The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist's Solution
by Lisa de Nikolits
Genre: Humorous Thriller
Publisher: Inanna Poetry and Fiction Series
Publication Date: September 30, 2019
The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution is about a couple experiencing a crisis. The
husband, Lyndon, loses his job as editor of a financial magazine. Neither are happy with aging. Lyndon
has gotten by with charm and frozen emotions. The wife, Margaux, has no idea how angry she is with
him for his detachment. It is her idea to sell the house and just travel. But he is not coping well with
retirement, so he simply walks off a ferry in Australia and leaves her. He steals a cat (well, he steals an
expensive SUV that happens to have a cat onboard) and he flees Sydney, ending up in Apollo Bay, a
few hours south-west of Melbourne, where he falls in with a group of anarchists and punk rockers in a
tattoo parlour, planning revolution.
Meanwhile, Margaux sits tight in Sydney with no idea of where her husband might be or what happened.
She moves into the red-light Kings Cross area, befriending the owner of the hostel, a seventy-year-old
ex-cop drag queen from Saint John, New Brunswick, and waits to hear from her husband.
When she learns that her husband is fine, she is consumed by wrath and she invokes the angry spirit of
an evil nurse, a key player in the terrible Chelmsworth sleep therapy in which many patients died
(historical fact). While Lyndon gets in touch with his original career ambition to become an artist and
wrestles with anarchism versus capitalism, Margaux learns to deal with her rage.
A serio-comedic thriller about a couple who embark on an unintentionally life-changing around-the-world
adventure, The Occult Persuasion and the Anarchist’s Solution is about the meaning of life, healing from
old wounds, romantic love at all ages, and how love and passion can make a difference, at any
age.
Lisa de Nikolits is the international award-winning author of nine novels (all Inanna Publications). No
Fury Like That was published in Italian in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine as Una furia dell’altro mondo.
Her short fiction and poetry have also been published in various anthologies and journals internationally.
She is a member of the Mesdames of Mayhem, the Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, The
Australian Crime Writers, The Short Fiction Mystery Association and the International Thriller Writers.
Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits came to Canada in 2000. She lives and writes in
Toronto.
GUEST POST
What are your top 10 favorite
books/authors?
I
read so fast and so much that it’s hard to keep track or even
remember! Here are five that come to mind:
• Feast
of Snakes by Harry
Crews (and most of his books. They are so surreal and I love the
writing)
• East
of Eden and
Cannery Row by John
Steinbeck
• A
Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
• The
Shipping News by Annie
Proulx
• Anything
by Stephen King (never fails me!)
-.-
How
long have you been writing?
Since
I was eight! So that’s 45.5 years!
-.-
Do
the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them
come to you as you write?
Most
of them come to me but there are a few elusive ones that I have to
chase down! It’s literally like chasing a stranger down the street!
They keep just in sight enough that I catch glimpses of them but then
they vanish and off I go, pounding the sidewalk, a burning stitch in
my side, gasping for air, bent over double. Then they’ll peer out
from an alleyway, flash a grin and take off again! I do prefer the
ones who come fully-formed and attitudinal: ‘don’t mess with me,
I am what I am, I’m writing this book, baby, you’re just my
writing tool!’
I
have entirely rewritten characters though, more than once. I realized
that I didn’t like them or they weren’t convincing or have any
redeemable qualities and if I felt that, then how would the reader
feel?
And
of course rewriting a character has all kinds of fallout. The plot
changes as that person would no longer do that action or behave in
that way. In the beginning, the thought of rewriting a character
seemed like a crime, a travesty. Also, l lacked the confidence. If I
killed this character in his or her current incarnation, did I have
anything to replace them? I’ve learned that the answer is yes I
can. Not easily at times, but I can! That’s where the blood, sweat
and tears come in and you can’t give up – you get out there and
work it harder!
-.-
What
kind of research do you do before you begin writing a book?
It
all depends. And actually, I try to do the research after I’ve
written a first draft!
Why?
For a few reasons. One is that you can lose all kinds of hours on
research – you think you’re writing but you’re actually just
surfing the Net, finding one fascinating fact after another but
you’re not writing. And you end up finding too much information
which isn’t needed and then you try to cram this amazingly
astounding fact into the book which is a big fail or you
-.-
Do
you see writing as a career?
Financially?
A resounding no! I must admit, I’ve always found the word ‘career’
(when associated with writing) to be somewhat negative, for reasons I
can’t pinpoint exactly! I guess because sounds so unmagical and so
calculated! I’ve always believed there is a magic to writing.
Magical in the way of any God-given gift but if you don’t get out
there and hone and stretch and tone that gift, it will sag and flag
and flop down into the dust and die.
I
think too, that the word career, implies a certain control. You can
plan a career, right? Plan the trajectory, plan the outcome. Map it
out. I don’t think you can map out your writing life.
If
you look at my art directing career, and it was a career, I planned
it very carefully, going from this job to that job to the next. Of
course it didn’t always work out that exactly way. I didn’t get a
lot of jobs that I really wanted. But, through good luck and sheer
determination, my overall mapped-out career path did happen. For
example, I didn’t get Elle South Africa magazine but I got Vogue
Australia. And I did end up doing some work for Elle Canada so it all
worked out!
So
my art directing career was definitely a career, one that is sadly on
the wane as magazines die. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hello! Canada
turned out to be my last magazine gig but I’ve had a great run,
working in London, the USA, Australia and here in Canada. And it got
me visas to live and work in countries, so that career certainly did
work out!
But
writing as a career? I don’t see it that way! My end-goal objective
is to keep writing the best books I can and to keep improving. And,
to find a way to get those books read.
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Thank you very much for having me as a guest writer today! I hope your readers will pick up a copy of the book and will let me know what they think!
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