BOOKS MENTIONED:
- The Silver Wolf - The Red Cobra - Orphan X - The Discworld Novels - The James Ryker Series - The Enemy Series - Game Of Thrones Buy a copy of Rob's new release, The Silver Wolf, HERE. Visit Rob at http://www.robsinclairauthor.com/
FULL TRANSCRIPT
C. G. Cooper: Welcome to Books in 30 with me, C.G. Cooper. Here at Books in 30, we discuss great books with some of today's top authors. Don't forget that you can snag the full list of books we discuss in this episode at CG-Cooper.com/podcast, along with the full transcript. So welcome to our listeners and a big Books and 30 welcome to today's guest, Rob Sinclair. Rob is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling Enemy series and James Ryker series of espionage thrillers. His books have sold over a half a million copies to date with many reviewers and readers having likened Rob's work to authors at the very top of the genre including Lee Child and Vince Flynn. Rob began writing in 2009 following a promise to his wife, an avid reader, that he could pen a can't put down thriller. He worked for nearly 13 years for a global accounting firm after graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2002, specializing in forensic fraud investigations at both national and international levels. Rob now writes full-time. Originally from the north east of England, Rob has lived and worked in a number of fast paced cities including New York and is now settled in West Midlands with his wife and young sons. He's got a new release coming out on November 17th, The Silver Wolf which is the third book in the James Ryker series. Welcome Rob, how you doing today my friend? Rob Sinclair: I'm doing great, thank you. Thank you for having me. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, well no problem. Tell you what, I read off your little bio but our listeners always love to know, can you give us a little bit of a snapshot of why you became an author? Rob Sinclair: You did a great intro there so I think you've given a lot of information I was going to save for my intro anyway. But why did I become an author?. It's quite hard to figure out now exactly where it all came from. But the biggest reason I like being an author now is because I just like working for myself. Like you said in the intro, I worked for 13 years for a global accounting firm, which was a very high pressured job and lots of traveling. You're always in an office in the UK or somewhere around the world. And it just wasn't the lifestyle I wanted. So being an author is a completely different life to that and it's a fantastic life really. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, I mean I know I love it. There's a reason we do it. I'm just curious, forensic fraud investigations. Do you bring that kind of stuff into your writing now? Rob Sinclair: You know, I don't make a point of doing it because it sounds quite interesting and to be honest, the job was interesting in a lot of respects. You know, I got to go on some quite high profile cases where we're chasing very high scale fraudsters or people on corruption charges. And so there was a lot of dirty dealings we were investigating which could make good fiction, could make good TV drama. But for me, it was still work whereas me writing is something more than work, it's something pleasurable. So I don't make my plots directly involved in accountancy or in the world of forensic fraud investigations. But there is a lot about that life which kind of fits nicely into the thriller world. So for example, some of the exotic locations I got to travel to and things like that. C. G. Cooper: So do you still travel when you're researching novels? Rob Sinclair: I don't now. I've never felt the need to. You know, I saw a lot of places through work anyway and just through traveling the world for leisure. So between that and then just what I know about places, I do tend to use places I know of in my writing. But haven't yet jumped on a plane just for research purposes. Maybe in the future. C. G. Cooper: Well have to start that habit for you because I know I have enjoyed it the last couple of years. And you and I are currently working on some things offline with Jeff and Andrew obviously. And hopefully we can all get together. Maybe we can make it a group thing and go to an exotic locale and write all together or something. Alright, well cool. Let's get into the meat of it, what the listeners are here for. Obviously they love us but what they really want to know about is books and what we're reading. So tell the listeners a little bit about a book that you're currently reading or just finished, that you just fell in love with or want to tell everybody about. Rob Sinclair: I read a couple of really good books over the summer. I signed a new book deal with Orion recently for a book called Sleeper 13 which is coming out