A few years ago, just as I was getting HUNTER launched, I was fascinated to witness the soaring success of another indie author, Richard Bard. His debut thriller, Brainrush, had a fantastic premise, and it was racking up fantastic sales and reviews. Since then, each new release in the “Brainrush” series has rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists.
Bestselling thriller author Richard Bard
I’ve long been curious about the author and his books — especially since we seem to share a lot of readers (and entertainment tastes). Richard and I recently started corresponding, and with the release this week of his new “Brainrush” novel, Everlast, I asked him if he’d do an interview for me. I’m delighted that he accepted.
Richard draws on his own experiences as a former United States Air Force pilot and cancer survivor to craft compelling characters who risk it all for love and loyalty. Born in Munich, Germany, to American parents, he joined the USAF, like his father. But he left the service when he was diagnosed with cancer and learned that he had only months to live.
Happily, that diagnosis proved to be premature. Richard went on to earn a management degree from the University of Notre Dame, then ran three successful companies involving advanced security products used by U.S. embassies and governments worldwide. Now a full-time writer, he lives in Redondo Beach, California, with his wife, and he remains in excellent health.
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The Vigilante Author: Richard, thanks for taking time out of your crazy schedule to do this — and huge congratulations on the enormous success of your “Brainrush” series. I’m in awe of the sales and reviews garnered by all three books in the initial trilogy: Brainrush, The Enemy of My Enemy, and Beyond Judgment.
Richard Bard: Yes, I’ve been extremely fortunate. The “Brainrush” thriller trilogy has garnered over 1,500 Amazon 5-star reviews to date. I still can’t believe it! It’s an international action thriller with a bit of mystery, suspense, romance, and even sci-fi. But at its heart it’s about second chances and embracing each day of your life as though it’s your last.
It was a natural first step in my writing since Jake Bronson’s emotional journey — as an Air Force pilot who faces a terminal diagnosis — parallels my own. It was a blast to write. The story is filled with unexpected twists and turns, and I promise that you will never predict the ending! When Publishers Weekly reviewed the unpublished manuscript, they said it “culminates in a particularly outrageous and fitting conclusion.” Good! Life should be that way, don’t you think?
The Vigilante Author: No argument from me. You only live once. And you have a keener awareness of mortality than most of us.
Now you have a new book out, and I want to know all about it.
Richard Bard: My latest book launched this week. Everlast, A Brainrush Thriller, while not part of the original trilogy, features the same characters fans have grown to love. It’s about a gifted boy forced to grow up too fast, a father who will do anything to protect him, and a madman bent on destroying them both.
The story begins when Jake’s family and closest friends are simultaneously abducted in a globally-coordinated kidnapping scheme. He’s thrust into a frantic race that takes him from the canals of Amsterdam and the cobbled streets of Rome to the back alleys of Hong Kong and the South China jungles, where he must lever every scrap of his failing mental abilities to rescue his loved ones and crush a madman’s plans to bring the world to its knees. (Whew!)
The Vigilante Author: “Whew” is right! Sounds like Robert Ludlum on steroids. So, give me your “elevator speech” about your “Brainrush” thrillers.
Richard Bard: Brainrush was described as “the international thriller with thought-provoking soul.” It’s a moniker I strive to live up to in every book. I like to draw readers in from the very first page, and keep their emotions (and heart rate) engrossed until the very end.
The Vigilante Author: There are so many thriller series out there, and so many thriller protagonists. What do you think sets yours apart?
Richard Bard: I like to place ordinary people in ever-increasing extraordinary situations, so that their emotional armor is stripped bare and their core values are tested. From my point of view, that means including a cast of characters that includes family, friends, and children. I like to be drawn in to the story as I create it, imagining what I’d do if I faced a terminal diagnosis — or if my closest friend needed my help in a far corner of the world — or if, God forbid, my wife and children were kidnapped by terrorists. It gets my blood boiling just thinking about it. What would you do? Where would you draw the line?
The Vigilante Author: Richard, I write vigilante thrillers. I’m exactly the wrong guy to be asking, “Where would you draw the line?”
