A couple of weeks back I was chatting with another author about the inescapable value of “walking the territory” – that is, the importance of visiting a place to get the sense of it, to make your writing feel as authentic as possible. It got me thinking about my own research jaunts, and so partly inspired by the travelogues of fellow thriller writer JF Penn (check out her great website Here) I thought I’d post some observations from one of my most recent trips...
Ever since I was kid, airports have always been intertwined in my mind with thrillers. I think part of it is the whole romance of travel/thrilling locations stuff right out of a James Bond novel, mixed with my love of the classic “airport novel” that fills the shelves of duty free bookstores. And what’s cool for me is that now my books get to fit in that space...
I was heading to Malmo in Sweden, under a non-disclosure agreement, on a two-day flying visit to talk about a new videogame project connected to one of the thriller world’s biggest names. But the quickest way there is actually through Denmark. So my route in was via Copenhagen airport....
...and then across the Øresund Bridge by train.
And it was neat for me to look down the carriage and see this gentleman and think... Hey. That book cover looks familiar... (What are the odds?!)
My first real glimpse of Sweden through my window was an orchard of wind-farms, a strange and slightly alien sight rising up from the straight along the coastline. I have to admit that my perception of what to expect in Sweden was warped a little by the work of an artist named Simon Stålenhag... Check out his stuff Here and you’ll see what I mean. He's just had a TV show based on his stuff green-lighted by Amazon.
His art fuses a 1980’s view of the world with odd, invasive technologies that look like they come from some alternate reality, and wandering through Malmo I soon understood how this country influenced him.
Malmo reminded me of the kind of brutalist, concrete-cube architecture that was all new and futuristic when I was growing up in the 1970's, the buildings that were the backdrop of austere dystopian SF movies - Farenheit 451, Alphaville, THX 1138 and the like – but with flashes of artistic weirdness here and there.
One morning I woke up and realized that the hotel I was staying up reminded me of City 17, the location of the game Half-Life 2 - check out the similarity Here.
All this might make Malmo sound a little distant and unwelcoming, but it wasn’t!
I loved the artwork and the river winding through the town, the great restaurants and numerous craft beer places. I also want to highlight the Science Fiction Bokhandelnfor accommodating a quick drive-by signing by me, and The Bishops Arms pub off Gustav Adolf Square for having an amazing book-laden snug in the back that was very conducive to a glass of scotch and some writerly company.
But I was here to work; I’d come to Sweden to meet with Massive Entertainment, developers ofThe Division 2– the sequel to the hit action game under the Tom Clancy franchise banner.
As well as being a long-time reader of the Clancy novels, I’ve also been a dedicated player of the videogames created under the author’s name. Last year I worked on the Ghost Recon Wildlands open-world shooter game, and having expended a lot of hours on the first iteration of The Division, I was excited to work on the sequel...
Details on the elements I contributed to The Division 2 haven’t been announced yet, but I can say my part is just one component of a massive (ha ha) project, involving several other scriptwriters and a great many talented people.
(Also, as some fans of the game have asked, I should make it clear I’m not writing a Division novel or a comicbook – as cool as that would be! – but writing scripts for the game itself).
48 hours later, and I was done. While the trip was short, I liked the city enough to want to come back and see more of it. And while I don’t (right now) have plans to write something set in Malmo, I’m pretty sure I’ll make use of my exposure to the city somewhere down the line.
Writers store all this experiential stuff away and it rises back to surface when you least expect it. I never intended to draw on my trip to Madeira as detail for a 31st century planet of vintners in my Horus Heresy novel Nemesis, or my visit to the Maltese “silent city” of Mdina in my latest Marc Dane thriller Ghost, but both places inspired me and helped me make those stories feel authentic. Travel doesn’t just broaden the mind, it stimulates it. If you enjoyed this travel blog and you'd like to see more of the same, let me know in the comments below or via my Twitter feed...
A month on from the launch of Ghost, the third novel in my Marc Dane series of thrillers, and things are moving apace; I made it on to the bestseller list once more, so I'm sending out a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who picked up a copy of the book.
