Meet Oren Aviv

It's not often that you get to read a book that has not one, not two, but three authors. But thanks to Partners in Crime blog tours I had the chance to interview Oren Aviv, one of the authors of The Midas Touch. You can learn more about the book and read my review next week. Also, watch the book trailer HERE and enter the giveaway below.

More About The Midas Touch

The Midas Touch is a globe-trotting adventure that follows CIA cryptologist/puzzle solver/savant Brady Donovan as he investigates the murder of his beloved mentor Dr. Hastings Kaufman, only to find that it leads to a search for the missing pieces of the famed Rosetta Stone and the secret it holds: The Alchemist Gold Theory – how to turn ordinary metals into gold.

Protagonist Brady Donovan partners with British archeologist Teppy Flynn and conspiracy theorist Avery Prophet. Only a heartbeat away is a diabolical Silicon Valley tech giant, D’Arcy Lauren Granier, and her henchmen.

The quest takes them through Napoleonic history and into a contemporary race through the streets of London, America’s backroads, the Caribbean, New Orleans’ French Quarter, Napoleon’s last island prison in the Atlantic, the Louisiana Bayou, and a massive, abandoned salt mine where pirate Jean Lafitte hid his treasures.

History, told in vivid flashbacks, jumps back to 1799 Egypt, and forward through the hundreds of years since, with pirates and presidents on the search for better or worse. Now Brady Donovan fights against the fast- ticking clock, relentless bad guys, and a Category 5 hurricane to where past meets present and greed and betrayal become deadly partners.

More about Oren Aviv

OREN AVIV ran Disney Studios from 2006-2010, after heading Disney Marketing for eight

years. He became Disney’s first Chief Content Officer, and after leaving Disney he became CMO for 20th Century Fox Studios. In addition to executive producing a dozen films, he also co-created and was Executive Producer with Charles Segars of Disney’s National Treasure film franchise.

He created breakthrough marketing campaigns for the studio’s Narnia, Step Up, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the National Treasure franchises, and launched memorable campaigns for many of Pixar’s animated hits, including Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles and Cars. He also launched blockbusters such as The Sixth Sense; Pearl Harbor; Ransom; The Rock; Signs; The Waterboy; Armageddon; Unbreakable; 101 Dalmatians; Con Air; Crimson Tide; Freaky FridayThe Sixth Sense; Pearl Harbor; Ransom; The Rock; Signs; The Waterboy; Armageddon; Unbreakable; 101 Dalmatians; Con Air; Crimson Tide; Freaky Friday; and Father of the Bride, as well as hundreds of other films under the Disney, Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banners.

He is co-author of The Midas Touch with Gary Grossman and Charles Segars.

Jodi: Three authors working together. Wow! Can you tell me us how that works? Do

you flesh out the plot line together and then one person is the main writer?

Oren: This was like any other collaboration I’ve had with creative, smart people. Coming from

the world of movies, both on the marketing and the production side (having worked at

Disney and Fox), nothing moves forward creatively without clarity of goals. The three of

us talked through the idea of The Midas Touch, and had a mutual respect from the

beginning where each of us brought something different to the table, but the baseline

love of the book’s concept was the key driver of everything: our passion, our

determination and our patience.

We all lead separate lives, but getting together with a common goal allowed so much

opportunity for exploration. We gave each other permission to fail, and the process

allowed the best ideas to always win, regardless of where it came from. We worked

through the plotting from the beginning, but we had the advantage of knowing who our

key characters were and what their’ personalities were, which made our writing so much

more smooth. Every bump or pothole we encountered only elevated our game to fix

what was necessary and press forward.

Jodi: Do you feel that collaborations make a book stronger?

Oren: In my experience, collaborations always make any creative work stronger and better.

Writing a book is quite a singular pursuit, but having input from other like-minded

writers, who share the same goals but bring fresh perspective to the work, only

enhances the result. It might not be great for the ego every time, but if you can allow

yourself to be objective, and be OK with being wrong, then the best idea wins. The

Midas Touch is a great example of how circumstances – three writers from completely

unique backgrounds, working together for the first time over Zoom during Covid (we

conceived the project one week before Covid shut everything down) – can add up to

something greater than the individual parts.

