The Spanish bestselling author Fernando Gamboa is ready to conquer the English language literary market with his book Captain Riley. Our next guest is not a typical writer. He knows how to challenge the fate from the first hand with his wild spirit. Prior to his writing career, Fernando Gamboa worked as a diver, Spanish teacher, entrepreneur, poker player and adventure guide.

Our next guest made his English language debut with Ulysses Vidal series in 2014 and now he continues with another great character – Captain Riley. It’s a great honor to welcome at Land of Books Fernando Gamboa.

– Fernando, tell us about your new book Captain Riley?
– Captain Riley is an Adventure (yes, with a capital A). A book that will make you laugh, thrill you, make you fall in love, or make you feel like you’re standing up on a ship deck facing a storm on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a novel to lose yourself in and let your imagination take you to places you’ve never been before. A great adventure that you won’t want to leave. It was the best selling novel on Amazon Spain in 2015.

– How came the inspiration to write the story?
– I love to read and write this kind of novel, but I tried to create an original plot with real characters. Not the typical superhero protagonist found in this sort of novel, but a real person with the same doubts, fears and problems we all have, and having to survive an unthinkable conspiracy during the WWII. I wrote the kind of novel I wanted to read but nobody had written yet.
– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– To stay at home while I was writing and not travelling around the world, following the example of the characters.
– Tell us something more about your main protagonist Alexander Riley? Is he close to someone from your real life?
– Well… He’s close to me. Too close somehow, but I think that’s the best way to make a character credible, using a real person as a true model. In the case of Alexander Riley, I used the person I know best.
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– Usually I need around 12 months to write a novel, but in this case, due to all the research I had to do, it took me more than 18 months to finish it. But it was worth it.
– The adventures of Ulysses Vidal became big hit in Spanish countries. What the English language readers will find in The Last Crypt and Black City?
– Tons of adventures. I like adventures! (Did I say so already?) In this case, the Ulysses Vidal books are more focused on the research of archaeological mysteries and set in the present time, but they are also full of action, excitement and fun. The Last Crypt and Black City are at the moment the best selling ebook series in the history of Amazon Spain, with more sales than, for example, the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. Not bad.
– Who are you?
– I’m an independent author and natural born traveler, who grew up reading Jules Verne’s and Stevenson’s novels, and watching Indiana Jones films. So, I love and I live for traveling, reading and writing (sex is okay, too).
– What are your writing habits?
– I am very inconsistent. I can lose a whole morning watching a fly on my window, so what I do is wake up around 7 am and try to write 2.000 words as fast as I can, before anything else catches my attention (a fly, a cat, a call from my mum or an alien invasion).
– Are you satisfied by the sales of your books?
– Satisfied? I can’t believe it! I’m the best seller author in Spain, being an unknown indie writer. And now, Captain Riley is on the top ten list of Amazon.com best sellers… I have to pinch myself every morning to be sure I’m not dreaming!
– What are you doing to promote your novels by the best possible way?
– Nearly nothing. I trust word-of-mouth will do the work. I prefer to spend my time writing, traveling, surfing (trying to) or reading.
– When we will see your next book and would you unveil something more about it?
– You’ll see it on November 29. That’s the release date of Captain Riley 2. Darkness.
Same action, same fun, more darkness.
– You switched between many jobs. What is the most memorable experience in your life full of adventures?
– Ouch! I’ve been travelling for the last 25 years, so I’ve seen and experimented a couple of things.
I was lost in the Sahara desert and on the Guatemalan jungle, I had a face to face with a hammer shark on the Galapagos islands, a drunk military on Equatorial Guinea aimed his gun at my head saying he wanted to kill me, I was shot and had to escape from a gang —fortunately with a very bad aim— on Guayaquil, I climbed an active volcano, etc…
I’ve had a lot of experiences and I’ve used many of them in my books. Maybe that’s the reason people say my characters’ adventures seem real… because, very often they are.
– You received a serious back injury in 2005 and you were unable to move. How tough was this situation for adventurous spirit like you?
– At first, it was a nightmare as you can imagine. But at last, tired of watching films on TV and reading I said to myself: “Hey, why don’t I try to write my own novel?”
And ten years later, here I’m.
– If you may ask yourself one question in the interview what it will be?
– Q: Are you single? A: Yes ladies, I’m single 

To stay in touch with Fernando Gamboa check out his Website
Facebook page
The Captain Riley Adventures Facebook page
Twitter

Take a look at Fernando’s books:
Captain Riley
Captain Riley II: Darkness (The Captain Riley Adventures Book 2)
THE LAST CRYPT (Ulysses Vidal Adventure Series Book 1)
BLACK CITY (Ulysses Vidal Adventure Series Book 2)