About Gabriel Farago:
As a lawyer with a passion for history and archaeology, I had to wait many years before I could pursue another passion – writing – in earnest. However, my love of books and storytelling started long before that. I remember as a young boy reading biographies and history books with a torch under the bed covers, and then writing stories about archaeologists and explorers the next day, instead of doing homework. While I regularly got into trouble for this, I believe we can only do well in our endeavours if we are passionate about the things we love; for me, writing has become a passion.
The best way to describe by books is to call them mysteries for the thinking reader. I have written four thrillers, namely The Forgotten Painting, The Empress Holds the Key, The Disappearance of Anna Popov and The Hidden Genes of Professor K which is about to be released. All four books are part of the Jack Rogan Mysteries series.
I was born in Budapest, and grew up in post-War Europe. After fleeing Hungary with my parents during the Revolution in 1956, I attended school in Austria before arriving in Australia as a teenager. Through my travels I have become multi-lingual and now feel ‘at home’ in different countries and diverse cultures. I hold degrees in literature and law, speak several languages and take my research and authenticity very seriously. Inquisitive by nature, I have studied Egyptology and learned to read the hieroglyphs. I travel extensively and visit all of the locations mentioned in my books. To create a seamless storyline, I try to weave fact and fiction together, blurring the boundaries between the two, so that the reader is never quite sure where one ends, and the other begins. This is of course quite deliberate as it creates the illusion of authenticity and reality in a work that is pure fiction. A successful work of fiction is a balancing act: reality must rub shoulders with imagination in a way that is both entertaining and plausible!
My home is now in the Blue Mountains in Australia, just outside Sydney, where we are surrounded by a World Heritage National Park. The beauty and solitude of this unique environment give me inspiration and the energy to weave my thoughts and ideas into stories which, I sincerely hope, will in turn entertain and inspire my readers.
What inspires you to write?
Not surprisingly, I love reading thrillers. However, I have a degree in literature, and also like reading the classics, especially Russian, German and French classics by authors like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin, Goethe, Schiller, Thomas Mann and Günter Grass. French writers like Dumas, Flaubert and Balzac are favourites. Without doubt, they have all had a profound influence on my writing. As for who inspires me, well, somehow all of them do. I draw on literature generally for inspiration, and try to hone my craft by studying the work of many authors.
Tell us about your writing process.
I do have quite specific writing habits, but I don’t know if they are all that unusual. Serious writing is a solitary endeavour and requires a lot of discipline and routine. I do most of my writing late at night. I begin at about 10 p.m. and go through to about 3 a.m. In the morning I review what I have written the night before. During the day, I think about the next section I will write in the evening. I go through the plot, the dialogue the settings and so on. At that stage, it’s all in my head. When the time comes to write it all down in the evening, the material has taken shape and is ready to go. I have several computer screens and usually do most of my research as I write. I always have music playing in the background.
I am definitely NOT an outliner. I have a clear concept in mind at all time as to where I want to go with the storyline and the plot, but the detail remains fluid. I believe this is essential as the flow has to appear natural and spontaneous at all times. My characters are the drivers here. I LIVE with my characters and always carefully imagine how they would react in certain situations, what they would say, and how they would say it etc. Dialogue is critical here, and I read the dialogue out aloud. To outline this in detail in advance would be like wearing shackles! My chapters are short which gives me great flexibility in dealing with my characters and the plot, build tension, and keep my readers focused. In my view, short chapters are the key to an exciting, page-turning plot
What advice would you give other writers?
Build a strong author profile and promote your books. There are many ways this can be done effectively.
Promoting my books is both time consuming and complex. I am a strong believer in social media and actively use Facebook and Twitter. I am also a diligent blogger and carefully build relationships with my readers through social media and my website. I also give talks in libraries, address book clubs and participate in writers festivals. All of this not only promotes my books, but helps build my author profile, credibility and reputation.
I am a self-published author with my own publishing entity – Bear & King Publishing – which I own and operate to publish my books. To assist other authors, I have written a personal guide to self-publishing entitled: Going It Alone: Why writing your book is not enough. It contains all the advice I can offer based on several years of experience. The book is available on Amazon and all other major platforms. More information about the book can be found on my website
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I am a self-published author with my own publishing entity – Bear & King Publishing – which I own and operate to publish my books. To assist other authors, I have written a personal guide to self-publishing entitled: Going It Alone: Why writing your book is not enough. It contains all the advice I can offer based on several years of experience. The book is available on Amazon and all other major platforms. More information about the book can be found on my website.
The entire publishing landscape has changed—dramatically—and is still changing as you read this. The changes have been staggering, and self-publishing has become a viable, respected alternative to yesterday’s ‘traditional’ publishing.
The unwarranted stigma that once applied to publishing your own work— the vanity press of old—has long gone, and not only unknown ‘first-timers’ are striking out, but many well-established, best-selling authors are now actively looking at self-publishing as an attractive alternative to being ‘locked into’ a publishing contract where the publisher makes most of the decisions, has most of the say, and keeps most of the money.
Let’s have a closer look. Would you rather be the master of your own destiny, have complete control over your work and how it is presented, promoted, marketed and sold, and keep most of the money generated by it? Or are you prepared to surrender your independence, abdicate from decision-making, hand over the lion’s share of the money earned by your hard work in return for the publisher ‘doing it all’ on your behalf? And perhaps most infuriating of all, would you rather have your work judged by the market, or are you prepared to let the publisher have the final word about the quality and merit of your work, and decide whether or not it should be published at all?
For me, the answer was obvious. Self-publishing was the way to go.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
Great!
What genres do you write?: Historical Thrillers, Historical Mysteries, Medical Thrillers.
What formats are your books in?: eBook
Website(s)
Gabriel Farago Home Page Link
Link To Gabriel Farago Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
Goodreads
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
