Ox Devere
The Devil’s Eye
A lost notebook of the legendary alchemist John Dee surfaces at a London auction, where a scandal-ridden billionaire snaps it up.
Update 1/3/2025: THE DEVIL’S EYE is out now!
The Writer’s Dossier 8/19/2024 – The Ox Devere interview
Exotic and enchanting
DOSSIER: With your father’s experience living in Egypt and bringing a lot of international culture into your home, how much did that influence your interest in storytelling and travel?
DEVERE: I think there was a great deal of wonder in my childhood. My mother and grandmother were exceptional talents in the theater. The stories of my dad’s childhood—and those of his parents and grandparents in Egypt—were so exotic and enchanting. I always wanted to go on fantastical adventures, and really the only way to do that as a child of limited means was through story. I got lost in the worlds of Narnia and Redwall and Goosebumps and A Wrinkle in Time. Now that I can travel this sprawling and marvelous world, I’m even more excited to tell stories that take readers on spectacular adventures.
Film school
DOSSIER: Was it your love for adventure movies that sent you to film school, or was it something else along the creative timeline that made you change course when you first went to college?
DEVERE: It wasn’t particularly adventure movies that took me down the path of moviemaking. One of the most impactful experiences I had with film was seeing The Passion of the Christ when I was a freshman in college. I didn’t actually want to go make movies like that, but it brought me back to the extraordinary power and communal participation of film. Stories are part of our shared lifeblood. I realized the course of my life would be helping to create stories through the visual medium—at least for a time.
The Brainwave app
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Music, silence, a quite little spot along Boston’s Freedom Trail?)
DEVERE: I do most of my writing in my office, walking on a treadmill at a standing desk since I hate being sedentary. I put in earbuds and use the Brainwave app, which combines ambience with binaural beats. It’s pretty magical for staying ultra-focused. Occasionally, if I’m in the midst of writing an intense sequence, I’ll put on a soundtrack that matches the mood of the scene. After a few hours, I have to physically relocate, which usually means stretching out on my stomach on the floor with my laptop. I’m not good at writing in public spaces because of my obsession with being situationally aware! That is the ultimate stream of unending distractions.
Legal issues?
DOSSIER: As Ox Devere is writing pseudonym for the most famous pen name of all time, did you have any trouble, legal or otherwise, being able to assume the name?
DEVERE: Not at all. It’s a play on the name Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. For those who have never heard of him, he was a generous patron of the arts, one of the brightest minds and most gifted writers of Queen Elizabeth I’s court. I couldn’t believe it when I first heard of the question of Shakespeare’s authorship…until I began a deep digging expedition. From all of the copious and astonishing evidence in support, I’ve been wholly convinced that he was behind the works of ‘William Shakespeare,’ and not the man ‘William Shakspere’ of Stratford-upon-Avon, whose only verified legal signatures demonstrated that he could barely write his own name…and he didn’t own a single book at the time of his death. Thank you for coming to my (abbreviated) TED talk.
RAGE OF THE JINN
DOSSIER: In your novel, RAGE OF THE JINN, Ridley Samaras is part of a CIA team that tracks arcane relics around the world. (Cool!) This book probably required a good amount of research, but did you find anything interesting about the kind of things the CIA may or may not actually investigate? You know, something that people would be surprised to hear?
DEVERE: Of course whenever researching an intelligence agency and formulating a covert division within it, you’ll run into some dry wells and hard walls. However, one of the cooler things I was able to learn more about was the CIA’s Ground Branch Division. They’re the covert operations unit within the agency’s Special Activities Division, composed of some of the most elite soldiers: Marines, SEALs, Rangers, and Delta Force, among others. They’re recruited to work under the CIA’s Title 50, which authorizes covert actions abroad under presidential authority. So not only did I bury my small fictional division within the Special Activities Division of the CIA, but I also incorporated some Ground Branch operatives to provide support during one of the main characters’ riskiest undertakings in a foreign country. In fact, one of the GB guys is named in honor of two American service members who were killed in combat: Adam Brown and Johanny Pichardo. If you have a moment, look up their stories.
New book on its way!
DOSSIER: Do you have any news or announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier today?
DEVERE: Look for the second book in the Ridley Samaras series, The Devil’s Eye, coming out later this year.
Discover more about Ox Devere at: Facebook | Ox Devere | Amazon Page