Due to COVID lockdowns and cancellations of public appearances, each month June to Oct 2020 I will answer five questions that come in via the CONTACT link and put them at the top of this list here:
October 2020:
Can you send me a book?
Nope, not right now, due to Covid-19. My home state of Victoria is in almost total lock-down and it's just impossible. I usually send out 1500 books per year, which are all the reprints and new editions that I receive from publishers around the world. Pretty sure the postage is taken care of on my business tax somewhere along the line. (That said I got audited not long ago and got a good chunk of change back... maybe I need a new accountant).
What's the longest book tour you've had?
Usually it's a couple months per year. But - there was a period across 2014-2015 where I was away for 13 months, and spent 48 days at home during that time. That was for my thrillers THE SPY, and THE HUNTED, and my 13 book YA series via Scholastic. Madness. Never. Again. Sure, we sold a couple million books over that time frame, but it was - ah - crazy? Still though...
What's the craziest thing to happen to you on book tour?
I think you need to come to one of my talks and ask me, rather than me blurt it all out here for people to stumble over.
A few of stand-out stories:
- I've spoken to over 1400 schools, mainly in Australia and the USA. I love getting kids interested in reading, so this is my top highlight.
- One time in New York I saved a guy who was being assaulted. The wash-up involved a witness having a heart-attack, multiple arrests, me getting a lift back to the Grant Hyatt in a cop car convoy; blood was everywhere, calls were made. Long story. Later that night, a well-known ex-Navy SEAL gave me magnesium tablets, which helped in the come-down. Vince Flynn then bought me many beers.
- I was snowed-in at an airport hotel in Ohio for four days. Snowmageddon. Me and a few TSA agents had the run of the place. I can confirm that you can kill snowmen with 9mm firearms.
- I got to hang out with FBI counter-terrorism agents in NY.
- I keep getting "ordered" to do James Bond themed photo shoots.
- A detective in Texas has the same name as me - and has supplied me with cool police gear... in my name! Am yet to make an official arrest... even though I was on book tour in DFT the week before the 2016 elections, go figure.
I've also seen a lot - a LOT - of crazy/weird//insane/illegal/immoral shit done by other authors while on tour, usually at writers festivals. And they're usually from the UK... probably the stuff for a memoir some day.
Do you work out?
I get a few of these queries a month. Answer: Nope. I mean I cycle, I surf, and I take a resistance band with me on tours, but that's it. I'm all 6'2'' and I don't know, 100kg's (pre Covid?). I played cricket, football and basketball all through school and undergrad university. Something I have learned after 14 years fo being a full-time author: don't sit at your desk too long. I try and get up every hour or so for a coffee, tea, walk, break, stretch, etc. No joke: I have two writer friends who nearly died from DVT's. Move, people, move!
What are you watching?
Not much. I'm writing two novels - a standalone thriller THE ARCHITECT, and Walker #6 AMERICAN AGENT, so I don't watch or read in ways that may influence me when I'm creating.
I do enjoy some food/travel shows (Bourdain, a dear friend, as the exemplar), and also an easy laugh for downtime, eg ARCHER, RICK AND MORTY, BROOKLYN 99, et al. Sometimes dip into classics, from SEINFELD to 30 ROCK. I miss good stuff like THE WEST WING and BREAKING BAD. And the only - only - stand-up I've ever loved (from day dot) is Dave Chappelle. THOUGH: Bro needs to sort his boy Ye, bigly. Mo fo was broke-ass-bankrupt and his wife extorting insurance every few months until Trump came along. Just sayin'.
September 2020:
When’s the next Jed Walker book out?
Probably 2021. The working title is AMERICAN AGENT. I won’t know for sure if it’s out next year near or around the release of my other thriller, THE ARCHITECT. Soon as I know, I’ll post on here and Twitter.
Social Media - what do you think?
I like Twitter for news feeds, and it’s a good tool for people who read to connect. This is me.
Facebook and its offshoot Instagram are pieces of shit and should be blown into orbit. TikTok too.
YouTube is ok. Reddit has a dark underbelly, but I guess we know they’re there. Is Pinterest still a thing?
What kind of productivity do you strive for? What’s your work method, and do you set word count goals?
It changes depending on what I’m working on, but as a rough guide it takes me 3 months to write a book. If I have a book contracted for delivery in 12 months, then I usually spend 3 months researching and planning, then I write for 3 months, give it a quick kick-around, then submit. Editing with publishers in 3 countries takes 3 months, then it’s off to the printer etc and into stores, which takes another 3 months (I use that time to work on other projects).
I roughly aim to write 10 thousand words a week. I used to write far more, but I’m trying - trying - to not work weekends anymore.
My method is to start each day as early as possible, eg before 6am. I spend maybe 15 minutes reading yesterday’s work and doing a quick polish of the prose. I do that so that by the time I write THE END at page 500 it’s a clean document, mostly free of typos, and also because it gets me back into the rhythm, pace, feel and tone of the previous day’s chapters.
I write mostly at my place by the beach in a tiny town on Victoria’s coast. Sometimes in Melbourne, sometimes on the road, eg while on book tour and in hotels. I think that’s important for a commercial author - to be able to work anywhere, anytime, and meet deadlines. Reminds me of how Lee Child says, a successful author can be only one of these three things: late with their work, write crap, or be an asshole.
You write a lot about cyber security, including two books dedicated to that topic, PATRIOT ACT, and KILL SWITCH. What have you learned from that that you’ve used in real life?
I began looking into Five Eyes and NSA, GCHQ, DSD et al, and their programs like Echelon and Monstermind, from the early 2000’s. My interest in it as a topic for books started when the Patriot Act came into law. In the early 2000’s I worked at The Age newspaper for 5 years. When an investigative reporter I knew was working on a big cyber story died, it drove me to investigate more and more into that world. I interviewed relevant people from all Five Eyes (UKUSA Treaty) nations: USA, UK, Aus, NZ, Can. What I found became those two novels mentioned in the question, plus material across all my work.
What did that teach me? I use a dedicated computer and tablet just for accessing the web. My writing computer never goes online, and I change them all over every 2 years. I use a VPN. I’ve never logged on to a wifi that is not my own. I use encrypted comms if I’m communicating to a source who still has limitations on what they can reveal from their current/previous work, or are still wary as they lived in the IC for so long. I’ve never purchased anything online - not even a book (support your local bookstores!). And then I do all the stuff you’ve probably heard about a million times - tape over the computer’s camera when not in use, turn off all location services on phone and smart watch, don't use anything cloud based, use different emails and passwords, etc.
Oh, and be careful with where you leave your devices. A dear friend of mine is ex-head of MI5, Dame Stella Remington. She left her laptop unattended at Heathrow - and even though she’s long retired from her career in intelligence, that device contained sensitive contact information, as well as other materials you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. Not surprisingly, James Bond’s M, (Dame Judy Dench’s female “M” was modelled on Dame Stella), soon had her laptop hacked.
I’m having trouble getting a copy of your books - what should I do?
In 2019, my new agent Shane Salerno and I began the process of obtaining the rights back to every one of my published books outside of Australia, so that we can re-release them around the world in far bigger ways. This means that at the moment there are some places where it’s hard or impossible to find some of my books - sorry! Rest assured, they will all be available as digital or physical editions by 2021.
