Ask the Author: F.G. Cottam
Answered Questions (32)
F.G. Cottam
David called me when he was recording my novel Brodmaw Bay to suggest a character I'd written was accentless would sound more sinister with just the hint of a West Country burr. He was right, of course. I wrote a scene in Harvest of Scorn just for the pleasure of hearing him read it.
There's no greater compliment than someone re-reading my books and I sincerely hope you enjoy the trilogy just as much this time around.
There's no greater compliment than someone re-reading my books and I sincerely hope you enjoy the trilogy just as much this time around.
F.G. Cottam
No good news I'm afraid. Ipso dropped me because going forward, they wanted to identify as a publisher exclusively of crime fiction. So no more Colony trilogy in either print or on Kindle. Two of the three books (The Colony and Harvest of Scorn) are available as Audible audiobooks and the one that isn't (Dark Resurrection) soon will be again because I just signed for the license to be extended. I'm particularly disappointed that the series is no longer available on Kindle, because that was both immediate and reasonably priced. But there's nothing I can do about it. Sorry, Robbie!
F.G. Cottam
No! Nothing to apologise for. I'd just rather you call me Francis (my first name) than Mr. anything. You call me Francis, I'll call you Julie. And thank you very much for reading something I've written.
F.G. Cottam
There is a pub in my novel The Magdalena Curse I called The Red Bull, which was a play on my then teenage son's obsession with the energy drink. But the Headless Fish is pretty good. As to my favourite beer, an English ale called Ruddles County is pretty good. Anyway, really pleased you enjoyed The Auguries.
F.G. Cottam
That was the novelisation of a 32-page film script that had to come in at 80, 000 words. If I had given Max a surname, I'd have had a few extra words. On the subject of names, mine is Francis and not Mr Cottam!
F.G. Cottam
Well, I left her feeling pretty happy with life at the end of The Lucifer Chord, but I'm working on a fourth Colony novel and think it would be a mistake not to embroil her in that. She has a nose for trouble, is good at solving mysteries and to be perfectly honest, I enjoy her company.
F.G. Cottam
Your query inspired my most recent Goodreads blog post so thank you!
F.G. Cottam
She made her debut in The Going and the Rise, a 25, 000 novella you can download free at fgcottam.com. She is also in the second and third books of my Colony trilogy. I wrote The Lucifer Chord as a stand alone, but honestly think you would enjoy it more if you read The Going first. Michael Aldridge is the main character, narrating that story in the first-person. Hope that's helpful.
F.G. Cottam
I'll happily read and review it, Robert, but won't be able to do so until the end of this month because of scheduled workload. So, early in May OK for you?
F.G. Cottam
Hodder and Stoughton didn't really promote it, despite paying the biggest advance for it I've ever earned. Not a business model that makes any sense to me. And if they can't get it into Waterstones, people don't know about it. They failed to get Dark Echo into the Southport branch despite me being from the town and half the story being set there.
You're very kind about it, but it has been suggested to me that my stories are quite complex (aka hard to follow). Maybe there's some truth in that. If I knew a way, as their originator, to sell more books, I'd do it! Though the audiobook of TWR has sold pretty solidly in the UK since its release.
You're very kind about it, but it has been suggested to me that my stories are quite complex (aka hard to follow). Maybe there's some truth in that. If I knew a way, as their originator, to sell more books, I'd do it! Though the audiobook of TWR has sold pretty solidly in the UK since its release.
F.G. Cottam
It was a year after I murdered him that summoned by a knock at my door, I was confronted by the uncertain contradiction of Richard Foster, animate but emphatically dead. His voice was a papery echo nourished by bloodless lungs when he lurched toward me and whispered, 'Revenge is indeed a dish best eaten cold.'
F.G. Cottam
There's a Jericho Society Novella entitled The Boston Artefact which follows on directly from The Going and the Rise I finished in January of last year, but I have no idea (unfortunately) of when it'd due for release. And I'm 56, 000 words into Ruthie Gillespie's first stand-alone novel, which brings her back into contact with Michael Aldridge from The Going. Really motoring with that, which I'll finish early in October. Probably out in the Spring of '18. Really flattered, Nicky, that you've read all of my books.
F.G. Cottam
Easier to say where I wouldn't go. Dante's Inferno, the island of Dr Moreau and the post-apocalyptic America of Stephen King's The Stand are all locations I'd happily avoid. Shakespeare's Arcadia appeals to the grown-up in me and so does King Arthur's Avalon and its capital, Camelot. But the real answer comes from the child I once was, and it's Narnia.
F.G. Cottam
Apart from the usual suspects (Ulysses by James Joyce and Herman Melville's Moby Dick which I perennially never get around to); I plan to read Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series sequentially. I just listened to the 44-hour-plus audiobook of Stephen King's IT, magnificently read by Steven Weber and I'm reading The Shining, though I read both those books originally 30-odd years ago. Another re-read I plan is Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, which I remember enjoying greatly. And I'm looking forward to Emily St John Mandel's Station 11 and Thin Air by Michelle Paver. That should do it. Got to save some time for writing.
F.G. Cottam
Given the pristine condition of the sword, might be time-travel themed. I've already done time-travel in The Waiting Room. But it's at the end of a queue behind more pressing projects. I'm writing Jericho Society themed novellas and mulling over a Colony prequel involving Patrick Lassiter as a young Detective-Sargeant instigating the suspicious death of a spirit medium in North London in 1983. So busy, Brian!
F.G. Cottam
When I was about eight years old I found a sword under a hedge in the garden of one of my mother's friends who said I could keep it. I took it to an antiques shop specialising in historic weaponry. The sword was a cutlass of the type used by the sailers of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars and by the militia, its proprietor said, who attacked demonstrators at the Peterloo Massacre. How did it get under the hedge? Who owned it? To what bloody purpose was it put? How did it stay in such good condition? Many mysteries...
F.G. Cottam
I like Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Gennaro and (still sort of with crime), Phil Rickman's Merrily and Lol. Culturally those two couples are world's apart, but they share charm, tenderness and devotion.
F.G. Cottam
It isn't out yet, Laura. I put it to one side after 30, 000 words and wrote the two Colony sequels and then three Jericho Society novellas before going back to it and when I did, the narrative seemed a bit flat, to be completely honest with you. My female protagonist was a bit colourless - so I replaced her with Ruthie Gillespie. Chronologically the story begins a couple of months after the events recounted in Harvest of Scorn and it really came alive once Ruthie became the person commissioned by a music mogul to research the life of the deceased rock god Martin Mear. I'm aiming to finish it by Christmas.
F.G. Cottam
I took my degree in history and early 20th century history in particular fascinates me. I think the 1920s and 1930s quite sinister decades. It's a bit self-indulgent though. As close as I'll get to having a time machine.
F.G. Cottam
The truthful answer, Brian, is I don't know. A publisher named Severn House bought the first book out. They specialize in high quality hardbacks mostly for the American library market. They were committed to the trilogy but sales were disappointing and they pulled the plug. There's a lot more incentive from my end in doing something like my recently completed Colony trilogy, because The Colony, despite originally being self-published, has proven to be my most popular book.
I wouldn't rule sequels out because that was actually conceived as a trilogy. I like the characters and know what happens next (unusually for me). Sadly, though, I'd have to say don't hold your breath!
I wouldn't rule sequels out because that was actually conceived as a trilogy. I like the characters and know what happens next (unusually for me). Sadly, though, I'd have to say don't hold your breath!
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