{"id":901,"date":"2015-04-24T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/2015\/04\/24\/an-interview-with-brian-parker-the-boy-who-knew\/"},"modified":"2016-03-14T21:12:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T02:12:28","slug":"an-interview-with-brian-parker-the-boy-who-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/2015\/04\/24\/an-interview-with-brian-parker-the-boy-who-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"An interview with Brian Parker, the boy who knew too much"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

I was fortunate to come across this interview with the hero of my novel, Brian Parker, from the Wauwatosa East High School student newspaper (Wauwatosa is a suburb of Milwaukee). The article ran in the\u00a0paper\u2019s final issue of the school year, about a month prior to his trip to\u00a0Europe, and it reveals Brian\u2019s mindset before his adventures in <\/i>The Boy Who Knew Too Much<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

Q. You\u2019re one of the lucky students going on the World Language\u00a0Club\u2019s European trip this summer. Are you excited about it?<\/h2>\n

A. Very excited. I sold a lot of candy bars to help pay for this\u00a0trip.<\/p>\n

Q. Rumor has it you and Tim Gifford were literally eating into your\u00a0profits.<\/h2>\n

A. (Laughs). Yeah, Tim can be a bad influence where chocolate is\u00a0involved. But that was only the first few days. Once my dad saw I was, uh,\u00a0sampling my inventory, he straightened me out. He\u2019s an accountant, you know.<\/p>\n

Q. I thought he was a lawyer.<\/h2>\n

A. He\u2019s an accountant for a law firm, on Wisconsin Avenue right by\u00a0the river.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s the itinerary for your trip?<\/h2>\n

A. The first part of the trip is in the Alps. We start in Salzburg,\u00a0Austria, then go to Innsbruck. After that we cross through this tiny country\u00a0called Liechtenstein on the way to Switzerland. The big place we\u2019re visiting in\u00a0Switzerland is Lucerne \u2013 we\u2019ll be there a couple of days \u2013 then we head to\u00a0Germany, staying overnight in Stuttgart and Frankfurt. From there we go to\u00a0another small country, Luxembourg, to look at castles, I guess. And then we\u00a0cross into France and end up in Paris.<\/p>\n

Q. What city are you most looking forward to seeing?<\/h2>\n

A. Oh, Paris, definitely. I can\u2019t wait to go to the top of the\u00a0Eiffel Tower. It\u2019s probably a good thing Paris is the last stop, because if we\u00a0started there everything after it might be a letdown. But I\u2019m looking forward\u00a0to Salzburg and Lucerne and Frankfurt, too. I just want to see Europe, you\u00a0know, to visit these places I\u2019ve read about in books.<\/p>\n

Q. Foster Blake books?<\/h2>\n

A. Not just Foster Blake books, but yeah, that\u2019s the big thrill for\u00a0me. A Whisper of Death <\/i>takes place in\u00a0the Swiss and Austrian Alps, and Hotel\u00a0Noir<\/i> takes place in Paris. And the short story \u201cClandestinely Yours\u201d takes\u00a0place in Germany\u2019s Black Forest. We\u2019re supposed to drive through there.<\/p>\n

Q. Too bad you have to go to Europe to visit locations from Foster\u00a0Blake books.<\/h2>\n

A. Not really. I\u2019ve been to St. Louis.<\/p>\n

Q. Oh, come on! Foster Blake in St. Louis?<\/h2>\n

A. Yeah, in To the Point of\u00a0Insanity<\/i>. The climax takes place on the Gateway Arch.<\/p>\n

Q. That wasn\u2019t in the movie.<\/h2>\n

A. No, they changed the ending to the London Eye. The book was\u00a0written in 1979, so I guess the movie producers wanted something more\u00a0contemporary. The movie came out a year after the London Eye opened, so it was\u00a0a big deal then. Well, I suppose it\u2019s still a big deal. I\u2019d go on it if I went\u00a0to London.<\/p>\n

Q. Sure, because it\u2019s in a Foster Blake movie.<\/h2>\n

A. Yeah, I guess you\u2019re right about that. (Laughs)<\/p>\n

Q. So how did you get to be such a big Foster Blake fan Everyone\u00a0says you\u2019re probably Wisconsin\u2019s biggest Foster Blake fanatic.<\/h2>\n

A. I don\u2019t know. There could be a bigger Blake Head in Baraboo.\u00a0Anyway, I became a Foster Blake fan about four years ago when I was flipping\u00a0through channels one Sunday afternoon and saw that Clandestinely Yours<\/i> was about to come on HBO. So I watched it. And\u00a0the moment Foster Blake drove his Jaguar into the Rhine River and it turned\u00a0into a hovercraft, I was hooked. I swear that was the coolest thing I had ever\u00a0seen. And back then they had to do all that without CGI.<\/p>\n

Q. I forget they still show movies on HBO. I thought they just had\u00a0shows like The Sopranos<\/i> and Deadwood<\/i> anymore.<\/h2>\n

A. My dad tells me that when he was a kid, HBO was a big deal\u00a0because you could watch movies about a year after they were in theaters. They\u00a0didn\u2019t have DVDs or even videotapes back then. Can you imagine, waiting an\u00a0entire year until you could see a movie at home?<\/p>\n

Q. Pretty soon they\u2019ll be releasing movies in theaters after<\/i> you can watch them on cable or\u00a0satellite \u2013 or your laptop.<\/h2>\n

A. But it wouldn\u2019t be much fun to watch a Foster Blake movie on a\u00a0small screen for the first time. Some movies should be seen in theaters.<\/p>\n

