Where do you live?
I live in North London with my wife and two cats.
What’s your home life like?
My wife is quite capable of taking care of herself (and putting up with living with a writer, something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy).
My cats have decided that it's their role in life to remind me that there are more important things than writing - such as food, being scratched, food, being let out to sleep in the sunshine and more food. I call myself an author, but judging by the time I spend, I'm just as much a cat doorman. What genre(s) do you like to write? To read?
I like both writing and reading in any genre as long as the writing is good. My novels have both been on the dark side and centred on crimes of different kinds, but that wasn't a deliberate choice on my part.
The first was more political, the new book more psychological. The next, which I'm in the middle of, is both psychological and a conspiracy thriller, but that's not to say anything about what might come after that.
Why did you start writing?
I've always like stories, since I began running a little theatre company at nine years old on a shelf in my grandma's front room, with cardboard actors. A theatre director (even at nine) needs scripts, so I naturally began writing some.
Then I moved into film. Again, I needed scripts. You get a great buzz from seeing your ideas up there on the big screen, but it took so long for each project to get made that I was growing frustrated.
I realised that if I wrote them as novels, I could produce more in a single year than I could in ten years as a film director. And not have to be nice to financiers! What do you do when you’re not writing?
I read. I love reading. I walk. I run an Aikido class, which is sadly suspended because of Covid-19 so I'm running it online until we can get back on the mat. I do jigsaws. My wife likes to buy fiendishly difficult puzzles which keep us going for months. And I've been getting back into drawing again after a long time away. It's been good fun.
Where do you like to go when looking for a new book to read?
I have a number of tottering piles of books crying out to be read, so I never actually have to look. In fact I try to look away as I pass them. I do read reviews and will often buy a book to add to one of the piles (cursing myself as I do so). People also buy me books or I am recommended books to download.
At what point do you call it quits when reading a new book?
Excellent question. I used to feel guilty unless I finished a book, but now realise life is too short.
Characters are the most important issue - if I don't find myself engaged with the character, that's it (which doesn't mean I have to like them).
Often, a writer will paint a character so crudely that I simply can't continue. On other occasions, the character will be made to do or say something utterly stupid, simply to make the plot work. Or it's clear that the world they live in is not credible.
It's a delight when I find a writer who understands the world and can paint a character and a world that I can enjoy and believe in. Are you independently or traditionally published?
Both. The Breaking of Liam Glass was published by Marble City, who did a good job but I decided it needed rebranding and so took it back and am publishing it myself.
Room 15 is published by Bloodhound, who have been great to work with and it's already received excellent reviews and is an Amazon best-seller.
How many books/stories have you published so far?
The two novels. Two books on screenwriting. A book on police slang. A number of short stories published in magazines and anthologies. And one collection of short stories - The Cupboard - which you can either buy on Amazon or download for free from my website www.thecupboard.info
I've also written a free book about how to find classic satirical novels for free - Laughing in the Dark - details at www.satirebook.com What book/story are you currently promoting or working on?
Room 15
What’s the elevator pitch?
A psychological mystery thriller about a police detective who discovers he has amnesia and suspects someone is trying to kill him before he gets his memory back.
How long have you been working on it?
I have in front of me, as I write, a thin red exercise book costing 30p from my local newsagent.
Dated 9th May 1989, it contains the initial thoughts and plans for a novel about a man with amnesia, which would become - over thirty years later - Room 15. When will it be available to buy? Where?
It came out in July and is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book.
You should also be able to order it from your local bookshop, depending on where you live. How can readers find you?
I have a blog/mailing list with regular articles about crime, crime fiction and psychology.
What inspires you to keep writing?
My good friend Phil Parker describes writing as staring at the computer screen until blood spurts out of your forehead.
I also love Earnest Hemingway's prescription for how to write a great novel. It's very simple: you put the seat of the pants on the seat of the chair. Anything you’d like to add?
Thank you for having me. It's been fun. And I've decided there's no point in doing anything unless it's fun. Or very, very scary.
My thanks to Charles for participating in My Laughably Inane Blog for the second time. Click here to read his first interview.
Sincerely,Nicholas P. AdamsJust a small-town boy with an overactive imagination.
1 Comment
Spiros Kagadis
8/28/2020 11:34:21 am
Excellent interview!!! Congratulations to you both!! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
|
Amazon Author Page
|
LinkTree
|
The League of Utah Writers
|
RSS Feed