Today we are chatting with Bonnie Toews the author of The Consummate Traitor

Tell us something unexpected about yourself!

Few people realize I got my private pilot's licence when I was in my mid-twenties. I had wanted to fly from the time I was 10-years-old but had to wait until I became a teacher and could pay for my lessons. I learned in an old Fleet 80 Canuck — a tail dragger made of wood rather than metal. No insurance company would cover it. It felt just the way Jacqueline Cochrane described the aircraft she first learned to fly — a joy stick, rudders and a throttle. You literally flew by the seat of your pants. I had a WWII fighter pilot teach me and he showed my how I could do simple aerobatics such as loop the plane. Once married, I couldn't keep up the cost of flying, but, before I die, I would like to fly a Canuck one last time.

What novels affected you the most growing up?

I read all the Bigglesworth books about the adventure of flying fighter planes and bombers in WWII.Each book also included a mystery that had to be solved. I read five books a week from 10-years-old until university. Then, the book that most affected me was ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand. It was not just her writing and her philosophy that captured me, it was also her belief that a woman could do anything she wanted to do if she was willing to work hard enough. Live your dream. And I have. Another that has affected my writing is LECTURES ON LITERATURE by Vladimir Nabokov. He inspired me to embrace literary devices.

Where did the idea for your current book come from?

I was reading the biography of Intrepid, Churchill's master spy in WWI when I read a short account of a secret agent called “”Trudi.”” She was a third cousin of King George VI, and when Churchill was trying to entice nuclear physicists living in Nazi-occupied Europe to defect to London, he engaged her to convince the Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, to flee to London.He escaped but the Gestapo caught her. She was imprisoned, tortured and never heard of again.As a historical anecdote, it left a lot to the imagination.

Do you think there’s any way you could ever run out of ideas for books?

If you have stood in an airport waiting for someone to arrive, just studying all the different people also waiting to meet someone produces myriad possibilities.A couple for instance with three children. The three children have mixed Asian features, but neither the man or woman do. The children all hang on him. You look at him. He's slim and could be an Arab or an Israeli in background. The woman is very slim with soft features and huge brown eyes. She seems to keep the children from going wild while they wait.Question: Are they a married couple who has adopted three children from one family? Or is he the father who married an Asian, who is the children's mother, but the couple is now divorced and the woman standing beside him is his new girlfriend? Can you imagine a story behind this scene? That's how I start.

What is your routine for writing and has this method changed over the span of your career?

I was a journalist. I wrote to deadlines. In time I could write a beginning sentence and closing sentence, create a title or heading and write to the number of words I was allowed for the space my article would fit on a page. When I began my first novel, I had no plot, just an idea. For the first draft, I reached page 225 before I had any idea who the traitor in the story was. I was shocked when it came to me, so I had to go back through the story and create hints or the reader would have been as shocked as I was. Once I knew the ending, I couldn't write fast enough. I still work with my characters and let them drive the action though I now work out a basic plot ahead of time.

How important is marketing and social media for you?

In these times, marketing and social media have become critical to an author's success. Many authors are trying to wear all the hats from creating to editing to marketing, but it is rare for one person to wear all these hats well. This is why I have engaged BooksGoSocial. I need help and I appreciate their expertise.

What advice would you have for other writers?

Learn the craft of writing and develop a thick skin because many times you will create sentences or paragraphs that to you are brilliant and an editor will say delete them because they don't carry your story forward. It's called “killing your puppies.” Join a group of authors who critique each other's works before you submit your final draft to an editor. I also refer new writers to Vladimir Nabokov's LECTURES ON LITERATURE. He developed in me a special appreciation for literary excellence. And last, proof, proof, proof your work. Typos, spelling errors and poor grammatical structure are a writer's death knell.

What are you reading now?

So many books — mostly WWII fiction — from Herman Wouk, Leon Uris and Ken Follett to JJ Toner, Ray Burston, Rachel Zaouche, Marion Kummerow, Kathryn Gauci, Sarah Sundin and Rachel Kogan, among others.

What’s your next step?

Writing the sequel to THE CONSUMMATE TRAITOR, producing two more Bibi & Babu travel books and a love story. I've also created two screenplays but that's tougher breaking into that field.

The Consummate Traitor by Bonnie Toews is available on Amazon here 

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