Blog Archives

Q&A: Richard Godwin

31/3/2012

Richard Godwin is a writer of dark crime fiction, horror, and satire. He is undoubtedly one of the best — and one of the most prolific — writers working today. (Check out this list of publishing credits. This material is available for you to read online.) I'm a big fan of Richard's writing; the dark, lyrical prose, believable dialogue, complex characters and cleverly constructed plots draw you into a story and hold you there, before finally spitting you out breathless and wanting more. His first novel, Apostle Rising, was one of my favourite reads of last year. His latest novel, Mr. Glamour, has recently been published and is already getting very positive reviews.

Here's Richard to tell us a little more about his books.

Tell me about your book.

Apostle Rising was my first novel. It is about a serial killer crucifying politicians. I think the general public found a killer they had great empathy for. He won their hearts and minds.

My second is out now. Mr. Glamour is about a glamorous world of designer people who are being targeted. It is about a killer who is watching everyone.

It contains two of the most unusual cops you will ever encounter. Flare and Steele have problems, lead double lives, and catch the killer.

The sub plot concerns an obsessive suburban housewife with a dark and shocking secret. And the characters from the main plot stray into her world.

The ending is a series of shocks. It is already getting great reviews.

What was your motivation for writing it?

Exploring the human psyche. And entertaining.

How long did it take you to complete?

A year.

What's your favourite part of the creative process?

Writing a good story.

How much difference does an editor make?

A lot if they are good.

How important is a good title?

Most important.

How important is a good cover?

Extremely important.

What are your views on e-books?

I like them, I like the challenge they present.

What aspects of marketing your book do you enjoy?

Meeting new readers and writers.

How do you feel about interviews?

I love giving them and receiving a good interview.

How do you feel about reviews?

They are necessary. If a reviewer asks themselves what is the writer trying to do and did he succeed and they are impartial that is fine.

Where do you find out about new books?

I get so many emails from so many sites.

What are you reading now?

Elmore Leonard's Fire In The Hole.

What makes you keep reading a book?

A strong style and consistency of characterisation.

What are you currently working on?

I'm writing the sequel to Apostle Rising. Many questions will be answered.

How can we keep up to date with your news?

Please go to my site and subscribe to the feeds.

Other than writing/being published, do you have a claim to fame?

I made lunch for Pablo Picasso and redesigned baked beans.

What would your epitaph be?

I'm right behind you.

Muah ha ha! Thanks for a great Q&A. And fans of Richard's writing might be interested to know that I'll be putting up a guest blog post from him tomorrow.

Richard's books are available from Amazon in the UK and the US.

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The great rock ‘n’ roll Kindle

25/3/2012

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My rock and blues novel Heartbreaker is free this weekend over on Amazon, so I thought I’d use that as an excuse to tell you a bit about the book.

Heartbreaker tells the story of the band with the same name, and rambles on over six decades. With such a lot of ground to cover, what I tried to do was to give a flavour of the times, from the sixties when the story starts, right through to the present day. I used music (of course) and also wee social references to try to peg a scene to the time in which it was set. Sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll come in very useful for this, and I was undoubtedly influenced by some of the stuff I’ve read about bands over the years. Here’s some of the music and the sorts of anecdotes that influenced the book.

First up has to be the two tracks that gave the band and the book their name:

Heartbreaker — Led Zeppelin

Heartbreaker — Free

Following the demise of Free, Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke got together with Boz Burrell and Mick Ralphs to form Bad Company, which was one of the first bands to sign to Zep’s Swansong label. There’s a tale that the bands were touring the US (by plane) and ended up in the same place at the same time. Both bands were a bit fed up with the groupie entourage travelling with them and fancied a change, so the girls simply trooped out of one plane and got onto the other.

Bad Company — Bad Company

There should really be at least one track each by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, since I use them to peg things in time. (For example, Johnny Burns’ line: ‘That year the Beatles got MBEs, the Stones got done for insulting behaviour, and I got my first electric guitar.’)

