I interviewed author Brian L. Porter about his latest thriller.

Tell our readers about your upcoming book.

Behind Closed Doors is set in the autumn of 1888. The population of London is transfixed and horrified by the atrocious and horrific murder spree being conducted by Jack the Ripper. The newspapers are full of the details of the mutilations perpetrated by the killer and the apparent inability of the police to apprehend the unknown assailant. As Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren throws the bulk of his investigative resources into the search for The Ripper, and the tabloid press scream of the crimes in banner headlines on a daily basis; on the new, ultra modern Underground Railway that has revolutionized travel around the great metropolis for the working man, another, less well publicized killer is at large.

Tucked away on the inner pages of the daily press, hardly enough to raise an eyebrow among discerning readers, one may have found a few, short articles which told of the strange and also, so far unsolved murders which are taking place on board the carriages of the new-fangled and much heralded transport system. Each murder takes place the day after one of the ripper killings, as the murderer appears to be taking advantage of the lack of police resources to tackle not one, but two, major investigations simultaneously.

Inspector Albert Norris is charged with bringing the railway killer to justice, but, as with case of Jack the Ripper, clues are few, the killer’s motive unclear, and he is forced to carry out his investigations ‘quietly and without causing a public panic’ as the authorities seek to prevent a loss of confidence in the safety of the underground railway system. The press is being told even less, hence the minimal coverage, and Norris can count on little help from above as he attempts to solve the inexplicable series of murders.　

How did you first come up with the inspiration for this story?

When Sonar 4 Publications first approached me and asked if I’d like to work with them by writing a Victorian Murder Mystery for them, I had no concept of the storyline for the proposed book. Being a great ‘fan’ of the Victorian era, however, I saw this as a challenge not to be turned down and set my mind to work on the problem of coming up with a suitable exciting theme for the book. I’d recently been reading an article about the very early days of the London Underground (The Tube), and had been surprised to learn that the early underground trains were pulled by steam locomotives that belched out noxious fumes and gasses, making the experience of traveling by Underground Railway a real health hazard. As I thought about it, I realised I had the ideal location for a series of murders that would take place almost simultaneously with the those of Jack the Ripper, except that these murders would take place not on the streets of Whitechapel, but beneath the ground, on the underground railway system that was just beginning to revolutionize travel for the people of London. I visited a local book market, where I was fortunate to find just what I needed, a book detailing the early history of the Metropolitan Railway, and together with various internet sources, I was able to complete the research for the background to the book in record time. So, Behind Closed Doors was born, and has taken shape wonderfully, such has been my own pleasure in creating the characters, and the story of the Underground Railway Murders.

What do you think makes your main character relatable to readers?

The main character in Behind Closed Doors is Detective Inspector Albert Norris. I hope readers will find him easy to relate to as Norris is, first and foremost, a human being with all the flaws and nuances that go with being member of the human race. He lives in a small terraced home with his wife of many years, Betty and a little terrier, Billy, who idolizes his master. Norris also has a secret in his past, one shared only by his wife, his superior officers and his most trusted friend and colleague, Sergeant Dylan Hillman, with whom he enjoys a most open and frank working relationship. Once a Scotland Yard officer, Norris is now employed as an inspector in a normal police station, a promising career cut off in its prime as a result of an event buried long ago in his past. Readers are eventually enlightened as to the nature of the secret due to a surprising twist within the book’s plot.

Norris is shown enjoying time at home with Betty, visiting the park, the music hall, and other leisure pursuits, rather than being depicted as simply a stereotypical policeman with no other purpose within the story but to investigate crime. Because of tragedy in his past, Norris appears as being vulnerable and at the same time, determined not to be ridden roughshod over as he attempts to be the best he can, a situation faced by many of us in our everyday lives, perhaps.What has surprised you the most about the story as it has taken shape?That’s a good question, easy to answer too. I’ve found myself falling more and more in love with my central characters, Albert Norris and Dylan Hillman, and would love to include the pair in some future project. I’ve felt as though I’ve ‘lived’ the book from within the mind of Albert Norris, and have surprise my self by being able to ‘see’ the action through his eyes, making the whole story so much more real and intense for me, as the author. The story itself has developed in just the way I wanted it to, and I’ve been surprised by how easily the words have flowed and how quickly the book is nearing completion, considering its length.

How long did it take for you to write the book?

Well, as I answer this one, the book is not quite completed, though I’m nearly there. By the time I’ve finished, the research and the writing will have taken approximately 6 months from start to finish.

