FEATURED AUTHOR: GRAY BASNIGHT

ABOUT THE BOOK

An innocent math professor runs for his life as teams of hitmen try to prevent publication of their government’s dark history. 


College professor Sam Teagarden stumbles upon a decades-old government cover-up when an encoded document mysteriously lands in his in-box, followed by a cluster of mini-drones programmed to kill him. 


That begins a terrifying flight from upstate New York, to Washington, to Key West as Teagarden must outfox teams of hitmen equipped with highly sophisticated technology. While a fugitive, he races to decode the document, only to realize the dreadful truth—it’s the reason he’s being hunted because it details criminal acts committed by the U.S. in the 20th Century. 


If he survives and publishes the decoded document, he’ll be a heroic whistle blower. But there is no guarantee. He may also end up dead.


Book Details:

Title: Flight of the Fox

Author: Gray Basnight

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Publisher: Down & Out Books (July 23, 2018)

Print length: 381pages

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH GRAY BASNIGHT

A few of your favorite things: Playing with my dog, reading, writing, eating, traveling (especially by train), sitting on a porch during sunset.
Things you need to throw out: Anything made of plastic.


Things you need in order to write: A PC or laptop.  (The best thing about computers is the backspace key because I’m a lousy typist.)
Things that hamper your writing: Interruptions both external and internal.


Things you love about writing: The best thing is when it goes well. A good writing session is what I imagine it must be like to have a good work shift as a brick layer. To be able to look back and see the bricks or stones taking shape must be a satisfying sense of accomplishment. 
Things you hate about writing: The worst is when it goes poorly. But I’ve learned that on those days you need to stay in the chair. Keep staring at the screen. Okay, get up to water the plants or walk the dog. But returning to the chair is a must. At the very least, the bad days allow you to know there’s a real problem and where. Afterward, both the conscious and subconscious mind will be working that problem. Sometimes the solution comes while falling asleep (keep pen and paper next to the bed) or the next morning in the shower.  

Easiest thing about being a writer:  Nothing is really easy about the creative end of writing. It’s debatable as to who first said one of the all-time great quotes about writing, that goes something like this: “Writing is easy, all you have to do is sit down at the keyboard and slice open a vein.” Once a contract is signed, I enjoy working with a good copyeditor who’s dedicated to working in tandem to improve the manuscript. For most of us, that give and take is a vital part of the product.      
Hardest thing about being a writer: There isn’t any one thing. It’s all difficult and frustrating. But one ever-present roadblock tends to be the business end of writing where agents, editors and publishing houses are increasingly more selective as the industry evolves through tectonic changes.  It’s perfectly understandable that fewer titles receive attention from the big houses, but that doesn’t make it less bumpy for both published and aspiring writers.

Things you love about where you live: In New York City, I love that all eight million of us are in the vortex together, yet at the same time we can all be alone within the crowd. 
Things that make you want to move: Parking tickets.


Things you never want to run out of: Coffee.
Things you wish you’d never bought: My last donut.


Favorite foods: Bread, butter, potatoes, onions, garlic, beans, nuts, peas, pasta, shellfish, chicken and pork. As for cuisine: Southern, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese.
Things that make you want to throw up: Liver.

Favorite music: Blues, classic rock, and classical.
Music that make your ears bleed: Contemporary corporate-managed teenie-bopper pop.

Something you’re really good at: Bowling (but I don’t do it much).

Something you’re really bad at: Singing, which is why I never try.


Something you wish you could do: Anything musical, especially blues guitar or classical violin.  Oh—what magic.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Pop my knuckles.

People you consider as heroes: My only true heroes are public school teachers.

People with a big L on their foreheads: This is really gross I know, but I can’t stand it when people talk with their mouth full of food or have other equally disgusting table manners. It’s weirdly ironic, but famous chefs and other foodies are some of the worst offenders.   



Favorite places you’ve been: Paris, Madrid, Porto, Venice, Key West.  

