I am flattered and honored to be this month's 'Featured Author' on Polka Dot Banner (an author gathering place) site:
PDB: Alexander, please tell us about Depth of Deception, an Award-winning Finalist of the 2012 International Book Awards in the E-Book: Mystery/Thriller/Adventure category.
AG:Depth of Deception is set in 1982 and begins in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean where a young woman is found floating on a wooden deck chair. She is wearing an Edwardian era dress and the only identification she has is a ticket to the RMS Titanic. She has no memory of who she is, but she believes it's 1912. As she recovers in a psychiatric clinic in Manhattan, an elderly Titanic expert and survivor named Edward Hoffman is brought in to disprove her claim, but the plan backfires and stirs up shocking details in her tattered memory—including the fact that Edward may be her son.
The other mystery in Depth of Deception involves Callum Toughill, a British insurance investigator, who is assigned the case of a missing brooch that was stolen during a murder in 1909 Glasgow. He is chosen because it was his own grandfather who botched the original investigation. (This murder is based on a true, unsolved crime.)
PDB: When I visited your website, I liked your explanation of why you set the book in 1982, rather than present day. Please share that with our PDB authors and readers.
Like many of my fellow writers I often find myself in that situation where I sit in front of my flickering computer screen and nothing happens.I've set aside some time to devote to writing and at that crucial moment my mind is void of ideas. No amount of pacing or reading other writer's blogs help to combat my own writer's block. Not a single drop of an idea. So many times I've lamented that I'm unable to just turn the creativity on like a tap.
But now I have a different dilemma.I don't seem to have a problem coming up with creative story ideas... I suddenly have too many of them.A few weeks ago I blogged about working on one novel and getting stronger ideas for another novel. During this time, I wrote a spec script for Murdoch Mysteries, a TV series shooting here in Toronto, and while working on that I got an idea for a different spec script, which in turn evolved into an idea for a brand new TV series. So I start laying down the ground work on that but I still have the ideas for the novel(s) racing around in my head. Just to make me crazy a series idea that I had back in the 1990's comes back.The latter was deemed "too dark" for mainstream TV at the time.Since then "too dark" has become the norm and now we have the technology to easily do what I had wanted back them. Now I'm not sure if I want to pitch it as a TV series, a book series or a blog series.
So now, instead of wringing my brain out for a drop of an idea, a pipe has burst and the ideas are just gushing out all over the place and I'm desperately trying to stay afloat while trying to figure out which story to devote my time and attention to. And if that's not enough, I'm still trying to promote Depth of Deception, which in itself is another full time job.
I'm not sure I'm going to get a lot of sympathy from many writers, and I know I have to focus on one at a time. I just hope that the other ideas don't evaporate in the meantime.
So when I decided to write and direct my own spec commercial, I wrestled with what product or service I would be 'selling'. Since it's a spec commercial, would I create a fake product?
Write what you know.
Pretty vague advice. I had previously written political PSAs that were topical to current events but have since become dated as it so often happens with the news. So I decided to get inspiration for a commercial by watching other TV commercials.
With remote in hand, and as strange as it sounds, I channel surfed, looking for commercials. There were some cute ones, funny ones and some that I couldn't identify what the product was (not sure if that was effective). Then I saw a familiar one: A Manulife commercial where my 7-year-old daughter plays a dentist. The idea was that our kids, doing grown-up jobs, shouldn't have to take care of us. My daughter wasn't originally supposed to have a line but the director asked her if she could and she willingly took the challenge. I recalled the shoot when I sat watching the monitors with the crew, producers and the advertising client. One of them leaned over to me and whispered, "Your daughter is terrific. She is very professional and has a lot of self-confidence for someone her age."
It was nice to hear, as it was something that my wife and I strive for with both our kids. It was something I felt strongly about because my own upbringing was very different. My daughter has never been told she was 'worthless', 'an idot', 'lazy', 'stupid', 'good for nothing' or 'retarded'. Never has she heard her parent say, "I wish you had never been born." These were words that were said to me when I was her age.
Throughout my childhood there were other beatings. I was slapped, punched, thrown down the stairs and attacked with a lit cigarette. I was threatened that, if I called the police, I would end up in the hospital with every bone broken in my body. Several decades later, the physical hits are distant memories, and the scars on my chest from the cigarettes are just small marks, but despite my successes with writing and directing, I can still feel the sting of those words.
Write what you know.
I took those stinging words and put them down on paper. Five mintues later, I had my spec script written. I decided to cast my daughter in the commercial because she had enough stage and screen experience that I knew she would give the performance I was looking for, even if she didn't understand the subject. I asked an actor-friend to record the 'angry parent voice over', and filmed it in one evening.
Post-production took a bit longer (once you watch the commercial, you'll understand why) and I had to take some time off, as my daughter was cast in a Hallmark TV movie for which we flew out to Halifax. She and I had a great time together and every time I see her smiling face, I'm glad she doesn't have my inner scars. Proof that the cycle of abuse can stop.
My short thriller is on Kindle and it will be FREE today Friday the 13th of July: "SAME CRIME TOMORROW"
Synopsis:
Ethan wakes up in a mysterious prison that forces its inmates to re-live their crimes every day. But Ethan has no memory of committing his crime, and suspects a deeper conspiracy.
"This is one of the books you have to read for 2012. I more than enjoyed it. I couldn’t stop reading it and completed it in one day. Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot done. You have to check this book out. It was wonderful, and if I say anything else I’ll ruin it."
I couldn't have asked for a better review. As a writer, I often second-guess myself and question, "Is this any good?"
The self-doubt can be overpowering. So when I read a review like this — From someone I've never met — it's a great thrill. The positive response to 'Depth of Deception' has been overwhelming and heartwarming. It's a great motivation to write another book.
