An Interview with Harry (Brian L) Porter, and his alter ego, Juan Pablo Jalisco!
Firstly, I would like to thank you for allowing me to interview
you. I appreciate your time and
friendship! It has been a while since I
have done an interview, but when I decided I’d like to do another, you were at
the top of my list!
1)
As an author, I
know that you use several pen names in your writing career.
o
Who all do you write under and why?
o I currently write under three names,
Brian L Porter, Harry Porter, and Juan Pablo Jalisco.
o
How did you decide which names to use for your writing?
o Both Brian L Porter and Harry Porter
are family names, so they came easily. Juan Pablo Jalisco was born of a time I
spent in Mexico, and most of my time was spent in the state of Jalisco, and I
added the Juan Pablo because it just seemed to go well with the surname.
o
Was it a conscious choice to use various pen names or
how did that come about?
o When I first started novel writing, I
used the name Brian L Porter, and there was no need to use any other name until
I began writing children’s books too.
o It was my publisher at that time who
suggested it might be a good idea to use a different name for my books for
younger readers, to differentiate between my rather more adult content of the
novels and the content designed specifically for children and so I used another
family name, that of Harry Porter, a name by which I’m known by a lot of people
anyway.
o Of course, that leaves Juan Pablo,
and there’s a bit of a story behind that name. Would you like to hear it?
o
Yes please, do tell us about it.
o Okay Julie, well, you see, I was
going through a very bad time in my life some years ago and in order to ‘save
my sanity’, as I saw it at the time, I kind of ‘ran away’ to Mexico. While I
was there, I met a wonderful old man, whose name, believe it or not, was Jésus.
We’d sit together in the shade of a large fountain looking the sea at Puerto
Vallarta for a couple of hours each day and gradually, he taught me all about
the history of his country and his people and culture, of which he was so
proud.
o I never found out how old he was, but
he did tell me he had eight children, nearly forty grandchildren and a ‘large
number’ of great grandchildren. He seemed to know everything there was to know
about the history of his country and I found myself becoming ‘infected’ with his
enthusiasm for the wonderful patina of history that he laid before me. I
visited many of the historical sites he mentioned and really did fall in love
with the place, so when I eventually decided to write my book of romantic
poetry, Of Aztecs and Conquistadors,
all based on my time in Mexico, I thought it would be a nice idea to use a name
that actually felt ‘at home’ with the nature of the work. It must have worked,
because Of Aztecs and Conquistadors
has been a great success, being an Amazon bestseller in both the USA and the
UK.
o Many of the poems in the book refer
to a long standing love affair between the writer and his true love, Maria
Conchita Alonso. Let me tell you now, there is a lot of truth contained in
those particular poems, though the name has been changed for obvious reasons. Many more of the poems in the book refer to
various places in Mexico and incidents in the country’s history, based on what
I learned from my very good friend, Jésus.
o As I have Portugese and Spanish ancestry
on my Mother’s side, perhaps that explains how I find it very easy to slip into
the Latin style of thinking and writing, and as Juan Pablo, I was fortunate to
be voted the Preditors & Editors Poet of the Year in 2008. So, I hope that
explains everything!
o
Who do you want your readers to know you as and why?
o I’m happy with either Harry or Brian.
I suppose if we’re talking about my thrillers, Brian is fitting, but for
anything else, I’m Harry!
2)
You have had a
successful writing year in 2014. You
have had multiple best-sellers as an author.
o
How many books did you publish all together in 2014?
o Well. Let’s see. Creativia Publishing
worked very hard in releasing a number of 2nd editions of my books
in cases where they were out of contract with my previous publishers.
o As Brian L Porter, they released the
thrillers, Purple Death, Behind Closed Doors, Glastonbury, The
Nemesis Cell, Kiss of Life, and the short
story collection, After Armageddon, as
well as my book of remembrance poetry, Lest We Forget, and most recently, Avenue of the Dead.
o Under the Harry Porter name came my
bestselling Alistair the Alligator, illustrated by the talented Sharon Lewis, and of course there was the
bestseller, Of Aztecs and Conquistadors from
Juan Pablo Jalisco.
o
Which books have reached Amazon’s #1 best-selling lists?
o Both Of
Aztecs and Conquistadors and Alistair
the Alligator were #1 Bestsellers at
Amazon, with ‘Aztecs’ performing the feat on both sides of the Atlantic, not
once, but twice, and additionally topped the bestseller list in its category in
Canada in January 2015.
o It’s much harder, of course, to
achieve a bestseller in the thriller category, which is the largest and most
competitive of all at Amazon, so I’m very proud to say that all my thrillers
made it into the Top Ten in their category at various times in the year. Purple
Death and Behind Closed Doors came closest to the #1 spot, both reaching #3 in the crime thriller
category.
o
Writing is a very personal art. Though you connect with all of your pieces,
putting a little bit of your soul in everything you touch, was there any
particular title that meant something more to you? Was there one title that you were most proud
to have hit the best-seller’s list?
o Seeing
both Alistair the Alligator and Of Aztecs and Conquistadors reach the coveted
#1 ranking obviously made me immensely proud, but perhaps the greatest
satisfaction came from the Top Ten performance of Behind Closed Doors.
o This
is a Victorian murder mystery set at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.
