Questions and Answers: Scroll down for the latest!
What inspired you to write The Black Tattoo?
How do you write - desk, computer, hand written etc?
Have you always wanted to write?
Could you outline your bookselling career for me please?
Where do you live?
Did you go to university? If so where and what did you study?
How old are you?
Are you working on anything else at the moment?
Have you written any other books?
Are you going to write a sequel to The Black Tattoo?
How do I get into the 'LOCKED' area??
What words of encouragement do you have to offer the young aspiring author crowd?
After Jack was brought back to life, what "improvements" did God make?
Where do you get your inspiration from?
How did Jessica come to know the Sons of the Scorpion Flail?
What were some of your favourite books when you were a child or teenager?
How does THE BLACK TATTOO relate to you?
Is THE BLACK TATTOO going to be a movie?
What happens to... [insert your favourite Black Tat character here!] ...afterwards? Or: If you aren't going to write a sequel, what's the deal with that ending??
What will your next book be called, and when is it coming out?
Why did you break THE BLACK TATTOO up into smaller books like that? Is your next one going to be done in the same format?
Is there a specific reason you made "Godfrey" the way you did? Why is "God" the librarian in hell? If he is in hell is there no heaven in your books?
How did you know you wanted to be a writer? I am always coming up with ideas, in fact I'm writing a little myself, but I am wondering how you knew you'd be any good at it?
Did you ever worry about not being able to bring all your ideas together?
How do you say 'The Scourge'?
I know someone called Jack Farrell with blonde, fluffy hair. Do you know him or did you just take the name from your brother and make up the last name?
When you were at school, were people mean to you because you liked reading?
I'm just curious (not racist, I'm black) but is Esme black?
I really want to share [my] stories with the world, but I make so little progress with them I just don't know if they'll ever get finished. Could you give me any tips to avoid writers' procrastination?
How did Jack kill Lord Slint? I know he stabbed it, but it doesn't make any sense. How did he even get his knife back? He didn't have it when he got there. Was it tipped with extreme poison from the blood of that spider he stabbed? Or what?
What inspired your view of Hell? It's so vivid and crazy, I love it!
Does the Scourge's name Khentimentu have roots in Egyptian Pharonic mythology?
I was thinking about designing my first video game based on the The Black Tattoo: is that ok with you?
After finishing The Black Tattoo and studying Hinduism, I wondered if the Dragon, the Brotherhood and the Scourge had any links with the three Hindu gods Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva?
What kind of research do u do when u are writing ur books?
Why did it take you five years to write The Black Tattoo? And how is it fun?!
How do you figure out names or looks for monsters?
Totally you need to write more books just like The Black Tattoo! Why won't you??
How exactly did Nick get possessed by the Scourge? What were those burns on his hands?
Why do the Sons never reveal their names? And what are the Sons of the Scorpion Flail exactly? I mean, why is Number One never really known, and how did Number Two get to be ‘Number Two’ in command?
What exactly inspired you to create The Dragon? He’s a favorite character of mine, and I was just wondering how he came into being.
What inspired you to write The Black Tattoo?
Some years ago I happened to look up at the television, and saw a lady model's face and body being slowly covered by thick black Maori-style tattoos. The tattoos were appearing by themselves: trickling and spearing under her skin like they were devouring her, while she just stood there posing, oblivious. What I was watching was an advertisement, but I thought it was one of the most sinister things I'd ever seen and my nasty brain started ticking over pretty much right away! After that it was more straightforward. Sick of trying to second-guess what publishers would like (and getting nothing out of it but a big stack of rejections!), I set out to write a book that I would like - that had everything in it that I'd want from a book. In my case, that meant monsters, demonic possession, flying kung fu, vomiting bats, swordfights and - oh yeah - more monsters! I tell you: it's a lot easier to keep yourself going through the tough bits of being a novelist if you enjoy what you write.
How do you write - desk, computer, hand written etc?
Computer - definitely. Appalled by my handwriting, my teachers begged me to learn to type at an early age. Having to see it myself on a daily basis, I'm inclined to agree with them.
Have you always wanted to write?
