Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Interview With Forge Author Alex Gilly


A new author launched this past week. The publisher, Forge books, says this about the author and book:

"The debut thriller DEVIL’S HARBOR by international translator Alex Gilly, a pulse-pounding 
adventure involving drug smuggling and immigration that takes place on the dangerous waters off the Los Angeles coast. With a fascinating, Walter White-esque villain that turns out to be the unexpected hero, this is most definitely NOT your average thriller!"

Here is an interview with the author:

1.      What inspired you to write Devil's Harbor? I love crime stories and I love sea stories, and I wanted to write a novel that brings together the best of both genres. My aim was to blend Patrick O’Brian with Michael Connelly.

2.      What is this thriller about? The protagonist, Nick Finn, is a marine interdiction agent with Customs and Border Protection. He patrols the waters off Southern California, looking to stop smugglers. Early one morning, he and his partner find a body floating off Catalina Island. Then his partner is murdered, Finn is  a suspect, and he gets sucked down by the undertow of a horrific criminal conspiracy.

3.      Why should someone put down their beach read for your book? If you’re sitting on the beach and you want to know what’s really lurking in the water, I recommend you read DEVIL’S HARBOR! 

4.      The story revolves around drug smuggling. Is this something you know firsthand or did you need to research it? I did a fair amount of research. I read innumerable newspaper articles and referred to a few books. I also researched the Mexico-US border and the CBP. 

5.      What does your book say on the themes of power and greed? Greed is the implicit motive for why most of the bad guys in my novel do the bad things they do. As for power, I think in a thriller like DEVIL’S HARBOR, you want to make it look like whoever is holding the gun has the power. Then you want to flip that on its head in fun and unexpected ways. 

6.      What challenges and rewards did you receive in the process of writing it? That’s an interesting question. There were plenty of challenges during the writing, the biggest of which was actually finishing the book. I was a single guy when I started writing DEVIL’S HARBOR, so outside of work I had a lot of spare time, most of which I foolishly wasted. Somewhere in the middle of my third or fourth draft, I got engaged. My fiancée set a deadline: finish the book before the wedding. It turned out that a deadline was just what I needed. I quit my job, sold my flat, moved in with her and wrote full time for about a year. I sent the finished typescript to agents a couple of weeks before we got married. Getting a positive response from a few agents was a nice reward. So was getting married. 

7.      Any advice for struggling writers? Your writing time is precious! Don’t waste it doing things that aren’t writing! I’m now a father of a small child (with another on the way) and take it from me, your writing time is precious.  

8.      Where do you see the thriller genre heading? As the world keeps getting smaller, I’d like to think we’ll see a greater variety of cultures and geographies in thrillers, and heroes who go on adventures in a more multi-faceted and less Anglo-centric world.

For more information, please see: http://us.macmillan.com/devilsharbor/alexgilly

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015

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