Today’s author interview spotlights John M. Dargo.  Author of the Military/Action-Adventure novel, Balkan Spring.

Thanks for joining us John!

WCP: Tell us a little about Balkan Spring.

JMD: Balkan Spring is an action-adventure novel set in Yugoslavia during World War 2. The main story involves three friends, two men and a woman, who are fighting against their homeland’s Nazi invaders. They join up as volunteers with the leftist Partisan movement, but things run afoul when Partisan regulars show up and seem to threaten them almost as the opposition army. The story is really about the three friends flight from (and through) these various menaces.

There’s also a secondary story, which revolves around an English RAF pilot whose assignment leads him to the skies over Yugoslavia. In the final third of the novel the two storylines come together as the book concludes.

WCP: What made you write a Military/Action-Adventure and what did you find difficult about writing it?

JMD: Ha-ha. This is a good question. Balkan Spring was, at the time, my first real attempt to write a novel length work. A couple of years ago, I had some time on my hands from my other occupation as a Real Estate Appraiser. So I decided to try to use the time to finally write something meaningful. When it comes down to it, I suppose I was influenced by a song I was listening to at the time, On the Border, by Al Stewart. Its about a revolution or similar action and talks about smuggling rifles among other things. That led to memories of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and some movie I had seen regarding Tito’s Partisans in Yugoslavia. My father’s parents also emigrated from south-eastern Europe, so, being a history buff anyway, I was pretty familiar with that part of the world, and I liked the Partisan Army setting and World War 2 time frame.

As far as what was difficult about writing a Military book; I’d have to say technical details on the armaments, and then trying to get the storyline to intersect correctly with the historical timeline.

WCP: Do you have any other genre you’d like to try your hand at?

JMD: I’ve actually written another book since I first penned Balkan Spring, I self-published Broken Down Summer last August. It’s somewhere between a mystery/thriller and a police procedural. I’m planning a follow-up book on that, hopefully turning it into at least a short series.

WCP: Do you have any favorite authors in the Military or Action-Adventure genre? Or ones that have influenced you more than others?

JMD: Well, though I’d hesitate to box Hemmingway into that corner, I’ve already noted his influence. Then there’d also be Alistair MacLean and older Ken Follett works. Helen MacInnes also comes to mind. Though most of her works border on Romance (at least for me), she really could spin an espionage/action novel. While Still We Live, which she wrote in 1944 about the Polish resistance, ranks right up there with the best.

WCP: Is there anything you would like the readers to take away from the story?

JMD: Well, first off, I’d like them to enjoy the story. It moves back and forth between the hunted and the hunter, and I’ve been told it’s hard to put down. After that, there is the theme that everyday people can be heroes, and that heroic action doesn’t necessarily have to mean charging headlong into enemy lines. I mean, sometimes the battlefield water boy, or the resistance newspaper editor, or even the parent who brings up a child in a tough environment may be the most heroic of all.

WCP: Do you have anything else in the works?

JMD: As I mentioned, I have a follow-up to Broken Down Summer that I’m working on. In addition to that, I have a number of literary projects I’m toying with. I also have a children’s book project that I’m pretty excited about, kind of a Hardy Boys thing with a little Harry Potter thrown in. You won’t see that under my name though, I’d definitely use a nom-de-pen for that.

In the mean time I’m also writing part-time for an online city-guide magazine, HelloLouisville.

WCP: Now for some fun questions: What about writing life/being an author took you by surprise?

JMD: Wow, where to start. First off, the difficulty of getting published and on to mainstream bookstore shelves. I’ve read that publishers are not necessarily looking for a quality product, but rather a product that they can be sure will sell. So if a celebrity wants to publish a book, for instance, then they will automatically get a contract, because they have a name that will guarantee at least a modicum of sales, regardless of the content of the book. And, as someone who has been self-employed, I can understand that publishers are in this to make money, not to help authors; it’s a business, not a charity. Having said that, I’m still trying to figure out “what will sell”. I know books centered on timely topics (such as Afghanistan, or perhaps Egypt/Libya) would probably be more appealing than one centered around, say World War 2 (oh no!). But a well written, engaging, story has universal appeal. It’s just a matter of getting it in front of the reading public.

WCP: If you could sit down and have dinner with anyone, living or dead, what would it be and what would you eat?

JMD: I’ve been asked this before (at least the who part). Truthfully, there are so many people that I can’t name one. Here are a few, just off the top of my head: Tolkien, Washington, Aristotle, Marx, Faulkner, Boudica, Oswald, Cleopatra, Shakespeare and Harold Godwinson. An eclectic mix and Oswald is not an endorsement.

The food is easy, sushi.

WCP: Any last words? Um, for the interview, that is. (grin)

JMD: All I can think of is that I’d like to express my appreciation to Wild Child Publishing for taking a chance on this book and helping me to get my work in front of the reading public.

Visit John online: Website or Blog

Wild Child Books by John M. Dargo:

Balkan Spring