Bert Quint

 

 

Bert Quint was a CBS News correspondent for three decades. Known as the "fireman" of the Walter Cronkite team, he covered conflicts around the world. He spent years in Eastern Europe during the fall of Communism and, as Rome and Vatican correspondent, accompanied Pope John Paul II to dozens of countries. He wrote and narrated "Trans-Siberian Rail Journeys," a two-hour PBS documentary about Siberia, China and Mongolia.

Quint's novels reflect his intimate knowledge of the people and places he covered. His first book, the critically acclaimed "Rough Cut From a Bygone War," is a story of friendship and loyalty among journalists during the Vietnam War and of the betrayal by today's television networks of the ideals of news gathering. His new novel, "Transylvania Red," is a thriller with a touch of dark humor set in today's Romania against the background of the real Dracula's hometown.

 

"the testosterone-heavy thriller" about murder and modern day capitalists "who can be at least as scary as centuries-old bloodsuckers." ---Publishers Weekly

 

"Transylvania Red offers poignant...thoughtful reading." ---New Mystery Reader Magazine

Rough Cut From a Bygone War "...Quint’s character "is the real thing…What he, Camden and actual combat reporters experience…does not make them heroes, but does earn them a bit of the spotlight …" ––Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times

 

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Bert Quint: Born and raised in New York (Queens) but spent more than 30 years working and living abroad. Two possible reasons for becoming a journalist. My father was a very good one. Printer’s ink in the blood line? The more likely reason, though, is that I was never any good at anything else. Couldn’t add a column of three figures or change a light bulb, but writing was easy.

 

Pageonelit.com: You were a foreign correspondent for CBS News for almost 30 years -- Tell us a little about some of your experiences that stand out with that career and what did you like about the job? What did you not like about the job?

Bert Quint: I started as a newspaper reporter and soon was lucky enough to fall into television news when it was still fun and worthwhile, before the bean counters took over. When getting the real news and getting it right as well as fast were the bottom lines.

Perhaps what I liked best was the working of a team, correspondent, camera and sound operators, kind of like the Threee Musketeers, off in some distant and often dangerous part of the world, us against the world, the world sometime including the home office. CBS called me the fireman of the Walter Cronkite team, which means I was used as cannon fodder to cover the hot stories—Viet Nam and dozens of other wars, large and small. Based in Rome, I was also, for my sins, the Vatican correspondent and traveled extensively with Pope John Paul 11. Among the most significant stories I covered on an ongoing basis was the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. I spent years in Poland and considerable time in Romania, the two countries where Transylvania Red is set.

 

 

Pageonelit.com: Why did you write TRANSYLVANIA RED? Tell us about this book --- How long did it take to write? Where did the title come from?

Bert Quint: Transylvania Red begins in the Transylvania region of Romania, in the town where the real-life person who was the model for Dracula was born. Journalists are sent there to cover the building of a Dracula theme park and stumble upon modern day criminals as bloodthirsty as any vampire. The criminal enterprise has its roots in the evils of the former communist regime in Romania, a particularly repressive one. Having covered those evils while they were occurring and being familiar with the countryside and the legends made this an easy choice for me for a thriller.

My first novel, Rough Cut From a Bygone War, was a different kind of book, more serious, more vulgar (dealing with war) and perhaps a bit more poetic, as well.

 

Pageonelit.com: Why Romania -- What's the significance of Romania to the story of TRANSYLVANIA RED? Could this story have been told in another setting? Why or why not?

