http://www.martinroyhill.com/
When you're working on a book and a new idea pops up, should you pursue it immediately (also known as 'UP syndrome') or finish your current project first? What do you think is the best course of action?
I often work on two books at the same time. While I write one, I work on plotting the other. When I finished the first draft of the first book, I put it aside for several weeks before I start the second draft. During those weeks the first book is "simmering," I start writing the second book.
Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in [jobs/education] in your writing?
Definitely. The first sentence in my bio on my web site reads: “Martin Roy Hill has led an eclectic life. Soldier, sailor, journalist . . . well, not a spy, but he has written about them.”
Many writers put a little of themself into their favorite characters. For me, that’s my character Peter Brandt. Like Peter, I started my journalism career as a crime reporter for a daily newspaper and later became a national awarding-winning investigative journalist. Also, like Peter, between my journalism and military careers, I have a lot of ghosts that haunt me still. Many of Peter’s ghosts described in the novels are my ghosts. Again, like Peter, I have had to make peace not only with those ghosts but also with my own faults. And we both like to drink Scotch.
My twenty-plus years of service in three branches of the military reserves also impacts my writing, helping to provide a sense of realism that reviewers say is often missing in the writings of other thriller authors.
As an author, what critique has been the most challenging for you to receive? On the other hand, what compliment has been the most rewarding?
My late father-in-law, Robert Wade, was a well-known mystery writer and book critic. When he read a draft of my first novel, Empty Places, he pointed out I made Peter Brandt's ex-wife so unsympathetic that the reader would not believe Peter would set out to avenge her death. I completely rewrote that character so that in the end she becomes something of a hero herself. I believe it made Empty Places a much better book.
I think the best compliment I ever received was from a sci-fi reviewer who read my novella EDEN and said it was the first sci-fi story he'd ever read that so complete in just 100 pages. Usually, he said, it took sci-fi writers hundreds of pages and sometimes multiple books to complete a single story.
Was there anything you had to research for the book?
Most of my novels are inspired by historical events or current events. Codename: Parsifal was inspired by a real life search for the Spear of Destiny and the Holy Roman Empire relics at the end of WWII. My Peter Brandt mystery, The Fourth Rising, was inspired by actual Allied intelligence reports indicating the Nazi Party was already planning a comeback after Germany surrendered in 1945. My sci-fi/horror novel, Chimera Island, is based on current theories in modern physics regarding multiple dimensions.
In all of these and other books, I had to do a lot of research. But as a former investigative journalist and, later, a military analyst, research comes as second nature to me.
Are any of the characters in your book based on people in your real life? If so, can you tell us more about that process and how it influenced your writing?
Many of the characters in my books were inspired by people I've known, or a combination of people I've known. Sometimes it's just a physical description. Sometimes it's a character's background or back story. In my WWII thriller, Codename: Parsifal, several of the characters are historical figures and I try to keep true to life in their backgrounds.
http://www.martinroyhill.com/
When you're working on a book and a new idea pops up, should you pursue it immediately (also known as 'UP syndrome') or finish your current project first? What do you think is the best course of action?
I often work on two books at the same time. While I write one, I work on plotting the other. When I finished the first draft of the first book, I put it aside for several weeks before I start the second draft. During those weeks the first book is "simmering," I start writing the second book.
Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in [jobs/education] in your writing?
Definitely. The first sentence in my bio on my web site reads: “Martin Roy Hill has led an eclectic life. Soldier, sailor, journalist . . . well, not a spy, but he has written about them.”
Many writers put a little of themself into their favorite characters. For me, that’s my character Peter Brandt. Like Peter, I started my journalism career as a crime reporter for a daily newspaper and later became a national awarding-winning investigative journalist. Also, like Peter, between my journalism and military careers, I have a lot of ghosts that haunt me still. Many of Peter’s ghosts described in the novels are my ghosts. Again, like Peter, I have had to make peace not only with those ghosts but also with my own faults. And we both like to drink Scotch.
My twenty-plus years of service in three branches of the military reserves also impacts my writing, helping to provide a sense of realism that reviewers say is often missing in the writings of other thriller authors.
As an author, what critique has been the most challenging for you to receive? On the other hand, what compliment has been the most rewarding?
My late father-in-law, Robert Wade, was a well-known mystery writer and book critic. When he read a draft of my first novel, Empty Places, he pointed out I made Peter Brandt's ex-wife so unsympathetic that the reader would not believe Peter would set out to avenge her death. I completely rewrote that character so that in the end she becomes something of a hero herself. I believe it made Empty Places a much better book.
I think the best compliment I ever received was from a sci-fi reviewer who read my novella EDEN and said it was the first sci-fi story he'd ever read that so complete in just 100 pages. Usually, he said, it took sci-fi writers hundreds of pages and sometimes multiple books to complete a single story.
Was there anything you had to research for the book?
Most of my novels are inspired by historical events or current events. Codename: Parsifal was inspired by a real life search for the Spear of Destiny and the Holy Roman Empire relics at the end of WWII. My Peter Brandt mystery, The Fourth Rising, was inspired by actual Allied intelligence reports indicating the Nazi Party was already planning a comeback after Germany surrendered in 1945. My sci-fi/horror novel, Chimera Island, is based on current theories in modern physics regarding multiple dimensions.
In all of these and other books, I had to do a lot of research. But as a former investigative journalist and, later, a military analyst, research comes as second nature to me.
Are any of the characters in your book based on people in your real life? If so, can you tell us more about that process and how it influenced your writing?
Many of the characters in my books were inspired by people I've known, or a combination of people I've known. Sometimes it's just a physical description. Sometimes it's a character's background or back story. In my WWII thriller, Codename: Parsifal, several of the characters are historical figures and I try to keep true to life in their backgrounds.