Jodi: How did you decide to write a "National Treasure meets Jack Ryan" book

(incidentally two of my favorite series along with Jack Reacher)?

Oren: The three of us love and appreciate History, first and foremost. I was a major at

Columbia University in both History and English, and the kinds of books that most

interest me – non-fiction, biographies, autobiographies – fuel my imagination. I’m also a

huge movie fan (those who know me best would say I’m obsessed with movies), so I

tend to think cinematically even when co-writing a novel. I’m also heavily influenced by

the great thrillers of the 70s, the “paranoid thrillers” - like The Parallax View, Three Days

of the Condor, All the President’s Men, Marathon Man, The Conversation and many

others – plus more modern shows and films from more contemporary decades –

everything from The Hunt for Red October and Spotlight to The Insider and Enemy of

the State – all share something in common with The Midas Touch, in small and big

ways. The 70s feared government, intelligence agencies, assassinations, surveillance,

Watergate etc. The modern versions fear Technology, Corporations, Financial Systems,

data collection, billionaires, etc. – and The Midas Touch connects so many of those

dots. The paranoid thriller never really disappeared, it just evolved.

Jodi: Was it difficult writing a book after being so closely tied to the National Treasure

franchise. Do you ever worry people will expect it to be National Treasure, the book version?

Oren: Charles and I are very proud of having created and been executive producers of both

National Treasure films. Your own history can be a blessing or a curse, and we’re happy to always think of National Treasure as a blessing. It’s not something we run away from. We do ask ourselves the same type of question you’re asking, both in terms of expectation and in terms of comparison. But movies are a very different medium, and one’s feelings and reactions are very different in those two mediums. The novel allows us to not worry about things like budget, or time, or casting. The novel allows us to explore our imaginations, and use different creative muscles, than I had to use making and marketing movies. It’s impossible to separate all the various elements inherent in each medium, but I can tell you that all of it leads to discovery.

Jodi: Do you feel that working in TV/movies helps with planning a fast paced book?

Oren: Yes, I very much felt the wind at my back while co-writing The Midas Touch because of

my decades of experience in the movie business. Even just starting with the title itself, which feels very cinematic to me. Making the characters interesting and layered, using a certain writing style, even the approach we took of jumping back and forth through time and following different characters at different points in history are all timeless pieces of

storytelling. I’m not shy about wanting to write a novel that reads like a cinematic

experience. It’s the way I like to read books, so why not have that be the way I write or

co-write them?

Jodi: Who is going to love The Midas Touch?

Oren: I hope anyone reading The Midas Touch finds it exciting, compelling and most of all,

real. I think people will learn enough new things they’ll say, “Wow, I didn’t know Napoleon had anything to do with that,” or “My gosh, that’s a fascinating take.”

The Midas Touch is for anyone who wants to be transported on a worldwide hunt for

something that may or may not exist, and live through all the challenges of racing entities far more powerful and better-resourced than the rest of us. It’s amazing what one person can do, and how much one person can change the world. You just have to believe.

Jodi: What do you do when you aren't writing thrillers?

Oren: You mean besides watching them on the biggest screen possible? It’s certainly easier

to watch other people’s work than create it yourself! But I do a lot of writing and producing of film projects, often in collaboration with others, just like I did with Charles and Gary on writing The Midas Touch. There’s always something new to learn, something unexpected to experience. I learned so much from Gary about writing a novel, and about what it takes to get it published. The experience of co-writing The Midas Touch has changed my life as much as any other project I’ve ever worked on, and will, as I always do, bring parts of this experience with me into the next projects I choose to work on. It’s inspired me to want to write another book, and has fueled my desire to continue coming up with fresh ideas for films, which is my focus now. But I’m someone who likes to juggle many projects at once, and that’s my own weird comfort zone.

Jodi: What's up next for your writing trio or Brady Donovan?

Oren: Brady Donovan has lived quite a full life, both before and after The Midas Touch. Many

adventures lie ahead, and in the worlds of conspiracy theories, government secrets and historical truths, there’s an infinite number of stories worth telling going forward.

Ready to Read

Amazon l Barnes & Noble l BookBub

Want to Win?

TWO chances to win! Each winner receives a $25 Amazon gift card. Enter HERE by August 21.