Muse: First of all, Whispers of the Muse welcomes you to the site. Tell us a little about yourself. What part of the world do you live in? Tell us about your background?
Ed Lane: I live in Lincolnshire, a quiet part of England which is mainly rural. I was born in London, went to the University of London to study English, art and design. There I joined the Officers’ Training Corps and was commissioned into the British army at the age of 19 years. I was first with an infantry regiment but ended up with the Parachute Regiment.
In civilian life I worked in advertising agencies before starting my own graphic design company with my wife, Barb, where we worked for national and multinational companies. We both took early retirement but are now busier than we ever were. My military background gives me an insight into a soldier’s psyche and I have a great deal of experience in handling firearms and other weapons. I’ve won three gold medals in national rapid fire competitions and I’m a member of Lincolnshire’s Lightweight Sport Rifle team.

Muse: Who are your favorite authors?
Ed Lane: I have to say that Shakespeare tops the list. I was introduced to him in my early teens by our school English teacher, Ray Jenkins, who subsequently went on to become a TV script writer. It was he who first engendered a love of writing in my schoolboy soul. Latterly I’ve developed an attachment to JRR Tolkien’s works and for lighter reading Tom Clancy, Len Deighton and John Le Carre, who has most influenced my style of writing as I always like to add a political dimension to the military aspect.

Muse: Why did you write a Memoire? And what other genres do you write?
Ed Lane: I didn’t, not yet. I’m still too young to write a life story although my life has had its interesting moments. My Genre is entirely military/political thrillers. It’s what I like to read and enjoy writing.

Muse: What is your writing regimen? How often do you work on a book? Do you set daily time or word goals? What keeps you meeting your deadlines?
Ed Lane: I’m very hit and miss, not at all as disciplined as I should be. A novel will take me around nine months to get down in rough draft because I’m always going back and correcting bits rather than getting on with the story. When I start I usually only have a rough idea of the plot which develops as I write. The ending is usually a surprise to me as much as anyone.

Muse: Does the way you personally look at life reflect in your writing style?
Ed Lane: Interesting question. I guess to a certain extent it does. In my books good usually triumphs over evil although the roads are rocky. That’s the way I’d like to see life but I’m usually disappointed. In today’s world the evil tends to have the upper hand.

Muse: What are the creative jumping off points for you? Are you inspired by dreams? Music? Nature? The occasional black nightmare? What triggers your imagination?
Ed Lane: Real life or maybe just the media’s way of presenting it. I’ll see a newspaper report and it will start my imagination working. I usually cut out and keep news stories for reference. I have a whole file of them.

Muse: Tell us about A Circling of Vultures. What was your inspiration?
Ed Lane: Again it was a newspaper report on an action in Afghanistan in 2002 which was entitled ‘Bloody Battle of the Caves’, in which SAS soldiers we said to enagage the Taliban in hand-to-hand knife fighting. The Ministry of Defence later denied the action ever took place and the news reporter failed to comment when I asked him about it. It all got my imagination working and ‘A Circling of Vultures’ is the result.

Muse: What is your favorite scene from the book and why?
Ed Lane: I really like the bit where the government toadie gets his comeuppance and the guy from MI5 gets busted down the ranks but I don’t want to spoil the story for you.

Muse: Have you written other books?
Ed Lane: Yes, five others. Two are prequels to ‘A Circling of Vultures’ and three others are a separate trilogy called ‘Fields of Fire’. They were my first three books and I’m very fond of them. Maybe too fond to share with the literary world. However there are plans afoot to publish the two prequels if Circling sells well enough.

Muse: Tell us about your other books?
Ed Lane: I’ll leave the details of Fields of Fire for another time. The other two are called ‘Soldier Girl’ and ‘The Lunatic Game’. Both feature a strong female character called Gill Somers, an army officer who unwillingly works for MI6, first in Spain against the Basque terrorist group ETA and subsequently against dissident IRA units in Ireland.

Muse: How do you feel about the current publishing marketplace?
Ed Lane: I have to be careful here. I have friends there. Personally I feel that the market is too orientated to the ‘Harry Potter’ syndrome with publishers and agents busting a gut to find a new blockbuster which leaves little room for the ‘unmagical’. Also too much emphasis on personalities writing (or not) their autobiographies for vast advances leaving little for the rest of us to pick over.