Max Overton has travelled extensively and lived in many places around the world–including Malaysia, India, Germany, England, Jamaica, New Zealand, USA and Australia. Trained in the biological sciences in New Zealand and Australia, he has worked within the scientific field for many years, but now concentrates on writing. While predominantly a writer of historical fiction (Scarab: Books 1 – 6 of the Amarnan Kings; the Scythian Trilogy; the Demon Series; Ascension), he also writes in other genres (A Cry of Shadows, the Glass Trilogy, Haunted Trail, Sequestered) and draws on true life (Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica, We Came From Königsberg). Max also maintains an interest in butterflies, photography, the paranormal and other aspects of Fortean Studies. Most of his other published books are available here, at Writers Exchange Ebooks, and all his books may be viewed on his website: http://www.maxovertonauthor.com/ Max’s book covers are all designed and created by Julie Napier, and other examples of her art and photography may be viewed at www.julienapier.com See below the booklist, for an interview with Max!   Author of: A Cry of Shadows by Max Overton Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica by Max Overton Ascension Series A Novel of Nazi Germany by Max Overton Fall of the House of Ramesses Series by Max Overton Glass Trilogy by Max and Ariana Overton Hyksos Series, A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Max Overton Kadesh, A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Max Overton Scythian Trilogy by Max Overton Sequestered by Max Overton and Jim Darley Strong is the Ma’at of Re Ancient Egyptian Series by Max Overton   The Amarnan Kings Ancient Egyptian Series by Max Overton The Pyramid Builders Series by Max Overton   TULPA by Max Overton We Came From Konigsberg by Max Overton   Timeline of Ancient Egypt (to help read Max’s series in chronological order):   Author Interview: Max Overton, Featured Author (2014: December)   Max Overton has written a lot of books in various genres, but it is his Historical novels that have been really popular.  In fact, his Ancient Egyptian series The Armanan Kings even counts real Egyptologists amongst his fans! What genre or genres do you write? Mainly historical fiction, from ancient Egypt to the Second World War, but I also like fiction based on real life, westerns, paranormal, serial killers and mixing genres. What is your favourite genre? I’d have to say Historical fiction, if only because most of my novels fall into that category, but I write whatever my muse tells me to. I never thought I’d write a Western, but once the plot had suggested itself to me, I couldn’t say ‘no’. Haunted Trail was the result. How many books have you written? 19 published, another 4 in the queue, and I’m working on the 24th. When did you start writing, and why? I wrote a couple of poems as a young teenager and a short story in secondary school that garnered me an A+ in English class. When I worked as a tissue culture researcher, I wrote reports and had several articles published on butterflies, but I only turned to fiction at the age of 50. I had just met the lady who became my second wife (Ariana) and she had just finished her first novel (Trapdoor – recently published by Writers Exchange). She suggested I try writing a novel. I had an interest in Alexander the Great, but did not feel confident enough to write about the man himself, so I created a junior officer in his Companion cavalry and thrust him into the action. That initial book – Lion of Scythia – became the first in an award winning, best-selling trilogy. And I haven’t looked back from there. Are you a full-time writer or do you have a day job as well? I’d love to be a full-time writer but I need a job to pay the mortgage! So I tote that bale during the day and tap away at my keyboard in the evenings. How long does it take you to write a book? That depends on many factors, but once I have a book plotted out I can generally have a book finished in about 3 to 5 months. My books tend to be lengthy (about 150k words) so I have to set a target of 1000 words a day. What would your readers be surprised to learn? That I never learned to type. Instead, I hunt and peck. My right forefinger taps all over the keyboard, while my left forefinger operates the shift key. Have you won any writing awards? Yes. I enter the EPIC contest every year and have won the ‘Historical’ category 3 times – in 2005 for The Golden King, in 2006 for Funeral in Babylon, and in 2014 for We Came From Konigsberg. Have you ever suffered from Writer’s block? How do you deal with it? Not really. I think the secret is to not agonise over whether you are writing deathless prose but just to get on with it. Push the story forward and don’t let your engine stall. Realistically, one does not always feel like writing, but I try my hardest to reach my target every day whether or not I’m happy with what I have written. After all, I can always go back and change it. Where do you get your ideas from? All over the place. Sometimes I think I tap into the collective unconscious of the human race and sift through disembodied memories of past times. Some people have said that parts of my ancient Egyptian series (Scarab) reads like I’m remembering events rather than creating them. With other books, it’s more a matter of ‘what if’? For instance, I was watching a TV program in which a man called Bruce Parry spent a month among the Adi people of north-eastern India. They are animists and believe spirits live in rocks and trees and rivers and have gods for every purpose. He was