A Placed Called Armageddon by C.C. Humphreys (Author Guest Post: Top Ten things I learned writing this book)

Today I would like to give a welcome to historical fiction author, C.C. Humphreys, who is joining us with his latest release of A Place Called Armageddon. I know this is a bit different than what we usually feature here at RBtWBC (romance) but the sound of this book really interested me and I'm fascinated by this period in time so here we are! : ) Please give him a warm welcome...

Top Ten things I learned writing this book:

1. I am less and less interested in good guys and bad guys. One man’s villain is someone else’s hero.
2. Don’t go into a really run down area of a strange city (especially Istanbul) unless you have cigarettes to bribe the feral young attackers. Or a big stick.
3. Do not mix raki and beer.
4. With narghile, (hubble bubble pipes) smoke the mint tobacco and drink the apple tea, or smoke the apple tobacco and drink the mint tea but do not smoke the apple tobacco and drink the apple tea. (You smell like a giant Granny Smith. For days!)
5. When the muezzin duel from their minarets, summoning the faithful to prayer, don’t discover you’ve left your recorder in the hotel.
6. Don’t expect your wife to favourably comment on the sex scenes you’ve created between your fantasy alter ego and some hot young sorceress.
7. Talk to everyone – the concierge, the bartender, the tobacco boys, the carpet salesmen. They will all have an opinion. (Carry pen and paper to write it down)
8. A mackerel tastes better on the docks of the Golden Horn where it was just caught than in a fancy restaurant.
9. Love your characters, even when you know they will betray you.
10. Writing is a process made up of several stages. One follows the other. Don’t confuse them. (Actually I’ve always known this but I relearn it every novel!)

To the Greeks who love it, it is Constantinople. To the Turks who covet it, the Red Apple. Safe behind its magnificent walls, the city was once the heart of the vast Byzantine empire.
1453. The empire has shrunk to what lies within those now-crumbling walls. A relic. Yet for one man, Constantinople is the stepping stone to destiny. Mehmet is twenty when he is annointed Sultan. Now, seeking Allah’s will and Man’s glory, he brings an army of one hundred thousand, outnumbering the defenders ten to one. He has also brings something new – the most frightening weapon the world has ever seen...
But a city is more than stone, its fate inseparable from that of its people. Men like Gregoras, a mercenary and exile, returning to the hated place he once loved. Like his twin and betrayer, the subtle diplomat, Theon. Like Sofia, loved by two brothers but forced to make a desperate choice between them. And Leilah, a powerful mystic and assassin, seeking her own destiny in the flames.
This is the tale of one of history’s greatest battles for one of the world’s most extraordinary places. This is the story of people, from peasant to emperor - with the city’s fate, and theirs, undecided... until the moment the Red Apple falls.

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C.C. Humphreys was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in Los Angeles and London. A third generation actor and writer on both sides of his family, he returned to Canada in the nineties and there his writing career began. He won the inaugural playwriting competition of the New Play Centre, Vancouver with his first play, 'A Cage Without Bars' which was produced in Vancouver and London. He was a schoolboy fencing champion, became a fight choreographer and thus turned his love of swashbuckling towards historical fiction. He is married and lives in Finchley, North London.

http://cchumphreys.com/