Come Together — The Beatles

I Wanna Be Your Man — The Rolling Stones

One of my fave stories about these bands is more or less as follows. Mick and Keith were wandering along a road in London when a big flash car pulled up, the door opened, and Paul and John shouted for them to hop in. Off they all went and during the course of the conversation, Mick and Keith mentioned that they needed a song, pronto, to release as a single. Paul and John chirped up, ‘We’ve got one that’s almost finished that you can have,’ so off they went to finish it off. That’s how come the Stones released ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ before the Beatles did.

One of the events mentioned in the book is the Human Be-In in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in January 1967. The usual suspects were in residence: The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with the amazing Janis Joplin, of course), and Quicksilver Messenger Service, to name just three.

Truckin’ — The Grateful Dead

Piece of My Heart — Big Brother and the Holding Company

Fresh Air — Quicksilver Messenger Service

There’s a tale I read that explains the gap you’ll spot if you care to look in QMS’s recording history. The Dead had pulled a great prank on QMS (invaded the house they were all living in at dawn pretending to be red indians, if I remember correctly) and QMS had plans to pay them back. The intention was to ambush them at a gig they were playing at The Fillmore, but Bill Graham got wind of it and told them they could do what they liked after the gig, but they’d interrupt it at their peril. Hence QMS sat in the back of their van having a wee smoke, waiting for the show to finish. They were in there a while — Dead shows were never short — and in the meantime a curious copper got interested in the van with all the smoke leaking out through the back doors … Half the band got busted for possession of marijuana, and the gap in their recording history was caused by the band having to wait until their missing members got out of chokey so they could carry on.

There are other bands and musicians that are peppered throughout. A random selection:

Cocaine — Davey Graham

Seven Nation Army — The White Stripes

Cradle Rock — Rory Gallagher

I read somewhere that back in the day, Rory and his band would finish whatever gig they were playing, pile in the van and head off to a festival if there was one to be had. Some time after midnight there’d be a squeal of tyres and a screech of brakes, the van doors would fly open and they’d pile out, find somewhere to set up, and start playing just for the sheer joy of it. Gotta love that approach to life and music!

So there you go. A free book and some music you can listen to while you read it, if you fancy. Can’t be bad!

Heartbreaker is available free until midnight PST 25/3 from Amazon in the UK and the US.

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Stories within stories: Nick Quantrill

17/3/2012

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Today I'm delighted to welcome Hull crime writer Nick Quantrill, whose second novel, the eagerly anticipated The Late Greats, is published on Monday. Nick was one of the first Q&A guests back in November of last year and I reviewed his debut novel Broken Dreams last summer. Both Broken Dreams and The Late Greats feature Hull PI Joe Geraghty, a complex and driven character, and in this guest post Nick explains how Joe came into being.

Stories within stories and the Joe Geraghty novels

The Late Greats and my debut novel, Broken Dreams are both tagged as ‘Joe Geraghty novels’, and rightly so. But when I started writing about Joe, I was largely flying by the seat of my pants. The broad outline was clear in my mind — he was to be a man in his early forties, very much of the city of Hull, and at heart, a decent man despite having suffered some kind of trauma earlier in his life. It came together quickly — Joe was to be a former Hull KR player to embed him in the city and he’d lost his wife in a house fire a few years previously. Now he was a Private Investigator. Beyond that, I had little on the page.

Joe needed somewhere to work, and more importantly, some colleagues. Joe was to work for ‘Don Ridley & Son’, a private investigation bureau run by Don and his daughter, Sarah. Don quickly became an ex-policeman, working towards retirement, and Joe was possibly the son he’d never had. Sarah was to be about the same age as Joe, a single mother, but much more capable than even her father realised.

I hadn’t really thought about Joe’s world any deeper than that, but as I was writing Broken Dreams, it started to click into place and I realised it could propel forward future novels. With The Late Greats, I started to think more seriously about it. Don’s background was as a CID officer. He’d worked in a regimented fashion for several decades, so that was to filter down to the partnership with Joe. When Joe’s approached to work for reformed Hull Britpop band, New Holland, Don’s not in favour. It’s not the kind of work he believes they should be doing. But to Joe it’s a paying job, and that’s not to be turned away. New Holland’s management has commissioned one journalist to document the process, but what Joe doesn’t anticipate is the possibility of a relationship, leading Sarah to accuse him of losing focus. Without too much considered thought, I was creating the conflict I needed to drive The Late Greats.

