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Interviews with Thriller Authors

Templars, Freemasons And The Ark Of The Covenant With Dominic Selwood

March 18, 2015 By J.F. Penn

It's always wonderful to meet authors who, like me, are fascinated with all things biblical/historical/conspiracy/thriller-ish!

Dominic SelwoodSo it's especially cool to interview Dominic Selwood, historian, rock star (see below!) and author of The Sword of Moses, which is a fantastic fast-paced Biblical thriller backed by impeccable research.

Tell us a bit more about you and your writing background

I grew up in Salisbury, a place which fired my imagination a lot. The austere windswept trilithons of Stonehenge intrigued me. The great seductive Gothic cathedral seemed like a time machine to another world of amazing creativity. And the vast green plain, with its ancient images carved into the hillsides, was endlessly romantic.

stonehenge
Stonehenge

I also spent some years in Cyprus, which was a sleepy place back then. I was free to roam about the ancient temples and ruins with no tourists or fences. It was an amazing place for daydreaming. I went to boarding school in England, then university in Oxford, Paris, Poitiers, Wales, and London. I did my doctorate on the Knights Templar, the real medieval ones. In 1999 I published a textbook on the Templars called ‘Knights of the Cloister’. [Read more…] about Templars, Freemasons And The Ark Of The Covenant With Dominic Selwood

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: biblical, conspiracy, interview, thriller

The Writing Life: Research, Ideas, Genre And My Writing Process

February 19, 2015 By J.F. Penn

I recently did a wide-ranging and fun interview on the Genretainment podcast with Marx Pyle and Julie Seaton.

The writing lifeWe talked about how I got into writing and why I write supernatural thrillers, the challenges when first starting out, the details of my writing life and how I get ideas and research books.

You can listen to the interview on this page or download the audio mp3 here. Or you can read the transcript below. [Read more…] about The Writing Life: Research, Ideas, Genre And My Writing Process

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

The Gates Of Hell, Good And Evil, Life And Death With Rebecca Cantrell And J.F.Penn

February 3, 2015 By J.F. Penn

One of the fun things about being an author is talking about the obsessions that drive us with other authors who have the same type of brain!

good and evilI walk around Europe seeing stories, and so does the fantastic Rebecca Cantrell!

In this discussion, we talk about how we both use the Gates of Hell in our latest books and our themes of life and death, good and evil … and much more.

You can watch the video below or here on YouTube. You can also listen to the interview on Soundcloud and also read the transcript underneath the video below.

[Read more…] about The Gates Of Hell, Good And Evil, Life And Death With Rebecca Cantrell And J.F.Penn

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: dark, gates of hell, rebecca cantrell, vampires

Writing Dark Fantasy, Martial Arts And International Travel With Alan Baxter

January 18, 2015 By J.F. Penn

I love to read books that transport the reader into another world, just off the edge of this one.

alan baxterPlus I love a good fight scene, and Alan Baxter delivers all this and more in his new Alex Caine series.

BOUND opens with Alex cage fighting in the underground scene, using his slightly supernatural skills to see what an opponent will do before he moves. But his magic draws him into a world he never knew existed – a world he wishes he'd never found. [Read more…] about Writing Dark Fantasy, Martial Arts And International Travel With Alan Baxter

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: dark fantasy, magic

Action Thriller Author Scott Mariani On The Ben Hope Series

December 14, 2014 By J.F. Penn

Scott MarianiScott Mariani is the author of the worldwide-acclaimed action-adventure thriller series featuring ex-SAS hero Ben Hope. Scott’s novels have topped the bestseller charts in his native Britain and are translated into over twenty languages worldwide.

His next book released in the US is The Nemesis Program, available Feb 15, 2015.

I interviewed Scott for The Big Thrill magazine – free for thriller readers. The full edited transcript will be available there in Jan 2015. Below is an excerpt as well as the audio interview.

 What are the themes that you return to in your books?

There is always a historical element. I’m very interested in history, but also the Ben Hope books belong to a certain genre which grew up out of Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code.

Scott MarianiIn that genre, there’s always some kind of historical theme running through each book. Ben’s not a historian; he’s not even interested in history, but it’s interesting from my point of view, having to find something that’s going to happen, some intrigue that involves history but has a relevance today, that somehow manages to involve Ben. There’s always a different way in which Ben manages to get embroiled in these historical things.