No! Plan A was to be a guitarist. My original intention was to be like Jimi Hendrix, and die young and pretty having made a smoking indelible mark on musical history. There was, I realized, just one problem: I didn't have the talent for it! I've had to slug away at this writing caper ever since. Ho, hum!
Could you outline your bookselling career for me please?
I loved bookselling. There are few things as satisfying as recommending a book to someone knowing they're going to enjoy it, and then having them come back and say so. However, it's hard work and the hours are long. Things came to a head after the first year full-time, in the entire course of which I'd only managed to write one short story: in my two weeks' summer holiday that year, I wrote three. I knew then that if I was going to pursue writing seriously, I'd have to go part-time. For the following nine years that's exactly what I did, working evenings and weekends at the shop, writing during the day - and living largely off a diet of instant noodles and parsnips. [My last evening shift ever was on September 23rd 2005. Hopefully!]
Where do you live?
I live in a converted attic in North London. I'm delighted to report that I recently spent some of my advance from The Black Tattoo on getting a new set of windows installed that actually close properly. I now no longer have to type in gloves during winter months. Hurrah!
Did you go to university? If so where and what did you study?
I studied English Literature at the University of Manchester. The three subjects I enjoyed most in my degree were Old Icelandic (the stories are terrific!); Creative Writing (the tutors were novelist and biographer Richard Francis, and the poetry editor and head of Carcanet Press Michael Schmidt) - and The Graphic Novel, comics in other words. Couldn't believe it when I got away with that one: I've loved comics ever since!
How old are you?
I'm going to be 32 in August '06. So that Jimi Hendrix idea is now well and truly out the window. Sigh!
Are you working on anything else at the moment?
Though written for the same audience and age-group as The Black Tattoo (I'm a children's author - that's what I do) my current project is an entirely new story with a completely new set of characters. If you've read this far I don't think it'll come as a great surprise if I say monsters are involved(!) but I'm very, very, very excited about it, and I don't want to let the Tyrannosaur out of the bag too soon. Oops!
Have you written any other books?
Yes: The Black Tattoo is actually my fourth book. However, the fact is that the first three are so incredibly and embarrassingly bad that nobody else - apart from those who've already read them (and, if they were a publisher or agent, rejected them!) - is ever going to get the chance to see them. In fact, even though each one of those books took at least a year to write, I'm giving serious thought to taking the manuscripts out to the nearest crossroads and burying them with a stake through their hearts! The unfortunate truth is, novel-writing is something you have to learn on the job - by doing it. It might be quicker for you, or for other people, but it took me over ten years to reach the point I'm at now. And even though I'm fiercely proud of
Are you going to write a sequel to The Black Tattoo?
A couple of you have already been very kind and complimentary in the way you've asked this question (thank you! I'm touched!) But I'm afraid the straight answer is no. This is for three main reasons. First up, Black Tat was originally intended as a three-book series: early in the editing stages it became clear that the story would work much better as a single book, but by that point the overall plot was already in place - and I like to think I pushed things about as far as I could. It's hard to top saving the entire universe, after all! Second, while there are some well-known and wonderful examples to the contrary, I tend to find most sequels a bit... disappointing. This is especially true if I loved the original: some sequels (if they're really bad!) even colour and infect your fondness for that, and I'd rather avoid the chance of anyone ever feeling that way about Black Tat if I possibly can. Finally, my 'sinister masterplan' as a writer is to create a whole slew of thrilling books that - while they're for the same target audience - are essentially all different. I've got a stack of ideas festering, bubbling and mutating in my brain, and I can't wait to get started on each one of them. HEE HEE HEE! Hopefully, if I get the chance to build a name for myself at what I do, then you'll eventually be as excited about what else I'm planning as I am. Still, it's hard not to wonder what'll happen to Black Tat's characters in their future. Especially Esme. Hmmm....!
How do I get into the 'LOCKED' area??
Aha! For that, you're going to need the special password that I hid in the UK and US editions of the book - BWAH-HA! BWAH-HA-HA-HA! Ahem: sorry. This password unlocks some exclusive extra scenes from Black Tat, up here on the site as a little something for people who've read the book. All the way to the end. ;)
What words of encouragement do you have to offer the young aspiring author crowd?
