Paul Anthony Associates
Book Blog Tour
Welcome
to the Espionage and Crime Thriller Blog Tour: A group of authors entertaining
their readers with some thrilling tales of criminality and spying, and tales of
political intrigues, corruption and espionage. Lets’ find out what they are up
to at the moment. The Spymaster wants to ask some questions. Indeed, they’ve
all been asked the same questions as they introduce themselves and their work.
So, let’s hear what they have to say.
First up is Dan
Pollock.
 |
| Dan & Rocky (credit: Eddy Pollock) |
A.
I live in Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles between Burbank and
Pasadena. We’ve put down roots long enough to raise two kids, a daughter now in
college and a son halfway through high school. Technically we’re a bit north of
Glendale in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. (See photo left.)
Q. Would you
describe yourself as a full-time writer or do you have another job?
A.
Back in ‘90s, a windfall two-book
contract from Simon & Schuster/ Pocket Books rescued me from the copydesk
of the L.A. Times. I thought the long-dreamed-of deliverance from a dayjob would never end. Not
quite! Ten years later, neither famous nor rich, I was back in a cubicle,
wordsmithing for the L.A. County Office of Education. Now, thank heaven,
retirement has given me a second chance at full-time fiction writing. And this time I intend to make the most of it.
Q. How do you
spend your leisure time?
A.
What exactly is “leisure time”?
Q. Do you have
any particular hobbies or interests?
A.
Oh, now I understand. Reading and writing top the short list. I’m not as physically active
as I used to be, so parental spectating has settled comfortably into third
place. A couple years back I was over the moon watching my daughter doing
comedy improv, and I swell with pride seeing my son doing things on the
baseball field I could barely dream of, like hitting home runs. Does life get
any better?
Q. Name three
people you would like to entertain for dinner and why?
A.
To keep things manageable, I’m going to narrow the guest list to writers. Robert Louis Stevenson, a gentle and
genial genius, comes first to mind, followed closely by the Zeus-like figure of Charles Dickens. Then, to give Dickens some bombastic competition, I’d offer a
chair to the Victorian explorer-linguist-swordsman-rake-and-raconteur, Sir Richard Francis Burton.
A.
I’ll pick two spots, if I may, like those English writers who winter on the French
Riviera. My wife and I would both love to retire to San Diego with a vacation
hideaway up at Lake Tahoe. We don’t snow- or water ski, but we think the kids
would visit a lot.
Q. If you had
one wish, what would it be?
A. A dear friend once confessed to
me his secret dream—to hand a bowl of hot oatmeal to every hungry child in the world every morning. I’d vote for that.
Q. Describe
yourself using only three words.
A. Passionate, imaginative, secretive. (Perfect for espionage.)
Q. What is the
difference between an espionage thriller and a crime thriller?
A.
For me, an espionage thriller conjures foreign intrigue, exotic locales and high-stakes
geopolitics. That’s what drew me to this genre starting with the depiction of
the “Great Game” in Kipling’s Kim to Eric
Ambler’s masterwork, Coffin for Demetrios.
Exoticism, superpower espioniage and foreign intrigue are the same ingredients
that have continued to lure me to more recent grand masters like Ludlum and Le
Carre, Follett and Forsyth, Furst and Silva. While of course crime thrillers, too,
can be international in scope, my favorite exemplars, such as the late great
John D. MacDonald* and the ever-reliable
John Sandford, stay closer to home, growing their compelling characters
out of the local soil of their own well-observed jurisdictions (Florida
counties and the Twin Cities respectively).
(*I
post a lot about MacDonald and his creative methods on my Thrillerblog.)
Q. Are you
currently published or do you have a ‘work in action’ you can tell us about?
A.
Like many other previously published authors, I’m in process of
self-publishing, digitally and in print-on-demand, my out-of-print titles. And
yes, I’m always working on new projects, usually several at a time. I’m
especially excited about a WWII thriller set in Morocco while General Patton
was military governor. I expect it to debut later this year.
Q. Tell us
about your work and what influenced you to write in this exciting genre?
A.
As I grew up in a family of writers, pounding on a keyboard--first typewriter
then computer--seemed a natural enough way to make a living. I have a facility for
words, but learning good, basic story structure took time--a lot of it. Many fileboxes were filled with fragments
and false starts, some hundreds of pages long. Not till my mid-thirties did I finish
a short story to my own satisfaction. And when it actually sold (to a
confession magazine), my euphoria was stratospheric. But it took another ten
years, and more false starts, to sell my first novel. Even a half-dozen novels later, it's still a
formidable challenge, but one that I love to tackle. Sure, my wife named both our kids,
but I get to name my characters and play God in my own fantasyland. I have read
voraciously in all genres, have written in several, but back when there used to
be bookstores, the espionage thriller section was always my first destination.
Q Do you have a particular character that
figures consistently or are you in the stage of developing a lead character?
A.
So far I’ve only done stand-alones. But I’ve often thought about bringing back
Paul Cyrus, the hero of my debut thriller, Lair of the Fox, for another
adventure. I have similar literary ambitions for Martin Paradine, the hero of
my unpublished WWII Moroccan thriller. We’ll see.
Q. As a
writer, what is the most difficult obstacle to overcome?
A.
Twitter is right up there now. Which
means Web surfing instead of writing. Allowing myself to get distracted from
the business at hand. Once I get my teeth into a story, however, the characters
demand my time and best energies.
Q. Where can
we find out more about your work?
A.
Here are some links:
Q.
And where can we follow and support you on social media sites?
Q.
The Spymaster thanks you for taking part in this interview, Dan Pollock, and wishes you good luck with your writing in the
years ahead.
A.
Thank you. Can I invite you to meet my friends in this wonderful world of
writing? Just click on the names below and you’ll find yourself reading a
different set of answers to the same questions. Please support my friends and
fellow authors by visiting their sites and checking out their contribution.
Thank you for joining me on my blog tour.
2. James Bruno
3. Tom Reinhart
Posts
Great selection of authors & books on this Thriller/crime/espionage book tour. CC Champagne
ReplyDeleteThanks, CC! It's a privilege to be in such fast company!
ReplyDelete