August 2020:
Growing up, what jobs did you have?
My first jobs where working for my grandparents, my dad’s mum and dad - my heroes and role models. My grandfather was an architect/interior designer designer and had a factory of 100 or so guys who would build and fit-out his designs all over the country. I’d work in his design office as an office boy, running errands, and get $5 a day. Same in the factory - I’d clean up, organise stuff, help out where I could. My grandmother had a big resort property where I’d help out, and restaurants and newsagents where I’d do everything from washing dishes to mowing lawns and working the cash register and banking. It was great in every way - my grandparents were my two best friends, and I miss them every day.
My first tax-paying job was for a supermarket when I was at high school. Two nights a week I’d train for football and basketball and usually play on Saturdays, and the other times I’d be working.
School holidays as a teenager I’d visit my dad, who lived in the Victorian Alps, where I worked for a horse-riding ranch, taking tourists for day-trips and camp-outs up in the mountains. Good times.
I’d do all that work because my grandparents instilled some kind of crazy work ethic in me - and I wanted to save up.
What for? Flying lessons. My first flights were in gliders - unpowered aircraft, towed up into the sky by a small prop plane. I was - ahem - hooked. After that I’d book blocks of hours of flight lessons in Cessna 172's and the like, usually down near my grandmother's near Warrnambool, Vic. My plan - until I was around 16 - was to be a pilot for a living. I figured I’d fly as a job and write books on the side. As I finished high school, I decided I could always fly as a hobby, and that design - architecture - was a greater passion for me to pursue… at least, until the book-writing thing took off.
What is something you did today on your current novel?
I had to put outside pressure on my protagonist - for all kinds of story reasons. I knew which character (let’s call him X) would be applying that pressure, and it’s a great story moment when they collide. But - how to push X into that action? My first thought seemed a good one - there’s an investigator looking into the complications and characters my protagonist has collided with - that investigator's actions trigger the push-back pressure from X. But how to 'manufacture' that - in what way? My first thought was having another party, the major antagonistic force who are driving the main plot, push things towards getting the desired reaction from X - this is a story about manipulation, after all. So, I thought about that for a while - I even slept on it. With the new day I thought of new angles - and did a mental check-list of pros and cons to do with who gives what information to whom, and what each characters motivations are in doing so, and how does each alternative make sense for each character at that point in the story (and in the overall story, for the antagonistic forces manipulating the other characters to get to their end-goal). And I realised I needed a different angle. Same information, same reaction - but coming from a different direction. It made more sense to the story, at that point in the story, especially for those antagonists who are pulling the strings. Does this still set up what I need it to do 100 pages from now, ratchtgn up tension and jeopardy? Yes. Does it payoff at the end? Absolutely. I did one final check: does this new way make narrative sense, is it true to the characters involved, and avoid coincidence? Yup. So off I go...
Any cool research at the moment?
My current novel comes from an an idea I had as a baby architect on Federation Square, back around 1999/2000. A visiting architect from SOM gave a slide show, including a top-secret project he said he couldn’t talk much about, and I remember thinking: what if someone you didn’t want having this information got this information?
The research has been… interesting.
Do you volunteer anywhere?
I’ve been a volunteer fire fighter in the CFA since I was 17, starting at Mt Buller where I did a semi-gap year.
What order do I read your thrillers?
They’re listed in reverse order on this website, eg the most recently published are listed first.
If you want to read in order of the time in within the book’s universe, then you should start with THE AGENCY, as it’s a prequel set in 2005.
So: THE AGENCY, then FOX HUNT, PATRIOT ACT, BLOOD OIL, LIQUID GOLD, RED ICE, THE SPY, THE HUNTED, KILL SWITCH, DARK HEART.
July 2020:
When/where do you usually write?
Mostly in a writing studio near my home in Melbourne. Sometimes at the beach, at Cape Woolamai, Port Fairy, and Port Douglas.
The beach, and surf, form a big part of my life.
I wake at 5am every day, meditate, write, have a swim or surf, then write some more until the afternoon.
How do you come up with story ideas?
For me to spend a year writing and promoting a story, it has to be something that really moves and interests me.
Right now, that's architecture, a life-long passion, and fascinating subject when it comes to how and where we live.
Do you need silence to write?
No. Usually, I write to music. Often I'll just pop on SBS Chill and write to that as a general background track.
For each book I build a playlist of songs. They've been anywhere from 80 - 300 tracks, each chosen to inform the tone and rhythm of my work, and I use those as needed - very handy when on the road, such as airport lounges and hotels, when I may need to write and get out of my surrounds with the comfort of the selected music.
What has been the hardest part of being an author?
When I left my literary agents of 13 years, and pulled all my books from being published in the USA so that they could be re-sold by my new agent.
What's the biggest thing you've ever lost?
Well - I've said no to lots of publishing/film deals over the years, does that count as lost?
One time I lost a Ford Expedition while on book tour in LA. Last seen somewhere in Santa Monica. It's ok - it was a rental that the publishers organised.
June 2020:
What are you writing?
My next three novels are at various stages in the writing/editing/publishing cycle:
The new Jed Walker thriller.
A stand-alone thriller about an architect.
A secret project with my mate James Frey.
When is your next book out?
I’m working on that with my agent and publishers, and I’ll update here when I know.
What’s something we don’t know about you?
I have a pilot's licence.
How many books have you sold?
Around five million copies.
If you weren’t an author what would you be?
A competitive eater on youtube. Maybe. I don’t know. Architect?
This is a list of FAQ:
What order should I read your Lachlan Fox series in?
If you’ve not read a Fox thriller before, I usually say start with the newest, eg RED ICE. The Lachlan Fox books can be read in any order, but may make more sense in chronological order as you’ll get a better feel for how Fox’s character develops and see all that he’s gone through. The dates as published, are:
FOX HUNT (2006)
PATRIOT ACT (2007)
BLOOD OIL (2008)
LIQUID GOLD (2009)
RED ICE (2010)
How about the Alone trilogy?
The ALONE trilogy needs to be read in order or there will be spoilers in the 2nd and 3rd books. So read in this order:
#1 CHASERS (2010)
#2 SURVIVOR (2011)
#3 QUARANTINE (2011)
Oh, and be warned: CHASERS has the biggest twist ending in any book ever; it might just blow your mind. Just might.
And The Last Thirteen?
TL13 should be read from book titled “13” and counting down to “1”. I know, confusing, right? All thirteen books were published by Scholastic between September 2013 and December 2014.
And the Jed Walker series?
You can go ahead and read them in any old order. The dates as published, are:
THE SPY (2013)
THE HUNTED (2014)
KILL SWITCH (2015)
DARK HEART (2016)
How do I book you to talk at my school or library?
See my contacts page about getting in touch with my speaker’s agency, or my publishers or agent if you are from a literary festival.
Can you send me a signed picture?
Not at this stage. Best you come along to a signing or talk and I’ll sign my author pic in the novel.
Have you published a short story collection?
No but my short stories have appeared in several anthologies.
Where can I get your books?
Check the books links on my site, or go to your local bookstore - or department store - they should have them. Or search online. Or – or – try the library.
Are they available as ebooks?
Yes. But why bother, really? Get a paper book and help store some carbon. What...
