Ask the Author: Simon Michael
Answered Questions (12)
Simon Michael
I don't really do much on FB I'm afraid, though I maintain the author's page at my publishers' insistence. You can follow me if you like, but it may be a bit dull!
Simon Michael
Delighted you’re enjoying them Nissim! But if we are to continue this correspondence, please, I beg, one language only!
Simon Michael
שמעון לייב בן טוביה דוד (courtesy of Google translate)
Simon Michael
Hi Linda. How lovely that you got in touch! I also saw your Amazon review of the series - for which, many thanks. I'm happy to say that Book 4 in the series is very nearly complete and should be out in the spring. If you message me with your email address I can put you on my little mailing list for readers who'd like to be kept up to date with Charles's life and loves, and you'll be among the first to hear of the publication date. My email is: author@simonmichael.uk. Be well!
Simon Michael
Hi Bill. Lovely to hear from you. No, I don't think "Michael" has an occupational root. My family were refugees from the Spanish Inquisition and fled to London in 1492. They were Jewish and from Cordoba in what is now Spain, so family lore says the name was either originally the Spanish "Miguel" or the Hebrew "Mic-ha-el", meaning the rhetorical question "Who is like God?" (in my case, definitely not me).
Simon Michael
I'm not really a fan of ghost stories, but there is this: a few weeks before I was married, my grandmother Ellen (known in the family as "Nell") died. The wedding went ahead but celebrations were muted, and close family went out for a meal in a restaurant on the weekend of the wedding. When we arrived there was a magnum of champagne on the table in a bucket of ice. I assumed my parents had ordered it; they assumed that I, or perhaps my brother, had ordered it. As my wife and I were being toasted, my father thanked us for providing the champagne, but we all looked puzzled. None of us had. We called the maitre d' and asked who had ordered it. He said he had received a telephone call that afternoon from a woman named "Nell" who had asked for the bottle to be placed on our table, and for us to be reminded to drink a toast in her honour. We never got to the bottom of it (although I did have to pay for the bottle myself at the end of the meal!)
Simon Michael
I go for a walk or, more often, clean the house! Usually turning my brain off completely allows the ideas to come. But as I have answered before, you can't wait for the Muse to strike before writing. She's fickle and apparently very busy, and often goes AWOL for ages. So the trick is to write, every day. Even if the next day you delete most of it.
Simon Michael
Being able to touch people. I know it sounds corny, but the very best thing is to meet people who say they couldn't put the books down or, best still, that they're a bit in love with Charles (my favourite review on Amazon). To be able to touch people with something you've made up out of thin air, to get an emotional response...wow!
Simon Michael
Write. And write. And write. Every day. Just get it on the page, and polish, alter and edit later.
Simon Michael
Book 3 of the Charles Holborne series. We get to know more about his upbringing and his life during the War and after. It will reveal more of the causes of his conflict and his tendency to violence.
Simon Michael
I think most authors are the same: we HAVE to write. At heart I think we're all dealing with our subconscious fears and issues. It's cheaper than therapy.
Simon Michael
It was a natural continuation from the story in "The Brief". Charles Holborne is a conflicted character; he doesn't know if he's a working class bloke made good, or a member of the establishment (and doesn't fit in with either); his moral sense is uncertain - a man who tried to do the right thing, but f***s up a lot. This book tests him yet again - but in a very direct way which pouts his life at risk.
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