welcome to paul edmund norman's the gateway

Author interview: Stephen Miller

Editor's note - this interview was made possible with the kind assistance of Becky Fincham from Harper Collins - many thanks, Becky

You’ve been in so many films and tv programmes over the years, from the X Files to Hollywood blockbusters such as Scooby Doo- how has your acting and screen writing experience fuelled your career as a writer?

I’ve been in theatre since the 60’s and I’ve worked on a lot of new plays, a lot of experimental and political plays. I’ve participated in all sorts of workshops and so I really listen when people give me feedback about what I write. I’m talking about things like when people miss a point, or something’s unclear or it's just not registering the way it should. As far as critics go, I try not to believe the praise, because then I’ll have to believe the negative stuff too, and besides it’s not really healthy to let your self-esteem rest too firmly in someone else’s hands.

Beyond trying to have a sane attitude, I think that theatre, film and television have given me a good sense of dynamics, a reasonable ear for dialog, and I hope, a sense of humour.

What inspired you to write a historical thriller? Was A Game of Soldiers your idea or was it influenced by any other novels?

I have always had an interest in history, but I became fixated on Russian history for several reasons. Some of it had to do with my own growing up in the United States during the darkest days of the Cold War; practising a-bomb drills in elementary school, stuff like that. I’d been raised to hate and fear anything Russian and right around the time I was at Virginia Military Institute, and the Vietnam war was raging, I started questioning my whole view of things. I realized that I knew nothing whatsoever about what lay behind the Iron Curtain, so I started reading.

I believe that the Great War, the revolutions in Russia, the settlement at Versailles, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, provide the core of the 20^th century experience, and so it goes that you cannot avoid the events at Sarajevo in 1914. For me it’s a chain of logic and despair. The world could have been so different but for these tremendous conflicts that resulted in repeated holocausts.

A lot of reading, a lot of photo research, repeated viewings of whatever films and documentaries that came my way.

Do you think A Game of Soldiers would work as a film, and if so, who would you cast to star in it?

I have been asked this many times now, and being an actor myself I’m a little scared to put names out there. Maybe it would be better to talk about the faces I saw when I was thinking about the characters. These are all sorts of actors from all periods. For Ryzhkov I wanted someone who was young but old. He is tired, almost burned away. I saw actors like Peter Coyote, Toshiro Mifune and Clive Owen and Richard Harris as models. For Andrianov I thought about Jude Law and Bruce Greenwood, maybe Ralph Fiennes. A handsome man with good taste and an interest in his own appearance.

Vera is a real challenge. I saw different actors for different reasons, some of which are probably very personal and untranslatable. Everybody is among them including, Nicole Kidman, Milla Jojovich, Lauren Bacall, Emily Watson, Neve Campbell, Patricia Arquette, Kate Winslett, The list goes on and on.

One of my favourite characters is Mina, Andrianov’s girlfriend. It’s a great part and I do hope someone gets to make a real meal out of it. There are a lot of great characters, Tomlinovich as played by Maury Chaikin, Sidney Greenstreet, or Robby Coltrane, for example. This is a favourite summertime Martini fantasy of mine. (profuse apologies for spelling on the names)

Besides all who like a good thrilling ride, I would recommend the book to those interested in the events leading up to the Great War or the Sarajevo assassinations; to those who enjoy dipping into the Tsarist era history or the café culture of the Silver Age in St. Petersburg.

I always tell people to do the International 3-Day Novel Contest because it teaches you to do a real big job of writing but forces you to be free and not censor yourself. That’s a great lesson to learn – just to be free, and empty out. You can worry about the poetics and the spelling later.

The other point about being an artist – if you’re going to do it for a living, sooner or later you’re going to have to sell it. That’s a big shock for a lot of people and not the reason they got into things in the first place. If rejection and straight out grubbing for money is too difficult it might be best to deal with that at an early age.