Modern Wizardry - I'm interviewed by Helen Hanson

I was interviewed by Helen Hanson about The Emerald City, inspiration, and a mess of other stuff:

http://www.helenhanson.com/interviews/modern-wizard-j-a-beard-author-of-the-emerald-city/

Alzheimer's, Forty-billion missing dollars, and Russian Gangsters: An interview with thriller author Helen Hanson

Today, I'm welcoming back thriller author Helen Hanson. After reviewing and enjoying her book 3 Lies at Good Book Alert, I previously invited her over for an interview. She just released a new thriller, Dark Pool, and I've invited her back again for another interview.

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1) Tell us about your book.

To me, DARK POOL is a novel about the expectations we make in life. We tend to gauge our happiness or success by how well those expectations are met.  But we don’t always get a vote regarding our circumstances.

Here’s the official pixel-and-dust jacket blurb:

~ Forty Billion Reasons to Kill

By this time in her life, Maggie Fender expected to be on her way to law school. Instead she’s far from any degree, waiting tables to support her teenage half-brother and their ailing father. With early onset Alzheimer’s, her father’s lucid moments are few and unpredictable.

Her brother’s legal defense for felony hacking charges strained their finances to a snap. In spite of the conviction, he claims he was framed. But now that he’s on parole, he also claims their father is sending them messages.

Maggie’s tired of the struggle, but she’s everybody’s legal guardian. Slowing down will lead to disaster. She can hustle. Or face financial ruin.

This isn’t the life she envisioned.

In the news, disgraced hedge fund manager Patty O’Mara awaits trial for bilking investors out of forty billion dollars. The legendary dark pool wizard offered phenomenal profits until the SEC examined his books. Then they discovered O’Mara didn’t make any legitimate trades on the market.

O’Mara ran his hedge fund the way Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff ran theirs. It was all a fraud.

One wealthy investor rallies the troop of irate victims by hiring a noted private investigator to find the missing pot of gold. A Russian mobster, out thirty million in cash, prefers to search for the money alone and without witnesses. Their competing efforts sift the same set of facts.

So why are they interested in Maggie Fender’s incoherent father?

While SEC officials try to rebuild credibility for allowing the financial scandal to rage unchecked, the private investigator and the Russian mobster vie to answer a solitary question:

What happened to all that money? 

2) Your last book was a twist on fears of terrorism. This book is more a twist on the fear of Wall Street "fat cats" as it were. Anyone reading the book can't escape the parallels to Bernie Madoff. Was this book directly inspired by Madoff's Ponzi scheme or did you already have a similar idea when the Madoff scandal broke?

I was pondering a plot with a financial element when the Bernie Madoff scandal hit the wires.  His incredible story certainly fueled mine.  I liken his offense to that of a poisoner.  Poisoners are typically women and are often wives who murder their husbands over a long period of time.  She’ll feed him a little arsenic every day with his breakfast burrito, and then scurry to the store for Maalox when his tummy is upset.  She’s right by his side simmering with evil as his life slowly bleeds.  

How does a human do that to another?  I get shooting someone in the head.  Blam! It’s quick and requires little aforethought.  Regret may or may not follow.

But Bernie Madoff assumed a fiduciary responsibility to protect the financial assets of his clients.  As such, he bore a legal and moral obligation to be faithful to his client’s trust, to the point of putting their needs above his own. Instead, it was an investment travesty.  There were some high-profile victims, such as Steven Spielberg, but not all of his victims were able to absorb such a stunning loss.  Entire life savings were wiped out because of one man’s megalomaniacal greed. Positively egregious and, yet, fascinating.

Whether through gross incompetence or outright corruption, the SEC let him continue the slaughter for years.  They failed abysmally to uphold their duty to the people.  I think they should have cells adjoining Madoff’s. 

3) You have an appearance of a character from your previous novel, 3 Lies, in this book. Why do you choose to have the cross-over?

I view my story world as contiguous from one work to the next.  While timelines and locations shift, the people from one novel exist in the realm of the others.   For instance, Travis from Dark Pool was arrested for hacking about the time that Beth from 3 Lies started dialysis. 