If I can do it, then that proves it can be done. It has taken me more than ten years - and one hundred and thirty-four rejection letters from publishers and agents! - to get this far, but I got here in the end (wherever here turns out to be) and that surely shows you can, too. A word about rejection letters while we're on the subject: I read in an interview once with Iain Banks (one of my favourite authors) that you're not, apparently, a serious writer until you've had at least a hundred of them. Whether that's actually correct or not I have no idea. But five or six years ago when I got to my 100th rejection, I had a big "TRIPLE FIGURES YAY!" dinner party to celebrate. Hee hee hee!
If you love what you're doing, if you're disciplined and regular about your writing and you can handle the knockbacks, sacrifices - and instant noodles - along the way, then who knows? Anything could happen. The only certainty I can offer you is that it won't if you give up. It's up to you.
After Jack was brought back to life, what "improvements" did God make?
Okay: there are two sides to the answer to this question. There's the 'story' version - the reason from inside the world of the book. There's also the 'nuts and bolts' version - the reason to do with the process of how I put Black Tat together. I couldn't truthfully put down one without the other, so here we go. 'Nuts and bolts', first.
As I think I've already mentioned, I originally meant Black Tat to be a three-book series. For various reasons – including the fact that it's a much better story this way! – my editors and I decided quite early on to turn it into a single volume. Now: as I'm sure you noticed(!) the book still ended up being pretty long. But believe me, that's nothing like as long as it was in first draft. To get to the finished book, the one you've read, I had to cut the original first draft by more than half. Yep: that's right! Black Tat was originally over twice as long. A huge amount of stuff had to be cut in the editing stages. A lot of ideas that I'd worked pretty hard for had to be yanked out, like teeth, never to return.
Now, I'll freely admit, a lot of those ideas deserved to go. I learned an enormous amount from cutting so much, and the book is immeasurably better as a result. But this idea about Jack's "improvements..."
Well. I'm not going to tell you much, for reasons I'll come to in a moment. But the fact is, in the first draft Godfrey did make some "improvements" to Jack that were... a little more obvious than the ones he got in the final draft. These improvements weren't superpowers exactly, but...
Hee hee hee! ;) No: I'm not going to tell you - and here's why. I took them out of Black Tat. They weren't right for this particular book. But they gave me the initial idea for another story. One day, all being well, you might get to read it: it won't be the next book, which is about something else(!) but it just might be the one after – in fact, I've already written the first draft. But there: I'm jumping way into the future now, so that's all I'm going to say on that for the time being.
I could have cut Godfrey's line about 'improvements,' and you'd never have known it was there. But I kept it in, for the following reasons – the 'story' version.
As Godfrey says to Jack, he's a "very old design". If we're really going to believe God's claim that he created the Earth and everything in it – human beings included – then it's possible (even likely, considering who did the job!) that he might have decided over the millenia since that he could have done things a bit better. Look at it from God's point of view: the human digestive system, all the different kinds of food it requires – it's all very inefficient. How much better to install the same sort of stomach processes that demons have? Jack's never going to escape from Hell (or that's what Godfrey thinks). Well: why not adapt Jack to live off Chinj-gruel like the rest of the gladiators?
That right there is God's main "improvement", the consequences of which Jack – and the Chinj! – then have to cope with, right up until Jack's meeting with the Dragon. But what if (and thanks for picking this up, JAMES in BECKENHAM!!) God made other improvements to Jack, too? Made Jack subtly tougher and more resistant, so he'd be more likely to survive whatever happened to him afterwards? Such as, offering himself as a replacement blood-sacrifice for Charlie??
So there you go. One answer, two sides. I'm happy to address any other questions you have for me about Black Tat as a story, but the reason I've gone on at such length with this one is that it's a good example of another aspect of what it's like being a writer. It's not exactly that 'nuts and bolts' issues like length (or deadlines!) get in the way of 'story' issues - or it hasn't been that way for me so far, at least! Ideally, the two sides feed off each other. Imposed limitations can be a spur to creativity: they can often make you come up with things you don't expect. But you've got to be able to deal with both. You've got to be able to step out of the story's world, to take decisions about what would make a better book.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Hmmm: depends what you mean by 'inspiration'.