next year. When I was discussing the project with the publisher, he recommended I read a couple of books which he wanted me to make my book a similar style to those. And one of them was Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz which I think was released in 2016 and it was quite a big hit around the world. And it's a really gritty, action thriller, so it was the kind of book that I write anyway. What I found quite compelling about that book was it tells a story about this guy whose code name, Orphan X. It picks up with him at various points of time in his life so it's kind of like an origin story in that it starts off in a certain place as a child. And then through the experiences of his childhood, shows you how he's being shaped into the person that he is in the present. I like stories that do that. They give you the full backstory of a character, you show how the things that happened to him in the past have shaped who they are in the present. C. G. Cooper: I love that. Now, obviously I've seen the book. Did they also make a TV show out of that? Or with something in the works? Rob Sinclair: I'm not sure. I haven't seen anything. I wouldn't be surprised. It's that sort of story where you could easily imagine transferring to screen. I know there is a second book out now which I haven't read, which is a sequel to that. So I'm definitely picking that one up at some point. C. G. Cooper: Very cool. I'm a big fan of the background. I don't know how much of that you do in your writing but I know when the readers tell me that I'm doing something right, it tends to be when I've actually built a character, I've actually told their history. Is that kind of how you attack yours too? Rob Sinclair: That is yeah. I've done that in a couple of my stories. I get a lot of satisfaction from doing that. Well, as you know, the present timeline in your stories is the most important for the plot. I think it really helps the reader, to explain to the reader why a character is acting a certain way if you can show what happened in their past. I'm quite a big user of flashbacks or using even two time periods in my books to try to get those points across. It's a very effective tool. C. G. Cooper: It really is. Especially if you do it well. I can't remember who I was interviewing last week about this. How flashbacks tend to be ... when we were reading craft books or seminars or whatever, there seems to be the rule of don't use flashbacks. But I think they're fantastic. Rob Sinclair: I like it too, yeah. C. G. Cooper: Use them the right way, they're fantastic. Rob Sinclair: Because you can drip feed information with them. You don't have to do it all in one chunk. I think it's a good way to reveal certain aspects of the story. C. G. Cooper: Amen. Alright, so Orphan X. What about your favorite book of all time? I know this is always a hard one for writers. Rob Sinclair: It is, yeah. C. G. Cooper: One, maybe two that are just your favorites that you keep going back to at least in your head. Or, maybe something that you read maybe every year. Rob Sinclair: You hit the nail on the head. I hate answering this question. Which books? Favorite book? You know, I'm not going to say one book because it's too difficult. I've read so many books over 36 years that it's too difficult to pick one. But what I'd say was the books that had the biggest impact on me as a person, I guess, were some of the books that I read when I was younger. So my early teens. And my favorite books at that point in time was Terry Pratchett's Discworld series which is completely different to what I write now. You know sci-fi comedies. I just absolutely loved those when I was a kid and those are still very familiar to me even 20 years after I've read them. C. G. Cooper: So you started with sci-fi? I started with fantasy and now we're thriller authors, right? Rob Sinclair: Yeah. C. G. Cooper: What was it about those books that just pulled you in? At what age do you think you started reading those? Rob Sinclair: I must have been 12, 13, I think, when I started to read those. And I read those all the way up to when I was 17, 18. And I think what pulled me in was that fantasy element. Something which is so different to modern day life. You know, there's lots of historical aspects in there. I'm also a big lover of things like Game of Thrones on TV. I haven't read that book series but I absolutely love the TV series. I just like things where you can get a real release and watch something that is completely different to real life. