12 or 20 (second series) questions for John MacLachlan Gray
John MacLachlan Gray
[photo credit: Beverlee Gray] is amultiple award-winning writer and composer for stage, television, film, radioand print. In past decadeshe has appeared as a theatre director; as a composer/librettist of stagemusicals; as a satirist on CBC TV's The Journal, as a magazine journalist; as ascreenwriter; a columnist for The Globe and Mail and the Vancouver Sun;and as the author of five acclaimed novels.
A recipient ofmany awards including the Governor-General's Medal, he is an officer of theOrder of Canada.
He is currentlyworking on Mr. Good-Evening, the third in a series of novels set in 1920s Vancouver, following The White Angel and Vile Spirits.
1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recentwork compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
My first novel “Dazzled” was written in 1980, while I was in New Yorkwith “Billy Bishop Goes to War.” It gaveme something to do during the day. Though delighted that Irwin published it (after many, many revisions), Istill thought of myself as a working composer/librettist/pianist & wasworking on my musical “Rock And Roll.”
Then in the Nineties, the market for musicals (mine at least)tanked.
I started with non-fiction but became bored.
I had learned how to do dialogue and character, so I took upscreenwriting (Rock And Roll became a feature video, King of FridayNight ) & got into the craft of it, several scripts optioned, one thatactually became a film (Kootenai Brown). In the process I learned a good deal aboutmany things – especially plot and structure.
Then for some reason, I wanted to write a thing. Not a potential play or movie, but a thing. Like a painting – even if nobody seesit, it's still a painting.
So I decided to write plot-based novels, movies for people's minds,& eliminate the middlemen.
Which also eliminated the camera and microphone – and meant I would haveto do that job in sharp, rhythmic prose that kept people awake, interested,fascinated, whatever.
The other thing was that it would have to keep meinterested. It's a long, arduousprocess. As a person somewhere along theADD spectrum, I like crime novels. Not whodunnits, novels in which thefascinating thing isn't the crime itself, but what it reveals about humanbeings.
So I wrote A Gift for the Little Master, about a serial killerwho goes into management – ie manipulates weak people into becoming serialkillers themselves. The main charactersare a TV news girl, a multiracial bike courier & a bad cop. I wrote the book in English Prime – minus theverb to be – because this is a world where everything is changing, wherenothing is. Random House Canadapublished it. Yay.
At this point my agent suggested that I write a crime novel set inVictorian London. Which got me thinkingabout how Victorian my childhood was & how Victorian things still are. (Igrew up in a Victorian family, in a hundred ways.) Plus, this was when Vancouver arrested aserial killer who HAD murdered sex workers, in which the police had shown anastonishing reluctance to reach that conclusion – instead, they showed the sameassumptions & attitudes Victorians held, about “fallen women – as lostsouls who are doomed by their sinful profession.
The Fiend In Human was snatched up by international publishers, whosaw it as another The Exorcist; problem was, even Caleb Carr couldn'tproduce another The Exorcist. Somerave reviews but disappointing sales. They published White Stone Day andNot Quite Dead in fewer numbers, then lost interest entirely. (Publishers used to publish authors; thanksto Conde Nast, now they publish books.)
2 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Doesyour writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first draftsappear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out ofcopious notes?
It takes me a year to come up with a plot. A plot isn't a story - a cause-effect chain;it's a petri dish that needs a certain amount of material to grow on its own,and it all has to interrelate. And eventhen it's vague. At some point I alwaysfind I have been wrong about something crucial & have to double back.
3 - Where does a work for page or stage usually begin for you? Are youan author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or areyou working on a "book" from the very beginning?
There's a long period of “controlled dreaming.” When I start in earnest I already have ashadow in my mind.
4 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Areyou the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love doing readings – especially Q&A.
5 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kindsof questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even thinkthe current questions are?
I'm just the old guy in the basement, working on his model train.
