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You can now read foreign translations of novels by the Welsh writer Owen Jones in thirty-seven languages. Full details are on this blog
There are now several companies offering to facilitate the creation of foreign translations. This could be paper documents, website even novels. In fact, it has never been easier easier to read novels by authors from different countries and cultures. For example, the Welsh writer Owen Jones has books in thirty-seven languages. So, it is easy to imagine that most people in the world have access this Welsh writer’s work.
The Foreign Translations of Books by Owen Jones.
Owen Jones has been the main instigator of the translation of his books, because he is a self-published, or indie-published author. This obviously means that he has no agent or traditional publishing house to organise this sort of work for him.
“It takes a lot of time to find apposite narrators and translators”, he say, “and then to work with them suggesting translations and explaining difficult sentences. Naturally, that detracts from the time spent writing. It is the balance that each indie-author has to work out for him- or herself. The choice is between more books, or a wider readership? It’s a toss-up. However, it was an easy decision for me because I have always travelled, and speak seven or eight languages. I wanted my International friends to be able to read my books, if they want to…” he adds with a smile.
Which books by Owen Jones have been translated.
Owen Jones published his first novel Behind The Smile – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya, in 2012. It was an immediate hit with the visitors to, and expats in Pattaya, Thailand. It is 112,000 words long, which has an effect on the willingness of translators’ to take it on. Jones works with narrator and translator colleagues who will accept a share of the sales revenues as payment. It is known as royalty share. Typically, the author receives 15-30% of the revenue, and the translator 60-70% with the intermediary taking 10%. It means that colleagues are less likely to take a risk on a large book, in case they have chosen unwisely.
Who translated the books?
The native-speaker narrators and translators of each language in the agency carry out the work on the books. Then the author and the collaborator work together to preserve as much of the meaning of the original text as possible.
Where can I find out more about these books in non-English languages?
If you would like to learn more about these books in other languages, you can start on this blog, Megan Publishing Services. The title bar (at the top of the blog page) contains many links to the various books, foreign translations and in English… even non-English audiobooks!
Are the foreign translations more expensive?
No, at least not necessarily. The author and the agency then choose a single, global price, which means that a book could cost, say $4.99 (+ taxes) in every country. However, $4.99 could be cheap in, say, Norway, but expensive in Somalia. So, it can work out more expensive, but then the people who want to read literature in foreign translations tend to have better jobs, so maybe that isn’t that important.
The most prolific Welsh writer you’ve never heard of!
Welsh novelist, Owen Jones, was born in Barry, South Wales in 1954. He wrote over 175 books, many of which were set in his native country. His works include the series: The Psychic Megan Series, Behind The Smile, Tiger Lily of Bangkok, Annwn-Heaven, and Dead Centre.
Who is this Welsh Novelist with 1,000 Books?
Jones attended infant, junior, and comprehensive schools in his home town. Then he left for Portsmouth, where he studied Russian Language and Soviet History. It was the sixth language that he learned to fluency before he was twenty-four. After Portsmouth, he moved to The Netherlands for nine years and learned Dutch. In 2004, he moved to Thailand, and started writing his first book, which he published in 2012. It was Daddy’s Hobby the first book in the series Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya. The second volume, An Exciting Future arrived in the same year. That’s 225,000 words worth!
Where did he come from?
Jones’ parents were avid readers and Spiritualists. He read many of the hundreds of books in the house, and loved writing essays and stories at school. He always received good marks for his literary efforts. However, he gave up English Language as soon as possible in favour of foreign languages. When he did start writing seriously, he was in his fifties, and had to teach himself how to write grammatically, and publish his books.
When did he start writing?
Our Welsh novelist started writing in school, and never really stopped. In school and university, he wrote essays, stories and a dissertation. However, after full-time education, he worked as a translator abroad, and wrote many letters home and to friends. There was no Internet or email then!
What were his influences?
His father was a Spiritualist healer, and so was his maternal grandmother, who actually founded a Spiritualist Church in his town. In fact, it is still going today. Jones has always taken Spiritualism very seriously. He calls it a Western form of Buddhism, and tries to live his life according to its beliefs. This is reflected in most of the stories he writes, but not all. The Psychic Megan Series partially reflects his mother’s life story, but it incorporates Spiritualism in the main too. The Annwn – Heaven Series is similar in that it is concerned with Spiritualist/Buddhist beliefs.
