Cover & Blurb:
Excerpt:
Prologue
The view from the window hadn’t changed since the last time Ben had studied it—one grey, depressing wing of the building, the car park below, and some scraggly trees, still bare in January. Farther away, he could see the roofs of some houses, and perhaps, if he let his imagination run away with it, the distant hills of Bodmin moor. He didn’t speculate in the realms of fiction much these days. He brought his gaze back to the utilitarian architecture.
The seagull was back, perched on the sill, as it had been day after day. Sometimes, it tapped the window with its beak. Ben was never sure if the gull wanted in, or for him to open the window and join it outside, flying or falling. Freedom either way.
Secretly, Ben thought the gull was an albatross. It was so vast, so impressive, that it seemed inconceivable that it could be an ordinary gull blown in from Plymouth Sound and sitting on the grimy ledge. The first albatross perhaps to make it to England, tossed on ocean currents all the way from the Chatham Islands, lost, alone. If it was, then it was in good company. Ben had never felt so lost or so alone, and he had spent a fair proportion of his life being buffeted by metaphorical winds far stronger than those that prowled the vast oceans of the world.
Author Interview:
Today I’m super lucky to be talking with John Wiltshire! Hi John, thanks for chatting with us. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.
1) Give us an interesting fun fact or a few about your book or series:
Enid Toogood is a real person. Her trees were real. They also got taken down for her, very suspiciously, by an ex-army person…He has not yet been caught.
Emilia is real. As she’s too young to read the books, she doesn’t know she’s in the series.
She’s scarier in real life than in fiction.
2) How did you come up with the title of your book or series?
The overall series title is actually explained by one of the characters in Book 6: pound for pound the human body gives out more heat than the sun. Ben and Nikolas burn for each other, so it’s very applicable for this whole series.
Book 1, Love is a Stranger is very much the theme of the book—Ben is in love, but he doesn’t actually know anything about the man he’s fallen for. He’s in for a bit of a shock.
Book 2, Conscious Decisions of the Heart speaks to making a leap of faith, one not entirely explicable by rational thought, and yet deliberate for all that.
Book 3, Bridge of Silver Wings is a quote from a poem by Aberjhani: a bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare to the jeweled vision of a life started anew. That is Nikolas’s situation in book 3 summed up.
Book 4, This Other Country is based around two ideas…one is the gay theme addressed for the first time, the idea of gay life being a separate nation, and secondly there’s an echo of “and there’s another country, I heard of long ago” which is a hymn to sacrifice, which is the theme of the book.
Book 5, The Bruise-Black Sky I just liked the sound of.
Book 6, Death’s Ink-Black Shadow again comes from a poem, this time from the Spartans: and learn to love death’s ink-black shadow as much as you love the light of dawn. It speaks to the very heart of the novel: embracing the darkness inside and using it to emerge triumphant.
Book 7, Enduring Night is based on the same clever grammatical play on words at work in ‘Enduring Love’, which is a great novel by Ian McEwan. Nikolas endures a very long night indeed in book 7.
3) Have you ever given one of your characters the personality of someone you know?
Very much so. They are all amalgamations of people I know. Some are pretty much spot on their real life counterparts, some are pix-and-mix. I don’t stray far from things I know for my main characters: ex-army.
4) What do you think makes a good story?
Basically, good writing. Good writing can make pretty much anything readable but bad writing ruins even the best plot. Having said that, to make a story fill an entire novel, the premise behind the story has to be good as well.
5) What does your family think of your writing?
Hah, I’ve never been asked that before. To be honest, very few of them have read any of it. My mother is my number one fan though. She’s 85. She’s had a lot to come to terms with about me as it is, so I think reading my books now is the least of her worries. She waits eagerly for each new one in the series to come out in paperback as she can’t use a Kindle. The rest of the family? Not so keen to know the details, I suspect. Don’t ask, don’t tell.
About John:
John is English, an ex-army officer, who emigrated to New Zealand and now spends his time surfing and procrastinating on YouTube.
Where to find the author:
Blog
Goodreads Group
Goodreads
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So exciting! Alas, I am very much behind in this series & need to seriously get caught up. Thanks very much for the post & giveaway.
ReplyDeleteMe two - I have purchased 2/3 - planning for holiday reading!
ReplyDeleteI love the answer to #5 and that your Mum accepts you and the reason behind the book titles, that was something I wondered about.
Great interview :)