Q. Who\u2019s your favorite Foster Blake?<\/h2>\n

A. Brett Simmons.<\/p>\n

Q. Swimming against the tide there, hey?<\/h2>\n

A. I think I connected with Brett Simmons because the first Foster\u00a0Blake movie I saw was\u00a0Clandestinely Yours<\/i>,\u00a0and it\u2019s still my favorite. He\u2019s just so suave, yet so deadly. And it\u2019s not\u00a0that I dislike the earlier films with Owen Taggart, but I just get so sick of\u00a0the older fans who think Owen Taggart is God, you know? He may be more\u00a0menacing, but Blake could be smooth in the books, too.<\/p>\n

Q. What do you think of the new guy, Anthony Wren?<\/h2>\n

A. I like him a lot. Lightningrod\u00a0<\/i>is right up there with my favorite Blake movies. He plays it tougher than Brett\u00a0Simmons, but I think that was a necessary switch. We\u2019ll see how he does with\u00a0his second movie.<\/p>\n

Q. What\u2019s the title of the next movie?<\/h2>\n

A. Who Will Find My Yesterdays?\u00a0<\/i>It\u2019ll be released next summer, and they start filming it in July, right around\u00a0the time I\u2019ll be in Europe.<\/p>\n

Q. Will you be able to see them film any of it?<\/h2>\n

A. No, they\u2019re going to be filming most of it in Hawaii and\u00a0Australia.<\/p>\n

Q. So you\u2019re heading in the wrong direction.<\/h2>\n

A. I guess so.<\/p>\n

Q. Are there any Foster Blake movies you hate?<\/h2>\n

A. Well, hate is a strong word, but easily the worst one in the\u00a0series is Silver Mind<\/i> \u2013 an Owen\u00a0Taggart movie, I must point out. Everything that could go wrong with a movie in\u00a0the 1980s went wrong with that one. I don\u2019t know what they were thinking when\u00a0they hired John Landis to direct, and to top it all off they got A Flock of\u00a0Seagulls to perform the theme song. I can\u2019t listen to that one. I mean, it\u2019s on\u00a0my Foster Blake iPod playlist, but I usually skip over that song at the first\u00a0synthesized note.<\/p>\n

Q. What is your favorite theme song?<\/h2>\n

A. \u201cDying on Borrowed Time\u201d by Roberta Flack. And Gwen Stefani\u2019s\u00a0cover version from a few years ago really rocks!<\/p>\n

Q. I understand you and Tim Gifford will be looking for spies while\u00a0you\u2019re in Europe.<\/h2>\n

A. He told you about that, did he? Yeah, we came up with a game\u00a0called \u201cSpot the Spy.\u201d We\u2019re going to see if we can spot anyone who looks like\u00a0a spy while we\u2019re in foreign cities.<\/p>\n

Q. What do spies look like?<\/h2>\n

A. Well, that\u2019s tricky. Lately I\u2019ve been reading up on real-world\u00a0espionage and watching shows about the CIA on the Military Channel. Real spies\u00a0are supposed to look as ordinary as possible because they want to blend into a\u00a0crowd, you know, not stand out.<\/p>\n

Q. Like Foster Blake.<\/h2>\n

A. Yeah, like Foster Blake. So I know he\u2019s not realistic. But I\u00a0suspect when we\u2019re playing our game Tim is going to be looking for Brett Simmons\u00a0or Owen Taggart while I\u2019m going to look for George Smiley.<\/p>\n

Q. Who\u2019s that?<\/h2>\n

A. He\u2019s the hero in John Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s spy\u00a0novels. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy<\/i> and\u00a0all that. He\u2019s just an ordinary-looking little man in glasses. Someone you\u00a0wouldn\u2019t look at twice if you saw him in a caf\u00e9 or bus.<\/p>\n

Q. So you don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to spot a spy in Europe?<\/h2>\n

A. If I did I probably wouldn\u2019t know it. But don\u2019t tell Tim or he\u2019ll\u00a0automatically proclaim himself the winner.<\/p>\n

Q. No excitement for you in Europe, then, hey?<\/h2>\n

A. Oh, I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be exciting. Simply walking around Salzburg\u00a0or Paris will be exciting. I just don\u2019t expect anyone will try to kill me.<\/p>\n

Q. Let\u2019s hope not!<\/h2>\n
\"image\"<\/figure>\n

Discover what happens during Brian Parker\u2019s European vacation (hint: he does better at\u00a0\u201cSpot the Spy\u201d than he predicts) when <\/i>The Boy Who Knew Too Much <\/a>is published June 1. Pre-order at Barnes & Noble<\/a> or ask at your local bookstore. <\/i>The Boy Who Knew Too Much<\/a> is an Intrigue Publishing <\/a>book.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 I was fortunate to come across this interview with the hero of my novel, Brian Parker, from the Wauwatosa East High School student newspaper (Wauwatosa is a suburb of Milwaukee). The article ran in the\u00a0paper\u2019s final issue of the school year, about a month prior to his trip to\u00a0Europe, and it reveals Brian\u2019s mindset…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,338,22,348],"tags":[388,147,283,568,146,507,284,566,231,96,285,425,128,471,567,132,180],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-spy-novels-books","category-the-boy-who-knew-too-much","category-ya-books-books","tag-austria","tag-brian-parker","tag-europe","tag-fictional-characters","tag-foster-blake","tag-france","tag-lucerne","tag-paris","tag-spy-movies","tag-spy-novels","tag-switzerland","tag-teen-spies","tag-teenage-spies","tag-the-boy-who-knew-too-much","tag-travel","tag-ya-fiction","tag-ya-spy-novels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5foza-ex","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/1140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westhoffpws.com\/jeffreywesthoff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}