And the unmapped characters of Don and Sarah will drive future work on, too. I didn’t have to look too hard for a hook for the third Geraghty novel I’m working on. The Crooked Beat takes Don’s life as a policeman as a starting point. Was he always a principled man? Can there ever be a happy ending with Sarah? I suspect the more I explore the imaginary Hull I’ve created, the more I’ll discover stories within stories.

The Late Greats is available from Amazon in the UK and the US, and you can keep up to date with Nick's news at his website. And there's good news from Caffeine Nights Publishing for fans not only of Nick Quantrill, but also Ian Ayris and Nick Triplow, whose books will be free for Kindle for a period of time from Monday. Don't miss out!

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A year of self-publishing — first steps as an indie author

11/3/2012

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I've been a professional writer for many years now, but a self-published indie author for only one. It’s hard to believe, but a whole year has passed since I took my future into my own hands and self-published an e-book. That book was crime fiction collection Gone Bad and it was the start of an exciting adventure.

Next up was debut novel Convictions in May, then second novel Heartbreaker and weird/horror fiction collection The Writing on the Wall in October. A second crime fiction collection, Show No Mercy, rounded the year off in December.

One year, five books. And while they’ve all had their successes, it was last weekend’s Amazon KDP Select promotion with Convictions that really got the ball rolling. As I said last Monday, when the free promotion ended, the sales kicked in, and the book has kept on selling steadily. By Wednesday evening, it was selling a copy a minute in the UK.

On Tuesday, Convictions climbed into Amazon UK’s bestsellers chart and it has stayed there ever since.

Would this have happened without the option KDP Select offers, to make a book free for a period of time? Frankly, I doubt it. And while it’s possible to force a book to be free on Amazon, that’s not something I’ve ever done.

The only other book I’ve had in KDP Select so far is Show No Mercy, and while I think it did pretty well, it wasn’t nearly as successful as Convictions. I wonder if that’s the difference between a short story collection and a novel?

What is perhaps odd is that while Convictions has gone great guns in the UK, it hasn’t fared so well on Amazon.com. Maybe it is too British a book and doesn’t travel well.

That aside, Convictions’ UK success has had the added benefit of attracting enough sales for the other books to get each one of them into a chart. Current ratings are:

Gone Bad:
#10 in Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Anthologies

Heartbreaker:
#23 in Books > Fiction > Biographical Fiction

The Writing on the Wall:
#28 in Books > Fiction > Horror > Anthologies

Show No Mercy:
#1 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Anthologies

And Show No Mercy, which was Blasted Heathens daily #broth the other day, is free on Amazon today in the UK and the US.

One thing I do wonder is whether it is possible to repeat the success of Convictions in the UK with another book on KDP Select. Right now, I don’t know, but I’m tempted to find out. I’ll keep you posted …

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Q&A: Carrie Clevenger

10/3/2012

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Today's guest is Carrie Clevenger, who lives in Austin, Texas with her ever-so-patient family. Main influences include Maynard James Keenan, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and the late Peter Steele. She recently published a novella, Blood and Fire, in collaboration with Nerine Dorman and her debut novel, Crooked Fang, will be published by Lyrical Press in August 2012.

Tell me about your book.

Blood and Fire is a collaborative crossover between the Crooked Fang and Inkarna universes. We set out to provide a somewhat neutral ground for Xan Marcelles and Ashton Kennedy to interact on. It’s a pro-edited novella via Dark Continents Publishing and packed with magic and action.

What was your motivation for writing it?

As one of the authors of this book, I would hope that Blood and Fire offers a little edge-of-the-seat tension, action, and enough snark to make our readers chuckle. It’s a perfect commuter length, or way to while away a lazy afternoon.

How long did it take you to complete?

Blood and Fire from initial mindstorming to finish took about twenty-two weeks. During this, we also were arranging for an appropriate cover.

