Featured Interview With Howard Kaplan
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Los Angeles and live equidistant between Sony Pictures and Fox Studios both about 5 minutes drive in opposite directions. I have not had much to do with the film industry until just now when my novel, The Damascus Cover, was filmed starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sir John Hurt and Navid Negahban (Abu Nazir in Homeland.)
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was always a big reader and television watcher so as a child I escaped in stories. I began piddling with writing in college at Berkeley. I took no writing courses but I did pen a play and turned it into three classes for the paper assignment. I got two A’s and one professor said he couldn’t read it but would count it as the class requirement. I started keeping journals so the step up to trying a novel was not so high from there.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I’m a giant fan of John le Carre. He has a unique ability to tell a great story with remarkable nuanced characters and at the same time deal with difficult political issues.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Jerusalem Spy Series initially will be comprised of 3 novels that share a common theme: reconciliation and hope. Between Israel and the Arab countries in The Damascus Cover and between Israelis and Palestinians in Bullets of Palestine and the forthcoming To Destroy Jerusalem. Bullets is about an Israeli agent and Palestinian agent challenged to work together to hunt down and kill an extremist Arab terrorist, Abu Nidal, who is killing both Jews across Europe.
The Damascus Cover is less political and more plot driven, with a twist at the end that pulls it all together in a surprise. It is easy to write suspense and cliff hangers but very hard to make them come together and make sense. The book has been translated into 7 languages thus far.
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