The gentleman keeps spying
GREENWICH AUTHOR TED BELL DISCUSSES THE LATEST NOVEL IN HIS SERIES ABOUT A GENTLEMAN SPY
Ted Bell is trying to look on the bright side of the pandemic.
The 70-year-old author splits his time between Greenwich and Charleston, S.C. Bell said he came back to Greenwich about three weeks ago, and had to quarantine before he left South Carolina, which is a hot spot for COVID-19. But he says there was an upside to being cooped up inside — it made him more productive.
“The good part is the isolation forces you to sit down and write every day — because what else are you going to do?” Bell says.
But it’s hard to imagine that Bell has a lot of issues with productivity. July 21 saw the release of “Dragonfire,” the 11th book in Bell’s series of novels about gentleman spy Alex Hawke. Bell is also at work on his next Hawke book, and has started a film production company.
Since he was a child, Bell says, he knew he wanted to be a writer. However, growing up in a small town in Florida wasn’t particularly inspiring.
“Nothing ever happened there,” he says.
Then, around age 13, Bell discovered Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond series. All of a sudden, he says, he was plunged into a world of fast cars, treacherous women, high drama and pulsepounding action. Without Bond, Bell says, there would be no Hawke.
“If I hadn’t read those books would have probably ended up as a banker in Florida,” Bell says. “I just fell in love with Bond and the cars and the clothes and the action.”
Now he’s built his own franchise-worthy character. But Bell says Hawke has a bit more nuance than the character that inspired him.
“He’s been through a great deal of personal tragedy,” Bell says.
Indeed, early in “Dragonfire,” Hawke barely survives a brutal attack on his life. Before he’s fully healed, he gets an urgent call from the Queen of England (in addition to his other accomplishments, Hawke is England’s sixth-richest man) that her grandson has gone missing.
The present-day action dovetails with a flashback to Washington, D.C. in 1941, where a story involving a new Chinese ambassador to the United States might have some bearing on Hawke’s predicament
Bell says, though he loves Bond, he always found the character somewhat one-dimensional in certain ways — seldom crying, laughing, or showing much human emotion in general — and wanted Hawke to be different.
“I just wanted him to be a living, breathing character,” Bell says.
The Hawke books also feature multiple real people as characters, including not just the Queen, but also Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, in an earlier book, tries to recruit Hawke to the KGB.
“I try to inject real world characters to make it grounded and feel like it’s real,” Bell explains.
Like many authors promoting a book this summer, Bell has found his usually touring schedule blown apart. He says he’d typically be visiting libraries and bookstores to talk up his novel, and attending various parties. But, in this COVID-19 world, parties are replaced with Zoom calls and press interviews.
Bell is trying to stay positive but, like everyone else, he hopes a return to normal life isn’t that far away.
“I can’t pretend I’m not tired of (the pandemic),” he says. “I’d really like go to the movies or out to dinner.”
“I JUST WANTED HIM TO BE A LIVING, BREATHING CHARACTER . ... I TRY TO INJECT REAL WORLD CHARACTERS TO MAKE IT GROUNDED AND FEEL LIKE IT’S REAL.”