Are they available as audio?
The Lachlan Fox series is. Hopefully the others will be soon.
Do you answer reader’s questions via email?
Yes, when I get spare time every couple months. Or try me on Twitter. Or send a snail mail to one of my publishers.
In July 2007 and 2009 you were a guest speaker at Thrillerfest in New York, and 2013 at Bouchercon in Albany, NY. What are those thriller specific festivals like?
They’re great. Thrillerfest is one of the best festivals that I’ve been a part of. I got to meet and work with many writers whose work I admire and respect, such as Jeffery Deaver, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, Steve Berry, James Rollins, Lee Child, James Patterson… the list goes on. That festival is run by the International Thriller Writer’s Organization, which is a collective of thriller writers around the world. 2007 was their second annual festival and was a week full of valuable information and a great opportunity to build friendships. I’ve chaired panels, participated in talks and readings, listened to other novelists and industry professionals talk shop. They also have a bunch of military, intelligence and law enforcement types attending for us to pry information from. Bouchercon is equally as fun and awesome, and has a more crime-thriller focus, and many more fans turn up to whichever city is hosting it that year.
And you wrote THE COPPER BRACELET and WATCHLIST as a part of Thrillerfest?
Yes. They’re serial thrillers written by a bunch of us and available as a brilliant audio book via Audible, a printed book via Vanguard Press, and a video book via Vook.
You hold a Master of Arts in Writing, and a PhD in Young Adult literature, and have published academic non-fiction… so why a career writing popular fiction?
We all write in some genre or other, and most of my favourite stories whether novels or films have had a thrilling element driving the character.
There’s dozens of sub-genres of thrillers and Fox probably falls into techno-thrillers or political thrillers, like the work of John Le Care, Graham Greene, Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Robert Ludlum. The Walker series is more suspense driven, such as the work of Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and Ken Follett. All these are books that I grew up reading and loving, so that’s why I write in that area. My YA and Middle Grade fiction is all thrilling and suspenseful, and in the case of THE LAST THIRTEEN adventure-based, and I loved that sort to thing as a kid and wanted to make something exciting for the next generations of young boys and girls around the world. All of my work is steeped in reality, which is what I love, and within each novel there’s plenty to ponder about the world and history and politics and what it’s like to be human – if you want to. If not, sit back and enjoy the ride!
My thrillers contain other genres, romance, tragedy, comedy, etc, and I think the best of the pack do this, even those at the commercial end such as Puzo’s The Godfather, Eco’s Name of the Rose, and the films Casablanca and North By Northwest. I was drawn to the freedom that the thriller genre delivers to get across some interesting issues and themes in a thrilling framework. I love reading thrillers as I enjoy feeling that anticipation and suspense that as when the story is ripping along through twists and turns of misfortune. The global political landscape is something that I am very interested in, hence setting my thrillers predominantly in the US and locations that are often in the news. The themes that propel each story, such as WMD and the ‘Missile Shield (or Strategic Defence Initiative) in FOX HUNT, to the USA Patriot Act and the NSA’s eavesdropping programs in PATRIOT ACT, corruption around oil in BLOOD OIL, fresh water scarcity in LIQUID GOLD, international relations in RED ICE – these are all areas that I have a great time researching and then figuring out how to get that information across to my readers in an entertaining way.
Walker is all about the very new world we are in post Snowden and Assange, where we are more questioning and unsure of government than ever, while on the flip side the government is more pervasive and foreboding as ever. It’s a great time to be a suspense writer!
My ALONE trilogy started life as an antidote to other YA book out there. I wrote the first one in 2008, after meeting with my agent at Writer’s House and hearing about what the agency’s YA writers were doing. For me, it was a chance to put some terror and realism back into the dystopian and post-apocalyptic landscape of books out there – and became the backbone for my PhD in YA Literature.
THE LAST THIRTEEN came about when Scholastic approached me with a 13-book deal, published over 13 months, that would have appeal to boys as much as girls. I’d always wanted to write a BIG series about the dream world, and this was my chance.
How did Lachlan Fox come to be, and where did the idea of FOX HUNT come from?
I wanted to set up an ongoing protagonist and I knew he was going to be an investigative journalist for the first few novels. He needed some skills so that he could handle himself in every situation, and I wanted to show this hero’s journey before he got to that point that would occupy his life (and entertain reader’s) for some time. So I went in search of a good origin story, one that could highlight his background in the Navy while showing he was human enough to be affected by consequences in and out of his control. FOX HUNT became that story. The Star Wars Missile Shield, sometimes referred to as the Strategic Defence Initiative but that name changes under each administration, became the main element of the story when I wanted something that was post Cold War yet still somehow tied to that time – a time that I grew up in, and a time that I read so many thrillers set in. So, as my little homage to those great thriller writers of the second half of the twentieth century, FOX HUNT contained a Cold War legacy.
Why have Lachlan Fox working with the Global Syndicate of Reporters (GSR)?
I figure being in that job, Fox can be in all the hot spots that a spy or soldier could be in, yet he is not bound to serve his country like those positions would call for. I don’t like the idea of being constrained like that, to have to have a character that is working for the government that is often complicit in the events that I am writing about. And let’s face it, people are very distrusting their governments more than ever. Not that all journalists and news services are infallible and they certainly aren’t objective – objectivity in journalism is a myth – but I do like that idea that Fox is just after the truth, a kind of old-school archetypal white knight.
Why two the protagonists in Fox?
With Lachlan and Al, I knew I always wanted a partnership, to have a buddy series like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or “Midnight Run” or “Lethal Weapon”. There are so many examples of the buddy film, but I hadn’t come across that many in novels that really work. When they do, like the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or Sherlock Holmes, it’s a great storytelling device for a reader to enjoy. And when I thought of some of my favourite moments in cinema, what stood out was the relationship between friends and family. They’re the ones you can hurt the most, they’re the ones who are there for you. There’s so much scope for a writer in that relationship, so much drama, that in a way I feel like I’m cheating because I get to show so many sides to my main protagonist, Lachlan Fox, through his interactions with his friend. Fox and Alister Gammaldi were born before the story of Fox Hunt, and they came about mainly because they are opposites – Fox is determined to find out the truth at any cost, whereas Gammaldi is more interested in the preservation of both his and Fox’s life at all costs. I should point out that Gammaldi is based on my best mate from high school , and that in real life he’s just as dependable as in fiction.
How is Jed Walker (and that series) different to Lachlan Fox (and that series)?
Walker as a character is much more black and white than Fox. Lachlan Fox, and all he’s been through, is quite cynical (some might say a realist?), and he’d say something like “All wars are crimes.” Walker would say “War contains crime.” As a series style, Walker is more economic in writing style. And, Walker is American, and sees the world through that lens, rather than Fox’s Australian lens world-view. And I'd say the thriller style is more like Lee Child's suspense and contained narratives, rather than Tom Clancy's big-canvas geo-political view that I adopted for Fox.
How do you create characters?
There’s no one approach, and each brings with them the answers that are raised along the way of the story. When it comes to naming characters, I quite often cheat by using names of friends. Sometimes even their descriptions play a part but usually I let the reader make their own picture of each character rather than really spell out how each person looks. The characters in the first ALONE novel, Jesse’s three friends, were the hardest to write, for a reason that will be obvious to readers. In THE LAST THIRTEEN, I went though my travel journals and diaries from when i was young and created characters out of people I'd met around the world.
