Today’s Author Byte comes from Augustine Sam, author of Mystery/thriller, THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE
Fun Fact about The Conspiracy of Silence: It was inspired by a radio play Augustine wrote and starred in many years ago.
1) What’s your favorite childhood book? Your favorite
grown-up book?
Augustine: My
favorite childhood book was a novel titled “One-Eyed Sunday” (now
out-of-print).
My favorite grown-up book is “The Collected Oscar Wilde.”
My favorite grown-up book is “The Collected Oscar Wilde.”
2) What’s your favorite line from a TV show, movie,
song, or book? (Other than your own)
Augustine: My
favorite line from a TV show is a declaration by Walter White in Breaking Bad:
“I am not in danger, Skyler, I am the danger.”
3) What is your favorite quote?
Augustine: My
favorite quote is Bertrand Russell’s: “Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion,
for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”
4) If you could be a character in any of your books, who
would you be and why?
Augustine: If I could, I’d be Bill in my debut novel, Take Back the Memory, because he had
the unique chance of reuniting with his childhood crush, Paige who loved him in
ways she couldn’t explain even to herself, since “love is a mystery, an
indecipherable mystery.”
5) If you were going to be executed, what would you
choose as your last meal?
Augustine: I’d forgo the last meal for a soothing, final smoke of my aromatic pipe.
Question:
How far can you go to save your lover from a murder rap if your life/career is
at stake?
About the book:
Sex scandals in high places… a depiction of the
life-and-death struggle of a young female lawyer who goes to great lengths to
outwit a diabolical trio with a very dark secret in order to save her lover
from a murder rap.
Excerpt:
On this particular night, there were no lovers necking by the fountain, but
there was something else. A black diamond Cadillac was parked beside the
fountain. The curiously unusual sight caused the dim figure’s hands to shake
with excitement. Cars were not allowed that far into the park, so whatever
fantasies within the limits of human accomplishment the Cadillac’s driver had
conceived, this was the wrong night for it, he mused. This’ll be my last
murder, he decided, the climax of a long, enterprising career as the greatest
hitman of all time. He was a killer so efficient and so elusive that even the
FBI nicknamed him Shadow of Death for his uncanny ability to dissolve into a
penumbra after every hit.
He immediately recognized the wonderful head of hair and the slender, sensual
neck as the lone occupant of the Cadillac appeared in silhouette against the
fountain. Suddenly his pulse quickened. He mopped his brow with a handkerchief
and contemplated the lady’s mesmerizing beauty. It seemed odd to him now to
think of her as a victim. He had loved her once; in fact, he still loved her.
And therein lay the quandary—a lethal clash between his obsession and his
survival instinct. The survival instinct, of course, must win, he told himself,
for between them now stood the only thing that love could not subdue—a very
dark secret.
Bio:
Augustine Sam is a journalist by profession, a novelist by choice, and a poet
by chance. A bilingual writer and an award-winning poet, he writes not only
hard news but literary works as well.
While pursuing hard news, he fell in love with poetry the way you fall asleep:
slowly, and then all at once. He was the winner of the Editors’ Choice Award in
the North America Open Poetry Contest & a Finalist in the International Book
Award Gala. His poems have been published in international anthologies,
including “Measures of the Heart” & “Sounds of Silence.”
