Interview with I. Michael Koontz Today, Tyler R. Tichelaar of Reader Views is pleased to interview I. Michael Koontz, who is here to talk about his new novel, “A Matter of Revenge.” Author and physician I. Michael Koontz was educated at Luther College, a small private liberal arts school in the Midwest, and later received his medical degree from the University of Iowa. His college major was biology, but he took courses in numerous other subject areas in an attempt to become as “well-rounded” as possible. He wrote for his college newspaper and studied writing, but found that the best way to learn is simply by practice. To prepare for his “Apparite” novels, he did extensive research on espionage, history, baseball, and popular culture. His other interests include motion pictures, cooking (especially of ethnic foods), gardening, Formula One automobile racing, good beer, and science. The Apparite books reflect this, giving him a chance to use a bit of what he's read and learned over the years in a useful manner. I. Michael joined us previously in 2006 when we interviewed him about his debut novel “Under Cloak of Darkness: The Story of John Apparite.” Today, he will tell us about his second Apparite novel, “A Matter of Revenge.” Tyler: Welcome, I. Michael. I’m glad you could join me today. To begin, will you tell us about where “Under Cloak of Darkness” left off and “A Matter of Revenge” picks up. Do you suggest people read “Under Cloak of Darkness” first?
But you don’t have to, by any means! I took great pains to make the second book accessible to first-time Apparite readers. One can certainly read “A Matter of Revenge” without having read “Under Cloak of Darkness” and not be lost, believe me. It works as a “stand alone” and a continuation piece. Nevertheless, read the first one, if you have the chance. I’m quite proud of it all by itself! Tyler: What about John Apparite makes him an attractive main character to readers? I. Michael: I have a phrase I use to encapsulate Apparite, and that I think also explains his appeal: “He’s the smallest, deadliest, nicest spy in the world.” If you look at the espionage genre, spies almost always are of the “tall, dark, and handsome” variety. They tend to be unfeeling, efficient killers. They tend to form few human relationships, other than when they seduce women, which seems to be all the time. Last of all, they don’t seem to be people one would necessarily want to hang around with, or call one’s friend. That’s just the way they’ve been done in the past. But I wanted to do something different, create a new sort of spy. First of all, John Apparite is a little guy, just five-foot six, which almost immediately sets him off from the rest. And I think that factor gives him an underdog quality people find appealing. He’s tough and very good at what he does, but on the other hand he understands that what he does—which is kill other human beings in cold blood—has an innate wrongness to it which diminishes him as a human being. He knows he has to do it, since it’s his duty, but he also knows it has changed him, that it sets him apart from others, and not in a good way. He’s a rather thoughtful, likeable person, murder and mayhem aside! But importantly, he always remains “one of us.” He’s basically a nice, normal guy who has a horrible set of duties to perform—and what writer wouldn’t love exploring the contrasts in that? I love the idea of the normal, nice guy who goes off to work, kills a bunch of people in cold blood for his job, and then goes back home again and tries to be like the rest of us. Obviously, that would be difficult to do. How do you do that and still consider yourself normal? Or a decent person? Or a nice guy? I’ve written Apparite so the reader really feels they know him; know his likes and dislikes, his habits, his feelings. He’s very relatable, accessible. And he has this strange appeal to women! It’s a kick to go to a book-club or -signing and hear how much women love this little guy. I think that sets him apart from others in the spy-assassin genre, too. Significantly, in “A Matter of Revenge” John Apparite falls in love. In the first book, I thought it was important to establish the personal relationships between the male characters before bringing romance to Apparite’s life. That in itself is unusual in the secret agent genre, not to have a femme fatale or love interest. But I thought it was important for the reader to see Apparite’s growth as a person through his relationship with his boss—the Director—and the Director’s field liaison, “J.” Again, something a little different, to have the main emotional relationships in a novel be those of friendship and devotion between men, as opposed to those between men and women. But now it’s time for Apparite to get a woman, and take his emotional rollercoaster ride to the next level. And that was a lot of fun to do. Tyler: That’s interesting, I. Michael. That you made him shorter—not exactly your typical tall, dark and handsome agent which, if you think about it, would