Tell me something interesting about your life that few people know.
Back in 1969 I emigrated from Kent, in England, to Zurich in Switzerland, with my wife and two daughters, in my ownsmall boat across the English Channel to France, and then up into the Rhine Estuary, Germany, before heading south. We had some fascinating adventures, and when the river ran out of safe water near the Swiss border, the boat had to do the last bit on a trailer..! Later I bought a larger boat in Finland and sailed it, mostly single handed, to Guernsey, in the British Channel Islands, via a London stop, for a Tall Ships Festival.
Tell me about your interests?
Having given up boating now, I love writing and reading, plus music and the theatre.
Who is your favorite author and a book?
Harry Harrison, and his Stainless Steel Rat series.
What made you start writing? What made you write this story?
I began writing as a little lad, telling my tales to my younger brothers and sister. Then when I left college, I became an avid SciFi fan and started writing. I sold my first short story,Timely Encounter, soon afterwards. Then my day job suddenly expanded, and I found myself running an international R & D company, specializing in Applied Physics products. This eventually resulted in the Queen awarding me an MBE for developments in high and low temperature processes. My fiction writing ceased, but I did have some poems published, until around 2001 when I retired and began writing short stories again. Then I met Harry Harrison, at a Eurocon in Copenhagen, who read and wrote an introduction to my award winning Tenerife Tall Tales trilogy. He insisted that I write a novel, if I wanted to get anywhere… so I did. Tragically he died in the same week that I received my first copy of POINTS OF VIEW from the publisher in America. It was to have been for him..!
What time period is this story? What genre?
POINTS OF VIEW takes place in the near future and is a SciFi, spy adventure, tale for young readers of all ages, especially those new to the genre.
Are you interested in other genre?
Yes, I also write Macabre Tales, up to novella length. Myrecent MACABRE TALES collection also won an award and is beginning to be recognised.
Give me an Excerpt and brief Synopsis of your first novel.
Prologue: Agent Mayberry gave his flippers a final, triumphant flick as he swam up to the low stern of the drug baron’s large, expensive yacht. He pulled himself up andclimbed quietly over the guard rail. He removed his helmet, flippers, and breathing apparatus and waited, listening for a few moments. All was quiet, other than the faint sounds of late night jazz music coming from the casino in Saint Tropez.
He crept forward to the main stairway and descended it slowly. He reached the lowest stair, just as the main cabin door opened suddenly, and a waiter with a tray began to back out from it. Agent Mayberry waited until the man had closed the door before giving him a precision tap to the back of his neck with the gun barrel. He grabbed the tray crisply with his free hand and held it as the waiter slid down to the floor in an untidy heap. Balancing the tray carefully on the lifeless body, he leaned over for a look through the keyhole but was unable to see anything due to a key being in the lock. Hardly making a sound, and his gun at the ready, he opened the cabin doorslowly and looked in.
The portly gangster was snoring softly, sound asleep in an armchair, with an empty bottle on the table beside him. Agent Mayberry holstered his gun and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his waterproof hold-all. He snapped one cuff around the metal frame of the chair and the other one around the man’s wrist, who did not stir. After trying to awake him with a couple of slaps to no effect, the intrepid agent decided the gangster must be drugged.
He glanced around the cabin and noticed a safe with its door hanging wide open on one wall. Of course, the waiter had to be responsible. He dashed back out of the cabin and grabbed the waiter’s tray again and examined what was on it. Yes, there it was, under the cloth cover—the secret file he wanted. Agent Mayberry allowed himself a triumphant grin; another mission accomplished successfully. He opened hiscell phone and called HQ. “You can send the SWAT team in now, to pick him up, and I’ve captured someone else who was after the file. Have a look at him.”
He aimed the cell phone at the waiter and pressed the camera button. After a few moments, there was a gasp from his chief at HQ. “Well done, Agent Mayberry. That’s Igor Ivanovov. We’ve been after him for some time.”
* * *
He awoke with a contented smile for Mrs. Enright, the house-keeper, as she entered his bedroom unseen and placed a tray on his bed beside him. “Wake up, Master Horace. It’syour breakfast time.”
Short synopsis: A blind young Londoner, Horace Mayberry, always wanted to be a secret agent, but can only dream about being one. Later, he is persuaded by a government scientist to be fitted with intelligent nanotronic eyes, possessing super-human abilities. After training, he is recruited as an apprehensive assistant to an experienced secret agent, CaptainAubrey Jackson. The two agents undertake a series of adventures, which include computer hacking, Horace experiencing the adverse effects of WiFi radiation, and being kidnapped twice by an international gang of terrorists, His experiences affect his dreams and personality, and cause his eyes to develop amazing new properties when he needs them. The action takes place in and around London, the Channel Island of Guernsey and the magical Canary Island of Tenerife.
Who is the Hero or Heroine? What motivates him? Is the hero having a hard time?
Horace Mayberry is my young hero, and Janet Mercer is hisolder girl friend. He is an apprehensive, innocent youth, buthis experiences as a secret agent soon begin to change him. He becomes somewhat headstrong and impulsive. He is not sure if he can trust his seniors and the people he meets, especially as he soon suspects they only want him for what his amazing eyes can do for them.
Who would you get to star in a movie to be one of the characters?
I believe Danny de Vito would do a great job as the chief terrorist, Rudolph Beckmann.
What is next for you?
I’ve been approached by a professional Canadian screenwriter who is now preparing the first novel as a screenplay. He also likes the sequel..!
Do you have another book you are writing? Tell us about it.
I’ve just completed the first sequel to the novel, entitled PoV2– The Weapons. A couple of advance reviews are in and they say it is even more exciting than the first book. Now I’m working on the next one, PoV3 – The American Connection.
What is the book you wish you had written?
Almost any one of Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat Series
Where can we buy your book?
All my Paperbacks and eBooks are available from all the usual outlets, including, Amazon, B& N, WH Smith, etc. Just enter Thorne MBE against the book Search prompt.
Where can we find you?
My website, with loads of information and the latest news blog is on: www.tonythorne.com and I also have some information on FaceBook and Twitter.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
To any other budding authors reading this, I’d like to insist… NEVER give up… just try to stay healthy and live long enough.
