📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Fall Out' Author M.N. Grenside | Author Interview | @mngrenside #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

 

Today we welcome M.N. Grenside to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! M.N. is the author of the thriller, Fall Out. This interview is part of his Fall Out Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Mark Grenside, born and raised in London, began his working career straight out of school at Lloyds of London, specializing in Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion Insurance. At 25 it was time for a career change and to dump the suit and tie, so he started his media career working for Jim Henson and The Muppets©. From that moment on he has been involved in Entertainment and nearly every aspect of it.

He went on to create and produce several television series and mini-series. At the same time, he started a music management company launching million seller artist Neneh Cherry.

In 2004 he arranged the US $250 million buy-out of the Hallmark Channel International which was then successfully sold to NBC. He returned to producing a number of movies and mini-series.

He has recently morphed into a serial entrepreneur and is now a co-founder of seed to shelf CBD producer Dragonfly Biosciences (www.dragonflybiosciences.com) and a founder in two separate digital companies.

In addition to his love of cooking, an unhealthy amount of time and money is lavished on a collection of classic cars that he has raced all over the world. He enjoys risk and has parachuted in New Zealand, scuba-dived in the Pacific, hang-glided in the Himalayas and even tobogganed down the Cresta Run. In nearly every case chasing after his wife who is utterly fearless!

He is now writing the follow up to Fall Out, entitled The Bastion. In addition, he writes a humorous blog with subscribers in more than 40 countries. www.andanotherthing.com

He has two grown sons, two daughters’-in-law, three grandchildren and lives in Malta with his wife and two French bulldogs.

Mark’s latest book is the thriller, Fall Out.

You can visit his website at www.MNGrenside.com and his blog at www.AndAnotherThing.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.

TWL: Welcome to The Writer's Life!  How did you come up with the idea to write your book?

M.N.: I had always wanted to write a thriller set in the film industry. When I was a producer, I was continually peppered with questions about my world. The trick was to find a suitable story to fit seamlessly with the movie world backdrop.

TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?

    M.N.: As Marcus drove his cheap rental out through the wrought iron studio gates, he went over his options. There were few. The best seemed to be to get blind drunk. He was teetering at the tipping point; nearly broke, his judgement was suspect, and he’d just been dismissed by the entire Hollywood system. He pulled into a liquor store parking lot.

    “A bottle of Chivas Legend Special Reserve,” he said, pointing at the most expensive whisky in the shop.

    “Celebrating?” the girl smiled.

    “Death of my career,” replied Marcus. “Just want to give it a good send-off.”

    Two hours later he collapsed fully clothed onto the thin mattress of the bed of his motel room.

    It was dark when he woke up with a hangover so bad his hair hurt. He sat up checked his tousled brown locks in the mirror and pulled his long fingers down the sides of his cheeks. He stuck out his tongue and pulled down his eyelids, the green iris flecked with brown, but the whites of his eyes were bloodshot. Not a good look at twenty. Bad in your forties.

    “Great career farewell,” he murmured.

    He gulped down a glass of water and four Tylenol and picked up the phone to check his emails. A voice mail icon flashed reminding him of the badly timed call from that morning. He dialed to retrieve the message.

    “Hi Marcus, Sam Wood here. Tough out here, eh? They tell me you not staying quite at five-star hotels these days,” said the broad Australian accent.  “So, I am sending you my latest script…see what you think…. if it rings any bells, jogs any memories. Oh, and Balzac was right.”

    Sam Wood. Marcus was in shock. At the very moment his world was collapsing around him, one of the most successful writers in Hollywood had sent him a screenplay. Sam was the last person on earth Marcus expected to hear from, let alone receive a script. Twenty years ago, he and Sam had been almost brothers, but on a typhoon-lashed movie set, their bond had been broken by death and violence. They had not spoken since.

    He stood stock still for a moment trying to absorb the enormity of that call. A beat, then he rushed down the thinly carpeted hallway to the reception desk.