only make a spy an easier target to spot, anyway. Where did you first come up with the idea of John Apparite? I. Michael: One night, while trying to go to sleep, this name popped into my head: John Apparite. I thought, “Wow, what a great name for a spy!” The name “Apparite” is an off-shoot of the word “apparition,” which pretty much sums up what a spy wants to be: a fleeting but powerful presence, there and not there at the same time. But I thought, well, there’s a million spies and spy books out there, what could make my spy different than the others? So I made him small but tough, devoted to his duty but emotionally distant, having been scarred by the deaths of his parents in his past. But then—and this was the crux of the first book—despite his best efforts not to, Apparite begins to feel what it means to be human again, feels a connection to the rest of humanity. And for him, you see, this is not a good thing! It only makes it harder to do the terrible things he must. By the end of the first book, Apparite is full of unfamiliar emotions he now must deal with: love and hate, devotion and disgust. This new, emotional Apparite is the one we see in “A Matter of Revenge.” He’s not what one would call a “cool customer” at this point! On the other hand, I think he’s all the more interesting for it. In an effort to further define Apparite’s character, I gave him lots of unique bits of “business” to attend to—like Bond and his “shaken not stirred” martinis—those little details that help flesh out a person’s life. Apparite has his own standard gun (the seven shot Colt Super Automatic pistol), his own style of karate (Isshin-ryu), his favorite live-or-die baseball team (the Washington Senators), a love of good beer, an abhorrence for treachery and betrayal, a fear of flying, and so on. Again, it’s all in an effort to make the character relatable and real. Tyler: What about this second novel is different from the first? I. Michael: No author wants a sequel to be a carbon-copy of the original, so I did take a slightly different approach. While the first book was for the most part rather serious and intense, I took a lighter approach with much of “A Matter of Revenge.” There’s a lot more humor in it, and even a few slightly absurdist moments to lend levity to the proceedings. But it’s not a parody, or made so absurd as to be unrealistic. At heart, it’s still a full-bore espionage action-adventure, with a love story attached as well. It’s also much broader in scope than the first book, touching on events even back into WWII, and delves deeper into the past of secondary characters such as the Director and Dr. Hoevenaers. Frankly, it was a blast to write, and I think that always shows. Tyler: What can you tell us about John Apparite’s mission in “A Matter of Revenge”? And, since your female readers love John, will you satisfy their curiosity by telling us more about the love interest in the novel? I. Michael: In Apparite’s mind, his sole purpose is to hunt down and kill Viktor, but that doesn’t mean this is what the Director thinks, or wants him to do! Instead, the Director sends Apparite to Europe to bust up a Soviet spy ring operating in East Berlin. Naturally, complications ensue, which for Apparite means meeting a woman, Christiane Grunbach, and falling in love. It’s not something he’s looking for, or necessarily even wants, but love, as they say, takes its own course—after all, when two desperate and lonely people meet on the night train to Berlin, anything can happen! Turns out that Fraulein Grunbach works in the KGB’s East Berlin headquarters, and Apparite sees an opportunity to bring her—and what she knows—to the West. Of course, there’s this guy named Viktor whom he knows would do anything to stop her. Is this Apparite’s chance finally to flush his nemesis out into the open? But at what cost? Is he willing to risk the life of the woman he loves to fulfill his revenge? There’s the rub, as they say. And I love the idea of the “doomed romance,” of finding the great love of one’s life and knowing, simply knowing, that it cannot possibly work out no matter what you do. It’s one of the great, classic themes in romance literature—and for good reason. All in all, in “A Matter of Revenge,” it’s not easy being John Apparite! Tyler: I. Michael, what about novels of spies and espionage do you find so appealing, and why do you think people love these kinds of stories so much? I. Michael: I think it’s because they have a little of everything in them. There’s action, which everyone loves, and which keeps a book moving. There’s technology, since spies do everything on the sly, as covertly as possible, and often have to kill or watch someone without anyone knowing about it. There’s suspense in spades, of course: suspense about getting killed, getting caught or exposed, failing a mission, being betrayed, and so on. Add a love interest, add some historical interest, and you have something for everyone. Tyler: Why did you choose to write espionage novels set during the Cold