with Greig Beck
We are delighted to welcome author Greig Beck to Omnimystery News today.
Greig's second full-length thriller to feature archaeologist Matt Kearns is Book of the Dead (Momentum; December 2014 ebook formats) and we recently had the chance to catch up with him to talk more about the series.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to Matt Kearns the the story behind Book of the Dead. What is it about him that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
Greig Beck
Greig Beck: My new release is called Book of the Dead, and here is a brief overview: All around the world, massive sinkholes are opening up in the earth — each larger and deeper than the previous one. First the family pets go missing, and anyone living near one of the pits is reporting mysterious phenomena — vibrations, sulphurous odours and strange sounds rising up from the stygian depths. Then come the reports of horrifying 'things' rising from the darkness.
When people start disappearing the government is forced to act. A team is sent in to explore one of the holes — and then that's when the fun (and terror) starts. We move from the war zones of the Syrian Desert, to the fabled Library of Alexandria, and then to Hades itself, as my character, Professor Matt Kearns, searches for the fabled Al Azif, known as the Book of the Dead. He must unravel an age-old prophecy, and stop Beings from a time even before the primordial ooze, which seek once again to claim the planet as their own.
I like Matt Kearns because he is far from perfect. He's a young academic who specialises in ancient languages, and can solve puzzles and unravel long dead texts in a moment. But his personal life is a bit chaotic, and things don't always go to plan for him.
OMN: This is your second series. When developing the story for a new book, how do you decide which character to feature?
GB: I would always have the book idea first. Then when I begin to think it through, I'll determine whether it needs primarily a more military response, and therefore include Captain Alex Hunter, or it will be more an Indian Jones academic type required to solve an ancient mystery — that's when I let Matt Kearns loose.
OMN: Into which fiction genre would you place your series?
GB: Growing up I loved books on action-adventure, mystery & crime, horror and sci-fi. My works tend to combine a lot of the elements from all of these genres, and I describe them today as terror thrillers. Having such a crossover genre can be difficult in books shops, as I've seen my novels finding a home in the crime section, sci-fi, horror, in thriller, and then espionage — a little consistency would be nice, but for ease I'd be happy to just settle on thriller!
OMN: Tell us something about Book of the Dead that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
GB: In March 2013, a Florida man was swallowed by a sinkhole that opened up below his bedroom. This was an unusual and unfortunate event, but what caught my eye, and made the clipping go straight into my Ideas Folder, was that when the search and rescue team attempted to recover the body (they still haven't been able to), they said the sinkhole was still devouring the earth, and the sound was like something deep down in the soil was growling. Made me wonder what "things" could be done in those sinkholes? What would an ancient race think of this if they encountered it, and what type of legend could spring up? This was the genesis point for Book of the Dead, whereby the earth is not just sinking, but something is also tunnelling up towards us.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in your books?
GB: Authors are very good observes of the human condition. Many of our characters portray elements of our own personality traits, whether its hints of our humour, our prejudices and predilections, and even our weaknesses. I'll also borrow bits and pieces from people I know, and have known over the years, and their eventual treatment may depend on if I have loved or loathed them!
OMN: Tell us a little more about your writing process.
GB: I tend to do a brief step-through at a very high level, which is just a dot point of the major story line. I'll list a few of the characters, and decide who is going to be the lead actor. But then I'll just begin, and let the story and characters take me where they want. The most fun for me, is simply telling the story as it comes to mind. I let the words tumble out, even if it takes me well into the wrong direction, and I have to go back and rip up thousands (tens of thousands?) of words, it simply works best for me. Along the way, I'll introduce more people, maybe change someone's skill set, and sometimes move whole cities. The mornings are when I create, and the afternoons are for editing and research.
OMN: How do you go about researching the plot points of your stories?
GB: The Internet and personal experience are my first and second bases. In my former career in IT, I worked and lived in many countries around the world. I have experienced the cultures and countryside in places as diverse as Switzerland, Dubai, New York, Hong Kong, Germany and Japan (and more). Then there is the Internet today, which is the greatest library and curiosity shop that ever existed. For unbelievable reality, you can find online where people upload their personal experiences of exotic places — the smell of the Middle Eastern desert — spices, dung, dry stone. Or freezing snow and ice, that stings the teeth and glues eyelashes shut. It's all there if you have the patience to search. And experts love to help. For Beneath the Dark Ice, I talked to scientists in the UK who were involved in the project to drill into Lake Ellsworth below the ice. In Dark Rising, I spoke to NASA about Black Holes and gamma radiation effects. Staying close to reality is important. Even though we write fiction (and certainly bend the rules sometimes) where possible, its best to seek out the truth. Otherwise someone, somewhere, sometime will send you a polite message designed to educate you!
