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‘Dark Light: Dawn,’ A Talk with Jon Land and Fabrizio Boccardi

August 3, 2017 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Jon Land is the prolific author of more than forty books. His thriller novels include the Caitlin Strong series about a fifth-generation Texas Ranger, and the Ben Kamal and Danielle Barnea books featuring a Palestinian detective and an Israeli chief inspector of police. He also has penned the Blaine McCracken series, many standalone novels, and non-fiction books. Jon was a screenwriter for the 2005 film Dirty Deeds. He is an active member of the International Thriller Writers Organization.

Fabrizio Boccardi, the creator of the character Max Younger, is an entrepreneur, investor, producer, and CEO and chairman of the board of King Midas World Entertainment, Inc. He’s also the creator and owner of the multimedia brand and franchise, the Tyrant.

Dark Light: Dawn introduces the reader to Navy SEAL Max Younger, a man with uncanny abilities to survive any combat situation. Max becomes involved in trying to stop a plot that could bring about an apocalypse of biblical proportions.

Victoria Tanoury, the only woman Max ever loved, is an infectious disease specialist working for the World Health Organization. She, too, is trying to stop the worldwide spread of a deadly pestilence.

Their paths meet as the lines between science and superstition become blurred, and they must deal with the evil of one man who wants to visit the end of days upon civilization.

This book is the result of a creative collaboration. How did it come about?

Jon: The original collaboration began in 2006. Fabrizio was looking for a writer to bring his vision to reality. When my publisher heard his concept—a rags-to-riches story about a penniless kid rising to the heights of power—he recommended me to Fabrizio. He put us together and we created a two-book series featuring Michael Tirano, ‘The Tyrant.’ In the midst of writing those two books, The Seven Sins and Black Scorpion, Fabrizio came up with the concept of Dark Light: Dawn.

Fabrizio: There’s a back story to that. I’m an investor and tried to purchase a casino company in Las Vegas. During that experience, I gained a great deal of knowledge about that town and wanted to create a character who would build the kind of casino I had wanted to build in Las Vegas. And, that’s how The Seven Sins came into being.

Among other things, “Dark Light: Dawn” involves geopolitical events, terrorism, and religious conflicts. How and why did you decide to address these elements in your storytelling?

Jon: It began with the concept of good versus evil. It’s a classic theme of much fiction and in particular, of horror fiction. We wanted to create a hybrid thriller involving science, superstition, action, and horror. If you look at all classic horror novels such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and Dracula, they probe the issue of good versus evil and the nature of man. But none of them explored the origins of the battle between good and evil.

We wanted to address that issue in Dark Light: Dawn, while creating a ‘techno-bio-end-of-the-world-dystopian thriller.’

No one character in the story knows everything. But, if the reader adds up the points of view of each character, the entire story unfolds. The scope and sprawl of the story become evident.

Fabrizio: I’m fascinated by movies and books like The Exorcist. I always thought there’s a great deal of superstition in that story, but there’s also a great deal of paranormal activity in the world. In Rome, the Vatican has an exorcist. There are many strange and unexplainable things in this world.

I often question what we really know about the universe. People argue about whether or not God exists. The fact of the matter is there are many things we cannot know.

Jon and I wanted to write a story about good and evil; a story that taps into these issues, but that’s also action-packed and has at its core, the concept that we have the right to choose between good and evil. We have free will. We also agreed to incorporate a good deal of ambiguity into the story which makes it more interesting and frightening—as occurs in The Exorcist, where the audience doesn’t know how the evil came about.

The unknown is far more frightening than that which is understood.

Max Younger has extraordinary physical and mental abilities. The novel details various genetic anomalies contributing to his powers. He seems a perfect model for a superhero and a potential movie, television, or comic book character.

Jon: The great superheroes, starting with Batman, are based on the duality of their natures. There’s an evil side to them that they must control in order to do and be good. This is the nature of the classic Greek superhero and of superheroes in general. There’s always a flaw and a quest, but there’s always a temptation for the hero to go to the dark side. Batman dresses in black. In the book Shane, the hero dresses in black.

Every great superhero has a moment in his life that changes him forever. If you look at the classic qualities of a comic book superhero, Max has them all: conflict about his nature; the moment of change where he evolves into something different and greater than he had been; a purpose far greater than that of the common man; and the acceptance that purpose will change him forever. He knows can no longer live as he once did, if he accepts the responsibility of being a hero. If he’s going to save the world, he cannot live among men.

Fabrizio: Today, we see atrocities in the world. Our idea was to depict geopolitical events occurring in the world, and mix fiction and reality. There’s the concept of the devil wreaking havoc on earth, but rather than bringing God to fight the battle, we decided to depict a powerful energy coming to the world in the form of a man, Max Younger. He chooses of his own free will, to fight evil and clean house.

Jon: And by choosing to become a hero, Max cannot really be who he had wanted to be. He must sacrifice something, but I won’t say what it is and risk providing a spoiler.

Fabrizio: The ultimate idea behind this concept is that love can conquer evil.

“Dark Light: Dawn” has some of the most vivid action scenes out there. Jon, tell us your thoughts about writing such scenes.

These books—including The Tyrant series—are the foundation for multi-media franchises. They’re going to be movies. With that in mind, we approached this book in terms of its visual aspects. In a sense, it’s kind of like the novelization of a film. We have a rich tapestry of action scenes, but we strove to come up with action scenes never before seen in either movies or books. We’ve never seen an action scene staged with the abilities Max is starting to develop. What makes the action scenes pop visually and viscerally, is that with each action scene in the book, Max evolves more and more into who he will ultimately become. The action scenes are not just defined by their choreography, but also by their revelations about his character. Neither Max nor the reader realizes exactly what’s happening to him as the story unfolds.