With regard to the modern-day element, there’s very often a conspiracy involved, sometimes on a huge, epic scale, sometimes involving massive global forces, other times involving more private conspiracies, and more low-key things involving maybe just one individual or a few individuals. I’ll very often find a character with suicide not really being suicide, with people being bumped off because they know too much or they’ve discovered something or found out something and they become dangerous or a threat, and somebody’s out to get them. Of course then Ben Hope has to come in at a certain point and sort things out. But the conspiracy element is something I quite enjoy. And some of them one could believe in, I think.

nemesis programI wouldn’t say that I was a huge conspiracy buff, but I definitely have dark opinions about a lot of things that go on in the world, to the point where I couldn’t really discuss them too openly, because I’d probably get assassinated or something. But yes, there are a lot of very terrible things happening in this world, and we are not told the truth about very many of them, which of course forms a wonderful resource for people like me who can conjecture from that.

There’s also a lot of action and shooting and driving and cool chase scenes in your books. How do you do the research, and do you do some of those thrilling things yourself?

The driving part is all imaginary, because I’m a very, very timorous, slow, unadventurous driver! I drive an old Landrover, which physically can’t do more than about 45 miles an hour, so all this sort of high-speed stuff is just my imagination. I have done a lot of shooting and things in the past. I was, back in the day, a pistol shooter, before they banned it in Britain.

I still shoot; I do a lot of target shooting but I don’t kill things: I don’t go out and murder God’s little creatures, honest! But I do a lot of target shooting, so I’ve murdered enough little paper targets in my time, and I still do a lot of that. I love it: it’s just something I’m very passionate about. It’s not terribly exciting or thrilling. I also do a lot of practical shotgun, which involves a lot of running around and shooting at make-believe bad guys, knocking over steel plates and things, which is great fun, and it’s probably the most action-orientated shooting discipline still available to people in the UK, and that is enormous fun.

Joanna: I want to do that now!

Scott: It’s great, honestly: you’d love it. It’s like paintball shooting and things. I like that we all go out in the woods and kill each other! With paintballs!

It’s great fun, as long as you’re safe. Safety is obviously the most important thing. But once you know what you’re doing and you’re safe with it, it’s enormous fun.

Joanna: And you’re an archer as well, I think?

Scott: Yes! The good thing about archery is that you don't deafen yourself; it’s lovely and quiet. I’ve got a little archery range in my back garden, and I can go out there any time I like and shoot all day long without bothering the neighbors, although we’re quite remote here: nobody would really hear, I think, even if you were to let off a cannon! But yes, archery is a wonderful sport, and again, it’s something that I’ve always done. Even when I was a kid, I used to make my own bows and arrows out of branches from trees and do all sorts of irresponsible things, shooting arrows where I shouldn’t have been shooting them. But that is also a great sport. You should take it up: you’d love it!

Joanna: I’ve done a bit of archery, actually. Do you find it like a meditation?

Scott: Well, there is a sort of martial arts background. You have the whole Zen thing with archery. You step up to the target, and you have to get yourself into this meditative kind of state. But this is also true of shooting, as well. When you get in the zone, when you’re target shooting and you’re hunkered down behind a rifle on a firing point, completely still, and you have to lower your heartbeat, and your breathing is very controlled, and it’s possible to get into a really almost Zen-like state. Ben Hope is very good at getting into that state. He’s much better at it than I am. But he’s got sniper training and all that. Anything I can do, he can do ten times better!

It’s very cathartic and restful, until you pull the trigger and it goes Bong! That’s not so restful. But with archery, it’s a lovely thing to get into. I definitely would urge anyone who hasn’t tried it to try it.

You can find Scott at ScottMariani.com and his books on all online stores.

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: interview, thriller

On Writing Monsters, Action And Horror With Jeremy Robinson

November 25, 2014 By J.F. Penn

If you like fast-paced action/adventure you'll enjoy the Jack Sigler series. If you like monsters, check out Island 731, and if you like horror, check out Jeremy Bishop's books!

Jeremy RobinsonToday I interview bestselling author of over 30 books, Jeremy Robinson, who also writes as Jeremy Bishop. You can watch the video below or here on YouTube.