OMN: If we could send you anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research the setting for a book, where would it be?
GB: Antarctica — I'm doing more research now on the great frozen continent, and the more I learn the more fascinating I find it. Remote jungles, deep oceans, and the Antarctic are places where mysteries can still exist. The Antarctic is quite geographically close to me, and I want to see it in all its glory — the jade and azure of Paradise Bay, the emperor penguin colonies, and even the monstrous katabatic blizzards. One day!
OMN: What are some of your outside interests? Have any of these found their way into your books?
GB: Surfing, swimming and diving — anything to do with water. Our family used to live right across the road from Bondi Beach, and therefore, we were down either swimming or surfing nearly every day. Warm mornings with a glass smooth sea invited me to go skin diving, and big breakers urged me to drag out the surfboard. My brother and I were members of the local surfing club, and used to compete — it was a fantastic and healthy upbringing that still stays with me today. I think the number of my stories that have aquatic settings is a testament to those influences.
OMN: What is the best advice — and harshest criticism — you've received as an author?
GB: Read lots, and also, just write. This advice came from a great Australian author, Bryce Courtenay, and also confirmed in Stephen King's book on writing. Reading gives you access to many different styles of writing, and some authors do emotions, characters, tension (etc) extremely well — learn from them in a pleasurable way. And "just write", means never suffering from writer's block. Let the words flow onto the page. It doesn't matter if they're not perfect words, because that's what editing is for. The more you write, the better you will get. This is the same advice I would give to any aspiring author.
And the harshest (and most amusing) criticism? Well there was an Indian critic of my first book, who hated my plot, the characters, the writing style, and even the fact that I was Australian. He finished his full page review by asking his readers to write to Pan Macmillan to ask them not to publish me anymore. I can only think that I must have run over this guy's dog in a previous life! It obviously didn't work as I have a lot of Indian followers on Facebook, and do very well over there. But really, these days, you must take the good with the bad, and hopefully get more good, than bad!
OMN: How did Book of the Dead come to be titled?
GB: The title of my current work was easy to come by — the Book of the Dead, otherwise known as the Necronomicon, or the Al Azif, is a fictional, ancient grimoire that holds the power over life and death, and also describes a race of beings, The Old Ones, that lived when the world was very young. It first appeared in a short story by HP Lovecraft in 1924. The title of my book relates to how Matt Kearns uncovers evidence of the Old Ones returning, and needs to find the original Book of the Dead to unravel an age-old mystery and find a way to stop them.
OMN: What kind of feedback — other than that Indian review you mentioned! — have you received from readers?
GB: I get a lot of mail from readers, and I'm delighted to say 99% of it is positive! The best was a school teacher, who told me that my fantasy series (Valkeryn) was chosen as a class reading subject on creative writing, and had proved to be one of the most popular books they'd ever read. I also get messages telling me where I've got something wrong, or where I've written something that someone has found insulting. If they write to me, it's great, as it gives me a chance to talk to them, and explain my rationale, or to thank them for educating me (ok, ok, I get it now; you can't make plastic explosives detonate by firing a gun into it!).
OMN: Suppose one, or both, of your series were to be adapted for television or film. Who do you see playing the lead roles?
GB: This is a timely question, as only a short while ago I took a poll amongst my readers on what actor they thought would be best to play Alex Hunter (the Arcadian). There were numerous suggestions, but the clear winner was Karl Urban, and frankly, I think he'd be perfect!
OMN: What types of books did you read when you were young?
GB: As a small kid it was comic books, as a young adult it was the sci-fi, action/adventure, and the horror guys. I devoured the Tarzan series, the John Carter of Mars series, all of James Bond, and then moved to Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Graham Masterton. Working in IT meant I needed to get to the bookshop early, and at least twice a week, to beat the other nerds to getting to the best new releases before they sold out — no internet back then, just first come first served!
Then there were the blockbuster movies — Aliens, Predator, Terminator, The Thing, (etc), the list is huge. And they certainly influenced me, as my style is said to be cinematic. Like Graham Masteron, I tend to take a myth or legend, bring it into today's world, and see how we would deal with it — whether it's the Kraken, a Gorgon, prehistoric creatures, Bigfoot, or Old Gods re-emerging in Book of the Dead.