Are you working on other projects that you’d like to tell us about?　

At present, most of my time is taken up with the editing work I do for Moongypsy Press, though I’m also working on my ‘Harry Porter’s Dog Tales’ series of books, written under my Harry Porter pseudonym.

I’m also involved in co writing the screenplay for the movie version of my novel A Study in Red – The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper, currently in development for the screen by Thunderball International Films in collaboration with Masterplan Films (UK)

My next novel due for release will be Glastonbury, an adventure thriller coming in a few months time from 4rV Publishing, with The Nemesis Cell coming from Moongypsy Press in the New Year. I’m also heavily involved in promoting the three releases that have appeared this year, Purple Death, Pestilence and Requiem for the Ripper.What inspired you to start writing in general?I can’t honestly say that I always wanted to be an author. I served in the Royal Air Force, then pursued a career in retail management for many years until illness forced me to give up the everyday grind of business. I then turned to writing, initially as a form of therapy. When I found that people actually enjoyed reading what I was writing, I realised that maybe, just maybe, I should concentrate on writing as a new career. With a number of successful e-book publications behind me, and five paperbacks due for release this year, I think that proved to be the correct decision.

What kind of feedback have you received from friends and family?

My friends and family alike all seem to like my books, and most of them are avid buyers and readers of my work. I couldn’t have asked for a better reaction from those who know me.

If you had a chance to make over a popular book or movie and put your own creative stamp on it–what would it be?

What do you like to read?Anything by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver and Robert Goddard. Tess Gerritsen, as well as being a wonderful writer, is a lovely lady too, and gave me much encouragement with A Study in Red – The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper and allowed me to use a message from her on the front cover of the book. I can read Robert Goddard’s books one after the other, and Jeffery Deaver’s work is a constant source of inspiration to me. Conan Doyle was, to me the epitome of the classic mystery/thriller genre and I love reading the Sherlock Holmes stories over and over again.

Tell us who your favorite “bad guy” is in your story, and why?

That’s something I can’t reveal, I’m afraid, as the ‘bad guy’ in Behind Closed Doors isn’t revealed until very near the end of the book and it is a mystery novel, after all. If I named him for you, it would give the game away, wouldn’t it?

Do you like to set a particular mood for writing? Do you work at a particular time of day?

I try to write every day if I can, any time, day or night, even if it’s only a few hundred words. I need to get in the mood and will often sit and read something pertaining to the period I’m writing about for half an hour before I begin, to get myself into the right ‘time frame of mind.’

What do you find the most challenging about writing?

Apart from the challenge of researching a new book, which I love, the biggest challenge I face is usually one of keeping the momentum going after starting a new book, though in the case of Behind Closed Doors the words have flowed and I’ve had no trouble keeping the plot bubbling over.

What’s the most rewarding?

Putting the finishing touches to the final chapter, and feeling the massive sense of satisfaction that accompanies the moment.

What advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

Never give up! Don’t be too disheartened by the inevitable rejection slips that drop through the letterbox. If your work is good enough then it will eventually find the publisher who wants to put it on display for the public to read. It may take time, but any aspiring writer must have patience, belief in their work, and must always strive to improve their work, taking every word of critique that may come their way in a positive manner. Remember, you must write what the readers want to read, which is not necessarily always what you, the writer, may actually want to write. Oh yes, try to avoid the vanity publishers who lurk out there, trying to lure aspiring writers in to their clutches. If you have to pay to have your work published, most traditional publishers will in time frown upon you and won’t consider your future works for publication. Please remember that a ‘real’ publisher accepts the risks that go with publishing a book, and will edit and market the book on your behalf, though in this day and age an author must be prepared to do his or her share of marketing and promotion of their work too. That’s their job, and if and when the book succeeds the publisher pays you, the author, not the other way round. Finally I can only say ‘Good luck’ to all who hope to see their work in print one day. I wish you all the greatest of success!

__________________

©2010 Lori Titus

I had the pleasure of interviewing author D.A Hernandez about his new web serial, Dividing Canaan: The Journals of Canaan Quintanilla.
 

Tell our readers about Dividing Canaan.