Places you never want to go to again: My mom’s nursing home in Richmond, Virginia.

Favorite books: Robinson Caruso, Moll Flanders, Around the World in Eighty Days, War of the Worlds, The Sun Also Rises, Intruder in the Dust, Shadows in Paradise, In Cold Blood, Travels with my Aunt.  

Books you would ban: None/never.

Things that make you happy: Laughter, seeing animals in the wild, a good book.  
Things that drive you crazy: Technology that doesn’t work properly makes me want to move to Tibet and live in a cave. The old joke that you need a 12-year-old to fix the glitch really doesn’t apply any longer. Everything interfacing with everything else makes it all so complicated and mysterious.   Much of the time the cable guy and the clerk in the phone store haven’t a clue how to fix the issues.   And sometimes they make it worse.         

EXCERPT FROM FLIGHT OF THE FOX

He knew the pages would be historic if made public.  It would be a mean revelation that many would prefer to leave hidden, to keep the past cloaked in beguiling innocence.

He opened the sliding glass door just wide enough to slip out.  Once outside, he stooped low and pushed it closed with a foot.

Crouching low, there was a strong smell of freshly cut grass and store bought chemical fertilizer.  He moved slowly, going as easy on his still-healing knees as he could while maneuvering down the embankment of the neighboring yard, Ernest Blair’s yard.  He paused every few feet, cocking his head, first to one side, then the other, listening for any sound that might be out of place with the night.  The most prominent noise was the lapping of tiny waves at the shore’s edge caused by a light breeze.  Beyond that, the night was still.        

      

OTHER BOOKS BY GRAY:

The Cop with the Pink Pistol
Shadows in the Fire
Audio sample of Flight of the Fox
Full interview with Gray






ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


Gray Basnight worked for three decades in New York City as a radio and television news producer, writer, editor, reporter, and newscaster.  He lives in New York with his wife and golden retriever, where he is grateful to be dedicated to his lifelong passion of writing. 

Basnight’s novels and works-in-progress cross several genres, including crime, historical, YA, and literary fiction. At the moment, he’s available for readings and interviews for his run-for-you-life thriller Flight of the Fox.


Connect with Gray:
Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Down & Out Books

FEATURED AUTHOR: GRAY BASNIGHT

ABOUT THE BOOK 

An innocent math professor runs for his life as teams of hitmen try to prevent publication of their government’s dark history.

College professor Sam Teagarden stumbles upon a decades-old government cover-up when an encoded document mysteriously lands in his in-box, followed by a cluster of mini-drones programmed to kill him.

That begins a terrifying flight from upstate New York, to Washington, to Key West as Teagarden must outfox teams of hitmen equipped with highly sophisticated technology. While a fugitive, he races to decode the document, only to realize the dreadful truth—it’s the reason he’s being hunted because it details criminal acts committed by the U.S. in the 20th Century.

If he survives and publishes the decoded document, he’ll be a heroic whistle blower. But there is no guarantee. He may also end up dead.

Book Details

Title: Flight of the Fox

Author’s name: Gray Basnight

Genre: Suspense/Thriller
 

Publisher: Down & Out Books (July 23, 2018)

Print length: 381 pages




INTERVIEW WITH GRAY BASNIGHT

Gray, what’s the story behind the title of your book? 
It was originally called The Dear John File, but the publisher correctly worried that it may be misunderstood as a romance novel.  I changed it to Flight of the Fox, which I think is better, and certainly more intriguing.  

Tell us about your series. Is this book a standalone, or do readers need to read the series in order?
This is definitely a series. Flight of the Fox is the first title. The sequel is now in progress. It too will explore a subject rooted in history that some readers may find controversial. Meantime, number three in the series is cooking somewhere deep in my cerebellum.  

Where’s home for you?
New York.

Where did you grow up?
Richmond, Virginia.

