Interview with Alan
McTeer
Interview by Natasha Gapinski
Alan McTeer’s first novel, Red Zone, is based on the true story of his harrowing year in Venezuela following the emergency landing of a small plane he was piloting in 1990. He was imprisoned, tortured, and forced to fly smuggling missions for a drug cartel. He lives in British Columbia and is the president of MCTR Productions, an independent digital production studio producing digital video footage for global film, TV and commercial markets. His company specializes in aerial photography.
How soon did you decide to write the book after you got back from Venezuela and Colombia?
As soon as I got back, which was June 1991.
And right away you thought, “I need to write a book”?
Oh, absolutely. I’d done a lot of things in my life, and I’d read a lot of stories, but this was too incredible. I kind of knew the whole time. There were no other Canadians or Americans in the prison, not one, so it was definitely a unique perspective. Like when the Red Cross would come, they would take a select group of prisoners and put them in a special area of what they called the University, and show the Red Cross people how great the prison was. I tried telling one of the girls once, “You know, I shouldn’t tell you this because it’s very dangerous and you might blab, but it’s not like this on the other side of the wall.” I thought the things that I was seeing like that deception were just so rare for an outsider to see.
When did you decide to use fiction in your story instead of just telling a straight autobiography?
After Joan [Schweighardt, his publisher at GreyCore Press] got involved, we decided that we needed to put some fiction in there. There isn’t much in
there; very, very little. The fiancée is somewhat fictitious-- actually I had a wife and two kids-- but it became too hard for people to relate. I think as a person with a wife and two kids you don’t come off looking so good when you’re doing things like this (smuggling airplanes out of the U.S.). But when you’re living in the United States illegally, which I was, I’m Canadian, it’s hard to get work.
How did you choose Joan Schweighardt and Greycore Press as your publisher?
She picked me. I was living in New York, and I had a girl typing the book for me, because I was using a tape recorder at the time. She knew Joan and asked her to do some editing for me. I gave Joan the original manuscript years ago, and then I ended up getting a divorce and coming back to Canada. So I was looking up Joan on the Internet one day just to check on her latest book, and I sent her an e-mail. She e-mailed back saying she was a publisher now and would like to publish the book. That happened just over a year ago.
So from there she was able to help you finish the book?
Yes, she helped with the ending, putting Jenny (the fiancée) in instead of Donna (the wife), and she hired a professional editor for the final edit. It seemed like a lot of work-- I kept getting the manuscript back, once the editor had touched it, and there would be circled paragraphs saying “unorganized thought.” Well, you know, it seemed organized to me! They didn’t explain it to me very well, so I had to do a couple of things a couple of times until I got it right. It seemed like it was never-ending, the editing.
How many years did you work on this project?
It went rather quickly initially, because the story was so fresh that I tape-recorded it first, and then I had it transcribed, and that was only a couple months’ work. Then when Joan got involved, it was about three months of very intense work. So all told it wasn’t a lot. It seemed to come together very easily, and I think that’s because I didn’t have to start fabricating things. I already had the story. It was a big event, and you seem to remember those big events quite well.
How do you write your books?
I use Dragon Naturally Speaking 7. I started with Dragon 3. I guess I was too lazy to learn how to type. I have no trouble telling a story into the computer. I don’t look at it when I’m telling the story. I record it on tape as well as the voice program, just in case; sometimes the voice program gets words wrong and I have to go back and check. I can do a chapter in about an hour and a half.
Had you ever had a goal of writing a book before all these events occurred?
Actually, I wrote screenplays before, and short stories.
Do you plan to do more writing?
Oh, absolutely. I own a video production company up here in Canada, and I write screenplays. We’re filming one here right now; it’s called RAC Intelligence Services. The premise is, after September 11th, the governments of Russia, America and Canada realize the need for joint information gathering along the Canadian-American border, so they start an experimental group called RAC. It’s about a Russian, an American, and a Canadian, obviously, and the Russian is ex-KGB, the American is ex-Navy Seal, and the Canadian is ex-RCMP and they’re all working against terrorists. In the opening scenes, bad guys are coming across the border and they’re detected by a ground sensor. Then the airplane chases them and gets shot down, and then we go into a high-speed chase. So I’m doing what I know, as you might say.
And what you enjoy?
Yes, I do, I enjoy this much more because no one’s shooting at you. Well, we use real bullets because they’re much cheaper than blanks and we get a much better effect, but they’re not being shot at me. I just tell the kids when we’re shooting, “Don’t shoot the camera!”
Do you think Canada is a better environment in general for the arts?
