Interview

An Interview with PAULA BRACKSTON

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Paula Brackston lives in a wild, mountainous part of Wales. She is an author and Visiting Lecturer. Before becoming a writer, Paula tried her hand at various career paths, with mixed success. These included working as a groom on a racing yard, as a travel agent, a secretary, an English teacher, and a goat herd. Everyone involved (particularly the goats) is very relieved that she has now found a job she is actually able to do properly – and that is, write fiction. Her latest ‘series’ is The Shadow Chronicles, the second book of which – The Winter Witch – is published tomorrow in the UK.

Who is Paula Brackston?

A descendent of the Witches of the Blue Well, possessed of dangerous magic and ancient knowledge, cunningly disguised as an ordinary mortal, mother of two, walker of the dog, maker of meals, who also writes a bit.

The Winter Witch, the sequel to The Witch’s Daughter, will be published tomorrow by Constable & Robinson. How would you introduce the series to a potential reader, and what can fans of the first expect in the second?

BrackstonP-2-WinterWitchAh, well, you see, there are no sequels, as yet. Each book in The Shadow Chronicles is a stand alone. They have in common an exploration of witches through the ages, following the experiences of a witch as the main character. All kinds of witches, in different eras and settings, each with their own distinct magic and story.

What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

I live in the Brecon Beacons National Park, so I wake up each day to the most inspirational landscape you could imagine. That certainly formed the basis of not just the setting for The Winter Witch, but the characters such a place produces too. More generally, I am inspired by wilderness and wildness, by individuals who make their own way in the world, and by courage. Particularly courage, I think, as I am such a timid creature. I love inhabiting brave characters who overcome adversity. It makes me feel stronger, and I hope that works for my readers as well.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

As a reader I have never made a distinction between categories of fiction. I struggle with the whole idea of literary and commercial being two different things – surely a good book is a good book? That books will be written about different things, in various styles, traditions and settings, is what makes reading such an exciting experience.

Which is how I feel about writing, too. When I’m working on a story I don’t think about how it will sit in a certain genre, or how it will be seen. I am interested only in the story, and I strive to find the best way I can to tell it. The placing, categorising, and marketing of the finished thing I leave up to people who understand such things far better than I do.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

BrackstonP-1-WitchsDaughterI have the best job in the world! Maybe not the most important, prestigious, or well paid, but still the best. I get to spend all day dreaming things up and then writing them down, creating my own little world and peopling it with characters that move me, having them dash about doing all manner of stuff I’d never dare do. All this and shortbread – what’s not to like?

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I’ve always written, but it took me years to believe I could actually Be A Writer. Still feels strange when I tell people how it is I make my living and what it is I do. The turning point came when I was living and working in London and missing the mountains very much. I came up with a plan to ride a horse around Wales for a month or so and write about it. I pitched the idea to some publishers and one commissioned it. I had to breathe into a paper bag for a bit when I realised this meant I had to give up my job and my home, leave the city, find a horse, do the actual trekking and then write a Proper-Book-Someone-Might-Actually-Want-To-Buy. It all turned out rather well. The trek was a blast, the book found a small but appreciative readership, I relocated permanently to Wales, and somehow I had become a writer. There seemed no going back after that.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

See above.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

If I listed them all you’d mark me down as some sort of butterfly-brained lunatic, so I’ll cherry pick. I’ve just started another Shadow Chronicles book. I love this stage of the process, as it’s all hope and expectation and excitement and hasn’t yet had a chance to be nibbled at by doubt and uncertainty.

I’m also putting together ideas for books three and four in my fantasy-crime series, but that’s another interview entirely!

And I’ve just had one of my screenplays short-listed for some production funding, so there will be work to be done there, too.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’m currently half way through The Luminaries (by Eleanor Catton) and loving it, though I am having to pay very close attention to keep up. It thoroughly deserves its place as a Booker Prize contender. Last month I read and enjoyed The Potter’s Hand (gorgeous) by A.N. Wilson, May We Be Forgiven (deceptively deep) by A.M. Homes, and An Evening of Long Goodbyes (brilliantly funny) by Paul Murray.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

In my twenties, I spent a year at an agricultural college learning how to drive tractors and train racehorses. Neither skill seems particularly useful at the moment, but I don’t like to think of time being wasted, so you can reliably expect both activities to pop up in my books at some point.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

Ooh, what to pick? What to pick? There’s the publication of The Winter Witch in the UK right about now; The Witch’s Daughter coming out in paperback here in December; the German edition of the first in my fantasy-crime series due out just before Christmas; my next witchy book, The Midnight Witch, is out in hardback in the USA in March; I’m thoroughly enjoying writing the fourth book of The Shadow Chronicles at the moment…. I should imagine a little lie down sometime next summer would be very nice indeed.

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The Winter Witch is published by Corsair in the UK and Thomas Dunne Books in the US. To find out more about Paula Brackston and her novels, be sure to visit her website.

