Interview With... Shaun Allan
To all who are reading this,
Kicking off this month's guest interviews is a good friend and fellow local author, Shaun Allan! So please, sit back and enjoy the ramblings of this intriguing and genuine author...
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Name: Shaun Allan
Age: Older than you!
Location: Grimsby
Hi Shaun, thanks for coming along! What are three interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share with the readers?
1. I'm me. That's interesting enough on its own!
2. I love Egypt.
3. I have a writing inspired tattoo.
What made you want to be a writer?
I've always written, but hearing my English teacher reading To Kill A Mockingbird to our class pushed me into wanting to not just write, but to be a writer! I wanted to hold people like that. Enthral and unnerve and capture their imaginations.
What motivates you to write?
It's the best way to keep my Muse from wrecking the inner halls of my mind. He's a sort of Jester who likes to play with my thoughts and he can be a little sod when he wants. If I don't write, he gets bored and drives me insane.
Do you have a particular writing process?
Not really. I write and see what happens. I meet characters when they appear. And I write when I can, which isn't as often as I'd like, but when's when I can squeeze it in.
How do you manage the deadly problem that us writers block?
I write something else. If I'm working on a story and get stuck, I'll turn to another story, or write a blog entry. It's sort of like, if you've forgotten something, stop trying to think about it and it'll suddenly pop back into your mind. If the words won't come, write other words and soon enough the others won't want to be left out and will make themselves known.
What is a piece of writing advice that you will always remember?
Don't use the word 'nice' as it's bland. Mr Staniforth, the teacher, told us that. Sometimes, however, it has to be used because it's all there is. Which is nice.
What is the most influential book you have ever read, and why do you think so?
Hmm... I suppose this should be something deep and classical. I'd probably think Stephen King's On Writing book was a good one. It was a sort of memoir but with tips in it too. It meant a lot that someone I read a lot of write in a similar fashion to myself.
Also, there's Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. This was after writing Sin, but I found the first two chapters were very similar (they've even been compared) which sort of gave Sin, himself. Also, I could relate to the attitudes and self image.
I think To Kill A Mockingbird is the most influential book in my life, but that was from it being read to me rather than reading it myself (though I have more than once).
Have you ever derived inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?
ALWAYS! Sin and Dark Places have locations from my home town. People from my past appear as characters. They say 'write what you know'. So I, after a fashion, did.
Your first major publication is Sin. Have you had any publications prior to this?
I was published - both in short story form and poetry - a good few times in various small magazines in the UK and in the US. Sin was the first time I'd finally completed something major, however.
What is Sin about? It certainly sounds interesting!
On the surface, it's about a man around whom people die. He can't help this and goes to great lengths to try and prevent it. Deeper, it asks the questions of whether it's right to kill a killer. If you knew someone would kill a hundred people, is it OK to kill them - or are you then, just as bad. And what if the killer were you?
Sin can't control his actions. He doesn't know why these things are happening to, and because of, him. At times, we've all felt as if we're not in control of our own lives. No matter what we try to do, something bad happens. Sin has these issues in the extreme, and must go to extreme measures to try and solve the problems. How far would you go when it feels your world is ending and it's all because of yourself?
What drove you to write a dark and disturbing tale?
I didn't know it was going to be like this when I started writing it. It could, quite easily, have been a comedy. Originally, Sin was a short story (which now makes up the Prologue) and I thought that would be it, but his voice wouldn't stay quiet and the book sort of wrote itself. Most of my stories seem to be dark - although I do try to interject humour into them. I suppose, they're my way or exorcising my own demons. Or exercising them.
Some say that you and Sin are the same people. Care to elaborate?
I think they're possibly correct, after a fashion. I call Sin my Dark Half (in tribute to the Stephen King book of the same name). He's my outlet for odd thoughts and dark times. There's a great deal of me in the character - his sense of humour, some of his own life experiences (even those not written about yet), his random, tangential thoughts. As much as he could very well be a bad guy, he really doesn't want to be. Maybe that's me too?
What does the future hold for you as a writer?
A worldwide smash hit. Top 10 in all the bookstores.
Or at least a sequel to Sin, a Darker Places, and hopefully the completion of my children's book - which needs a fair bit of work!
Thank you for such a fantastic interview Shaun!
Be sure to check out Sin, and many more of Shaun's work on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
You can also find Shaun here:
http://www.shaunallan.co.uk
http://flipandcatch.blogspot.com
http://singularityspoint.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/singularityspoint
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Yours, with eternal ink,
Zoe
---
Currently reading: Breathe by Sarah Crossan.
