EC Scullion - Intruders - Interview (Q&A) Adult Book - RedDoor Press

To celebrate the debut book by EC Scullion I'd like to introduce a publishers interview with the author. In this post, she is talking about her adult thriller which is soon to be published by RedDoor. The e-book will be out on the 28th of May 2020 whilst the Paperback will be published in September 2020. The book is a clever adult thriller with many twists and turns like a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike. Please take the time to find out more about the book and the characters, especially Tom Holt. If you would like a copy then you can pre-order. In the meantime, enjoy, stay safe, and have a great week. 

There is a safe, in a house, inside a secure compound in South America. Your job… the job of your team… is to bring me the contents of that safe. Disgraced security consultant Tom Holt accepts a job from a mysterious lawyer, on behalf of a client named Capricorn. Holt’s team comprises Anil, a safe-cracking ex-con; Ray, a disgruntled logistics man, and Becca, a fiery red-headed thief with as much attitude as she has talent for picking pockets. On arrival in the alluring Argentine city of Buenos Aires, Holt’s past swiftly catches up with him. As he begins to question the client’s motives, he finds there are darker, more sinister characters who show loyalty to his employer. Who is Capricorn? What’s inside the safe? Tom Holt is about to discover how far he will go to expose the truth, even if it means risking everything, including his own life.

How did you develop the character Tom Holt?

From the outset, I knew I wanted to write about a male protagonist, someone who had flaws and who wasn’t just a stereotypical muscle man who could fight his way out of any situation.  Tom is the middle child of divorced parents, he’s been in the Army but he’s had issues with the past with gambling, which signalled the end of that particular career.  When we first meet him in the book, he’s been caught gambling money from the company he works for as a security consultant in a South Africa casino.  He’s down on his luck and it’s going to take a significant amount of time for him to pay his former boss back.  He’s holed up in his London flat, all alone.  He’s also lost his fiancée, who happened to be his boss’s daughter.  So when a mysterious lawyer comes to his door to offer him a job, he’s not really in a position to turn it down.  We find out that Tom can speak Spanish, and has a history in Buenos Aires, where parts of the story are set.  The idea of going back there appeals to him and given his experience he accepts the role of leading a team to retrieve the contents of a safe in Montevideo in Uruguay.  But his past experiences in Argentina are going to catch up with him, which complicates things in a big way.

You've committed to writing a trilogy. Why do you need three books to tell the story?

When I started writing the first book, it became clear to me that the real bad guys were the ones lurking in the shadows.  They were the ones pulling the strings, but the story wasn’t focussed entirely on them.  So I quickly knew that ‘Intruders’ was only going to cover the initial set-up and that the contents of the safe would open up a can of worms for everyone involved.  Whilst the story of ‘Intruders’ wraps up neatly by the end, Tom Holt has also take some actions that as a reader you know will allow the next phase of the story to continue forward, because the real bad guys aren’t done yet.  They’re still out there.  I like trilogies like Larsson’s Millennium books that allow you to dive back into a world where characters are continuing to fight for what they believe in.  Those books were very inspiring to me as a writer. 

Often in thrillers, the characters can be quite one dimensional - a goodie, a baddie, etc. How did you create more complex characters?

I like writing characters who don’t necessarily fit the role of ‘goodie’ or ‘baddie’, who cannot really be defined as either, who have definite grey areas.  My story is about these kinds of characters, who as you get to know them, you realise can’t be shoehorned into either of those roles.  My protagonist, Tom Holt, has had problems with gambling and has in the past got involved with some shady Argentine gangsters.  But events are going to conspire to make him want to do the right thing by going up against the real bad guy.  In Tom’s team, Becca Wylde is a talented thief and a pickpocket, yet we come to realise that life has dealt her some blows and she’s had to survive that way.  Anil Choudhury too has done time in jail for breaking and entering, but we also find out that he’s done an incredible deed for a friend in the process, and that this is the last job he is willing to do so he can settle down with his wife and daughter.  We also delve into the background of the man we think is going to be the bad guy; and we see that circumstances have gone against him too.  When I approach building a character, I try to focus on where they have come from, and what their motivations are, whether they be good, bad, or possibly a little bit of both.

Tom Holt is prepared to risk his life. How was it writing such commitment and zeal for a cause?

