by

Interview – Gabriel Namara

– When did you start writing novels, what moved you to start writing?

Claire. 1989.

– In what genres do you write? Do you plan writing in other genres?

Science Fiction and Horror. Most of my novels are Horror novels. A lot of short stories too. I am writing Science Fiction since I became a father. I have two boys, Tristan and Dante. They inspired me to write EARTHRISE. I saw this young boy looking up into the sky. During a long walk around a nice lake near my house I saw this boy in my mind, standing there, dreaming of becoming a pilot and finally traveling to the stars as an astronaut. This was the moment in which I knew I had to write EARTHRISE.

– Tell us about your books. Why should everyone buy them?

I am wearing an Omega Seamaster watch. It is nice, but I need a Rolex Submariner. The one Sean Connery wore as James Bond in 1962. I need to sell more books for that.

– What is your all-time favorite historical fiction novel? What makes it special?

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. For a number of reasons, everyone should have read this book.

– Tell us a bit about your writing process.

A new book will always start with one idea. For EARTHRISE, I saw this old man standing in front of the Moon Rocket Saturn V. He flew it once, back in 1969. But he will go flying it again right now, 40 years later, present time. Someone on the barren vast surface of the Moon is crying for help right now. Time is running out. That is when I start writing.

When I write, I am so passionate about it that I will get up at 3 a.m. on a Monday morning and write until my eyes bleed. Everybody around me is paying a high price the other day. I don’t care because I am passionate about my writing. I cannot stop. What I do not understand is that I still do have family and friends. I think it is because my books are so good. Sure.

There is no process, just a flow. I do only write when I am in the flow. It is like the Runners High. Things just fit together, meet and collide in my head until everything forms a mixture of emotions which eventually transform into a story.

– What author would you love to have dinner with?

I would like to have dinner with Edgar Allan Poe. I would tell him that Ligeia is the most touching Love story I have ever read and that to this day, I am still able to cite the poem which is inside that novel.

– Tell us about your hobbies and passions other than writing.

I am a passionate Scuba Diver with an extended license in Underwater Navigation and Deep Diving. Besides that, I love lifting some iron in my Gym. The Gym stands in my backyard and there is a poster with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in it, from 1962. It has absolutely nothing to do with my training. It is only hanging there because of Ursula and the Rolex Submariner, which Connery is wearing. It is not his own, though. It was given to him by the producer. Ian Fleming stated once that James Bond is only wearing a Rolex, nothing else, but back then Rolex had refused to sponsor and not given a watch to the film makers. They would go like „What the F* is James Bond.“ Today we can see everybody, including Daniel Craig and myself, wearing an Omega. Daniels is bigger than mine, although both are a Seamaster.

– We have many followers who would like to start writing a book or are already writing their first novel, any advice for these brave people?

Arnold says it. Ignore the Naysayers.

Never ever in my whole life did I see a successful Naysayer.

The world is full of critics not being able to realize their own vision. Sometimes because they have none. These will shout the loudest. Ignore them.
Only write what you and only you want to read. Your readers will appreciate it. And readers are usually quite intelligent people. They will sense if you only write something to have your next bestseller. Write a story which makes you shiver, cry or absolutely happy. As long as you can feel your story, keep on writing.

And stop when you are finished. Do not try to do what many „experts“ want you to do: writing 500 pages because a Thriller sells best at 500 pages. Times have changed. People favour short books over the long ones because they only take as long as it is thrilling and exciting. This is called eBook.

There is no agent in the background, forcing you to write another 200 pages. When your book has 1000 pages, good. When it only has 90, good.

– How often do you write, daily, every other day or?

I wrote almost daily for six years. Currently I have a busy training schedule and want to endure more pain in the Gym so this time has been reduced. I write when I feel inspired. Sometimes it is the writing which inspires my writing and sometimes not. Then, you have to do something else. For instance I will embark on my first Helicopter flight next spring, meaning that I am allowed to steer the machine myself.

Something I have been dreaming of since I first saw Airwolf being aired on the Tele, back in the Eighties. I am an anachronism.

– Do you keep a notebook with ideas for your novels? If so do you carry the notebook with you so you won’t forget any ideas?