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An Interview with CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN

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Very few fans of genre fiction and comics will be unaware of Christopher Golden. He has been writing for a couple of decades, now, mainly horror (or horror-inflected) work. Many will know him for his novels, his anthology work, and also his comics work – including the Baltimore books with Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola. He has a new short story collection coming out next month, through ChiZine, and has an impressive number of other projects he’s currently working on. I caught up with him (via email), and grilled him about writing, horror, and what he’s working on now…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Christopher Golden?

At 46, you’d think I would have an answer to that, but I’m still working it out. I’ve been writing full time since 1992, with the sale of my first novel, OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS. Since then, I’ve written or co-written or edited about a hundred books, mostly fiction in the horror, fantasy, mystery, and thriller genres. I’ve written comics and short stories, video games and an animated web series, radio plays and screenplays.

Your short story collection, Tell My Sorrows to the Stones, was published by ChiZine last month. How would you introduce the book to a potential reader? Is there a unifying theme for the stories within?

GoldenC-TellMySorrowsToTheStonesI’ve written short stories for as long as I’ve been writing novels. My previous short story collection, The Secret Backs of Things, collected everything I had done up until that point. But it felt to me as if somewhere along the way I reached a point where I felt as if I’d actually sort of figured it out – this whole short story thing. I’m not saying I don’t like any of my older stories. I like them just fine, most of them. But I do feel as if I grew up a little bit somewhere in there, passed a kind of threshold where I understand the form better than I had before. I often say that my novel Strangewood was when I grew up as a novelist. I think the stories in Tell My Sorrows to the Stones represent a similar maturing, only this time in short story form. There’s more thought in them, for me. More reason for them to exist than the other ones had. A lot of them are about folklore and imagination and belief in general – not religious faith, but faith in ourselves and how dangerous it can be to misplace that sort of faith.

What inspired you to write the short stories? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

KingS-NightShiftI grew up loving short stories, both in the works of Jack London and–much more commonly – in anthologies and collections of horror stories. The combination of Stephen King’s Night Shift and the various anthologies edited by Charles L. Grant (I think I started with Terrors before going on to the Shadows series) had a huge influence on me. Then I went backwards, reading things like Alfred Hitchcock’s More Stories for Late at Night and collections of HP Lovecraft stories and Edgar Allan Poe.

As for inspiration… it comes from everywhere. Sometimes it’s a dream or a nightmare, and sometimes it’s just that eureka moment that is the writer’s most invaluable and most indefinable tool. I have a lot of my ideas while traveling, and I often make sense of them while I’m in the shower or taking a walk.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

I don’t remember how it began for me. It was just there. Twilight Zone and Kolchak the Night Stalker and movies on Creature Double Feature were all on my TV. My favorite comics included Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night. When I started reading, I gravitated immediately toward Stephen King and creepy stories. I remember picking up The Stand in an an airport bookstore… same with various novels by Graham Masterton. From that point, I accumulated horror novels at absurd speed.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I’m incredibly fortunate. I took the big leap right after selling my first novel twenty-one years ago and never looked back. That said, it’s not for the faint-hearted, this full-time writer thing. It’s always a financial roller coaster, but it’s never boring. I write five or six days a week (sometimes seven). Most mornings are taken up by emails and paperwork and phone calls and I do most of my writing just before lunch and then throughout the afternoon. Often I work a few hours on Saturday morning – unless I’m really under the gun, and then I’ll work the whole day or whole weekend… And feel horribly guilty about neglecting my family. I usually have music on while I’m writing. I’m not one of those Starbucks writers, who can sit in a cafe and concentrate… Although I’d like to be. I may have to try it out.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I started writing short stories in high school. I kept it up all through college, but it wasn’t until I started my first novel during senior year that I realized it was really the only thing I wanted to do. The first thing I was ever paid to write was an interview with Craig Shaw Gardner that was published in Starlog Magazine. My first short story was “One”, in Deathrealm Magazine. My first novel, Of Saints and Shadows, came out in 1994, but my first book was actually a non-fiction anthology I put together called CUT!: Horror Writers on Horror Film. I look back fondly on all of them.

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What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I feel like the genre these days is sort of like the Republican Party – splintered and scattered. There are fine writers working in the small press, but the small press has shrunk quite a bit over the past five years or so. A lot of the publishing dedicated to horror at mainstream houses has vanished, making it harder for casual readers to walk into bookstores and discover new horror writers. On the other hand, there are still publishers who do original horror, including St. Martin’s Press, who are publishing my new novel SNOWBLIND in January. On the other hand, horror as a genre has bled into other genres – urban fantasy, thriller, mystery, literary fiction. Examples are everywhere. It’s a guerrilla genre, now. As far as where my work fits…? It fits wherever readers want it to fit. That’s not a cop-out. I write in a variety of genres, different shades, and they all have horror in them, including TIN MEN, the near-future SF military thriller I’m finishing now.

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What other projects are you working on?

