tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428792563109502992024-03-19T05:04:28.112-07:00ScrawlScrawl is the questing beast books blog. Exclusive interviews with writers and features about word-based media. Creative Writing and Reading. Literature. Genre Authors. Transmedia. The Poetic Genius.Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-28069580121883485012020-09-05T06:40:00.009-07:002020-09-08T02:30:36.876-07:00Evolution is Inevitable - an interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky<div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">Adrian Tchaikovsky attracted plenty of favourable attention with his 2008 debut novel, <i>Empire in Black and Gold</i>, the first in the <i>Shadows of the Apt</i> series. By then, he'd already been writing for about a decade and a half and this momentum continued to drive him on. He now has more than 40 published Fantasy and Science Fiction stories to his name - novels, novellas, anthologies. He won the 2016 Arthur C Clarke Award for his novel <i>Children of Time</i>, a story of humanity’s struggle for survival on a terraformed planet, and his latest novel <i>Doors of Eden </i>will be published in paperback by Pan Macmillan's Tor on 22 September 2020. </span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">The Lincolnshire born author studied Psychology and Zoology at Reading before working in law and developing a full-time writing career. He is a keen gamer and live action role playing, and also an amateur actor. He now lives in Leeds with his wife and son. In 2019 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of Arts from the University of Lincoln.</span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyffitwP2mIhnPY600NK-tPnOJ7vaS3XKyoqbgHN61RShX4KxPicz5_5BszIAAHQ9PPuw85tI1MY6IXcUFLL3cw2X98AkOJLuxddnX-I8KcBi8VONO3hAzg-iuo-gdG2DTRekUNG1pqfbH/s863/adrian_scrawl.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="863" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyffitwP2mIhnPY600NK-tPnOJ7vaS3XKyoqbgHN61RShX4KxPicz5_5BszIAAHQ9PPuw85tI1MY6IXcUFLL3cw2X98AkOJLuxddnX-I8KcBi8VONO3hAzg-iuo-gdG2DTRekUNG1pqfbH/w500-h348/adrian_scrawl.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of science fiction and fantasy, creator of worlds<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div></span></div><div><i style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Adrian found time to talk with Kim Vertue for </i><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">The Scrawl</span><i style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"> about inspiration, speculation, evolution and the fall and rise of civilisation, among other things...</i></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>What was the first book you can remember reading that really hooked you and carried you off into its world?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Dianne Wynne Jones, </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Diana-Wynne-Joness-Collection-Dogsbody-ebook/dp/B00PPVRB7E/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Power of Three</span></a></i><span style="font-size: medium;">. Still a book I revisit. It not only provides a wholly immersive fantasy world in and of itself, but it then pulls not one but two switches of perspective on the reader. Absolutely blew my mind. The other contender is probably Pratchett’s Strata for very similar reasons, but I think I must have come to that a bit later. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>What ‘woke you up’ to the idea of being a writer?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Weirdly, it was Weiss & Hickman’s </span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragonlance-Chronicles-Dragons-Twilight-Fantasy/dp/0140115404/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Dragonlance</i> </span></a><span style="font-size: medium;">books. I’d been a keep R.P.G.er for a while by then, and here was someone’s D&D campaign written up as a set of novels, and I thought, ‘I could do that.’ And, of course, I was 18 and clueless and I absolutely couldn’t, but I kept cracking away at it and eventually I got there. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>What have been your favourite books or authors, and what did you learn from them?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Gene Wolfe and Mary Gentle, for their complexity of world and writing and the fantastical games they play with their readership. Peter S Beagle for his poetic prose and exquisite use of language.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>What are your favourite stories from other media formats? </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">The recency effect says I should mention </span><i style="font-size: large;">Dark</i><span style="font-size: medium;">, which I’ve just finished and completely blew my mind. My favourite films are probably </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arrival-Blu-ray-Amy-Adams/dp/B01MXEQRLW/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Arrival</span></a></i><span style="font-size: medium;"> and </span><i style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Machina-Blu-ray-Domhnall-Gleeson/dp/B00S2LSA5G/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Ex Machina</a></i><span style="font-size: medium;">, really intelligent science fiction put forward with an understated subtlety. For TV, I’m a big fan of </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Farscape-Complete-Season-1-4-Box/dp/B000BLBZL6/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Farscape</span></a></i><span style="font-size: medium;">, which I think was just about the perfect mix of heart and mind when it came to characters and writing. I loved </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Sails-Complete-Collection-Seasons/dp/B01NBY4LOJ/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Blacks Sails</span></a></i><span style="font-size: medium;"> as well, for something more recent. For comics, I’m a big fan of Kieron Gillen and Paul Cornell, and I love both incarnations of </span><i style="font-size: large;">Umbrella Academy</i><span style="font-size: medium;">.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>We understand you role play. Would you say this was a major source of inspiration for you?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I absolutely do, and my first books, the </span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Black-Gold-Shadows-Apt/dp/1447208609/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Shadows of the Apt</span> </i><span style="font-size: medium;">series</span></a><span style="font-size: medium;">, evolved directly from that. Gaming is definitely still an influence, but so is just about everything I come across. It all goes into the mill.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>When developing your ideas, does world or story come first? Or do the characters? Does it vary? </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">World first, always. My characters and plotlines arise organically from the worlds I want to write in. I always want to explore somewhere, and when I’ve worked the world up to a sufficient level of reality, the people, their concerns and their fracture points will arise organically out of the setting.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;">In </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doors-Eden-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316705802/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Doors of Eden</span></a></i><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: bold;"> you have fun describing various ‘evolutions’ and how other civilisations may have developed. How did you dovetail research into speculation until if felt exactly right for your story? Do you consult ‘boffins’, for example?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">When I’m writing what I’d consider ‘hard SF’ (for a given value of same) I do try and get the science as right as I can, which will often mean consulting actual boffins. The acknowledgement of </span><i style="font-size: large;">Doors</i><span style="font-size: medium;"> has quite a list of people who’ve helped me by informing beforehand or fact-checking after – same for </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Ruin-Time-Novels/dp/1509865853/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Children of Ruin</span> </a></i><span style="font-size: medium;">where I had all sorts of fun talking spaceship design with the experts. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1447273303/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="516" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIZIk_2rw0JZ3SvdQPYMCaO0-QkXzUbNZ5b-9hf98jRifF59Ucs35j7JvHfbwn5HBUK5EZ4Wut5CT_-OM0BVoD55C18ieWsJH4vloXm2jXt-QIuoHESUH6DslfvY694CmRYEHtMAnXdczJ/w206-h320/cot_at.jpg" width="206" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Ruin-Time-Novels/dp/1509865853/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1327" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiOcMnfDJtTQM1jZYskl5ENKpAeb6PHgiXfc8DHfPw6i84HkKy9VXn3UlAIkv13tSxGT44jwLDAFoARkl2E-975O3GAJ-5dZ5jJKpkOFakcipGwFz-5cP5Wg_imG3K8kewKHrLed-Out2/w207-h320/91sR03OmTeL.jpg" width="207" /></a></div></div><br /><div><b style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you ever have to resist spending too long on research?</span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes I have to abandon something when it turns out my limited understanding of the science was way off the mark. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1447273303/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Children of Time</i> </span></a><span style="font-size: medium;">was originally going to use time distortion from travelling at near-light speeds instead of the repeated wake-sleep pattern that Mason goes through, but it didn’t make logical sense, and I think what I ended up with is better.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>You include LGBTQ and alien characters – this is a great tradition in SF, yet there is heightened sensitivity around interpreting another’s point of view which is linked to this creative freedom. Do you have a checklist or approach in developing these characters, to succeed in such a rounded way?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I don’t have a checklist <i>per se</i>. I try and work with what I’ve learned from people I know, and beyond that I just do my level best to step out of my place of relative privilege and empathise, and treat people like people. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I’m not usually trying to write about that aspect of a character, because I suspect that’s where I would cross a line. But I do feel it’s a duty to write about a diverse cast, because the world is a diverse place, and also, it makes for a more interesting book that one that’s wall-to-wall people like the one I see in the mirror. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">As for the aliens – I love to write aliens. I love to make them complex and, ideally, present them from inside their own sensoriums and minds. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doors-Eden-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316705802/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjioqG3WMO4esSl7eQB2_rBAJPg-GY3OxnW85QM0aJzXSgxWEC9t9Yjgbdio4mDW0j2LZqjHBagEBqWuDNyeR-WhQN_0v90DbnUT4fhCkNgeWuU4DS6rp8fhoR_9QGGYtDixEWFnije_Fe8/w500-h281/doe_at.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><b style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><i><div><b style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></b></div>Doors of Eden</i> also has a sense of hope around its ultimate scenario which makes for a satisfying read. How do you use plot and structure – do you know the ‘destination’ and work your way back, or run the scenarios so that they are a surprise to you as you go? </b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I plot and plan heavily, and can’t really imagine trying to write any other way - although who knows, maybe one day I’ll do the other thing, though it feels like jumping out of a window and trying to knit a safety net on the way down!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><b>Do you map out the outline scene by scene, and if so, does this take longer than writing the first draft?</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I don’t always stick to the plan, and the midsection of any good story always has a certain amount of fluidity, but most of the time I have a good idea of where I’m going and that lets me build a lot of structure like foreshadowing in on the first pass, and usually gives me a first draft that is the right shape and doesn’t need serious tinkering.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">Have you developed a writing regimen and routine, if so, could you describe it? For example, do you usually write in a study with a lovely view? Do you listen to certain music to evoke certain moods, and do you have a favourite food or drink to help you along? </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Right now, I write every day, mostly in the morning. I listen to a lot of music, mostly film and game soundtracks most of the time. I would normally get out of the house to write, but right now going to a coffee shop isn’t really an option, so I’ve got used to writing at home. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiger-Wolf-Echoes-Fall/dp/144723457X/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1331" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZEclH9Qu6cje-SUBlb9kaeDWJczDih8WdtLIzHC4yW_CubtBIPzwFh-dBPHZrwLrJPF0jlKQq9VIvzRx2fluiNeDdUjB5K3FwqdQZR3AzOyFeb2HQdQGr6b7iljrikECD_3gWPt6LEBRu/w133-h205/wolf_at.jpg" width="133" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bear-Serpent-Echoes-Fall/dp/1509830251/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1331" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonSWvEb852mpknLGfHE8DUFJvX0CZsNjfUkOb_m3ry3Empv5LZyjgEdhtOXeIy_U7kaMva9TeWEZFpk-ul79oavF5RvXOax8PLKjysFZH948Ja2AxSqvR6di2eEVv_N-A-7zpiM_okwZ3/w133-h205/serp_at.jpg" width="133" /></a><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hyena-Hawk-Echoes-Fall/dp/1509830294/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1331" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGTxkmfeTRqvfusOJugp0B9MqwL4FtkgbRx8u5Bbi8B8vapeQBfWiD8ZxDcLrYWEduiPrqxGcc-liSvUEKmoowrSSXGr3_sa5TpvGkSkUpTo8LJanByIf9LrNLO-W-ZaboY2M6wAGrZzkw/w133-h205/hyna_at.jpg" width="133" /></a></div><br /><b style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">How has your writing developed? Has feedback from fans and other media fed into this, as well as speculation on the ‘interesting times’ we are living through? </b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope I’ve got better as I’ve gone on. I think my actual style is still being honed, and I can look over earlier work and see how I might do things differently now. I try not to be reactive to the way people perceive my work, but if I’m being honest it does have an impact, and I do try and take on board valid criticism – which is still a hard thing to do even after so many years in the game. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Thank you, Adrian Tchaikovsky, h</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">opeful SF seems something that we need more than ever!</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><i><b>Adrian Tchaikovsky</b> was talking with <b>Kim Vertue</b></i></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doors-Eden-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316705802/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtWdlrHSYdubJ7cQlR_2kU1g5-1Zli8ZEJzx0_OqL1AfVL9n5SAS9jUrZ8I2Q7fsiElE0Nd6XK12EqQzN3YJ-zqWKw7to7zx19GBhqm-Ch6VKP1LVlIcLWiIEKoQ58iZwyTRR13OnAe-CQ/w500-h250/EdIz2Y4XoAoimxR.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">You may also like:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2017/03/culture-and-cruelty-interview-with-iain.html" target="_blank"><b>Culture and Cruelty - </b><b>an interview with Iain (M) Banks </b></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2017/03/culture-and-cruelty-interview-with-iain.html" target="_blank">from The Scrawl archive</a></div><div><br /></div>Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-41201722692230019762020-01-24T05:57:00.006-08:002020-09-29T06:19:10.701-07:00In Yer Face! David Williams Talks Agitprop, Community Health and Crime in Cardiff<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">David Williams is a playwright, a founding member of The Red Button Theatre, author of several collections of poems. David has embraced the digital world and generously publishes much of his work-in-progress on-line, a brave move for any writer that allows his readers to share the creative journey and learn from this rare transparency of process. He has a built a reputation for potent, entertaining drama that does not shy away from politicising the everyday scenarios he often chooses as his focus... For the last few years, much of his work has been archived by the National Library of Wales.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPMok6JJG8eE8sP0_K319lZoOvjBUSozWNLfGx43n1_bIgj-ZY-bS-pLmDauot-Y22tBXZGvl5LOkdKE_XtwFGFlvjx9OpHjrnm0bHG-AT7fQ38_uxa3LtEVEqueaT4pvBn5Sd7F0Fgbd/s1600/david+williams.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPMok6JJG8eE8sP0_K319lZoOvjBUSozWNLfGx43n1_bIgj-ZY-bS-pLmDauot-Y22tBXZGvl5LOkdKE_XtwFGFlvjx9OpHjrnm0bHG-AT7fQ38_uxa3LtEVEqueaT4pvBn5Sd7F0Fgbd/s320/david+williams.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author David Williams</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">David Williams first talked to Remy Dean as part of IAWN2017, an on-line festival of independent authors in Wales. He has since ventured into the world of </span><i style="color: #38761d;">noir-nouveau</i><span style="color: #38761d;">, with a collection of short works featuring the hang-dog, not quite 'has-been', character Ken Frane, 'last of the Cardiff Docks Detectives', so the <i>The Scrawl</i> takes this opportunity for a catch-up with this prolific writer who refuses to be contained by any single genre, format or outlet...</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Your poetry often veers into prose and <i>vice versa</i>, do you have a definition of 'poetry' for us, and is it the same thing as 'the poetic'?</span></b><br />
<br />
First of all thank you, Remy, for taking the time to read my work. As a former English and Drama teacher I am ashamed to say that I don’t know the difference between poetry and prose. They are all just words to me that come out in whatever form or order they do and that is why on my Amazon author’s spotlight I say that my poetry is really 'a collection of angry words'.<br />
<br />
To me, poetry is the shortened form, a precis or lyrical form of the long-winded. Perhaps my opinion of poetry and the poetic is best summed up in a poem wot I wrote, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://sharkfishinginwales.blogspot.com/2015/06/poetry-is-cool.html" target="_blank">Poetry is Cool</a>...</span></i><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">There are many overt political references in your writing, including the poem you just quoted. Are some of these the views of the character espousing them and not your own? </span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Every character, play or short short story I write is me.<br />
<br />
They are my political views. I don’t think I would be able to write them otherwise. The plays are agit-propaganda and ‘In Yer Face’. Not much room for subtlety in my work. I have never thought of the idea of fiction in poetry myself.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkL9yfmp0-ZLVhRVnD0imxN7s60MeFaRWw5W9hFo5Jl6J_Tr1jiUfMuTM5XxfQy6mSw9Cxp_5KJ8Z4Th5iLntLN6X6Y6S6L2CpRSBUmNHTCGOrCC1PLgewvz7KWB0dft9LTAEW93G_XEU0/s1600/dav.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="419" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkL9yfmp0-ZLVhRVnD0imxN7s60MeFaRWw5W9hFo5Jl6J_Tr1jiUfMuTM5XxfQy6mSw9Cxp_5KJ8Z4Th5iLntLN6X6Y6S6L2CpRSBUmNHTCGOrCC1PLgewvz7KWB0dft9LTAEW93G_XEU0/s320/dav.jpg" width="212" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEd73c-Dx6fZsjBGutGgQDSiJ1nyGdOuEjZLBIdM8Del0_IDA6UPXSYRjkPba-ozsiXmryPwSaqXhXvkRG6uyPUtmbXPdYBlVUAcH42qFZCRgwZS6mXUB6hnqxxhI9GcNvWOvcEs97scIe/s1600/another+place.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="286" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEd73c-Dx6fZsjBGutGgQDSiJ1nyGdOuEjZLBIdM8Del0_IDA6UPXSYRjkPba-ozsiXmryPwSaqXhXvkRG6uyPUtmbXPdYBlVUAcH42qFZCRgwZS6mXUB6hnqxxhI9GcNvWOvcEs97scIe/s320/another+place.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
Most of my work, be it plays or poetry, is autobiographical in some way so not fiction at all. It has affected my world view and therefore I am sure it would offend some people if I was to say it to them. I leave it out in the digital realm for them should they wish to read it. In real life, I am not so much ‘in yer face’ as I appear on the page. If I get flak, it is for my glibness and facetiousness - a trait honed to deal with authority and institutions.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you think writing in a bilingual setting has affected your themes and approach? I mean, as opposed to the simply being able to use two languages., and am thinking of your use of other dialects, such as the Afro-Caribbean-South-London language of <i>Brickstown</i>…</span></b><br />
<br />
Great question, and I think it must have done subconsciously.<br />
<br />
I have an affinity with the oppressed and being a part of a linguistic minority, in a country that lends its name to one of the languages, gives you an empathy or understanding with others’ struggles - therefore, the gentrification of Brixton in <i>Brickstown </i>and the mental health conflict of the character in <i>Freedom Come Freedom Go!</i><br />
<br />
It was also in South East London that I was an English and Drama teacher and some of the patois and speak I must have picked up, but I am told by a former colleague that the Jamaican dialect does need correcting.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you think a writer has a social duty?</span></b><br />
<br />
I think it is compulsory for why else are you writing? My succinct and ‘in yer face answer’ might offend a few because some might be doing it for elusive fame and fortune.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your connection with Red Button Theatre and what is the company’s connection with community health?</span></b><br />
<br />
I set up Red Button Theatre at the University in 1994 as a vehicle for my own writing. I have wanted to work with it in a community health setting but have lacked the oomph to do this! We are there or rather I am there if people would like to work with us. My main interest is in Mental Health because after ruminating on the fact that I might not be ‘right in the head’, I was diagnosed with the writers and artists’ disease ‘Bipolar Disorder’ in 2005. This could be another reason why I have not extended the hand of friendship further out to the community.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You are quite active <a href="https://twitter.com/davidredbutton" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">@Twitter</span></a> and often tweet about mental health and related issues. It appears, whilst recognising it as a multi-faceted and complex problem, you also see a socio-political causation for many?</b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
My opinion upon 'mental health' since I do tweet about it a lot is that it is a political problem. In my opinion 'mental health' is a problem of Capitalism and does not have to do with the Bio-Medical Chemical Imbalance in the Brain. We are all suffering way more than we need to be, even those who haven't been diagnosed, because the systems in place are not one to support us but ones designed to make us strive, compete against each other and to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.<br />
<br />
The emphasis, in the UK at least, is that if you get back to work and pay your taxes, pay into the communal pot, then your mental health will improve... but people know, especially those who wish to express themselves creatively, that just <i>any </i>job is not the answer. It has to be a job where you can express yourself creatively and how many of those are out there? Not many!<br />
<br />
That's why I am a supporter of Universal Basic Income. I think this would improve the mental health of thousands overnight, because at least people would know that they had a certain amount to budget and live on a month and be creative about it. As it is, our waking hours are set on how are we going to earn enough money to survive let alone be creative and how can we stay one step aloof from the hoops that the Department of Work and Pensions wish us to jump through.<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">I know many who are 'of a delicate disposition' in some way, or go through 'emotionally vulnerable periods' will avoid Twitter during those times as they feel it is 'toxic'. I wonder what your opinion is on that connection between social media and mental health... </span></b><br />
<br />
I must admit that I thrive on Twitter. Facebook is a bit to passive for me. I had to leave Instagram because I was getting too political in my posts. Agit-propaganda is the name of the game for me and if you can't do that in 140 or 260 characters then you need to up your game!<br />
<br />
I can certainly understand how it can affect people who buy into its toxicity. I feel that now I am in a more stable place, that it is a choice whether to buy into the toxicity of social media or not. You could just post pictures of kittens and paintings as many do.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Your words find their way to their readers along many different paths. Your poetry, prose, plays and novels have been published traditionally, via the small press route, as e-books, piecemeal on social media platforms and through self-publishing. </b><b>As a very active writer, do you think social media and digital self-publishing are good or bad things - for you personally and for literature in general?</b></span><br />
<br />
Self-publishing is good for me because I don't do rejection. I have been rejected so many times that I decided, I have something to say, I have a message and I am going to say it. Of course standards slip and just because I think something is good enough it doesn't mean that it is. If it has passed my censor then I am ready to self-publish but the danger then is that unless you promote your self-published work zealously, then it just sits on the digital book shelf gathering the computer equivalent of dust.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you tell us a how your involvement with the <i>PORT</i> collection came about, recently published by Dunlin?</span></b><br />
<div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Ella and Martin at Dunlin Press put out a call on Instagram for submissions about 'ports' and I thought that it might be a good opportunity to write about the real 'Cardiff Docks' before it became 'Cardiff Bay'. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I had been writing about my detective character, Ken Frane, in its environs and I felt this was an opportunity to turn fiction into faction. I remembered Cardiff Docks from late 1987 on, before it became Cardiff Bay and associated Barrage in the mid-nineties. Thus 'When a Dock is Booming' was born, the last story in <i>Port</i>, an anthology published in November 2019.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80Q-W6DJ9T9LkVXiBontxgvRNa5JgPUEtWhGmtQ8g8NlI-P4hungE1AHsPRiFIEZWLb-_ypSw-DUW-RX20X_ra_8oID8uN3wqMvFUprERFXsJ02LOTluiYOP385eCt0gWQ1eMnIN3sYI-/s1600/Highway+Hay.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80Q-W6DJ9T9LkVXiBontxgvRNa5JgPUEtWhGmtQ8g8NlI-P4hungE1AHsPRiFIEZWLb-_ypSw-DUW-RX20X_ra_8oID8uN3wqMvFUprERFXsJ02LOTluiYOP385eCt0gWQ1eMnIN3sYI-/s320/Highway+Hay.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2pjbeDKSm5MzWkQEmT6BTdLkIx8tVR_9kf02mvpLY37WwtKHkZCjPkg0J_tP0dDwzvX1jnOBR_Iz4oBsIbjj3M0ARo91vpgAb67k2HVnY-LnOswmLUJWTrK7sgzt3ljXKlbKI3uQMA16g/s1600/MIners+Strike.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2pjbeDKSm5MzWkQEmT6BTdLkIx8tVR_9kf02mvpLY37WwtKHkZCjPkg0J_tP0dDwzvX1jnOBR_Iz4oBsIbjj3M0ARo91vpgAb67k2HVnY-LnOswmLUJWTrK7sgzt3ljXKlbKI3uQMA16g/s320/MIners+Strike.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Ah, Ken Frane! What marks Ken aside from other hang-dog detectives?
Can you give us a quick summary of how the character came about? </span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Challenging question Remy as yours always are! Who should
want easy questions apart from politicians? Ken Frane 'hang dog detective' I
love that description of him. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose what marks him out immediately is his
age. He's 58, older perhaps than most of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Past his best? I think not. He is a man of his 'filltir scwar' and that square
mile being the old Cardiff Docks. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He came about from my subconscious, from my
days running a printing business across the road from the old Butetown Police
Station. This was before the Cardiff Bay Barrage came into being. There was
always something magical, something dangerous, something unsettling about the
area. You had to treat the area and it's people with respect. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Butetown had been
punished by the Lynette White case and it was from the ashes of this that Ken
Frane appeared many years later. I
have to remember back to being a
teenager and reading Agatha Christie and enjoying the Ellery Queen mysteries on
the television and very much enjoying playing the detective. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">So, what can people expect when they read a Ken Frane story?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A short sharp hit from a Ken Frane case. I have written two novellas and 11
short stories, so far. Some available on Lulu and the others on Amazon Kindle. They are pretty site-specific cases with adventures occurring in Barmouth,
Hay on Wye, Rhuthun, Tregaron, Merthyr Tydfil, Newport, Eryri and Cardiff Market.
At the moment they are more of a story than a mystery to be solved. I'm still working on the craft and exercising
my crime fiction muscle. Ken Frane is a work in progress and by no means the
finished article. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Also, picking up on Cardiff Docks, now Bay, do you think the 'Genius Loci' of a place directly affects your writing in terms of subject and cadence? </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I didn't know that there was such a thing as 'Genius Loci' until I went to the Liverpool Everyman Theatre in 2014, where learnt about 'the spirit of place'. I was positively enthused after I heard that it was a 'thing' and also being taught about psycho-geography I thought,<i> 'Eureka',</i> I might even have shouted it out in class.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I immediately left after the class had finished as if pulled by an invisible energy to the Welsh Streets of Toxteth, walking through Prince's Park and past the Prince's Road Church, which was known as the 'Welsh Cathedral'. I'm not really sure why place and a sense of place affects me so much. Perhaps it affects everybody but they don't talk about it as much as me. Most of my writing begins with place and characters and story come later. Sometimes much later and sometimes never at all. Sometimes it remains just Place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKKvWhZN4OZnK2FKkl5ZLHDlyjomGI4Tyh84cimlDntpraGcoYJtTZwEyMooEP7c6afajVQV6WDXGLzU0BbJNmI2j0W_fJSWcXDileeric0X5Z4m3nTZr9nVOYTspcizeJ1GDgVN_8JZx/s1600/genius-loci-poetry-b-iext46823564.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmKKvWhZN4OZnK2FKkl5ZLHDlyjomGI4Tyh84cimlDntpraGcoYJtTZwEyMooEP7c6afajVQV6WDXGLzU0BbJNmI2j0W_fJSWcXDileeric0X5Z4m3nTZr9nVOYTspcizeJ1GDgVN_8JZx/s320/genius-loci-poetry-b-iext46823564.jpg" width="225" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVJgEYGIBVTJE85kEk8LZPqn415CMxuGIgre2qFVNd8Z6pP1_bzV4j4gAc2JxIrJkLwkWp7PITbTM2vRirVLDR85ZpeQSS7Lm9c3I7jPyWc594DpAIjshc-sawXKE0rISBdUjLffQ3dq4/s1600/limbo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="296" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVJgEYGIBVTJE85kEk8LZPqn415CMxuGIgre2qFVNd8Z6pP1_bzV4j4gAc2JxIrJkLwkWp7PITbTM2vRirVLDR85ZpeQSS7Lm9c3I7jPyWc594DpAIjshc-sawXKE0rISBdUjLffQ3dq4/s320/limbo.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is the view like from your usual writing place?</span></b></div>
<br />
“I see the church, I see the people, Your folks and mine happy and smiling, And I can hear sweet voices singing, Ave Maria.” Oops! Those are the lyrics to <i>The Wedding</i> by Julie Rogers. My glibness has surfaced again. Apologies, Remy!<br />
<br />
When in Caerdydd, the view is of Anti-Social Housing, out the back, and when on sojourn in West Wales, the view is of a stunning beech tree.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You just mentioned Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, a couple of mystery writers you enjoyed in your formative years... Who have been your favourite writers since and what have you learned from them?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Charles Bukowski and John Tripp as the poets. I have learnt to ‘say it as it is’ from them. I'm very partial to the ‘In Yer Face’ playwrights of the 1990s and am hoping that this form of anarchic theatre will make a comeback.</div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">When did you realise you were a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
When I couldn’t stop writing. when I couldn’t stop filling up notebooks. When I wrote my final play for the Theatre and Drama degree at the University of Glamorgan as a mature student at the age of 28. I had always had pretensions as a younger person but really after my first degree and then after the MA in Playwriting at the University of Salford completed in 2014 I thought ‘yup this is me, a penniless writer’.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have a writing ritual or regimen?</span></b><br />
<br />
I don’t have a ritual or regimen. I am one of those rare-common creatures who waits for the muse to strike. To quote the old cliché, you are never ‘not writing’, at least in your head anyway, and fortunately when an idea or concept hits home I get it down. I should have a routine but I don’t and I think that is the difference between a successful and unsuccessful writer. The discipline... I'm in the latter category.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What are the similarities and differences between writing prose, plays and poetry?</span></b><br />
<br />
The three are the same to me and there is a crossover. I write as I think, a stream of consciousness and if those words and thoughts fit neatly into one of the above definitions, then great, if not, even greater. As a human of this race I have been pushed into boxes that don’t fit me and don’t suit me and likewise my precious babies, my words, I don’t want them boxed into a definition.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your beverage of choice when writing?</span></b><br />
<br />
I gave up the absinthe and balkan sobranie years ago, so now I will have a coffee when the muse strikes and follow it with copious amounts of Yorkshire Tea - Product Placement - throughout the day.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I like mine strong, no sugar, dash of milk... </b><b>Thank you very much for chatting, David.</b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Diolch i chi!</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>David Williams</b> was talking with <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span></a></b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><script data-coffee-color="#fff" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font-color="#000" data-font="Cookie" data-name="bmc-button" data-outline-color="#000" data-slug="RemyDean" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">find out more about Poetry, Plays and other Stuff by David Williams at his weblog </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><a href="https://sharkfishinginwales.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Pysgota Siarcod yng Nghymru / Sharkfishing in Wales</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">and you can buy books by David Williams via his <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00QM4FIJG" target="_blank">amazon author page</a> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: medium;">...follow </span><a href="https://twitter.com/davidredbutton" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">David Williams </span><span style="font-size: medium;">on</span><span style="font-size: large;"> Twitter </span></a><span style="font-size: medium;">for news, views and updates</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://dunlinpress.bigcartel.com/product/port-words-from-the-edge-of-land" target="_blank"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>PORT, Words from the Edge of the Land</i> </span>is available from<span style="font-size: large;"> Dunlin Press </span></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dunlinpress.bigcartel.com/product/port-words-from-the-edge-of-land" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1049" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwHpnz-yv6IgXDk-WHJBLhnExQ0jXg7egEGAp8vZQTbBzpfe2FdhUJKAxS5wQjxfd3n3aVw5UWW5N0jp5hhQ935otU9ljWycR1HhEKJWEw5_ZXLMlBByvicpsK_pIQAE24NCH-9_AGvBA/s400/port_cover_finalfinal.jpg" width="261" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PORT. an anthology from Dunlin Press</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="text-align: left;">"More than places where ships load and unload, ports are points of departure and arrival, places where ‘here’ contacts ‘there’, and where known and unknown meet. The 274-page book includes specially commissioned writing from 38 contributors, and features 20 photographs and illustrations. Geographically, the anthology reaches all corners of the UK and beyond – from giant container ports to small fishing villages, while the breadth of writing and experience in the volume is as diverse as the ports themselves."</span>
<br />
<span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span>Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-44088786611005743372019-11-11T23:47:00.002-08:002020-09-29T03:45:23.821-07:00Searching for Seaglass - an interview with Eloise Williams, Children's Laureate Wales<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>The Scrawl</b></i> congratulates author <b>Eloise Williams</b> on being the first <b>Children's Laureate for Wales </b>as she takes up the new </span><span style="color: #38761d;">ambassadorial post which aims to engage and inspire the children of Wales through literature</span><span style="color: #38761d;">. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Eloise Williams was born in Cardiff and grew up in Llantrisant and is proud of her Welsh working-class roots. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Drama from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, then a Postgraduate Diploma in Acting from Guildford School of Acting. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">After spending a decade working as an actress she found her writing muse and took up the pen, pursuing her MA in Creative and Media Writing, which she completed with Distinction at Swansea University. Her performance and writing skills make the perfect combination when working with children in schools and libraries. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Her second novel, <i>Gaslight</i>, was awarded Young People’s Book of the Year 2017 by the Wales Arts Review. This year, her latest book, <i>Seaglass</i>, has been shortlisted for the Welsh Book Council's Tir na nOg Awards and the North East Book Awards...</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQpSCsFyKAQ2zESZv1Rc5eBvqVOFjiTJhJ4FYQ15HeRAcsnVSoyXg4Iu51ElDhpYrspMl3zW9E3YN5nPpbnQQrj61z1xG5iPnAUmutpW9fLx9lL2_yHB-M686svQM5Am8WzOAAbGcqhCp/s1600/EloisePenarth.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQpSCsFyKAQ2zESZv1Rc5eBvqVOFjiTJhJ4FYQ15HeRAcsnVSoyXg4Iu51ElDhpYrspMl3zW9E3YN5nPpbnQQrj61z1xG5iPnAUmutpW9fLx9lL2_yHB-M686svQM5Am8WzOAAbGcqhCp/s400/EloisePenarth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eloise Williams, author and Children's Laureate Wales</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Eloise Williams</b> talked with <b>Remy Dean</b> for <i><b>The Scrawl </b></i>about creativity, education and environment... about reading and writing books, and helping children to love words and find a voice to tell their own stories... </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The Children's Laureate for Wales is a new honour and involves a two-year commitment... So, as the inaugural Laureate, here is a question you are going to be asked often: what does the Children’s Laureate do? </b></span><br />
<br />
It’s a good question! I think it’s open to interpretation. I’m going to talk to young people about my love of reading, encourage them to read for pleasure themselves and also get them writing their own stories.<br />
<br />
There’s definitely room for more authors in Wales and I want future generations to be enthusiastic about telling their stories in their own voices. I think there’s a bright future for literature in Wales if we can get young people involved.<br />
<br />
I’m working with too many children who do not own a single book. We need to be fighting to get more books into schools. There are only 67% of schools in Wales with a designated library space. What message are we giving to young people with this?<br />
<br />
Many children don’t know that they can access books for free from a library or that they can request a book. I’m trying to put this right – where libraries are still available. We need to campaign to keep our libraries open, especially in areas of deprivation.<br />
<br />
I also believe there’s a real connection between a child meeting an author in ‘real life’ and them wanting to read. I’m hoping that my visits to schools and libraries will encourage them to build connections with other authors once my laureateship is over.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>It is a very exciting time in education for Wales. I have been involved with a few projects now, as a Creative Agent and Practitioner for the Arts Council of Wales on their Creative Learning Through the Arts Initiative - sorry for that huge label - and this model is now being recognised globally as a new paradigm. I wonder what you think of the new Curriculum for Wales, which prioritises creative thinking, and if you feel it is relevant to what you will be doing?</b></span><br />
<br />
Absolutely. I’ve been working as a Creative Practitioner for Arts Council Wales on their Creative Learning through the Arts initiative for the past three years too! I think creative thinking and learning is the way forward. I’ve seen pupils engage in a wide range of subjects which have been taught through the arts in a way which their teachers assure me they haven’t before.<br />
<br />
My laureateship is also an opportunity to promote creative thinking. Reading for pleasure is in itself an important part of my message and has, of course, immeasurable benefits on wellbeing, self-knowledge, empathy and literacy. I also want young people to understand that what they are reading will make their imaginations grow in a way which will help them to think more creatively. I truly believe that education isn’t about what you know – it’s about how you think about what you know.<br />
<br />
I think the Arts Council initiative really gets young people involved in their own learning and that’s an important element of what I want to convey too.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/GASLIGHT-ELOISE-WILLIAMS/dp/1910080543/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="608" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikfEyAf3zyK-b4AusAnwTBw1YaXErDzXmJHF5OCZzXCC2EFcT9lRU_kYJsXrCEcii97g8Ri8rv2zxIb0tajK-aten2x4fTIt79yCjpPBcfxdbp8TKMTZbMrHHkepzKs-r2YMZlxvx8Wzjo/s400/gaslight+cover.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Gaslight </i>(2017) was the second novel by Eloise Williams</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What are your own best and worst memories of school?</span></b><br />
<br />
I have lots of good memories of primary school and not many at all of secondary! I was (and still am) such a shy person. It is difficult to survive in a place where you are expected to stand up in front of groups of people and join in with group discussions consistently.<br />
<br />
I think there’s even more of a sway towards forcing young people to be extrovert today than there was then, and I am gently reminding people that ‘quiet’ doesn’t mean ‘not engaged’ as I go along.<br />
Luckily, I find it lots easier to talk in front of people now than I did when I was younger, but for me it came at a later age and I still have days where nerves get the better of me.<br />
<br />
Ironically, the best part of secondary school for me was my drama lessons and performances where I got to hide behind someone else’s words by playing a character. I also enjoyed studying Shakespeare in English. Thankfully, the teachers wisely went for Macbeth and Othello so there was lots of blood, treachery, murder and witchcraft, which kept it interesting for us!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Not really a question, but an observation about the remit to keep every pupil in a class engaged at all times... If I had gone through school with a teacher trying to engage me<i> every</i> second, it would have been <i>hell!</i> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">I think some children need time to wander among their own thoughts and I learnt more that way than when I was actively ‘doing’ in class. This is especially the case, I think, when trying to engender ‘creativity’ within children. This may be the difference between being an intro and extro -vert. This is something the David Lynch Foundation has taken on, with pushing schools to introduce quiet meditation space into the timetable... and one good thing about reading is, with a book in front of you, you can look engaged whilst thinking your own thoughts, too!</span></b><br />
<br />
Agreed! This is also true of when a teacher is reading aloud to the class, I think. Time to let your thoughts wander. If I wasn’t a daydreamer, I wouldn’t be a writer. I spent lots of my school time looking out of the window and imagining.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>One thing about creativity, I find, is that one mode benefits from another – I write and paint and walk, as well as writing creatively, I write critically about film and media… do you do any other art or creative thing that feeds into your writing? </b></span><br />
<br />
Not at the moment! I don’t have time! I do walk a lot and that gives me lots of new ideas and creative energy. I also sing around the house and often accidentally out loud when I’m walking. My husband is an artist so you can sometimes find oil-paintings drying in the oven – I do intend to have a splodge one day.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">…and whilst on creativity and writing, some say that long-hand involves different parts and processes in the brain, so, which do you favour and if you do use both long-hand and keyboard, at what stages to they dominate?</span></b><br />
<br />
I start with long-hand. I make notes, maps, character outlines, write down interesting themes or words which I’d like to include in a story. When I have a fair idea of the world I’m trying to create. I switch to using a laptop. I can type more quickly than I can write, and my thoughts come in really quickly so it’s a more effective way to keep up. My stories take a lot of editing after I’ve completed a first draft and I’ll often go back to my handwritten notes to help me with that.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What age group do you think of as your typical readers, and what were you reading at their age?</b></span><br />
<br />
I don’t think of an age group as my typical readers. Children’s books are for everyone!<br />
<br />
When I was younger, I read lots of different authors. C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton, Judy Blume, Tolkien to start with and then I quickly moved from there to Stephen King and Shirley Conran in my early teens. It was quite a leap. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">So, how do you deal with publishers and booksellers asking what grade or age-group a book is for</span></b>?<br />
<br />
I let the publisher deal with that. I didn’t even know what middle-grade meant when I started writing. I just wrote.<br />
<br />
Now I try not to think about it. My main protagonist is usually around the 11-13 age and that’s where I place my stories, in that protagonist’s world. If that means the story is middle-grade then great. It doesn’t stop my Nan reading it, and she's 94.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_ymBm_-491mdeIBMKz7XTxIjZ5ntug5hfCE5FZ2olsJ4RipuRHDJF_cGFtggJ1ijClMmeHfwp3Dxbw7KucKIXeaYh3QKTiXHhl6bxRx0-k80EqL7zXA0AcBkbGk5-t1khwt3nylZ4pTf/s1600/bcb1794a41d5da5b0f212e7c7a73bea6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="1000" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_ymBm_-491mdeIBMKz7XTxIjZ5ntug5hfCE5FZ2olsJ4RipuRHDJF_cGFtggJ1ijClMmeHfwp3Dxbw7KucKIXeaYh3QKTiXHhl6bxRx0-k80EqL7zXA0AcBkbGk5-t1khwt3nylZ4pTf/s400/bcb1794a41d5da5b0f212e7c7a73bea6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your earliest memory of reading a book that really drew you in and transported you into its world?</span></b><br />
<br />
<i><a href="https://twitter.com/eloisejwilliams" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe</span></a></i> is undoubtedly the book which had the biggest effect on me as a child. The idea that there could be another world through a portal as ordinary as a wardrobe completely blew my mind. It had an effect on me which has lasted for about forty years.<br />
<br />
My husband recently pointed out to me that every holiday I want to go on consists of large forests and snowy landscapes. There’s a reason for that.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you tell us about a few of your favourite writers and what you have learned from them?</span></b><br />
<br />
There are so many writers who are favourites and have influenced me.<br />
<br />
Everything I’ve read has taught me something. Maya Angelou taught me to be honest. Stephen King’s book <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003BVFZ4Q/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">On Writing</a></span></i> taught me to get on with it.<br />
<br />
The children’s writers who have influenced me are too long to list I’m delighted to say. Hundreds of them.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Becoming the first Children’s Laureate for Wales is quite an accolade and I should think feels like quite a responsibility! How has this new commitment affected your attitude to writing and your follow-up books for children? </span></b><br />
<br />
It is a wonderful and brilliant thing. I am thrilled to have been selected and yes, it does feel like a responsibility. However, I’m not letting it change the way I write, or the stories I tell.<br />
<br />
I’m always influenced by the young people I work with so that might have an effect on future stories, but I’m not consciously going to change anything at all.<br />
<br />
I think there’s a real danger with writing to follow the trend but by the time you get there the trend will have moved on. I’m going to carry on writing the stories which speak to me and ask me to tell them.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Has talking directly to young people sparked a story for you?</b></span><br />
<br />
Yes, but I’m not telling you what it is because it’s in the long-hand note stage and I don’t want to kill the spark!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you recall when you first 'woke-up' to being a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
I didn’t really give it much thought until I was in my thirties. I’ve always worked creatively and had been an actor and theatre practitioner for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until I was feeling stunted creatively and looking for a new outlet that I thought about writing.<br />
<br />
I enrolled on the MA in Creative and Media Writing at Swansea University to give it a go and eventually graduated with Distinction. It wasn’t an easy time and I received a warning at one point to tell me I was in danger of being asked to leave the course because I was missing too many workshops – I had to work to find the money to fund my studies and live at the same time – but it was worth it in the end.<br />
<br />
It gave me some of the confidence to believe I could make a go of it. The confidence is still a rollercoaster. Highs and lows all over the place. I lose it weekly!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I’ve noticed a lot of MA assignments specify they must ‘not be written for children’. </b></span><b><span style="color: #38761d;">What was the attitude to those writing for children on the MA course? </span></b><br />
<br />
Writing for children wasn’t covered by the MA course at that time. I don’t know if it is now. I didn’t start writing for children until I’d finished the course, so I have no training as such in how to do it, I simply wanted a challenge.<br />
<br />
There wasn’t an attitude towards people writing for children as nobody - as far as I know - was doing it. There is though, I think generally, an attitude that writing for children is somehow easier. I often getting people telling me how they’d like to write a ‘nice little book’ like I have. I wish them luck! I think it’s much harder to write for children than for adults for many reasons.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a writing ritual or regimen? </b></span><br />
<br />
No. I wish I did because it might make me more reliable.<br />
<br />
If I’m working at home, I get up and write. Then I go to bed. That’s it!<br />
<br />
I’ve tried rituals to make me feel more like a writer. They don’t. They just help with procrastination.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Is there a favourite tipple or treat when writing?</span></b><br />
<br />
Tea to the point of heart palpitations. Then water.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">If you have a usual space where you write, can you describe what you can see from there?</span></b><br />
<br />
I write wherever I am, but I do have a writing room with a view of a Lebanon cedar tree and a sea glimpse.<br />
<br />
It’s a messy space and I share it with my dog, Watson Jones. He can see the occasional squirrel passing by which always causes chaos and eventual earache.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seaglass-Eloise-Williams/dp/1910080802/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1047" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0DrTR2Ff8AjbqBZ3psr4u4aGBjDYGOEXzee2E-tuHBZpaX0fQX6R02x47s1IzkD48yhbP0S6ZPDpy8NsWhgvU2dFWfIQQXdqYLiY5cM2-jO1tWgZpN2GjU75Mbcm4z-Gk5BaG_ARj_OZM/s320/Seaglassfinal.png" width="209" /></a> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910080209/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7g9e6dSRwHCeZbvPJJoGIphl7XOA-OAVWZTq6epREU02k8bP8msVLJw7IkF0wQaMjX0gd2ytwVLzZfSiFYFLoPiwyJHZlC9NBrtc-qImfyApIGq7_LSBaIs3HY51K_-K9pXpD5edbA8T-/s320/Elen.png" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Your website shows pictures of you and Watson enjoying the local sea shores and landscape of Pembrokeshire, how do you think environment affects how you write or what you write about?</b></span><br />
<br />
I am hugely inspired by my surroundings. For some of my books I’ve used them specifically. In <i>Seaglass</i>, for example, I walked the local area a lot before starting on the story and made lists of all the details using my senses to bring the landscape to life. The landscape really is almost a character in that story.<br />
<br />
For <i>Elen’s Island</i>, I stayed on Caldey Island for three nights to get a good feel for the place and also visited Skomer several times.<br />
<br />
<i>Gaslight</i> was slightly different because it’s set in the Victorian era, but I spent lots of time living in Cardiff, so I know it well and revisited many of the places I included in the story.<br />
<br />
My next book is in an imaginary Welsh valley so that was a different experience again. Still heavily inspired by place though. It includes the Sgwyd yr Eira waterfall and takes its names and inspiration from the South Wales Valleys.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How do you decide and settle into the story to write next, do you have too many ideas crowding your creativity, or is it a matter of waiting and listening carefully to the muse? </b></span><br />
<br />
Thankfully, I have lots of ideas for stories. Perhaps too many. Settling on a specific story is so much more difficult than coming up with ideas for me.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you consult your editors, or your muse, to decide a priority?</span></b><br />
<br />
When I first started writing I just let the muse decide but now I ask my agent. She gives me a good indication of whether she thinks the story has ‘legs’. Having said that, if I felt passionately enough about a story, I’d write it anyway.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What, if any, do you think are the duties or responsibilities of a writer, in general, and one that writes for children and young adults, in particular?</span></b><br />
<br />
Write the best story you can, as creatively and truthfully as you can. That’s the key, I think. If you are working with an editor and a publisher, they will let you know if you’ve gone wrong.<br />
<br />
I think there’s a definite danger of writing in a patronising way when creating stories for children. My advice on that is <i>don't! </i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What next from Eloise Williams that we should be looking out for?</b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Wilde</i> comes out with Firefly Press in May 2020. It’s about a girl who is afraid of being who she truly is. Wilde is desperate to be normal and fit in at her new school. But in the middle of a fierce heatwave, when a school play wakes up the old, local legends of a witch called Winter. When ‘The Witch’ starts leaving other pupils frightening messages, can Wilde find the truth and break the curse? Or will she always be the outcast? All she knows is that being different can be dangerous!<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Eloise Williams, our Children's Laureate!</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Eloise Williams </b>was talking with<b> <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></span></b></i></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div></span><div style="text-align: center;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can... </div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></div><div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>for news and updates, see the <a href="http://www.eloisewilliams.com/" target="_blank">official <span style="font-size: large;">Eloise Williams website</span></a> </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>or follow her <a href="https://twitter.com/eloisejwilliams" target="_blank">on <span style="font-size: large;">twitter</span> </a></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span><b style="color: #38761d;">books by Eloise Williams are published in Wales by <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.fireflypress.co.uk/" target="_blank">Firefly</a></span></b><br />
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #38761d;">for more information about the Children's Laureate Wales, click the logo below</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/childrens-laureate-wales-2/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="1024" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQOu1zh9PdvxzUDPMe6-kwTHdj9UnoxbPlOzBN9k72F0yYTGMG_y21ptifpnuFJL_yYT2F4QBgtP_KQOC-FUkBZEFlHDNlApJXluYcPICLZ8_oOXVv3hqPm6HVM_7VYoKORXKc8IR5FqU6/s320/CLW_Full-Colour-1024x426.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-22824757706198145942019-10-22T05:50:00.000-07:002019-10-22T10:40:54.889-07:00Living in a Land of Legends - an interview with Andrew Jenkin<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Andrew Jenkin is a professional artist, illustrator and author. His pictures have been exhibited internationally, and in 2012 he was was shortlisted for Artist of the Year, by <i>Artist & Illustrators</i> magazine. </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br />
The first book that he has both written and illustrated was <i>The Curse of the Lambton Worm</i>, about dragon folklore in the North-East of England. An exhibition of the original illustrations from the book toured venues in the North-East and he was invited by the Akron Fossils & Science Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, to exhibit his illustrations and research from the book. He has also illustrated two books about Honley, the West Yorkshire village where he grew up, and has recently illustrated <i>Tapestry</i>, a children’s fairy-tale written by Richard King. </span>His latest book, <i>The Legends and History of Castle Hill, Huddersfield</i>, also deals with the folklore and history of a particular place.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Andrew is also enthusiastic about teaching art and hosts regular watercolour classes in North Wales, and monthly workshops in West Yorkshire. Before moving to Wales in 2010, he was Head Tutor and Studio Manager at North Light Gallery Art School in Huddersfield.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Andrew talked to <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></b> about words and pictures, curses and Camelot...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgACfXRYqL14wfw5kOw1FJFw99E3YF1mBtdEWerkHam5JDILdWrTKcc-sPKkkwNFI9nj6y2OLd627ET5PmGsP0kTFUJN4eguyG9oiyo_WFP8hyphenhyphenSnvq8EWdQAUBhQn_K-I7YGplX-7gsPvXt/s1600/Andrew+Jenkin+at+Conwy+Falls+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgACfXRYqL14wfw5kOw1FJFw99E3YF1mBtdEWerkHam5JDILdWrTKcc-sPKkkwNFI9nj6y2OLd627ET5PmGsP0kTFUJN4eguyG9oiyo_WFP8hyphenhyphenSnvq8EWdQAUBhQn_K-I7YGplX-7gsPvXt/s320/Andrew+Jenkin+at+Conwy+Falls+2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrew Jenkin, author and artist</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Tell us a little about your previous book, The Curse of the Lambton Worm. How and why did that come about?</span></b><br />
<br />
I attended a series of workshops with a government-funded organisation called CIDA (Creative Industries Development Agency – I don’t think they exist anymore). They were really enthusiastic about artists getting their work into galleries, and gave me a ‘just do it’ mentality.<br />
<br />
I had previously worked with an art gallery in Washington (near Sunderland) which was situated yards from where the events of the legend of the Lambton Worm were supposed to have taken place. It was a legend I had known since childhood, so I enjoyed researching its background. An exhibition of my illustrations connected with the legend was given the green light, and this in turn led to the book.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUDEDvWttkVnYVvPyyfb8lBwum8F4-6E1Aj0E3XWbTMaa8KvD0-JJo8DrfAKz_U4wKCz1jgnt_LldkXamVwVG0wj2JBSF1RoBKdyx80ud4yCRr9Agv4y6aaZx-9ZR2Tu6Zj-l4nXYcvpKE/s1600/LAMBTON+WORM+BOOK+COVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUDEDvWttkVnYVvPyyfb8lBwum8F4-6E1Aj0E3XWbTMaa8KvD0-JJo8DrfAKz_U4wKCz1jgnt_LldkXamVwVG0wj2JBSF1RoBKdyx80ud4yCRr9Agv4y6aaZx-9ZR2Tu6Zj-l4nXYcvpKE/s320/LAMBTON+WORM+BOOK+COVER.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Curse of the Lambton Worm</i> by Andrew Jenkin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Your latest book is also concerned with folklore. Tell us about that and how is it similar or different?</b></span><br />