Sometimes I do. Funny thing is – and I think that my favourite author Stephen King said it – that the good ideas stick with you like glue. No matter if you will write them down or not.

But as exception to the rule there will sometimes be things I experience in daily life which are good for my writing. The way a waitress puts down a spoon next to my Coffee cup and the way she looks at the door behind me. In such a moment, somewhere in Hamburg, Germany, I knew that it was Jim Borman (inspired by Frank Borman, Apollo 8) who was just entering the Coffee shop, who she was looking at. I knew he was about to meet Eileen to have a conversation about this rescue mission and that he would say that he would be too old in spite of the fact that he was the only person still alive and capable of flying a Saturn V to the Moon.

I will remember the conversation, but not the way she laid down the spoon. For the latter, I will use my notebook to be able to memorize later.

– How important is it to have your facts right and are there any instances when you bend history to fit your story?

I am both writing Horror and Science Fiction. As a matter of fact, Science Fiction fans will be more attached to the details than Horror fans. Horror is about the kick. Science Fiction can be this, but these readers notice when you falsely state that a Saturn V rocket has four stages or you choose the wrong fuel or, even worse, you are wrong with the fuel consumption. I got a letter recently of one guy who really critizised a Black Ops van for not having a license plate. I think he said that such a van would immediately be stopped by the police. While my Horror readers go like „Cool, no license plate – there will probably a Chainsaw and a Girl in the backseat“, the Science Fiction crowd will message you the exact paragraph in the law which commands you to have a license plate. Both fans are fun and I like them a lot.

But, for both genres I try to maintain a high accuracy in terms of geography, location, plausibility and such. For instance in both my Science Fiction and Horror novels I really check things like flight times and all technical stuff. When you examine a corpse, how do you know how old it is? When you try to reach Houston in order to prevent Jeff Schweikhart in EARTHRISE to sabotage the Space Mission, how long will it take when you are beyond the Gulf of Mexico? You will read these things in the book and you will be able to determine my accuracy by judging the hints you are getting.

In one case I really had to bend the facts. That is, for the first Moon Landing in 1969. As a side effect, I discovered, together with my translator Steve Gander, that one thing I thought to have bent was really true. It has something to do with Merle Haggard. But read for yourself.

– What are you reading at the moment?

Countdown by Frank Borman (Apollo 8).

– How is it to be an author in your country? Do you have a good support from the local public?

In Germany, where I was raised and am still residing, I have a bunch of supporters which do not rely on the mainstream media. These are my readers. A lot of them literally buy everything I publish. I would say that my Horror and Science Fiction novels are kind of long sellers. I had Overall Top Ten positions in SciFi and Horror with both my SciFi novel „EARTHRISE – Stranded On The Moon“ and the Horror Trilogy „Claires’ Bestrafung“ which best translates to „Torturing Claire“.

I am a self-published author and thus have no commercial support in marketing or distribution except the Self-Publishing companies. Kudos to Amazon KDP which provide an awesome service. My readers – and readers in general – seem to get used to read new stuff at a higher frequency. Authors like me are able to bang out novels on almost a weekly basis. So being an author in these days means that you both have to work at the acceleration rate of a Space Shuttle’s descending speed (which is 25 times the speed of sound) and you also have to maintain a high quality, otherwise they will rate down your book. Thankfully my beta readers are a very good quality gate. My readers are the best supporters as they never seem to stop buying and reading my stuff, which is the best thing I could have whished for.

– Have you had any interesting episodes as an author, fans related or others, share one of them with us.

One german reader accused me of being a serial killer. He had just read one of my Horror novels and wrote that only a person who is a psychopathic serial killer could imagine such a story and that he had called the police to go and lock me up.

Much to his distress, I have a good relationship with the police here in my area because they helped my son once. I guess this is why I am still around and not imprisoned.

– A final message for our circleofbooks.com readers.

Never stop doing what you love.

And in case you need a proper book promotion, ask Circle of Books as they are really nice people and experts in their field. (Smiles and looks at his Omega).

Thank you Gabriel Namara. We at circleofbooks.com wish you much success!

Click here to visit the author’s page here on circleofbooks.com

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