The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

Post date: Jan 6, 2013 3:53:51 PM

I was tagged for 'The Next Big Thing' Blog Hop by my fellow indie author, David. E. Manuel, author of the environmentally-focused mystery thriller Richard Paladin series (Killer Protocols, Clean Coal Killers and The Killer Trees). Indie authors are asked to answer a series of questions about their work, and then tag a fellow author to do the same. You can read David’s answers to the blog hop questions on his blog. Thanks, David!

1. What is the working title of your book?

My latest book has just been released. It’s called, The Killing Depths.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was reading a lot of nautical history. In the days of sail, going to sea was a way of getting away from the pressures of life on shore. Today, we have men and women serving together on ships. But until recently, American submarines were still a male-only domain. Attack submarines are still male-only. So I starting thinking, what if you took someone who didn’t want to be around the opposite sex and locked that person up in a sealed environment like a sub with a coed crew? I wanted to have the murders and investigation occur in a totally confined environment, like Agatha Christie had in And Then There None, so a submarine was a natural choice.

3. What is the genre of the book?

It’s a military mystery thriller.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Umm. Never thought about it. Maybe a younger Harrison Ford for the protagonist, Linus Schag, and Yaphet Kotto for the captain.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

The first coed crewed U.S. attack submarine is on a covert mission while a psychopathic serial killer threatens the safety of the crew from inside.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency/publisher?

It’s an indie project, same as my first book, Duty: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It was so long ago, I can’t be sure. At least a year. I had to do a lot of research at the same time I was writing. I have 16 years of experience in the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy, but had never been on a submarine. I had a lot to learn about undersea warfare and, of course, talk the Navy into letting me get a tour of a sub. I rewrote it several times, and also set it aside for awhile to work on other things.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’d say Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October, or Alistair MacLean’s Ice Station Zebra.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I created the protagonist, Linus Schag, for a short story called “Destroyer Turns,” which appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. I wanted to take Lin into a novel-sized adventure. By the way, “Destroyer Turns” appears in my first book, Duty.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Killing Depths is really two stories in one. It’s the story of a hunt for a serial killer, but it’s also the story of a secret mission to destroy a renegade Iranian submarine and the undersea battle that ensues. And it’s not just so-called “man-lit.” I’ve gotten great reviews from women readers, too.

Now I’m tagging my good friend Jay Allan Storey for the next blog stop. Jay is the author of Chopper Music, an excellent novella about loss and redemption. But Jay can tell you more about that at his blog. Click here to read it.

I'll be adding links to more participants in this blog hop as they become available. So stop by again!

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More Next Big Thing Blog Hop interviews:

Here's Jay Allan Storey's tagged author: http://klmabbs.com/