Iain Rowan's Blog, page 13
August 20, 2011
Hey, Fragments of Noir author
If you come to this via a google search, Fragments of Noir is a nice blog. Really nice blog. Some great photos there.
Writers Talk About Writing - Neil Williamson
Neil Williamson's short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies in the UK and USA. His work has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award, British Science Fiction Award and World Fantasy Award (with Andrew J Wilson). Neil lives in Glasgow, Scotland, where he takes part in the savage critical ballet known as the Glasgow SF Writers Circle.
We're in a lift, I'm someone important (come on, pretend), you've got thirty seconds (tall building, slow lift) to tell me about your latest book.
The very good people at Infinity Plus have just released an ebook edition of my short story collection, The Ephemera (Amazon UK | US). It contains all of the stories in the original Elastic Press edition plus four new stories, story notes, a foreword by myself, an introduction by Hal Duncan, and beautiful cover art by Vincent Chong.
Uh-oh. Not sure lifts are meant to stop suddenly between floors like this. Guess we've got a bit more time. Ignore the flickering lights and creaking sounds above us. Would you like to tell me about other books or stories that you have available?
You might still be able to get hold of Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction (Amazon UK | US), which I edited with Andrew J Wilson a few years ago. My most recent story in print was the British Science Fiction Association award-nominated, Arrhythmia, which you can find in an excellent anthology called Music For Another World (Amazon UK), published by Mutation Press.
Please stop repeatedly pressing the emergency button. The comment about building a ladder of bones to reach the ceiling hatch and get out of here was just blue-skies thinking. So, what are you working on now?
Right now, this minute now, I'm working on a short story about sheep in space - Space Sheep, if you prefer - for a forthcoming anthology; but I'm also redrafting a novel called Queen Of Clouds - a tale of meritocracy, wooden men and sentient weather - which I hope to deliver to my agent soon.
You co-edited the World Fantasy Award nominated Nova Scotia, an anthology of new Scottish speculative fiction. Did you enjoy the process of being editor, rather than writer, and do you have plans to do it again?
Yes, I loved it. It's entirely different from being a writer. The two are both creative processes, but there's no real overlap. Reading the stories as they came in was pretty exciting, and choosing between them excruciating, but I was very pleased with the result. It was an especially interesting experience working with Andrew J Wilson. We found a fair amount of overlap in our tastes, but some differences as well, so I think that resulted in a really nice spread of styles. I'd love to do it again, and Andrew and I have plans for another book which we hope to push on with at some point when both our schedules allow.
Lift's not moving. I've got a stylophone in my pocket (yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge). You can give us a tune to pass the time, and while you're doing it, tell us about your adventures in music.
Okay, yes. The music. I play piano in a couple of bands in the Glasgow area. I write and record with my own band, Murnie, but also play with an outfit called San Fran And The Siscos. And then there's the cabaret stuff. I'm one half of Markee de Saw and Bert Finkle (I'll leave it to readers to guess which half), a kinda weird piano and vocal duo (with occasional musical saw). People can catch us at variety nights around Scotland, and we've been spotted at the Edinburgh Fringe for the last few years too.
So, yes, I'm quite involved musically. And, I've recently started experimenting with short stories that are essentially musicals - there is music in the world and the characters sing to each other instead of speaking. It's opened up some interesting avenues in terms of exploring fate/predestination versus story narrative. But making all the dialogue rhyme is hard work.
Come to think of it, I have another one planned...and there may be room for a Stylophone in it.
In your own writing, what do you think you do well, and what do you wish you could do better?
I like my prose, and my dialogue. But I wish I could plot better. This wasn't so obvious a failing in the short stories, but now I've written two novels I'm realising I've a lot to learn in that regard. Still, practice makes perfect...
Can you remember what made you sit down to write your first book or story?
Very clearly. There was an Ian R McLeod story in Interzone around about 1991. It was called Well Loved, and it completely blew me away. So I copied it out word for word in an attempt to work out how it was done. Not really sure the exercise really taught me anything, but that was the start.
Do you have a book or story that you're very fond of, but you think should get more attention from the world than it has.
Yes. I was mentioning my "musical stories" earlier. The second one, Arrhythmia, has done well but its predecessor, The Last Note Of The Song, kinda sunk without trace. It was originally published in a slightly strange venue (on a Pirates Of The Caribbean website to help promote the Vandermeer's pirate anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails), but I've never heard from one person who read it and liked it, and personally I love it. It's a pirate story, but - as described above - it's also a musical. I've included it in the new ebook edition of The Ephemera to try and get it some more visibility.
Print publishing is a doomed but still predatory dinosaur rotting from the feet up. Ebook publishing is the vomiting out of the world's slushpiles onto the market. In the ongoing war of words and hyperbole, where's the happy medium to be found? Where do you think the publishing business is heading over the next few years, and what are you doing to be ready for it?
