Ask the Author: Aiden Bailey
Answered Questions (8)
Aiden Bailey
Africa was the first oversees region of the world I travelled after graduating from university. While most of my friends were off to Europe and North America, I wanted to try something a little more adventurous, and boy was the continent an eye-opener for me. People say India changes you, well so does Africa.
I landed in Kenya in the 1990s during a period of heightened conflict in Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo, all countries that surround Kenya. I was backpacking with a friend and we stayed at the hostels rather than expensive hotels and so I met a lot of journalists, UN workers, soldiers, local Kenyan people, other backpackers, NGO workers, WHO personnel and foreign investors. They all had fascinating stories to tell and my world view went from limited to vast.
I did the typical safari tour across East Africa which was an amazing experience, and I saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, came face to face with a wild bull elephant in Zambia, took an overland train journey and hung out in local nightclubs, but the real experience was engaging with daily and political life.
On the adventurous / reckless side, I was in a crowd while there was gunfire, witnessed a series mugging that I was powerless to assist, found myself on the wrong end of an M16 when I accidentally wandered into a military camp, did home stays with Masai and Samburu people and almost got into a fight with a baboon, and yet this remains my most memorable overseas travel experience.
I’ve travelled in other parts of the world but none have been as adventurous as Africa. Many of my experiences in Kenya and Africa as a whole ended up in The Benevolent Deception, as did many of the descriptions of the people and the landscape. I plan to set many more of my novels Africa, and return there for another holiday / research trip. My wife and I have talked about assisting with aid programs there in the future when we are more established. Yes, I shall return.
I landed in Kenya in the 1990s during a period of heightened conflict in Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda and the Congo, all countries that surround Kenya. I was backpacking with a friend and we stayed at the hostels rather than expensive hotels and so I met a lot of journalists, UN workers, soldiers, local Kenyan people, other backpackers, NGO workers, WHO personnel and foreign investors. They all had fascinating stories to tell and my world view went from limited to vast.
I did the typical safari tour across East Africa which was an amazing experience, and I saw Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, came face to face with a wild bull elephant in Zambia, took an overland train journey and hung out in local nightclubs, but the real experience was engaging with daily and political life.
On the adventurous / reckless side, I was in a crowd while there was gunfire, witnessed a series mugging that I was powerless to assist, found myself on the wrong end of an M16 when I accidentally wandered into a military camp, did home stays with Masai and Samburu people and almost got into a fight with a baboon, and yet this remains my most memorable overseas travel experience.
I’ve travelled in other parts of the world but none have been as adventurous as Africa. Many of my experiences in Kenya and Africa as a whole ended up in The Benevolent Deception, as did many of the descriptions of the people and the landscape. I plan to set many more of my novels Africa, and return there for another holiday / research trip. My wife and I have talked about assisting with aid programs there in the future when we are more established. Yes, I shall return.
Aiden Bailey
This answer contains spoilers…
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Aiden Bailey
Right now we live in a world where mass surveillance is become more and more prevalent, and connected technologies are becoming more and more ingrained into our everyday lives, making surveillance far easier than it has ever been before in our ever-connected world.
I started thinking about the NSA’s National Data Centre in Utah, and how much data is it actually compiling, roughly the equivalent of 300 billion iPhones.
But what happens if an enemy organisation could hack that wealth of information, and use it to their own advantage? Not just to steal and sell it, but to do so much more.
From there the ideas just came. So many ideas on what you could do if you illegally controls a vast portion of the world’s data.
So my novel is about mass surveillance, cyberterrorism, global insurgency, and how it could all go wrong.
I started thinking about the NSA’s National Data Centre in Utah, and how much data is it actually compiling, roughly the equivalent of 300 billion iPhones.
But what happens if an enemy organisation could hack that wealth of information, and use it to their own advantage? Not just to steal and sell it, but to do so much more.
From there the ideas just came. So many ideas on what you could do if you illegally controls a vast portion of the world’s data.
So my novel is about mass surveillance, cyberterrorism, global insurgency, and how it could all go wrong.
Aiden Bailey
I don’t wait for inspiration. When I have the time I just write. The ideas are already there, as I mentioned earlier. This is the time to get them on paper. Editing, which comes later, refines each scene.
