A.J. Chambers
The Vicar
Inspired by the author’s own experience, The Vicar introduces Terry Nolan, an MI5 operative who, when he discovers his cover is blown and millions of lives are at stake, will do whatever it takes to stop enemy forces.
DOSSIER: How much of your work background with your previous forms of employment affected what you wrote about in The Vicar? Are YOU the vicar? You can admit it here. Nobody’s paying attention.
CHAMBERS: Ha, I wish I’d been that good, but unfortunately No I’m not Terry. Well, at least not totally. The Vicar, as Terry is known in the book, is actually based on about six people I knew from my work in the military. It would be disingenuous for me to say that there is no part of me in him, but I think it is a small part, at least that’s the story I’m sticking to lol. It’s odd, but whenever I’m writing Terry I always picture him as a friend of mine who unfortunately hasn’t been with us for many years. He was a fellow northerner who was a tough SOB and a very talented soldier and rugby player.
One part of Terry that is definitely me is his love of good food. As you know, after serving in the unit I was in in the British Army my life took a real 180 and I had an opportunity to do a culinary apprenticeship. I’d always loved cooking, even as a kid, so I jumped at the chance. I then worked as a chef for many years in the states and I’ve been told by many readers that they really enjoy the culinary food tours that somehow seem to end up being a part of my books.
It’s raining cars
DOSSIER: You’re worked with some pretty intense and interesting people throughout the years. Is there a story out there that’s so unrelatable to the general public that you’re not sure how to tell it?
CHAMBERS: I guess there are many things that occurred during my time in the military that would leave the general public scratching their heads. I mean damn, where do I start? Here’s a couple.
There was this one time the unit I was with was approaching high rise council flats looking for a suspect. As you know, you and your teammates keep your eyes on a swivel for any sign of snipers or an ambush your team could be walking into. Anyway, we were about thirty feet, if that, from the entrance to the building when one of my teammates calmly shouts car and looks up. We follow his gaze and there is a Cortina type car silently falling through the air from the top of the building. Instead of scattering, like any normal people would, we all took great pleasure in watching it crash to the ground in front of the building entrance. The corporal who was with us then comments quite nonchalantly. “Well, you don’t see that everyday.” This, as expected, led to a brief moment of restrained chuckling. Oh, and after all that our suspect was nowhere to be found. Ah, well, you can’t win them all.
I think it’s safe to say that soldiers, especially on active duty, have a fairly twisted sense of humor. It comes with the territory and helps one not go crazy. Anyway, we were out in South Armagh, or Bandit Country as it was generally referred to. This should give you an idea of how dangerous it was to operate in the area. So, we were conducting a patrol, or sweep in a rural location as there had been talk of IRA ambushes and what are commonly referred to now as IEDs in the area. With us was a Royal Engineer carrying what looked like a leaf blower but was designed to sniff the air for explosives that were nearby. As we were walking down a hill, keeping as close to the bushes that ran either side of the road as possible, the chatty engineer who was walking next to our guy who was on point suddenly stops talking, turns abruptly, and without a word proceeds to run like mad back up the hill. We all stopped and watched him go, Now, he wasn’t very tall and I’m telling you Usain Bolt would have had a hard time keeping up with this guy. I mean his short legs were churning like a steam engine as he went. With a chuckle and a shake of the head in disbelief I tell my guys to head back up the hill to find out why the guy seems to have lost his mind. When we eventually reach the guy he tells us that his sniffing machine spiked and he thought it best to leave the immediate area. I casually mentioned that it might of been a good idea for him to drop a hint in our direction of what was going on before buggering off, which brought much enjoyment to the rest of my team. It turned out there was about ten pounds of Semtex packed into a nail bomb in a culvert in the road about ten feet from where we had been walking at the bottom of the hill. As a side note if I ever bump into that Royal Engineer again I owe him a bottle of Pappy’s Bourbon.
Can’t pick a winning horse
DOSSIER: When and w77here do you like to write and what environment works best? You live in Kentucky now, so do you hang out at Keeneland or the Daniel Boone National Forest for inspiration?
CHAMBERS: Hahaha. It’s funny you should ask about Keeneland as this is opening weekend. But, to answer your question, no I don’t hang out at Keeneland as I suck at picking horses. My wife likes to say if I placed a bet on a one horse race I’d lose.
It’s not a lecture
DOSSIER: When it comes to writing about foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and antiterrorism, how far do you try to go to explain the differences so that you are accurate without giving a lecture?
CHAMBERS: Wow, that’s a tough one and to be honest I try not to dig into it too deeply as unfortunately it would most certainly turn into a lecture. It’s an area where there is much confusion for most civilians trying to distinguish one mission from another and back in my day there was even then some blurring of the lines. I think when I wrote The Vicar I tried to focus on MI5’s and Terry’s Intelligence gathering mission before switching to his roll in the field of counterterrorism. This is also where the other branches of the military, especially the SAS and SBS come in. In The Vicar, a large part of Terry’s success comes from having the SAS, SBS, and the Navy SEALS acting as the tip of the sword to cut the head off the snake, as they say. I hope this answers your question a little?
A New DC crime thriller
DOSSIER: Do you have any breaking news or special announcement you’d like to disclose in your Dossier?
CHAMBERS: Hmm, As I mentioned earlier I’m currently deep in the editing process of my latest book, Blaque Work, a crime thriller set in Washington DC. That should be going out on submission to publishers soon. As for the sequel to The Vicar, The Inquisitor, is currently looking for a publishing home. Maybe if The Vicar becomes a five or six part Amazon TV series or is picked up by another streaming service it will eventually see the light of day. I have also been working on the sequel to Blaque Work called Blaque Days. I did have plans for a third installment in Terry’s adventures which I hope comes to fruition.
