Interview with debut thriller novelist T.J. Park

Today’s special guest is T.J. Park and we’re talking about his debut supernatural thriller/crime novel, Unbidden.

During his virtual book tour, T.J. will be awarding an e-copy of Mortal Thoughts to 3 randomly drawn winners. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too.

Bio:

T.J. Park is an Australian novelist and screenwriter. He was raised on a steady diet of Stephen King novels, British science-fiction television, and the cinema of John Carpenter and Sergio Leone. Not much else is known about him. That's just the way he likes it.

Welcome, T.J. Please share a little bit about your current release.

My current release is my only release but I’ll certainly consider writing more when the big bucks come rolling in which my agent tells me is imminent. My book is called Unbidden. It’s been broken up into 5 parts with the combined edition coming out in April. MORTAL THOUGHTS is Part 1. They’re in bite-sized chunks of around 70-100 pages each – about the length of a meaty Stephen King novella – the author my agent tells me I’ll be richer than soon. It’s a heist-gone-wrong story which soon careens into the supernatural. Crime and horror make great buddies and I’m a lifelong fan of each genre.

What inspired you to write this book?
I’m a craven and low sort of man – I get a perverted thrill out of terrifying people. I reasoned that I couldn’t harm them in real life otherwise there would be jail time and shower shenanigans and, on the downside, bad prison coffee, so I knew I would only be able to inflict dreadful injury on people through fiction. Unbidden (MORTAL THOUGHTS is part 1 of 5) is set exclusively in the unendurable hell of the Australian outback. I come from a remote Queensland town (just down the road from where Dr George Miller of MAD MAX FURY ROAD fame was raised/tortured) and know first hand that anywhere beyond 30 inches of our three Eastern board cities is a post apocalyptic wasteland-like zone. I wouldn’t want to live there again but it’s a great place to set a crime/horror novel. Edgar Rice Burroughs never stepped foot in Africa but wrote twenty-four Tarzan novels. I can keep writing about my own dark continent and joyously never have to go there again.


Excerpt from MORTAL THOUGHTS:

The one-room office was a tight fit, shaped into narrow corridors by desks, radio equipment, kitchenette, filing cabinets and an antique photocopier. A wall-mounted fan oscillated back and forth, achieving little more than shifting the hot air around. Occasionally, for no discernible reason, it emitted a loud, ripping fart.

There was a small, lifeless waiting room glimpsed through a partition door, crammed high with sagging cardboard boxes. Neck explained that a delivery was overdue to be collected. Normally the boxes would be left undercover outside, he told Doug, but thieving had worsened lately. Doug readily sympathised.

There was one other notable feature of the office, and since entering Cutter had barely taken his eyes from her: a young, pretty woman sitting at the corner desk laden with paperwork. She wasn’t introduced, and after initially looking over the visitors, went back to working on her computer and fussing over a stray twist of hair, picking at her clothes, brushing her bared skin self-consciously. Whenever she glanced back up at Cutter, he answered her increasingly shy looks with an unwavering smile.

Duckbill scanned Doug’s clipboard while Neck directed the young woman to scroll through old emails, looking for any sign of the order.

The sound of the whirring, farting fan rose sharply for a moment before its pivot began to slow, the dusty blades becoming visible in their cage, slowing to a halt.

“Great,” said Neck. “Open the windows will you, Sonya?”

“They are open.”

“Open them wider.”

It was through the windows they heard it first – the distant droning of an approaching plane.

Duckbill bumped into Doug and Cutter in his rush to get outside.

“No-one’s due this morning,” Neck muttered for everyone’s benefit. “Sonya, get them on the radio. Ask them who they are and their flight plan.”

Doug spied Sonya rolling her eyes as she went to the radio.

The droning dropped to an abridged roar as a low-flying plane buzzed the building. Its shadow flitted past the windows.

“No, let me,” Neck insisted, elbowing Sonya aside.

Duckbill came back, stopping in the doorway. “It’s circling.”

Neck turned from fussing with the radio, his cheeks and Adam’s apple a heated pink. “Get that truck out of the way!”

