Blog Tour: Interview with Piers Platt, author of RATH'S DECEPTION



Piers Platt is the New York Times bestselling author of "Combat and Other Shenanigans," a memoir of his year-long deployment to Iraq as a tank and scout platoon leader. Piers grew up in Boston, but spent most of his childhood in various boarding schools, including getting trained as a classical singer at a choir school for boys. He joined the Army in 2002, and spent four years on active duty.

When he's not writing or spending time with his lovely wife and daughter, Piers works as a strategy consultant in
New York city.

His latest book is the sci fi/thriller, Rath’s Deception.

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About the Book:

Title: Rath’s Deception
Author: Piers Platt
Publisher: Piers Platt
Pages: 350
Genre: Sci Fi/Thriller

On the cut-throat streets of Tarkis, orphaned teens like Rath end up jailed … or dead. So when the shadowy Janus Group offers Rath a chance to earn riches beyond his wildest dreams, he seizes it. But the Janus Group is as ruthless as the elite assassins it controls. Rath will have to survive their grueling, off-world training, and fulfill all fifty kills in his contract before a single cent comes his way. And ending so many lives comes with a price Rath can’t anticipate. It’ll certainly cost him what’s left of his innocence. It may well cost him his life.

For More Information

  • Rath’s Deception is available at Amazon.
  • Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.



Can you tell us what your book is about? 

Rath’s Deception is a sci fi thriller about a young orphan boy (Rath) who gets picked to be an assassin for a shadowy corporation (The Janus Group) in the distant future. The deal is called ‘Fifty for Fity’: he gets fifty percent of his earnings (millions of dollars)…but he has to complete all fifty kills in his contract first. And that turns out to be a challenge, not least because he’s being tracked by a very smart detective!

Why did you write your book?

Mainly because I love to write! I had the story in my head, and I wanted (needed??) to see it on paper. But Rath’s Deception is also based on a short story called Last Pursuit [available for free wherever ebooks are sold, here’s the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Pursuit-Piers-Platt-ebook/dp/B00JFXTW84/] that I wrote some time ago – Last Pursuit is the same concept / setting, it just focuses on a single mission for one assassin. Readers really enjoyed the story, but many said they wished it was longer…so I expanded it into a full book…and then a trilogy!

Are you consciously aware of the plot before you begin a novel or do you discover it as you write?

I’m aware of where my characters are going to start, and certainly where they’re going to end (I love twists and big climaxes), but I don’t always know how they’re going to get there. For those middle scenes, I’ll usually have a general idea for the content of each chapter (Rath gets assigned a tough mission and barely squeaks by, e.g.), but I often like to let my imagine fill in the details.

Is it hard to promote a sci fi book and where do you start?

I think it can be a challenge to promote any book, regardless of genre – with so many new titles each month, getting yours seen is tough!  Where I start: here!  Blogs like As the Page Turns are a great way of reaching out, and I really appreciate the opportunity to find new readers. I also have a mailing list for fans of my work – everyone who signs up gets a free copy of Combat and Other Shenanigans, my NY Times bestselling Iraq War memoir. Sign up at www.piersplatt.com/newsletter

What would you do with an extra hour today if you could do anything you wanted?

I would spend some more time with my 4-year-old daughter. We love reading together, and as an author, it’s so rewarding to see her learning to read and soak up new stories (even if it’s just Goodnight Moon, for the thirtieth time!). She likes to act out The Little Mermaid with her toys, too – so I know all of the lines by heart, and sing a pretty decent rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls.

What do you like to do for fun?

My wife and I love to ski and scuba dive. We’re slowly crossing things off our “scuba bucket list” – so far the highlights have been the Blue Hole in Belize, a whale shark off of the Great Barrier Reef, and we also love Bonaire and Grand Cayman, where pretty much every dive site is breath-taking. It’s fun seeing the big animals (sharks, sea turtles), but we really enjoy finding the little critters most – cleaner shrimp inside a big grouper’s mouth, picking their teeth clean, or a frog-fish under a rock ledge (Google them, they are really hard to spot!).

What kind of advice would you give other fiction authors?

Decide up front what your goals are, and then learn everything you can about how other authors reached those goals. There are no wrong answers (it’s okay to have whatever goals you want), and no one’s path is going to be exactly the same to each goal, but there’s a wealth of information out there on writer’s forums and blogs today, so take advantage of it. Then make a plan, start working on it … and create the best possible book(s) you can.