Author Anthony Steyning interviewed and featured at TheBookInsider.com

"The Applicant" has just been published by The Book Guild in the UK and may be ordered at www.amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1857768175/qid%3D1119053536/026-2487746-5845244 ). Critiques may also be read here. Amazon.co.uk will ship anywhere in the world by priority mail, which takes about a week on average.

Anthony Steyning is the author of three previous novels. His first, "The Vortical Man," was published in Paris and led to Steyning meeting Lawrence Durrell, who became a supporter of his work. Anthony Steyning has also written three plays, two of which have been performed in Montreal and New York. His latest 'Cobb's Jolt' is on offer right now. Having travelled extensively throughout his life, the author currently resides in southern Spain.

Over the years Anthony Steyning has developed a probing type of writing that digs very deep and very wide, curious to find out where the beauty and all the hurt began. He frequently stumbles upon how matters really stand in relation to each other—- issues, trends or conditions, ostensibly linked or not, but in the end affecting us in a fashion that isn't always evident. Next, he attempts to relive his findings through half-real or fully fictional characters placed in some sort of dramatic context, recreating everything he's put his fingers on while attempting to involve the same core dynamics that produced these in the first place. In other words, real bits of recent history felt and re-lived from the sidewalks on up.

A portion of TheBookInsider.com's interview with Anthony Steyning may be read below or the entire interview may be read at http://www.thebookinsider.com/Interviews/ASteyning.htm.

TheBookInsider.com: Who and/or what have been your biggest influences with regard to your writing and why?

Anthony Steyning: AS I'VE STATED ELSEWHERE, CURIOSITY COMPELS ME TO DIG DEEP & VERY WIDE, I WANT TO SEE WHERE ALL THE BEAUTY AND ALL THE HURT BEGAN. I CUT THROUGH CRAP THEN RECREATE MY FINDINGS USING BELIEVABLE THOUGH SOMEWHAT ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS IN A DRAMATIZED SETTING. I HAVEN'T SEEN ANYONE ELSE DO THIS, SO I CAN'T SAY I WAS INFLUENCED BY ANY SINGLE WRITER, LET'S JUST SAY THAT LIFE… INFLUENCED ME.


TheBookInsider.com: Please tell us about your fascinating psychological thriller, "The Applicant."

Anthony Steyning: MY NOVEL IS AN ATTEMPT TO FUSE EXISTENTIAL THOUGHT WITH INTRIGUE, HUMOR AND UNEXPECTED SOCIAL INSIGHT. THE NOTION THAT SOMEONE WISHES TO GET HIMSELF LIQUIDATED AS AN ACT OF COURAGE, AT A TIME SET SPONTANEOUSLY BY ANOTHER PERSON, IS QUITE UNIQUE. HALF THE TRICK IS TO CONVINCE THAT VERY SPECIAL SOMEONE ELSE TO APPLY FOR THE JOB. THIS IS NOT TO BE A CRIME OR ANY SORT OF SADISTIC ACT BUT A GESTURE OF GRACE. DRAMATICALLY I THINK THE STORY WORKS, SERIOUS READERS SEEM BOWLED OVER BY IT. YOU TELL
ME!


TheBookInsider.com: In "The Applicant," the main character, Albert, chooses to commission his own murder before old age catches up with him. What led you to deal with the issue of "turning of the tables" on our own mortality?

Anthony Steyning: THE INDIGNITIES OF VERY OLD AGE THAT I OBSERVED. GOING OUT WITH AN EXCITING, UNEXPECTED, PAINLESS BANG, CHASED DOWN BY A COMMITTED AMAZONE, IT SEEMS TO ME, MAKES A LOT MORE SENSE. PROPER TIMING IS THE TANTALISING DILEMMA.


Anthony Steyning's next work of literary fiction, "Budapest My Love," gets published later this year. "Budapest My Love" is an international intrigue & character study with a political flavour to it, much in the style of "The Applicant."

Visit Anthony Steyning at http://www.AnthonySteyning.com.

Book Title: The Applicant
Author: Anthony Steyning
Publisher: The Book Guild Ltd 2004
ISBN 1-85776-817-5
171 pages