It’s Not Going to Happen follows three people living seemingly unrelated lives who find themselves in an international conspiracy where the most dangerous weapon may be the power to steal free will. What inspired you to bring together entertainment, international espionage, and biotechnology?

Making reality entertaining is my inspiration. In general, people do not absorb factual data very well. However, blend the science, history, and geopolitical facts with an entertaining story, and eureka. Thus, my tagline: sometimes the truth can only be told in fiction.

My goal is to write in a unique or original style about a real science/technology issue that has a major impact on everyone where facts are covered up, intentionally ignored in the public limelight, or easily overlooked because of the technical complexity.

A significant number of thriller authors incorporate some facet of science or technology where it is fairly obvious they don’t understand it (along with history and geopolitics). In a balancing act for the intellectually curious, I attempt to provide a certain amount of explanatory detail wrapped into the dialogue and plotline itself. There is plenty of action for those who only want to know what time it is and not how a watch works.

While the publishing marketplace (and writers’ workshops) pushes formulaic plotlines and frequent cookie-cutter characters geared toward the “cozy reader,” I tend to have faith in readers enjoying a bit more literary complexity to unravel the world we live in with talented, yet ordinary characters doing realistic things with extraordinary outcomes – with a pinch of poetic license to move the plot.

Sorry for the backdrop…and back to the question. Intelligence, clandestine, and covert operations require “access.” No industry or profession is immune, including the entertainment industry. My intent was to have the major characters with stories that would braid together with a type of synchronicity in a character-driven plot.

I had Julieta, a Kansas ranch girl, in my head who would somehow cross that line into celebrity status and discover that her seemingly innocuous everyday choices would add up and uncover multiple talents. Great talents often arise when confronted with unanticipated circumstances.

I also had Otto, “Little Otter,” developing in my head. A kid from an environment that could lead to several different paths, ending up with extraordinary outcomes given his choices and the influence of those around him, good and bad.

The last thing I wanted was the overused, former Navy SEAL, Delta Force, trained CIA assassin. Thus, Julieta and Otto are real persons with their own story to tell.

The developing science/technology issue was nanotechnology and pharmacology – nanobots or nanoids, and, yes, they are real. Santino, the brilliant, young Spanish scientist, had noble objectives (as many of us do or once did), yet was corrupted by higher powers, and a lingering question of whether he had different choices to make. And Andrea arises out of real geopolitical facts.

The major characters often serve as a type of contrast to the minor characters.

It became evident (at least in my head) that each of these main characters was a compendium of “choices,” perceptions, and the influence of those around them. Even the minor characters are their own composite of choices – some choices are made, some are unavoidable, and many lie in that grey area somewhere in between, much like a quantum particle in superposition until it’s measured…Oops, sorry, there I go with the science again. You can read more about quantum reality and consciousness in my novel, Deceit of the Mind – Quantum Evolution, and the race for Space and AI.

I also wanted the reader’s emotions wrapped into the story and not simply following as an outside observer. Thus, the plotline is filled with a potpourri of situations that can stir up emotions, good and bad, where the reader will find themselves inputting their own emotional psyche – and readers differ significantly on the same scenes.

The concept of a non-existent genre started to take hold as a “philosophical thriller” of sorts, with the caveat to never take myself too seriously and always find the entertainment value even with a bad situation.

Thus, always with a primary intent of creating entertainment value for the reader, what better backdrop than the entertainment industry itself?

How do the personal histories of your three protagonists shape their vulnerabilities, ambitions, and relationships with others?

I love the question! I use continuing characters, and thank you for recognizing that I do not have a single protagonist, such as Jill Uphill, former assassin, in book 12.

My plotlines are “character-driven.” I also try to rely on the character dialogue telling as much of the story as possible, as opposed to author narration. Ya know, how real life happens, since most of us don’t have a narrator or herald following us 24/7 to fill in the gaps. Each character has their own dialogue quirks to allow the reader to develop their own videotape of the scene and see/hear the characters in their heads.

Choices – “they may seem arbitrary, but they are not random.” Two kids in a tough neighborhood – one is an unintentional hero, and one is in prison. Two kids with no financial barriers, even in the same family, who develop starkly different dispositions on life. Noble humanitarian use of talents and ambition that can be turned on their heads. As a person makes choices, even with some choices forced upon them, what makes them vulnerable for their next decision?