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, so does that mean you're ever going to write a unicorn into one of your thrillers? Rob Sinclair: You never know. It's probably not going to happen but it could do. C. G. Cooper: Well cool. Alright we've got something that you've finished, your favorite book of all time-ish. Obviously, we as writers and readers, we've a long list. How about a snippet or your work, did you bring something today that you could read for the listeners? Rob Sinclair: Yeah I did, yeah. This is ... I'm going to read a small snippet from the first chapter of The Red Cobra. So the Red Cobra was the first James Ryker book which came out in April this year. Like you said, at the start, the third book in that series is due out on the 17th of November. The snippet I'm going to read here is part way through Chapter one. Just to give a very brief background before I dive into it, this chapter's opened up with an unnamed assassin, an unnamed female assassin who's on the run. So she's running away from a crime scene and she's being pursued by a mysterious character. So shall I dive in? C. G. Cooper: Yeah man. Go for it. Rob Sinclair: Okay. With each step she took, the roar of the crashing waves grew louder. Soon it filled her ears. On the distant horizon, the clouds began to part. A sliver of bright white light from the moon became visible. For the first time, she could see the endless expanse of inky water below. And the edge of the cliff just a few paces ahead. She closed her eyes, preparing for the leap into the unknown… The next second, she was shoved from behind. She lost her footing and ended up face down in the mud. Maybe he slipped too. Or maybe he’d simply thrown his whole body at her in order to bring her down. Either way, his big frame thudded onto the ground next to her. In an instant, she turned onto her back, moving away from him, then leaped onto her feet. He did the same. She pulled out the long knife and swung it in a narrow arc as he raced toward her. She caught his arm and heard a slicing noise as the blade tore through skin and flesh. He didn’t cry out. Didn’t even murmur. He smashed into her. The knife flew from her grasp and they tumbled back to the ground, him on top, straddling her, pinning her arms with his knees. Within seconds, two thick hands were wrapped around her neck, choking her. She rasped and gasped for breath. The open wound on his forearm glistened in the moonlight. She reached out as much as his restrictive hold would allow, and dug her nails in. Dug deep. She squeezed as hard as she could. Not so much as a flinch from him. It was like he wasn’t even there. No humanity behind those pearly eyes. Just a… machine. His strength, his determination, his focus, was too much. Her eyes began to bulge. The shadowy vision of him on top blurred. But then she saw it. A faint sparkle in the darkness. Metallic. Not her knife. A gun. On the wet ground next to them. He was armed after all. At least he had been. She stretched out her hand, the pressure from his knees on her upper arms giving her little room to maneuver. She clawed at the soggy mud. Her fingertips were just an inch from the weapon. Her whole body strained… She got it. Grabbing the gun’s barrel, she swung the grip toward his head. He never saw it coming. The thick metal handle crashed into his skull. He barely seemed to notice. She hit him again. Then a third time. Finally, the grip round her neck weakened. Slightly. It was all she needed. She bucked and pushed up with all the strength she could muster. His body gave a couple of inches. Enough for leverage. She swiveled and took him with her. A moment later, she was the one on top, the gun’s barrel pressing against his forehead. In the darkness, all she could clearly make out of him were his sparkling eyes. When she’d first met him, she’d thought him handsome. Out in the cold, dark night, his penetrating gaze was sinister and unforgiving. She stared down and he stared right back. "If you were going to shoot me, you’d have done it already," he said, still eerily calm and composed. A stark contrast to how she was feeling. " Do it. Do it now. You won’t get a better chance." Her finger was on the trigger. In fact, despite her hesitation, she was actually pushing down on the trigger as he made his move. He grabbed her wrist and pushed the gun up. She fired. Three times. The bullets sailed away into the night. The noise of the gun so close to her head was deafening. And disorientating. The next she knew, he’d taken back the gun and was turning it round on her. She was sure there would be no hesitation from him. She was on her feet and hurtling to the cliff edge when he opened fire. A bullet caught her in the ankle. Then another in her side. As she leaped over the edge, a third bullet sunk into her shoulder. She plummeted into the darkness below. C. G. Cooper: Nice. And of course you have to stop it there, right? Rob Sinclair: That's the end of Chapter one, yeah. C. G. Cooper: That's fantastic. So that's the very beginning of the story? Rob Sinclair: That's the beginning of the story, yes. They're both unnamed characters at that point but you find out that those are the