Today I'll be chatting with JohanLiebert33, thriller author of Jackal Jim: The Hunt is On. We discussed his new work, references to other books, assassins and more!

I did interview Johan previously, and you can find it in the chapter entitled Interview 7: Johan (1). You can read up for a detailed introduction of Johan there.

Legend:

TWA: Me!

Johan: JohanLiebert33

[Spoiler]: Spoiler in the author's story, please read the book to find out.

TWA: Greetings! I'm TheWordArtistBooks, and I come from Author Insights. Ready for your interview? (Reply to begin, feel free to at any time)

Johan: Yes. Ask question.

TWA: So, how have you been since our last interview (See Johan's other interview at the chapter entitled Interview 7: Johan (1) )?

Johan: I'm good, how are you TWA.

TWA: I'm good too. Have you started on any new projects?

Johan: Ya, I'm writing a new story name Jackal Jim : The Hunt is on

Its genre is action-thriller. 

TWA: Wow, what's the story about?

Johan: It's about a young boy Jim who lost his parents in genocide caused by mafia in their hometown city Harran. But he was saved and shifted to New city and moved on from that event, continued his life with his friends but a terror attack happened which took everything again from him. This time he lost faith in humanity and chose path to become assassin.

In story 20 years later he got a task to execute a mafia who is ruling a foreign land but he realizes this mafia is related to terror attack so he turns his mission into personal but for this. He did 1 mistake which alerted the mafia and he put whole city in lock down and told his army to find him wherever he is.

So thousands of criminals around the city are thirsty for his life and he is ruthless assassin so story shows how he completes his mission and survives through difficult obstacles.

TWA: Wow, assassins and mafia! Will there be a lot of fight and action scenes?

Johan: Yes  a lot, car chases and hand to hand fights.

Also close gun fight like John Wick movie.

And some silat action sequences with lots of brutality.

TWA: Ah, so like John Wick. What inspired you to write this book?

Johan: John wick movie inspired me a lot, I wanted to write something based on assassins and mafias. And action parts are inspired from Gareth Evan's movies like Raid Redemption, Headshot. And this story is connected with The Saga of Mafioso and I gave u interview about that book as I remember. So Jackal Jim is spin off book.

TWA: Oh yes, you did. How is Jackal Jim related to The Saga of Mafioso?

Johan: In saga of mafioso there's a chaos happened, a genocide on innocent citizens and that genocide was ordered by mafia leader. It happened because citizens didn't accept him as leader and rejected him so he felt offended and it hurt his ego so his men did mass murders on citizens including children and women.

So main character Jim lost his parents in that genocide and he finally escaped from there as I mentioned above.

In Jackal Jim, there's a small appearance of 2 main characters from The Saga of Mafioso in Prologue.

TWA: If there's one thing I am obsessed with in media (movies, tv shows, books), it's references to future or past projects. I'm sure your readers of The Saga of Mafioso will be like, "Oh, wait a moment..." 

Hang on, does this mean that Jackal Jim takes place at least several years after the events of The Saga of Mafioso?

Johan: Yes and Jackal Jim was already planned when I was writing The Saga of Mafioso.

So it was easy for me to make a proper spin off. 

TWA: Wow, great planning! 

 What do you like most about Jackal Jim?

Johan: I'll probably say its world building is best thing, it doesn't only focus on 1 character but also focuses on other characters and story isn't so complicated. And high stakes in story, antagonist and side characters are also good thing in this story.

TWA: Could you tell me about the world of Jackal Jim?

Johan: This world is slightly different than The Saga of Mafioso, both are in same universe but still its lil bit different In Jackal Jim, there are assassins around any corner of city.

Evil dictator type characters.

And there's a whole community of assassins in Jackal Jim. They have their own system and own rules

TWA: Eek! Trouble is basically everywhere. 

 Let's discuss assassins. What do you like about assassins?

Johan: I like their thinking, in stories I mostly love villains a lot and assassins are best villainic role. I like how some assassins are grey shade, they fight against corrupted people and some are broken person who are fighting for money or revenge or to save their family.

Or some are pure evil who enjoys killing their targets and also not showing mercy. They use their intelligence, strategies and creativity to wipe their targets. And sometimes they faces difficulties and hesitate to kill their targets too. Some assassins even faces trauma in life after doing lots of killings and feel guilty.