Each character has multiple vulnerabilities, and the pattern of choices somewhat unconsciously adds up to pursue or even alter ambitions. Altering ambitions is not the problem. It’s the direction those ambitions turn. In each direction, those accumulated patterns of choices spill over in making choices about with whom they develop relationships. They test and question trust – we all do. Often, we simply label it our “gut reaction.” We often justify bad choices or simply ignore them – it is what it is, I really didn’t have a choice, I was dealt a bad hand. Recognition of good choices often takes time and ongoing evaluation, or even after-the-fact glances at the consequences, then moving forward.

In essence, the major and minor characters are an evolution of their own choices, despite a feeling of having no choice. Is that an excuse or a reason? What happens when the ability to choose or critical thinking are taken away – either by personal or cultural vulnerabilities, or technology?

Life happens. Telling ourselves it’s not going to happen is sometimes a path to a goal, a declaration to control the future, or sometimes a challenge to the inevitable, and many times a result or consequence of multiple actions leading to an unpredictable yet unavoidable outcome.

As in life, the separate histories of the main characters have that unpredictable probability of synchronicity that eventually naturally braid together. Julieta points out, if humanity is fundamentally flawed, “we can’t fix a defective design, but we can change the oil and air up the tires to keep it running more smoothly.”

There is no one better to save us from ourselves than ordinary people surreptitiously colliding with their talents to do extraordinary things.

The novel raises questions about how much of our lives we truly control. What does the concept of free will mean within the story?

Again, the question itself is exciting from my point of view. As I said, at some point I realized I was writing a philosophical thriller. There are several concepts or terms I intentionally did not use in the novel. The term “free will” is not there, yet logically many or most readers focus on the term to describe the story. My intent is for the reader to discover their own philosophical sense of choice (the term “destiny” is also not in the book).

Greater philosophical minds have spent centuries trying to unravel what became known as existentialism, choice, and free will – (and no, “existential threat” is not part of existential philosophy and was an invented term popularized by politicians in about 2009, with an after-the-fact nebulous definition).

The bottom line is that philosophically defining “free will” can be analogous to a dog chasing its tail in circles. Some would say free will does not really exist. Some would contend that free will is an essential part of consciousness – being human. I simply tried to set the table for the reader to decide.

The characters are confronted by choices at least from the day they were born. An infant presumably has many choices made for them. However, is crying a deliberate choice? “Remember, a child is not born afraid of the dark.” As we grow, the spectrum of deliberate choice certainly broadens. Choices made by others impact the characters, where the turning points become the deliberate responses (choices) to those events and the consequences that follow. Classically, does an individual choose to run away from danger or run towards it? Each character brings their own background of choices (good and bad) along with physical, emotional, and intellectual talents, sometimes acquired without specific purpose, but guide them in reacting to the circumstances and relationships they confront.

Ultimately, if our deliberate choices are limited or influenced by the external circumstances (choices), what happens when our ability to make deliberate choices or use critical thinking is taken away? Often this is seen as exercising free will. Many experts claim that collective cognitive dissonance and illusory truths have already surpassed critical thinking.

And then, the science and technology that is knocking at our doorstep.

How did you approach incorporating original music into Julieta’s storyline, and what inspired you to make her songs available to readers?

This was an incredibly fun part of writing the novel, and I wanted to make it a fun experience for the readers.

I’ve been writing lyrics and songs since high school. There were some close calls to moving in that direction…but my own choices and circumstances moved in another direction without regrets.

At some point in writing the story, I wanted to give it some “life.” I stopped writing the novel and started writing the lyrics, revamping a prior song written for a female singer, “Here I Am,” and scribbling out a new one with the book’s title. As Faulkner and others have said, poetry is the most difficult form of writing, and many novelists are simply failed poets. Lyrics, like poems, require a greater level of precision.

I am fortunate to have a very talented daughter-in-law who laid down my somewhat complex music and her vocals. While no AI is used in my writing, without 50 grand to hire studio musicians and also arrange for a stadium concert, I succumbed to using an AI program.

The songs are produced to fit the scenes in the novel as a type of fun, interactive bonus to the reader – to hear Julieta live!

Copyrighted? Yes, but completely FREE to listen to at YouTube.com/@KansasHank.

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