5 Minutes with ... James Phelan

Before I was an author I ... was an architect. I worked on the Federation Square design team for two years. Due to political and media pressure, too much compromise went on there, which lead to half measures and the half-baked result we have today.

In three words Dark Heart is ... a suspense thriller.

The best part of writing Dark Heart was ... wrapping up the Zodiac macro plot-line. The Jed Walker books can be read in any order, but there’s an overarching story across the four narratives. The sequence is called the Zodiac quartet, and it’s a little tip of the hat to James Ellroy.

My favourite place to write is ... not so much a place as a time. From sun-up until midday is a glorious period of creativity. I always write to music.

When I’m not writing I ... spend time with family and friends, cook, hang at the beach, listen to music, travel, relax. My wife is an opera singer, so while many of my friends are authors, some of my closest friends are conductors and composers and musicians. Practicing any art is a lonely job, and there’s immediate empathy found in artistic friends.