Without giving away any spoilers, Tom Holt knows he has to redeem himself.  He knows he’s got away with so much in his life and that others haven’t been so lucky.  He knows it’s his turn to step up, to actually fight for a worthy cause that isn’t his own. I enjoyed writing his character’s arc, and I loved writing the last quarter of the story where I could put him into some really sticky situations.  He thinks he knows everything, but it turns out he knows nothing at all, and the test for him is how he reacts to those revelations.  Does he stand or does he fall? 

What's your writing process and routine?

I am a working mum, so I write in the evenings once my kids have gone to sleep.  I try to write every day but I am often falling asleep at my keyboard, and my husband is left to watch Netflix on his own, which I consistently feel bad about.  If I don’t sit down to write though I tend to feel really guilty.  It’s my goal to become a full-time writer.  When I’m not writing, I’m usually thinking about a plot or a character.  I’m a real daydreamer.  I drive myself crazy.

You've worked all around the world. Did this make you want to write something set in another country? Why Argentina?

The idea for my book came to me when I moved with my family to Montevideo in Uruguay.  When my husband first told me we were going to move there, I think my reaction was ‘where’s that?’  I had never been to Latin America.  My husband had about eight months of Spanish language training but as I was looking after two young children at the time, I really didn’t have much time to learn Spanish.  So it was quite a shock to the system and I had no idea what to expect.  My Spanish is still pretty terrible as a result!  Montevideo is a small place in comparison to Buenos Aires, which is just across the border in Argentina.  The two cities couldn’t be more different.  When you fly into Buenos Aires you see just how sprawling it is, and how small Montevideo looks in comparison.  So for the book I wanted to capture some of these places that I’d been to.  For me, a lot of writing is about location, location, location.  Before I joined the Foreign Office, I hadn’t really been anywhere overseas, apart from the US.  My writing was all based in London and felt a bit stale and flat.  So when I started to travel I felt I could expand my horizons.  It opened me up creatively to telling stories that had a much bigger scope.  The next book in the trilogy keeps the Latin American theme, but I am incorporating Chile, Panama and Mexico, and various places within these countries.

How has your day job informed your writing?

Working in Embassies around the world has always been a positive experience for me because you’re not just working with British nationals but you are working with locals from the country that you are in.  So there is always the chance to make new friends, to learn about new things, anything from food to the language, to the weather in various lands, to different cultural practices.  I wouldn’t be writing the same kind of stories had I not had this chance to work abroad.  And then of course, when you’re not working, you can get to travel around too.  Last year as a family we did a road trip across Panama into Costa Rica.  It was the most incredible experience.  I wouldn’t have been able to do that without my day job, so I’m thankful it’s given me these opportunities, all of which have allowed me to grow as a writer. 

Why are you going by your initials rather than your name? Does the author name matter?

I’d like to think that it doesn’t matter, but I think the truth is that it probably does a bit when a reader is looking at the cover of your novel, as to whether they might choose to buy it or not.  The tiniest detail can put someone off.  My book is a thriller, but not a psychological thriller, which in the UK is a genre which many female thriller authors write in and have great success in doing so.  But I shied away from writing that kind of book – mainly because as I didn’t think I could reach the high standard of those already out there in the market.  Instead, I wanted to go my own way and write a more action-packed thriller, with (importantly) an international setting, something almost cinematic in its tone, but not devoid of emotion.  For me, this is the kind of genre that more male authors tend to write in.  So I suppose I didn’t want a potential male readership to be put off by me using my (obviously) female first name.  I want to be given a fighting chance as an author and I felt that a gender-neutral name was the best way to go at this time. 

Have you always been a writer?

I started writing at seventeen, and I’m now forty-one, so yes I suppose I have.  It’s always been on my mind and meant more to me than just a hobby.  I work hard on it, but being a working mum I can’t focus on writing as much as I would want to.  As a university student I wrote all the time, but what I managed to produce was all a load of rubbish!  When it comes to writing novels, it takes time to learn what works and to hone your craft.  I definitely still have a lot of areas to improve in.  But I think I would write even if I thought no one would ever read what I’d written.  At the end of the day, you have to be passionate about what you are writing.  You have to write for yourself.

About the author

Emma Scullion joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2003. For the past eleven years, she has managed to escape Westminster, working in British Embassies in Beijing, Bangkok, Panama City and Montevideo in Uruguay. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy and Intruders is her first published novel. She now lives in Rome with her husband and two children.