Bradley Harper interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

I'm a retired US Army pathologist who began writing at the tender age of 63. I've performed over two-hundred autopsies to include forensic death investigations, and I incorporate that experience into my writing. My debut novel, A Knife in the Fog, was a Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and won Killer Nashville's 2019 Silver Falchion Award as Best Mystery. In my story, I place a young Arthur Conan Doyle on the trail of Jack the Ripper, and it's a Recommended Read by the Arthur Conan Doule Estate. It's been translated into Japanese and the audiobook, narrated by former Royal Shakespearean actor Matthew Lloyd Davies, won Audiofile Magazine's 2019 Earphone Award as Best Mystery and Thriller. My second novel, Queen's Gambit (an unfortunate choice, alas), won the 2020 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion as Best Suspense and Book of the Year. I've been published in The Strand magazine as well as other publications to include personal essays and poetry. I'm currently in Edinburgh, Scotland, pursuing a graduate degree in creative writing at Napier University.

When did your love of books begin?

Around age five. I had an uncle about twelve years older than I am, and I started picking through his Batman comic books. I taught myself how to read them, and my world was never the same since.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

After I retired from the Army my wife and I took fifteen months visiting all the "bucket list" destinations and once we were done, I decided I needed something to occupy me, but nothing that consisted of answering emails and responding to a boss. I'd had this idea for my first book, but it was only after I started a conversation with the author Mary Roach that resulted in a book, called Grunt, that I decided to try my hand at it. How hard could it be? (Cue laughter here).

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Wonderful! It takes a lot of effort, and note I didn't say "work." I love writing and wrote a ton of poetry before I started on prose, and wonder now why I waited so long, but perhaps I needed to wait until I had something to say. When I meet someone who's read my books and we talk about my characters like they are real people I get a wonderful glow that's similar to bragging about my grandson.

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Writers have to be readers. Read good stuff and study how the author describes a character. How they reel you in with building suspense. Read bad writing, and analyze why it doesn't work. And write, of course. Your writing will suck. That's fine. My ski instructor told me if I wasn't falling down I wasn't learning, and a Zen mantra I would repeat over and over runs like this:

You will try

You will fail

Your will try again

You will fail again

You will fail better

Also: find someone who doesn't love you or owe you money to read your stuff and give you honest feedback.

Tell us about your book/books:

Finally, the good stuff! Book one took me three years to write and I probably rewrote it thirty times. Seventy-nine agents turned me down. Number eighty said "Maybe." she suggested some changes and I did them. She liked what I'd done so made more suggestions. By the third back and forth we had a contract. People ask me how I kept my faith in myself and I say I didn't. I had faith in my characters and my story. That sustained me. Book two was part of a two-book contract and it was a much quicker write. I basically took Frederick Forsyth's famous thriller, The Day of the Jackal, and rewrote it, casting Queen Victoria as the target and a female character from book one, a real person named Margaret Harkness, as the opposing force to the assassin. I like to use real people and events and make the story as true to the actual facts as possible so that a reader can say "It could have happened like that!"

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

These people are my tribe. I love discussing Sherlock Holmes, movies, the latest read someone is raving about. I am both the son and father of a librarian, so it runs in my blood.

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon, whether you liked the book or not. It shows the host site that people are still engaging with it and helps keep my work on their radar. I read the reviews and look for constructive criticism. Book two is better because of a book review in a newspaper. The writer loved the book overall but pointed out one flaw that on review was a valid observation. I took their words to heart.

Where can people connect with you?

I have a website http://WWW.BHarperAuthor.Com where people can learn more about me and my works and sign up for my monthly newsletter. I can also be found on Facebook under Bradley Harper-Author and on Twitter as @BHarperAuthor as well as Instagram. I post frequently on my author page about my adventures over here in Scotland, including my progress on research for my next book involving the Titanic. I turned seventy last year, but though my body is slowing down, I'm still full of stories I want to share. I'd invite your readers to come along, for the Game is ever afoot!