Today we talk about The Last Resort, a book by Terry Hotchin published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Terry Hotchin to get to know him better, what of his personal experience inspired him to the writing of his book The Last Resort, as well as how he defines his writing style.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What of your personal experience inspired the writing of your book?
The Last Resort was written some time ago when I was working on the Shell Platform Brent Delta as a Non-Destructive Testing Technician … don’t look for it as the Brent Field no longer exists. An offshore platform is a town and a factory encapsulated in a metal cube of 100 x 100m. It contains an airport, office block, restaurant, hotel, laundry, hospital, shop etc. It also has some entertainment but mostly I watched TV and read books. Surrounded by between 200 and 500 people (if we had a Flotel alongside) can still leave you feeling isolated and having decided to attempt to write a book I found it a great form of escapism. Sometimes as I wrote this story and subsequent stories I was amazed by where my imagination took me and what needed to happen to progress the tale.
- What is the message you would like to convey?
The story involves multiple cultures within a relatively small area, each culture having diverse beliefs, ranks, education and desires. The story, I hope, shows that progress without thought is self-defeating as it spawns only the need to be better and not necessarily in a beneficial way, but often solely for superiority over others. The characters hopefully learn that all the cultures involved including all ages within a civilisation, need to work together to the betterment of everyone and the detriment of none before true progress can be made. Non-corporeal beings live alongside humans, who, for the most part, find some comfort in the existence of other, powerful, beings keeping an eye on the goings on and making sure no lasting harm is done. And of course, it is necessary for the bad guy to get his comeuppance. Continuous unabated growth is characterised as a cancer which ultimately kills its host. Hopefully The Last Resort gently warns of the perils of unabated progress without empathy.
- How would you define your writing style?
Spontaneous with this book. Once the basic premise of the opening of the book was complete in that it should be a detective story set within a multi-species population and the decision that the method of carrying out the crime should be as outlandish as I could make it, the story took on a life of its own. There has to be a bad guy and a good guy and there has to be motive which in this case comprised both greed and jealousy. Once this basic idea had been set, the rest of the characters seemed to join the story spontaneously as the tale unfolded. Many stories, and this one is no different, have the basic ingredients of romance, jeopardy, crime and injustice; you then need to use your imagination as the cooking process.
- How was your first publishing experience?
To publish a book, once written, is a long journey; many must fall by the wayside; tenacity, disappoint and time are huge factors in the travel. Once accepted for publication, I found the time up to the finished product a highly enjoyable experience and one that, until publication, I had no idea involved so much dedicated expertise. Europe Books helped me attain a lifelong ambition; to have my name as the author of a book and a unique ISBN belonging to that publication. Their belief in my story and their dedication in helping me achieve these goals has not only been welcome, but an experience thoroughly enjoyed; thanks to all those at Europe Books involved in the journey.
- Are you working on a new writing project you can tell us about?
There are several projects I am working on at the present. I have written a 94,000-word fantasy story called Bell Ringers – The Stark Tower, which involves the rebuilding an ancient Bell Tower in time for the Millenium Ring-Off competition. The region within which the tower was originally built was ruled by a very old king who had it demolished because of his aversion to noise suffering as he did from tinnitus. This ruling included the banishment and destruction of all things noisy. The tower had been built 500 years earlier to mark a 500-year ring off. Rebuilding will involve the ghosts of the dead buried on the barrow on which it was erected. Many things happen and many obstacles need to be overcome so that this latest event can take place in The Stark Tower. I am 42,000 words into Dawn (working name) in which the Track of Time a device which controls the concentration of time everywhere is in the hands of Sevryn Tyse who is manipulating it to get the attention of Death (anthropomorphic form thereof) to enable him the return of his fiancé who had died many years earlier. The main characters are Death, Old Father Time, Ralph who is an invisible friend, and myriad other outrageous beings. I am also working on a bedtime story for a sick child. The story is called “A Pillow Full of Dreams”. The child has a firmly held belief that the pillow he has been given is taking him on adventures.
Europe Books thanks the author Terry Hotchin once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside him on the editorial path that led to the publication of his book The Last Resort. We wish him the best of luck for his book and for his future works.
To you, my dear reader, I hope this book will captivate you and make you reflect on the importance of collaboration by all and among all for the common good, where values such as empathy and respect are the basis of a real true progress.
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your Editor!