<br />
The new book, <i>The Legends & History of Castle Hill, Huddersfield, </i>explores the stories which surround an old hillfort near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, which is where I grew up.<br />
<br />
It is similar to the Lambton Worm book in that it seeks to find some truth or explanation for some very strange legends – in other words, how did these stories start? It draws on literature, landscape features and history to piece together the puzzles and provide an explanation.<br />
<br />
It is different because it goes through almost every era, right back to the Neolithic, and is a hotchpotch of different legends. The Lambton Worm book was connected to landscape features, such as Worm Hill and Lambton Castle, but concentrated on only one legend - probably medieval.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFiY86pmTlLYfYnUXQrSRoguqQcm6fcUlXhyG2qPt2tfvFQxmHuprJMo8Z3EL60eHFaWXACjCDyh-n7cBpvzw5egrn3w8B1GF9N2icNzRJUSHuLzTPy1sMl4RpgaeQgMdJ-yEN6IHqacB0/s1600/aj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="374" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFiY86pmTlLYfYnUXQrSRoguqQcm6fcUlXhyG2qPt2tfvFQxmHuprJMo8Z3EL60eHFaWXACjCDyh-n7cBpvzw5egrn3w8B1GF9N2icNzRJUSHuLzTPy1sMl4RpgaeQgMdJ-yEN6IHqacB0/s400/aj.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You’re a professional artist and provide illustrations for your books – what, if any, are the links between these two creative formats – the visual and the textual?</b></span><br />
<br />
I usually have an overall idea for the illustrations, or perhaps one really striking image, which will help with the tone and mood of the text.<br />
<br />
I always have to get the text right first, because I work mainly in watercolours, so once I’m committed to an image, there’s no changing it and no going back!<br />
<br />
Illustrating in watercolour is completely the opposite to writing, which benefits from revision and refinement – if a watercolour is re-worked or altered, it loses its original vitality, so you only get one chance with the paint.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you find that the artist’s eye and way of looking helps to capture a sense of place in writing?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
As an artist, I probably think too logically about the image in front of me, or the image in my head if it’s an illustration – what is the composition, where are the lights and darks, what are the colours?<br />
<br />
As a writer, I would be thinking much more about atmosphere and mood before putting pen to paper. Having said that, most of my writing is fairly factual, so the logic starts to filter back in once I’ve started.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lOwxFI3ao2pyrhAiy6J95Da40q6a_aofP1EyTphCGEcqmOQItncIsmiWy21v72xJIDmFknOnRWV_kZGKUmJWexfcwXLrV-4JBPV5JiR2oCwZhXt7oFV7rtENofkHUFACeeS5pMhbAy5K/s1600/IMG_6559.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lOwxFI3ao2pyrhAiy6J95Da40q6a_aofP1EyTphCGEcqmOQItncIsmiWy21v72xJIDmFknOnRWV_kZGKUmJWexfcwXLrV-4JBPV5JiR2oCwZhXt7oFV7rtENofkHUFACeeS5pMhbAy5K/s400/IMG_6559.JPG" width="400" /></a>
</div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is your writing process like? </b></span><br />
<br />
I usually work out a rough outline first, then every few days I scribble something onto a scrap of paper, Once the pile of scraps is big enough, it all gets transferred onto my computer, and the hard work commences - a slow process of building the text, then going through draft after draft until it’s right. Some sentences come straight away, but some can be re-written a dozen times before I’m happy with it.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What time of day suits you best?</b></span><br />
<br />
Evening work suits me best, mainly due to daytime commitments, but also I find that the later it gets, the more ‘free’ my thinking and writing becomes.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is it about the subjects of your books that interested and inspired you to write about them?</b></span><br />
<br />
I have always been interested in history and legends; I have a degree in History and Ancient History, and I suppose I’m still studying.<br />
<br />
There is a pub near Sunderland called the Lambton Worm, which I visited as a boy. I was fascinated by the pub-sign, which depicted a knight clad in spiked armour, with a serpent-dragon coiled around him. I am still fascinated by it.<br />
<br />
I grew up in one of the villages beneath Castle Hill, so I saw it every day for the best part of twenty years. I remember reading an old Council pamphlet about the legends, which seemed oddly out-of-place in an industrial town in West Yorkshire, and really sparked my interest. The new book is my own version of that pamphlet.<br />
<br />
I guess it’s the idea that there is much more to life than what we see around us, we are surrounded by the spirit of our ancestors and our own imaginations – it’s not just a hill, it’s the hill where such-and-such happened. It makes life much more interesting!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZ9vVJESp32NehBG0LMXPpfUh4yQhRSZtzenEDxNs-4Uue2YopPKk7WNVjdbY11etyxPkro3_LAC0JMB6qZD3xyh3ev3r0vjA9mcu340Lz1aXxJDGvmhYAK4GkA89-Icn2t6Uki8PmdIC/s1600/Castle+Hill+book+008+%25283%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYZ9vVJESp32NehBG0LMXPpfUh4yQhRSZtzenEDxNs-4Uue2YopPKk7WNVjdbY11etyxPkro3_LAC0JMB6qZD3xyh3ev3r0vjA9mcu340Lz1aXxJDGvmhYAK4GkA89-Icn2t6Uki8PmdIC/s400/Castle+Hill+book+008+%25283%2529.JPG" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colourful Camelot illustration for Andrew Jenkin's new book</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How aware of your audience are you when writing and who would be your ‘typical reader’?</b></span><br />
<br />
I am aiming to write books for my ten-year-old self – the boy who was fascinated by the Lambton Worm pub-sign, and who read the Castle Hill pamphlet in disbelief.<br />
<br />
However dry the history, and, on occasions, cynical the explanations, I would always be very careful not to kill the original excitement and weirdness of the legends.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a favourite book of all time, or one that you have re-read or return to often?</b></span><br />
<br />
In my mid-twenties I read <i>Handbook for the Urban Warrior</i> by Barefoot Doctor (aka Stephen Russell), and it completely changed my whole outlook on life. The book is a very modern and accessible introduction to ancient Eastern mysticism and Taoism. I re-read this book, and others by the same author, on a regular basis, and always refer back to them when I have any kind of problem.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite authors and artists – what have you learned from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
Favourite artists would definitely include the Pre-Raphaelites, from the painstakingly detailed technical side of what they were doing - although I wouldn’t have the patience! ...and also for their subject matter. I also love the pen-and-ink illustrations of Arthur Rackham, again for technical brilliance and subject matter.<br />
<br />
These artists took years perfecting their art, and their high levels of skill and craftsmanship shine through the work.<br />
<br />
I don’t have one particular favourite author, but would probably choose an ‘old classic’ over a contemporary writer - apologies to all contemporary writers!<br />
<br />
I’m still stumbling through <i>The Mabinogion</i>, which I’ve been reading on-and-off for several years now (since moving to Wales in 2010 in fact!) and still have a long way to go. I love legends, but these are a bit heavy!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>If you could time-travel, what historic personage would you like to meet and what question would you ask them?</b></span><br />
<br />
It would have to be King Arthur, or whoever was most closely linked with this half-historical, half-legendary figure.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure exactly what I’d say to him - “Do you exist?” - but that’s a period of history which I would love to learn more about. Unfortunately we probably never will, because for those two hundred years, circa 400-600 AD, everybody was too busy fighting or fleeing to write anything down.<br />
<br />
Archaeological evidence is helping to provide some clues, and it may be that some future as-yet-uninvented method of investigation brings more answers…<br />
<br />
If he’s ruled out as a fictional character, then I’ll go for a round table discussion - sorry - with Ambrosius Aurelianus, Vortigern, Hengist and Horsa.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I would like to sit in on that! </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Thank you, Andrew.</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Andrew Jenkin</span></b> was talking with <b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></span></b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>For more about the art of Andrew Jenkin, </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>check out his <a href="http://www.arjentdesign.co.uk/index.html" target="_blank">company website <span style="font-size: large;">Arjent Design</span></a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>...and here is more about <a href="http://www.lambton-worm.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lambton Worm</span> book</a></b></span></div>
</div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-53979685767360246632019-06-21T00:36:00.002-07:002020-09-29T06:20:46.066-07:00High Hopes for the Hopeless - an interview with Tom Brown<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Where and what is <i>Hopeless, Maine</i>? </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">So far, it has manifested as a webcomic, a paperback and interactive weblog, before becoming a series of luscious graphic novels and is still growing, currently in the process of being developed as a roleplaying game, a tarot deck, a cuddly ‘spoonwalker’… It has become a many-tentacled beautiful beast and grown into forms that creators Tom and Nimue Brown had not envisaged when they first created the island as a refuge in imagination and settled there to live... </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlCig_RqIpEcC4OdD69nd5SudfFHWP2hCV0___1c-j0Qjmha1TNtyoyxVZPRGNfs5QlvIkr8eUOO6UTS97IWT3Hla_tHRPW7fc-HPC1z9ZsHVVsIREn-Tld28z_irNI5F-SbdWbKhLqr5/s1600/scrawl_tom_hopeless_900.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="790" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlCig_RqIpEcC4OdD69nd5SudfFHWP2hCV0___1c-j0Qjmha1TNtyoyxVZPRGNfs5QlvIkr8eUOO6UTS97IWT3Hla_tHRPW7fc-HPC1z9ZsHVVsIREn-Tld28z_irNI5F-SbdWbKhLqr5/s400/scrawl_tom_hopeless_900.jpg" width="550" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom and Nimue Brown in the middle of <i>Hopeless, Maine</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>Comic creator, </i>Tom Brown <i>kindly gives</i> <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> <i>a guided tour of the island and chats about steampunk, demons, poetry and pictures. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Welcome to Hopeless, Maine.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>REMY</b>:<b> I know you have been asked this before, but here at <i>Scrawl </i>we are interested in process, so how does the creative collaboration between you and Nimue generally work out? </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>TOM</b>:</span> “Well, there’s perhaps less ‘generally’ for us than there is for most for a start. We started out on opposite sides of the Atlantic which put some restrictions on how we could work together. At that point it was Nimue doing the writing and me doing the art, pretty much across the board.<br />
<br />
“We would have ‘What if?’ and ‘What even is this?’ conversations a lot. Now, as we work at the same table, things have evolved - and continue to change. Nimue now hand-colours the pages, and though the script for the series has been written for years, we still tinker with each volume as we work on it, and there is the question of what do we do with the chapter covers and two page spreads. They’re always present and used to tell another story, augmenting or filling-in detail to provide information that is not in the scripted pages.<br />
<br />
“It's back and forth, really, and though the script is already written, things evolve. For example, I needed some eye candy for a background on a two-page spread, and I drew a giant decaying Victorian industrial site. We then wondered what this was, and how it fit into the history of the island. Nimue ‘discovered’ that this was the abandoned Great Oceanic Gnii refinery.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">OK, for the uninitiated, can you explain what Gnii are?</span></b><br />
<br />
“Gnii are tentacled creatures native to the island. They lash themselves to bits of stone, often gravestone, and put a lit candle on top to fill their gossamer balloon and float in the skies over the island. Great Oceanic Gnii are their behemoth cousins which no longer visit the island as they have no wish to be pressed for their oil!”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Sometimes, there is a lot going on, visually, in the backgrounds… Do words disappear from the script as the pictures take over telling the stories, so you find you can then strip back the text? </span></b><br />
<br />
“Not often, no. Nimue has a very tight writing style and usually the only things edited out of the script are scenes - which though lovely - are not necessary to the plot, or don't move things forward.<br />
<br />
“Nimue's original scripts are like scripts for a radio play with little setting information in them, as she relied on me mostly at that point, for the visual ideas. Now that we’re working together in the same place, we sit down and work out the thumbnail drawings for the pages and figure out settings and visual details as we go.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hopeless-Maine-Sinners-Tom-Brown/dp/190883014X/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1277" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4wTnqugCc6akbiL7hVO2C2DAmD6779lxvI5BrJfapx-BS5axLiVofnwmv9luilGS4FWDNt0xju-kb1OeNrRZbYxlwiQDNMiiWAdIhElXsjOi6phBwqp444ywwIMtFOFXYYBaEHU7fmsaT/s400/Hopeles+Maine+2.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hopeless, Maine</i> Book Two: <i>Sinners</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b style="color: #38761d;">Many writers use visual stimulus to spark story ideas - are there images that come to you, including those from within imagination, that then just have to be worked into the story? </b><br />
<br />
“Yes! Easiest example of that - aside from the time that I did the cover before Nimue had even started the script. Erm... is coming to the UK and seeing teasels for the first time. It became obvious that they belonged on the island, where they became teaselheads... Buildings, landscapes, people, graveyards, that we find interesting or moving usually end up getting into the story, in one way or another.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The dialogue has a really lovely, sparse rhythm to it and unlike many comics, the characters seem to establish their own distinct voices very quickly. Do you act out the speech and develop the characters in a kind of roleplay ‘rehearsal’ or are they lifted from other sources, like real people or favourite characters in TV shows?</span></b><br />
<br />
“The truth is that these are people who live in our heads, and Nimue just ‘hears’ them and writes it down. The sparse rhythm may be partly explained by Nimue's interest in flash fiction. She also studies people and thinks a lot about language-use and… pretty much everything. In this way, she’s really working all of the time. Even when asleep!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Is there a typical ‘routine’ to writing days?</span></b><br />
<br />
“The short answer is, no. We are easily bored creatures and are constantly finding new ways of working.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Where do you generally write and draw?</span></b><br />
<br />
“All of the actual ‘work’ happens here, in the flat.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you go on research visits, or do you ever seek out certain environments in which to write?</span></b><br />
<br />
“We walk for pleasure, and transport, and we frequently do long walks on weekends - 12 to 20 miles… This gives us plenty of input and inspiration, as well as a chance to discuss things as they come up.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How was the narrow-boat as a studio?</b></span><br />
<br />
“Bloody awful!<br />
<br />
“It was damp, there was no reliable internet, electricity had to come from wind, solar, or running the engine - which I had to do while scanning pages - the boat moved constantly and violently when a large plastic boat came by. I was using watercolours at that point, because computer colouring used too much electricity. When the boat was shoved about, the brush would slip and I would mutter ‘alright, those can be crows, then’.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">OK, so why Maine? </span></b><br />
<br />
“Much of the inspiration for the setting comes from my growing up and spending most of my life in Maine, and I have stored up enough from that to keep me going for some time.<br />
<br />
“I absorbed the folklore, history, landscape and sense of the place on a deep level, consciously and unconsciously. There is a sort of literary tradition of strange tales set in New England and that was the water that I wanted to swim in.<br />
<br />
“I spent much of my life walking the woods, coast and graveyards of Maine - and decorated my home with gravestone rubbings. The setting is really a central character in Hopeless, Maine. Nimue came to visit me there before I moved to marry her, and she was able to see some of the charm and strangeness of the place.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/hopeless-maine-gaming/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="800" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHVRBxv4ccNHMgiwRm8Tq_CU64tHsc5Heqgr_Y4j6Qk3eT8vH9hEdeEsp_v5WpePAXHpV7oxGKffSYfHV4smeRgvUCb4LHnohT4Gy3eZFZg1oIkijDMuD4lYTeC-pxW_nbohSdNahilqDe/s400/hopeless__maine_rpg.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artwork for the forthcoming <i>Hopeless Maine</i> Role-playing Game,<br />
the pencils and coloured stages of production... click image for more info</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You get the H P Lovecraft comparison quite a bit, which I see as a good thing, but I’m feeling resonances with other media too – and you have name-dropped <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2010/10/ab-solutely-fab-ulist-heart-soul-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Clive Barker</span></a>. You are now dabbling in transmedia storytelling with some music and purely prose stories on the way. Who have been your favourite creatives and what have you learnt from them? </span></b><br />
<br />
“I'm glad you mention the music crossover. One of our early fellow travellers has been Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys - one of our favourite bands of all time-ever! I feel that we have sort of evolved together from opposite sides of the Atlantic. Walter has even written and recorded a Hopeless, Maine song - which will have to be part of the soundtrack if there is ever any sort of film treatment of the story. Walter has also done a drawing of Sal which appeared in The Gathering. We take a lot of inspiration from them! Also, Barry Dodd's crew who produced Maine-set web-series <a href="http://www.raggedisle.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Ragged Isle</span></a>. Which has been compared to <i>Twin Peaks</i>.<br />
<br />
“There has been a fair amount of creative DNA swapping between us and mutual support.<br />
<br />
“Hiyao Miyazaki has had a serious impact on us. Also, the folklore of the UK, and folk music in general are very much part of Nimue's creative life - and mine. Finding the Steampunk community has certainly influenced us in all sorts of ways and given us another place where we can be ourselves in community. I could make a nearly endless list of other comics and other sorts of creators we admire. Edward Gorey is probably a grandfather of tradition for us.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>To me it doesn’t seem a far cry from the <i>Little House on the Prairie</i> books – bear with me here – I’m thinking the historical backdrop, and the darker side of things… Their little homestead is beset with troubles and disasters, plagues of locusts, diseases that leave lasting damage… and similarly, it seems there is a sort of real historical backdrop to Hopeless that places it within a sort of American idea of the past.</b></span><br />
<br />
“Absolutely. I have already mentioned my immersion in New England history and culture, and Nimue has read and studied Hawthorne. I wanted to do some sort of thing in that tradition, but updated. Also, as way of looking at human experience in general.<br />
<br />
“Immersion for me, and reading victorian literature for Nimue. We do go poking around into New England folklore still from time to time, just because it's fascinating stuff!”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZk8NL0nwdiaTf_fs1tVfuaoV3F6bQjOCC-EbT165UIEpGDz_tjNiSnhNqvF1ZheMU2kSDHJnneigVOaNYDbggF47hs-iiGrmxucClehws3RCE1jOPmAQruP_xzpZIkuWHO62e-8DB10R/s1600/town_of_hopeless__maine__rpg_spread_by_copperage_dc5xwt9-fullview.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1024" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvZk8NL0nwdiaTf_fs1tVfuaoV3F6bQjOCC-EbT165UIEpGDz_tjNiSnhNqvF1ZheMU2kSDHJnneigVOaNYDbggF47hs-iiGrmxucClehws3RCE1jOPmAQruP_xzpZIkuWHO62e-8DB10R/s400/town_of_hopeless__maine__rpg_spread_by_copperage_dc5xwt9-fullview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome to... Hopeless, Maine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">So, how have your interests in folklore and magic fed into the stories – do you strive to be true to the research, or is it all simply made up? I think I spotted allusions to witch-bottles and witch-balls? But what of the ‘creatures’ and ‘demons’?</span></b><br />
<br />
“Well, we are both Druids, and so, have a wealth of information to borrow from. We have a lot of Wiccan friends and Nimue works for a Pagan publishing house. No shortage of magical thought in our environment! The creatures and demons are largely made up but are the sort of things that we think would be out there in this setting. The sort of things you might see out of the corner of your eye, if you will.<br />
<br />
“Well spotted on the witch balls! I'm just strangely fascinated by bottles for no readily apparent reason."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have a <i>Hopeless Maine</i> bible?</span></b><br />
<br />
“No. Though as there is now a Hopeless, Maine RPG, Travels in Hopeless by Keith Healing. There has been some discussion of whether or not there might need to be something along those lines in the future. This also gives me a chance to talk about the fact that we have opened up the island to other creatives and have a growing creative tribe.<br />
<br />
“On our <a href="https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">website, the <span style="font-size: large;">Hopeless, Vendetta</span></a>, there are regular columns, art and all manner of offerings from people who have come to play in our rather strange playground. Nimue's father Martin Pearson brings us regular <a href="https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/category/hopeless-tales/tales-from-the-squid-and-teapot/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Tales from the Squid and Teapot</span></a> – the Hopeless, Maine “local”, and another series of tales by Keith Errington is soon to be collected into an illustrated prose book that will, hopefully, be the first in a series of such things.<br />
<br />
“There have been stories on the Vendetta which have been inspired by other tales and inventions by other authors on the site, to the point where some of them contain only things that we had no hand in whatsoever!”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEZmyCeU6rPEFuBXZ7S2yie7kbXfDr0vhvx4RM9_fm9q-6qdKjfAhvY897ZHL50_m1kNq3kipHCps7NH-IjGK2PzD8Cn70wEqPUyN2xtRwhgxEvN6CaStV1Qc3VeiaVwulAX6MlPTnHxKp/s1600/damp_drury_by_copperage_dcpkhp2-fullview.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEZmyCeU6rPEFuBXZ7S2yie7kbXfDr0vhvx4RM9_fm9q-6qdKjfAhvY897ZHL50_m1kNq3kipHCps7NH-IjGK2PzD8Cn70wEqPUyN2xtRwhgxEvN6CaStV1Qc3VeiaVwulAX6MlPTnHxKp/s400/damp_drury_by_copperage_dcpkhp2-fullview.jpg" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead dogs don't die...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">How did the visual style come about – is this just what looks cool to you, or is there a conscious Dark Kawaii approach?</span></b><br />
<br />
“I had already drawn all of the first book of Hopeless, Maine, and then I discovered Manga. I knew I needed some of that style in the visual mix. Face stylisation especially, but other elements as well. It was a very conscious decision. Also, <i>Blade of The Immortal</i> was a revelation because it showed that finished comics work could be in pencil.<br />
<br />
“Otherwise, I just sort of wander off on my own, or rather now, we wander on our own, as Nimue has become part of the art team and hand-colours all of the pages and has an equal – at least – part in the visual storytelling decisions. I see new things literally every day that influence current and future art for Hopeless, Maine.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">I’m a hardcore horror aficionado, an old goth, and it really appealed to me, but my 14-year-old daughter also enjoyed the comics – her other favourite comic universe being My Little Pony… Who do you think of as your typical reader whilst you are creating?</span></b><br />
<br />
“People, and others - we like to be inclusive!<br />
<br />
“We're mostly making the sort of thing we would want to read. I think it's dangerous to imagine an audience too clearly. You may end up doing some sort of box-ticker that has no real life of its own that way. We do think of some of our friends while doing certain scenes and put in things that we think will please them, but only if it's fun.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">I feel that the poetic often lies outside words, and I have often found truly poetic moments in films and in music that do not have any dialogue or lyric – but I maintain they derive from a form of writing. In Hopeless Maine, there are definitely poetic moments, but I feel they are not solely in the images or the words… do you know what I’m talking about? I’m on a quest to explore what ‘the poetic’ is and would like to hear any thoughts you have on this.</span></b><br />
<br />
“What an utterly gorgeous comment-question! That is pretty much exactly what we are setting out to achieve. Poetry, is, among other things, a way of getting across something that is more than is, or can be, contained in words. The whole being so much more than the sum of its parts, a distillation of life, dreams, and experience. We are very interested in the numinous, it's the well that we draw from, and if some of that comes though, that is serious success for us.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hopeless-Maine-3-Tom-Brown/dp/1908830166/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="953" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKp8vbmmOvXVgLsz17h-QnmkUC-D_j1dbRE1Y_zEzHCo2XzK-RRMguApMu7zeoJ7N41FFMAkrrTReUZ3QYcMmg7mssBE8x69OTYZmJdy7OO_UcGYIAaf0PsxSc4-QITkRhR3qerAvM6S_k/s400/Victims.jpg" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hopeless Maine</i> Book Three: <i>Victims</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Volume 3, <i>Victims</i> is imminent, so without giving too much away, what else can we expect to come out of <i>Hopeless Maine</i> in the near future? Such as those transmedia spin-offs…</span></b><br />
<br />
“The Hopeless, Maine RPG is now in print. We may do a kickstarter for a deluxe edition this year. The series of illustrated prose, I mentioned above, including two Novellas from Nimue, a Tarot deck is nearly complete. I'm the bottleneck here. Apologies to Laura Perry who has created something really amazing and so very much in the spirit of the setting.<br />
<br />
“Our next Small Strange Book For People - tiny books which can be sent as cards if people desire, will be <a href="https://meredithdebonnaire.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">“How To Find Hopeless, Maine” by <span style="font-size: large;">Meredith Debonnaire</span></a>, which I will decorate with singing snails and similar strangeness.<br />
<br />
“We are hoping that the <i>Hopeless, Maine</i> music scene will continue to grow. It is very likely that there will be a HM themed album from Madeline Harwood next year, which will join <a href="https://music.apple.com/bn/album/utterly-hopeless-ep/760207227" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Utterly Hopeless</span></a> by Johnny Benson, the <i>Hopeless, Maine</i> song from <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.armyoftoys.com/" target="_blank">Walter Sickert and The Army of Broken Toys</a> </span>and the Hopeless, Maine track Professor Elemental wrote and performed. It's on his <a href="https://professorelemental.bandcamp.com/album/nervous-ep" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Nervous</span> EP</a>. The Role Play game continues to grow with scenarios and other extra tentacles. I'm sure there will be more than this. We seem to be in rather a fertile period, just now."<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Tom Brown, for your time and a lovely chat! </span></b></i></div>
<i><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Hopeless, Manie is my kinda place...</span></b></i></div></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;">“Thank you! This has been rather a lot of fun!”</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Tom Brown</b> was talking to <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></b></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can...</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://hopelessvendetta.wordpress.com/buy-the-books-and-things/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Hopeless Maine</span></a></i> is published by <a href="http://www.slothcomics.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Sloth Comics</span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
You may also like:<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2018/07/from-wigan-to-grandville-interview-with.html" target="_blank"><b>Bryan Talbot </b>From Wigan to Grandville</a> <strong style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">+ </span></strong> <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2014/06/theres-no-stopping-thomas-e-sniegoski.html">There's No Stopping <b>Thomas E Sniegoski</b>...</a></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-51912951691129924582019-03-06T23:18:00.000-08:002019-03-08T13:50:51.033-08:00Heather Dyer - Brought to Book<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Heather Dyer is an award-winning writer and academic whose books for children have been adapted for BBC Radio and are now studied in schools. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund and has designed and led courses for Aberystwyth University, Bristol University and the University of Worcester. Her area of interest is the psychology of creativity and how this can be understood and applied to art, writing, education and life in general. She has recently been involved with delivering workshops as part of the Arts Council of Wales Lead Creative Schools scheme. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Here she talks to <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> for <i>The Scrawl</i> about writing for children, letting go of our preconceptions, revealing truths and making new connections…</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQk2uF2YbfBEFK2kiM_7qjul-z9wu1L7YhN6YUORRC8VbnK6yFCUH9nlbuc6zND71xzL6N8aWLiJ6q5SSXPSKkQ2FkyWBlD8VID1SOTx0CckQyXlufdyRIi4wz9ZFU-lJ1UAY5uC4jDtC/s1600/HeatherDyer1_C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1415" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQk2uF2YbfBEFK2kiM_7qjul-z9wu1L7YhN6YUORRC8VbnK6yFCUH9nlbuc6zND71xzL6N8aWLiJ6q5SSXPSKkQ2FkyWBlD8VID1SOTx0CckQyXlufdyRIi4wz9ZFU-lJ1UAY5uC4jDtC/s320/HeatherDyer1_C.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heather Dyer<br />
(<i>author photo by Kona Mcphee</i>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Having recently read and enjoyed <i>The Girl with the Broken Wing</i>, I was wondering what you might have been reading when you were the age of your intended readers?</span></b><br />
<br />
That’s nice to hear! I loved books that took characters from their real world into a magical world via a door in a garden wall, or a magic wardrobe, or a chair that flew. I wanted to escape along with them. So, I loved writers like C S Lewis, E Nesbit, Enid Blyton – and I loved <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ogre-Downstairs-Diana-Wynne-Jones-ebook/dp/B00NENXNGS/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Ogre Downstairs</span></a> </i>by Diana Wynne Jones.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your earliest memory of reading a book that really wrapped you up and carried you off into its world?</span></b><br />
<br />
Once you start remembering, more memories surface, don’t they?<br />
<br />
I remember being taken to ballet lessons when I was about five, hating it, and noticing an open picture book that had fallen down behind some chairs. I longed for it, but I wasn’t allowed to pick it up for some reason. The lesson was probably starting. I remember being read to at school at the end of the day,<br />
<br />
...and I remember sitting alone, reading <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Five-Children-Virago-Modern-Classics/dp/034900935X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Five Children and It</span></a> </i>when I was seven or eight, and laughing out loud. My laugh shocked me out of the story and I started flicking through the pages, marvelling that all those words had been put down in a certain order, and that they could take me somewhere else and make me forget where I really was.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinshyphenhyphenG_fUkI3mNXG2MZFg9EoXTXBt75HVIWksicu8Chyphenhyphena8fFmMKgn4Trz2jf_v5KsInU94GO5YGWDrxht9jQucfRIoLMncwGm-HLy3JZMkwj29BNt-oKWmDcQsu-1QX2qVLQ1sZiTkZZb0/s1600/girl+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1300" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinshyphenhyphenG_fUkI3mNXG2MZFg9EoXTXBt75HVIWksicu8Chyphenhyphena8fFmMKgn4Trz2jf_v5KsInU94GO5YGWDrxht9jQucfRIoLMncwGm-HLy3JZMkwj29BNt-oKWmDcQsu-1QX2qVLQ1sZiTkZZb0/s400/girl+cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Fish in Room 11</i> and <i>The Girl with the Broken Wing</i> by Heather Dyer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fish-Room-11-2018-reissue/dp/1911490400/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Fish in Room 11</span></a></i><b> won the Highland Council Children’s Book Award in 2004, then </b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Girl-Broken-Wing-2017-reissue/dp/1911490249/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Girl With the Broken Wing</a></span></i><b> was listed as one of 'Richard and Judy's Best Children's Books Ever' in 2007 – quite an accolade! How has this affected your attitude to writing and your follow-up books for children?</b></span><br />
<br />
I don’t know if I can blame it on publication, but I developed a long writer’s block after <i>The Girl with the Broken Wing</i>, which lasted years. I wrote every day but found I could no longer intuit a storyline that held together. I couldn’t understand it – neither could my publisher.<br />
<br />
I began reading about creativity and practicing mindfulness, and that was the start of my research into the psychology of creativity. My creativity returned only when I’d surrendered all ambition, and the children’s book I’m writing now has a different theme to my previous books. It’s a time travel adventure.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>So, you have been researching the psychology of creativity for some time now and are a consultant fellow for the </b><a href="https://www.rlf.org.uk/fellowships/heather-dyer/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Royal Literary Fund</span></a><b>, and also teach courses you have designed for both academic writing and creative writing for several universities, including the well-respected Living Creatively course at Aberystwyth University… </b></span><br />
<br />
My doctoral research was about the links between the creative process and mindful awareness. In both, there’s a moment where the ‘self’ is lost or forgotten. It’s as though our egoic self - or conditioned thinking - must momentarily stop in order to allow new insights to appear and growth to happen.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">How do you go about teaching that?</span></b><br />
<br />
In my workshops, I help people generate creative insights by giving them activities that allow them to step outside of what they already know and let go of what they’re attached to. I help them tap into their unconscious and make new connections.<br />
<br />
I believe that mindfulness and meditation helps by allowing us to step outside of our conditioned thinking, and gain new insights.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Was there a time when you ‘woke up’ to being a writer? </span></b><br />
<br />
Even now, it feels a bit uncomfortable to say ‘I’m a writer’. I’m not sure what it means, really. Are you only a writer if you’re writing a book that’s going to be published? If so, saying ‘I’m a writer’ feels like tempting fate, because the book I’m writing now may never get published.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Having lived in Scotland, Wales and Canada, how much would say your environment affects your creative writing, and in what ways?</span></b><br />
<br />
I always draw on places I’ve been for locations in my books, so Wales features quite a bit – directly or indirectly.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have any kind of ‘tried-and-tested’ writing ritual or regimen?</span></b><br />
<br />
I just try to put in an hour in the morning, before all my other jobs. It’s always hard. But I find by doing a little bit each morning, ideas keep surfacing in bits of downtime throughout the rest of the day. It’s about keeping it near.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Is there a favourite tipple or treat when writing?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’m trying ‘mate’ teabags at the moment. Mate is drunk a lot in South America, I believe, and it’s supposed to be a healthier alternative to coffee. It’s like strong green tea.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Where do you do most of your writing?</span></b><br />
<br />
I write at an awful desk that’s just a folding table…<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you describe what you can see from there?</span></b><br />
<br />
I have a view that looks out over the oil tank in my backyard. In the other direction I have uninterrupted views of the mountains. But when writing, the view doesn’t seem matter, you only need to see the landscape of the story. It is nice to look up now and then and see a long view, though, to rest the eyes and the mind. I think the transition from narrow to wide focus helps creative insights happen.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What, if any, do you think are the duties or responsibilities of a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
To try and reveal truths? Or perhaps more accurately, to try and feel the ‘truth’ sentence by sentence and allow it to reveal itself to you.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Regardless of the genre in which you working - for children, poetry, academic, etc. are there any basic ‘rules’ that you feel always seem to apply?</span></b><br />
<br />
Being truthful and accurate. Sidestepping one’s own ego.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Heather Dyer!</span></b></i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-City-Heather-Dyer/dp/1771382031/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="338" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjahB-Yc5pORMV3ngdAIApzL41aIy4dc9OLSAju0115HMbvUYeKl-N1CJeq4B11YoqMcKHNuhyphenhyphenFQGQS6c5ezr9nzIoRJjDFadeF1S1WuaCgAfoQ8OugSYHXDqBedydQL-cmICpVKUOKaGf0/s320/magic+cover.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Magic in the City</i> by Heather Dyer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><b>Heather Dyer</b> was talking with <b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></span></b></i><br />
<br />
You may also like:<br />
<a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2016/08/real-wild-child-interview-with.html" target="_blank"><b>Abi Elphinstone</b>, Real Wild Child</a> <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>+</b></span> <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2016/08/angie-sage-magnificent-seven.html" target="_blank"><b>Angie Sage</b> & The Magnificent Seven</a></div>
</div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-2606418963090461662018-11-04T15:31:00.000-08:002018-11-05T00:25:40.084-08:00Candid Schott - Ben Schott is Brought to Book<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Ben Schott</b> is a man of many talents – he is a brand strategist, public speaker, photographer, journalist and author. He created a range of quirky, informative reference books (the first, Schott’s Original Miscellany, was published in 2002) that were an immediate success, and became bestsellers translated into 21 languages.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Jeeves and The King of Clubs</i> is his first novel, in homage to his literary hero the late, great P G Wodehouse. It is a fresh tale of Jeeves and Wooster which involves - among other things - the secret corridors of Whitehall, espionage and what really goes on behind the closed doors of St James’s Clubs. It is fully approved by the Wodehouse Estate. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Kim Vertue </b>asks Ben Schott some questions for <i>The Scrawl</i>... </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNmgif3A-EiX20FmVDpdcWyrzf0r72_IGpgI5PTDO80SkStLDiFML6QHdF1cFrzMJHV6rxmewCGcUwAW64V3H84dh7GeFoBVB6ZFm9xisH5vEkUMZ9_n1T5d1-f_VJFxjl0680kRviZ6V/s1600/ben+schott.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="483" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXNmgif3A-EiX20FmVDpdcWyrzf0r72_IGpgI5PTDO80SkStLDiFML6QHdF1cFrzMJHV6rxmewCGcUwAW64V3H84dh7GeFoBVB6ZFm9xisH5vEkUMZ9_n1T5d1-f_VJFxjl0680kRviZ6V/s320/ben+schott.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben Schott<br />
(<i>author photo courtesy Hutchinson</i>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #38761d;">In the acknowledgements for your book, you describe what it was like to be given your first Wodehouse book, and the lasting impression it left. What was the first book you remember that really ‘hooked’ you, transported you, as a child? </b><br />
<br />
Almost certainly something by Roald Dahl, and quite probably <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charlie-Chocolate-Factory-Dahl-Fiction/dp/0141365374/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</a></span></i>. I remain dazzled by Dahl’s ability to write like an adult for children, and to create so many diversely fantastical worlds that, decades later, remain fresh and vivid and real.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did your decision to write fiction, after your success with the non-fiction Schott’s Almanacs, arise mainly from your admiration for P G Wodehouse? I note that y</span></b><b><span style="color: #38761d;">our comments are quoted on some of the reprints of his books... </span></b><br />
<br />
I approached <i>Jeeves and The King of Clubs</i> not with a grand, personal vision, but as a deadly serious frivolity. My aim was to create a fabulous, literary 'Heath Robinson machine' – deploying all of the pulleys, levers, gears, cranks, and lengths of knotted rope offered by the Woodhouse oeuvre to create the finest, funniest, and most charming Jeeves and Wooster novel possible. In this endeavour, I was aided immeasurably by fifteen years of researching and writing Miscellanies, which goes to explain why there are a dozen pages of endnotes at the back of the novel. You can’t keep a Miscellanist down!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Which is your favourite P G Wodehouse book?</b></span><br />
<br />
Ah… well, this is like being asked to pick a favourite nephew – especially in the Jeeves & Wooster cannon. Outside of that milieu, probably <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Psmith-City-Serapis-Classics-Wodehouse-ebook/dp/B076HQCD3F/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Psmith in the City</a></span></i>, or one of the many golfing stories. Plum nails the irrepressible optimism (and baffled disappointment) of all duffer golfers, of which I am one.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Who are the authors - other than P G Wodehouse - that have inspired you, and what have you learned from them?</span></b><br />
<br />
Where to begin?<br />
<br />
I love the detail and structure of Virginia Woolf; the profane absurdism of Tom Sharp; the comic complexity of John Finnemore; the linguistic acrobatics of Tom Stoppard; the dark farce of Evelyn Waugh; the languid calm of Anthony Powell; the ear for dialogue of Victoria Wood (and Alan Bennett); and, well, I could go on. Indeed, there’s a scene in <i>Jeeves & The King of Clubs</i> inspired by Edward Gorey’s <i>The Curious Sofa</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">As a photographer, do you use visuals to inspire your writing process?</span></b><br />
<br />
When planning <i>Jeeves & The King of Clubs</i> I did create a complex, multi-coloured fold-out schematic of the plot – detailing what would take place at every point of every day during the week in which the action occurs. Also, I doodle quite a bit when thinking.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeeves-King-Clubs-Ben-Schott/dp/1786331438/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="619" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFEDFc3qc-hkTFkk4e5qkLPtAveoQ-AIMoHCPJHjdU2UcRKeK7p9t0zVHvBQ1MPhYDRiPXzS5IsSzInszwvlt4hrwJGOlSFaaCUwu7z9s4vd5459j0tbWEHP8M5Sbdq7nm40YJVYjrCT_d/s320/jeeves+%25282%2529.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Jeeves & the King of Clubs</i><br />
by Ben Schott</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a favourite treat or tipple while writing is under way? Perhaps a Jeeves restorative cocktail - just for research purposes? </b></span><br />
<br />
Coffee. Coffee. And, coffee. Did I mention coffee?<br />
<br />
Also, when words are flowing, Champagne. And when words get sticky, Champagne.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your writing ritual and regimen? Do you have a daily routine, are you a ‘panster’ or ‘plotter’? Do you write by hand or by smartphone, etc? </span></b><br />
<br />
I tend to do my best writing in bed - with coffee - before the day has started. The lion's share of writing is done on a laptop, but I hand-write scenes I find particularly tricky. I use my phone to jot down ideas, words, or phrases when I am out and about, and something even dictate short passages as a voicemail to myself. I set myself no word-count targets, and am deeply suspicious of the 'daily routines of famous authors' infographics that populate the web.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What manner of research did you undertake for this homage to the late, great P G Wodehouse?</span></b><br />
<br />
The central seam of my research was into the language of the period. I pored over dictionaries of historical slang, and trawled through the <i>Oxford English Dictionary</i> for words and phrases that captured the cadence and rhythm of the 1910s, ’20s, and early ’30s.<br />
<br />
They key to Wodehouse, I believe, lies in the choice of every single word, and my aim was to evoke each character’s unique vocabulary and tone. There is, for example, a world of difference between Jeeves saying “Sir.” and “Sir?” – and when he utters an “Indeed, sir?” the floorboards should tremble a little. I also delved deep into the history of London’s Clubland, private banking, bespoke tailoring, auction houses, and transient gambling establishments. All feature in the book.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What message do you think the life, times and books of P G Wodehouse have for today? </b></span><br />
<br />
What the world needs now, is laughs, sweet laughs … to coin a lyric.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>P G Wodehouse was given the Mark Twain Prize in 1936 ‘for having made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the happiness of the world’ – do you think the world needs more happiness in these exciting times? As someone who gives inspirational talks for business, can you offer us any reasons to be cheerful over the next few years?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m not sure anyone who has heard me speak would describe my presentations as “inspirational”, and I can think of few reasons to be cheerful now or in the near future. All the more reason, then, to escape at speed into the sunlit uplands of Wodehouse and Wooster.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What are your writing plans and ambitions for the future?</b></span><br />
<br />
Plans? Ambitions? Oh, dear me no.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Mr Ben Schott!</span></i></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;">For more Ben Schott news, updates and info check-out his </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://www.benschott.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Official Website</span></a></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeeves-King-Clubs-Ben-Schott/dp/1786331438/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Jeeves and the King of Clubs: An homage to PG Wodehouse </a></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeeves-King-Clubs-Ben-Schott/dp/1786331438/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">by <span style="font-size: large;">Ben Schott </span>is out now (Hutchinson, £16.99)</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">click <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jeeves-King-Clubs-Ben-Schott/dp/1786331438/scrawlmagazine" style="font-size: x-large;" target="_blank">HERE </a>to preview / purchase</span></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-65115670421131430032018-10-11T00:43:00.003-07:002020-09-29T03:36:06.440-07:00History, Hearsay and Heresy – an interview with Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Folklore Thursday</b> has become a weekly highlight for well over 30,000 'followers' around the world. The twitter feed regularly breaks the internet - well not literally, but it does often hit the limit of 2,400 tweets per day, that is roughly a speed of 100 tweets per-hour… </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;">It all started back in 2015 and within a year it became one of the fastest growing hashtags, attracting the attention of the national press with articles in <i>The Independent</i> and on the BBC… It is a social media success story built on love, not money, by a small group of friends dedicated to the gathering, sharing and preserving of folklore from around the world. The <i>Folklore Thursday</i> webzine has grown into the hub of a global community and whilst its content may be great fun to browse, it has also become and invaluable repository of folklore wit and wisdom…</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;">So, what is folklore and why are we still fascinating with it in our modern high-tech world? The stories we want to see and hear again and again, in best-selling novels and blockbuster movies, more often than not, have their roots in the traditional age-old tales re-told down the generations. Knowingly or inadvertently, most horror and fantasy writers are drawing upon folklore. Folklore begins as a way of preserving ideas and knowledge but, a little like Chinese whispers, often gets weirder and more interesting through the ages.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG0lBMUKHNi81hCNk1QKxeq0kV2wlG8ix5MsSPS4baQScQDajd1MD7_kI865NSd3Aaz8j8ZvuY4fKLjJZ1LQfz06cpTsm_8FE7w1CJSDJ2sOGGwHiwukZhQ7iynymlmY2ZrcWP_MsEqDu/s1600/deedeechainey_300dpi_bw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1382" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqG0lBMUKHNi81hCNk1QKxeq0kV2wlG8ix5MsSPS4baQScQDajd1MD7_kI865NSd3Aaz8j8ZvuY4fKLjJZ1LQfz06cpTsm_8FE7w1CJSDJ2sOGGwHiwukZhQ7iynymlmY2ZrcWP_MsEqDu/s320/deedeechainey_300dpi_bw.jpg" width="259" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRW2Em0iaTtYsAFC70X_JUFmqLMmN_RU1qiFemmhe_GaWLPntBQmgePQPfQE2iUnny2r27XPHh5aKy2WVWaiQmJRYkFvV0rbw0-uT3ub0TPeR7gCcMPGDFvqFxBtE9DLFGaeh69oiuy7I5/s1600/JqFhmJlY.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="405" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRW2Em0iaTtYsAFC70X_JUFmqLMmN_RU1qiFemmhe_GaWLPntBQmgePQPfQE2iUnny2r27XPHh5aKy2WVWaiQmJRYkFvV0rbw0-uT3ub0TPeR7gCcMPGDFvqFxBtE9DLFGaeh69oiuy7I5/s320/JqFhmJlY.jpg" width="237" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;">In this extended Brought to Book special for <i>The Scrawl</i>, <a href="https://folklorethursday.com/author/remy/#sthash.eciTCORZ.IUcSZ82O.dpbs" target="_blank"><b>Remy Dean</b></a>, an occasional contributor to the <i>Folklore Thursday</i> webzine himself, talks to its co-founders, Dee Dee Chainey (above left) and Willow Winsham (right), both popular writers with academic backgrounds and an evident enduring enthusiasm for folklore…</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Dee Dee is the author of </span><i style="color: #38761d;">A Treasury of British Folklore: Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe</i><span style="color: #38761d;">, which was published by National Trust Books earlier this year, and Willow’s second book on the history of witches, </span><i style="color: #38761d;">England's Witchcraft Trials</i><span style="color: #38761d;">, is out now in paperback.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>REMY: Hello Dee Dee and Willow! Can you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about your backgrounds?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">DEE DEE:</span></b> Hi, great to talk to you today, I’m co-founder of the Twitter hashtag day, <a href="https://twitter.com/FolkloreThurs" target="_blank">#FolkloreThursday</a>, and the associated website, which we like to call an online magazine. I’m also a writer, mostly working on folklore projects.<br />
<br />
Before my work in writing and folklore, I was actually a heritage education manager, working in schools, and also with charities and museums. One of my favourite projects was working with the Liverpool International Nordic Community, a local cultural heritage initiative which involved promoting Scandinavian heritage within Liverpool schools and the wider community, since a huge number of people from all over Scandinavia settled in the region as it was a port, and there’s a long history of Viking links too. The other was as outdoor education manager for a forest school – it was a lovely place, based on the Scandinavian nursery model, so we spent most of our days outside in the forest garden and woodlands looking at all kinds of heritage: tangible, cultural and natural. A good few years ago now, I injured my knee while walking and ended up with a long-term injury, which meant I couldn’t do any active, outdoor work for around two years. All things have an upside though, as this is what led me to refocus on writing – things usually work out in the end!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW</b>:</span> Writing-wise, I’ve been scribbling down stories and things that caught my interest since I can remember; my first epic written at the age of five charting the adventures of Cat and Dog has been lost to time, which is probably for the best!<br />
<br />
Later on, due to some really inspiring history teachers at school, I developed a passion for the subject, but never saw it as more than a hobby, despite taking two history courses at college. I was all set to start a Social Work degree but had a change of heart at the last moment – I took a year out to travel, then enrolled on a history degree programme and, academically, never looked back.<br />
<br />
After uni, I worked with adults and children with autism and other special needs, but continued to write and research in my 'spare-time'. After leaving work when my daughter was born, I realized writing was what I really wanted to do, and have spent the best part of the last decade slowly but surely making that a reality!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">REMY: What were the first books you can remember reading that really grabbed you and carried you along?</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">DEE DEE:</span></b> I’d have to say a group of books: the Ladybird series of fairy tales. I remember reading those, and having them read to me, when I was really small. Two of my favourites were <i>The Tinder Box</i> and <i>The Little Mermaid</i>. I was fascinated by the hidden rooms under the tree in the first, and the ‘Daughters of Air’ in the latter. Strange, the things that grab you as a child and stay with you!<br />
<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKGA5eDj_6J91kGPmI5J3YMAHIWpdyUVvRCxFpxqXxZPonBr_Mhw4RE9Ejq89NoS0GT9CHZzt2lGZJdaZ-PnseU6d5oB-df48Lq2dyxKh3wIISbDgVNIjvP5mmbZm_Y2WHhHu8Sdbtyny/s1600/th+%25281%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="474" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDKGA5eDj_6J91kGPmI5J3YMAHIWpdyUVvRCxFpxqXxZPonBr_Mhw4RE9Ejq89NoS0GT9CHZzt2lGZJdaZ-PnseU6d5oB-df48Lq2dyxKh3wIISbDgVNIjvP5mmbZm_Y2WHhHu8Sdbtyny/s200/th+%25281%2529.jpeg" width="133" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERrMuXx_SozE1gRi6TEOISwl7xsNnEGmVZjqvv1nFzVncepCtMxROvgd0zc_LAwBHN7AiQt93M8icx3jHTLarkZcTqMpA01Mj7lWEmbkP533IyoKZubxjrUSQCLhsPlDfZtdRogAK4O_o/s1600/th.jpeg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="474" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjERrMuXx_SozE1gRi6TEOISwl7xsNnEGmVZjqvv1nFzVncepCtMxROvgd0zc_LAwBHN7AiQt93M8icx3jHTLarkZcTqMpA01Mj7lWEmbkP533IyoKZubxjrUSQCLhsPlDfZtdRogAK4O_o/s200/th.jpeg" width="132" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8SaGq2fe9FDKqBaNHIV4scX5hYZnQbM8u-67_zZ4nK44YYAtfSQWAaMAeFsezLwBW-V3abYCZLQvvmuFsOcACIdkvWk_ysD72va-Nm-MNnNqyWEvnfImlD7dcg3or0wNm-Rip1bvpyso2/s1600/sleeping-beauty-a-vintage-ladybird-book-fairy-tales-rhymes-series-413-dust-cover-1954-7314-p.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8SaGq2fe9FDKqBaNHIV4scX5hYZnQbM8u-67_zZ4nK44YYAtfSQWAaMAeFsezLwBW-V3abYCZLQvvmuFsOcACIdkvWk_ysD72va-Nm-MNnNqyWEvnfImlD7dcg3or0wNm-Rip1bvpyso2/s200/sleeping-beauty-a-vintage-ladybird-book-fairy-tales-rhymes-series-413-dust-cover-1954-7314-p.jpg" width="131" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6TeQSyXeZsvVJpwJRMxEKVkERf_JJhpHKxq0rin5IRkTGglhVyi9O7e5VL3CHuX9QiMl19vbXBNU0DKFn5-NZSTePzM_sEBXjkMdc-Qi4Q48ZA45qxQFfAvyeouSUTlWL12esodwpinZ/s1600/a05917ec729d1ef13fcb31f1daf25d52--tales-series-book-series.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="520" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6TeQSyXeZsvVJpwJRMxEKVkERf_JJhpHKxq0rin5IRkTGglhVyi9O7e5VL3CHuX9QiMl19vbXBNU0DKFn5-NZSTePzM_sEBXjkMdc-Qi4Q48ZA45qxQFfAvyeouSUTlWL12esodwpinZ/s200/a05917ec729d1ef13fcb31f1daf25d52--tales-series-book-series.jpg" width="130" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">WILLOW:</span></b> My first favourite reads as a child were the Ladybird fairy tale books, too! <i>Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood</i>... I had them read to me, over and over, and continued to read them when I could do so myself. The illustrations have stuck with me for years, and I’ve managed to track down some of the same editions to share with my own children.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">REMY: Do you have an all-time favourite book, or one that you have re-read a few times?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW:</b></span> Now that is a hard one! If I had to pick just one, it would probably have to be <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Scholastic-Classics-Louisa-Alcott/dp/1407145436/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Little Women</a></span></i> by Louisa May Alcott. It’s the book I’ve read most out of any, and I’ve come back to it over and over again throughout the years. It’s my reading equivalent of comfort food! The message I took from it as a child was that girls and women should strive to be and do whatever they want and shouldn’t be held back by expectations – later on, discovering a little more of the struggles the author faced throughout her life, that central message became all the more poignant, and one I never forgot. I’m Looking forward to my daughter reading it when she’s ready, and the boys too!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> Yes, a really difficult one! A few that I’ve read as an adult come to mind, but I’d be hard pushed to choose just one, since they’re all so different. I seem to keep buying copies of <span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dolmens-Dead-Megalith-Building-Throughout/dp/0713453699/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>Dolmens for the Dead</i>,</a></span> and I think Lefebvre’s <span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Production-Space-Henri-Lefebvre/dp/0631181776/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Production of Space</a></i> </span>is just incredible; I also love <span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Dark-Materials-including-Northern/dp/1841593427/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">His Dark Materials</a></span> by Philip Pullman, Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, and Dodie Smith’s <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Capture-Castle-Vintage-Classics/dp/0099460874/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">I Capture the Castle</a></span></i>...<br />
<br />