SNOWBLIND comes out in January, as I mentioned, as does DARK DUETS, the new anthology of collaborative stories I’ve edited. Also in January is CEMETERY GIRL: THE PRETENDERS, the first book in a graphic novel trilogy I’m doing with Charlaine Harris. I’m finishing up TIN MEN, working on a SONS OF ANARCHY comic book miniseries and the continuing series of BALTIMORE comics with Mike Mignola. In a few days I’ll be starting work on a new ALIEN novel.

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What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

Lebbon-ColdbrookI’m reading Tim Lebbon’s fantastic novel COLDBROOK, which is a monstrously cool pan-dimensional SF zombie thriller.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a TV addict who loves music, musical theatre, movies and ice cream. I teach a writing workshop to 7th and 8th graders from my daughter’s school, and I spent a few years directing junior high musical theatre, which I miss terribly and wish I had time for.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, UK… And as much free time with my family as I can manage.

An Interview with GEOFFREY GUDGION

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Let’s start with an introduction: Geoff Gudgion?

In one paragraph; I was a scholarship boy who was never bright enough to realise I’d have been happier as a writer than a businessman. Until, that is, I had a spectacular row with my boss and stepped off the corporate ladder. Long before that epiphany, I left school at 17 to join the Royal Navy, who later sponsored me to read Geography at Cambridge University. Both experiences were formative in teaching me to string words together.

Your debut novel, Saxon’s Bane, is published by Solaris. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Saxon’s Bane is a thriller with a supernatural twist; past and present collide during the excavation of a Saxon warrior’s grave. The writing challenge, and the fun, was to interweave the present day with a Dark Ages legend, and to bring the two stories together in a plausible climax. Although it’s not part of a series, the main characters will probably reappear in a future book. There’s a fey, fit archaeologist who develops a preternatural understanding of her project. Her character has, ahem, legs.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

I’ve always been fascinated by the history hidden in the landscape, ever since a crusty old professor at university showed me how to analyse English place names. “Allingley,” he might have said, waving a chalk-dusted arm and breathing a whiff of college port, “Saxon name. Aegl-ingas-leah, the clearing of Aegl’s people.” So I took the Saxon legend of Aegl, the warrior, and his love Olrun, the Swan Maiden, and set the Saxon’s Bane in the village of Allingley, on the banks of the Swanbourne.

Inspiration? It can come from anywhere. That sense of otherness you find in ancient woodland. A mossy ring of standing stones. A church. And just the odd glass of red wine.

Tolkien-LOTR-1-TheFellowshipOfTheRingHow were you introduced to genre fiction?

Tolkien! As a child, I devoured Lord of the Rings. I didn’t end up writing epic fantasy, but Middle Earth was the first believable fantasy world I encountered. I was enchanted!

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I love being a writer. I’m living the dream, but I’d say I’m still learning about the publishing industry, and about how to stand out from the crowd. It’s a bit like opening a door, thinking you’re joining a party in a room, only to find yourself in the middle of a football stadium where everyone is shouting.

I tend to write early, and research late in the day. I built an arbour in my garden, which is a wonderfully peaceful and productive place to write, when the weather’s good. It’s also out of reach of the Wi-Fi, so there are fewer distractions! If I have to work indoors, I play a recording of birdsong in my study. I find that helps to tune the brain into a creative space.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

GudgionG-AuthorPicWhen I found I actually enjoyed English homework at school! I made my first attempts at writing a book during long deployments in warships. Those attempts were dire, and I cringe at their memory. The first piece of writing that made me proud was a short story, “Muse”, which won the Get Writing Conference prize in 2011. It’s on my web site.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I think I’m too new to have an opinion about the genre, particularly when I think genre labels are too confining in any case. They seem to be designed for the publishing machine’s convenience rather than the readers’ benefit.

In terms of where I fit, I’m incredibly honoured when reviewers compare me to Robert Holdstock or Alan Garner. Last week Saxon’s Bane was described as “Good old fashioned mythic stuff; Wicker Man by way of John Fowles,” and I can live with that!

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I’m about 80,000 words into a time-slip historical novel, also with a supernatural twist, which is set on a crumbling country estate that has been in the same family for over 600 years. In the 14th Century, the founder of the dynasty swears a terrible oath; in the present day his descendants have forgotten the oath, but perhaps the oath has not forgotten them…

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

My last book was Chocolat by Joanne Harris. I love her gentle way of weaving mystery and a little magic into the real world. I’m currently reading Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel. After that, I’m going to immerse myself into the 14th Century with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Ian Mortimer’s brilliant Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I’m a bit of a lunatic on horseback. A good friend lets me ride a horse that I’ve known and loved for years. I can get stale staring at a screen, and the adrenalin-fuelled madness of a gallop, or the surge and soar over a jump, is the perfect antidote.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

Seeing Saxon’s Bane take off, I hope. Then finishing the next book to a standard where it’s accepted by my agent (Ian Drury at Sheil Land). And within twelve months? Who knows, it’s not impossible for that book to be acquired by a publisher. My head is starting to buzz with ideas for the book that will follow, and I’d like those to be thoroughly fleshed out by this time next year, and taking shape on paper. No pressure, then.

