BookWenches

Interviewed by Bobby

Today I have the pleasure of chatting with Geoffrey Knight, author of the Fathom's Five series of adventures. Thanks for stopping for a chat, Geoff!

I recently had the opportunity to read your two Fathom’s Five novels and thought that they were a lot of fun. Tell me, what inspired you to write these stories?

Fathom's Five pretty much came from my own desire to read an adventure novel with hunky gay characters and erotic gay sex. I'm a fan of easy-to-read, page-turning escapism, I love Clive Cussler and Dan Brown novels. But I'm always left feeling a little empty and alienated because there's never any love interest that I can really relate to. So I decided to write the kind of books that I wanted to read. Afterall, gay men love car chases and edge-of-the-seat action too. I wanted to give gay audiences the kind of runaway story that straight audiences have been enjoying for decades.

These books have so much going on in them, characters dashing all over the globe, each with his own story and conflicts. How do you keep it all straight?

With a lot of planning, which I have to admit is my favorite part of the entire process. Coming up with locations and figuring out who is doing what and where is a blast. It's like weaving a tapestry. Every stitch has to be in the right place. I probably spend as much time plotting my books as I do writing them, but I have a lot of fun in the process. I also love planting little clues and backstories that pop up in later books as major storylines. The secret of Luca's past is a great example of that—when all is revealed it'll hopefully blow you away. Another one is the appearance of the Professor's arch-enemy Caro Sholtez. He kickstarts The Riddle of the Sands and mentions a clue that is the major plot of Book 4, The End of Time. Every book is filled with little clues and hints to other storylines. It's like searching for Easter Eggs! If you read something that appears to have no relevance or seems out of context, take note of it! It'll pay off later!

You set your stories in locales all over the globe – Siberia, the Amazon, Egypt, Turkey, Venice… What kind of research did you conduct on these places, because they all felt quite realistic to me. Something makes me think that you might be writing from experience -- have you visited any of these locations?

I do love to travel and sometimes I write from experience, but I don't limit my stories to places I've been. Sometimes I do as much homework as I can (I love thumbing through Lonely Planet guides and one of my favorite books is 1001 Places to See Before You Die). One thing I like to do is take a location and then embellish it, really bring out the sights and smells and colors and sounds as much as possible. I think of it like art direction or set-building for a movie. I try to romanticize places and recreate what's iconic about a certain place. If I'm taking you down the Nile, I want to fill it with feluccas gliding on glass-still water just for you. If I'm taking you into the Amazon I want you to hear the wildlife and feel the thick sticky air and the sweat trickling down the back of your neck. Dressing the scene and putting you in the picture is one of my main goals when writing.

Can you give us a sneak peek into what the future holds for your Fathom’s Five heroes?

Happily, and teasingly! The third book, The Curse of the Dragon, takes the boys on a rollercoaster diamond chase through China. It also kickstarts a major storyline that builds throughout Book 4, The End of Time, and reaches a climax in Book 5, The Tears of the Golden Tiger. There are a lot of ripple effects happening over the course of the next few books. The layers of Luca's past will slowly peel away; a love affair begins to grow between two of my main characters; and Book 4, The End of Time, will end with the death of one of my five sexy hunks! Who will it be? My lips are sealed!

Not only do you write under the name Geoffrey Knight, but you have also penned a few shorter tales as A. J. Ryan. What caused you to write under a different name as well?

Although the A.J. Ryan stories are also gay erotica, I wanted to give the Fathom's Five series a chance to stand on their own. I wanted my real name, Geoffrey Knight, to be known for gay adventure. A.J., on the other hand, covers anything from gay horror to gay comedy.

As A. J. Ryan, you have created a different type of vampire for your Vampire’s Lair stories. Tell me a little about these creatures and their surreal world.

