Today I am speaking with Max Overton.

Hello Max! Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us. The readers would love to hear something about Max and his books.

I noticed that you have written many books. Would you like to tell us about your books that are out and any upcoming works that you are drafting now?

The Lion of Scythia trilogy (Lion of Scythia, The Golden King, and Funeral in Babylon) tells the story of a junior cavalry officer called Nikometros, in the army of Alexander the Great. He is captured by the Scythians but manages to survive and over a period of time works his way into a position of trust within the tribes. He falls in love with Tomyra, the virgin priestess of the Mother Goddess, and together they seek a way to flee Scythia and find refuge in Alexander’s empire.

The Glass House trilogy (Glass House, A Glass Darkly, and Looking Glass) co-authored with my late wife Ariana, is set in the wilds of the Glass House Mountains in Australia. An American journalist and an Australian scientist set off on a quest to find the answers to many of the modern mysteries that haunt this sun-baked land Down Under. On the way they uncover Neanderthals, the Yowie (a type of Bigfoot), aliens and government-backed schemes. A threat from an alternative reality sends them back in time to a primitive Australia in a desperate struggle to preserve our reality.

A Cry of Shadows is currently at the publisher. It is a story of serial killers, set in Australia and America, and what happens when a scientist finds proof that a person can survive death. He needs to test his theories on dying people, but having lost his university tenure he must look for other less conventional ways to find his test subjects. A serial killer may be the answer to his problems.

I am currently working on the first part of a trilogy of ancient Egypt entitled Scarab. It follows the events around the reign of Akhenaten, the Heretic King.

Have you enjoyed every book that you have composed? Or did some leave you with a feeling that perhaps I should have written more about it?

Immensely. I enjoy story-telling and loved every minute of the composition. Sometimes it was hard to leave my characters and the end of a book entails joy and sorrow. A trilogy has the advantage that you can always return to your characters and continue the adventure. I am thinking of doing a sequel to the Glass House trilogy but that is well in the future. Sometimes the hardest task is deciding to leave the story where it is and not succumb to the temptation to relate just a little bit more of the tale.

What is your favorite genre to write when you are composing?

Historical novels have always been my favorite and I started with my Lion of Scythia trilogy. Since then I have done a paranormal adventure trilogy and a horror. I’m back on historical again, but I have other genres in mind for future books. Murder mysteries feature in my plans, as does Science Fiction, western, Erotica and Fantasy. It all depends on the storylines I dream up.

Was it your ambition to always be a writer?

No. Except for a short story I wrote in high school, I did not even dream of writing until a week before my 51st birthday. I had met my then future wife Ariana and she impressed me with her writing abilities. She encouraged me to start and taught me techniques, plotting and editing. I suppose I owe my writing career to her enthusiasm.

Your website creates a family feeling. I imagine your family is very supportive of your work – even Harley?

Unfortunately the website you are looking at is the old one constructed by Ariana. It has not been touched in over two years as I lack the password to go in and alter it. Ariana handled things like websites and never thought to tell me the password. I have a new one of my own now and would encourage you to have a look. http://www.maxoverton.com It has excerpts and reviews to all our books, links to the publisher, and photos I have taken of butterflies, flowers and places I have been. It also has Ariana’s books, her cover art, and some expressions of love from those who knew her.

Harley was Ariana’s Great Dane. When she died I found I could not give this marvelous dog the attention it needed and found a foster home for it.

I have a sparse and far-flung family in Australia, New Zealand and America. They read my books but unfortunately are not really into books in general. My real writing family is made up of the many readers I have around the world. I love them all!

Do you have a hectic schedule that prohibits you from writing more than you would like?

I am currently blessed with no real financial commitments and a part-time teaching job at the local university that gives me months of free (but unpaid) time to write. I set myself a target each day of about 2000 words and stick at it until I achieve it. It may not all be deathless prose but at least the story is pushed along and I rigorously edit it before anyone reads it.

Do you have an agent or have ever considered getting one?

No formal agent, though Rolling Seas Promotions in Australia is considering acting for me. Some of my books have been turned into screenplays and I have an agent acting for me with those.

What would your readers be surprised to learn about you?

Hmmm. Maybe that I have a Master’s degree in Botany, or that I once caught bumblebees for a living, or kept adders as boyhood pets at boarding school in England before I knew they were poisonous? How about that my first language was Chinese and that I did not even start to learn English until I was three? Or that I have visited 25 countries and lived in 9 for varying periods of time, paid taxes in 3 of them and voted in 2? I know how to resuscitate an Australian possum if it has a heart attack and I have bred several species of butterflies through many generations. I have seen a Kiwi in the wild in New Zealand though very few New Zealanders have. And last week I watched duckbill platypus forage in the Broken River in Australia.

