Author Interrogations: Nick Spill
Kia Ora,
Please welcome a favourite author (and person) of mine to the hot seat.
Nick is launching his new novel, Assassin in a Blue Suit, on February 11th 2025. FYI, I’ve already read it and loved it. So there you go – Cat
We know you’re Nick Spill, but who is Nick Spill?
That is a central question to any writer. Although I am not a clock, I do wake up at the same time every morning. We write to discover ourselves, keep sane and sometimes pay the rent and somehow figure out how the world works, or doesn’t.
I strive for simplicity and instead seem to wade into a more complex life. If only I was just a writer, or a poet or an investigator or a conceptual artist or a songwriter, I feel my life would be so much easier and of course simpler.
When I retired as a bodyguard and became a criminal defense investigator I used to have this dream that I was standing on the shore of the River Styx and watching young black men with wide open eyes floating past me. I was powerless to help them. Now I think about this I recall I had a recurring dream when I was 8 years old. I was in spaceship, and I flew by another spaceship. I could see through their portholes. The people were helpless and screaming and I could do nothing to save them. It was my earliest nightmare.
Maybe I am writing to save myself and stop the nightmares.
Favourite genre/s to read or write?
I do not have a favorite genre. I never thought there were limits or confines about storytelling. I love reading anything good although I am a compulsive reader, as in always reading road signs even if I have read the same ones every time, for years. I think they call it sign porn now. I love sign porn, I can’t stop doing it.
Ultimately the only true genre is storytelling. If it isn’t a good story it doesn’t matter what genre it is or isn’t. Why limit yourself?
I seem to go through phases but at the moment I read anything that catches my imagination or my sense of great writing. So, my reading is either planned: I am reading Proust (up to volume 3 – I have to put this in to boast!), Dumas again, I’ve read the Count of Monte Cristo and am about the tackle a new translation of The Three Musketeers. Murakami of course, I’ve IQ84 on my TBR list after reading Kafka on the Shore. I am rediscovering Henry James as I imagine him as the Elton John of English literature in the late 19th century. I’ve just returned from Bath England and I love reading Jane Austin again and the Bronte sisters. And then there are random books that pop up and catch my interest. A fellow investigator told me about SPEARHEAD the story of a tanker in Germany in World War II. The story is so compelling, and the writing and research is so good I could not put it down. My tastes are difficult to pin down. Then I came across Morgan Lerette’s Guns, Girls and Greed: I was a Blackwater mercenary in Iraq. Another compelling story with a serious and humorous edge.
I shuffle randomly between fiction and non-fiction.
I have to confess I have developed an annoying habit in bookstores, especially secondhand stores. I am searching for my favorite dead author’s books. I already have them all, but I am hoping a new one will appear from Chekhov, Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Graham Greene, Milan Kundera, Richard Brautigan, John LeCarre, Patricia Highsmith, and so on.
Please tell us about your latest work:
I had this image of a 50 year old man with short silver hair and beard who always wore a blue suit. He was an assassin and has a dark but interesting past.
I fell in love with this character, a sophisticated operator, a psychopathic American who was a Legionnaire and now makes a decent living taking care of billionaire’s HR problems. His favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo and in the story he acquires the nickname The Count.
The book blurb says: In Assassin in a Blue Suit, Nick Spill delivers a pulse-pounding thriller that follows Claude, a master assassin, as he navigates a treacherous web of deception and betrayal. When a routine mission takes a deadly turn, Claude finds himself locked in a ruthless game of cat-and-mouse with a lethal Russian adversary. From sun-drenched Miami to the fog-shrouded English Cotswolds, this action-packed novel takes readers on a breathless journey through a world where danger lurks at every turn. With richly drawn characters, psychological depth, and explosive action, Assassin in a Blue Suit is a must-read for fans of espionage thrillers and anyone who loves a gripping, page-turning story.
Someone else wrote this – I don’t think I could say such things but what the hell, I’m only the author.
Interestingly every writer used the term ‘cat and mouse’. Have they seen my cats? (Maybe …)
Do you like chocolate fish?
No. But I love Whittakers Original Chocolate Peanut slabs. They used to come loose with no wrapping. They were the perfect afternoon pick me up. And cheap. Now they come in gold wrappers and do not have the same rich taste. Since researching this I discover I can order them now online. Damn! There goes my diet.
What’s your main character like?
- Would you go to the pub with him?
- He’s an assassin. I don’t think he’d drink with me.
- Would you have him over for dinner?