If I ever write a science fiction novel, I may have to change this practice.  I don’t envision Maggie Fender battling Nausicaans on Risa.  But if she did, I suspect she would kick butt.

4) One thing that struck me about Dark Pool is the primary protagonists are on the younger side compared to what we saw in 3 Lies. Why did you choose to go that route? Plot-wise you could have told the same story focusing on say, a thirty-something sister and brother.

The “failure to launch” syndrome intrigues me because we typically bear some level of responsibility by the time we hit thirty. It’s the anomalous bloke who finds a way ‘round that fact. This isn’t the case with newly-minted adults.  For them it’s a stage of introspection and self-interest.  It’s a time to figure out their role in life or at least decide which step to take next.  Plus their experience in managing their environment is usually limited.  With Maggie at 22 and Travis at 15, they haven’t had an opportunity to launch.  Caring for their ailing father requires them to step up their game in ways they never expected.

5) Did you find it more difficult to write Dark Pool? The nature of the tension is rather different than what we saw in 3 Lies.

Dark Pool is a more personal story for me in many ways because I lost my father to Alzheimer’s. After my mother passed on, his condition spiraled, and his timeline ceased to be linear.  He’d want to visit people who were long gone.  One time, he asked my sister, “Who was that woman?” after I left the room.  I often wondered what he experienced from his side of the chasm.

Some of us get a glimpse of our future. But not everyone who does so is of the mindset to exploit the advantage.   I liked the idea of Martin Fender preparing for his own demise. 

6) Is there anything you learned from writing 3 Lies that you applied to Dark Pool?

I’m a planner by nature, so my systems for keeping track of storylines, characters, locations, et cetera are much cleaner now.  I know what works and what makes my head spin.  When editing 3 Lies, I compiled a list of my obvious personal excesses as a writer.  I tried to keep these in mind when I wrote my first draft of Dark Pool and used them as a filter on my last.

As an indie writer, the book isn’t finished when you type the final word.  After writing 3 Lies, I still had to deliver it to readers somehow, so I figured out how to format four different editions, and I put them up for sale at five different venues.  I even learned how to prep a cover for the paperback edition.  Each step was another curve to negotiate. With Dark Pool, it took very little time to actually publish.  And I no longer feared the process. 

Except marketing.  I still fear marketing.  Sometimes I feel like I’m standing under the lamp post wearing a halter and a mini yelling, “Hey, sailor. Wanna buy my book?”

7) You have financial/legal conspiracy and international espionage covered. What's next for you? Will anyone from 3 Lies and Dark Pool make it into your next book?

I suspect someone from 3 Lies or Dark Pool will make an appearance in my next novel.  I’m not certain who that might be, yet.  The protagonist of my current project isn’t a pillar of any community.  Baxter Cruise is a perpetual college student who makes his living by filling your in-box with spam.  Well someone has to do it.

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Thanks, Helen.

If you'd like to see more from Helen, please visit her website at http://www.helenhanson.com.

Dark Pool can be purchased at a variety of vendors but here at the links Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and here are the Amazon and Barnes and Noble for 3 Lies.

Interview: Helen Hanson, author of 3 Lies

This week over at Good Book Alert, I reviewed Helen Hanson's thriller, 3 Lies. I enjoyed it so much, I invited Helen over for a little interview so I could pick her brain a bit more about the book.

1) Please tell us about your novel.

At CIA headquarters, a young officer discovers that terrorists may have commandeered their computer systems to launch an unauthorized mission. Elsewhere, conspirators abduct nine people to manipulate the rules of their game. Two disparate ambitions — Clint Masters becomes the reluctant link in the chain of danger.

Ever since Clint’s almost ex-wife dumped him, he bobs along the Massachusetts coast in a sailboat with his black lab for company. He avoids all forms of technology, a counterintuitive effort for the burned-out founder of CatSat Laboratories. Tired of clutching the brass ring, he needed to untether, step off the corporate treadmill, and smell a flower. Fortunately, he met one, a beautiful, unspoiled woman who doesn’t treat him like a commodity. His relationship with Beth offers more promise than his marriage ever did, even if she is on dialysis for her recovering kidneys, until she disappears.

