Interview with Michael Robotham
Post the release of his latest book BLEED FOR ME Michael Robotham
generously spared me some time when he was in Melbourne recently.
BLEED FOR ME is the 5th book in Robotham's central series, which is
cleverly based around a shifting focus of 3 loosely connected
characters. Unexpectedly, but pleasingly for readers, BLEED FOR ME
sees the focus staying with Professor Joe O'Loughlin following on from
SHATTER.
Michael, born and raised in NSW Australia, followed his dream of a
journalism cadetship at seventeen. From there to ghost-writing
autobiographies, and ultimately the start of this series of books,
starting out with a bidding war at the 2002 London Book Fair for THE
SUSPECT. Aside from the storytelling ability demonstrated, there are
some really interesting elements within the make-up of this popular
series of books.
Setting a book in another country from the one that you live in is a
challenge, but as Michael says - the observer's eye sees things
differently from the day to day participant. Perhaps that is why his
books have achieved popularity in a wide range of countries, as Michael
uses the language, and describes the places in a way that is extremely
accessible to an outsider, in particular.
The change in viewpoint via the use of the 3 different protagonists is
a particularly memorable aspect of the books, not just because these
three people are somewhat loosely connected. Joe O'Loughlin and
Vincent Ruiz start out as colleagues in the police and ancillary
services, with that relationship switching quickly to an ongoing
friendship and trust. DC Alisha Barba hasn't made an appearance in
recent books, but she is, again, a colleague, a friend, a compatriot.
Michael speaks of his characters with affection and exasperation,
understanding and affection. He has set up less of a "team", more
people who as a result of circumstances, have built up relationships
and rapport. They are people who the author brings together, allows to
form understandings, sympathies, and relationships, as easily as he can
make them stand alone. In Michael's hands, in particular, O'Loughlin
and Ruiz have a very realistic very male style of relationship with a
shared friendship and care, alongside a realistic and dispassionate
assessment of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Michael is also interested in exploring conflict within an individual
and O'Loughlin is the perfect antidote to the bullet-proof, invincible,
chisel-jawed hero of many books. O'Loughlin has early onset
Parkinson's, physically frail, Michael admits that the juxtaposition of
a brilliant mind and a failing body was a scenario that fascinated him,
but one he may not have tackled with hindsight. Despite the
difficulties of ensuring that the progression is believable, and aside
from the cruel and difficult position he has put a character he has a
great liking for in, Michael has ended up with a flawed human, a
brilliant mind that can be frustratingly blinkered. Joe can see how
other people work, analyse the criminal mind and even support his
colleagues and friends. Take him into his own family and he struggles,
the one person in the world that he cannot seem to get any sort of a
handle on is himself.
Using real-life events as a trigger for the plots of the books, BLEED
FOR ME's central theme of a predatory school teacher - grooming female
students, had its genesis in a true story of a man whose first wife had
disappeared with a very young, ex-student becoming his second wife.
Looking back at each of the books, there has been an event in real-life
that has triggered a thought process, that ultimately results in the
book. A sobering thought, Michael balances the intrusion of the evil
side of reality with a complicated, touching, real and fragile family
situation. Readers of SHATTER will know that the book ended with the
Joe's wife Julianne leaving him, and somehow that seemed like such an
extreme and almost cruel thing for her to do. BLEED FOR ME explores
more of Julianne's motives, her feelings, her viewpoint, and it will go
some way towards repairing her shattered reputation with Joe's fans and
supporters. Or at least that's what Michael and his own wife hopes
(she was one of the most vocal supporters of the need for another Joe
book - to set the story straight and spell out Julianne's viewpoint).
The question of family relationships is obviously something that
Michael also finds particularly interesting - he does say that he
enjoys writing the family's story and that they are people who live and
breath in his head. There's a wonderful reality to the changing
relationship between a doting father and a teenage daughter pushing
away, made particularly poignant by the recent threats as a result of
Joe's job (events in SHATTER continue to reverberate through all of
Joe's family).