What’s this Welsh writer’s best work?
As with all writers, you pays your money and takes your choice with this Welsh novelist. There are 175 books to choose from, and they have been translated and narrated to make 1,000 books! Owen Jones himself is non-committal. “I forget about some of the stories’ details sometimes, but when I am working with a translator or narrator, I fall in love with the book all over again!”
Daddy’s Hobby – The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya
Welsh author, Owen Jones, was born in Barry, Wales in August 1954 to an industrious, working-class family. He had four brother, three of which remain alive on Earth. To distinguish him from other Welsh authors with the same name alive or deceased, his middle name is Ceri (Keri).
Early Life of Owen Jones.
Welsh author Owen Jones went to Colcot Primary School, High Street Junior School, and then Barry Comprehensive School. He joined ‘The Comp’ in 1965, the first year it was open. His year’s school intake would later be referred to as ‘First Year Comp’. He was chosen to sit for the Oxford entry examination in 1971. However, he passed it over because his girlfriend was going to Portsmouth Polytechnic. He also studied there – Russian Language and Soviet Studies – and his replacement for the exam went to Oxford.
After finishing his degree, he moved to s’Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in The Netherlands for nine years. Then he worked for his father with his brothers for thirteen years. In 2004, he moved to Thailand with his Thai wife. He is still there now, living in her remote rice-farming village in the north.
The Welsh Author Emerges.
Owen began creating websites to pay the bills at first. However, they needed a lot of fresh content to keep them high in the search engine rankings. In 2011, he realised that he had 145 websites and had written 1,200,000 words that year to support them. After a few beers one night, it dawned on him that he was writing the equivalent of ten largish novels a year to support websites that would crumble after his death. He had always enjoyed writing, and had started a book in 2004, when he first arrived in Thailand. He resolved to finish the novel.
Owen Jones’ Books.
He published Daddy’s Hobby, the first volume in the series Behind The Smile: The Story Of Lek, A Bar Girl in Pattaya in April 2012 – eight years after he had started it. However, volume two, An Exciting Future, appeared six months later, and Maya – Illusion, volume three, three months after that.
Within seven years, he had written fifty-two novels. These included twenty-three novelettes called The Psychic Megan Series, which is based on ideas that he had learned from his Spiritualist family, and set in Barry. Meanwhile, Behind The Smile has grown to seven volumes comprising 720,000 words. He finds it difficult to stick to one genre, he says. Although most of his books involve some supernatural or paranormal content.
However, even that is not the full story. He has written a military drama mini-series called Dead Centre, which is about a new form of terrorism barely contemplated because it is so awful.
Prolific Welsh Author’s Future.
I asked him why he has not sought representation in the traditional publishing industry. He replies that he had made several half-hearted attempts to attract interest from literary agents five or six years ago, but he gave up, because so few of them replied. I also asked whether he might try to become a traditionally-published Welsh author again. He replied “Maybe”, but didn’t look at all enthusiastic. “I think that The Psychic Megan Series might be ‘quite easy’ to sell. However, writing to these people and waiting months for a reply is such a mind-numbingly boring slog!”
In my opinion, the 68 years old Welsh author from Barry, Owen Jones, has never really cared whether he goes down the traditional route of well-known authors or not. He is quite happy sitting in his quiet, remote Thai village organising the translation and narration of his existing books, and writing the occasional new one.
Owen Jones , the extremely prolific Welsh author, now has more than a thousand books with his name on registered at the British Library, so he must be doing something right!
More details coming soon – he has promised me an interview at noon on Monday 30th September in the Butterfly Bar, Barry, but in the meantime, here are a couple of his poems.
By There Name, by Francis Page
Rifles High. by Francis Page
Daddy’s Hobby– The Story of Lek, A Bar Girl In Pattaya
3 Do you prefer to read a particular genre? I like all genres
4 Do you write in the same genre? If not which one? I have written a fantasy, a western, and a contemporary crime drama
5 Have you always written and what got you started professionally? I got involved in story telling in the 8th grade. I wrote, directed and starred in a student film called ‘’Destination Destiny’’ I then picked up writing again in my early thirties. A movie producer friend of mine, challenged me to co-write a screenplay. And from that point on, I was hooked.