What's your favourite part of the creative process?

The escape. A focus on something besides day-to-day life’s doldrums. I love placing my characters into new situations and then letting them fight their way out of it. Usually, I’m just as surprised as everyone else.

How important is a good title?

I think that a good title is very important, because it’s the ultimate punch line for browsing would-be readers. A carnival come-on, and coupled with the cover, can make or break the sale of a book.

How important is a good cover?

Terribly important. We as humans tend to be visual creatures, and as technology has improved, lackluster covers on books can be enough to keep our eyes roving to the next selection. The cover needs to grab attention, invoke a sense of curiosity, and show enough ‘leg’ to draw a reader in.

What are your views on e-book pricing?

I really hate seeing so many low-cost e-books. The 99 cent e-book has become the expected norm, with the next step being free. Free doesn’t inspire me to create more. It makes what I do worthless. However, on the same page, free can be great, to offer a sample risk-free to a cautious new reader. It can go either way.

How do you feel about interviews?

I don’t really enjoy them, mainly because I’m a writer, not a journalist. I’m not looking to share any obscure wisdom, nor do I feel I am qualified to. But I do realize that sometimes people want to know more about the person behind the books, so interviews are a necessary evil.

What are you currently working on?

Currently I have Crooked Fang’s revisions on my plate. Once I finish getting ti ready for publishing, I’ll either continue to work on its sequel, Pale Rider, or drag out a brand new concept. I have more than a few pots boiling on the backburner.

How can we keep up to date with your news?

I participate in Twitter at @carrieclevenger or post news/giveaways and such at Crooked Fang’s Facebook page which is here: http://www.facebook.com/CrookedFang

I also post flash fiction at: http://www.carrieclevengerstories.com/

What would your epitaph be?

“The End”

Thanks, Carrie, for a great Q&A.

Blood and Fire is available from Amazon in the UK and the US.

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KDP Select experiment: the results are in!

5/3/2012

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I’ve been wondering for a while what I can do to make my books more visible. I enrolled Show No Mercy in Amazon’s KDP Select programme when I first published it last year, and it had quite a few downloads, Show No Mercy is a short story collection, however, and I wondered if a novel would fare differently.

Consequently a couple of weeks ago I unpublished my debut novel, Convictions, at Smashwords and waited for the book to be taken out of distribution, as to qualify for KDP Select, a book must be digitally published exclusively with Amazon. Once that had happened, I enrolled the book and set it to go free this weekend. I had what I thought were realistic expectations, and slightly higher hopes, but I think it’s fair to say that the Convictions/KDP Select promotion exceeded even my wildest dreams.

In the two days the book was free, it was downloaded by several thousand readers. The figures break down as follows:

Amazon.co.uk: 76.7%
Amazon.com: 23%
Amazon.de: 0.3%
(Amazon.fr: 1 copy)

There was an additional benefit in that I sold some other books, too. In fact, I sold more copies of short story collection Gone Bad over the weekend than I had in the previous month. And in the first hour after Convictions stopped being free, I sold more copies of that than I had in the previous two months, and the book has already received a new 5 star review on Amazon UK.

Right from the start, I was amazed by how quickly the promotion took off. And utterly gobsmacked by the way the pace picked up on Sunday. I started out taking a note of the download figures and chart positions every twelve hours, thinking they’d make interesting reporting. Last evening, when things were really motoring, I noted down the downloads every hour for a few hours.

I can tell you that over the course of the weekend, someone somewhere in the world downloaded a copy of Convictions every 21 seconds. And for a period of time on Sunday evening (UK time), there was one downloaded every 10 seconds. That floors me.

There are people who condemn Amazon KDP Select as exploitative and exclusionary, and who say that people who give their books away free are devaluing their art. And some people may feel that I’ve just done myself out of several thousand sales.

However, I disagree with that viewpoint.

Without the promotion, those people may or may not have stumbled across Convictions or one of my other books. Chances are they wouldn’t have. Even if they had, they might well not have taken a chance on an author they didn’t know, had the book not been free.