We also briefly touched on SHATTER, the Ned Kelly winning novel
immediately before BLEED FOR ME. Anyone who hasn't read that book yet,
should seriously consider doing so. As a pure psychological thriller,
there's actually a very low violence and body count. What there is,
however, is a sense of pure evil - a cruel, focused, inhuman and
ruthless mind against the equally ruthless, but conflicted and very
human mind of Joe. A worthy winner of the Ned Kelly Award in 2008
indeed.
It's easy to forget the importance of the Ned Kelly's. Michael now has
two awards - LOST in 2005 and Shatter in 2008, and whilst the awards
may not be the best known in Australia, Michael really believes they
mean a lot to the authors, their publishers and their publicists and
they do mean something overseas. To win a Ned Kelly in Australia is
now an indicator that this is a book / author to be commented on.
As is the way with Australian writers, and readers lately, at some
point the subject of rights (particularly Australian territorial
copyright) and the future of the publishing industry arises. Michael,
as do other authors, regard the rise of ebooks and the general
questions of Digital Rights Management warily. The rise of illegal
copying of software, movies, TV shows, music and now ebooks is an
ongoing concern for everybody. Not just a problem for the creators of
the content - the musicians, the movie and TV producers, the authors;
it is also going to be a problem for the consumer. Imagine a world in
which the Michael Robotham's do not receive a reasonable recompense for
what is, after all, a huge chunk of their time perfecting their output,
creating an entertainment that is of immeasurable value to their fan
base. If that fan base isn't willing to take some personal
responsibility for ensuring that we contribute (by buying the book /
the ebook / the audio book / the software program / the track / the
DVD) then we run the risk of ruining that which we are so keen to
possess that we will, (let's call a spade a spade) steal to get. It's
not just a crime against "the big companies" - we need to stop
pretending.
Now the extremely good news is that Michael says the next book is
already well underway. Stand by for The Wreckage with Vincent Ruiz, a
thriller set in the context of the Global Financial Crisis.
As if that's not enough to tempt fans (and new fans) of Michael
Robotham's books - there is also the chance of a non-series book, set in Australia on the way as well.
generously spared me some time when he was in Melbourne recently.
BLEED FOR ME is the 5th book in Robotham's central series, which is
cleverly based around a shifting focus of 3 loosely connected
characters. Unexpectedly, but pleasingly for readers, BLEED FOR ME
sees the focus staying with Professor Joe O'Loughlin following on from
SHATTER.
Michael, born and raised in NSW Australia, followed his dream of a
journalism cadetship at seventeen. From there to ghost-writing
autobiographies, and ultimately the start of this series of books,
starting out with a bidding war at the 2002 London Book Fair for THE
SUSPECT. Aside from the storytelling ability demonstrated, there are
some really interesting elements within the make-up of this popular
series of books.
Setting a book in another country from the one that you live in is a
challenge, but as Michael says - the observer's eye sees things
differently from the day to day participant. Perhaps that is why his
books have achieved popularity in a wide range of countries, as Michael
uses the language, and describes the places in a way that is extremely
accessible to an outsider, in particular.
The change in viewpoint via the use of the 3 different protagonists is
a particularly memorable aspect of the books, not just because these
three people are somewhat loosely connected. Joe O'Loughlin and
Vincent Ruiz start out as colleagues in the police and ancillary
services, with that relationship switching quickly to an ongoing
friendship and trust. DC Alisha Barba hasn't made an appearance in
recent books, but she is, again, a colleague, a friend, a compatriot.
Michael speaks of his characters with affection and exasperation,
understanding and affection. He has set up less of a "team", more
people who as a result of circumstances, have built up relationships
and rapport. They are people who the author brings together, allows to
form understandings, sympathies, and relationships, as easily as he can
make them stand alone. In Michael's hands, in particular, O'Loughlin
and Ruiz have a very realistic very male style of relationship with a
shared friendship and care, alongside a realistic and dispassionate
assessment of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Michael is also interested in exploring conflict within an individual
and O'Loughlin is the perfect antidote to the bullet-proof, invincible,
chisel-jawed hero of many books. O'Loughlin has early onset
Parkinson's, physically frail, Michael admits that the juxtaposition of
a brilliant mind and a failing body was a scenario that fascinated him,
but one he may not have tackled with hindsight. Despite the
difficulties of ensuring that the progression is believable, and aside
from the cruel and difficult position he has put a character he has a
great liking for in, Michael has ended up with a flawed human, a
brilliant mind that can be frustratingly blinkered. Joe can see how
other people work, analyse the criminal mind and even support his
colleagues and friends. Take him into his own family and he struggles,
the one person in the world that he cannot seem to get any sort of a
handle on is himself.
