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" If you do come across 'Sanctus' in a bookshop, please see past the cross on the cover and the sinister outline of a monk and just read the first page and make your own mind up. If it's still not for you, then that's fine; just put it back and walk away. "

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" If you look at the great Westerns, and at Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, they all contain elements in common: a harsh landscape; demons or outlaws trying to stop or kill the protagonist; and there are mythical legends at their core, innate in all cultures. "

Simon Toyne

Great

Landscape

You

" My family and I live in a wing of a Georgian mansion in East Sussex, which was built in the 1780s and fell into disrepair. It was rescued in the Seventies and carved into six terrace houses. "

" We have long suspected that the faceless organisations that run our world - be it the church, multinational conglomerates or the government - keep things from us. "

Simon Toyne

Run

World

" The author always knows more than the reader does at the start of a novel, and gradually, they share that knowledge with the reader - that's storytelling. "

" I think 'The Searcher' is a departure from my first because it's less grounded in religion and is far more rooted in the mythic tradition: more of an existential thriller where the main character is actually the central mystery, and his journey is all about trying to figure himself out. "

" I'm certainly not the first author to tiptoe into the conspiratorial, religious-tinged territory, but - and I hate to break this to the faithful - neither is Dan Brown. "

" As a television producer, you do a lot of writing - drafting proposals for pilot shows and other things, so yes, a good deal of writing was involved. "

" All writers steal. You might as well steal from the best. "

" If you look back to the earliest religions, before they got organized and started building churches and amassing wealth, they all sprang from the same place - they were inspired by nature. "

" One of the things that made me try writing novels was I could take time off to be with the kids. That's the practical side of what I love about the writing life. "

" As a writer, I always try as hard as possible to get out of the way of the story, so maybe that's the most important thing my readers should know - I'm all about the story, not about the ego. "

" I looked back at the years since I'd left college and thought of the list of things I'd have liked to do. I'd always wanted to write a book - not a small undertaking. I never felt I had the time or creative energy to spare in order to write one as well as I wanted. "

" I love Westerns. They're a unique creation of American mythology. "

" I love researching all sorts of weird stuff. I always say, 'God help me if the FBI came across my Internet search history.' "

" I hate it when characters know things but only reveal them when it's convenient to the story. I'd never do that. That's cheating. "

" I love that I can work from home and take my kids to school every day. "

" 'Sanctus' was done on speculation. I had no agent or publisher. I was being sensible, I suppose, by writing a standalone novel. I figured if that one didn't work, no one would be interested in reading a sequel. "

" It is easy to be inspired by history when you're living in a part of it and allow that to seep into your writing: having said that, a minimalist room with no distractions is often better; the most exciting visions should already be in your head. "

" If, after five years, I hadn't had anything published, I was just going to forget it and go back to TV full-time until I retired or they put me out to pasture. "

Simon Toyne

Back

Years

" The largest two books I've ever read more than once are 'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens and 'The Stand' by Stephen King, about 1,200 pages each. "

" It's interesting to note that when something like a virus tries to poison us, the first thing our bodies do is heat up. We burn away the infection. Maybe that's what Earth is doing to us. "

" Epic stories, especially 'quest narratives' like 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey,' are brilliant structures for storytelling. The quest lends itself to episodic storytelling. "

Simon Toyne

Stories

Brilliant

" I figured if I write a modern thriller but spliced in the DNA of a classic western - the drifter who comes into town with secrets - I could do something interesting with both genres. Westerns are also an incarnation of the classic knight errant tale, the lone warrior with a moral code, and I love those types of stories. "

" We can make a concerted effort to stop poisoning the planet: that would be a good way of appeasing the gods. "

" Quest stories are about the oldest form of narrative there is, and they're also the perfect metaphor for life because we're all on a journey trying to figure out where we're going and who we are. 'Solomon Creed' is just doing it with more danger and guns involved. "

" I knew from my television work that I could sit down and put words on paper but didn't know if I had the talent to tell a story in novel form. "

" 'Sanctus' deals with creation myths in every culture. It fascinates me that all cultures, evolving independently, have similar models of mankind's origins, of a Greater Being, of the flood, and so on. It's amazing how they crop up time and time again. "

" I wrote 'The Searcher' because I love westerns, and they've fallen out of fashion. "

" When I set out to write 'Sanctus,' all I wanted to do was craft a piece of high quality entertainment. "