Guest Post: Haris Orkin – GOLDHAMMER

Good day, my fellow book lovers. I hope you’re all having a good week and staying cool and dry. Have you ever given any thought to the psychological issues some of our beloved characters reveal but also deny? For example, Scarlett O’Hara uses denial as a massive coping mechanism throughout her life, but occasionally she uses it as a weapon or tool to get what she wants. Gone With the Wind just wouldn’t be the same if Scarlett were as sweet and kind as her “friend” and rival, Melanie. Authors intend for some characters to be more flamboyant and over-the-top because it makes for a more interesting story, as well as making for a memorable character. I’m pleased to welcome Haris Orkin, author of Goldhammer to the blog today. Mr. Orkin is an acclaimed author and he’ll be talking to us about Bond, James Bond. Thank you, Mr. Orkin, for joining us today. I look forward to learning your thoughts on James Bond and now turn the blog over to you.

YOU’D HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO BE JAMES BOND
By Haris Orkin

 

Daniel Craig’s last James Bond movie was finally released after a long delay and right now, there is no new Bond film on the horizon. Ladbrokes, the storied British betting and gambling concern, publishes odds every day as to who the next James Bond might be. People can lay bets on it. The top contenders at the moment are Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill, Richard Madden from Game of Thrones, Aiden Turner, Idris Elba, and Rege-Jean Page of Bridgerton fame. Whoever Barbara Broccoli chooses to be the new Bond will take this sixty-year-old blockbuster franchise into the future. Currently, it’s the fifth highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.

When Goldfinger first came out I couldn’t wait to see it, but my parents thought I was too young. They thought it was too violent, too sexy, and too grownup for a fourth-grader. (The movie poster featured a nude woman painted entirely in gold.) They finally gave in to my nagging the following year when Thunderball came out.

In the pre-title sequence, Bond punched out a guy dressed as a lady and then escaped by donning a jetpack and taking off into the sky. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. One week later there was a promotion in the parking lot of our local mall. In 1965, Randhurst was the largest shopping center under one roof in the world. I lived in suburban Chicago and it was one mile from our house. A man donned that same (or similar) James Bond jetpack and took to the sky with an earsplitting whoosh. I was thrilled and inspired and right then and there I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.

James Bond.

Who wouldn’t? He traveled all over the world and drove super cool cars with built in-machine guns and ejector seats. He sky-dived and scuba-dived and gambled in casinos on the French Riviera. Every woman he met shamelessly threw herself at him. Bond had no fear of anyone or anything. He was confident in every situation and comfortable in his own skin. I think that was the biggest fantasy of all for an awkward pre-teen from the suburbs of Chicago.

Two years later I saw You Only Live Twice. Two years after that, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I owned a James Bond toy camera that turned into a pistol and a toy radio that turned into a sniper rifle. That was also the era of The Wild, Wild West, The Man From Uncle, I Spy, and The Avengers. (The one with Emma Peel and John Steed, not the one with Iron Man, Spiderman, and Thor.) But Bond was the original. The first. The best.

It was also the era of Get Smart and that was the first hint to me that there was something vaguely ridiculous about Bond. When Roger Moore replaced Sean Connery, the Bond films turned slightly more comedic. I missed Connery’s cool edge and I didn’t think Moore exuded the same sense of danger. I wanted to believe in Bond. I wanted to buy into the whole ethos of a lone secret agent who could save the world.

Gradually, over time, as much as I loved Bond, I was beginning to see the absurdity behind what he did and how he did it. Bond always accused the supervillains he confronted as being barking mad. But in truth, he was no less crazy. I began to understand that only someone completely crackers could do what James Bond did.

I started reading the books as well and Fleming’s Bond wasn’t as over the top as the movie Bond. He was more grounded and a bit more realistic. The villains weren’t quite as insane as the ones in the movies, but they were definitely crazier than Bond. Over time, however, the books became as fantastic as the films. Even as a twelve-year-old kid I could see that Bond was probably a few egg rolls short of a pu pu platter.

Who in their right mind would cross a river by jumping over the backs of a bunch of crocodiles? Or leap out of a plane without a parachute? Or bungee jump off a thousand-foot-high dam? These are things only a person with a death wish would do. Or someone so insanely confident that they didn’t believe death or serious injury was even a possibility. Of all the nutty things Bond did in those early films, the craziest to me was when he decided to go undercover as a Japanese fisherman in You Only Live Twice. As a six-foot-two Caucasian with a Scottish accent and bangs, Bond didn’t seem convincingly Japanese to me. Hell, he didn’t even speak Japanese. For Bond to believe that anyone would actually believe he was Japanese didn’t just strain credulity, it was batshit crazy.

Still, I continued to love James Bond. I still do. He continues to be the ultimate escapist male empowerment fantasy. He also reminded me of another famous literary hero who made it his mission to right wrongs, save damsels in distress and slay dragons. This hero was also famously delusional.

Don Quixote.

A few years back it crossed my mind that today’s equivalent of a knight errant would be a secret agent. A contemporary Don Quixote would likely imagine himself to be a super spy like James Bond.

That’s how James Flynn came to be.

Oscar Levant, the virtuoso pianist and world-class wit, once said, “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity.”

The same could be said for the line between bravery and batshit crazy.

Synopsis:

A James Flynn Escapade

A young actress, involuntarily committed to City of Roses Psychiatric Hospital, plunges James Flynn into a dangerous new adventure when she claims one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood is trying to kill her.

Still convinced he’s a secret agent for Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Flynn springs into action, helps her escape and finds himself embroiled in a battle with a dangerous sociopath worth billions. In the process, he uncovers a high-tech conspiracy to control the mind of every human being on Earth.

With the help of his reluctant sidekick, Sancho, and a forgotten Hollywood sex symbol from the 1960s, Flynn faces off with Goldhammer and his private army in a desperate attempt to save the young actress…and save the world…once again.

Praise for Goldhammer:

“One of those books that has you laughing and turning pages well into the night.” —Len Boswell, Bestselling author of The Simon Grave Mysteries

“A riotous comic novel that’s also a legit page turner. A deftly plotted, swiftly paced thriller.” —R. Lee Procter, Author of The Million Dollar Sticky Note and Sugarball

“A fast-paced quixotic thriller that would make Miguel de Cervantes and Ian Fleming proud. The third James Flynn novel is a powerful cocktail of suspense, adrenaline and a whole lot of laughs. Orkin has the remarkable ability to keep the reader straddled between a genuine spy thriller and an off-the-wall comedy” —Joe Barret, Award-winning author of Managed Care

Book Details:

Genre: Comedy Thriller
Published by: Black Rose Writing
Publication Date: June 23rd, 2022
Number of Pages: 240
ISBN: 1684339677
ISBN-13: 9781684339679
Series: The James Flynn Escapades, Book 3 | Each is a stand-alone thriller
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

 

Author Bio:

Haris Orkin is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and game writer. His play, Dada was produced at The American Stage and the La Jolla Playhouse. Sex, Impotence, and International Terrorism was chosen as a critic’s choice by the L.A. Weekly and sold as a film script to MGM/UA. Save the Dog was produced as a Disney Sunday Night movie. His original screenplay, A Saintly Switch, was directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starred David Alan Grier and Vivica A. Fox. He is a WGA Award and BAFTA Award nominated game writer and narrative designer known for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Mafia 3, and Dying Light.

Catch Up With Haris Orkin:
www.harisorkin.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @HarisOrkin
Instagram – @HarisOrkin
Twitter – @HarisOrkin
Facebook – @AuthorHarisOrkin

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