A. Jay Collins

I am not a person who has ever really recognized business skulduggery at the levels I have been involved in. I am told it does go on, but I don’t go looking for it, so I am not attuned to such things. The issues that were brought to my attention seemed trivial, and I left it to others to resolve. But, eventually, as I got out of the trenches and into the boardroom, some things just didn’t sit well for me. Clearly I had matured – or perhaps I had more time on my hands to reflect. Now, it was as though I was being unwittingly caught up in situations where decisions were being made that were clearly on the edge of illegality and, frankly, beyond my ability to properly decode at the time they were happening. But, I had seemed to come to that point where I recognized where that edge was, and it was from that point that I realised there were stories to be told. 

While not published, other than for industry related articles, I began to write in the early 1980’s after an escapade my family and I went through in northern Iran. It was at the same time as the Shah was essentially exiled, and Khomeini took hold of the reigns. It was a story that seemed compelling and interesting to tell, although I had no physical means, other than pen and paper, to develop it while I worked and brought up a family that was on the move for much of the time. 

Eventually, I put that story on hold, in a briefcase with all my newspaper clippings and journal entries on life in Iran. It would be forty years before they saw the light of day when I reincarnated those files to develop the Black Gold storyline – my third novel.  

In the meantime, there was a story brewing in me based on the shenanigans that were going on in my own backyard. At the time, I was travelling a lot and collecting snippets of experiences and people I met on route aty a very senior level. They became welded by words into ‘The Golden Handcuffs’ that really took on the hypocrisy of otherwise trusted service providers that directly affected the economic success, or not, of us ordinary folk, and twisted the actions into ones we cannot understand as ordinary people. Governments were conspiring with industry at such mediocre levels they managed to fly below the radar of the international press. Who controlled the gold price? Certainly not governments. Who controlled countries? Certainly not governments. Private industry yields a power in the mid-levels of th world authority that few of us hear about or understand. The Golden Handcuffs is focused on just one, tiny, point in the power game where none of us take notice. But, remember, it happens everywhere. I love the characters.  I know some of them. The places are real. The setting is perfect for shenanigans.

It was really my third book, Black Gold, that took the longest to write – over 40 years, based on circumstances that are dear to me – people I knew, circumstances I have been involved in – but,  I was too young to put it all together. 

Research has always been a passion for me. It’s something that my training as an engineer taught me. Research, research.research – and at the end of it, one realises that one’s knowledge is less than when one started. There are so many questions one has to ask oneself when to stop, write and carry on. The fact is, there are a lot of researchers, but not many can put the whole thing together as a comprehensive storyline that can teach as well as entertain. Thank God for the Micheners, the Wilbur Smiths, the Winchesters and so many great authors/teachers  of the world. I love them all and acknowledge I could never aspire to their greatness. 

But, Nazi Gold – Latitude 55 has been my joy to put together. Despite the sombre nature of the basic subject line, it taught me so much. Researching the history, the  circumstances, the possibilities, the groups involved and the wonderful simplicity of the north of British Columbia and it’s interesting history that could be the subject of many novels just in itself. I have been to all these places, met with so many of these people (other than the pope). I have met with the Turks who I describe, in the setting I have set out, and the corporate nonsense that goes on – I have been there, lived it and recorded it in a way that is story-like. The investigative detail of the Vatican is truly based on research and I cannot claim to have visited Tronetto Hall, talked to a cardinal or a bishop, or seen the Vatican cheque book – but I am fairly sure it isn’t like mine! 

It was truly a labour of passion that I will miss.

It wasn’t until the second novel, Nazi Gold – Latitude 55, that I thought there could be a series. I am a bit embarrassed by the name of Matthew Black, since I had always thought of him as being Matt Black, but as time went on I thought this was a little ridiculous. So I stayed with Matthew Black and now I can’t change. I also don’t like the acronym ORB but, again, I don’t think I can change at this point. I think it’s really cheesy but at the same time it is what it does and what I intend it to do. ‘Change government, change industry, create a semblance of normality that doesn’t ripple the fabric ….blah, blah, blah.” 

I love the idea of a series containing the same characters. It has some real advantages. I don’t have to recreate profiles. I can hone the profiles I have already invented. I can slot them in as the story needs. I want to continue to collect names and profiles that we can use. 

I love putting together places and people with those that I have some experience with. For instance, my latest novel ‘Viking Gold’ is involved with places in Greenland that I know well enough, with Danish corporation directors I have got to know, with the property in Newfoundland I know well, with the fish market I visited in Nuuk, and the supper with the Prime Minister of Greenland.  Stitch it all together, with a little bit of skulduggery, and you have a story. You have to love this way of expression. These characters, these cultures, these obese characteristics of people we don’t see in our everyday lives. Who are they? Where do they come from? Well, ‘Viking Gold’ tells you a little about them, from my own experience.