From my Q&A with Timothy Jay Smith, author of Fire on the Island: A Romantic Thriller:
Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith.
My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Courier.
--Marshal Zeringue
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?Visit Timothy Jay Smith's website.
When I had the basic premise of the story—an arsonist threatening a Greek island village—the title came fairly easily to me. (The titles for my other novels have as well.) Anyone browsing books would likely guess it’s about a fire on an island. Why a fire or which island? The subtitle that my publisher added—A Romantic Thriller—conveys the idea that there’s an element of suspense, but nothing too dark.
What's in a name?
I pay a lot of attention to names. I always look them up to learn their origin and meaning. If the meaning is completely wrong, then I usually opt for a different name. Fire on the Island is inspired by real people and places. In real life, one of the principal female characters was introduced to me many years ago as the ‘the real Shirley Valentine’—a bored British housewife who travels to Greece and falls in love with a Greek fisherman, which is essentially what Shirley has done in my book. In the book, her granddaughter, Athina (meaning: goddess of warfare and wisdom) is a firebrand feminist, so the name suits her. If I need a name for a scurrilous priest, it’s always Father Alexis, an unsavory priest from...[read on]
Writers Read: Timothy Jay Smith.
My Book, The Movie: The Fourth Courier.
--Marshal Zeringue
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