 |
Information |
 |
| |
Products: 365
Categories: 38
Hits 1,203,684
Prices: GB Pounds
| |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
Alex Scarrow - Interview |
|
| |
Email Interview with Alex Scarrow (27/02/2006)
1) Alex you have said you grew up in " Hertfordshire. Raised mostly in Essex,
but lived in Hong Kong, the Bahamas, a short time in San Francisco (I was a toddler then)."
Did this have an effect on you that has carried over to your writing?
Do you think this travelling gives you a more rounded look at the world?
It can't help but to have helped. It has definitely allowed my writing to have a more international flavour. Growing up, I lived with kids who came from all around the world, different accents, different languages etc etc
2) You have said you have written some screen plays...
any chance these will get turned into books down the line?
Or do you have plenty of ideas without looking back at old work?
The screenplays I've written, I'm sure I'll go back to and either update, or rework in some way. But then there are always new ideas coming along. In fact, I keep a little black notebook on my person at all times, in which any random ideas I have get put. It's getting quite crammed in there right now.
3) Do you have any plans to emulate Simon and write an historic novel?
Not really. Although I enjoy history, there's no particular period in which I would consider myself knowledgeable enough to write on extensively. I think the fear of getting too many details wrong and inducing the wrath of historical purists is what's keeping me away from the genre, actually.
4) A Thousand Suns and Ellie Quin look like very different types of books.
What kind of genre would you ideally see yourself following? If any?
Contemporary thrillers with a strong sense of social commentary is my line of business. ELLIE QUIN is something else, a real departure, the first in a series that's really hard to define.
5) Where did you get the idea for Thousand Suns?
From a tagline. I woke up in the early hours one day a few years ago muttering 'on April 29th 1945, the allies secretly surrendered to Nazi Germany...' It was from that bizarre little nugget that the whole idea eventually grew. First as a screenplay, then later, my first manuscript
6) Before you made the switch to writing did you take advise from Simon?
and did he try to put you off based on the hardships involved in getting published?
Not at all. He was very encouraging. He nagged me to turn the screenplay into a novel.
7) Given that you have probably read alot of interviews in papers magazines etc down the years
(sorry that makes you sound old!) is it bizarre being on the other end of an interview?
Not really. It's just like chatting with a very interested reader.
8) Do you still read alot? or do you try to avoid reading for the same reason most authors do..
(IE Plagiarism and the fact that you spend as much time reading as crticing the writing style)?
I read way too little. But that's not because my life is filled with other activities...it's just that I do struggle to find books that keep me engaged. Since writing, I've become very fickle and unforgiving of most writers, including myself. I think in the past year I've only managed to finish two of the ninety-odd books that I've started. And so many of those, I tossed irritably aside after only three or four chapters. The problem I think, frankly, is that a lot of very poor and unoriginal books are being published....way too many books. Which means wading through a lot of dross to find the gems. And I'm getting to the point where the wading is tiring me out.
9) Do you have any celebration planned for the launch of A Thousand Suns
Yes, Simon and I are launching/signing three books between us at Jarrolds of Norwich, a big, old-fashioned department store. It should be great fun. I'm looking forward to talking about my debut novel and reading something from it.
10) Who decides on the artwork for your book and do you have alot of input?
As some one who has worked in computer game design did you try to take over on the designing of the cover?
I did contribute some mock-ups I put together using my CG skills. I think it helped get the ball rolling, and gave some directions to the art people used by Orion, but in the end the cover concept they came up with, was most definitely their idea. I can't take credit for that, sadly.
11) At alot of book signings you get to hear the tales of rejection letters,
do you have any of these, was it hard to get the book taken on? are you keeping the
letters to remail to those people when the book hits the best seller lists?
I was very, very lucky. I think A THOUSAND SUNS was picked up by the first publisher who received it. Orion got it first. They took their time over it, meanwhile my agent passed it on to three or four others, who were looking it over when Orion came back with an offer. So, I haven't had to endure the depressing treadmill of rejections that many other hardy writers have. But, let me fair, as an aspiring screenwriter, sheeeesh...plenty of rejection with that, I can tell you.
14) I read to relax...what do you do as reading must seem like work?
I play with my son, Jacob. He's 8, and beginning to present a challenge at board games, computer games, card games. I strum some guitar chards, play a few CDs. I'll be honest, my life to date has been filled with work. Either as a struggling musician, or as a struggling animator and CG artist - I've never really stopped long enough to develop any hobbies as such. I do need to find something soon, that I can do between books.
16) When you're in a bookshop do you ever have a peak to see who's browsing Simons work
and will you be doing this for yourself when your book is released?
Yes..I suppose I do, a bit.
17) If someone was to enter a shop where you were,
how would you persuade them to consider one of your novels over someone else and how would you
persuade them that your work is different to other authors?
I think the best bet is to let the cover, the tagline and the blurb on the back do the work. If you can't get a sale on the strength of those things, then I think you need to go back to the drawing board. But I suppose, to draw attention to my book on the shelf, I could be tempted to pluck it up enthusiastically and 'coo' over the fantastic description on the back. I'd stoop that low.
18) Out of the characters that appear in your work do you have a singular favourite and please explain your answer?
Chris Rowland, the main character. I like that the guy is a very ordinary guy - just a plain old photographer, nothing remarkable to look at. And when he finds himself in a sticky corner, he doesn't miraculously find he can punch his way out past a pack of hardened hitmen, or fire a machine pistol from the hip with perfect accuracy, or suddenly speak a second language, or know how to 'hack into the mainframe'...like many other, dare I say, cheesy protagonists seem to. I hate that. I hate chisel-jawed superhero protagonists. And in the same way, I hate pantomime antagonists, you know the ones that are so evil they'll sell their grandma into slavery. That's just....arrgghh! I hate that so much. I hope Chris and ALL the other characters in the book come across as living breathing people, some nicer than others, but none as cardboard-cutout stock characters.
19) How do you view feedback to your work and how do you react to negative input?
I take negative feedback appallingly, deride, curse and spit venom at those that don't love every single word I've pecked out for them. Ahh well, maybe not. Like every writer, you like to think you've hit the spot every time, but clearly that's going to be impossible. I do find it very hard to judge my own writing, so I rely heavily on a cadre of beta-readers who are quite merciless in their assessments.
20) What advice would you give to debut novelists to encourage them?
Find something NEW. Whether it's a story idea, a type of character, a writing style, a location. The idea's the thing. You get a good, original idea, you're halfway there. If you've got nothing new to offer, you may have the most wonderful ability to put together prose....it just isn't going to happen. The ideas....that's what it's all about.
21) When you've spent hard months working on a novel have you ever gone back and
read your work and have you ever been able to enjoy it? or are you an author who hates to read his own work?
I don't read my work much. By the time it's done, I've seen enough of it. That said, I'm sure in five or ten years time, I'll happily sit down and give A THOUSAND SUNS another good read.
22) When buying a new book what genre are you most drawn to?
Mainstream...and thrillers. I'm basically scoping the competition right now ;-)
23) how would you react if someone was to see you in starbucks/bookshop etc
and ask you to autograph their book, simpy out of the blue? how would cope with this fame?
With consummate ease. I think I'd adjust to the fame thing alarmingly well. Mind you...why not ask me that in five or ten years? I'll probably be fed up with it and looking for a rock to hide beneath.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|