We are delighted to welcome author David Tate to Omnimystery News today.
David's new suspense thriller, which he describes as Castaway meets Misery, is Tourist Trap (June 2015 ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with him talking about it.
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Omnimystery News: Tell us a little more about the central characters of Tourist Trap. What is it about them that appeals to you as a writer?
David Tate: Tourist Trap is the story of Sam and Jody, a young British couple who come from a working class background — quite a tough and troubled one, in Sam's case. They got together as teenagers and had children at a young age, which has added to the struggle to earn a living and gain their independence. In the book they're subjected to a terrifying ordeal, with the lives of their children at stake, so it intrigued me to look at how they might react, at how they'd cope with adversity on a scale they've never encountered before. Having faced disapproval and low expectations because of their background, and being such young parents, I knew that they would feel quite embattled, just getting through everyday life. There's an "us and them" mentality, particularly with Sam, who feels very out-of-place in what he regards as an upmarket holiday resort. I enjoyed writing about them because they're both strong people, beneath the surface vulnerability: they have the sort of determination that I think we all tend to admire both in fiction and in real life — that ability to keep on going, no matter what gets thrown at you.
OMN: Into which fiction genre would you place the book?
DT: This one is quite difficult to categorise. At its heart it's a thriller, but beyond that you couldn't classify it as any particular type of thriller — legal, medical, political, domestic and so on. I wanted to write about the way the lives of ordinary people have become so precarious in recent years, especially since the financial crisis of 2008. The challenge was to find a way to express how powerless we all feel in the face of these huge forces at work, and I came up with an idea that works as an allegory, almost — a slightly wry look at how the one percent treat the other ninety-nine!
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
DT: Sam and Jody were inspired by quite a few people that I know, and there are various elements of their back story that were drawn from the experiences of my own family and friends. But as with all my characters, they're only ever a very loose amalgamation of many different people. What happens to them in this book is, thankfully, wholly fictional.
OMN: Tel us a little more about your writing process.
DT: My writing process tends to fall about halfway between the two extremes — there are writers who prepare hugely detailed outlines and character biographies, plotting out every chapter or even every scene, and others who start with a blank page and see where inspiration takes them. In my case I'll usually mull over a new idea for a while before putting anything down on paper, although with Tourist Trap I got to work very quickly after coming up with the initial idea. There was a real urgency about getting this one out of my system — from conception to finished first draft in less than four months.
Over the course of about two weeks I wrote about 10,000 words of notes, often in a bizarre stream-of-consciousness format that would mean little to anyone else. During this period I was thinking a lot about the characters, so the notes included quite a bit of back story for Sam and Jody. The story is told almost wholly from their viewpoints, so it was important that I had their characters firmly in my head when I began. But, as is always the case, I learned a lot more about them once I was underway — and that's one of the reasons I've always had reservations about doing too much preparation. For me, many of the best ideas and insights come once I'm immersed in the story, and I think that's as it should be.
OMN: And where do you most often find yourself writing?
DT: I have a study at home, with a view from the window that's just boring enough to make the computer screen a worthy distraction. Most days, though, I'll go out to a café and write, because I find the buzz of activity around me is actually an aid to concentration. And if the café doesn't have wifi, that's all the better!
OMN: There's very little about "David Tate" online. Is it a pseudonym?
DT: I've written thrillers in the past, but this one is very different in terms of its tone, its structure and particularly its subject matter. It's not a completely conventional story, and my agent didn't feel that it sat well with my other work, so I decided that I would publish it myself, using an anonymous pen name. This way there's no pressure, and it's actually quite a liberating feeling to send a book out into the world in this fashion. Until recently I viewed it as purely a one-off, an experiment, although I've now come up with an idea that would be perfect for another book about these characters.
OMN: How did the title of Tourist Trap come about?
DT: The title came almost immediately, and seemed so apt that I never really considered changing it. There's an element of cliché to it, of course, but also a nice irony in the way that it relates to the story.
OMN: How involved were you with the cover design?
DT: For the cover, I was lucky enough to find a wonderful site, The Cover Collection, who provide either pre-made or bespoke covers. The cover I chose was actually premade, and yet it perfectly represents one of the key scenes in the book, so I was delighted to go with that.
OMN: What kind of feedback have you received from readers?
DT: Getting messages and feedback from readers is, without a doubt, one of the very greatest things about being a writer. This is, after all, quite a strange and lonely profession, and it's possible at times to feel you're working away in isolation to no good effect. Many writers talk about the thrill of seeing their books on the shelf for the first time, but for me nothing beats an email from a reader saying they put aside their chores, or stayed up half the night, purely because they were so desperate to see how my story turned out.
OMN: What kinds of books did you read when you were young? And have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
DT: I read voraciously from an early age, not just novels and short stories but also a lot of comic books — Batman, Spiderman and the like, as well as the fabulous Tintin books. Enid Blyton was also a huge influence, but by the age of 12 or 13 I was hooked on Ian Fleming, Arthur C Clarke, Stephen King. Although these three authors represent different genres, there was never much differentiation in my mind: I've always felt that a great story, well told, has the same appeal, regardless of the genre. I think it's to be regretted that writers nowadays are nudged and cajoled into remaining within quite restrictive sub-genres, on the basis that readers supposedly want "the same, but different". A bit more freedom to experiment would benefit both readers and writers.
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David Tate is a writer from the UK. He is married with children and lives in Sussex.
For more information about the author, please visit his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Twitter.
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Tourist Trap by David Tate
A Suspense Thriller
Publisher: David Tate
On a remote island in the Adriatic, the playboy son of a president hosts a spectacular entertainment to satisfy the jaded appetites of the super rich. And for one young family, the holiday of a lifetime is about to become a desperate battle for survival.
As teenage parents Sam and Jody managed to defy the odds once before, striving to raise their children in a settled home. But the years of struggle have taken their toll, and Sam's worst demons return to haunt him at the worst possible time. Can he and Jody put their differences aside and work under intolerable pressure to save the lives of their children?
— Tourist Trap by David Tate
