If it’s something you want bad enough, you’ll get it. Jonas Saul
A writing community can be both local and global. In August, 2020, I attended When Words Collide, a writers’ conference held in Calgary, Alberta. This year the conference was held online. I sent a query letter and the first page of my novella to be critiqued and received feedback from Jonas Saul, best selling author of 40 books with 2,000,000 copies sold. The 2020 Cygnus Awards nominated his novel The Immortal Game and Saul recently signed a contract with Mad River Pictures to produce a television series.
Our connection reminded me of the benefits of a local and global writing community. At the time we spoke, Jonas lived in Greece, I in Panama, and the conference was held in Calgary. Over ZOOM we put together that Jonas attended Eastdale HS and O’Neill CVI, two of the high schools where I supply taught, though not at the time he attended. And Jonas lived in a neighbourhood in Oshawa, ON, where for a decade I volunteered with youth. I am delighted we made a connection.
Lyndi: What was it like to grow up on Nonquon Road, Oshawa, ON? Did you have favourite hangouts and events? Where did you move to from there?
Jonas: I moved to Nonquon in 1983 when I was fourteen-years-old and left in 1989 to move out west once I’d graduated from high school, leaving O’Neill Collegiate that year in June with my diploma. I loved my teenage years in Nonquon in the eighties. I delivered the newspaper called, The Oshawa This Week, in the earlier 80s, and by the time I was eighteen, I became a security guard and was stationed in my apartment building, watching the parking lots on weekend nights while in high school.
This area of Oshawa was fun, exciting, and offered me wonderful memories. I’ll never forget it, and to this day, many of the friends I had on Nonquon Road are still friends of mine today.
I moved out west to Calgary, Alberta in 1989 to start a new life, but the draw of Ontario brought me back a year later, and by 1991, I was in retail in the Toronto area.
Lyndi: For twenty years, you ran a retail business. What led you to change your career from retail business ownership to writing novels?
Jonas: I got into retail somewhat by accident. It was a part-time job while I worked security. But there was something about that particular business that drew me, not to mention the potential to make more money. So, I opened several stores in southern Ontario. They became wildly successful, and by the time I turned thirty-years-old, I was basically retired as the stores had managers and could run themselves.
Throughout this time, I was always writing. Having the stores allowed me to be home more than five days per week, which gave me ample time to write and raise my daughters.
The ultimate dream was always to be a published author, and I figured as soon as that happened, and I was making enough money to live by, I would sell the stores and be a stay-at-home full-time writer.
That took another ten years, but by 2010, I was writing full time and haven’t slowed down since.
Lyndi: You travel the world to learn about places as settings for your novels. How do you choose a destination? What was your favourite setting to write about and why is it your favourite?
Jonas: I’ve been to so many countries, staying in Italy for a year, Denmark for over six months, Hungary, and Greece for about four years. I prefer to go to a new country for at least three months at a time as a minimum, but six months or a year is better. I also like to learn the language and live like the locals as much as possible, choosing tiny villages near a bigger city where supplies are easy to procure.
That said, a lot of “why” and “where” I’ve gone or will go really depends on personal likes and dislikes. I mean, I love Italy, Italian food, and the Italians in general. I love Scandinavian culture and food, and also Greece, where I’m currently living.
I’ve actually spent four years of the past ten in Greece and can’t speak highly enough of this small country of eleven million people. One of my favourite features of Greece is the weather. They get more annual sunshine than any other European country. Their food is incredible, the people are passionate, and extremely welcoming, and their history is rich.
To date, I’ve set one book in Denmark, one in Hungary, several in Italy, and four in Greece.
Lyndi: You describe Sarah Roberts as an emotional woman who cares deeply for people and their difficulties and who takes it upon herself to help them. Can you provide a couple of examples of how she helps the people she encounters and what this costs her?
Jonas: Sarah fights for the underdog, the people being unfairly held down, abused, or punished. In several books, she has gone after rogue cops, serial killers, a kidnapping ring, drug cartels, and human traffickers.
She has been referred to as the female Jason Bourne and one reader said, “Sarah Roberts is one in a million. If you're her friend, she'll crawl through Hell to protect you. If you're her enemy, she'll send you there.”
Throughout the series, she has lost so much. Things like her freedoms and privacy, her friends, and even loved ones. But she feels duty bound to continue her pursuits until her heart stops beating.
Lyndi: I only recently discovered the fast-paced thrillers you are known for. But while reading The Trap, book 24 in the Sarah Roberts Series, it became clear that your books are about more than the fast-paced plot. How do you develop loyalty between your characters and your characters to your readers?
Jonas: Emotion is the short answer. Emotion on every page. What I mean is, as I write a thriller, I make sure the characters feel something. As tensions rise toward the ending of the book, as the conflict increases, so do the emotional stakes. Often, characters are seething with fury, or overwhelmed with joy, or downright disheartened by certain developments in the plot, and this translates to the reader, offering them an emotional bumpy ride.
Reader reviews have expressed this time and again, so I know I’ve done my job well.
Lyndi: Can you tell us a little about your forthcoming TV series?
Jonas: I can’t talk about it much as most of the information is protected under a non-disclosure agreement, but I can say that Sony Pictures put an offer in on the series in 2016. We declined that offer because another company called Adaptive Studios had a better offer during those same summer months of 2016.
Adaptive wrote the first season, attached actors, directors, show runners, and were ready to get it off the ground in 2018 when they were bought out by Mad River Pictures, a rather large motion picture company out of Los Angeles. They are quite well known for A-list features and A-list actors.
As of the summer of 2019 until now, Mad River Pictures has the Sarah Roberts Series in development. So much has happened in the past six months that I’m excited to talk about, but as mentioned above, the NDA forbids me to speak further on it.
Lyndi: What advice would you give to young writers?
Jonas: Really, the simple advice is to never stop writing. I mean, we hear it all the time to persevere, keep going, never quit, but this is the truth and the way.
I wrote my first short story when I was ten-years-old. Throughout my teens and into my twenties, I was always writing. When I hit thirty years of age, I began to take it more seriously by approaching literary agents and publishers. That took another ten years of writing and editing, but to no avail—I couldn’t secure a deal or sign with an agent.
But I didn’t quit.
In 2011, I self-published my first few Sarah Roberts novels and they sold like crazy, with readers messaging me for more. I headed to Europe and by the end of 2011, I was living in Greece by the Mediterranean Sea, writing full time, making a living off of self-publishing.
It was in 2016 when I received the offer from Sony, and also in 2016 when I signed a literary agent. My agent has struck several lucrative deals for me, and I continue to self-publish my Sarah Roberts novels, with book 26, The Depraved, coming out in December, 2020.
So, in summation, never give up on your dream. Keep at it, and if it’s something you want bad enough, you’ll get it. You just have to believe. I know I did.
Jonas Saul, lives in and writes from, Athens, Greece. He is the author of 40 books and has signed a contract with Mad River Pictures to produce a television series.
Jonas Saul