two main characters in the book. C. G. Cooper: Man, I got to say, I like your style. That never stopped. When you go back and you read your own work, how do you feel? Are you still picking it apart? Or are you like, "Wow, I really like this story?" Rob Sinclair: It's a bit of both actually yeah. You kind of get into a mindset. Sometimes you read it back and go, "Wow. I can't remember writing that, I really like it." Other times, you can read something which you thought you liked the last time but this time, you can just see where the holes in it. It really does depends. If I have to read one of my books all the way through, I'll always make changes. So you always get to a point in time where you got to say, " Enough is enough." C. G. Cooper: Yeah. I mean I had to learn that early on. And of course, as you go farther in your writing career, you get better and better at self-editing. And now it's almost like I got to a point where it was easy to put them aside. And now I'm getting to the point again where it's like, "Alright, I'm having a harder time putting it aside because I know there's little things in there that I want to tweak a little bit more and make better." How do you balance that? The editor eye with the, "Hey, let's get this published?" Rob Sinclair: It is a balance, isn't it? I mean sometimes, I just say, "One more time," so I'll just do one more read through. And I know whatever happens after that, I'm done. Like I said, you could go around in circles for months on end otherwise. So I normally do it by the number of times I read through it. If there's a big problem, obviously you've got to tackle it. I also rely a lot on the editors I use. So if something isn't quite right and I know it's not quite right, I don't try to hide it. I'll make sure I tell them, "I'm a little bit concerned about still. What do you think?" I think you've got to have that kind of collaborative approach. Otherwise, the worst thing to happen is you end up publishing the book with something you're not happy about it. C. G. Cooper: Absolutely. Rob Sinclair: And then you can't change it, can you? C. G. Cooper: No, I know. Having that team whether it's editors, beta-readers, whatever that will give you that constructive feedback. I know my career would not be where it is without them. How do you use that team? Rob Sinclair: It's exactly the same. I don't have a big team of beta-readers. I think it's a useful thing to do. I can see why people do it. But I've always just trusted enough my own instincts and the instincts of the editor which I've used for seven books now. Between me and her, I think we kind of get onto the right page quite quickly. I have my family read it as well before it gets published. My wife and my mom and dad. And they give me some piece of ... tips. They're probably too nice. The editor I use, she's not nice at all, she'll tell me exactly what's wrong. But she's good. That's what you need. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, yeah. Definitely need that honesty. Speaking of honesty, let's move on to the next part which is ... It can be your favorite or least favorite part of the show depending on the type of writer you are. Mean reviews. Did you happen to bring some mean reviews you can read for the listeners? Rob Sinclair: As most writers will have, I've got plenty of mean reviews and they're very disheartening, they do cut right through to the heart every time you read one of them. C. G. Cooper: Well, we like to laugh about them here. How about we hear about a couple and we'll laugh about it. Rob Sinclair: I picked a couple of snippets. I don't know how this will sit with your audience. I guess your audience is going to be mainly American. And one of things which kind of grinds me a little bit is when people point out the fact that I've got English spellings in my book because I'm English. My characters are English and it's set in England. But people point out the spellings as being incorrect. It's one thing to say it's being put in English. It's another one to say, "Oh my God this book was so bad because the spelling was all over the place," because that's not true. I use spell check and I spell my words in English. Just not American English. This one I'll read out a snippet. "There was no attempt to get beyond the weird British language usage and it becomes a distraction requiring looking up words like curb in the dictionary. Because I happen to be an American. There are ways through more a universal approach to language that supplies a smooth reading experience. So we have a self-serving main character who betrays the protagonist in an emotionally dysfunctional love relationship. An inept main character that constantly misjudges the situation and language that requires a dictionary, not too fun to read." C. G. Cooper: Is it really that painful to get through the slightly