What’s your favorite memory?
Saturday bus trips by myself to downtown Richmond for a movie, followed by a long exploration of my favorite book store on Broad Street where I purchased paperbacks priced between 50 cents and $1.95. I typically came home with two to four books each trip. 


If you had an extra $100 a week to spend on yourself, what would you buy? 
I truly have no idea.  I need nothing at all except peace on Earth and coffee.


What’s the dumbest purchase you’ve ever made?
An expensive mountain bike which taught me that biking in the mountains is…um…difficult. It also taught me that riding a mountain bike in the city is…um…not fun.  

What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned?
Be tolerant and cultivate your garden.

What do you love about where you live?
In all modesty, New York City is the greatest city in the world.  The reason why is because it is the world in miniature.  

Have you been in any natural disasters?
Not really. I was around for Superstorm Sandy which hurt many and damaged a great deal of property. I personally suffered little impact, except for the prolonged power outage.

What is the most daring thing you've done?
I do it every day by sitting down to the keyboard to write.


What is the stupidest thing you've ever done?
Sitting down every day at the keyboard to write.

What’s one thing you wish your younger writer self knew?
If you want to be a writer, put your butt in the chair for four to six hours a day, that’s the only rule. 


If someone gave you $5,000 and said you must solve a problem, what would you do with the money?
This question is a real challenge. My inclination is to give it to a worthy charity, but that doesn’t completely solve any particular problem in its entirety. So, how about this—I’d buy a restaurant’s services for a full meal period, either lunch or dinner. Then I’d bus in all the homeless and hungry people I could find in need of a full meal. It’s not a solution to hunger. I’d rather teach a homeless person to fish than buy a homeless person a fish. But for five-grand, hey, abatement of hunger is at least a worthy temporary solution.   



What makes you nervous?
Drivers who behave as though the highway were their own personal NASCAR track and cops who do nothing about them because they focus only on speeders.


What makes you happy?
My golden retriever, especially when she misbehaves by trying to steal food from the kitchen counter by stealth. 

Who are you?
I am an American who believes in the promise of America, and I’m a writer.

How did you meet your spouse? Was it love at first sight?
I met her in Studio Three at WOR Radio in NYC and liked her immediately because she popped her knuckles. Naw, not really love at first sight.  How about: like at first sight.

What are your most cherished mementoes?
My well-preserved comic book collection which I keep safe in a New Jersey rental storage bin. It’s all Silver Age with a lot of Superman, Superboy, Uncle Scrooge, Blackhawk, The Haunted Tank, Herbie, and many others.  

Would you rather be a lonely genius, or a sociable idiot?
Lonely genius.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.”  - Twain

If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
Paris, in the Montmartre neighborhood.

What would you like people to say about you after you die?
He was a good writer.

What’s your favorite line from a book?
“I could be bound within a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.”  - Hamlet

How did you create the plot for this book?
By inventing the characters and letting them take me on their journey. Oddly, the subject of the book was born in 2011 while watching Ellen DeGeneres interview Clint Eastwood about his movie “J. Edgar.” At the time, I’d been wracking my brain for an event, or a period in history that could spark a thriller in the mold of alternative history. I found it during that interview. Long story short: Mr. Eastwood said the “jury is still out” as to whether J. Edgar Hoover was gay. I believe Mr. Eastwood was mistaken about that. And—that—sets up the plot for Flight of the Fox. 

Is your book based on real events?
In part, yes. It’s loosely based on my emotional reaction, and my continuing bitterness over Vietnam, the assassinations of two Kennedys, Dr. King, and finally—9/11.

Who are your favorite authors?
So very many: Daniel Dafoe, Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, Graham Green, Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Saul Bellow, Isabel Allende.


What book are you currently reading and in what format?
Tangerine, by Christine Mangan in hardback.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
Morning and afternoon, in solitude.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received about your writing?
As a freshman at North Carolina Wesleyan College, after taking a composition assessment test, the chairman of the English Department called me into his office and told me I displayed superior writing skill, that he was impressed, and that he hoped I’d work on developing it. That did it for me. I was eighteen-years-old. In that moment, I became committed to writing. 

