Welcome to my blog today Terry Brennan and he is going to giveaway a copy of his book Sacred Cipher. I have read some of this book and it is very good and I can't wait to finish it. To enter just leave a comment and a way to contact you.· Tell me about yourself.I grew up in the Catholic Church. God was real to me, but He wasn’t personal. How could a God possibly love me? When I was about 30, a man convinced me to begin reading the Bible … that my faith in God was still in there somewhere. I don’t have a “salvation moment” as many do. For me, it was a process – one that continued into my marriage to Andrea and which was influenced both by her strong faith and by the spiritual awakening that was the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. One day, I just knew that what I was reading in the Bible was true. And that God meant it for me. So, for the last 30 years, the journey has been primarily in trying to apply God’s love to me, to my life. I know He loves everybody else. But me? That’s the struggle.
My kids – Michael, Patrick, Meghan and Matthew – always inspire me with their enthusiasm for life and their encouragement. But my greatest inspiration while writing The Sacred Cipher came from my wife, Andrea. Not only did she give me the gift of a year of Saturdays in which to write the book, but she kept me sane and rooted during the many long, agonizing stretches when I struggled with fear, doubt and inadequacy. Andrea is not only my prayer partner, she’s also my best friend and biggest fan.
As for me, I was a journalist for 22 years, ending up as an editor and/or publisher of newspapers in Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York State. Then God moved in a miraculous way, picked us up out of the newspaper business and dropped me into New York City as Vice President of Christian Herald Association, the organization that runs The Bowery Mission and three other ministries here in New York. After 12 years with The Bowery Mission, I’m now Vice President of the National Organization on Disabilities.
· How did you know you wanted to be a writer?I think I was born a writer … it was the way God wired me. But I didn’t become aware of it until I was a freshman in high school. I’ve written ever since, first spending 22 years as a journalist – 15 as a sportswriter.
But I never considered myself a ‘writer’ until I tried my hand at my first novel in the mid-90’s. That one took four years, then sat in a drawer for six years. One day, I thought, I wonder if there is any value in that book? Eventually I went to my first writer’s conference – the Philadelphia Christian Writer’s Conference – in 2005. I had an idea that I pitched to anyone who would listen, got a lot of encouragement and … boom … that was it. Off on this crazy journey. It took four years for The Sacred Cipher to go from an idea at the ’05 Philly Conference to launch date 2009.
I’ve always loved the classic American authors – Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald – particularly Steinbeck. That guy was a wizard with words. As a kid, I read every Fu Manchu mystery. As a college student, every James Bond thriller and the required Lord of the Rings trilogy, including the prequel The Hobbit. In between, Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes … you get the drift.
Today, I enjoy Dennis Lehane’s work – particularly his latest – The Given Day. I think he’s become a lyrical writer. And my son, Matt, has hooked me into both Stephen King and (more my style) Cormack McCarthy.
Sprinkle into that adrenalin mix some historical biographies and/or autobiographies (Mornings on Horseback By David McCoullough). And lots of contemporary thriller writers, like Joel Rosenberg.
· Any advice to the unpublished author?Don’t make the mistake to think somebody else has the answer. That there is some magic formula for writing that those on the inside know, but they won’t tell you. There are as many theories about writing and style requirements as there are books about writing. And all of the authors believe their way is the best (right?) way. Understand, this is not a science. There is not one formula that works. Some basic expectations for content and presentation but – hey, down to it, it’s all about the writing.
So, write. Write a lot. Write all the time. Write until you’re sick of it. And then keep on writing until your characters begin to talk back to you. Then follow their advice.
· Do you have a favorite snack when writing?Trail Mix … with M&Ms
· Tell me about your book Sacred Cipher. How did you come up with the idea?The Sacred Cipher is an adult thriller/suspense triggered by the discovery of a hidden room behind the organ pipes in The Bowery Mission’s chapel in New York City. In a safe in the room is found an ancient scroll with a message written in an extinct language that has never been deciphered. The first half of the book takes place in NYC as a ‘team’ of guys tries to discover the content of the message, and the second half is when the team goes off to find out if the message is, in fact, true.
Here’s the blurb from the back cover of the book:
"When New Yorker Tom Bohannon uncovers an ancient scroll containing a dead language that has been lost in the sands of time, he doesn't fully comprehend the danger that's about to unfold. Though Tom and his team of ragtag scientists and historians want to decode the ancient text, others don’t want the cipher revealed. And they are prepared to kill to keep it hidden.
"From a market in nineteenth-century Alexandria to a library in present-day New York to the tunnels beneath Jerusalem, the secret of the cipher is gradually revealing itself across the globe. And for those in its path, life is about to change - forever."
The scroll is written in the third language on the Rosetta Stone – Demotic. The search for the scroll’s meaning leads the team to Sir Edward Elgar, the English composer, and a cipher he wrote over 100 years ago that has yet to be deciphered. The scroll’s history reaches back to the 11th Century and at one point crossed the path of legendary English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
The Bowery Mission is real … Demotic is real … Sir Edward Elgar is real … Charles Haddon Spurgeon is real … and so are dozens of other facts and folks that are weaved into this adventure.
The idea evolved over time. It all started to connect one day when I was standing in the chapel of The Bowery Mission, looking up at the organ pipes. And I thought, what if there was a secret room hidden behind those organ pipes? Then the wheels started to spin.
M
ost of the research was done is the massive and beautiful Humanities and Social Science Library on Bryant Park and Fifth Avenue in New York City. And on Google Earth.
· If you could make it into a movie who would play your main characters?My wife and kids and I have played that game many times over dinner. Perhaps Liev Schrieber as Tom Bohannon. We all agree Sean Connery or Gabriel Byrne shou
ld be Dr. Richard Joh
nson. Or Harrison Ford. Danny DeVito or Paul Giamatti as Sammy Rizzo. Charlize Theron as Kallie Nolan.
· Are you currently working on something new?I’ve written a second novel called Hunger’s Ransom. I wrote it fairly quickly after Sacred Cipher was sold to Kregel Publications. I have to admit I got careless … thought I had this book-writing thing knocked. Can you spell p-r-i-d-e? So, Kregel sent it back. It’s going to take some substantial re-writing. I’m working at it because I believe in the story. It’s a good yarn, set against the back drop of the world food crisis.
But what I’m really committed to at this time is the sequel to The Sacred Cipher. I’m about one-third of the way through, a work-in-progress that is titled, at the moment, Scorpion Pass.
· How can my readers find you on the net?Other than a Facebook page, my only Internet exposure at this point is my blog at
http://terrybrennan.blogspot.com/.
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