Information about the giveaway for Tiger Paw is included after the interview. Thanks so much.
As you all know by now. I absolutely loved Tiger Paw by Charles A. Cornell.
I asked him to take some time out from his busy schedule for an interview and he graciously agreed. So grab your favorite Tiger Paw Beer Shake and some popcorn or pretzels and enjoy the show!
How about you tell us something about yourself as that is the way these things usually start.
I’m what they call a ‘TransAtlantic’ – born in England, raised in Canada, now living in the Detroit area. I have a degree in Metallurgy from the University of Sheffield in the UK and an MBA from a college in Michigan. I’ve been happily married to the same person for over 35 years (the formula will be bottled and on sale at my website soon). Our one and only son is a talented rock guitarist which means he is one notch above poverty until he gets discovered.
Your book trailer for Tiger Paw is top-notch. I want to see the movie! Where did you come up with the artwork for the Goddess and could you tell us about your process in creating the trailer?
In Tiger Paw, I created a fictional Hindu Demon-Goddess, called Dvaipa which is Hindi for ‘from a tiger’. In the book, I called the antagonists – a cult of devil worshippers – the Temple of Dvaipa. I chose to create both of these as a work of fiction out of deep respect for the followers of Hinduism. They will know that Dvaipa is a work of fiction. Tiger Paw is full of references to Hindu scripture and legends. It also contrasts Hinduism with Christianity in my humble attempt to explore the similarities which bind us as a human race, rather than the issues that divide us.
The ancient art in the Tiger Paw video is actually of Narasimha or Narasingh, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. See Wikipedia for more… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha Half-man/half-lion, with a lion-like face and claws, Narasingh is a force for good. In the artwork, he is shown destroying a demon. It was my inspiration for Dvaipa – my fictional Demon-Goddess, half-woman/half-tiger. I just reversed the ideas to make Dvaipa the incarnation of evil.
I paid for licensed photos for my book cover, website, blog and video from iStockPhoto. I also use free license photos available from Wikimedia Commons. Link… http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page I follow their licensing guidelines closely.
One of the cool mini-videos I paid for is the bullet that flies through glass. It has no sound attached to it, so I also licensed a breaking glass sound effect and then had to splice the sound into the video to match it with the exact moment that the bullet crashed through the glass. I use Magix Movie Editor Pro 17. It has some great transition effects that can make still images look like they’re moving. Examples in the video are the fog (it’s a still photo that scrolls and fades), the New York City skyline (a panorama scroll) and the final shot of the tiger coming out of my book cover which is a combination of an ‘earthquake’ special effect with a ‘zoom-out’. After much experimenting, I got pretty dangerous with effects. Just wait until you see my trailer for the sequel, Lucifer’s Key!
There are some excellent sound tracks available from Shock Wave Sound. (Link… http://www.shockwave-sound.com/ ) The music is called ‘Cool City’. With Magix Movie Editor it was easy to splice the sound track so that I could match the drama of specific musical sections with each set of images. Check out the point where the video reveals ‘A Mystic Symbol’ to see that.
When the idea for Tiger Paw first began, which came first, The Temple of Dvaipa and her followers or your protagonist, Scott Forrester? I am curious as to which you used to build the story around. Or was it written around current shenanigans going on with Wall Street?
What an incredible question! I looked back in my archives and pulled up my first chapter outline of Tiger Paw from 2003. Tiger Paw was not my first novel. The year before that, I had finished an espionage novel about a Navy SEAL recruited into the CIA to stop a nuclear terrorist attack. It was OK, but in hindsight it needed some work. It remains unpublished. One of the biggest problems I had was that I’m neither an ex-Navy SEAL nor an ex-CIA agent, so my author’s bio didn’t resonate with agents. Instead of re-writing this spy novel to make it better, I decided to start over and write a murder mystery set in Wall Street, a topic which is definitely in my resume as a businessman and investor.
I’d really forgotten how Tiger Paw originally started until you asked me (that happens when you get older!). There was no Temple of Dvaipa. That idea came later. So the answer is… Scott Forrester came first. Also, well over half of the characters’ names changed from my initial selections for a variety of reasons, some practical and some because I didn’t like the way they sounded!
Tiger Paw is built around the following ‘what if’ question… ‘What if Wall Street defrauded the wrong investors? People who could really fight back?’ I did a lot of research on psychopaths and sociopaths. I wanted my serial killer to be driven by the same sense of revenge that everyone else who has lost money in the stock market feels. I also read the book, ‘Snakes in Suits’, written by a psychologist. It’s about how sociopathic personalities can be very successful in business. You may have a sociopathic manager or executive working in your company and not realize it. They may not act out their value system in a murderous way but evil can take many other forms. So Tiger Paw evolved into sociopaths being murdered by other sociopaths. And us ‘little guys’ get to watch!
But there had to be more to the motive than that. That’s when I came to the realization that sociopaths have value systems which seem ‘right’ to them. But what kind of thought process is this? I studied the concepts of karma and reincarnation, and from that I developed the killer’s warped sense of justice. It’s a form of religious fanaticism that is another current headline maker. The introduction of Hinduism, and the demonic cult behind the killings, hopefully creates a motive that will give readers a new world of mysticism, danger and diversity to escape into.
The final manuscript for Tiger Paw was completed in 2005 which was three years before the 2008 financial crisis and Occupy Wall Street. The ‘shenanigans’ of the moneyed elite have been going on for some time! An agent in New York liked Tiger Paw but passed on representing it. It lay dormant for three years. When the financial crisis hit and Occupy Wall Street was in the news, I knew I had a story that matched the mood of the 99%. So I updated the first chapter to add OWS and self-published it.
