The Mind of God
1. What really inspired you to write your book,
to force you from taking an idea or experience and conveying it into a book?
I wanted to write a book since I was a child. It was
always going to be thriller as this is the genre I enjoy the most. I’ve always
been inspired by authors such as Dan Brown, David Baldacci, John Grisham and
Frederick Forsyth. While researching themes for my novel, I came across
information about a real black box that was absolutely fascinating. It dealt
with a concept called global consciousness and I discovered astonishing factual
information about 9/11 that many people do not know about. I knew then that I
had to include this in my thriller as true facts to form the basis of a
fictitious plot. I decided to set my book in Cape Town, which is where I grew
up. In my view Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. In
2014 the New York Times published a feature, “The top 52 places to go in
2014” and Cape Town was at number one!
2. What is it about and whom do you believe is
your targeted reader?
Deadly pursuits. Assassins. CIA agents. And a
mysterious black box that holds the key to a global revelation that could
change everything. All in the heart of Cape Town. A
mysterious black box gets stolen from the University of Cape Town while the
president of the USA is on an official visit. Is this a coincidence or is there
something more sinister at play? When the professor who worked on the black box
disappears, it is up to Liz Greene to find out what happened to her father and
his groundbreaking research before it is too late. Liz and her friend, Tim
Fletcher, must solve one clue after another as they suddenly find themselves
fleeing for their lives in a deadly hunt around Cape Town. Is there an
invisible consciousness that connects all of humanity? What if we could somehow
measure it and use it to predict the future? My thriller centers around a
real-life project by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which researches how
beliefs, thoughts, and intentions affect the physical world. At the core of
this is the black box device also known as a Random Event Generator. My book is
aimed at readers who enjoy thrillers, mysteries and suspense, readers who enjoy
discovering new cities, places filled with great characters and readers who
enjoy learning about fascinating real concepts that I have weaved into the
story. Part of my goal in setting the plot in Cape Town was to expose Americans
and other international audiences to Cape Town and South Africa, in the hope
that it would encourage them to take a vacation there at some point in their
lives, and to discover for themselves the beauty and splendor of the country
that Nelson Mandela and so many others fought for.
3. What do you hope will be the everlasting
thoughts for readers who finish your book? What should remain with them long
after putting it down?
I want readers to
have an amazing journey when they read my book. I want them to be wowed! I want
them to be entertained. I want them to still be thinking about the story, the
facts and the fiction, long after they have finished reading the thriller!
Perhaps their world view about humanity and consciousness might even change!
4. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for
fellow writers?
Keep going. Don’t
give up. It can be very tough at times and it’s always challenging when one has
other things to deal with at the same time. Everybody’s got real-life
commitments and bills to pay in some form. And one is always going to have to
give energy to these other commitments. But always keep writing. Try to fit
writing into your daily routines. You can make it happen.
5. What trends in the book world do you see and
where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?
It’s a busy technological world we live in and books
are not only competing with each other to be read, but with other forms of
entertainment too. Despite binge box set viewing, movies and computer games
taking up prime entertainment real estate, I’m confident that books, both
ebooks and paperback, will continue to be well received. I believe that the
book industry has a future. While I prefer the touch and smell and feel of a
real paperback, I do acknowledge that ebooks can play a vital role too in
getting people to read books, particularly new generations of readers who are
growing up amidst all this changing technology. I would like to think that no
matter how fast technology in our world continues to develop, there will always
be space for novels. People enjoy stories. They always have and they always
will. I’d like to think that books will continue to always be around!
6. What great challenges did you have in writing
your book?
Finding the time was one of the key challenges in writing
my book. It takes time to research an idea, develop characters and build a
storyline. And with a demanding day job and family commitments, there’s often
not much time to do anything else. And then one still has to factor in times
when you’ve allocated time to write but suffer from writer’s block (or
‘writer’s stuckness’, as someone once suggested as being better words to use!) I was able to overcome this challenge with an
excellent piece of advice I read in Jerry Cleaver’s Immediate Fiction –
find just five minutes a day to devote to your writing and build it up from
there. Everyone moans about finding time to do things but surely each and every
one of us can find just five minutes in our day to follow our passion and
pursue our dreams? I took this to heart and devoted myself to finding ten
minutes a day for my writing. Some days the ten minutes would land up being
half an hour (thanks to my understanding wife!) and other days they would just
stay at ten minutes. But after about a
year, I had a substantial nucleus on which to build on. Something I would not
have had if I hadn’t devoted small daily slots to my writing. Today, I have other challenges – I
suffered a stroke a few weeks ago. As a result I’m still seeing double vision
in my one eye and have immense post-stroke fatigue, something that takes the
word ‘fatigue’ to a whole new realm. But, as a writer and an author, I will not
let this defeat me. I have more books to write!
7. If people can only buy one book this month,
why should it be yours?
The Mind of God is the perfect book to take away on holiday or to
escape to an exotic location such as Cape Town. It’s filled with lots of
interesting and intriguing characters interacting at the heart of an exciting
thriller. And it’s based on something real that will truly blow your mind away!
This book is a great companion, something for you to read on an airplane this
summer, or something to read while you are lying on the beach or next to the
pool while you’re on vacation. And even if you’re not going away, my book is a
great entertaining read that will catapult readers to a different place, keep
them wondering and take them into the throes of a fast-paced plot.
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Brian Feinblum’s insightful views, provocative
opinions, and interesting ideas expressed in this terrific blog are his alone
and not that of his employer or anyone else. You can – and should -- follow him
on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels
much more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2018. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in
Westchester. His writings are often featured in The Writer and
IBPA’s Independent. This was named one of the best book
marketing blogs by Book Baby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2018 as one of the
top book marketing blogs. Also named by WinningWriters.com as a "best
resource.” He recently hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America
and participated in a PR panel at the Sarah Lawrence College Writers Institute
Conference.
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