The Moment Between by Gareth Frank

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How did you come up with the idea for your book?

Steven King once said: "(The writer's) job isn’t to find ideas but to recognize them when they show up."

For me, the idea for my novel showed up in the mail. I received a Christmas card that mentioned the death of a friend's brother and alluded to his wife being the murderer. A very strange Christmas card, indeed. I couldn't stop thinking about it. When I called my friend and asked what had happened, I found out that, as they say, fact was stranger than fiction. I used the woman in question to create one of my characters. Some people think I created a monster. The truth is, real monsters are often real people. That was the genesis of my storyline.

The theme of my book grew out of my fascination with near-death experiences, and what they tell us about the conscious mind. Polling has shown that about 70 percent of Americans believe in some sort of afterlife. We all struggle between two competing natures, the logical and the spiritual. Where we lie between those two points largely defines who we are. That dualism lies at the heart of my book.

The Moment Between is a psychological thriller that brings death to life.

What sort of research did you do to write this book?

I started my research very broadly. I wanted to incorporate near-death experiences, afterlife, neuroscience and even physics in my budding novel. Even though I had read previous books on the subjects, I took the time to read six or eight books that I thought were most relevant, taking notes as I went, and trying to capture facts and ideas that were integral to the story I envisioned. As I began writing scenes, I referred back to this base research, but invariably items would arise that needed further exploration. For that research, the internet was crucial. I can't imagine how much time I would have spent in the library in the good old days.

I would often get sidetracked on a sentence or a paragraph, researching for hours just to get the right facts and words. My favorite example is the research I did on brain surgery, especially the time I spent watching doctors on YouTube as they sliced into flesh and brain. The truth is I loved it. While that may seem like an extravagant use of time, if it fits in the story, it is never a waste, even if you don't use it.

What is the main thing you want readers to take away from your book?

First and foremost, I want people to care about my characters and be engaged by the storyline. I want them to feel Hackett Metzger's pain for the loss of his wife and his nervousness as he tries to find romance four years later. I also want readers to experience that moment between life and death when all the possibilities open before them.

Did you always have the reins of the story or the people in it tried to take over?

I don't believe that a good novel can be created full and complete. It must evolve like life itself, growing incident by incident. That is the way to build real characters and to create the conflicts necessary to drive the story forward. While writing The Moment Between, I had a preconceived notion of the ending. I ended up throwing it away. I couldn't make it fit who the characters had become and what the story needed.

If your novel were being made into a movie, whom would you pick to play the lead roles?

Paul Giamatti would be the perfect Doctor Hackett Metzger. He can play smart, vulnerable, awkward and determined all at once. Sarah, my antagonist, needs someone cool and calculating, who can also hide themselves under a pretty veneer, perhaps Kate Winslett or even Charlize Theron. Kathy Bates would be the perfect Ella Mae. The director would be Ridley Scott.

The biggest surprise you had after becoming a writer?

I am a logical and linear thinker. My first novel was a historical novel about a bombing at the University of Wisconsin during the Vietnam War protests. I approached it with too many historical restrictions. The desire to illuminate history often overshadowed my story. I realized that I had to let a lot of myself go and allow the story to flourish on its own. When I wrote The Moment Between, I freed myself of time as a writer, much like the conscious mind does during a near-death experience. Some of the best scenes were those where I move between time, place and characters in order to tell a fuller more dramatic story. Check out Chapter 5.

A fun fact about writing your book.

In my novel, I fictionalize a real life medical study about near-death experiences. The real study was conducted by Dr. Sam Parnia and released in 2008. Parnia studied cardiac arrests in fifteen major hospitals in the U.S. and Great Britain. He found that 39 percent of patients who suffered cardiac arrest, were revived and those that could be interviewed reported conscious memories at the time of resuscitation. Thirteen percent reported a separation of their conscious mind from their physical body.

Has your environment /upbringing colored your writing?