Dividing Canaan is the story of a teenager growing up in rural Texas in the summer of 1997 and after.  It is told from a first person perspective in the form of the main character, Canaan Quintanilla’s journal.  What begins as the daily accounts of a young man’s trials and tribulations regarding his tumultuous family and scholastic life becomes something else entirely once he begins dreaming of another world and another boy named Baphomet Fimbulwinter.  A boy like him and yet not.  In conjunction with Canaan’s experiences, we are privy to the experiences of Baphomet Fimbulwinter as he sojourns to fulfill his destiny to restore a shattered world laid to ruin by a fearsome scourge referred to as The Trespasser.  The tale is ultimately one of the process of self discovery when all you’ve ever known has been steeped in obscurity.  Canaan and Baphomet are caught between the two worlds, constantly struggling to uncover where each truly belongs.  

How did you first come up with the inspiration for this story?

In all honesty, the heart of the character for the most part is my own.  Many of the experiences he encounters – in the real world – are recollections and even musings from my own journals.  Of course, I did not set out to make it solely autobiographical.  I wanted to create a dark fantasy/horror story that incorporated the real world, especially that of a teenager, as honestly and vividly as the world in which Canaan soon finds himself wandering.  The story has grown considerably since I first embarked upon it back in 2006.

     
How do you think Canaan’s experiences are relatable to others?

Canaan touches on many of the things people (especially teenagers) see in themselves, primarily their imperfections.  He begins the story as overweight, a social oddity and fighting to come to grips with his own sexuality.  He’s ridiculed at school and terribly mistreated by his stepfather, and while he has friends who care about him, he often wonders what they would ever do if they knew who he was, the beast he feels he is deep inside.  Beyond that, there’s the awkwardness of being a teenager growing up - that no matter what your circumstances you can’t help but feel like every day is the end of the world and you might very well be the only one who feels the way you do.  

What has surprised you most about the story as it has taken shape?

The unforeseen therapy surrounding the story.  Writing has always been my escape, delving into the lives of my characters or retreating into a good book to get lost and isolate myself from my own weaknesses.  With Canaan – as Canaan I should say – I find myself, I confront myself as I force him to confront the darkness he experiences.  In producing this work, my aim has been to open up the head of the character and give the audience a tour.  It is not always pretty and there are monsters and unspeakable moments set to the page, but it is honest and unflinching. 

Is the story still in progress? If so, how much longer do you think you’ll work on it?

The story is very much in progress.  Volume One is up now at www.truthiscreation.blogspot.com and I am working on the revisions to the second Volume and hope to start posting soon, no later than the end of August.  I foresee it as a trilogy, with Volume One and Two as the first book with a second book which is already in a first draft form, and a third brainstormed, but not as of yet fleshed out.  Volume Two continues through Canaan’s sophomore year of High School and further explores the destinies of Canaan and Baphomet.    

   
Are you working on other projects that you’d like to tell us about?

I’m working on several short stories, continuing to build my portfolio as well as two novellas: one about a young man recalling a long lost summer and the mysterious woman who opened his eyes to magicians and demons, while the second is a dark children’s tale involving an imaginative boy’s curiosity of that malevolent time of night known as Midnight.  I am hoping to finish wrapping up both by the end of the year.  I work erratically at times.  An idea comes to me in the middle of the night and I have to get out of bed and click on the computer to put my mind at ease.  My muse is a demanding temptress indulging the stomach of my brain like a glutton.

What inspired you to start writing in general?

My 5th grade English teacher actually.  Mr. Kelley.  We didn’t actually take to one another very easily.  It was his first year teaching and I was going through a lot of things with my parents.  I remember we had to write a narrative and mine revolved around a boy who found a time machine and ended up trapped at the center of the Minotaur’s Maze.  Far from riveting I’m sure, but he saw something in me and raved to all the teachers that he had a writer in his class.  Needless to say, it stoked a fire and soon I had notebooks teeming with poetry and short stories.  Of course I was very shy – still am for the most part – and rarely allowed anyone to view my work.  It might seem selfish, but those stories, those poems they were my world, a secret and safe place where I didn’t have to be afraid.  They were a sprawling wood and even when I got lost, somehow I knew the way.

What kind of feedback have you received from friends and family?

My friends and family are my phantom limbs.  In a good way.  They are always with me, supporting me distant or near and when I am hard on myself they help soften the blow.  My mom and siblings haven’t actually read my work on Canaan.  With several scenes drawn from true events and personal journal entries it is a difficult thing to share with people who were there.  A few of the characters in Dividing Canaan such as Teresa and the siblings Logan and Lara are based on real people and have encouraged me to complete the story.  Teresa for one has been there since we were in junior high together, and my best friend Jay (both of whom have read each and every incarnation the story has gone through over the past four years) is nothing short of phenomenal when it comes to his compassion and support.

