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Post by ian on Jun 23, 2009 19:50:03 GMT
What do you think needs to change before horror fiction is as popular as it was was before the late 90's?
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Post by Jim on Jun 23, 2009 19:59:27 GMT
Being a horror author, do your family and friends ever wonder about you? What has their reaction been after reading your work?
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Post by Jim on Jun 27, 2009 5:16:34 GMT
How long did it take you to publish your first book, after you started trying?
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Post by Jim on Jun 27, 2009 5:17:48 GMT
If You Could Be Any Book Character Who Would You Be...?
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Post by Jim on Jun 27, 2009 15:49:54 GMT
Amazon reviews good or bad? I get the feeling that many of them are not exactly honest if you get what I mean.
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Post by conrad on Jun 27, 2009 16:22:09 GMT
Conrad... do you have that dream novel in your head... the one you want to write but don't feel ready to do yet?
I've actually started working on a new novel that has been kicking around my mind since 2000. I don't know if I would call it my dream novel, but it's certainly a story that has taken this long to ferment and make itself want to be told next. I had a few goes at it over the years, but they were all false starts. I think you just have to wait for the right time and hope that everything clicks into place.
As a writer of horror fiction, do you believe in he things that go bump in the night?
Kind of. I mean, I don't believe in the classic horror monsters, but I do believe in odd things like race memory and I believe in ghosts, insofar as they exist as a stain or a bruise on the memory. The brain is as undiscovered as the oceans or deep space. I think a lot of what spooks us is generated in that couple of pounds of grey matter.
WHAT TO YOU LIKE TO DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
I don't have a lot of spare time because I'm on child-minding duty a lot at the moment while my wife meets her deadlines. But when I do have some time to myself, and I'm not writing, I like to read, take photographs, listen to music, drink wine, play the guitar, play football, watch films... you know, the usual.
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Post by conrad on Jun 27, 2009 16:41:10 GMT
What do you think needs to change before horror fiction is as popular as it was was before the late 90's?
I'm not sure it ever will be. I think its power has been diluted by the new wave of horror lite. But what needs to change, I should think, is editors' attitudes towards horror fiction. And it is changing, to some degree. There are some publishers out there who know that if they have a good novel that is a horror story, it doesn't necessarily follow that you need to slap a black jacket on it and find a cover artist who's good at nudes and snakes and skulls. We've moved on a lot in some ways. But that stigma is still attached to horror. I really don't know how you make it go away. Write the best stuff you can, is probably the best bet.
Being a horror author, do your family and friends ever wonder about you? What has their reaction been after reading your work?
God yes. Many friends of mine have taken me to one side over the years to tell me I'm weird or warped or strange. I suppose I have an unusually dark world view. But as long as people don't think I'm dangerous, that's fine. Mostly, reaction from friends and family has been good.
How long did it take you to publish your first book, after you started trying?
I didn't have an agent when I started out. I wrote two novels before Head Injuries. I wrote 'Domino' when I was 20 and it was very much a Stephen King imitation. The next one was called 'Sipping Midnight' and I kind of liked that one, but it was written from the viewpoint of an elderly man, so not very sexy, marketing-wise. I half-heartedly send those novels out, fully expecting them to be bounced, and they were. I knew I wasn't ready. I sent 'Head Injuries' to a few publishers, and got nice letters back from them. One of them even invited me to her office for a drink and a chat. And then I got a call out of the blue from a guy I had been on nodding terms with at Time Out, where we both worked as freelance writers. He ran a small outfit called The Do-Not Press and had published a couple of non-fiction books but wanted to move into fiction and asked to see some of my work. He liked Head Injuries enough to publish it in 1998, just before my 29th birthday, as part of a very short-lived imprint called Frontlines. They went on to publish London Revenant in 2004, but, alas, are no longer in business.
If You Could Be Any Book Character Who Would You Be...?
James Bond. Do I need to explain why?
Amazon reviews good or bad? I get the feeling that many of them are not exactly honest if you get what I mean.
A bit of both. A necessary evil. Sometimes there are reviews by people who just don't get it and haven't even finished it and they give you one star and that's that. It's frustrating, especially if that review then persuades somebody not to buy the book, but you can't let it get to you. Word of mouth is still the most effective selling tool out there. You have to accept that there are some people who aren't going to like your work, no matter how much you might want to please everybody.
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Post by Jim on Jul 2, 2009 7:01:30 GMT
Should an author write for himself or the fans? You hear so many stores of fans outrage when an author refuses to write another story based on one of there characters or set in one of their worlds.
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