I think print books will be around for a while yet - at least until the cost of producing them makes it completely prohibitive. People still enjoy reading from a printed book. I think the mass market will move towards e-editions faster and faster, but the independents will balance between both. There are a lot of good presses out there making very lovely books, and while there's enough of a market for them to make it worth their while I hope they'll continue to do so. Meanwhile we can only hope that the in the huge sea of self published ebooks the cream will rise.
What book do you most wish that you had written?
Jonathan Carroll's Outside The Dog Museum. A masterful piece of contemporary fantasy.
You're publishing ebooks now - have you learned anything in that process?
What's been interesting is the ability to repackage an existing book in a new way and get it to market with comparatively little effort. I like that immediacy and reactivity, but I worry that it's perhaps too easy and that a lot of the ebooks that appear will perhaps not have the same standards of care over their content and presentation as you would expect.
Do you do much promotion for your books? What do you think is the most effective thing you've done?
I'm trying. I did a whack of things at publication, but you have to keep it going, don't you? Tools like blog stats and Amazon's sales graphs give you an impression of what produces results though, and I think that appearing in as many places as you can (for example, this interview) is the key to getting your name out there. Infinity Plus ebooks are priced fairly cheaply and I hope it's not too difficult to get people to take a punt on your product if you make it sound interesting enough.
What is it that really pushes your buttons as a reader?
Everything! I love style and voice, but not to the extent that it obscures the story. I love good characterisation too, but don't want to wallow in finely observed detail. Pacewise a story doesn't have to rocket along, but I prefer it to keep moving. But in general, a good story has to do everything well, and perhaps one or two things brilliantly.
If you could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what would it be?
Seek absolutely honest opinions of your writing.
If you could tell an aspiring writer to ignore one commonly given piece of advice, what would it be?
I guess most people will answer this question with: 'write what you know'. It's such patent tosh, that it doesn't even bear consideration.
Are you 'out' as a writer of fiction with work colleagues/family, and if so, what reaction did you get?
Yes, I'm fairly openly outed. The reaction varies from genuine and ongoing interest to polite indifference (believe it or not, not everyone rates writing as a creative undertaking). But no scorn, not even when I admit that my field of endeavour is in the fantastical genres.
Gibbons or tigers? (NB this question is to help me in compiling my List of People Who Are Wrong).
Gibbons. They're proper, full on hard cases. Ever seen a child cuddling a cutesy Disneyfied stuffed gibbon? Nuff said.
Meticulous research is both enjoyable and important / what's the point in writing fiction if you can't just make stuff up - discuss.
I'm a big fan of digging up enough nuggets to convince the reader of verisimilitude, but more research than that (while potentially interesting on a personal level) is distracting you from what you should be focusing on - writing the story.
Any question you wished you'd been asked?
What's your favourite Iain Rowan story? I'd say The Chain, from Rowan's collection Nowhere To Go. It's the kind of crime story that unfolds with such brilliant logic that you simply can't believe that it's not been done before. As a major Hollywood movie.
(Aw, shucks. Yr blushing Ed.)
We're in a lift, I'm someone important (come on, pretend), you've got thirty seconds (tall building, slow lift) to tell me about your latest book.
The very good people at Infinity Plus have just released an ebook edition of my short story collection, The Ephemera (Amazon UK | US). It contains all of the stories in the original Elastic Press edition plus four new stories, story notes, a foreword by myself, an introduction by Hal Duncan, and beautiful cover art by Vincent Chong.Uh-oh. Not sure lifts are meant to stop suddenly between floors like this. Guess we've got a bit more time. Ignore the flickering lights and creaking sounds above us. Would you like to tell me about other books or stories that you have available?
You might still be able to get hold of Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction (Amazon UK | US), which I edited with Andrew J Wilson a few years ago. My most recent story in print was the British Science Fiction Association award-nominated, Arrhythmia, which you can find in an excellent anthology called Music For Another World (Amazon UK), published by Mutation Press.
Please stop repeatedly pressing the emergency button. The comment about building a ladder of bones to reach the ceiling hatch and get out of here was just blue-skies thinking. So, what are you working on now?
Right now, this minute now, I'm working on a short story about sheep in space - Space Sheep, if you prefer - for a forthcoming anthology; but I'm also redrafting a novel called Queen Of Clouds - a tale of meritocracy, wooden men and sentient weather - which I hope to deliver to my agent soon.
You co-edited the World Fantasy Award nominated Nova Scotia, an anthology of new Scottish speculative fiction. Did you enjoy the process of being editor, rather than writer, and do you have plans to do it again?
Yes, I loved it. It's entirely different from being a writer. The two are both creative processes, but there's no real overlap. Reading the stories as they came in was pretty exciting, and choosing between them excruciating, but I was very pleased with the result. It was an especially interesting experience working with Andrew J Wilson. We found a fair amount of overlap in our tastes, but some differences as well, so I think that resulted in a really nice spread of styles. I'd love to do it again, and Andrew and I have plans for another book which we hope to push on with at some point when both our schedules allow.
Lift's not moving. I've got a stylophone in my pocket (yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge). You can give us a tune to pass the time, and while you're doing it, tell us about your adventures in music.