As is now becoming an annual thing, when I was working on the book I assembled a playlist of songs that provided inspiration for characters, themes and scenes.
I've done this before for the previous novels in the series - Nomad (hosted over at the Civilian Readers blog) and Exile (here on Red Flag).
Here's what I said when talking about the use of music while working on the first Marc Dane novel; "writing a book isn’t just the writing of the book; there’s also the time spent wrangling ideas or thinking stuff up. I find pacing out the kilometres on the runner at the gym is a great place for this, usually with a loud and driving playlist in my earbuds to propel me along."
Way back in the distant days of 1988, I started running a pencil and paper roleplaying game campaign that would go on to last over a decade, based on the world of Cyberpunk, a sci-fi RPG produced by R.Talsorian Games. One of my players was Adam Rosser, who has since gone on to become the award-winning producer-presenter behind BBC Radio Five Live's Game On, and I've been pleased to be a regular voice on his show talking about my work in the games industry and as a prose writer.
In this week's show, m'colleague Adam has interviewed me about Ghost, the new novel in my Marc Dane series of action-thrillers, and we talk about the challenges of writing of fiction against the backdrop of a real world filled with geopolitical intrigue, and making the thriller work in a post-Cold War era.
And with the recent unveiling of the first full trailer for Cyberpunk 2077, a videogame based on that original RPG we loved so much, Adam and I could not let the opportunity pass to talk about our hopes for this upcoming release.
Check out the episode here via the BBC Radio Five Live website, which will be available to download for the next thirty days.
Game On - James Swallow, old school cyberpunk
The third book in James Swallow's 'Marc Dane Series' - Ghost - is out now and he joins Adam Rosser to talk about building a technothriller series and then two old chombattas cast a rheumy Kiroshi optic over 'Cyberpunk 2077'...
Last month I was over in Sweden to visit the offices of Ubisoft Massive in Malmo, one of the developers of The Division 2 - the sequel to the hit game from the Tom Clancy franchise, which will be out on all platforms in March next year.
This week was the big E3 videogames trade show and the first official trailer for The Division 2 dropped...
...along with some in-game footage showing one of the games "control point" side missions. I got to play through this myself while I was in Malmo, and it was pretty cool. As a fan of the first game, I'm looking forward to this new iteration of the franchise.
I'm excited to be contributing some scripts to this game, joining a team made up of several great writers and talented, passionate developers. The elements I'm working on haven't been revealed at this point, but I'm sure I'll be talking more about it in the months ahead. Also, just to clarify as some folks have been asking - I'm not currently working on a novel or a comic tie-in... although that would be cool!
To learn more about The Division 2, check out the official website right Here.
Another week, another new release! I'm pleased to announce that Fear Itself, the latest tie-in novel based on the TV series Star Trek: Discovery is out now in the USA in trade paperback, digital and audiobook editions (the rest of the world will get it in the next week or so!) This has been a unique book to work on, from signing on to the gig over a year ago and working alongside the writers and production team on Discovery to today's publication; Fear Itself is an original story set before the events of the series, centered on the character of Saru, and I've worked to create something that I hope will dovetail with the show and expand readers' understanding of the series - along with an exciting adventure in true Star Trek style...
Lieutenant Saru is a Kelpien, a member of a prey species born on a world overrun by monstrous predators…and a being who very intimately understands the nature of fear.
Challenged on all sides, he is determined to surpass his origins and succeed as a Starfleet officer aboard the U.S.S. Shenzhou.
But when Saru breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crewmates, what begins as a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress soon escalates out of control.
Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and the conflicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races.
To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold….
Earlier this week, the good folks over at TrekMovie.com posted an interview with me, where I talk in greater detail about the book, my experiences writing it, the challenges of working alongside an ongoing TV production and more. To read the interview, click Here.
And for more details on Star Trek: Discovery - Fear Itself, check out the official page for the novel at the Simon & Schuster website right Here.