Anyway, I wonder what kind of childhood and background could have produced a man who could dream up such extravagant tales. I bet readers here are wondering the same thing. Tell us something about Richard Bard.
Richard Bard: As part of a military family, I traveled all over the world. I experienced more than my share of tearful good-byes as my family hopped from country to country, state to state. It seemed like every time I got settled in to a new home — sometimes even a new language — Dad got transferred.
I learned to make new friends easily enough, but it was movies and books that ultimately became my constant companions. I can still remember ditching second session of Saturday catechism on base in Wiesbaden, Germany, so that my brother and I could sneak into the matinee. Popcorn was only twenty-five cents!
I read my first “chapter” book when I was six years old. It was Fulton Oursler’s 1949 novel The Greatest Story Ever Told. I can still remember my wonder and excitement as the story took me away. It’s still on my shelf. I’ve consumed books ever since — always fiction, always action/adventures and/or thrillers. And to this day I still go to the movies at least twice a week.
The Vigilante Author: Boy, have we got similar tastes! I got hooked on thrillers somewhat later — in my twenties — but they’ve been an addiction ever since. And I used to go to the movies obsessively, though I don’t much anymore.
So your love of books and movies influenced you to take the plunge into writing fiction, right?
Richard Bard: You bet. Fifty years of films and books have fueled an active imagination filled with stories crying to escape. When I exited the business world a few years back, I decided it was time to open the floodgates. With the help of a bunch of classes and terrific instructors at UCLA-extension Writer’s Program, I started writing. And writing. And writing. I couldn’t get enough of it. Still can’t! There’ve only been two “jobs” that I’ve had in my career that I really loved. The first was flying; the second is writing. I couldn’t be happier.
The Vigilante Author: You’ve achieved some impressive milestones in your writing career. What are you most proud of so far?
Richard Bard: When I finally finished my first manuscript, I uploaded it to Authonomy.com — a Harper Collins website — where readers and writers alike offer valuable critique and input on one’s writing. If a reviewer particularly likes a story, he or she votes for it, and a book climbs the charts. After a couple months my debut novel hit the #1 slot out of all genres. That was quite a boost for this fledgling author!
Then later, when I indie-published book #2 of the series, it held a death grip on the top of the Amazon top-rated (best reader-reviewed) Mystery/Thriller list for 9 straight months. I’m still amazed.
The Vigilante Author: Getting that kind of validation right out of the gate is an emotional tonic. And you’ve gotten other kinds of validation, too. Brainrush looks like it has a future on the big screen. In fact, you recently observed actors from the American Film Institute perform a run-through of your screenplay for Book #1 in the series. I can only imagine what that was like for you.
Richard Bard: What a blast! My co-writer and I spent several months adapting the novel, and it took seven drafts before we figured it was ready. As a final step in the polishing process, the producers gathered a dozen actors to perform a “table read” at the prestigious AFI location. Hearing the story come to life in that environment was an amazing experience, and it provided us with valuable insight as to where to make improvements.
The Vigilante Author: You’ve come such a long way in such a short time, Richard. But the first novel couldn’t have just materialized like magic, right? It had to be a challenge.
Richard Bard: I wrote the first chapter of my debut novel at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. After eight weeks of classes and workshops it was done. Yay! But then what? Class was over, and I was alone at the coffee shop with my computer cursor blinking under the title “Chapter 2.” It took a couple weeks of trial and error before I came up with a method to figure out what to write next.
The Vigilante Author: How did that happen? What did you do?
Richard Bard: First, I decided how I wanted the story to end, so I could begin with the end in sight. After that I began typing stream of consciousness, writing a summary page of each prospective chapter — with an eye on drawing the reader in at the beginning of the scene, and leaving the reader hanging at the end. I kept going, one chapter summary after another, rarely adding dialogue unless a great line came to mind. The faster I moved through it, the better I felt.
Before long, I had a few dozen pages, and the skeleton of an outline emerged. The exercise provided me with a terrific guide as I dove into writing the actual story. Did the plot and characters change dramatically by the time I was finished? They sure did, but that was the fun of it! I still use the process today.
