Tag: Europe

6 Questions with Gary Born, author of The File.

Leaning into his experience as a preeminent international lawyer, Born weaves an exciting tale that spans Africa, the Middle East and Europe in a relentless pursuit of WWII Nazi intel that will enthrall the reader from the first page.

The File

Enter Sara West, a tenacious botany graduate student on a scientific expedition in the heart of the African jungle. During her research, she stumbles upon a cache of WWII Nazi files in the wreck of a German bomber hidden deep within the jungle. Those hidden files reveal the location of a multibillion-dollar war chest, secretly deposited by the Nazis in numbered Swiss bank accounts at the end of WWII. 

But Sara isn’t the only one interested in the war chest. Former KGB agent Ivan Petronov and Franklin Kerrington III, deputy director of the CIA, both have deeply personal reasons for acquiring the files Sara has found. 

With two dangerous men — and their teams of hit men — on her trail, will Sara be able to escape the jungle alive?

The File by Gary Born
The File by Gary Born Release date March 28, 2323

6 QUESTIONS WITH GARY BORN

  • How did having a background in international law shape the planning and execution of this novel? 

One of the central themes of the novel involves secret Swiss bank accounts, holding Nazi deposits from World War II. My practice in international law has involved both Swiss bank accounts and WWII assets, which provided vital background for this aspect of the thriller.

  • You tackle a lot of settings throughout the book, how do you do research to write about different settings and countries? Do you pull from your own personal travel experiences? 

I have traveled almost everywhere in the world, for both work and pleasure. I drew on hikes in Uganda and Congo, on road trips in the Sahara, travels in Italy and many weeks in Zurich for the settings in the book. It is never easy to capture the heart and soul of a place in a few sentences, but these travels helped me along the way.

“A thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing thriller with a captivating young, beautiful American botanist at the center of the fast paced action.  Rooting for Sara West as she evades a Russian assassination team through the dense jungles of central Africa – her expedition experience and wits her only weapons in a race to safety - will keep you up past your bedtime.  Can Sara trust CIA operative Jeb Fisher or will the likable, attractive American also betray her trust?  This well written adventure will take Sara from the rainforests of central Africa to the shores of north Africa and on to the cobbled streets of Europe as she struggles to identify friend from foe.  Is it all a trap?  The suspense will keep you guessing and eagerly awaiting a sequel…..”  

– Gina Haspel, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
  • Sara is a 28 year old graduate student, why did you decide to write a main character with significantly different life experiences then your own? 

Sara’s experience isn’t that different from mine, in some important ways. I spent time in the Ruwenzori mountains — without killers on my trail, to be sure — when I was Sara’s age. And I have a daughter who is also from Sara’s generation. I think the character has some of both my daughter and myself in her.

  • Did you conduct any kind of research to help write the book?

I spent time researching Nazi warplanes and Tempelhof; walked the streets of Zurich, imagining chase scenes; spent a few days in Lucca and the surrounding area, developing Jeb and Sara’s time there. I also researched what FSS and FSB operatives would and wouldn’t have been good at — thoughts that I passed along to Sara for her use.

  • What do you hope the readers take away from your book? 

Many things, but especially Sara’s determination and resilience, even when nothing seemed possible. Her objectivity and resourcefulness. The complexity of Sara and Jeb’s relationship, as it unfolds. Sara’s reactions to her father’s death and fiance’s betrayal.  The different forms of malice and evil that Petronov and Kerrington personified, and Sara’s responses to that.

“A taut globe-trotting thriller, as American and Russian intelligence operatives race to hunt down the discoverer of a long-buried secret, told with eloquence and ruthless efficiency.”  

– George Nolfi, screenwriter, “The Bourne Ultimatum”
  • What projects are you working on next? 

Another thriller — “The Priest” — a former Mafia enforcer is posted abroad after giving up his life of mayhem and becoming a priest; by chance, he befriends a former high-ranking general, whose deathbed confession and will sends the priest in search of documents that would reshape the map of Asia, while chased by intelligence services intent on stopping the priest in his tracks.

The File by Gary Born will be available March 28, 2323.

 

Gary Bond author photo.Author Bio:

About the Author

Gary Born is widely regarded as the world’s preeminent authority on international commercial arbitration and international litigation. He has been ranked for more than 20 years as one of the world’s leading international arbitration advocates and authors. “The File” is his debut novel.

Connect with Gary Born on LinkedIn

 

© 2014-2023- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.

LitWorld’s 10 Questions with M. Laszlo, author of The Phantom Glare of Day.