In the interview, we discuss:

  • How Jeremy started out at art school and went into comic book illustration, and then into comic book writing, then screen-writing. After being inspired by a James Rollins novel, he moved into writing novels.
  • Monsters are a recurring theme in Jeremy’s books, including his recent book Island 731. He talks about his TV and film influences and why monsters have been part of his inspiration. ‘Island 731’ is about a crew stranded on an island that had been used for human experimentation during WWII.
  • Jeremy writes horror under Jeremy Bishop, the first book was ‘Torment’ which is a very dark book based on a nightmare he had. The Raven is the next book in the Jane Harper series, coming soon, where Jane has to deal with parasitical zombies that can zombify anything mammal, whilst out on the high seas. Ridiculous fun!
  • We talk about ‘I am Cowboy’, which is not a Western! Cowboy is the main character who first appeared in SecondWorld (about Nazis returning to take over the world). Cowboy is a conspiracy theorist obsessed with cowboy movies. He’s from the Czech Republic and he has a line ‘I am cowboy, I am gunslinger’.
  • How much of Jeremy is in his characters? It depends on the characters – some of them are very similar. In the YA series, the Last Hunter, Solomon is based on 50% Jeremy and 50% on his son. But many of the characters are nothing like Jeremy –  the books are nJeremy Robinson Booksot autobiographical!
  • Is Jeremy as exciting as the protagonists of his kick-ass, fast-paced books?
  • Jeremy talks about his writing space and you can see some of his Japanese movie monsters behind him in the video. He has a big office which is packed with pop culture objects, posters etc. It inspires him, and he does a lot of video as well as writing. He also paints and his kids play in the room.
  • Jeremy makes video trailers for all his books as well as ‘viral video’ campaigns, which are usually ridiculous. You can check out Jeremy’s YouTube channel here.

You can find everything at his sites: JeremyRobinsonOnline.com and JeremyBishopOnline.com

This interview was originally posted on Killer-Thrillers.

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: action, interview, thriller

Explosions And Action Thrillers With Simon Kernick

November 5, 2014 By J.F. Penn

I love fast-paced action adventure books and Simon Kernick is a master of the genre, with non-stop books that keep moving until the last page!

Simon KernickI dare you to read Ultimatum and put the book down mid-way through!

I interviewed Simon about his books recently. You can watch the video below or here on YouTube, or read the transcript below.

Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most popular thriller authors with his fast paced novels topping the Sunday Times bestseller list.

His latest book, Ultimatum, is just out in the US. It opens with an explosion in a central London cafe and a threat from a terror group that promises escalation of the violence. Can Detective Inspector Mike Bolt and Deputy Commissioner Tina Boyd stop the atrocity before it’s too late?

So, Simon, just tell us a bit about your life before writing bestselling thrillers.

I’ve always wanted to write, ever since I was a little kid, and so I was always writing stories of some description. But to pay the bills, I’ve done a number of different jobs, from bar work to road-building, laboring and Christmas tree uprooting, obviously very seasonal work.

Simon KernickAnd eventually I had a career for some years as an IT software salesman, which never gets a second question, so I’m going to move swiftly on! I did that for about a decade, and while I did that, I was trying to get published, and eventually, I was lucky enough to get a publishing deal. And the minute I got one—which is pretty much almost thirteen years ago today—I went full time. And I’ve been full-time writing ever since, and I don’t want to go back to work anymore!

Your books feature a lot of famous British landmarks, so I wondered if you could talk about a couple of places in Britain that are particularly special to you, and how they feature in your books.

Well, London is the main location for the vast majority of the books. They do move out into the UK a little bit more, but as a general rule of thumb, it’s London. My latest book, ULTIMATUM, features a very new and very famous London landmark now, the Shard. It’s an amazing looking tower.

Ultimatum KernickI love London to walk around, to see how the old and the new can just live together, and the rich and the poor merge together; it’s such an amazingly cosmopolitan city. But when you get on the South Bank of the Thames, and you see the Shard stretching up like a piece of glass into the sky, it’s an absolutely incredible scene, and pretty much the moment I saw it, I wanted it to feature it somewhere in a book.

And then to move completely away from London, to the other end of the country, my book Stay Alive, which I think comes out in the States next year, and which just came out in the UK this year, is all about a kayaking trip that goes wrong in the wilderness of Scotland. I spent a few days up in a place called Glen Affric, a huge glen about twenty miles south-east of Inverness, and it’s right in the middle of nowhere.

You can’t believe that in a country as heavily populated and as small as the UK you can have such amazing wilderness, but it contains an a magnificent ancient pine forest, beautiful waters and mountains, and it was a fantastic backdrop for the book and obviously a fantastic place to go and do some research.

You write a lot of action scenes and thriller readers love explosions! Have you got like a hit list of things you want to blow up in your books?

Do you know, I’ve never thought about that. I do quite like a big explosion but I don’t think I’d like to explode any landmarks in London, because I quite like them, and I don’t really want to lay waste to the city—I think it’s much better on the page, to be honest.

