What do you hope people get from this novel?
Above all, escapism. When I read a book I like it to transport my imagination to another place for a while. I want to be a fly in the wall on someone else's adventure — or in the case of Major BS: A Top Secret Mission a misadventure. I don't aim for canned laughter or a laugh on every page, but hopefully the reader will get an occasional giggle.
What was the inspiration for your main character, Major Jeremy Billycock-Smythe?
About 10 years ago I wrote a series of columns about him and these went down well with readers all over the world on my mailing list. Major BS was a former British mercenary who had settled in Australia and started a company called Trojan Tours. He was always putting his foot in it. I guess it was black humour.
Is your book black?
I don't think so. Grey, maybe. Gray, as far as American readers are concerned. A couple of animals meet tragic ends in the book but no people actually die. (I should add a rider, shouldn't I? No people were actually harmed in this book, but unfortunately animals, albeit fictional, do die horribly) The ending of the novel isn't especiallly rosy for everyone concerned. An American woman who read the book pre-publication wondered whether it had to end as it did. I don't know. I like to err on the otpimistic side but maybe it is black humour, after all.
What can you tell us about Major BS?
Not much. As he'd say, it's on a need-to-know basis. Top secret. If I told you he might have to shoot you, what. I can say I rather like character-driven stories and I thought Major BS was an interesting type even as a cardboard cutout in those old stories of mine. For this novel, I just tried to put some flesh on his bones, make him real with mannerisms and motivations and flaws. Lots of flaws. And one or two redeeming features too.
Is he based on anyone who you know?
Not at all but I'm sure most readers will think he's like someone they know. He's a character type-— charismatic and full of confidence, but with more drive than ability. We all know those types.
You labelled your orginal columns as satirical. Is this novel satirical too?
l never intended it to be. Look, the book touches on some current issues such as energy, water, and people smuggling and illegal immigration and the characters obviously have their own opinions on those matters. But my job was to find humour in some of those things, without trivialising them. If readers want to label this book as satire, I can't stop them. If they can't find a single laugh in the novel, I can't help that either. A lot of this stuff is subjective. Who knows, someone might label the novel a Romance. Go figure.
Where do your ideas come from?
I have been a newspaper journalist for more than 30 years — up and down the eastern seaboard and in the Pacific. So I have a 30-year database of characters and ideas to draw from. I can't tell you how many public meetings I've covered, politicans, business people, sportsmen and dickheads I've had to takre seriously. Have I met Major BS types? Well absolutely. I guess he's an amalgam of many, many people.
What about the other main characters? Where did they come from?
Same place: my imagination and that 30-year database. I realised early on that one character wouldn't cut it. I needed others, sometimes with conflicting goals. I needed creative tension otherwise who would read on but my mum. The main supporting cast include Billy Baxter, also a former soldier and mercenary from South London; Sir Rex Ruthless, a media magnate from Yorkshire; Johanna Trim, a newspaper journalist from Canberra; and Molly Rowbottom, Major BS's Australian wife who is descended from one of the colony's sheep-raising pioneer bigwigs.
How long did it take you to write this book?
A couple of years in my spare time, after work and at weekend. I started it a few days after I was dumped from writing a daily column in the Canberra Times called CC. I had plenty of notice. The new editor called me in and told me seeing as I was going on holidays to make that column my last. I'm not bitter about that. Editors are employed to put their own stamp on things and tiny vision for my patch of the paper did not fit in with his broader vision. Shit happens. But I had enjoyed doing the column for more than a year, I knew it was well read and I simply looked for another project to invest with my creative energy. This is it
Why did you go down the print-on-demand route rather than a traditional publisher?
The truth is I tried that route and I was rejected time after time. I finally realised that life is too short to send a manuscript away for three months at a time only to get a rejection notice at the end of it. I firmly believe that you don't wait for the ball to bounce to you but you go and get the ball. So I got proactive and went POD. This does not mean that POD publishers like mine will publish anything. Ilike to think they are discerning, but a bit more willing to chance their arms. Hopefully, readers will find my novel enjoyable.
Are there advantages with POD?
My publisher is set up to take advantage of the vast reach of the internet. You can order online and he will mail the book to you wherever you are. I'm thinking global more than local, particularly in England which has sporned some of my key characters. Just one sale overseas would be a triumph. In 1994 I wrote and self-published a novel called Apples in Tasmania (now that was a satire: about the hunt for the Tasmanian Tiger, greed and power), selling only about half of the 500 books I had printed (and purely to locals though I' ve since sold a few copies via my web site to the US and Canada). The rest of the books are still stored away in a dark, damp place. I'm not a hard-line greenie but I'd say that's a waste of a perfectly good tree (of a bit of it, at least).
So how many books do you think you'll sell this time?
No idea, and I don't stay awake at night worrying. What will be, will be and I can't influence the future. I've done my job writing the book, the publisher has done his job by printing it, now it's up to you people. Anyway, I will rate my success on how many people read the book and the feedback I get, not by how many buy it. When I published my last book, a collection of shorter columns called How Much Is That Scorpion In The Window ? the biggest buzz I got was an email from an elderly lady in South Australia who told me how much she had enjoyed the stories. She said she had borrowed the book from her local library where she had been in a long waiting list for it. That will do me. I don't care how many of this latest book I sell. Lend, lend, lend. Write to your local library and recommend it. I want to see it in second-hand stores. Bookcrossers can give it away. I'd just be heartened to get the odd grateful email and to know that something that came out of my imagination strikes a chord with someone else.
Have you started on another writing project?
Well, yes. It's also a comic fiction work and is tentatively called An Arsonist of Letters. It's in the very early stages so who knows what it will be called when it's finished? I wrote Major BS: A Top-Secret Mission in the varied third person; this one at the moment is in the first person. That viewpoint has its challenges but advantages too. I'm finding it interesting.