Here's a report of the HighlandLIT event on Tuesday 19th November 2024, with author Paul T. Hart.
‘If you want to write a book, do it. If you enjoy doing it, treat it like a hobby, and it might become something viable.’
This encouragement was given by Paul T. Hart, the Inverness-based author of two published thrillers in the spy genre with a focus on chemical and biological warfare: Operation Fulcrum Storm, and Operation Red Kite. They are soon to be joined by a third to complete a trilogy.
Interviewed by Paul Shanks at the November HighlandLIT event, Paul Hart impressed us with his enthusiasm and perseverance – and by his own ‘back story.’ He also read some intriguing sections from his work.
Paul’s background
Paul only came to writing only after two decades in the RAF – where ultimately he was a Squadron Leader with experience as an Intelligence Officer and as a Nuclear and Biological Intelligence Officer – and subsequent careers as the owner of a hotel chain and late a commercial estate agent – he bought ASG Commercial.
And yet as a young man from a working-class background (born in Glasgow, brought up in York) who left school at 16 thinking his two ‘O’ Levels were all he would ever achieve, and who didn’t read a book all the way through until he was 25, he regularly sat on trains writing stories, though he didn’t have the skills at the time to make anything of them. Seeing his potential, the RAF encouraged him to study further when he joined as an Airman at the age of 18 – he added further ‘O’ Levels and ‘A’ Levels to his list of achievements.
His years in the RAF gave Paul many experiences which he has used in plot development, and introduced him to interesting individuals, aspects of whose personalities are reflected in his fictional creations. His hobbies – his experiences in free-fall parachuting, mountaineering and diving - also feed into the novels.
Paul as writer
Paul turned to writing after his retirement in early 2020 – he’s the kind of person who focuses intently on one thing at a time, and writing is now his enjoyable obsession. He works office hours in his study, and sometimes returns for an evening shift. His wife Mandy fully supports him in this rigorous work ethic. As a result, he is extremely productive – he has already completed 6 novels.
But he had no experience in writing, no academic qualifications, no literary friends. But he was willing to experiment, willing to learn, to be humble, willing to make mistakes. Initially, he was almost overcome by the magnitude of the task, and for a moment he thought that he had ‘bitten off more than he could chew’ but he persevered. Paul Shanks suggested that Paul Hart approached writing novels ‘like a military operation’, and the author did not disagree.
He spoke about his detailed research, and his mind-mapping of plots on sheets of wallpaper, building in jeopardy, writing mini-biographies of his characters. He described how he knows the beginning, middle and ending of each plot before he begins writing a book, but in what lies between those points he is open to including unanticipated twists and turns as the characters reveal themselves to him.
The first novel
He writes prolifically – his first novel in its original draft ran to 200,000 words. He has a friend Annie, a literary editor in the US. She read the draft, loved the plot and the characters, and with kindly severity blue-penciled the parts where two much undiluted research had fed into the text, and gently encouraged Paul to improve sentence structure. With her help, he quarried a viable MS from the bedrock of the original draft, and Annie – together with Mandy and other friends – encouraged Paul to seek publication.
Of Annie’s input, he says ‘I would rather have constructive criticism rather than sycophantic praise which ignores the flaws’.
Now he is confident about his work, ‘confident that the stories are good, and the characters realistic.’ He admits that were he doing it again he would wait until the three volumes in the trilogy were written before publishing. The series unfolded in ways he did not initially predict, and he would have edited the earlier volumes to signpost these developments. Talking about all the 6 books he has written, he is confident that each is better than the one which preceded it. His latest (yet-to-be-published) books are, he says ‘Shorter, more focussed and hopefully a better “read”’.
Finding a publisher and marketing
Finding a publisher was challenging. He submitted Operation Fulcrum Storm to a number of publishers without success. He then decided to pay for publication, settling on Pegasus Publishers whose charges seemed reasonable. He tells us that if beginning again, he might choose to go down the self-publishing route.
His focus now is on marketing the books, which again is challenging. He has written to many bookshops offering to visit them to sign copies of his book without success, because he is not a ‘known writer’. However he is working on marketing, no doubt with the same military precision he brings to the writing process.
We can learn so much from Paul Hart – notably from his commitment to work on his writing, to get things ‘right’. And all writers should be able to say with Paul that ‘I treat writing with the due reverence it deserves.’
It was lovely to hear him say that if he ever hits the big time, or even is moderately successful he will put money into the literary world to encourage young writers.
Thank you, Paul Shanks and Paul Hart for such an encouraging evening.
Comments