Greg Barron, author of Rotten Gods and the upcoming Savage Tide, welcome to Author Harvest.
Rotten Gods was included in last years 50 Books You Can’t Put Down and Greg is giving away a signed copy to one lucky person who leaves a comment.
Start by telling me if it’s scones and tea or some other homemade delight you have whipped up for me today.
Sorry Jen, you won’t get much baking out of me, but if you hang around for dinner you might get fresh sweet corn and barbecued fish.
(Nice. Thanks. Don’t mind if I do! You look like a man who can handle tongs (and terrorist plots!)
At home…
My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home, a closet gnomer or with a strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at your place?
We have no gnomes at all. Only this very realistic turtle that I picked up at a market once.
What vegetable (or fruit) have you always wanted to grow at home?
I love mangos, but we’re a bit too far from the coast. I once planted 500 mango trees on a property I owned in the Northern Territory, but ended up selling before any of them had fruited.
(Hmm, kinda like me. I once had 6 trees but savagely pruned three of them last year as they only fruited every five years or so. Guess what? It’s a mango season! Well … for the three I didn’t cut!)
If I came to your home and looked in the refrigerator, what would I find?
Milk, dates, date spread, fish chunks for the cat, leftover lasagne, butter, fruit juice, lettuce leaves, sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, barbecue sauce, avocado, watermelon, condiments. Probably a cider or two. (My wife drinks occasionally, but I don’t at all.)
(Cider is good. The BBQ’s sounding better.)
If you sorted your wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Ahh, do you sort your wardrobe by colour?!)
Black is a favourite for me, but there’s a lot of blue in there. Blue jeans, blue shirts.
(I notice you didn’t answer the sorting question!)
What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)
King Gee shorts and an old shirt.
(King Gee – “Any tougher and they’d rust!”)
Whose home would you like to housesit and why?
Yours, so I could change all my answers to this quiz.
(I’m hardly going to upset you. I’ve seen how your characters deal with people who tick them off!)
Country curiosities…
We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?
I do love akubras and have owned plenty. I wear a wide-brimmed straw hat when I’m out on the boat. Love boots too: Redbacks, Baxters, Blundstones.
(Redbacks are like walking on snake-proof sponges. Love them.)
If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?
Tree? – Definitely a casuarina, because I love the way the breeze whistles through the leaves on a sunny day. Like they’re happy to be alive.
(Well stay away from Coffs Harbour. Council thinks they are a weed!)
Animal? – Definitely an eagle. They don’t really have any predators, and it just looks like so much fun, hovering around on those thermals.
Either that or something really cute. Like this piglet:
(LOL. Well, while this little piggy went to market, this other really clever little piggy wrote an amazing book called Rotten Gods …. !!!!)
Now for the big question… Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because the other side always seems so appealing. Doesn’t it?
(Yes it does – until the other side is a debut book and no one tells you about the terror tummy trembles. The ones that leave you wondering what the hell you were thinking letting people read your work.)
About you…
Your turning point: when was that point in your life that you realized that being an author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?
My turning point was getting an agent. That was in 2004. Having someone in the industry who believed in me was such a massive boost. I’ll be loyal to my agent (Brian Cook) until the day they drop me in a hole and throw dirt on my face. Paying him back for his trust and support is a large part of my motivation to succeed.
(How lovely. I hope we get a lot more books out of you first—okay? You know, many years ago, I considered Brian Cook for my first manuscript assessment. It was between him and Belinda Castles at the time. I went with Belinda – not sure why – and her comments encouraged me to keep trying. Never for a moment did I ever imagine that ten years later Belinda would be my publisher’s choice of freelance editor assigned to House for all Seasons. Some things are meant to be and it sounds like Brian was yours.)
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Getting the story right. Prose can always be improved, characters fleshed out, but you can’t polish a crappy yarn into a good one. You have to pull it apart. I spend ages restructuring, often to the extent that my final draft bears very little resemblance to the first.
If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?
Never Afraid to Try.
What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?
Interviewers ask me lots of questions about the issues and themes I write about. Few give me a chance to talk about the suspense, excitement and tension I am aiming for in my stories. Being an entertaining and thrilling writer is my main aim, after all.
(I think you may have achieved that! Looking forward to Savage Tide.)
Fun stuff…
What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.
Marika is probably the most important protagonist in Rotten Gods. I suspect we’d get on pretty well, though I’m older than her. She’s the kind of girl who’d enjoy my offshore adventures, climbing up on the bow to handle anchor duties, no worries. Her passion for bushwalking and travel grew from my own experiences and we could have a lot of fun together.
Hanging out on a Friday night? I doubt it. She loves going out, just as I did at her age, but I’m over that now. Barbecues with friends and their families are more my thing these days.
If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?
A beggar, an untouchable, or a refugee. There’s nothing to learn from being rich and famous for a week.
(Wow! You really are a SNAG – and I am not referring to the BBQ’d type! That is a lovely response and says so much about you as a person.)
If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?
Get my guitar and sing you a song. I played semi-professionally in my twenties and still teach music one day a week.
I forget who first said that music is what feelings sound like, but it’s so true. I listen to music every day, and it’s a huge source of inspiration for my writing.
(Then I hope one day to hear you. I also think you may enjoy my Online Release Day surprise. Click here to check it out.
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
Unsliced bread.
How weird are you? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (not) to 10 (very).
8/10
(A very nice weird!)
About the book – Rotten Gods
In Rotten Gods, a new wave of terror threatens a world torn by inequality, conflict, economic disaster, and environmental chaos.
Heads of state gather in Dubai in an attempt to bring society back from the brink of global catastrophe. But when extremists hijack the conference centre, the clock starts ticking: seven days until certain death for presidents and prime ministers alike, unless their governments agree to the terrorists’ radical demands.
A treasonous British diplomat, an Australian intelligence officer, an airline pilot searching for his missing daughters, a mysterious Somali agent, and a disillusioned UN official are all forced to examine their motives, faith and beliefs as they attempt to stave off disaster, hurtling towards the deadline and a shattering climax.
Rotten Gods is both an imaginative tour de force and a dire warning, holding the reader spellbound until the last breathtaking page.
WIN A COPY OF ROTTEN GODS
Greg’s upcoming release has a great title – Savage Tide. I ask my Author Harvest guests to title their biography. Now I’m asking you – the reader – to title your autobiography and tell us why. The winner will be announced here in 7 days from now. (Open to Aust and NZ readers.)
Connect with Greg Barron
http://gregbarron.com
http://www.facebook.com/gregbarronauthor
the chilli plant that I’m slowly (and unintentionally) killing off, and I’ve actually become quite fond of him over the years.
right?