When and where do you write?
Before I was published, and I used to work office hours at a newspaper and write fiction at night and into the early hours of the morning. Since I’ve become published in 2006 - and quit my job the month before my first novel came out (or, as I prefer to think about int, retired at 25) - I do all my work either from home or a small office, I find that the early morning to early afternoon is my most creative time. I use my afternoons and evenings to do all the other little writing things that come along. My home is a converted warehouse in Melbourne, and I walk out my door to hundreds of great cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs – which can be a bit of a distraction at times… Sometimes, if my office is boring me or I start getting cabin fever, I take my MacBook and walk to the State Library or someplace different to my local area. Oh, and when I’m on book tour, which can add up to about 26 weeks a year, I write in hotels, cafes, airports, etc. Deadlines wait for no writer, though the late great Douglas Adams said it best: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."
Where do you get your ideas from?
I try to carry a notebook around at all times, in case inspiration strikes or an idea comes to me. It’s a great tool for a writer, as I can jot down overheard conversations or record something that I have seen. Every now and then I’ll flick through my notebooks and take and find something really useful that I’d completely forgotten about. The central ideas of my books generally come from world news and current affairs. The so called "Star Wars" Missile Shield in FOX HUNT appealed to me when I heard that Australia were joining the US in the system. The ramifications of the Patriot Act in my novel of the same name are extraordinary, and some similar laws were past here in Australia that, for a writer particularly, have worrying Big Brother-like hallmarks. The ALONE series started with the concept of teenagers in a war zone and went from there. THE LAST THIRTEEN is about the dream world, and the concept of writing about that came from my nightmares as a kid.
What research do you do for your novels?
I love the research component that goes into writing novels, and each new book means another world that I get to inhabit for a while. I read heaps of non-fiction, which I generally buy but sometimes find at a library. I go over interviews with people who have been in the situations that I am depicting in the pages of my books, and I talk to them if I can. With the military pieces I am lucky enough to know some people who have served, and since publication I have some military fans and I’ve visited some bases. I’m forever asking questions of people to fuel my stories. I've now established relationships with former members of the CIA, MI5, the Secret Service, and various military and law enforcement personnel.
The internet is an amazing tool if you can find your way around. There are heaps of honest and often very sad blogs and social media feeds written by the soldiers and civilians that are directly affected by the circumstances like those that I write about, and they help keep my stories grounded. I try harder and harder in each book to get an accurate portrayal of the lives that I am writing about, balancing that with a good, believable story. Suspending the reader’s disbelief, keeping the facts within the realm of entertaining fiction, is the fun part.
How much planning do you do for your novels?
For the Fox books, I make heaps of notes and figure out my main three act story points. When I’m working with the three parts and up to seven storylines in each book, I make sure I know who’s who, where they’ll be going, what they are after, etc. I need to know my characters motivation, the stakes involved, the hurdles ahead of them, and above all, I need to know where my story is going. I need to be sure that before I type anything, that I’ve written down what the end of the story is going to be. Once I know that destination, I may deviate from the hundred or so pages of notes but I will eventually get there. Also, once those notes are done (it may take a couple months of thinking and researching) I won’t look back at it, I just let the story unfold. The Walker novels are similar, but have a higher degree of suspense, as well as personal jeopardy for the characters involved.
The ALONE young adult trilogy was different in that I did virtually no research beyond reading some psychological texts on the stages of grief, and then I sat down and wrote the three books back-to-back.
THE LAST THIRTEEN was a year in the planning before I wrote the first novel. For that series I needed to know who was who and what their individual arcs would be, and being such a long series it took a lot of planning and research of setting and place. It took about three years to write all thirteen books.
Where can I get a signed copy of your book?
I frequently travel the country attending writer’s festivals and visit bookstores for signings. If you have no luck on that front, Hachette and Scholastic have bookplates on file (they’re basically official publisher’s stickers that I have signed and they can send them to you to insert into the book). Stay tuned to my social media as I do announce when I've visited a store and signed all the copies that they have.
When did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
As a teenager (around 15) when I read my first few current thrillers. I played around with some ideas through high school, and while at uni studying architecture, but it was not until 2001 that I decided to dedicate the time and effort to see if I could do it. Prior to this I had started two novels which were at various stages.
What were those books that inspired you?
The main book was PATRIOT GAMES – it got a huge amount of publicity thanks to the movie and I bought the first of the prints with Harrison Ford on the cover – proof of how much a movie deal can boost sales. I'd read thrillers before, but nothing that felt current, and certainly not percent. I then read and enjoyed the early works of Clancy, Cussler, Greene, Le Carre, Conrad, Grisham, Follett, Archer, Crichton, Flemming, Puzo, and many others.
Any tips for aspiring authors?
Here’s a few I’ve picked up and figured out along the way. They work for me, and one or two may work for you:
October 2020:
Can you send me a book?
Nope, not right now, due to Covid-19. My home state of Victoria is in almost total lock-down and it's just impossible. I usually send out 1500 books per year, which are all the reprints and new editions that I receive from publishers around the world. Pretty sure the postage is taken care of on my business tax somewhere along the line. (That said I got audited not long ago and got a good chunk of change back... maybe I need a new accountant).
What's the longest book tour you've had?
Usually it's a couple months per year. But - there was a period across 2014-2015 where I was away for 13 months, and spent 48 days at home during that time. That was for my thrillers THE SPY, and THE HUNTED, and my 13 book YA series via Scholastic. Madness. Never. Again. Sure, we sold a couple million books over that time frame, but it was - ah - crazy? Still though...
What's the craziest thing to happen to you on book tour?
I think you need to come to one of my talks and ask me, rather than me blurt it all out here for people to stumble over.
A few of stand-out stories:
- I've spoken to over 1400 schools, mainly in Australia and the USA. I love getting kids interested in reading, so this is my top highlight.
- One time in New York I saved a guy who was being assaulted. The wash-up involved a witness having a heart-attack, multiple arrests, me getting a lift back to the Grant Hyatt in a cop car convoy; blood was everywhere, calls were made. Long story. Later that night, a well-known ex-Navy SEAL gave me magnesium tablets, which helped in the come-down. Vince Flynn then bought me many beers.
- I was snowed-in at an airport hotel in Ohio for four days. Snowmageddon. Me and a few TSA agents had the run of the place. I can confirm that you can kill snowmen with 9mm firearms.
- I got to hang out with FBI counter-terrorism agents in NY.
- I keep getting "ordered" to do James Bond themed photo shoots.
- A detective in Texas has the same name as me - and has supplied me with cool police gear... in my name! Am yet to make an official arrest... even though I was on book tour in DFT the week before the 2016 elections, go figure.
I've also seen a lot - a LOT - of crazy/weird//insane/illegal/immoral shit done by other authors while on tour, usually at writers festivals. And they're usually from the UK... probably the stuff for a memoir some day.
Do you work out?