As I said the other day when I was talking about promotion, what we need as writers is a way to get our books in front of new readers and my objective with this exercise was to do just that. From that standpoint, the promotion has been an unqualified success.

Before the promotion started, I dropped the price of Convictions to 77p/99c, so that it came out at the lowest possible price. Having read what other writers had to say about their experiences, this seemed to give the best chance of sales kicking in when the free downloads stopped. And this happened seamlessly with this book. The figures kept on appearing (at a much reduced rate from one every ten seconds, but still steadily) after the promotion ended.

One of the best things about the promotion was seeing Convictions hit Amazon’s top 100 chart in the UK. It climbed steadily, and was sitting at 13 in Kindle store and 5 in Mysteries when I went to bed on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, it had jumped to 5 in Kindle store and 2 in Mysteries. By early evening it was placed at 2 in the Kindle store and 1 in Mysteries, and at midnight (UK time) last night — with eight hours still to run — it hit the number one in store, becoming the most downloaded free e-book in the UK, and it held that position until the promotion ended. To say I’m pleased about that is an understatement.

With regard to promoting the promotion, as it were, I posted links on Facebook and Twitter, the Kindle Boards and the UK Kindle Users’ Forum. That was pretty much it.

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who helped by sharing and retweeting information about the promotion, who ‘liked’ status updates and who downloaded the book. I appreciate your support more than you can know. We can’t do this on our own and I’m extremely grateful for everything you did.

Another huge thanks is due to Steven Miscandlon because without his editing and cover design skills, Convictions wouldn’t be the book it is.

So, overall, enrolling Convictions in Amazon KDP Select has worked very well. It’ll be interesting to see how things go over the next few weeks and months. I’ll keep you posted!

Oh — and don’t forget that I’m taking part in the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week promotion. The Writing on the Wall is free and Gone Bad and Heartbreaker are half price. Coupon codes are on the individual book pages, and my author page is here.

Thanks!

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Read an Ebook Week - I'm getting involved!

4/3/2012

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This week — March 4th to 10th — is Read an Ebook Week on Smashwords. It's a fantastic opportunity for writers and readers to connect, and for people to try e-books either free or at a discount.

One advantage of Smashwords is that it supports all types of e-reader. And if you either prefer to read on your computer or haven't yet decided whether you need to invest in an e-reader, you have a choice of formats. You can choose PDF files, or download free software — either from Amazon, to support Kindle format, or from Adobe Digital Editions (and I suspect there are more — Google is your friend when it comes to this).

Anyway, I think it's a great idea, so I have thrown my hat into the ring and enrolled three books into the promotion.

The Writing on the Wall, my collection of horror/weird fiction, is free from Smashwords for the duration of the promotion. Enter code RE100 at the checkout to get the discount.

What if you only had as many days left to live as there are letters in your name? What if an invisible hand shaped your destiny? What if your night terrors were real? Prepare for chills and terror as you encounter the unusual, the unsettling and the downright horrific in The Writing on the Wall. Light the lamps. Lock the door. And whatever you do, don’t look behind you.

Gone Bad, my first collection of short crime fiction, is half price for Read an Ebook Week. Enter code REW50 at the checkout.

Tales about bad people doing bad things. This short story collection features a rare cast of characters: flawed, foul-mouthed, misguided and downtrodden, all of whom might be said to have, in one way or another, ‘gone bad’. This is Brit Grit noir, no holds barred and no punches pulled. You wouldn’t want to be sharing the last bus home with these people!

And Heartbreaker, my rock and roll riot second novel, is also half price. Again, enter code REW50 at the checkout to get the discount.

When Johnny Burns and his best friend Tom Watson founded rock band Heartbreaker, they realised their wildest dreams. Years later, with two members of the band dead, Alex Weston is hired to ghostwrite a book about Johnny’s life. As she digs deep into the past, she uncovers secrets and lies, betrayal and guilt. But what was Johnny’s part in the devastating events of all those years ago?

Many, many writers across many genres have got involved in this event, from crime, through horror and fantasy, to romance, and their books range from free to 25 per cent discount. Have a look, see what takes your fancy and — even if you haven't got much reading time at the moment — stock up your e-reader at a discount while you can. And if you like the look of any of my books and pick them up, thanks! I hope you enjoy reading them!