“Sure,” Doug said congenially, “right after you sign the invoice.”

Neck clicked the radio repeatedly. “It’s not working!” He ducked under the desk. “For god’s sake … don’t tell me it’s not plugged in!”

“Maybe it’s blown a fuse,” Duckbill suggested.

Neck stood again, rubbing his ear furiously having clipped it on the edge of the desk. “Does it look like it’s in trouble?” he asked Duckbill as he reached for a mobile phone lying nearby.

“From what I could see, it’s flying fine,” Duckbill said.

Doug was closer to the mobile. Reaching to pick it up for Neck he bunted it away instead. It slipped down between the wall and desk.

“Whoops. Sorry.”

Neck pushed past Doug and Cutter, heading outside, glancing down at Doug’s nametag. “Just get out of the bloody way… Russell.”

The plane’s engine noise began swelling again. Duckbill skipped aside as Neck passed through the door. Doug looked over at Sonya, shrugged and gestured, “Ladies first,” yet she declined to exit until he and Cutter went ahead. Doug wasn’t offended. It wasn’t about him. It was Cutter. He made anybody nervous.

What exciting story are you working on next?
It’s a busy time for me reviewing plans for my first mansion with my architect so I haven’t been thinking about further novels. But obviously some time soon when I’m sunning myself by my horizon pool, one won’t help concocting ideas for further stories. If I do write a follow-up bestseller, it’ll be in the same genre. I have always dabbled in screenplays but any riches they generated went to the producers – the true monsters of that medium.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’m old school. You’re a writer when someone else takes you seriously as a writer. That means you’re being paid for it. When cash first changed hands that’s when I had the nerve to call myself a writer before that I was some sort of hopeful amoeba.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like?

I have always been a full time writer. At least for the last twenty years. I write for the movies and also have a few produced credits in movie length animation. A regular writing day is strong coffee first up, pissing about on the internet for a few hours, a good long lunch, maybe an afternoon movie, a nap and then around 3pm terror and desperation at having wasted another writing day. From 3pm to around 6pm I knuckle under, rip out a few pages and salvage something from my day. This is how all writers work – this is the schedule and truth of every writer’s day if they are honest enough to admit it.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Never saying no to a promising distraction to writing.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Police diver or cook on a freighter. Something to do with the cool, blue ocean. I’m from a flat, dry, cactus-infested, snake-crawling, hotbox of a place. Growing up, I thought about the sea a lot and how nice it would be to swim in blue water instead of leech and pesticide filled dams and creeks. I live near the ocean these days but it’s a seven-minute walk away so screw that.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Read UNBIDDEN with the lights on. Weapon or, even better, weapons beside the bed optional. Any matters of resultant manslaughter can be directed to my agent.

Links:

Harper Collins | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

No - thank you! It’s been a pleasure and when the big, fat cheques clear I’ll consider buying your blog.

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Interview with mystery author Richard L. Hatin

Today's guest is debut mystery author Richard L. Hatin. His novel Evil Agreement just released and he's here to talk a bit about that, his connection to Stephen King, how involved his family is with his writing career, and more.

Bio:

Richard L. Hatin is married and lives with his wife Anne Marie Hatin in Hooksett, New Hampshire. Together they have three sons, and three granddaughters.

Richard was born in Burlington, Vermont where he attended area schools graduating from St. Michael’s College in 1971 with a B.A. in English Literature. He went on to a successful career in local and state government until 1974 when he was recruited to join the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He worked for the New England Office of Community Planning and Development.  He retired as the Deputy Director of the New England Office of Community Planning and Development in 2010. During his government career, Richard wrote several articles for regional and national publications serving the interests of those involved in Community Renewal.

In his personal life, Richard served on the boards of many local, state and national organizations as well as served as an active volunteer in the community. He has received numerous local and state awards for his service to youth. He has also contributed numerous articles to state, regional and national youth sports publications. 

Richard also plays several musical instruments and volunteers for several local and state wide organizations.

Recently, he has undertaken a serious pursuit of creative writing. He has completed five novels. The first to be published is entitled Evil Agreement. The other four novels await release in the upcoming future.