I get a few of these queries a month. Answer: Nope. I mean I cycle, I surf, and I take a resistance band with me on tours, but that's it. I'm all 6'2'' and I don't know, 100kg's (pre Covid?). I played cricket, football and basketball all through school and undergrad university. Something I have learned after 14 years fo being a full-time author: don't sit at your desk too long. I try and get up every hour or so for a coffee, tea, walk, break, stretch, etc. No joke: I have two writer friends who nearly died from DVT's. Move, people, move!
What are you watching?
Not much. I'm writing two novels - a standalone thriller THE ARCHITECT, and Walker #6 AMERICAN AGENT, so I don't watch or read in ways that may influence me when I'm creating.
I do enjoy some food/travel shows (Bourdain, a dear friend, as the exemplar), and also an easy laugh for downtime, eg ARCHER, RICK AND MORTY, BROOKLYN 99, et al. Sometimes dip into classics, from SEINFELD to 30 ROCK. I miss good stuff like THE WEST WING and BREAKING BAD. And the only - only - stand-up I've ever loved (from day dot) is Dave Chappelle. THOUGH: Bro needs to sort his boy Ye, bigly. Mo fo was broke-ass-bankrupt and his wife extorting insurance every few months until Trump came along. Just sayin'.
September 2020:
When’s the next Jed Walker book out?
Probably 2021. The working title is AMERICAN AGENT. I won’t know for sure if it’s out next year near or around the release of my other thriller, THE ARCHITECT. Soon as I know, I’ll post on here and Twitter.
Social Media - what do you think?
I like Twitter for news feeds, and it’s a good tool for people who read to connect. This is me.
Facebook and its offshoot Instagram are pieces of shit and should be blown into orbit. TikTok too.
YouTube is ok. Reddit has a dark underbelly, but I guess we know they’re there. Is Pinterest still a thing?
What kind of productivity do you strive for? What’s your work method, and do you set word count goals?
It changes depending on what I’m working on, but as a rough guide it takes me 3 months to write a book. If I have a book contracted for delivery in 12 months, then I usually spend 3 months researching and planning, then I write for 3 months, give it a quick kick-around, then submit. Editing with publishers in 3 countries takes 3 months, then it’s off to the printer etc and into stores, which takes another 3 months (I use that time to work on other projects).
I roughly aim to write 10 thousand words a week. I used to write far more, but I’m trying - trying - to not work weekends anymore.
My method is to start each day as early as possible, eg before 6am. I spend maybe 15 minutes reading yesterday’s work and doing a quick polish of the prose. I do that so that by the time I write THE END at page 500 it’s a clean document, mostly free of typos, and also because it gets me back into the rhythm, pace, feel and tone of the previous day’s chapters.
I write mostly at my place by the beach in a tiny town on Victoria’s coast. Sometimes in Melbourne, sometimes on the road, eg while on book tour and in hotels. I think that’s important for a commercial author - to be able to work anywhere, anytime, and meet deadlines. Reminds me of how Lee Child says, a successful author can be only one of these three things: late with their work, write crap, or be an asshole.
You write a lot about cyber security, including two books dedicated to that topic, PATRIOT ACT, and KILL SWITCH. What have you learned from that that you’ve used in real life?
I began looking into Five Eyes and NSA, GCHQ, DSD et al, and their programs like Echelon and Monstermind, from the early 2000’s. My interest in it as a topic for books started when the Patriot Act came into law. In the early 2000’s I worked at The Age newspaper for 5 years. When an investigative reporter I knew was working on a big cyber story died, it drove me to investigate more and more into that world. I interviewed relevant people from all Five Eyes (UKUSA Treaty) nations: USA, UK, Aus, NZ, Can. What I found became those two novels mentioned in the question, plus material across all my work.
What did that teach me? I use a dedicated computer and tablet just for accessing the web. My writing computer never goes online, and I change them all over every 2 years. I use a VPN. I’ve never logged on to a wifi that is not my own. I use encrypted comms if I’m communicating to a source who still has limitations on what they can reveal from their current/previous work, or are still wary as they lived in the IC for so long. I’ve never purchased anything online - not even a book (support your local bookstores!). And then I do all the stuff you’ve probably heard about a million times - tape over the computer’s camera when not in use, turn off all location services on phone and smart watch, don't use anything cloud based, use different emails and passwords, etc.
Oh, and be careful with where you leave your devices. A dear friend of mine is ex-head of MI5, Dame Stella Remington. She left her laptop unattended at Heathrow - and even though she’s long retired from her career in intelligence, that device contained sensitive contact information, as well as other materials you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. Not surprisingly, James Bond’s M, (Dame Judy Dench’s female “M” was modelled on Dame Stella), soon had her laptop hacked.
I’m having trouble getting a copy of your books - what should I do?
In 2019, my new agent Shane Salerno and I began the process of obtaining the rights back to every one of my published books outside of Australia, so that we can re-release them around the world in far bigger ways. This means that at the moment there are some places where it’s hard or impossible to find some of my books - sorry! Rest assured, they will all be available as digital or physical editions by 2021.
August 2020:
Growing up, what jobs did you have?
My first jobs where working for my grandparents, my dad’s mum and dad - my heroes and role models. My grandfather was an architect/interior designer designer and had a factory of 100 or so guys who would build and fit-out his designs all over the country. I’d work in his design office as an office boy, running errands, and get $5 a day. Same in the factory - I’d clean up, organise stuff, help out where I could. My grandmother had a big resort property where I’d help out, and restaurants and newsagents where I’d do everything from washing dishes to mowing lawns and working the cash register and banking. It was great in every way - my grandparents were my two best friends, and I miss them every day.
My first tax-paying job was for a supermarket when I was at high school. Two nights a week I’d train for football and basketball and usually play on Saturdays, and the other times I’d be working.
School holidays as a teenager I’d visit my dad, who lived in the Victorian Alps, where I worked for a horse-riding ranch, taking tourists for day-trips and camp-outs up in the mountains. Good times.
I’d do all that work because my grandparents instilled some kind of crazy work ethic in me - and I wanted to save up.
What for? Flying lessons. My first flights were in gliders - unpowered aircraft, towed up into the sky by a small prop plane. I was - ahem - hooked. After that I’d book blocks of hours of flight lessons in Cessna 172's and the like, usually down near my grandmother's near Warrnambool, Vic. My plan - until I was around 16 - was to be a pilot for a living. I figured I’d fly as a job and write books on the side. As I finished high school, I decided I could always fly as a hobby, and that design - architecture - was a greater passion for me to pursue… at least, until the book-writing thing took off.
What is something you did today on your current novel?
I had to put outside pressure on my protagonist - for all kinds of story reasons. I knew which character (let’s call him X) would be applying that pressure, and it’s a great story moment when they collide. But - how to push X into that action? My first thought seemed a good one - there’s an investigator looking into the complications and characters my protagonist has collided with - that investigator's actions trigger the push-back pressure from X. But how to 'manufacture' that - in what way? My first thought was having another party, the major antagonistic force who are driving the main plot, push things towards getting the desired reaction from X - this is a story about manipulation, after all. So, I thought about that for a while - I even slept on it. With the new day I thought of new angles - and did a mental check-list of pros and cons to do with who gives what information to whom, and what each characters motivations are in doing so, and how does each alternative make sense for each character at that point in the story (and in the overall story, for the antagonistic forces manipulating the other characters to get to their end-goal). And I realised I needed a different angle. Same information, same reaction - but coming from a different direction. It made more sense to the story, at that point in the story, especially for those antagonists who are pulling the strings. Does this still set up what I need it to do 100 pages from now, ratchtgn up tension and jeopardy? Yes. Does it payoff at the end? Absolutely. I did one final check: does this new way make narrative sense, is it true to the characters involved, and avoid coincidence? Yup. So off I go...