OMN: When selecting a book today to read for pleasure, what do you look for?
GB: Sometimes it's the cover art alone that is the first thing to grab me. Great covers matter, and they are the writer's first window on the world, where his goods are out on display for the reading public. A tip to all starting authors — spend as much as you can on your cover art. There's a lot of competition out there, and you want the readers to pull into your shop first. Then it is the subject, and the blurb — if it's something I'm interested in, then I'll usually get it, and depending how bad I want it, the price doesn't matter.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
GB: My Top 5 favorite books:
1. Charnel House by Graham Masterton.
My favorite horror author. This story, and Masterton's earlier works (such as The Manitou), has some of the most amazing and original terror scenes. This particular book has the killer first line of dialogue — 'It's my house. It's breathing.' Many of his stories, like mine today, have as their basis an underlying myth or legend.
2. John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I read the entire series when I was about 14 … then again at 18, and again at 25. The series was written by Burroughs almost exactly 100 years ago and follows the adventures of ex soldier, John Carter who is transported to Mars. He meets and falls in love with the beautiful Princess Dejah Thoris, and must battle monstrous creatures while saving the red planet. Like the writer's Tarzan character before, John Carter came from a time when heroes were heroic.
3. Who Goes There? by John Campbell.
A rare short story from the 1950s. It was later turned into a movie (The Thing) in the mid 50s, once more in the 80s and then just recently in 2011. Campbell's description of the psychological breakdown of the men when trapped in the Antarctic while encountering a hostile alien creature is still very powerful, very claustrophobic, and very frightening. The 50s and 60s were a great time for monsters!
4. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.
I remember being in Basel, Switzerland on business, and being in a bookstore on a Saturday morning as they were putting it out on the shelves — I took it straight out of their hands! The story was so fantastic — the research, the characters, and the concepts — wow. I slept about 4 hours the entire weekend, and finished it just in time for work on the Monday morning!
5. Alien by Alan Dean Foster.
I'd like to start by thanking Alan for reminding us that aliens might not be all weird little turtles with lights on their fingers. From the moment the author had a crew pulled from hypersleep to touch down on the bleak planet LV426, it had me rapt. Mixed POVs and a very small book, but one I have reread several times and each time can still feel the sense of dread, tension, and downright fear as they try and stay ahead of the creature running loose on board the massive mining vessel Nostromo.
OMN: What's next for you?
GB: As an author, there is always something coming next! I have three projects on the go at the moment, and hope to finish all in 2015. Brief overview of each below …
1). Rise, The Kraken — Alex Hunter returns in his most ambitious adventure yet.
In 2008, a top-secret US submarine on its test voyage has gone missing in the Southern Ocean off the Antarctic Coast. Today, its emergency beacon is finally activated, but strangely, its location is tracked to an emanation point several miles below the ice sheets of the frozen continent.
The race is on, as the Chinese government want its secrets, and the Americans need to retrieve their technology, quickly and quietly from a place now marked as an international forbidden-zone. There is only one team, led by one man, who knows what's deep below the Antarctic ice — send in the HAWCs and the Arcadian.
2). The Fountain. What would you do for eternal life? What would you sacrifice, surrender, or be prepared to do? Following his search for the Book of the Dead, Matt Kearns returns in his next adventure to seek out the legend of the fountain of youth. But what he finds is that some gifts have a terrible price, and some are not gifts at all, but instead monstrous curses that can exist for an eternity.
3). Carcharodon Megalodon was the largest and most fearsome predator to have ever existed on our planet, on either land or sea. Rumours of its existence in our modern oceans have persisted for centuries. Now, in an all-new adventure with all new characters, the rumours explode into a brutal and terrifying reality in Fathomless (working title) — Novella or full novel.
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Greig Beck grew up spending his days surfing on Bondi Beach before entering a career in Information Technology which took him around the world. After completing an MBA, he was appointed both an Australasian director of a multinational software company, and tasked with setting up the USA arm of the organization. Today, Greig is still involved in IT, but spends most of his time writing … with plenty left over for his beloved surfing. He lives in Sydney with his wife, son, and oversized black German Shepherd.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at GreigBeck.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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Book of the Dead
Greig Beck
A Matt Kearns Thriller