6 How many books have you published? One, ‘’Dragons in the Clouds’’ is my first published work. Although I do have other completed manuscripts waiting in the wings.
7 Which one would you like to tell us about? ‘’Dragons in the Clouds’’ of course.
8 Why did you write this book and what is it about?‘’Dragons in the Clouds’’ first started out as a project for ‘’Puff the Magic Dragon’’ that beloved song recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary. I was having lunch with the hair stylist for Universal movie producer Kathleen Kennedy’s hair stylist. I mentioned that I was working on a story based on Puff, then about a month later I read in Variety – the industry magazine – that Kennedy had bought the rights to Puff. Needless to say, that taught me a lesson to keep my mouth shut.
‘’Dragons in the Clouds” is a epic adventure that takes place in a time when Dragons were alive and freely roamed the land. The people during this time were getting eaten by a vicious specie of Dragon, the meat eaters. The ruling king of this period finally orders the total annihilation of all living Dragons. A powerful wizard named Merlinius, does not agree with the Kings order, for he knows that all Dragons are not what they seem. For Merlinius is friends to a species of Dragons, the plant eaters. So to protect his Dragon friends, Merlinius grants a family of Dragons the spell of weightlessness and then tells them to fly up and to hide in the cover of the Clouds. And for them to only come down at night to feed.
An unforeseen ability of the Dragons’ weightless spell is that their fire now looks like that of lightning and their roar now sounds like thunder. An apprentice to the wizard who has grandeur of his own has meat eating Dragons hidden deep within a cave and he too, gives them the same spell of weightlessness. Now enters a widowed mother and her young son who also has befriended a dragon, though a very young one. They suddenly find themselves caught between the king’s order and the battle that has begun between the two species of Dragons. A battle that will determine control of the skies above the Kingdom of Albion. The apprentice’s plan has consequences that may bring the Kingdom and perhaps the very world we live in today to a devastating end.
9 Book cover and ISBN/ASIN:
Dragons in the Clouds
ISBN -13: 978-1-949809-17-6 ASIN – B07KCQ8173
10 What would you like your next book to be on? I have a contemporary crime drama I am excited to publish. Titled ‘’Meaner than the Devil”
11 If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why? The centre of the milky Way. I heard that is the centre or origin of the Universe. The Nebula would also be awesome to get a closer look at.
12 Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know? I love to write, When I get in the zone, I could write for hours and hours.
13 What is your favourite foreign food? Toss up between Italian and Mexican food.
14 Are you, or have you ever been a terrorist? Hurting people is evil, Wouldn’t have any part of that.
15 Have you ever accidentally called your spouse/partner by the name of a character in your latest book and if so what was his or her reaction? LOL, no.
You can read our review of ‘Dragons in the Clouds’ by David Blair on this site here: ‘Dragons in the Clouds’
Today, we are going to meet Donald L. Vasicek, the award-winning American author and screenwriter. Over to you, Don, please tell us something about yourself and your work.
5 Have you always written and what got you started professionally?
I was inspired to write after I lost my family 40+ years ago. It was like a part of the hidden me emerged. The pain of loss was so immense, my brain switched to pushing me to express my feelings through writing. I got started writing professionally by having a poem titled, “Dad”, I wrote that was published by “Success Unlimited”.
6 How many books have you published?
One. A second one, “The Real Ghost”, which won 1st place in the Waldorf Publishing Book Competition, is now being published by Waldorf.
7 Which one would you like to tell us about?
“The Real Ghost”.
8 Why did you write this book and what is it about?
I originally wrote “The Real Ghost” as a screenplay, after another screenplay I wrote, “Born to Win”, a story about a boy who sets out to win a muscle car race to win the prize money to pay for his Gramps’s life-saving surgery, was produced by Incline Productions, Inc. I converted “The Real Ghost” screenplay into a novel. “The Real Ghost” is a story about a boy who sets out to prove he saw Babe Ruth after no one in town will believe him. Known for telling “tall tales” to get attention, the boy wants to prove he is telling the truth this time. It is a light-hearted, suspenseful thriller that walks on the edge of the paranormal genre.
