Author Richard C Hale

Today, I continue my series on new and talented writers with my guest for the week, the wonderful Helen Hanson. She is a lot of fun and her thrillers keep you on the edge of your seat in anticipation of the next fantastic chapter. Helen, welcome and tell us a little about yourself. 

Helen:  Thanks for the invitation, Richard.  I’m a thriller writer with a lifelong habit of making up stories.  Now I get to claim tax deductions because of them instead of doing time in the principal’s office.   I have officially graduated.

 

Richard:  I see you have quite the background in computer science and software. Does this help shape your stories?

Helen:  Organized crime, human trafficking, bank fraud—these days, the most egregious crooks on the planet inflict their evil via a keyboard.  All my thrillers possess a cyber crime element.   Because of my background, I’m told I can communicate the relevant aspects of high-tech crimes without drowning the reader in jargon.   

 

Richard:  Your latest novel, DARK POOL, sounds thrilling! Tell us a little about it.

Helen:  40 Billion Reasons to Kill.

By this time in her life, Maggie Fender expected to be on her way to law school. Instead she’s far from any degree, waiting tables to support her teenage half-brother and their ailing father.  With early onset Alzheimer’s, her father’s lucid moments are few and unpredictable. 

Her brother’s legal defense for felony hacking charges strained their finances to a snap.  In spite of the conviction, he claims he was framed.  But now that he’s on parole, he also claims their father is sending them messages.

Maggie’s tired of the struggle, but she’s everybody’s legal guardian.  Slowing down will lead to disaster.  She can hustle. Or face financial ruin.

This isn’t the life she envisioned. 

In the news, disgraced hedge fund manager Patty O’Mara awaits trial for bilking investors out of forty billion dollars.  The legendary dark pool wizard offered phenomenal profits until the SEC examined his books. Then they discovered O’Mara didn’t make any legitimate trades on the market. 

O’Mara ran his hedge fund the way Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff ran theirs.  It was all a fraud. 

One wealthy investor rallies the troop of irate victims by hiring a noted private investigator to find the missing pot of gold.  A Russian mobster, out thirty million in cash, prefers to search for the money alone and without witnesses.  Their competing efforts sift the same set of facts. 

So why are they interested in Maggie Fender’s incoherent father?

While SEC officials try to rebuild credibility for allowing the financial scandal to rage unchecked, the private investigator and the Russian mobster vie to answer a solitary question: 

What happened to all that money?  

 

Richard:  What made you want to write this genre?

Helen:  I read outside my genre, but thrillers are my comfort food.  As a kid I devoured the film noir flicks of the 40’s and 50’s with Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and anything directed by Hitchcock.  I read my way through Nancy Drew and moved on to John le Carré’s George Smiley.  My characters bleed, but I don’t revel in gore, in part because I never developed a taste for it.  I prefer dry humor.  Bogie was a gentleman, he rarely bled on camera. 

 

Richard:  Give us a little something extra that you won’t find in the blurb for DARK POOL.

Helen:  I included an Alzheimer’s patient as a character because I saw my father die from this disease.  Alzheimer’s steals the mind memory by memory. At least that’s our perception of it.  Time seemed to lose forward motion for him.   It intrigued me what my father experienced from his side of the gulf. 

 

Richard:  I see you also have another novel published, 3 LIES. Tell us a little about it.

Helen:  High-tech magnate Clint Masters had dropped out of his life to re-evaluate after his wife dumped him, when he falls in love with Beth, a woman on dialysis.  Then she’s kidnapped.  At the CIA, a worm code launches what could be a terrorist mission.  Clint finds the connection between Beth’s disappearance and the hacked CIA computers.   But will he find her before her kidneys fail or the kidnappers put a bullet in his head?

 

Richard:  Let’s talk a little about you. How old were you when you realized you wanted to write?

Helen:  I’ve been writing since I was a kid.  Publishing?  After college.  I don’t know why but John Grisham’s books made me want to publish a novel.   But I took on some demanding jobs that kept me busy writing non-fiction.  There comes a time when it’s now or never. 

 

Richard:  I’m an Air Traffic Controller and I see you have had some experience with aircraft. What’s this I hear about you terrorizing passengers on a Boeing 737 during some instruction flights? Sorry, I couldn’t resist. That is awesome you are a pilot.

