De curând puteți găsi în librării un thriller incitant care combină intriga religioasă cu cea polițistă, alături de acțiune și mult mister - Sanctus.

Autorul acestei cărți, Simon Toyne, ne-a dezvăluit cum a luat naștere cartea, cum a reușit să scrie un best-seller internațional și ce ne pregătește în continuare.

Dacă rândurile de mai jos vă vor stârni curiozitatea sau dacă sunteți deja fani și vreți un autograf, Simon Toyne va fi prezent la târgul de carte Gaudeamus, la standul editurii All.

Andreea Chebac: What inspired you to write „Sanctus”?

Simon Toyne: It came out of a desire to tell a really big story. I had quit my job in television and was driving to the south of France with my family for the express purpose of writing a novel when the initial idea for “Sanctus” just came to me. The key ingredients were the sight of the spires of Rouen cathedral rising up in the pre-dawn sky and a well-thumbed Ralph Waldo Emerson quote I’ve always liked, which is now at the front of the book – ‘a man is a god in ruins’.

AC: Is there a favorite writer that influences your work?

ST: The key writer for me when I was growing up was Stephen King. I devoured his books in my teens and I think his blend of mystery, the horrific and suspense is definitely something I try to create in my own stories.

AC: How do you explain the resemblance between your novel and the ones written by Dan Brown?

ST: I think in any genre there is always one book or author who looms large and anyone else writing in that area gets compared. I’m sure if I’d written a legal thriller I would be getting John Grisham comparisons now. I hope that Dan Brown fans will read and enjoy my book as much as his, but also hope that those who didn’t care for his writing will give mine a chance because I think we write very differently, even if our subject matter is similar.

AC: Is the novel pure fiction, or are there true passages?

ST: It’s mostly fiction but there are sections of genuine historical fact that anchor it to the real world. I was very careful to try and make it feel real and wanted to blend fact and fiction in a way that kept the reader guessing.

AC: Does the book contain things that you believe in?

ST: I think any book you write has to contain things you believe in otherwise it hasn’t got a chance of engaging the reader.

AC: When you wrote the book did you have in mind a formula to ensure its success?

ST: When I wrote „Sanctus” I had no agent or publisher so it was a leap of faith that it would be published at all. I had worked as a director and producer in commercial TV for nearly twenty years so had a strong sense of audience and pacing that I brought to bear on the way I wrote. I also re-read several books I had admired in the past and studied how they worked as a way of helping me with my own writing, so I suppose I took certain tips from those.

AC: How much did you use new media to promote the book?

ST: I’m on Facebook and Twitter every day and have my own website. I think social media in particular is a brilliant way of having direct contact with your readers. I love it when someone tweets me to say they’ve enjoyed my book, or posts a picture of Sanctus in a bookstore somewhere in the world. As a writer I spend a large part of the year alone and having daily human contact is like having a virtual office and stops me from going insane. So please feel free to say hello at any or all of these places:

http://twitter.com/sjtoyne

http://www.simontoyne.net

https://www.facebook.com/simon.toyne.writer

AC: Was your book easily accepted by a publisher or did it take longer to publish it?

ST: I tried to get an agent first and after a few rejections was extraordinarily lucky to be spotted by an agent who was prepared to take a risk on me. She gave me harsh but inciteful notes on my first draft and I rewrote it three times before she eventually signed me. From first idea to getting a publishing deal took two and a half years.

AC: ”Sanctus” is just the first volume in the trilogy, do you feel a pressure knowing that you need to write two more?

ST: I do, but it’s good pressure. When I was writing „Sanctus” I had all these other ideas that I couldn’t fit into the book and, as it was my first novel and I didn’t even know if it would be published, I just put them in a file. When Sanctus was picked up by a publisher they asked what I would like to write next and I talked through these ideas and they loved them. I’ve had less time to write the second one but at least I’ve been lucky enough to be able to write full time. The biggest pressure is in trying to make whatever I’m writing as good as or better than anything I’ve done before.

AC: Can you reveal something of the „Sanctus” continuation of the first volume?

ST: The second book is called “The Key” and it starts a week after the end of “Sanctus”. Liv cannot remember what happened to her in the Citadel, Gabriel is in jail and Kathryn discovers another prophesy which suggests that by their actions they may have set a clock ticking down towards the apocalypse, as foretold in the book of Revelation.

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