Peter J. Merrigan's Blog, page 6

Is Kane Rider modelled on you or someone you know?

Kane Rider, the main character from Rider and its sequel Lynch, is not modelled on anyone in particular, but is more an amalgamation of various people and ideals. Like the majority of Peter’s characters, they all steal a little from life, and a lot from fiction.

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You always dedicate your books to someone. Who are they?

The Camel Trail was dedicated to Peter’s parents, and to the memories of Kevin Merrigan and Alan Fleming, his uncle and cousin respectively, who both died at a young age from the muscle-wasting condition Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the chromosome-linked disease with whichThe Camel Trail is concerned.

Rider was dedicated to Sue Simpson, his editor, and Mary Merrigan, his sister and “unofficial editor”. These two are the first people to read his work before anyone else gets to see it.

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Do you do book signings?

Peter has done several book signings recently, most notably BooQfest 2013 in Northampton. Any news of future signings will be posted in the News section.

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Why did you decide to write a sequel to Rider?

There are two reasons for this and Peter can’t decide which is most important: Firstly, he felt that he simply wasn’t ready to leave the characters behind and felt that they still had some story left to tell. And secondly, his editor begged him for it. You decide which is more important!

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What advice to you have for aspiring authors?

“Read as much as you possibly can, and write twice as much as that.” The main advice Peter has is to “just write that first draft”. Don’t worry about what you’re writing, just write it. Once it’s finished you can go back and edit it. Finishing the first draft is the easy part. Editing it will make you sweat blood.

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What writers influence you now?

Peter reads a lot of gay fiction when he can and particularly loves Madeline Miller’sThe Song of Achilles, and Daniel Vilmure’sToby’s Lie. He also professes to enjoy Michael Palmer novels and is partial to a bit of Dean Koontz (his favourite Koontz novel: The Face).

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