Any cool research at the moment?
My current novel comes from an an idea I had as a baby architect on Federation Square, back around 1999/2000. A visiting architect from SOM gave a slide show, including a top-secret project he said he couldn’t talk much about, and I remember thinking: what if someone you didn’t want having this information got this information?
The research has been… interesting.
Do you volunteer anywhere?
I’ve been a volunteer fire fighter in the CFA since I was 17, starting at Mt Buller where I did a semi-gap year.
What order do I read your thrillers?
They’re listed in reverse order on this website, eg the most recently published are listed first.
If you want to read in order of the time in within the book’s universe, then you should start with THE AGENCY, as it’s a prequel set in 2005.
So: THE AGENCY, then FOX HUNT, PATRIOT ACT, BLOOD OIL, LIQUID GOLD, RED ICE, THE SPY, THE HUNTED, KILL SWITCH, DARK HEART.
July 2020:
When/where do you usually write?
Mostly in a writing studio near my home in Melbourne. Sometimes at the beach, at Cape Woolamai, Port Fairy, and Port Douglas.
The beach, and surf, form a big part of my life.
I wake at 5am every day, meditate, write, have a swim or surf, then write some more until the afternoon.
How do you come up with story ideas?
For me to spend a year writing and promoting a story, it has to be something that really moves and interests me.
Right now, that's architecture, a life-long passion, and fascinating subject when it comes to how and where we live.
Do you need silence to write?
No. Usually, I write to music. Often I'll just pop on SBS Chill and write to that as a general background track.
For each book I build a playlist of songs. They've been anywhere from 80 - 300 tracks, each chosen to inform the tone and rhythm of my work, and I use those as needed - very handy when on the road, such as airport lounges and hotels, when I may need to write and get out of my surrounds with the comfort of the selected music.
What has been the hardest part of being an author?
When I left my literary agents of 13 years, and pulled all my books from being published in the USA so that they could be re-sold by my new agent.
What's the biggest thing you've ever lost?
Well - I've said no to lots of publishing/film deals over the years, does that count as lost?
One time I lost a Ford Expedition while on book tour in LA. Last seen somewhere in Santa Monica. It's ok - it was a rental that the publishers organised.
June 2020:
What are you writing?
My next three novels are at various stages in the writing/editing/publishing cycle:
The new Jed Walker thriller.
A stand-alone thriller about an architect.
A secret project with my mate James Frey.
When is your next book out?
I’m working on that with my agent and publishers, and I’ll update here when I know.
What’s something we don’t know about you?
I have a pilot's licence.
How many books have you sold?
Around five million copies.
If you weren’t an author what would you be?
A competitive eater on youtube. Maybe. I don’t know. Architect?
This is a list of FAQ:
What order should I read your Lachlan Fox series in?
If you’ve not read a Fox thriller before, I usually say start with the newest, eg RED ICE. The Lachlan Fox books can be read in any order, but may make more sense in chronological order as you’ll get a better feel for how Fox’s character develops and see all that he’s gone through. The dates as published, are:
FOX HUNT (2006)
PATRIOT ACT (2007)
BLOOD OIL (2008)
LIQUID GOLD (2009)
RED ICE (2010)
How about the Alone trilogy?
The ALONE trilogy needs to be read in order or there will be spoilers in the 2nd and 3rd books. So read in this order:
#1 CHASERS (2010)
#2 SURVIVOR (2011)
#3 QUARANTINE (2011)
Oh, and be warned: CHASERS has the biggest twist ending in any book ever; it might just blow your mind. Just might.
And The Last Thirteen?
TL13 should be read from book titled “13” and counting down to “1”. I know, confusing, right? All thirteen books were published by Scholastic between September 2013 and December 2014.
And the Jed Walker series?
You can go ahead and read them in any old order. The dates as published, are:
THE SPY (2013)
THE HUNTED (2014)
KILL SWITCH (2015)
DARK HEART (2016)
How do I book you to talk at my school or library?
See my contacts page about getting in touch with my speaker’s agency, or my publishers or agent if you are from a literary festival.
Can you send me a signed picture?
Not at this stage. Best you come along to a signing or talk and I’ll sign my author pic in the novel.
Have you published a short story collection?
No but my short stories have appeared in several anthologies.
Where can I get your books?
Check the books links on my site, or go to your local bookstore - or department store - they should have them. Or search online. Or – or – try the library.
Are they available as ebooks?
Yes. But why bother, really? Get a paper book and help store some carbon. What...
Are they available as audio?
The Lachlan Fox series is. Hopefully the others will be soon.
Do you answer reader’s questions via email?
Yes, when I get spare time every couple months. Or try me on Twitter. Or send a snail mail to one of my publishers.
In July 2007 and 2009 you were a guest speaker at Thrillerfest in New York, and 2013 at Bouchercon in Albany, NY. What are those thriller specific festivals like?
They’re great. Thrillerfest is one of the best festivals that I’ve been a part of. I got to meet and work with many writers whose work I admire and respect, such as Jeffery Deaver, Clive Cussler, Vince Flynn, Steve Berry, James Rollins, Lee Child, James Patterson… the list goes on. That festival is run by the International Thriller Writer’s Organization, which is a collective of thriller writers around the world. 2007 was their second annual festival and was a week full of valuable information and a great opportunity to build friendships. I’ve chaired panels, participated in talks and readings, listened to other novelists and industry professionals talk shop. They also have a bunch of military, intelligence and law enforcement types attending for us to pry information from. Bouchercon is equally as fun and awesome, and has a more crime-thriller focus, and many more fans turn up to whichever city is hosting it that year.
And you wrote THE COPPER BRACELET and WATCHLIST as a part of Thrillerfest?
Yes. They’re serial thrillers written by a bunch of us and available as a brilliant audio book via Audible, a printed book via Vanguard Press, and a video book via Vook.
You hold a Master of Arts in Writing, and a PhD in Young Adult literature, and have published academic non-fiction… so why a career writing popular fiction?
We all write in some genre or other, and most of my favourite stories whether novels or films have had a thrilling element driving the character.
There’s dozens of sub-genres of thrillers and Fox probably falls into techno-thrillers or political thrillers, like the work of John Le Care, Graham Greene, Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, Robert Ludlum. The Walker series is more suspense driven, such as the work of Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, and Ken Follett. All these are books that I grew up reading and loving, so that’s why I write in that area. My YA and Middle Grade fiction is all thrilling and suspenseful, and in the case of THE LAST THIRTEEN adventure-based, and I loved that sort to thing as a kid and wanted to make something exciting for the next generations of young boys and girls around the world. All of my work is steeped in reality, which is what I love, and within each novel there’s plenty to ponder about the world and history and politics and what it’s like to be human – if you want to. If not, sit back and enjoy the ride!
