A Warm Welcome From I. Michael Koontz and John Apparite!
Welcome to the Five Star author's blog, a place for those who enjoy good books--either reading or, perhaps, writing them.
What's my gig? Well, I'm a medical professional with years of useless-knowledge accumulation who put it all together to write a Cold War spy novel set in 1955. Yep--you read that right.
The book's called, Under Cloak of Darkness: The Story of John Apparite, and it comes out in July.
Surely you've heard of Bond...James Bond. Maybe you've heard of Jason Bourne. How about George Smiley? Yeah--I figured.
But I doubt any of you had ever heard of "Superagent" John Apparite before--and there's a reason. He doesn't exist. Not here, not in any government data bank, and not even if you "Google" the name. Sure, there's that little book coming out in July from Five Star with that name attached, but even then, one never knows if what one reads is true.
I mean--c'mon! A super-secret spy that is only five feet six and 141 pounds? That knows Isshin-Ryu karate, the Israeli Army-derived defense method Krav Maga, and the secrets of Soviet death-SAMBO? And, to top it all off, he's from a place called Eckhart Springs, Maryland, which is over near Cumberland. I've looked at a map and let me assure you there's no such place (sure, there's an Eckhart Mines, but the Springs seemed to have dried up!) And don't even get me going on his obsession with the old Washington Senators baseball club.
Nevertheless, this little book coming out in July about that mysterious man just goes to show what can happen when a name pops into a tired medical professional's head while trying to get some shut-eye at 11 pm on a cool April eve. You see, three days later he starts writing, the first sentence into the computer being:
"Your new name is John Apparite."
Six months later, the last sentence is entered:
"And as soon as he was able, he would see that it was done."
Next month, people will learn about John Apparite, whom I call "The smallest, deadliest, and probably the nicest spy in the world."
Unlike many in the Five Star fold, I had never before written fiction. Non-fiction, yes--I had a work on the experiences of seventeen WWII veterans published in 2001 (it did fairly well in its genre, selling 5,000 copies). But writing fiction was more than simply a different kind of animal--it was a different life-form altogether.
There were battles everywhere: How long should a chapter be? I consulted some novels I had in the house. How does one structure dialogue? Again, to my library. How to avoid repitition? Take notes of phrases you might use more than once. Research? Hours on the internet; dozens of sites to add to my "favorites" list (some almost certainly suspicious to FBI investiagtors: The effects of Ricin poison? Weapons pages? The CIA home-page? The origins of the KGB and SMERSH? The derivation of rocket fuels?); paper to buy; printers to curse at; those nasty and expensive Dell ink cartridges to order (why can't they let someone else make them so I can get them at Staples?).
I won't kid you--parts of it were difficult. Every writer has his or her strengths and weaknesses, and I know I found mine (of course, I won't point them out here!) And now the sequel is done, and the sequel to the sequel is basically done, and I'm plotting out the fourth (what happens to John Apparite? If I told you, I'd have to k--well, you know the rest).
Naw, you've never heard of John Apparite, and you've never heard of I. Michael Koontz, either. But do me a favor: go to www.imkoontz.com and check it out. There's 35,000 words of material on the world of John Apparite and Cold War espionage, and from what you'll read there, there's one thing I'm sure you'll figure out:
That I had one helluva' good time doing all of this. More than money and fame, that's the best reason of all to write a book; give birth to a character; create a new world.
And maybe even you'll want to check out the book. If you do--thanks.
This blog will self-destruct in ten seconds.
After that happens, check out my other blog on blogger.com, called "John Apparite, the Movies, and Other Things."
Happy reading--I'll see you again sometime soon.
What's my gig? Well, I'm a medical professional with years of useless-knowledge accumulation who put it all together to write a Cold War spy novel set in 1955. Yep--you read that right.
The book's called, Under Cloak of Darkness: The Story of John Apparite, and it comes out in July.
Surely you've heard of Bond...James Bond. Maybe you've heard of Jason Bourne. How about George Smiley? Yeah--I figured.
But I doubt any of you had ever heard of "Superagent" John Apparite before--and there's a reason. He doesn't exist. Not here, not in any government data bank, and not even if you "Google" the name. Sure, there's that little book coming out in July from Five Star with that name attached, but even then, one never knows if what one reads is true.
I mean--c'mon! A super-secret spy that is only five feet six and 141 pounds? That knows Isshin-Ryu karate, the Israeli Army-derived defense method Krav Maga, and the secrets of Soviet death-SAMBO? And, to top it all off, he's from a place called Eckhart Springs, Maryland, which is over near Cumberland. I've looked at a map and let me assure you there's no such place (sure, there's an Eckhart Mines, but the Springs seemed to have dried up!) And don't even get me going on his obsession with the old Washington Senators baseball club.
Nevertheless, this little book coming out in July about that mysterious man just goes to show what can happen when a name pops into a tired medical professional's head while trying to get some shut-eye at 11 pm on a cool April eve. You see, three days later he starts writing, the first sentence into the computer being:
"Your new name is John Apparite."
Six months later, the last sentence is entered:
"And as soon as he was able, he would see that it was done."
Next month, people will learn about John Apparite, whom I call "The smallest, deadliest, and probably the nicest spy in the world."
Unlike many in the Five Star fold, I had never before written fiction. Non-fiction, yes--I had a work on the experiences of seventeen WWII veterans published in 2001 (it did fairly well in its genre, selling 5,000 copies). But writing fiction was more than simply a different kind of animal--it was a different life-form altogether.
There were battles everywhere: How long should a chapter be? I consulted some novels I had in the house. How does one structure dialogue? Again, to my library. How to avoid repitition? Take notes of phrases you might use more than once. Research? Hours on the internet; dozens of sites to add to my "favorites" list (some almost certainly suspicious to FBI investiagtors: The effects of Ricin poison? Weapons pages? The CIA home-page? The origins of the KGB and SMERSH? The derivation of rocket fuels?); paper to buy; printers to curse at; those nasty and expensive Dell ink cartridges to order (why can't they let someone else make them so I can get them at Staples?).
I won't kid you--parts of it were difficult. Every writer has his or her strengths and weaknesses, and I know I found mine (of course, I won't point them out here!) And now the sequel is done, and the sequel to the sequel is basically done, and I'm plotting out the fourth (what happens to John Apparite? If I told you, I'd have to k--well, you know the rest).
Naw, you've never heard of John Apparite, and you've never heard of I. Michael Koontz, either. But do me a favor: go to www.imkoontz.com and check it out. There's 35,000 words of material on the world of John Apparite and Cold War espionage, and from what you'll read there, there's one thing I'm sure you'll figure out:
That I had one helluva' good time doing all of this. More than money and fame, that's the best reason of all to write a book; give birth to a character; create a new world.
And maybe even you'll want to check out the book. If you do--thanks.
This blog will self-destruct in ten seconds.
After that happens, check out my other blog on blogger.com, called "John Apparite, the Movies, and Other Things."
Happy reading--I'll see you again sometime soon.
posted by I. Michael Koontz @ Thursday, May 11, 2006
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