I would like one time to actually blow something up myself, something that was ready for demolition, like one of those big tower blocks they have. I’d like to push down the detonation thing, whatever it’s called, and set one of those bombs off, but I have never done it.

I have been, though, to the Army Bomb Disposal School in the UK where they told me how to make a bomb, pretty much from household components, which was research for a book, and I’ve actually handled various plastic explosives that they let me mess around with up there, but I’ve not actually blown anything up as yet. And that’s probably no bad thing!

What are the other thrilling things you’ve done in terms of your research expeditions?

Well, two of my books were set, at least partly, in the Philippines: A Good Day to Die and, The Payback. I spent some time there moving around the islands and checking out and exploring Manila, which is probably one of the most ugly cities in the world, because it was the second-most bombed city in the Second World War, after Dresden. It was bombed by both the Japanese and the Americans trying to get it back and so it was completely flattened. It’s pretty much made up of low, two-story, three-story breeze-block buildings all over the place. It’s an incredibly ugly place, but very exciting and interesting.

That’s probably my favorite location for research, because it’s a little bit like the Wild West in the Philippines. It’s nothing like anywhere else in South-East Asia. They’re a bit more violent, there are a lot more guns about, and there are a lot more soldiers and police, and there’s always kind of something going on in the background, so it was an amazing location for the books.

There’s a lot of political upheaval going on in the world with ISIS in Iraq and other things happening. Do you get any ideas from that bigger political scene?

Yes, I do. I’ve written books, such as Siege, and Ultimatum, where they take on board things that are happening in the world currently, particularly on the terrorism front, on the Islamic fundamentalism front, and the rise of separatism. You always have to put your own slant on things, because I don’t want to write a book that’s very specifically current affairs. I just think it’s good to have a story which has some level of escapism from the horrible parts of the world that we keep hearing about, but at the same time, where it’s quite obvious from the plot that those events are impinging a little bit.

So I mix and match, really. It’s good to put the current affairs in, but my books are escapism: they’re there for excitement, action, twists and turns, and ultimately, I want someone to finish a book and think, “Ah, I really enjoyed that and I want to read another of his,” not, “Oh, my god, that’s so depressing, the world is collapsing all around us.”

Your books are set at breakneck speed, a non-stop pace. Is that how you live your life, or what do you do to relax?

Well, it’s a good question, actually. I do quite a lot of exercise. I do a fair amount of kayaking, although I’ve never ended up on the kind of trip where people are trying to kill me, as they do in Stay Alive. I do quite a lot of outdoor and fairly exciting activities, but at the same time, I lead quite a nice life, as well. When I’ve finished writing for the day, I relax. If I’m really knackered, I take a nice long walk down by the River Thames where I live, and then come back, cook some dinner, and just slob out in front of the TV, watching usually American box sets and comedies. And that, to me, is a nice way of relaxing.

But, funny enough, I am quite an impatient person, and I have a fairly short attention span a lot of the time. I can be talking about one thing and suddenly I move very quickly to another, and then quickly to another, and quickly to another. A lot of people have described me as fairly manic, so I think maybe that’s influencing the books as well. I couldn't write a slow one, I don’t think.

Joanna: No, I guessed that. No literary fiction in your department!

Simon: No, it’s too slow: I like things to move fast. But that’s how I like to read them, as well. A book has to engage me from the first page, or I don’t really give it too much of a chance anymore. I think a good book is always engaging in the first page, even if it’s a fairly slow plot, so that’s what I try to do with my books, and then just keep people reading, yanked in right until the very end.

What are the themes that obsess you, that you keep coming back to in your writing?

I think the fear that the criminals are winning. There is always a fear in my books that the police, the law, doesn’t protect the victims as much as it protects the criminals, and that this isn’t a good thing. So, the fear that the police are often battling as much against their superiors and the establishment and the legal system as they are against the criminals is a recurring theme.

And the need by almost all my protagonists, both police or not, to break the rules, because the rules themselves are too much of a straitjacket. So there’s this thing about how far do you go to break the rules, and how far can you go without becoming a criminal yourself and losing the sympathy that you’re trying to get. How far can you corrupt the sense of the search for justice?

So that’s the recurring theme that I think has run through every one of my books, and is very much in the latest book, as well. That’s what always interests me.

I’ve noticed that threat to family is also a common theme. Would that be true?

