SPOTLIGHT ON DAN CANWELL
I would like you to meet Dan Canwell a talented new author who gives us a glimpse of his life and a exclusive sneak preview of his upcoming book - *CCCP*.
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| DAN CANWELL |
Born in Portsmouth in Hampshire in the 1960’s Dan
Canwell has long had an interest in 20th Century history.
With a
great deal of research and fiction interwoven with historical accuracy, ‘CCCP’
is a debut novel that seeks to explain the creation and fall of the largest
land empire the earth has ever known.
At
various times I have been a lawyer, estate agent, waiter, hotel receptionist,
egg seller and more. None of which has any relevance to the fiction I have
created. I currently live and work in the north east of England surrounded by
friends and just grateful that the sun comes up each morning.
It
sounds cold to say that it is a fictional account of the fall of the Soviet
Union but in essence that is what it is but it is a modern thriller involving
the KGB, the CIA, Faberge jewellery, an awful lot of history and some very
intense characters. It will make you think of history differently !
Spotlight
interview questions
What is your all-time favourite book and why?
My all time favourite book is The Silver Sword by
Ian Serrallier, and the ‘why’ is very simple – it was the book that made me
want to read. I had read books before but this brought characters to life, so
that they were not fantasy but seemed real and three dimensional. The book is
also set in an historical maelstrom that has fascinated me ever since. When
older and no wiser, with children of my own I read it to them and was
enthralled to see that they were just as captivated as I had been all those
years before. Although the time period may be fading from living memory, the
story of hope against adversity is one that is enduring and can be relevant to
people of all ages.
Is there an author you could be compared to or
popular fictional characters your book's characters could relate to and why?
People who have read the book have compared it to
both Tom Clancy and Dan Brown. I hasten to add that they have said the plot is
like a Dan Brown novel with political intrigue and depth, but they have not
said the writing matches his……..which is a compliment [I think.] I have to say
that I was aiming for a ground somewhere around there although something closer
to Ludlum would have been more the target. But I’ll take Clancy and be grateful
and stunned with that comparison.
What was it that inspired you to write CCCP?
I had been writing for years and frankly it was
mostly rubbish with a few nuggets of creativity. The problem was that I
listened to the advice to write what you know about and what I knew was the
law. The curse was that I knew too much and so what I wrote became turgid and
dull – fine for an anorak but torture for a reader. Over coffee one day with a
friend, Lisa Sinfield, I suggested that we write a book together and we quickly
mapped out a plot that seemed quite fun. I then added a bit and my ego took
over, so I nicked the project with her permission, and set out to research and
write the book. Lisa has approved the end result which is pleasing to me. She
has some brilliant ideas of her own and hopefully will one day commit them to
paper.
What types of things/people/music inspires you and
makes you want to keep writing?
I am greatly inspired and amused by friends who
seem to think that I can do this writing thing. As for the rest of it, I love
the historical research and the lateral thinking that goes into creating the
plots – of taking documented facts and making them fit my warped and mildly
polluted concept of how the world operates. In my world nothing is ever quite
what it appears to be. I can while away hours just ensuring that I have the
right type of engine in an aircraft that might only be in the book for a couple
of lines, but to me it is important to have the respect for the reader to get
the facts like that right. Oh heck, I’m a real geek aren’t I ?
Describe your typical writing day or week.
As I work full time, and it is a job that places a
lot of calls on my time, I don’t have a typical writing week. I grab whatever
time I can and do what is available – it might be a re-write if I have no
internet for research, it might be just jotting in a notebook if I have no
laptop, or it might be a full on session lasting hours where I sit in my
armchair and create death destruction and mayhem, all in the name of
entertainment of course.
Is there a food or drink do you have to have when
you're writing?
I am fuelled by toast and tea when writing.
Especially the toast. Usually white bread with butter and if I am being really
indulgent, marmalade. The tea must be scalding hot, almost orange in strength
and needs two sugars just to counteract the tannic acid. And then more toast
with a side order of toast and a dessert of toast. Please. I do like toast.
Can you tell us when you think your book will be
available and in what format?
CCCP is a labour of love, but more important than
that, it is also the learning project where I am making the mistakes that I
hope not to repeat in the future. For that reason all I can say is that I am
aiming to get it published in 2013 and it will be available in paperback and as
an ebook – I am yet to decide on which platform[s]
Can you give us your favourite quote from of your
book and explain it?
Oh that’s a difficult one………………but let’s try this
bit [it is slightly edited so as not to spoil the plot]
‘You can’t!
The yacht is mine!’ Friis was half crying half pleading for his boat which
struck Tchort as rather bizarre given the circumstances.
‘As you choose Friis, it is immaterial to me.
Give me the box.’ Tchort slid a round into the barrel of the handgun.
‘You’ve got orders not to shoot me!’
‘I might forget. Last chance Friis. Give me
the box’ said Tchort calmly. Friis scrabbled around on the bunk and threw a
gold box at Tchort who caught it without breaking eye contact with his
opponent. Tchort slipped it into his pocket.
‘Now the other one, let’s not take a risk
that we meet again before we have to huh?’ Friis sat dumb and mute, almost
paralysed. ‘The box. Now Friis’ commanded Tchort.
‘It’s ……………it’s in the locker behind you.’
Friis pointed to a locker in the space behind Tchort’s head formed by the deck
head. Delicately the Russian took a step back and looked towards the locker
which was when Friis sprang forward and was felled by one punch to the face
delivered with an almost casual violence by Tchort who had never for one moment
let his guard drop. Friis slipped and fell into the cocktail of blood and vomit
looking up into the disdainful expression on Tchort’s face. Calmly the Russian
reached into the locker and to his surprise his hand closed on the second gold
box which after a quick examination he also put in his pocket.
‘Thank you Friis’ said Tchort. ‘As I said, I
have orders not to shoot you.’ He unscrewed the silencer from the gun and fired
into the cabin floor three times. The bullets shattered the deck and went
through the bottom of the boat, the glass fibre hull easily penetrated. Water
began to gurgle and flood into the hull and the rocking motion of the boat on
the waves diminished as the Pernilla sat ever lower in the water.
‘Goodbye Friis’ said Tchort ‘please remember
that I did not shoot you but if there is a hell then I hope you rot in it’ and
he turned and made his way up the steep ladder to the cockpit, locking the
cabin hatch behind him. Friis had not moved but now began to scream and shout
as Tchort untied the tender and calmly stepped into the smaller boat, started
the motor and set course back towards the marina at Norsminde. Within ten
minutes the yacht had sunk leaving only small whirlpools on the surface which
like Friis’s life gradually faded away to nothing.
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