describing the effect missionaries had had on the tribe, and I got to wondering what it would be like for one of the little Adi gods having his homeland invaded by Christianity. This thought became the novel Rakshasa, in which the main character is an Indian demon living through 5000 years of Indian history, recounting his interaction with men and gods and wondering whether he has any control over what he is. I count some of the chapters in this book among my best writing. The Scarab series started from an idea of a young woman who was descended from an Egyptian princess, but rapidly became the story of a real princess living through the turbulent final years of the 18th dynasty. The course of other books has been dictated by real life. I lived two glorious years in Jamaica collecting butterflies. Most of my tattered specimens have a tale attached and I enjoyed writing them down. A good friend of mine asked me to write a book about his mother as she fled the advancing Soviet army in the winter of 1945 with her 5 small sons. It was a challenge, but after several interviews of surviving family members and a lot of digging into old documents, I was able to piece the story together. We Came From Konigsberg is the story of this family and my friend, who was only two years old in 1945, read the finished book and commented ‘this is exactly how it must have been’. The book went on to win the EPIC award for Best Historical in 2014. What is the main challenge in writing historical fiction? Research. Whether you are writing a story about ancient Egypt where the facts consists of little more than stilted phrases on tomb and temple walls, or a story about Nazi Germany where you almost drown in a sea of documents, the important thing is to get the facts right. Readers pick up on inconsistencies, inaccuracies and anachronisms, so you need to take the time to make sure that you get it right. What are you writing at the moment? The third book in my ‘Fall of the House of Ramesses’ trilogy. It describes the last days of the 19th Dynasty when the Empire of Ramesses the Great collapsed. Do you have any upcoming projects that you would like to share? I have more Egyptian novels planned. I’d like to eventually cover 4000 years of history with my novels, but that will take me many years. I also plan to turn my novel of Nazi Germany called ‘Ascension’ into a trilogy; to finish off my 5-part Demon series (I’ve written 2 of them); write a sequel to my only Western (Haunted Trail); and try my hand at Science Fiction, murder mysteries and a ‘swords and sandals’ Fantasy. Do you have a website? www.maxovertonauthor.com   (And of course his WEE website http://www.writers-exchange.com/Max-Overton/) Do you read a lot? Who are your favourite authors? I read as much as I can and I’m quite eclectic in my tastes. Favourite authors? Hmm… Mary Renault for her books on Alexander and Theseus; Mary Stewart for her Merlin trilogy; the sci-fi books of Larry Niven, Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, Roger Zelazny, Ray Bradbury and a host of others; all of Stephen King’s books; Rise & Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer; Gibbon’s Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire; Graham Greene; Robert Graves; Rudyard Kipling; Douglas Adams; Hilary Mantel; oh, the list is endless…and they’re just my favourites. When writing, does your story just flow or is it plotted out in detail? When I started out, my books tended to be less structured and my characters would take the story where they wanted. Now, I tend to do a lot more plotting, though I’m never unhappy if a character wants to introduce a wrinkle I had not considered. After all, it’s their story – why shouldn’t they get a say? Who creates your beautiful book covers? My lovely wife Julie Napier. She is a talented photographer and graphic artist. www.julienapier.com Your bio says that you have travelled all over the world but now live in Australia. Did you travel with your family growing up, or was it as an adult? Do you have any stories from your travels that influenced your writing, and do you have any you would like to share? My parents were married in Sri Lanka in 1944 and I came along in 1948 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was constantly on the move with them for the first 13 years of my life, living in India, England, Belgium, Germany, Jamaica and New Zealand, as well as visiting a dozen more countries. My mother and I settled in New Zealand where I completed my education, and then some thirty years later I decided to move my family to Townsville, Australia. Ten years later I moved to the USA for 5 years, and then back to Australia. I’m not sure if my travels have influenced my writing, except to say that perhaps I’m a bit like the cat in Kipling’s Just So Stories – ‘he walked by himself and all places were alike to him’. I have found that people are the same the world over and there is goodness to be found everywhere. It has made me an internationalist, though I must admit I back the New Zealand All Blacks against all comers! Based on part of my travels, I have written a book about my butterfly hunting days in Jamaica (Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica) which I hope will soon be published by Writers Exchange. Also, if you have lived all over the world, what made you choose Australia to settle in? My favourite place is Jamaica 1959-1961 and if I could time travel I’d return there. After 30 years in New Zealand I hankered for those days again and sought out a university in the tropics in an English speaking country. I settled on … Continue reading Max Overton