almost living things that she stamped back into the depths of the earth. The wail of the older woman's song grew louder, a desperate lament for the loss of their homeland. Sofia whirled, her steps faster and faster until she stood motionless at the crescendo, the guitar silenced by the applause.

flamenco guitarShe held the pose as the noise died down, waiting for quiet again. She turned and gestured to the guitar player, and Morgan caught the look that sparked between them, recognizing an intimate knowledge. This was Sofia's boyfriend, perhaps the cause of the rift with her family. He had the look of a Moroccan-Spanish Arab, his long dark hair worn loose about his face – a Muslim, perhaps, or a gitano, a man Santiago may have considered beneath his pure-blood Jewish granddaughter. The young man began to pluck the strings and one of the other men from the group stepped forward to dance with Sofia, stamping with fast heels.

A figure stepped from the crowd, standing poised on the edge of the open ring. He wore the black shirt and tight trousers of flamenco and his strong features brought to mind a toreador, a bullfighter in his prime. He had been wounded in battle, his right eye scarred and sightless, but Morgan's gaze was drawn to his wide chest, muscled arms, and his posture of dominance. flamenco dancerShe tensed at his entrance, aware of the imminent danger Sofia was in, but perhaps this man was just a member of the troupe, a plant for dramatic effect.

The man stepped forward, raising his arms, commanding attention as he stamped rhythmically towards Sofia. She turned in the dance, away from the man in her troupe, indicating her acceptance of his challenge. The man began the dance of the bullfighter, and they circled around each other as the music soared. There was a chemistry between them, and even though the man was old enough to be her father, he was attractive, a dark intensity in his gaze as he danced closer to Sofia, calling his olé as he clapped. She spun in his circle, tilting her body towards his. Morgan saw the guitar player's eyes narrow at this rival. The taut strings of attraction held the pair at arm's length, but as the music reached a crescendo and the song ended, the man reached out and pulled Sofia to him.

The young woman's eyes widened, her mouth opened in a gasp. Morgan stepped forward, suddenly realizing the threat. Then the spotlights flicked off and the fire alarm rang out, its piercing shriek echoing around the Court of the Lions as the whole area was plunged into darkness.

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Filed Under: Book Research Tagged With: arkane, gates of hell, research

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