How hard was it to keep the killer’s identity hidden while writing Tiger Paw? I don’t recall one clue all the way to the moment of discovery! I know it couldn’t have been easy.
I really love these questions! You’re right, there are few direct clues. I actually had one that I removed because it was too obvious and would spoil the surprise at the end. There’s a way in the novel to figure out what that clue was… but I’m going to keep that secret until after the sequel, Lucifer’s Key is published.
There are actually more red herrings in Tiger Paw than clues. That is deliberate. It’s the ‘mystery’ in mystery thriller!
As you know, Laura, the reveal at the end is preceded by evidence of the exact opposite conclusion. But if I said any more, it would be a spoiler. It’s also the biggest problem I have in promoting the book. Because I can’t really say too much about the plot without diminishing the impact of the ending!
The sequel, Lucifer’s Key will have a surprise ending too.
Tiger Paw touches on some sensitive issues that are going on right now. Will the other two novels in this series have a specific theme?
Absolutely! Tiger Paw has many layers. The surface is entertainment… thrills and chills. Then there is information… about Hinduism, the danger of cults, the mechanisms of sociopathic killers, various interesting geographic locations, the history of Wall Street. Then there is the deepest layer… one that involves the psychology of evil and how it translates into our everyday world. As the Hindu protagonists in Tiger Paw state, “asuras (demons) walk all around us.” Corruption on Wall Street is the current lightning rod for this idea. But there are many other examples.
So many demons, so little time! Here are two world exclusives for Laura Thomas:
The sequel, Lucifer’s Key will involve the concept of the monetary value of human life. What do you think your life is worth? Read Lucifer’s Key to find out.
The third book, Black Venom has the potential to be the most controversial thriller ever written. I’m going to explore a political taboo, something that is whispered about in the corridors of power but never spoken about in public. As an author, this could be very dangerous. But I’m going to try. In literature, questions are often asked, ‘why do wars start?’ and ‘how can they be prevented?’ But ask yourself this, ‘once started, why are some stopped and others aren’t?’ And history has a nasty habit of repeating itself. The plot of Black Venom has already been written in the history books, it just needs to be brought into today’s world.
Tiger Paw is the first of a three novel arc. Scott Forrester’s journey starts with tracking down a demonic assassin. In Lucifer’s Key, it progresses with a prophecy from an Obeah sorceress that is a destiny he cannot escape. In Black Venom, will it be the end of the Temple of Dvaipa? Or will it be the end of the world as we know it?
World Exclusive!
Let’s talk about that missing prologue for Tiger Paw. Why did you not include it in the novel?
Another world exclusive? How greedy!
I’m going to blog about this soon, so I’m going to give you the short answer. The prologue was the original first chapter but since it didn’t include the main protagonist, it violated the genre ‘formulas’ that are prescribed. As a reader, I’m also not a fan of prologues. There’s a purpose for some, typically those that need to provide the historical context of an event that has happened maybe centuries ago. Most other prologues get in the way of starting the story. I actually recommend reading the Prologue to Tiger Paw after reading the novel because when you know who the killer is, and what their motive was, it has an extra chilling meaning.
I know you are anxious to tell us about your other passion – Saving the Tiger! Please share with us.
I don’t know what they teach about extinction in schools these days, but when I was little we were taught about the Dodo Bird. Now this was one butt ugly looking creature that had the unfortunate condition of a bird that couldn’t fly. Man introduced various predators into its environment and the ungainly avian became a toddling buffet. Too bad, eh? It’s gone now. Nothing we can do about it.
But when I was confronted with the following facts… that a hundred years ago there were 100,000 tigers in the wild and now there are fewer than 3,200… and that there are almost as many in captivity (2,500) as there are in the wild… well, it sealed the deal for me. This creature was beautiful! It’s a cultural icon everywhere around the world (it’s on cereal boxes for goodness sake!) And it’s at the very top of its food chain. So why is it going extinct? Look in the mirror to find out. If we can’t save the tiger, nothing’s safe.
For more, please visit the World Wildlife Fund’s campaign to Save the Tiger at http://www.savetigersnow.org/
Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
I like bulldogs but unfortunately they don’t fit into our lifestyle at the moment. So I have a low maintenance fat cat instead.
I have one fun question for you. Which Tiger Paw Beer Shake is your favorite?
The Siberian (double chocolate stout & vanilla ice cream). My two favorite flavors, chocolate and vanilla, plus beer. What’s not to like about that!
Thank you Charles. I enjoyed this interview so much I hate for it to end. I do want to share with all of you a favorite poem of mine. Please enjoy!
The Tiger – a poem by William Blake
Tiger, Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger, Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
For more about the Charles:
http://www.CharlesACornell.com
http://www.facebook.com/CharlesACornell
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5768487.Charles_A_Cornell
Three ways to win Tiger Paw!!!
To enter a giveaway to win your own copy of Tiger Paw: http://wp.me/p27ipo-k0
For another chance to win a copy of Tiger Paw: http://wp.me/p27ipo-lq
And for another chance to win, go to Sherry’s blog: http://wp.me/p2uiv4-28
If you are an Amazon Prime customer, Tiger Paw is currently free for Kindle until August 31. Just click on the image at top of the post.
To purchase your own copy, click on this cover image. 
James Blakley was educated at 