If you're talking about ideas for stories, then I have to say, I'm not really the kind of writer who sits around waiting for those to come by themselves. It'd be great if a story suddenly arrived in my brain like a blinding flash, with everything worked out for me: seriously, that'd be terrific! Unfortunately, however, that just doesn't seem to happen to me (or, I reckon, to most writers).
Writing is a job. In a lot of ways it's just like other jobs, in that you have to put in the hours.
And the meat and potatoes of it – the day-to-day ideas, from dialogue and description to characters and themes – tend only to come if you put your head down and work for them.
Black Tat started out, essentially, as a list. I knew the kind of book I wanted to write, and I set about thinking up a whole pile of elements that I thought would be fun and interesting: demonic possession, flying kung fu and Hell were among the early choices - the vomiting bats came later! ;)
From there, I started putting these elements together, extending things, combining things, building it all up until, eventually, I had the bones of the story. In his wonderful book On Writing, Stephen King calls this the 'What if…?' stage. You've had some ideas? Great! Now it's time to try out some experiments on them. In Black Tat's case, one of the 'What if…?'s was, 'What if being possessed by a demon gave you powers?' From there it's a short hop to: 'What if you knew you were being possessed, but those powers were so good you didn't want to give them up?' How could that situation come about? What sort of person would get into the worst kind of trouble if that happened? What sort of trouble? -And off I went.
Ideas, inspiration – they're great, of course. But to muster enough ideas to make a book – especially a fast, thrilling book like the ones I want to write – you have to set your initial ideas to work, put them together, to make more ideas. Some of these ideas will be dreadful: no big deal, try not to beat yourself up, they might lead on to better ones. Some of these ideas will be all right, but need more thought, more work. And so on.
The key part, for me, is sticking to the central idea of, basically, what would be fun? Like the masterful thriller author Lee Child says, 'Write the exact book that you yourself would be thrilled to read.' If you love your original elements, love your story, then that'll help get you through the tough bits. But the sad fact is, to make something you can be proud of, you're going to have to work for it. (Sorry!)
HOWEVER: if you're talking about 'inspiration' in the sense of what makes me want to write books (plural) in the first place, then that's a different thing. For me right now the answer (mostly!) is… OTHER COOL STORIES! I love stories. I'll do pretty much anything to find stories that touch me, that obsess me, that give me a thrill. I'll read or watch or see or play things, and they'll make me go 'Wow! I'd love to have written something like that!' or 'That was okay, but how much better would it have been if…?' The world is full of inspiration. Bookwise, you'll find a bunch of what's inspired me on my LibraryThing page -Help yourself! ;) But keep your own eyes and ears open wide as you can. Because the short answer is, it's all around us.
How did Jessica come to know the Sons of the Scorpion Flail?
Aha! This is a fun question, because it brings to mind the idea of BACKSTORY. As you've probably noticed if you've read Black Tat, I like to leave one or two plot questions unanswered once in a while. This is deliberate: I think that – while you obviously don't want to leave a reader feeling frustrated – if you can manage to leave the occasional gap here and there in the backstory it can actually make you feel more involved in a book. As a reader, I like to be allowed the space sometimes to imagine my own answers, my own versions of how things happened - to me, that's lots of fun. In fact it's another reason I don't like sequels: they tend to over-explain all the little nuances in a story's world, and I always think that's a bit of a shame.
So: I'm not going to tell you (for instance) how Nick first selected Jessica, Belinda, Felix and Raymond for the Brotherhood – though I will say I have my own theories about it!
I'm not going to tell you, either, how the fight panned out with Felix when he was possessed, that first night the Scourge tried to open the Fracture - the night Belinda died. Though in fact I actually wrote that whole scene, I decided to take it out of the story, opting instead to leave it to the reader's imagination [but Belinda's two-handed wakizashi style was something to see! Hee hee hee!]
As to Jessica meeting the Sons... Well, I'll say this: at the start of the story she's been away a long time. She's had more than a few years to discover the truth about Nick and then work out where to go for help. Jessica is a powerful, resourceful woman. And I don't think the Sons are quite as good at keeping their organization a secret as they might make out – do you? ;)
What were some of your favourite books when you were a child or teenager?
