{"id":266,"date":"2025-02-01T05:26:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-01T05:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/?page_id=266"},"modified":"2025-09-18T10:35:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T10:35:58","slug":"meet-paul","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/meet-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meet Paul<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Paul is a course director at a university in central Seoul. He follows Spurs (mostly through his fingers) and has published several short stories (all through Drugstore Books). The Blowfish Detachment<\/em> is his first novel.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Seoul has many cycle paths, but this part close to home has to be the strangest. Neon lights, wading birds, eerie music. Did The Blowfish Detachment<\/em> begin life down here in this underpass?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A Short Interview With Paul<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Tell us about The Blowfish Detachment<\/em>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, at its heart it\u2019s a police procedural although it\u2019s nothing like one you\u2019ve ever read. One reason for this is its speculative setting. Khanada follows the Qilin Moon, and the year is Something \u201981; so, from the opening page, you\u2019re dropped into a world you\u2019ve never experienced and then walloped on the head. This world has its own rules and logic, yet people live their lives, crimes are committed, and the police must try to solve them. The streets in The Blowfish Detachment<\/em> might seem surreal, but a gritty realism pervades, and this gives the atmosphere many tones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are characters important, or is it more about the case, the plot?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

BOTH are hugely important. I see character and plot as two sides of the same coin. Character dynamics are in constant flux \u2013 especially between Song and Luff \u2013 and conflicting motivation is something I\u2019m always exploring. The case, the plot, I won\u2019t talk about, except perhaps that it\u2019s dark, fast-moving, and full of surprises. It\u2019s also something you\u2019ve never seen before.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can\u2019t talk about the case, can you say a bit more about the main characters?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song is tenacious with a sharp eye for detail, and Luff, when he’s motivated, is instinctive, a force of nature, even . But it’s tricky to say more (although I really want to) because their character traits and personal situations affect the plot. I will say this, though, I loved writing all these characters, but especially Song and Luff. When those two are together sparks fly, and it was sometimes difficult to type fast enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re planning a series. What direction will the next book take?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blowfish Detachment<\/em> is the first novel in a trilogy called the Khanada Crime Series<\/em>. Short stories will also be part of the series, but the shorts will only be available to members of the Readers Club (for free). The shorts will be set between novels, and I hope to write four. But the years these days pass at warp speed, so it might be less. As for the direction of the next novel, I\u2019ve pretty much figured that out, but I\u2019m keeping my mouth shut!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides The Blowfish Detachment<\/em>, is anything else written yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written Knife Wind<\/em>, the first short story. Knife Wind<\/em> is set four months after the events of The Blowfish Detachment<\/em>. Knife Wind<\/em> will be available to members of the Readers Club in winter 2025\/2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you set The Blowfish Detachment<\/em> in an alternate Asia?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve lived in Asia for over twenty years. My wife and in-laws are Korean, and Asia is my home and my daily reality. Quite simply, I couldn\u2019t set the story anywhere else. Detective fiction and alternate worlds have long interested me, so I explore those genres by drawing on what\u2019s around me and what I\u2019ve seen on my travels. The speculative setting is a unique time and place that riffs off the past, present, and future. In some ways, it\u2019s perhaps a photographic negative of those three things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still not signed up for the Readers Club? You really should. Click on the link below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign Up For The Readers Club<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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READERS club<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Paul Paul is a course director at a university in central Seoul. He follows Spurs (mostly through his fingers) and has published several short stories (all through Drugstore Books). The Blowfish Detachment is his first novel. Seoul has many cycle paths, but this part close to home has to be the strangest. Neon lights, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"tpgb_global_settings":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-266","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"tpgb_featured_images":null,"tpgb_post_meta_info":{"get_date":"February 1, 2025","get_modified_date":"September 18, 2025","author_name":"admin","author_url":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/author\/crockett81\/","author_email":"pauljasonrogers@gmail.com","author_website":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com","author_description":"","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_instagram":"","author_role":["administrator"],"author_firstname":"","author_lastname":"","user_login":"Crockett81","author_avatar":"","author_avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c543f97866f863e0ff3bd9171b0e84797af021f8d1f3acd8ebd49f748787f0fd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","comment_count":0,"post_likes":0,"post_views":0},"tpgb_post_category":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266"}],"version-history":[{"count":179,"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/266\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paul-j-rogers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}