My mother was a botanist and professor of biology. My father was an engineer. Both looked at the world though the skeptical lens of science. They looked at the world and sought out explanations. Especially my mother, who seemed to be a living encyclopedia. Yet she was also a woman who went to church every Sunday and saw no conflict between science and God. I approach the afterlife with a natural skepticism, but that does not mean I am not open to the possibilities, and so I wrote The Moment Between to explore what happens in that instance of death.

Do you have any scars? What are they from?

I have a couple of scars, including a six-inch scar on my stomach where they opened me up for exploratory surgery after my appendix burst. The appendix was apparently in the wrong place so they had trouble diagnosing me even though I was close to death, but that is not the scar that comes to mind. I have a small circular scar dead center in the middle of my chest. I got it the day my brother tried to kill me, or so I thought for a split second. I was about twelve years old at the time. I walked out our front door, crossed over our driveway and heard my brother call my name. When I turned and faced him, he was sitting on the ground at the back of the house.

"Look at this!" he said.

His legs were stretched out in front of him. A strip of rubber from a bicycle inner-tube was wrapped around his feet like a big sling shot. He released. I stood frozen, unable to move as an arrow flew toward me. In my memory, I see it flying true. The silver of the metal tip glistens. The feathers balance the shaft as it makes a perfect arc and heads directly at me.

It hit my chest right on the solar plexus, stopped and wobbled slightly before falling to the ground. It bled a little, but I lived and succeeded in scaring the crap out of my brother as much as he had scared me.

What are you working on now?

I am getting close to finishing my next novel. Although it is similar in style, its characters inhabit a totally different "world."

Torn Skin is the story of Jonny Pirpal, a punk rockin, freight train hoppin loner with a history of ego and anger issues. Back in the nineties, he achieved a moment of rock and roll fame but his world fell apart and he lost everything in a single day. Syierra Antalek is a mystic who quite literally saves the lives of strangers but couldn't save her own family. After years of dedicating herself to others, she, too, has become a lonely traveler, but for very different reasons. Their paths cross as Jonny's history is about to catch up with him.

One of the things I love about writing Torn Skin is that I have gotten the opportunity to write lyrics to Jonny's songs, both as a punk rocker and a vagrant.

After four years of mourning, Doctor Hackett Metzger is determined to stop letting his wife's death control his life. He is finally beginning to live again, but his recovery leads to an unexpected fight for his own survival and startling revelations about what happens to all of us in The Moment Between.

Hackett, a brilliant neurologist, is a skeptic. He doesn't believe he will one day be reunited with Jean, or dwell with God in heaven. What he does believe is that he should have seen the warning signs of her heart attack; he should have saved her. He also cannot accept the possibility that his clinical study of near death experiences could prove the existence of a conscious afterlife. When Hackett falls for the mother of a patient, grief finally begins to fade. But he has no idea his new love is hiding her dangerous past. Will Hackett's damaged spirit endure another heartbreak?

Read an Excerpt:

The gravelly voice scratched Hackett’s memory, banging, scraping and popping just as it had that snowy night outside the hospital. Once again, he felt the force of the man’s knee on his neck. His heart pounded. He looked around the garage, thought first of finding a hammer or wrench on the work bench, but his eyes registered nothing within easy reach. He briefly thought of taking the man down with a chainsaw, as if he were in a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie. He felt the uncomfortable hiccup of a laugh bubble up inside of him. Without thinking, he grabbed and felt a cool, wooden handle among the garden tools.

Careful not to make a noise he lifted the pitchfork up and stared at it. In that moment, Hackett thought about all the times he had cut into human flesh. He had seen blood, he had seen death, but as a doctor, he had always strived to save life, not take it. Now, holding the pitchfork, he tried to convince himself this would be no different. He watched his hand shake, like a ninety-year-old patient holding a coffee cup. Could he do this? He wasn’t so sure. Noise within the house drew Hackett’s attention.

About the Author:

Gareth Frank is a former union organizer and administrator. He received a Master's Degree at the University of Wisconsin and later studied at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The Moment Between is his first published novel. His short stories have been published in various journals and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize as well as the Silver Pen Write Well Award.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GarethFrankAuthor
https://www.amazon.com/Moment-Between-Gareth-J-Frank/dp/1732294208

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