Bert Quint: Romania was a natural for a thriller. It’s a land of ancient, and more recent, evil. It is the place where Vlad the Impaler, later known in legend and fiction as Dracula, was born and earned his moniker by impaling his victims rather than biting them. In communist times, it was the home of Nikolai Ceaucescu, who ran the most repressive of the East bloc regimes. I had the pleasure—and , let’s face it, the risks-- of covering Romania, of being tailed constantly by teams of 16 secret police. as the only American television correspondent accredited by the Romanian government, I was able to come up with stories about what was happening—including the forcing of women to have children for the good of the country and the placing of dissidents in insane asylums. The orphans and those left to rot in the asylums after the fall of communism, along with the vampire legacy, provide the raw material for the fictitious, but plausable, crime that is the basis of Transylvania Red. In other words, Transylvania Red could take place only in Romania and there are not that many Western reporters familiar enoguh with the country’s past and present to write the story.

 

Pageonelit.com: What is it about 'vampires' that interests you most and how is TRANSYVANIA RED different than other vampire stories/books?

Bert Quint: Transylvania Red is different from vampire books because there is only the merest hint of the supernatural. It is a realistic, hard-bitten, if you will forgive the pun, crime novel. The setting is vampire-land, the hometown of the original Vlad the Impaler, Bram Stoker’s real-life medieval model for Dracula. Journalists go to do a story about the big business of Dracula tours that is a money-maker for the Romanian government. As Publishers Weekly says, "The reporting gets dirty—not to mention dangerous—as the team uncovers murder,avarice and unscrupulous wheeling and dealing and also learn that modern day capitalists can be at least as scary as centuries-old bloodsuckers." The principal villain is said to be a descendant of the real Vlad and vampire aficionados may wonder if perhaps there is some vampire blood in him. This adds to the atmosphere of the story. But for those who don’t believe in vampires, it’s just a realistic thriller with a touch of dark humor and some particularly nasty and spooky characters.

 

Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback from readers? What do they say to you about their interpretations of your book? What do they like about the book?

Bert Quint: The feedback on Rough Cut From a Bygone War that I really care about is from my colleagues, American and Vietnamese, the people I lived with and often nearly died with. This novel is about the relationship of men and women walking the edge together. About their loyalty to each other and the lack of loyalty of the big organizations that send them out to risk their lives. Critics have called it "excellent" and "compelling." But what I am most proud of is that the old timers with whom I walked those roads call it "the truth."

Transylvania Red has just come out. Publishers Weekly calls it a "testosterone-heavy thriller." Fair enough. It was fun to write. It’s a pretty good story, based on real people, places and events, and, as a reporter, I can say it comes pretty close to "the truth."

 

 

 

Pageonelit.com: Are you working on a follow up? Or something totally different?

Bert Quint:These first two books have the same protagonists—an over-the-hill correspondent and a grouchy cameraman who lost an arm at Sarajevo (why shouldn’t he be grouchy?) I’ve gotten to like these guys, ball breakers though they are, so I may turn them loose on the world again.

 

Pageonelit.com: From your experiences as an international journalist and reporter - What is your perspective/interpretation of the events of Sept.11, 2001?

Bert Quint: Sept. 11, 2001, is a defining date—like that of the Battle of Agincourt or the sinking of the Lusitania. It serves as, perhaps not the first, but the loudest shell fired at the beginning of a clash of civilizations.

The end of the last century saw the fall of one of the modern eras two major systems—Marxism. The beginning of the 21st Century is marked by the realization that there is a world of people out there who hate democracy and the countries that practice it, especially this country. They are fundamentalists of a religion that happens to be Muslim, but could be that of any religion where those in power keep their own people in ignorance and poverty. People who do have reason to hate, even if they are hating the wrong people. They should be hating their own rulers. But they have to hate somebody and we make an easier target. I do see it as a clash of civilizations, the have-nots and hate-alls against those they envy and—it is true—against we who have aided their homegrown oppressors for our own selfish reasons—among them oil and the cold war.

 

Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you read?

Bert Quint:I can’t really imagine anybody caring what books I’ve read recently or what my hobbies are. I’m not a serious novelist worthy of study; I’m a reporter who has turned to fiction. Among my favorite books of a lifetime, however, I would list Zorba the Greek and Don Quijote.