An Interview with JAMES MAXEY

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James Maxey’s Dragon Apocalypse is a series I have been eager to read for a long while. It has been one of many victims of Kindle Invisibility Syndrome (I bought Greatshadow soon after it came out). Now that I have acquired Hush and Witchbreaker, I’ll be sure to blitz through the series, which so many reviewers (many of whom share my tastes in this sub-genre) have enjoyed. So, without further ado, let’s get to the questions…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Maxey?

I’m a guy who daydreams a lot and has enough discipline to write down some of the crazy stuff that crosses my mind.

Your latest trilogy, Dragon Apocalypse, has been published by Solaris. How would you introduce the series to a potential reader?

First, I refrain from calling it a trilogy, and usually only refer to it as a series. The three books out now constitute one arc of a larger story, but there will definitely be future books featuring these characters. It’s a big world with lots of potential, and my eventual story-arc covers decades.

My short pitch for the series is that it’s “X-men meets Tolkien”. The setting and scope of the tale are definitely epic fantasy, but the characters – and to some degree the plot lines – are more superhero inspired. Every major character in the series has some kind of superpower. Instead of battling super villains, they battle dragons, and also each other.

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The first book, Greatshadow, is mainly the story of Infidel, a woman with a mysterious past who is super strong and invulnerable. The story is told by Stagger, her best friend, who is secretly in love with her but never confesses his love until the moment of his death in the middle of the first chapter, after he’s accidentally been stabbed with his own knife. His spirit winds up tied to the knife that killed him, so that he winds up haunting Infidel, witnessing her trying to carry on with her life. After Stagger dies, she feels like she’s done with the life of a vagabond mercenary, and wants to make one last big score so she can be insanely wealthy and retire in peace. To do this, she joins up with a hunt to kill Greatshadow, the primal dragon of fire, with the goal of looting his legendary treasure trove. However, the hunt is being organized by the Church of the Book, the dominant religion of the land and the group responsible for her bearing the nick-name “Infidel”. She has to join a party of knights and priests sworn to kill her if they ever learned her true identity. Complicating matters even further, the leader of the dragon hunt is the legendary knight Lord Tower – the man she left standing at the alter near fifteen years before. Hijinks ensue. It’s a love story.

What inspired you to write the novels? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

My previous series, the Dragon Age (not related to the video game), was actually science fiction in fantasy drag. Everything in the books has the look of epic fantasy, but underneath it all there’s scientific explanations grounding how our world became the world of Bitterwood. Having written all those epic fantasy books without any recourse to magic, I wanted to go in the opposite direction and create a world where science just doesn’t have any say in the rules. So, instead of the sun being a giant ball of burning gas, the sun is actually a dragon named Glorious who flies across the sky at the same time every day because he’s kind of obsessive compulsive. Also, the Bitterwood novels were fairly gritty, with a few moments of humor, but mostly a very serious tone. The Dragon Apocalypse is much more humorous. It’s not a parody of the fantasy genre, but it does have a lot of fun playing with some of the more absurdist underpinnings inherent to all fantasy.

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How were you introduced to genre fiction?

Comic books, mostly. Once I discovered superheroes, it was all over for me. My mother worried reading all those “funny books” would warp my mind. Boy, was she right! From comic books, I branched out into reading a lot of science fiction in high school, branching out into more fantasy in college, then, for a long time, settling into reading mostly non-fiction about science, history, geography, etc. I get much more day dream fuel out of reading about the real world than I do reading about made up places.

The Dragon Apocalypse novels are your second series to feature dragons prominently. What draws you in particular to dragons?

As you might suspect from my reading material, I’m something of a nerd. From the time I was in high school until well into my 30s, I played AD&D religiously. Usually, I was DM, so I got to play the roles of all the dragons and other monsters the players would fight. And, dragons really had a lot of questions surrounding them. Just what did they want all that treasure for? If they could talk, did that imply culture? They were pretty smart, genius level in fact, and a lot tougher and stronger than humans. Why weren’t they running the world? Eventually, these musings laid the groundwork for the novels I would go on to write.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

One specific writing practice I engage in is that I never look back. Once I start writing a book, I never read any of the first draft until I get to the end. Forward is the only direction. Also, I try to write as swiftly as possible, since I really think momentum matters. The faster I write, the better the story flows. I get into zones where my own thoughts go silent and it’s like I can hear the characters talking to one another. Which, arguable, is a symptom of an undiagnosed mental illness, but let’s not go there.

