The Peruvian Book of the Dead follows four people as they seek to understand what has happened to a missing museum curator. I think this original idea is intriguing. How did you come up with this idea and develop it into a story?

I think it was Agatha Christie who marvelled that her ideas came from her deep subconscious. Like Brisdon, the protagonist in my book, I studied art at college and also travelled to Peru in the early 80s. At the beginning of the trip, the airline lost my luggage so all I carried with me was my blank journal. I wrote my journal as a long letter-diary of my adventures in Peru to my dear friend Karen who, a few years later, gave me back a copy saying, “You may need this one day.”

Decades later, I thought I recognized the real César from Lima pass by outside my bus window on my way to work. A story, long buried, began bubbling to the surface. That night I dug out my Peruvian journal, re-read it, and wondered: What if César suddenly returned? What would happen…? From it, the fictitious, but very personal The Peruvian Book of the Dead was born.

Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?

Yes, I believe the four characters have come alive to tell their own unique stories so that they would lattice into one greater story of love and redemption. I read once that different characters can represent different parts of the author — so I am partly Brisdon, César, Margaret, and Imogen. There may be truth in that but mostly, I am Brisdon.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I was interested in exploring the effects of guilt and regret. The theme of a circle of fate and coincidence permeates my story. As my characters say, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The world seems to be becoming less and less tolerant and accepting with respect to queer culture and many other cultures, races, and identities, so I hope my novel can be of some value.

What is the next novel you are working on, and when will that be available?

Actually, I have been busy promoting my debut book as an Indie publisher has no budget for promotion. As for future projects, I am looking to expand on a screenplay I wrote years ago but was never picked up for production; it takes place during the fall of the Berlin Wall where the Stasi police try to tear an East/West love apart. I grew up spending time in both East and West Germany, exposed to the Stasi and that horrible Wall, so I would like to explore this story further as a novel. It has a long way to go yet.

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