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A Conversation With David J. Bain Author of Torn Blood
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/6940/1/A-Conversation-With-David-J-Bain-Author-of-Torn-Blood/Page1.html
Norm Goldman


Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.

He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.

To read more about Norm Follow Here






 
By Norm Goldman
Published on May 24, 2014
 
                                                                                        


Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com Interviews David J. Bain Author of Torn Blood





Bookpleasures.com is pleased to welcome as our guest today, David J. Bain author of Torn Blood.

Norm:

Good day David and thanks for participating in our interview

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background.

David:

Good day Norm, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you and your readers. Growing up in the baby boom generation throughout childhood life was safe and familiar. On graduating from high school I joined the Air Force and upon discharge went on to college at the University of Oregon and, several years later, UNLV in Las Vegas. Dad loved music, played guitar, and had a nice voice so I was exposed to music throughout my early years and eventually managed to play an average rhythm guitar as well as inheriting the ability to sing in key.

As a natural progression of events, I ended up pursuing a career as a singer from bars to lounges and small radio stations across the south. I finally realized my abilities would never musically take me anywhere worth going so I settled down eventually marrying and starting a business with my wife Doris that dealt with worker’s compensation issues including publishing our materials though it was my wife’s expertise that guided the company.

I also picked up something else from dad, a love for the English language. He had an incredible vocabulary and wrote several stories but lacked the desire to see them published. So it wasn’t a stretch when I tried my hand at writing our company’s newsletters. At that time the idea of writing a novel didn’t occur to me. Then, through circumstances that have been lost in the passage of time, I met and corresponded with Rich Christiano, a writer and director of independent films and ended up collaborating on two screenplays; End of the Harvest and Time Changer.

Evidently Rich saw something that my dearth of writing credentials didn’t dissuade and working with Rich along with other writers in these two screenplays planted the seed that I might be capable of writing a novel.

Norm:

What helps you focus when you write and do you find it easy reading back your own work?


David:

Having an active imagination and a corner to write in are the essentials. I’m ordered and self-disciplined by nature but need a part of a room no one else touches as the room, down to how papers and books are arranged, becomes my world where story happens.

Reading one’s words has many stages. When first beginning, the appearance of cognitive thought on a page is sufficiently encouraging. With time spent writing alone I realized the need for the knowledge to form words to a story’s needs so I began an intensive study of books from good teachers. Stein, Gardner, Conrad, Forster, Fry, Lukeman and others, so many others. Is it easy to read my own words? It’s necessary if you intend to plant words in sufficiently rich soil to nourish life.

Norm:

I believe Torn Blood is your first novel. How different was the process of writing the novel as compared to your writing of screenplays? As a follow up, where did you get your information or ideas for Torn Blood?

David:

Working on the screenplays was collaborative and we communicated on at least a weekly basis so script changes were caught early on. Then there is the technical difference each demands. In writing the novel I wrote as a solitary endeavor with professional edits coming in after hundreds of pages to eviscerate whatever needed a sharp scalpel.

Torn Blood had a single guiding principal—truth. I wanted to write the story behind the headlines. Sometimes we tend to think about Israel as another U.S. state. In writing truth about Israel and Israelis I knew the story of who these people are and what they face would come out. So ideas came from research which yielded information to be planted in Torn Blood. That is not to say I didn’t have an outline but even that came from my research in finding a credible threat to a country that stands alone in a sea of enemies and remains standing.

Norm:

What purpose do you believe your story serves and what matters to you about the story?

David:

Torn Blood shows an Israel rarely seen because it goes to the heart of her struggles as it depicts root causes. Even in Israel, a country whose calendar is marked with holidays that remember their past, Israelis’ thoughts don’t often dwell on the questions portrayed in Torn Blood. The reason may be that parts of the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, speaks about things many find uncomfortable.

Once the outline was written the story needed uncompromising truth so both sides of the Arab/Israel divide would be honestly portrayed. The amount of research required was extensive to ensure I told that story faithfully and didn’t get in the way of the narrative since only then could Torn Blood have any chance of opening an honest conversation about a country and her people that affects the world. I need to point out that, as a writer, no story can be perfect. I went wherever truth took me and Torn Blood reflects that journey in every page.