9 Book cover and ISBN/ASIN
Waldorf Publishing is in the process of publishing the book, so there is no book cover, or ISBN/ASIN at this writing.
10 What would you like your next book to be on?
My next book is titled “The Caller.” It is a suspense/thriller about a successful woman who sets out to find her soul mate only to experience that each time she dates someone, they are murdered. I am also presently writing my autobiography for my grandkids.
11 If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why?
I’ve been here before, but I would like to return to Stratford Upon Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. The community possesses positive energy for me. It is quiet there. The people are friendly, but not to the point of being pushy or anything like that. The fields surrounding the town are lush in green foliage. A small river runs through the town and there is a large oak tree right in the middle of a main thoroughfare in town. This particular road swerves around the tree to preserve the tree, which is about a block from Shakespeare’s grave. There is simply a certain kind of peace and safety there that is relaxing and nice.
12 Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know?
I love to work out 6 days a week lifting weights, stretching, rowing & walking on a treadmill (knees from running for several years have limited me to walking on a treadmill). I am a Twitter freak. I love doing puzzles. I love to read. I love animals. I love my wife and traveling with her. We’ve been to numerous countries even marveling at the Berlin wall, crushed and being used for streets and walkways in Berlin, not to mention the Masai Mara Game Preserve in Kenya, where our wildest dreams of seeing wildlife closeup, became a reality.
13 What is your favourite foreign food?
Since I’ve been to numerous countries, it is difficult for me to single out one favorite foreign food. The Vietnamese Pho Ga stands out for me as one of my favorites.
14 Are you, or have you ever been a terrorist?
Being a terrorist, as far as I’m concerned, is one of the most cowardly ways to make a point. I use my brain to express myself, not guns, explosives, knives, beheadings, torture, murder, etc. So, no, I’m not or never have been a terrorist.
15 Have you ever accidentally called your spouse/partner by the name of a character in your latest book and if so what was his or her reaction?
No, I never have.
Thank you for telling us about yourself, Don. Best of luck with your new book. I hope that you will come back and give us a cover shoy and purchase details when it is available.
3 Do you prefer to read a particular genre? I read mostly detective mysteries, spy fiction, political thrillers, some adventure books, etc. Occasionally, I like to re-read a classic. For example, I am currently re-reading “War and Peace.”
4 Do you write in the same genre? No, although my writing time is limited, I try to write in different genres.
If not which ones? I have two additional projects in work in the mystery detective genre. I am planning to re-write a science fiction book I self-published in 1997. Following that, I have plans to write another nonfiction book on how to prepare proposals for the federal government.
5 Have you always written and what got you started professionally? When I was a freshmen in college, a classmate and I wrote a chapbook about the painters whose paintings were displayed in the lobby of the administration building. After I retired from the United States Air Force (USAF) in 1990, I started a career as a free-lance technical writer specializing in preparing proposals for companies desiring to get business with the government. I am still pursuing this career.
I still dabble in writing in my spare time. In 1995, I won a regional writing contest for a short story I wrote. I wrote a science fiction book (black comedy) in 1997. Then, I published my nonfiction book on doing business with the government in 1999. I wrote and published my novelette, “Harry’s War,” in 2012 and then in 2018, I published two of my short stories. “Mar: A Harry Miles Redemption Story” and “Melanie: A Tale of Wonder.”
I am a busy technical writer and do not get much time to pursue my fiction more fully now and in the immediate future.
6 How many books have you published? I have published two full length books (one fiction and one nonfiction), one eBook novelette, and two eBook short stores.
7 Which one would you like to tell us about? One I like is “Melanie: A Tale of Wonder.”
8 Why did you write this book and what is it about? I originally wrote the story in 1997. I was thinking about alternative history. What if a famous worldwide singer had not died but was stricken with a mysterious malady, had faked his death, and roamed the countryside doing odd jobs. Then, a freak accident gave him his voice back for a few hours and he used the occasion to befriend a ten-year old girl whose father was dying. This story is the result.
9 Book cover and ISBN/ASIN
Melanie: A Tale of Wonder
Melanie: A Tale of Wonder – ASIN: B07BZ3RGDJ
10 What would you like your next book to be on? I am slowly but surely working on a book called “Redemption.” It features Harry Miles but focuses on the development of his character, his tragic encounter, and his dive into despair, alcohol, oblivion, metamorphosis, tragedy, and his realization life endures.