The Vigilante Author: Richard, what motivates you to write? Do you have some kind of goal? Any basic mission or theme in your work?
Richard Bard: If I get to the end of the day having progressed the story I’m working on, I feel good. If not, I feel horrible. It’s sad, but true. Writing has become an obsession for me. So I focus on making sure that I start every writing day in my cave, away from distractions, knowing that every paragraph I write will allow me to embrace the remainder of the day with a sense of accomplishment.
As for themes or missions, I only have mantra: When it feels like things are going too easy for the characters, I stop writing. Then I sit back and imagine the worst thing that could happen at that point in the story . . . and make it so!
The Vigilante Author: (laughing) Yeah, we thriller writers are sadists with our characters. Do your stories impart some moral or philosophical point of view?
Richard Bard: It’s all about friends and family, and one’s willingness to do whatever is necessary to help or protect them.
The Vigilante Author: What kind of work environment have you set up to do your writing?
Richard Bard: Best way to answer that is with a couple photos taken last month, one staged, one natural. Can you guess which is which?
The Vigilante Author: Yeah, who would ever guess? But damn! Your office is so tidy and classy. I hate you, Richard!
You have self-published, then traditionally published. Care to make any comparisons and contrasts?
Richard Bard: I launched my first two books as an Indie author. The success of those books led to a three-book deal with Thomas & Mercer of Amazon Publishing. As an indie author I was nimble and fast to market. I was also able to be very creative with my promotional strategies. On the other hand, as a traditionally-published author I didn’t have to worry much about marketing, and instead could focus on writing, which is nice. There are advantages to both, and I’ve come to believe that a combination of the two might be the best overall strategy. Time will tell.
The Vigilante Author: Keep me posted on how it works out for you. So, given your experiences, do you have an opinion about which publishing route you would recommend to aspiring writers?
Richard Bard: The digital revolution has been difficult for publishers in some ways. However, it has also provided them with a unique tool to identify up-and-coming authors. No longer do they need to take a risk with a relative unknown writer, when instead they can cherry pick indies from the bestseller lists. Isn’t that what you would do if you were in their shoes?
The Vigilante Author: Makes sense. There’s no downside risk for them.
Richard Bard: With that in mind, I recommend writing the best book you can — with lots of reader feedback, professional editing, then more feedback, rewrite, trim, rewrite again, etc. — then indie-publish it, to make your mark. If you’re successful, then the phone will start ringing, and you’ll be in the driver’s seat.
The Vigilante Author: I always ask successful authors about the qualities they think are most important for any would-be writer to nurture — and also if they have any advice to offer aspiring authors. Well?
Richard Bard: Write, write, write . . . Start typing, don’t worry about mistakes, and be each of the characters as you’re writing from their POV. They’ll guide you from page to page in ways that will surprise you and your readers.
The Vigilante Author: What can we expect next from your keyboard?
Richard Bard: That’s easy! Fast-paced “international thrillers with thought-provoking soul!”
The Vigilante Author: Gee. No surprise there. But can you tell us three things about yourself as a writer that are not common knowledge?
Richard Bard: Sure.
First, I never read 1-, 2-, or 3-star reviews. But . . . I make up for it by reading the 4- and 5-star reviews over and over again.
Second, I keep a diary of “memories” — key events that have occurred throughout my life that impacted me deeply. It’s a long list that includes joy, tragedy, fantasy-come-true, loss, and more. One day, I’ll publish it.
And finally, as I mentioned, I’m a huge movie fan. My dream is to see Brainrush on the big screen someday. It’s been optioned for film and the producers are pitching it even as I write this. Fingers crossed!
The Vigilante Author: Mine are crossed for you, too. I’d love to see it and say, “I knew him when . . .”
Richard, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the time you’ve spent with us. Congratulations again. I wish you every continued success with Everlast and all your future work. And stay healthy, my friend!
You can learn more about Richard Bard and his work at his website. Follow him on Facebook and also on Twitter @Richard_Bard.
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Photo (c) by Debbie Scott