I'm really pleased you think A.J.'s vampires are a different type of vampire. The vampire genre is so well-worn I think you really need to try to come at it from a different angle to make it worth your while. My vampire mythology is based on the notion that the vampire breed consists of Hunters (who are aggressive), Healers (who are here to help) and Gatherers (who are servants of either Hunters or Healers, whose task it is to gather mortals to join the vampire breed). The first two novelettes in the Vampire's Lair saga—Miami Moon and Cairo Catwalk—cover different characters in two very different situations, but once again they are part of a much bigger picture. I intend to establish a number of characters from different places and time periods in a series of five or six novelettes, then bring them all together in a series of full-length Vampire's Lair novels in which the war between the Healers and the Hunters begins and the fate of the human race belongs to whichever side emerges victorious. I'm hoping to begin the first full-length novel, Vampires' Rise, early in 2010.

A. J. has also published a novella called The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Secret Skulls. This story so funny and completely naughty that it had me rolling with laughter. Do the Darcy Boys spring out of a childhood affinity for the Hardy Boys? What effect were you going for with this story? Has it been as well-received as you hoped it would be?

Golly yes! The Hardy Boys were absolutely my inspiration for the Darcy Boys. I loved reading the Hardy Boys novels as a kid, I still have a couple of them in my collection and I still read them every now and then. As a kid growing up in the 70s the world was a place of scraped knees and creeks waiting to be dammed! "Have bike, will get into trouble" was the motto of any kid growing up in the 70s, and I was always getting into trouble—either on my grandparents' farm or in the number of small towns I grew up in. I always wished I would stumble upon a cave with a pirate map inside or some sinister neighbor burying something in his backyard. When I created the Darcy Boys, I wanted to create two characters who constantly stumble onto mysteries, but I also wanted to make it very anachronistic and tongue-in-cheek and sexy. After writing about vampires and adventure heroes, I needed to try my hand at pure comedy and satire. I wasn't sure it would work or not, but it's been very well-received! Thankfully there are readers out there with the some silly, twisted sense of humor as me! Phew!

Please tell me that more Darcy Boys tongue-in-cheek mysteries are coming! What kind of trouble are these boys going to stumble into next?

Jeepers, they're about to get into more trouble than you can imagine! The second Darcy Boys mystery is called The Darcy Boys and the Case of the He-bot Hunks. It's kinda like an Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue meets the old Vincent Price movie Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine. I think it's even funnier than the first. Dash Darcy's dear departed father plays a larger role and he makes me laugh out loud! After that the boys stumble upon a cursed (and frequently cursing) killer puppet in The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Potty-Mouthed Puppet. I've also outlined the sinister plots for The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Slippery Stiffs and The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Nuns with Guns! There's so much trouble and fun to be had!

Do you consider any one particular character of yours to be your “favorite”? Why or why not?

I try not to, but it's funny, when I'm plotting and writing I've noticed I do tend to show a little favoritism at times. With A.J.'s characters I'm a huge fan of Tommy Darcy, he's so sweet and naive, he has no concept of his own sexiness which I like in a person. There's a certain humility about him I adore. As for my Fathom's Five characters, I can't tell you who my favorite is because it might give away who I'm going to kill (or not going to kill, as the case may be) in the end of Book 4. Apart from the boys though, I love Elsa, the Professor's housekeeper. She's such a brash, fun character to write and she allows me a little comic relief here and there which keeps things fresh and fun.

What qualities do you think make a hero memorable? What about a villain?

What a great question! I think one thing that makes a hero memorable is to make him flawed. I tend to put my characters through hell physically, but emotionally each of them has baggage that they're not really sure how to deal with. They can save the world but they can still get their hearts broken—that was my number one rule when I came up with the series. I think this gives them a reality that balances out the over-the-top paces I put them through. In terms of villains, well they're SO much fun to write. Personally I think all great villains should have at least one quirk that makes them uniquely identifiable, whether it be a physical feature or a prop or a state of mind. Great villains all come with a unique weapon or a scar or a hairless cat. They also have to be diabolically evil, and in the end they must meet their demise in a way that is somehow linked to their own sinister doings or evil motives. I love writing villains, I think all writers do!

Have you ever written one of your heroes into a situation that you didn’t know how to extricate them from?

Yes! What a silly thing to do, but I do it all the time! I like to have a plan, certainly, but sometimes when I'm writing something I think to myself, that's too obvious, people are going to guess how these guys are going to get out of this scrape. So I've found the only way to avoid this is to start writing a scene, then take my own safety net away. I write to the point where I was going to rescue them, then I purposely make that rescue attempt fail, and then say to my characters—"Ha! So what are you gonna do now!" I think digging myself into a hole really challenges me as a writer and turns a predictable predicament into an unpredictable one.