11 If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why? Antarctica – it is the only continent on this planet I have not visited.
12 Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know? Many people ask me the source of the name of my character, Harry Miles. I never knew my paternal grandfather, Harry Miles Benjamin. When my father was around eight or nine, my grandmother died, and her family looked after him and his sister. There was a division in the family and my grandmother’s family would not allow my grandfather to see my father or his sister. They eventually adopted my father and his sister. Legend has it my grandfather was an adventurer and succeeded in obtaining a new life for himself in the wilds of Canada. I felt a calling to name my character after him.
Harry is a composite of many fighter pilots I have known and dedicated to military people of all ranks and all military occupations (aircraft maintenance technicians, cooks, motor pool technicians, security personnel, etc.) who have dedicated their lives to a cause greater than themselves.
13 What is your favorite foreign food? I fell in love with polenta while working on proposals in Italy.
Thank you for telling us a little about yourself and your work, Ed Benjamin, perhaps, you will come back after you have finished your next project: Redemption, isn’t it?
PS: You can read more about ex-USAF Ed Benjamin’s featured book: Harry’s War by clicking this link: Harry’s War
3 Do you prefer to read a particular genre? I mostly read various forms of fantasy or mystery books, though I read other stuff too.
4 Do you write in the same genre? If not which one? I write fantasy since I never could break my “make-believe” habit. In reality, I’m a hermit who doesn’t interact much with the outside world anymore, so creating fantasies where I can ignore the intricacies of the faddish world work best for me.
5 Have you always written and what got you started professionally? Started writing in the sixth grade when my teacher introduced me to the concept of me creating my own stories on paper. Have written since then. I sold mostly non-fiction. I didn’t start getting ending on most of my fiction until I retired. Writing keeps me busy and out of mischief.
6 How many books have you published? There Be Demons is the only book I’ve published, but I do have a list of several novellas and free short stories set in Andor. Once There Be Demons had a contract with a mom & pop publisher and I tried to build a platform for them. Must say the reviews for all of my available stories are decent.
7 Which one would you like to tell us about? Actually, I’d like to mention the There Be Demons sequence. The whole thing started with an idea about how would a gargoyle protect a city. Night for the Gargoyles was born, featuring Gillen as loadstar, and sold to Spectra Magazine, a defunct ezine out of the UK. But I kept wondering how Gillen would cope trying to teach the headstrong teen-aged girl he admired. There Be Demons was born. While I shopped it, I wrote On the Run set in the same world. The sequence runs: Showdown at Crossings, Night for the Gargoyles, There Be Demons, On the Run, and Rendezvous with Demons, if it gets written. [Rendezvous is about 30,000 words of sloppy notes and some chapters at the moment
8 Why did you write this book book and what is it about? See the book review here: There Be Demons
9 Book cover and ISBN/ASIN: ISBN: 0999203908 – ASIN: B075Q6KJST
There Be Demons
10 What would you like your next book to be on? It’s a little complicated. I have edits of a Far Isles Half-Elven novella in my computer I’d like to finish. Then, I don’t final edits on the sequel/stand-alone book titled On the Run. Then, I’m working on a new book is a possible trilogy. The working title is Rendezvous with Demons, featuring Britt/Cahal and Pillar/Nate plus other characters facing down a demon team of Vetis/Grylerrque.
11 If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why? My back yard. It’s relaxing under the trees watching the birds and butterflies do their thing. It’s my favourite place to read though I read mostly in my comfy chair in the living room.
12 What is your favourite foreign food? I don’t do favourites–either books or food. It all depends on my mood. Mostly I cook plain American, Mexican, and Greek. I learned to cook decent Asian food back in the day when my town didn’t have any good Asian restaurants. My least go-to food is Indian though I often cook curries with a heavy Asian accent.
13 Are you, or have you ever been a terrorist? I used to cause terror regularly, mostly when I was younger. I have strong opinions and wasn’t shy about sharing them, especially in public meetings.
Thank you very much for this interview M. K. Theodoatus, I look forward to your nrxt book.
Yes, I usually read either historical or science fiction novels. When I read a book, I want to be transported out of normal daily life to places I’ve never been to.