My thrillers contain other genres, romance, tragedy, comedy, etc, and I think the best of the pack do this, even those at the commercial end such as Puzo’s The Godfather, Eco’s Name of the Rose, and the films Casablanca and North By Northwest. I was drawn to the freedom that the thriller genre delivers to get across some interesting issues and themes in a thrilling framework. I love reading thrillers as I enjoy feeling that anticipation and suspense that as when the story is ripping along through twists and turns of misfortune. The global political landscape is something that I am very interested in, hence setting my thrillers predominantly in the US and locations that are often in the news. The themes that propel each story, such as WMD and the ‘Missile Shield (or Strategic Defence Initiative) in FOX HUNT, to the USA Patriot Act and the NSA’s eavesdropping programs in PATRIOT ACT, corruption around oil in BLOOD OIL, fresh water scarcity in LIQUID GOLD, international relations in RED ICE – these are all areas that I have a great time researching and then figuring out how to get that information across to my readers in an entertaining way.
Walker is all about the very new world we are in post Snowden and Assange, where we are more questioning and unsure of government than ever, while on the flip side the government is more pervasive and foreboding as ever. It’s a great time to be a suspense writer!
My ALONE trilogy started life as an antidote to other YA book out there. I wrote the first one in 2008, after meeting with my agent at Writer’s House and hearing about what the agency’s YA writers were doing. For me, it was a chance to put some terror and realism back into the dystopian and post-apocalyptic landscape of books out there – and became the backbone for my PhD in YA Literature.
THE LAST THIRTEEN came about when Scholastic approached me with a 13-book deal, published over 13 months, that would have appeal to boys as much as girls. I’d always wanted to write a BIG series about the dream world, and this was my chance.
How did Lachlan Fox come to be, and where did the idea of FOX HUNT come from?
I wanted to set up an ongoing protagonist and I knew he was going to be an investigative journalist for the first few novels. He needed some skills so that he could handle himself in every situation, and I wanted to show this hero’s journey before he got to that point that would occupy his life (and entertain reader’s) for some time. So I went in search of a good origin story, one that could highlight his background in the Navy while showing he was human enough to be affected by consequences in and out of his control. FOX HUNT became that story. The Star Wars Missile Shield, sometimes referred to as the Strategic Defence Initiative but that name changes under each administration, became the main element of the story when I wanted something that was post Cold War yet still somehow tied to that time – a time that I grew up in, and a time that I read so many thrillers set in. So, as my little homage to those great thriller writers of the second half of the twentieth century, FOX HUNT contained a Cold War legacy.
Why have Lachlan Fox working with the Global Syndicate of Reporters (GSR)?
I figure being in that job, Fox can be in all the hot spots that a spy or soldier could be in, yet he is not bound to serve his country like those positions would call for. I don’t like the idea of being constrained like that, to have to have a character that is working for the government that is often complicit in the events that I am writing about. And let’s face it, people are very distrusting their governments more than ever. Not that all journalists and news services are infallible and they certainly aren’t objective – objectivity in journalism is a myth – but I do like that idea that Fox is just after the truth, a kind of old-school archetypal white knight.
Why two the protagonists in Fox?
With Lachlan and Al, I knew I always wanted a partnership, to have a buddy series like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” or “Midnight Run” or “Lethal Weapon”. There are so many examples of the buddy film, but I hadn’t come across that many in novels that really work. When they do, like the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings or Sherlock Holmes, it’s a great storytelling device for a reader to enjoy. And when I thought of some of my favourite moments in cinema, what stood out was the relationship between friends and family. They’re the ones you can hurt the most, they’re the ones who are there for you. There’s so much scope for a writer in that relationship, so much drama, that in a way I feel like I’m cheating because I get to show so many sides to my main protagonist, Lachlan Fox, through his interactions with his friend. Fox and Alister Gammaldi were born before the story of Fox Hunt, and they came about mainly because they are opposites – Fox is determined to find out the truth at any cost, whereas Gammaldi is more interested in the preservation of both his and Fox’s life at all costs. I should point out that Gammaldi is based on my best mate from high school , and that in real life he’s just as dependable as in fiction.
How is Jed Walker (and that series) different to Lachlan Fox (and that series)?
Walker as a character is much more black and white than Fox. Lachlan Fox, and all he’s been through, is quite cynical (some might say a realist?), and he’d say something like “All wars are crimes.” Walker would say “War contains crime.” As a series style, Walker is more economic in writing style. And, Walker is American, and sees the world through that lens, rather than Fox’s Australian lens world-view. And I'd say the thriller style is more like Lee Child's suspense and contained narratives, rather than Tom Clancy's big-canvas geo-political view that I adopted for Fox.
How do you create characters?
There’s no one approach, and each brings with them the answers that are raised along the way of the story. When it comes to naming characters, I quite often cheat by using names of friends. Sometimes even their descriptions play a part but usually I let the reader make their own picture of each character rather than really spell out how each person looks. The characters in the first ALONE novel, Jesse’s three friends, were the hardest to write, for a reason that will be obvious to readers. In THE LAST THIRTEEN, I went though my travel journals and diaries from when i was young and created characters out of people I'd met around the world.
When and where do you write?
Before I was published, and I used to work office hours at a newspaper and write fiction at night and into the early hours of the morning. Since I’ve become published in 2006 - and quit my job the month before my first novel came out (or, as I prefer to think about int, retired at 25) - I do all my work either from home or a small office, I find that the early morning to early afternoon is my most creative time. I use my afternoons and evenings to do all the other little writing things that come along. My home is a converted warehouse in Melbourne, and I walk out my door to hundreds of great cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs – which can be a bit of a distraction at times… Sometimes, if my office is boring me or I start getting cabin fever, I take my MacBook and walk to the State Library or someplace different to my local area. Oh, and when I’m on book tour, which can add up to about 26 weeks a year, I write in hotels, cafes, airports, etc. Deadlines wait for no writer, though the late great Douglas Adams said it best: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."
Where do you get your ideas from?
I try to carry a notebook around at all times, in case inspiration strikes or an idea comes to me. It’s a great tool for a writer, as I can jot down overheard conversations or record something that I have seen. Every now and then I’ll flick through my notebooks and take and find something really useful that I’d completely forgotten about. The central ideas of my books generally come from world news and current affairs. The so called "Star Wars" Missile Shield in FOX HUNT appealed to me when I heard that Australia were joining the US in the system. The ramifications of the Patriot Act in my novel of the same name are extraordinary, and some similar laws were past here in Australia that, for a writer particularly, have worrying Big Brother-like hallmarks. The ALONE series started with the concept of teenagers in a war zone and went from there. THE LAST THIRTEEN is about the dream world, and the concept of writing about that came from my nightmares as a kid.
What research do you do for your novels?
I love the research component that goes into writing novels, and each new book means another world that I get to inhabit for a while. I read heaps of non-fiction, which I generally buy but sometimes find at a library. I go over interviews with people who have been in the situations that I am depicting in the pages of my books, and I talk to them if I can. With the military pieces I am lucky enough to know some people who have served, and since publication I have some military fans and I’ve visited some bases. I’m forever asking questions of people to fuel my stories. I've now established relationships with former members of the CIA, MI5, the Secret Service, and various military and law enforcement personnel.
