Review Fix Exclusive: Tim Applegate Talks ‘Fever Tree’

Review Fix chats with author Tim Applegate, who discusses his new novel “Fever Tree.” An ode to the 1960s psychedelic rock band, Applegate tells us all about the inspiration for the book and more.

About “Fever Tree”:

Dieter arrives in the historic town of Crooked River. The residents take notice. Deckhands, bartenders and shopkeepers befriend him, and the charming but hesitant Maggie Paterson falls in love. Teddy Mink, the town’s notorious and often paranoid drug runner, is convinced that he’s threatening his livelihood as a narc, making Dieter’s arrival to Crooked River more conspicuous than he’d hoped.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this book?

Tim Applegate: Fever Tree is the first book of a trilogy that will present a cross-section of people of my generation – Vietnam veterans, hippies, struggling artists – who considered themselves outsiders, outcasts. The idea to set the first book in a small town filled with southern eccentrics occurred to me while I was reading Flannery O’Connor’s great novella Wise Blood. The original inspiration to write a series of unconventional suspense novels was Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Applegate: Unlike my poetry, which seems to happen only when the muse decides it’s going to happen, writing fiction, at least for me, is more structured, more calculated. With Fever Tree, as well as the second book, which I’m working on now, I more or less outlined the entire plot before I wrote the first sentence. As for my “creative process”, I get up every morning and write. And I’m grateful to be able to do that.

Review Fix: What else did you read/listen to as a kid? How did it influence the book?

Applegate: As a teenager, what I listened to was Bob Dylan. Someone asked me once if I remembered when I decided I wanted to be a poet, and I told him it was the first time I heard Dylan’s Desolation Row. Those lyrics! I wanted to write lines like that. Then I started reading Hemingway in college and it was all over. I was hooked.

Review Fix: Why do you think Fever Tree never made it big?

Applegate: That’s a good question I’m not sure I can answer. I suspect at least one reason was that there was such an outpouring of innovative rock music at that time, from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Jimi Hendrix, they may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Fever Tree was a Texas-based band that relocated to San Francisco in the late sixties, and if you think about the other bands in that city at that time, from Jefferson Airplane to The Grateful Dead, you can see how that might happen.

Review Fix: How hard is it to go from poetry to a novel?

Applegate: I think my background as a poet was immensely helpful when I wrote this book. As a poet, I have certain strengths and certain weaknesses, and knowing those strengths and weaknesses helped me decide what to put into the book as well as what to leave out.

Review Fix: What was the editing process like?

Applegate: I was fortunate to have a very fine editor, her name is Jana Good, work with me on Fever Tree. Jana has a precise critical eye and a wonderfully upbeat temperament. We were able to do all the editing online, and we made a good team. It was a creative and productive period, and I’ll always owe Jana a debt of gratitude for her help.

Review Fix: How do you want the book to affect people?

Applegate: First and foremost, I hope they react to the characters emotionally. I hope they care about them, laugh with them when they’re happy and mourn with them when they grieve.

Review Fix: How would you like it to be remembered?

Applegate: As a good start to a trilogy. As a first book that made readers want to read the second.

Review Fix: What next?

Applegate: I just finished the first draft of the second book in the series, so I’ll start the revision next week. And I’m working on a new chapbook of poems. Some writers complain about how hard writing is, and of course they’re right, but for me it’s also joyful, and challenging, and sometimes, when it goes well, fulfilling. Besides, it keeps me out of trouble. It keeps me off the streets.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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