Okay, yes. The music. I play piano in a couple of bands in the Glasgow area. I write and record with my own band, Murnie, but also play with an outfit called San Fran And The Siscos. And then there's the cabaret stuff. I'm one half of Markee de Saw and Bert Finkle (I'll leave it to readers to guess which half), a kinda weird piano and vocal duo (with occasional musical saw). People can catch us at variety nights around Scotland, and we've been spotted at the Edinburgh Fringe for the last few years too.
So, yes, I'm quite involved musically. And, I've recently started experimenting with short stories that are essentially musicals - there is music in the world and the characters sing to each other instead of speaking. It's opened up some interesting avenues in terms of exploring fate/predestination versus story narrative. But making all the dialogue rhyme is hard work.
Come to think of it, I have another one planned...and there may be room for a Stylophone in it.
In your own writing, what do you think you do well, and what do you wish you could do better?
I like my prose, and my dialogue. But I wish I could plot better. This wasn't so obvious a failing in the short stories, but now I've written two novels I'm realising I've a lot to learn in that regard. Still, practice makes perfect...
Can you remember what made you sit down to write your first book or story?
Very clearly. There was an Ian R McLeod story in Interzone around about 1991. It was called Well Loved, and it completely blew me away. So I copied it out word for word in an attempt to work out how it was done. Not really sure the exercise really taught me anything, but that was the start.
Do you have a book or story that you're very fond of, but you think should get more attention from the world than it has.
Yes. I was mentioning my "musical stories" earlier. The second one, Arrhythmia, has done well but its predecessor, The Last Note Of The Song, kinda sunk without trace. It was originally published in a slightly strange venue (on a Pirates Of The Caribbean website to help promote the Vandermeer's pirate anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails), but I've never heard from one person who read it and liked it, and personally I love it. It's a pirate story, but - as described above - it's also a musical. I've included it in the new ebook edition of The Ephemera to try and get it some more visibility.
Print publishing is a doomed but still predatory dinosaur rotting from the feet up. Ebook publishing is the vomiting out of the world's slushpiles onto the market. In the ongoing war of words and hyperbole, where's the happy medium to be found? Where do you think the publishing business is heading over the next few years, and what are you doing to be ready for it?
I think print books will be around for a while yet - at least until the cost of producing them makes it completely prohibitive. People still enjoy reading from a printed book. I think the mass market will move towards e-editions faster and faster, but the independents will balance between both. There are a lot of good presses out there making very lovely books, and while there's enough of a market for them to make it worth their while I hope they'll continue to do so. Meanwhile we can only hope that the in the huge sea of self published ebooks the cream will rise.
What book do you most wish that you had written?
Jonathan Carroll's Outside The Dog Museum. A masterful piece of contemporary fantasy.
You're publishing ebooks now - have you learned anything in that process?
What's been interesting is the ability to repackage an existing book in a new way and get it to market with comparatively little effort. I like that immediacy and reactivity, but I worry that it's perhaps too easy and that a lot of the ebooks that appear will perhaps not have the same standards of care over their content and presentation as you would expect.
Do you do much promotion for your books? What do you think is the most effective thing you've done?
I'm trying. I did a whack of things at publication, but you have to keep it going, don't you? Tools like blog stats and Amazon's sales graphs give you an impression of what produces results though, and I think that appearing in as many places as you can (for example, this interview) is the key to getting your name out there. Infinity Plus ebooks are priced fairly cheaply and I hope it's not too difficult to get people to take a punt on your product if you make it sound interesting enough.
What is it that really pushes your buttons as a reader?
Everything! I love style and voice, but not to the extent that it obscures the story. I love good characterisation too, but don't want to wallow in finely observed detail. Pacewise a story doesn't have to rocket along, but I prefer it to keep moving. But in general, a good story has to do everything well, and perhaps one or two things brilliantly.
If you could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what would it be?
Seek absolutely honest opinions of your writing.
If you could tell an aspiring writer to ignore one commonly given piece of advice, what would it be?
I guess most people will answer this question with: 'write what you know'. It's such patent tosh, that it doesn't even bear consideration.
Are you 'out' as a writer of fiction with work colleagues/family, and if so, what reaction did you get?
Yes, I'm fairly openly outed. The reaction varies from genuine and ongoing interest to polite indifference (believe it or not, not everyone rates writing as a creative undertaking). But no scorn, not even when I admit that my field of endeavour is in the fantastical genres.
Gibbons or tigers? (NB this question is to help me in compiling my List of People Who Are Wrong).
Gibbons. They're proper, full on hard cases. Ever seen a child cuddling a cutesy Disneyfied stuffed gibbon? Nuff said.
Meticulous research is both enjoyable and important / what's the point in writing fiction if you can't just make stuff up - discuss.
I'm a big fan of digging up enough nuggets to convince the reader of verisimilitude, but more research than that (while potentially interesting on a personal level) is distracting you from what you should be focusing on - writing the story.
Any question you wished you'd been asked?