My favourite as a child was <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blyton-Magic-Faraway-Collection-Enchanted/dp/0603573630/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Faraway Tree</a></span></i> by Enid Blyton – I was just entranced by the idea that you could pop your head up at the top of the tree and be in a different land each time. I think I’ve probably carried that idea with me through life, and maybe taken it a little too far – I’ve lived in so many places, and travelled around for such long periods, it does seem a little like living up at the top of the Faraway Tree sometimes! I think books do really change your way of thinking, and can really define so many things about a person and their life. You can learn so much about someone – their dreams and fears – from the books they read.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>REMY: What recent books have you read and thoroughly enjoyed?</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> That’s also <i>really</i> difficult! I tend to read different types of books at once, at different times of day. One I’ve just finished – my evening and weekend reading – was Melissa Harrison’s <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Among-Barley-Melissa-Harrison/dp/1408897997/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">All Among the Barley</a></span></i>, a novel set in Suffolk, just before the Second World War. It’s a tale of how a rural community deals with changing times, the gradual disappearance of traditional culture, and how folk culture can be appropriated by certain unsavoury ideologies. Really brilliant stuff. My morning reading is currently Shanon Sinn’s <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haunting-Vancouver-Island-Shanon-Sinn-ebook/dp/B074T4JGXW/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Haunting of Vancouver Island</a></span></i>. It’s a series of ghost stories, written from a research angle and looking at the historical perspective, but the thing I like most about it is how it gives an insight into such different landscapes and cultures from those in Britain, from First Nations history to the colonisation of British Columbia. It’s also surprisingly spiritual.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">WILLOW:</span></b> I’ve recently finished two books. The first was <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swansong-Kerry-Andrew/dp/1911214225/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Swansong</a></span> </i>by Kerry Andrew. It follows a young woman, Polly, who is attempting to escape her demons by taking a trip to the highlands of Scotland. What she doesn’t count on however is becoming entangled in a web of myth, folklore and legend in an increasingly terrifying chain of events that unfolds around her. I won’t spoil the ending, but you won’t be disappointed – my only complaint is I lost a lot of sleep as I couldn’t bring myself to put it down several nights in a row!<br />
<br />
On the non-fiction front was <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghosts-Wales-Mark-Rees/dp/075098418X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span>Ghosts of Wales</span></a></i> by Mark Rees. It is a superb look at tales of ghosts and haunting from the Victorian archives, and Mark’s depth of research and knowledge, along with his passion for the subject, really shines through. Definitely one for anyone with an interest in things that go bump in the night!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>REMY: Who have been your favourite authors, and what have you learnt from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> I love fantasy authors like Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, but also Terry Pratchett – mostly for the magic in their writing, but also their skill with making the language twist and turn in such clever ways. My favourite non-fiction author has to be Aubrey Burl, as he delves into the world of archaeology, something which can be really dry if done badly, and he keeps it all so factual and sensible while still imbuing the world with such magic. So timeless.<br />
<br />
In terms of what I’ve learnt from them, I’d say for sure that even facts can have feeling, and need to be put in a social, personal and emotional framework – that’s the only thing that makes writing unique. And to never be afraid to put yourself in your writing – to bend the rules and try new ways of doing things – that’s the only way to find your authentic voice and say something that matters.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW: </b></span>Another tough one to call, but Enid Blyton definitely has to be on the list; I devoured many of her books as a child, and I think those instilled a love for adventure and the magical in writing – along with the importance of a good midnight feast!<br />
<br />
More recently, Ben Aaronovitch is a firm favourite – as well as writing a cracking series filled with folkloric references, he is a master at peppering seemingly innocuous clues throughout his work that then turn out to be major plot points later on.<br />
<br />
</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKofVuQypCE6uehyncnTMYJx3F4fgNFuSvCsgRKrVYC6K8yoUtzMcXSuBXnqaU2jHQPiIjfhl2CjuavveWfD8vVrV5jjufMQGKNflhMDnz88EBU2e9YjEx5b_Be2sH6Rr5c16sLNYEdyO/s1600/91vQK2fsv2L.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1220" data-original-width="816" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyKofVuQypCE6uehyncnTMYJx3F4fgNFuSvCsgRKrVYC6K8yoUtzMcXSuBXnqaU2jHQPiIjfhl2CjuavveWfD8vVrV5jjufMQGKNflhMDnz88EBU2e9YjEx5b_Be2sH6Rr5c16sLNYEdyO/s400/91vQK2fsv2L.jpg" width="267" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Green Man illustration by Joe McLaren <br />
from <i>A Treasury of British Folklore </i><br />
by Dee Dee Chainey</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">REMY: Do you have writing rituals, or a tried and tested process?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> I write every day since it’s my day job, but I think the thing I’d have to say is constantly reminding myself that 70% of writing is in the editing, so the first draft doesn’t need to be perfect. If you aim for perfection your writing is always stilted, and often never finished.<br />
<br />
I tend to write things twice: a dry, factual version just to get down my ideas and the bits and pieces that need to go in – but always read your sources first, and then write; you can check the facts later. This way your writing is more natural, and you emphasise the bits that stuck with you, rather than merely rewriting your sources bit by bit!<br />
<br />
Then I go back and rewrite it in a more ‘human’ way, and try to add-in how I really feel about the topic, which I hope brings a little more emotion and magic to my writing – I think it’s important to always try to write with honesty and passion. Who wants to read something that doesn’t really say anything about the world, or why your topic is worth writing or reading about?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW:</b></span> One thing I have learned over the years is that waiting for the “right” moment to write really doesn’t work for me! Especially since becoming a mother I’ve really had to hone the ability to snatch any little moment that presents itself, for instance, while my toddler naps, and my big two are doing their maths work. I’ll often email ideas or rough paragraphs to myself on my phone when on the bus or the kids are at a class. I’m a firm believer in the throw words at the page approach. If you have something down – anything – you have something to work with and mould and tidy later. There is nothing more daunting than the blank page!<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #38761d;">REMY: What motivates you to write?</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW:</b></span> It sounds utterly cliched but it’s true – I don’t think I could <i>not</i> write? If I had no way of recording them, I would just write the words in my head! Some people knit, or make cards, or paint – my creative outlet is - crafting words - which is lucky really, because I am utterly terrible at making anything with my hands!<br />
<br />
There are days, obviously, when it’s harder to get those words down on the page than others. At those times, the satisfaction of seeing a piece of writing grow and take shape as it edges towards completion spurs me on – being able to fashion the words into something that is meaningful and enjoyable to other people is a lovely motivation when things are tough.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">DEE DEE:</span></b> Hmm, difficult! I’m one of those people who is always thinking a million things at once, I often say I have 8 different thought tracks running in my head at once (although I’ll admit at least track 8 is gibberish!) I tend to constantly analyse things, and make connections, while also thinking about some sort of myth or strange place I read about, with a whole track dedicated to cake and what I’m having for dinner. I’ve always told myself stories as I‘m walking, or even pottering round the house, whether it’s about the landscape I’m in, or just watching ideas lead on to the next like tree branches. It’s probably just a natural thing to put those down on paper, to capture them, and also to take some of the things out of my head – once I’ve written them down I can file them away to be used later and then forget about them. I actually have tens of Trello boards with different themes for snippets and ideas that I come across. It’s a great way of mapping the ideas, and physically dragging them round to make different patterns and connections. I used to use post-it notes, but I can’t always read my own handwriting! Did that even answer the question? I’ve probably jumped from track three to six without realising – it tends to happen a lot!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">REMY: What are you working on at the moment?</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> Are we letting the cat out of the bag yet Willow? I’m assuming we’re not! What I can say is that we’re working on a project together at the moment, and we’re very excited about it, so watch this space!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>WILLOW:</b></span> As Dee says, we’re keeping quiet on our joint endeavour for a while longer!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span> I’m also putting something together myself about folklore and landscape. Again, it’s too early to say too much, but it’s something I’ve wanted to write about for a long time, and I’m finally getting round to it!<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #38761d;">REMY: Can you tell us about your involvement with <i>Folklore Thursday</i> and how that came about?</b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DEE DEE:</b></span><span style="color: black;"> I think it probably came about from Willow and I spending too much time thinking about folklore in all honesty! We were on Twitter, joking about running off to the Efteling fairy tale theme park. That got us thinking about how, while there were quite a few existing hashtags to share general tales and writing, there was no central place to share or find out about folklore. We just decided to create that place, as we knew a lot of people on Twitter were already passionate about it. We were surprised how much it took off, but pleased, obviously!</span></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">WILLOW: </span></b>Founding #FolkloreThursday with Dee Dee was one of those happy accidents that you look back on years later and can’t imagine things being any different. As she’s already explained, the idea came about from an initial conversation, and since then the project has developed and thrived in a quite thrilling fashion. It still amazes me daily how many people take part and the huge show of enthusiasm and support the hashtag has received over the last three years – we are looking forward to hopefully many more to come!<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">DEE DEE CHAINEY AND THE LORE OF THE LAND…</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>You have written <i>A Treasury of British Folklore: Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe </i>for the National Trust – how did that come about?</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
I did! They actually emailed me, and asked if I knew anyone that might like to write it. I replied with: I would! Luckily, they didn’t see that as too churlish, and seemed quite happy with the idea, so the project went from there.<br />
<br />
</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Treasury-British-Folklore-Mandrakes-Mistletoe/dp/1911358391/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1061" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSG7dtFiVMBavItDUBU9xex0ovdcVafaF_qpPvH46EU2HBl4nHIdYuGR4EYNOqTUfXakrNKlzPiQb9aXyRJW8UxuY4pM7jyOswxw5WUnlnigMwf7NJ9NuMiXcXc25tZzsy4LHe6cD_v7Cn/s400/cover.png" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>A Treasury of British Folklore</i> by Dee Dee Cainey<br />
(click image for preview or to purchase)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b>Why do you think people are so interested in folklore? …and becoming more interested, it seems!</b><br />
<br />
I think folklore really taps in to something primal in all of us. We are often told stories from when we’re tiny, so I think hearing folk and fairy tales can be quite comforting in one sense. I also think the symbolism and tales really tap in to something that we all share, and teach us the social norms of our own cultures and humanity as a whole – it’s a way of learning the do’s and don’ts of life, and we all like a bit of drama with that!<br />
<br />
There are also many other types of folklore too, like foodways and crafts, and I think people still love those. Often recipes are something that are passed through families, or are specific to a region or town. Because of that they really tie us to other people, and even bring back memories of ‘our gran’s pies’, or ‘granddad’s stew’, and when we cook them for ourselves it’s an opportunity to share that cooking with other people, and then share the food we’ve prepared (my favourite bit!) In essence, I think folklore gives us a sense of belonging: to a community, both local and global, but also a sense of place – it locates us in the world, and helps us negotiate our identity, as well as giving a sense of how to navigate the world.<br />
<br />
<b>What gave you the confidence to write as ‘an authority’ on the subject?</b><br />
<br />
To be honest, I think for a lot of my younger days, I thought people were better skilled than me, better equipped, more prepared. One of the major things I’ve learned as I got older is that’s just nonsense!<br />
<br />
We are all just as able as everyone else if we put our minds to doing something; that’s the only secret to confidence – choosing to have it! And I think that with that realisation also comes the awareness that since we’re all able, we all have a responsibility to contribute and give our voice to the conversation, in the areas where we have something to offer.<br />
<br />
Heritage is something I’ve always been passionate about – I remember making labels for my ‘museum’ and charging people an entrance fee when I was about 6 years old, and I’ve been obsessed with it, in all its forms, since then. I studied archaeology at university, along with aspects of mythology, theology and cultural heritage, and ended up specialising in two things: how landscapes are linked with the creation of personal and social identities, and how heritage should be ‘presented’ and interpreted for the public –community education, to sum it up more simply. In essence, this is at the root of my approach to heritage in general, and probably why #FolkloreThursday came about, as it’s about trying to get people involved in their own cultural heritage, and share that with other people. Writing a book on the cultural heritage of Britain – from tales to traditions and beliefs – is really just putting down what I’ve always worked with on paper. The biggest challenge was actually trying to be comprehensive enough to make everyone feel included in the book, and find something relevant to them and the places they know with such a small word count!<br />
<br />
It was also quite difficult to summarise some of the more complex mythologies and debates into something bite sized, without ignoring the fact that folklore morphs and changes over the centuries, and there’s often more than one version. I feel that, in the end, the book isn’t telling a story of Britain, it’s there to draw people in to their own story, and do something with the things within the pages – folklore is never static or done with, it’s a living thing, so the book should be seen in that way: as a resource and a starting point.<br />
<br />
</span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKReO2uSQxlgXoGPwZo1C8Ns2DrrWLobVIyV11fbte9MVeLR0UNgGucERHRQmbGHm1_SwEZ_KJL6gCr35nob7_zvTPR11req7qosOUn4i1yxmbrz81iSuDqhtdqGzNWs0420Km0ZQzkep9/s1600/910bNn-FHwL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1600" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKReO2uSQxlgXoGPwZo1C8Ns2DrrWLobVIyV11fbte9MVeLR0UNgGucERHRQmbGHm1_SwEZ_KJL6gCr35nob7_zvTPR11req7qosOUn4i1yxmbrz81iSuDqhtdqGzNWs0420Km0ZQzkep9/s400/910bNn-FHwL.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">illustration by Joe McLaren from <i>A Treasury of British Folklore</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b>What is folklore?</b><br />
<br />
Gosh, there’s a question! We’ve asked a lot of different people to write articles about this for us for FolkloreThursday.com, as there’s no one definition to rule them all, unfortunately. Many people interpret it differently, but it basically covers tales, beliefs, traditions and practices passed on from one person to another throughout a community. So that can mean fairy tales or folk tales, but also myths and legends – including sacred stories.<br />
<br />
What folklore definitely doesn’t mean is that something isn’t true, or is just nonsense – calling a sacred story or religious text folklore is in no way taking away from its value, validity or sacred nature, it’s just saying it’s a shared belief that is passed on.<br />
<br />
Folklore also covers things like folk art, traditional crafts, dress, and recipes, also urban legends, and even things like ghosts and internet memes. It’s so many things! I’d recommend taking a look at some of the articles on site written by some folklore academics like: <a href="https://folklorethursday.com/folklore-folklorists/what-do-folklorists-do-and-who-cares/#sthash.bTJYBIWB.dpbs" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Lyne S McNeill</a>, <a href="https://folklorethursday.com/folklore-folklorists/folklore-what-do-you-mean-and-why/#sthash.NMOrNPFO.dpbs" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Paul Cowdell</a> and <a href="https://folklorethursday.com/folklore-folklorists/introduction-academic-folklore-studies/#sthash.dZ8dk0k6.dpbs" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Jeana Jorgensen</a><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<br />
<b>Folk Horror is a genre that really seems to be taking hold again (after its 1970s heyday) what would you say are defining features of that genre and do you have any tips for what to read or watch to get an idea of what it’s all about?</b><br />
<br />
I think when people talk about Folk Horror people automatically look to films and books, but I think there’s so much more than that now; it’s pervading so many areas of art, music, and there a whole new depth to it – it’s almost becoming an identity. There’s a huge conversation about what people are calling ‘the English Eerie’, and Robert MacFarlane wrote <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane" target="_blank"><span>a great </span></a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane" target="_blank"><span>piece</span> on this</a> a few years ago. Melissa Harrison definitely needs another mention here.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://celluloidwickerman.com/tag/adam-scovell/" target="_blank"><span>Adam Scovell</span></a> is the go-to guy for this, he’s the folk horror film expert, for sure, and has written the defining book: <i>Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange</i>. Also <a href="https://folkhorrorrevival.com/" target="_blank"><span>Folk Horror Revival</span></a> is a main hub, obviously – do check out <a href="https://folkhorrorrevival.com/tag/andy-paciorek/" target="_blank"><span>Andy Paciorek</span></a>. <span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hallows-Fell-Thom-Burgess-ebook/dp/B077DYL2LH/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Thom Burgess</a> </span>creates amazing graphic novels, and you should definitely rate<span> <a href="https://www.moorereppion.com/" target="_blank">John Reppion</a></span> and <span><a href="https://www.moorereppion.com/" target="_blank">Leah Moore</a>’s</span> work as part of the genre, and John’s <i>Spirits of Place</i> project. <a href="http://folklorethursday.com/urban-folklore/970/#sthash.0SVk0OtP.dpbs" target="_blank"><span>David Southwell’s <i>Hookland</i></span> </a>is just amazing, you can find a lot out about that from his <a href="https://twitter.com/HooklandGuide" target="_blank"><span>Twitter </span>account</a><span id="goog_441838986"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_441838987"></span>. And of course Paul Watson for photography and art. <span><a href="https://www.hareandtabor.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hare and Tabor</a></span> too. The music from the scene is quite amazing, like <span><a href="https://thehareandthemoon.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">The Hare and the Moon</a></span>, <span><a href="https://theheartwoodinstitute.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">The Heartwood Institute</a></span> and <span><a href="https://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/revbjelde" target="_blank">Revbjelde</a></span>.<br />
<br />
It’s very much linked to psychogeography, which some people prefer to call ‘landscape punk’ – check out Gary Budden and<span><a href="https://www.influxpress.com/" target="_blank"> Influx Press</a></span>, also Cat Vincent, and Gareth E. Rees.<br />
<br />
I’ve probably missed out loads of names, and I’ll kick myself later! I’ll just end with saying that if you haven’t watched <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wicker-Man-Directors-Cut-DVD/dp/B00005UL6G/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Wicker Man</a></span></i>, you haven’t lived!<br />
<br />
I think rather than give you a quick definition I’ve just pointed you in different directions, haven’t I?<br />
<br />
<b>Plenty to be going on with - thank you!</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6Kg46bVUeAV14V2p7Bwb2whq7FM7IZDZ-JNKMrzI4vajI7fd6odh7JSDaVp1QuakMWJruSOYkbyCCEiwq1nnnPyzlJ-iB43LPM_BW1zvEmkv-MOMBFvwH_rLlPhhM4dVvWFReMVxKLQA/s1600/twitter-header-cover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="1500" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg6Kg46bVUeAV14V2p7Bwb2whq7FM7IZDZ-JNKMrzI4vajI7fd6odh7JSDaVp1QuakMWJruSOYkbyCCEiwq1nnnPyzlJ-iB43LPM_BW1zvEmkv-MOMBFvwH_rLlPhhM4dVvWFReMVxKLQA/s400/twitter-header-cover.png" width="536" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">WILLOW WINSHAM AND THE WITCHES…</span><br />
<br />
<b>You have written two books about witches can - <i>Accused: British Witches Throughout History</i> and <i>England's Witchcraft Trials</i> – can you tell us a little bit about how you approached the subject?</b><br />
<br />
My interest in history has always stemmed from a fascination with the characters within – the details of their lives, whether dramatic or ordinary. As a reader, I cut my teeth on historical biographies and so I guess it only follows that would influence my approach in my own work. From the outset, where the witch trials were concerned, the lack of focus on the individuals became glaringly apparent – these deeply fascinating women and men were being shown in flashes to illustrate wider trends and themes in the history of the witch trials, but very rarely presented as central to the text. I wanted to turn that around, making the accused and the accusers themselves the focus of my books.<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Why do you think people are interested in witches?</b><br />
<br />
I think people are drawn to witches for a number of different reasons. The tragedy of so many of the cases holds an undeniable fascination, as does the dramatic nature of some of the better publicised trials. The lure of magic and mystery also draws people in. A lot of people also identify with the plight of those persecuted, I’ve had several people tell me they feel a connection with these cases in one way or another. I think, ultimately, once you strip away the glamour, what you have is ordinary people, living ordinary lives, caught up in situations and events beyond their control – that is going to speak to people and draw them to the subject.<br />
<br />
<b>Did you have a ‘mission’ when you set-out to write the books? (I’m assuming you may think that witches have been much maligned and misrepresented in some accounts.)</b><br />
<br />
As a historian, the facts and getting it “right” are hugely important to me; striving for that, even if I don’t always achieve it, is at the centre of my work. As an extension of that, in these two books, I wanted to address the huge amount of sensationalism that has been written about witches and witch trials over the years. Such grossly over-inflated figures and claims really muddy the waters, doing the individuals involved a great disservice as they are obscured behind assumptions and exaggerations. I wanted add something to the steadily growing body of work out there that attempts to redress the balance.<br />
<br />
I also had a personal curiosity to satisfy, to see if my concept for the books would work, to see if I could pull off writing a whole book, if I could pull it all together. I like to hope that I have been mostly successful in that aim, but only time will tell!<br />
<br />
</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Accused-British-Witches-throughout-History/dp/1473850037/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="347" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDOTWI1VV010-fEGGXIVsIwiFqpq75ukRW6HNWhAPGjJvtxIrAfW959jd77slYihQPCTyhGjUMAUoPuLWt87BtyKVYnKe4WHYlPbZT_eVE9qTx1auvGTRgvBZJGHw_yBPsWnNHcfj9HJu/s320/51xy0IYofyL._SX345_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="222" /></a> <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Englands-Witchcraft-Trials-Willow-Winsham/dp/1473870941/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="336" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtU6JtdNOhW1sw97_o032ovOIZOPmb8ZyqM6Xvp-h4prtjONHMBc7xyjw1U6aWrAgZwNerGt0VUG2qWXDJnfJkixMXA0Ks5Svu-oU1ksc2flhIm7NAbZ111lNIV57HzfLHG1hD7Ir-aeB/s320/51mRjIaEKcL._SX334_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="215" /></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">(click cover images for previews or to purchase)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<b>What makes your two books different from each other?</b><br />
<br />
<i>Accused</i> focuses on the stories of 11 different women who were accused of witchcraft across Britain’s history, from the 14th century through to the 20th. Each chapter acts as a telling of her story, not just the accusations made against her and the outcome, but also an exploration of her life as a whole. By extension, it allows comparisons and contrasts to be drawn across several centuries of British history, between beliefs in magic and witchcraft, and also society and communities as a whole.<br />
<br />
<i>England’s Witchcraft Trials </i>looks at five of England’s major witch trials from the 16th and 17th centuries, the ones people are most likely to have heard of, such as the Pendle Witches and the atrocities committed under Matthew Hopkins. There’s still the biographical element though within each case, exploring the backgrounds of the main players. This books is, due to its subject matter, a study of a shorter period of time, looking more closely at the main period of witchcraft prosecution in England.<br />
<br />
<b>Is there a third witchy book on the way?</b><br />
<br />
Personally, I’d love to do something with the growing collection of accounts of 19th century witchcraft accusations I’ve been amassing over the last couple of years. People tend to assume that all that stopped with the passing of the 1736 Witchcraft Act, but belief in witches and accusations went on well into the 20th century, and the material out there makes for fascinating yet harrowing reading. It’s definitely something I want to explore more in the near future.<br />
<br />
<b>Media – particularly movies – seem saturated with witchcraft and witches. Which witch flicks would you say have got it ‘right’, or closest to?</b><br />
<br />
To be totally honest, I tend to avoid media portrayals of the subject! If I do watch, I look at a film or show for what it is – if its primary aim is entertainment, I try to go along for the ride, not sit and pick it apart – and if I can’t, I quickly switch off!<br />
<br />
I’m also an utter wuss and easily freak myself out – I’m fine when I’m watching something, but that night is another matter. I still can’t look in a mirror after dark thanks to an episode of <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Supernatural-Seasons-1-12-Jensen-Ackles/dp/B01NBHZH9O/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Supernatural</a></span></i> – I’ve learned my lesson!<br />
<br />
One exception however is <i><span><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Witch-Blu-ray-Anya-Taylor-Joy/dp/B01CJPY0ZE/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Witch</a></span></i>. It was a really gripping movie that has stayed with me months later and is definitely on my re-watch list. It operated on so many different levels, taking the viewer on a journey through a blend of history, folklore and belief – one that I’m happy to break a habit for and sit and dissect!<br />
<br />
<b>Sounds a bit like a description of Folklore Thursday!</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">- Thank you, Dee Dee and Willow!</span></i></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Huge thanks to you for inviting us!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://folklorethursday.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNAyJ1oQslaUYAZoL1O3jNGtjOEAubkkJ0JVx4AQtPs_MpEgpCTjO3DoctIljx4zTcZBB7LYp-XTU2-sW3eBfct0ev_WyT77z3vlqmr-q0Iyybdqc-p5ma9aQb7_TtQ4p5JiU1oyUnwSeI/s200/full_logo_whiteg400pxPNG.png" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
Click logo above to visit the </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://folklorethursday.com/" target="_blank">Folklore Thursday webzine</a><br />
<br />
follow <a href="https://twitter.com/FolkloreThurs" target="_blank"><span>#FolkloreThursday</span> @twitter</a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dee Dee Chainey</b> and <b>Willow Winsham</b> were talking with <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> </b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed reading this interview, you can...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<script data-coffee-color="#fff" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font-color="#000" data-font="Cookie" data-name="bmc-button" data-outline-color="#000" data-slug="RemyDean" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
check-out Willow's own blog, <a href="https://winsham.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Witch, The Weird, and The Wonderful</i> - <span>HERE</span></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
and you can read Remy's contributions to <a href="https://folklorethursday.com/author/remy/#sthash.DfSSsb0a.jg3C6t99.dpbs" target="_blank">Folklore Thursday - <span>HERE</span></a></span></div>
<br /></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-37305130921537779172018-08-23T00:55:00.000-07:002018-08-23T01:12:52.602-07:00Profit and Punishment - an interview with Conor O’Clery<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Conor O’Clery is a respected journalist who worked for the Irish Times for thirty years and was twice awarded Irish Journalist of the Year. He reported on the 9/11 attacks in New York which he witnessed from three blocks away. He is the author of a dozen books, some tackling complex aspects of political history.</b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">He was a resident correspondent in Moscow for the last four years of the Soviet Union and has written a book centred around the very last day of the Soviet Union, <i>Moscow December 25 1991</i>. He married into a Russian-Armenian family and to write his latest book, <i>The Shoemaker and His Daughter</i>, he draws upon the personal history of his wife and her family as a unique perspective on 80 years of Russian History since Stalin, through the administrations of Kruschev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev to perestroika and Putin.</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxf1Wz8jps-FCcYmcGT-AzOWBHKGuCp68EQr87wU4T3E_1pFx-XOXBqFUot0Gji2bSgg9rav2jiSa-9UVWgNLrOYydo2L7mjJ5U4EAvzwurHF8HlJfgvfMN_mnKj4vxDjXC6T2z3X5sawa/s1600/Conor+O%2527Clery++%2528c%2529+Paul+Sharp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1001" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxf1Wz8jps-FCcYmcGT-AzOWBHKGuCp68EQr87wU4T3E_1pFx-XOXBqFUot0Gji2bSgg9rav2jiSa-9UVWgNLrOYydo2L7mjJ5U4EAvzwurHF8HlJfgvfMN_mnKj4vxDjXC6T2z3X5sawa/s400/Conor+O%2527Clery++%2528c%2529+Paul+Sharp.png" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conor O'Clery<br />
(<i>author photograph courtesy Transworld</i>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>He talks to <b>Kim Vertue</b> for </i><b>The Scrawl</b><i>, about his process, and his writing life...</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite authors and what have you learned from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
In general, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Voltaire, Graham Green, Hubert Butler – an Irish essayist of mid-20th century. I learned from the Grimm brothers a love of the forests and mysteries of European imagination, from Voltaire insights in the human condition, from Graham Greene the power of story-telling and from Butler the beauty of an elegantly-written essay on politics and conflict.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What motivates you as a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
I am basically a story-teller. I like telling people news and bringing news or historical events to life with anecdotes, detail and historical background, and bringing people to life with deft use of dialogue.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The type of books you write must demand a bit of a juggling act between research skills and writing in an accessible way. Do you have a preferred writing approach, ritual or regimen? Do you interview, transcribe, write long-hand, or is it all straight into a PC?</span></b><br />
<br />
For this book I transcribed all interviews longhand into an interview book. Separately, I compiled a chronology. I also created a bulky file of downloads from the Internet. Moreover, I acquired about seventy-five books for background information, including books on social and political life in the Soviet Union, biographies of Soviet leaders, histories of the Russian, Chechen and Armenian peoples, a work on trial law in the USSR, and, believe it or not, I unearthed a book on the life of the Soviet Automobile, called <i>Comrade Cars</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did the desire to write <i>The Shoemaker and His Daughter</i> arise as a result of extensive family history research, or was it conceived as a way to tackle the story of Russia since Stalin, from the outset?</span></b><br />
<br />
The idea came from Brian Langan, then of Transworld, who, along with his colleague Eoin McHugh, pitched it to me over coffee in 2016. They knew the outlines of the story from what I had written in my preface to Moscow, December 25, 1991, The Last Day of the Soviet Union (European edition published by Transworld). The concept was developed through family research and was envisaged from the start as a social history of the Soviet Union and Russia told through the experiences of Zhanna's family, and it became of course a comprehensive family memoir.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The research, and collation of this into cohesive structure, would have been a challenge. How did you tackle this?</span></b><br />
<br />
I visited Krasnoyarsk and spoke extensively to family members, especially Marietta [Zhanna's mother]. I called Marietta regularly. For other descriptive material I visited Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia and Romania, and I had already extensive experience of the old Soviet Union through living there for more than four years and visiting Grozny and Nagorno-Karabakh in the course of my reporting. Of course, I had my own experiences upon which to draw as a member of the family for the last 26 years and an occasional visitor to their home and dacha.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">How did you balance this – with the hindsight of the historian, and as an eye-witness to the latter events in particular?</span></b><br />
<br />
I compiled a family memoir first. Then I researched and expanded and enriched the telling by adding and interweaving the social and historical landscape into the text.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The great humanity of your father and mother in-law shines through, their personal integrity and family loyalty offers a beacon through the upheaval of recent history. One is also struck by how they embraced their new Siberian home, the taiga, and its austere beauty. The description of a meal shared at their dacha is particularly evocative. One has a sense of timeless things, like a feast shared and family events celebrated, are the constants that can overcome so much suffering. Is your wife and her family pleased at your portrait of their history? </span></b><br />
<br />
Yes, they are. Marietta was rather touched to have her family's story told, but I detected concern at the start about resurrecting the family secret - Stanislav's imprisonment [Stanislav Suvorov, the shoemaker and Zhanna's father]. She was relieved that my research established the injustice of his imprisonment. Indeed, the book rehabilitates Stanislav. Zhanna found it painful to recall some events, particularly pertaining to her husband Viktor's death, but she was committed - once the decision to go ahead with the book was made - that it should be a full and honest account.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf9-zEB6iRN8UdniIElSSB_9gryqT3xuA3uGDHcU7sP0e0OBkw_eTAf2-0eXCx-8GXmfxartNWM-rXaIHwuyqLUo6Lyvs1NmvEl-QyQTWRgjIhvWdCPACpKUi1XdFpleCTHQQprD_ILwZ/s1600/toward+the+communist+future+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1200" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXf9-zEB6iRN8UdniIElSSB_9gryqT3xuA3uGDHcU7sP0e0OBkw_eTAf2-0eXCx-8GXmfxartNWM-rXaIHwuyqLUo6Lyvs1NmvEl-QyQTWRgjIhvWdCPACpKUi1XdFpleCTHQQprD_ILwZ/s400/toward+the+communist+future+poster.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Propaganda poster from the era of Stalin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Will it be translated into Russia and made available there? </span></b><br />
<br />
Not yet known. I hope so.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The personal hardship of so many Russians, and the story of the Armenians and Chechens in particular, are made vivid by this story. It seems the forced movement of peoples within Russia was one way Stalin sought to dilute national identities, yet these are still an important factor in understanding modern Russia. Currently Brexit is underway here in the UK following some baffling political decisions, while Lithuania Latvia and Estonia all embrace their EC membership. Clearly, there is still much focus of National borders and integrity within the melting pots of Europe, Asia, America. After writing this book do you have any opinions on how this may reach resolution so that ultimately more global concerns, such as climate change and food production, can be addressed in a way to help the future of humans and the world in general?</span></b><br />
<br />
If the UK had a large and aggressive neighbour, as have Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, there would be no question of separating from a protective entity like the EU or NATO. Conversely, a Christian country like Armenia has to look to Russia for last-course protection because of its isolation in an unfriendly Moslem world.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did you recognize any parallels between the history of Russia and that of Ireland?</span></b><br />
<br />
Both countries had for centuries a peasantry ruled by a small elite, and had revolutions at roughly the same time, but Ireland opted for the democratic structures inherited from Britain, rather than communism. There are some striking social similarities between the two. People in both countries know their poets. Also both have a fondness for alcohol, story-telling and anecdotes.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What Irish tradition or attitude do you feel you have exported to Russia?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’ll assume that the 'you' in your question refers to Ireland. Well, there are Irish bars in every Russian city - several in Krasnoyarsk - which have conveyed a rather faux Irish drinking tradition and there are St. Patrick's Day parades in Petersburg and Moscow…<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is your favourite, essentially Russian, food that you may crave?</span></b><br />
<br />
Pancakes with caviar.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is the most positive thing you have learned from your research and knowledge of political history?</b></span><br />
<br />
I learned that sometimes, in the words of a centuries-old Irish ballad, <i>The Man from God Knows Where</i>, that "the wrong does cease and the right does prevail". These words ran through my head when I was reporting on the successful efforts of the suppressed East Timorese to end a cruel Indonesian occupation.<br />
<br />
In general, the most positive thing I have learned is the resilience and the basic decency of the vast majority of people in the world.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Finally, what ‘in-a-nut-shell’ could you offer young journalists or historians beginning their careers?</span></b><br />
<br />
Get out of the office.<br />
<br />
Meet people rather than communicate by telephone.<br />
<br />
Go to events, rather than monitoring news on other media.<br />
<br />
Never assume anything- it is one of the great sins of journalism.<br />
<br />
If reporting abroad pay people the basic courtesy of trying to speak their language.<br />
<br />
Never miss a deadline.<br />
<br />
Most of all make your writing interesting - detail and colour are everything.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Conor O’Clery.</span></b></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Conor O’Clery</b> was talking with <b>KimVertue</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoemaker-his-Daughter-Conor-OClery/dp/1781620431/" target="_blank">The Shoemaker and his Daughter </a></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
is published 23 August 2018 (hardback) by Doubleday Ireland.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoemaker-his-Daughter-Conor-OClery/dp/1781620431/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs-33QFVF3kanjDcICXmofdD2nEHxL1We-QNN7BQ0LiK3iiN_EicIRRHvs7Yo1NF5Pr-KMQheV6SYvKMKejrS2TiSEIZXLlIAbQAG1n3WX7Eyy11r04OCcqQ0-MB6-EHGw_1RWRQT9tfr2/s400/The+Shoemaker+and+His+Daughter.png" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Shoemaker and His Daughter</i><br />
by Conor O'Clery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
This is the story of an ordinary family who bear witness to extraordinary times as the slow demise of communism and the chaotic embrace of capitalism batters and shapes their lives. A powerful tale of this secretive world, spanning more than eighty years of Soviet and Russian history. Husband to the shoemaker’s daughter, Zhanna, Conor provides a beautiful insight into the hardships of life during this time, the compelling tale of some exceptional women, and the remarkable relationships of the Suvorov family.<br />
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-28766426274218499412018-08-07T05:34:00.001-07:002020-09-29T06:15:49.571-07:00An Epiphany - starring Hollie Overton as herself <b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Ten years ago, Hollie Overton’s acting career was just gathering momentum when she had a profound change-of-heart and decided to chuck it in and direct her creative energies into becoming a writer instead. A gamble that paid off with television writing jobs for series including <i>Cold Case</i>, <i>The Client List</i> and <i>Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments</i>.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Last year, her debut novel, <i>Baby Doll</i> became a Sunday Times bestseller and was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club summer read. Now, her second novel, <i>The Walls</i>, is already climbing the charts.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhas4njf1Vzn8cWM11nZDH-94W2kGCcGckSQQRKj9WJCkz03AvqguEv8pLwWSeW_ruf04esj1U5Tk3ZgCdW5oJ4zI7V1jKmFHHAQnAfedg6ms5Hn1Ke87Lo9fech7njMX2kw-bmzbk5QFDC/s1600/HollIie+Overton+Author+Photo+.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1276" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhas4njf1Vzn8cWM11nZDH-94W2kGCcGckSQQRKj9WJCkz03AvqguEv8pLwWSeW_ruf04esj1U5Tk3ZgCdW5oJ4zI7V1jKmFHHAQnAfedg6ms5Hn1Ke87Lo9fech7njMX2kw-bmzbk5QFDC/s400/HollIie+Overton+Author+Photo+.jpg" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hollie Overton <br />
(<i>author photo courtesy Random House</i>) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Both of her novels to date draw upon her unique childhood experiences to lend realism and compassion to her depictions of violence and complicated family dynamics. <i>Baby Doll</i>, described as ‘a gripping and tense psychological thriller’, features a relationship between twins and Hollie is an identical twin herself. <i>The Walls</i> tells the story of a single mother who happens to be a Death Row press agent for the Texas Department of Corrections as she grapples with temptation to murder her abusive boyfriend using her knowledge of the criminal justice system and guidance from a death row inmate. Hollie’s father was a member of the notorious Overton gang in Austin, Texas, and spent several years in prison for manslaughter, so she was raised by her single mother.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>In this exclusive Scrawl interview, Hollie Overton talks with Remy Dean and shares some of her experience of writing for television and talks about how she made a brave decision that paid off and led her to becoming such a successful novelist.</i></span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b style="color: #38761d;">Are you an actress who writes or a writer who acts?</b></span><br />
<br />
There was a time when I would have said that I was an actress who writes but over the last six years that has changed. Now I’m a writer who used to act. I have no desire to perform anymore. Sometimes admitting that surprises even me. Acting consumed so much of my life - from the time I was ten until my late twenties. If I wasn’t trying to get an audition, taking classes, or performing, I was obsessively thinking about what else I could do to further my career.<br />
<br />
For a while, I tried writing and acting, but the more writing opportunities that came my way, the less acting mattered.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Was there a particular moment, or series of events, that changed your outlook?</b></span><br />
<br />
I remember getting an audition for a TV show and being surrounded by dozens of actresses in the waiting room. I had this sudden epiphany--“I don’t want to do this anymore.” That was the last audition I went on and since that time I’ve focused fully on writing. I almost couldn’t believe it was that easy to walk away from but it was.<br />
<br />
Perhaps if I had been more successful I would feel differently about it, but I truly believe I wasn’t quite good enough. I got into rooms, got auditions for great projects but could never get to that next stage where I was booking roles. I have zero regrets though.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did the actress skillset feed into being a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
Studying acting taught me so much about the writing process. I learned how to analyse text, the specificity required in creating a character, the collaboration involved in bringing a creative work to life. Acting was my first love, and ignited my passion for storytelling. I’m forever grateful for those experiences.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Would you say that portraying a character as an actress and creating a character as a writer have anything in common?</span></b><br />
<br />
I studied Meisner, an acting technique that is all about getting out of your head, so you can behave instinctively to your surrounding environment. Despite all my training, I was never truly about to let go and be “in the moment.” I found it impossible to escape all the superficial thoughts that filled my head. LA is a harsh place where youth and beauty is held to an almost impossible standard. It’s difficult not to compare yourself to others. As an actor, instead of embracing the role I was playing, all these thoughts would cloud my brain; am I too fat, too tall, too pale, too redheaded?<br />
<br />
There were moments in acting class, and occasionally on auditions or during performances, that I could silence that voice, but it was always a struggle. I’m not sure why but the process for creating a character when I was writing always felt more organic, sometimes even effortless.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walls-Hollie-Overton/dp/1784753475/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="986" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBahCuYbDXwudmXoVW4sw49l32rzPBvECVKE5BGTStb74PCuT40oyw5ECRh8gcWvq4a0wWsrKgT7pwFKlnE05Z6fOcF58qEEOfT10GtvwTaipdtf0pIdh_IIhVmSEKVcfPbRrgmMoMNiS/s400/9781780895086.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Walls </i>by Hollie Overton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #38761d;">So, are characters usually your starting point?</b><br />
<br />
Before I begin a writing project, I always start with a main character. Then I ask myself what their emotional wound is and what core relationship matters most and I build the story from there. I think it’s because I’m working from such a deep emotional place that has nothing to do with those superficial aspects so I’m really able to silence that inner critic.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Because you are so regularly involved with television and writing for screen, do you consider your novels to be screenplays in waiting?</span></b><br />
<br />
I don’t consider my novels as an extension of my screenwriting. As a matter of fact, it’s important that I keep them separate. When I first started writing Baby Doll, I was in a creative funk and frustrated by my TV career. I wanted to do something that was just for me and not for the marketplace. I wasn’t even sure what I was writing. I called it my “project” and worked on in bits and pieces in between screenwriting gigs.<br />
<br />
When I sold my first book, I was beyond excited because it seemed like such an impossible achievement. Having worked in Hollywood, I’ve seen how difficult it is to get something produced, even if it is a well-received book. I told myself from the start that I’m would focus only on what I could control—writing a great book. Of course I’d love to see my books on TV or film but that’s not why I write them. I simply love the process and then seeing my books in print.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>To what extent is your writing process emotional/intuitive vs. calculated/intellectual?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m without question an emotional and intuitive writer. I’m mostly self-taught, though I have taken several classes to learn structure and hone my own process but most of what I know I learned from doing with lots of trial and error along the way.<br />
<br />
I used to have doubts about the type of writer I was and the type of writer I “should” be. I grew up reading all the greats. Steinbeck, Hemingway, Jane Austen and every time I thought about becoming a writer, especially a novelist, I’d talk myself out of it. If I wasn’t going to be able to write like the masters, then maybe I shouldn’t write. Once I let go of the expectations and pre-conceived notions and followed my heart, I started writing the stories that mattered to me. That’s when everything changed and I discovered what I was meant to be doing.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>One of my favourite writers, Graham Masterton says he runs his stories as a film in his head and writes down what he sees and hears… When writing a novel are you acting-out all the scenes in your head first?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’ve never thought about my process like that. The way I work is very loose and less rigid than when I’m writing scripts. I’m a huge proponent of outlining screenplays or teleplays, but when I’m a writing book, I write from character and the story finds its way. I don’t suggest other writers attempt that because it can be tricky but so far it’s worked for me.<br />
<br />
Once I’ve started a book, I spend a lot of time building each scene/chapter, trying to find the arc and the rhythm so that it’s exciting and entertaining and making sure the characters are tested in a way that’s real and grounded.<br />
<br />
It’s also important to find those unexpected moments, the twists and turns that keep readers turning the pages. It’s usually when I’m writing dialogue that I employ Mr. Masterton’s technique, reading out loud the dialogue, doing my best to ensure that each character sounds as unique and specific as possible.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I was scanning your your IMDB credits… could you explain what the difference is between ‘staff writer for’ and ‘written by’ …and all the different writing jobs you do?</b></span><br />
<br />
Staff writer is basically an entry-level position. When you’re a staff writer, you receive a salary, but you don’t get paid when you write your episode - which is a significant amount of money. You do receive residuals each time an episode you wrote airs.<br />
<br />
When it says ‘written by’ that means I wrote a specific episode but was a story editor on the complete season.<br />
<br />
The other rungs on the TV Writer ladder are: Story Editor, Executive Story Editor, Co-Producer, Producer, Supervising Producer, Consulting Producer, Executive Producer - Showrunner.<br />
<br />
To clarify, my credits state that I was a story editor for TV but that was on a previous show. Story Editor is a title given by the Writers Guild of America to help classify your pay structure and job requirements. I’m currently a Co-Producer. What that means is I have slightly more responsibilities than as a story editor.<br />
<br />
Whether you’re a Story Editor or a Producer, you’re still in the writer’s room pitching ideas and writing episodes. The higher up the ranks you go, the more responsibilities you’re given.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMrMplCwGouQ8OyvxSqZYkS67d0Z02i7pS_RW6f0oiSKQxuAKEhz0YTk3JLjmLHQqN19FH6g8jlUD0YE6jWDOJPDN97nTedRA6l0PDaiznFImxwPf-VQR5C8n1qImgZYeQa3UwILDVkpm/s1600/148266_9230.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGMrMplCwGouQ8OyvxSqZYkS67d0Z02i7pS_RW6f0oiSKQxuAKEhz0YTk3JLjmLHQqN19FH6g8jlUD0YE6jWDOJPDN97nTedRA6l0PDaiznFImxwPf-VQR5C8n1qImgZYeQa3UwILDVkpm/s400/148266_9230.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dominic Sherwood, Anna Hopkins and Katherine McNamara in <br />
<i>Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments</i> (picture courtesy Disney ABC)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #38761d;">One of the main obstacles for the writing process is the ‘internal editor’, which some can find crippling at times… How do you deal with that when there are so many 'external editors' involved? </b><br />
<br />
In TV, time is precious so you don’t have the luxury of worrying about your internal editor. You have to make decisions and move on because in a few weeks you’re breaking, writing and prepping the next episode.<br />
<br />
The nice thing about the process of TV writing is that it’s collaborative. You may have a wild idea that doesn’t quite work and someone else will have the perfect fix and vice versa. There’s often a consensus from the room about what works. Or the showrunner has a very clear vision. That usually helps eliminate the internal editor. If you’re in a room that really supports each writer, it also gives you the courage to pitch wild and inventive things and see what lands. Sometimes those are the ideas that work best.<br />
<br />
When it comes to the actual process of writing an episode versus writing a book, it’s the same - sitting down by yourself and typing away until you have a finished product.<br />
<br />
The benefit of writing for TV is that you’re not doing it alone. You’ve got a team of writers working to build the story, scene by scene, everyone with the common goal of creating the best show possible.<br />
<br />
The downside is that because there are so many people working to create an episode of television, there are times when that an episode morphs into something that’s not aligned with your personal vision. You have to remind yourself ‘this isn’t your show.’ Your job is to support the showrunner and creator’s vision. That means you have to accept letting go of an idea you love or implementing an idea you might hate.<br />
<br />
Writing a book is of a much more solitary endeavour and it can be a bit daunting knowing that you have to craft three hundred plus pages by yourself. Writing novels requires a deep level of trust and belief in yourself and the story you want to tell. There are no actors or directors to blame if the final product isn’t well received. It’s all you. For better or worse.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I’m never sure how writing by consensus works! All the re-drafting, editing – can you give us more of an idea about the process?</b></span><br />
<br />
Writers gather in a room and the showrunner presents their vision for the season or episode. The writing staff “breaks” each episode, pitching our best ideas scene by scene until a story takes shape. Some shows are very hierarchical, in which you’re level dictates how often you speak or how much weight your ideas might have. I’ve been lucky that most of the rooms I’ve been in were very democratic. Everyone had a voice and the best idea won.<br />
<br />
At this point, a writer is assigned and sent off to write an outline. The showrunner and studio or network executives, all weigh in with notes. It’s your job to revise as many times as necessary and then you’re “off to script.” Those three words send joy and terror into the hearts of TV writers everywhere!<br />
<br />
You’re supposed to have two weeks to write an episode but I’ve done drafts in four or five days. Once a script is done, you turn it in and go through another round of notes. Sometimes the entire staff will weigh in on a draft, other times it’s only the showrunner.<br />
<br />
After the script has been given approval by the network or studio, it’s sent to production. Script changes continue throughout that pre-production process. Sometimes the script is too long and you have to make cuts. Other times you can’t get a location or an actor isn’t available and you have to make more changes. This process continues right up until you shooting begins.<br />
<br />
Once you’re on set, the changes are usually minimal but you’re always making tweaks. Actors might have an issue with a scene or the director will have a different vision or the studio or network has a problem that wasn’t ironed out so you’re on set tweaking the script on the fly. It’s simultaneously a very stressful and exhilarating process.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is the best route for a writer to get their script in front of a story editor?</b></span><br />
<br />
The one difference between selling a novel and getting a TV writing job is that access to decision makers is much easier in publishing. I’m not saying it’s easy. Just easier. Anyone with an Internet connection and a great book can be discovered if their book is good.<br />
<br />
You can cold query agents and editors, track them down on Twitter and see what types of manuscripts they’re looking for. But in TV, there’s a much bigger gate to climb over to even get your work read. It’s not simply about writing the best script, it’s about finding someone to champion your work.<br />
Most TV writers, myself included, work for other people. We simply don’t have the power to hire a writer onto a show. It’s a very complicated process in which the showrunner, network and studios must all agree on whom to hire for a writing staff. To even get a showrunner or studio meeting, you usually need an agent or a manager or know someone with connections.<br />
<br />
For anyone hoping to land a TV writing job, writing a TV pilot that gets attention is the first step. Then you have to find representation. A great way to do that and something that really helped me when I started was entering writing contests. There are a lot of scams out there so you must do your homework but there are some exceptional contests and fellowships that will get you noticed.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Which one worked for you?</span></b><br />
<br />
I was in the Warner Brothers Writers Workshop and that got me my first manager and agent and my first TV job. There’s also the route of working in a TV writers office as an assistant and getting to know writers and having them recommend you to their agents. There’s no one path. If you talked to a hundred TV writers, they would likely all have different stories about breaking in, but all of them would probably say hustle and a positive attitude are crucial.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How would you feel when your fiction gets optioned and other writers are hired to ‘adapt it’?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’ve loved seeing writers like Gillian Flynn and Emma Donogue adapting their own work and I’m eager to follow in their footsteps. I’ve had several offers since <i>Baby Doll</i> came out, none that have come to fruition. I have been very clear though that I either get first crack at adapting my books, or it won't happen. I’m perfectly content with letting the books live on as just books.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Could you consider the following two quotes that Oscar Wilde wrote and comment on your thoughts, “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter,” yet he also said, "An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty."</b></span><br />
<br />
I adore these quotes though I’m more inclined to agree with Mr. Wilde’s first statement. I write crime thrillers so the basic stories are obviously fictional but the characters and their relationships are loosely inspired by my own. I didn’t start out saying, “these books are going to reflect my life and my family,” but that’s how things unfolded.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Doll-twisted-Richard-thriller/dp/1784753467/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="406" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPMm5lKgfCtRtp25uzt1qiV_ZL9KfxfoReXjyTB1CgNemXBGOgF13M0T3NTMX1yj86FvhloHMgrq6xRUC3pHoo-BRdp0fZ7n9poDlD_TUdIqDrx0eZm6G8c_WEpv9DlqoUV4c_ObdSMGvi/s400/baby+doll.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Baby Doll</i> - Hollie Overton's debut bestseller</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #38761d;">You say your first novel <i>Baby Doll</i> has a lot of your personal experience interwoven with the plot and writing was a kind of therapy… so, is your second book <i>The Walls</i> continuing therapy and self-examination?</b><br />
<br />
There are so many small character moments that worked their way into <i>Baby Doll</i> and <i>The Walls</i>. I remember my husband hadn’t read <i>The Walls</i> and he was listening to the audiobook and he almost had to pull over he was so surprised by a familiar scene I’d put in. He called it “surreal.”<br />
<br />