Norm:

What served as the primary inspiration for the book? As a follow up, how long did it take you to write the book and how much research did you devote to its writing?

David:

The essential inspiration was to portray truth behind the headlines and tell that story within the demands of an action novel.

It took seven years with help from research assistants around the globe to write a novel whose foundation is historically and contemporaneously forthright. It’s impossible to assign an equation to the percentage of time in research versus writing. There were weeks on end spent tracking down an obscure bit of information and times where my joy was simply writing. My standard was a story whose foundational truths were based on fact.

Norm:

When in the process of writing your book did you begin to look for a publisher?

David:

As part of the writing community I was aware, early on, of the need for a publisher. But as traditional publishing is in a state of flux because of digital publishing I knew there were possibilities that didn’t exist twenty years ago. I also knew, due to the controversial nature of Torn Blood, compromises to the story might be raised by traditional publishing houses especially in our politically correct times.

There are of course too many other factors to list that decided my course but, in the end, I knew if I were uncompromising, found professional editing, and was judicious in fact checking the story I could establish a niche publishing company and pursue marketing Torn Blood with the goal of publishing other books that dealt with being one of fourteen million Jews in a world of over seven billion people.

Norm:

Do you agree with the following and if so, why? It is said that if you want to write a good story or novel you need to create struggles of powerful descriptive individuals and not just issues. Through their accomplishments and travail, we very much comprehend the issues?
 

David:

Issues can be abstract and hard to relate to without context; individuals bring that context because they tie readers into their common humanity with the characters. Many times the greatest personal struggles come from the seemingly weakest characters as they battle forces beyond their control. Whether they live or die isn’t the issue but rather whether they choose to contend, in whatever way they can, with whatever forces are opposing them. The main protagonist in Torn Blood faces such a moment and the story rests on one choice made in a fleeting moment of great duress.

Norm:

How did you approach creating the characters of Addison Edmond Deverell, Dr. Janelle Henning, and some of your other characters. Were they based on people you have known or came across in your research?

David:

Addison only required a trip back to many young men’s mid-twenties to write. Educated, opinionated, naïve, seemingly at the top of his game when in reality time and trials reveal the growth needed to survive. Underneath it all he has a good heart. His perseverance, which I share, was my contribution, without which his story would not be possible.

Janelle represented the trust we place in life and the resilience that comes from within when faced with the unexpected. She is an amalgam of women whose life didn’t go as planned. Of course Hafiz and Nuri represent their progenitors, Ishmael and Isaac, the sons of Abraham. Nasir epitomized the reality that aspirations can be noble but consequences have no allegiance to the inspiration of one’s actions. Each character brings their own hue to the canvas that is needed to paint the story Torn Blood shows.

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and Torn Blood?

David:

Torn Blood has its OWN SITE  which contains a growing number of articles dealing with subjects related to the story. There are also links to the major online book sellers. An internet search on Torn Blood or David J. Bain will show independent articles that can be accessed.

I’m not all that tech savvy but a Facebook page is in the works and should be online shortly as well as Twitter. There is also the obligatory book trailer that should be posted within a week. I hope to have someone in place so social media content is kept current and so that eventually I can get back to writing.

Norm:

What is next for David J. Bain?

David:

What a wonderful segue to my last statement. Next is a sequel to Torn Blood. There are character arcs that are not resolved and readers have made it clear my job is not yet finished. After that I have a story of even greater antiquity than Torn Blood but I need to see how the sequel goes first.

Norm:

As this interview draws to a close what one question would you have liked me to ask you? Please share your answer.

David:

Norm, I’ve found your questions to be incisive, well reasoned, and a pleasure to respond to, you’ve done this before and made me think. The single question I would have visited was what gave me, as a Gentile writer, the notion that I could write not only Jewish characters but female Jewish characters. The words Oy vey come to mind. The short answer is, as someone having no irons in the fire, I was able to be objective in my attempt to write a story that touches the essence of what I came t know as a remarkable people. Obviously I’ve vetted the story with Jewish readers both in the United States and Israel but the verdict on how successful I have been will come from readers of all ethnic groups, and that is how it should be.

Norm:

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

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