What's your favourite Iain Rowan story? I'd say The Chain, from Rowan's collection Nowhere To Go. It's the kind of crime story that unfolds with such brilliant logic that you simply can't believe that it's not been done before. As a major Hollywood movie.
(Aw, shucks. Yr blushing Ed.)
Flash fiction - Odd Job
I almost didn't hear the doorbell ring because of the thump thump thump of the bass from next door. I almost didn't answer it, because between the thick wet heat of the day, and the sleepless, endless nights of noise I was in no fit state to do anything, let alone speak to anyone.
He was short, scruffy, like his clothes had been donated, rather than chosen.
"Odd jobs. Anything you want doing."
"No, thanks." I started to close the door.
"Guttering? Clean your guttering."
"Flat's rented. Landlord's job. Not that he does it, but I'm not about to pay for it."
"Painting. Decorating."
"Landlord's jo--"
"Bit of gardening. Must be something you need doing, and I need the money, makes us both winners."
"Sorry," I said, though I wasn't, because this day and this week and this month of incessant noise from the bastard next door made me hate the world and everyone in it. I couldn't think, didn't want to think. "There's nothing I need doing so you're wasting your time. Unless you can shut that bastard up."
I closed the door, wiped the sweat off my face and walked back to the kitchen. The bass rattled my mug on the counter, sending little waves across the surface of the tea.
The music stopped. There was a dull thud that I felt through the floorboards. A small noise, like a cat crying to come in. Then another thud, then another. Then there was just silence. I looked at my tea, and the ripples slowed and it became still.
My doorbell rang.
"Hundred quid," he said. "I'll want it in cash, like."
(more flash fiction here)
He was short, scruffy, like his clothes had been donated, rather than chosen.
"Odd jobs. Anything you want doing."
"No, thanks." I started to close the door.
"Guttering? Clean your guttering."
"Flat's rented. Landlord's job. Not that he does it, but I'm not about to pay for it."
"Painting. Decorating."
"Landlord's jo--"
"Bit of gardening. Must be something you need doing, and I need the money, makes us both winners."
"Sorry," I said, though I wasn't, because this day and this week and this month of incessant noise from the bastard next door made me hate the world and everyone in it. I couldn't think, didn't want to think. "There's nothing I need doing so you're wasting your time. Unless you can shut that bastard up."
I closed the door, wiped the sweat off my face and walked back to the kitchen. The bass rattled my mug on the counter, sending little waves across the surface of the tea.
The music stopped. There was a dull thud that I felt through the floorboards. A small noise, like a cat crying to come in. Then another thud, then another. Then there was just silence. I looked at my tea, and the ripples slowed and it became still.
My doorbell rang.
"Hundred quid," he said. "I'll want it in cash, like."
(more flash fiction here)
August 19, 2011
Nowhere To Go - feedback
Just taking a moment out for a little shameless self-promotion. There have been a number of reviews posted recently around the web for my collection of crime short stories, Nowhere To Go. Here are some of the things that kind people have said:
Sound interesting? Check it out on Amazon (US | UK) for Kindle, and for Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry, and on Smashwords for Sony, Stanza, and other e-readers. It's published by Infinity Plus.
"All the stories are very well-written and superbly devised, with a wonderful eye for detail in both the cast and settings, letting the reader catch a glimpse into the dark abyss of the human heart. And it's always the ending of each and every story which is the cherry on the cake….In short: A great set of deep and dark crime stories! "
"Great collection of 11 short stories. Had a hard time putting it down, I kept trying to read faster to turn the next page."
"A good selection of short stories, which I have to admit wouldn't usually appeal to me but I throughly enjoyed them, and would pick up another book by this author without hesitating."
"Iain Rowan has hit a home run with Nowhere to Go, his short story collection. From the sad to the macabre, his stories take the reader on a fascinating journey into the darker elements of humanity. Each story is complete and self-sufficient. The writing is tight and professional and the plots intriguing. I highly recommend this book."
"Rowan offers an amazing fluidity of narrative; from the first paragraph it was a question of sitting back and allowing myself to be carried along by the flow."
"But there really isn't a bad story in the bunch. Nowhere To Go is classy and clever Brit Grit at it's best."
(All from Amazon, LibraryThing and Goodreads).
"Being alone, it can be quite romantic/Like Jacques Cousteau underneath the Atlantic"
When I was little, I used to want to live in a submarine, and go around the world doing interesting undersea things. This man was why.
He also co-invented the aqualung, was an environmentalist, war hero, an engineer, a film-maker and writer, a marine biologist and a pioneer of underwater archaeology, was the inspiration for the narrator in Spongebob Squarepants and songs by Plastic Bertrand, John Denver and Old Dirty Bastard , and for many years was for me (with the possible exception of Ilyra Kuryakin), the coolest man in the entire world. And he had a lovely parka.
