Peter James Quirk

Peter James Quirk is an adventurer at heart who has traveled the world. He was born and educated in England in the aftermath of World War II.  At various times he has taught English in France, taught skiing in both France and Austria, and spent several years at sea as a fisherman and with the British Merchant Marine.  When he settled in the U.S. he became a building contractor, a profession that gave him the opportunity to spend his winters skiing and snowboarding. He owns a ski chalet in the Catskill Mountains and has taught skiing at Windham Mountain for more than twenty years.

Peter took to writing after selling his business several years ago-his most interesting assignment to date was writing for a French Chef on a Chinese cable television channel. He won a literary award for short story writing in January 2005. Trail of Vengeance is his first novel.  Peter James Quirk is a member of the prestigious organization "Mystery Writers of America".

 

" You will turn the pages as fast as your eyes and fingers permit as you traverse through its exciting story." Bookviews by Alan Caruba

 "I'm happy to report that Peter James Quirk has managed to make the "silver" list with his mystery/thriller, "Trail of Vengeance" Sherrie Schmauder From Recorder Community Newspaper

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life?

Peter James Quirk:  I was raised in England during the aftermath of World War II and was an avid reader from a very young age, although at the time writing never occurred to me.

Pageonelit.com: Who were your earliest influences and why?

Peter James Quirk:  I was fascinated by the memoirs of men who fought in the war and especially of those who escaped from prisoner-of-war camps. I also loved the Hornblower series by C. S. Forrester and, of course, Stevenson-Treasure Island and Kidnapped were masterpieces. I think the times drew me to action stories. From my earliest childhood the only men I ever saw were in uniform, either in a parade or at home on leave. In addition to that, the first few years of my life my nights were spent in air-raid shelters listening to the Luftwaffe flying overhead dropping bombs.

Pageonelit.com: Why do you write?

Peter James Quirk: I lead a very active life. I have been a sailor, a fisherman, a roofer, a carpenter, a building contractor, a ski instructor, and an English teacher in France and I have always valued a job well done. In the nineties, during a long convalescence, I spent my days reading until I read a truly wretched excuse for a novel. It was then that I began writing what eventually became "Trail of Vengeance."

Pageonelit.com: Who and/or what have been your biggest influences with regard to your writing and why?

Peter James Quirk: My reading gives me the premise for my plots. Apart from my early influences, I read Richard Russo, Scott Turow, Nick Hornsby and Graham Swift, among others. For my writing skills, however, I am totally indebted to my mentor and editor Robert Gover. Robert is an author and writing coach who wrote the cult hit "Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding" and more recently the nonfiction "Time and Money." We are both published by Hopewell Publications.
 

Pageonelit.com:  Congratulations on a fantastic novel "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE." Please tell us a bit about the novel and what inspired you to write it.

Peter James Quirk:  When I began writing I knew I would have to write an action story. I wasn't necessarily thinking cops and robbers, but I knew it had to have action and conflict to sustain my interest. I was also very aware of the adage "write what you know." At the time, however, I had spent the previous quarter of a century working in construction, which I didn't feel was a solid foundation for a novel. But I did teach skiing during the winter months, and that, I felt, was a much more interesting subject.

Thinking over my experiences as a ski instructor, I remembered that I had once taught a very attractive woman who told me she was a New York City detective. And so a female detective who meets a European ski instructor became a strong candidate for my protagonist in a ski themed novel. But of course if you have a detective, you need a criminal antagonist-and so was conceived the police story.
 

Pageonelit.com: Talk about your main character, Lisa Rossi. Is she based on anyone you've encountered in your own life?

Peter James Quirk: The short answer is no. Physically she vaguely resembles a Spanish teacher I knew during the eighties who was very feisty. And, as my mentor taught me, you need conflict every step of the way, so feisty is a great quality in a protagonist.
 

Pageonelit.com: Generally what process did/do you go through in coming up with your characters? (i.e., what they look like, their mannerisms, etc.)

