top of page
AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE HARRIS
-
Does writing energize or exhaust you?
It energises & inspires me … I love it! -
Do you try to be original or deliver to readers what they want?
I tell the stories I see as I write them. If people don’t like it, then I’m probably not writing for them. If you enjoy it & are even inspired by it (hopefully, to do good things & not to replicate the villains in my books), then I’m writing for you! -
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you building a body of work with connections between each book?
I have over 12 novels mapped out at this point in time. Most books will stand on their own, though 'The Dream Walker' does have several sequels. However, I have character crossovers in each & every novel that will add depth to the other novels. My goal is that when people read later novels & then re-read earlier novels with those characters as ‘side characters,’ they will see a new dimension to the earlier novels. -
What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
When my sister used it in a schoolyard to stop a bully back in the 1970s. It stuck with me so much, I incorporated it into my third novel. -
What is your favourite novel?
How hard is that to answer! I love ‘Lord of the Rings’ as I admire someone who can create a new world replete with fantastical creatures and languages – Tolkien was a genius. That is what I love about writing fiction – you get to create worlds as you want them to be. Yet, I am overwhelmed just as much at stories based on real people making a difference, my favourite probably being ‘Schindler’s Ark.’ I think that is why I write novels that marry fiction with real world events. All the novels I have written so far incorporate true events that happened; I populate them with fictional characters who have larger-than-life stories. -
Who is your favourite author?
Again, impossible to answer, as it depends upon my reading mood. My favourites are Tolkien (for his creativity), Wilbur Smith (for his ability to tell a personal story), Matthew Reilly (what an action story teller!), and Michael Crichton (thrills extreme) … though I also greatly admire Corban Addison, Lee Child, Bryce Courtney, Clive Cussler, Val McDermid, and James Patterson. -
As a writer, what would you choose as your spirit animal?
Wot the? My favourite animals are tigers, big dogs, dragons and ankylosauruses, but from a writing perspective, I want to mess with people’s heads & get them wondering how the story fits together until the last page, like a jigsaw puzzle without edges, so I guess I should go with a unicorn? -
What does literary success look like to you?
I think this involves 2 things. Firstly, I must stay true to telling the stories I want to tell. Secondly, people want to read them. My goal is that people would enjoy having their minds messed with, yet they would be inspired or challenged in some way. Each of my novels has an ulterior motive. For example, ‘The Dream Walker’ is written to inspire people to have a dream for their lives & then to do something about it to make it happen & to be willing to fight for it. I believe everyone has the opportunity to impact the world in a positive way. I hope as people read ‘The Dream Walker’ that they would see themselves as Josh, an everyday, accidental hero who accepts the opportunity to change his world. My second novel is an action/cyber thriller that surreptitiously tackles sexism in the online world. -
What kind of research do you do?
Lots. I like to include real events into my novels so they have a mixture of reality with fiction; I want people to see my stories as feasible in the real world. For example, the incident in ‘The Dream Walker’ that occurs through the awful event we call 9/11 is based upon actual records of what happened on American Airlines Flight 11 as it was taken over and flown into the North Tower. Likewise, the events in my second novel incorporate what really happened with the cyber-activist groups Anonymous and LulzSec, and as much as I could find out about how CIA Black Ops agents are skilled at secretive facilities like WHINSEC. -
How long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I don’t, as my stories are based on characters I create from the mish-mash of life. I research during the writing. I suspect that I write in a different manner to most writers. I plan the basic outline. Then, I write as I watch the movie in my mind’s eye. Seriously, half the chapters I write, I go “whoa … I did not see that coming.” I kid you not. I usually write what I see. I then research as diligently as I can to embellish the story and integrate it with real life and true events. -
What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from another gender?
As all men know, women are beyond our comprehension, and that is even more complex in the modern world of gender fluidity. All the women I write about are obliquely based around people I know, though the person in my story is never recognisable from the amazing (and sometimes not so wonderful) women I have learned from. I must admit, that rings true for both men & women. I think my 10+ years working in community care showed me that I can never ‘get’ someone else, despite their gender, age, faith, socio-economic upbringing, etc. Everyone’s story is unique. I simply try to take some of the intriguing people I have met & make them larger than life in a fictional setting. Some good friends know which characters have ‘facets’ of them integrated within a fictional character’s persona; most do not, simply because the story I write is so different to each person’s situation, yet the character’s responses are based on who that person is & how they have reacted to the things life has thrown at them. -
How do you select the names of your characters?
