James Everington: "Feed the Enemy"

Hi James, could you please describe yourself in five words?

Reader, writer, drinker, headache sufferer. 

What can you tell us about "Feed the Enemy"?

It's a standalone short story about a woman attempting to flee London due to an escalated terrorist threat. Her husband works behind the scenes in the government; he encourages her to flee and… let's just say she starts to suspect he has a more personal reason for wanting her out the way… It's a story not about terrorism itself, or its consequences (horrific as they are) but the general drip-drip of the media and politicians about the threat level, about shadowy disasters narrowly averted… how does that kind of background affect our lives and relationships? I knew I wanted to write about that for a while, and when I found a plot that dovetailed naturally with it I was pretty happy.

Who's your favourite author?

I can never answer this question! A quick scan of my book shelves reveals that the author I've got most books by is Terry Pratchett, so on a purely mathematical basis it must be him…

Do you have tips for budding writers?

Read a lot of books, and if you write in a specific genre don't limit your reading to that one genre.

If you read a truly bad book, treasure it – when you're own writing is going bad (and it will do, one day) you can think back to that book and think 'well at least what I'm writing isn't as bad as that'.

What are you working on now?

I plan to publish a book of short stories very soon, which will be called 'The Other Room'. It will be different from 'Feed The Enemy' – most of what I write is dark, supernatural fiction, although not necessarily 'horror' in the blood and guts sense. I enjoy the unexplained, the psychological, and the ambiguous in my weird fiction, and 'The Other Room' contains such stories. Think writers like Ramsey Campbell, Shirley Jackson, and Robert Aickman.

Where can we find you online?

My blog, Scattershot Writing, is at http://www.jameseverington.blogspot.com/