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Q&A: Andy Frankham-Allen

3/3/2012

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Today's guest is Welsh-born Andy Frankham-Allen, whose passion for writing began with a love of Doctor Who. After years of writing as a hobby, in 2001 he began an ongoing fan-fiction series called Doctor Who: The Legacy, which carried on until 2006. It is now being published by Frankallen Books through www.lulu.com under the umbrella title Legacy, in aid of Cancer Research UK. This led to professional Doctor Who short stories in Big Finish’s anthology series, Short Trips, from 2004 to 2009, and an audio drama for Noise Monster’s Space: 1889 series. In 2007 he created and co-edited a new eZine called Pantechnicon, for which he also wrote short stories and interviews.

Late 2010 saw Andy become a part of both Untreed Reads Publishing, and Hirst Publishing. Both companies published his début novel, Seeker (Book one in The Garden Quadrilogy) in March 2011. He has several short stories released through Untreed Reads, and he wrote the opening book and is the range editor of their new steampunk eBook series, Space: 1889 & Beyond.

Tell me about the Space: 1889 & Beyond series of books: how did they come about?

Space: 1889 was created as a Role Playing Game almost twenty-five years ago by Frank Chadwick and the Game Designers Worksop; it was, essentially, steampunk before that name was even coined. In the mid-2000s an audio production company called Noise Monster produced four audio plays based on the property, the final of which was co-written by me. Since 2006 I’ve had the idea for developing a series of Space: 1889 prose books, but it was only in 2010 and the interest Untreed Reads Publishing had in creating a steampunk series that the opportunity really presented itself. I was already an established author for the company, and had a way in with Frank, so when Jay Hartman (editor-in-chief at Untreed) told me he was looking to publish some steampunk books I suggested developing Space: 1889. I made first contact with Frank, explained to him my plans for the series, and introduced him to Jay and KD Sullivan (Untreed’s CEO). They worked out the license, and I was hired as series editor.

How would you describe your role as series editor?

It’s very involved! It’s best equated with the role of Show Runner on a TV series; I’m the one who develops the ongoing story, creates the main characters through who the story is told, and seeks out the creative team (authors, cover artist, cover designer). I am, basically, the creative force behind every element of the series. I work intimately with every aspect of the series. I work with the authors in developing their stories (which might involve simple suggestions, or it may involve a heavy shopping list of things to include), I commission the artwork for the covers, guiding David Burson in the direction I want each cover to take. And, of course, I edit every single line the authors write. Even then, it’s a very collaborative effort, and everyone gets their say; Jay, KD, the authors, and Frank. As much as I do, I’ll never take full credit since the books are not written in a vacuum. We succeed and fail as a team. And, I’m very glad to say, we’re mostly succeeding, with each book currently riding high in Untreed Reads’ top ten best-sellers list (five months the series has dominated that list!).

The cover artwork for the books is stunning. How much importance do you put on a book cover?

Thank you! Covers are essential; even with eBooks it’s the cover that will attract the reader first. We’re an aesthetically-led people. A cover can make or break a book. How many times have your eyes drifted past a bad cover, for something more interesting? With this series, I was looking for a style that would be reminiscent of the kind of art you’d see on the cover of The Strand Magazine in the later 19th century, with a bit of Tintin thrown in there, and I think David captures that. Like every aspect of the series, the covers were a bit tentative at first, but they are improving in leaps and bounds. The latest cover, for A Prince of Mars, is simply superb! Possibly David’s best work yet.

What’s next in the series?

Just released is A Prince of Mars (conveniently, due to scheduling delays, it’s been published near the release of the new John Carter movie, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars – we couldn’t have planned that better, really!). This book is a very important release in three ways; #1, in the ongoing narrative, as it changes the live of both leads on a very visceral level; #2, it’s the first book set on Mars, which has always been the most developed world in the Space: 1889 universe and remains a firm fan favourite; and #3, it’s written by Frank Chadwick, the creator and owner of the property. (Interesting fact, I had always planned to have Frank pen a book at some point – opening series two – but our writers for story #5 fell through due to other commitments, so I called on Frank since I needed someone who would do Mars justice, and who better than the man who created the property? His intimate knowledge of Mars is evident on every page of the book, and really is a joy to read.)

