Please welcome to Jaffreadstoo the author
Happy Publication Day
to
 |
| Tego Arcana Dei Series #3 Clink Street Publishing 24 November 2015 |
Hello Andrew and welcome to Jaffa reads too...
What can you tell us about Beyond the Rest of Us?
Well, it’s the final book in a series about a modern world I barely know today. I decided to write the final book as a conspiracy thriller. This means here is a good guy struggling to survive against difficult Government forces. This book also includes some ideas on the problems that Europe faces today including climate change.
Where did you get your inspiration for the story from – people, places or imagination?
I was sitting at a table in the village opposite a young school teacher who asked me if I had ever met important people during my time in Switzerland. I started to tell her the story about a discussion with Mrs Thatcher, years ago in the 80’s. So I have used ideas from both people and places from the past, often with a Sci-Fi twist. What I have written in this book is a short exposé of where we may have gone wrong.
Tell us three interesting things about your novel which will pique the reader’s interest?
I used the second book in the series to describe a world fifty years in the future -this time I went back two hundred years to 1814. Writing historical chapters needs more research. I found links to Swiss
Argand lamps before electricity and of course the Geneva connection to Mary Shelly’s novel ‘Frankenstein.’
Most readers are familiar with the loss of the ‘Costa Concordia’ when it crashed onto rocks on an island off Italy. This was explained in the courts as an accident, but as an ex-banker it may have been something more sinister. Accidents will happen, but when stock markets are open, investors make big returns; of course this is all speculative fiction.
Time travel is always interesting for readers as it offers speculation and conjecture on things that happen or have happened in everyday life -it allows both the writer and reader to think about things in a different light and reimagine the past.
When do you find the time to write, and do you have a favourite place to do your writing?
Being retired has its advantages. Finding time to write is not difficult, but having to do research often slows me down for months. I do most reading, writing and online research in the winter, when the temperatures outside are below freezing. In summer it’s time for editing and correction. Details of some scenes can appear in dreams at night so I always keep a notepad next to my bed. This is what I call the ‘Connected Universe’ in my book.
What do you hope readers will take away from your novel?
Well first and foremost, I hope it may generate some interest in politics and modern science. I always include a list of books in the Acknowledgements at the end of each book, in the hope that a few readers may find at least one book of interest.
Can you tell us if you have another novel planned?
I had thought that when you write a trilogy that should be the end of the story. But then I see how events this year have got out of control in Europe and the Middle East and it would be easy to continue the series...? I’m keeping my options open for now.
Beyond the Rest of Us (published by Clink Street Publishing 24th November 2015, RRP £7.99 paperback, RRP £3 ebook) will be available to purchase from online retailers including amazon.co.uk and order from all good bookstores. Stay up to date with the Tego Arcana Dei series on twitter @TegoArcanaDei.
My thanks to Andrew for talking to us about Beyond the Rest of Us. and to Kate Appleton at authoright.com.
A bit of blurb..
Beyond the Rest of Us is a thrilling journey of the contemporary human heart, intimate, magical, and
subtly architected. A retired Swiss banker is kidnapped at a Geneva hotel for
crimes he doesn't understand. An Italian cruise ship crashes into rocks in the
Tyrrhenian Sea. A respected American scientist disappears into thin air. And a
British secret agent follows a trail of corrupt power in this gripping third
book featuring Andrew Man's aging male protagonist James Pollack.
My thoughts..
Although this is the third book
in the Tego Arcana Dei Series, I think that it works as a standalone story, the common denominator, to all the novels,
being that of the main protagonist, James Pollack. The story of kidnap, disappearance
and corruption is well constructed and the author writes with assurance about a genre of fiction he obviously cares passionately about.
The story is very contemporary and
draws the reader into a world of danger and espionage; it’s filled with subtle
detail and littered with twists and turns which maintain interest. As with all book series, for better continuity, you really are perhaps wiser to read the series from the beginning , that way the subtle nuances of the story are better enjoyed.
~***~
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to comment - Jaffareadstoo appreciates your interest.