That said, I'm interested in psychopathy (interviewed Dr Hare a fewtimes). Evil as an absence –something trying to complete its self. A Rabbi told me that “The Tree of Good And Evil” in the Hebrew reads assomething like The Tree ofthat-which-is-complete-and-that-which-is-incomplete.”
It's a valid frame for a villain: Something Is Missing.
6 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in largerculture? Do they even have one? What do you think the role of the writer shouldbe?
I don't do “should.” I'm agnostic. In my brain at least, writing has become so intertwined with thinking,that writing has become thinking itself. Things need to be put into words. As opposed to blurting sentences, writing a thought down means you canlook at it & decide if that's the best way to say it. There have been storytellers as long as therehave been human beings; let's say some got laryngitis or something & wroteit down as they told it. There's ademand for their tablets...
7 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficultor essential (or both)?
Essential and fun. My motto is,“I am more than happy to take credit for your thoughts.” There is nothing like being read by a trainedreader who's not a pal & who has edited a shitload of material & isbasically on your side. Writing issolitaire; publishing is a team.
Lack of editing is the main reason bestsellers are so thick – anA-list author turns in a bug-crusher & the editor says “marvelous,” becausethey want to keep their job.
8 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily givento you directly)?
Don't push the river, it runs by itself – in otherwords, Have faith in the process of the universe.
9 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (crime fictionto stage musicals)? What do you see as the appeal?
In my so-called career, I have just kind of backed into things. I have no idea how I became a newspapercolumnist; nor how I ended up on national TV for 5 years. Someone may have suggested it – an angel,perhaps. But switching genres has keptme interested, if fear can be equated with interest - there is always anembarrassing ropes-learning period that makes one shudder later on.
10 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you evenhave one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I do nothing for a year except accumulate scattered notes. When I decide to put the dream in writing, Igive it a couple of hours a day, starting with the packet of scribbles I jotteddown on pieces of paper and in a file called “Yet More Shit.”
Once I have a first draft & can see what's there, I work longerhours fixing, re-writing, chopping, etc.
11 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for(for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I don't. I do something else forawhile & let the greater part of the brain work it out.
12 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
The smell of creamed salt codfish on mashed potatoes, with melted butter& pepper.
The smell of the Atlantic Ocean. (Smells different from the Pacific.)
13 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but arethere any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, scienceor visual art?
Music is central to my being. (Ican't remember not playing the piano.) Going over a paragraph, I hear it - hear it stutter & cack,and I try to make it sing. Themusic part isn't the ability to play butto listen.
14 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, orsimply your life outside of your work?
Graham Greene; Richard Condon (Winter Kills, The Manchurian Candidate); Pierre LeMaitre (Alex, Camille); Patricia Highsmith,Muriel Spark.
The Yoga practice that developed out of Covid means I do a couple ofhours a day surrendering to Gaia. I'mstretchier than before, but not as wise.
15 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
I'll write another book, or part of one, whether it gets published ornot. (It was like that with The WhiteAngel.)
It's what I do.
16 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would itbe? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had younot been a writer?
My Grade 8 teacher recommended I take up a trade like welding. And I suppose I could have carried on sellingsuits for Fred Asher, Stores For Men in 1974. Or I could have worked in a universitytheatre department, bored footless. Andif Billy Bishop had been a hit on Broadway, I could have become analcoholic screenwriter – or perhaps a crime novelist.
17 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I had nothing better to do at the time. No kidding.
18 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last greatfilm?
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead, by OlgaTokarczuk. Everything a crime novel“should” be.
19 - What are you currently working on?
I have something going on in my head about the 1934 Bedaux Expedition innorthern BC & its connection to Heinrich Himmler's quest for the origin ofthe Arian Race. Meanwhile in Vancouver,it''s the year before the Battle of Ballentine Pier - Fascists financed theShipping Federation are preparing for a showdown with Communist Unionists. And a policeman sent to investigate a murderfinds himself in the territory of the Nahani, which is literally anotherworld. Am waiting to find out whathappens.
