Author Dan Bar Hava’s highly anticipated follow-up to The 36 Watchers debuted this weekend, and readers of the author’s first installment are anxious to get their hands on a copy. The novel is a fantastical and suspenseful journey that challenges the ideas of religion and historical leaders who battle right over evil. Bar Hava wrote this second installment while questioning myth versus his own instilled belief system. To sit down with the author, you’re offered new insight and your mind is opened to new theories you might not have thought about before. We spoke with the music teacher-turned-author for a one-on-one recently.
Author Dan Bar Hava (left) at a book signing for Austin Macauley Publishers
You’re a music teacher. How did you discover your passion for writing?
At the tail end of my military service in Israel, I was inspired by some of my experiences and started writing about them. It wasn’t very good though, and it took me years to find my voice. Specifically, in regard to music. There is a musical device that is named “The devil’s interval” – you can look it up. I wrote about it, I wrote a screenplay with a couple of other people, but it ended up being complicated. I wanted to stay in that space and then I thought about the untapped myth of the Lamed Vav, the 36 righteous souls, and the rest is history.
Can you explain the theories explored in your book?
My own theory is that in the foundation of each and every religion there is an agenda. I will go 12 rounds with anyone about this one. Other theories are not mine, I just enhanced them to fit the story, alternate dimensions, the existence of the demi-god of gnostic faith, and the nonhuman origin of the watchers are examples.
This is the second installment. Do you have plans for a third for this series? Or perhaps, you have a new book in mind?
YES! Book III, Winter, will be primarily about the events of the last six-seven years and how they are connected to the Watchers.
How do you deal with writer’s block if it hits?
Exercise and chocolate, chocolate and exercise. With a good side of research.
Please describe your writing process, how long it takes, how the idea initially hits you?
Basically the whole thing needs to be in my head in broad strokes. If there are blind spots, then I need to keep thinking until I see the light. Jenna’s going into Gaza is an example. I used the true story of a tragic accidental death of Rachel Corrie by an Israeli IDF driver. Jenna entered the Gaza strip as a reporter following in the footsteps of Rachel Corrie and gained the trust of Hamas in order to execute her mission, which by itself was a decoy to her real mission, her WATCHER mission. I had everything clear in my head and then it was just typing, hours of typing, you know…
Do you have any authors or books that served as inspiration?
Roger Zelazny, author of The Chronicles of Amber saga. I wish someone would make a series out of that. Game of Thrones was modeled after that, only the original is so much better! Frank Herbert, author of Dune. JRR Tolkien and the LOTR trilogy. Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain. Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. And little-known Laurence Gardner, who wrote para-religious, para-historical and para-scientific books like Realm of the Ring Lords, The Secrets of the Sacred Ark, Bloodline of the Holy Grail and many others.
Some would describe some of the theories in your book as controversial. Can you speak to that?
Sure, my views on religion in particular, as I spelled out before. I also think that alternate dimensions are possible, although we do not have any evidence. Gnostic ideas are also alive and well, in spite of centuries of mainstream religions fighting very hard to eradicate them!
This is a New York-based website. Any favorite spots in NYC you’d like to tell us about?
I love City Island. Most Manhattan dwellers do not know about it, it is like a slice of New England, but right here; I love the waterfront and of course, the fantastic seafood. Being Jerusalem-born, which is landlocked, I truly like that Manhattan is an island. I also love Central Park and the Great Lawn on a snow day. The Hungarian Pastry Shop near Columbia University is always great for coffee and pastries. I could go on and on.
