John Dolan
a Stranger Alliance
One of my old writer buddies – John Dolan – has
dropped by today for a chat. Some of you will know John from his ‘Time, Blood and Karma’ mystery series, and he has penned the occasional post for this blog.
EJG: Welcome, John.
JD: Thanks, Eric. It’s good to be here again. Wherever
‘here’ is!
EJG: You have a new book out this month, ‘Chaos Is Come Again’, which you co-authored with the Virginia-based thriller writer,
Fiona Quinn. And I understand there is something a little unusual about this
collaboration.
JD: You could say that. You see, Fiona and I have
never met.
EJG: How is that even possible?
JD: To tell you the truth, I don’t even quite believe
it myself. Last Spring, when I was working in Dubai, Fiona and I encountered
each other purely by chance on Twitter. We started chatting, then Skyping,
reading each other’s works, and the next thing we knew, we’d decided to write a
novel together.
EJG: That sounds risky.
JD: It sounds insane, now I come to think of it. But
during our Skype calls we started throwing around ideas and jokes, moulding
characters, and coming up with their storylines. We set up a Word document on
the Cloud which we could both update – either online, or separately offline
using a colour-coding methodology. By the time I left Dubai in July last year,
we had a 25,000 word document.
EJG: That’s almost a third of a book!
JD: Yup. We then had a hiatus: I was writing ‘A PoisonTree’ and Fiona was up to her jugular in stuff. But by May of this year, we had
cleared our diaries – sort of. So we threw together a spreadsheet showing what
needed to happen in each chapter, divided the writing load in half, and set
about it. We got a first draft out in three months, flipped the editing back
and forth and then submitted it to an editor for polishing. Et voila! We have a
book.
 |
| Amazon Link |
EJG: So what is ‘Chaos’ about?
JD: It’s a psychological suspense, a mystery and a
love story. All the characters are off-the-wall (and some of them are off the
planet). The humour is rather dark, sometimes non-PC, and occasionally
blasphemous. The action flips between Washington DC and London, where the plot
lines all eventually converge.
EJG: Sounds wacky. Who is your target audience?
JD: Broad-minded folks who enjoy gallows humour and
spotting literary references. The back cover of the paperback version features
the following warning: “Contains references to Judas Iscariot, a dwarf, and a
performing monkey.”
EJG: Hahaha. And are you and Fiona Quinn still
speaking?
JD: Still speaking, but still not meeting.
EJG: Thanks for dropping by, John.
JD: It’s been a pleasure, as the actress said to the
bishop.
Elevator pitch:
Sean hears voices in his head.
Travis snorts cocaine.
Teagan thinks she’s the next Lady Gaga.
Avery has the boss from Hell, and a mother with
dementia.
And Goose wants to catch a serial killer.
BIOs
John Dolan
"Makes a living by travelling, talking a lot and sometimes writing stuff down. Galericulate author, polymath and occasional smarty-pants."
John Dolan hails from a small town in the North-East of England. Before turning to writing, his career encompassed law and finance. He has run businesses in Europe, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. He and his wife Fiona currently divide their time between Thailand and the UK.
John Dolan hails from a small town in the North-East of England. Before turning to writing, his career encompassed law and finance. He has run businesses in Europe, South and Central America, Africa and Asia. He and his wife Fiona currently divide their time between Thailand and the UK.
Twitter
@JohnDolanAuthor
Fiona Quinn
Canadian born, Fiona Quinn is now rooted in the Old Dominion outside of D.C. with her husband and four children. There, she homeschools, pops chocolates, devours books, and taps continuously on her laptop.
Twitter
@FionaQuinnBooks
Website http://www.fionaquinnbooks.com/
So that's us virtually done. I've had the privilege of reading John and Foina's new novel and it's superb. Don't miss it! A great read! Virtually perfect!
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