In spite of the evidence, her family refuses to admit she’s in danger. Without routine dialysis, she won’t survive. As Clint realizes that he loves Beth, damn-near ex-wife Paige sashays back into his life with disturbing news.

While the CIA young gun tracks his quarry, Clint enlists the help of two men to find Beth, a blithe Brit named Merlin, and Todd, his playboy partner-in-tech. But Clint must find Beth before her kidneys fail. And before someone unloads a bullet in his head.

2) What was your inspiration for this novel?

We live with a level of convenience and comfort unimaginable in prior centuries.  My husband and son visited Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield, IL home, and the man had a three-hole outhouse. Yet, all our technology and connectedness create tethers that generate a constant level of tension.  For some it’s a comfortable companion, but for others it can form another set of chains.  I know it’s unrealistic to think that life was idyllic at any point or place in history, but I occasionally pine for more simplicity.  However, I am immensely grateful for the strides of modern medicine, as is  my character Beth.

3) In this book, you have a character kidnapped who requires dialysis. This element added an unusual tension to the search for the character. What made you decide to include this as a character aspect?

We all meet someone with chronic illness, eventually.  How we treat them reveals our character. And while they may be down, we must never count them out for good.  A friend of mine has a condition that could lead to reduced kidney function.  In studying this, I made some discoveries that altered my assumptions about the dialysis process.  The first successful dialysis treatment occurred in 1945, and while the basic process remains the same, the equipment has vastly improved. Research always sparks my story lines. 

4) Given the way the book ends, I can easily see a sequel featuring some of the characters introduced in 3 Lies. Are you working or do you plan to work on a sequel? 

Currently, I’m final-editing DEEP POOL, and it does contain one of the characters from 3 LIES in a minor role.  So far all my stories exist within the same timeline, consequently, my characters have opportunity to meet.  I’ve given thought to a sequel, but Maggie and Travis Fender, from DEEP POOL, were anxious for me to tell their story next.  Travis is fresh from jail for hacking, but maintains that he was framed. His step-sister, Maggie, a struggling waitress, is legal guardian to Travis and their father who has Alzheimer’s.  After billions of hedge fund investment dollars go missing,  investigators and mobsters decide that the Fenders merit watching. 

5) There are some fairly obscure aspects of technology involved in several key scenes in the book. Were these informed by your background or research? 

Background, research, and imagination.  The premise presented, regarding satellite technology, is not entirely factual, to my knowledge.  It is a science fiction element that is theoretically plausible.  I’ve worked in technology fields my entire professional career, so it spills over into my writing.  Marrying a bigger geek than myself offers another brain for mining.  That said, since the book came out, I’ve encountered some articles on the web that indicate the techno ideas may actually be in operation.  However, I’m still waiting for my replicator . . . 

6) Are there any authors who have influenced you?

If you read, you’re influenced, whether pro or con or positively or negatively.  As a writer, every book you read binds another protein to your DNA, though some you may wish to excise.  My gratitude to other writers started with Dr. Seuss, who gave me a  love for silly and a delight for the rhythm of words, and progressed to John le Carré, who gave us George Smiley and a glimpse into the dreary world of spies.   

7) Tell us a little about your writing process?

I start with a basic premise and the main character, and then I create a timeline of events.  As I research, I add points along the timeline and list ideas for consideration.  My plan is more of a list of possibilities rather than a specific outline.  I need details for a few chapters out from wherever I am, then I write it and see what happened.   I liken the process to taking a road trip from New York to Los Angeles; I know where I’m going, but I’ll decide which attractions to visit after I’m driving.  Maybe I’ll want to check out an albino squirrel or eat the world’s biggest turnip.  Too much planning and you lose your own sense of adventure. 

8) If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring author, what would it be?

Read books on writing until the information oozes onto your page.  Find other writers who will come alongside you and tell you what works and what doesn’t.  You want people to help you strengthen your voice and corral your excesses.   Sorry, I guess that’s really two. 

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Thanks, Helen.

For those who are interested in a great thriller, you can purchase 3 Lies at a variety of vendors:

Amazon

Amazon UK

Smashwords

iBooks

Barnes and Noble

Good Book Alert Review: 3 Lies

Over at Good Book Alert, I review Helen Hanson's thriller, 3 Lies.