Please
welcome Loose Leaves author Martin Hill Ortiz. He's here to talk about our
latest release, his thriller A
Predatory Mind.
JK: How
long have you been writing fiction?
MHO: I've been writing forever. Even while in high
school I submitted short stories (unsuccessfully) to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery
Magazine and Ellery Queen's. I suppose I became a serious writer about 20 years
back, a more serious writer about ten years ago. A lot of this time was spent
on poetry and theater. I would say for fiction writing my skills finally meshed
about five years ago.
I see writing as the craft of communication. If my readers aren't wowed by my
piece, it is my fault. I can communicate better.
JK: What was the inspiration for A
Predatory Mind?
MHO: I can give you the building blocks piece
by piece. The inspiration for the first scene I wrote, that of Rickert
performing his classroom experiment, came from the 1957 Tourneur film, Night
of the Demon. In it, there is a scene of unbearable suspense
as a catatonic mental patient is hypnotized. He is forced to relive the moments
that drove him mad. You know something horrible is going to come of this, and
it does.
From that first scene, I imagined following Rickert into a larger, more
disastrous undertaking. I sought to invoke the chills of my favorite haunted
mansion story, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.
The idea for adding Tesla and Holmes to the equation came from considering
Holmes' murder castle as a model for my haunted house. Although I didn't follow
up on this idea and chose a haunted library, I got to thinking about Holmes in
The Devil in the White City, an allegory of light (literally, electrical
lighting) and darkness. Tesla was a minor character in this, but I knew him
well. I had written a story with him in it a dozen years back. I thought the
pair would make for an exciting contrast, a virtual geek-gasm.
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| Nikola Tesla |
Tesla and Holmes are such incredible individuals that they astound the
imagination. They became a major inspiration in themselves.
Finally, the terror of being locked in together and not knowing who to trust
and who not to trust came from Campbell's Who Goes There? and Christie's Ten Little Indians.
My first draft was akin to a graphic novel. I had pages of Tesla's notes,
letters from Holmes, bits of history, etc., mixed in between with the story of
Rickert, Fischer and the others. This was good, but I found it was even better
to have Tesla with his personality haunting his lab, not just lab notes.
JK: What
kind of research did you do for the intricate, accurate plot?
MHO: Lots! I love research, becoming engrossed in
another time. I read five biographies of Tesla and three books about Holmes. I
went back to original newspaper articles to find how things were phrased at the
time. I have a wonderful old quirky thesaurus that provides me with the wording
used a century ago. I tried to make the science as real as possible - I am a
scientist.
Within that, I had to make allowances. The invention is part fanciful. Yes,
Tesla did not patent anything for 1894 and '95 but mostly because his
laboratory burnt down.
JK: What attracted you to Loose Leaves?
MHO: I was
searching for a publisher and noted that Loose Leaves had an interest both in
thrillers and history. I further researched the background of the principal
players and found that, although this was a new venture, they had been working
in literary circles for a time. I bought one of their books and found it
professionally done. Definitely worth a query!
 |
| Holmes |
JK: The
cover turned out amazing! How did it come about?
MHO: The cover is a graphic representation of the
thought-cloud devices that play such a central role in the novel and hints at
Holmes' role, too. A first draft of the cover art came from my wife, Ana
Fajardo. She has a B.A. in graphic design and a Masters in Visual Arts. Her
paintings explore what is hidden and mystical inside of lines, drippings and
patterns. Megan Eichenlaub [Loose Leaves' graphic designer] went with the idea
and polished it to the final, dramatic product.
JK: What's next in your fiction career?
MHO: Although I've been writing for a while now, this
past year I've just begun to have multiple successes. I sold a western-thriller
novella, Dead Man's Trail, to another publisher about
the time I sold A Predatory Mind. Hopefully
it will come out in the next few months. I've had four short stories accepted
to anthologies this past year and they are appearing one by one.
I'm working on a sequel to A Predatory Mind and
hope to have a draft by January. It has more interactions between Holmes and
Tesla and a few new mixes in the brew. I don't want to give away its plot or
central conceit, but I guarantee it will be loads of fun.
JK: I'm
sure it will be. Thank you for being here with us.
 |
| Martin Hill Ortiz |
Please don't hesitate to visit Martin's
website, www.apredatorymind.com, where you'll find a free
ebook with tons of information about the two historical characters, inventor
Tesla and evil embodied Holmes.
Please contact info at looseleavespublishing.com
to see if you qualify for a free review copy of this amazing novel!
