📚 A Bookish Chat with 'Imbalance of Power' Armin Shimerman | Author Interview | #AuthorInterview #BlogTour #Interview

 

Today we welcome Armin Shimerman to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Armin is the author of the historical fiction, Imbalance of Power. This interview is part of his Imbalance of Power Blog Tour hosted by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!


A veteran of stage and screen, Armin is widely known for his portrayal of Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Principal Snyder on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other credits include notable appearances on TV shows from Hill Street Blues and The West Wing to CSI and dozens of others. His voice has been heard in many animated shows and popular game series such as Ratchet & Clank and BioShock. Armin is a renowned stage actor, having performed on Broadway and stages acrossthe country. He is also a Shakespeare scholar and teacher, theatre arts lecturer, and former Associate Artistic Director of the Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles. With his wife, Kitty Swink, Armin is an active fundraiser for the Pancreatic Center Action Network (PanCAN).

Website:  https://www.arminshimerman.com/

Twitter:   https://twitter.com/ShimermanArmin

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jumpmasterpress/?hl=en

TWL:  When did you come up with the idea to write the book?

Imbalance of Power is the last book of the Illyria trilogy. The idea came about on a lovely country bench outside the graceful Ballymaloe House  restaurant in Kinoith, Ireland. I was having chin-wag with my old friend and collaborator Michael Scott, after a memorable meal of lamb and farm grown vegetables. Knowing of my fascination for Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era, it was Michael’s plan for the two of us to do a series of novels teaming Dr. John Dee and a young Will Shakespeare together to solve political mysteries. Mysteries that took place in and among the various locations found in Shakespeare’s plays. Our visit ended, Michael mostly disappeared from my life, but the idea lived on in my imagination for many years suggesting various scenarios. Eventually, I chose Twelfth Night as the place to start and began to write.

TWL: Can you give us a short excerpt?

The gallows’ rope collapses his airway though he struggles gyrating, suffocating; there is no release from the grip on his throat or the endless falling—yet not falling. Flailing. There is no purchase, and nothing below him but immeasurable emptiness despite the hellish knowledge that the floor is inches away. In an inner realm of despair, Dr. John Dee’s soul concedes, I am dead. What is left of him shrinks itself inside his scholar’s robes squeezing all pain and horror into a single dust mote to be blown away. Then, for thirty seconds he does not exist. Not even his fear.

John Dee had expected nothingness or angels. Neither come. There is a dull, far-off sound. After the certainty of his end, the dead man is conscious of being prone on his

back. The grisly memories of his demise revisit him—a circle of points lead back to the same pointless point. Am I still part of the world? His senses tell him of the physicality of the floor beneath him. Buttocks, back, and legs supported, his feet no longer pedal for a perch like a crazed victim of St. Vitus’ dance. Not possible. This is a devilish trick! Struggling with resurrection, a rhyme fills his head,

If St. Vitus’ Day be rainy weather,

it shall rain for thirty days together.

With his windpipe pinioned, and the soft tissues of his throat as sharp as glass, John Dee is mindful that he can breathe. Endeavoring to do more of what has always been

taken for granted, Dee gags on the swollen blockage in his windpipe. His chest wheezes, high-pitched and foreign, nonetheless he breathes; he is not suffocating.


 

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

Along with penning an exciting story, I was determined to give the reader an accurate picture of  the world at that time. That required me researching not only the furniture, food, recreations, dress styles, etc. of the period, but introducing real people who would have been in the Elizabethan newspapers - if the Elizabethans had newspapers. (Which they didn’t; they had ballads). For me the fun was the thousands of hours researching the arcana and learning more about a period that I thought I was familiar with. Sometimes the discoveries were mind-blowing. Did you know the average age of a Londoner was 22?  Also, having done dozens of Shakespearian productions, it was great fun to try to replicate the linguistic style that one finds in plays of that period. It pushed my creative juices to the max.

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

When I started, I assumed a partnership between John Dee and Shakespeare was just a fanciful idea. But as I dug deeper into the life of my two main characters, I found that Shakespearian scholars believe that the Bard was inspired to write Richard II, an early play, by a manuscript that was owned by John Dee and only to be found in the massive library at his home. It is pleasant to think that I may have stumbled upon a relationship that could account for all the research materials Shakespeare is assumed to have read. 


 

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

I am not working on any new novels. But I am playing with an idea of Shakespeare’s later life as a writer, actor, and shareholder in the Globe. God knows when that might get published!

TWL: Finally, is there a message you’re trying to get across with your books?

I don’t believe there is an overt message. But, of what the novels have reminded me is that History is cyclical. And that much of the bias and animosity of our times can be seen in those of the past. I suppose the maxim of “Those who do not study History are doomed to repeat it” is obvious in the pages of my book.

 



Title: Imbalance of Power (Illyria Book 3)
Author: Armin Shimerman
Publisher: Jumpmaster Press
Pages: 380
Genre: Historical Fiction

On January 24, 2023, renown stage and television actor Armin Shimerman will release the final book of his historical trilogy, Illyria. Imbalance of Power will be released by Jumpmaster Press. The story continues in the world he created, occupied by familiar and fantastic characters of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

With the threat of further imprisonment held over him, Doctor John Dee must use all his talents to solve the mystery of who on Illyria is shepherding religious insurrectionists bent on overthrowing the Queen. Helped by his acolyte, Will Shakespeare, they investigate the court of Count Orsino, their chief suspect. Their mission brings them in contact with the witty characters of Toby Belch, Malvolio, Feste, and others in a fancifully imagined prequel to Twelfth Night. Together, in this exciting final story steeped in Elizabethan history, Dee and Shakespeare must manuever through a labyrinth of religious intolerance as they seek to protect Crown and Country.

Pub Date: January 24, 2023

Publisher:  Jumpmaster Press

Softcover / Hardcover: 380 pages; $14.99 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Jumpmaster Press: https://www.jumpmasterpress.com/illyriaseries




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