 
The Phantom Glare of Day book cover.LitWorld’s 10 Questions
with
M. Laszlo

What would be your one sentence elevator pitch of what your book is about?
In this trio of novellas, three game young ladies enter into dangerous liaisons that test each one’s limits and force them to confront the most heartrending issues facing society in the early twentieth century. The Phantom Glare of Day is a compelling interrogation of who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong.

[The novellas are set during the height of WWI and post-WWI Europe.]

What book/author/movie/TV show/song might a potential reader compare your book to in order to get an idea of its feel and why?
The Phantom Glare of Day might best be described as traditional, twentieth-century melodrama suffused with the following: Goth youth culture, the film Nosferatu, lots of Germanic brooding, the poetry and symbolism of Nietzsche, and a ravishingly beautiful figure-skating ballet just for good measure.

Why did you choose this topic for your book?
This topic chose me. These novellas arise from a deeply held obsession with grasping the essential ethical issues that face society. By writing the book, it is my hope that the novellas may challenge readers to think about and to come to terms with those same heartrending questions.

What led to your choosing the setting for your book? In part your mention of steampunk as used in your book.
Having traveled to London, Paris, and Prague, and having kept travel diaries for those beautiful cities, there was no way to avoid my setting stories in those remarkable places. Interestingly, though, my impressions of Prague were always informed by the genre of steampunk. What I mean by that is that Prague is the city with which I’ve always associated the science-fiction play Rossum’s Universal Robots. Because of this, Prague inspired me to write about steampunk/primitive robotic technologies—as such, these peculiar technologies and themes and obsessions appear in that tale. With regard to Weimar, that’s the most peculiar question for me because I’ve never been there. Still, the history of das Bauhaus has always fascinated me—and because of this, there was no way to avoid the temptation to set a tale there.

How did you come up with the title of your book?
The Phantom Glare of Day comes from a line in “Butterflies”—a WW-era Siegfried Sassoon poem. The title seemed perfect to me because various world religions have always associated butterflies with the immortality of the soul. For me, that metaphysical idea resonates because these three novellas amount to a new kind of metaphysical storytelling.

How has your world traveling impressed itself on your writing?
Nothing has impressed my writing more than my travels to London, where I became fascinated by British colloquialism and phraseology. Nothing else makes British characters come to life more than giving them authentic voices as they engage one another in dialogue. In short, dialogue has to be real. Characters must talk the way people really talk. This comes down to the fact it is the vernacular that makes characters and their stories seem genuine. My travel diaries provided me with all kinds of descriptions of various places, of course; nevertheless, my travel diaries were most important to me in that they included many, many lists of those remarkable terms that only the Brits use.

What will connect the reader to the story?
These novellas tell of how people struggle with issues that anyone can find relatable: school bullying, abortion, euthanasia, political extremism, and homophobia. As such, any reader should be able to connect with the characters. At the same time, the narrator’s voice remains solemn and philosophical; moreover, the writing is suffused in objective correlative—symbols intended to resonate with the reader’s unconscious mind. If the reader really gives my work a chance, the reader can and will connect.
Remember, though, when you read The Phantom Glare of Day, you’ll quickly see that it’s like nothing you’ve ever read before. Perhaps that’s why the work is fated to get so many mixed reviews. This work is weird and revolutionary in its style.

Did you have difficulty deciding your book was ready to publish?
Yes and no. Leonardo Da Vinci said it best: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

What genre(s) and reader ages would your work fit best?
As for genre, there are different possibilities: coming of age, urban fantasy, historical fiction, metaphysical fiction, melodrama, and perhaps even magical realism. In truth, the work is trans-genre. Also, who cares what the genre is? It’s literature. And it’s meant for anyone mature enough to embrace the idea of freethinking and/or open-mindedness and/or freedom for the sake of freedom.

What’s your next project idea?
My next project promises to be a complete mind-scramble. In the coming book, it is my intention to take the reader on a journey alongside a figure who resolves the riddle of the universe—and in the final movement of the tale, the character will in fact explain the riddle of the universe. For that matter, too, the answer provided will be accurate. And that is my pledge.

Biography of M. Laszlo

M. Laszlo Author Photo M. Laszlo is the pseudonym of a reclusive author living in Bath, Ohio. According to rumor, he based the pen name on the name of the Paul Henreid character in Casablanca, Victor Laszlo.

He has lived and worked in New York City, East Jerusalem, and several other cities around the world. While living in the Middle East, he worked for Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

His next work is forthcoming from SparkPress in 2024. There are whispers that the work purports to be a genuine attempt at positing an explanation for the riddle of the universe and is based on journals and idea books made while completing his M.F.A at Sarah Lawrence College.

The Phantom Glare of Day is available at Amazon.

© 2014-2022- Ronovan Hester Copyright reserved. The author asserts his moral and legal rights over this work.