The internet is an amazing tool if you can find your way around. There are heaps of honest and often very sad blogs and social media feeds written by the soldiers and civilians that are directly affected by the circumstances like those that I write about, and they help keep my stories grounded. I try harder and harder in each book to get an accurate portrayal of the lives that I am writing about, balancing that with a good, believable story. Suspending the reader’s disbelief, keeping the facts within the realm of entertaining fiction, is the fun part.
How much planning do you do for your novels?
For the Fox books, I make heaps of notes and figure out my main three act story points. When I’m working with the three parts and up to seven storylines in each book, I make sure I know who’s who, where they’ll be going, what they are after, etc. I need to know my characters motivation, the stakes involved, the hurdles ahead of them, and above all, I need to know where my story is going. I need to be sure that before I type anything, that I’ve written down what the end of the story is going to be. Once I know that destination, I may deviate from the hundred or so pages of notes but I will eventually get there. Also, once those notes are done (it may take a couple months of thinking and researching) I won’t look back at it, I just let the story unfold. The Walker novels are similar, but have a higher degree of suspense, as well as personal jeopardy for the characters involved.
The ALONE young adult trilogy was different in that I did virtually no research beyond reading some psychological texts on the stages of grief, and then I sat down and wrote the three books back-to-back.
THE LAST THIRTEEN was a year in the planning before I wrote the first novel. For that series I needed to know who was who and what their individual arcs would be, and being such a long series it took a lot of planning and research of setting and place. It took about three years to write all thirteen books.
Where can I get a signed copy of your book?
I frequently travel the country attending writer’s festivals and visit bookstores for signings. If you have no luck on that front, Hachette and Scholastic have bookplates on file (they’re basically official publisher’s stickers that I have signed and they can send them to you to insert into the book). Stay tuned to my social media as I do announce when I've visited a store and signed all the copies that they have.
When did you realise you wanted to be a writer?
As a teenager (around 15) when I read my first few current thrillers. I played around with some ideas through high school, and while at uni studying architecture, but it was not until 2001 that I decided to dedicate the time and effort to see if I could do it. Prior to this I had started two novels which were at various stages.
What were those books that inspired you?
The main book was PATRIOT GAMES – it got a huge amount of publicity thanks to the movie and I bought the first of the prints with Harrison Ford on the cover – proof of how much a movie deal can boost sales. I'd read thrillers before, but nothing that felt current, and certainly not percent. I then read and enjoyed the early works of Clancy, Cussler, Greene, Le Carre, Conrad, Grisham, Follett, Archer, Crichton, Flemming, Puzo, and many others.
Any tips for aspiring authors?
Here’s a few I’ve picked up and figured out along the way. They work for me, and one or two may work for you:
- Read as many good books as you can.
- Write. Then re-write, re-write, re-write.
- If I have a writing mantra it's: write fast, edit slow.
- Novels take me three months to write, then about the same time to edit. As the genius Stephen King says: "The first draft of a book- even a long one - should take no more than three months, the length of a season."
- I start each day by spending fifteen or twenty minutes reading what I'd done the previous day - about a minute per page. I do a quick edit, and it gets me into the right tone and rhythm and pace to begin the new writing. This also means that when I type THE END, I've actually finished my second draft.
- Editing is everything.
- Don’t wait for inspiration. Discipline is the key: it allows creative freedom. Every day that I sit down to write, a couple little moments will occur which I put down to "the magic of creativity"; these are the moments were the characters or story will come together or evolve in ways that you could never have imagined, the moments that smack readers upside the head.
- Never stop when you are stuck - write something else and you’ll figure it out.
- Always carry a notebook. I spend a few weeks plotting and planning my novels before I set out. I need to figure out my ending before I start writing from page one, so that I get my story to that ending - while making the journey hard for my characters.
- Avoid similes. I hate them and they are the sign of the lazy, boring writer. Cut them out. Be more direct. For example: ‘The sunset was like a field of red poppies.’ No. If you must: ‘The poppy red sunset.’ Much better. On this point, it reminds me of Strunk and White’s book, The Elements of Style, and their Rule 17: ‘Omit needless words.’ Of course, if you’re writing fiction then you can’t do that all the time otherwise you’d whittle your novel down to fifty pages instead of five hundred. Hell, why stop there – Hemingway wrote a six word story that has the power of a 6000 word short story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
- If you’re writing 3rd person, still show us the world you’re creating through a character’s POV. Even in my Fox books, which are third person omniscient, we see the weather and feel the pain through the character who’s chapter the omniscient POV is following. My Walker books are a closer third person. John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday makes the point when a character says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks.” The writer/reader relationship is a form a telepathy.
- First person narrative may make it easier to connect with the reader, but it comes with it’s own problems. No matter with style of POV you choose, you need a steadfast reason for choosing it. My novel ALONE: Chasers could only have worked with first person narration.
- Try not to use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue. The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. I only ever use said, though sometimes ‘asked’ and ‘answered’ work their way into the edits, and my editors try to sneak in some variations that make it through to the final copy, but use ‘said’ or better yet, nothing at all (which is easy if there’s just a couple people talking, harder if it’s a whole bunch of folks in the scene). Oh, and never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”, eg: ‘he admonished gravely’. That’s just terrible… but many editors at publishing houses will have their own styles on this point, so you fight the fights worth fighting. Again, you need to have your own convictions for why and how things are as they are in your work.
- Avoid detailed descriptions, whether characters or setting. Less is more (thanks to my architecture days at university for that one). My exception to this rule is that in my books I try to write and describe the slow stuff fast, and the fast stuff slow.
- Hold the reader’s attention. It's not hard, once you know how to do it. All my work has a suspense engine, and the way I design that is as simple as: I pose a question near the start, and delay the answer by some 500 or so pages.
- Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. That’s when the writing shines. Edit slow, remember?
- That said, don’t overwrite. Nothing worse. Make sure the story suits the character and POV.
- Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. Write what you need to write, not what is currently popular or what you think will sell.
- Write every day. Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Graham Greene wrote 500 words a day. Flemming did 2000 words a day on Bond, I think. Me? I prob average about 3000 - some days may be 1500, others 4000, there’s no specific word count for me, it’s a matter of working away at chapters/scenes until I think I’ve done enough. Hemingway used to say to stop writing when you know what’s coming next and you’re excited about it, so that the next day you can come back to it.
- Don’t write book reviews. Ever. That’s the work specialist critics. Do what you do well – fiction writing – and stick to it. I mean, really, you want to review your friends and enemies in broadsheet newspapers?
- Don’t take any crap, and take no notice of anyone you don’t respect. I like that one.
- Think and be still. Also a good one. Thinking time with a notebook and pen in a cafe or bar = fun times. I spend two months a year doing that.
- As Hemingway said, the writer needs to “Develop a built-in bullshit detector.” He also said: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Also remember his gunshot to the head, so perhaps do as he said, not war he did.
- Never write about a place until you’re away from it, because that gives you perspective. I wrote a crime novel set in Melbourne because that’s what one of my publishers asked for. It’s still on a hard-drive somewhere. Lesson learned.
- Get on with it - aka write the damned thing already!
- Don’t confuse honours with achievement. Awards have been nice, as have good reviews and sales and all that… but are you enjoying your job? Are you improving? Why are you writing? What’s driving you?
- Ignore advice about writing and throw out the rules. If being an author is your dream, live it.