Interview with Andrew Downs

Welcome to JBR! 

We are thrilled to have you visiting today.

Thank you very much for having me! It’s an honor to be featured on Julie’s Book Reviews!

With the huge give away going on what item are you offering to our wonderful readers?

Alex Hollick: The Bloodbath Ritual is the first book in my FBI thriller series, a highly stylized, character driven story. The book is a mix of mystery, suspense and romance, but it’s a thriller at heart, it has a little of something for everyone. The Bloodbath Ritual follows the struggles of a troubled young agent who is tasked to investigate Satanism in the mid 1980’s under the guise of a homicide agent.

It’s the first of a five part series, Parts two and three have been released.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I live in and am originally from Southern Maine, but I lived in Northern California for some time. I studied film making in college and began developing mini scripts. My love of books and script writing rather morphed into traditional book writing. When my concept for the Alex Hollick Series seemed developed, I opted to begin writing book one of the series.

What genres do you like to write?

Mystery, Thriller and Suspense are my genres, but I like to blend all three into my writing. I also like to add slight elements of horror, comedy and romance, but at the end of a day, it’s a thriller. What I enjoy about the genre is the ability to incorporate long running plot elements that evolve not just over the book, but the entire series. Character development is a central focus to my writing.

What is your newest release?

Alex Hollick: As Empires Fall (Book 3)

What are you working on right now?

Revisions to Alex Hollick: Malice and Macabre (Book 4)

Any future projects you can hint about?

Book 5 of the Alex Hollick Series will follow Book 4 by the end of 2013. There are potential ideas for a spinoff idea from the series, but nothing even close to
concrete. Whatever follows will likely be a thriller, but for now, all of my focus is on the Alex Hollick FBI Series.

As a writer, can you give an aspiring author any advice or some of your wisdom?

Don’t force things. The best situation is when the book naturally writes itself as you go along, things just fall into place, but that doesn’t always happen. Don’t be afraid to take time off, a few weeks can make all the difference in the end. Don’t get married to any one idea, be flexible, sometimes your story may be pointing you in a different direction than you initially planned to go and that’s okay.

If you could meet one character from your books who would it be and why?

Alex Hollick, my main character, he’s a very real and likable character and far from typical of what you might expect out of an FBI agent. He’s not some brawny dude who beds countless women in between missions. He’s human, he’s capable of losing, saying the wrong thing and making mistakes. He’s very easy to relate to or so I’ve been told.

Are there any other people or authors that have inspired you or helped you along the way?

There are, but I find most of the inspiration with respect to The Alex Hollick Series came from other places. Growing up Catholic during the Satanic Panic, being an ardent student of politics and history, my love of music, the MTV culture, David Lynch and Stan Kubrick films, it all plays a role in the result, it’s a real mash up of influences. It’s difficult to point to any one source.

For me, inspiration can come from odd places. A bad relationship in the past may inspire the mould for a character, or a great relationship that takes a while to fall into your lap. A world event may inspire an event in my own writing. Feelings are huge too. Redirecting the more intense feelings and twisting them to where they fit within the story. It may sound cliché, but inspiration can come from anywhere.

How about some fun stuff?

Fun? Hmm, well I really enjoyed Breaking Bad on AMC. I’m looking very forward to the final eight episodes. Breaking Bad is a great example of a character driven story.

what is you fav activity besides writing?

I’m a hobbyist musician. I play guitar, bass and dabble in piano, which is a nice break from writing.

Do you own any pets?

Two cats, a mix and a Maine Coon cat.

Fav place to travel?

Central California Coast, I recently took a vacation out there with my wife and it was quite inspirational to my latest work. It also gave me that break from writing that I was speaking of earlier.
Fav author you can recommend to our readers?(can have more than one)
No particular favorite, but I really liked what the late Steig Larsson did with his millennium series. I’m usually on the lookout for newer authors, but I grew up on Stephen King, being a native of Maine, it’s sort of a state law.

Fav book 

Favorite book? That’s like asking which finger is my favorite. Can’t really say which is my favorite, but I’ll talk about a cool book I recently read, “Visits,” by John Phelps. “Visits,” was a fun read, it’s up my alley, seedy people doing seedy things.

and finally where can we find you and your books 

Amazon has the first three books in the Alex Hollick Series, 4 &5 will be out later this year.

Alex Hollick: The Bloodbath Ritual
http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Hollick-Series-Part-ebook/dp/B00AAPGYT6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1372097672&sr=8-2

Alex Hollick: Rotten Was the Harvest
http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Hollick-Series-Part-ebook/dp/B00C0EYO3I/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

Alex Hollick: As Empires Fall
http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Hollick-Series-Three-ebook/dp/B00D0JOB2G/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2

Thank you for coming to JBR. I enjoyed talking to you and we hope to see you again here on Julies Book Review.

Likewise, thank you very much.

Julie Ramsey
ADM JBR