Interview with Paul Byers, author of Arctic Fire

I had the privilege of interviewing thriller author Paul Byers.

Arctic Fire is your new release. Tell us about it.

First of all, I want to say thank you for having me on your great site. I always appreciate the chance to talk about my books and the writing process.

In a nutshell, here’s the short version of the book;

A brutal storm damages a man-made iceberg destined to bring safe drinking water to New York harbor and the Chief Engineer, Gabriel Pike has serious doubts about the true intentions of the project. A grisly double homicide puts the inspection on hold as he’s accused of being the jealous murderer in a lover’s triangle.

But Pike soon discovers that there is far more at stake than just his own life. He uncovers a plot that will level a city, change the face of America, and whose shockwaves will be felt around the world.

As both a writer and a reader, what draws you to the thriller genre?

I like books that pull you into situations that as you the reader, living through the main character, would never have imaged fining yourself in. I like action and the, ‘I never saw that one coming,’ twists that any good thriller should have.

As a writer I want to leave the reader wondering where the facts end and the fiction begin. I think that is the mark of a good thriller writer. Having said that, you say to yourself, towing and iceberg for fresh water, come on, impossible! Really? Check out this link, life imitating art.

What do you think readers will most enjoy about your book?

Several things I hope, the first being the characters. Any novel, no matter the genre, has to have believable characters in order for you to believe in the story. In Arctic Fire I tried to do this. If they aren’t real to the reader then they won’t care about them, and if the reader doesn’t what happens to them, then ultimately they won’t care about the book and it will go back on the shelf, unread.

Action is also very important to any story. You’ve got good characters but it isn’t much of a thriller of they don’t do anything. The action has to fit the style and pace of the story and you have to create a sense of danger, real peril for your characters to either get into or out of and I think I’ve done that with both Catalyst and Arctic Fire.

You mentioned good characters in your stories, can you tell us about a few of the characters in Arctic Fire?

Our hero is, Gabriel Pike and I wanted him to be the “everyman hero.” He isn’t ex-military, a Kung Fu master or a super hero; he is an ordinary man put into extraordinary circumstances. He is not a wimp by any mean as he flies a Korean War vintage F-86 Sabre jet. Pike is an engineer so he sees thing just a little bit differently than the rest of us and even though he’s used to running out structural calculations to five decimal points, he lives by the simple motto that there are few things in life that can’t be fixed with a bigger hammer or a roll of duct tape!

Our villain in the story is, Nigel Cain. Cain is a self-made man and is one of the wealthiest men on the planet. And being wealthy, the press thinks he is prone to being eccentric, especially with his latest stunt, but there is an underlining method to his madness as he never does anything without a reason. His passion, devotion and his vision of the future are his greatest assets… but they are our greatest threat.

Both books sound very interesting. What kind of research did you do for them?

For Arctic Fire, the vast majority of the research was done online. One website led to another which led to another etc.., all good information but looking for just the right tidbits to throw in and make it interesting, without boring the reader with too much information. I also talked with a couple of people, experts in their field to get ‘first hand’ knowledge rather than just all ‘book smarts.’

Catalyst was much the same way with a lot of online research but since WWII actually happened, I was able to talk to several vets and get their real life experiences. I talked with one gentleman who was shot down and was interned at Stalag III. If you remember the movie, The Great Escape, it was the true life story of how over 70 Allied prisoners managed to escape from the POW camp.

The flyer I talked to was there about three months after the escape and a lot of the camp life descriptions are from him, lending a personal view to the descriptions.

I also did my fair share of book reading too and I’ll throw in this little teaser. There’s a scene where our hero goes to pick up some money to send to his agents in France, and what they did to age the money so as not to tip off the Gestapo was real.

Tell us about your journey to publication.

Wow, how much time do we have here? When my first book, Catalyst, was published by Breakneck, later Variance, I didn’t have a clue as to what went on behind the scenes. I sent them the manuscript, went through some changes with the editor and bam! I had a book.

Artic Fire, I published myself so everything was up to me now, things I didn’t even think or know about that went into making a book. I had to deal with the interior design, layout of the pages and formatting (both print and e-version and some of the different e-book sites have different formatting requirements) Then after the electronic versions were taken care of I had to find a POD (print on demand) company that offered the best service (and price) for my book, cover art, etc… I never realized just how clueless in Seattle I really was when it came to book publishing.

These are things I never thought of (and I bet most other people haven’t either) that goes into making a book. I’ll admit, it was a bit overwhelming at first, but not insurmountable. It’s like the old saying, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I think of myself as the perfect examples to others wanting to start out in the business, if I can do it, so can you!

When I started this journey I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know how to build a website, that was for geeks; who by the way, ten years ago we used to make fun, now we want them to be our best friends! Since then, I have built three websites. I’ve guest lectured at high schools, done book signing, done interviews and more.

So you can say I’ve learned a thing or two along the way, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

What’s next for you? Any new books on the way?

When I first started writing, they say to write about what you know, so I did. I grew up watching Star Trek, the original series with Kirk, Spock and Bones. Hard to believe I’m that old! So I started writing science fiction, in fact, my first novel was a hand written Star Trek novel. There were no computers in those days and I couldn’t afford a typewriter, wow, now I really am dating myself. Can you imagine a world not without computers?

This is just a long way of saying that I’m rewriting several science fiction short stories I wrote way back when and am going to put them into an e-book.

I am more than halfway through with another thriller set in the South Pacific on a small island where things are not as they seem, and hope to have that ready by late spring. I’m also in the early stages of laying the foundation for a sequel to Arctic Fire.

Where can we find you on the web?

My website is www.paulbyersonline.com There you can read more about my books, upcoming events, check out a few links and learn more about yours truly. Thanks again for taking the time and stopping by!

My thanks to Paul for taking the time to discuss his work with me.