Ask the Author: Peter Tonkin
Answered Questions (9)
Peter Tonkin
I heard a snigger and turned around. And there it was behind me.
Peter Tonkin
I have just explained to The Big Thrill magazine that I would probably not survive for long in Ancient Rome or Elizabethan London (two fictional worlds I am currently exploring in my novels). So by a bit of sleight of hand, courtesy of Batam Books amongst others, Harlan Ellison and co, I would, after due consideration, probably feel most at home in the Star Trek universe on the good ship Enterprise helping James T Kirk and Mr Spock, Bones, Uhura, Scottie, Sulu and the rest boldly go...
Peter Tonkin
How I survived a near-fatal accident as a child. Glass door slammed in my face at school. My hand went through it & my arm was badly cut. Main artery severed. Nasty. I was lucky 1) To survive 2) to keep the arm (which was packed in ice after the operation - while I was still attached to it of course! 3) I was very lucky to keep my hand and fingers (which were all black by the time I made it to hospital. BUT the doctors just tied off the damaged artery and waited for the other blood vessels to pick up the flow. Took 6 weeks but worked OK. CONSEQUENTLY, however, I have a pulse in my elbow but NOT in my wrist. I sometimes wonder whether I should be worried about this...
Peter Tonkin
Never had it. Quite the reverse. I wake up full of writing and get really grumpy if I can'd get it down!
Peter Tonkin
The power. Writers are really closet control freaks, making up worlds they control like Gods and Godesses. My other profession has been as a teacher - so being a writer gives a little balance against unruly students, overbearing colleagues and overpowering management (School, Inspectorate, Department of Education etc).
Peter Tonkin
Write. Keep writing. Join a writing group - local and personal is best, but online is also good. Look for an agent before you look for a publisher. And look at criticism as a way to get better.
Peter Tonkin
A series of Spy stories set in the last days of the Roman Republic. I also have a plot and a plan tof a new Elizabethan murder mystery in the Tom Musgrave series, working title 'A Stage for Murder'.
Peter Tonkin
Ideas from the headlines usually (especially in Richard Mariner books) So Blind Reef (the most recent) is about people smuggling. I'm working on a series set in Ancient Rome at the moment - and the inspiration from there, of course, is in the history books!
Peter Tonkin
My last book was set on the Sinai Peninsula, which I have visited every Summer for 10 years. Likely to be on the other side of the Red Sea this Summer as Sharm stay closed to British flights til the Autumn.
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