Who do you consider your favorite author?

Difficult question to answer. It depends on my tastes at the time. I always enjoy James Clavell and Tolkien, though my enduring favorites would be Mary Renault with her books on ancient Greece, Mary Stewart’s books on the Arthurian legends, Julian May’s series on the Pliocene Exiles, all of Larry Niven’s sci-fi, and Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light.

Do you have any advice to share with those just starting out writing?

Persevere! Writing is a skill that has to be learned and it cannot be learned overnight. Find a writer who is willing to read your work and comment on it. Take the comments to heart, but don’t take them personally. We all have to start somewhere. Find a good editor, or learn to self-edit. Writing is rather like the English recipe for a good lawn – water, mow, fertilize and roll regularly. Repeat for 400 years. It takes time to learn the skills but it is worth it.

Do you get along well with your publisher and editors?

Yes, extremely well. I have been with three publishers in six years but have settled on Mundania Press. They look after me very well and are continually looking to expand and promote their authors.

My late wife Ariana was the best editor a writer could hope for, but the ones I work with at Mundania are excellent. They offer good advice and are willing to work with me rather than dictate terms.

Do you have any upcoming projects that you would like to share?

My Scarab trilogy on ancient Egypt will keep me busy for the next year, but I have a few other ideas floating around for other books. What I like to do is write a prologue or a first chapter, then leave it to ferment for a year or two. I have just written one where the protagonist is a demon. That should prove interesting to write. I have another in the planning stages about the exploits of a dead wizard and another about a Polish policeman in a Nazi concentration camp. That may or may not work out … we’ll see. Then I have a book of short stories based on my real life adventures as a kid in Jamaica, another one about serial killers, a murder mystery that incorporates my PhD results on butterflies, a series of murder mysteries set in ancient Egypt, a couple of alternate history books and a sci-fi on cloning. That should keep me going for a few years! I’m trying my hand at short stories too. I have four written so far, but I’m not sure how to publish those.

When writing, do you start from scratch or do you have an outline already started before you begin your stories?

I get an idea; I sit on it for 6 months, then write a prologue or a chapter. A year or two later I come back to it and plot it out. When I have an outline I start writing. I know the starting point and where I want it to end. How I get there is often up to the characters themselves. In my recent book on serial killers, A Cry of Shadows, I had a problem I wasn’t sure how I was going to get around. Well, all of a sudden this character appears so I follow along to see where he takes me and a chapter or so later I have the answer to my problem. I see my books as a co-operative effort between writer and characters.

Have you ever written a screenplay or considered writing one?

I’ve thought about it but this is a whole different ball game from writing. I was very lucky to find a Hollywood screenwriter interested in writing a script for Glass House. He has since done screenplays for A Glass Darkly, Looking Glass and two of Ariana’s novels, Tapestry and The Devil is in the Details. He is now adapting A Cry of Shadows. We have producers interested in two of them and Glass House actually has both producer and director already signed up.

Have you ever suffered from Writers block? And if so, how do you deal with it when it happens?

No, and I refuse to allow it. I set myself a word target each day (currently 2000) and I stick at it until I get there. Initially I’m not interested in the quality – it can be crap, but as long as the story is pushed along it doesn’t matter. I can always go back and delete it or edit severely, but the HABIT of writing is now present, and it makes each day easier than the one before. Editing is VERY important though. Every time I sit down to write, I read over my last day’s work and make changes before I continue. I eat, breathe and sleep my story and continually tinker with the details.

Can your readers still visit this website to hear more about you and your works?
http://www.angelfire.com/ri2/theovertons/

That is our old website. Go to http://www.maxoverton.com for up-to-date information on my books and my interests.

Are there any other links to your books that you would like to share with your readers? Or anything that you would like to add?

I always welcome polite feedback on my work. If anyone would like to write and tell me what they thought about any of my books, they can write to me at max@mundania.com

Thank you so much for stopping by Max and allowing the readers to know a little more about Max. Anyone interested in reading more about Max and his books, please visit his website or his publishers website to read more about his fabulous works. It has been a pleasure having you with us here today, Max and I wish you the best in your writing career.

Thank you, Linda. It has been great talking to you. Enjoy the adventure!

Interviewed by: Linda L