As to whether I enjoy it… well, yeah. People often ask me what I’m smiling about, when I’m just sitting around looking like I’m doing nothing. What I’m usually smiling at is something funny one of my characters just said in my head. I hope I never reach an age where I outgrow my imaginary friends.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I wrote a lot of short stories in high school, then a lot of terrible poetry in college. When I was 25, I put butt in chair and vowed to write a novel. It took me two years to accumulate 60,000 words. It was unrelentingly awful in just about every aspect. The characters were cardboard, the plot was random, the style was pretentious and opaque. The best thing about the book is that it taught me a lot about how not to write a book. Failure can be a great roadmap to success.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

I confess, I read almost no current fiction. I used to write a book review column for Intergalactic Medicine Show, and reading nothing but new releases for a couple of years left me yearning to read some older material, stuff I’d always meant to get around to reading, but somehow never had. These days, I’m reading classics almost exclusively. Just this week, I finished A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and now I’m reading King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard. I’ve got a warm place in my heart for these older pulp novels. There’s something charming about reading books from an era when people were still creating the genres of fantasy and science fiction.

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As to where my work fits in, I’d say the writer I’m most often compared to is Terry Pratchett. I mix humor, action, and philosophy and try not to take my books too seriously, while also taking care not to slip into slap-dash silliness. I never want to let the humor get in the way of you caring for a character or undercutting what’s at stake in the plot. Ultimately, I write books that I want to read. I think that my pulp fiction affinities are pretty evident on the page, with my emphasis on larger than life characters having big adventures against exotic landscapes.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

My debut novel was a superhero tale called Nobody Gets the Girl, which came out ten years ago this October. I’ll be celebrating the anniversary with a new print edition of the book this October that will include a new story set in that world. After that, I’m kind of at the mercy of publishers to find out what’s coming out next. I’ve got a steampunk novel under consideration by a couple of publishers, and recently finished the first draft of a new superhero novel called Accidental Gods that I’ll be shopping around soon. While those books are working though the publishing pipeline, I plan to work on a new Dragon Apocalypse novel.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

In addition to the pulp novels, I recently read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and reread On the Road. On my daily commute, I’m listening to Jane Eyre as an audiobook. My most recent non-fiction was Gulp by Mary Roach, and I just today bought a book called Wretched Writing, which is about, you know, wretched writing. Lately, I’ve been working on three books at once; an audio book while driving, a bedtime book I read on my Kindle, and some kind of non-fiction paperback on hand for the times when I have little snippets of time to kill.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

This July, I wrote an entire first draft of a novel in just 4 days. (The superhero novel I mentioned, Accidental Gods.) Admittedly, non-consecutive days, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and the following Monday. Four fifteen hour sessions of just typing as fast as I could to never let the story lose it’s flow. I had a small window of time where my old day job ended and my new day job hadn’t started, and wanted to find out if I could use the intervening days for something productive. Now, I entertain fantasies of locking myself in a cabin with a bottle of tequila and a laptop with no internet connection for one long weekend and seeing what I might emerge with…

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

In March, I turn 50. I’m going to have a huge party the night before, then, the next day, celebrate by taking a 50 mile bike ride. I’ve been building up to it all summer; so far, the longest distance I’ve done is 30 miles, but I think with another six months of training I’ll be able to do it.

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Be sure to check out James Maxey’s website for information about his novels. In addition, The Dragon Apocalypse was recently collected into a handy omnibus eBook.

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Interview with JAMES TREADWELL

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James Treadwell is the author of Advent and Anarchy, two novels that seem to have taken the UK (and perhaps the US?) by storm. In advance of my belated reading of the novels, Hodder were kind enough to hook me up with an interview with James. Read on!

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is James Treadwell?

I think he’s that tall confused-looking bloke in the back row, the one who needs a haircut. He also appears to have bad shoes.

Treadwell-AnarchyAnarchy, the sequel to Advent, was recently published by Hodder. How would you introduce the series and novel to a potential reader?

I’m very bad at these “elevator pitches” … I suppose one way I might do it is by asking someone if they’ve ever wondered what it would be like – what it would really, really be like – if something impossible happened to them.

But if I was trying to give a more general thumbnail description of the books, I’d probably say that they’re about the return of magic to the world. To our world, that is, the real world we live in; the one in which we all know there isn’t actually any magic.

What inspired you to write the novels? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

Advent is based on something that’s been in my thoughts for years and years, long before I ever thought there’d be a time when I could try making a book out of it. As far as I can remember it started with an image of a boy walking alone in a wood and meeting something inexplicable on the way. Why that particular image felt like it had a story in it I don’t know, but apparently it did.

