Mike Bond Interview - America ~ JeanBookNerd

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Bestselling novelist MIKE BOND has worked in many dangerous and war-torn regions of the world. His critically acclaimed novels portray the innate hunger of the human heart for good, the intense joys of love, the terror and fury of battle, the sinister conspiracies of dictators, corporations and politicians, and the beauty of the vanishing natural world.

ASIN : B08XDZCJ4Q
Publisher : Mike Bond Books (May 4, 2021)
Publication date : May 4, 2021
Language : English

Praise for MIKE BOND

"Master of the existential thriller" —BBC

“One of the 21st Century’s most exciting authors … spellbinding readers with a writing style that pits hard-boiled, force of nature-like characters against politically adept, staccato-paced plots.” —Washington Times

“One of America’s best thriller writers.” —Culture Buzz

“A master of the storytelling craft.” —Midwest Book Review

“Bond never loses the reader’s attention … working that fatalistic margin where life and death are one and the existential reality leaves one caring only to survive.” —Sunday Oregonian

“One of the best thriller writers, in the same league as Gerald Seymour and Frederick Forsyth.” —NetGalley

“Mike Bond is not only an acclaimed novelist… His intellect and creativity dance together on the pages, braiding fiction into deeper truths about ourselves, our nature, our government, our history and our future.” —Where Truth Meets Fiction

“Bond touches on the vast and eerie depths that lie under the thin crust of civilization and the base instinct within man to survive.” —Nottingham Observer (UK)

“Mike Bond’s books are a national treasure.” —Art Zuckerman, WVOX

“Bond uses his gift for fiction to teach us hard truths about religion, human nature, and warfare.” —Masterful Book Reviews

“A highly distinctive writer.” —Liverpool Daily Post (UK)

Was there a defining moment during your youth when you realized you wanted to be a writer?

I never really thought about it or wanted to be a writer. During my youth all I cared about was having fun, climbing mountains and being with young women.

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?

Stories portray and share our experiences, teach us of dangers and opportunities and of right and wrong ways of living, exchange our visions of existence. They give us multiple lives, and we gain awareness from each one.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?

I generally don't talk to other authors, and as best I can remember have never received any advice from another author. I have learned what I know principally from living. Most advice of value has come from people in the military and covert world, whose advice has meant for me sometimes the difference between life and death.

In your newest book; AMERICA, can you tell my the blogger community a little about it and why they should read your novel?

The Sixties were an extraordinary time, with deep value for anyone who seeks the meaning of life, death, the universe and time, what the self is, and how to love. AMERICA is about that period, when many people, usually young, tried to make a better world, and to seek the profound depths of human understanding. I want to share that with people today.

What part of your characters did you enjoy writing the most?

I enjoyed most the characters' search for adventure, danger, understanding, love, and meaning. Also their explorations of the pleasures of sex, drugs and rock'n roll.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?

I wouldn't ever do that. My characters have their own lives and I don't interfere in them.

TEN REASONS TO READ AMERICA

AMERICA is a story of the wild, exuberant, dangerous 1960s. No other recent time has ever probed so deeply into life, when people lived so intensely, where so many profound questions were asked. I wrote AMERICA so everyone today could live and learn from this time.

It was an entirely different universe. No internet; phone calls were expensive and short. To connect with people you wrote letters by hand, or went to see them.
The world was far more pristine and beautiful. Huge regions that today are crammed with highways and concrete were forests, farmlands or empty coastlines and wild beaches.
There was much more adventure. You could hitchhike from Paris to Kabul, from Boston to San Francisco, or from Algiers to Capetown. Countries much more open and rarely visited.
Freedom had meaning. Nearly all of sex, drugs and rock’n roll was fun. It was normal when you met someone to share a joint, play music or have a quickie.
To wander wasn’t dangerous. You could live cheaply for months in Paris, the Yucatan, Greece, or a thousand other places. People in foreign countries were open and friendly.
The music was fantastic. Never has never there been a time when so much magnificent music was created by so many people. Music that demanded you to live more deeply, stop swallowing the bullshit that the media and government sold, and find out who you were.
The Vietnam War intensified everything. If you fought there, you risked atrocious death. And watched our government carpet-bomb, defoliate, and massacre human beings by the millions. So you learned a lot about not trusting government or the media, and about finding your own way. And you had nightmares for the rest of your life.
The Sixties were about following the path with heart. Learning who you were and how to live. Using psychotropic drugs to look inside your head, see the real world.
If you were young in the Sixties you learned that capitalism is bullshit, and the news, the television, politics and similar stuff were all soul-destroying.
So you wandered, took lots of drugs, drank lots of wine, enjoyed the beauties of nature, had fun with other people, slept with lots of people, made enough money to survive, and learned what life is really all about.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?

Spend a month alone in the wilderness.

Best date you've ever had?

Any time I spend with my wife.

When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?

Yesterday.

What was a time in your life when you were really scared?

Any time you spend in an active combat zone can be very scary. As well as climbing a cliff without ropes.

Which incident in your life that totally changed the way you think today?

I think we change over time, with each incident, sometimes the small ones as much as the major ones.

A decade that transformed America

The Sixties shook America to its foundation – the assassination of an idealistic young president, a tragic and unpopular war, a battle for civil rights, a cosmic clash of riots and burning cities, and an explosion of sex, drugs and rock’n roll.

For four young people, the Sixties is a decade of promise and freedom. For orphaned Troy, it’s the joy of living with his new family and exploring the world of flight and outer space. For Tara, the girl he loves, the power of song as she evolves into a rock’n roll star. For his new brother, Mick, a football hero and rebel, a time to question everything, including the fast-growing war in Vietnam. And for Daisy, the girl Mick loves, a chance to fight for equality, join the Peace Corps, and expand her study of the human mind.

America is the first of Mike Bond’s seven-volume historical novel series, capturing the victories and heartbreaks of the last 70 years and of our nation’s most profound upheavals since the Civil War – a time that defined the end of the 20th Century and where we are today.

Through the wild, joyous, heartbroken and visionary lives of four young people and many others, the Sixties come alive again, as do its questions: what is life? What is freedom? What was lost, what was won?

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