Often, I choose a name I think fits that character as I see them – example: Hector Schmidt; I cannot remember ever having met someone called Hector … other than Hector the cat when I was in Grade 2! Other times, I base a character’s name on someone I have been either blessed or unfortunate to meet – example: Helen, an old flame from many years ago. Yet, those characters are nothing like the person I have named them after ... though Helen was pretty alright! (One of my beta readers wanted to know if she was based on a real person and, if so, could he date her 😊). -
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Most definitely. I deliberately write with little hooks that readers may possibly guess what is going on behind the scenes … but good luck with that! I also have a universe that permeates across all novels I have planned so far, so minor characters in one book become major characters in another, and vica versa. Fyi, there are reference links to at least four future books in ‘The Dream Walker’ though none of them detract from the story. Knowing the web of books I have mapped out means I can write interesting bits into early books that will take on another level of meaning once the reader has learned more about that character in a later book. Each book is stand alone; yet, there are facets that will shine in new ways once a reader knows the true nature of that character. And there are definitely a few huge surprises along the way! -
What is the hardest scene you have written?
So far, it has been in my third book where the main character experiences the shame too many have endured in the real world of the foster system. I cried as I wrote it; and I cried again when one of my beta readers told me she knew of similar things happening in 2020. -
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Version 2 … the rewrite / edit / surgery -
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
Do more crazy stuff … though I did do some pretty crazy stuff … so maybe do less crazy stuff? -
How long does it take you to write a book?
So far, first drafts take me around four months to complete. The second draft, after manuscript appraisal, is another story. V2 of 'The Dream Walker' only took another 2 months; V2 of 'my second thriller took significantly longer. -
Who inspires you to be your best self?
Since a health scare wrought huge changes in my life in late 2018, the humans in my life who inspire me the most now would have to be my two awesome sons, my amazing parents, and several close friends. -
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
For many chapters, I ‘watch’ the book as a movie while I write. Often, it leads to interesting twists I did not see coming. For example, in ‘The Dream Walker’ when Hector uses his X-Men like dream powers to gain revenge on one of his tormenters, I literally heard the bottles smash when they could not pass through the wall with Hector. That is why I wrote it into that chapter. In my second novel, one of my bad guys assumed new levels of evil when I saw a portrait on the wall of a room he was in as I was writing; wow, that was a huge turn in the book, though it stayed true to the overall story. -
Where do you get information & ideas for your books?
The plots and characters come from my own life skills and experiences, which is why I am sort of glad I did not start writing years ago. I then try to build my characters’ stories around real events, to create a level of ‘credibility’ to the story; when I research those events, my heartfelt thanks to Dr Google. I must say that I do a lot of ‘anonymous’ searching when I research subjects like the CIA’s Black Ops, true hacks, and acts of terror, which are prevalent themes in my second novel, just in case Big Brutha is watching! Some of the things I do online research for are both amazing and scary. -
How do you create or model your characters to fit the requirements of the story and the expectations of the readers?
I don’t think I do. I have a plot and characters, and I try to write as honestly as I can about how those characters respond to the story as it unfolds. I think that is life. No matter who we are, we must deal with what happens to and around us. And as the story unfolds, new characters enter the story. Some of them stay; some go; some die. And sometimes the characters that readers want to live will die … thank you, Matthew Reilly. -
Do you have any suggestions to help others become a better writer?
Becoming a story teller has made me a more active listener; I want to hear people’s story, as that is the best way to expand the experiences I can write into my books. If you limit life to your own experiences, it restricts your ability to tell stories. When you focus on hearing others – including the stories they tell in other ways than words – you multiply the life experience you can write from. And no matter how amazing your fictional story might be, there are always people with even more amazing stories that are their lives
bottom of page