Location research, ideally on-the-spot, is mandatory if a writer of spy novels is to capture the atmosphere of a place and write convincingly about that place as the plot is constructed and the atmosphere created.
When, I was sailing in Morocco and Tunisia, just before the revolution in Tunisia, which started the 'Arab Spring'. We were berthed in the marina in Sidi Bou Said, which is very close to the Presidential Palace, a few miles outside Tunis and was ringed by armed guards.
Ben Ali's palace had its own private harbour with an exclusion zone around it. Adjacent to the palace are the ruins of the Phoenician / Roman city of Carthage. We spent an interesting afternoon wandering the area, under the eyes of the guards on the palace walls just a couple of hundred yards away (the palace is on a hill).
Two months later the presidential palace was ransacked, and Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. There was a great sense of history in Carthage, but the prevailing atmosphere of the country was coloured by corruption. Just after I arrived, I sat in my cabin whilst a customs official asked me, in French, if I had any gifts for him.
Now, it sticks in the craw when faced with that sort of attitude, but a bottle of whisky is not a lot to us. The downside is that if you do not play the game - then the bureaucratic process moves very slowly indeed.
Rubber Stamps and Visas
Getting the necessary approvals can take a long, long time if you don't 'cooperate' with the officials. Some visiting sailors refuse to, and lose a lot of time waiting around whilst officials push paper pointlessly. I don't like that culture, but life is too short so I 'cooperate'. It does give a writer an extra edge when he writes about it - that air of unspoken threat apparent when the power of these officials is subtly made clear.
This very culture led to the uprising in Tunisia, when, in Sidi Bouzid, a young man with a vegetable stall set fire to himself in the face of demands for a bribe for a licence.
Mohamed Bouazizi will never be forgotten for what he started in North Africa and the Middle East.
Kafka
Earlier in my career, I worked in Russia on and off for a couple of years (this was during Yeltsin's period) and that was a surreal experience. Travelling and working in countries which are struggling under oppressive regimes is to be recommended for thriller authors (though it has to be said that some very, very good thrillers are set in Washington or London, with no other countries involved. I guess it is having no control over one's situation that is frightening to me.
Although I haven't worked in Sicily, I have spent a fair bit of time there, and was always aware of Mafia influence - just another form of oppression.
Sense of Place
So, to write convincingly about a location, one has to have developed a strong 'sense of place' - just as to write well about divorce, one has to have experienced it. I've been lucky that this year has added research in the Ionian Islands, Sicily and Malta, and I hope to portray my sense of those places in 'Sicilian Channel', and, of course, including Tunisia.
Authors of thrillers and spy novels also write about things they may not themselves have direct experience of - for example, torture. I have written about it, having read extensively around the subject. However, there are limits to what I'll experience directly in the course of research!
James Marinero writes topical spy novels and thrillers with maritime themes bringing his wide business and travel experience together to provide a unique perspective to his themes. He also writes about the process of writing novels on his site.
0 comments:
Post a Comment