He also co-invented the aqualung, was an environmentalist, war hero, an engineer, a film-maker and writer, a marine biologist and a pioneer of underwater archaeology, was the inspiration for the narrator in Spongebob Squarepants and songs by Plastic Bertrand, John Denver and Old Dirty Bastard , and for many years was for me (with the possible exception of Ilyra Kuryakin), the coolest man in the entire world. And he had a lovely parka.
writers talk about writing - the interviews to date
What do the writers Charlie Williams, Anna Tambour, Ray Banks, Gary McMahon, Keith Brooke, Alan Ryker, John Grant, Ian Ayris, James Everington, Kaitlin Queen, Paul D Brazill, Julie Morrigan and Dave Zeltserman have in common?
Well, yes, the obvious is their fervent support of Scottish Second Division giants Forfar Athletic (you didn't know?), but they've also all been interviewed for this blog. The series is still ongoing (check back this weekend for an excellent interview with Neil Williamson), but I thought it was a good time to pull together an index of all of the interviews to date.
So that's what I've done.
Well, yes, the obvious is their fervent support of Scottish Second Division giants Forfar Athletic (you didn't know?), but they've also all been interviewed for this blog. The series is still ongoing (check back this weekend for an excellent interview with Neil Williamson), but I thought it was a good time to pull together an index of all of the interviews to date.
So that's what I've done.
August 18, 2011
Writers talk about writing - Kaitlin Queen
Born in Essex, Kaitlin moved to Northumberland in the north-east of England when she was a child and has lived there ever since. Her children's fiction (mostly for the 9-15 age range) has been published by Hodder, Puffin, Orion and others and has, in some weeks, out-sold the Harry Potter books. "Kaitlin Queen" is the name she uses for her adult fiction, and One More Unfortunate (Amazon UK | US) is her first adult crime novel.
We're in a lift, I'm someone important (come on, pretend), you've got thirty seconds (tall building, slow lift) to tell me about your latest book, One More Unfortunate.
It's the mid-1990s and Nick Redpath has some issues to resolve. Like why he is relentlessly drawn back to a circle of old friends and enemies - and an old love - in his seaside birthplace in north Essex. And why he won't let himself fall in love again. But first he must prove that he didn't murder his old flame, Geraldine Wyse... It's a murder story, and a love story, and a story deeply rooted in a part of the world I know well.
Please stop repeatedly pressing the emergency button. The comment about building a ladder of bones to reach the ceiling hatch and get out of here was just blue-skies thinking. So, what are you working on now?
Currently I'm working on an adventure series for 9-11 year olds. As Kaitlin Queen I'm toying with various ideas for more adult crime fiction as I enjoyed working on OMU so much. Foremost among these would be continuing Nick Redpath's story with a sequel to One More Unfortunate called The Time of Roses, another story where a murder mystery is tangled up with Nick and Karen's developing relationship. The other idea I'm toying with is a series of short, noir stories inspired by the paintings of Jack Vettriano; whatever people may say about his art, Vettriano is a master at telling a story in paint.
You're a successful children's author, whose books in some weeks have out-sold Harry Potter. What's made you turn to crime fiction?
I think most writers are tempted to try something different, every now and then. Life would be so dull if we wrote the same book over and over again, although that doesn't stop some people. Why crime in particular? A lifelong love of the genre is what did it, particularly on TV. There are few things better than losing an hour or so to a TV crime story: Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Cracker, Taggart, and of course all the Agatha Christie adaptations over the years. As you can see, my tastes are eclectic, and I hope that comes across in my novel.
'One More Unfortunate' has been dubbed Essex Noir. Do you think that place is important for crime fiction, and if so, why?
That description hadn't occurred to me, but it's perfect. My influences were many and varied, and I hoped to pull off a novel that could be both gritty and noirish at one extreme and a gentle romance at the other, with many points in between. Place is, I hope, clearly a major factor in OMU: Nick is drawn to his home town and there's a lot of emphasis on the place's history. One of the things that fascinates me about writing is the way description can be used to establish atmosphere and tension: you can describe a scene in so many ways, but if the reader knows it's a murder scene every little descriptive detail takes on a new significance.
What have you enjoyed most about writing not just in a different genre, but for a very different audience? And what have you found more difficult?
Some of my children's stories are crime adventures, so it's a genre I have some history with. Crime for adults does allow you to explore different avenues, though, and one of the real draws for me was the opportunity to write about grown-up relationships and their complications through the eyes of the grown-ups themselves. It's like raising your own children: they're fascinating and fun creatures, but sometimes it's nice to get out of the house and have a grown-up conversation. One of the challenges was adjusting to a different pace of storytelling. It can be so easy to lose the attention of a younger reader and when they've grown bored and put the book down you've lost the game. I like to think that adult readers are more comfortable with a bit of digression, but after all this time it's natural for me to stick to the story and keep things moving. OMU is a full-length novel, but it's still relatively short, and I think that must be the reason.
In your own writing, what do you think you do well, and what do you wish you could do better?
To succeed in children's fiction you have to have a knack for hooking the reader and then keeping them hooked: I think I write stories that have good pace and keep you wanting to read more. Page turners, if you like. I don't know about doing better, but I'd like to write more about adult relationships: the love story in OMU is one of my favourites of the things I've written.