War? Now that the Cold War has ended, is the spy situation less frequent or less interesting to write about with a 2008 setting? I. Michael: I set the Apparite tales during the height of the Cold War for a couple of reasons. For one thing, you had a nice division of “good guys” and “bad guys” during that era. Everyone remembers the U.S. versus Soviets, so everyone can relate to that. On the other hand, in my books not every American is good, and not every Soviet is bad! I also love history, and really liked the idea of recalling the fifties and the Cold War in as much detail as I could. I almost took it as a challenge! Fifties movies, plays, boxers, baseball players, beers—you name it, I put it in there. More than a couple of reviews for the first book mentioned those sorts of details, so obviously they made an impression. Also, by setting the books in the fifties, it allowed me to mine true-to-life Cold War issues and events for my own purposes: communist-bloc defections, rocket fuels, the Berlin spy tunnel, and so on. I think this helps add to the “pseudo-reality” of Apparite’s story. Oddly, I also think that by setting the books in the fifties, they have more of a timeless quality. They’re not likely to seem dated, or become stale. My hope is that they’re like a “vintage” dress that never goes out of style! Lastly, I think it would be hard as heck to write a good, modern day spy novel. The technology has gotten so good, and everything is so immediate in our world, it would be tough to work around all that and create real suspense. With cell-phones, the Internet, spy satellites, and so on, how would you do that? How could you have a character remain “in the dark” until the climactic scene? How do you set up the final confrontation with the bad guy when everything and everyone is visible on a surveillance camera somewhere? Everything would hinge on the technology, and I’m afraid the story might get lost in the process. Frankly, I’m relieved I don’t have to worry about that sort of thing! Give me a dark quiet corner in a mews in London, or a boisterous cellar beer-hall in pre-Wall East Berlin, and let me have at it. Tyler: Mysteries, and many suspense books, are considered by some to be a bit formulaic. Would you say there is a formula to spy novels, and to what extent do you try to break away from that formula in your novels? I. Michael: To some extent, yes, there’s a bit of a formula. Most spies are dashing and handsome, very successful with the ladies, rarely show weakness or make errors, rarely come up on the losing end of a fight, and so on. Well, I try and break that formula as often as I can, as long as I think I can get away with it! For instance, I purposely made sure in the first book that Apparite did not get involved with a woman. Talk about breaking a cardinal rule of secret agent fiction! Instead, I took the reader to the point where it looked like Apparite was going to get some action, and then—whoosh, I pulled the rug right out from under the poor guy. I can’t tell you the number of readers who were completely blown away by that turn of events! They’d been expecting some sort of romance all along, and I took that expectation and turned it upside down on them. I’ve tinkered with the formula in other ways, too. Apparite doesn’t always win his battles, or do the right thing. Heck, he’s already had to be rescued by colleagues twice, has nearly died on two separate occasions, has even disobeyed direct orders. In other words, he’s fallible, human. And the point of that is this: when Apparite’s in danger, I think my readers now know that anything can happen. He’s not untouchable. Maybe he’ll win or maybe he’ll lose—and if he loses, he just might lose big! Finally—and I think this is really important—I’m trying to avoid the cynicism seen in most modern spy novels. Most of my characters, even the “bad guys,” are driven by only one thing: their duty to their country. Not money, not sex, not glory. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few rotten bananas in the bunch, but on the whole, the heroes in my books are not going to turn out to be the ones ratting out their colleagues, or sending their friends up the river. I see this kind of thing all the time in current spy fiction and films: a spy thinks he’s working for the good guys, but it turns out that his boss is one of the bad guys and the spy has to kill him in the end. Personally, I don’t care for that kind of stuff. And it’s so common now that this plot twist in itself has almost become a cliché. Who would have thought that having a duty-bound, patriotic spy would be so unusual, if not daring, huh? But that’s just another reason I set the book in the fifties. People were more optimistic back then, less jaded. One could still believe in duty and country and not appear naïve or ignorant. I guess, in the end, I believe that people are more honest than dishonest, more duty-bound than treacherous. And I think that shows in my Apparite books. I think some people find that perspective