Treadwell-AdventIt often seems to start with a small thing like that: a scene, or a particular character, or an event, which somehow feels like it has extra weight. But I don’t really know where stories come from. Philip Pullman once compared it to fishing from a small boat on a big lake. You just sit there, and – if you’re lucky – something eventually grabs the hook, down in that enormous and entirely invisible space beneath you. You can’t make it happen, though. All you can do is concentrate and be patient.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

Good question. I wish I could remember. One of the very first things I remember reading – some kind of school reading book, I’d have been six or seven years old – must have been a version of the Nibelungenlied, because I remember the name Kriemhild, and a vague but powerful sense of being excited by dragons and heroes and strange quests. I definitely remember being addicted to a lovely paperback retelling of the Norse myths, a few years later, and I loved Narnia as soon as I discovered it. I can’t remember a time when I wouldn’t have chosen those kind of stories over any other. I’ve always wanted to be enchanted, I suppose.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I love being a writer, for all sorts of reasons. The publishing industry is an entirely different matter. Not in a bad way – I have a wonderful agent and editor, and whenever I go into my publishers’ office I’m astonished (and delighted) by how cheerful they all seem to be. But I know nothing at all about the whole business of printing, marketing and selling books. I do writing: anything beyond that is up to someone else.

Everyone has work habits, don’t they? What can I think of that might be a little unusual? I write using pen and paper, which probably counts as a quirk. I always leave the house. I treat first drafts as raw material rather than anything approximating a final product.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I suppose I’ve always liked the idea of trying to tell stories, but the prospect of actually being an author never seemed realistic until a quite unexpected combination of circumstances came about when I was in my mid-thirties.

I did write a sort of sprawling second-hand fantasy epic in my teens. It was inexcusably terrible last time I looked, so much so that I haven’t dared look again for a very long time. But I do have happy memories of the process itself: staying up late(-ish) in my bedroom, letting the imagination work and ignoring everything else.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

By “the genre” we mean fantasy, yes? That’s a big and interesting question.

I’m intrigued by the prevailing unseriousness of fantasy these days. A lot of the best work has a kind of knowing, sardonic cool in it somewhere, as if it’s written by a generation hugely influenced by Douglas Adams. I’m thinking of someone like Terry Pratchett, whose version of fantasy is openly satirical. But I’m also thinking of someone like Joe Abercrombie, where you have fairly conventional fantasy material, but treated in a highly ironic manner (like with the title of The Heroes). Even with Neil Gaiman – who I think is an authentic genius, one of the best writers alive – there’s a shimmer of witty brilliance over everything, a sort of dark sparkle. You see much less of the gentle earnest solemnity of Tolkien or Le Guin, these days. Another way of putting it: think about the difference between Frodo Baggins and Tyrion Lannister as fantasy protagonists. Or, think of how much more wisecracking and cheeky Dr. Who has become.

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Part of the reason this intrigues me is that I’m pretty sure my own writing entirely lacks this quality. But I don’t really want to talk about where I fit or don’t fit into a genre: that’s for others to discuss, if they want to. Besides, thinking about my work in relation to Gaiman’s or Le Guin’s is just going to make me sad.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I know what I’m going to do once the Advent trilogy is finished (which will be in a few months). It’s a project that has come about in an utterly extraordinary way, so extraordinary that I really can’t say very much about it. Sorry.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

I’ve just finished Gossip From the Forest, Sara Maitland’s book about fairy tales, which is wonderful. I’m working my way through M John Harrison’s Light – Nova Swing – Empty Space trilogy, also very remarkable. I particularly like the fact that it features suburbs and streets and train stations from my patch of West London. I’ll never look at the roundabout in Mortlake quite the same way.

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What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I’m too chicken to read H.P. Lovecraft. It’s true. He gives me nightmares. Quite a few people have told me that my books are rather “dark”, but I’m a total literary coward. I can’t handle any sort of horror.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

Probably watching the Winter Olympics on the BBC. Biathlon! Curling! It would be different if it was all the time, but when it’s once every four years you have to grab the opportunity with both fists. Carpe curling, as Horace might have said.

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James Treadwell’s Advent series is published by Atria in the US (artwork below). Advent and Anarchy are available now. Here’s the synopsis for Advent (from Goodreads):

“A drowning, a magician’s curse, and a centuries-old secret.”

1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the greatest magician of his age. The box he carries contains a mirror safeguarding a portion of his soul and a small ring containing all the magic in the world. Together, they comprise something unimaginably dangerous.

London, the present day. Fifteen-year-old Gavin Stokes is boarding a train to the countryside to live with his aunt. His school and his parents can’t cope with him and the things he sees, things they tell him don’t really exist. At Pendurra, Gavin finds people who are like him, who see things too. They all make the same strange claim: magic exists, it’s leaking back into our world, and it’s bringing something terrible with it.

First in an astonishingly imaginative fantasy trilogy, Advent describes how magic was lost to humanity, and how a fifteen-year-old boy discovers that its return is his inheritance. It begins in a world recognizably our own, and ends an extraordinarily long way from where it started – somewhere much bigger, stranger, and richer.

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US Covers

An Interview with DAVID TOWSEY

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TowseyD-AuthorPicCropDavid Towsey’s debut novel, Your Brother’s Blood caught my attention a few months ago, and ever since I have been eagerly awaiting my chance to read it. Thankfully, I recently got my mitts on a copy, so I hope to start it sometime next week. In the meantime, his publisher has set up this interview, in which I quiz David on his writing, how he got into genre fiction, and more. If you wanted to check out the novel for yourself, be sure to read this excerpt.