It features the investigative talents of Inspector Albert Norris and for the
first time, I based a leading character purely and simply on my own
personality, so Norris is in fact a very real reflection of me, with a little
bit of myself also thrown into his assistant, Sergeant Dylan Hillman so that
between them, I hope they present a perfect foil for each other and a very
strong and believable pair of characters.
o I
thoroughly enjoyed writing Behind ClosedDoors, and as a dedicated dog rescuer, I also donate $1 from each paperback
copy sold to my local dog rescue sanctuary.
3)
You are also a
screen-writer for ThunderBall Films. Can
you tell us a little bit about that part of your career?
o
What name do you work under as a screen-writer and why?
o I use the Brian L Porter name as most
of ThunderBall’s scripts are based on thriller or horror stories and Brian is
the name under which I’m known in that particular genre.
o
I heard you received a promotion – congratulations! Can you tell us about your advancement?
o When I first began writing screenplays
for ThunderBall, I was very pleased to be appointed as Associate Producer on a
number of the films they are working on. As time passed, I seemed to find
myself becoming more and more involved in other areas of the business,
particularly on the casting and production areas.
o Together, Mario Domina, CEO of
ThunderBall and myself co-created a new TV doc-drama series, Jack the Ripper,
Reality, Reality and Myth, currently in development, with a screenplay written
solely by me.
o Before long, Mario informed me that,
not only was he appointing me as ThunderBall’s in-house screenwriter, but I
would henceforth, be appointed as Co-Producer on all the projects I worked on
for ThunderBall.
o
What can we expect to see from your screen writing
career in 2015?
o Well, the movie version of A
Study in Red – The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper is well into development with casting almost complete, and more
recently, myself and Mario Domina, CEO of ThunderBall Films co-created, a new
Drama-documentary TV series, Jack The Ripper, Reality and Myth, which will present the whole Jack the
Ripper case in a new format, examining the case from every angle and giving the
viewers the chance to decide for themselves which parts of the Ripper folklore
are real and which are the myths that have grown up around the murders over the
years. The screenplay is by me, and Mario is the Executive Producer, with
myself as Co-Producer.
o In addition, together with author
Tony Lewis, we are working on a hilarious series of films based on his
wonderful Skullenia series
of comedy-horror novels.
o
How does your writing differ from author to
screen-writer?
o They are both very different
disciplines.
o When writing a book, the suitor has
the freedom to ‘make it up as he goes along’; to change the story as he writes;
to amend and if needs be, rewrite his original ideas.
o Screenwriting however, is far more
disciplined in that, usually, you are working with someone else’s book,
adapting it into a screenplay, and while the process of adaptation allows
certain latitude for the screenwriter, it has to be remembered that an author
will want to see the finished product mirroring his work as much as possible.
We always try to stick closely to an author’s original storyline because, as
I’m sure you know, so many films have been produced over the years which bear
virtually no resemblance to the original book, and which, for the most part,
prove to be hugely disappointing as a result.
o
Do you prefer one over the other?
o Not really, Julie. Each is so
different that they both present different challenges, but both are great fun
to work on, and it is also possible to work on both simultaneously without
confusing the two.
4)
You are a
loving person, I know since I am blessed to be counted among your friends! Being your friend, I know that you are not
only a dog lover, but you are actually very actively involved with rescuing
dogs. Can you tell us more about that passion of yours?
o
Thank
you for the lovely compliment, Julie. Now we’re moving into a realm I could
probably talk about all day, but I’d better not, as I’d hate to bore your
readers to death!
o
Are there any organizations that you are involved in or
help to support?
o
How did you get involved with them and how do you help?
o
Overthe years, my wife and I have been involved in rescuing many dogs and currently,
we share our home and our lives with ten beautiful rescues. Perhaps the best known of my dogs is Sasha, who has her very own page on Facebook, which was setup by a friend of mine; author Edward Cook, who is also a great animal lover.
o
Sasha
was rescued from the gutter by a dog warden when only about six weeks old, on a
freezing January morning. We got her a week later and shortly afterwards; she
broke her leg while playing with another of our dogs. After three months
recovering in a crate, with her leg pinned and screwed, she got the all-clear,
only to break it again two weeks late when she tried and failed to jump over a
baby gate. Another long operation took
place, with her joint being re-pinned and a metal plate inserted, and more
screws put in place, plus another three months in a crate, recovering slowly.
o
She
was so brave and uncomplaining, despite the intense pain she must have been
going through. I spent most of that time sat next to her crate, taking her outside now and then to go to the toilet, etc. and never once did she foul her
bedding or do anything in that crate. She later went on to develop a horrible
skin allergy and is on medication for that. More seriously, poor Sasha
developed serious epilepsy almost two years ago.