Can you remember what made you sit down to write your first book or story?
I've always written. When I was a child it was animal stories. I wrote so many variants of Watership Down featuring different animals! I think that of those people who love reading there's a certain proportion for whom the natural next step is to be fascinated by how the stories we love come about and are put together. I count myself lucky enough to be in that group.
Print publishing is a doomed but still predatory dinosaur rotting from the feet up. Ebook publishing is the vomiting out of the world's slushpiles onto the market. In the ongoing war of words and hyperbole, where's the happy medium to be found? Where do you think the publishing business is heading over the next few years, and what are you doing to be ready for it?
I really don't know. I must confess that I'm not a lover of technology. I'm enormously grateful to Keith Brooke (publishing supremo at Infinity Plus) for pushing me towards electronic publishing for OMU; it wouldn't have happened if I didn't have someone who understood how it all worked. For most writers the best thing we can do to be ready for the brave new world of publishing is to keep on writing our best stories in the belief that there will always be a means of getting them to our readers.
What book do you most wish that you had written?
Anything by Elizabeth David. For it to be authentic I would have had to have lived and travelled in Europe during a fascinating period, and learned to cook authentic food from masters. One day I intend to write a 1930s Mediterranean cookery murder mystery. Just think of the research!
Do you do much promotion for your books? What do you think is the most effective thing you've done?
Not nearly as much as my publishers would like! The most rewarding thing I've done in this line is visiting schools and other educational events. The audiences are always so rewarding and enthusiastic. I have no idea how effective that is, though.
If you could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what would it be?
Never be satisfied with your writing: you can always make it better. The other side of that is that you must also develop the ability to know when to leave a story alone and move on to the next one.
If you could tell an aspiring piece of writer to ignore one commonly given piece of advice, what would it be?
"Show, don't tell" is an excellent piece of advice. Far too many aspiring writers report a scene rather than dramatising it in a way that allows the reader to feel that they're there, immersed in events. However, if we showed everything our novels would be ten times as long and a great deal more dull. Much can be cut altogether, but there is also a lot that, while it has to be mentioned, can be skipped past with a brief bit of telling rather than a long passage of showing.
Are you 'out' as a writer of fiction with work colleagues/family, and if so, what reaction did you get?
I am well and truly out as me, but Kaitlin is still tucked away in her closet. I like it this way. I'm a fairly self-conscious person, and hiding behind a pen-name has allowed me to explore adult issues in ways I might shy away from as me, particularly as "me" is a children's writer!
Gibbons or tigers? (NB this question is to help me in compiling my List of People Who Are Wrong).
Today is a gibbon day, I think. Tomorrow could be more tiger, but we'll have to wait and see.
Any questions that I should have asked?
The answer is, "Yes, but only when I've had a glass or two of Pinot Noir." I'm afraid the question includes a clause that forbids me from revealing it.
We're in a lift, I'm someone important (come on, pretend), you've got thirty seconds (tall building, slow lift) to tell me about your latest book, One More Unfortunate.
It's the mid-1990s and Nick Redpath has some issues to resolve. Like why he is relentlessly drawn back to a circle of old friends and enemies - and an old love - in his seaside birthplace in north Essex. And why he won't let himself fall in love again. But first he must prove that he didn't murder his old flame, Geraldine Wyse... It's a murder story, and a love story, and a story deeply rooted in a part of the world I know well.
Please stop repeatedly pressing the emergency button. The comment about building a ladder of bones to reach the ceiling hatch and get out of here was just blue-skies thinking. So, what are you working on now?
Currently I'm working on an adventure series for 9-11 year olds. As Kaitlin Queen I'm toying with various ideas for more adult crime fiction as I enjoyed working on OMU so much. Foremost among these would be continuing Nick Redpath's story with a sequel to One More Unfortunate called The Time of Roses, another story where a murder mystery is tangled up with Nick and Karen's developing relationship. The other idea I'm toying with is a series of short, noir stories inspired by the paintings of Jack Vettriano; whatever people may say about his art, Vettriano is a master at telling a story in paint.
You're a successful children's author, whose books in some weeks have out-sold Harry Potter. What's made you turn to crime fiction?
I think most writers are tempted to try something different, every now and then. Life would be so dull if we wrote the same book over and over again, although that doesn't stop some people. Why crime in particular? A lifelong love of the genre is what did it, particularly on TV. There are few things better than losing an hour or so to a TV crime story: Columbo, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Cracker, Taggart, and of course all the Agatha Christie adaptations over the years. As you can see, my tastes are eclectic, and I hope that comes across in my novel.
'One More Unfortunate' has been dubbed Essex Noir. Do you think that place is important for crime fiction, and if so, why?
That description hadn't occurred to me, but it's perfect. My influences were many and varied, and I hoped to pull off a novel that could be both gritty and noirish at one extreme and a gentle romance at the other, with many points in between. Place is, I hope, clearly a major factor in OMU: Nick is drawn to his home town and there's a lot of emphasis on the place's history. One of the things that fascinates me about writing is the way description can be used to establish atmosphere and tension: you can describe a scene in so many ways, but if the reader knows it's a murder scene every little descriptive detail takes on a new significance.