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is David Towsey?

I’m twenty-eight. I’m finishing a PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University – where I’ll start lecturing full-time in September. I guess you could say I’m a geek or nerd – if such labels are helpful. I play computer games, specifically MMOs, which I’ve been a regular player of since I was fourteen and first got hold of Ultima Online. I also enjoy playing Magic: the Gathering at a fairly competitive level. But between all that gaming and writing I try and keep active by playing squash and swimming at least twice a week.

Your latest novel, Your Brother’s Blood, was recently published by Jo Fletcher Books. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it intended as part of a series?

When people ask me about the book I tend to see if they’ve read or seen The Road. If they have, I say it’s a lot like that. Except Your Brother’s Blood follows a father and daughter. And the the father is a “zombie”. If they haven’t, it becomes more difficult. It’s a novel that sits somewhere between a road-movie and a zombie-western. For me, it focuses on family relationships that come under strain – sometimes through normal situations and sometimes because of more extreme circumstances. Your Brother’s Blood is the first part of a trilogy that follows a central family, the McDermotts. Continue reading →

Quick Q&A with SNORRI KRISTJANSSON

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Here’s a quick interview with Snorri Kristjansson, author of Viking-tastic Swords of Good Men, which was published at the beginning of August, by Jo Fletcher Books…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Snorri Kristjansson?

Teacher, writer, lover of cake, mild-mannered Viking and all-round enthusiast.

Your latest novel, Swords of Good Men, was recently published by Jo Fletcher Books. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader?

As a subversive, gritty, Grimdark-with-a-heart genre-buster, straddling the realms of Historical Fiction and Fantasy like a mythical God – or an action book with Vikings. Depends, really.

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Is it part of a series?

It is indeed! Book 2 is currently finished and at the being-beaten-with-sticks-until-it-behaves stage. Work starts on Book 3 at the end of the month.

What inspired you to write the novel?

An abundance of time, a lack of employment and a couple of ridiculous coincidences.

And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

All around. An awful lot goes in, gets mixed somewhere about an inch behind the right ear and comes back out in idea form. Some of them aren’t very good at all.

Why are Vikings so cool?

Big question. Short answer: A combination of beliefs, actions, ingenuity, style and individuality. Shorter answer: ’coz they are. Wanna fight?

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

We are all children of Tolkien, I suppose. Stacks of Raymond Feist and David Gemmell followed.

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How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry?

It’s great. My publisher and her army of Book Ninjas are a terrifying joy to behold. 

Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I write well in cafés, but I haven’t had the luxury of establishing rituals yet. The time will come, though.

KristjanssonS-AuthorPicWhen did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing?

I’ve been writing for a long, long time, but never really viewed it as my Main Thing until relatively recently, when I totaled up the years and brain-miles spent doing text work of one sort or another.

Do you still look back on it fondly?

I’m not big on looking back, truth be told. I’m a forward kinda guy.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

The genre’s main problem is that there are way too many clever storytellers out there pumping out great and glorious work, and I don’t have the time to read it all. This is serious, so I would like fellow authors to be less awesome, thank you kindly.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

The conclusion to the Valhalla Saga, an outline of another thing that I can’t speak about, a couple of film things with cool kids that I can also not speak about and various other things. This list might have been more interesting in mime.

Sykes-TomeOfTheUndergatesWhat are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

Tome of the Undrgates by Sam Sykes, which is great fun.

I completely agree! What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I have done a full 50 minute standup show on a warship.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

Oh, that list is LONG, but right at this moment I’d say, “Not being in the state of moving house”, which will happen very soon. Oh, and cake.

Craig Ferguson Interviews Stephen Fry (back in 2010). It was Really Interesting…

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I’m going to share this video without any commentary, save that it was really interesting, and I like them both as actors, comedians, and interview subjects. They spend a fair amount talking about depression, manic depression, alcoholism. And internet trolling. It’s something they both know a fair bit about. It’s a frank conversation. Really good. Enjoy.

An Interview with PETER LINEY

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Peter Liney’s The Detainee has been on my radar for a little while, now, yet I keep getting distracted from reading it. With this interview, an excerpt and a guest post up on the blog already, I really should get my butt in gear and read the novel. Very soon, hopefully. In the meantime, here is what Peter had to say about his novel, writing, and more…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Peter Liney?

Well, first and foremost, he’s a writer. I’ve done all kinds of jobs – selling sewing machines in the Oz Outback, modeling, acting, fashion buying, decorating, teaching, etc., etc. – but the one constant has always been writing, the one dream has always been success. And no, I don’t agree with writing for yourself; no matter what we do, we want to be appreciated for it. Continue reading →

An Interview with MICHAEL MARTINEZ

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Michael Martinez is the author of the highly anticipated (in my opinion) The Daedalus Incident. I actually also already have a copy of the book, but have been dreadfully negligent about getting around to actually reading it. I will endeavour to rectify this as soon as possible. In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to interview Michael, as I’ve chatted a fair bit with him via Twitter and he seems like a great fellow. So, read on!