o
She
regularly has the most awful seizures, often in clusters of two or three, one
after the other. It has taken the vet a long time to find a regime of
medications that do at least help to prevent the seizures taking place too
often, but it is not an exact science, so it is an ongoing task to try to keep
her stable.
o
We
totally love all our rescued dogs, but I have to admit that Sasha is a little
bit special, her tail always wagging and her happiness shining through despite
her disabilities. Her best friend among our dogs is Sheba, who was a seriously
abused dog when younger.
o
She
was used as a ‘bait dog’ in the training of fighting dogs, and when she was too
weak and of no use to her owners, she was thrown on a rubbish tip and left to
die. She was nothing more than a barely living skeleton, with no fur and with
deep ligature marks round her neck, red sores all over her body and she’d been
so starved, she’d resorted to twisting round and trying to eat her own tail,
which was nothing more than a bloody mess when we first got her.
o
She
wasn’t expected to live long, and was given to us in the hope we’d give her
some love and comfort in her last weeks of life. We wouldn’t give up on her
though, and with love, care and patience and lots of help from our vet, Sheba,
who we named after the fabled queen, because we thought she deserved a regal
name, slowly recovered and eight years later, is still with us, a happy and
healthy dog who loves everyone, but is very scared of other dogs, apart from
our own, who she’s learned to accept as part of her own family.
o
She
is also very scared of loud noises and trembles and quivers like a jelly if she
hears fireworks or I fact any loud banging noise. Because her skin was in such
a state when we got her, rain water would sting her skin and to this day, she
hates walking in the rain, even with her nice warm coat on.
o A wonderful thing about both Sasha
and Sheba is that they are extremely empathetic towards my own disabilities and
always seem to know when I’m unwell and both manage to make such a fuss of me,
especially Sasha, who literally never leaves my side, and as I take care of
her, so she, in her own way, does her best to take care of me, too..
o Of our other dogs, all have a story
to tell, including Dexter, who was thrown from a moving car on a motorway,
Muttley, abandoned as one of a litter of puppies outside the gates of a dog
sanctuary, Dylan, who was beaten and whipped within a inch of his life before
being left tied to a post not far from a sanctuary, and little Penny, who was
left behind as a puppy near a railway line when a community of travelers moved
away from the site, and was lucky not to be squashed by a passing train.
o
How can your readers help the cause?
o When my Victorian murder/mystery,Behind Closed Doors was released, I decided to donate $1 from each paperback
copy sold to my local dog sanctuary, The Mayflower Sanctuary, as a small way of
trying to help in the wonderful work they do.
Readers can help indirectly by purchasing the paperback version of Brian L. Porter’s book,
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, or they can donate directly to the animal sanctuary of
their choice!
5)
Can you tell us
what you are currently working on now?
o First of all, I recently sent the
final manuscript of a new book, Wolf, to Creativia Publishing. They are
currently working on the illustrations for the book which will be released
soon, designed as a book for teens and young adults, but eminently suitable for
adults of all ages.
o The book tells the fictional story of
Warren and Emma, who are faced with the possibility that a wolf may be stealing
chickens from their home in the wilderness. As Warren begins a trek through a
heavy snowfall, rifle in hand in search of the killer; little does he know, his
mission to find a killer is about to change his life.
o The book also contains a section
dedicated to the story of the wolf, it’s relationship to our domesticated pets,
and the story of its struggle to survive as an endangered species, with many
species of wolf already and all too sadly, extinct.
WOLF is now available for purchase!
Click on the picture to be redirected
to Amazon
.JPG)
o At present, I’ve just begun a new
novel, for which I’ve delved back to my family roots in the great port of
Liverpool.
o Without giving too much away, A
Mersey Killing, (like the play on words?), tells of the discovery of a skeleton
during the restoration of an old disused warehouse and wharf beside the River
Mersey during the 1990s. At first the police are unable to identify the
remains, but slowly, with the help of modern forensics and a little luck in
finding one small vital clue, they uncover a case that reaches over thirty
years into the past, with connections to the famous Cavern Club in the city of
Liverpool, where acts such as The Beatles once played, and where singer Cilla
Black was discovered. As they begin to piece the case together, not only do
they find themselves investigating an old and previously unknown murder, but
when the past reaches out to intrude upon the present, the police begin a race
against time to prevent further deaths.
o
Will we see more partnerships with you and your
illustrator, Sharon Lewis under your children’s pen name, Harry Porter?
o You certainly will. I recently
completed the text of a new children’s book, Percy the Pigeon and the wonderfully talented Sharon Lewis
is currently working on the illustrations for the book, which should be
released by Creativia Publishing this year.
I want to conclude by saying I think you are a wonderfully talented
man, but more so, you are a truly admirable human being! I not only love your work, but I love your
dedication to making the world a better place for all that inhabit it! Peace and Blessings, my friend!
And
the same to you, Julie. Thank you so much for taking the time to highlight my
work and my life. I look forward to
talking with you again soon.
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