I can't believe that I have got up to my 50th interview since starting back in the spring. And this 50th is certainly a great read. So eyes down and see what goes on in the mind of someone who is closer to real murders that most people would want to be.
How do you strike the balance
between writing something you want to write and writing something that people
want to read, in terms of the compromises you make, if any?
I believe that you can’t please
everyone all of the time. So I don’t try to. I write in a fairly gentle style
that I hope will appeal to most readers. I do have some rules of my own though:
there are certain profanities that I will never use (I like my stories to be as
true to life as possible, but there are boundaries), and certain subjects I’ll
never go near because I find them too upsetting to write about, let alone read
about – and that’s not because of any personal involvement with them; I just
think some things shouldn’t be fictionalised, not by me anyway. And I also have
to be careful not to break a professional code and give away any of our most
modern examination techniques, particularly if flirting with a terrorism theme
for example. Also, I’m constrained by the Official Secrets Act and several
others, so I have to be careful. But despite these ‘compromises’, or perhaps
because of them, I live in the eternal hope that people will want to read what
I write.
What excites, attracts or appeals to
you about the genre(s) you write in.
Helping to catch the bad guys in
real life gives me a buzz. And it’s the same writing in the crime/thriller
genre too. But within the confines of a book I can be extrovert, I can create
characters that are extreme; caricatures that I can shove into warped
surroundings where they encounter depraved people, and see how they handle them.
Of course, the depraved people have stories of their own too, and often these
can be more fascinating than those of the protagonist.
The crime/thriller genre excites me
because it encapsulates everything about modern people and their lives, and I
love to get inside their minds as deeply as possible. Crime/thrillers are often
fast-paced and exciting in their own right, but they don’t have to be
superficial; they can delve and pose serious questions and explore motives.
On another level, who doesn’t want
to go hunting for clues? Everyone does; everyone is a would-be Sherlock.
Oh, and we get to use some really
cool pieces of kit!
Do you have a box, drawer, folder
etc where you keep thoughts and ideas for future stories? Such as names you
have come across, bits of dialogue, ideas, characters - even if you have no
idea when you might use them?
I used to have a buff folder
(everyone has one, right?) entitled Novel Ideas. It disappeared years ago. But
I’m quite lucky in that I never struggle to grab a name as I’m writing and
usually it fits quite well. In A Long Time Dead, my protagonist was called Jon
Benedict. No idea where that came from, but during a recent re-write (2011) I
binned the name in favour of Roger Conniston. The more I tried to grab the book
by the scruff of the neck and turn it into something halfway decent, the more
his name fought against me. Jon Benedict was damned boring and he had to go.
When Roger Conniston took his place, I seemed to have no problem turning the book
around – how strange is that?
Again, I’m lucky in that I seldom
struggle for characters or for dialogue. I make them up and use them while
writing rather than stock-pile them. And dialogue is easy anyway because all I
do is transcribe what they say anyway, honest gov! Nothing to do with me!
The only things I do struggle with
are story ideas. My brain is grey mush, and inside are various rooms. In one of
the rooms is a chest full of ideas – and they are superb ideas! Trouble is,
I’ll be buggered if I can find the damned room.
Once I do happen across a story
though, I’m usually off like a shot with it and seem to have no trouble
blending in subplots…
How do you manage plot bunnies
(ideas that invade your mind that aren’t usually helpful to the story you’re writing
but breed like...er...bunnies)?
…that add relevance to the main
plot. If I create a character for a certain scene, I often wonder if I can use
that character for something else, particularly if he’s a deep character,
well-rounded or has an interesting story of his own – or maybe he did something
or said something I wasn’t expecting that I could use in a positive way. Waste
not want not, as my old fella used to say.
I usually know where a story is
going from the outset (hence the problem coming by ideas), and I work towards
it allowing subplots to weave their way into the main plot, but never to
overcome it, or to become a distraction from it. If I find that happening or
it’s running towards a dead end, I will delete the chapter/scene.
In The Third Rule, I invented a
burglar who also was a wonderfully talented artist. He was there to illustrate
what happened to criminals under the new justice system. But he was good. I
loved writing him, and he came fully loaded with emotions and traits and… Well,
when the time came to bin him, when the illustration was complete, I decided instead
to keep him; I had other uses for him – further illustrations with which he
would prove useful. And anyway, as I said, I liked the guy. So maybe he was a
plot bunny disguised as a character (the crafty sod!) that slipped through the
net.