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Michael J. Martinez?

Well, I’m the new guy on the block, I suppose. I’ve been a professional writer for more than two decades, primarily as a journalist. A few years back, I got it in my head that I could try writing a novel. It seemed healthier and less expensive than your typical mid-life crisis hobbies. To my surprise, it worked out quite nicely

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your new novel, The Daedalus Incident, was recently published by Night Shade Books. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

The Daedalus Incident combines my love of science fiction with my appreciation for that great tradition of British naval fiction – Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and the like. It’s about two settings: a future mining colony on Mars, and a historical fantasy in the late 18th century in which sailing ships ply the Void between the planets of our Solar System. Thanks to the machinations of an evil alchemist and an alien warlord, the two worlds are colliding – and may be ripped apart in the process.

Honestly, I just tell people I’m crashing a Royal Navy frigate into Mars. That tends to be enough to capture interest.

Ideally, this will be the first of a series. Both C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian both produced strong series based on the Napoleonic era, and I hope to do a little of that as well.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

The specific inspiration for the book came from a poster advertising Treasure Planet more than a decade ago. The movie, of course, was deeply flawed, but it gave me the idea of sailing ships in space. I just decided to make it more adult and more realistic, but also an homage to those historical novels as well.

Generally, I find myself inspired by non-fiction, anything from news stories to Wikipedia. Something will just strike me as interesting or cool, and I’ll write it down so I can use it later.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

StarWars-4-ANewHopeStar Wars and Dungeons & Dragons were pretty much my childhood, so it was easy to go from that to reading great genre fiction. It’s been a constant in my life.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

Being a writer and working with the publishing industry are two very different things. I’ve been a professional writer my whole adult life, so my writing practices are pretty well established. I outline in a good amount of detail, and I chunk out the writing into sections that I can clear in a reasonable day’s effort. It’s the journalist in me. I need that sense of accomplishment before I walk away from the keyboard. And I’m an inveterate researcher, again likely due to the journalism background.

Working within the publishing industry is a different beast altogether. The artist in me writes books. My dealings with the industry are pretty much business-focused. I see my publisher as a business partner, with each of us having a vested interest in putting out a great product and treating each other fairly. Thankfully, I have a fantastic agent, Sara Megibow, who pretty much takes care of that aspect of it, and I’m fairly well versed in marketing. So it works out well.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I never really thought I had the chops to be a novelist. I’d written thousands of newspaper articles, dozens of magazine pieces and a couple of non-fiction business books. But I had the idea that became Daedalus for a long time, and it ended up being my first foray into fiction. When I started writing it up, the switch went on. I mean, that first draft was crap, but it was a completed first draft. Getting over that first-draft hump was big for me.

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What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

This is a great time to be writing SF/F. The genre is growing in popularity and becoming more mainstream. There’s genre fiction that is just so amazing and beautiful and well-crafted that it blows my mind. It’s more akin to literary fiction than anything else. And yet you still have that really fun, adventure-driven fiction as well, and Daedalus definitely fits into that latter category. That doesn’t mean you can’t have nuance and craft in adventure stories, but I definitely like a good ride, and that’s what I write.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I’m currently serializing a novella, The Gravity of the Affair, on my website. While Daedalus was delayed, I wanted to give folks a taste of the setting and the style, so I decided to put that story out there. I have a couple other things in the works that…well, there are things afoot, so I don’t want to jinx it. Suffice it to say, the reception Daedalus has garnered is lovely, and has been noticed. ‘Nuff said for now.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

Scalzi-HumanDivisionI’m one of those terrible authors who actually doesn’t read a book a week. Or even a book a month. I’m woefully behind on my fiction reading, but only because I’ve been spending my free time fiction writing. I have a family and a career outside all this, so there’s only so much time in the day! Plus, I’m big on re-reading; it’s like comfort food. In terms of non-fiction, I’ve been doing research on a few different projects. Telling you the exact books would be a bit of a cheat, really. That said, I cleared John Scalzi’s The Human Division in pretty much one sitting, on the trip back from the Nebulas. It’s a very quick read for the length, and I learned some writerly things along the way.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

Most of my day-job writing is about business and finance. I could probably go for an MBA if the thought of taking math classes and writing a master’s thesis didn’t put me off. I also brew my own beer and I’m weak around barbecue.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

I’m looking forward to attending my first WorldCon in San Antonio in August. And I’ll be very interested to see if I can sell another book, so that I can claim that this whole fiction thing is a repeatable phenomena and not simply a fluke.

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The Daedalus Incident is available now as an eBook, and will be published in physical editions in August 2013.