Do you write in the same genre? :
My first novel is science fiction. I decided to write the sort of book that I would want to read. I realised that if I set my novel in the future, there would be no constraint on the sort of society I could put my characters in. I could create a whole world and a different way of living unlike contemporary society and take my characters to unusual places and situations. I wanted to create a world that would stretch the imagination and pose questions about the way people live, the things they do and why. Science fiction enables the author more freedom to do this than setting a book in the past or present.
Have you always written and what got you started professionally? :
I’ve always wanted to write a novel but never had the time until recently. I’ve had a busy career and first tried my hand at writing short stories for women’s magazines several years ago. I wasn’t very successful, primarily because women’s fiction isn’t a genre I particularly enjoy. I eventually woke up to the fact that what I really wanted to write was science fiction which I hadn’t tried before. As I was still working it took me some time to write my first novel and it is only within the last year that I’ve been able to give up the “day job” to focus on writing.
How many books have you published? :
Crater’s Edge is my first novel.
Why did you write Crater’s Edge and what is it about? :
I wanted to write an exciting adventure story that readers would enjoy on one level, but at the same time the book explores serious issues on a deeper level. The story is set in 2235 on a planet that is being colonised. As there is restricted space, the characters live in two different time zones. My main characters are an engineer, Kalen and a geologist, Sera. Kalen’s job is to trouble-shoot mining problems, but when he is sent to the new construction site at Three-Craters, things begin to unravel. All is not as it seems. Kalen’s search for the truth about the problems on the site, end up taking him on a dangerous journey. The book explores love, betrayal and treason. Kalen has a hard time! By the end of the book, everything is revealed, but I’ve tried to keep the reader guessing.
Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews
ISBN – 10 162526674X (UK); ISBN – 13 978-1625266743 (US); ASIN – B07771GBBN
What would you like your next book to be on? :
I’m writing a sequel to Crater’s Edge. Although Crater’s Edge is complete in itself, I thought it would be fun to take the story to the next level. Things are going to get pretty nasty for my characters. I’ve got a great storyline and I’ve dreamt up some very frightening challenges for them.
If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why? :
I would like to experience weightlessness, so I could feel something akin to being able to fly. A closer view of the Milky Way would be wonderful.
Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know? :
I spent many summer weekends for over ten years playing a musketeer and can load and fire a 17th century match-lock musket in under 30 seconds. That is a reproduction musket not an original one!
What is your favourite foreign food? :
I love Thai Pad Si-Ew
Thank you, Lucy Andrews for sharing that information with us.
A review of Crater’s Edge by Lucy Andrews can be found on this blog here: Crater’s Edge – Review
I review crime books, so that makes up the bulk of my reading. I’m partial to police procedurals and psychological thrillers, darker than what I write.
4. Do you write in the same genre? If not which one?
I do write mysteries, a mix of amateur sleuth and police procedural over two series, so my reading is also helping me keep up with the curve of what’s popular with readers.
5. Have you always written and what got you started professionally?
I knew I wanted to writer from an early age and wrote everything from poetry to essays during a 30 year nursing career. I studied various forms and experimented, did journalism during that period for a nursing journal. By the time I was ready to change careers and write full time, I’d settled on mysteries because that’s what I enjoy reading the most. During that turnover period, I wrote interview articles for “Mystery Review” magazine and learned from many of the authors whose work I read. Good training!
6. How many books have you published?
I have four in The Nora Tierney English Series and one in the newer Trudy Genova Manhattan Mysteries. I’m writing the second one in the Trudy series right now, and then will go back to Nora #5 and continue to alternate them. I’m also co-author of a non-fiction primer on finding your writing group, Writing in a Changing World.
7.Which one would you like to tell us about?
The Golden Hour: Nora Tierney is an American writer living in England who’s left the magazine job that took her to the UK to write children’s books. Nora feels she and her young son are being stalked, at the same time her partner, DI Declan Barnes, is investigating the death of a young art conservator at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum. How the two threads intersect provide the twisted plot.
