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Author Interview

1. What would you consider to be your Kryptonite as an author?
Bloody apostrophes. Not because they’re particularly difficult, or that I haven’t learned the rules, but because when I get tired I just start putting them EV’ERY’WH’ERE’.

2. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Don’t listen to the people who are telling you that you can’t write because you are dyslexic. Spelling, grammar and rhetoric can be studied and improved (in fact, young-Keith, here are some books you should read now instead of years later). Imagination and telling a good story are what counts. Keep writing.

3. What book do you feel is under-appreciated? How about overrated?
Oooh, that’s tough.
Anything by Derrida is massively over-rated. The guy mastered that art of writing to sound like you’re saying something clever without actually saying anything at all. I’d throw in most of Satre and, sadly, Foucalt’s History of Sexuality under a similar banner (although Discipline and Punish is brilliant.)

There’s a lot of Golden Age science fiction that is gently being forgotten and deserves to be revisited: Matheson, Aldiss, Clement, amongst many others. I think Childhood’s End by Asimov is amazing, and I hate the idea that time is leaving him behind.

4. Favorite childhood memory involving books?
Typing stories on my mother’s old blue manual typewriter. My fingers used to go between the keys and get little cuts and bruises, but nothing beats the magic of the letters appearing on the page and the new sentence starting with a ping.
(Not that I’d ever go back to typewriters under any circumstances!)

5. If you could dine with any literary character, who would it be and why?
The vampire Lestat, provided I wasn’t on the menu! He just seems like an awful lot of fun, plus I wouldn’t mind a shot at living forever. I’ve had a crazy life, and the main thing I’ve learned is that you never give up (although sometimes you shift your objectives according to new information.) Lestat never gives up. Plus, frilly shirts.

6. What fantastical fictional world would you want to live in (if any) given the chance?
Iain M Banks world of the culture. I still haven’t read his last book, because I don’t want to live in a world where there is no more Banks to read. I love spaceships and idealism in the darkness. I reckon I could do well there.

7. Did you want to be an author when you grew up?
Many of my earliest memories are of me writing, including writing books. It took me a long time to brave the required focus and determination, so I improved enough to write good books, but it has always been important to me.

8. If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Will work harder

9. What is your most unusual writing quirk?
Writing “I was stood” to be synonymous with “I was standing” rather than to mean somebody stood me in place. It’s a regional dialect thing, which plenty of English people use and understand, but makes Southerner’s and American’s heads explode. The Scottish don’t say it either, but they’re so used to mocking the English that their heads come out just fine.

10. What’s one movie you like recommending to others?
The Edge of Tomorrow, largely because the terrible ad campaign (and Tom Cruise enduring a period of poor publicity) led to a lot of people missing a funny, well-paced and well-performed adaptation of Sakuraazaka’s All You Need is Kill.

11. If you could own any animal as a pet, what would it be?
I’m a cat person, but as I’m not keen on caring for animals in general (I have books to read/write!), it would have to be a robot cat. Preferably one that came with a time machine that was bigger on the inside.

12. Have you ever met anyone famous?

Yep, loads. Discretion is the better part of something or other though. Yes, I’m aware I’m misusing a biblical parable, but these days misuse seems to be the primary purpose of the bible.

13. What is the first book that made you cry?
Being terribly macho I don’t do an awful lot of crying, but Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go had me weeping buckets. I cry quite a bit in the cinema as well, but it’s dark so it doesn’t count.

14. How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
From first words on the page to publication probably about two years. I’ve only published two novels, so it’s hard to be sure, and I write several novel projects at the same time because getting books out regularly is very important. My doctoral thesis took considerably longer.

15. How do you select the names of your characters?
Research! Even when I’m writing science-fiction or fantasy I’m usually making allegorical connections to historical places or periods. I look up names that were popular at the time and try to find names that feel right for the character.

16. What creature do you consider your “spirit animal” to be?
Some sort of giant mechanised dragon. Or possibly a very sleepy, grumpy bear. Depends on what the kids have been up to.

17. What are your top 5 favorite movies?
The Princess Bride (The book is great as well, although much darker)

The War of the Worlds (Spielburg’s version – guilty pleasure but I just love The War of the Worlds)

The Edge of Tomorrow (rubbish title though)

Team America (I’m not looking very high brow here, am I)

Parasite (South Korea produces amazing cinema! Seriously, if you’re into crazy imaginative films check it out.)

18. If you were the last person on Earth, what would you do?
Get a lot better at DIY, build myself a home in a library, get great at making cocktails, then read and write until the stars went out.

19. What fictional character would you want to be friends with in real life?
It’s the vampire Lestat again. We’d paint the town red!

20. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Writers write. Get back to work.

Also, join a book club. Writers give terrible advice about writing because we’re all so anxious about our own work, but readers are your audience and the people you have to please. Get to know some.

21. What book do you wish you had written?
I don’t want anybody’s books but my own. There are a couple of WIP’s I have that I wish were finished – I’m working on a book about men’s rights activism that is really tough going because bleurk. I’d happily take Dan Brown’s sales figures.

22. If you could live in any time period, what would it be and why?
A future far enough away that we don’t have to deal with all this awful stupidity and noxiousness that has contaminated our culture now everybody who irrationally hates can find whole communities of people to hate with them and tell them they are right to hate. I’m not a big fan of hate.

Also, I want Star Trek replicators and Culture computers.

23. What is your favorite genre to read?
Speculative Fiction. That often means a lot of Sci-Fi, but anything with a visionary quality is likely to appeal. I’ve been enjoying more and more historical fiction, although I need references and heavy research before I turn all sceptical and my disbelief loses its suspension.