Bill Palmer's Blog - Posts Tagged "new"
An interview with Bill Palmer
Q: What gave you the idea for the Queen’s Wayfarers in the first place?
BP: Well, they are based on the Queen’s Messengers, who do exist and who carry the “diplomatic bag” to and from British Embassies worldwide. I simply made them more secret, older, and more colourful to create the Wayfarers.
Q: Do you yourself have a military background, like a number of your characters?
BP: No, but I have a number of good friends who have. They help me to get the details, if not right, at least believable!
Q: Are the characters in your books based on real people?
BP: Some are, definitely. Others are completely fictional. I don’t know too many ambitious oligarchs or psychopathic snipers personally…
Q:Are any of them based on you, yourself?
BP: Possibly…!
Q: Have you been to all the locations you write about?
BP: I have been to all the countries. Some of the events in some of the books are certainly based on actual events in actual places, but others are extrapolated from personal experience.
I have sat in a sauna in the Hilton Moscow Leningradskya, for example, and I have sailed from Cyprus to Israel, but I have not crossed the border from Israel to Syria, nor have I landed on the Spanish coast at night in a RIB dropped from a helicopter!
Q: What next for the Wayfarers? What will happen in Book 3?
BP: Book three, with a working title of “Chiaroscuro”, is plotted but not yet written, other than the Prologue which appears at the end of Book two, Sharp Focus. The story revolves around the finding of a book that was written by Doctor John Dee for the Pope of the time.
It is found by a team of archaeologists in the Wayfarers old headquarters under the Palace of Westminster, which was blown up in Sharp Focus. Guy Miller takes on the assignment to take the book to Rome to the current Pope – after all, the Catholic Church still has the receipt…
Expect to meet American Evangelicals, Mafia Dons and a familiar Monseigneur who first appeared in Overexposed. We’ll also meet a new character associated with the Wayfarers – their Archivist, who keeps all the records of their exploits since the Sixteenth Century.
Q: And before Book 3? There are exciting rumours of a spin-off series?
BP: Well, let me tell you first - I've started a new series of adventures - "Short Trips" which are set in the Queen's Wayfarers "universe"; it's not a spin off exactly, more a set of short stories which allow me to explore characters and events beyond the adventures of Guy Miller.
The first Short Trip is a novella, about half the length of the first two books. It's called "Twice Shy" and takes forward the story arc for Duncan Hood and Isidora Valensa; it chronicles events immediately after those in Sharp Focus and before Chiaroscuro.
Twice Shy will be released on the 7th of December and is available for pre-order on Amazon now. The paperback will be released at the same time - an ideal Christmas present!
Q:Will there be more “Short Trips”?
BP: Yes, definitely. One of the things that the Archivist allows me to do is to delve into the Wayfarers’ rich past exploits and adventures; can you imagine what they were up to in the Napoleonic Wars, for example, or during the 1920’s? Even more recently, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall… Wayfarers have played a part in every major world event for centuries and there are tales that deserve to be told!
BP: Well, they are based on the Queen’s Messengers, who do exist and who carry the “diplomatic bag” to and from British Embassies worldwide. I simply made them more secret, older, and more colourful to create the Wayfarers.
Q: Do you yourself have a military background, like a number of your characters?
BP: No, but I have a number of good friends who have. They help me to get the details, if not right, at least believable!
Q: Are the characters in your books based on real people?
BP: Some are, definitely. Others are completely fictional. I don’t know too many ambitious oligarchs or psychopathic snipers personally…
Q:Are any of them based on you, yourself?
BP: Possibly…!
Q: Have you been to all the locations you write about?
BP: I have been to all the countries. Some of the events in some of the books are certainly based on actual events in actual places, but others are extrapolated from personal experience.
I have sat in a sauna in the Hilton Moscow Leningradskya, for example, and I have sailed from Cyprus to Israel, but I have not crossed the border from Israel to Syria, nor have I landed on the Spanish coast at night in a RIB dropped from a helicopter!
Q: What next for the Wayfarers? What will happen in Book 3?
BP: Book three, with a working title of “Chiaroscuro”, is plotted but not yet written, other than the Prologue which appears at the end of Book two, Sharp Focus. The story revolves around the finding of a book that was written by Doctor John Dee for the Pope of the time.
It is found by a team of archaeologists in the Wayfarers old headquarters under the Palace of Westminster, which was blown up in Sharp Focus. Guy Miller takes on the assignment to take the book to Rome to the current Pope – after all, the Catholic Church still has the receipt…
Expect to meet American Evangelicals, Mafia Dons and a familiar Monseigneur who first appeared in Overexposed. We’ll also meet a new character associated with the Wayfarers – their Archivist, who keeps all the records of their exploits since the Sixteenth Century.
Q: And before Book 3? There are exciting rumours of a spin-off series?
BP: Well, let me tell you first - I've started a new series of adventures - "Short Trips" which are set in the Queen's Wayfarers "universe"; it's not a spin off exactly, more a set of short stories which allow me to explore characters and events beyond the adventures of Guy Miller.
The first Short Trip is a novella, about half the length of the first two books. It's called "Twice Shy" and takes forward the story arc for Duncan Hood and Isidora Valensa; it chronicles events immediately after those in Sharp Focus and before Chiaroscuro.
Twice Shy will be released on the 7th of December and is available for pre-order on Amazon now. The paperback will be released at the same time - an ideal Christmas present!
Q:Will there be more “Short Trips”?
BP: Yes, definitely. One of the things that the Archivist allows me to do is to delve into the Wayfarers’ rich past exploits and adventures; can you imagine what they were up to in the Napoleonic Wars, for example, or during the 1920’s? Even more recently, the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall… Wayfarers have played a part in every major world event for centuries and there are tales that deserve to be told!