Music helps to kick start me. I have track lists on Spotify for each scene in each novel I am writing, selected as if they were the soundtrack to my book as a movie. Playing the track quickly puts me in the frame of mind to write the scene I’m working on.
For The Benevolent Deception I listened to a lot of Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Leftfield, Moby, many African artists and various soundtracks from movies including Body of Lies, Sicario, Spooks the Greater Good, the Jason Bourne movies, The Martian and Spy Game.
Music helps to kick start me. I have track lists on Spotify for each scene in each novel I am writing, selected as if they were the soundtrack to my book as a movie. Playing the track quickly puts me in the frame of mind to write the scene I’m working on.
For The Benevolent Deception I listened to a lot of Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Leftfield, Moby, many African artists and various soundtracks from movies including Body of Lies, Sicario, Spooks the Greater Good, the Jason Bourne movies, The Martian and Spy Game.
Aiden Bailey
The Benevolent Conflict, which is the direct sequel to The Benevolent Deception. Now that the first twist has been revealed, our characters are still in peril and on the run in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi, still trying to uncover answers to the questions that just keep mounting. There will be more chases, fight sequences, mysteries and perils to overcome, and another twist on the first twist.
Aiden Bailey
Write constantly, and edit to take out the boring bits.
Describe everything that is important, limit your point of view characters to bare necessities, and don’t assume readers will be making the same connections you are.
Use dialogue to explain backstory where you can rather than blocks of text. Try to visualise each scene like you were watching your novel as a movie.
Also, come up with approaches, plotlines, characters and sequences you’ve never seen before. Challenge tropes and conventions of the genre you are writing for. Readers want to be surprised. They don’t want to feel like your book was just like the last dozen or so they just read.
So basically, come up with a concept no one has come up with before, write it in a way that from the first line to the last line they can’t put it down, and then leave readers itching to consume the next book in your series. Make sure it has a catchy cover.
I wish it was all that easy, but I think authors owe it to themselves and their audience to always strive for all of the above. That’s what I try to do.
Describe everything that is important, limit your point of view characters to bare necessities, and don’t assume readers will be making the same connections you are.
Use dialogue to explain backstory where you can rather than blocks of text. Try to visualise each scene like you were watching your novel as a movie.
Also, come up with approaches, plotlines, characters and sequences you’ve never seen before. Challenge tropes and conventions of the genre you are writing for. Readers want to be surprised. They don’t want to feel like your book was just like the last dozen or so they just read.
So basically, come up with a concept no one has come up with before, write it in a way that from the first line to the last line they can’t put it down, and then leave readers itching to consume the next book in your series. Make sure it has a catchy cover.
I wish it was all that easy, but I think authors owe it to themselves and their audience to always strive for all of the above. That’s what I try to do.
Aiden Bailey
Writing. I love the process of just getting ideas into words, and crafting a novel into being. I’ll happily sit in front of my laptop for hours, typing away getting the words right.
The other great thing about being a writer is positive reader engagement. When I know someone has been thoroughly engaged and enjoyed my novel, I feel like I have achieved what I have set out to do, which is to entertain them. When readers say they couldn’t put my novel down, that they were that engrossed in it, even better.
The other great thing about being a writer is positive reader engagement. When I know someone has been thoroughly engaged and enjoyed my novel, I feel like I have achieved what I have set out to do, which is to entertain them. When readers say they couldn’t put my novel down, that they were that engrossed in it, even better.
Aiden Bailey
Not something I’ve ever had a problem with to be honest. My ideas radar is always on, with thoughts constantly coming to me on how to build scenes, characters, action sequences, mysteries and concepts that come from leftfield as well, which, hopefully, keep readers in suspense.
I find walking a great means by which to have ideas. I live near bushland so I go walking every morning with my dogs, and come back with more ideas each time.
What I do have is lack of writing time block. Never enough free hours in a day.
I find walking a great means by which to have ideas. I live near bushland so I go walking every morning with my dogs, and come back with more ideas each time.
What I do have is lack of writing time block. Never enough free hours in a day.
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