Kicking off this month's guest interviews is a good friend and fellow local author, Shaun Allan! So please, sit back and enjoy the ramblings of this intriguing and genuine author...
---
Name: Shaun AllanAge: Older than you!
Location: Grimsby
Hi Shaun, thanks for coming along! What are three interesting facts about yourself that you'd like to share with the readers?
1. I'm me. That's interesting enough on its own!
2. I love Egypt.
3. I have a writing inspired tattoo.
What made you want to be a writer?
I've always written, but hearing my English teacher reading To Kill A Mockingbird to our class pushed me into wanting to not just write, but to be a writer! I wanted to hold people like that. Enthral and unnerve and capture their imaginations.
What motivates you to write?
It's the best way to keep my Muse from wrecking the inner halls of my mind. He's a sort of Jester who likes to play with my thoughts and he can be a little sod when he wants. If I don't write, he gets bored and drives me insane.
Do you have a particular writing process?
Not really. I write and see what happens. I meet characters when they appear. And I write when I can, which isn't as often as I'd like, but when's when I can squeeze it in.
How do you manage the deadly problem that us writers block?
I write something else. If I'm working on a story and get stuck, I'll turn to another story, or write a blog entry. It's sort of like, if you've forgotten something, stop trying to think about it and it'll suddenly pop back into your mind. If the words won't come, write other words and soon enough the others won't want to be left out and will make themselves known.
What is a piece of writing advice that you will always remember?
Don't use the word 'nice' as it's bland. Mr Staniforth, the teacher, told us that. Sometimes, however, it has to be used because it's all there is. Which is nice.
What is the most influential book you have ever read, and why do you think so?
Hmm... I suppose this should be something deep and classical. I'd probably think Stephen King's On Writing book was a good one. It was a sort of memoir but with tips in it too. It meant a lot that someone I read a lot of write in a similar fashion to myself.
Also, there's Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. This was after writing Sin, but I found the first two chapters were very similar (they've even been compared) which sort of gave Sin, himself. Also, I could relate to the attitudes and self image.
I think To Kill A Mockingbird is the most influential book in my life, but that was from it being read to me rather than reading it myself (though I have more than once).
Have you ever derived inspiration from your home or from anywhere you have visited?
ALWAYS! Sin and Dark Places have locations from my home town. People from my past appear as characters. They say 'write what you know'. So I, after a fashion, did.
Your first major publication is Sin. Have you had any publications prior to this?
I was published - both in short story form and poetry - a good few times in various small magazines in the UK and in the US. Sin was the first time I'd finally completed something major, however.What is Sin about? It certainly sounds interesting!
On the surface, it's about a man around whom people die. He can't help this and goes to great lengths to try and prevent it. Deeper, it asks the questions of whether it's right to kill a killer. If you knew someone would kill a hundred people, is it OK to kill them - or are you then, just as bad. And what if the killer were you?
Sin can't control his actions. He doesn't know why these things are happening to, and because of, him. At times, we've all felt as if we're not in control of our own lives. No matter what we try to do, something bad happens. Sin has these issues in the extreme, and must go to extreme measures to try and solve the problems. How far would you go when it feels your world is ending and it's all because of yourself?
What drove you to write a dark and disturbing tale?
I didn't know it was going to be like this when I started writing it. It could, quite easily, have been a comedy. Originally, Sin was a short story (which now makes up the Prologue) and I thought that would be it, but his voice wouldn't stay quiet and the book sort of wrote itself. Most of my stories seem to be dark - although I do try to interject humour into them. I suppose, they're my way or exorcising my own demons. Or exercising them.
Some say that you and Sin are the same people. Care to elaborate?
I think they're possibly correct, after a fashion. I call Sin my Dark Half (in tribute to the Stephen King book of the same name). He's my outlet for odd thoughts and dark times. There's a great deal of me in the character - his sense of humour, some of his own life experiences (even those not written about yet), his random, tangential thoughts. As much as he could very well be a bad guy, he really doesn't want to be. Maybe that's me too?
What does the future hold for you as a writer?
A worldwide smash hit. Top 10 in all the bookstores.
Or at least a sequel to Sin, a Darker Places, and hopefully the completion of my children's book - which needs a fair bit of work!Thank you for such a fantastic interview Shaun!
Be sure to check out Sin, and many more of Shaun's work on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
You can also find Shaun here:
http://www.shaunallan.co.uk
http://flipandcatch.blogspot.com
http://singularityspoint.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/singularityspoint
---
Yours, with eternal ink,
Zoe
---
Currently reading: Breathe by Sarah Crossan.
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