The Superb Nook

Creator Keith Girard says, “The concept for this e-book, actually, got here to me in a dream. I used to be anxious to put in writing a horror story since I’ve lengthy admired Stephen King’s work and wished to problem myself. As soon as I bought the concept, I put apart a dystopian science fiction e-book I used to be writing and devoted myself to this venture. However I’ve to admit, whereas it began out as a macabre story, it morphed into one thing else. I shortly strayed from the usual horror style. I used to be intrigued by the Salem witch trials, which have been imagined to be the premise for this story. However the extra I regarded into it, the extra I turned fascinated by the political, sociological, and non secular components that gave rise to the hysteria.”

Girard has an interesting background as a author: The Washington Submit; Billboard; and this e-book, the follow-up to his Heidelberg Conundrum, is as richly rewarding as you’d need.

We sat with Keith for an unique T2C-interview:

G.H Harding: Give us slightly bit in your background

Keith Girard: I grew up in a household with two brothers and a sister. My mom was English and met my father whereas he was stationed in England throughout World Warfare II. After the warfare, they married and he or she got here to the U.S. to stay. My father was within the Air Pressure and after his army profession ended, he labored for aerospace firms. I grew up as a army brat and we moved virtually each two years. It was onerous at instances but in addition gave me a novel perspective on life, and having a global background additionally helped broaden my horizons. I’ve at all times had an curiosity in historical past, science and present occasions, as a result of we lived them day by day. Two of my siblings are, actually, rocket scientists. However I used to be drawn to writing at an early age. It got here very naturally to me, and I made a decision to pursue it as a profession, though it was towards my father’s needs. So, I suppose I used to be a little bit of a insurgent, too.

G.H Harding: What was your first e-book The Heidelberg Conundrum about?

Keith Girard: The Heidelberg Conundrum accommodates all the weather that I discussed above. At its root, it’s science fiction novel about time journey, however it’s additionally a historic novel that touches World Warfare II, the atrocities that came about in Germany and their connections with the current day. It focuses on a younger physicist who will get his “dream job” that seems to be one thing fairly completely different. He’s employed to unravel the “Heidelberg Conundrum,” a 400-year-old mathematical equation that’s regarded as the important thing to time journey. Suppose “The Da Vinci Code” meets “Raiders of the Misplaced Ark” with a science fiction twist.  The e-book is a darkish journey that takes readers again to the final days of the warfare and Nazi decadence and into interstellar house.

G.H Harding: What do you suppose makes a superb novel?

Keith Girard: I personally like science fiction as a result of the bounds are boundless and since it lends itself so simply to political and social commentary. The Heidelberg Conundrum has all three. For up to date fiction, I feel Tom Wolfe’s writing embodies what I imply. Additionally, writers like Joseph Heller; “Catch 22” is one in every of my favourite novels, and virtually something Wolfe has written. I like Hunter Thompson’s singular writing model and biting satire.  However I additionally admire the nice science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Frank Herbert. I grew up studying them.

G.H Harding: Billboard was the music business’s go-to commerce paper; what did you uncover in regards to the music business throughout your time there?

Keith Girard: Billboard was a improbable publication with a protracted historical past, however it was failing due to demographic and technological adjustments within the music business. I used to be employed to show it round, as a result of I had a profitable monitor document turning round two earlier publications. If it ever had an opportunity to succeed, Billboard needed to depart behind its legacy previous, embrace technological change sweeping the business and broaden its attain. Billboard was at all times a commerce newspaper. Its readership base was made up of hundreds of unbiased music shops throughout the nation. It was probably the most economical method for document labels to market to them. However document shops fell by the wayside as large field retailers moved into that house. The MP3 revolution and streaming was the loss of life knell. Discuss disruptive expertise! The document business was thrown into turmoil as a result of it misplaced two essential segments of its enterprise – manufacturing and distribution. Any child with a pc might reproduce similar copies of a music, again and again, and distribute it over the Web to hundreds of different youngsters. I noticed Billboard as an awesome alternative to reinvent itself. However legacies, particularly as robust as Billboard’s, die onerous, and the resistance to vary, in the long run, was too nice.

G.H Harding: What do you consider Billboard’s choice to turn out to be a extra of a shopper e-book?

