Author: Sam Moffie
Title: To Kill the Duke
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 978-1461147060
Pages: 362, Paperback/Kindle
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author Interview with Sam Moffie
Author Interview with Sam Moffie
Title: To Kill the Duke
Interviewed by: Tamar Mekredijian, Pacific Book Review
Today we have the pleasure of being with Sam Moffie, author of the new historical fiction book titled, To Kill the Duke.
PBR: How much research did you have to do in order to write To Kill the Duke?
SM: I had to do a lot of research. Much more than I was used to doing. I felt like I got into my ‘way-back machine’ (from college days). But thanks to the miracle of the INTERNET I was able to find oodles of information. It also helped that along the way I met two people still alive who were in the movie ‘The Conqueror’. Jack N. Young was a stuntman on the set and Sylvia Lewis was a dancer on the RKO set where the red sand was trucked from southern Utah.
PBR: What was your favorite scene to write? What was the most difficult to write?
SM: There were a lot of both favorite and difficult’s. The one of each that pops into mind are as follows. Favorite: When Boris Gila informs Ivan and Alexei about how young Ivan saved young Boris from starvation. It sets up Boris’ journey to become an efficient man in all he does with great compassion (the toilet paper giving scene in Moscow to the old lady in line (another favorite)). Difficult: The entire last chapter on Howard Hughes. I was beat over the head by my team to make Hughes more loathsome than I had made him, but I did also like the scene in the end when he is in a diving suit with a Geiger counter at RKO.
PBR: Tell us a little bit about the Joseph Stalin and Ivan Viznapu bathroom scene. How did that scene come about and how did it shape your vision for the character of Ivan?
SM: Nice to know that someone else has a scatological view of the world (LOL). I wanted to make Stalin both ruthless and decadent. I also wanted Ivan to start to grow as a man who thought he was a worthless mail clerk into a man with a backbone and deserved better. I wanted to convey a message to the readers that more often than not – the people of a country are oppressed by leadership that will crush them like a bug, but that those very leaders are not worth the people’s spit when it comes to character.
PBR: When did you first begin to write? Are you a full time fiction writer?
SM: I have always written. After being the victim of a hit and run in the summer of 2008 I was laid up for a long, long time and started to get serious about fulfilling a passion and putting a hex on Scott Fitzgerald’s famous quote ‘that there are no second acts…’ I believe everyone has a second act in them if they want to.
PBR: Tell us about your writing life. Do you have a strict writing schedule? A specific place you go to get your creative juices flowing?
SM: I write whenever I can squeeze it in. Sometimes I write pages and pages and pages. Sometimes just one sentence. My home is the best place to create life into characters.
PBR: What advice do you have for aspiring writers who want to begin writing a novel, but don’t know where to start? Also, how do you suggest an emerging writer to stay motivated and disciplined?
SM: Don’t get discouraged. Reject the rejectors! Do it yourself – the tools to be successful (like Pacific Book Review) are out there. You must be an author AND a publicity seeking wild person if you want to succeed. Bad criticism doesn’t mean you are a bad writer, it will make you a better one. Stay positive and good things will happen.
