Today
we sit down with for an interview with author Jeffrey Hunter McQuain who writes
both mystery/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy. His latest release is The
Shakespeare Conspiracy, a modern day
thriller based on the Bard’s racial background. Learn more about Jeffrey and
his books at his website.
When did you realize you wanted
to write novels?
As a
teen, I first read Shirley Jackson’s novels. I wanted to learn how to write as
well as she did. (I still can’t figure out her secrets.)
How long did it take you to
realize your dream of publication?
I
started as a writer of nonfiction, and my first book took almost four years. I
had 30 rejections or so before a small press published it.
Are you traditionally
published, indie published, or a hybrid author?
I’m a
hybrid, I suppose. I have had many major publishers for my nonfiction, but this
novel is indie published, because the traditional publishers deemed it “too
controversial.”
Where do you write?
I
write wherever I am. Most of The
Shakespeare Conspiracy was composed in Barnes and Noble cafes across the
country.
Is silence golden, or do you
need music to write by? What kind?
Silence
may be golden, but it’s also unrealistic. I love all kinds of music, but I have
to write during instrumental pieces, or else I stop too often to listen to the
poetry in the lyrics. (Jimmy Buffett’s music, by the way, plays a part in The Shakespeare Conspiracy during the
scenes in Paris.)
How much of your plots and
characters are drawn from real life? From your life in particular?
My
plots and characters are largely disguised when I borrow from real life. My own
life, I’ve found, has been preparing me to write this novel for years, mostly
in terms of locations. From Washington’s Folger Library and Kennedy Center to
the Globe Theatre in London and Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, my characters
travel to places I’ve enjoyed visiting.
Describe your process for
naming your character?
If I
do use people I’ve known, I think of their names and immediately change them.
After I come up with a name, though, I try it out in imaginary conversations to
make sure the name fits the person. (Also, it’s not exactly a spoiler alert,
but a few names were deliberately invented to be clues in the novel.)
Real settings or fictional towns?
Both
real and fictional towns are used, but I much prefer the real settings. Somehow
a threat to a real place seems much more palpable, as you’ll see when my next
novel covers a serial killer in Williamsburg, Virginia.
What’s the quirkiest quirk one
of your characters has?
My
lead character is Professor Christopher Klewe, who teaches at William and Mary
in Virginia, and his major quirk is what I find most endearing about him. He
sees the modern world mostly through his Shakespeare filter. For instance, when
he hears “Greensleeves,” his first thought is that the Bard mentioned the tune.
What’s your quirkiest quirk?
It’s
not exactly a quirk of mine but a quirk of nature that I’m mistaken internationally
for Steve Wozniak, the computer genius who cofounded Apple and then appeared on
“Dancing With the Stars.” (No, I can’t dance or build computers.)
If you could have written any
book (one that someone else has already written,) which one would it be? Why?
I
would like to have written any mystery by Martha Grimes, but if I must choose
one, The Dirty Duck is her
Shakespeare story. Her characters are always compelling and intricately drawn,
and there’s nobody better at creating melancholy moods.
Everyone at some point wishes
for a do-over. What’s yours?
I
gave up on tap class when I was four years old and never looked back which
has
kept me from being the next Steve Wozniak on the dance floor.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
I
hate misspellings, probably from my years proofreading the language column of The New York Times. Some, however, can be
very entertaining, such as the student who hoped to gain “self of steam.”
You’re stranded on a deserted
island. What are your three must haves?
Only three?
First would be writing material, then a box of Krispy Kremes, and finally a whiskbroom
to keep the sand from the first two.
What was the worst job you’ve
ever held?
My
first work after college was as a composition aide at a Maryland high school. I
spent each day reading and marking hundreds of student essays. The knife fights
in the hallways, though, always had me worrying about more than split
infinitives.
What’s the best book you’ve
ever read?
I
love The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley
Jackson, my favorite modern writer. Even Stephen King has praised the book’s
power as a ghost story. (Please don’t read it when you’re alone, though. It’s
that scary.)
Ocean or mountains?
These
days I’d choose the ocean, but I grew up in Maryland and spent my weekends in
the mountains of West Virginia.
City girl/guy or country
girl/guy?
Again
I’m a hybrid, but I’m equally klutzy in either location I already explained I
can’t dance, and I tend to fall over fences when I’m climbing them.
What’s on the horizon for you?
For
my next novel in the Christopher Klewe series, I’m working on a prequel titled The Shakespeare Trap. It tells how Klewe
started solving mysteries about the Bard when a serial killer in Williamsburg leaves
behind clues from the tragedies. Also, I’m completing a stage version of Ebony Swan, my nonfiction book that’s
the story behind The Shakespeare Conspiracy,
to be staged next year.
Anything else you’d like to
tell us about yourself and/or your books?
I’m
excited about The Shakespeare Conspiracy,
which offers a whole new way to see the Bard, and I’m enjoying myself writing
fiction more than I ever did with nonfiction. Also, the teacher in me wants you
to “brush up your Shakespeare,” but also have fun reading him. There’s always
something new to appreciate, and 2016 is the 400-year anniversary of his death,
with celebrations of the Bard around the world.
The Shakespeare Conspiracy
What makes a
secret worth dying for? That's what Christopher Klewe, a brash young professor
from Virginia, finds out in Jeffrey Hunter McQuain's new thriller The Shakespeare Conspiracy when he
stumbles upon the most shocking cover-up in literary history.
On a rainy
Halloween at Washington's Kennedy Center, a masked killer brutally stabs
Klewe's best friend. Before dying, the victim deliberately drops his raincoat
across a puddle and scrawls the letters "SoN" in his own blood.
Investigating
the murder scene, Klewe is joined by Zelda Hart, a married reporter for The New York Times. They learn the
victim's ear was severed and find evidence of a 400-year-old secret society.
When questioned by police, Klewe reveals the surprising question he's been
researching: was Shakespeare black?
Outside
Kennedy Center, they meet a drunken security guard who saw the murder and
swears that "Shakespeare did it." Klewe and Zelda grow less skeptical
when a figure wearing a Shakespeare mask and wielding an Elizabethan dagger
chases them into the Metro subway system toward Maryland.
After being
cornered in a remote Maryland cabin by the killer, the two escape to look for
answers at Shakespeare and Company, a famous Paris bookstore, as well as in
London's Globe Theater. As they solve each step of the mystery, though, they
face new obstacles to overcome and more clues to unravel in their search for
the truth.
Pursued
across two continents by murderers, the desperate Klewe and Zelda have only
three days to solve the strangest mystery of Renaissance history. The evidence
mounts up, drawn from actual anagrams hidden in Shakespeare's own words as well
as historically accurate descriptions of Elizabethan paintings and observations
made by the playwright's contemporaries.
Their
dangerous journey takes them ultimately to Stratford and the Bard's final
resting place. There the words of the playwright's epitaph help thwart the
deadly conspiracy.
Once hailed
as "a jaw-dropping premise" by the late columnist William Safire, The Shakespeare Conspiracy is the first
novel by a published Shakespeare expert. It offers readers the twists of a
thrill ride reminiscent of The Da Vinci
Code as well as that novel's excitement of wondering whether its central
secret just might be true. If so, this new thriller has the potential to expose
the biggest literary conspiracy of all time, offering a whole new way of
looking at the world's greatest writer, William Shakespeare.
Buy Links
