Miles Joyner

the Author of Bazaar

Date:

A lifelong fiction writer, Miles Joyner turned to penning novels after nearly a decade editing television in the D.C. area for platforms including NBC Sports Washington, theGrio, and the Federal Network. He has had an obsession with the effects technology has on society since being raised by a father who was a computer programmer and a mother in workforce development He still pursues filmmaking in between books and finds that writing in the technothriller genre only enhances that passion even more. Miles is an active member of International Thriller Writers where his first book, Bazaar, was selected for their Debut Authors Program. He attends monthly meetings for the writers’ group, Novels in Progress DC..

TBE: “Bazaar” introduces us to a dark web prediction market where people can bet on assassination dates. What inspired this concept, and how did you research the intersection of cryptocurrency, dark web markets, and violence to make it feel so believable?

Miles Joyner: The concept is largely based off of an idea presented in the essay Assassination Politics by inventor and engineer Jim Bell. I had come across it at some point in the early 2010s at same time Silk Road was in the news a lot.

Outside of various online sources on both crime trends and executive protection, I read the texts The Dark Web by Jamie Bartlett and Click Here to Kill Everybody by Bruce Schneier. Noted military strategist John Robb (author of Brave New War) coined the phrase ‘Bazaar of violence’ in his Global Guerrillas Blog in relation to how various insurgent groups were revolutionizing warfare and that’s where I got the idea for the title. I read later that it was connected to the book The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond in reference to how commercial vs. open source software is developed. At this point in time, there hasn’t been any homicide cases tied to any existing assassination markets on the dark web. So the violence portion is completely made up.

TBE: Your protagonist Aaron and antagonist Yemi are fascinating mirror images of each other – both skilled, both from immigrant backgrounds, both driven by different motivations. How did you develop these two characters to create this compelling rivalry?

Miles Joyner: Aaron actually isn’t an immigrant, both of his parents are/were from traditional African-American backgrounds. But there are common traits shared between the entrepreneurial Nigerian trying  to stake out their version of the American dream and a young man who fell out of the comfortable Black middle class trying to climb his way back to wealth by any means necessary, even if it’s murder. What’s interesting looking back is that I developed these characters completely independent of each other, yet it wasn’t until I was halfway done through the novel that I realized how significant the parallel is. They’re rivals who are usually shooting at each other, but Yemi has some slight admiration for Aaron. Aaron doesn’t really think too much of Yemi, at least in the first novel, but there are signs of mutual respect for sure.

TBE: The novel weaves together themes of technology, economic desperation, and opportunism. Was there a particular moment or event that sparked your interest in exploring how people might monetize violence in the digital age?

Miles Joyner: Several events, but the one I should probably highlight was in 2003 when a futures exchange developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) called the Policy Analysis Market was shut down after condemnation by U.S. Senators who deemed it as a potential market for assassinations and other forms of terrorism.

TBE: I’m curious about your world-building process. The Bazaar feels like it could exist tomorrow if it doesn’t already. Did you intentionally keep the technology mostly contemporary to create that unsettling sense that this could be happening right now?

Miles Joyner: Absolutely. It’s one of the reasons I cling to the technothriller label without really being classified as science fiction.

TBE: The novel features several intense action sequences, particularly the shootouts in Silver Spring and at the cabin in West Virginia. As someone with a background in television editing, how did your visual storytelling experience influence how you constructed these high-stakes confrontations?

Miles Joyner: For shootouts, I am greatly inspired by realistic tense action displayed in films such as Heat, Sicario, Drug War, Dead Presidents, and properties in multiple formats including literature like The Spook Who Sat by the Door, the Rainbow Six franchise, or the ultra violent Black Powder, Red Earth.

I also incorporate what I can from bodycam videos or any footage of live active shooter situations. After the first two or three drafts from my imagination, I send it over to somebody with real world tactical experience (usually a close friend of mine who served in the Security Reaction Force in the U.S. Navy) and get their feedback + edits. I’m not really a gun enthusiast and I’m definitely not an expert on executive protection, so this is an important step.

TBE: Throughout the book, you explore various motivations for violence – ideology, money, revenge, survival. Which character’s motivation was the most challenging to write, and why?

Miles Joyner: Yemi is definitely the most difficult to write. He has over ten years of experience in intelligence in a country completely foreign to me and I am nowhere close to a tactical mastermind outside of my hobby of playing strategy games. He had no layers to his personality in the original pilot screenplay I had written before I turned it into a novel. When I started basing him off the philosophical African friends of mine I’ve had throughout my life, his arc finally came together.

TBE: I was struck by how the novel portrays the ripple effects of violence, with each assassination attempt affecting not just the target but creating waves of consequences. Was this theme of interconnectedness something you planned from the beginning?

Miles Joyner: Some of it came out in the process of writing the manuscript like Karen and Yemi attending the memorial service for one of their employees who gets killed, while some was planned in the outline phase such as Chiedu hiring Raptor after his son is killed. It’s hard for me to pin down exactly how intentional it was, but the consequences obviously effect how the rest of the story is told.

TBE: The DC/Maryland/Virginia setting feels like a character itself in the novel. What made you choose this region as your backdrop, and how did your experience living there inform the authenticity of your portrayal?

Miles Joyner: Once I came up with the assassination market idea and took notice to the local executive protection industry, I knew the DMV was the perfect location. Growing up in a super diverse edge city like Silver Spring made me want to highlight the unique culture of the surrounding region in addition to the inner District that most people are familiar with.  I’m fascinated by everything from the demographics to the economics of the area. Like many other writers, there’s no place like home when it comes to writing from the heart.

TBE: The ending leaves some threads open for potential continuation. Without spoilers, do you envision “Bazaar” as the first in a series, and if so, what themes or questions are you excited to explore further?

Miles Joyner: It’s the first book in a series and the second one, Shifta, is currently going through edits. Shifta contains many of the same themes as the first book, but it further explores the role of the media and introduces a new villain who exploits the growing popularity of the Bazaar by getting the public even more involved in the process in selecting who gets killed.

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Bazaar by Miles Joyner
  • Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
  • Genre: Techno-Thriller, Mystery
  • First Publication: 2025
  • Language: English

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