    “You have anything for me?” he panted as he reached the reception desk.

    The young girl on duty looked up startled by the tall disheveled Englishman.

    “I’m sorry. No manners,” Marcus took a deep breath. “Please, did anything come for me by courier today, while I was…out?”

    She handed over a manila envelope. “I knocked on your room, but you were…no answer…,” she trailed off as Marcus gave her his last twenty-dollar bill as a tip and ran back up the corridor.

    Shutting the door, Marcus ripped open the envelope. Inside was a screenplay, titled Fall Out, with a handwritten note attached.

Dear Marcus,

The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crème that has never been found out, because it was properly executed - Honoré de Balzac

You’ve got an eighteen-month free option.

Sam

An hour later and with shaking hands, Marcus put down the screenplay. His body was pumping pure adrenaline. Fall Out was far and away the best thing the Australian had ever written. A gripping plot with box office smash written all over it. It was exactly what Marcus needed.

TWL: What part of the book was the most fun to write?

M.N.: Dialogue. You simply cannot take the filmmaker out of me!

TWL: What’s one fact about your book that would surprise people?

M.N.: The details and insights about filmmaking come from someone who knows! The reveal and all the Asian art and History are actually based on real historical fact.

TWL: What other books are you working on and when will they be published?

M.N.: The follow up to Fall Out, called The Bastion. This will be set in The Aleutian Islands, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Malta.

TWL: Finally, what message are you trying to get across with your book?

M.N.: Well first and foremost I hope a thrilling ride that keeps the reader awake and turning pages! However, I try and develop three-dimensional characters who themselves go through a journey of self discovery during the story itself.

  

TWL: Do you have any final words?

M.N.: Never give up, never use too many adjectives, never be derivative and never say never!

 

Title: FALL OUT
Author: M.N. Grenside
Publisher: BloodHound Books
Pages: 455
Genre: Thriller

Book Blurb:

“A page-turning, jaw-dropping thriller of action and surprise. A riveting debut.” – Damien Lewis, international bestselling author

An LA screenwriter is killed shortly after completing his latest script, FALL OUT – a thriller destined to be a blockbuster but written with a secret double purpose.  Echoing events from the past, the screenplay is sent to a very specific group of people and will change their lives forever.  All are connected to a movie that had abruptly stopped shooting in the jungles of the Philippines years before.  FALL OUT exposes the truth about a conspiracy and murder that led to a half-a-billion-dollar fortune for a select few.

Follow the story of Producer Marcus Riley, who sets out on an increasingly dangerous quest to get FALL OUT made.  From a powerful agent’s office in Hollywood, hidden treasures in Belgravia and a remote chalet in the Swiss Alps to murder at the Cannes Film Festival, Marcus teams up with designer Melinda (Mako) de Turris as they and the other recipients of the screenplay are pursued by an assassin from the past.

With clues cleverly concealed in the screenplay, Marcus and Mako unravel a lethal puzzle that for some will bring death, others the truth and ends in a cave with a shocking secret…

“If you want a fast-paced stand out different thriller, I can’t recommend Fall Out enough. I loved it.” —Emma Forbes, broadcaster

“Amazing . . . I agree with all the other reviews that have stated if you like Dan Brown or James Patterson, then this book is for you.” —Joyful Antidotes

“And, action! Plenty of it and super nasty bad guys and stories so outrageously crazy they can only be true . . . Fall Out is inventive and, at times intentionally filmic . . . The fun doesn’t stop for 440 pages.” —Booksplainer

Book Information

Release Date: August 27, 2021

Publisher: Bloodhound Books

Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1912666751; 400 pages; $13.46; Kindle: ASIN: B09C1PJNZ4; 480 pages; $4.99; FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED, FREE AUDIOBOOK WITH AUDIBLE TRIAL

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3M133DQ

Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3Fz1DhI  

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/fall-out-11

The Writer’s Life

Thank you for visiting and reading!

Feel inspired? Have you read this book? Let us know your thoughts!