I also like to focus on relationships that are important to me because I find it deepens my work. In <i>Baby Doll</i>, it’s the twin sisters, which was born from my relationship with my twin. In The Walls, it’s the parent-child dynamic, inspired by my own relationship with my mother. I often wonder as I continue writing books if that will change. Will I find other sources of inspiration? Only time will tell. Right now I’m trusting my process and going with what works.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You have been open about your stressful and troubled childhood and say you took refuge in writing at an early age. When did you wake up to being a writer?</span></b><br />
<br />
My childhood was definitely turbulent but I had a wonderful mother who nurtured my creative talents. She bought me a journal when I was seven and it became my refuge. I’d write about my daily activities and thoughts. I filled up dozens of journals over the years.<br />
<br />
At ten, I started doing theatre, and that form of storytelling fuelled me, but I never stopped journaling which turned into writing short stories and evolved from there. I used to say I was an actress and writing was my therapy. What surprised me most was that when I became a professional writer, I felt a profound sense of loss. I no longer had my creative refuge because writing was now a career. I eventually had to find other outlets like yoga and running to calm my mind and keep me centered.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is the first book that you recall reading that really wrapped you up in its world and carried you off - to a place of refuge?</b></span><br />
<br />
I was an avid reader growing up but I was fourteen when I read Pat Conroy’s <i>Beach Music</i> and it affected me in such a deep and profound way. It’s a sweeping love story that travels across the globe, from the Deep South to Italy, detailing the characters stories from the Vietnam War to the concentration camps during World War II. What made <i>Beach Music</i> stand out, were the brilliant characters. They’re real and funny and flawed, and practically leap off the page.<br />
<br />
I remember absolutely adoring that book and wondering why it wasn’t a bigger hit. It was only later when I read the reviews and saw the book was Pat Conroy’s least successful which surprised me because I loved it so much. I don’t care what critics or anyone says. It made me feel more than any book I had ever read, and whenever I need an emotional kick-start, I reread it.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite authors and what have you learned from them? </b></span><br />
<br />
I’m a huge Steinbeck fan. I read T<i>he Winter of Our Discontent</i> at eighteen. It was a very bleak time in my life; a time when a family financial crisis derailed my college plans. I was questioning all the choices I’d made. It’s a very bleak book but in some ways that fuelled me. I told myself that I wasn’t going to be one of those people that allowed life to break me. I was going to be a fighter.<br />
<br />
On a craft level, it’s hard to list just one writer as an influence. I grew up reading lots of “important’ novelists but I was just as invested in more popular contemporary fiction. Mary Higgins Clark was a huge influence. She wrote about women in dangerous situations and always made me truly invest in their journey and root for them. In some ways I don’t think she gets enough credit for all she did for the genre.<br />
<br />
I also loved R L Stine’s young adult novels. I remember arguing with my sister over who got to read the latest book. He was the master at cliff-hangers and twists. I also loved Stephen King because he’s Stephen King, the master of both story and character.<br />
<br />
I was a huge fan of John Grisham and I read <i>The Client</i> and <i>Pelican Brief </i>half-a-dozen times. When I first started writing books, I didn’t know what type of writer I would become but thinking about the books I loved to read, it makes sense that I chose crime dramas.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What's your favourite treat or tipple?</b></span><br />
<br />
There’s an ice cream shop in LA called 'Salt and Straw' that makes the best salted caramel ice cream you’ve ever had. There’s also a seafood restaurant right outside my hometown in Texas called 'Kings Inn'. They have fried catfish, avocado salad and tartar sauce that are simply the best in the world. It’s worth going back for that meal alone.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What can we look forward to next from Hollie Overton?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’m currently revising my third novel, <i>The Runaway</i>, which will be out early next year. I just finished writing for a TV show called <i>Tell Me A Story</i> for CBS All-Access that will air later this year. I’m also developing a TV pilot that explores a brutal ‘murder for hire’ in Texas, and an unlikely killer.<br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you very much, Hollie, for taking the time to consider these questions and sharing some of your varied and valuable writing experience.</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></b>
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Hollie Overton was talking with <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></span></i></b></div>
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If you enjoyed this interview, you can... </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></i></b><div><div style="text-align: center;"><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;">For more info and news, check out the <a href="http://www.hollieoverton.com/" target="_blank">official <span style="font-size: large;">Hollie Overton</span> website</a></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Hollie Overton</b> is the author of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Walls-Hollie-Overton/dp/1784753475/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Walls</span></a></i>, </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">out now in paperback (published by Arrow, £6.99)</span></div>
<br /></div>Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-10300096424569661252018-07-16T01:11:00.003-07:002020-09-29T03:41:43.560-07:00From Wigan to Grandville - an interview with Bryan Talbot <b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Bryan Talbot is one of the most widely recognised and respected practitioners of graphic storytelling. His long career has produced a hugely varied, always relevant, body of work that spans many genres from superhero fantasy to documentary realism. His subjects cover machine-gun toting badgers, imaginary giant rats, civil engineering, history, social geography and biography.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Since the mid-1980s he has steadily accrued a string of top accolades. In 2009, Talbot was the first graphic storyteller to be given an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Sunderland, and in 2012 was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by Northumbria University. That same year, </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Dotter of Her Father's Eyes</i><b>, a clever graphic memoir he co-created with Mary Talbot, won the Costa Biography Award. This year he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.</b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37XZkHRbix61ajR5ENexPSuVw72eSpewsZah9oMjFzl1kA7Dg7f1Otdmab7_mt13ggu5VAp6TLnP3EiWUkr4kFrdo_ZMEedz9majWU74ilfZLK6f0FWJgAMxYePBjrqULv_kX86yQB3c6/s1600/bryan+talbot.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1195" data-original-width="1030" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi37XZkHRbix61ajR5ENexPSuVw72eSpewsZah9oMjFzl1kA7Dg7f1Otdmab7_mt13ggu5VAp6TLnP3EiWUkr4kFrdo_ZMEedz9majWU74ilfZLK6f0FWJgAMxYePBjrqULv_kX86yQB3c6/s400/bryan+talbot.jpg" width="343" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bryan Talbot being signed into the Royal Society of Literature,<br />
...using Lord Byron's pen! (picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Just take a look at his body of work and the vast scope of some of his more ambitious tomes and you will know that Bryan Talbot is a busy man! So, <i>The Scrawl</i> is hugely honoured that he took the time to talk with Remy Dean, about anthropomorphising animals, the collaborative process, the development of the comic industry and whether <i>Rupert the Bear</i> is terrifying or not…</span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">I was part-educated at Wigan College of Mining and Technology. During the mid-late 1980s, I found the ‘scene’ there a very rich and creative one. It was one of my student friends who introduced me to <i>Hellblazer</i>, which was when I first remember being conscious of the name Bryan Talbot as an artist, though I had also been reading <i>2000AD</i>, to which he also made an important contribution. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Bryan Talbot was born and raised in Wigan and also went through art college there. Soon after his graduation from Preston’s Harris College in the mid-70s, Talbot had started publishing his own indie comic, <i>Brainstorm Comix</i>, in which his character, Luther Arkwright made his debut. Later, a long-form edition of the epic <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Luther-Arkwright-Bryan-Talbot/dp/1593077254/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Adventures of Luther Arkwright</a></span></i> was published as a single volume and this is generally recognised as being the template for what we now consider to be a Graphic Novel. The Graphic Novel, or GN, is an extended form of storytelling using the comic strip format, tending to be more literate in tone and often tackling more ambitious concepts and serious themes. Talbot now has the deserved reputation of being the ‘Father of the British GN’ and is certainly one of the form's more prominent proponents. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Years after I too had graduated, I visited an old college friend from Wigan and saw they had a big poster of artwork from <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tale-One-Bad-Rat/dp/0224084704/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Tale of One Bad Rat</a></span></i> – I think this was one of the first comics, along with what was coming out of the New York counter-culture, that I came across that really tackled serious social and political issues like child abuse and homelessness, whilst ultimately remaining an uplifting read. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span><b style="color: #38761d;">How did <i>The Tale of One Bad Rat</i> come about and what was the motivation? Was it simply a good story, an issue you felt strongly about, or was it a conscious effort to push the envelope of what a GN could do?</b><br />
<br />
I never set out to write a book about child abuse. It came out of a desire to do a graphic novel using the Lake District as a setting. I know the place very well, and partly grew up there. It was in my mind for several years and I began to read books on the area and its history. I researched the Lake District poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge but a graphic novel idea never crystallised.<br />
<br />
While visiting Beatrix Potter's house, Hill Top, the thought struck me that here was a woman who told stories using a mixture of words and pictures, a direct correlation with comics. So, I started to research Potter. I'd never read her books when young and started by reading her complete oeuvre, then books about her. I must have read about 13 biographies before I realised that her life wouldn't make a very interesting basis for a graphic novel. If you saw the movie Miss Potter, you'll understand what I mean. They only managed to make that vaguely interesting by inventing events and simply making things up.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUNGqUBj0yMSmFUmQqpxnPiE3rNFJvu8GDzV71H6c-4XErff4CoC5ihUj1HEXIBHrMcTiDopaExsaeAOheRjFFqzGm7ruSjMBIXjGZle0VMEL5IEeFC4YbnhLiAYDXh1PKyOu3D7UZXeQN/s1600/66.1.BadRatShatterPanel.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="811" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUNGqUBj0yMSmFUmQqpxnPiE3rNFJvu8GDzV71H6c-4XErff4CoC5ihUj1HEXIBHrMcTiDopaExsaeAOheRjFFqzGm7ruSjMBIXjGZle0VMEL5IEeFC4YbnhLiAYDXh1PKyOu3D7UZXeQN/s400/66.1.BadRatShatterPanel.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shattering the silence... The sublime landscapes of the Lake District feature<br />
prominently in Bryan Talbot's ground-breaking GN, <i>The Tale of One Bad Rat</i><br />
(picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div>
So, I'd reached another dead end. Then, one day I saw a teenage girl begging on a platform in London's Tottenham Court Road Tube station. She was being hassled by a huge, bearded Jesus freak, who was trying to persuade her to go with him to a hostel or somewhere. She looked so embarrassed. Thinking about her later, she brought to mind descriptions of Beatrix Potter who, at age 16, was said to be "painfully shy." As you know, that became the first scene in the book and I grew the story from there.<br />
<div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you talk us through a bit of how this process of 'growing' that story went?</span></b><br />
<br />
I thought, "What if this girl has a psychic or synchronistic connection with Beatrix Potter and she follows Potter's footsteps to the Lake District?' As I plotted it, I asked myself why she left home. "Because her father was abusing her," was the reply. It was as glib as that. It's a fact that many kids do run away to escape abuse and many end up in London. Personally, I knew nothing of the subject, so I began to research it, buying books and visiting the library. What was amazing was the number of people who came forward, from friends I've known for years to people I met at conventions, to talk to me about the abuse they'd suffered as soon as they discovered I was researching it. It quickly dawned on me that it was far too important to marginalise, to simply have as a reason for her to leave home. It needed to be what the book was all about.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEao2qNJCyIxthPHUR314yI9f5BuW9mruKiIu3iYUU61i4mvmhs10En9b0a-jehpbIJvBZCAFRuRC80GYH_Ow211jJ8oS67MqV8Sdw4Hqlm8XVc5ACBgzOw_IZhyphenhyphen-AOWoX-i2-97HqNImB/s1600/GrandvilleMonAmourPage68.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1070" data-original-width="760" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEao2qNJCyIxthPHUR314yI9f5BuW9mruKiIu3iYUU61i4mvmhs10En9b0a-jehpbIJvBZCAFRuRC80GYH_Ow211jJ8oS67MqV8Sdw4Hqlm8XVc5ACBgzOw_IZhyphenhyphen-AOWoX-i2-97HqNImB/s400/GrandvilleMonAmourPage68.jpg" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just one page from the meticulously designed dynamic layouts<br />
that pepper the hugely entertaining <i>Grandville</i> graphic novels...<br />
(picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Please tell us about the anthropomorphised characters in <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grandville-Bryan-Talbot/dp/0224084887/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>Grandville</i> </a></span>– I had first assumed they were under the influence of <i>Wind in the Willows</i>, perhaps the work of Beatrix Potter… but then I made the connection with Parisian cartoonist J.J Grandville. I am wondering what creative path led you to the characters for <i>Grandville</i> and why they have held your attention for so long…</b><br />
<br />
My graphic novels are usually the result of years of consideration, some taking longer than others. I think, research and make notes, slowly developing the concept until I’m happy with it. The first volume of Grandville was the complete opposite. Directly after finishing <i>Alice in Sunderland</i>, I was tidying away the pile of reference books I’d been using and picked up a book I’d had for decades. It was a book about JJ Granville, the pen name of Jean Ignace Isadore Gérard, who was a big influence on John Tenniel, illustrator of Lewis Carroll’s original <i>Alice</i> books.<br />
<br />
As you know, his brilliant cartoons, satirising French social mores, fashions and attitudes, used animals to convey character. I had a sudden flash of inspiration: “Grandville” could be the nickname for Paris in a story set in an alternative reality populated by anthropomorphic characters in which Paris is the biggest city in the world.<br />
<br />
I’m a big fan of crime fiction and, of course, Sherlock Holmes. The idea to write a detective story, in a <i>Belle Epoque</i> steampunk fantasy setting, really grabbed my imagination. Also, I’d never done an anthropomorphic comic before, so jumped at the challenge.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #38761d;">How do you approach such an ambitious undertaking?</b><br />
<br />
With this book, after spending a week thinking about it, while working on the artwork for my experimental graphic novel <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.sequential.cc/2014/12/bryan-talbots-metronome-now-exclusively.html" target="_blank">Metronome</a></span></i>, I scribbled down the plot in ten minutes and typed the whole script over the next five or six days. The characters arrived fully-formed and even delivered their own lines. It was like taking dictation. For all my previous comics, I made meticulous thumbnail sketches of each page before starting the scripts. This time, I didn’t need them, as I could vividly visualise each page, something I’ve done ever since. Creating a graphic novel is a very long slog, and anything that can save time is a bonus.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5opFsME3proB_GcD4qUtsdLXp_xHLHQBOqmNCC-1kAyfsT9n1pXgdwqGw2OYGL2mHa_-F2TTE-a2C3hFj8pfIVZ_k318ahsUZ_7Ky2FgV0Dj_OjeQ8v7hMZgMBGS_m1OGVR46z1XPxQsC/s1600/Page75.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="595" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5opFsME3proB_GcD4qUtsdLXp_xHLHQBOqmNCC-1kAyfsT9n1pXgdwqGw2OYGL2mHa_-F2TTE-a2C3hFj8pfIVZ_k318ahsUZ_7Ky2FgV0Dj_OjeQ8v7hMZgMBGS_m1OGVR46z1XPxQsC/s400/Page75.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animal action and crime capers in Bryan Talbot's <i>Grandville</i><br />
(picture © courtesy Bryan Talbot)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Some of your graphic novels are <i>huge</i> undertakings – how do you go about planning something with the scope and breadth of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alice-Sunderland-Entertainment-Bryan-Talbot/dp/0224080768/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Alice in Sunderland</span></a></i>, for example, which is so rich in facts and history? </b><br />
<br />
I spend a lot of time on the structure, which has to be rock-solid before I type a single word. The first <i>Grandville</i> was an exception. I know that many prose writers, such as Stephen King or Ian Rankin, create as they write, the story growing out the initial concept, developing it as they go along. You can’t really do that with a comic. You can’t get half way through drawing a graphic novel, then suddenly realise that, to take a silly example, your protagonist should have been two feet taller and you have to re-draw eight month’s worth of work.<br />
<br />
Even after spending two or three years researching <i>Alice in Sunderland</i> and making copious notes, I still had to spend six weeks working full-time on the plot structure, going through draft after draft until it was as perfect as I could get it. With this 320-page book that used dream logic and what had to seem, on the surface, to be stream of consciousness storytelling, a solid structure was vitally important.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alice-Sunderland-Entertainment-Bryan-Talbot/dp/0224080768/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="838" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95_HjTk-fvS6cVPM28ahOxidOQbJic9JsNDdW6Lw5bT8mg6o6zNmmBkUa2dfABmUVT0zT8jBYVj-gQz89CBGZfJarqeAV0kR8RPYw6YJRtzk-yBHYTQyOz3LJBIvsaBCZSla4RESgiO0g/s320/9780224080767.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alice in Sunderland</i>: the inventiveness and diversity <br />
of Bryan Talbot's visual storytelling is showcased in <br />
this hugely ambitious cross-cultural history-spanning<br />
'biography' of this typically remarkable Northern city.<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Writers often talk about differences between approaching short-form fiction and the novel – do you have such distinction based on the length of a work?</b><br />
<br />
I don’t tend to write short strips but, when I do, the process is no different.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b> You are an all-round comics creator, how do your ideas generally develop – through sketches and drawings, through prose, through story... Which came first the word or the image?</b></span><br />
<br />
They come at the same time. It’s not as if I’m writing a script and then I have to imagine how to stage and draw it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Alice in Sunderland</i>… <i>The Tale of One Bad Rat</i> with its runaway from the North, in London… Do you think being ‘a northerner’ has influenced your outlook in any way?</span></b><br />
<br />
I don’t really know. I know I have a low tolerance for pretension, but that’s probably due to coming from a working-class background, rather than being Northern. I did make my early characters Northern, such as Chester P Hackenbush and Frank Fazakerly.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a creative ritual or regimen?</b></span><br />
<br />
I get up around 9 a.m, start working around 10 and work till 9 p.m, with a break for lunch and another for a brisk four-mile walk, seven days a week. My creative process, which you can probably imagine from my description of how the last two books came about, all depends upon what stage I’m at in the development of a book – whether working on ideas, writing, pencilling, inking or colouring.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Can you describe the place where you do most of your creative work, outside of your own head, that is?</b></span><br />
<br />
If you mean my studio, it’s in a large ground floor room with a bay window. There are lots of bookshelves, books in piles on the floor, a plan chest full of artwork, a drawing board, a computer area with 2 Macs, printer scanner and Wacom tablet, a large Victorian roll-top desk and a big aspidistra. The place is cluttered with a variety of junk that I’ve often used as props.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What can you see from there?</b></span><br />
<br />
If I’m at the drawing board, in the bay, I can look out onto our front garden: trees, lawn, flowers. Mary’s a keen gardener. I enjoy watching the birds that we put food out for and have a bird identification book handy.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a favourite treat or tipple?</b></span><br />
<br />
Wine. As a treat, I do enjoy a full English fry-up once every month or two. Usually we eat very healthily!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You regularly collaborate with other artists and writers – which is very usual for comics creators. But you also are an <i>auteur</i> – writing, drawing, colouring, as a solo venture, and more recently you have been collaborating closely with Mary Talbot. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dotter-Fathers-Eyes-Bryan-Talbot/dp/0224096087/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1131" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmZRiN4_2nCUV_NaKdHxASxMQAFC-VHqQ7hOsNoaxTjR7v-g4__siaNT0fjRDyzzisVIUXv25LmUIl2xikxqzYuB7OiBzj9LwkO-P5g7_AJWuYrMlB629z27f2FJGuzq3m3T_PPLAoRDV/s320/dotterofherfatherseyes.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The graphic memoir of Mary Talbot draws on parallels<br />
between her troubled relationship with her own father, a James Joyce scholar,<br />
and Joyce with his daughter Lucia... Winner of the 2012 Costa Biography Award.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Can you tell us a little bit about your motivations, both for working alone and for working with others and how that process generally works out creatively?</b><br />
<br />
I always prefer to draw my own stories. It’s satisfying and also easier, as I know exactly what the writer intends! Though, I must say, as a writer, I’m often a complete bastard to myself as artist, giving myself scenes that I know will look good, but that will be hell to draw. Crowd scenes, for example. They take ages. Commercial comics are a production line, with an editor who commissions a writer, gives the script to a penciller, who’s then inked, coloured and lettered by different people. There is often zero collaboration between the writer and artists, apart from any script instructions.<br />
<br />
The books I draw for Mary work very differently and the collaboration is extremely close. We discuss the books as she’s researching and writing them. We both have input on all aspects. I recommend script and plot changes and sometimes even supply extra dialogue, and Mary comments on the art as I’m working on it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You have been involved in British comics for some time - articles often refer to you as a 'veteran' or the 'father' of the British GN... How has the scene changed? It seems to have gained respect during your tenure, and your contribution to this shift in perception has been recognised by numerous accolades including your honorary doctorates and the recent Royal Society of Literature Fellowship...</span></b><br />
<br />
The big change has been the decline in sales of monthly and weekly comics, and the dramatic rise, in the number, range and quality of graphic novels. Also the rapid growth in the percentage of women creators, which has shot from hardly any about 40 years ago to what I now guess is 50%. Graphic novels are no longer confined to the specialist comic store niche market and are now sold in regular bookshops and every respectable literature festival now has a sizable graphic novel component.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">When did you ‘wake up’ to being a writer/creator?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’ve been writing and drawing my own comics since I was eight.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Casting your mind back, what was the first book you can remember that really grabbed you, immersed you in its world and carried you off?</b></span><br />
<br />
The <i>Rupert the Bear</i> annuals, when I was five.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>…and did they scare and 'scar you for life' as they did <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2015/10/for-hes-jolly-good-fellow-joy-of-horror.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Ramsey Campbell</span></a>?</b></span><br />
<br />
Not at all. I know the story he means, he told me all about it once!<br />
<br />
For me, it was an escape from the grimy, smoky Wigan of the 1950s where I grew up, the idyllic country setting and fantastic adventures... probably why I fell in love with the Lake District when my folks bought a caravan there and we started going up every chance we had.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">In my research I came across a mention that you had done some concept art for a screen adaptation of a story by Campbell?</span></b><br />
<br />
Yes, coincidentally enough, that was set in the Lakes. It was only a short film, about 30 minutes long I seem to remember, directed by Jon Sorenson, a cinematographer who’d worked on <i>Bladerunner</i>, among other things. I don’t think it was ever shown on TV.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have an all-time favourite book or one that you regularly return to?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’ve had books like that, but they changed over the years as my tastes have developed. I do find myself going back to Aldous Huxley once every few years.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What’s out there right now that you would recommend?</span></b><br />
<br />
Hannah Berry’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Livestock-Hannah-Berry/dp/0224097652/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Livestock</a></span></i>. Salman Rushdie’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shame-Salman-Rushdie/dp/0099578611/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Shame</a></span></i>... it’s been out for many years, but I only read it recently.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">I would expect there has been some interest in screen adaptations of your work, I mean a Graphic Novel is practically a storyboard already...</span></b><br />
<br />
I’ve sold the film option on <i>Luther Arkwright</i> a few times, but nothing’s ever come of it. At the moment, Euston Films is trying to get a TV series based on <i>Grandville</i> off the ground, ditto with a small UK production company and <i>Bad Rat</i>. I’ve been here before, though, and am not holding my breath. These things more at a glacial pace and often fall through.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is coming up from Bryan Talbot that we should look out for?</span></b><br />
<br />
I’m currently drawing Mary’s fourth graphic novel, <i>Rain</i>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Bryan Talbot!</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>Merci!</i></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Bryan Talbot </b>was talking with <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/p/writings.html" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a></b></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed reading this interview, you can... </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i><script data-coffee-color="#fff" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font-color="#000" data-font="Cookie" data-name="bmc-button" data-outline-color="#000" data-slug="RemyDean" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>for more information, news and updates: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.bryan-talbot.com/" target="_blank">Official Bryan Talbot Website</a></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>of particular interest, and well worth spending some time with, are</i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.bryan-talbot.com/grandvilledirectorscut/index.php" target="_blank">The Grandville Annotations</a></span></i><br />
<i>in which Bryan Talbot is very generous with information about</i><br />
<i>the influences and ideas </i><i>behind the epic story and artwork </i><br />
<i>- it is like a director's commentary you may </i><i>come across </i><i>on a</i><br />
<i>collectors' edition DVD for a classic film, only free and online!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>and follow his approved fan-page twitter</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="https://twitter.com/bryan_talbot" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">@Bryan_Talbot</span></a></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
You may also like:<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2015/03/peter-david-superhero-saviour.html"><b>Peter David</b>, Superhero Saviour!</a> <span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">+ </span><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2019/06/hopeless-maine-high-hopes-for-hopeless_21.html" target="_blank"><b>Tom Brown</b>, High Hopes for the Hopeless</a></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-71244429203027406782018-07-10T12:37:00.002-07:002018-07-11T04:03:27.737-07:00Re-boot Imminent <div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Watch this space for new and exclusive content up-loading this summer!</b></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>The Scrawl</i> has recently been recognised by the <a href="https://www.library.wales/" target="_blank">National Library of Wales </a>as, "having significant cultural value," and they have started to archive all our content and will provide a mirror site as part of their academic portal. <i>The Scrawl</i> was originally published as a newsstand magazine, with a small grant from the <a href="http://www.arts.wales/" target="_blank">Arts Council of Wales</a>. That was 18 years ago! It has since turned into a 'labour of love' and we are keen to restore its former glory with <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> and Kim Vertue back at the editorial helm.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i>The Scrawl</i> publishes author interviews about their creative journey, themes and process. Our editorial approach is both multi-genre and trans-media, so far we have featured literature, comics, critique, stage, screen and songwriting. Our readers share our passion for words - perhaps aspiring writers, creative writing students and fans who are looking for informative features and more serious, in-depth interviews with their favourite word-wielders.<br />
<br />
Here is baker's dozen of cool writers, just some of those we have featured so far - how many can you match with the list of names above?</div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAzD8EkRefGQgarppoWCiT9gKtL_9tamcUmuTRdTj54RLdboaHM5G5i63-gXDcN-2PIJPyOTvpnieXgLWtC4jMTCWCQr7fcKypvOu1B36xZz75BcgGAy2ICl1R2m7dPMCttyeTgSmB3z5/s1600/scrawl_bakers_dozen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAzD8EkRefGQgarppoWCiT9gKtL_9tamcUmuTRdTj54RLdboaHM5G5i63-gXDcN-2PIJPyOTvpnieXgLWtC4jMTCWCQr7fcKypvOu1B36xZz75BcgGAy2ICl1R2m7dPMCttyeTgSmB3z5/s400/scrawl_bakers_dozen.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
- </div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-91892912109898085792017-05-13T09:21:00.001-07:002017-05-15T09:10:52.067-07:00Reading the Telly - an interview with Frank Collins<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Frank Collins is best known for writing extended reviews and critiques of modern media - particularly cult television and cinema - insightful musings that take-in a much broader canvas than many of his contemporaries would attempt. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisO23x1jX6XlP_cwYhNTajNLrvNUcFH6r43pinGm5L3a_6oY2yTrNsNwStCfrakRvfb4lExIYftOJxKYUScoO_393jTSfcLDwITST9yUKZ_j2vH2hnHRCmREdPx1G9WshyczLJgvMVpEDs/s1600/frank+tardis+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisO23x1jX6XlP_cwYhNTajNLrvNUcFH6r43pinGm5L3a_6oY2yTrNsNwStCfrakRvfb4lExIYftOJxKYUScoO_393jTSfcLDwITST9yUKZ_j2vH2hnHRCmREdPx1G9WshyczLJgvMVpEDs/s320/frank+tardis+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frank Collins aboard the TARDIS</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">He is the author of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Doctor Who: The Pandorica Opens -</i> an in-depth and inspirational book exploring the worlds of the Eleventh Doctor <i style="font-weight: bold;">-</i> a regular contributor to <i style="font-weight: bold;">Frame Rated</i> and to books for Arrow Films accompanying their acclaimed specialist movie releases<i> -</i> including Bruce Robinson, Woody Allen and Hammer Films collections. He also writes for online magazines such as <i style="font-weight: bold;">Wow 24/7</i> and <i style="font-weight: bold;">MovieMail</i> and readers with an interest in cult television, and classic British cinema, may remember Frank from his influential review blog <i style="font-weight: bold;">Cathode Ray Tube</i>... <b>Frank Collins</b> talked to <b>Remy Dean</b> for <i><b>The Scrawl</b>, </i>about writing, reviewing and making wider cultural connections!</span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What does Frank think is the function, or responsibility, of the reviewer and cultural critic?</span></b><br />
<br />
If I’m reviewing anything I always try to strike a balance between praise and criticism. I couldn’t cynically rip anything to shreds and leave it at that. That isn’t my approach. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. It can be counterproductive. On the other hand, there are many reviewers out there whose humour often provides that balance and there is certainly room for all sorts of views. I always try to find something interesting to say.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>He opened a recent <i>Doctor Who</i> review with references to Italo Calvino, John Donne, Rembrandt, memory and reflection… not what may be expected from a review of a popular telly series...</b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Doctor Who</i>, like any television programme or film, isn’t perfect. Some stories work for one particular audience demographic and others don’t. The series takes risks – perhaps trying out a writer new to the format or shooting the episode in a particular style – and often it falls flat on its face. As a reviewer, I always aim to find the good in what might be perceived as a bit of a duff episode. If a story doesn’t work for me then I’ll try and constructively explain what I perceive as the faults.<br />
<br />
With all the references I use, then that’s really my own perception of that episode. The episode’s writer did not consciously or deliberately refer to Italo Calvino but the Rembrandt portrait was in the episode. For me, a certain piece of dialogue may set off cultural connections and Calvino was one of them. The Rembrandt, I believe, was included either on the part of the writer or the production designer. It was a visual comment in the background. John Donne was a metaphysical poet interested in science and there’s a lot of analysis that ties together his poetry and quantum physics, for example. So, I did a bit of research and I felt it reflected the Doctor’s role as a Renaissance figure in the story that sees the poetic rhythm of the universe. Therefore, the John Donne stuff went in.<br />
<br />
I have been - and I’m sure I always will be - criticised for seeing things in episodes that were, on the surface, never referred to, and for reading them in an ‘arty-pretentious’ manner. In the end, my way of seeing a story is in finding the wider cultural connections. The episodes don’t exist in isolation, they constantly refer to other genres and art forms and by tracing the connections, I hope I bring a different perspective to how the viewer may receive the episode.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Pandorica-Exploring-Eleventh/dp/0956100023/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_target"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlV9ZaMRnB_J4x_Ycu4WJggpIEQzPxlel0VDmmlViB_OCWKE5prdQpgvQd9UIfg9IijS8Vj0dIdrV3YwBFHffNQ2u2OvOYMV0Gl-_1r2_9v6xzdJvshHHp2Yz-hIkOztXfzYngc11h3Xm9/s320/pandorica.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frank Collins gets to know the 11th Doctor!<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">[click cover for reviews & to buy the book]</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">His extended reviews always enrich and enhance re-watches and are of great service. Recent contributions to books to accompany special DVD releases also rely on plenty of in-depth background research...</span></b><br />
<br />
Film reviewing is slightly different. Working for Arrow Video on some of their releases allows me to mix together a film’s production history – a story that may well yield interesting cultural references – with contemporary analysis. So, for example, when I was commissioned to write about the two <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Count-Yorga-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B01FCLUVJQ/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Count Yorga</span></a></i> films, I did the research on the films but I also read about the connections between the counter-culture occult scene of the late 1960s and the Manson murders because that’s the milieu in which those films were made. The essay for Arrow’s release of Woody Allen’s <span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/September-Blu-ray-Mia-Farrow/dp/B01N2TU79G/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">September</a></i></span> was again, a combination of what was available about the production history and an analysis of how the film reflected Allen’s appreciation of Chekhov, his metaphysical view of the universe and how the film embodied a number of genre tropes, particularly melodrama. It also looked at editing, shot composition and use of lighting.<br />
<br />
The wider the field of analysis is, the better for me. That’s fun research. That’s finding out about writers, artists and filmmakers, many of whom you may only know about in passing. You end up exploring an entire body of work as a result and it makes your writing that much richer.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Frank has been involved in the wider visual arts since his student days, either as practitioner or facilitator. He is a talented artist and also works as an illustrator and archaeological sketch artist – does he think that his art-training and sensibilities have influenced (and informed) his writerly engagement with (and use of) words?</span></b><br />
<br />
The best thing I ever did was to train as an artist. I may not have ended up as a professional artist but the paths I took to study for the qualification were worth it. I greedily absorbed the history of art and design and learned how to interpret art and understand an artist’s intentions without prejudice to my own taste.<br />
<br />
But beyond that, you learn how to articulate the ideas in your own practice. It is not simply a process of making the art. You need to be able to talk about your work, to transmit the ideas in it. Again, like writers, artists do not work in isolation. They accumulate references and connections and visually interpret the world around them.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFpy6dwgCTt9RW4zW7fE5o3B10TCgXuxEXK0Ink91eCexLE0Zh1brbrBQt9mly7RV9bE7O3dBR-e33iOSO9JrhyphenhyphenENH2e9xnMQpKzkU3VvgZ_OrY0TU7_dfg0OxwtLmUpS7UWwyQVjL9rE/s1600/frank+dig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFpy6dwgCTt9RW4zW7fE5o3B10TCgXuxEXK0Ink91eCexLE0Zh1brbrBQt9mly7RV9bE7O3dBR-e33iOSO9JrhyphenhyphenENH2e9xnMQpKzkU3VvgZ_OrY0TU7_dfg0OxwtLmUpS7UWwyQVjL9rE/s400/frank+dig.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Trench 4</i> - a sketch by Frank Collins recording an archaeological dig</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">When did he ‘wake-up’ to being a writer?</b><br />
<br />
My work as an artist ran the gamut from installation and photography to performance works. The latter were not random, <i>ad hoc</i> pieces. They were written as monologues and performed live. All of it leads back to words for me, whether written or spoken.<br />
<br />
If I have a ‘style’ as a writer then it was first cultivated in the monologues and poetry that went hand in hand with dissertations and catalogue statements.<br />
<br />
Prior to that, I’d dabbled with writing about telly and films and cobbled together magazines at school so that was always there in the background.<br />
<br />
My current phase as a writer started about ten years ago with the [<i><a href="http://www.cathoderaytube.co.uk/" target="_blank">Cathode Ray Tube</a></i>] blog. I realised at that point that it was much easier to get your voice out there. There were so many ways of publishing instantly and if enough people liked it you’re on to something. From that blog came the books, invites to guest review on other sites and the commissioned work.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Talking of the past, what was the first book that really grabbed him and carried him off to another place?</b></span><br />
<br />
Oddly enough, I’ve been revisiting a lot of the books I remember reading as a youngster. So, I’ve recently just re-read Philippa Pearce’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Toms-Midnight-Garden-Philippa-Pearce/dp/0192734504/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Tom’s Midnight Garden</a></span> </i>and Alan Garner’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elidor-Alan-Garner/dp/0007274785/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Elidor</a></span></i>. It’s a cliché but Terrance Dicks and his <i>Doctor Who</i> novelisations also had an immense effect on my generation. He made us read. I recently revisited his <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Doctor-Who-Auton-Invasion-Terrance-Dicks/1849901937/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion</a></span></i> novel. He is an astonishingly vivid prose writer.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been his favourite writers and what can be learned from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
Derek Jarman was a key figure. A brilliant film-maker, a poetic writer and a man unafraid to challenge the status quo during a very difficult time for the LGBT community in the 1980s. He taught me to not be afraid of being myself. His diaries are incredible and the book about his garden in Dungeness is still inspiring me. A lot of my work as an artist owed much to him and to Neil Bartlett.<br />
<br />
Bartlett was an amazing performance artist and wrote a hugely influential book about Oscar Wilde, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Was-That-Man-Mr-Oscar/dp/1852421231/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Who Was That Man?</a></span></i> that is always worth returning to. He made me aware of how much, at the time, LGBT history was hidden away and that it was a story that had to be told. He now writes wonderful novels that all seem to be about finding the truth beneath the accepted social conventions of post-war England. He unconsciously led me to Sarah Waters whose later novels come from a similar standpoint.<br />
<br />
Influences beget influences. Bowie’s cut-up method for song lyrics led me to William Burroughs and Kathy Acker. Jarman is in direct lineage to Powell and Pressburger. Hammer Horror turned me on to folk-horror like <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/DVD-Blu-ray/Witchfinder-General-Digitally-Remastered-Special-Vincent-Price/B005OWGRYM/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>Witchfinder General</i> </a></span>and then to writers like David Rudkin. Genet took me to John Rechy and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This just scratches the surface. We are all built out of such influences and connections. And they are there to be used.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">...but is there a favourite book or one that he has returned to more than a few times?</span></b><br />
<br />
Bram Stoker’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dracula-Bram-Stoker-x/dp/1503261387/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Dracula</a></span></i>. That’s ground zero for me. I first read that when I was about 14. I’ve still got the edition I bought then. It’s falling to pieces. From that book radiates my interest in the whole horror genre and beyond. I wouldn’t say Stoker was a 'good writer' but <i>Dracula</i>’s influence is enormous. It spurred me on to Poe, M R James, Algernon Blackwood, Robert Aikman.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>In addition to being both insightful and eloquent, Frank is a prolific writer and is capable of structuring long-read pieces that remain fascinating, entertaining and informative throughout. Does he have a preferred writing approach, method or regimen?</b></span><br />
<br />
Find the angle. Once you’ve got that you can get started and build around it. If I’m doing a film piece then it usually starts with the research. I might find a wonderful anecdote or story and then I’ll start with that and work back and forth. For <a href="http://www.framerated.co.uk/john-hurt-imaginations-victim/" target="_blank">a tribute I did on <span style="font-size: large;">John Hurt</span></a> a few months ago, it started with an anecdote where he described his choice of work as him being the victim of his own imagination. That was the springboard to talking about the types of characters he played.<br />
<br />
An image can often give you the opening to a piece. If something strikes you instantly then start there and work outwards.<br />
<br />
I tend to collate all my research and then start to assemble based on that. It’s often about trying to create a narrative. So it may start with a good quote about a film or an interesting anecdote. Then, I’ll construct a history of the film or the director and finally I’ll find a jumping off point to put across my view of the film in context with a particular genre or era.<br />
<br />
For pieces with longer deadlines I do all the research up-front. I’m just in the middle of researching <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Naked-Civil-Servant-Blu-ray/dp/B06VY8ZVHP/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Naked Civil Servant</a></span></i>, the television film about Quentin Crisp. I won’t start writing until a few weeks before the deadline and then I’ll do that over a couple of weekends. I used to be able to write late at night but I don’t have the inclination now to do that and I’m very much reduced to writing at weekends because I work full-time.<br />
<br />
The <i>Doctor Who</i> reviews are done straight off the mark on Sunday morning. The last one took all day Sunday writing solidly from about ten in the morning to about five in the afternoon. There’s some pressure to get those done, as the sooner they’re posted, the better, but I’ll keep refining those until the last minute. With those reviews the episode’s theme and ideas are usually the initial spark but I can get side-tracked by researching something. Last time, I ended up digging through a lot of analysis of Rembrandt’s portraiture.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is the beverage of choice when writing and being creative?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m always fuelled by too much tea and coffee.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">...and what is the view like from his usual writing space?</span></b><br />
<br />
The garden. It took me ten years to get round to actually creating a garden at our current home but I finally turned the disintegrating tarmac and weeds into a gravel garden last summer. Gradually, it’s filling up with plants and flowers and it’s lovely watching everything you planted a year ago emerge. If I get really stuck writing I’ll nip out and have a wander for ten minutes.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>So, what advice can he share with all those ‘fan-boys-and-girls’ who may envy his position as a leading commentator on all things cult and cultural?</b></span><br />
<br />
You have nothing to be envious of. I don’t consider myself special at all. I do a lot of work for free and rarely get paid, so if you really want to be in my position then that’s the reality. When you do get paid that’s when you realise that just perhaps you might be quite good. I don’t like working for free but that’s the nature of the beast.<br />
<br />
You have to want to do it. I must really want to write because despite the ups and down I still do it. So, if you want to write about films and telly and you think you have a particular voice you would like to share then just go and do it. The hard work is getting people to read it and to build an audience.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Thank you very much, Frank!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Frank Collins</span> was talking with<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"> Remy Dean</a></span></b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You can read all of Frank's contributions to <a href="http://www.framerated.co.uk/author/frankcollins/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Frame Rated</span> here</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Check-out a wide variety of past projects on his <a href="http://absolutelyfrank.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">tumblr</span> pages</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>For news, updates and 'asides', follow Frank on twitter <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://twitter.com/cathoderaytube" target="_blank">@CathodeRayTube</a></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>...and check-out the (now mainly archival) blog <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.cathoderaytube.co.uk/" target="_blank">Cathode Ray Tube</a> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>-<i> "the quintessence of British Pop Culture blogs"</i></b></span></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-3129872931138968672017-03-14T02:46:00.000-07:002017-05-13T09:52:08.313-07:00Culture and Cruelty - an interview with Iain (M) Banks from The Scrawl archive<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>It is 30 years since the groundbreaking epic science fiction saga of The Culture began with </i>Consider Phlebas<i> and went on to span ten volumes. Three years prior to that, Ian Banks' debut novel, </i>The Wasp Factory<i>, had shaken up the literary scene and left an indelible mark on a generation of readers (and writers). The time seems right to delve into </i>The Scrawl<i> archives and share our interview with the late, great Ian (M) Banks, conducted during 1998 (between </i>Excession <i>and </i>Inversions<i>)...</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDr9HW7QiwpDHNXWRR5jp2mbTsnSZHIaUGbwq9P23cn5XW18WQl-LXIZcDu6ywLMdKOu-ieXwW66lhlkajEOI4frSUg8kMwG88XZV54RZ2orXZBcYiSFVP0BP4Q0_D0uryhqjysCoHGGku/s1600/Iain-Banks-in-1999-014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDr9HW7QiwpDHNXWRR5jp2mbTsnSZHIaUGbwq9P23cn5XW18WQl-LXIZcDu6ywLMdKOu-ieXwW66lhlkajEOI4frSUg8kMwG88XZV54RZ2orXZBcYiSFVP0BP4Q0_D0uryhqjysCoHGGku/s400/Iain-Banks-in-1999-014.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iain Banks in a publicity photo for <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bridge-Iain-Banks-x/dp/0349139210/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">The Bridge</span></a></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>One of the UK's most wildly imaginative authors talks to </i>Scrawl <i>about sex, space and smugness...</i></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Iain Menzies Banks is Scottish. He was born and raised in and around Dunfermline, Fife, educated at Sterling University. Along with fellow Scot, Irvin Welsh, Banks has become known as one of the most startling of modern British writers. Scotland seems to be producing more than its fair share of literary talent and recently that talent has began to make a notable impact on British SF, with Iain M Banks and Ken MacLeod pushing the vanguard. Is there something north of the border responsible for this top-heavy distribution of word-wielding talents?</span><br />
<br />
‘I think it’s mainly just coincidence,’<span style="color: #38761d;"> Iain conceded,</span> ‘But it is true that a good proportion of good British writers are Scottish... A cultural divide does exist and most English people don't understand the breadth of it. Writers in that situation develop a different voice and are more determined to express it.<br />
<br />
‘I think Alasdair Gray’s <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lanark-Life-Four-Books-Canons/dp/1782117148/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Lanark</span></a></i> is a landmark - the best Scottish novel this century! Scotland has been producing more than its fair share, in terms of literature, ever since - we’re just ten per cent of the UK, but we've got more than ten per cent of the best writers...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">His first novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wasp-Factory-Iain-Banks/dp/0349139180/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Wasp Factory</span></a></i>, after causing a furore in the literary world on its publication in 1984, is now held as an iconic modern novel. In much the same way as Irvin Welsh’s <i>Trainspotting</i>, <i>The Wasp Factory</i> is held up as a ‘yardstick’ - new books are often promoted as ‘the best since,’ or heralded as ‘a W<i>asp Factory</i> for the nineties,’ and so on... It was a provocative and stunning debut and certainly made the name of Iain Banks instantly famous and infamous, was it a battle to bring it to print?</span><br />
<br />
‘It was rejected by six of the big publishers...’<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wasp-Factory-Iain-Banks/dp/0349139180/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCirzrO-uhGNjtAnrPxt8Z5CV16tqgixofbBDwbu1ty9SumV7fnA_Czq9zVqOtQr8VQkq82zXpJVeVVT2aWvNk3fz668ITVJkk-es7zirUX1RgUhek2Z1jC2t4vyD3lflAhEhyphenhyphen3cyOcZ8/s320/wasp+factory.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Wasp Factory</i> - a stunning debut!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Although it was the first Iain Banks novel to see publication, it was not the first he had completed...</span><br />
<br />
‘I’d written about five novels before <i>The Wasp Factory</i> was published, but I’d written three or four before that one, mainly science fiction. Two of those novels were eventually published as part of the Culture series, one of them being <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002TXZSQC/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Use Of Weapons</a></span></i>, partly due to some intervention from Ken MacLeod.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The Culture is a broad concept that links the bulk of Banks’ widely read and acclaimed SF output. It is a vast intelligent culture of sentient machines, including giant living space vessels, which have become so advanced that they have exceeded the full understanding of humans and now look after the human population in a cosmos-spanning, multi-cultural future society... Is this a future that Iain thinks we may be heading towards, and would that be a good thing?</span><br />
<br />
‘Is the Culture a possible future...’ <span style="color: #38761d;">Iain mused,</span> ‘Probably, eventually, but not for us. It will be the future for another species perhaps, different from us as we are today. We’re too tied up in bigotry, hatred, war, economics, oppression, competition... The Culture would only work with people who are nicer than us - less prone to violence and genocide. Perhaps aggression is necessary to achieve sentience, consciousness, space travel, and we don't know if we're a particularly violent species or a relatively mild one compared to others out there...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Iain had stated that he would want to be in the Contact division, which is the section of the Culture that would deal with First Contact scenarios...</span><br />
<br />
‘Contact is the most interesting bit - the Culture’s saving grace - and joining it is about the only ambition available within the Culture. Because not everyone qualifies for Contact - whereas the Culture goes out of its way to accommodate nearly everybody, even those who don’t like it...’<br />
<br />
‘The Culture is my vision of exactly the place I would like to live. I can’t imagine a better place - it’s a utopian society.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Some readers have criticised the Culture for being 'too smug'...</span><br />
<br />
‘It knows it's smug. The price of perfection, I'm afraid. It’s smugness is one of its best points!’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">It has been suggested that the Culture should be destroyed, because it is too perfect.</span><br />
<br />
‘I can understand that urge. As a boy, I used to enjoy building dams in the sand on the beach, irrigation channels and little castles, and of course the real fun was knocking them down or watching them fall as the tide came in...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Would he ever take notice of such reader feedback and compromise in any way?</span><br />
<br />
‘No - I write what I enjoy and even I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. I let it flow and the plot takes control... I started out writing <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Excession-Iain-M-Banks/dp/185723457X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Excession</span></a></i> with the idea of destroying the Culture and it could have gone that way. There is an element in the story which could have initiated its downfall and if the plot had wrestled the book from me and it had gone that way, I would have let it - I would have destroyed the Culture... It happened to turn the other way.'<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Excession-Iain-M-Banks/dp/185723457X/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMR68avZcfqC3GD9Sxm9SV8dL4VR2k3EV2x-D0nevgQ4yi_xgz-A5A5gM_8ZZFurrxKUTEMWsLeut_9blojGFbVFaL_P49MaCusf9Aag-ysfwqIYkeyQupC1FVDxVmyZWqqK9UeqrAQiq/s320/Excession.jpg" width="202" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Culture continues...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">So are there any more Culture novels in the pipeline?</span><br />
<br />
‘Out of my current four book deal, at least one of them will be a Culture novel...’<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Does Banks have a writing ritual or regimen?</span><br />
<br />
‘Oh, I’m very strict with myself... During the summer months I have fun and think about books and I find myself looking forward to the time of year when nights draw in and the weather turns bad... I write nine to five, every day during the darker winter months, and often into the night also. I write directly into an AppleMac. Listening to Radio 1, usually, though I always have a CD cued up and ready to go also. I enjoy music very much.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Does the genre-hopping, from SF to 'mainstream' and back, cause any problems from publishers or marketing departments?</span><br />
<br />
‘Not at all. I think, perhaps, I don’t get nominated for science fiction awards because they think I’ll get them for my other books and the people giving out the mainstream awards think I’m a science fiction writer, so I’ll get awards in that category. But no pressure at all to write one kind of book over another.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Are Iain's novels primarily driven by their themes, or their narrative?</span><br />
<br />
‘I don’t really think about it. I would never try to work out how I write, I write because I enjoy it. I just let it come to me and go with the flow. Sometimes I don’t know if a book is going to be science fiction or not, I just start out with a bunch of ideas and run with them...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">One theme that seems prominent throughout Iain's mainstream and SF novels is that of gender identity. Of course, this is a central motif in <i>The Wasp Factory</i>, then in <i>Excession</i> we have the concept of both sexes being able to become pregnant, Whit is told from the first person point of view of a female and <i>Song Of Stone</i> is told in the male first person. There is a strong element of sexual discovery and the formation of gender identity running through the flashbacks in <i>Complicity</i>... Is this a personal fascination that asserts itself or is it an intentional exploration of these ideas?</span><br />
<br />
‘I can recall when "Women’s Lib" was in the news - before it became "Feminism"... It made a big impact at the time I was being brought up. Then, the media portrayal of women was very clear cut and gender roles were set out for you.<br />
<br />
‘When I was a child, I remember noticing that women in films couldn’t run unless the male hero placed his hand in the small of their backs and kinda pushed them along, as if this was what made them go. And if the plot demanded that the villains caught them, then it was the woman who fell over or sprained an ankle and the man had to stay in order to protect her. So you thought you had it all worked out and the difference between men and women was very clear cut... Then you realised that perhaps it wasn’t true - in fact it was all nonsense.<br />
<br />
‘So it is something that fascinates me, to this day, and I am aware of it. It is a theme that runs through my writing, intentionally, but it’s not the major theme and I wouldn’t like to think that readers see that as one of the most important themes. I think the more important element is humanism and the definition of the individual.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The treatment of male pregnancy in <i>Excession</i> implies that personality defines gender more than physical attributes...</span><br />