It’s the classic movie and book theme of metamorphosis.

Fabrizio: The concept is also dealing with Max’s decision—by virtue of free will—not to bring horror to the world, but to fight evil.

Based on what you’ve both said and on my having read the novel, is it correct to assume this is the beginning of a series?

Fabrizio: Yes, and ultimately we hope to see this become a movie and see where it all goes.

For each of you, is there any one novel that may have influenced you in ultimately conceiving of this book.

Jon: I’m going to go with my favorite book of all time, The Stand by Stephen King, the original version. It’s King’s masterwork. It combines horror, thriller, and dystopian elements, and it still gives me chills.

Fabrizio: I love getting scared when I read novels. For me, the book would have to be The Exorcist. In a sense, that novel is partly what spawned Dark Light: Dawn, but I wanted much more action to interest a movie audience. I think The Exorcist is an excellent concept, extremely well written, and frightening because it’s inexplicable.

Congratulations on conceiving and penning “Dark Light: Dawn.” It’s a high-octane novel of epic proportions blending science, religion, current events, superstition, action, and adventure in a can’t-put-it-down tale.

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Filed Under: About Books, crime, Interviews Tagged With: fantasy, heroes, horror, hybrid books, myth, thrillers

‘Interior Darkness,’ A Conversation with Peter Straub

February 16, 2016 by Mark Rubinstein Leave a Comment

Peter Straub-photoPeter Straub needs no lengthy introduction. As a novelist and poet, he has received many literary honors including the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Guild Award. In 1965, he earned a B.A with honors in English from the University of Wisconsin at Madison; and one year later, an MA from Columbia University. In 1969, he moved to Dublin, Ireland to work on a Ph.D and began writing professionally. Peter collaborated with Stephen King on two novels, The Talisman and Black House.

Interior Darkness, a collection of 16 short stories written over the course of years, demonstrates Peter Straub’s uncanny ability to blur literary genres and pen short stories ranging widely in length, style and tenor, providing a highly entertaining and unusual volume.

Read more on the Huffington Post >>

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Filed Under: About Books, creativity, Huffington Post Column, Interviews, On Writing Tagged With: horror, novels, personal trauma, short-stories, Stephen King

“One Breath Away” by Heather Gudenkauf

August 16, 2012 by Mark Rubinstein

Given the spate of school shootings over the past few years, you would assume a novel about a gunman taking children hostage at a school in a small town would be as suspenseful as it is timely. Unfortunately, I found the suspense lacking and the tension watered down by the novel’s construction which was skillfully done, but slowed the novel’s narrative drive.

The story is told through the eyes of five narrators, all experiencing the horror and processing it in different ways. They are a mother of two student hostages, their grandfather, a teacher (also held hostage), a police officer,and the mother’s 13 year old daughter who is in the school when the gunman appears.

The different perspectives offered by each narrator (either in the first person or third person, in the present or past tense) are interesting, though the first part of the novel can be a bit confusing until the reader sorts them out. Once things fall into place, the story should flow to a furious and compelling conclusion. But the author delves into far too many cul de sacs about each narrator, and bogs down the story’s natural flow, which waters down the tension.

Some people would call this a “thriller” because of the subject matter. I think it’s more a portrait of a small town, and the dynamics of people involved in a terrifying situation, but the read itself is neither terrifying nor thrilling.

While character development in a novel is very important, it should not feel to the reader like some sticky adhesive holding back the story. After all, when you get down to it, the story is what counts. Three and a half stars.

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Filed Under: About Books, Mark Rubinstein, Reviews Tagged With: character development, children, gunman, horror, narrators, novel, perspectives, school shootings

“Gerald’s Game” by Stephen King

July 27, 2012 by Mark Rubinstein

For all you lovers of horror novels out there, there’s one book by the master that’s far scarier than any of the horror stories Stephen King has told. It’s “Gerald’s Game.”

Here’s the set up: A husband and wife have this little sex “game” they play once in a while. He handcuffs her to a bed and they have sex. She’s not crazy about this little game, but consents to please her husband. This time, things don’t go very well. In fact, they go very badly.

While she’s shackled to the bedposts (both hands in separate handcuffs), she decides she’s tired of this little game and tells Gerald “Enough!” But he doesn’t listen, and finally, she kicks him, and Gerald rolls off the bed. He dies of a heart attack, on the floor. They’re at a vacation house, in the deepest woods near a lake in a very rural and lonely area.

She’s lying there with both hands cuffed to the bed; her dead husband is at the foot of the bed, and there’s no way she can escape this situation. Time passes, day turns into evening, then to night, and the sounds of the woods are frightening.

I won’t get into any spoilers, but at some point, a stray dog enters the cabin and begins devouring Gerald at the foot of the bed. The horror is plentiful, and plenty scary, and she begins reliving in her own mind various long-buried events from her childhood–ones that in a way are connected to the predicament in which she now finds herself.

Will she ever escape this situation? Will the dog turn to her after it’s finished with Gerald? And who is that man standing in the corner on the second night she lies there, bound and helpless? What on earth is going to happen?

It goes to show, among other things, that real events can be more horrifying than supernatural ones. They are the stuff of which nightmares can be made.

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Filed Under: About Books, Mark Rubinstein Tagged With: handcuffs, horrifying, horror, horror novels, nightmares, sex, sex game, shackled

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