What
genre do you write and why?
I’m writing a trilogy of
dark, gritty suspense novels with comic undertones. I chose the suspense genre
because I’m fascinated by the mechanics of telling a story that holds a
reader’s interest throughout.
 |
| http://amzn.to/2lurPkr |
Tell us about your
latest book.
Fever Tree is the first book of a trilogy about
a group of expatriates – Vietnam
veterans, hippies, struggling artists – who meet in a village in the Yucatan Peninsula
in the early seventies, outsiders whose lives, long after they leave Mexico
What formats is the
book available in?
As a trade paperback and also in various e-versions.
Who are your favourite
authors?
That would be a long list, so I’ll just name a
few. Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, James M. Cain, Patricia Highsmith
(particularly the Ripley books), and Thomas McGuane.
Where can people find
out more about you and your writing?
At my new website, www.timapplegate.net
Who
is you favorite character in your book and why?
The character that anchors
Fever Tree (as well as the other books in the trilogy) is Dieter, so naturally
he’s the one I relate to the most. But there’s also a character named Colt
Taylor I’m very fond of. On the surface, Colt is unappealing: vain,
egotistical, violent. And yet despite all the negative aspects of Colt’s
personality, I was determined to make readers sympathize with him, the way
Patricia Highsmith makes us sympathize with Ripley. In my personal life I’ve
known dozens of Colt Taylors, guys who make awful choices and then pay for
those choices again and again. And just like them, I wanted Colt to be a tragic
figure, a failure with good intentions, a loser with a big, broken heart.
Why
do you think readers are going to enjoy your book?
Because it’s a fast,
sometimes darkly humorous story that’s written in a narrative style that
combines my background as a poet with the more formulaic conventions of the
suspense genre. But above all I hope they identify with the characters, laugh
with them when they’re happy and empathize with them when they grieve.
How long did it take
you to write your book?
Two years.
Where
can a reader purchase your book?
At all of the usual online
outlets – Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie Bound, Kobo etc. – as well as their
neighborhood bookstores. If it’s not on the shelves of a particular bookstore,
the bookseller can always order it through the national distributor that my
publisher, Amberjack Publishing, uses.
What are you
currently reading?
James Sallis’s Lew Griffin novels set in New Orleans
