Jack Cannon's American Destiny

Rachel Thompson

Monday, June 3, 2013

Author Interview - Nhys Glover

Do you intend to make writing a career? Yes

Have you developed a specific writing style? Not really. I don’t think about style when I write. I just try to say what needs saying in the most effective way. It’s like asking a centipede how it walks. If I tried to analyse my style I’d fall flat on my verbal face.

What is your greatest strength as a writer? Stepping out of mainstream and following my Muse rather than what the ‘market’ says it wants. (Or is told it wants!)

Have you ever had writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it? I got writer’s block every time I tried to write the way someone else said I should write, or expected me to write. I see this happening in a lot of writing classes. You have to give yourself permission to write whatever comes to you, trusting that there’s a reader out there who is waiting to read it. You can make it ‘right’ later…

Can you share a little of your current work with us? Barbarian’s Mistress has been so successful so I thought I’d go back to Rome for another extended imaginary holiday. It’s called Lionslayers Woman and has lots of adventure, lots of romance, and lots of places to see around the Aegean and Eastern Roman Empire. I’ve also been tidying up a ghost story I wrote when I first came to England. It’s called The Way Home and has morphed into something quite symbolic and moving, I think. I hope to get that out shortly.

How did you come up with the title? (For The Titan Drowns?) Titles are always tough. I usually start with a Working Title and then when the book is finished to first draft I have a better idea about the true content, and thus can assign a more fitting title. This one was the Titanic book until it was finished and then, as I felt that the ship itself had become the most powerful character, I anthropomorphised her… so she doesn’t sink, she drowns.

Can you tell us about your main character? There are six main characters who become the eyes and ears of the journey. Karl has been in most of the earlier books, and I always liked him. So I decided he deserved a chance to find happiness with Lizzie, who is very much a woman of her time, struggling with the stigma of an unwanted pregnancy. Then there’s another New Atlantean, Eilish, a feisty hedonistic, who sweeps Max, the very stuffy solicitor off his feet. Lastly there’s my favourite couple, insecure Pia and Marco, the too-good-looking-for-his-own-good Italian waiter. Each character from that time belongs to a different class as the ship so clearly designates: Max in First, Lizzie in Second and Marco in Third Class, while the Retrievers cross the class barriers figuratively and literally as they attempt to save the victims from their fate. I wanted to be able to see the journey from as many perspectives as I could without losing the emotional investment in the lovers.

How did you develop your plot and characters? The plot was simple – rescue children from the Titanic before it sinks. The subplots just evolved as the larger story played out. I decided the Titanic would make a good place for my New Atlanteans to Retrieve from. After all, over a thousand people ‘disappeared’ that night. Then I decided I wanted to have a variety of perspectives or POV across all the echelons of society on-board. Then I did the research. By the time I had my head around the whole period and very specifically this journey, the characters had started to present to me. A bit like kids in a class putting up their hands saying, ‘Pick me, pick me!’ So I did, and I told their stories as they took part in those last days of the Titanic.

Three loves are discovered as the clock counts down to 11.40 pm April 14, 1912. Karl Ontario is a medical researcher not an adventurer but when an audacious mission is proposed to go back in time to save doomed children on the ill-fated Atlantic liner, RMS Titanic, he makes sure he’s included on the team. Little does he realise that his own future happiness depends on saving the life of just one passenger: Lizzie Faulkner, an unwed mother-to-be.

Eilish Cork is a time travelling Retriever and this mission is like any other to her until she falls in love with her handsome Target, London barrister Maxwell Ingham, and is asked to risk everything to save him from his fate on the maiden voyage of that tragic ship.
And sweet Pia Rogaland, whose only goal is to rescue the children on board the Titanic until she meets Marco Lorenza, a man she’s not permitted to save.

With time running out, is it possible to rescue those victims history determined went down with the unsinkable Ship of Dreams or will more lives be forfeited trying to carry out this dangerous mission?

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Romance

Rating – Between PG13 and R (sensual but not erotic)

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Nhys Glover on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://nhysglover.com/

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