rather refreshing. Tyler: Who would you say are your literary or other kinds of influences? For example, you referenced Ian Fleming in your last interview with us. I. Michael: Of course there’s Fleming, who influences just about anyone who writes spy action-adventure novels. But in essence, the Apparite books are just as much about John Apparite and the Director as they are about actual spying and killing. In that vein, I’d say the most influential writer for my Apparite books was Patrick O’Brien, who wrote the classic Aubrey and Maturin, Napoleonic War-era naval novels. He followed those two men over the course of twenty-two books and twenty-odd years, dissecting their long friendship in detail. That’s the kind of thing I want to do, to explore these two men, John Apparite and the Director, across the years and missions, so that when it was all done—and who knows when that might be—they’d seem as real as any member of your own family. Ambitious? Sure, but also interesting and really fun to do. And the incredible period details in the O’Brien books inspired me as well. Heck, you can buy entire dictionaries of the terms, people, animals, ships, and so on that O’Brien referenced in his books. His level of period detail hasn’t yet been exceeded, in my opinion. What writer of historical novels wouldn’t be influenced by someone like that? Tyler: I. Michael, since you set “A Matter of Revenge” in East Berlin, what kind of research did you have to do about that city? What do you find most difficult about incorporating research into a historical novel? I. Michael: The fact that Berlin has changed so much over the decades made it easier and harder to write about. After WWII, hardly anything in the city was left standing or was not significantly damaged. In fact, one-seventh of all rubble in Germany after the war was in the city of Berlin! So from 1945 well until the sixties, West Berlin was gradually rebuilt with help from the West. East Berlin, however, languished for years under Communist rule, with really only utilitarian rebuilding going on: lots of gray concrete buildings, ugly apartment blocks, and so on. But then in 1989 the Wall fell, and now East Berlin no longer is the same as before. There are sections that don’t bear any resemblance to what they looked like in 1956. In the end, I found that the best way to get a feel for what East and West Berlin looked like in 1956 was through film, both documentary and movies. While preparing for “A Matter of Revenge,” I watched nearly every film set in Berlin during the Cold War, and kept my eyes open for any documentary footage of that time as well. And you know, it actually worked out well doing it that way. It’s amazing how film can sometimes capture the mood of a place. If it’s really well done, you can almost smell the smells, feel the heaviness of the air, see the grayness of the skies. Besides, it was a lot less expensive than going there—which I’d seriously considered at one point—only to likely to discover that nothing looked the same anymore! Getting back to book preparation, I naturally read a lot of material on Berlin and the Cold War, too. Now that the Soviets are letting people talk about those days, there’s plenty of stuff coming out, a lot of it quite fascinating. Tyler: Thank you for joining me today, Michael. Before we go, will you tell us about your website and what additional information our readers can find there about “A Matter of Revenge”? I. Michael: Sure. My website is different than most other authors’, in that it is not author-centric as much as character-centric. It’s really about John Apparite, Cold War espionage, and the Director’s ultra-secret Superagent program. In fact, there’s over 40,000 words of additional material on the site that I think readers will find interesting. There’s detailed character bios, a glossary of book terms, a glossary of espionage terms, Cold War historical tie-ins, book location photos, and much more. There’s even a hidden “Easter Egg” for the really curious! And it’s all being up-dated to include material pertinent to “A Matter of Revenge,” of course. Anyone who reads the book, or is even remotely interested in John Apparite, should certainly check it out! And thanks so much for having me today, Tyler. Always fun to talk about my favorite secret agent, the diminutive but deadly John Apparite. Tyler: Thank you, I. Michael, for the great interview. I hope John Apparite has many more adventures and you’ll come back to tell us about them. Read Review of A Matter of Revenge
|
Social Media NetworkQuick Links
Sign up for email updates Services for Authors
Literary awards and contests
PreViews
Inside Scoop Live
Review the Book
Reader Views Kids
Book Marketing Connections
Authors Access Forum
Book giveaway
|
Along with our book reviews we offer affordable services to meet the needs of our authors in the growing book publishing industry. Our service packages are budget friendly, effective, and will assist the author in showcasing their book to the reading audience.
