A brief Q and A with Author, David Leadbeater.

Q: The Matt Drake Series has been a huge success. When writing it did you have a particular audience in mind?

David: I envisioned the adventure as an ongoing piece of pure escapist entertainment. Nothing too serious or (hopefully) anything that might happen in real life. A story best enjoyed with an open mind, an open bottle of wine or beer, and a sense of fun. It should read like a Hollywood blockbuster. Anyone looking for serious thriller fiction would be best advised to try a sample first.

Q: You have explained to your readers that the first 4 books make up the ‘Odin Cycle’. Obviously this requires a big storyline. How would you sum it up for readers who aren't familiar with your work?

David: The brief version? Matt Drake, a man struggling to kickstart a new career after seven years out of the army, gets dragged into a sprawling, non-stop action adventure where he is forced to call upon his old skills and confront the many unresolved nightmares of his past to help save the world. 

Q: How will the Matt Drake series evolve after the ‘Odin Cycle’? Is there to be another 'Cycle'?

David: Book 5 – due in April/May 2013 – will be an adventure in its own right and form the ‘bridge’ to a new set of ancient mysteries - now planned as a three book cycle based around Babylon, the ancient Gods, the crazy Tower of Babel and other legends, it will pose the biggest test yet to our struggling heroes.

Q: Staying with that last thought, the series actually centres around many diverse and interesting characters, not just Drake. Was this deliberate or did the story just evolve that way?

David: I wanted more than a single character to drive my story. I wanted several colourful, likeable men and women. The idea has proven favourable beyond my wildest dreams. I get so many emails begging me not to kill off Alicia, or not to make Mai the Coyote, or giving me half-a-dozen reasons why they like Torsten Dahl better that Drake. And it's proving even more popular as each character's lives and trials unfold and evolve with each novel. Readers love getting stuck in again to see how their favourite is doing and revisiting the chemistry between the characters. Killing off a major character early on in the series also shows that I am not afraid to take risks and move forward, something that will be proved again in the next cycle of books. Readers be warned - major events are coming!

Q: Your work reads like a Hollywood blockbuster. What do you think gives it that quality?

David: It hadn't been done in quite this way before. I wanted a truly distinct approach, to present each new release as an event that's highly anticipated and tailored to send the reader into that fun-filled zone of escapism, filled with the impossible action, humour and good times that they look forward to, much like a new movie.

When ordinary people do extraordinary things.

When ordinary people do extraordinary things posted on . . .2012 by David Leadbeater

Real heroes don’t wear masks. They don’t dream in colour. In the real world they’re not super. They’re the weird guy down the street who sees you’ve managed to strand yourself on the rope that swings across the beck and gets his feet wet pulling you back to dry land. It’s your mum. My daughter. The Chosen Few who go to fight for their country, for their way of life. They don’t go trying to be special, but one day they just are. . .

    As a child I thought my heroes were caped crusaders and wise-cracking web-slingers. I didn’t know the near-real-life version was the girl who stands resolute before the approaching monster. She’s smaller, weaker, and younger, but she never hesitates. Thanks for that, Joss.

    So who did I turn to when a real-life nightmare came calling? My real heroes of course- my mum and dad. When I told them about a habitual bully, the scourge of our school, my mum wanted to head out straight away and confront him but my dad managed to calm her and  went round to see the bully’s father. Now that I’m older I know he must have been scared, but I never saw it then.

    And the next day, the bully just went on to someone else. . .

    So it’s lunch-break and I’m walking free, feeling good, and I see a crowd has gathered past the old, empty classrooms where the teachers can’t see. Where the Prefects don’t go. The crowd’s silence betrays its guilt like a government betrays its country by hiding a politician’s expenses.

    I walk among the quiet ones, the whisperers, witnesses whose eyes shine with sadistic glee, and move to the front. For a moment I stagger, I flashback and see myself there, on the ground, being kicked and jeered at by the bully, being pinched and spat upon, crying. . .

    And then I see with eyes that suddenly can dream in colour, and I utter those immortal words: “She’s a girl!”

    The bully turns to stare at me, and then shrieks in surprise as my body suddenly slams into him. He goes down. I go down. We fight, scuffle and scratch, like kids do until a pair of teachers finally wade in and break us apart.

    “I’m shocked at you.” One of them says to me.

    But. . .

    Red-faced, I am marched away and my last image is of the dishevelled girl. I never knew her name and never got to know. Her words ring out strongly: “I didn’t need your help, Leadbeater. Not really.”

    I turn to the bully and look him straight in the eyes. “My dad says: Stand Your Ground.”

    That was the day I became extraordinary.