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
I worked for several years as a broadcast news writer at 1010 WINS, a major all-news radio station in New York City. It was a terrific place to hone both journalistic and fundamental writing skills. Cranking out accurate, well written stories in a highly abbreviated format under intense time pressure can be likened to the Marine Corps of writing. It’s a difficult, challenging job because if you get it wrong or write it poorly—you will hear from the newscaster who must read your stuff.  

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
New York Public Library, the main branch on Fifth Avenue. Shy of the Library of Congress, it’s the best for research. And the Rose Main Reading room is spectacular. Whenever I go there to sit and write for a few hours, I feel like I’ve stepped back into history. My laptop is plugged in, but I’m sitting in a 19th Century cathedral of scholarship.

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?
Robinson Caruso. He’s one of the great didactic and heroic figures of literary fiction, the ultimate example of playing the hand you were dealt. He not only played it and survived, but he prevailed.      

What’s the worst thing someone has said about your writing? How did you deal with it?
In 2013, I attended a Q&A literary panel in NYC. Well-known editors and agents were on the dais.  Afterward, without knowing me or ever reading anything I’d written, an editor with a large and well-known publishing house said to my face: “I doubt you could write anything I’d be interested in.” As for dealing with it, I’m still trying. 

What would your dream office look like?
I already have it: a tiny walk-in closet loaded with books and knickknacks. I call it my in-utero hideaway.

What are you working on now?
A sequel to Flight of the Fox as mentioned above. I’m also fine-tuning a YA manuscript about a sixteen-year-old girl named Junior Binét with a genius IQ. Readers who love Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson will recognize Junior as a contemporary, female version of Jim Hawkins.  




READ AN EXCERPT FROM FLIGHT OF THE FOX




One

The officers spotted him while straining to hold their K-9’s. One of them pointed, yelled an order, and all three released their dogs.
That’s when Teagarden ceased being a smart fox. In that moment he became a dumb fox. He could think of only one thing.
And that one thing was as dumb as they come.
Run!
He bolted as hard as his creaky knees could manage. The nearby presence of a subway entrance helped. Once underground, it was dumb luck that a train was entering the station at that moment.
Paying the fare never occurred to him, but getting over the turnstile wasn’t pretty. There was no way he was going to jump it like an ordinary fare beater. His lousy knees forced him to pause, hoist his weight to sit on the turnstile edge, pull up his legs, spin his butt, and delicately slide over to stand down on the opposite side.
The police dogs had no such limitations. All three were in the station and plowing under the turnstiles as the train doors opened. Their momentary confusion amid the waiting crowd gave Teagarden enough time to move down the platform by one car-length.
As he entered the train, he saw the K-9 trio casually stepping aboard the adjacent car as though it were their daily commute. In the crush of passengers, the conductor must not have noticed because he closed the doors and the train pulled from the station before the pursuing cops caught up.
Unbelievable. If anyone ever makes a movie about this, no one will think this scene remotely possible.
It was a downtown N-Train. “N,” as in nuts. “N,” as in nasty.

Excerpt Copyright © 2018 Gray Basnight. Used with permission of Down & Out Books.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gray Basnight worked for three decades in New York City as a radio and television news producer, writer, editor, reporter, and newscaster.  He lives in New York with his wife and golden retriever, where he is dedicated to writing fiction. His published work includes a detective/romance novel, The Cop with the Pink Pistol; a Civil War historical novel, Shadows in the Fire; and now Flight of the Fox, a run-for-your-life thriller. Works in progress include YA and literary fiction. Like most with a passion for writing, it’s been with him all his life, or at least from second grade when, at the age of seven, reading took hold and never let go. When not writing, Gray is reading and thinking about the current project or ideas for the next manuscript. 

Connect with Gray:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Down & Out Books