Keith Girard: By and huge it was a fairly vital strategic mistake. Billboard had a novel area of interest as a enterprise newspaper targeted on music. There was lots of dialogue about turning it right into a shopper publication whereas I used to be there, however I opposed it. The buyer market was already saturated, and Rolling Stone dominated. After I joined Billboard, it had a circulation of about 26,000; Rolling Stone had a circulation of three million. There’s no method, Billboard might ever dent that, and it made no sense to surrender a distinct segment that Billboard owned. So, my efforts turned to broadening its viewers. There was loads of fertile floor. Plus, it was a technique to construct circulation and appeal to new advertisers. So, I enormously expanded protection of touring, music administration, music expertise and musical devices, all from a enterprise angle, not simply information and the document business. As a result of Billboard readers have been largely prosperous music professionals, it was additionally an untapped sell-through for luxurious items, from BMW to Rolex watches. We additionally made nice inroads with guitar makers like Gibson, which cherished the concept we have been writing about musical devices. Underneath my tenure, our Music and Cash convention expanded and we launched an East Coast touring convention. However I didn’t ignore the buyer market. Our outreach to shoppers was by means of our predominant web site (billboard.com). We supplemented that with mini-sites specializing in enterprise (billboardbiz), and the professions, brokers, attorneys and managers. I feel one other large mistake was turning Billboard right into a shopper journal format. I spoke to dozens of music folks in any respect ranges and so they wished the sort of onerous information Billboard was identified for, and so they appreciated seeing their artists on the entrance web page. I might go on, however strategically that’s have been Billboard went fallacious for my part.

G.H Harding: The Salem Witch trials have been at all times a hotbed of controversy; what did you uncover in writing the brand new e-book?

Keith Girard: As , early Colonial America was a really darkish interval in our historical past, riven by superstition, worry and a perception in a literal God and Satan. However the extra I regarded into it, the extra I found the interval was marked by most of the similar social and political undercurrents that exist in the present day. That’s why I wrote the e-book in two elements, one specializing in 17^th century New England and the opposite on up to date society because it advanced in the identical quaint fishing village over time. The Salem witch trials have been fueled largely by petty jealousies, spiritual variations, intolerance, greed and cash. Usually land disputes have been on the root of witch craft allegations. Not surprisingly, those self same forces are nonetheless embedded in our civic and political tradition, in the present day. That’s the place I noticed the parallels that make this story intriguing.

G.H Harding: How would you greatest describe Northam Bay?

Keith Girard: Northam Bay is a microcosm of all the things that’s tearing on the seams of our society, in the present day. There are class distinctions and disruption brought on by new expertise and new residents which have each a optimistic and destructive have an effect on in town. I spent years as a reporter writing about small-town politics and graft, and Northam Bay is contaminated with schemers and grifters who will use all the things, together with homicide, and cease at nothing to get their method. While you get right down to it, it’s a story in regards to the development of suburbia, and corruption in excessive locations that form our modern-day world. Plus, it’s typically a pleasant place to stay, besides, in fact, for a curse that’s existed because the 1700s. And, it has a wholesome dose of satire.

G.H Harding: What are you able to inform us in regards to the Washington Submit that may shock us?

Keith Girard: Nicely, I labored as a reporter for The Washington Submit within the mid-Eighties. It was a decade after it rose to nationwide prominence due to Watergate, and from the skin, it regarded like this impenetrable colossus of infinitely sensible folks. I grew up studying the newspaper in highschool. My father hated it, so I needed to pay for my very own subscription.  I actually dreamed, at some point, of working there. The odd factor was, as soon as I used to be a reporter, my complete perspective modified. Let me first say, the Eighties was the golden period of newspapers, earlier than the Web and social media. The paper was enormous; 500 reporters, a newsroom as large as a shopping center and an enormous cross-section of individuals. However there was one factor, it didn’t lose when it turned a nationwide newspaper. It was nonetheless a household enterprise and felt that method. Kay Graham was nonetheless operating the corporate alongside along with her son, Donnie, and so they have been completely accessible. I noticed them usually after I was within the newsroom. The legendary Ben Bradlee was nonetheless the manager editor. If there ever was an imposing determine, it was him, a Harvard educated Boston Brahmin who frolicked with Jack Kennedy. However as a boss, he was probably the most down-to-earth, relatable human being I’ve ever labored for. The Submit had its share of eccentric characters, effete editors and real jack-asses, however it really felt like a household to me, even it was extra like The Royal Tenenbaums than Go away it to Beaver.

G.H Harding: As an astute journalist and editor, what do you learn each day?

Keith Girard: I nonetheless learn The Submit and The New York Instances day by day and have on-line subscriptions to each. I additionally subscribe to Vainness Truthful and The New Yorker.  In any other case, the great factor in regards to the Web is that it provides you entry to so many publications. I’m continuously browsing dozens of newspapers and magazines, on the lookout for nice reads. For some odd cause, I’m significantly drawn to British newspapers: The Unbiased, The Every day Mail, The Mirror, The Guardian, The Instances of London, and so forth. Possibly it’s simply the British in me.