Following that will be Dark Side of Luna, our epic series one finale. But more on that next time. :)

You’ve written a number of Doctor Who stories for Big Finish. How did you get involved in that?

The producer of Doctor Who (and let us not forget, in 2004, Big Finish was official Doctor Who), Gary Russell, became aware of me via mutual friends and several encounters at various conventions. I made a point of not discussing my desire to write for Big Finish, since I have always wanted to succeed on my own merit, not because I happen to know the right people. Anyway, in the event Gary did learn of my desire, and out of the blue I received an email from him asking me to submit some ideas for a forthcoming anthology he was editing – which became Short Trips: Repercussions. So while I was working on a few ideas (or ten!), I asked him at a pub meeting why he approached me, and he told me that this was my chance to make it or not. So, you know, no pressure there! The rest is history, as they say. Gary liked a few of my ideas, in particular the one that became The Dead Man’s Story, and after agreeing to make the gay lead straight (*head scratch*) I got commissioned. Which, curiously, lead to me getting to write for the Space: 1889 audio series and a further Gary Russell-edited anthology. It also led directly to my third and (thus far) final Big Finish commission, for the Short Trips: Snapshots anthology, edited by Joseph Lidster. Over a drink in a rather lovely wine-bar down Cardiff Bay, Joe asked me to submit an idea for his book because the way I handled The Dead Man’s Story was exactly the kind of thing he was looking for. Which was nice!

As a post script to my Big Finish career, I have to make mention of Re: Collection. Once they reached the end of their licence for Doctor Who short stories, Big Finish decided to publish a Best-Of book, collecting one story from each of the Short Trips anthologies, each picked by their respective editors as the best examples of the books in question. For Repercussions Gary chose my story – my first professional piece of published fiction. This is a big deal, and a proud moment. A lovely bit of icing on my own slice of Big Finish cake.

Tell me about The Garden Quadrilogy.

The Garden is my magnum opus – not to demean my other works, of course, but this is the one series that is wholly me. It’s a series of four novels (and novella interludes) that tells the epic story of Willem Townsend and Samuel Mayal. It’s a series that delves into various mythologies, that deals head-on with several issues that obsess today’s culture (sexual identity, the concept of karma, the disillusionment of young people in the UK). It has variously been labelled as a gay series, a vampire series, a supernatural series, but none of these labels are strictly accurate. It’s very much a cross-genre series, blending all my favourite genres into one melting pool. There’s a supernatural aspect, a mythological aspect, a thriller aspect, real world drama ... The whole lot! And some change. And yes, there are gay characters in it, but then there are also straight characters in it. Indeed, by virtue of the nature of the upyr (my take on vampires) immortality, the concept of sexuality is challenged.

I should point out, trying to do something new and original with vampires is no easy task. But I think I’ve achieved that to some extent, by going back into some rather obscure vampire lore and building on that. In so doing, I’ve pretty much swept away most, if not all, contemporary vampire conventions. Of course, the irony in labelling The Garden a vampire series is that, when book two is released, it will become very clear that the upyr are but a small part of much bigger mythology. But that’s a while away yet, since I’ve yet to finish writing book two – although I do have a publisher interested in picking up the rights to the series. In the meantime, book one (Seeker) is only available as an eBook from Untreed Reads; although there are a very limited number of paperback copies available from The Comic Guru in Cardiff.

What's your favourite part of the creative process?

In truth pretty much all of it. I love coming up with the initial ideas, and developing them. I love the actual writing, since it’s only then that the characters start to breathe and determine the true course of the story.

What’s next for you?

