The Moment Between: A Novel 2019
Gareth,
Thank you for taking your time for my audience and myself,
What
inspired you to write The Moment Between?
The
Moment Between is a psychological thriller that brings
death to life through the story of Doctor Hackett Metzger, a neurologist still
grieving four years after the death of his wife, when he undertakes a medical
study of near-death experiences and falls in love with a women who has a
dangerous past. Metzger does not want to be involved in the study because he
does not want to be reminded of his wife, and he does not believe in the
afterlife. His life and research are about to collide.
Near-death experiences fascinate me. Journalist Judy
Bachrach says that we are living in the days of Lazarus when so many people are
suffering cardiac arrest, dying and coming back to talk about it. The medical community may not understand what
is behind these experiences, but something very real is happening. People across
geographies and cultures report very similar experiences and believe that the
conscious mind survives death. In The
Moment Between, I use fiction and suspense to tell the story of near-death
experiences while letting the reader interpret their meaning for themselves.
Who
are your influences?
When I
was young, I didn't read much. I know that is odd for a writer to say, but I
was active to the point of hyperactivity. I lived for fun and excitement. In
early high school, I tried reading The Hobbit, assuming that I would like what
everyone else did. I didn't. It bored me. A year later I found Kurt Vonnegut. I
loved his absurdity and storytelling ability. For years, he was the standard
for my literary tastes. I didn't start reading for pleasure more widely until
after college, first mainly non-fiction, then fiction. Over the years, my taste
broadened. Cormac McCarthy shaped my writing even if though I can't hold a
candle to him. Still, his ability to find beauty in darkness is amazing and I
try to do that. Authors like David Wroblewski (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle), Chris Cleeves (Little Bee and Incendiary), and Donna Tart (The Goldfinch) were all more recent influences. In different ways,
each showed me how to use suspense in contemporary novels that tend to blend
genres.
When
did you begin writing?
I
spent thirty years as a union organizer and administrator, a very rewarding
career where I felt I helped make people's lives a little better. I retired
seven years ago without a real plan for what was to come. When people asked me
what I planned to do in retirement, I said I was going to write a novel. If I
said it aloud, I assumed I would be more likely to follow-up. It worked. I am
now writing my third novel and loving it. Sometimes I wonder why it took me so
long to get started, but I honestly think I would have given up if I had tried
earlier in my life.
How
do you come up with your stories, characters, character names, POV, etc?
I have two creative guiding lights.
The first is always try something new. I want to stretch my horizons as a
writer. The second was best articulated by Steven King —"(The
writer's) job isn’t to find ideas but to recognize them when they show
up." The inspiration for
the storyline in The Moment Between showed
up in the mail. A few years ago, I received a Christmas card from a friend who
mentioned the death of her brother-in-law and alluded that his wife was the
murderer. A very strange Christmas card, indeed. I couldn't stop thinking about
it. When I called my friend and asked what had happened, I found out that, as
they say, fact was stranger than fiction. I used the woman in question to
create one of my characters. Some people think I created a monster. The truth
is, real monsters are often real people. Steven King's quote led me to write
this book, and it also let me try something new. My unpublished first novel
wasn't a suspense novel at all. It was historical fiction about an all too real
bombing that took place at the University of Wisconsin during the Vietnam war
protests. My upcoming novel is about a punk rocking freight train hopping loner
who gained rock and roll fame in the nineties, only to lose it in one tragic
day. Twenty years later, he meets a mystic who saves lives by being in the
right place at the right time. She, too, has grown lonely but for very
different reasons. As their paths cross, his past comes back to haunt them
both. I get to write lyrics and investigate magical realism. What could be more
fun?
If I could meet one of my characters, who would it be?
Doctor Hackett Metzger, is a
brilliant neurologist, and a bit of a gullible nerd. He is devoted to his dead
wife, feels guilty for not saving her four years earlier, but is now a prisoner
of his own desires. He's plenty complicated.
Tell me about your favorite scene in your novel?
I can't. I don't want to spoil it,
but there is another chapter that I like a lot for very different reasons. In
it, Sarah, the antagonist of the story, races her bike through Tuscany. She is
in pursuit of another rider. That might not seem like much of a scene, but I
love creating drama in an everyday situation. It ends with a bicycle crash and
a twist that is key to the development of the story. Sometimes, less is more.
Where is your favorite place to read?
I love to read in bed. What could
be better? The reader gets their reward regardless of what happens. If it is a
really good book, you stay up reading because you can't put it down. If it is a
little boring, you are asleep in no time.
What is the current book you are reading?
Killing
Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. I first fell in love with Murakami when
reading The Colorless Life of Tsukuru
Tazaki. When I read his collection of short stories, Men Without Women, I was hooked.
Killing Commendatore is
offbeat and at times supernatural. At other times, it is a book that captures
the soul of a portrait artist whose wife announces that she wants a divorce,
driving him into a quest to discover true art.
On the behalf of my readers, Gareth, we thank you ~
Your favorite scene in this novel has me piqued and with your upcoming novel, for some reason, the loner's name is Weber.
✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒
About the author:
Connect with Gareth
Gareth Frank is a former union organizer and administrator. He received a Master's Degree at the University of Wisconsin and later studied at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The Moment Between is his first published novel. His short stories have been published in various journals and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize as well as the Silver Pen Write Well Award.
Publisher: Three Women Press (January 25, 2019)
Cover by J. Shan
Author Photo by Elizabeth Lescault
Mr. Frank had found my blog on TheIndieView.com
✒ ✒ ✒
No comments:
Post a Comment