Written by:MarginPressAdmin
9/10/2008 1:01 PM

Here are some answers to questions I get asked regularly:

1. Is Frank de Sales your real name?
It’s a pen name of course - a corruption ‘St Francis de Sales’, the patron of writers.

2. Why did you choose that?
Besides that I thought it sounded cool? St Francis is also my patron and someone whose works I admire very much. The Catholic nature of Devil’s Island makes it very clear what some of the things very important to me are and it fitted nicely from a number of perspectives. Besides, my real name is made up of three first names and doesn’t come across very well. Working for a bank for my day job, I also wanted to keep a bit of a distance while I got used to being published. My wife Linda furthermore does a lot of work on the books and they’re as much her output as they are mine. Using ‘Frank de Sales’ is a way of acknowledging her valuable input.

3. Do I have to be so filthy?
Real people use bad language and any novel that doesn’t reflect how people in everyday situations (and some pretty horrible ones too, as my characters often find themselves in) talk, is not likely to be credible. Gangsters don’t say ‘Oh my word!’ if they shoot one of their toes off by accident! Besides, as I’ve mentioned, I believe that the fight between good and evil is a war. General Patton (who has probably the coolest nickname in all history: ‘Blood and Guts’) stated that it isn’t possible to fight a war without some profanity. From my own army experience, I can’t even think it possible to train soldiers properly without insulting them and their mothers.

4. What am I hoping to achieve?
What kind of a question is that? That’s the sort of open-ended thing Scientologists ask when they disturb your shopping to try and get you to take their ‘free stress test’. Like any writer, I want to entertain. What I want more is to place traditional Catholic themes back in the mainstream and help undo some of the cultural carnage wrought by their being turned on their head by people who should have known better and now wonder why nobody seems to care that their churches are empty.

5. Why do I use British spelling conventions?
Habit I suppose. Even though my book does better in the US (maybe because it was distributed there first), I was schooled in the British way as opposed to the American (colour versus color, etc) and the British is sort of quaint. I don’t mind reading either and don’t think it’s really an issue.

6. Is that enough for now?
Yes it is. Jump to another page.

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