<br />
‘I think there are definite male and female aspects to personality that define gender more than the outward appearance - though I wouldn’t like to say what they are...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Another recurring trait is the often extreme cruelty in his novels... Is that due to some dark subconscious tendencies or is it a reaction against the happy ending cliché</span>?<br />
<br />
‘Well I certainly wouldn’t want to be a character in one of my own novels! But is it due to something in the murky depths of my subconscious? God, I hope not! I think it’s more to do with avoiding the cliché and making things a bit more unpredictable.<br />
<br />
‘Many people seemed to think that <i>The Wasp Factory </i>was horrendous and pretty bleak, but I actually thought it had a happy ending and was an upbeat sort of book.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">In <i>Complicity</i>, after you get to know the central character and quite like the guy... Banks gives him cancer when it has nothing directly to do with the plot...</span><br />
<br />
‘Well, he’s not dead, he has cancer. It up to the reader to be pessimistic or optimistic about the outcome of that. Otherwise I think that’s also an upbeat book.’<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complicity-Iain-Banks/dp/034913913X/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXXNM_aIUPDtEXCwjPY_ez-uvkme4m1R06ksMa4F26gn-Ijk841ZyEHscxe7EWo_nOZkC05DcVPyQ-RFa6tA1qnBBwWV1cwOu6RXkChv1QqIl2jYrUx33yDpZ7IGkQM7I1_UYFay2MOnrD/s320/IainBanksComplicityEarly.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Complicity</i> was adapted for the screen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Stone-Iain-Banks/dp/0349139261/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Song Of Stone</span></a></i><span style="color: #38761d;">, seemed to be a bit of a departure, quite a gentle read, all very lyrical except for the regular interruption of the short sharp set-pieces of blunt brutality and violence...</span><br />
<br />
‘Gentle!? It’s horribly violent! The whole book is about the lead character’s inability to affect his own destiny - he has no outward control and cannot seem to change anything. He’s just swept along by events. And all he can do is think. His mind is his only freedom, and the language he uses tends to be overly flowery in parts, because all he can do is try to prettify the horrible things that are happening around him - try to make something beautiful out of them in his own mind. He does this by retreating into his thoughts and seeing things in this rather flowery fashion...<br />
<br />
‘If you're writing from the point of view of someone who doesn't share your own beliefs it makes you think, you start to question your own beliefs and that's always a progressive and good thing to do.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The science in the Culture novels seems convincing and the whole vision of the future is well filled-out and holistic, are you aware of the science facts behind the fiction?</span><br />
<br />
‘I read <i>New Scientist</i> and that's about it. As little research as possible! A lot of my research is just reading other people's SF and nicking their good ideas! I never let it get in the way of a good story.<br />
<br />
‘I'm not really introducing any new absurdities, just taking up old ones. But you read <i>New Scientist</i>, and you see stuff which may imply that hyperspace and faster-than-light travel aren't as absurd as all that. They’re not possible right now, but for scientists to say that we’ll never travel faster than light is just as daft as saying we’ll never get into space - which people were saying only a few decades ago...’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">...The Wright Brothers stated that flight was possible, but not in their life time. Then, the very next year, they achieved the first flight in the Kittyhawk ...Does banks really think we’ll find life out there?</span><br />
<br />
‘There is life out there. If there isn't, I'd find that thought incredibly worrying... But we wouldn't know about it, unless they wanted us to.’<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">So cruelty and existential angst aside, would Iain Banks describe his own overall outlook as optimistic or pessimistic?</span><br />
<br />
‘Optimistic. I’m a long-term optimist.’<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_FhePLpo3sIuzn4aG4jhqoiicv_onQtdlFV5RlnNXtGK0v3byilVpYyZVWkMv7LtyUQT207xuZpcfO2iIsJ0xuQbKWai7JO_KQ4kG_SoMiRL5HnmVVpKVw593Rk6Knqmd5CV_mM6Zzl9/s1600/iain-banks-rip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_FhePLpo3sIuzn4aG4jhqoiicv_onQtdlFV5RlnNXtGK0v3byilVpYyZVWkMv7LtyUQT207xuZpcfO2iIsJ0xuQbKWai7JO_KQ4kG_SoMiRL5HnmVVpKVw593Rk6Knqmd5CV_mM6Zzl9/s400/iain-banks-rip.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's to you Iain Banks - fondly remembered by legions of fans, <br />
he lives on in his many words... and in many worlds.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Filming for the cinema adaptation of <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complicity-DVD-Jonny-Lee-Miller/dp/B00004TITO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Complicity</span></a></i> was completed during 1999. The novel has been adapted for the screen by Bryan Elsley and directed by Gavin Millar, the team also responsible for the screen adaptation of <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crow-Road-DVD-Joe-McFadden/dp/B0002VF5DY/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Crow Road</a></span></i>, which, in the opinion of Iain Banks, was </span>‘Excellent’<span style="color: #38761d;">. Gavin Millar has a long and distinguished directorial career, which includes the, also excellent, adaptation of Dennis Potter’s <i>Dreamchild</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Complicity</i> was filmed on location in and around Edinburgh and stars Jonny Lee Miller, who played ‘Sick Boy’ in <i>Trainspotting</i> and ‘Crash Override’ in <i>Hackers</i> - Jason Hetherington, who among other roles, appeared with the late Jeremy Brett in <i>Sherlock Holmes: The Last Vampyre</i> - and Rachael Stirling, who can be seen in the movie, <i>Still Crazy</i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>Iain Banks</b> was talking with <b><a href="https://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span></a></b></i></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-91901262003381573712016-12-17T10:30:00.000-08:002017-01-22T10:35:01.345-08:00Strange Changes: an interview with Lu Hersey<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Lu Hersey's debut novel, <i>Deep Water</i>, won the <i>MsLexia</i> 2012 Children's Novel Writing Award, in advance of its publication, and has since been well-received by readers and critics. The story is inspired by Celtic mythology and teenage transitional angst, both embodied by its protagonist Danni, a teenage girl with a fairly unremarkable background who is unaware of a fairly remarkable secret about her past. The story starts with a mysterious disappearance and appears to be a crime drama, then a creeping strangeness begins to pervade events as Danni deals with changes - both internal and external. Lu Hersey talks to <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> about her inspirations and approaches to writing contemporary magical realism for the youth of today...</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZ0XggbP8Uk7QcF678vT4SFodrtbUCX6xcRUD_w3hImt6C9AOMpNtZw7i3C_fy550KGFQR_N-CO5n3jzZec0EPNTsOCR4PoCQaYsAekRVmXopeqSY5ouZX-Thg7SmVsgUHzuklaVrAllP/s1600/IMG_1058.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZ0XggbP8Uk7QcF678vT4SFodrtbUCX6xcRUD_w3hImt6C9AOMpNtZw7i3C_fy550KGFQR_N-CO5n3jzZec0EPNTsOCR4PoCQaYsAekRVmXopeqSY5ouZX-Thg7SmVsgUHzuklaVrAllP/s400/IMG_1058.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lu Hersey, rooted in the past, looking to the future...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>Deep Water</i> has been described as a cross between <i>The Wicker Man</i> and Susan Cooper – would you say it falls within the ‘Folk Horror’ genre?</b></span><br />
<br />
The story has a strong folkloric element, certainly, but I’ve never thought of it as horror. I’d describe it more as ‘kitchen sink paranormal’, if such a genre exists! However, I’m immensely flattered to have any comparison with Susan Cooper, and I guess there’s a fair bit of <i>Wicker Man</i> type stuff going on in the background too… Maybe it’s ‘Folk Horror’ after all and I just didn’t realise it?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You open <i>Deep Water</i> with a quote from Joseph Campbell - I teach A-Level Media Studies and we look at his Hero’s Journey ideas in relation to narrative structures.</b></span><br />
<br />
Joseph Campbell is one of my heroes – though it was only after I’d written the book that I realised <i>Deep Water</i> fitted neatly into the twelve-point Hero’s Journey narrative structure!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What did you learn from him and how did you apply it?</b></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
When writing, I was actually more inspired by Campbell’s theory that we - as in the human race - created myths to explain things we don’t fully understand, but ‘know’ deep in our subconscious. I was also very drawn to his - and Jung’s - ideas on universal archetypes, and wanted to use the shapeshifter archetype as an extended metaphor for the changes everyone experiences in adolescence - Danni transforming to her selkie form reflects the massive physical and emotional changes all teens experience in puberty…<br />
<br />
This is beginning to sound strangely like I had a master plan and knew what I was doing! The truth is I’ve always loved the selkie myth and just wanted to explore ways to bring it into a contemporary setting.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why do you think contemporary teenagers are still interested in old folklore and myths?</b></span><br />
<br />
I think teenagers are drawn to stories that explore all things dark and inexplicable, and of course many myths do exactly that. Campbell felt it was important to keep myths alive, while adapting them to suit the times we live in, and I think he’s right. There are some brilliant takes on ancient myth coming out right now. <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferryman-Claire-McFall/dp/1848779631/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Claire Mcfall’s <i><span style="font-size: large;">Ferryman</span></i></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Otherlife-Julia-Gray/dp/1783444223/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Julia Gray’s <i><span style="font-size: large;">The Otherlife</span></i></a>, for starters…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What were you reading when you were the age of your readership?</b></span><br />
<br />
I read loads of different stuff, like most teenagers, ranging from Dickens to Marvel comics. But I was really drawn to writers like Tolkien, Alan Garner and Susan Cooper – and my all time favourite, Ursula Le Guin.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite authors, and what makes them stand out to you?</b></span><br />
<br />
That’s a really tough question! To make it simpler, I’ll stick with favourite authors of teen and children’s books…<br />
<br />
Most recently I’ve particularly enjoyed books by <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Maresi-Red-Abbey-Chronicles/1782690913/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Maria Turtschaninoff</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=S+F+Said" target="_blank">S F Said</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Suzanne+Collins&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3ASuzanne+Collins" target="_blank">Suzanne Collins</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Sign-One-1-Eugene-Lambert/1405277351/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Eugene Lambert</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=David+Hofmeyr" target="_blank">David Hofmeyr</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Julie+Bertagna&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3AJulie+Bertagna" target="_blank">Julie Bertagna</a> - all very different, but each with the ability to create amazing worlds that you can totally believe in.<br />
<br />
I also love the work of <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Sara+Crowe&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3ASara+Crowe" target="_blank">Sara Crowe</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Holly+Black&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3AHolly+Black" target="_blank">Holly Black</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crow-Moon-Book/dp/1848669577/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Anna McKerrow</a> - weaving folklore and magic into their writing in a really engaging way. And I can’t possibly compile a list of favourite authors that doesn’t include David Almond, J K Rowling, Frances Hardinge and Neil Gaiman…<br />
<br />
Outside fantasy and SF genres, I love writers who create beautifully written, gripping stories with characters you can really relate to, such as Liz Flanagan with Eden Summer, Fox Benwell - writing as Sarah Benwell - with<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Last-Leaves-Falling-Sarah-Benwell/1909531227/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"> <span style="font-size: large;">Last Leaves Falling</span></a>, and Clare Furniss with <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Year-Rat-Clare-Furniss/dp/1471120287/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Year of the Rat</span></a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Water-Lu-Hersey/dp/1409586103/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmMUXPMKpiXbYOdYBeVQlVSlTCC-RTRmlqbmodDFv0o4Q5SUAz9UFvbPycuwzjXggMr1hfWC1A1FogeQA4olscU2g-fl1vAEPw6QPI8iXAvOK7H3yXZN1pd76oSSsnkpw_5mkb2EzHqvv/s320/dwlu.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
<b style="color: #38761d;"><i>Deep Water</i> is your debut novel and was remarkably well-received – how has this affected your attitude to writing and your approach to the follow-up, <i>Broken Ground</i>?</b><br />
<br />
In some ways it’s given me the confidence to believe I’ve done it once, so surely I can do it again – though on a bad day I get terrible impostor syndrome and think maybe everyone made a big mistake…<br />
<br />
I still haven’t completely finished my next book, <i>Broken Ground</i> - I must be on at least draft ten, by now! I honestly have no idea if anyone will like it when I’ve finished. I hope so…<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Can you tell us about your writing process, do you have a regular regimen?</span></b><br />
<br />
If only! I have a day-job working in a library, so writing time is limited and should be well structured - but of course it isn’t. Some weeks I’m compelled to write and manage 2000 words a day, then other times I struggle to get 300 words out in a week. I can’t do this thing of ‘just sit down and write, it doesn’t matter so long as you’re writing’ - it matters to me. What’s the point of writing 5000 words of total drivel? I’m hard on myself and edit constantly as I go along, even though I know it would be sensible to write a complete draft, however crap, and edit later.<br />
<br />
I try and plan the whole book at the beginning, but that doesn’t entirely work either. The characters have a life of their own and take the plot away from the plan all the time - but I still find it useful to have an idea of what happens. I always know the beginning and the end, but the middle morphs and changes a lot.<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Research seems to play an important part?</span></b><br />
<br />
Yes, I’m nerdy about getting detail right, so I do a lot of research into all aspects of the story. Landscape, myth, history, folklore, magic…<br />
<br />
Some of my research is probably just procrastination, especially stuff like compiling images on Pinterest - which I<i> love</i> - but a fair amount feeds into my subconscious and I weave it into the story later.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>As an editor of <i>The Scrawl</i>, I was aware of a deficit of female writers in our content, but with this year’s overarching focus on YA fantasy authors, we seem to be redressing the balance… Historically, there have been Edith Nesbit, Philippa Pearce, Susan Cooper. Angela Carter, Tanith Lee… I suppose we could start the list with Mary Shelley! And now we have the likes of J K Rowling, <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/angie-sage-magnificent-seven.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Angie Sage</span></a>, Stephenie Meyer, to name but a very few. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I want to ask about your thoughts on gender and fantasy – do you perceive a difference in masculine and feminine approaches to the genre?</b></span><br />
<br />
Yes, sometimes - but not always. If the author name wasn’t on the cover, could you guess the gender of the writer? It’s a very interesting exercise to read manuscripts without knowing. I help sift short stories for the Bristol Short Story Prize, where all entries are anonymous (the writer is allotted a number), and I can often correctly guess the gender of the writer – but sometimes I’m totally surprised. I think this transfers to all forms of writing, including fantasy/SF genres.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Obviously, winning the <i><a href="https://mslexia.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">MsLexia</span></a></i> award must have been a thrill and is of course a notable achievement - it is what drew you to our attention. I am reminded of Georgia O’Keeffe’s comment about being called, “the best woman painter,” by a critic, and being offended by this differentiation. </b></span><b style="color: #38761d;">I know this could be provocative, but by ‘compete’ I also imply that fair competition requires a ‘level playing field’ to start with - so, d</b><b style="color: #38761d;">oes excluding male writers from the running simply acknowledge that women are unable to compete with male counterparts? </b><br />
<br />
I don’t think it’s about women not being able to compete with male counterparts - it’s more a confidence issue. Women often perceive themselves as somehow not good enough - even when they obviously are - and might not even consider entering a competition where they don’t think they stand a chance. For the same reason, you find most creative writing MA courses, or similar, have far more women students than men. Men generally believe in themselves and their abilities more than women do. Hopefully this will change over time. <br />
<br />
And having said all of that, of course I wish that the competition had been open to everyone and that I’d won it anyway…<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>When did you know you were a writer? …and why did you pursue an MA?</b></span><br />
<br />
I realised I was - potentially - a writer at primary school, when I found it much easier than other children in the class to write the script for the school play - it was only a puppet theatre thing. I loved writing the dialogue, and was genuinely surprised that no one else seemed to find it that easy.<br />
<br />
Years later, I worked as an advertising copywriter, and although it paid reasonably well, it felt a bit like a Faustian pact, using my writing soul just to help sell stuff no one really needs. Writing commercial content for Tesco and similar companies wasn’t what I wanted to write at all, but I couldn’t see a way out. In the end I decided that in order to change direction and write a novel - which I’d always wanted to do, I had to give myself a really expensive deadline to force myself to do it - so I applied for the Creative Writing for Young People MA at Bath Spa. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Which reminds me, I should have included <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Julia+Green" target="_blank">Julia Green</a>, the wonderful course leader, in my favourite writers! Great stories, really beautifully written.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>As a relatively ‘new novelist’, what advice would you share with aspiring writers of YA fantasy?</b></span><br />
<br />
Possibly the same advice I’d give to any new writer, whatever the genre – that it’s really worth getting good quality feedback from an early stage. It’s a long, difficult road to publication and once you’ve got going, writing courses, such as those run by the Arvon Foundation or the Golden Egg Academy, are invaluable for improving your writing, finding inspiration, and meeting other writers.<br />
<br />
If possible, do an MA in creative writing! At the very least, find a critique group that will be honest about your writing and where it needs improving. You don’t always have to take the advice, but working in a vacuum isn’t easy.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>Thank you Lu Hersey for your considered responses</b></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><i><b>Lu Hersey</b> was talking with <a href="https://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span></a></i></i></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">More info and updates at <a href="https://luwrites.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Lu Hersey's own weblog</span></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deep-Water-Lu-Hersey/dp/1409586103/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjC_ep8Q0roCghIpiPHAzmTCpdU672UmojqAbTiSnsb4ocNWpDI7CmVTAb8zhn1uOBJFN_S9s7MB8kjbDOTvInE2cDShjSnFEq5dI7L0jlUEyEyt9mn33EyKVIx7XaH5PxQSsSRTlAyVv4/s640/image001.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-87990200634070640292016-10-28T13:03:00.002-07:002020-09-29T03:48:59.657-07:00Jonathan Stroud, Free Thinker<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Jonathan Stroud is one of the UK's foremost writers of fantasy and supernatural fiction, for younger adults. Actually, that last bit is redundant. He is one of the leading voices in fantasy and supernatural fiction. Full stop. Since his debut novel in 1999, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buried-Fire-Jonathan-Stroud/dp/0552573205/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Buried Fire</a></span></i>, he has created two well-loved and successful books series: the epic <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amulet-Samarkand-Bartimaeus-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B0052Z3HUS/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Bartimaeus Sequence</a></span></i> of four books (so far) - following the millennia-spanning escapades of an ancient, wise-cracking djinni, and the <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lockwood-Co-Screaming-Staircase-Book/dp/0552566780/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Lockwood & Co</a></span>.</i> series - about a ghost- and ghoul-hunting hero in a parallel paranormal version of Britain. What sets his stories aside is an easy, yet solid and well-paced style, along with consistently intriguing content born of a sophisticated imagination. There is always adventure, plenty of action, and genuine 'laugh-out-loud' moments of humour. </span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSaT1LRaTNIS5XpE6W7nJrD8iUzQCrmW4k-zyO6vFuzu4gNkHjE8PXXCEk5dbCNa9Ukid7k0Uk8xDbcdLbDDsvmwFvhAKCHTm2bo5bUTtdoJbBwvVRfGF3gd1Z-T51fMKeRR7pEO8mUOL/s1600/Jonathan+Stroud+B.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSaT1LRaTNIS5XpE6W7nJrD8iUzQCrmW4k-zyO6vFuzu4gNkHjE8PXXCEk5dbCNa9Ukid7k0Uk8xDbcdLbDDsvmwFvhAKCHTm2bo5bUTtdoJbBwvVRfGF3gd1Z-T51fMKeRR7pEO8mUOL/s400/Jonathan+Stroud+B.jpg" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Stroud</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><b><span style="color: #38761d;">With Halloween upon us, Jonathan Stroud talks to <a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> about writing and other forms of magic, as well as parenting and allowing children the Freedom to Think... </span></b></i><br />
<br />
REMY:<span style="color: #38761d;"><b> I have been a creative arts lecturer to young adults in the 14 – 19 age range, for 16 years, and a father for 11 years... I have witnessed education veering away from any emphasis on creativity it may have once had. Creative subjects have become much more criteria-based to enable educationalists with dominant left-hemispheres to test and quantify creatives with highly functioning right-hemispheres.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>With the introduction of tests for our children from 6 upwards - we now test and grade our children more than any other country. SATs for 11-year-olds are getting tougher and the level and density of A-Level content has increased dramatically. It seems to me that education is not only geared to emphasise non-creative subjects and actively suppress creative ones - the recent axing of Art History is a case-in-point, but also to create low self-esteem through early and repeated failure - and so discourage the pursuit of further and higher education, without mentioning the fees, loans, and so on…</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Can you tell us a little bit about the ‘Freedom to Think’ initiative and how it fits into, compliments or challenges this contemporary model of education?</b></span><br />
<br />
JONATHAN: My recent experience of education is from the outside, watching my two oldest children - currently 12 and 9 - as they seek to balance the demands of school with their own creative impulses. Already, they’re having to wrestle with homework, exams and tests, and I can see how these threaten to overwhelm their energies - at times you can see their creative verve wilting… though it always reasserts itself. As a parent I’m torn between wanting them to do well academically, and being determined to keep their creative fire alive.<br />
<br />
My own career as an author has its roots in the writing, drawing. imagining that I did throughout my schooldays. I managed to sustain my creativity alongside all the academic work, but I think the pressures on children have increased markedly since. Freedom to Think is a response to this: it doesn’t in itself seek to overturn contemporary trends in education, but it does aim to promote the idea of a regular ‘breathing space’ for children, a time when they can drift, let their minds wander and (if they wish) follow their own creative paths. It’s in such moments that you are most likely to discover what really excites you, and thus who you really are.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://freedomtothinksite.tumblr.com/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie4hO33M6XI3yZWKAFkEI6wPdyg2lgYmuNDwFIsu1DhCqSLyj4fKatUopdpg2Fltid0n8Z16Qt3ZS4Ed9IVZVKnAKNLGKgzsF4DLdc9N_wcKtQVKLy18lctUkau3CeMW4luu4-SSEUKHuI/s400/stroud_think_talk.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Stroud talking about 'Freedom to Think' at the Oxford Literary Festival,<br />
earlier this year - click image for more info and another interview with Jonathan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Whist on the subject of parenting… how has being a father changed you - as a man and as a writer? How do you find the time, for one thing?</b><br />
<br />
<i>Ha ha! </i>Time is certainly the most precious commodity for all writers, and having a newish small baby doesn’t exactly help… but that’s more than counterbalanced by the sudden opening up of new perspectives – on the world in general, and on you and your role in it. When you become a father you suddenly understand your own parents more clearly; you have a sudden revelation about your own mortality, and, to balance that, how parenthood is the nearest you’ll ever get to ensuring your own immortality. Profound stuff, if you can stomach the 5 a.m. awakenings…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Evidently, all those present enjoyed the panel you hosted at the Oxford Literary Festival earlier this year, where you encouraged your guests to talk about their approach to writing, though you did not discuss your own… I realise you have already been generous with such info on your website - particularly the origins of Bartimaeus. Do you have any writing rituals or regimen and have they changed with success?</b></span><br />
<br />
I think being a successful writer - as with many jobs generally - relies on establishing a regular, predictable work pattern, in which you know what is required of you and you more or less force yourself to do it. Since going freelance 14 years ago, I’ve attempted to write a certain number of pages per day when I’m in the throes of a book. I usually fail, but the attempt galvanises me, and ensures a steady output. My own environment is incredibly tedious – study, silence, cups of tea, the minimum of distraction. All the excitement happens on the page.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What would you say were the main considerations when writing for a Young Adult audience and do they differ from other forms of mainstream fiction?</b></span><br />
<br />
In principle writing Young Adult fiction should be no different from fiction generally, except that you perhaps have a slightly higher bar to attain, young readers being rather more critical and choosy than adult ones! I always seek to write something that the 12-year-old me would have loved, and which also pleases my jaded middle-aged self. If you can manage that dual perspective, you’re on to a winner.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What age is your typical reader, and what were you reading at that age</b></span>?<br />
<br />
I want my readers to range from 8 to 88, or more… so I aim for clarity of story-telling and for variety of content. When I was 12, I was in the throes of reading masses of whopping fantasy series. A couple of years on, I realised that most of them were sub-Tolkien and not really any good, so - despite writing it - I don’t read that much fantasy these days.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How did you research the Bartimaeus books? Your description of Prague and Golden Lane sound like you visited the locations.</b></span><br />
<br />
I did visit Prague for a couple of days way back when I was inter-railing around Europe at the start of the 1990s. I loved the city, and was fascinated by many of its locations, including the Jewish Cemetery, the castle and the old alchemists’ quarter in Golden Lane. When I came to write Bartimaeus 10 years or more later, it was easy to seize upon it as a good location. Most of my research comes of general reading of myth, legend and folklore down the years.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>…and your knowledge of Qabalistic Ritual seemed fairly well-informed – I recall an account written by Aleister Crowley about his attempt to summon Choronzon, I think, and the entity - from his subconscious - the Other Place, wherever - was bantering in order to put him off, telling crude jokes and trying to throw sand over the lines of his magic circle to break out...</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have any belief in, or experience of, High Magick or aspects of the supernatural?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m remarkably, and probably fortunately, wholly unacquainted with the supernatural in any immediate sense, but having read Dr Faustus, the Arabian Nights and sundry folktales in which wizards have perilous dealings with devils, demons and other dubious types, it was good fun to mix a lot of this material into the Bartimaeus stories. The trick for me was to do it mainly from the djinni’s perspective, which undercuts the potential pomposity of the magicians and their ritualistic traditions.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you see links between magic and creativity?</b></span><br />
<br />
I believe that Crowley was a - bad? - poet. The Romantic literary tradition was all about invoking and corralling the power of nature, and I guess many self-styled magicians were trying to do the same. People like Yeats certainly tried both methods. Earlier, Renaissance magicians such as Dr John Dee sought to invoke power through magical ritual, but also through the more rigorous methods of mathematics and science. On a prosaic, personal level, there is something magic about producing a bit of writing that didn’t exist before: but that ‘magic’ has its roots in long hours and hard work!<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>When I was reading the Bartimaeus books out loud, I found it helped to channel ‘<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/shows/hacker-time" target="_blank">Hacker</a>’ - from CBBC - to get his mode of address… Do you ‘cast’ your books and did you expect Bartimaeus to have a Wigan accent?</b></span><br />
<br />
<i>Ha-ha!</i> For me, Bart more or less had my voice, so he was a bit more home-counties! But you’re absolutely right that the voice was the core of him – he changed his shape repeatedly, so the way he talked was the one consistent thing. I don’t tend to ‘cast’ my books as I write them – to see a character as a particular actor risks skewing them out of true.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bartimaeusbooks.com/about_graphic.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBI36juODB2hbbaEpQQlbMwIezmfJ0liGnmQo6gBtNvPIckrddCST5PO3ijfuob0wMy2aSBVIISMAZL6ic5gHRNbP9LparLMGmzXx4x468ERViAkp7shKRBLAsAqAkYbqCZPPYaSoU5nuC/s400/amulet+panel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pages from the graphic adaptation of the first novel in<br />
the <i>Bartimaeus Sequence</i> : <i>The Amulet of Samarkand</i><br />
- click image for a look at how the comic was made -</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">I also enjoyed the Graphic Novel adaptation of <i>The Amulet of Samarkand</i> – are there any other graphic adaptations on the way? And what of films?</b><br />
<br />
I’m glad you liked it! I think the adaptor <span style="color: #38761d;">[Andrew Donkin]</span> and artist <span style="color: #38761d;">[Lee Sullivan with colours by Nicholas Chaplis]</span> did a terrific job with it. There are no immediate plans for another graphic novel, though we’d all love to do one. It depends a bit on whether we get the Bartimaeus movie, which is still out there, being discussed, but hasn’t yet quite come off. I’m crossing my fingers that it’ll happen one day…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The ‘Freedom to Think’ event was focussed on early creative experiences and I think you may have answered this question during it: What was the first book you can remember reading that really absorbed you and carried you away to another place?</b></span><br />
<br />
It’s hard to say what the very first one was. Put it this way - in my mum’s loft I discovered a version of <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Arrow-Ladybird-Robin-Adventure/dp/B00ORYCH5Q/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow</a></span></i> - which was a cool Ladybird book - that I’d written and drawn when I was about 5 on old pieces of wallpaper, so that story must be a contender!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a favourite book, or one you have returned to more than once?</b></span><br />
<br />
It’s difficult to pick one out. One of my all-time faves is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Treasure-Complete-Illustrated-original-illustrations-ebook/dp/B00ISF9NOI/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Treasure Island</span></a></i>, which I regard as the fountainhead from which all YA fiction springs. It certainly has everything I’d aspire to: great story, exciting narrative, fantastic characters, beautifully written. What’s not to love?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite authors and what have you learnt from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
Italo Calvino, in <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memos-Millennium-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0241275954/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Six Memos for the Next Millennium</a></span>,</i> extolled certain literary virtues, among them Lightness, Swiftness, Exactitude. Folk tales and fairy tales have these qualities, as Calvino well knew, and I think the writers I most admire all have them to some extent, as well as humour. My favourite fantasy writer, who survived my disillusionment, mid-teens, is Jack Vance, and I thoroughly recommend his <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suldruns-Garden-Lyonesse-Book-1-ebook/dp/B005HRT8UO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Lyonesse</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dying-Earth-Jack-Vance-ebook/dp/B0061QGL6Y/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Dying Earth</a></span></i> novels for some light, but magical, entertainment. In my ghost-story writing mode - I’ve been writing about ghosts for my <i>Lockwood & Co</i>. series for the last few years - I venerate the great <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Delphi-Complete-Works-James-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B00EK1V202/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">M R James</a></span>, the master of the English supernatural tale.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lockwood-Co-Creeping-Shadow-Co-ebook/dp/B01A7YX4HE/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI6a53loumPjPLfxT8wfvMUi-lz4qHXLeQh9W7bZkhx67VmmzfeyHKLdR4i6PBHcHuMT68XmQf17uo5D5LdPtXKqpsoniaF33t2sR92Tx6y3e0cxmUZkZwOMH3YEm6TqmEggRSRXn0WIsx/s400/creeping+shadow+stroud.jpg" width="260" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Creeping Shadow</i> is the fourth book in the <br />
<i>Lockwood & Co.</i> series by Jonathan Stroud</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Well, as it is Samhain, can you tell us anything about your latest spooky book?</span></b><br />
<br />
The latest Lockwood book is <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lockwood-Co-Creeping-Shadow-Co-ebook/dp/B01A7YX4HE/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Creeping Shadow</a></span></i>, and features lots of spooky adventure, daring heroism and good jokes. A must for all the family!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Thank you, Jonathan Stroud!</i></span></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">Thank you! It was a pleasure.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">- <b>Jonathan Stroud</b> was talking to <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can... </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><script data-coffee-color="#fff" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font-color="#000" data-font="Cookie" data-name="bmc-button" data-outline-color="#000" data-slug="RemyDean" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
For more Jonathan Stroud news and info, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
check out his <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.jonathanstroud.com/" target="_blank">Official Website </a></span><br />
<br />
Click the Recruitment ad. below for an excellent Lockwood & Co. Case Book (PDF)<br />
filled with activities and resources, courtesy of <a href="http://www.worldbookday.com/2016/09/new-books-for-8-12-year-olds-in-september/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">World Book Day</span></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.worldbookday.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Lockwood-Co-Casebook-2016-New.pdf" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKW4RvagnaBMLnA8LVb_xU9YHS8120nrfze6V_K2eCUIA9Olw8QiIq1YTa7vhjaYeQy-z9VvR-3XV50a7XGXS5xURa6YSL7wbktJ8RPTmAkQRhUAwus52_xtwwJr-iXdSmqsmdrMDntVCK/s320/LockwoodRecruiting.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-8696144240891044782016-09-14T09:02:00.000-07:002016-11-01T02:16:31.583-07:00Red Sparrow Writers Brought to Book: Remy Dean, Kim Vertue and Zel Cariad<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>The Red Sparrow Press is a new publisher promising us 'great books for young aviators of the imagination' and will be launching their first titles later this year. A few weeks ago, </i>The Scrawl <i>found three Red Sparrow writers in one place - at the </i>Sci-Fi Wales<i> convention, in North Wales - two veteran authors and one brand-new voice… So, for this special edition of our regular Brought to Book section, we asked <b>Remy Dean</b>, <b>Kim Vertue</b> and <b>Zel Cariad</b> about the words that have influenced, inspired and entertained them over the years.</i></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPQQnLnDpx8RFS2oVzi4s449wGl4UnfAfNPcgpl2aWBudtMqjVpF3mpsLWfIngJZWTp191bXcnUItmxB4uPaleQj47biPX4rJQUuSM3lb-AKAzUZpzyYxrFV9maLC_xFL5hMnBcyAsPxc/s1600/kim_vertue_remy_dean.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPQQnLnDpx8RFS2oVzi4s449wGl4UnfAfNPcgpl2aWBudtMqjVpF3mpsLWfIngJZWTp191bXcnUItmxB4uPaleQj47biPX4rJQUuSM3lb-AKAzUZpzyYxrFV9maLC_xFL5hMnBcyAsPxc/s400/kim_vertue_remy_dean.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kim Vertue, enyoying an ice cream at <i>The Dragon Café</i><br />
Remy Dean, kissing The Red Sparrow during a reading at Plas Tan y Bwlch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What was the first book you can remember reading that really absorbed you and carried you off elsewhere?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span></b> That would be <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elephant-Adventure-Willard-Price/dp/1849417466/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Elephant Adventure</span></a></i> by Willard Price. I can remember sitting in school, during a reading class and I was at the back reading a book of my choice. It was the first time that the words I was reading disappeared and I started seeing what I was reading instead. I was in the jungle and then I heard the teacher’s voice calling my name, because it was my turn to go the front of class to do the reading test. It was like being pulled out from a dream. That’s when I first had an inkling of the magic of good story-writing. I then devoured the whole Adventure series over the next few years, in the right order, some of them I read more than once. I named my first goldfish Hal and Roger after the Hunt brothers in the books.<br />
<br />
Before that, I had the <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bear-Called-Paddington-Michael-Bond/dp/0007174160/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>Paddington</i> </a></span>books read to me and they were great. My brother used to finish reading one and we would go straight round the library for the next.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Zel:</span></b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Beauty-Scholastic-Classics-Sewell/dp/140714359X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Black Beauty</a></span></i>, it was an abridged version, I can’t remember the story that well. I enjoyed being able to read it and I remember it was good and had a horse in it.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heidi-Knickerbocker-Classics-Johanna-Spyri/dp/1631062484/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Heidi</span></a></i> was the first book I read entirely on my own and enjoyed in a spirited away sense. We lived among the slag heaps of the St Helens coal and glass-making industries, so the idea of all those big mountains captured my imagination. Also it focusses a lot on learning to read, the magic of how those words suddenly start to make sense and come alive. I liked the idea of sleeping in a hayloft, eating grilled goats cheese and looking after goats too.<br />
<br />
The <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chronicles-Narnia-C-S-Lewis/dp/0007117302/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Narnia</a></span></i> books were great too. Our teacher read the <i>Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe</i> to the class and I read the <i>Silver Chair</i> on my own straight way. I liked the misfit heroes involved - Puddleglum of course – and the insight into the common fairy tale idea of being enchanted. It was very difficult to break the enchantment of the silver chair and, for once, free a Prince rather than a Princess. I read the rest of the Narnia books in quick succession after that and I think <i>Voyage of the Dawn Treader</i> remains my favourite.<br />
<br />
I loved Elyne Mitchell’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silver-Brumby-Essential-Modern-Classics/dp/0007425201/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Silver Brumby</a></span></i> which I read when I was about ten. It struck me as a more ‘grown up’ book even though it was in a learn to read series, and it was so clear yet poetic in its description of the Australian bush that I have wanted to visit there for real ever since! I also love the way the speed and strength and sheer exhuberance of Thowra, the Silver Brumby, is described. It reflects the way you feel as a kid when you just have to run everywhere and you feel pretty darn invincible.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have a favourite book, perhaps that you have returned to more than once over the years?</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Zel:</span></b> All the <i>My Little Pony</i> book series, I probably have read <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rainbow-Dash-Daring-Double-Little/dp/1408331225/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare</a></span></i> a few times, and also the <i>My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic</i> comics, the first four-parter, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Magic/dp/1613776055/" target="_blank">The Return of Queen Chrysalis</a></span></i>, and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-Magic/dp/1613778546/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair</a></span></i> are my favourite stories… Princess Luna’s continually changing T-shirts! Ha, ha… ‘Best!’<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rjT-917uhJSjHPJKx9c9PkKVqdR1oDfP-sMpVD2DCr-bdqlg5hyphenhyphenGJJVxuUg6iSI5wh2TMnmofkB00pTs1A6Q13r5Mi6K6QSC9xB-xa7mEs9IiDLsKU1N7a0lcEbBMi_rLCmiZbSq3rII/s1600/mlpqc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rjT-917uhJSjHPJKx9c9PkKVqdR1oDfP-sMpVD2DCr-bdqlg5hyphenhyphenGJJVxuUg6iSI5wh2TMnmofkB00pTs1A6Q13r5Mi6K6QSC9xB-xa7mEs9IiDLsKU1N7a0lcEbBMi_rLCmiZbSq3rII/s400/mlpqc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. </i>Panels from <i>The Return of Queen Chrysalis</i> (left) <br />
and <i>Zen and the Art of Gazebo Repair </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I really love my <i>Dragonology</i> books! <i>The Field Guide to Dragons</i> is wonderful, I like how it documents dragons just like they are real, which maybe they are! Also, the <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragons-Eye-Dragonology-Chronicles/dp/1840117923/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Drogonology Chronicles</a></span></i> - series of novels - which are great adventures. The illustrations, too, fantastic pencil drawings!<br />
<br />
Oh, and the <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Train-Your-Dragon-Cressida-Cowell/dp/0340999071/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">How to Train Your Dragon</a></span></i> series… So basically, Ponies and Dragons for me!<br />
<br />
And, <i>The Land of Neverbelieve</i> by Norman Messenger is a book I like a lot, the illustrations are nice and the ideas are great – really imaginative, I never get bored with that one, it’s like a world. I also keep going back to my factual books about science, animals and the real world.<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span></b> I have a few favourites! <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Watership-Down-Puffin-David-Parkins/dp/0141354968/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Watership Down</a></span></i> – I read that about three times a year as I was growing up – definitely more than a dozen times. I could speak fluent lapine and I used to play bob-stones with my pet rabbit. Recently, I read it to my daughter, twice, so far. I think it is the best Fantasy story ever written, and an inspiration to any writer of imaginative fiction.<br />
<br />
When I was around seven or eight, my brother read <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jonathan-Livingston-Seagull-Richard-Bach/dp/0006490344/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Jonathan Livingston Seagull</a></span></i> to me in one sitting, and it affected me profoundly. It is a book I returned to later and re-read many times as a college student. I use to buy extra copies to loan out or give to friends. It’s about the nature of reality, what it means to be free and transcending the bounds of physical limitations through imagination. I read it to my father during his final days, when he was in hospital… just before he transcended his physical limitations.<br />
<br />
My brother also read the <i>The Flies in the Market Place</i> to me, from <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thus-Spoke-Zarathustra-Friedrich-Nietzsche/dp/0140441182/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Thus Spoke Zarathustra</a></span></i>, when I was very young - he didn’t mind challenging me and my little mind at all – and Nietsche has been a friend to me ever since. I have read most of his key works and they took me on a path right back to William Blake!<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songs-Innocence-Experience-William-Blake/dp/1854377299/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Songs of Innocence and Experience</a></span></i>, I have already written a piece about why William Blake and this book are very important to me… You can read that on the <a href="http://hotgoat.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/top-ten-pieces-of-art-5-songs-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">I’m Hot Goat</span> weblog.</a><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ham-Rye-Canons-Charles-Bukowski/dp/1782116664/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Ham on Rye</a></span></i>, by Charles Bukowski… pretty much anything by Charles Bukowski. I discovered him through the film, <i>Tales of Ordinary Madness</i>, starring Ben Gazzara in a definitive performance. I always saw and heard Ben Gazzara whenever I imagined Henry Chinaski… Then, a neighbour of mine lent me <i>Ham on Rye</i> when I was a living in Stoke-on-Trent. I had never read anything like that. The prose is the clearest, most beautiful word-wielding I know of. Even the most lowlife, unpleasant passages have that ‘twinkle in the eye’ that make them readable. No other writer does that as well. The humour and humanity really leap off the page. Also, I believe that Bukowski is a philosopher, the most original and alternative philosopher this side of Nietsche…<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUBOfmRfg60vULkJsf2yvtEU1YzRYSWpypROgg6TaDEvnhHwpQjw1DigRNoLPG4rvQe0ZVgXV49Q-6KuiqmZV8YAXKWKKs0aJoOqASx78iv5mHrHGqsXgverCobIIw7gYF0uNQpbbuaZ3/s1600/buketal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUBOfmRfg60vULkJsf2yvtEU1YzRYSWpypROgg6TaDEvnhHwpQjw1DigRNoLPG4rvQe0ZVgXV49Q-6KuiqmZV8YAXKWKKs0aJoOqASx78iv5mHrHGqsXgverCobIIw7gYF0uNQpbbuaZ3/s400/buketal.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marco Ferreri, Ben Gazzara and Charles Bukowski making <i>Tales of Ordinary Madness</i> (1981)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Snail</i>, by Richard Miller, which could well be my favourite book of all, if I was really forced to select just one. Again, I first came across <i>Snail</i> in my formative years. I was a student, working on my final degree projects, which included a short film about teenagers ‘discovering themselves’ and racing snails. The college had taken a group of us to help with the re-design of The Brewery Arts Centre in Keswick, which, for some reason had a display case of model and soft-toy snails! So the synchronicity was really kicking-in there. Then I came across the book, simply titled <i>Snail</i>. I knew nothing about it, never heard of Richard Miller at that point, but there was a quote from William Burroughs on the cover and art by Clive Barker, and so with that and all the snail synchronicity I took a chance and bought it and it was a total delight - intelligent, flippant, funny, profound. Richard Miller is a truly great and hugely underrated writer!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> I read <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wuthering-Heights-Wordsworth-Classics-Bront%C3%AB/dp/1853260010/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Wuthering Heights</span></a></i> when I was about 12 and have re-read it regularly since, each time with fresh understanding of the characters. It is still vibrant and gothic and unique. I love the use of main narrator Ellen Dean to portray the passion and tragedy which plays out between Cathy and Heathcliff and those in their wake. It is ultimately a happier ending for their heirs which offers hope for the human condition. I am a great fan of Emily Bronte’s nature poetry too, and love the fact that like Emily Dickinson she wrote it mainly for herself, to better understand her own environment and inner world.<br />
<br />
I regularly re read <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Picture-Dorian-Gray-Wordsworth-Classics/dp/1853260150/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Picture of Dorian Gray</a></span></i> each time with fresh insight. Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales too. Also <i>Dracula</i>, Poe, and I have re -read the <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sherlock-Holmes-Complete-Illustrated-Novels/dp/1851520589/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes</a></span></i> stories a couple of times… I should update my Victorian Gothic taste! I have a fondness for Colette and Daphne du Maurier - <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rebecca-VMC-Daphne-Du-Maurier/dp/1844080382/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Rebecca</a></span></i>, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cousin-Rachel-VMC-Daphne-Maurier/dp/1844080404/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">My Cousin Rachel </a></span>-</i> although I have not re-read them for some time.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is the most recent book you have read and thoroughly enjoyed?</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Zel:</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></b>Apart from <i>My Little Pony</i> books, I would say the <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amulet-Samarkand-Bartimaeus-Sequence/dp/0552562793/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Bartimaeus</a></span></i> sequence by Jonathan Stroud. They are funny in parts and exciting too. I liked the characters, especially Bartimaeus himself, the wise-cracking immortal demon…<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span><span style="color: #990000;"> </span></b>Yes, I think I have to agree with Zel on that one. I recently read the <i>Bartimaeus</i> books as part of the research before I interviewed Jonathan Stroud… for <i>The Scrawl</i>!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqR7bFyXbEO01yQJ3iPNO7_z93UaPr5LCjtuPenDqAvXZwpe9VBXVy2gcpF8n-fTjy5WVp9WR-b82sdoJvoXJZQV_BdFwRHqCnX6ZMkmBXL78cHCcTJX8zb14lgPlQq1QIp1yy3dvNX2x3/s1600/sub_wake_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqR7bFyXbEO01yQJ3iPNO7_z93UaPr5LCjtuPenDqAvXZwpe9VBXVy2gcpF8n-fTjy5WVp9WR-b82sdoJvoXJZQV_BdFwRHqCnX6ZMkmBXL78cHCcTJX8zb14lgPlQq1QIp1yy3dvNX2x3/s400/sub_wake_web.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Shaun Tan's evocative illustrations for <i>Tales of Outer Suburbia</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Before that, Shaun Tan’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Outer-Suburbia-Shaun-Tan/dp/1840113138/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Tales From Outer Suburbia</a></span></i>, profound and poetic short stories which brilliantly stitch together narrative image and text, I don’t think anyone else has done it so effectively, not since Blake. Shaun Tan has become one of my favourite contemporary creatives.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> I really enjoyed the <i>Bartimaeus</i> books too! A brilliant entertaining read. Bartimaeus rocks. I also enjoyed William Gibson’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peripheral-William-Gibson/dp/0241961009/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Peripheral</a></span></i>, what a great tour of ‘what might be’…with characters you really want to win through. Also Iain Banks, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Player-Games-Culture-Novel/dp/1857231465/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Player of Games</a></span></i> - working my way through the Culture novels again - for its breadth of vision... and Peter Hamilton’s <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-North-Road-Peter-Hamilton/dp/0330521772/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>The Great North Road</i>.</a></span> A true epic fantasy of future tech space exploration and detective story interlinked.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You have all recently ventured into co-written territories… What was the co-writing process like for <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-part-That-Other-Book-ebook/dp/B01MDRIJGT/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">This</span></a></i>?</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Zel:</span></b> It was fun because I basically got to listen to it as it developed and say when I thought things didn’t work or if an idea needed improving, but that was very rare, because it was written well. Generally, we just chatted about story ideas on dog-walks and took a lot of inspiration from our surroundings, mountains, woods and lakes… I came up with a few random bits, I remember describing the attack of the snaky brambles. Oh, and Lucky too, who I think is a really important main character.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span></b> Zel is my resident expert of all things fairy and dragon-related. Her main roles were creative consultant and first reader. Basically we discussed ideas on walks, and then I wrote chunks and did test readings, when Zel would let me know if it sounded alright and if it was believable enough… if something needed to be explained more clearly, or if I had over-egged anything. She also ensured I described characters and places in enough detail to paint the picture, but still left enough room for imagination. One thing she does really well is ask the right questions.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>...and for <i>Welcome to the Dragon Café</i>?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> Co-writng on the <i>Dragon Café</i> has been great fun. I enjoyed how Zel and I snow-balled some quite wacky ideas into even funnier ones! She really helps with her feedback on what works and how much extra description I need to give for it to unfold like it does in our heads. Remy is great with his encouragement and feedback too.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Which writers have you learnt the most from?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span></b> John Foxx, particularly the work with his band, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Years-Ultravox/dp/B01GA5P4AE/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Ultravox!</a></span></i> He more-or-less invented the ‘New Romantic’ identity – ‘riding intercity trains, dressed in European grey’. I love the pictures his words can conjure up and how his lyric patterns just trip along – he taught me a lot about how to use the form of a word to help with the flow of a phrase. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqLIHe9qjMYIfmvh1tRJW9zGXtP9OC0lBzJQb9el4LDu3w6eNYw7uh4XRy2oL_1TSMBGJ7XplA25oLgLxgEj79iH_T-f1nHYZxKEH_mbz67bkeh4N2UgK-4veBhIVl_3uoAwITbh0IKOc/s1600/johnfoxx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqLIHe9qjMYIfmvh1tRJW9zGXtP9OC0lBzJQb9el4LDu3w6eNYw7uh4XRy2oL_1TSMBGJ7XplA25oLgLxgEj79iH_T-f1nHYZxKEH_mbz67bkeh4N2UgK-4veBhIVl_3uoAwITbh0IKOc/s400/johnfoxx.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rhythmic pattern of words - John Foxx in the days of <i>Ultravox!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I am probably informed more by song-writers, Scott Walker, David McComb, Dave Graney, Ian Anderson, Kate Bush, Lydia Lunch… As for ‘writers’, then Bukowski - his prose has elegant simplicity and crystal clarity, without trading-in any of its poetic beauty... and, I have read so much <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-horror-humour-of-graham-masterton.html" target="_blank">Graham Masterton</a></span> over the years that I may have absorbed something from him - by 'osmosis'.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> All of the above feature large as my influence and sound track too… I love how songs can kick start the imagination when you least expect it.<br />
<br />
I have a great debt to the clear elegant prose of writers like Bukowski and Hemmingway. Also the stream of consciousness of Virgina Woolf’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Waves-Wordsworth-Classics-Virginia-Woolf/dp/184022410X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Waves</a></span></i>, and the be-bop prose of Jack Kerouac – <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Penguin-Essentials-Jack-Kerouac/dp/0241951534/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">On the Road</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maggie-Cassidy-Original-Manuscript-Kerouac/dp/1942531036/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Maggie Cassidy</a></span></i> among others. Emily Bronte of course! James Clavell – I loved <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shogun-First-Novel-Asian-Japan/dp/0340766166/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Shogun</a></span></i>, its breadth and generosity. Also, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/len-deighton-interview.html" target="_blank">Len Deighton</a></span> – I love his spy thrillers, particularly the <i>Samson Trilogy</i>. The vitality of his prose and character portrayal is a real inspiration. The list could go on!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What are you working on at the moment?</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Remy:</span></b> Still recovering from writing the final draft of <i>This</i> – which should be available after Halloween this Autumn. Just underway with the next book, titled, <i>That</i>. They’re the first two in the <i>This, That and the Other</i> trilogy, which is an epic fairy tale fantasy that can be enjoyed by younger readers too. I am also developing my 'Corky, the Cicorc Conwy' story as a children's picture book.<br />
<br />
And, for grown-ups, I am looking into finding an outlet for <i>Dark Arts</i>. It was developed as a six-part television drama, a couple of years ago, with the BBC in mind. So far, it is in the form of teleplays, but it’s going to work well as a series of short stories, or novels… <i>Dark Arts</i> is a period piece, set between the Wars, and deals with art, magic, horror and psychiatry… Think of a Hammer Films production of <i>Brideshead Revisited</i>, adapted by H P Lovecraft!<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Zel:</span></b> Helping with <i>That</i>, and I am always planning my own stories and comics. I have even finished a few of them! My latest series is currently broadcasting in my own head…<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Kim:</span></b> Finishing up on revisions for <i>Welcome to the Dragon Café</i> for release soon, <i>yay!</i> Other ideas constantly bubbling away too…including a story for young adult readers, <i>Supermoon,</i> and some Science Fiction.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Thank you Zel, Kim and Remy!