If you had a chance to make over a popular book or movie and put your own creative stamp to it—what would it be, and why?

I am fascinated by duality, and in the case of popular book or movie, I’d have to say Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.  I have loved this book since I was in 8th grade and like “Dividing Canaan” I have had an idea for the longest time of updating Dorian Gray to a modern age.  This has been done, but my idea has always been a musical.  Silly, right?  But hey I am a lover of the stage and I’ve envisioned a rock opera venture with a character by the name of Ryan Bleak.  I’ve written many a script and pieced together lyrics, but I am no musician.  Still, I always say I’ll get around to it, that one day I’ll put together such a show.  Such musical films like “Repo: The Genetic Opera” have helped to increase this longing to compose a dark ambient, pseudo-industrial rock opera.  One of these days, I swear. 

What do you like to read?

I love urban fantasy and horror, so Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker; those guys are like gods to me.  I’m actually rereading all of Barker’s “Books of Blood”.  Horror and other genre heavyweights like Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Anne Rice, Annie Proulx, Poppy Z. Brite, H.P. Lovecraft and Chuck Palchiuak carry me through many a late night.  I peruse all genres, but horror and fantasy are my main veins.   

Tell us who your favorite “bad guy” is in your story, and why.

That’s a tough one, as there are many throughout the course of the story who could take on the mantle as villain.  The Bastard, Canaan’s stepfather is an obvious baddy, but he is not my favorite; he is actually the most difficult to write.  Even Canaan to some degree could be seen as a villain, but I suppose the one who begins to take shape in Volume One and most prominently in Volume Two of Dividing Canaan would have to be that of the Lamia Thanatas, a serpentine temptress with plans of her own for both Canaan and Baphomet.  Where The Bastard is a brutal wrecking ball, Lamia is sultry and nurturing in her evil, but there is a tragedy in her violence. 

Do you like to set a particular mood for your writing? Do you work at a particular time of day?

I find that I work better at night, especially after 9 o’clock, which suffice it to say means I don’t always get my good eight hours, but I am at the mercy of my muse.  I like it when the house is quiet, and though I like back ground music, I’ll often shut it off and just indulge the story.  I do try to set myself word limits, anywhere from 2000-4000 words a day, but sometimes it is less.  I don’t force it.  If I am on a roll one moment and it drags the next, I will stop and go outside or lose myself in a book or a video game, but when it comes calling again I’ll succumb and head back.  I do work and go to school so it can be challenging to find the time when my schedule is bustling, but even if it’s just a few notes, characterizations, or plot ideas I try my damndest to get it down somewhere, because you just never know what one of those crumpled napkins can turn into.

What do you find is the most challenging part about writing?

Stepping back once a project is finished and resisting the urge to scrap it all and start over.  I am truthfully my own worst critic. 

What’s the most rewarding?

Well an acceptance letter is always nice, I won’t lie.  I will never forget how amazing it felt when I got my first acceptance letter.  I didn’t get paid for it, but I was published.  I was on the web.  I could type in my name and I felt for the first time like I existed.  I was no longer a ghost.  I was tangible.  It was a new beginning for me, the new start I had been waiting for. 

The important thing I have to remember is that even when I feel insecure about my writing or worry if I’m not good enough, I am able rise above it and push through the obstruction I’ve placed for myself and remember that this is something I love.  Not for the acknowledgement alone, but the love and the vitality it gives me when I sit at my computer or write in a notebook and create.  And when that creation is read, I’m ecstatic because it was all worth it.  I need that outlet, there is a thrill in it, untamed and fierce and I honestly believe that if I stopped writing altogether I’d be missing an important piece of myself.  True horrors, real monsters for me are self doubt and insecurity.  They are some of the toughest beasts to overcome in anything a person chooses to do.     

What advice would you offer to aspiring writers?

I’m still an aspirant myself, but what I have learned is to never give up even when you think that you can’t ever put another word onto the page, even when you receive the dreaded rejection letter or feel you’re going unnoticed, don’t stop writing if it’s what you feel – what you know you are meant to do.  Publications on the web have been a great way to showcase my work and I encourage others to do so, if for nothing else than the sense of community it can offer.  Even digitally you are not alone.  It’s also about discovering what you value about the act of writing itself.  For me it’s the creation, for others it might be the pursuit of acclaim or money, but really the first thing you should always ask yourself is: who am I writing for?

__________________________

©2010 Lori Titus