Using real-life events as a trigger for the plots of the books, BLEED
FOR ME's central theme of a predatory school teacher - grooming female
students, had its genesis in a true story of a man whose first wife had
disappeared with a very young, ex-student becoming his second wife.
Looking back at each of the books, there has been an event in real-life
that has triggered a thought process, that ultimately results in the
book. A sobering thought, Michael balances the intrusion of the evil
side of reality with a complicated, touching, real and fragile family
situation. Readers of SHATTER will know that the book ended with the
Joe's wife Julianne leaving him, and somehow that seemed like such an
extreme and almost cruel thing for her to do. BLEED FOR ME explores
more of Julianne's motives, her feelings, her viewpoint, and it will go
some way towards repairing her shattered reputation with Joe's fans and
supporters. Or at least that's what Michael and his own wife hopes
(she was one of the most vocal supporters of the need for another Joe
book - to set the story straight and spell out Julianne's viewpoint).
The question of family relationships is obviously something that
Michael also finds particularly interesting - he does say that he
enjoys writing the family's story and that they are people who live and
breath in his head. There's a wonderful reality to the changing
relationship between a doting father and a teenage daughter pushing
away, made particularly poignant by the recent threats as a result of
Joe's job (events in SHATTER continue to reverberate through all of
Joe's family).
We also briefly touched on SHATTER, the Ned Kelly winning novel
immediately before BLEED FOR ME. Anyone who hasn't read that book yet,
should seriously consider doing so. As a pure psychological thriller,
there's actually a very low violence and body count. What there is,
however, is a sense of pure evil - a cruel, focused, inhuman and
ruthless mind against the equally ruthless, but conflicted and very
human mind of Joe. A worthy winner of the Ned Kelly Award in 2008
indeed.
It's easy to forget the importance of the Ned Kelly's. Michael now has
two awards - LOST in 2005 and Shatter in 2008, and whilst the awards
may not be the best known in Australia, Michael really believes they
mean a lot to the authors, their publishers and their publicists and
they do mean something overseas. To win a Ned Kelly in Australia is
now an indicator that this is a book / author to be commented on.
As is the way with Australian writers, and readers lately, at some
point the subject of rights (particularly Australian territorial
copyright) and the future of the publishing industry arises. Michael,
as do other authors, regard the rise of ebooks and the general
questions of Digital Rights Management warily. The rise of illegal
copying of software, movies, TV shows, music and now ebooks is an
ongoing concern for everybody. Not just a problem for the creators of
the content - the musicians, the movie and TV producers, the authors;
it is also going to be a problem for the consumer. Imagine a world in
which the Michael Robotham's do not receive a reasonable recompense for
what is, after all, a huge chunk of their time perfecting their output,
creating an entertainment that is of immeasurable value to their fan
base. If that fan base isn't willing to take some personal
responsibility for ensuring that we contribute (by buying the book /
the ebook / the audio book / the software program / the track / the
DVD) then we run the risk of ruining that which we are so keen to
possess that we will, (let's call a spade a spade) steal to get. It's
not just a crime against "the big companies" - we need to stop
pretending.
Now the extremely good news is that Michael says the next book is
already well underway. Stand by for The Wreckage with Vincent Ruiz, a
thriller set in the context of the Global Financial Crisis.
As if that's not enough to tempt fans (and new fans) of Michael
Robotham's books - there is also the chance of a non-series book, set in Australia on the way as well.
Views: 211
Comment
Welcome to
CrimeSpace
© 2024 Created by Daniel Hatadi.
Powered by
You need to be a member of CrimeSpace to add comments!