Right now, although it’s paused in favour of answering these questions, I’m writing Conspiracy of Silence with Frank Chadwick, which will be the novel that opens the second series of Space: 1889 & Beyond. This will be a series defining book, which is unsurprising since it’s being written by the series editor and the property creator. Following that I’ll be moving straight onto Cast from the Heavens, a novel in the Scattered Earth series from Crossroad Press. That novel will be a nice departure, since I’ve never really written fantasy before, plus I’m hoping to channel a lot of Celtic mythology in the writing, which will be much fun. Loads of research for me there!
Hmm, what else is coming up? Obviously I’ll be working heavily on all aspects of Space: 1889 & Beyond series two (some brilliant stories coming up!), and later in the year, all things being equal, I shall be working on a non-fiction Doctor Who book.

How can we keep up to date with your news?

A few ways. You can find me on Facebook, on Twitter (@FrankhamAllen), my Welsh-Londoner blog and, possibly by the time this interview is released, on YouTube with my new vlog.

What are you reading now?

I’m on book four of The Alera Codex by Jim Butcher. As I’ve mentioned, fantasy have never really been a big thing for me, but last year I decided I wanted to read something a little different, so I picked up The Furies of Calderon and seriously got hooked. I’ve now only two books left to read in that series. And it’s Jim Butcher’s work there that inspired to write a bit of fantasy next. Don’t know if Cast from the Heavens will be as clever and inventive as Butcher’s work, but I’ll give it my best shot.

Other than writing/being published, do you have a claim to fame?

Quite a few. But for the sake of this interview, my claim to fame will be Charlie Condou. British readers who are familiar with Coronation Street will recognise his name as the actor who plays Marcus, the midwife boyfriend of Anthony Cotton’s character (the name of whom escapes me). Charlie and I went to the same high school, and occasionally attended the same drama class. It’s brilliant seeing how he’s married his commercial success with his personal success; a fantastic actor (check him out – he’s been in a wide variety of shows, including a fantastic role in Gimme, Gimme, Gimme), who’s openly gay, in a long-term relationship, and has fathered two children. In so many ways he’s quite an inspiration and has my total respect.

What would your epitaph be?

Now that’s a tough one. Let me see... Actually, yeah, I’ll paraphrase a line from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse; “He always tried to be his best.”

Thanks, Andy, for a fantastic Q&A.

Andy's books are available from a variety of sources including Untreed Reads, Lulu, and Amazon in the UK and the US.

And an advance notice that Serere (The Garden Prelude) will be free on March 8th for one day only from Untreed Reads.

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Reviews, interviews and FREE BOOK news!

2/3/2012

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February was such a great month that I figured it was worth doing a quick round-up of some of the highlights.

PaulBrazill, author of 13 Shots of Noir and Drunk on the Moon (soon to be released by Dark Valentine Press) had me over at his place for a short, sharp interview.

Heartbreaker got an amazing new review from Richard Godwin, author of the dark, deeply disturbing (and excellent) debut novel Apostle Rising. He said: ‘Morrigan has taken a myth, a myth that applies to many rock bands, and made it her own. In her tight structured prose, her razor dialogue, her observed humour and her strong evocation of what the price of fame is, she has written a story full of human drama. The title fits the novel perfectly. I cannot recommend this highly enough.’

(Richard’s second novel Mr Glamour is to be published soon. More on that in a few weeks.)

Gone Bad hit a Goodreads Best Noir of the 21st Century list.

It's also in a Spinetingler poll of the best crime books of 2011. First round voting ends at midnight tonight. (Hint hint!)

And just the other day I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Dani Amore over at her blog. Dani is an excellent and highly prolific author and she popped in here recently for a Q&A.

And finally, I decided to enrol Convictions in Amazon’s KDP Select programme. And this weekend, it’s going to be FREE from Amazon in the UK and the US. Grab yourself a copy and let's get March off to a good start!

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Q&A: Richard Godwin

The great rock ‘n’ roll Kindle

Stories within stories: Nick Quantrill

A year of self-publishing — first steps as an indie author

Q&A: Carrie Clevenger

KDP Select experiment: the results are in!

Read an Ebook Week - I'm getting involved!

Q&A: Andy Frankham-Allen

Reviews, interviews and FREE BOOK news!

Julie Morrigan

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