What have you enjoyed most about writing not just in a different genre, but for a very different audience? And what have you found more difficult?
Some of my children's stories are crime adventures, so it's a genre I have some history with. Crime for adults does allow you to explore different avenues, though, and one of the real draws for me was the opportunity to write about grown-up relationships and their complications through the eyes of the grown-ups themselves. It's like raising your own children: they're fascinating and fun creatures, but sometimes it's nice to get out of the house and have a grown-up conversation. One of the challenges was adjusting to a different pace of storytelling. It can be so easy to lose the attention of a younger reader and when they've grown bored and put the book down you've lost the game. I like to think that adult readers are more comfortable with a bit of digression, but after all this time it's natural for me to stick to the story and keep things moving. OMU is a full-length novel, but it's still relatively short, and I think that must be the reason.
In your own writing, what do you think you do well, and what do you wish you could do better?
To succeed in children's fiction you have to have a knack for hooking the reader and then keeping them hooked: I think I write stories that have good pace and keep you wanting to read more. Page turners, if you like. I don't know about doing better, but I'd like to write more about adult relationships: the love story in OMU is one of my favourites of the things I've written.
Can you remember what made you sit down to write your first book or story?
I've always written. When I was a child it was animal stories. I wrote so many variants of Watership Down featuring different animals! I think that of those people who love reading there's a certain proportion for whom the natural next step is to be fascinated by how the stories we love come about and are put together. I count myself lucky enough to be in that group.
Print publishing is a doomed but still predatory dinosaur rotting from the feet up. Ebook publishing is the vomiting out of the world's slushpiles onto the market. In the ongoing war of words and hyperbole, where's the happy medium to be found? Where do you think the publishing business is heading over the next few years, and what are you doing to be ready for it?
I really don't know. I must confess that I'm not a lover of technology. I'm enormously grateful to Keith Brooke (publishing supremo at Infinity Plus) for pushing me towards electronic publishing for OMU; it wouldn't have happened if I didn't have someone who understood how it all worked. For most writers the best thing we can do to be ready for the brave new world of publishing is to keep on writing our best stories in the belief that there will always be a means of getting them to our readers.
What book do you most wish that you had written?
Anything by Elizabeth David. For it to be authentic I would have had to have lived and travelled in Europe during a fascinating period, and learned to cook authentic food from masters. One day I intend to write a 1930s Mediterranean cookery murder mystery. Just think of the research!
Do you do much promotion for your books? What do you think is the most effective thing you've done?
Not nearly as much as my publishers would like! The most rewarding thing I've done in this line is visiting schools and other educational events. The audiences are always so rewarding and enthusiastic. I have no idea how effective that is, though.
If you could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what would it be?
Never be satisfied with your writing: you can always make it better. The other side of that is that you must also develop the ability to know when to leave a story alone and move on to the next one.
If you could tell an aspiring piece of writer to ignore one commonly given piece of advice, what would it be?
"Show, don't tell" is an excellent piece of advice. Far too many aspiring writers report a scene rather than dramatising it in a way that allows the reader to feel that they're there, immersed in events. However, if we showed everything our novels would be ten times as long and a great deal more dull. Much can be cut altogether, but there is also a lot that, while it has to be mentioned, can be skipped past with a brief bit of telling rather than a long passage of showing.
Are you 'out' as a writer of fiction with work colleagues/family, and if so, what reaction did you get?
I am well and truly out as me, but Kaitlin is still tucked away in her closet. I like it this way. I'm a fairly self-conscious person, and hiding behind a pen-name has allowed me to explore adult issues in ways I might shy away from as me, particularly as "me" is a children's writer!
Gibbons or tigers? (NB this question is to help me in compiling my List of People Who Are Wrong).
Today is a gibbon day, I think. Tomorrow could be more tiger, but we'll have to wait and see.
Any questions that I should have asked?
The answer is, "Yes, but only when I've had a glass or two of Pinot Noir." I'm afraid the question includes a clause that forbids me from revealing it.
August 16, 2011
Writers talk about writing - Ian Ayris
Ian Ayris lives mostly inside his head, where he hears voices and sees things. Violent, odd, sweary things. The only way to rid himself of these voices and things is to listen and watch carefully and write down exactly what he sees and hears. It's an odd thing, but has resulted in almost forty published short -stories and a novel.We're in a lift, I'm someone important (come on, pretend), you've got thirty seconds (tall building, slow lift) to tell me about your latest book.
My debut novel is called 'ABIDE WITH ME' published by Caffeine Nights Publishing. It's about two boys growing up in East London in the nineteen-seventies. It's about hope, community, friendship, football, gangsters, and biscuits. More noir than crime, more Mike Leigh than Guy Ritchie. It's been described as an 'Of Mice and Men' set in East London. Also as an attempt to single-handedly dismantle the English language by an octagenarian from Dorset. I love that one. Did I mention the biscuits?
