Ask the Author: M. Jonathan Jones
Answered Questions (16)
M. Jonathan Jones
I'm a big believer in the idea that anything can become a plot for a book; whether anyone would actually want to read about my quest to hunt down the fiend who ate the last coconut macaroon is another question... Having said that, I tend to think it's people and settings that generate plots, and the mysteries come from them, rather than the other way around.
M. Jonathan Jones
I'm going to answer three of these with one book: most important, changed my life, and a refuge would be The Hobbit. I read it when I was 7 and it was the first book I can ever remember reading that I thought was just about perfect (in true niggardly 'I can do better' style, I'd always reimagined bits of other books, and still do). I like the domestic rather than epic nature of the story, it rattles along through a fantastic landscape that is at once fresh and somehow familiar - or felt familiar to me - with great characters. It also cemented my love of languages and writing systems: I can still remember transliterating the runic script on the cover.
M. Jonathan Jones
Films: tricky, goes with my mood. Will say: Miller's Crossing, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alien. Albums: to my mind, albums are like political parties - you like some of it, other stuff, not so much.
M. Jonathan Jones
Bit late for this year. For summer 2020 I'm hoping for Winds of Winter (please, please, pretty please...)
M. Jonathan Jones
Sci-fi: it'd have to be Mars from Richard Morgan's Thin Air. I'd like to take 'Ris out for a couple of glasses of Mark on Mars at Hannu Holmstrom's place (unfortunately looks like I'd have to take Hakan Veil along too).
Fantasy: Westeros, where I would be heading straight to the Twins with my patented Valar Morghulis Inc. Ee-zee Emasculation kit for a nice chat with that villain Lord Walder Frey.
Somewhat shamelessly, I'd also like to visit Tethys or the Dead Red Deserts from my own books...
Fantasy: Westeros, where I would be heading straight to the Twins with my patented Valar Morghulis Inc. Ee-zee Emasculation kit for a nice chat with that villain Lord Walder Frey.
Somewhat shamelessly, I'd also like to visit Tethys or the Dead Red Deserts from my own books...
M. Jonathan Jones
Do you ever get the feeling that someone is reading over your shoulder? (Look behind you!)
M. Jonathan Jones
As I am one myself, I suppose I'll give the advice I wish I could follow more devotedly: just keep writing. On those days when you're doubting everything, just keep writing. Self-doubt is good - it keeps us on our toes and pushes us to be better, but it can be paralysing. It's part of the process. Accept it and move on. Just. Keep. Writing.
M. Jonathan Jones
Inspiration is a tricky thing to pin down. To adapt something from Edison, I'd say inspiration is 1% revelation, 99% perspiration. You could read that as meaning every project involves working long and hard on a sudden flash of 'phantasie', or that 99 ideas out of 100 are solely built on hard work, and just one comes ready to write. I have had moments of sudden revelation - the idea for Race the Red Horizon came to me in a moment - but it needed lots of hard work afterwards. I do think some people give up on an idea too soon. Even if something starts off as quite derivative, given time and effort it can turn into something quite novel. Either way, hard work is usually involved somewhere...
M. Jonathan Jones
The first book I ever owned? There were lots of kiddy-style books when I was very young - Ladybird and Mr Men spring to mind - but we always had books in the house. I remember leafing through a lot of them when I was way too young to make anything of them, but they fascinated me. The first book I can really remember reading with a sense of wonder was The Hobbit. I was maybe 6 or 7, and had already seen it read on TV (Jackanory). My nan took me shopping soon after and I bought a copy (or she did). I still have that battered, creased, somewhat ink-stained copy.
When I was 4 I told my mum that I was going to be a scientist and an author. It's taken me a while...
When I was 4 I told my mum that I was going to be a scientist and an author. It's taken me a while...
M. Jonathan Jones
Hmmm. Tricky. Too tricky. Easier for me to say which character I'd most like to write, and that is Darth Vader, because evil characters (in books) are such fun.
Which character am I most like? Erm, C-3PO. And I'm afraid to say, that's not just because I'm British (or I could be a Grand Moff or an AT-AT commander, right?).
Which character am I most like? Erm, C-3PO. And I'm afraid to say, that's not just because I'm British (or I could be a Grand Moff or an AT-AT commander, right?).
M. Jonathan Jones
Hmmm. That's a tricky one, because I think the ideas grow and change as you write, and they draw on everything you've ever done, read, or seen. The initial spark for my new book The Outlaws of Kratzenfels was very simple: it was the idea of a steampunk fairytale. Not an existing fairytale rewritten as steampunk, but the kind of fairytale the children love to hear at bedtime in the steampunk cities of New London, Novaya Moskva, Neu Berlin, or Even Newer York. So it obviously needed a princess, a prince, an evil doer, and of course a cyber-wolf...
M. Jonathan Jones
Dorothy Parker is supposed to have said that she hated writing but loved having written. I won't claim yet to be a writer, but I have written nearly 5 books and I have to say that I do (mostly) enjoy the writing process. For me the very best thing about writing - apart from sharing stories with readers - is creating new worlds. As someone who writes speculative fiction, the world-creation part is crucial. For two of my books (Thalassa, and Race the Red Horizon) I created worlds that were quite claustrophobic, in keeping with the post-apocalyptic themes. For the latest one (The Outlaws of Kratzenfels, due out this very month of May, hint hint), I have invented a much wider and more open-ended world.
It's always fun immersing yourself in a fictional universe, and while writing Thalassa, set under the sea, I remember looking up from my desk after a long session to see trees and sky outside and being a bit baffled at the sight. So maybe my real answer to this question is: the best thing about being a writer is not so much making new worlds, as getting away from this one for a bit.
It's always fun immersing yourself in a fictional universe, and while writing Thalassa, set under the sea, I remember looking up from my desk after a long session to see trees and sky outside and being a bit baffled at the sight. So maybe my real answer to this question is: the best thing about being a writer is not so much making new worlds, as getting away from this one for a bit.
M. Jonathan Jones
Holmes and Watson. Elementary, really.
M. Jonathan Jones
Whatever gives you that impression?
M. Jonathan Jones
I know what I should be working on: the sequel to Thalassa: the world beneath the waves. I have several hundred pages of notes, and some of the major scenes written - I tend to write 'islands' of stuff and then link them together (where 'tend' means 1.5 out of 2 times I've written a book) - but not everything has been resolved yet. That doesn't worry me. Things will fall into place (or not) as I go, and there will be a few edits along the way.
But I always juggle a few ideas at the same time, so apart from that, there's some stuff about a new ice age that I'm entertaining, and a few things at various stages to do with nuclear bunkers. The bunker ideas may yet coalesce into one thing. Who knows? Clearly not me... Not yet, anyway.
But I always juggle a few ideas at the same time, so apart from that, there's some stuff about a new ice age that I'm entertaining, and a few things at various stages to do with nuclear bunkers. The bunker ideas may yet coalesce into one thing. Who knows? Clearly not me... Not yet, anyway.
M. Jonathan Jones
I really like the promise and the challenge of a blank page, but it's often a lot easier to start something new than to carry an existing idea through. Assuming I'm qualified to answer this - two books still doesn't make me a writer, I don't think - I would say that writing is never the problem, it's the solution. Just write. Anything. Maybe what you write won't make it into the final version, but maybe it will give rise to ideas that give rise to other ideas that do end up in print. Go with it. And be prepared to change some of what you've already got if you need to make it all fit. Never cling to something just because you like it, or because it's been there since the start.
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