Peter James Quirk: During the writing process you invent characters to serve the story. Usually it isn't until the second draft that you decide which character is important enough to flesh out into a three dimensional human being. That being said, sometimes I have someone in mind when I write character-the French police inspector, for instance, is loosely based on an old friend from Paris.

 

Pageonelit.com: "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE" is action packed and takes the reader on a tremendous journey from New York to Europe. Discuss what you enjoy about writing action scenes and where did you inherit this writing skill?" Talk a little about your settings and research.

Peter James Quirk: First I'd like to say that I am a realist by nature who would have difficulty writing something that could not possibly happen. That is to say, I couldn't dream about winning the lottery if I didn't have a current lottery ticket in my pocket. In other words, my characters need a reason for everything they do, even if it's just the fact they are inherently evil, like the minor characters Fritz and Hans in the rape scene, for example.

In the case of Emile, however, I portrayed him as a blue-collar guy with minimal education who was familiar with the seamy side of life, and, from his experiences as a ski instructor, also the more sophisticated and upscale side. I then allowed his dreams of becoming rich to pull him into a life of crime.

Most of the minor characters were, as I said previously, invented to serve the story. Then their personalities expanded during the rewriting process depending on how important they became. The fun foving side of Rita Carmelli, for instance, came from a woman I once knew who actually told me the story of the man who pulled out a portable TV and watched a Yankee game during a dinner date, and how she dealt with that particular humiliation.

Pageonelit.com: "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE" is "well paced," as one reviewer wrote-with which part of the writing process do you have the most difficulty-plot or character?

Peter James Quirk:  In the first draft it's plot, but in subsequent drafts it's the characters that fill out the story.

Pageonelit.com: What do you hope readers walk away with after reading "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE?"

Peter James Quirk:  Obviously I am not looking for a Nobel or a Pulitzer Prize nomination, but if my readers recognize they have just read an interesting story and pass that information along to their friends, I will be happy.

Pageonelit.com: "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE" would make a good film-anything in the works? Who in Hollywood would you select to play your characters?

Peter James Quirk: I have begun a script, but in my inexperience I've found that to do justice to both Lisa and Emile, the film would be much too long. I've had fun picking the actors, however. I think Sandra Bullock would make a fine Lisa, and either Edward Norton or Benicio Del Toro would eat up the role of the villain Emile.

Pageonelit.com: How has your life changed since becoming a published writer?

Peter James Quirk: It has changed, I think, for the better. I wrote for television before my novel was published-a program that visited ethnic restaurants entitled "A GOURMET TOUR OF NEW YORK." And this summer my calendar was filled with speaking engagements at libraries, Rotary Club luncheons, and appearances in bookstores. I also now belong to Mystery Writers of America, and I enjoy their monthly dinner meetings in New York.

Pageonelit.com: What's next?

Peter James Quirk:  My current project is a short story for a Mystery Writers of America anthology about lawyers and court cases entitled "THE PROSECUTION RESTS." I also have, besides the screenplay, a novel about World War II and a sequel to "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE" in progress.

Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you read?

Peter James Quirk: The last novel I read was "THE NIGHT GARDENER" by George Pelecanos, a police procedural mystery set in Washington DC. And the last nonfiction was "A LIFE IN SECRETS," by Sara Helm, a story of spies in France during World War II, which I read as research for my own World War II novel.

Pageonelit.com: Do you have any hobbies? What are they? How do they enhance your writing?

Peter James Quirk:  I am an avid skier, which helped me write "TRAIL OF VENGEANCE" and will help me with the sequel. I also love gourmet food, wine and travel-the former two helped me with my TV writing job, and the latter expands my understanding of the modern world. For instance, how do you describe adequately the annoyance of today's airport restrictions, unless you've actually experienced the lines and had the humiliation of having to remove your shoes and empty your pockets just to board an airplane?