- And kill him? Don’t think so. He’d never come to my house. Even if it’s a Pirandello dream sequence and my wife cooked an amazing meal, and he loved cats. (Does he love cats? That’s yet to be revealed.)
- What music does he listen to?
- Funny you should mention that – he doesn’t listen to music. He likes singing old Legionnaire songs of course.
- What type of car does he drive?
- Anonymous rentals using fake IDs and credit cards with any tracking devices removed or turned off.
- Is he a series character?
Could be, depends on sales. If he gets popular I already have ideas for a sequel with lots more back story built in. He is a character that has now occupied my imagination and won’t leave me alone. I’ll have to write more about him as he gets into more deadly trouble, leaving aside the cat and mouse games.
What piece of advice would you give a new writer?
Don’t be one. Become a banker or a hedge fund owner and get rich. It’s easier to rob a bank from the inside rather from without. Being a writer will subject you to rejection, torment, being alone for long periods of time and the sheer frustrations of the creative process. Besides who reads now? Have you looked what people do in public now? On buses or trains or planes? They are all immersed in their phones and not reading books.
So don’t do what I did if you have to be a writer. Pick a genre and stick to it. Whether its fluffy romance, action thriller or epic fantasy, choose a specific genre, develop an intriguing lead character with other supporting cast members then develop the series. The specific character for that specific genre is most important. You have to believe in that person and grow with them. If you don’t love the characters your readers won’t either. Hence you need to be compulsive, obsessive and at least a little bit crazy, otherwise you’d be a banker, or marry a hedge fund owner.
What part of writing do you find the hardest?
I don’t. I have three novels I am dying to finish but can’t right now and another one I am resurrecting from the 80’s. Plus I have this sequel I am planning to write after my latest assassin book. I have an experimental play I want to stage, a rock opera I have the songs to linked to another historical fantasy story (another genre I haven’t explored), a children’s book I’ve written and need illustrated, and many more projects.
Have you ever had lolly cake?
I have no idea what that is. Back in London my parents owned a sweetshop. I worked in that shop after school from the time I was 8 till I was almost 12. I ate a lot of sweets. I came down with blood sugar poisoning or whatever it’s called. After a few weeks I stabilized. I have a sweet tooth and I am trying to cut back on sugar. It’s not working because someone who thinks food is love keeps buying me expensive Manuka honey from NZ, which of course is the best honey in the world.
And I have English teeth, which means they are approaching their end of use date despite the positive admonishments of my dentist who thinks they are fine. Perhaps I’ve lived in Amerika too long where everyone has perfect white teeth (that aren’t theirs).
Pantser or outliner? And why?
Is this a boxers or briefs question? (If that’s what you want it to be …)
I prefer yellow pads and notebooks. I think better when I am writing longhand to begin with. Later I can refine, rewrite and rewrite again on my MAC. I seem to fill up a lot of notebooks and have folders with yellow papers: scenes, plot ideas, research subjects, dialogue, photos, ideas to develop.
Do you write in silence?
I have hurricane proof windows. It’s very quiet in our house. I have one cat next to me who makes slurping noises and the sound of a Korean RomCom from the TV in the other room, other than that I prefer silence. Although I’ve been known to write scenes with a soundtrack behind them, YES, CREAM, HENDRIX or something more contemporary or maybe Erik Satie.
Do you like to listen to audio books?
I find it difficult to concentrate on an audio book. I can listen to interviews and the occasional online story or podcast, but I prefer reading. For a while I thought I would only read Kindle books and save money and space, but I prefer the luxury of a physical book. I just can’t get into a digital book the same way I can get into a printed book with pages and covers and photos and real bookmarks.
Have you ever visited New Zealand?
I lived there for 19 years. It’s a long and complicated story why I left but I return every few years. I have family and friends there. It has changed so much it feels like another country now.
Dogs, cats, guinea pigs, or some other type of pet?
I have one favorite cat who sleeps with me and two other inside cats who allow me to feed them as well as two or three feral cats who hang out in our garden. I think we maintain the garden and the outdoor furniture for their pleasure, they certainly use it more. To them I am just a staff member, and not a very good one either.
Where do you write?
I have a study full of books and papers. I have a sofa and a desk I write on, but I can write anywhere in the house, and I have a house full of books. I’m thinking of getting rid of a lot of books I do not like or no longer care for but I’m too busy writing and rewriting to sort that situation out. The last time I tried to cull a few books I actually came back with more from the bookshop that I sold them to. So, it’s a losing proposition.
There are a handful of days in January when I can write outside in our patio. It’s a time I can appreciate our garden. The weather is gorgeous and there is always a cat ready to help.
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