You are an extremely productive author. How do you make time in your life to write as much as you obviously do? Do you ever sleep?

Ironically I sleep very well, but the waking hours do get a bit manic. I think it just comes down to scheduling my time as productively as possible—I have to be very organized, which doesn't leave a lot of room for spontaneity in my life but it's the only way I get things done. I basically try to make time to be social and have fun with friends, but also block out several chunks of quality writing time each week. Any down-time (like driving or taking a shower) is the best time for plotting scenes and storylines. Put it this way, I'm never bored!

Geoff, will you share with us your journey to become a published author? How long have you been writing, and what made you decide to pursue professional publication?

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Writing is kinda like going to look for a dog at the rescue shelter—you don't choose the dog, the dog chooses you. It's something I think about everyday, even when I don't get a chance to do any actual typing, I'm still thinking about writing. I can't remember a day when I didn't give it a thought. However I didn't start writing gay novels until about a decade ago. Until then I kept trying my hand at straight thrillers but with no success. I was determined to become the next James Patterson, but that's a huge market and I found it difficult to land a deal. So I shoved all my thriller manuscripts in a drawer and instead decided to write a gay adventure novel with lots of sex in it, a good storyline and characters I could have fun with but ultimately characters who I really cared about. I didn't care if nobody read it, I just had to do it for myself. So I wrote The Cross of Sins and sent it off and before I knew it I had a contract! Ironically, in the past two months all those long-rejected straight thrillers have also found publishers and will be out next year under a different pen name—but that's a whole other story!

What makes for a great novel, in your opinion, and how do you instill this into your writing?

Without a doubt it's a book's characters that have the power to make a novel great. It doesn't matter what genre or how action-packed or slow-paced the story is or what the goal is, without convincing characters there can be no real investment in the story. A character can be dismantling a nuclear bomb or invading an alien planet or going down the street to buy flowers, it doesn't matter, so long as they have depth and reason and a journey of discovery on some level. When I was coming up with the initial foundations for the Fathom's Five series, it was important for me to give my characters a back story that affects them in some way, gives them something to discover about themselves, and also gives the reader a reason to invest in these guys. Who are Luca's parents? How did the Professor lose his eyesight? Why does Jake need to act like a father figure to Sam? Why is Sam homeless? These are the kinds of questions that are gradually answered throughout the series. In essence I want my characters and my readers go on the same journey of discovery together.

Who or what do you consider to be your muse? What inspires you? 

That's a good question! My grandmother was a writer and she taught me a lot and I always think she's watching over my shoulder, although I hope she closes her eyes at the naughty bits! Apart from that, I get a lot of inspiration from a well-told adventure scene in an action movie. I pull them apart shot by shot! Unfortunately, action movies aren't what they used to be. Writers don't seem to care as much about set-ups and pay-offs as they did in the 80s and 90s (stop me if I'm sounding old!) But I watch movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park and Romancing the Stone over and over again! I grew up on these movies and they still stand the test of time. The characters are relevant and interesting, the suspense is real and the action isn't just linear, its deeply layered, one thing leads to another and before you know it you have a nail-biting domino effect that makes your heart want to leap out of your chest with fear and excitement and concern for your heroes! That's what I strive to do! That's what I want my readers to say about my books!

If you could sit down to talk with anyone – real or fictional – that you admire, who would it be, and what questions would you ask of them?

Oh that's easy! James Bond. I'd get him drunk on martinis (shaken not stirred) and ask him, "Surely, with all your sexual conquests you've slept with at least one guy somewhere down the line? Yes? No? Can't remember? Perhaps I can jog your memory?"

Will you share a little bit about Geoff Knight the person with us? Friends, family, pets, strange collections? Do you have a day job? What do you like to do for leisure when you are not pounding away at the keyboard?