Yes, because a lot of my protagonists are just an ordinary man or woman that suddenly get themselves flung into a situation over which they have no control, and to which they don’t know how to react. And I think that’s hugely important to me, but often, when it’s an ordinary person, they have a family as well, and often they’re trying to protect their family. And family to me is very, very, important.

I have two children and I’m massively protective over them, and I suppose when I’m dealing in the books with threat to family, I think of my own kids and how I would feel if they came under threat, and so that adds an intensity to the writing.

It’s the fear that I have as a parent for my children going out in the world and protecting them against all the dangers that are out there. That’s a recurring fear for me, and I think a lot of parents probably can sympathize with that.

That speaks to the father side of you, but how much of other sides of your life are in the characters that you write?

Well, I think a lot of me is in my characters, and I think that’s the case pretty much with any writer. If you’re writing a book, it’s your passions, your thoughts, your fears that go into the characters. Obviously, the characters are all fictional, and in many cases in my ones, they’re a lot braver than I would be in a lot of circumstances, but they have my sense of fear about the world; they have my sense of enjoyment when things go right, my sense of always desiring some form of natural justice as well.

I have a great thing about natural justice: I like to see the good rewarded and the bad punished, and that is a huge theme in my books: whether they’re the ordinary person in trouble or whether they’re the police officer trying to find a murderer, they all have that need for natural justice. That comes straight from me.

In talking about fear, I heard you speak at a literary festival about being abducted as young man. Would you mind telling that story?

I was hitchhiking with a couple of friends, aged 16, when we were picked up by three older guys in a very small car, and they basically drove us into my home town, late at night, and rather than actually drop us off, they drove back out of town with us in the car, and made us take our clothes off. It was a really horrible incident where we thought we were going to die.

We were eventually naked and lined up outside the car in the middle of some woods and beaten very badly, and then threatened. I think one of them said to another, “Get the shotgun out,” and I don’t know how much of it was trying to scare us and humiliate us, or how much of it was real. One of my friends actually broke free and escaped, and that’s when they let myself and my other friend go.

But it was a really, really terrifying, ordeal. It was made worse, I think, if we’re talking about natural justice, by the fact that the police knew very quickly who they were, but none of them admitted anything under detailed and lengthy questioning. They never discovered the stolen car that they were in, and the police waited weeks and weeks before they came round with a book containing photographs which may or may not have contained these guys. We couldn’t pick out the guys so they were never brought to justice. That was quite a difficult thing.

The fear that I remember from that night is a kind of fear that you never, ever forget, because for about half an hour, I really did think I was going to die. I was 16 and had never experienced anything like that before. I come from a comparatively sheltered background and lived in a small town, so it was a pretty traumatic experience. When I’m writing from the point of view of ordinary individuals in trouble, who are faced with a really terrifying situation, where they think they’re going to die, I draw upon my own experiences of that and try to infuse that in the page through their eyes.

Joanna: Thank you so much for sharing that: I appreciate your vulnerability.

Simon: It’s funny, but I didn’t think about it for years and years; I really pushed it to one side and tried to forget about it, and I never spoke about it with my two friends, one of whom I still keep vaguely in touch with. It’s still never mentioned, and it’s only in recent years with the writing that it’s come out and that I’ve talked about it more. Twenty-two years ago, I think it was. A long time ago, but you never forget it.

We often write to deal with these things ourselves. Do you think people who love thrillers are reading for that vicarious experience, or why do people love reading books like yours?

I think it’s always quite nice to be sat in the warmth of your house, feeling all cozy in bed, reading a book where some horrendous things are happening to people who you can hopefully identify with, and think, “Oh, my goodness, thank goodness that’s not happening to me.” That’s quite a nice feeling, I always think.

And I think people just really, really enjoy books where there are plenty of twists and turns; where they don’t really know what’s going to happen next, and where they can actually identify with and sympathise with the characters who are their main protagonists. That’s the really important thing about using an ordinary person like I do in a number of books. I think that the reader can see these people and think, “Yeah, actually that could be me, and what would I do in those sort of situations, and what’s going to happen,” and that, I think, is the real key to why people enjoy them.

 This interview also appeared on on The Big Thrill. You can find Simon at SimonKernick.com and also on twitter @simonkernick

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: interview, thriller

Religious Truth Vs Fiction. Playing Saint With Zachary Bartels

October 20, 2014 By J.F. Penn

Zachary BartelsZachary Bartels' latest book Playing Saint opens with an exorcism and a murder scene with satanic symbols. It also features a mega-church and Vatican operatives, and in this interview, I ask Zach to talk a bit about the book and the thoughts behind it.