Ausma Khan says the books is “…A meditation on love, loss and motherhood, The Golden Hour blends touchingly real domesticity with tongue-in-cheek humor, as the backdrop to a tale of art theft, germ warfare, and international conspiracy…Add to this is a wonderful sense of place—Bath, Brighton and Oxford are vividly rendered and charmingly true to life. Come for the crackling mystery, stay for the steady companionship of debonair detective Declan Barnes and feisty heroine, Nora Tierney, who offers warmth and smarts in equal measure.”
8. Why did you write this book book and what is it about?
What makes The Golden Hour different from the first three Nora Tierney mysteries is that I deliberately decided to take a darker turn with it. First, I didn’t want followers of the series to feel they were always reading the same book. And second, I felt I wanted to do something different to stretch myself as a writer. In the first 3 Nora’s and in the first Trudy, I’ve been exploring something that fascinates me: what makes a seemingly normal person feel it’s reasonable to cross that line and commit murder? What motivates a person to convince themselves to do that?
But in The Golden Hour, readers know up front who’s the bad guy. This one is not a Whodunit? but more of a Cantheystophim? A psychopath has launched a plan to take down the people of Great Britain, whom he loathes. He has the financial resources and contacts to make this happen, too, but his anger blinds him to how far people will go to protect those they love.
This is the first time I’ve written a psychopath, and to my surprise, I had great fun creating the evil Viktor Garanin. Readers learn the roots of why Viktor has hatched his plan. The theme revolves around ‘what is family?’ and who composes it as we take risks to make that happen.
The next book will be a Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery, and is titled Death of an Heiress. Trudy has what was my favorite real nursing job during that career, working as a medical consultant for a NY movie studio. It’s the series my mentor, P D James, insisted I write, as she felt readers love a behind-the-scenes look at jobs they don’t know a lot about. The first in the series, Death Unscripted, is dedicated to her.
In the second, Trudy is working on a television film being shot at the famed Dakota apartment building on the Upper West Side, familiar to most people who are not New Yorkers as the place where John Lennon lived and died. In fact, Yoko Ono still lives there. In the story, the actress Trudy’s hired to watch over is in the early stages of a difficult pregnancy when she disappears. In reality The Dakota does not allow filming, but in Trudy’s world they do.
11. If you could go anywhere in the universe, where would you go and why?
I’d always go back to England. My husband and I will be there for two weeks this summer (2018) for setting research for me for the next two Nora books, mainly in Cambridge and Cornwall. I try to get there every other year, and sometimes attend St Hilda’s Mystery and Crime Conference in Oxford, the longest running conference of its kind in the UK. When I visit England, I feel as if I’m coming home and I used to joke that I’d lived there in another life. Then this Christmas my husband got us DNA kits. I always thought I was half German and half Italian in my roots. I am 17% of each of those, but to my enormous surprise, I am 20% British!
12. Is there anything you can share about yourself or your work that not many people know?
I’ve already told you I was a nurse before writing full time, which surprises many people. I read 2-3 books a week for my crime review blog, but when not reading or writing, I’m wrapped up in my two pups. My husband and I love dogs, and currently have two Australian Labradoodles, Seamus and Fiona. They wrestle and play together, sleep entwined, and have the sweetest nature. I highly recommend this breed, and they don’t shed!
13. What is your favourite foreign food?
That’s a tough one. With my Italian heritage, I’m fond of pastas and pizzas and tend to go there first. But I also like Greek and Mexican. I’ll even eat Indian. Must I choose?
14. Have you ever accidentally called your spose/partner by the name of a character in your latest book and if so what was his or her reaction?
While I haven’t called Doc by a character name, we did get into a bit of difference over a male character. In the first Nora book, The Blue Virgin, Nora is close to her illustrator, Simon Ramsey, who loves her. But she’s just ended an engagement, only to have the fiancé die a few days later in a plane crash; three weeks later she finds she’s pregnant. So her emotions are all over the place. When she meets DI Declan Barnes, sparks fly but she’s in no place to start a relationship.
In further books once it became clear that Nora and Simon would be loving friends but nothing more than that, Doc read the first draft and told me I’d gotten it wrong, that Nora had to end up with Simon! I finally said to him: “You must think Simon is modeled on you, but he’s not!” He’s since gotten over it . . .
You will be able to read more about M. K. Graff’s The Golden Hour on this blog when I have finished the review (soon).
You will be able to access details of M. K. Graff’s The Golden Hour on this site when the relevant page goes up (soon).