Wow, this is actually quite a tough one to answer. I'm currently thirty-two years old: it's hard not to be worried about looking like an old geezer in front of anyone younger who's reading this! Still, it's a fair question so I'll do my best.
The obvious one first. My father read me The Lord of the Rings as a bed-time story. It took him three years, from when I was 9 to when I was 12, and that had a huge effect on me – not just because of the book, but because of the time and because of who was reading it. As you'd only expect with our family name, Dad's ENT voice was particularly good. ;)
As far as stuff I read for myself is concerned, though…
Actually, one of the main reasons I write the kind of stories I do is that I remember being tremendously frustrated a lot of the time, trying to find things I liked. Like someone with a craving for something, or an itch he can't scratch, I searched libraries and bookshops looking for the kind of fantastical action 'hit' I wanted, and often I just wasn't quite able to get it. Of course, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because it got me into reading a lot of other stuff on the way. I spent a lot of happy time reading old school classic crime and thrillers, by authors like H Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Buchan, Sapper, Agatha Christie and the awesome M R James. Some of these were a little tough to get into to begin with, but that was what I could find in the library, and those authors all taught me good things. On a science fiction or fantasy tip it was even harder to find the flavour I wanted though, especially in what was being published for young people back then. But two names still stand out.
John Christopher and his Tripods Trilogy - The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire (there's also a prequel, but it's not quite as good IMHO, so start with The White Mountains) Those are terrific. And…
Douglas Hill. He was writing some WONDERFUL stuff – fast, thrilling, full of fights and SF action. I used to buy his new books on sight and just eat them up with a spoon. Unfortunately a lot of his work seems to be out of print now, but if you manage to lay your hands on the Galactic Warlord series then I'd still heartily recommend them. Mr Hill is an enormous influence on me: f'rinstance, the Akachash in Black Tat is directly inspired by the opening battle scene of Planet of the Warlord, which just about tore my head off I was so excited when I read it when I was eleven. That's one reason why I gave him a big name-check in Black Tat's acknowledgments section. If by any chance you happen to see this, Mr Hill, here's to you! ;)
I want to emphasise, just because I had trouble finding what I wanted, that doesn't mean it wasn't out there – it just took me a few years longer to get to it! Better yet, I'm delighted to say that the situation about thrilling stories being published NOW has come on just enormously. Either way, there's a wealth of wonderful books around: check out my LibraryThing page for recommendations. But those above are some of the books I remember most fondly from my past.
How does THE BLACK TATTOO relate to you?
Is this question about how much of Black Tat corresponds to events and feelings from my own life? That's what I'll take it to mean, because it's an interesting idea.
In a sense, all writers write stuff that's related to them: that's where this phrase 'write what you know' comes from. You take your own experiences, and stretch them into a story – and if it's a fantastical story, like the ones I write, you get to stretch them pretty far!
For myself, my stories so far have tended to be very plot-based. As I've mentioned: when I'm planning a book I usually seem to start with this question of 'What would be fun to write?' Or, 'What elements would go well together and make a thrilling story?' The emotional side tends to come later, when I'm thinking about the characters. However…
When my parents broke up, my feelings affected me very strongly. And they did so in a way that (much later) when I was thinking about them, it occurred to me doesn't actually get shown very often in books for young readers, particularly in fantasy books: I was angry. I was full of rage and pain and hurt. Later, much later, when I'd had plenty of time to separate myself from those feelings and look at them analytically (authors are like emotional vampires sometimes, I think!) it seemed that those emotions would be a very powerful springboard for a fantastical story. Awesome universe-threatening powers being handed to someone who feels that way? Suddenly you've got a very dangerous situation – but one that's got this core of emotional truth behind it that makes the fantasy element believable.