Helen:  My 737 story is long, funny (not at the time), and ends with a punch line.  I know the guys in the control tower that day retell this one too.  For now… 

I was a student pilot with a solo rating (I could fly by myself), and I was flying to a different airport (E16) to do some pattern work (practice take-offs and landings–called a touch-and-go).    Now as a member of ATC you know that when a commercial jet is on final for the runway they have a sensor that tells them when anything bigger than a sparrow crosses their flight path.   I’m in a 180hp Archer– not the tiniest plane in which to train.  When I flashed on their screen, the 737 had to abort the landing and do a go-round.  Needless to say, SJC tower kept me on speed dial until I landed.  

 

Richard:  If you’re perusing the book store or browsing online, what or who would you grab off of the virtual shelf? 

Helen:  I think I’m a more jaded consumer now that I’ve got my own work out there.  I wish I knew what my “before” answer would have been.  If a great cover or title offers promise, I read the blurb to see if the promise holds.   

I love Jason Bourne, but he’s the guy that doesn’t make mistakes.   I prefer stories where civilians or those unprepared are thrust into a situation they didn’t create.  I enjoying watching them improvise, step up their game in order to survive.

 

Richard:  The publishing industry is rapidly changing as we speak. Do you have any predictions or feelings about where it is headed?

Helen:  Your readers will be relieved to know that I do not.

 

Richard:  I met you on Twitter and love the whole Social Media thing. Do you think it’s important for a writer to have a presence in these environments?

Helen:  In my best Eeyore voice:  Oh, I suppose. 

I enjoy the people, but I loathe marketing.  I somewhat stink at it.  My 737 story is best relished over a long-stem glass of red wine.  It would take too many sets of 140 characters to adequately convey, and then you’d miss all the cool hand gestures.   Twitter and I are finally coming to terms.  Sigh.  I was not a natural.

 

Richard:  Your writing style, do you like to outline and plot everything in advance or are you what we like to call a ‘pantser’ and shoot from the hip?

Helen:  I’m a no-pantser.  Ha ha. Just kidding.  My plots are typically intricate, so I have to do some macro plotting.   I need to know where the next few scenes are going in order to write.  That said, I like to be surprised along the way, too. 

 

Richard:  Do you have any advice for fledgling writers that might help them on their journey?

Helen:  If it’s not some fun for you, what’s the point? 

All work and no play makes Helen a dull girl.

All work and no play makes Helen a dull girl.

All work and no play makes Helen a dull girl.

 

Richard:  I like to have fun on my blog and keep it light. Tell us a few fun facts about you as a person.

Helen:  I make superior animal noises.  Cow, sheep, horse, pig, dog, cat, elephant (that one is hard), guinea pig, to name a few.

I burned out a copier motor by making copies too fast.  Ditto with a shredder.  At home they have the maximum number of sheets allowed downgraded to five, so I don’t lose this one. 

I dented a car driving it off the showroom floor.  I also once closed a door on my own head.  Try tweeting about that.

 

Richard:  If I want to keep in touch with what’s going on in the world of Helen Hanson, how can I do that? Do you have a website, twitter account, Facebook or any others?

Helen:  I have it all!

 http://www.helenhanson.com/

http://www.facebook.com/Helen.Hanson.Author 

www.twitter.com/helenhanson

http://www.goodreads.com/HelenHanson

 

Richard:  What formats are you novels available in?

Helen:  I’m epubbed and in paperback.

 

 Richard:  Where can we find your fantastic stories?

 Helen:  DARK POOL and 3 LIES are at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks

 3 LIES is also at Smashwords

 iBooks  http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/helen-hanson/id412247043?mt=11

Amazon   http://www.amazon.com/Helen-Hanson/e/B004FD2MR2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/3-lies-helen-hanson/1102182485

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1107080404

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/54273

 

Richard:  What’s next for Helen Hanson?

Helen:  I’m writing about the man who entices the world to buy Viagra.  Meet Baxter Cruise: spammer for hire.  His cozy world of wi-fi and lattes is about to explode.

 

Thanks so much, Helen, for taking the time to visit us today. I look forward to your next project and wish you all the best!