Steven Savile is a fascinating and talented guy.  He has sold over a quarter of a million books worldwide, won multiple awards, including the Writers of the Future and Scribe Award, and is a number one bestseller in the United Kingdom.  A lifelong genre fan, Savile has written for Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, Stargate, Guild Wars, Warhammer, Slaine, Star Wars and the Jurassic Park series, as well as Fantastic TV, a critical study of 50 years worth of science fiction on television.  In 2009 he won the International Media Tie-in Writer's Scribe Award for his original novel, Primeval: Shadow of the Jaguar.

I caught up with Steven a few days ago and had a chance to ask him a number of questions.

Is there anything special you'd like to tell us about Silver?

"Silver's my debut thriller - an entirely new direction for me as a writer.  It's been a long time coming.  I really wanted to delve into a deeper story that would have some legs to examine a lot of what interests me about the psychology of fear in this new ‛televisual' age.  So far, Silver has sold into 14 languages, I believe, with France, Germany, Poland, and Spain being among the first releases, as well as an exciting multi-media campaign with Vodafone where it will be available for direct download to smart phones in half a dozen countries across Europe."

Did any particular event inspire the plot?

"I came across the recently published Gospel of Judas and read the passage suggesting that the Great Betrayal could in point of fact been the Great Sacrifice and was struck by the inversion.  The next logical thing was to revisit the historical story and invert more of it . . . instead of Jesus, take the story of Judas, instead of the silver being cursed and something Judas can't dispose of, to make it something almost like a family heirloom and something his descendants would treasure, etc.  Sometimes reversing conceptions and ideas can really open up the thought processes and result in much stronger ideas.  So there wasn't really an instigating moment, more like a slow-bleed over a decade. The big inversion, though, came from thinking about what made stories like Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code work, and the realization that it was not the history so much as the immediacy of it.  The final inversion inspired me to think about the story in terms of millennia, our fears, and instead of the road to Jerusalem and Templars, the Disciples of Judas became a more intimate and modern threat . . . and that, I think, makes them more interesting and more terrifying."

What are you doing to promote your book?

"The glib answer is everything possible, but aside from stuff like signing sessions in London and Stockholm, I'll be (hopefully) coming over to the States to NYC, LA and a few other cities.  In Germany, we're giving away silver daggers with the books.  I've just done an hour long chat with Jeff Ayers at Author Magazine which should be online now so everyone can listen to my dulcet tones. One of the more interesting ideas I'm following is with BlackBetty mobileMedia and Vodafone, which involves the ability for something like 350 million customers on the Vodafone network to read the first five chapters for free . . . this is only happening in Europe at the moment, but I'm hopeful that customers on the Verizon network will be getting the same application soon."

What's next?

"I'm finishing up a Victorian fantasy novel, and am about to begin Gold, the imaginatively titled follow-up novel to Silver.  However the next book is actually a non-fiction expose co-written with Justin Buckles, who was the show coordinator for American Idol.  I'm helping Justin tell his story.  You may have noticed from this paragraph, I tend to do a lot of different things.  I'm like a creative magpie."

When you're not writing, what are you doing (hobbies, family, etc.)?

I'm a big Tottenham Hotspur fan (football of the variety where all the players can use their feet), I read, hang out in cafes and go shopping with my wife.  I'm a fairly average every day sort of guy, really.  I live in Stockholm - I emigrated from the UK over a decade ago and could never bring myself to leave.  It's a gorgeous city.  I'm also a bit of a compulsive TV watcher (although I claim that's part of the job).  In January, Plexus, the pop culture publisher in the UK is releasing a non-fiction guide to Fantastic TV, a celebration of 50 years of genre television I wrote last year.  See TV watching is really work.  Told you.  Ahem. . . ."

What didn't I ask you that I should have?

"Given the subject matter of Silver, what's the weirdest thing that has happened while writing it?????

The weirdest, and probably most disturbing thing, actually happened right around day one of writing.  I was sitting in the local cafe having just finished proofing copies of The Power Behind the Throne, my forthcoming Stargate novel, sipping my latte and thinking "I can't put this off forever."  So I opened a Pages document (I'm a mac boy), typed Silver by Steven Savile, tabbed down and wrote the first two words that came into my head,  ‛Judas swept.'  I hit the period key and part of the ceiling above my head collapsed, raining plaster down on me.  The place was a mess.  Dust and plaster everywhere.  But there wasn't a mark on me or the computer despite the bench I was sitting on taking a pounding and chunks of ceiling lying all around me.  I couldn't make up my mind if someone up there was looking out for  me or warning me off . . . ."

A few jacket blurbs:

"Silver is a wild combination of Indiana Jones, The Da Vinci Code, and The Omen.  Read this book . . .  before the world ends." ---- Kevin J. Anderson, international bestselling author of The Saga of Seven Suns, and co-author of Paul of Dune.

"With Silver, Steven Savile takes everything you thought you knew about religious thrillers and turns it upside down.  Fascinating, gripping, horrific, tragic, and compelling.  Savile pulls back the curtain on a 2,000 year old heresy, destined to rock the Vatican." ---- Steve Alten, NYT bestselling author of Meg and The Shell Game.

Be sure to get your copy of Silver today.  I know I will.

During Don Helin's career in the military, he spent three tours in the Pentagon, then worked as a lobbyist for industry. These two "Washington Insider" careers have provided him ample material for his thriller novels.