I had to think very hard before I included something that had happened in my life in Black Tat. I had to talk it through with my parents (both of whom I get on with fine now, by the way). I also had to make sure the situation was thoroughly altered and fictionalized – not just to protect myself and my family, but also because I wanted to be able to step back and make sure I was writing a good story, that this thing fitted into the framework properly and wasn't self-indulgent. But all the time I knew it was going to be worthwhile. The fact that I took those feelings and changed them into a story – especially a thrilling one full of swordfights and monsters, by the way! – is one of the things I'm most proud of about Black Tat. Does that answer some of your question? Hope so! ;)
Is THE BLACK TATTOO going to be a movie?
Here's the thing: I wrote Black Tat to be as spectacular as possible. I wanted to write a story you could picture clearly in your mind, then fill it with all the thrills I could cram in – in this case monsters, swordfights, monsters, flying kung fu, Hell, and (yes) more monsters. However, as one film producer has explained to me(-!) that approach has just one big drawback. Right now it would not be possible to make a decent live action film of Black Tat for much less than a hundred and fifty million US dollars. That's obviously a Hell of a lot of money for someone to risk.
Who knows? As I'm delighted to see from the number of times this question has been asked, it sounds like if Black Tat ever did get made into a film, quite a few of you would be interested in seeing it! But you know what? If it doesn't, it's not a problem for me. One of the great things about writing novels is that the special effects budget is infinite. And I love writing stories that might be too expensive to film – HEE HEE HEE!
What happens to... [insert your favourite Black Tat character here!] ...afterwards? Or: If you aren't going to write a sequel, what's the deal with that ending??
Over the last few months several people in the Guestbook have been asking about what happens after the story of Black Tat – especially (hee hee hee!) to Jack and Esme!
I've got to say, the idea that people out there care about Black Tat's characters enough to wonder what's going to become of them makes me very, very happy, and those questions do deserve some kind of an answer. However: I obviously don't want to drop spoilers here for people who haven't read the book yet. More importantly, I also wouldn't want to put limits on what you, the reader, can imagine might happen. I like it, personally, when stories leave me a bit of space to put my own interpretation on things. I don't want to take away any pleasure Black Tat might otherwise give you in that direction (another reason not to write a sequel, btw). So, I've decided: for now I'm not going to give you any specifics on what I think happens to who. I'm only going to answer this in a general way - and I'm sorry if it's infuriating! ;)
Black Tat doesn't end the way it does because I wanted to leave things open for a sequel. It ends the way it does because I like open endings. I like the idea that the lives of characters might carry on beyond the limits of what's described in a book. Of course it's important to tie up the major loose ends: the reader shouldn't be left feeling unsatisfied. But imposing too much closure - resolving everything and everyone - seems every bit as dishonest and cheesy a writing trick, to me, as the old "...and they all lived happily ever after" routine.
I don't believe that a person's life is defined by one set of actions, or one set of events they've been involved in. It's true that people become famous for one thing or another, and writers pick and choose their focus to suit the tale they're telling. But both of these examples are artificial, and don't describe the whole: as the cliché says, "life goes on".
In my stories (right now at least) life always has potential for excitement and danger and weirdness: endings are temporary and the possibilities are unlimited. And in that sense, I hope, for 'fantastical action thrillers' they're actually... pretty realistic!
What will your next book be called, and when is it coming out?
TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH will be published in early 2008. As I'm writing this the WebSphinx is constructing a special TIM website where we aim to have the first chapter of the book so you can get an early taste: that should be going up towards the end of this year (2007). My publishers, too, are putting together all sorts of awesome plans: keep checking the News page for details. TIM is a giant monster story. I've been gleefully trashing all sorts of famous London landmarks for about a year and a half now. MWAH-HA! MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA! Er, excuse me. ;)
Why did you break THE BLACK TATTOO up into smaller books like that? Is your next one going to be done in the same format?
The smaller books thing is because Black Tat was originally written as three smaller books: it's really as simple as that. At my very first meeting with the people who were going to become my UK publishers (a while back, well over a year before my US ones were even involved) the idea came up to combine the three books into one, and I agreed straight away. It was partly because at that point everything in fantasy seemed to be in trilogies. More importantly, with the way Black Tat turned out, there would otherwise have been too much of a jump in tone between London-based Book 1, and Hell-based (yay!) Book 2. Imagine a year's gap in publishing time between the two: the two books are too different, readers would never have gone for it! But even though I agreed, even though I ended up combining them, I kept the three-part structure – to preserve a little of that 'epic' feeling, and because that was where the story's roots were.