As an introduction, Zachary Bartels is an award-winning preacher and Bible teacher, serving as pastor of Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Lansing, Michigan, where he lives with his wife Erin and their son. He holds degrees from Cornerstone University and Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Zachary enjoys film, fine cigars, stimulating conversation, gourmet coffee, reading, writing, and cycling.

Tell us about your own religious background and how you've incorporated that into the books.

zachart bartelsWell, I used to be a Vatican assassin from 1999-2004, during which I dealt with a very large number of occult-related murders.

Just kidding; I’m a Baptist minister with a pretty vanilla background. I do tend to incorporate my experiences as a pastor into characters (part of my “brand,” as they say), but mostly I would imagine my religious background relates to my books much like yours does to your books—meaning that, when you spend so much time studying all sorts of fascinating beliefs, rites, traditions, etc., from East to West and from ancient times to the present, your imagination starts spinning off what-ifs, which then grow up into full-blown stories.

How do you walk the line between what some consider religious truth and fiction?

playing saintI think it works in my favor that I really do believe in the religious angle of my novels (the reality of demonic oppression, the power of Christ’s cross, etc.).

Don’t get me wrong; I’ve enjoyed many a supernatural/religious thriller (in print or film) created by people who were approaching their work as straight-up fantasy, but my readership is primarily made up of evangelical Christians who share my beliefs. For that reason, I have to tread lightly around issues of doctrine and avoid writing in a way that might come across as flippant when dealing with things sacred. I’ve already had a couple negative reviews along the lines of: how can he employ all that snarky humor when dealing with such serious topics? However, I like to think that most readers (regardless of their personal beliefs) know that picking up a novel generally means suspending disbelief and giving a little latitude for the sake of entertainment.

this present darknessMy early influences in religious fiction included ‘This Present Darkness' by Frank Peretti.

What were some of your influences for your books? What do you read for pleasure now?  

Peretti’s work is definitely one of the strongest early influencers on me as well. I also love Stephen Lawhead’s stuff and Paul Maier’s religious thrillers.

Less predictably, I love Chuck Palahniuk’s works and the late Elmore Leonard, as well as the more out-there stuff like Duane Swierczynski. In the last couple years, I’ve also been tearing through Cliff Graham’s gritty biblical war epics.

I read your first book, 42 Months Dry, about the prophet Elijah a few years back, which covers a more historical thriller perspective.

How has your writing developed since then?

42 months dryFor starters, it’s gotten a lot tighter. 42 was my first stab at writing a novel. I took my time and gave it a number of passes, but flipping through it now, it’s a lot less polished than Playing Saint. Of course, that’s also because I did that one indie in pretty much every sense, which means no macro-edit with a project editor, no line edit, etc.

I was already listening to your podcasts while I was putting it together and I always heard you and your guests telling everyone to hire an editor, and I always thought, “Yeah, that’s a good idea…but not for me of course.” I wonder how many indie writers have that same assumption and how much better their work could be if they tossed it and let someone else inject some years of editorial experience into their work.

What are the themes that keep recurring in your writing? That obsess you?

This was totally unplanned, but I recently realized that both of my contracted novels with HarperCollins (as well as 42 Months Dry to some degree) are about the issue of identity.

By that I mean, determining who you really are underneath your titles, degrees, profession, etc. And, not surprisingly, there’s a whole lot about Jesus in there too—hopefully presented in a way that appeals broadly to readers of varying beliefs and backgrounds.

Many thriller authors are criticized for portraying violent crime and too much death in their books. How do you handle that criticism?

A couple of my early editorial reviews have mentioned the “on-screen” violence and rather bloody crime scenes, but it hasn’t been a deal-breaker. It’s a curiosity of the CBA marketplace that violence has kind of been given a pass, while a naughty word or even sidelong reference so something sexual would be shot on sight by pretty much any editor.

Personally, I think Playing Saintis PG-13 at most and I tried not to include death and violence for death and violence’s sake.

What's next for your writing?

My next novel, The Last Con (about a reformed con man forced back into a life of crime, with some secret societies, relics, and conspiracies to boot) comes out next June. It’s in line edit now. I’m just starting to outline another book that I hope to pitch soon..

Where can people find out more on you and your books?

My website is  www.zacharybartels.com or you can follow me on Twitter @AuthorZBartels

Filed Under: Interviews with Thriller Authors Tagged With: christian, religion

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