No, not at all. What happens in Canada is they get too artsy, they become too Canadian, they don’t write for the world market, they end up writing for the Canadian market, and that’s based around a lot of the grants and things that you can get from the government. I’m not really impressed with how I am received here in Canada. My films do well up here, but as a writer, well, I brought the book to the local newspaper and they said, “Oh, ANOTHER book!” I said, “What?” It’s because I’m not in that world of writing; it’s not where I’ve come from or been in my life, and I wrote a book. I was very upset with this guy, and I let him
know, “Hey, look, pal, this isn’t just ‘another book!’”
But we have people, as I’m sure you do down in the States, who write books and self-publish. There’s dozens of self-publishing companies. As a matter of fact, I was solicited when I first started writing up here in Canada. I wrote some articles for magazines that got published, short parts of Red Zone, and these people solicited me, “Oh, we’ll do your book, we want $25,000 to start.” I said, “What? That isn’t what it’s like in New York!”
Robert Levine read my original manuscript. There were other people who read it and gave me motivation, big people,
who said, “Go, go, go, keep going, don’t stop, you’re going to find a lot of walls out there, but keep on going,” whereas in Canada you tell people you’re writing a book, “Oh yeah, me too.” I got that so much. “Yeah, I got a book,” or “I’m gonna write a book.” And now that I have a book, some people are just wonderful and others are going, “Oh yeah, I’m waiting for the movie.”
Are you working on developing a movie of Red Zone?
Absolutely. The producers I’ve worked with and am working with, they all have the book. There’s a lot of interest being shown in making this into a movie, by serious people in the business. Of course, it helps to be in the business.
People in Hollywood?
They’re the only ones who could afford it, to do it right. You know, I have a digital camera, so I could easily go and try to do this myself, but it wouldn’t be the same. I’ve seen the producers’ five, six million dollars’ worth of camera equipment alone on sets, compared to my $200,000 worth. It wouldn’t be the same.
So who would you like to have to play you?
Originally Joan and I talked about John Travolta. We’ve tried to get a book to him but he doesn’t accept anything that’s unsolicited. I like him because he’s a pilot, and he can sing.
Are you happy with your completed book?
Oh, yes. I’m just amazed this whole thing has happened, to tell you the truth. When you say, “I want to write a book,” and then to see it finally come to where you actually have a book in your hand… I was so skeptical that when Joan sent me some galleys to give out to the local newspapers and stuff, I still didn’t think I had a book, and I wouldn’t let people read the galleys because that’s not my book. And then, when the books arrived: Now I have a book! I drove around in my car, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt better in my whole life. Maybe when my kids were born. It was a long lasting effect-- I think I’m still enjoying it, actually.
What’s next?
I’m working on two other books. I’m working on the sequel-- it’s pretty much done-- and I have another book I’m working on, too.
How soon will we see those?
The sequel, probably not for a year, year and a half. It’s the sequel to Red
Zone, and it’s also based on a true story, but nowhere near as closely based. The first chapter is exactly how it happened, and the story line is based on a true story, but I’m going to leave that up to Joan, how much of a true story we’re going to say it is. It’s still totally my story. In the new book, there’s a lot more fiction. I enjoy creating the fiction based on things that have happened to me, so I can take an event that has happened in my past and reshape it just a little bit, and end up with one hell of a good story. I really enjoy the fiction part of this new book. That’s because I get to go really crazy. Yet when you read this new book, you’ll believe this is as true as the first one.
I had a hard time guessing what was true and what was fiction in
Red Zone.
Well, there’s very, very, very little fiction in that book. Even the dialogue. The South Americans weren’t a vulgar people; that’s why there’s no vulgarity at all in the book.
Do you feel like you’ve gained anything personally from writing your story?
I think it helped me a lot. I should have been in a mental institute when I first got back, and I think it might have saved me, being able to go over it, and then to be able to look at it from a distance and say, “Yeah, this really happened.” There are things in there that I wish I hadn’t written, almost. The torture scene, I’m not so happy talking about that. I must’ve been in a different frame of mind when I wrote it, because I wouldn’t write it again. I would make that into fiction and change it. I wouldn’t give out that secret. It was a little nasty, to put it mildly. Every single year, and it’s been thirteen years since this happened, the first part of June is nasty for me. It’s getting better, now that the book is in my hands; it seems to have helped that way.
How is your book being received so far?
I think with this book the only thing I’ve received a little bit of criticism for is the so-called “scant detailing,” and that’s because I wanted it to move quickly. Maybe I didn’t put enough detail in, but a lot of books are written where it seems like they’re just filling pages, whereas the writing style that I’m employing is, “Yeah, I’m filling pages, but you’d better hang on, because it’s gonna move quickly!” It’s just going to be my writing style from now on, quick-paced. I’ll try and be a little more detailed, but I’m not gonna write six pages of nothing, of air, in a book, just to make the book thicker.
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Natasha Gapinski works in film production by day. By weekend and by lunch hour, she works on her novel and other fun, creative projects that usually involve writing and, even better, reading. She can be contacted at
natashag1@go.com.
