INTERVIEW: Author of “Empire State”, Adam Christopher
GS: First of all I have to ask you, where did the inspiration come from for Empire State? AC: I was on a flight from Manchester to San Francisco, which is a long haul flight and I had taken with me some Raymond Chandler and when you are on that kind of flight things get a little bit crazy. It’s long, boring and you don’t get enough sleep and you get a bit dehydrated. I remember going to sleep and thinking, wouldn’t it be amazing if Raymond Chandler had written Science Fiction, with robots that would just be the coolest thing ever. And that was the idea, to write a Science Fiction detective story inspired by the classic pulp? Detectives of the 1930’s. Also I love superheroes and superhero comics and the 1930’s and especially New York – that was the birthplace of modern superhero comics. So I put the two together and came up with Empire State. GS: In terms of your original idea, how far did the actual book change from starting it to the finished product? AC: It probably changed quite a bit. I tend to outline quite heavily but as I write, the characters take on lives of their own and they start doing things which is not expected. As I wrote the first draft it got stranger and stranger and things were happening that I hadn’t really planned on. So I think it stays true to the original idea but I was happy to let it go and evolve as it went.
Geek Syndicate
GS: What is the process you use for building the characters? Where do you start from? AC: I think I tend to start with a name. Rad Bradley the Detective he actually came to me way before I had the idea for the book or the setting or anything. I actually mistyped the name the search in Amazon looking for Ray Bradbury. I typed Rad Bradbury. And nothing came up. I thought Rad Bradbury was such a cool name. He is a tough Detective with a hat and a trench coat. I changed it to Bradley otherwise it would just be a little bit distracting. Throughout the book I wanted that pulpy, movie feel so you have names like Sam Saturn and Kane Fortuna, kind of slightly strange names that have that alliteration. I think from the beginning because it was going to be a Science Fiction Detective story I had to have the Detective or Private Eye. I was going to say