Brooker, Alan M. 1934–

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Brooker, Alan M. 1934–

PERSONAL: Born September 20, 1934, in Lucknow, United Province (now Uttar Pradesh), India; immigrated to New Zealand, 1947; son of Richard Brooker (a teacher) and Iris (a teacher and clerical worker; maiden name, Hansford) Brooker; married Janice Gundersen, January 14, 1961 (divorced). Ethnicity: "European." Education: La Martinere College (India), teaching certificate. Politics: National. Religion: Anglican.

ADDRESSES: Home—23 Mako St., Taupo Bay, RD 1, Mangonui, Northland 0557, New Zealand. E-mail—ambrook@brookersworld.co.nz

CAREER: Otago Daily Times, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, reporter, 1954–56; Royal New Zealand Air Force, administrator, 1956–76; Zip Commercial Interiors, Wellington, New Zealand, administration manager, 1977–82; Kaipara Area Health Services, Dar-gaville, New Zealand, area manager; Ambro Enterprises, Taupo Bay, New Zealand, founder, consultant, writer, 1995–. Northland Disabilitlies Resource Centre, trustee, 1995–; Whangaroa Health Services Trust, trustee, 2001–.

MEMBER: Wellington Badminton Association.

WRITINGS:

Dreams of Torment (fantasy), Xlibris (Princeton, NJ) 1998.

Dreams of Charni (fantasy; "Warrior of Earth Saga"), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 1998.

Bad Blood (science fiction), Xlibris (Princeton, NJ) 1998.

The Battle for Barnstable (horror), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 1998.

Journey of a Common Man (memoir) Xlibris (Princeton, NJ), 2000.

Tharne's Quest (horror), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2000.

The Radicals, Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2001.

The Mean Green Machine, Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2002.

Killer Turtle (adventure), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2004.

An Angel's Revenge (horror), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2005.

The Ride to Revenge (fantasy; "Warrior of Earth Saga"), Amber Quill Press (Indian Hills, CO), 2005.

Author of Food for Thought, a cookbook on CD, a health and wellness column for the The Whispers, and an online newsletter for Northland Disabilities Resources.

SIDELIGHTS: Alan M. Brooker was a career officer with the Royal New Zealand Air Force, who held a number of positions before becoming a full-time writer and consultant. Many of Brooker's novels of fantasy and horror are in print and also available as electronic editions from Amber Quill Press and Xlibris.

In Dreams of Charni, the main character, Jason, has the same recurring dream. Each time he wakes remembering every detail, including the beautiful Charni. After purchasing an old book of star charts and an amulet in a book store, he falls asleep to dream once again, but this time to awaken in the setting of the dream, the constellation Praesepe. Here he becomes a warrior who protects Charni from her evil brother and those who want to sacrifice her to the Evil Ones. Road to Romance reviewer Tina Burns wrote that "Brooker has taken the Sci-Fi genre, weaved in some romance, and created a fantastic melding of the two."

The protagonists of Tharne's Quest are Alison, Chad, a NASA scientist, and Tharne, an ancient entity that presents itself in a mist and which has come to earth to vanquish the Adept, a being that has been reincarnated in several bodies, including that of Hitler's deputy, Heinrich Himmler, and whose intention is to unite with Satan to destroy humanity. Susan DiPlacido stated in a review for Blue Iris Journal online that "Brooker's style is quick and captivating, and the chills are relentless."

The Radicals concerns a group of Maori who want to return to the old ways, including cannibalism. The group leaves the headless bodies of their victims in visible places. They also have connections to Mafia drug dealers. Al Brookes is the man put in charge of breaking up the drug ring. In a review for All about Murder online, Sumera Majid said that "to say this book is well-written, the characters well developed, the settings well drawn, the plot captivating, the action lively, is gross understatement. This is one of the most intense novels I've ever read."

A group of anarchistic New Zealanders will go to any lengths, including murder, to stop the degradation of their environment in The Mean Green Machine. Brookes is called in by police after six people are killed, and he is charged with breaking up the murderous group before they take control of the government.

Brooker once told CA: "My main drive is to get the stories circulating around my mind out into print to share them with others. I started writing many years ago as a form of stress release. It was fun to involve those giving me problems as characters I could do nasty things to without fear of reprisal—wonderful way to release pressure. I also get many of my ideas while I sleep, record the dreams and then incorporate them into my stories."

Brooker later told CA: "The sight of a police confrontation with a fleeing robber in India when I was around twelve years old first got me interested in writing. The chase ended just outside our front gate and was highly verbal as you can imagine in India. I wrote about it for the school magazine and have been writing ever since but not to the extent that I am now. This present burst started in the late 1980s as a 'stress relief' tool when I was the area manager of the Kaipara Health Services and was being forced to demolish a service I had helped build up. Many of the characters in my early books resemble some of the officials who wouldn't listen to reason—I could kill and mutilate them at night and then face them the next morning with much lower stress levels.

"My work is influenced by Dennis Wheatley and John Norman, with touches of Tolkien and Star Wars.

"My writing process is rip, shit and bust. Once I start I loose track of time and have been known to spend up to seven or eight hours on the computer without a break. Normally from skeleton to first draft takes three to four months. Working with the editors from Amber Quill it takes me around a week to ten days to turn around a manuscript sent for final edit.

"The most surprising thing I've learned as a writer is the strange gullibility of some readers. The world of Praesepe is my own creation. It is 545 light years away in the Crab nebulae (the Star does exist!) so nobody knows what it looks like because it's all mine and yet I have had an e-mail from a reader complaining because I got the geography wrong and had one of the rivers flowing the wrong way across the plains!

"Well, the Warrior of Earth Saga actually, all six volumes, is my favorite. It started life as a short story of 1,500 words for a competition but it sort of grew a wee bit and ended up over 450,000 words. I just let the characters drive the story and tell me where they wanted to go next. The skeleton for the series fitted within the covers of a six-by-four-inch school notebook."