Thrill Week II Giveaway and Q&A with Steve Worland

Welcome Steve Worland!

Earlier this week I reviewed Velocity, the debut action thriller from Australian author Steve Worland. Steve has worked extensively in film and television in Australia and the U.S.A. He has written scripts for Working Title and Icon Productions, worked in script development for James Cameron’s Lightstorm and wrote Fox Searchlight’s Bootmen, which won five Australian Film Institute awards. Steve also wrote the New Line action-comedy telemovie Hard Knox, episodes of the television series Big Sky and the Saturn award-winning Farscape.

In Velocity, fast paced action and intrigue is accompanied by humor and heart with a touch of romance (because the hero always gets his girl). After posting my review,  Steve contacted me with the generous offer of a giveaway for Book’d Out readers and I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions. Read On…

Q & A – Velocity: Steve Worland

Q: What was the spark of inspiration for Velocity?

Steve: ‘Velocity’ was inspired by an article I read in the Sydney Morning Herald many years ago about the Royal Flying Doctor Service being partially funded by NASA. The Americans wanted to be sure the RFDS was on call during space flights in case they needed to make an emergency landing in Central Australia. The article sparked my interest and became the jumping off point for the book.

Q: What was the most interesting or exciting element of the research you engaged in for Velocity?

Steve: I loved digging into the complex technical systems of the Space Shuttle, then working out how to incorporate that information into the book in a succinct and exciting way.

Q: Are there major differences between writing for screen and a novel?

Steve: Length, time and budget. ‘Velocity’ is about 80 thousand words long, took two years to write and there were no limitations on the scope and size of the story. A screenplay is about 12 thousand words long, takes three months to write and the scope and size of the story is dictated by the production budget. With ‘Velocity’ I wanted to tell a longer, more involved story without the limitations of a script. My aim was to write a novel which read like the best action movie you had never seen.

Q: As a screenwriter, familiar with film and television, which actors would you cast as Judd and Corey?

Steve: In a perfect world Matt Damon is Judd, Hugh Jackman is Corey and Ben Affleck directs! (I thought his movie of the novel ‘The Town’ was brilliant.)

Q: Did you dream of being an astronaut like Judd or a chopper pilot like Corey?

Steve: I would love to have been an astronaut or, in fact, a pilot of any description, but I was never any good at maths! English was my forte so I pursued the written word.

Q: Who do you think will enjoy Velocity?

Steve: I believe everyone will be pulled along by the story. It has big action, plenty of humour, a great friendship at its core, a compelling personal quest, a little romance, a surprising conspiracy and plenty of really cool hardware.

Q: Name your three favourite books

Steve: Different Seasons. Stephen King. Four tightly structured plots, vivid characters and that ability of King’s to cut to the emotional core of big issues. ‘The Body’ is my favourite of the bunch.  The Right Stuff. Tom Wolfe. It cemented by interest in the US space program. Wolf didn’t glamorize the Mercury 7 but gave us a truthful look at the group of deeply flawed, morally ambiguous ex-fighter jocks who were the first Americans in orbit. The Player. Michael Tolkin. Written by a screenwriter, it’s the novel I’d always wanted to read (and write), a sophisticated page turner with the pace and brevity of a script without the inherent time, length and detail constraints.

Q: What can we look forward to next from you?

Steve: I’m currently writing the sequel to ‘Velocity’.

Q: What is your preference?

• Coffee/Tea or other? A nice, strong cup of Tea, with a bit of sugar!
• Beach/Pool or River? The Beach. The perfect place to read ‘Velocity’ on a hot summer day.
• Slacks/Jeans or Tracksuit pants? Jeans outside, tracky-dacks inside.
• Butterfly/Tiger or Giraffe? Tiger. There’s nothing quite like watching a big cat run.
• Swing/Slide or Roundabout? Slide. The steeper the better.

Available To Purchase

@Penguin Australia I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @Amazon Kindle

Via Booko

Enter to Win

1 signed edition of

Velocity by Steve Worland

(Open to Australian Residents only)

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Entries close September 16th  2012

Winner drawn via Random.org