– The Magic of Wor(l)ds is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free.
I’m grateful of receiving a free copy from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review of this book. –
Today I’m delighted to be on the ‘The Atenisti’ blogtour, organised by Random Things Tours.
To promote this book I’ll be sharing an interview between the author and me, but first I have some information
About the Author :
Aidan K. Morrissey, a lawyer, has lived and worked all over the world, his time in Italy, Germany and India, all of which feature in this, his second novel, has given him a deep insight into their culture and everyday way of life. Aidan was inspired to write ‘The Atenisti’ after reading daily newspaper accounts of horrific attacks on young Indian women and children. An enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, avid reader and writer, Aidan now lives in Northumberland.
About the Book :
‘The Atenisti’ is a global rollercoaster ride of murder, the quest for justice, and retribution through the eyes of a conscience-driven assassin.
Travelling under numerous aliases, Ricci, a member of a secret organisation, finishes a mission in London. Apparently followed, he escapes to Italy. Seeking to avenge the kidnap, rape and murder of a young girl, he is plunged into a battle against a worldwide paedophile ring of extraordinary extent and power. This battle leads Ricci from Italy, through Germany, to India and beyond. Can he take on the might of this criminal network which seems determined to eliminate him?
And now it’s finally time for the
Hi
First of all thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it. Here we go! 🙂
Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
It’s difficult to give a short answer to this question. With a LLB from Leicester University, I qualified as a Solicitor. After some years, I set up my own law practice but was head hunted by an Italian company and I moved to Italy, with my wife in 1990. From 1995 until Covid changed the world, my work entailed me traveling throughout the world and have been lucky enough to have called, Brazil, Germany, the U.S., Italy and India my home for varying degrees of time. Since Covid we have been based in the North-east of England and are (still) building a house in Northumberland. With up to 30 plane journeys a month, I devoured books, often reading a novel in one go on a long haul journey. I have always been an avid lover of literature and a trip to Egypt led me on a series of discoveries which I felt told a story that needed telling. My first novel ‘The Awakening Aten’ was a direct result of this desire. ‘The Atenisti’ my second novel is completely different. For seven years I spent around six months a year in India. I read the newspapers every day and I was horrified and shocked by what I was reading in relation to the treatment of women and children in certain sections of the Indian community. I believed this was something constantly being played down and rarely making the press outside of India. This novel, which is set against the background of real newspaper reports, is my attempt to bring the reality of the situation to a wider audience, in the hope that soething can be done to help.
Which books did/do you love to read as a child/now as a grown-up?
As a child and growing up I always read anything I could get my hands on – from Enid Blyton to Robert Louis Stevenson, with Richard Adams’ Watership Down’ and Kenneth Grahame’s ‘Wind in the Willows’ having a special place in my heart. In later years I have gone through phases with Science Fiction and Fantasy probably being the first. Followed by the crime and court procedural novels of John Grisham, Lee Child’s Reacher novels, Michael Connelly, Ann Cleeves, Particia Cornwell… the list is almost endless but I have read everything written by these authors and many more. In the last ten years my first love has been historical novels with Pauline Gedge and Bernard Cornwell being the writers I most enjoy in this genre, however I read so many novels by many different novelists. I think I can sum up my taste as ‘anything which is well written and true to the time period it is written in.’
Is there a writer whose brain you would love to pick for advice? Who would that be and why?
This is a great question – by which I mean almost impossible to answer!
I suppose Bernard Cornwall and Stephen King would be high on the list as he is such prolific writers with seemingly bottomless pits of imagination. But, I think I would choose James A. Michener, whose Novel ‘Hawaii’ I read in my early teens and it gave me a love of family sagas. I would have liked to ask him how he was able to write novels where because of death and tragedy there is a constant stream of characters but each well rounded and believable.
If you could, which fictional character (from your own book(s) or someone else’s) would you like to invite for tea and why?
It would have to be ‘The Mad Hatter’ from the Lewis Carroll ‘Alice’ stories. Simply because the tea would go on forever and I’d never know what would happen next.
Do you have some rituals or habits whilst writing?
I have no rituals, but I, like many other writers, particularly of historical fiction, have a habit of going down research wormholes and spending copious amounts of time on researching the most miniscule of details!
Where do you come up with your idea(s)? Do people in your life need to be worried? 😉
It depends on the genre I am working in. If historical, it will be a person who lived or event which took place in the period I am looking at. Currently I am writing a novel based entirely around a body discovered in a grave from more than a thousand years ago. How did he get there? Why was he buried with those items?
If writing more contemporary stories, again I like to find a factual basis, but yes, I do base certain characteristics of the people in my novels on people I know now or have known previously. Hopefully they are sufficiently disguised so no-one will take offence.
Are you a plotter or do you go with the flow, as a pantser?
I fall in the middle and tend to call myself a ‘planster.’ I tend to want to know where the story I am writing is going to end, but generally the road to get there is completely left to the moment. It’s like deciding to go from John o’Groats to Landsend. You know you have to go in a general south westerly direction but there can be unsinposted side roads and roundabouts you weren’t expecting which can take the journey anywhere.
Can you give novice writers some tips (do’s/don’ts)?
That’s easy – do believe in yourself and your writing and don’t give up.
What are your futureplans as an author?
I am writing the sequel to my Egyptian Novel. The story is set to cover a further 75 years or so of history which will take another four books to tell.
There is potentially a sequel to ‘The Atenisti’ in the offing and the story I mentioned before about the ancient skeleton.
Last, but not least : Can you give my readers one teaser from your book, which is featured here on my blog, please?
‘Always leave expecting not to return,’ more of Giacomo’s wise words. I never disobeyed one of his lessons. He disobeyed once and it got him killed…
Giacomo had always liked neat and tidy, he would not have liked his own crime scene photos. There is nothing neat about having your face chewed off and throat ripped out by dogs.
Isn’t that a great reason to pick up the book and read it?!
Thanks once again, Aidan K. Morrissey, for this lovely interview!
The Magic of Wor(l)ds
The Magic of Wor(l)ds 