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Sanctuary Interview |
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Amazon.com Blog
August 7, 2007 Well, here I am, on hold, in some kind of writer’s post-natal twilight zone—actually a really enjoyable place to be, if a little restless: new book finished, actual physical copies of it now in my hands fresh from the printers, and waiting for it to hit the shelves in a couple of weeks. A weird feeling of waking up each day without a writing goal in mind, just enjoying time drifting by, catching up with family, friends, and all the stuff I’ve missed out on over the winter and spring—stacks of unread newspaper and magazine articles, movies, Tivo-ed TV shows, Prison Break and Entourage DVDs, creating freaky Miis with my kids on their Wii, and reading novels. Lots of novels. Not books for research, just novels for the sheer pleasure of it (I’m currently enjoying Brad Meltzer’s The Book of Fate, after finishing Richard Matheson’s 7 Steps to Midnight). (A quick note on Matheson: what an unbelievable range … masterly works in so many different genres. A true inspiration, and worth a rediscovery, especially with the upcoming remake of I Am Legend, with Will Smith this time, about to hit the screens). Right now is, for me, hugely different to the routine of the last… year, really. From all the historic and medical research for Sanctuary last spring, while dreaming up the story, to sitting down to write it in early October, to delivering the manuscript in May. Without a doubt, the most challenging and fulfilling thing I’ve ever done in my life—professionally speaking, anyway. And right now, much as I’m enjoying my break, I’m just itching to repeat the experience. Which will happen soon enough. Sanctuary’s been a different kind of ride for me. I’d written The Last Templar in my free time from what I would call my ‘day job,’ which was working on screenplays like those of the TV series Spooks (MI:5 in the US), over a period of three years. Screenplays took, at most, six months of work if they were for movies or miniseries, to, in some extreme cases for some TV episodes, two weeks from typing “Fade In” to cameras rolling. Writing Sanctuary, on the other hand, was a totally immersive experience, a ‘cone of silence’ of concentration for over a year. Everything took a back seat to it, not by design, but it just did. It’s as if the story, once it reveals itself, takes on a life of its own. It takes over your life, your thoughts, your dreams. You constantly feel like you’re not totally there, no matter what else you’re doing or who you’re with—part of your brain is always locked on it, diverted and distracted—hijacked—by it, mulling it over, churning away at the plot twists and the decisions that need to be taken, mentally writing chapters yet to be written. And then, you hit the keyboard, and the pleasure of the words popping up on the screen takes over, and you find it hard to tear yourself away until you really, really have to. In my acknowledgements at the back of the book, I thank my wife for sharing me with Mia, Corben, Evelyn and the rest of the characters in the book. And it really felt like that, like they were a physical part of our lives. It was all the more visceral because I chose to set a lot of the contemporary part of the book in Beirut, in October 2006—which is when I was writing it. And imagining the characters actually out there, living through whatever nightmare I was putting them through in real time, on the same day I was writing it, was a new experience for me—and made the connection to the words appearing on my screen even stronger. Researching it was a lot of fun, both for the historic parts of the book that are scattered around different places and time periods, and the medical research concerning the issue at the book’s core. It’s always a magic moment for a writer when things fall into place as if by design, and it started to happen early on in my research when I found out that Di Sangro and the count, both of whom were characters I’d been wanting to write about, were virtually exact contemporaries. I’ll try and put some info and photos of Di Sangro’s great chapel in Naples, and of the castle of Tomar in Portugal, here soon. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and, if you’ve read The Last Templar, a huge thanks for the breathtaking reception you gave it and all the fabulous letters and emails you’ve sent in about it. And much as I still love Templar, I’m even prouder of Sanctuary—but then, I guess every writer feels that way about his new baby. Keep well, Raymond |