</b></span></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Non-fiction books by <b>Remy Dean</b> include biographies and critiques of Nick Cave, Henry Rollins, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Suede, Lydia Lunch, Celine Dion(!) and more recently the web-active history of art textbook, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007V7EFTC/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Evolution of Western Art</a></span>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">His works of fiction for grown-ups include <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/erase-state-remy-dean-on-scraps-twenty.html" target="_blank">Scraps</a></span></i>, a novel, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Final-Bough-Remy-Dean/dp/151239937X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Final Bough</a></span></i>, a tale of the supernatural, and the recent short story collection, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Race-Glass-Remy-Dean/dp/1512354198/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Race Glass</a></span></i>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-part-That-Other-Book-ebook/dp/B01MDRIJGT/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpF7bqRPyIy_VvUl3PD9U_xFUREpxRWRBB43sCTRZGYqxJANZCGDprDnbxoiZRzW6GElmV8I3M-o3TJp4K89BltrMsp-TDKmlAyHuB_lK37LVYEaf_nXWnRah6jKfRiEAu8E5PDLzN5oAy/s320/THIS_2twitter.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This</i> ...is going to be epic! <br />
The new novel by Remy Dean with Zel Cariad</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">His forthcoming novel, </span><i style="color: #38761d;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-part-That-Other-Book-ebook/dp/B01MDRIJGT/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">This</span></a></i><span style="color: #38761d;">, is an epic fairy-tale-fantasy and is his first book for children and young adults. He is currently Writer in Residence at <a href="http://www.eryri-npa.gov.uk/study-centre" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Plas Tan y Bwlch</span></a>, the Snowdonia National Park's Study Centre.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Kim Vertue</b> has written a novel and several short stories under different pen-names which have all been published internationally and in translation. She has also written for magazines and contributed to weblogs. W<i>elcome to the Dragon Café </i>is her first book for children and will be published soon by The Red Sparrow Press…</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Zel Cariad</b> is eleven-years old and is currently acting as creative consultant and first reader for Remy and Kim.</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
For more info and updates, check out <a href="http://theredsparrowpress.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Red Sparrow Press</span> website</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
and have a look at the offical <a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span> author website</a></div>
</div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-22001761559981906272016-08-27T10:02:00.001-07:002020-09-29T03:55:00.467-07:00Angie Sage & The Magnificent Seven<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Blur or Oasis?</b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Harry or Septimus? </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Both seem to have their equally fervent and loyal fan-bases, but there is, of course, plenty of overlap in their readership. The <i>Septimus Heap</i> books have enough <i>darke</i> doom and peril to veer towards the gothic aspects of <i>Harry Potter</i>, yet enough wacky weirdness to steer them along the borders of Gormenghast grotesque. Even the Dickensian character names, evoke Peake’s world - Titus Groan could, believably, live down the street from the Heaps - no relation to Uriah? </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">The main arc follows the story of a boy growing up and finding out that he has unusual magical talents and then embarking on special training as apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand. Along the way, he befriends a dog, a message rat, a boggart, a boat that was once a dragon, and a dragon who was once a stone… and there are witches and ghosts, and quake ooze brownies… well, enough said – this<i> is</i> Fantasy. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">As a rule, the <i>Septimus Heap</i> series manages to avoid many of the usual Fantasy genre pitfalls. It does not often get bogged down in merely describing the made-up world we are drawn into – if there are secret passages in the castle walls, then those secret passages will have a narrative role to play. If a character wears shoes made from purple python skin, then this detail will help to reveal relations between characters and establish a back-story. No gore or gratuitous cruelty, but a peppering of peril and suspense. We are not made to revel in nastiness, although the villains are rather nasty – and there are moments of genuine ‘horror’, but usually tempered with a light touch of humour to follow. It is probably the humour, and unbridled imagination, that elevates these books above much of the current fantasy fair foisted upon young adults.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjM10q0pRKz5HgYWtiHuc4NwKRze2yNLO5xJwWX_jGuQNV3ph0GYTm6hX5Nq8H-qfV_PCqbS1lrF0msIvpQIGZvUCnHp8pua4lny1hlaROCo2urSsgqwZYbMVA6X_JXvr9yqRooQUt62KZ/s1600/Angie+Sage+Photo.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjM10q0pRKz5HgYWtiHuc4NwKRze2yNLO5xJwWX_jGuQNV3ph0GYTm6hX5Nq8H-qfV_PCqbS1lrF0msIvpQIGZvUCnHp8pua4lny1hlaROCo2urSsgqwZYbMVA6X_JXvr9yqRooQUt62KZ/s320/Angie+Sage+Photo.jpg" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angie Sage, creator of <i>Septimus Heap</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Angie Sage has been writing the world of <i>Septimus Heap</i> for over twelve years and the series comprises of seven (that is 7) <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Septimus-Heap-Book-One-Special/dp/006223692X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Septimus Heap</span></a></i> novels. Plus a trilogy of sequel stories, the <i>Todhunter Moon</i> books. Oh, and two companion volumes - one of short stories and the other is a sort of ‘guide book’… So that is a dozen in as many years! Plus! <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Araminta-Spook-My-Haunted-House/dp/1408838656/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Araminta Spook</span></a></i> series, for younger readers.</b><br />
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOg8SD_ICv1c0HeDJezEus4exbDS0hU3IV_zHUnMpNVjBupINBTy6QACG8tzH3sqvEcbn5QQObDh6j3y1BUkmzHkX69StTysHG7d92PALxm5NSM51DcRcnWfaC4Ah2yir9Z7VCmZZUaXaI/s1600/araminta_spook.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOg8SD_ICv1c0HeDJezEus4exbDS0hU3IV_zHUnMpNVjBupINBTy6QACG8tzH3sqvEcbn5QQObDh6j3y1BUkmzHkX69StTysHG7d92PALxm5NSM51DcRcnWfaC4Ah2yir9Z7VCmZZUaXaI/s400/araminta_spook.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Araminta Spook</i> a fun and spooky series of books...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">Angie Sage talked to Remy Dean about her writing, suitably starting off with some Septimus questions:</b><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>They say there are only seven basic plots – and that Shakespeare already did them all. Fittingly, there were seven books in the Septimus sequence, but now there is an eighth in <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Darke-Toad-Septimus-Heap-novella-ebook/dp/B00BS7PNMO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Darke Toad</span></a></i>, and in a way the story continues with the <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/PathFinder-TodHunter-Moon-Adventure-Todhunter/dp/1408858177/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Todhunter Moon</span></a></i> books. How do you hope to keep your ideas fresh and avoid repetition?</b></span><br />
<br />
What I love about writing a series is that with each book I get to know the characters a little better. Also I can build on the things that have happened in previous books so I hope I’m able to write more complex situations and characters too. I’m not sure how it works, but that seems to be enough to keep ideas fresh and interesting. I don’t do a lot of plotting – apart from a few way points plus the ending - as I find it best to get ideas from the characters and the situations they are in. I think that keeps things interesting too.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Did you know you were going to write so many related stories in such an epic trajectory? …and did you have a planned-out arc for all the books? If so, how similar or different are the final results to that planned arc?</b></span><br />
<br />
I was planning on writing a trilogy! But the world just kind of grew and so many interesting people began to arrive in it. So why leave? I didn’t have an arc planned at all, I felt it was a bit like life really. It was just going to happen and I’d do my best to make it interesting.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What location research did you find necessary? I ask because it seems the Badlands may have been inspired by where I live – in Blaenau Ffestiniog! Have you ever visited?</b></span><br />
<br />
I did draw quite a lot from where I was living at the time I wrote <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magyk-Septimus-Heap-Book-Rejacketed/dp/1408814935/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Magyk</a></span></i> – near a creek in Cornwall. So that is definitely where the Marram Marshes come from, especially the muddy bits at the end of the creek when the tide goes out. Also the little channels that are left. I did take a canoe along them and managed to get stuck and thought at the time how great it would be if they actual went somewhere exciting.<br />
<br />
The Castle was an amalgamation of all the castles I’ve visited and made into the kind of place I would like to live. Quite a bit of wish-fulfillment there, I think.<br />
<br />
And yes, the Badlands are indeed all those slate quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog! I went there years and years ago as a kid and it has stayed with me. I actually loved the place and thought it was so atmospheric.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">…and the characters that inhabit these environments, where do they come from?</span></b><br />
<br />
People … I am really not sure where they come from. I don’t consciously base them on anyone I know. They just arrive, usually complete with their names, which is very convenient.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Which character has the most Angie Sage in them?</b></span><br />
<br />
Well … I suspect I am a peculiar mixture of Marcia, Septimus and Beetle. If you’re going for only one, then it has to be Marcia. Of course.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Was DomDaniel originally named ‘Daniel Doom’ in the first draft?</b></span><br />
<br />
I got the name DomDaniel from the wonderful <i>Roget’s Thesaurus</i>. I looked up synonyms for ‘Hell’ and there it was. I do like the idea of Daniel Doom though.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXWzmYDGf7q1Fn_wI20gwTR4Xd58_TDb8L-hxJeq3ISoZuVYbFOMkv7nwwdgx2vG7lPpudJN63qiAwAfK7A8-FwmSKIckpiKqcc9jOmPHZXhxY-FkZi_HgDaEZ0qvtiTW_CGgptqqUINLw/s1600/Septimus_Heap_-_All_Seven_Covers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXWzmYDGf7q1Fn_wI20gwTR4Xd58_TDb8L-hxJeq3ISoZuVYbFOMkv7nwwdgx2vG7lPpudJN63qiAwAfK7A8-FwmSKIckpiKqcc9jOmPHZXhxY-FkZi_HgDaEZ0qvtiTW_CGgptqqUINLw/s400/Septimus_Heap_-_All_Seven_Covers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Septimus Heap</i> story is epic Fantasy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">I have been reading quite a bit of Fantasy for children and YA recently (as father of an eleven-year-old) and find that there is often what seems to be needless horror, cruelty and gory gruesomeness. Do you have any thoughts on such content? Because, in your own writing, you achieve suspense without resorting to such techniques, relying on the horror being recounted by a character – which then adds an emotional dimension – or laced with humour, occasionally bordering on slapstick…</b><br />
<br />
I had no idea how hard-core some of the new stuff could be until I shared an event with another author and read her book. I was really shocked by the content and actually had to stop reading. I know I’m a bit squeamish about violence and cruelty but this seemed to revel in the nastiness. So yes, I know what you mean. And I think it is a great shame. Because I feel there is a danger that young readers can become hardened to these things and lose their emotional response to real suffering.<br />
<br />
I’ve had some criticism for diluting the nasty stuff in Septimus with humour because it takes the edge off it. But it does mean that you can create a greater shock with the occasional nasty incident: like Marcellus cutting off Merrin’s thumb. Sometimes less is more…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you think there is a difference between fantasy written by men and women?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m not sure as I honestly don’t read fantasy! I love writing about different worlds but what really interests me is the people who live in them. But is that because I’m a woman? Hmm …<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did you even consider gendered pseudonyms - such as 'Andy Sage'? </span></b><br />
<br />
It didn’t occur to me at the time but now I do wish I had just stuck to initials. I think some boys are put off reading something by a female writer. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. I have plans for a YA/adult trilogy and I intend to be just A.A. Sage for that.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>When is your best writing time? </b></span><br />
<br />
I write best first thing in the morning before the day starts to get complicated.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you listen to music as you write?</b></span><br />
<br />
Unfortunately, I find music distracting, much as I would love to listen to it.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you write long-hand and then key it in?</b></span><br />
<br />
I just can’t think in longhand and I only began to write when I got my first computer. Once I’ve started on a book properly I make a schedule with a word count target for every day. If I don’t do that then it just doesn’t get done. I try to write 1000 words a day and write straight onto my laptop.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How conscious of targeting your audience are you during the writing stages?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m not really conscious of it when I am actually writing, but there are things—sex and violence basically—that I won’t write about as the books do need to be suitable for nine years upwards. However, I’m quite happy to put in stuff that maybe will be a little over the heads of the younger readers, but will be appreciated by older ones. There has to be something for the grown-ups too! And many fans who re-read the series in their late teens tell me they see so much more in it when they are older, which I’m really pleased about.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Are you allowed to say anything more about possible screen adaptations of the books?</b></span><br />
<br />
We sold the film rights to <i>Septimus Heap</i> to Warner Brothers it must be about seven years ago now. There was quite a lot of development work at the time but then it just got dropped. And that’s about it, sad to say. I think it happens to a lot of books. I do think that such a complex world is pretty difficult to make into a film, however, I am convinced that it would be a brilliant TV series. The <i>Septimus Heap</i> box set is something I would love to see. However, all that rests with Warner Brothers…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What was the first book you can remember reading that really hooked you and carried you off into its world?</b></span><br />
<br />
I think that has to be <span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Titus-Groan-Gormenghast-Trilogy-Mervyn/dp/0749394927/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Titus Groan</a></i></span> by Mervin Peake. It was the weirdest world I had ever come across. The world was so immersive and the characters were compelling too.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-prince-of-darkness-himself-sir.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-upcSINhrJWuWTvYRCO7JLgERu3qdUwYxorcmiDi1tFOVYk2m-rZUDkm1jfuwNruIJ9IWr5q4-oLGgEUrAogXQgg14e0XEFLEOrnLAy4QJ4WOARyoO3dwDjRbrykYJzqc-m7jcvAiyCZ6/s400/Lee_Flay_portrait_BBC.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Christopher Lee as Flay in the BBC adaptation of <i>Gorermenghast </i>(2000)<br />
- click picture above to read the <b>exclusive <i>Scrawl</i> interview</b> with him -</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;">What were you reading when you were the age of your readership?</b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
It was a long time ago now so these are going to seem rather ancient.<br />
<br />
When I was age of my younger readers it was E. Nesbit, Elizabeth Gouge, Rosemary Sutcliffe. And yes, Enid Blyton’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Famous-Five-Collection-Books-Collections/dp/1444910582/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Famous Five</a></span></i> and Secret Seven too. Also anything by Arthur Conan Doyle. And lots of myths and legends: King Arthur, Robin Hood, Greek and Roman...<br />
<br />
There wasn’t so much aimed at young teens then, so I pretty much went straight onto grown-up stuff. I read a real mixture of everything: John Wyndham, Alistair McLean, Dostoevsky, Evelyn Waugh, the lot.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>When did you think, ‘not only am I a reader, I am going to be a writer’?</b></span><br />
<br />
There was never a moment really. It just crept up on me. But I now realise I have always read books with half on eye on how they were written. And did used to wonder if it was something I could ever do.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What have been your favourite books or authors, and what did you learn from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
I read mainly literary and historical fiction, - I never read fantasy - but sometimes good sci-fi. Favourite authors at the moment would include, Rose Tremain, Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen, Ian McEwan, Kate Atkinson.<br />
<br />
However, I am like a goldfish when it comes to books - apart from a few favourites - I find I’ve forgotten them five minutes later. I guess that comes of reading too many, too fast. This makes it hard to say exactly what I’ve learnt from whom, but I think I’ve just soaked up stuff over the years…Overall, the most important thing I’ve learnt for my writing is that it is the characters who tell the story.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>After a long and successful writing career, do you have any tips or in-a-nut-shell words of wisdom you can share with aspiring writers of fantasy?</b></span><br />
<br />
Find your own world! And, I guess, don’t read the competition. And if you do, don’t worry about it. Everyone has their own story to tell.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>Thank you very much, Angie Sage!</i></b></span><br />
<br />
Thank <i>you</i> – for some subtle and thought provoking questions.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><i><b>Angie Sage</b> was talking with <a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><b>Remy Dean</b></a>. </i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can...</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: medium;"><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">For more news, up-dates and info, check out the <a href="http://www.angiesage.com/" target="_blank">official <span style="font-size: large;">Angie Sage</span> website</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">and the <a href="http://www.septimusheap.com/" target="_blank">official <span style="font-size: large;"><i>Septimus Heap</i></span> website</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">find <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angie-Sage/e/B001H6GIAC/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1472315698&sr=8-2-ent" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Angie Sage books</span> on amazon.co.uk</a></span><br />
<br />
You may also like:<br />
<a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2016/10/jonathan-stroud-free-thinker.html" target="_blank"><b>Jonathan Stroud</b>, Free Thinker<span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></a><b> </b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>+</b> </span><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2014/12/blow-your-own-trumpet-jasper-fforde-in.html" target="_blank">‘Blow Your Own Trumpet', <b>Jasper Fforde</b></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-19865678608996140822016-08-09T04:28:00.000-07:002016-08-09T04:28:00.862-07:00Real Wild Child – an interview with the adventurous Abi Elphinstone<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Abi Elphistone writes children’s fiction which draws strongly upon the Brothers Grimm, shamanic and folklore traditions, and reflects her love of nature. This imagery, mixed with rugged outdoor adventure, could become a cult to those middle-grade readers with whom it strikes a chord! </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Her debut novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreamsnatcher-Abi-Elphinstone/dp/1471122689/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Dreamsnatcher</span></a></i>, tells the story of the gypsy child Moll and the wild cat, Gryff, who befriends her as they take on the dark magic of the Dream Snatcher and finally discover the truth of what happened to her parents. </span><span style="color: #38761d;">The interplay between the young characters and the adults around them gives a softer grounding to the epic journey undertaken. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4SQXoBib85nuNIWnscabZW0riNCpgkyU4hY84VZ2xRwo69owzoFLYLR8irnd9aVdYQABWkPHki7CJox242A10RJqcIguoqEXxN77yVnkPhcAgBwaGze-GHdQBf85_gf97jftoXfEg2FHm/s1600/Abi+with+her+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4SQXoBib85nuNIWnscabZW0riNCpgkyU4hY84VZ2xRwo69owzoFLYLR8irnd9aVdYQABWkPHki7CJox242A10RJqcIguoqEXxN77yVnkPhcAgBwaGze-GHdQBf85_gf97jftoXfEg2FHm/s400/Abi+with+her+book.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abi Elphinstone & <i>The Dreamsnatcher</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Kim Vertue</b> asks </i><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>Abi Elphistone</b></i><i style="color: #38761d;"> a few questions...</i><br />
<div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>At a recent ‘Freedom to Think’ event, you talked about how you set about writing a story and what has inspired you throughout your life, particularly your childhood in Scotland where you spent much time, “running wild across highland glens.” </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The ‘Freedom to Think’ initiative seems to encourage adults, and institutions such as schools, to allow our busy youngsters more ‘downtime’ to day-dream, and generally muck about, in order to foster creative thinking. This something that is reflected in your own up-bringing - can you remember some of the freedoms you were allowed as a child that fostered your imagination?</b></span><br />
<br />
I didn’t grow up with parents who pushed for me to be in the top sets or who insisted on extra tuition in the holidays to improve my spelling and vocabulary. Instead my parents gave me space. They let me scramble across the Scottish moors, build dens in the woods and jump into icy rivers. I think that out of this freedom I learnt to imagine. And I realise now that the wild woodland world in my first book, <i>The Dreamsnatcher</i>, is almost an extension of my childhood - minus the tree ghouls …and witch-doctors. The time I had back then to ‘be bored’ and to daydream was when I ‘created’.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Are there any particular stories you were told or were read to you when very young that inspired your love of stories? </b></span><br />
<br />
I loved reading fairytales as a child – and I still do now. In fact, before I write any book, I read a fairytale. I find them the most powerful, and magical, form of storytelling. The language is often simple but the themes are complex and they provide invaluable motifs to draw on. My parents used to read to me every night - Brothers Grimm fairytales, the Narnia books and the Roald Dahl books, mostly.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You have also talked about how stories are not only found in the form of texts. Were pictures, or music often your way into stories?</b></span><br />
<br />
Definitely pictures. I’m dyslexic so I’m a visual learner. I draw maps of scenes before I write them and I often turn to photography books - especially the Planet Earth ones - if I’m stuck on describing a scene.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Did you tell stories back to others or to yourself when you were young, perhaps to counteract boredom if the weather was too bad for outdoor play, or when in bed waiting for sleep? </b></span><br />
<br />
I did a lot of dressing-up as a child and together with my siblings, we wrote and performed plays in the garden. We also wrote newspapers and tried to sell them to our parents… Most days, I had a narrative playing out in my head – especially when I walked over the moors or built a den in the woods – but often that’s where the stories stayed. It was only in my twenties that I started writing my stories down.<br />
<br />
I started writing when I was 23, alongside a teaching job. I used to finish my GCSE marking at 9pm then I’d switch to writing until 11 p.m. But it wasn’t until I was 29 and on my fourth book that I got my first book deal with Simon & Schuster.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>When you first began to read books independently, which was the first book, or books, that really grabbed you and took you on a journey? </b></span><br />
<br />
<i>The Worst Witch</i> series by Jill Murphy were the first chapter books that got me hooked on independent reading. I think it was the superb world building of Miss Cackle’s Academy For Witches – I wanted to be a part of it – and the fact that the heroine, Mildred Hubble, wasn’t the prettiest or the cleverest girl in the class but she was still the heroine of the story. And from there I read all the <i>Just William</i> books then I moved on to Philip Pullman’s <i>Northern Lights</i>.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have an all-time favourite book or writer, one you have returned to, re-read or has somehow contributed to who you are?</span></b><br />
<br />
One of my favourite books of all time is Philip Pullman’s <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Dark-Materials-including-Northern/dp/1841593427/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Northern Lights</span></a></i>. Lyra Belacqua taught me to be brave as a child and I think that image of her riding an armoured polar bear over the Arctic ice plains is one of the most memorable moments in any children’s book. That and Lucy Pevensie pushing open the wardrobe door. I also adored David Almond’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skellig-David-Almond/dp/0340944951/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Skellig</a></span></i> and Katherine Rundell’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-Wilder-Katherine-Rundell/dp/1408862581/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Wolf Wilder</a></span></i> – the prose in both books is beautifully lyrical. And I love the tension and detail in Michelle Paver’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-Brother-Chronicles-Ancient-Darkness/dp/1842551310/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Chronicles of Ancient Darkness</a></span></i> books.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Which is the most recent book you have discovered, read and really enjoyed?</b></span><br />
<br />
Probably <i>The Wolf Wilder</i> by Katherine Rundell. The language is beautiful, the heroine is fierce and there are wolves – one of my favourite animals.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>On your website you have a ‘playlist’ of some of the music you were listening to whilst writing <i>The Dreamsnatcher</i> – we also spotted the Leonard Cohen reference, ‘there is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in’…</b></span><br />
<br />
Yes, I love that Leonard Cohen lyric! I also pinched some of Trent Reznor’s lyrics by way of Johnny Cash’s version of his song, <i>Hurt</i>, for <i>The Shadow Keeper</i> ending. I don’t usually listen to music when I write but if I’m working on a climactic scene I often put on the Narnia battle music or the <i>Last of the Mohicans</i> soundtrack!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>In your ‘Freedom to Think’ talk, you described your approach to writing and it was somewhat different to the other writers sharing the stage. You seem to place an emphasis on ‘adventures’ as part of your creative process. Can you tell us a little bit about how travel and primary experience inspire your writing?</b></span><br />
<br />
I grew up in the wilds of Scotland. Some days I’d go searching for golden eagles up the glen with my Dad and we’d spot them in their eyries on the highest crags. Other days the eagles didn’t show and we’d just stand in the middle of the moors, surrounded by the stags and the cairns and the mighty lochs, and I remember marvelling at it all, at the sheer wilderness spread out before me. And I think the sense of wonder I experienced back then at those remote and almost forgotten places made me want to write wild, outdoor adventures years later – and with that has come some very exciting book research trips…<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNNsmxinxSDh5ZsOGe9J5lznU7zRL2ZcPrh94-GYNP4r5XmLPKTClJ9tVetNK1_G005BPPU4qIX1ezdJnr2HVQIwNkXoTgwbsJ84Yi7TuQ5XbacQFKZg4nsAhx8_xWvr-UNiSh4enfnNI/s1600/Abi+Iceland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFNNsmxinxSDh5ZsOGe9J5lznU7zRL2ZcPrh94-GYNP4r5XmLPKTClJ9tVetNK1_G005BPPU4qIX1ezdJnr2HVQIwNkXoTgwbsJ84Yi7TuQ5XbacQFKZg4nsAhx8_xWvr-UNiSh4enfnNI/s320/Abi+Iceland.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abi Elphinstone on an Icelandic advemture</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I’ve lived with the Kazakh eagle hunters in Mongolia, and watched killer whales dive in the Arctic, for upcoming stories… I’ve abseiled into jungle caves for <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471122700/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Shadow Keeper</i> </span></a>and I’ve spent time with a wonderful Romany gypsy who taught me how to carve catapults from ash and sculpt bows from yew for <i>The Dreamsnatcher</i>. I find that book research adventures not only provide me with invaluable details for my stories but they also remind me of the sense of wonder at the heart of our world.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Did you enjoy the experience of discussing your writing method in front of an audience?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
It was such a treat to speak alongside Jonathan Stroud at the Oxford Literature Festival – I adore his books – and I think his 'Freedom To Think' campaign is fantastic. Hopefully I’ll be teaming up with Jonathan for some more events in the future.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you follow a tried and trusted writing regimen, or is it always evolving?</b></span><br />
<br />
Every day varies and I often have school visits (I did 97 of those last year and am doing over 150 this year!) so on those days I write on buses and trains to my events. But when I have a day to write at home, I get up at 6:15 a.m. and write in my shed in the garden until it’s time for bed. I usually break for twenty minutes or so for lunch but otherwise I just get stuck in. I lose all sense of time when I’m in my shed!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What advice, or ‘words-of-wisdom’, can you share with aspiring writers?</b></span><br />
<br />
I had 96 rejections from literary agents on the three books I wrote before my debut was published, so I’d urge aspiring writers to keep trying, keep honing their craft, even in the face of repeated rejection.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">So, what next from Abi Elphinstone?</span></b><br />
<br />
I have a short story coming out this November, called <i>The Snow Dragon</i>, then the third book in <i>The Dreamsnatcher</i> series comes out in February. After that, I’m writing an Arctic book – possibly a standalone – and at the moment all I know is that there will be a girl called Eska, a golden eagle called Balapan and an ice fortress ruled by an evil composer. After that, I’ve got plans for another series: remote settings, fierce kids and wild animals.<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Abi Elphinstone!</span></b></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>Abi Elphinstone</b> was talking with <b>Kim Vertue</b></i></span></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-48947082431355327292016-07-16T06:50:00.003-07:002020-09-29T06:32:34.294-07:00The Thirty-Year Lunch Time - an interview with Lydia Lunch from The Scrawl archive<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Please note that this is an archival interview and much of it previously appeared in the Questing Beast Grimoire Edition, <i>Lydia's 20-Year Lunch Time</i>, and appears here in a revised and extended version.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtTTrPusvFu1DBni36hNzittmS4kCJ0M-bPrwmGG5P5C2F72WYObdWskUVwXroBYBxKt0CxRcF4rW4CqYjryYpKTbavevAdykhNMgIdLk00YZJJGc8ID2Q2Cv0Zy_GuL6IHiXhgdYzJSFb/s1600/lydia_lunch_nmphotos.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtTTrPusvFu1DBni36hNzittmS4kCJ0M-bPrwmGG5P5C2F72WYObdWskUVwXroBYBxKt0CxRcF4rW4CqYjryYpKTbavevAdykhNMgIdLk00YZJJGc8ID2Q2Cv0Zy_GuL6IHiXhgdYzJSFb/w458-h290/lydia_lunch_nmphotos.jpg" width="458" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lydia Lunch is unstoppable...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>The Boston Phoenix called her, "one of the 10 most influential performers of the 90s," now T</b></i></span><i style="color: #38761d;"><b>he Scrawl nominates her as, "the most potent writer of the past two decades"</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Little Lydia's big self first hit the scene back in 1976
with the New York punk band Teenage Jesus And The Jerks, whose music, branded
'No Wave', consisted of ear bleeding guitar assault with an angry-aggressive
little girl screaming 'No!' at all and everything. Over the 20 years since,
Lydia has not mellowed. The intensity is still undeniable and the anger,
aggression and depression has been focused and tempered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The sphere of music has never been big enough to contain
Lydia's multi-media manifestations. Her creativity soon spilled into spoken
word performances, writing, acting and film making. Any such manifestation
demands a reaction from its witnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Delivering her spoken word performances on stage, she has
been described as a "hideous sreaming bitch", by herself. Her words
can split your skull with hatred as cold and hard as an axe blow or split your
sides with dark direct scathing wit. A sarco-masochistic onslaught that thrills
and unsettles in equal measure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">As an actress she is able to portray victor and victim
simultaneously. As a writer she can convey personal experience and confession
with a direct honesty that becomes quite discomforting. As a musical performer,
her facets and assets are many and varied, unnerving, exciting, swampy, sexy,
vicious, powerful, direct, rock'n'roll, blues, soulful ballads or ballistic
bombardments...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">'Seminal', is one word that has been used again and again
to, accurately, describe Lydia's life and work. Indeed, her life and work are
indivisible. The openness and frankness with which she talks about her life in
her work, though refreshing, is often shockingly off-putting...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Lydia Lunch, born Lydia Koch, 1959, grew up in Rochester,
New York State, and later New York City, where she had run away from 'home' to,
after her childhood had been stolen... She had been sexually abused by her
father from the age of six, or earlier, and from the age of 14 had been running
off to New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">...At the age of 17 she moved into a large house occupied by
a kind of commune of friends and acquaintances, among them Lenny Bruce's daughter,
Kitty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Lydia had been writing poetry and stories since she was 10,
so the underground creativity of the Big Apple was instantly appealing to
her.To begin with she inflicted her rants and speeches on the not-so-innocent
by-standers in the streets of New York, but soon realised that thisformat was
just not loud enough. What she needed was a contained audienceand some
amplification!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">She saw Emilio Cubeiro, a poet and playwright with whom she
would later collaborate, perform at CBGB's club in 1972, and became a regular
patron.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Experimental, indeed 'seminal', bands such as MARS and Arto
Lindsay's DNA used the house she lived in to practise, so she came into contact
with many important figures in the New York New Wave scene, which at that time
was a New Movement! Among these was also James Chance (aka James White), with
whom she first started to put together a band for herself. However, the Chance
- Lunch meeting turned into a conflict of charisma and personality, though it
provided the spark that lit the fuse that detonated the incendiary device that
was to be known as Teenage Jesus And The Jerks...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">A sound and a voice that could not be ignored had ripped its
way out of one girl's anger and dissatisfactions, and into the sub-culture of
the City. Teenage Jesus And The Jerks live shows consisted of 10 minute blasts
of screech and sound which gave 'the finger' to music scene - but only as a
distraction whilst Lydia bayonetted its complacent guts. Remember, this was B P
(Before Punk). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSI2cVCBCaya-o4J9GNUwTUPU7Eirp7F3OLhgnAZZ1qgEDF_boZ3jE2BqN-p53qa2g4Q_DBywzPFGvE_M56Il35Fnz40Mkt-sqyybMTMIQxHJC2NaOtENt1n_Rk1gC_P428SfmAwUrjhq2/s1600/lydia+20+years.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSI2cVCBCaya-o4J9GNUwTUPU7Eirp7F3OLhgnAZZ1qgEDF_boZ3jE2BqN-p53qa2g4Q_DBywzPFGvE_M56Il35Fnz40Mkt-sqyybMTMIQxHJC2NaOtENt1n_Rk1gC_P428SfmAwUrjhq2/w322-h464/lydia+20+years.jpg" width="322" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lydia in the 'No New York' era</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #38761d;">The Lydia we know now had begun to emerge. The observer and
documenter, able to look back on herself and her problems and speak out for
those who had suffered, who are suffering, too. Commenting on her own
predicament, and hence becoming the critic of the white middle-class-male
dominated culture that had placed her, and all of us, there to begin with...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Before the New Wave New York punters knew what had hit them
- and coined a phrase to label it with - Teenage Jesus ripped themselves apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The next incarnation, Beirut Slump, was an equally
anti-trend assault. Though still at the forefront of the creativity, Lydia
contented herself with torturing guitars and left the lyrics and vocals to
Bobby Swope, who 'collected' most of the lyrics from down-and-outs on the
streets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The line up also included Vivienne Dick, an underground film
maker who collaborated with Lydia on several short films. The sound of Beirut
Slump was sluggish, ugly and cruel, exploring the single mindedness and
percussive intensity later taken to its conclusion by SWANS on the <i>Raping A
Slave</i> EP and <i>Cop</i> album.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The Slump eventually stalled and was scrapped when Lydia
moved on to give us her first solo LP, <i>Queen Of Siam</i> - a kind of melancholic,
comic-book jazz dream, arranged with help from Billy Ver Plank, who was the
composer of the 'Flintstones' theme and soundtracks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Lydia began the 1980s with a return to a more traditional
rock format with the sticky-steamy-swamp-sex combo, 8 Eyed Spy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Though the five piece set-up can be described as
'traditional', and indeed there was a nod to trad rock with a couple of cover
versions, including Jon Fogerty's <i>Run Thru The Jungle</i>, the outcome was far
from. The intensity of Lydia's own lyrics, and voice, combined with frenetic
sax and guitar couterplays to create a fusion reaction that melted through
rock... 8 Eyed Spy was primarily a live phenomenon and little material was
released on vinyl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">After the Spy defected, Lydia formed the short-lived Devil
Dogs. The line-up included Jim Sclavunos and Kristian Hoffman and the material
was mainly re-workings of standard blues songs. The Devil Dogs did a handful of
gigs, one show in Italy was recorded with the intention of releasing an album,
but the master tape went (a)stray...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Lydia then became the nucleus of an amoebic collection of
collaborators. Her 'career' henceforth took on the form of a slowly spinning
diamond: hard edged, clear and reflective, bringing each facet into the light
in its turn...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">One of the most notable releases in the next few years that
followed was <i>The Agony Is The Ecstasy</i>, an epic 16.5 minute track which is
both musically and lyrically quintessential. A wound in progress, laying open
many obsessions and fascinations that she would return to again and again. The
version of this ever-developing, mutation of a song, was recorded live and
appears on the shared EP with the Birthday Party's <i>Drunk On The Pope's Blood</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The album, <i>13.13</i>, was another flirtation with the
mainstream. Of course, Lydia jilted it before there could be a favourable
response and continued to work with others who operated in a similar mode, or
who she respected, among them Birthday Party guitarist, Roland S Howard - with
whom she has worked with repeatedly, No Trend, Thurston Moore, Sort Sol, Lucy
Hamilton, Nick Cave, Marc Almond, and consistently with Clint Ruin (aka Jim
Thirwell).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">There was a one-off show with an all girl guitar trio
comprising Pat Place, Connie Burg and Lydia, Again the show was recorded but
never saw release. The only vinyl evidence of the event is the instrumental
soundtrack album <i>The Drowning Of Lucy Hamilton</i> - a Lunch-Burg collaboration
which became the debut release on Widowspeak - Lydia's own record and
publishing company.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">By the mid 1980s, it was difficult for anyone to deny her
credentials as a musical innovator. The next facet to catch the light was as
writer, when she collaborated with Exene Cervenka of LA band X, to produce a
collection of writings, <i>Adulterers Anonymous</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">From the written word and the lyric, Lydia quickly moved on
to the spoken word performance. She put her self on stage and spoke: it was a
powerfully bitter and malevolent manifestation. Honest though aggressive.
Sensitive, yet abusive...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">She hissed and spat and spake. The audiences trembled and
quivered. Lydia's stories recorded on the first collection of spoken word
pieces, <i>The Uncensored Lydia Lunch</i>, were autobiographical and cruel in their
detail. Lydia has since shared vinyl with other speakers of the word, including
Henry Rollins, Don Bajema, Hubert Selby Jnr and Emilio Cubeiro.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Her ability to spin a brutal yarn led to her, now notorious,
collaboration with another underground film maker and musician, Richard Kern.
<i>The Right Side Of My Brain</i>, made on a budget of around $500, was an expose of
abuse addiction in the form of a filmicly illustrated monologue. Equally
infamous is Fingered, a kind of black and white Lynchian hybrid of gritty sex
and violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">To round off the 1980s, Lydia paid homage to Harry Crews, a
writer she particularly admires, by forming a band with Kim Gordon of Sonic
Youth, and wrestler-drummer, Sadie Mae. The band, also named Harry Crews,
released a one-off LP and toured with a collection of songs inspired by the
spirit and words of Harry Crews, the writer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">With Shotgun Wedding, her more recent collaboration with
Roland S Howard, she went for the whole rock trip. After recording the album
she took the band on a promotional tour... The material was
uncharacteristically accessible, even acceptable, though the dark desires and
dissatisfaction still lurked beneath the surface.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The 1990s revealed yet more facets of the Lunch phenomenon:
she released a retrospective compendium of prose and plays, <i>Incriminating
Evidence</i> - collaborated with award-winning comicbook artist, Ted McKeever, as
writer for the graphic novel, <i>Toxic Gumbo</i> - she has merged spoken word with
atmospheric soundtracks to create 'illustrated word' performances such as
<i>Mantrikamantra</i> - penned a full-length biographical novel, <i>Paradoxia, A
Predator's Diary</i> - and delved deeply into sculpture and photography...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">...and she ain't done yet!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>It was while she was in the UK for the Shotgun Wedding dates
that <a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/erase-state-remy-dean-on-scraps-twenty.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span></a> first met Lydia Lunch in a dungeon-like bar just off Oxford
Street.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The main body of this conversation occurred there and then,
though more recently it has been supplemented and updated with comments from
Lydia when she was once more in the UK, along with Richard Kern, in 1996 to
discuss and defend their collaborative movies at the National Film Theatre - a
record of some ten years earlier when the films had been their first
transgression together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;">The year also rounded off Lydia's second decade of 'No-Wave'
confrontation and documentation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><o:p> </o:p> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2cvXjw61_pDw2iCu0TTUmaQninxX9KG8E6RI2h56xdCX7P_T-L1Fv0hnTCiGvlLUFzuvgsDYK1mYa3dvj7hj1fHYHs5yPiaXEaKwAnj4nvspV8a8SNotvHMFGijOX9SVzvYmQS0K5a5H/s1600/richard_kern_700px.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2cvXjw61_pDw2iCu0TTUmaQninxX9KG8E6RI2h56xdCX7P_T-L1Fv0hnTCiGvlLUFzuvgsDYK1mYa3dvj7hj1fHYHs5yPiaXEaKwAnj4nvspV8a8SNotvHMFGijOX9SVzvYmQS0K5a5H/w495-h330/richard_kern_700px.jpg" width="495" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lydia Lunch filming with Richard Kern </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: #38761d;">How do you feel about the interview situation?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh, I like it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You seem to have little fame and fortune considering the
type of work you have been doing for a relatively long time... Do you have an
anti-commercial-success policy?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to do what ever suits me at the moment. I don’t have
a strategy. As far as a career... I consider my career as what I do... but it
certainly doesn’t pay like a career. I have to amuse and entertain myself and
express myself, so usually that means a different thing every two or three
months. Which has always been the case, I didn’t set out to become a commercial
pop star and don’t see why I should change at this point.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mainstream just doesn’t interest me - nothing creative
is being done in that format - and I have to jump from one vehicle to another
at a fast pace, as fast as possible. So it’s not really an issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">It’s not a definite policy...</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, I have to say that there are very few people that are
successful that I can respect. What is there to respect when people are
propagating the lowest common denominator in order to reach a success. I am
completely successful - I’ve documented everything I’ve had to, and have
managed to do that for 13 years.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just because my bank account hasn’t swelled astronomically I
don’t consider myself any less of a success.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m very successful in the sense that a lot of people who
create on a similar level of intensity and diversity don’t have the opportunity
to find a vehicle for release of their material. I’ve been stubborn and
tenacious enough to ensure that every thing I’ve done has been documented on
record, film, or some kind of release. That’s where the success comes in - I’m
more interested in documenting these periods of emotional instability than
making sure everyone gets a copy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m speaking for a minority in the first place so why should
that translate into majority appeal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What is the worth of your work - why do that minority like
it?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because they’re frustrated, angry, hateful, confused and
they need a voice to articulate their problems and my problems are not so
unique. All problems are universal, and I think the appeal comes in from just
being a voice for the dispossessed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why is that more valid, rather than trying to fight those
problems and depressions with positivity?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well there’re enough happy assholes out there, why should I
be another one in the line... There’s a lot of mopey bastards too but I mean,
how many are really delving into the root of the problem instead of just crying
and whining about it. I’m trying to analyse the situation as I document it not
just whinge and complain... So I think the validity is that I go in as deep and
as far as I can with it, taking it to the extreme with complete intensity and
compassion. I think that’s what people latch on to...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m only dealing with what I know - I can’t espouse thoughts
that have no relation to me like happiness and complete positivity in spite of
absolute adversity. I’d be a liar if I started speaking about flowers and
sunshine. A complete fucking liar - which is not to say my life is so
drastically miserable, it isn’t, but I have a conscience. I see what goes on
and I see how people continually fuck themselves over in their private lives
what they’re not being fucked over by the government and anyone in a higher and
better position than they are. So I have to deal in reality - that’s all I’m
dealing with, I’m not making any of it up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not saying that I won’t one day release a more cheerful
presentation, but I can’t imagine one at this point. It wouldn’t impress me,
doesn’t amuse me or interest me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Don’t you think there’s a risk that people who are feeling
pretty bad might just be dragged down further by it?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Brings me to the ‘Suicide Sundays’ that some girls in the
mid-west held in my honour... is it going to be the last straw that broke the
camel’s back? I wouldn’t be sad if it did, I mean if you can’t take it any more
then you have every right to get the fuck out - but it’s possible that these
spates of depression are just temporary and environmentally controlled and if
you removed yourself from the environment that compounds your misery you would,
no doubt, be able to be a lot happier. I mean, living in a place like London is
a very depressing environment. Places like New York can be very depressing. In
spite of the energy that is intrinsic to these places that offer up a lot of
alternative vehicles, it’s still the amount of brick mortar concrete corruption
that’s gonna compound it - remove yourself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Are you occupied in the pursuit of happiness at all?</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m a total pleasure seeker. I pursue anything that
satisfies me. I usually get it. I have specific needs and I know what they are
so I can achieve satisfaction. Most people can’t be satisfied because they
don’t know what the fuck they want. They know they don’t want this, but they
don’t know what they do want. My life is very simple in that I want to create,
I want to document it, I want to do exactly what I want to do, where I want to
do it, with who I want to do it with - and I achieve that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Setting an example?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You seem very existential - all very much from within. Do
you ever think about tackling wider issues, like politics?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I tackle them in the spoken word format. I wouldn’t do them
musically because what’s the point: there’s nothing worse than political music,
it’s a complete fucking bore. It’s bad enough to give a speech that deals with
these issues, but through the vent of my spoken word performances I am tackling
the basic white-male-middle-aged-power-structure which dominates and destroys
everything. How much wider a breadth can you cover?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Have you seen the work of Candida Royalle?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes. I think it’s good. More women should delve into
pornography formed by women, I mean they’re very sensitive. I have a lot of
respect for Annie Sprinkle, though she’s coming from what I call the
hippy-tofu-sexuality genre, I’m coming more from hate-fucking and trying to
understand that aspect of personal relationships. What causes people to destroy
each other and love it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There should be more women speaking about their sexuality
and their problems and frustrations and there are just so few examples...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You don’t go with the view that all pornography exploits
women, then?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No pornography exploits women. It exploits men. It’s the men
that are made to look stupid, silly and ridiculous, chasing after the golden
elixir. Women look beautiful, do what they wanna do and get paid for it. It only
exploits men, the fact that more women don’t produce it is disturbing to women
who enjoy pornography because there’s not much erotica out there. Fortunately
in America there is Candida Royalle, there is On Our Backs - a lesbian magazine
- there are some lesbian film makers, but I mean, lesbians and the average
woman might not have a lot in common, so all factions should start speaking up.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Have you been making any more films since the Richard Kern
stuff?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did a ten minute film with Beth B about war, the day to
day abuse of being privy to the consequences of war. I’m planning another film
with Richard Kern set in New Orleans about a woman who marries a cop to set him
up for her gun running schemes - la a 50s noire detective... It’s the first
time I’ll be dealing with fiction with Richard Kern, so that should be
interesting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What do you think about the films you made with him before,
being viewed as pornography?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I guess it’s whoever’s opinion you’re listening to...
Pornography is not an insulting category to me. Fingered certainly is
pornographic, it’s not erotica it’s meant to be very ugly, which I think it is,
and funny. It shows how a woman under the strain of abuse is gonna turn that
around, but at the same time be trapped by the intensity, the emotions the
fervency of it all. It’s hard not to be addicted to adrenaline, which I think
most people in abusive situations are. Addicted to the adrenal rush of the
possible violence and then the lull and psychology of the make up, it’s all
drama and I think the psychology of abuse is based on adrenal addiction,
speaking from my own experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To me, pornography is erotic, beautifully shot and sexually
stimulating and titillating and the point of it is to get off. The point of my
films is not to get off - if that happens to you and you’re sexually
stimulated, then ask yourself why. The point of the films I made with Richard
(Kern) is not to erotically stimulate, but to show a psycho-sexual dynamic in a
drama of real life experiences and try to understand the psychology of this
kind of behaviour.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In doing these films, it really helped me to understand what
my own afflictions and twisted desires were about. It’s very hard to read the
subtext, which I hope Right Side Of My Brain delivers, which is: If you’ve been
placed in a victimised position, eventually you will become the victimiser.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, doing these films was therapy to try to break that
cycle. I’m not trying to say there’s anything wrong with being titillated by
something like Fingered - which I see as an atrocious depictation of a perverse
sexual reality which a lot of us are afflicted with and enjoy - great when you
enjoy it for the right reasons , horrible if you’re sucked into that lifestyle
without any idea of what the basis is.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think there is a big difference between these films and
pornography for the sake of pornography - which I am all for and watch
copiously. In America, the quality of pornography is incredible - sorry, you
probably luck out over here in the UK - the budgets are huge, the storylines
are great, the themes are really outrageous, so I enjoy pornography whenever I
can.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How much of your work is actually the truth about your
experience, your own life?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of it’s the truth about my own life. Depending on which
day of the week you catch me on...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>But is it symbolically paraphrased?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No. I deal with reality. I can’t speak about abuse that I
don’t know. I can only speak about what I’ve seen, what I’ve experienced,
knowing that a lot of other women have gone through it too. And men.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Pornography may not be an offensive category, but you feel
that ‘poetry’ is?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s a very weak title... What was the last good poem you
read and when was it written? The last great poets must have died about 100
years ago and I couldn’t even think of one if I had to. I think it’s an
inappropriate title... I don’t like most titles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of my songs are not written like poetry any way,
they’re prose to begin with. I like the term ‘writer’ because it’s more
ambiguous.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The people you admire tend to be writers...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolutely. Because the words are the most important thing
with what I do, the music is there to illustrate that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Does the sound of the words ever come before their meaning?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not speaking that much gibberish... I think the meaning
comes first.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why do you think people are offended or disturbed by your
work?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think because there weren’t many other aggressive,
powerful icons that were women before, so they have nothing to compare it too.
So when they see me they’re a little intimidated, also the fact that I’m not
smiling and kissing their asses might scare them: I’m not an entertainer, I
don’t like the term ‘performer’, so I think that it’s my unrelenting lack of
compromise, they might find hard to swallow. I don’t know why they’re affronted
by me.... If I was a man doing this they certainly wouldn’t find anything to
complain about.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8VV3ism93_KIpo4DCCRP11_DQrTR7gmHGg2IRBN-oJxjZx9KrlIUJa9ZhY5WXKOvAhITsFsguWY-A9_4sPCHcq-3Y_ydsxEzOab0sTaJK1oBS42bCwrVzDtS4EpBK5yndvb12_o0Cmll3/s1600/010_Shotgun_Wedding_photography_-_Saturn_Bar_and_Grill%252C_New_Orleans_-_Photo_by_David_Anthony.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8VV3ism93_KIpo4DCCRP11_DQrTR7gmHGg2IRBN-oJxjZx9KrlIUJa9ZhY5WXKOvAhITsFsguWY-A9_4sPCHcq-3Y_ydsxEzOab0sTaJK1oBS42bCwrVzDtS4EpBK5yndvb12_o0Cmll3/w495-h304/010_Shotgun_Wedding_photography_-_Saturn_Bar_and_Grill%252C_New_Orleans_-_Photo_by_David_Anthony.jpg" width="495" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shotgun Wedding </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: #38761d;">What about the references to the Church Of Satan on the
Shotgun Wedding album? Are you a Satanist?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not a Satanist... No religion, I’m atheist. What is that
song really about? Just because Alice Cooper left it out in his version,
doesn’t mean I’ll leave it out in mine. Basically it is about death destruction
and power, so the Church of Satan in that one specific prayer, which is quite a
beautiful one considering that most of the literature is ridiculous, I just
thought it was appropriate to the song... and it’s appropriate to my feelings
toward the audience in the general sense, I do not condemn them, they condemn
themselves.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why do you put yourself on stage? Is it as a service or do
you get a kick out of the power?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I get more power on a one to one basis, than I do on one to
400, although I often feel I out number no matter what the crowd size... I
often feel that I completely out number them, because it’s one mass, one body
and when it’s one body to one body, I know mine is going to be infinitely more
powerful, ever ready and long lasting. Having complete faith in my power source
and its regeneration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think more of it as a service. With Shotgun Wedding, it
was different, because I know Rowland really shines in the live format and it’s
a pleasure to work with him, and I would be too disappointed to just release
the album and not give him the full treatment. Recording the album is one
thing, playing the songs live is another, and I wanted to see how that
transmuted and to continue the collaboration with Rowland. It’s the first time
I’ve ever recorded an album and gone on tour. Totally against my rules before
this point because I find that it’s too commercial, too easy...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But just to work with these specific people in live format
and see how that goes, and see how the songs transmute from the static and
staid studio situation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is Jim Thirwell (Clint Ruin) like as a producer?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fantastic.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Is he a contributor or a megalomaniac?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolute contributor - he’s not a megalomaniac: his way is
right and he knows it. Megalomania doesn’t really come into it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>He always seems very much in control of his own projects.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolutely! He’s an ideal collaborator for me because usually
in my collaborations I have to conceive, execute, find the people, document,
see it out, birth it, shit it out... and wait for the repercussions, but with
him he can take a lot more control. I can say ‘this is the concept, these are
the words’ and he can create the music around that. I don’t have to birth every
process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s very easy to collaborate with him and also we’ve known
each other for eight years and are very close and intimate friends so that’s an
ideal collaboration where there’s only one other person to deal with not four
musicians. It’s a lot easier to translate things that way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My job is a lot easier when I work with him. I like to
relinquish control some-times, you know, and he’s one of the few people that
can take on the burden of what needs to be done to see things out... Most
people are just guitar players, or bass players, or drummers, they want to do
what they do and not have to burden themselves with all the details, which is
extremely tiring.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A thankless job.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Is that the case with Rowland at all?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, Rowland should just play the guitar. No one’s asking
him to baby sit the rest of the band or do any of the details. A talent such as
his should be mollycoddled to do exactly what he does best. But my job is the
mother of all of them and is far more exhausting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because I am the stubborn one that makes sure it’s gonna
come out the way I want it to, that’s just a job I have to take on, no one else
to... It’s part of the procedure, the creation, the execution, the
documentation, although it takes up most of the energy, what comes after that
is usually the head ache... the pain, fucking constipation, waiting... waiting
is a very irritating past time. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EuF36_51MB0p1Lsa9G5_23LQzrDUQZIDFZwcRLWGKQmtY1v3-lJXshjbYe4zlgjt4jVsSX6SXh_gNbY1vrO7JIRQS4ezg4dGBUCBM7aUIuBRVk6_kcrIZLqZ1VYqmLzQLc19NBp_Puny/s1600/harry+crews+band.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2EuF36_51MB0p1Lsa9G5_23LQzrDUQZIDFZwcRLWGKQmtY1v3-lJXshjbYe4zlgjt4jVsSX6SXh_gNbY1vrO7JIRQS4ezg4dGBUCBM7aUIuBRVk6_kcrIZLqZ1VYqmLzQLc19NBp_Puny/w315-h458/harry+crews+band.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harry Crews, band named after the novelist,<br />
(Left - Right) Lydia, Kim Gordon, Sadie Mae</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">I saw you over here with Harry Crews, which must have been
your first gig with a band here for years...</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, not really... seems that way.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Is there something you don’t like about the UK?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah. I don’t particularly care to perform here... The press
is too fickle: they like what’s trendy at the moment, not that I’m playing for
the press. The audiences are quite often drunk, what else is there to do here
but get drunk anyway? They’ve seen it all, the clubs aren’t all that great,
whatever, not that I just want to go and play to the converted, I don’t know...
I just try to avoid this country. There’s no real need for me here. I don’t
like the politics of the music scene, it’s all politics, all bullshit, all ass
kissing, all start a fad, it becomes a trend, it’s over next week.... I don’t
really work in fads or trends, though I may have created a few unknowingly, I
certainly don’t work to that format.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, the problem I find with the English music scene is
that although there’s not much of a difference between the underground and the
over ground, people are more likely in a so called ‘alternative’ vehicle to try
to penetrate that, whereas in America there’s a huge difference between top 40
radio and the underground. People are not afraid to stay in the underground.
Here it seems there are a lot of people trying to get over, which I think is not
an integral part of creation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I think what you have in America is such a large number of
people, that however underground you are, you’ve still got the culture to
support it, whereas in Britain, there are not enough people to support some
cultures...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a sense...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you like being thought of as a musician?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fuck no!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You prefer to be a ‘writer’?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah... ‘musician’ is not a very respected title. I’m not a
musician.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You’re a kind of all rounder...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Oh yeah, Jack of all trades, Master of none...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who or what were the Immaculate Consumptives?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Mr Foetus and myself...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Will there ever be a reprise?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No-no-no! No: one time is enough for a lot of these
projects. you go for it with gusto, you get it, you do it, it’s done. Why beat
a dead horse? Even if it was great at the time, enough is enough. I think there
were three performances and it was just a concept of mine to do these Halloween
shows in New York with certain people... to see what would become of it when we
were working in different formats, no bands, just songs that somehow strung
together this attitude. It was an interesting project at the time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Another band you worked with, one of my all time faves but
very obscure over here, is No Trend.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mmm... The most hated band in America.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What happened to them?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They’re over. Deceased. When I tell people I was working
with No Trend, they just go ‘Oh, my God! I hate them!’, I’m like: ‘Well, that’s
one vote of confidence...’ Great, anyone who’s that hated - even Sonic Youth
banned them from playing with them - they can’t be all bad! Mostly it was their
lyrics, I loved the No Trend lyrics... they had sent me a tape asking me if I
would sing some songs and the lyrics were just so basic and so right: ‘Quick!
Two seconds to non-existence, so what the fuck do you want?’ - how can you beat
that, I mean the curtest lyrics I’ve ever heard, ‘Too many fucking humans, You
breed like rats, And you’re no fucking better!’ - brilliant, y’know, great! So
they were just a band who could not really find their niche, put out a few
records, I helped them get out a record or two and then they just disappeared
into obscurity, and hence forth the lead singer and main man, Jefferson Scott,
went on to make a film about John Holmes life, the porn superstar, Johnny Wad -
can’t vouch for it, haven’t seen it. Love ‘Johnny Wad’ though, absolute hero.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What about your visual content? Your self image, how conscious
of that are you?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m vain. Why not, most women are, they should be. The
female format is a beautiful one in which to function. Foolhardy as it may be.
I change my image all the time, it’s whatever suits me at the moment... I was a
long-haired, shaggy red-haired hippie before I came on tour this time. The way
I look just depends on my mood, basically. The image, or personality, is
propagated mainly by the press, who don’t know jack shit about me anyway...
That’s why I like doing interviews, at least you have some personal contact
with people - they realise you’re not a man hating, man eater and that you’re
quite reasonable and sensitive underneath the scowl.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You want to be known for what you’re doing and what you
are... are you worried about the glamour and sexuality of you image detracting
from that?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not sure about a glamorous or sexual image, but I’m not
hiding my sexuality, but then again I’m not sticking my crotch in people’s
faces or rubbing myself like Madonna either... I think it’s an aggressive
sexuality because I’m not hiding it, but it’s not perceived or put forth in the
usual fashion of a smiley hot go-go dancing chic on stage, I’m not trying to
please anyone out there. I’m just being the way I am.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Some of your album covers could be considered erotic...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why thank you... Well the <i>Stinkfist</i> cover because of what
could better suit the music - which was to illustrate the final fuck of all
eternity - other than a nude shot bathed in mud with mon amour, Mr Foetus?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As far as the <i>Queen Of Siam</i> re-issue cover, I wanted to do
something that was based on the exotica albums of the 1950s - which were this
instrumental Hollywood soundtrack that always had exotic women in bizarre
floral locations on the covers. That’s what that was based on, but again, with
<i>Queen of Siam</i> or <i>Stinkfist</i>, you’re not seeing anything except for naked arms,
torso, and thighs. Yet because of my attitude, people immediately find it so
obscene when you don’t even see nipples, don’t see fur, you’re not really
seeing anything... What’s a little butt cleavage? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfr_XsggkAcmjrxieQDjJwKm6l-rdxfZJXrapiXGuPY5HLq96VPrUYi2Lf5QEWwc88u7u1SBWYee1vnrxwqodm5e5d3DfoSAf02CYDDahsQD84sxSd1-mxHCGNWuYHP59YpttEh1QrhwJ5/s1600/Lydia%252BLunch%252BQueen%252BOf%252BSiam.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfr_XsggkAcmjrxieQDjJwKm6l-rdxfZJXrapiXGuPY5HLq96VPrUYi2Lf5QEWwc88u7u1SBWYee1vnrxwqodm5e5d3DfoSAf02CYDDahsQD84sxSd1-mxHCGNWuYHP59YpttEh1QrhwJ5/s320/Lydia%252BLunch%252BQueen%252BOf%252BSiam.jpg" width="314" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Queen of Siam</i> re-issued</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">
I think it’s because my attitude is so aggressive that
people find it more obscene than if I was doing a full open thriving beaver
shot, with a smile on my face. I think if it was just a close up of my face on
Stinkfist, people would still be perturbed, those who are going to be
perturbed...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You just mentioned Madonna - what do you think of her?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wish she’d get a better band! I like her outfits. I think
she’s playing a good trick on everyone. Anyone who makes $60 million a year I’m
not gonna argue with, I just think that the music seems secondary to the image.
