Haunted by a past riddled with violence, former Army Ranger Jacob Stearne finds himself navigating the treacherous world of corporate espionage for the enigmatic billionaire, Pia Sabel.
I'm pleased to welcome author Seeley James back to The Writing Desk:
What is your preferred writing routine?
I tend to be more creative in the evening between 4 and 8 pm, give or take a couple hours. I spend my mornings editing the crap I wrote the day before. I've heard several famous authors note a similar routine and others who have the opposite. Obviously, the latter are heathens who should be burned at the stake. Within my writing window, I kinda-outline what I'm expecting to write, a scene or bit of dialogue, before I start and that helps keep things on track.
What do I mean by "kinda-outline?" It's not a formal outline, it's three to five (sometimes up to twenty) bullet points about the conflicts and resolutions I want in the passage. I use the kinda-outline as a way to work out whether the conflict or tension is unexpected, revelatory, and twists while remaining credible. When I edit it the next morning, I compare what I wrote to my notes. Sometimes I pump a fist and say, "Pure genius!" While other times, I hit delete on 2,000 words and start over.
What advice do you have for new writers?
Writing is easy. Writing stories that you can con other people into paying money to read is hard. Really hard. Study the craft relentlessly. Read relentlessly. Deconstruct every story you come across from books to movies to podcasts. My book club just read The Haunting of Hill House, which I thought was a horror/ghost story, not my favorite a genre. I was wrong! It's a psychological thriller of highest order and brilliantly written. IMHO, Stephen King's The Shining is a rip-off of this 1959 masterpiece. I'm in the middle of a detailed deconstruction of the book now.
Self-improvement is crucial to life. We are put on Earth to learn. If you read my series from the beginning (God help you) to the end, you'll see a remarkable improvement. My 100-year-old mother calls it "Unbelievable improvement" with extra emphasis on unbelievable. I'm not sure what she means, but I'm taking it as a compliment. It could be.
What have you found to be the best way to raise awareness of your books?
The best is word-of-mouth, but in these days of constant bombardment from so many sources, it's nearly impossible to count on. In the cacophony of modern life, my biggest fans go unheard. If you can win over one of the influencers on TikTok, you can make some headway, but that's a whole different generation for someone like me. That leaves reviews, brilliant blogs like Tony Riches', and advertising.
Tell us something unexpected you discovered during your research
Research was very different for this book. I'd long wanted to examine the psychology of "heroes." But I write funny adventures along the lines of Slow Horses or Bad Monkey. Just as I started writing Chasm of Exiles my sister was diagnosed with leukemia and died within two months. Several months after that, my wife died unexpectedly. Those two tragedies made for the most painful year of my life, setting my writing back by eighteen months. During that time, I re-evaluated the direction of my novel.
The concept of a dark hero has been brooding in my head since I first witnessed the rise of the comic book heroes in the early 2000s. While watching these movies, my inner-cynic said, “Extrajudicial killings? Skyscrapers leveled? Thousands of cars destroyed? And it's all written off as collateral damage? At what cost are we calling these people ‘Heroes?’” Which developed into: What if they did all this death and destruction based on faulty information? Would that make these superheroes villains? I set out to write about the hero who has regrets, uncertainties, and questions his actions. Jacob Stearne could reflect on what it means to be a hero.
The unexpected research: I found very few studies on the psychology of extraordinary individuals. From war heroes to medical staff in pandemics, there is little known about the effects of heroic acts, whether they're recognized with a medal or unappreciated by the public. What we know anecdotally: many have a distinctly different view of their experience than the adoring public.
What was the hardest scene you remember writing?
Before the previously mentioned devastating loss of my wife, my plan was to write a typical hero-based story: good guy goes on a quest, encounters deadly odds stacked against him, overcomes terrifying bad guys, grabs the Golden Fleece, and returns home (with or without a beautiful damsel). My plan was to write a modernized version of Argonautica (aka Jason and the Argonauts).
After the tragic year, I considered a “Dark Jacob” something of a haunted hero. But, since Jacob had always an accidental, even hapless, hero, the change to a brooding and uncertain character filled me with concerns for my fans. So I polled them with a sample chapter. They loved it. After that, it came easily.
Character arcs are difficult over sixteen books, but taking an introspective turn led me to write a passage my fans have been praising in numbers.
Character arcs are difficult over sixteen books, but taking an introspective turn led me to write a passage my fans have been praising in numbers.
It takes place after a secondary character, an eighteen-year-old stripper-turned-spy, asks Jacob Stearne to teach her how to kill her enemies. He replies:
“Hate is an all-consuming fire, Symone.” I took a deep breath. “In order to kill, you have to hate. Hate binds your victims to you for life. My world’s populated with ghosts. Phantoms follow my every step. The dead, the defeated, their survivors—they’re specters trudging three feet behind me. Forgotten gods speak to me. Hatred might feel good and just and righteous. It leads to the opposite.
“People we call leaders will use that hate for their purposes. They’ll feed on your hate and throw gasoline on the fire. They’ll use it to manipulate you. You’ll join them, pumping your fist with righteous indignation and spitting on your enemies. And next, those leaders will slaughter enemies you never knew existed, and then they’ll butcher your neighbors claiming they have been enemies all along. And then they’ll come for you. In the end, hate destroys everything. Take the other path, Symone. Go the way I left behind. Love the world around you while you still can. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Let go of your hatred. That’s what real heroes do.”
“Hate is an all-consuming fire, Symone.” I took a deep breath. “In order to kill, you have to hate. Hate binds your victims to you for life. My world’s populated with ghosts. Phantoms follow my every step. The dead, the defeated, their survivors—they’re specters trudging three feet behind me. Forgotten gods speak to me. Hatred might feel good and just and righteous. It leads to the opposite.
“People we call leaders will use that hate for their purposes. They’ll feed on your hate and throw gasoline on the fire. They’ll use it to manipulate you. You’ll join them, pumping your fist with righteous indignation and spitting on your enemies. And next, those leaders will slaughter enemies you never knew existed, and then they’ll butcher your neighbors claiming they have been enemies all along. And then they’ll come for you. In the end, hate destroys everything. Take the other path, Symone. Go the way I left behind. Love the world around you while you still can. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Let go of your hatred. That’s what real heroes do.”
What are you planning to write next?
When I was ten, I read Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The mystery in that one blew me away: how can they all be dead with no one else on the island? Ever since then, I've found Ms. Christie's work great fun. Not the deepest characters, or social commentary, but great brain teasers with terrific twists. Plain old fun to read. I'm planning to write a mystery in the spirit of her manor mysteries, famous for Hercule Poirot's insightful (and often magical) solutions.
Mine will be set in an exclusive resort high in the Alps where a gathering of American billionaires plot to turn the USA into an Oligarchy they control. An avalanche cuts them off from their sycophants and assistants, forcing the herd of narcissistic megalomaniacs to solve a murder among them.
Mine will be set in an exclusive resort high in the Alps where a gathering of American billionaires plot to turn the USA into an Oligarchy they control. An avalanche cuts them off from their sycophants and assistants, forcing the herd of narcissistic megalomaniacs to solve a murder among them.
Seeley James
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