different English? Rob Sinclair: Well, exactly. It's slightly different. And the one they picked out was curb, which to be fair, looks slightly different. It's K-E-R-B versus C- U-R-B. It still says curb. When I'm reading an American author's book, you kind of just glide over it. I recognize it's different spelling but I know fine well what the word is. C. G. Cooper: That's a new one for me. I didn't know that one either. Alright. Maybe I'll throw that one into the book that I'm finishing right now. Rob Sinclair: Yeah, absolutely. C. G. Cooper: And I'll quote you on it. Alright, did you bring one more? Rob Sinclair: Yep. I won't go all the way through this one but again, it's a very similar thing that says, "Content good. Spelling horrendous." They then go through five different words which they accuse me of spelling incorrectly all of which were actually spelled correct. And at the end says, "Has no one ever heard of spell check?" C. G. Cooper: Oh geez. Do you put anything at the front of your book stating who you are and why you write that way? Rob Sinclair: No I don't. I could do but in fairness, these are few and far between. Like I say, when I get one, it feels very frustrating because I know that the book is ... Of course I use spell check and the editors have looked at it as being proofread and everything. It's just more the frustrating aspect that people can't get over it. The most frustrating thing is they feel very aggrieved by it as well. And that's fair. I mean they've paid for my book so of course they want it to be perfect. It's very frustrating that you can't, as a writer really get over that because you can't respond to the review. You'll just going to dig a hole if you do that. C. G. Cooper: Right. And it's your baby right? That book is your baby. You put who knows how many hours into it. And you think it's a beautiful thing and you put it out in the world and then all of a sudden, you spell check. And oh, by the way, use American spell check when you write next time. Well cool. Alright. Well let's move on to our speed round. I've got, like I told you, I added some questions in here which I don't think will trip you up at all. But actually some of these have been submitted by listeners. So listeners out there, if you have questions that you want us to add to speed rounds, just let me know. CGC@CG-Cooper.com. Alright. So we'll get right down into it. Number one, what's your favorite thing about being an author? Rob Sinclair: Without a doubt, my favorite thing about being an author is just that I work at home. I work to my own schedule, completely flexible in life now. I don't have to take four or five weeks holiday a year. I get to go and pick up my kids from school whenever. Every day I don't have to leave work early and things like that. And just being my own boss. It's a great way to live to be honest. C. G. Cooper: I feel exactly the same way. I miss it when I can't pick up my kids from school or from the bus stop. It's part of my routine now. Rob Sinclair: Yeah, absolutely. C. G. Cooper: Okay, number two. Where do you read? Like in what location do you love to read? Rob Sinclair: I would say in Spain. I know you're probably thinking [crosstalk 00:20:54]. I love to read on holiday to be honest. Somewhere sitting by a pool, on a lounge, in sunshine, sunglasses on, cold drink. That's my ideal place to read. C. G. Cooper: Do you read paperbacks? Or do you read on a Kindle or tablet or something? Rob Sinclair: I normally use a Kindle these days, yeah. Most of my books sell on Kindle so I'm a big proponent of Kindle and e-book readers in general. I think they're fantastic, I really do. Brilliant, yeah. Up in your holiday bags and you just put one Kindle in and have 10,000 books on there. C. G. Cooper: As a lifelong reader, I used to have a backpack full of books, every time we went somewhere. And one of my traditions and every time I go through an airport, I like to buy one book at the bookstore. It's just one of my traditions. But now, it's just one book plus my Kindle, so it's not that bad. Alright, number three. What do you wish you can change about publishing? About the publishing industry or just the process? Rob Sinclair: Oh, that's a tough one. What I'd change about the publishing industry? My first three books were self-published. And they still are self-published even though as time's moved on, I've had two book deals since the Enemy series came out. But I still think there's a big stigma about self-publishing. Not just with readers, but actually within the industry as well. You almost feel like a spare part, or you're not really part of the crowd. And I think that's always riled me a little bit even though I had books out that I had self-published that were doing very well, I was still looked down upon by people within the industry. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, and we all struggle with that. I'm independent and I'm proud. Rob Sinclair: Absolutely, yeah. C. G. Cooper: I now own a publishing company and we help other authors do it. But it is. There's that stigma and luckily with great readers, they get behind us and they're the reason that we can do what we do. Rob Sinclair: Absolutely, yeah. C. G. Cooper: It's nice getting away from that establishment. And now for you, you've done both. You get to taste both worlds which is ... Of course and now- Rob Sinclair: And hopefully- C. G. Cooper: Go ahead. Rob Sinclair: Hopefully, my kind of experiences are helping to break down those walls. You obviously have got people like yourself in the independent camp. You've got people completely in traditional publishing camp. The more hybrid authors we get, then the more those walls are going to be broken down between the two camps. C. G. Cooper: Yeah, absolutely. Alright. Number four. And this is a weird one I know. If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Rob Sinclair: I would have to say pizza. C. G. Cooper: Me too. My wife and I talk about this all the time. Definitely pizza because you could go different flavors, right? Rob Sinclair: Yeah of course. C. G. Cooper: Alright, well that's good to know over on your side of the world that you feel the same way. Alright. Number five. What genre do you wish you could write in if you stopped writing thrillers? Rob Sinclair: I always come back to the sci-fi fantasy just because I still have a big interest in that. I love reading those kinds of books. I love movies like that. So I definitely want to be able to do that kind of genre but I'm not sure I can. C. G. Cooper: Yeah I know. I've done it. It's a different audience and it definitely takes a different voice to do. Well, that's cool. You always go back to your roots a little bit, don't you? Rob Sinclair: Yeah. C. G. Cooper: Alright. Number six. What is the best advice you ever received? And this does not have to be about writing. Rob Sinclair: You know I'm going to give a writing one and it's get your book professionally edited. And this is one that completely changed my career path in publishing because I was a self-published author or an author without a published book I should say. I was making so many mistakes. You know I'd send to ... my drafts off to agents and publishers left, right and center and was getting rejected all over the place. Rightly so because my book, at that point in time, was not very good. And it wasn't until I had professional editing help that it actually started to take proper shape. So, anybody who's starting out in the business whether they're going to self-publish or they're going to send their book to agents, just get some help before you do it. C. G. Cooper: How would you tell new writers or even established writers how to find that good editor and to vet them? Because obviously there's a lot of people out there that say they're editors. But how did you find yours and how did your establish that relationship? Rob Sinclair: So originally, it was just through a Google search. You've got to bear in mind budget and that sort of thing, there's a vast range of prices you can pay for editing. And I went for one who was reputable in that she had a good CV. You could see who she worked for in the past. You could see which books she had edited. You know she had worked in a publishing house before she was a freelancer so you can see that she had a good track record. And then after that luckily we kind of clicked in terms of me trusting what she was telling me about my book. So I think you got to have that relationship. Initially, you just got to find somebody who's got that right background. C. G. Cooper: And that can tell you the truth, right? Rob Sinclair: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. C. G. Cooper: Well cool. We're just running up on time. I want to thank you again for joining us, for being part of this interview, for giving us a little glimpse into your world and the books that you're reading. But can you give us a few last words for the listeners and let them know how they can find you? Rob Sinclair: Yeah sure. The easiest way to find out some more about me is on my website. It's Robsinclairauthor.com. You'll find a bit about me there and some intros to each of my books and some links to buy as well. C. G. Cooper: Sweet. Alright, well check out Rob's stuff. I know I already have and I'm going to be picking up a couple more. And thank you so much again for being on the show, for listening in. This has been Books and 30 with C. G. Cooper. Thanks for listening and don't forget to email me at CGC (at) CG-Cooper.com to say hello. Or let me know of an author you'd like to see as my guest. Thanks for tuning in. C. G. Cooper, out.
0 Comments
|
BOOKS IN 30 PodcastSubscribe Now:
|
RSS Feed