She’s a conceptualist in that way too, but I don’t really have much of a
comment on her. She does what she can.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She is a charitable character to a lot of organisations, she
is conscientious, she’s a business woman, she is in control. It’s just
unfortunate the music suffers, ‘cos it’s fucking shit, pop pulp pap, crap! But
she’s very good at what she does. Also she is really in a field of her own. I
consider myself the anti-Madonna! There you go - I wish she’d collaborate some
of her $60 million a year in my direction. But I’m not gonna force the issue!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think we could be quite good friends if we knew each
other... Because I don’t think she takes any shit either. However, I think she
likes her ass kissed a lot more than I like my ass kissed. I really don’t like
people kissing my ass - it annoys me. I’m not out there looking for that, and I
think that she can’t live without it. Can’t live without the camera, without
hundreds and thousands of people kissing her ass. That would be the most
repugnant thing I could think of - people hounding after me... especially 12
year old girls. God forbid.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I only have interest in being true to the way I feel. And to
the way other people feel .<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who do you admire?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hubert Selby Jnr, Henry Miller, the Maquis De Sade - who I
think is the greatest philosopher of the last 400 years. Juan Goytisolo - a
Spanish writer - is one of my absolute favourites - Serpent’s Tail puts him
out. I enjoy a bit of pulp detective fiction too like James Ellroy, James Lee
Burke - from Louisianna, Seth Morgan’s Homeboy, Anais Nin...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Most of those were male writers. Not even mentioning Harry
Crews...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah, because they’re dealing with reality... the harshness
of reality, OK. The problem I have with Anais Nin is that it’s just not real
enough. Not harsh enough. It’s very dreamy, very beautiful and erotic, but it
doesn’t really get down to the nitty gritty and that’s what I need in writing.
I wanna read it as non-fiction. These people like Henry Miller and Hubert Selby
- they may be fictionalising the examples, but they’re dealing with real
situations. That’s what I really need - I’m not that big a fan of fiction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What film-makers do you like?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Polanski would be my favourite until his last two films. Odd
films like <i>In A Glass Cage</i>, the Spanish film that won a lot of awards, <i>Santa
Sangre</i>, I like the Peter Greenaway films because they’re so fascicle and so
huge. Giant films, annoyingly British but so massive, and the massiveness and
the glamour and beauty of them are just undeniable. I love a film called
<i>Possession</i> with Isabelle Adjani who’s sexually possessed by this being, which
is basically her own urges...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Is that a recent one?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s old, I tried to get that one for the Scala, but it’s
hard to obtain a print - it is on video though, here.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Any musicians you admire?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I like The Unsane and Cop Shoot Cop from New York, on Matador
records in the States. Not that I don’t pay attention to what goes on, but it’s
been a long time since I heard anything that really sounded new to me. I like
Die Haut from Germany, and Matador - an all girl group. I like John Zorn, I’d
like to work with John Zorn - I think I might in the future. I like Diamanda
(Galas). But it’s few - you don’t hear anyone doing anything really new that
you haven’t heard before. That’s a priority in music for me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Basically I listen to Ligeti, Penderecki, Stockhausen...
instrumental music in my spare time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>2001was an influential movie then?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I just prefer instrumental. I don’t need to hear what other
people are singing. And if I need music as a backdrop to work or to think, I
need to have that part of the brain clear - I don’t need people feeding their
fantasies into my vision.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What has been the most asked question?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They’ve all been pretty unique...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You chose to live in New Orleans for a while... Why?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s no alternative music scene there. It’s very hot and
humid and lush, and lurid, thick, sweaty. A very false sense of quiet and calm,
relaxed slow paced lugubrious, lengthy long days. It’s architecturally divine.
It smells fantastic. It’s cheap. I didn’t know anyone there... All good reasons
to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You’re usually thought of as very New York.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yeah, they forget I lived in London for two years - as I
would like to also - and they forget I lived in Los Angeles, and I’ve travelled
extensively, it’s not like I feel that any one place is my home. I don’t feel
like a New Yorker, even though I could probably be the epitome of the ultimate
New Yorker... I feel it’s important to move around.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>New Orleans has a very violent reputation over here (in the
UK)...</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Absolutely violent. It’s the fifth highest crime rate in
America for murder, rape and burglary. But it doesn’t have that appearance. In
New York you see this every day, but in New Orleans you never see it, you just
know it’s there waiting to happen. It’s very integrated, but the violence
happens in the most segregated areas.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>It’s South?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s very South...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Bible belt?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bible belt... Very conservative. Louisianna is one of the
most conservative states in the nation - the worst politics, most corruption,
strictest abortion rules. It’s a fascinating dichotomy there because it seems
so placid and enjoyably luxurious on the surface, but you know all this stuff
is boiling under the belly. You can lead a very laid back lifestyle, but you
know that at any time you’re bound to be curtailed by the legislature.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that doesn’t really affect my life as an artist - I’m
living outside the law anyway. But it has the worst education in America, 50th
in position of education! In spite of two of the best universities in the
Country being there. It’s a very contradictory place.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That contradiction drew me to it. It was one of the first
places where people cross dressed, it has a very large gay population - it has
a very liberal overtone in spite of all the corruption and bullshit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The videos and films you made - what sort of exposure did
they get in America? We can’t get hold of them over here except by mail order.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well, they were kept pretty much under wraps though they did
play in a lot of cinema festivals and we showed them where we could - Foetus,
Richard Kern and I used to do tours together but we like to keep them pretty
much underground. That’s what they are, they aren’t feature films they’re small
art films, basically.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Film and video are almost by definition a mass media -</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Until you get to my back yard.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They played in a lot of festivals - in Europe too - it’s not
as if we kept them under wraps. It’s right time right place... I think the
right place for them to be viewed is privately in people’s houses, but I’m not
going to deliver them door to door... Sorry pals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What are your views on the subject of censorship?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Well it doesn’t affect me personally, although it has
affected a lot of people that I have either worked with or have knowledge of.
As for as I’m concerned they haven’t really latched onto what I’m doing either
because they think I’m too underground or I’m just a single woman screaming
into the void how dangerous can it be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course they don’t know what the fuck I’m saying, but
that’s the problem with censorship! Most of the things these people like Jessie
Helms or the Bush administration want censored are things they are not exposed
to. They don’t know what the fuck Maplethorpe did, they don’t know what the
fuck Andre Serrano did, or Karen Finlay. They only know that it’s a threat...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So not really functioning in the art circles, and being only
as underground as I am, they haven’t really picked on me yet. Let’s hope it
stays that way... Although I would go with them tongue to tongue on any kind of
debate no problem, absolutely no problem! I’m just glad I haven’t been involved
in it. I mean why the Dead Kennedys had so much controversy with art they
didn’t even create only propagate, was that the name was the Dead Kennedys and
that, right there, was a slap in the American Government’s face.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I mean with a name like Lydia Lunch they probably just think
I’m a porno star anyway so they probably just leave it out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>OK, can you do my work for me now, take control with one
last statement to draw a conclusion to our conversation?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No ...I just think that it’s important for people to know that
they should seek out the things that aren’t readily available and they
shouldn’t settle for what’s shoved down their throat and there are various
formats of artistic creation and documentation in all forms - music film
literature - that are going to speak to them that are going to speak the abused
and the victims and people who can’t take it anymore and they should seek that
out as a form of relief because that is what people like myself are offering:
an oasis from all the other forms of abuse that’re pounding in - even if it’s
only that we articulate that frustration. And there are other people like
myself...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<i style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you Lydia Lunch! </span></b></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Lydia Lunch </b>was talking to<b> <a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> </b></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: #38761d; text-align: justify;"><br /></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="color: #38761d; text-align: justify;">if you enjoyed this extended interview, you can... </b><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><script data-coffee-color="#fff" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font-color="#000" data-font="Cookie" data-name="bmc-button" data-outline-color="#000" data-slug="RemyDean" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;">For more up-to-date info check out the <a href="https://www.lydia-lunch.net/" target="_blank">Official <span style="font-size: large;">Lydia Lunch</span> website</a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #38761d;">Lydia Lunch was more recently <a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/lydia-lunch-brought-to-book.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Brought to Book</span> by The Scrawl </a></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-67423518558113903482015-10-30T06:48:00.001-07:002020-09-29T03:57:51.082-07:00For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow! The Joy of Horror with Ramsey Campbell…<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Ramsey Campbell </b>needs no introduction, but if you would like one have a read of <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/about-us/news/honorary-fellowship-ramsey-campbell" target="_blank">this potted <span style="font-size: large;">biography</span></a> from when he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University earlier this year.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Yes, Ramsey Campbell is a horror writer - and proud of it - yet he has managed to transition from great genre kudos to writerly acclaim in the wider literary world. He has been garnered with scores of major awards, including ten British Fantasy Awards, four World Fantasy Awards, three Bram Stoker Awards, and the Horror Writers’ Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-o6G4MeFSNLlUAHR6q0FDXrIAiQpCHk6SFpV6-jOfFRxaD8SW4Fa2zzrd1x48PeSy_7ar3dfnHJdV7bAgpRP_u0Xcp1ytFhxNnMjq6T2fRhnnUxgkRFOUk0luPf6PJuZE9BThlbDv-EJk/s1600/ramsey+campbell+scrawl+interview.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-o6G4MeFSNLlUAHR6q0FDXrIAiQpCHk6SFpV6-jOfFRxaD8SW4Fa2zzrd1x48PeSy_7ar3dfnHJdV7bAgpRP_u0Xcp1ytFhxNnMjq6T2fRhnnUxgkRFOUk0luPf6PJuZE9BThlbDv-EJk/s400/ramsey+campbell+scrawl+interview.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ramsey Campbell is a prolific writer and reader...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">The Scrawl<i> is proud to present a very special Halloween treat – in this extensive interview, </i>Ramsey Campbell<i> talks to </i>Remy Dean<i> about people, places, the past, the present and generously shares some top tips that will benefit any writer… </i></span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Remy: I grew up near Ormskirk, on the Lancashire flatlands, and the house you describe in <i>Again </i>seemed unnervingly familiar – I feel that I have hurried passed it on country walks, because of a disturbing reflection caught in one of its windows… Such a sense of place is a prominent part of your writing.</b></span><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What usually happens – does a story come to you and then you think, ‘where shall I set this one?’ or, does visiting a place suggest the story? Either way, is this strong sense of place created ‘poetically’ or through ‘proper research’ into the past of a place and ‘location visits’?</b></span><br />
<br />
<b>Ramsey: </b>“Very often the place is the seed of the tale. I believe I owe some of this perception to the great Fritz Leiber, in particular one of his earliest and most important tales, <i>Smoke Ghost</i>. Instead of being invaded by the supernatural, the mundane setting – forties Chicago – is now its source, and the grubby half-glimpsed spectre its <i>genius loci</i>.<br />
<br />
"In my case the fruitful setting is Liverpool. It has been for forty years, ever since I wrote my first tale set there in 1965 – <i>The Cellars</i>, which grew out of an actual underground location in the city centre – and is still enlivening my imagination, recently in <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creatures-Pool-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/1848634986/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Creatures of the Pool</a></span></i>, my ultimate Liverpool novel. That’s founded on decades of research into local traditions and history, and I’m weirdly pleased that because the process was so protracted, I no longer always recognise which bits I simply found in obscure volumes and which I made up. Since the book is to some extent about Liverpool as a pool of legends, I’m rather pleased that it has the potential to become one.<br />
<br />
"By contrast, stories using invented settings – <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hungry-Moon-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/1609286650/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Moonwell</a></span>, Goodmanswood, and so on – tend to build their locations out of my memories. I’m intrigued you found the house in <i>Again</i> recognisable. In fact that tale came out of an idea – my having, as a child, once had to climb in a window of the house when my mother left her keys inside... and then the kind of train of thought we writers have, wondering what might happen if an adult found himself in the same situation. The Wirral Way was just a convenient spot to start from."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You may have invented the urban gothic genre, consolidated in the early 1980s by the likes of </b><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/ab-solutely-fab-ulist-heart-soul-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Clive Barker</span></a><b>, and you both hail from Merseyside – was there a scene (I mean a literary one) based in Liverpool back then that you both were part of?</b></span><br />
<br />
"Well, I rather think I was writing that kind of tale more than a decade earlier. <i>The Cellars</i> was first published in 1967, and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Print-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/0586063641/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Cold Print</a></span></i> not long after. They typify a tendency in my tales to explore the darker areas of city life. Again, I don’t think my stuff gets much more urban or Gothic than <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-That-Necon-Classic-Horror-ebook/dp/B004K1FI3O/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Face That Must Die</a></span></i> from 1977.<br />
<br />
"Clive – well, I gave a talk on horror to the sixth form at his school back in the early seventies, and he was in the audience. He cites it as a formative experience – meeting someone who actually did the kind of thing he wanted to do for a living. The Liverpool literary scene back then mostly involved poets, and I wasn’t part of it, while Clive was already involved in the theatre, writing and directing friends. All that said, I do think Liverpool has produced a lot of creativity in all sorts of fields, and Clive and Pete Atkins and I were the dark trio it set loose on the world."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>The English Eerie is a term being used quite a lot recently (as an example see Adam Scovell’s magnificent weblog, </b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://celluloidwickerman.com/" target="_blank">Celluloid Wicker Man</a></span><b>). I would say that you are the leading contemporary proponent of this sub-genre - with M R James sowing the first seeds. So, what do you think are its defining components and what marks it aside from the Gothic? Also, with your evident interest in and love for Lovecraft and Poe, what do you think differentiates the American Eerie?</b></span><br />
<br />
"Well, thank you! I suppose it involves more of the spectral or fantastic than the Gothic generally does - after all, one of the great modern Gothic trilogies is Peake’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gormenghast-Trilogy-Mervyn-Peake/dp/0099288893/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Gormenghast</a></span></i> series, which involves nothing actually fantastic, though much that is grotesque. As to national differences – I really don’t know...<br />
<br />
"In a way Poe and Le Fanu were similar, both refining the Gothic novel and concentrating the uncanny and fantastic elements while also scrutinising the psychological. The English tended towards the mystical and numinous for a while – Machen, Blackwood – but then of course Lovecraft united that tradition with the American, and later Leiber was to bring the unification up to date. Indeed, later writers such as T E D Klein do."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why do you think English-language cinema shies away from producing your material for the big screen? I am truly surprised your stories are not continually optioned by British indie film producers – so why are the only two major adaptations Spanish language? With Guillermo del Toro making movies like</b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orphanage-Blu-ray-Belen-Rueda/dp/B0019GJ3ZM/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Orphanage</a></span></i>, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Devils-Backbone-Special-Blu-ray/dp/B004EMS0HU/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Devil’s Backbone</a></span></i>, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.crimsonpeakmovie.co.uk/" target="_blank">Crimson Peak</a></span></i> – <b>has Spain finally hijacked the Gothick genre?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglsd50bAiStYKADoOVRPm0WX2bBBpqO5FEIXs311Df2xM4YQxAAo5RRuP1J8DSPimWOqsvVGPuaHnJ3vsy9Odx3ZUHCk3LiQveyWH1-VJEpYtqkpihyphenhyphen_8BOvw1hDOA76y8oh7TSlj8s3V4/s1600/sinnombre.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglsd50bAiStYKADoOVRPm0WX2bBBpqO5FEIXs311Df2xM4YQxAAo5RRuP1J8DSPimWOqsvVGPuaHnJ3vsy9Odx3ZUHCk3LiQveyWH1-VJEpYtqkpihyphenhyphen_8BOvw1hDOA76y8oh7TSlj8s3V4/s400/sinnombre.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Los Sin Nombre</i> aka <i>The Nameless - </i>Spanish film adaptation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Well, there are English-language options on some of my work, and I’m hoping they’ll prove fruitful. The first Spanish film led to the second – I was in Madrid helping to promote <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nameless/dp/B000BQ52BK/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Los Sin Nombre</a></span></i> on a radio show and talked about my new book, which the producers immediately wanted to buy. Sadly, they bought the first submitted draft to develop, and it needed a great deal of work, which I put in on the novel while another writer did so for the film.<br />
<br />
"I don’t know that Spain has snaffled the field for ever. There’s some pretty fine work being made in Britain and America and elsewhere."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Drawing on your experience as a film critic – which of your own stories would you most want to see adapted for cinema? Who would be in that ‘dream’ cast and crew?</b></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Needing-Ghosts-Legend-novellas-Campbell/dp/0712621598/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">"Needing Ghosts</a></span></i> often strikes me as the basis for a disconcerting film, as does <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grin-Dark-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/0753513811/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Grin of the Dark</a></span></i>. But who would be in the films or make them I couldn’t say, though I do dream of David Lynch."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Whilst we are on the subject of films, what recent films (horror / dark fantasy / other) would you suggest for my watch list?</b></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Follows-Blu-ray-Maika-Monroe/dp/B00U3PW550/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">"It Follows</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-List-Blu-ray-Neil-Maskell/dp/B007A0P6MK/scrawmagazine" target="_blank">Kill List</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Borderlands-Gordon-Kennedy/dp/B00UU2TWDO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Borderlands</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Casebook-Eddie-Brewer-Bluray/dp/B00HBRJ0Q0/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Casebook of Eddie Brewer</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Absentia-Region-Free-Blu-Ray-Courtney/dp/B00JFA4IM2/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Absentia</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oculus-Blu-ray-Region-Karen-Gillan/dp/B00J9C05NM/scrawlmagaine" target="_blank">Oculus</a></span></i>… those have all kept my enthusiasm for disquieting horror alive. Outside the field as it’s generally perceived, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paddington-Blu-ray-Nicole-Kidman/dp/B00PIN4ORO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Paddington</a></span></i> - which is sometimes unexpectedly reminiscent of Wes Anderson, whose films I’ve also grown fond of, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Certified-Copy-Blu-ray-Juliette-Binoche/dp/B0042AEU6Y/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Certified Copy</a></span></i> and almost anything else by Kiarostami that I’ve seen - especially <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shirin-DVD-Abbas-Kiarostami/dp/B002IPHEUO/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Shirin</a></span></i>, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turin-Horse-Blu-ray-J%C3%A1nos-Derzsi/dp/B0087PZDV6/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Turin Horse</a></span>, Tu N’avais Encore Rien Vu</i> - which I admit I liked far more than Resnais’ next film, his last, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amour-Blu-ray-Jean-Louis-Trintignant/dp/B00A2P503A/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Amour</a></span></i> - Haneke, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Once-Upon-Time-Anatolia-Blu-ray/dp/B007XD19JI/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Once Upon a Time in Anatolia</a></span></i>, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wish-Kiseki-Blu-ray-Koki-Maeda/dp/B00BQYHF52/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">I Wish</a></span>…"</i><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Probably my favourite of your books in my collection is the edition of</b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alone-Horrors-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/0747243492/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Alone with the Horrors</a></span></i><b>, featuring illustrations by</b><a href="http://jkpotter.com/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-size: large;">J K Potter</span></a> – <b>I believe he has repeatedly produced work inspired by your stories and their locations – did you have any creative input on this and what do you think of those graphic representations?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6K96s04g_gRtyIRFbJSowH4Xq7cVxTsEilOxcwdzeXOZvUvpwQ9fGcRXPWVfuD1pAJ0IOrgDuD_a3yz9UOqw59tsMAAJZYshEE81w2lkPh1-pmJIa2XVnVx4wPfOPASgLuF73HtLD_fk8/s1600/alon.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6K96s04g_gRtyIRFbJSowH4Xq7cVxTsEilOxcwdzeXOZvUvpwQ9fGcRXPWVfuD1pAJ0IOrgDuD_a3yz9UOqw59tsMAAJZYshEE81w2lkPh1-pmJIa2XVnVx4wPfOPASgLuF73HtLD_fk8/s320/alon.jpg" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Essential Ramsey Campbell reading - with illustrations by J K Potter</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"No indeed – I trusted J K to follow his own remarkable instincts, and I’m delighted I did. I did show him around locations I’d used, and so his image for <i>The Companion</i> was based on the fairground that had suggested the tale, though the park shelter from <i>Mackintosh Willy</i> had, sadly, been demolished. By contrast, his illustrations for <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Face-That-Necon-Classic-Horror-ebook/dp/B004K1FI3O/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Face That Must Die</a></span></i> were made long before I took him to the actual place, but I for one couldn’t tell. His images for <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Influence-Ramsey-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00AFFQ5FE/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Influence</a></span></i> actually star our daughter, on whom Rowan in the tale was to some extent based, and my wife, Jenny, shows up cradling her."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Have you, or would you, consider writing specifically for a word-based visual medium, such as scripts for graphic novels or teleplays?</b></span><br />
<br />
"Never have, except for a horror comic I wrote many years ago, which Barry Forshaw drew. We sent it to Warren Comics, but to no avail, and it has vanished into limbo. I remain to be tempted."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Do you have a writing ritual, regimen or a tried-and-tested process?</b></span><br />
<br />
"I’m here at my desk every morning I’m at home - Christmas and my birthday too - usually in time to see the dawn. Certainly, I’ll be working on the first draft of a tale about six in the morning, when I’m generally most creative.<br />
<br />
"One thing I’ve learned in fifty years as a writer is always to compose the first sentences before I sit down to write. I generally work until late morning on a first draft, sometimes later. If we go away the tale in progress goes with me, and when I’m out I always carry notebooks – usually one for the novel in progress or next to be written, another for more general ideas.<br />
<br />
"I was also lucky to learn very early in my career – even before August Derleth sent me editorial advice – to enjoy rewriting. These days I do more of it than ever. Absolutely everything in a first draft has to justify itself to me to make the final version, which is pretty nearly always significantly shorter than the first one - anything up to twenty per cent shorter, I’d estimate. The first drafts of fiction are always longhand - with the solitary exception of <i>A Street Was Chosen</i>, written in the form of an experimental report, which I couldn’t write except on the computer - and the rewrites are at the keyboard.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Is there a difference in approach to writing a novel and a short story?</b></span><br />
<br />
"My approach to both is pretty instinctive, eschewing any kind of prepared synopsis and trusting to my sense that I’ve gathered enough material to get started. I’d much rather the tale grew of itself and surprised me. I would say novels are more likely to do the latter, and gain more energy from the time they take to write."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You have mentioned Lovecraft a few times already, my favourite of his tales would be <i>Dreams in the Witch House</i>… What would be your favourite Lovecraft story?</b></span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Space-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141196106/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">"The Colour Out of Space</a></span></i>. For me it finds the perfect symbol to convey his sense of the alienness and awesome vastness of the universe, even more eloquently than his suggestive mythos. I analysed its style and structure at length - along with other Lovecraft tales - in an essay in Ra Page’s critical anthology <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morphologies-Short-Story-Writers/dp/1905583486/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Morphologies</span></a></i>."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What is it about Lovecraft that inspires respected authors in their own right, such as yourself, to ‘write in the style of’?</b></span><br />
<br />
"In my case – that is, in my recent attempts, not my slavish youthful bids at imitation – his extraordinary care with language, his use of the precise voice at the particular point in the narrative to convey what he wants to convey, his modulation of style within a single work, his eloquent structure, the gradual accretion of telling detail. There’s a great deal to learn from without modelling one’s work too closely on it."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>OK, back to cinema – what films do you think have best captured that Lovecraftian vibe, so far?</b></span><br />
<br />
"For me no film has come closer to Lovecraft’s ambitions for supernatural horror than <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blair-Project-Blu-ray-Heather-Donahue/dp/B003YXZH5S/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Blair Witch Project</a></span></i>. In its documentary realism, its use of hints and allusions to suggest horrors vaster and more terrible than are ever shown, and the psychological authenticity with which the characters react to their plight, it virtually sums up his rules for the genre. That said, I also admire the <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.cthulhulives.org/" target="_blank">H P Lovecraft Historical Society</a></span>’s films of two of his tales, made in the style they might have had of they’d been filmed in the years the originals were published."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What was the first book you can remember reading that really carried you off into its world and left an impression on you?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6cpCDw1p2Hg-tx6aHKDIZCthB6g6EtRFoctgF4ESKMSv8E3VF2ceB30N3hxnH3X8sTVcVXVXWINjLzju202aQXNh55DZkzoNURKm2N_yNJba3uxWF95UjxFuJ68E9C6h2Li3RSMYCpfB/s1600/rupert+horror.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU6cpCDw1p2Hg-tx6aHKDIZCthB6g6EtRFoctgF4ESKMSv8E3VF2ceB30N3hxnH3X8sTVcVXVXWINjLzju202aQXNh55DZkzoNURKm2N_yNJba3uxWF95UjxFuJ68E9C6h2Li3RSMYCpfB/s320/rupert+horror.jpg" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The horror of Rupert...<br />
(cover of the 1947 annual)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Well, if we discount a Rupert Bear annual I seem to have read in late 1947 - one tale therein was my first experience of sheer supernatural dread - it was probably George MacDonald’s <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Princess-Goblin-George-MacDonald-ebook/dp/B0082ZEO8Y/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i>The Princess and the Goblin</i>,</a></span> which proved pretty well as terrifying when I was five or so. I believe that despite being aimed at children, both employ the technique of showing enough to suggest far worse – certainly to me."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who have been your favourite writers and what did you learn from them?</b></span><br />
<br />
"Lovecraft – see my ‘thumbnail’ analysis above – and M R James, specifically his ability to convey more terror in a single glancing phrase or sentence than most writers achieve in a paragraph. Graham Greene was certainly an influence in terms of social realism and terse keen imagery, and Nabokov – not just <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lolita-Penguin-Classics-Vladimir-Nabokov-ebook/dp/B0089NVIGK/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Lolita</a></span></i>, though that was my introduction to his work – was a revelation: his joy in language, his discovery of comedy in the unlikeliest places, his use of words to make you look afresh. And Thomas Hinde for comedy of paranoia."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>After such an impressive and a long-running writing career, do you have any advice or ‘words of wisdom’ for the aspiring young writer of imaginative fiction?</b></span><br />
<br />
"I’m not the first to say that the most important thing for a writer to do is to write, but I’ll add that you should work on whatever you’re writing every day until it’s finished; to do otherwise is to court writer’s block, every blank day adding to the hurdle that prevents you from getting back into the story and making the task seem more impossible. An example of this is my story <i>Litter</i>, where six months elapsed between my first day’s work and my return to the story, which I took up by writing the line 'That’s how he enters the story, or this is.' I should have rewritten the story to improve its shape, of course.<br />
<br />
"Now I rewrite more and more severely, and take great pleasure in cutting thousands of words out of first drafts; I think that’s a pleasure worth learning as early as possible in one’s career, not least because realising one can do it helps one relax into writing the first draft, where it’s better to have too much material for later shaping than not enough. Learning to relax enough with the technique of writing novels comes easier to some than others; you may feel you need to plot a novel in advance - maybe all the way to breaking it down into chapter synopses - before you begin the first chapter, but it’s worth trying to regard the synopsis merely as a safety net once you begin writing, trying to let the novel develop itself as it takes on more life. I did that first in Incarnate, and since then I’ve avoided plotting or constructing too far ahead, trying to know only as much as I need to know to start writing and head in the right direction. It can be fearsome to find yourself losing your way halfway through a novel, all by yourself in the unknown, but I find that the solutions are usually somewhere in what you’ve already written, and I can tell you that the bad days are worth the days when you feel the novel come to life.<br />
<br />
"I’m still stressing the arduousness, but let me see if I can pass on some tricks I’ve learned. We all have an optimum period of creativity each day, and it’s worth beginning work then if you possibly can. Mine is from about seven in the morning until noon or so. It’s easy to get distracted away from your work, but music may help; my desk is between the speakers of the hi-fi on which I play compact discs - which last longer than records and keep me there longer - of all sorts of music from Monteverdi onwards. Steve King uses rock, Peter Straub jazz.<br />
<br />
"Don’t be too eager to feel you’ve exhausted your creative energy for the day, but if you sense you’re close to doing so, then don’t squeeze yourself dry: better to know what the next paragraph is going to be and start with that next time. Scribble down a rough version of it rather than risk forgetting it. Always have a rough idea of your first paragraph before you sit down to write, and then you won’t be trapped into fearing the blank page. If you must take a day or more out from a story, break off before the end of a scene or a chapter, to give yourself some impetus when you return.<br />
<br />
"Always carry a notebook for ideas, glimpses, overheard dialogue, details of what you’re about to write, developments of work in progress. If an idea or something larger refuses to be developed, try altering the viewpoint or even the form: if it won’t grow as a short story, it may be a poem. Sometimes two apparently unproductive ideas may be cross-fertilised to give you a story. Then again, you may not be ready technically or emotionally to deal with an idea, and it can improve with waiting.<br />
<br />
"What else can I tell you? Only to write. Surprise us, astonish us. Enjoy your work. Above all, don’t despair. The frustration you will inevitably experience sometimes, the feeling that you don’t know how to write, may be the birth pangs of something genuinely new. I know I still suffer that experience every time I write a story. Believe me, it’s preferable to playing it safe with a formula."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Thank you for giving such a considered and full answer there, full of actual, practical advice for any writer! It certainly seems to have kept you in good stead… I lose count of how many books you have written – in excess of 30 novels and 20 or so collections of short stories - so… if I’d never read anything by Ramsey Campbell – where should I start?</b></span><br />
<br />
"Since you have, I think you should say. Let’s see if I agree with your choices."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>My recommendation as a starting point is always</b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alone-Horrors-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/0747243492/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Alone With The Horrors </a></span></i>- <b>that's the one I lend out to friends to get them on the road to Ramsey country. Possibly because it is one of the first books of yours I read myself, and also because I do think that you are a master of the short story form and this is a great showcase of 'essential Ramsey Campbell' material. Also the</b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waking-Nightmares-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/0356203417/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Waking Nightmares</a></span></i> <b>collection... As for novels - and I must admit that I have not read them all, then probably</b> <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0708843956/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Incarnate</a></span></i><b> for its inexorable immersiveness(?)... and </b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ancient-Images-Ramsey-Campbell/dp/160928660X/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Ancient Images</a></span></i> <b>for the evocative and effectively chilling milieu...</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>...what do you say to that?</b></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQSO68LbKK4v471KX99JqvXcqXqC0ciEnj-XK5sJyxVjWkyUu8WJ8xx83gpw91uHSpXmiBPT_sT24INHijnMCBZP5jc5tdlsSNHvJW7bT8BlmQEDNL6zycq5b1PpkZ__r7_btMZUHajeG/s1600/grin.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLQSO68LbKK4v471KX99JqvXcqXqC0ciEnj-XK5sJyxVjWkyUu8WJ8xx83gpw91uHSpXmiBPT_sT24INHijnMCBZP5jc5tdlsSNHvJW7bT8BlmQEDNL6zycq5b1PpkZ__r7_btMZUHajeG/s320/grin.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the funny side of paranoia...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Those choices sound good to me, Jeremy. That said, I might add <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Needing-Ghosts-Legend-novellas-Campbell/dp/0712621598/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Needing Ghosts</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0753513811/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Grin of the Dark</a></span></i> to represent my comedy of paranoia."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Finally, how will you be celebrating Halloween / Samhain?</b></span><br />
<br />
"In no way at all, though I’ll be at a convention."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Well, have a good one! Thank you very much for such a stimulating interview and for the well-considered full answers to my questions</b>.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">For more info and up-dates check out the official <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ramseycampbell.com/" target="_blank">Ramsey Campbell weblog</a></span>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">If you are somewhat serious and scholarly, you could access <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/sca/science-fiction/colldescs/campbell.html" target="_blank">the Ramsey Campbell archive</a></span>, held at Liverpool University...</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #38761d;">- Thank you Ramsey Campbell!</span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Ramsey Campbell</span></b> was talking with <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> </span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
You may also like: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-books-of-laws.html" target="_blank">The Books of the Laws: </a><b><a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-books-of-laws.html" target="_blank">Stephen Laws</a> <span style="color: #cc0000;"> + </span></b> <a href="https://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.com/2010/10/ab-solutely-fab-ulist-heart-soul-of.html" target="_blank">The Heart & Soul of <b>Clive Barker</b></a></span></div>
</div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-54799800736041834052015-10-27T06:07:00.000-07:002016-10-30T03:19:28.922-07:00The Books of the Laws<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><i>In the run-up to Halloween, UK horror maestro, Stephen ‘Midnight Man’ Laws, talks to Remy Dean about horror, music, being a 'nice' Northerner… and sharing secrets.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNZyBhVNHc8B_L_sapydx5cGW5MKx0khtVYC_w4cruQAgYKP7cY157lP9pBJXEL42MShjXBT5rvaqI5c4YpsRQ4RYXzieylbtn2ZVxvr-fULNrIWTRfMnX8hrXFab7QZJJ4_bSL_W788d/s1600/laws+04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNZyBhVNHc8B_L_sapydx5cGW5MKx0khtVYC_w4cruQAgYKP7cY157lP9pBJXEL42MShjXBT5rvaqI5c4YpsRQ4RYXzieylbtn2ZVxvr-fULNrIWTRfMnX8hrXFab7QZJJ4_bSL_W788d/s400/laws+04.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Stephen Laws </b>plays 'The Stranger' in <i>The Secret </i><br />
(photograph copyright Hydra X Productions)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">If you know anything about the UK horror scene, Stephen Laws will be a familiar name, having written numerous short stories and a dozen novels within the genre. He is one of the definitive authors of the Industrial Gothic sub-genre and is amongst a handful of writers that have shaped the form of contemporary horror literature.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Stephen Laws gives the horror reader what they want, and often a little extra that they may not have expected. Genres rely on repetition - of themes and scenarios - laced with innovation and challenge. Unlike some contemporary authors, who seem embarrassed to be writing in a genre, Laws relishes the conventions of horror and is not one to shy away from big, satisfyingly imaginative climaxes. His love for classic Hammer films is palpable and scenarios that may have come across as ‘silly’ in the hands of lesser writers remain effectively thrilling when you have been sucked into the fully fleshed-out mythos of one his stories. It is an achievement that few contemporary writers can match – perhaps shared by the likes of <a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-horror-humour-of-graham-masterton.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Graham Masterton</span></a>, <a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/ab-solutely-fab-ulist-heart-soul-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Clive Barker</span></a> and <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://questingbeastscrawl.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/for-hes-jolly-good-fellow-joy-of-horror.html" target="_blank">Ramsey Campbell</a></span> – masters of the suspension of disbelief, capable of immersing their readers in a story and for a while making them accept the reality of a challenging fiction, as if it were a real world… like a dream… or a nightmare.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">When researching what Stephen Laws has been up to lately, I came across a rather cool short film adaptation of his short story, <i>The Secret</i>. YouTube presents a relatively new medium for story-tellers to reach new and potentially vast audiences with simple-yet-effective, low-budget videos. A great transmedia way to tell a story and make it accessible – I asked how it came about and if this a method of storytelling that he will be returning to?</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Stephen Laws explained,</span> “<i>The Secret</i> came about as a result of meeting with independent film-makers Andrew Leckonby and John Raine (Hydra-X Productions) after they’d returned from a visit to the Cannes Film Festival. They’d made a series of shorts and were trying to attract funding for a full feature. They were also Stephen Laws fans and we got on really well together.<br />
<br />
"They bought the rights to one of my stories, <i>The Fractured Man</i> and tried to attract funding to develop it as a film; part of which entailed creating another short movie based on the characters in that story – entitled <i>Schism</i>, later re-titled to <i>Fractured Boy</i>.<br />
<br />
“Frustrated at the usual, endless round of financial meetings trying to drum up finance, producer/director Andy was keen to make something more substantial, so I suggested <i>The Secret</i> which had been anthologised several times, and is in my collection <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Midnight-Man-Stephen-Laws/dp/1619213478/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Midnight Man</span></i> </a>- published by <a href="https://www.samhainpublishing.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Samhain</span></a>. But only, on my insistence, if it was done in a black-and-white ‘retro’ style, reminiscent of the 1940’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507932/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Val Lewton</span></a> movies."<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxS4ObmE5rNEHqE6zc3-2EK6lAoEuILla9S9G_BdXzVkQOAzTsfGGSfGBavkB9i5AzZypSiYtWp-30qWvbdVSkHIPNlunDVv4kAEFr3zFFbA8y9YBomX_SNUmX7o9g2SK_QVVmo-oxolq/s1600/laws+01.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxS4ObmE5rNEHqE6zc3-2EK6lAoEuILla9S9G_BdXzVkQOAzTsfGGSfGBavkB9i5AzZypSiYtWp-30qWvbdVSkHIPNlunDVv4kAEFr3zFFbA8y9YBomX_SNUmX7o9g2SK_QVVmo-oxolq/s320/laws+01.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen Laws acting opposite John Raine in <i>The Secret</i><br />
(photograph copyright Hydra X Productions)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
“I adapted the story into a short screenplay and pressed on with other work while Andy and John began to set up the production. After a long while, they came back to me and said – ‘Look, you wrote the story and the screenplay. Why don’t you play one of the main parts?’ So that’s how it came about."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Stephen is no stranger to the acting game…</span><br />
<br />
"I’d done bits and pieces over the years, including a stint in the main role of Tom Stoppard’s <i>The Real Inspector Hound</i> years ago at Wallsend’s Buddle Arts Centre. Hardly a claim to thesp-fame."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The location, Byker in Newcastle, used for filming <i>The Secret,</i> has a personal connection and may have brought back memories…</span><br />
<br />
“They hired The Cumberland Arms pub for a week with filming taking place between closing time and dawn the next day. The Laws family lived in a terraced house just behind that pub back in the fifties and sixties – and it still looks the same as it did when my Dad had his Sunday pint there back in the day."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Although the video is very watchable and professional, I am guessing it was very much a low-budget affair?</span><br />
<br />
“It was a very low-budget production. Micro-budget, really. The story, screenplay and notes on the writing all appear in <i>The Midnight Man</i> short story collection. So <i>The Secret</i> came about as an interesting happenstance. A one-off really.
Andy sadly died last year, shortly after placing trailers and the short itself on Youtube for what was intended to be a short period. They’re still there if anyone wants to see them."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Yes please - and here is <i>The Secret</i>:</span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kRQyugcfF7s" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">So, which of his other stories would he most like to see developed for the big-budget big-screen?</span><br />
<br />
“All of them! One of the most frustrating things over the years for me has been the number of times that my novels have been optioned for filming, rights have been paid for, screenplays written and nothing has come of it. All part of the game in the industry, of course. But frustrating."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The first Stephen Laws book that I read was </span><i style="color: #38761d;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ghost-Train-Stephen-Laws/dp/0450599817/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Ghost Train</span></a></i><span style="color: #38761d;">, which was his first published novel in 1985. Being a Jethro Tull ‘completist’, I was attracted to it by the lyrics for </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Locomotive Breath</i><span style="color: #38761d;"> which were quoted in full as part of the frontice. I felt the story was in the tradition of <i>Quatermass</i>, with modern industrial age technology set on a collision course with ancient powers, eventually merging in a runaway fusion of metal and flesh that took the reader right to the end of the line. I asked Stephen about his love of music and how he used it as part of his writing method.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">He recounted how music has played a big part in his life, in general, and in his writing, in particular. From an early love of the rousing film soundtracks for big action films he saw in the cinema as a child and the Hammer film music - forever merged with his formative experiences of the Horror genre - to his own piano playing, music has been an integral component of his creativity… Sometimes, when writing a piece, he will think of a sequence or character in a film that shares a resonance and play that section of the movie theme to evoke a suitable mood. He has already explained this process in more detail at:</span> <a href="http://thehorrificallyhorrifyinghorrorblog.com/2013/05/03/music-of-the-night/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog</span></a>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yPl91tq-8oHE-zI_uEOn_yo89G1T8Q-JQC5GRL9ml7BGEkKehW7f0c_K7R7256g-ip-PTscFInZL6GQNg9AA6xg-clnCsI2raM-0u2DgU_bbCfIMcN9o-03JNXUACMzw99KWMYAPWVOD/s1600/GhostTrain2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5yPl91tq-8oHE-zI_uEOn_yo89G1T8Q-JQC5GRL9ml7BGEkKehW7f0c_K7R7256g-ip-PTscFInZL6GQNg9AA6xg-clnCsI2raM-0u2DgU_bbCfIMcN9o-03JNXUACMzw99KWMYAPWVOD/s320/GhostTrain2.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ghost Train</i> - All aboard for the Stephen Laws ride!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">What was the first book that Stephen can remember reading that really carried him off into its world and left a lasting impression?</span><br />
<br />
"Probably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/372/dp/1907523510/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Lost World</span></a></i>. But at around the same time, when I was perhaps nine years old and had just joined Byker Library, I was being equally thrilled by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Rider Haggard – and, importantly, Nigel Kneale."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">What authors have been his enduring favourites and what has he learnt from them?</span><br />
<br />
"My God, where do I start? Richard Matheson, Nigel Kneale, Peter Straub, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Graham Masterton, Stephen King, Robert Bloch, Stoker, Wells, Robert McCammon, the esteemed Mr Campbell, Dean Koontz, John Farris etc... This is a <i>very</i> long list and could go on forever!<br />
<br />
""I’ve learned everything I know about writing from their writing, and my love of it."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Who or what, if anything, excites Stephen about the British horror scene right now?</span><br />
<br />
"I’ve been more excited in recent years by emerging British writers than ever before. For a while, I became a little disillusioned by the tidal wave of self-publishing on the internet that led to very poor work indeed. But there’s such a long list of British talent now that I’d feel rotten giving a list that might leave someone out! It’s certainly in a very exciting situation."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">People speak of a North-South devide and I wonder if Stephen perceives such a division in the quantity of quality imaginative fiction (from Robert Louis Stevenson to Iain Banks… and his contemporaries such as Ramsey Campbell, etc.) and the answer is 'no'...</span><br />
<br />
"I’m not aware of a north-south divide on the lines you suggest. Quality is quality, and I’ve not perceived a geographical split here."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Has living ‘Oop North’ had any effect on his own writing, though?</span><br />
<br />
“I do think that ‘The North’ has had an effect on my writing... I’ve been told that there’s a ‘northern’ style in my means of expression and I’m sure that being a Northerner, my character was forged here and my creative work is reflected in some way. There’s a staccato-rhythm style to some clipped Geordie dialect which lends itself well to what you might call ‘hard-boiled’ – and although I hadn’t been aware of its use in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spectre-Stephen-Laws-ebook/dp/B00EIJDPXS/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Spectre</span></a></i>, I was chuffed to have it pointed out to me after the event."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Jethro Tull are often labelled as folk-rock and there has been a recent increase in the folk-horror sub-genre.I am interested to know if he wold consider at least some of his work - <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wyrm-Stephen-Laws/dp/0285628100/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Wyrm</span></a></i> comes to mind - to be ‘folk-horror’, and if so, what he sees as defining features of the genre?</span><br />
<br />
“I suppose you could say that <i>The Wyrm</i> is ‘folk-horror’, but when it was published, it was regarded more as something in the Lovecraft/Cthulthu Mythos style – which I was happy for people to assume, although that was not my intention. You ask me to define ‘folk-horror’ but I’m not sure that I can, since it’s not a genre of which I’ve been consciously aware of, or working in. For years, I considered that I was working in a style that I categorised as ‘Industrial Gothic’."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">One thing I have noticed is that horror writers – mostly - are lovely, down-to-earth people (and through my career as a rock journalist I found the same to be true of punk and metal bands – mostly). Those who the ‘wider society’ may view as ‘extreme’ seem to be the most well-balanced and happy folk there are. (I suppose horror is the heavy metal of literature.) I wonder if, through experiences of meeting and mixing with fellow horror writers at conventions, he may concur with this assumption?</span><br />
<br />
“We’re not nice. It’s all a big trick. We’re secretly thoroughly evil, and the way we trap you is to pretend that we’re nice. Just before we strike,,."<br />
<br />
"It’s interesting what you say about punk and metal bands – and the fact that horror writers are down-to-earth, lovely people. The fact of the matter is that in all the time I’ve been a published horror writer, I’ve only ever come across two writers who were unpleasant personalities – and no, I’m not going to say who they are. But there’s a clue in that last sentence, because I said ‘are’ rather than ‘were’.<br />
<br />
"So why are writers who revel in horror, and go out of their way to disturb us, so nice?
Over the years there’s been an over-analysis of why writers who revel in horror are so ‘nice’, tied in with what ‘horror’ actually is – what purpose, if any, that it serves in the writing and reading. I’ve been guilty in indulging in that over-analysis myself. The ‘niceness’ suggests that we’ve come to terms with the horror in our souls. Not so. Decades ago, I was interviewed in a magazine that called me ‘The Therapist of Horror’. Some truth in that, I think.<br />
<br />
"Just last year at a World Fantasy Convention and during a panel debate on ‘What is Horror?’ Ramsey Campbell - a very dear friend, declared his disgust at the concept of horror being ‘therapy’. I twitched, but took that slap – and have thought in depth about it since. He’s right and wrong. I’m wrong and right. Pick the bones out of that."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Why do we like to be ‘disturbed’? Where is the beauty in horror?</span><br />
<br />
"Well, this ties-in with what I just said - the analysis of ‘horror’, what it is and why it’s attractive. I go back to something I said years ago: “People like to be frightened for fun because they don’t like to be frightened for real”. There’s a line from my first novel, <i>Ghost Train</i>, where ‘The Ghost Train Man’ says: 'You paid to come in, didn’t you? You wanted to be scared'. The key word here is – danger. Horror literature is dangerous literature. While you’re reading it – if it’s written well, and you’re drawn in – it can be dangerous both physically, philosophically, emotionally and morally. It’s dangerous in that it can temporarily skew you while you’re turning the pages. It can make your heart pound, your blood race. Then you can shut the book and you’re back home safe again.<br />
<br />
"Beauty in horror? Yes, of course – but beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it?"<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtIwUUcFgV6b9v0AAbYV0TN_WbQTuEEsL-rBCNqTtn_GMSLS0iFeMaSMXikVF352YhJmu2e047jPYN2hN-CPRPsgLMyUOwHdiikQUiwRV8M9-n9LXYMIUbY5XBvnSMkZzZBG1UkSbJgoB/s1600/TheMidnightMan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtIwUUcFgV6b9v0AAbYV0TN_WbQTuEEsL-rBCNqTtn_GMSLS0iFeMaSMXikVF352YhJmu2e047jPYN2hN-CPRPsgLMyUOwHdiikQUiwRV8M9-n9LXYMIUbY5XBvnSMkZzZBG1UkSbJgoB/s320/TheMidnightMan.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His time has come - Stephen Laws is <i>The Midnight Man</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Does he subscribe to a writing ritual, regimen or a tried-and-tested process?</span><br />
<br />
"I worked nine-to-five in local government before I became a full time writer. So my writing during those pre-full-time years was done - usually - after nine at night, and into the early hours. That’s stuck with me, and is the reason for the title of my short story collection: <i>The Midnight Man</i>. That’s always been my best time. But when I’m working to a deadline and I’ve outlined – and things are going well - it can be any time of the night and day.