How much of you is in your
characters? Which of your characters is the you that you’d most like to be? Or
be with ?
Good question. I’m pretty sure I
couldn’t write a single word about a character without some of me rubbing off
onto them. My protagonists, from Jon Benedict (the wimp), to Roger Conniston
(the jolly nice chap), to Eddie Collins (the violent idiot with a heart of
gold), are all facets of me. Sorry. Well, at least I’m honest. They are not me though, I still made them up, and
they still do things differently from how I would in their situation – it’s
fiction – but essentially, they are poor quality 3D photocopies of me and my
persona. But hot off the copier, I spray them with chemicals that come in small
plastic squeezy bottles with weird labels like Essence of Murderer, or Scent of
Suicide, or even Decanted Dumbass.
(You can find these distilled
wonders of the fiction-writers arsenal on the air freshener aisle of your local
Asda).
Do you become so wrapped up in your
writing that your spouse wonders if they're married to you or one of your
characters?
Oh my, an even better question.
While reading A Long Time Dead, my
then-wife burst into tears. Cripes, I thought, it must be bad! Jon Benedict, as he was back then, was having an
affair, and because my blood flowed in his veins (see above), she assumed I too
was having an affair. I blinked for an awfully long time when she confronted me
with this, and then I didn’t help my cause by laughing so hard I fell off the
chair.
On the one hand it was such a compliment
that my writing even fooled my wife, but on the other it meant she didn’t
really know me very well, and that I would never do a thing like that – and
then write about it!
I do tend to spend an inordinate
amount of time writing or being here thinking about writing. But I should put
that into some kind of context I suppose. I spend an inordinate amount of my spare time writing. I worked 67 hours
this week, and the first thing I did when I came home from work at midnight, or
two in the morning, was grab a coffee. The second thing I did was write.
What type of book do you like
reading? Is it the same genre as you write?
Yes. And no.
I recently finished a lovely book
about the secrets of Bletchley Park. Six months ago I read a book about how the
mind makes decisions, and a book about composite materials used in race cars,
another about matter vs anti-matter. A year ago I read Ozzy Osbourne’s bio just
after I finished Stephen Hawking’s The
Universe in a Nutshell. I recently tried to read Ash by James Herbert, and I got part way through Under the Dome by a small-time author
called Stephen King (only joking, Steve) when I was distracted by something –
must return to it soon. On my shelf I have some books that I ache to get to one
day: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke, The Runes of the Earth
by Stephen Donaldson, and Sword Song
by Bernard Cornwell (I love his historical fiction), to name just a few. Of
course I read thrillers too including Deaver, Hogan, Child…
What lengths do you go to to
convince us readers that your book has the X factor?
In the grand scheme of things, it
would be very difficult to sway a reader into opening his wallet or purse to
buy my humble books. If you have a large publishing house behind you, it may be
considerably easier. The only way I can get noticed is by word of mouth. But
look on the positive side: it means that most of the books I’ve been lucky
enough to sell have been recommended to the buyer – and that’s a compliment if
ever there was one.
How do you feel when a reader points
out the spelling mistake(s) you have made?
Ah well, yes! I’m thoroughly
embarrassed to begin with. And then after a short while I’m very grateful that
someone has taken the time to get in touch and let me know about any errors.
I’ve recently completed a full read-through of the entire Dead trilogy because
of one such review on Amazon that said some very complimentary things but
finished off by saying it was a shame about the errors. Oops.
I don’t like the thought of people
being pulled out of the story because their eye has settled on a typo, so if I
can get rid of that distraction then everyone’s a winner.
What do you like most about visiting
KUF/forums?
The friendliness. I have met some
wonderful people on the forums that have become very close friends. They’re a
great place for offering and receiving encouragement, for swapping tips and
tricks, and I can safely say life would be quite a bit emptier if it were not
for the forums.
What is on your near horizon?
I have recently begun writing a new
novel. The working title is Angel and
it’s about…
Where can we find you for more
information?
I’m on Twitter too @AndrewbarrettUK
You can also visit my Author Page on
Goodreads:
And I have just begun an Author Page
on KUF:
Oh, and obviously there’s an Author
Page on Amazon too:
I even have a Facebook page, but
I’ve absolutely no idea how to operate it.