He is currently a member of the International Thriller Writer’s Association; the American Mystery Writers Association, and the New Hampshire Writer’s Project.

For more information about Richard, you can visit his website at www.richardhatin.com.

Welcome, Richard. Please tell us about your debut release.

The hard cover release date for Evil Agreement was July 15. The e-book [Nook & Kindle versions] releases were June 30.

What inspired you to write this book?

Approximately 40 years ago my wife and I were walking to the summit of a remote mountain in Vermont when near the summit, well beyond any paths, trails, or roads we came upon a small fenced in cemetery. Curious, we entered the cemetery and proceeded to read the inscriptions on the headstones and discovered that an entire family died on the same date in 1843. The following day, I called local and state officials to look into this mystery.  No one had any information about the cemetery nor were there any marriage, birth or death records for this family.

After years of being puzzled by this oddity I decided to develop a fictional story to explain how a mystery such as this might have occurred.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Actually, I have finished four other novels and I am working on my 6^th one now. The other four completed novels have the following working titles: Digging Up the Past; Knights of St. Michael-The Recruitment; The Visitor at Janet’s Mountain, and the K-List. Currently, I am writing the second part to the Knights of St. Michael trilogy. 

As a writer, I find the trilogy format to be very challenging and exciting at the same time. The story line I am exploring takes my main characters around the world while placing them in precarious and deadly situations.  Consequently, I find that I must do quite a bit of research to help me add credible texture to the locals and settings I am placing my characters in. 

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

For me it all began many years ago when I met up with Steven King one day when he was in Manchester, NH.  He was having lunch at a downtown restaurant on a snowy winter day. He was in town to make a campaign appearance for a candidate he was supporting in the NH Presidential Primary. He was alone and so I worked up the courage to approach him. He graciously invited me take a seat. I ended up spending 45 minutes with my favorite author. We talked about many things and I found he and I had some things in common. We both liked the same rock and roll music, and as kids, we read the same comics and novels. We also liked the same grade “B” movies and shared the same sports interests. Finally, I decided to pitch a story idea to him. Since this meeting was early in his career he was more accessible than he naturally is today.

He listened patiently and then held up his hand. He told me that while the idea was very interesting; it seemed to him that I had a unique passion for the story. He went on to say, that with my passion I also seemed to have an ability to “tell the story” in such a way that holds one’s interest. He told me I should write the story. I responded that I didn’t see myself as a writer. He corrected me and told me to try and not give up. He offered other advice, too. He told me to never get in the way of the story and to always get the readers attention as early as possible and to never, ever let go of the reader.

 

As it so happens, the story I pitched to him that day is the novel, Evil Agreement. 

While I didn’t actually start writing that book right away, I did spend time writing professional articles in connection with my job and articles for regional and national sports magazines which catered to youth sports.  I also developed a regional youth sports newsletter which I maintained for several years.

Do you write full-time?

I try to write every day.

If so, what's your work day like?

When I am writing I don’t pay attention to time. If the story flows well and the research fits in so it contributes to the pace of the story I may well write for six to ten hours straight without taking a break. Yet there have been times when I spend only a couple of hours. Usually when I spend that little amount of time it is because I am struggling with the story. I find if I take a break and go off for a 4 or 5 mile walk I can think things through and come back ready to move the story along.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

My wife and children would all agree that since I type with the use of one, four, or five fingers I tend to pound the keys. They can hear my typing from most anywhere in the house.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I dreamed about being an anthropologist, a geologist, a teacher, and a writer, all rolled into one.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

My writing career is supported by my family in several ways. My wife Anne serves as my first reader, editor and critic. She also took my publicity photo for my website and my book. My oldest son Joel, is my webmaster and oversees my social media projects. He also filmed my Evil Agreement promo video and added the sound. My middle son Aaron, lined up the voice actor for the promo video, he also edited the video. In addition, he has designed all my book covers. My youngest son, Brady offers his artistic input and ideas for my social media initiatives.  

Great to have you join my blog, Richard. Congratulations on the first book being published, and I wish you great success for all the others!