But everyone will have a different routine.<br />
<br />
"There’s no one way. Just make sure you apply bum to seat, fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper) and write."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Presumably, he has been taking your own advice, so what can we look forward to, from Stephen Laws, in the near future?</span><br />
<br />
"A bunch of short stories will be creeping out in various anthologies, I’m finishing a novella and returning to a novel project that I’d abandoned some time ago. I’m once again in negotiation on a film adaptation of one of my novels...<br />
<br />
"I'm currently compiling 25 years of genre celebrity interviews that I've undertaken at events like the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films, together with inside stories and personal reminiscences - to be titled <i>The Laws of Horror</i>."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">After a long-running writing career, can he share any advice or ‘words of wisdom’ for the aspiring young writer of imaginative fiction?</span><br />
<br />
"<i>Read</i>. If you’re not reading and enjoying – you can’t possibly be a writer. I’ve been shocked to come across would-be writers who just don’t read. Incredible, I know – but true. Also, I’d thoroughly recommend looking at older work. When I need some revitalisation, I go back to the Old Masters and read them again. For new would-be writers, I’d recommend picking up some of the great old novels and paperback collections like <i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the%20pan%20book%20of%20horror%20stories&sprefix=the+pan+%2Cstripbooks" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">The Pan Book of Horror Stories</span></a></i>."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Stephen Laws ...just a couple of final questions: </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>The Secret</i> is set in a pub – what is your ‘tipple’ of choice?</span><br />
<br />
Bell’s whisky.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">…and how do you celebrate Halloween / Samhain?</span><br />
<br />
"We don’t. We just have a bowl of sweets ready for the kids who come trick or treating. And a cattle prod."<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">For more info and up-dates check out</span> <a href="http://stephen-laws.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Stephen Laws' official weblog</span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Most of Stephen Laws works are</span> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=stephen+laws" target="_blank">now available as <span style="font-size: large;">Kindle editions</span> at amazon</a><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Thank you Stephen Laws!</b></span></i></div>
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #38761d;">Stephen Laws was interviewed by <a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Remy Dean</span></a></span></i></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-15785676582988250382015-03-28T11:12:00.001-07:002020-09-29T03:53:02.836-07:00Peter David, Superhero Saviour!<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Marvel maestro, Peter David talks to Remy Dean about the changing perception of comics, from throwaway kidstuff to literary award-winning genre, from subculture geek fodder to surefire box-office ammunition, from experimental indie titles to supersafe superheroes...</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Hulk</i> and <i>Spiderman</i> are now super-huge superhero franchises. But if it was not for Peter David’s penmanship, <i>Hulk</i> and – to a lesser extent, perhaps – <i>Spidey</i> may not have been in the running to be re-invented as the big screen cash-cows we all know and love today. They were both ‘flagging’ series when Peter David got to write for them early in his comic career back in the 1980s… and on both counts his inventive story arcs re-vitalised the titles and attracted fresh readers to the marvellous world of Marvel. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hulk-Visionaries-Peter-David-TPB/dp/0785115412/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5dYiJxZxeyyAKcAZK7CxJRfkDBX5oCL0lTxKiYXjCaotAbeXoZpIxY-opEytQpqKOdsnWw-EizJD6YOjOLZ81v8Pg-jBZjX9ZKPI98GpzKidlzlDySr6iiIz4T8ZClgY4IBA7ZTOgBeEj/s1600/hulk-visionaries-peter-david-vol-1-2.jpg" width="206" /></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Man-Death-Jean-DeWolff-Marvel/dp/0785167145/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxNt_C3ZN1g59PGnWlrJY5pHNidBEKbOc3x7GGmFtdEuxLd7jNwxYCLKy-wLXiq60uGae-h-bNB-TFEjZS_5SL0R83RzTGt7vmvsj7eoygCfCjgitBqN7S5ijeFfVvr2dRVGV8Cq-4IWe1/s1600/SpiderManTheDeathofJeanDewolff.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Peter David rapidly earned a reputation as being a prolific ‘writer of stuff’ (as he describes himself) and has remained a fan favourite, because he writes like a fan who can write - with knowledge, enthusiasm and sensitivity to the characters and the worlds they inhabit. He has a flair for making potentially ridiculous characters emotionally engaging, with real weaknesses to counterbalance their unreal strengths. Real world issues are often paralleled in in his stories and his characters have to deal with everyday problems as well as more Olympian conflicts…</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkAdJFCthd2_HSUFluPQTQimRCOInemqnRoY-8qETRiCLGrhITk_rpuxYw70wObX8HOufGv6OQRkIvjz7ySo0CPA7-nb1infsrlOcBpe1NmbzxV3afgAu9pxxwf8tduO_zIZoVI3aPset/s1600/PeterDavidByLuigiNovi.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkAdJFCthd2_HSUFluPQTQimRCOInemqnRoY-8qETRiCLGrhITk_rpuxYw70wObX8HOufGv6OQRkIvjz7ySo0CPA7-nb1infsrlOcBpe1NmbzxV3afgAu9pxxwf8tduO_zIZoVI3aPset/s1600/PeterDavidByLuigiNovi.jpg" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter David - Comic Convention regular <br />
(picture credit: Luigi Novi)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Having been a major proponent of the comic genre for a long time, you must have seen the industry - and perception of comics - change a great deal, from being ‘for the kids’ to becoming a respected literary form... What or when do you see as the ‘watershed’ for this change?</span></b><br />
<br />
“My guess would be the rise of the direct market. Once upon a time, comics were only available in ‘mom and pop’ shops and 7/11s. The rise of the direct market and the development of comic book stores not only gave rise to an older audience, but gave them a place where they could congregate and interact with other fans. This caused the audience to skew older, and as that happened, publishers began seeking projects that would appeal to older readers. As a result of that audience growth, we got <i>Maus</i>, and <i>Watchmen</i>, and <i>Dark Knight Returns</i> - all the various projects that appealed to the 18 and up crowd.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">As you say, Art Spiegelman’s <i>Maus</i> was a ground-breaker in dealing with issues and 'heavy' subject matter in the comic format. What wider issues are important to you - what gets you 'fired up' - and how do you tackle them?</span></b><br />
<br />
“Free speech is a particular sticking point. It particularly irritates me when people who proclaim that they are liberals try to censor others in the name of political correctness. I find that even more offensive than when conservatives do it. At least conservatives are honest. They declare, ‘We want to stop this talk because we find it offensive.’ Liberals say, ‘We want to stop this talk because we're worried other people will find it offensive.’ Which is crap: the fact is that they feel the same way conservatives do, but they're being dishonest about it. I've written both comic book stories and also columns about it.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>OK, so my literary snob pal admits <i>Maus</i> is worthy and has ‘literary merit’, and I can get them to look at <i>The Arrival</i>, and <i>Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes</i>, even <i>From Hell</i>… but superhero comics? Guys in leotards, big green freaks with massive muscles, men flying about wearing metal suits! How can I convince them to give that a try? (This question is asked with the healthy tone of British irony!)</b></span><br />
<br />
“Well, I hear tell that some British guy wrote a book called <i>Watchmen</i> that a lot of people seem to like. And Frank Miller wrote <i>Dark Knight</i>. They could try those. Plus anything of mine."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Of course the scale and scope of the superhero universe is akin to the Greek Myths – from where some of the very first stories and heroes were born. I was recently watching a lecture-talk given by Stewart Lee where he talks about leaving comics behind with his childhood because he did not perceive them as ‘grown-up’ things to read, then rediscovering the format through coming across a story cycle of the <i>Hulk</i> written by you - respected by many as the finest <i>Hulk</i> stories since those of Stan Lee. Why did you want to write comics as an adult? </b></span><br />
<br />
“I wanted to write comic books as a kid and as a teen, so why wouldn't I want to write them as an adult? It's like asking an astronaut, ‘Why did you become an astronaut?’ Why? Because every kid wants to be an astronaut. Just like tons of kids want to make comic books their lives. It's just that some of us manage to do so …and some of us don't, and consequently show up on the Internet and bitch about the people who made it.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I imagine you grew up reading comics in the second superhero revival of the 1960s… what is your earliest comic book memory and what was the first time a comic book really carried you off into another world?</b></span><br />
<br />
“I first discovered comic books in my local barber shop, actually. They had the Harvey Comics for kids to read while we were waiting. That's where I first met <i>Casper and Wendy</i>. I knew so little about comic books that when Casper turned into dotted lines, I thought it was a participation thing where you were supposed to take a pencil and connect them - I had no clue that it meant he was invisible. My first superhero comics were <i>Superman</i> - Action Comics, and that extended from my love for the George Reeves <i>Superman</i> TV series. Every episode would end with the announcer saying, ‘Superman is based on the character appearing in <i>Superman</i> magazines.’ And I thought, ‘There are magazines?’ So I went to my local magazine store and sought them out.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHQh-rMMQoaKKJ0T27dCHsmADXpxm1zVosQhXW-cYofpUNqCSWn4vosONt0dkDzzAyTlM4zXRxp3VPZFLT1EIyrMG_c52tSx_v2xTRw0OP9ceTnM2ejFVBoQ2nUE8kBtvai5etWjUiO6T/s1600/Action_Comics_270.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHQh-rMMQoaKKJ0T27dCHsmADXpxm1zVosQhXW-cYofpUNqCSWn4vosONt0dkDzzAyTlM4zXRxp3VPZFLT1EIyrMG_c52tSx_v2xTRw0OP9ceTnM2ejFVBoQ2nUE8kBtvai5etWjUiO6T/s1600/Action_Comics_270.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An old <i>Superman </i>story - from the 1960s</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What do you think of the current explosion of the Superhero genre, and the huge-budget cinema adaptations?</span></b><br />
<br />
“When I was a kid, it was all the stuff of fantasy. Hollywood FX couldn't possibly live up to the requirements of superhero films. I mean, hell, we went nuts with the - by today's standards - crummy flying effects in <i>Superman</i>. The growth of the genre has been amazing. The only downside is that the expectations have risen as well. You get films like <i>Green Lantern</i> which really weren't that bad and the fans hate them. Does nobody remember the DC live action TV shows from the seventies? <i>Those</i> were awful!”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Movies adapted from comics are currently the biggest genre – the sales of related titles must reflect this – from your point of view within it, how has the perception of the comics industry changed in the last couple of years?</span></b><br />
<br />
“You proceed from a false premise: the sales of the comics don't relate at all. Millions upon millions of people see movies. With a comic, these days if you're over 100,000 you're doing incredibly well. Yes, we get some PR boost, I suppose, but we're not selling millions of copies of <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i>, no matter how well the movies do.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Has this had any effect on the attitude of the comics publishing world? Has it pushed Marvel/DC superhero format to the forefront at the expense of indie and less mainstream comics? Or do you find the industry thrives throughout now as a result? In other words are publishers putting more money into the successful superhero genre and less into the new, cult and unusual ideas?</b></span><br />
<br />
“Publishers put money into what sells. Untested and unusual ideas don't sell, at least not to Marvel readers. Heavily character driven stories don't sell. What sells for the most part are things tying into events. As much as readers may piss and moan about it, that's what they buy. Does that mean Marvel will never be experimental? Of course not. But the expectations for such projects are pretty low.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What unlikely comic would you love to see given the blockbuster treatment?</b></span><br />
<br />
“<i>Fallen Angel</i>. But that's probably just me.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallen-Angel-Vol-Serve-Heaven/dp/1933239778/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTS_xy13AQU0C6b2-y6VzsszoTixFMRjtie8WrvUHNcdzzpTpcZtKF-WyoiWzOvfidHv5LAltss8G1qXdY5pZja6n7r7FSsCnr4_RjATbWlQq31hBpxsyeq4yd3lc9hlBAii5y5laRBSLv/s1600/Fallen_Angel_1_issue+4_Cover.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Fallen Angel</i> created by Peter David <br />
with artist David Lopez</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="color: #38761d;"><i>Fallen Angel</i> is a character created and owned by you, and you have written a great many solo works, but the majority of your writing seems to be working with characters and scenarios devised by others – what do you enjoy about this challenge that keeps you coming back for more? </b><br />
<br />
“Most of my solo projects are in novels. That's one of the advantages of having ties to various venues outside of comics. I have a great deal of fun contributing to the vast tapestry that is the Marvel universe. It's nice to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself."<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">What do you think are the positives and negatives of both working alone on a project and collaborating with others?</span></b><br />
<br />
“The positive is that it's the purest form that your story can take. There's you, the reader, and the story and nothing else. So you get all the credit. The downside is that you also get all the blame. The advantage of collaboration is that, if you have a quality artist, that artist can elevate the story to something far beyond what you are capable of attaining on your own."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Writing novel-style fiction and writing for teleplays, video games and comic scripts must use very different ‘skill-sets’. How does your approach differ in these varied formats? And what aspects remain constant?</b></span><br />
<br />
“It doesn't really involve different skill sets. It's like saying to someone who's working out, ‘Wow, first you lift the weights overhead and now you're pushing weights with your feet! How do you do that?’ You're just using different muscles. The only difference is the format in which you're writing.”<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do you have an established writing method or ‘ritual’?</span></b><br />
<br />
“I sit and work.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Who did you learn from - who are your writerly heroes and heroines?</b></span><br />
<br />
“<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://therealstanlee.com/" target="_blank">Stan Lee</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://harlanellison.com/home.htm" target="_blank">Harlan Ellison</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://stephenking.com/" target="_blank">Stephen King</a></span>...all of whom are now friends of mine.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>What comics are you currently enjoying, and would recommend?</b></span><br />
<br />
“I like a lot of stuff that Marvel puts out. I also enjoyed<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kick-Ass-Mark-Millar/dp/1848565356/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank"> <i><span style="font-size: large;">Kick-Ass</span></i></a> and I'm enjoying <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jupiters-Legacy-1-Mark-Millar/dp/1632153106/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Jupiter's Legacy</a></span></i>."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>You are so prolific, so you may have to be selective here, but what up-coming Peter David projects can we look forward to in the near future?</b></span><br />
<br />
“I'm working on some <i><a href="http://er%26rh%3Dn:266239%2Ck:peter+david+new+frontier/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Star Trek: New Frontier</span></a></i> novellas, so it's great to be back in that venue. I'm working on various miniseries for Marvel... I'm also working on a project with Colleen Doran..."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>I often wind up an interview by asking for any ‘top tips’ - in this case for the aspiring writer of comics - but you have already written <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Comics-Graphic-Novels-Peter/dp/1600616879/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">an entire<span style="font-size: large;"> book</span> on the subject</a>! So, please feel free to share any ‘in-a-nut-shell’ pearls of wisdom that have helped sustain you in your career…</b></span><br />
<br />
“Read more than you write... and read <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Writing-Comics-Graphic-Novels-Peter/dp/1600616879/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">my book</a>.”<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>- Thank you Peter David!</b></span></i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spider-Man-2099-1-Out-Time/dp/0785190791/scrawlmagazine" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vYzwXZrtGLcSsa-vKGqoxfGsiuqahFYailV_d3uVRgD3Wa0TPDt66mSC4_b_cWTLmp60IP4urF4kSHU-5ewHi3n4jB3jrs2aWiysZMowZaYIe1Ex_C39303mhVi2GYtpxg1XPpWJovmU/s1600/spider-man-2099-1-review-102247.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter David re-invents the Marvel Universe</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">For 2015, Peter David is re-inventing the Marvel Universe in his </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Secret Wars 2099</i><span style="color: #38761d;"> series for Marvel, re-working iconic </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Avengers</i><span style="color: #38761d;"> characters again, such as </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Spiderman</i><span style="color: #38761d;">, </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Captain America</i><span style="color: #38761d;">… and it may all turn out to be a little </span><i style="color: #38761d;">Strange</i><span style="color: #38761d;">… (as in </span><i style="color: #38761d;">the Sorceress</i><span style="color: #38761d;"> – that was almost an in joke, for the in-crowd)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">Keep up with Peter David news at his <a href="http://www.peterdavid.net/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">official website</span></a>.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #38761d;">...and find out about new titles at the <a href="http://marvel.com/comics" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Marvel</span> website</a>.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Peter David</b> was talking with <b><a href="http://remydean.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Remy Dean</a> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">if you enjoyed this interview, you can... </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.buymeacoffee.com/1.0.0/button.prod.min.js" data-name="bmc-button" data-slug="RemyDean" data-color="#FFDD00" data-emoji="" data-font="Cookie" data-text="Buy Remy a coffee" data-outline-color="#000" data-font-color="#000" data-coffee-color="#fff" ></script></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-42014761626079131362015-03-12T05:39:00.002-07:002015-05-01T08:40:26.385-07:00That interview with Malcolm Pryce<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">... but which title should we go with? </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">'Aberystwyth Now' / 'The King of Aberystwyth' / 'Aber’s Greatest Hits'... </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>In this revealing, entertaining and exclusive interview for <i>The Scrawl</i>, Malcolm Pryce, author of the six Louie Knight novels to date - <i>aka The Aberystwyth Books - </i>talks with Jane Williams about how he writes such inventive and surprising stories... about how he has made the Welsh Seaside Noir genre his own... about ice cream, hearing voices, and being - certainly not 'bonkers', but perhaps - 'crackers'?</b></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCeFhAqok4WAF9CAZRRLlsVGEdA_uPn502bT-FCQcpjilxJD0Htue0dYiJxzfve3IDFNmfcFScEE5FXjrp9JmDcuB83iOdU-mQ0JZbEFt0L-1fxpyWr6navycPRODRpPDSonfAn4z47dk/s1600/malcolm+pryce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCeFhAqok4WAF9CAZRRLlsVGEdA_uPn502bT-FCQcpjilxJD0Htue0dYiJxzfve3IDFNmfcFScEE5FXjrp9JmDcuB83iOdU-mQ0JZbEFt0L-1fxpyWr6navycPRODRpPDSonfAn4z47dk/s1600/malcolm+pryce.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Malcolm Pryce - the 'Welsh Wizard of seaside-noir-meta-fiction... </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Did you really start writing the <i>Aberystwyth</i> books because you heard a disembodied voice tell you to? Because I believed it!</span></b><br />
<br />
The disembodied voice helped give shape to a project that had been gestating for a while. I was staying with a girl in the Philippines, in a place so remote the <i>Lonely Planet </i>warned you not to go there. I didn’t realise this until later.<br />
<br />
She lived in a stone-age village without electricity or running water, or even glass windows, and while we were there, a cyclone arrived, forcing us to remain for a week or so. News spread that there was an ‘Amerikano’ in the village and for the next few days groups of people from far and wide would arrive to stare at me. First they would hand over a present consisting of a cream cracker wrapped in newspaper. It’s quite hard eating cream crackers without butter or cheese, but of course since it’s a gift you have to do it. Then they would stare at me for hours on end, the monotony broken only when another group from even further afield would turn up with some more cream crackers. Being stared at in this fashion is what is known as White Torture, or no-touch-torture, devised by the Communist Chinese interrogators during the Korean War. It can break a man within hours and leave him in state of total spiritual collapse. I don’t think the Koreans used cream crackers though. That was the bit that broke my spirit and awoke the disembodied voice, the one that said the talismanic words, ‘It’s Aberystwyth Jim, but not as we know it.’ Sometimes I wonder if the Philippinos were really coming because they had heard there was a white man in the village who could eat dry cream crackers.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">Do people - Welsh ones, or ‘foreigners’ - really take offence at how you talk about Aberystwyth… Because I for one think that your local references and colloquialisms are absolutely genius. One of my favourite examples of this is from your first book the reference you make to ‘Ffestiniog Chardonnay’. I think that you have to be a local to realise how funny that joke is. Oh, and also the quote about how, “Mrs Pugh from Ynyslas had once famously had a rent rebate because the bells (of Cantref y Gwaelod) had kept her awake all night” - there are a few ‘old dears’ that I know who would actually think that was a great idea.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">If anything, I think that I can read a great deal of love and understanding about Welsh society, history and the strange characters (weirdos) that live here (I am including myself as one of the weirdos).</span></b><br />
<br />
Apart from famously being arrested for sedition by the Mayor of Aberystwyth, I haven’t really been confronted by angry critics, not been confronted by any stone-throwing mobs or anything. You are quite right, the books are part love poem to Aberystwyth and homage to the lost ‘craptasticness’ of the British seaside holiday. They are not piss-takes at all in my view, there would be little point wasting the precious few years we get on this earth doing something that was nothing more than that. Instead, the characters, though they live in an absurd universe, are real, with real beating feeling hearts. Just like us. They take the world seriously and that gives it, in my view, a genuine emotional core.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Did where you wrote the books have an effect on your stories or plot lines?</b></span><br />
<br />
Only in the limited sense that actually being in Aberystwyth is inimical to the task of writing about the place because it gets in the way. Clearly my version is a parallel universe version that attaches to the real one at various geographical locations like the Pier, or the famous Stryd-y-Popty, but floats free of it in other respects. The real one is a bit drab really and it is better to consult the version lying in the ‘rag-and-bone shop of the heart’, which I think is more faithful to the spirit - if not reality - of Aberystwyth.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aberystwyth-Mon-Amour-Noir-Book-ebook/dp/B004BSFMBY/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDcOONP5JBiTvZb7-izWhgs_6r3-ms7mao6inNQxBmykJNexxiT8m08SiwqyxKMdLU17JXhHg6RyHbpXVxsZiq-22YpJzpiJVsn8d8wns6NuB6kyGr1CteUohbVOf0ER5GofElMPv1IsxK/s1600/abermonamour.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...a 'love poem' to Aberystwyth</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I think it was Hemingway who said you can only write about a place after you have left it. Draft one of <span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aberystwyth-Mon-Amour-Noir-Book-ebook/dp/B004BSFMBY/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Aberystwyth Mon Amour</a></i> </span>really was written on a cargo ship bound for South America (I was a fare paying passenger, one of three), and the rest were written in Bangkok, where I lived for seven years and scrivened from dawn to dusk, tirelessly chronicling the moral turpitude of the people of Aberystwyth.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>If I was an A Level English teacher (the aspirational musings of a dyslexic potter), I would ask my class about possible recurrent themes within your books. The main themes that I have picked up on is ‘identity’ and self-reinvention.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Discus (<i>tee hee</i>) Discuss...</b></span><br />
<br />
To be honest, I’m probably not the person best placed to answer questions like this. Some time ago now, I started getting emails from students at Cardiff university asking similar sorts of questions. It seemed there was a course on detective fiction being run there and my books were on it. I was quite surprised to discover this but, having always longed for an academic qualification after my name, I decided to enrol on the course incognito, thinking it should be fairly easy to get a qualification for expertise in my own books. But nothing could have been further from the truth, I did very poorly.<br />
In order not to arouse suspicion I was quite hostile in my criticism of Malcolm Pryce, I called him ‘an unoriginal jejune chancer’. This made me deeply unpopular among the other students on the course because, of course, Malcolm Pryce was some sort of god for these kids. They said, ‘You wouldn’t say that if Malcolm Pryce was here now!’ It was a very lonely time. How I longed to tell them who I was! <br />
<br />
I remember describing in one essay how Malcolm Pryce had developed a taste very early on for jam and cheese sandwiches and his grandparents, on seeing this, had taken him aside and pointed vaguely west saying, ‘Yonder is a great town called Aberystwyth where the people eat jam and cheese sandwiches all day.’ Later, when he went to live there his heart was broken to discover they had lied, so this provided the theme of betrayal that runs through his work. Or so I thought. But the tutor told me my theory was a silly fabrication. The irony is, it’s actually true.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">How do you write your books? Does it involve lengthy planning and mapping out? Do you use sticky labels with words like aliens, ventriloquists, stovepipe hats, what the butler saw ‘snuff’ movies, Patagonia, vampires… Where do your stories and plot lines start? Oh, and how do you keep them ‘tame’ - not ‘tame’ as in passive and easy, but tame as in not running around in the jungle covered in your own scat and howling at the moon, people fleeing in horror, tame.</span></b><br />
<br />
I think it was Flaubert, or someone like that, who said you should be neat and ordered in your daily life so you can be bonkers in your work - I’m quoting from memory. I subscribe to that view. There is no madness visible at all in my working method. I don’t scribble things on notes and stick them on the fridge. I don’t mutter to myself. I wash. Igor doesn’t turn up at 3 a.m. with a plate of bread and water, saying. ‘You must eat, Doktor!’ I just sit and ponder for months on end, write down notes but never have to refer to them again. The act of writing them down somehow fixes them in the memory. During the course of the ‘thinking up’ stage, a world develops. Then one day, like a mariner too long from the sea, I will wake up and know it is time to go down to 'the harbour’… and start the real writing. That takes about six months.<br />
<br />
I write about five or six drafts and throw away about seventy percent of the early ones. People wouldn’t believe how much manual toil is involved. It’s like moving a beach with a spoon. But it’s all quite calm. I like the idea that by closing the laptop lid it all disappears for the night like toys put back in the cupboard. In Bangkok, once, I did put index cards on the wall, and I was quite taken aback at how subliminally disturbing this turned out to be, after I had ‘switched off’ for the day. I was living in a studio apartment - so living and writing in the same space, but even though I did not look at the cards, they had an insistent presence that bugged me. I’m pretty sure the reason is, even when you stop writing for the day, your unconscious is still at work on the project and it resents the intrusion, it needs time to do its work in peace.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_Wq58piEkv_XM-uza2pTipExYoioiKqwGe4XvKEPAn3VSWI9FDtrCzhAx_la9tOBrdpBALVL4O1Gr1OailvXaOXxLpAPgg0kdePTs2RvobeZhPZDrtrAhlnSjEK0q1GKfe_j82iwA1Yg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-12+at+12.43.25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_Wq58piEkv_XM-uza2pTipExYoioiKqwGe4XvKEPAn3VSWI9FDtrCzhAx_la9tOBrdpBALVL4O1Gr1OailvXaOXxLpAPgg0kdePTs2RvobeZhPZDrtrAhlnSjEK0q1GKfe_j82iwA1Yg/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-03-12+at+12.43.25.png" height="118" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Aberystwyth adventures of Louie Knight continue...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>As a quick explanation: my nickname was ‘Calamity’ when I was a little girl, because I loved Doris Day, I was a flamin’ liability, oh and my name is Jane. So, how did you decide on the characters of Louie Knight and Calamity Jane - was it THAT voice again?</b></span><br />
<br />
I didn't decide on anything, I just wrote and it all emerged, like a face in an old-fashioned photographic developing bath -I know that image is no longer current, but I can’t think of a better one. I never sit down and create characters the way all the books on creative writing say you are supposed to: I don’t fill out lengthy forms answering specific biographical details. I couldn't tell you what any of my characters were doing on their fifth birthday. They usually emerge from the dialogue, as soon as they start talking they either become someone or nothing happens and they don’t get invited back.<br />
<br />
When Louie went to the Pier at the start of <i>Aberystwyth Mon Amour</i>, I am pretty certain I had no idea who he was going to meet there, but he met Calamity and the dialogue between them just happened, and in the process he acquired a sidekick, but it was never planned or intended. It’s all like that. If anything, I don’t create characters, I grow them. How such a thing can happen is a mystery but I am comfortable with it being a mystery.<br />
<br />
Talking is a mystery too – no one can explain how it can be possible to hold an intelligent conversation in real time, on the fly, without preparation or premeditation. It’s amazing, even very stupid people can do it. If you ever stop to wonder about that it is baffling. Where do the words come from? Clearly there is a team of homunculi inside the brain choosing the right ones, but how do they know what to say? To see just how beautiful the mystery is, consider this. I recently noticed something about Marty, Louie’s schoolmate with TB, who, as you know, had the note from his Ma rejected and was sent off to die on a cross-country run in a blizzard. I noticed last week, 15 years after I wrote the first book, that if you add the letter ‘R’ to his name you get martyr. And that, of course, is quite clearly his symbolic function in the books. I know for sure that I did not choose the name with that in mind, in fact I have occasionally wondered what made me choose that name. Why Marty and not, say, Martin? I don’t believe for one second it is accidental. It’s the homunculi. You have to hand it to them.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Are any of your characters, other than Herod Jenkins, based on real people that you know?</b></span><br />
<br />
No, except, of course, Louie is me…<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Are you this funny - book funny - in real life? Please try not to disappoint me, she says, oh and answer honestly, you can ‘call a friend’.</b></span><br />
<br />
I was going to answer this with a true story about a man who found my humour so wearisome he tried to maroon me on the Pacific atoll of Suvarow, but then I thought, ‘See! That’s exactly what comedy is about, you are using it as a device to avoid the painful truths of this world’.<br />
<br />
So here’s the serious answer: On a good day, probably yes, but the days are not always good, are they? In fact, I have spent a good many of them in the past seven years in the arms of that savage god known anaemically as depression - we really need a better name, like ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death Syndrome’.<br />
<br />
This seems to be a very common experience of people who write funny things. Wikipedia has a whole page devoted to them. There are various neurological explanations for this: the similarity between creativity, comedy and, well, madness. But you don’t really have to go that far, you just need to cast a dispassionate glance at the universe. As the old Yiddish saying goes, ‘if God lived on Earth they would break his windows’.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>How much time did you spend researching your six books?</b></span><br />
<br />
None whatsoever, I just make everything up. It’s quicker and safer because you can’t get it wrong.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;">You have broadened my knowledge of Wales - I thought that you were making Hughesovka up. I knew a little about Patagonia and the Welsh connection, but I had no idea how seriously this ‘Welsh Promised Land’ was taken. Also, all of your classical allusions boggle my brain - it’s all Greek to me, boom boom! Were you born with this stuff in your head or have you a team of researchers helping you out?</span></b><br />
<br />
I think over the years I have read very eclectically, and stored a lot of strange material in the rag-and-bone shop of my heart. The team of homunculi who work there have a very good retrieval system. If I read something on prairie voles seven years ago and it would be useful they automatically retrieve it. I think that is the essence of creativity.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Have we seen the last of Aberystwyth from you? …and if not do you envisage Louie’s adventures coming to a climactic conclusion?</b></span><br />
<br />
No definitely not, I have some good ideas in the pipeline, and have no intention to end the series. Nor will I do anything dramatic and climactic with the characters. It would feel like a cheap trick and a sort of betrayal. I’m quite fond of them and, in a sense, have the power to halt time for them, so they can live on in a permanent state of reasonable contentment.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Why doesn't Louie ‘get the girl?’</b></span><br />
<br />
Because, like his creator, he dedicates his life to a higher calling; he is a knight in (tarnished) armour for the secular age. All private detectives fulfil this function. They sacrifice themselves for the common good and must, alas, forego the comforts of the hearth. Marlowe never gets the girl. Nor does Rick in Casablanca. It’s the paradigm. I didn’t realise this when I began writing the series, but it quickly became instinctively evident to me. It means that poor old Myfanwy always has things going wrong for her. I think she’s in a sanatorium in Switzerland at the moment, having lost her singing voice.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>...and finally. do you like ice cream?</b></span><br />
<br />
I’m not nuts about it, it’s just OK. I used to resent the way adults automatically expected me as a kid to be crazy about it and willing to be bribed by its promise. But, of course, in my books the ice cream dispensed by Sospan is not really ice cream, it’s the Sacrament.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>- Thank you Mr Malcolm Pryce!</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b><br /></b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Malcolm Pryce was talking with</b> <b><a href="http://www.crochendy-cors-y-gedol-pottery.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Jane Williams</span></a></b>. </span></div>
<br />
You can learn more about <a href="http://www.malcolmpryce.com/novels.html" target="_blank">the <span style="font-size: large;">six <i>Aberystwth</i> novels</span></a>, so far, at the <a href="http://www.malcolmpryce.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">official Malcolm Pryce website</span></a>.<br />
<br />
Go to the <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Malcolm-Pryce/e/B001HOQAZC/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Malcolm Pryce author page at <span style="font-size: large;">amazon</span></a> to read reviews and purchase his books, including:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Case-Hail-Mary-Celeste/dp/1408858924/scrawlmagazine" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvOmfc_6zGQBIfBUPd98ZELWXBm3bqVh0-QBluI8iWwYOmdKod4a6VGmYJm3yqinjS-ZlyejPqxoq0-snSGwhwnkEdg-2HI6V9zg9JgcHJL4bytoYIMpc74Pm-j8-VdZHiftn0CJazk_Z/s1600/hailmaryceleste.jpg" height="320" width="198" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Case-Hail-Mary-Celeste/dp/1408858924/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Case of the Hail Mary Celeste</a></span></i>, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
the new book by Malcolm Pryce - published <i>today!</i></div>
<br />Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3542879256310950299.post-65388108130425821522014-12-27T03:23:00.000-08:002016-07-05T13:40:01.333-07:00Len Deighton – In Spy Ring Writer<b><span style="color: #38761d;">As 2014 draws to a close, Kim Vertue talks to Len Deighton about his long and successful writing career and, amongst other things, his 1969 film <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> and its screenings and stagings this year to mark the centenary of the First World War. </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">The long career of Len Deighton holds some surprises: he was a pioneering food columnist and is a respected chef, he enjoyed success with an earlier career as a sought-after illustrator and graphic designer, he is an accomplished modern historian and researcher, a film-producer, dramatist and novelist… probably most widely known for his debut novel, <i>The Ipcress File</i>, made into the iconic film starring Michael Caine as British spy, Harry Palmer – the 'working class James Bond’.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb95uSP0F1o0LuSQfCNYJ_XhgcUcRAbgJ-Lr5SAIxzNBgmII4HN8_d9kwTWkhc3DFjsk0KD2AX8yaTsaGqsD2GsZiceOJFxDV7c57tUJZ8Dlkb_1wRZyUIRWviey4hVZ0L3-CX4YtASJwM/s1600/Len2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb95uSP0F1o0LuSQfCNYJ_XhgcUcRAbgJ-Lr5SAIxzNBgmII4HN8_d9kwTWkhc3DFjsk0KD2AX8yaTsaGqsD2GsZiceOJFxDV7c57tUJZ8Dlkb_1wRZyUIRWviey4hVZ0L3-CX4YtASJwM/s1600/Len2.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Len Deighton photograph courtesy of Jonathan Clowes</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Len Deighton was born in a London workhouse in 1928. His mother was a cook and his father a chauffeur. As Len grew up, his father would let him play truant from school so long as he read - which he did, voraciously, at Marylebone public library, developing passions for art and history.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">He joined RAF special operations as a photographer, an experience that would later provide primary research for some of his books. After the war he followed one of his passions and studied at the Royal College of Art. He would work as a chef to supplement his income and this confirmed his lifelong interest in good food. When he graduated he had a successful career as a graphic artist, designed posters for the London underground and book covers which included the first UK edition of Jack Kerouac’s <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Penguin-Essentials-Jack-Kerouac/dp/0241951534/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">On The Road</a></span></i>.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFH9-G2ZTY-HXsQn1tCgnG_HAQyI-YsZAcgHn8lq_iAG7oJt-pA6TXMTRJecIv3zHRN0sbWefEaJxV_4cVXy4aTvJ7l9gDDJPE5QvvkjSkk4enwoIbu7LELqwBoCEFrKNLHyy2tw9UtI9/s1600/d+Kerouac_Deutsch1958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFH9-G2ZTY-HXsQn1tCgnG_HAQyI-YsZAcgHn8lq_iAG7oJt-pA6TXMTRJecIv3zHRN0sbWefEaJxV_4cVXy4aTvJ7l9gDDJPE5QvvkjSkk4enwoIbu7LELqwBoCEFrKNLHyy2tw9UtI9/s1600/d+Kerouac_Deutsch1958.jpg" width="208" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First UK edition of Kerouac's <i>On The Road</i>, <br />
with cover art by Len Deighton</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Here his love of literature and visual art went hand-in-hand. Has this partnership remained in his creative approach? Does art inspire aspects of his writing, and does he continue to sketch as well as write? </span><br />
<br />
“Not as much as I would like,” <span style="color: #38761d;">he admits,</span> “Drawing is so difficult and so rewarding, but I don't set aside time for it. I can never find enough time in any day to do all the things I enjoy. But yes, I can't write a scene without having it visually in my mind, even if that vision is of my own creation. I studied art full-time for six years and art, rather than literature, is the basis of all my outlook.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ipcress-File-Len-Deighton/dp/0586026193/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Ipcress File</a></span></i> was his first novel, published in 1962 and an instant best seller. The film of the book made a star of Michael Caine and is still classic cold war 1960s London chic (if such a genre exists). He helped persuade the director to allow Michael Caine to wear glasses on screen which created a new brand of masculine cool. He showed Michael Caine how to make an omelette for the scene in the film when Harry Palmer first has a chance to woo his female colleague. The conversation between Harry Palmer and his boss while he is shopping in the supermarket is a great insight into how food was regarded in post war Britain and Harry Palmer as a new working class ‘foodie’ hero must have helped pave the way for Heston Blumenthal!</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ipcress-File-Len-Deighton/dp/0586026193/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">The Ipcress File</a></span></i> was followed by <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-Under-Water-Len-Deighton/dp/0586044310/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Horse Under Water</a></span> </i>(the only one of the quartet to not be adapted for cinema)<i>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Funeral-Berlin-Len-Deighton/dp/0586045805/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Funeral in Berlin</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Billion-Dollar-Brain-Len-Deighton/dp/0586044280/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Billion Dollar Brain</a></span></i> - the film version starring Michael Caine was directed by Ken Russell... apparently he really did have Michael Caine leaping onto an iceberg in that iconic fur hat.</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQk_zt16TWMp7kBIoAlEixQ5JUlMZBmO_lydG7-Xh-yXDQeGkqejdlJ_P9DuTO1DCtEUKCeL1CFSjYJsfquxnca49vqquhS5VZZer1JkyGS57_qIsGsaR4OfDmM8nLFuwoMAvLGBMTMFwN/s1600/Deighton+posters.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQk_zt16TWMp7kBIoAlEixQ5JUlMZBmO_lydG7-Xh-yXDQeGkqejdlJ_P9DuTO1DCtEUKCeL1CFSjYJsfquxnca49vqquhS5VZZer1JkyGS57_qIsGsaR4OfDmM8nLFuwoMAvLGBMTMFwN/s400/Deighton+posters.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Caine stars in the Harry Palmer cinematic trilogy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">As well as the ‘Harry Palmer’ novels, Len Deighton has written<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bernard+samson+len+deighton&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Abernard+samson+len+deighton" target="_blank"> two <span style="font-size: large;">Bernard Samson</span> trilogies</a>; <i>Game Set and Match</i> and <i>Hook Line and Sinker</i> - mainly set in the London and Berlin of the 1980s - which were also bestsellers and adapted into a TV series. When a writer invents convincing, fully-fleshed-out characters, they often contain parts of that writer’s personality, or if they did not, perhaps parts of their personality stays with their creator. Is there much of Len Deighton in the characters of ‘Harry Palmer’ and ‘Bernard Samson’?</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">This is something he has considered before,</span> “I say no: but my wife, my sons and my friends say, ‘yes’.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMsTt2IRf5LbJ5rsz9dgZwg4sLy4_G8tilw6KDa1kegTbGGnWnK0CD2Ze-gWOQpPciwGp8UIK0l2AWY2g3TOT8abYG9Em70jzuV-Yero2BxeNJpxwfLs_6Jh65VMNbWH3TSV3KJX5LA4m/s1600/deightoncaine.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhMsTt2IRf5LbJ5rsz9dgZwg4sLy4_G8tilw6KDa1kegTbGGnWnK0CD2Ze-gWOQpPciwGp8UIK0l2AWY2g3TOT8abYG9Em70jzuV-Yero2BxeNJpxwfLs_6Jh65VMNbWH3TSV3KJX5LA4m/s1600/deightoncaine.jpeg" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Len Deighton giving Michael Caine some cooking tips <br />
on the set during the filming of <i>The Ipcress File</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">The <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ipcress-File-Blu-ray-Michael-Caine/dp/B00JKNGSDQ/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">film of <i><span style="font-size: large;">The Ipcress File</span></i></a> launched Michael Caine as a new style of spy hero onto our screens and celebrated sixties London. The spy who had remained nameless in the books became 'Harry Palmer' - a 'new man' - working class with no airs and graces, but also intelligent and cultured, confident enough in his good looks to make a statement with his spectacles, a <i>bon vivant</i> who could win the hearts of women with his sensitivity and prowess in the kitchen. Len Deighton now lives far away, in both time and place, from that London and when he visits from his home in sunny Southern California he admits, “I find England almost unrecognisable from the days when I lived in Soho. Perhaps I have lived abroad too long.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">A theme of communication and the lack of it pervades particularly the Samson books, and it is the essential romance of Bernard that he perseveres despite the difficulties he faces. Do such characters ever ‘talk back’, asking for a reprieve from the conflicts Deighton decides to fling at them?</span><br />
<br />
“This leads to an ever-present question for all writers. Do we control the characters or do they control us? My feeling is that the characters cannot be made to do something we need for the story but that no reader will believe. At the same time, they must act within the needs of the plot and overall structure. Characters must surprise the reader with their behaviour but not test the reader's credulity. It's what the economists call the 'snake in a tunnel' - they wriggle but they can't break away.<br />
<br />
“I will admit that writing of, thinking of, and living with the same characters day and night for nine books - or ten books counting <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Berlin-Family-1899-1945-Samson/dp/0586068953/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Winter</a></span></i> - was undeniably disturbing at times. That's why I wrote other books, with other locales, between some of the Bernard Samson books. I was afraid I might go nuts.” <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Bernard’s descriptions of Berlin and his childhood there read like a love letter to the place – how important are the locales and personal experience of them to Deighton’s stories and writing process?</span><br />
<br />
“I like Berlin and Berliners too. The city and its history is deeply embedded into Bernard's mind and he takes Berlin with him wherever he goes. All through the Samson books I had to describe things and places not as I saw them, but as he did.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZgAymK_2Zj6H-wLRBdoPsyMCX1fXofA5VYSjfFECFkHE70hgvQ_xPuPNMJOB_rub8Y5e_k29Ggbrt2vDKXkvsVUEUvIIc69__wI_8OzYSM1DhUc_xpbLkiAp4JvuxhkYAefp0EFux1My/s1600/dMexicoSet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglZgAymK_2Zj6H-wLRBdoPsyMCX1fXofA5VYSjfFECFkHE70hgvQ_xPuPNMJOB_rub8Y5e_k29Ggbrt2vDKXkvsVUEUvIIc69__wI_8OzYSM1DhUc_xpbLkiAp4JvuxhkYAefp0EFux1My/s400/dMexicoSet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Game, Set</i> and <i>Match</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">In addition to the many spy novels Len Deighton has written he has crafted unique histories of the Second World War – including <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighter-True-Story-Battle-Britain/dp/0007531184/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Fighter</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Events-Relating-Flight-Germany/dp/0586045449/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Bomber</a></span></i>. His work was highly acclaimed by historian A J P Taylor. <i>Bomber</i> was dramatised for BBC Radio in 1995 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World war. The adaptation was narrated by Tom Baker and the action reported as if in ‘real time’ over one weekend within Radio 4’s schedule. It was repeated more recently in 2011 on Radio 4 Extra and it is <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-BBC-Radio-Collection-Baker/dp/0563523557/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">available as an adapted <span style="font-size: large;">audiobook</span></a> on CD.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">With his books becoming best-sellers, garnering critical credibility and being validated by historians, is there a single piece of writing that he sees as his greatest achievement, one that he is particularly proud of or holds any particular personal meaning?</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">This is a challenging question for him,</span> “Dissatisfaction is the springboard that makes a writer end one book and begin another vowing that it will be better. <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodbye-Mickey-Mouse-Len-Deighton/dp/0586054480/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Goodbye Mickey Mouse</a></span></i>, about American fighter pilots in World War Two is one of the few books that came out exactly the way I envisaged and planned."<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5J4NYC_SoIlEeGEA4PvQmPUy4C4nComsYSFN2Yb2wfJz_UJOXTdvoFAIBBaGD64VJ6kq69fDni6BsxYMtC7-TKic0SyW-DKhn2DoviRSiazfBd8ykMcDJUAuzTDSNVi13J5LQa609962/s1600/dmouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir5J4NYC_SoIlEeGEA4PvQmPUy4C4nComsYSFN2Yb2wfJz_UJOXTdvoFAIBBaGD64VJ6kq69fDni6BsxYMtC7-TKic0SyW-DKhn2DoviRSiazfBd8ykMcDJUAuzTDSNVi13J5LQa609962/s1600/dmouse.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Len Deighton's personal favourites</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"As for pride - I see it as a sin, but when I completed the last book of the Bernard Samson series it represented well over a decade of work and I was pleased and satisfied to have completed the massive task I had set myself back when I started <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Berlin-Game-Harper-Books-Deighton/dp/0586058206/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Berlin Game</a></span></i>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Dissatisfaction can drive a writer… Does Deighton have any other advice to writers starting out?</span><br />
<br />
“Every book is different and every writer is different. My advice to anyone starting to write fiction books is to be ready to devote a great deal of time to it. Write every day, even if its notes and research. I have never completed a book in less than a year and most took longer than that. If you are waking up at four o'clock in the morning wondering if it’s all going wrong, it's probably all going well.<br />
<br />
“I have found meetings and dinner party chat drastically interrupts my writing progress, so I have over the years become a recluse - or so I am told. For a fiction book: get the research done beforehand - especially listen to the speech patterns of the sort of people you plan to write about - and don't stop to go off on a research trip. Skip forward and keep writing. John Masters taught me this and I have found it a valuable rule.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Len Deighton also wrote the screenplay for <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oh-What-Lovely-War-Collectors/dp/B000NJLQHY/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Oh! What a Lovely War</a></span></i>, which uses popular songs of the time interspersed with facts about the First World War to movingly portray the plight of the ‘poor bloody infantry’ at the hands of the upper classes. The film was shot on Brighton pier, involved an impressive cast including Dirk Bogarde, John Mills, John Gieguld, Maggie Smith and Vanessa Redgrave… and was directed by the late Richard Attenborough. In a recent interview for <i>Radio Times</i>, Sir David Attenborough said this was his favourite film of those his brother Richard directed. “I think probably the most imaginative film he made as a director was <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i>. Shadowlands was a very powerful film, but <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> was out there on its own – no cinema film that I know of had anything like the bravura and the energy and the invention as he put into that.”</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Oh! what a Lovely War</i> was shown earlier this year by the BBC as part of the centenary events for the First World War and Joan Littlewood’s landmark production also returned to the stage in the spring. Instead of ‘celebrating’ war, the plight of the men who had to follow orders is movingly portrayed. Does Len Deighton have faith in human nature to learn from the carnage of the First World War and the atrocities of the Second? His established role as historian seems very important in this process.</span><br />
<br />
“My father fought in the First World War trenches and was wounded and gassed to an extent that the War Office told his mother was 'severe'. He recovered - or so the Pensions Dept told him - and worked hard all his life… and I never heard him complain. The other day on TV, I watched a history professor telling us that the sacrifice of a million lives in World War One was worthwhile! I was appalled. Appalled too that he didn't know that the total casualties were far, far higher."<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqOzl5uZCxQ_SE11xwJyIz32HKxjUvsdb4bw-xqUoqmz0W93mEh6Vaao-1ef3TySaXC6hyphenhyphengTX3pWHTtO0VL6pm0SP1dVBgj7RunArg61SciZNcAdoam8VsJrfnDBtr_10tsUdMvY1i0xi/s1600/oh-what-a-lovely-war-losses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqOzl5uZCxQ_SE11xwJyIz32HKxjUvsdb4bw-xqUoqmz0W93mEh6Vaao-1ef3TySaXC6hyphenhyphengTX3pWHTtO0VL6pm0SP1dVBgj7RunArg61SciZNcAdoam8VsJrfnDBtr_10tsUdMvY1i0xi/s400/oh-what-a-lovely-war-losses.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sing along...<i> Oh! What a lovely War</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
“I added an initial sequence to my <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> screenplay to show how the war began. I researched this energetically and decided that World War One could have been - and should have been - avoided. I later asked both A J P Taylor and Bertrand Russell their opinion. They both told me that they believed that the war could have been avoided. Of course few, if any, of the politicians and generals who started it thought it would be more than a sharp engagement over by Christmas.<br />
<br />
“It was the writer and critic Julian Symons who told me that I was the only person he knew who loved machines - he didn't say ‘better than people’ and I appreciate that - and suggested that I should write a book about this feeling. 'Machines fighting a war without humans?' I said frivolously and, along with other influences, his remark prompted <i>Bomber</i>.<br />
<br />
“I had flown in Lancaster bombers and Mosquito fighters when I was an RAF photographer so I had some background. In Central London in 1940-41 I was under German bombing every night for three months, followed by V1 missiles and V2 rockets. I knew what the air war was like. Perhaps <i>Bomber</i> was not the right title, because much of the story is devoted to the Germans - fighter pilots, radar operators and civilians - I spent months in Germany getting all those details right.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Len Deighton can count Lemmy amongst his fans, who has said that the Motorhead track, <i>Bomber</i>, was inspired by reading the book! <i>Bomber</i> was later followed by <i>Fighter</i>…</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn9xMVG51062kPKvxu1Ocp3HFDcyW7u1Ryp1VZNrD_JyTo6baSwh2p8cwZERmKhX56P931I8v1mp5uK6BOsrCSvqZmeIZGnUhb_q3rIm2j6cnYKF1ertgC01ZSaZgBsUptmv3fjqiHIHp8/s1600/d+BOMBER+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn9xMVG51062kPKvxu1Ocp3HFDcyW7u1Ryp1VZNrD_JyTo6baSwh2p8cwZERmKhX56P931I8v1mp5uK6BOsrCSvqZmeIZGnUhb_q3rIm2j6cnYKF1ertgC01ZSaZgBsUptmv3fjqiHIHp8/s1600/d+BOMBER+Cover.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First edition cover of <i>Bomber</i>, <br />
featuring detail from a painting by Turner</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
“When I wrote <i>Fighter</i>, one critic was outraged that I had included the words of the Germans we were fighting. That was the cloud-cuckoo land so many were still living in. I am not a pacifist by any means but killing people you have never met is not something to be done thoughtlessly.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The ‘cold war’ spy thriller, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Expensive-Place-Die-Len-Deighton/dp/0007458347/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">An Expensive Place to Die</a></span></i>, takes its title from an Oscar Wilde quote. After being involved with writing for the screen for <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> and overseeing the screen adaptations of many more of his novels, does this mean that Deighton still admires Wilde as a dramatist? </span><br />
<br />
“Yes, Wilde's writing endures. When very young, I learnt the Reading Goal poem by heart. Wilde's skill as a dramatist is masterful. Writing for the stage is entirely different to writing for the screen or writing fiction books. I once said that a screenplay writer is to a novelist what a taxidermist is to a lion tamer. Perhaps I was hasty in that judgement but it was prompted by the fact that few screenplays are the work of one writer - whereas many, stage plays are - and so screenplays are usually a compromise. For this reason, I made sure that I was the sole producer of the <i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> movie, and made sure it was shot exactly to conform to my screenplay.” <br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Over such a prolonged and consistent career, how has the approach to writing and his writing routine changed? How do Deighton’s approaches to fiction and non-fiction differ?</span><br />
<br />
“I have always planned - and sometimes abandoned - my outlines, and extended drafts, for books. My non-fiction works, such as, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighter-True-Story-Battle-Britain/dp/0007531184/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Fighter</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blitzkrieg-Rise-Hitler-Fall-Dunkirk/dp/0007531192/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Blitzkrieg</a></span>, <span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Tears-Folly-Objective-World/dp/0007531176/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Blood Tears and Folly</a></span></i> - and also the historical fiction works <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bomber-Events-Relating-Flight-Germany/dp/0586045449/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Bomber</a></span></i> and <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Winter-Berlin-Family-1899-1945-Samson/dp/0586068953/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Winter</a></span></i> - required travel and talking to participants. Fiction cannot be done to such a specific schedule and its looser plan requires discipline enough to toss away days of work when writing has gone in the wrong direction."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Many writers learn their craft by reading… are there any ‘stand-out’ favourites in terms of works or authors?</span><br />
<br />
“Yes…” <span style="color: #38761d;">he considers,</span> “I admire and enjoy the works of many authors and I frequently turn again to books I have enjoyed. I hesitate to name one from so many. Writing a book of fiction is a very demanding task and I see most fiction books in terms of the way the elements have been tackled - plot structure and the way it interacts with pushing the narrative along, dialogue and characterisation. Additionally, I read many non-fiction books.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">The many non-fiction books penned by Len Deighton include three influential cook books. He was home-taught the basic techniques by his mother, who was a professional cook, and then learnt ‘on the job’ after being given a chance in the kitchens for the Festival of Britain where he had started as a cleaner… In 1965 his book <i>Où Est le Garlic</i> (recently revised and re-published as <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Len-Deightons-French-Cooking-Men/dp/0007351119/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Len Deighton’s French Cooking for Men</a></span></i>) attracted favourable attention when it was published to coincide with the rising sales of his spy novels. The following year, <i><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Action-Cook-Book-Len-Deighton/dp/0007305877/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Len Deighton’s Action Cookbook</a></span></i> showcased the graphic ‘cookstrips’ he did for the <i>Observer </i>in the days before food journalism had really been invented. </span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">These infographic style recipe recaps, are great for quick reference and are to be <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/14/len-deighton-observer-cookstrips-michael-caine-1960s" target="_blank">re-launched in the <i><span style="font-size: large;">Observer Food Monthly</span></i> through 2015</a>, starting in January. He also wrote a book to guide chefs and home cooks through and his basic course in French cookery and this also used his signature ‘cookstrips’ - well illustrated infographics that contain sound sources of knowledge to the novice and more experienced cook alike. The really observant may spot some of these pinned to the wall in Harry Palmer’s kitchen in the film version of <i>The Ipcress File</i> - still more informative than the current plethora of ‘eye candy’ recipe books launched every Christmas!</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJvnoklACmwHCkN-JMk2uJhL1BIJoSjrFXIGorh5xYv6RWdDQZgTF9B0CgpW99WLNy_MNUV-3izu-3eQgKtd7wAIFYrQZlEZfn9E4kRsj3C2isqpgZqlIYxjsTwuxRofVgUr-GIuuXwTZP/s1600/deightonomlette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJvnoklACmwHCkN-JMk2uJhL1BIJoSjrFXIGorh5xYv6RWdDQZgTF9B0CgpW99WLNy_MNUV-3izu-3eQgKtd7wAIFYrQZlEZfn9E4kRsj3C2isqpgZqlIYxjsTwuxRofVgUr-GIuuXwTZP/s400/deightonomlette.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">cook-strip!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Deighton’s cook books are entertaining and clear, a great way to demystify cooking… does he have a favourite dish to cook or enjoy?</span><br />
<br />
“Very lightly cooked new-laid eggs, in any shape or form, make a wonderful dish and, since I am choosy about unsalted butter and we make our own wholemeal bread, I am simple in my tastes. But I admire and appreciate skilled cooking especially French dishes.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">What other chefs or food writers would he recommend?</span><br />
<br />
“I admire the chefs who have devoted their working lives to cooking and who have worked in the great restaurants. The books and words of such men as Pierre Koffmann, Anton Mosimann, the Roux brothers, Anton Edelmann, Paul Bocuse, the Troisgros brothers... and others of the same dedication… are inspiring. To understand what I most believe, read, the autobiography of Jaques Pepin - from whom I was privileged to have some lessons. It's a gripping book.”<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Finally, is there a particular ingredient or gadget that is essential in the Deighton kitchen?</span><br />
<br />
“I have a kitchen crammed with gadgets few of which (apart from the dishwasher) are much used. Two or three high quality kitchen knives are all one needs. I prefer old- fashioned carbon knives rather than stainless steel ones. Oh yes, I almost forgot - my electric knife sharpener - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chefs-Choice-Stage-Sharpener-110/dp/B00004S1B9/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Chef's Choice 3-blade position model</a> - is an essential for me.”<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6wL2TKWbqOhFGwx0N80hT6VklkiSIyO9FfL7pbwrzdp3cUDBpWOpwFKa1fNefYe3BvCZ4M4d76O6MU8R4PT6JTuVqd14WIkPS0Faxq_S-1ZOIQGKbanCGIseEKlraqd6rko6fm8MlZF6/s1600/deightonactioncook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd6wL2TKWbqOhFGwx0N80hT6VklkiSIyO9FfL7pbwrzdp3cUDBpWOpwFKa1fNefYe3BvCZ4M4d76O6MU8R4PT6JTuVqd14WIkPS0Faxq_S-1ZOIQGKbanCGIseEKlraqd6rko6fm8MlZF6/s1600/deightonactioncook.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Len, Lights, <i>Action!</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #38761d;">As you can see Len Deighton is pretty cool - an inspiration on how to avoid being pigeonholed, to follow what interests you or makes you passionate, and to have a perennial, compassionate regard for humanity which is at the heart of any good writer.</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Thank you, Mr Len Deighton!</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;">- Len Deighton was talking with <b>Kim Vertue</b></span></i></div>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;">There is a full bibliography and plenty more info at the<a href="http://www.deightondossier.net/" target="_blank"> <span style="font-size: large;">Deighton Dossier</span></a> - a comprehensive fan-run website</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><i>Oh! What a Lovely War</i> is discussed in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03cnr02" target="_blank">this episode of Radio 3’s <i><span style="font-size: large;">Night Waves</span></i> (BBC iPlayer)</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #38761d;">Lots of<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Len-Deighton/e/B000APHYW2/scrawlmagazine" target="_blank">Len Deighton books</a></span> available from amazon.co.uk...</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Questing Beasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16025168027076855163noreply@blogger.com2