Author: Bruce R. Cook

Publisher: Capital Crime Press

ISBN: 0977627675

The following interview was conducted by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures. CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews 

To read Norm's review of the book CLICK HERE

Today, Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com is pleased to have as our guest, Bruce R. Cook, author of Philippine Fever.

Good day Bruce and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background and did this have any influence on your writing of Philippine Fever?

Bruce:

I trained as a physicist and first worked in aerospace on the Apollo Project. This background in science and engineering always interacted with my later career as a film maker. It led me to teaching seminars to motion picture and television personnel in the Philippines. In turn this got me a job working on the design of the first true sound stages for motion picture production in Southeast Asia. While working on these projects I gathered impressions and story ideas for a novel, which eventually became Philippine Fever.

Because I have written thirty screenplays and had half a dozen turned into films, I first think of storytelling in visual and sensory terms. I write the movies that I see in my head, but then add those details and internal dialogs which are not possible to portray on screen.

Norm:

How did your book come about? How did you create Sam Haine?

Bruce:

Sam Haine’s name is a pun. In Irish Samhaine is the holiday we call Halloween. It’s the day that the living can make contact with departed spirits, the underworld, and the afterlife. I felt that was a good metaphor for a man whose job it is to bridge between the straight world and the criminal world. The character himself is Irish-American, though that doesn’t figure into Philippine Fever. It does come into play in the next Sam Haine story, Irish Mist.

And why did you get into writing novels? I spent twenty-some years in independent motion picture production, telling stories on the silver screen. At a certain point the prospect of staying up all night to shoot began to seem less appealing. Film making is physically demanding. The hours are long, the sets are hot, and the gear is heavy. I always saw myself as a working director and was involved in moving lights, cameras, props. Eventually one must recognize that the body can’t do all the things it once did.

But I still wanted to tell stories. I wrote a dozen children’s stories and found the process very satisfying. I then began to think of something long form. I found a writer’s group in the valley where I live, and auditioned to join them. Being in the company of eight other writers helped me establish the similar (but still very specifically different) patterns required to write a novel. Since I read lots of crime novels, it seemed natural to attempt a mystery. Having the Philippine experience in my background gave me a ready-made setting.

Norm:

What obstacles did you have in trying to tell your story?

Bruce:

Because of my film background I tended to write dialog easily, and had no difficulty describing settings or action. However I was missing the appeals to the other senses, and had to develop the knack of expressing the character’s inner thoughts. By being in a writer’s group I was able to produce about a chapter per month, and had my first draft done in a year. Then I began attending writer’s conferences and workshops and discovered that I still was short of the goal of writing smoothly and professionally. I spent another year on three more drafts. Staying enthusiastic throughout these rewrites was difficult.

Norm:

What kind of research did you do to write this book?

Bruce:

I teach film making in a college where half of the students are attending on foreign visas. I always have some Filipino students. I’d talk with them about events back home.

Because I had enjoyed working in the Philippines so much and because I found the Filipino people so friendly and warm, I stayed abreast of current events there. It became clear that the Republic of the Philippines was a hub of intrigue and smuggling, while also remaining a staunch ally of the US. Once I decided on my story line I began reading non-fiction about the RP and doing Internet research.

Norm:

What are your hopes for this book?
 

Bruce:

Probably the same as all writers—to find a large enough audience that there is clear reason to write more books about Sam Haine. Leaving your day job to write is a very nice dream.

And I think my writing is easily adapted to the screen. To that end the novel is being circulated in production circles in Hollywood.

Norm:

How long did it take you to write Philippine Fever and did you feel at any time that it was taking over your life?

Bruce:

I began writing novels in January of 2003, found an agent in April of 2005, received multiple offers to publish from small presses in August 2005, then settled with Capital Crime Press in October. I have been involved in copy editing, cover approval, proof reading, blurb collection, getting reviews, securing a publicist, and figuring out a book tour for the last five months. I also designed my own web site. I was surprised how much work there was to be done after the book was bought for publication.

But it wasn’t taking over my life. You don’t direct and produce movies, teach college, and raise a family without the ability to budget time and resources. Getting a chance to sit alone and write was a pleasure, not a task.

Norm:

If you could have someone else’s writing ability, whose would it be and why?

Bruce:

Joe Lansdale, especially the style he used in The Bottoms and Sunset and Sawdust. His voice rings so true, his characters are so memorable, his plots so surprising (yet logical and reasonable). His way with dialect, his ability to invent a metaphor perfect for the story moment, the way he creates an indelible character in a single paragraph—all these are models for the kind of writer I would like to be.

Norm:

I noticed that in various chapters you include some interesting information about the Philippines. Why did you do this?

Bruce:

Though Sam Haine and the Filipino detectives are pure invention, the problem of industrial espionage, weapons trading, smuggling of sex slaves, dealings in drugs, illegal workers are all very real. So is the model presented of low level conflict management by the CIA (and probably by a number of other governments). The little snippets within the text are accurate reports of items on the Internet or in the newspapers. They have been rewritten to fit the plot, but basically they are all true.

Norm:

Do you intend to write a few more novels involving Sam Haine and what is next for Bruce Cook?

Bruce:

I am currently working on two novels, each of which is set in Ireland. In the first, Irish Mist, Sam is sent to Ireland to find out how the IRA (or the current name for its replacement organization) is being funded by Irish partisans living in New York and Boston. As a cover he engages a guide to discover his Irish roots and ancestry.

In the second, Kidnapping for Dunces, I have taken a different direction. This is a comic crime novel in the vein of Donald Westlake’s work. A vintage Rolls Royce is stolen by thieves, who then discover that it contains two orphans. The children are able to match wits with the criminals and it’s soon a question of who is really running the show.

Norm:

Is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered?

Bruce:

I hope everyone who reads this interview checks my website, finds out when I’ll be doing a signing near them, and comes out so I can meet them.

Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future endeavors.