Uh-oh. Not sure lifts are meant to stop suddenly between floors like this. Guess we've got a bit more time. Ignore the flickering lights and creaking sounds above us. Would you like to tell me about other books or stories that you have available?
I've had almost forty short-stories published both in print and online, mostly crime fiction, some just plain odd. Many of these can be accessed via my blog.
Please stop repeatedly pressing the emergency button. The comment about building a ladder of bones to reach the ceiling hatch and get out of here was just blue-skies thinking. So, what are you working on now?
Mostly working on promo for the book, but also turning over a sequel in my head. I mostly write in my head first then spew it all out onto paper when I get a minute. Most of ABIDE WITH ME was written inside my head waiting at bus stops, on the train, the school playground and pushing the littl'un round the park. I hasten to add, she was in a pushcair, the littl'un. I wasn 't just pushing her round the park on her arse. That would be silly,
What really pushes your buttons in crime fiction? What makes you put down a novel and think hell, now that's a good novel.
What I really love, what really makes a book stand out for me, is when I become completely absorbed in the world of the book. The sort of thing by the time I've turned the last page, it's like I've inhabited the main characters body and soul for the given period of hours, days, weeks it's taken to get to the end. Like I've seen the world through his own broken eyes, you know. I love two styles of writing: the minimilist Hemingway/Elroy stuff exemplified by some of the brilliant online noir writers on both sides of the pond, and the really deep stuff, where the author is trying to shine a light into the human psyche. Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn, those sort of chaps.
Conversely, what bugs you?
Two things bug me most of all. When an author uses a story or book to make a personal statement, be it political, religious, whatever. That really bugs me. Also, when a writer stops being a writer and starts being a 'name'. With the online exposure nowadays I can be instantly put off even reading an author's work merely by how they present themselves as ego-driven monomaniacs whose sole interest is themselves. The cult of personality, I suppose you could call it. Two very big names in the crime fiction world spring to mind. I have read a book by each author and, to be honest, struggle to see what all the fuss is about.
Which writers have been the biggest influence on you?
The first time I read Ernest Hemingway, he blew my mind. Unfortunate turn of phrase there, but you know what I mean. I thought Blimey, I never realised you were allowed to write like that. Really freed me up, he did. Made me realise you can write anything in any way you want. I love the Russian authors. Chekov, Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn, and Dickens and Hugo. Modern day writers, again, though by all accounts he's a bit of a twat, James Ellroy was a massive influence. Chuck Palahniuk, Derek Raymond, Ted Lewis. I could really go on forever and ever and ever . . . But I wont.
You're about to see your debut novel published. How's the follow-up going, and do you feel it's a a different experience writing it now you know your first is seeing print?
Being my first novel, I just want to enjoy the experience of seeing ABIDE WITH ME published before I start anything else, but a sequel is definitely in the pipeline. And yes, I think it will be a completely different experience. A little like the challenge of recording a second album, I suppose. I wrote ABIDE WITH ME without any thought of publication. I had no expectations, no pressure, if you like. With regards the follow up, I suddenly have readers of ABIDE WITH ME, hopefully, looking forward to a book as good if not better than the original. The other difference, and it is a very big one for me, is with the publication of ABIDE WITH ME I am now tentatively beginning to see myself as an actual writer. ABIDE WITH ME was written in a chaotic shambles of weeks and months, riding the rails of runaway emotions into the dark corners of my self. I don't want to lose that spontaneity in my writing, but I know if I want to make a real go of this writing lark I need to treat it with the self-discipline of a job of work. And self-discipline has never been one of my best attributes. Too much looking out the window, you know.
In your own writing, what do you think you do well, and what do you wish you could do better?
I think what I do well in my writing is to write without fear or expectation. I just write what I see and hear in my head. Uncensored. What I could do much better is to be more organised in my work, more focussed. I'm not one of those writers that can sit down for a set amount of time and not get up until a certain amount of words are completed. If something comes into my head, I wander about a bit till I've seen it all play out in my mind, then dash it down quickly on the laptop. I've had periods where I've written four or five short stories in a week - all quickly accepted for publication. But weeks and months can go by where I write nothing at all. Like I said earlier, if I want to make a real go at this writing game, I need to become a little more professional in my approach. Perhaps.
Can you remember what made you sit down to write your first book or story?
I got this voice in my head. It was all sweary and everything. Horrible, it was. And it didn't let up till it'd told its tale. The story became 'My Mate, Tel' - my first published story (Radgepacket, vol One, Byker Books)
Do you have a book or story that you're very fond of, but you think should get more attention from the world than it has?
Maggie by Stephen Crane. An unbelievable little book a hundred years ahead of it's time.
What book do you most wish that you had written?
Without a doubt, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Blimey. What a book.
If you could give an aspiring writer one piece of advice, what would it be?
Write with truth, write with humility, write with courage. That's all.
Gibbons or tigers? (NB this question is to help me in compiling my List of People Who Are Wrong).
Tigers. Every time. You know it makes sense.