TWA: Each assassin is really different. How do the assassins community operate? Do they have like a headquarters or ranking?

Johan: Ya like that. In here there's also a school for assassins to get trained, they get rankings, assassins can contact each other around the globe.

TWA: Wow, a school for assassins? That's cool! I guess they would have like a fake name.Did Jim train in the school?

Johan: Yes in current arc he is being trained in the school. 

TWA: Speaking of Jim, let's focus on him now.How does being an assassin shape Jim's character?

Johan: Jim was shy, happy type of character also he never wanted to choose violence. But he was also depressed at some point for losing his family. After being assassin, he becomes ruthless and vengeful person. He lives inside of shadow and kills his enemies

Most assassins kills their enemies silently but he makes his targets suffer and doesn't give them quick death.

TWA: He must really enjoy torturing them and wants revenge.As the author, what do you find the most remarkable about Jim?

Johan: Story haven't reached to that point where he starts killing but ya he traps his enemies and kill them at once

There will be a moment where hunters will track Jim through radar and goes to that location to attack Jim but [Spoiler excerpt from Jackal Jim: The Hunt is On by JohanLiebert33].These things are remarkable about Jackal Jim.

TWA: Jim sounds like a very daring and brave person!I think I'll remove the spoiler though so people can read your book :) 

What motivates you to write?

Johan: Now, only few readers motivates to write otherwise nothing else. I just want to write and show my creation, only 1 or 2 readers reads my stories.

And others just votes on my stories and doesn't take a minute to read them.Still I'm writing cause I'm not gonna abandon my works.

TWA: You should write for no one other than yourself and your readers :) 

 If only more could see your interviews and maybe they'll be interested to check it out. 

I have two more questions for you: 

 1. What new stories or future projects do you have in mind? Could you tell the readers more about it so we can get excited together :) 

2. What is one piece of advice you would like to give to any aspiring authors?

Johan: New stories, ig its not a spoiler but there will be sequel of Jackal Jim and story name Silrica which will be about a powerful Don was assassinated and his partners and family members wants to take over the business. It is highly inspired by Godfather and Narcos, in Silrica. You can expect romance as sub plots and many different characters.

And I'm giving hints of Silrica already in Jackal Jim.

So advice is if you writers come up with new plot and new concept then try to come with new ideas or different execution. I've seen many romance authors come with different concept weather it's thrilling or horror or mythical but they never cross their boundaries and always uses their other cliche romance type execution which results their new story with different plot being typical.

TWA: Wow, sounds interesting!

So you're encouraging authors to exit their comfort zone and try something new?

Johan: So try to cross boundaries to deliver more unique stories. Different plot doesn't make the story different, different execution and ideas in stories makes it different. I'm also trying to come out of action thriller zone and write a romance plot and psychological stories with different execution and ideas.

Yes that's what I'm saying. And many writers do this mistake that when they think plot suddenly then they announce the story and think about writing it but because of this they don't know what will they do with storyline.

When I thought about Jackal Jim's plot, I slowly started thinking how the story will end and what type of characters I'll show. That's why I know what I'm doing. 

I also have many plots in my mind regarding sci-fi, mythology, historical drama. But I have to take my time and build the plot line in mind, I did similar mistakes as I mentioned other writers do. That's why now 1 or 2 of my stories are on hold. 

TWA: Yes, I would advise authors to go this path. I have come out of my comfort zone and written something entirely new to me: thrillers, and it turned out well! 

Also, I recommend Johan's book Jackal Jim: The Hunt is On, it's really interesting. 

And that's all from me. Thank you so much for your time, Johan!

Johan: Thank you, I enjoyed giving interview again. Take care of yourself.

And you're welcome. Ya I started reading your The Eyes of Power and it's really good, I also completed your story which is about werewolves and it was unique. 

TWA: Thanks, yours was original too :)

Johan: :D

~~The End~~

So that was my second interview with JohanLiebert33! If you like assassins, thrillers and fight scenes, I personally recommend Jackal Jim: The Hunt is On. You can find it on Johan's profile, or on my Undiscovered Reads reading list.

I hope you enjoyed reading this interview and learned something new :)