I tend to keep close, tight circles when it comes to friends and family. I don't have a lot of spare time so I like to spend it with people I really care about, so we can all just relax and have a good time. I love pub lunches! They're my favorite leisure time activity: a bottle of wine, a burger that's bad for me and friends. I love it! Pets...well I have four, three cats and one gorgeous little rescue dog, and they make my house a home! As for a job, I work as a creative director in advertising, so I make TV and radio commercials and conduct a lot of corporate boardroom branding meetings and brainstorm sessions on the direction of a brand's identity. Do I sound like Don Draper yet? Actually, I do enjoy it and tend to call my own hours these days which is great, but I'd much rather be writing novels!! Getting my boys out of a scrape in an ancient temple is a lot more fun than analyzing brand essence or writing a 30 second radio ad for a Monster Mega Sale! Oh and as for strange collections...I LOVE action figures! All kinds! I sometimes block action scenes in my books using action figures, trying to work out who's where and who's shooting at which villain. Sounds strange and dorky, I know...but sexy, yes? Or maybe not.

Who is your favorite author, and why? And what about music, who is your favorite artist?

Oh, I love this question. Can I answer the music part first, because I've never been asked that before and I'm a huge music fan, and when I'm writing and coming up with storylines music plays a HUGE part in the process. I like to listen to emotionally powerful and quite operatic songs when I'm creating plotlines, musicians like Bjork and Muse and Nina Simone, and I can't tell you how many times I've played Regina Spektor's Apre Moi—it's my anthem for the biggest Fathom's Five cliffhanger of them all (which is still several books away but it's going to cause a ruckus, that's for sure!!) Just recently though I've fallen head over heels in love with Matt Alber—if you haven't seen his clip for End of the World yet jump on my blogspot now, it totally brings out the romantic in me! When I'm actually writing, however, I can't listen to anything with lyrics, but I also can't write in silence, so I have a massive collection of movie soundtracks. John Williams, Hans Zimmer and David Arnold get a real workout when I write. They help zone me a lot. In terms of authors, the one author I've learned the most from is Stephen King, particularly his early work. That might seem an odd choice for a gay adventure writer, but I think what King does so well is create very real and credible characters and sink them into these very unreal and incredible situations. He makes you believe the unbelievable simply because he makes his characters so real. Again, for me, characters are the most important part of any story. 

So, what do you have in store for your readers for the future? What projects are you working on right now?

Goodness, where do I start? Have I teased you enough about what's in store for the Fathom's Five boys? If I can put the next few books in a nutshell for you, in The Curse of the Dragon  the boys must trace a stolen cursed diamond through China and thwart a terrorist plan of mass destruction; after that The End of Time is all about the Mayan calendar and it's predictions of the end of civilization; and after that the boys (well, not all of them, since someone departs the series in The End of Time) delve into the mysterious history of India in The Tears of the Golden Tiger, and I don't mind telling you an old enemy returns for this book!! I also have Book 6, 7 and 8 planned, but I can't tell you anything about them yet because you might figure out (by elimination) who I intend to kill off at the end of Book 4! You'll just have to hold your breath!

If an aspiring author came to you for advice, what words of wisdom would you offer them?

My first piece of advice is follow your heart! I know that sounds like a cliché, but it's true. Don't write what you think someone else wants you to write, don't write what you think is hot or trendy at the time. Just wright what you want to read, write what you're passionate about! Because if you can't entertain yourself, chances are you're not entertaining anyone else either. My second piece of advice is don't do it for the money, do it because you love it! I think that goes for everything in life!

How can your fans find out more about you and your work, and where can they purchase your stories?

Probably the best place to find out more is my blogspot which is www.geoffreyknight.blogspot.com - there are also links on the blogspot to purchase my books, both by Geoffrey Knight and my other me, A.J. Ryan. And hopefully you'll have fun reading my silly, sexy and sensational posts! I've also promised fans that once I have 100 followers on my blog I'll publish the first page of The Curse of the Dragon on there to whet your appetite for the next book!

Finally, open forum. What can you tell us about yourself or your work that we haven’t asked? I’m sure I’ve left a number of gaping holes that need to be filled.

I'm single. Looking for a man to sweep me off my feet. If you have a frayed map to an ancient tomb rolled up in your backpack, please step to the front of the queue!