Black Tat took me more than five years to write. Between first putting the ideas together through to finishing the thing I learned the most enormous amount about writing – not least about the planning stages. It's been very satisfying to take what I've learned and do my best to push it a bit further. With my next book, Tim I had a much better grip at the start on what sort of book the story was going to turn out to be – so no, no smaller books this time. But as I hope you'll agree if you read it, I think that's just one of the things I've got better at - HEE HEE HEE!
The best way to learn about writing, it seems to me, is by doing it. It's taken me ten years so far, but I'm just starting out really. I hope to learn and grow and get better at this for many, many years to come.
Is there a specific reason you made "Godfrey" the way you did? Why is "God" the librarian in hell? If he is in hell is there no heaven in your books?
These sorts of questions are to do with how you, as a reader, interpret the book – so I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not going to answer you!
I think interpretations of stories are a very personal matter. I don't think it would be right for me to limit or crush the way you see the story – especially not with some extra (and supposedly 'definitive') pronouncement from me. This comes from my own experience of reading interviews or biographies of the people behind things I like: sometimes I've felt disappointed - like 'Oh, what? That's what they meant it to mean?' So I've been making it my policy to dodge these sorts of questions whenever I can. ;)
I will say that I portrayed God that way to make people speculate. What if God got bored with his creation? It would certainly explain a few things. More important (and this goes for heaven never getting mentioned except with a small 'h', too) if the universe really is the way it's laid out in Black Tat... how would we know? How do we really know anything about any of it? And compared to everyday life – particularly other people, the ones really there in the world with you – how much does it matter, anyway?
I like chucking these sorts of thoughts into a story about monsters hitting each other, puking bats and whatnot. HEE HEE HEE!
How did you know you wanted to be a writer? I am always coming up with ideas, in fact I'm writing a little myself, but I am wondering how you knew you'd be any good at it?
You NEVER know if you're going to be any good at it! And yes, if you're thinking about pursuing writing seriously, then I'm sure you know what that implies. Nearly ten years back I got the chance to ask one of my favourite writers, Alan Moore, a similar sort of question: how did he feel, when he was starting out, before he'd written anything he was pleased with? Mr Moore gave me a huge grin and said, 'Bloody terrified!'
There are no guarantees. All you can have, going into something like this, is a determination to give it your best wallop. My relatives all thought I was mental (Hah! They were right! ;p) I've eaten a lot of noodles over the last ten years, and collected a lot of rejection letters too (I had a party when I got to 100: the final total [including a bunch for Black Tat] was 134!) But now I'm published. And if I can do it, then that proves it: if you want to do it, IT CAN BE DONE.
One thing that can get you through the tough bits – finding the energy to write after a day job, for instance – is if you love and believe in what you're writing. In fact I'd say that's essential. The point where things started happening for me (after three or four failed novels, so check this out and save yourself some time-!) was when I stopped thinking about what ought to go in a book, and started to think about what I would love to find in a book. What would make your ultimate book? What sort of story would it be? What are the elements? How would they go together? Once I started thinking like that, things got a lot easier.
There was this one evening. I had a hole in my roof: there was a dripping leak in the ceiling of my bedroom, and I didn't have the money to fix it. I was tired from work, hungry too, and I opened the door to my fridge and there was nothing inside it but parsnips! (They'd been selling them off cheap down the supermarket).
I found myself smiling. Then I started laughing. And then I knew I was the happiest I'd ever been in my life up until that point, because you see, lousy as things were, I had a secret. I was working on the 'Akachash' chapters of Black Tat. And I tell you, as far as I'm concerned, writing a seven-way gladiatorial monster fight to the death is some of the most fun you can possibly have at a desk. HEE HEE HEE HEE!
Did you ever worry about not being able to bring all your ideas together?
There's always something to worry about. In fact, I'd say that a big part of what this whole writing caper is about is the constant battle to stop the worrying from getting in the way of actually doing any writing! Sure, I worry. Like everyone, I worry about all sorts of things. But letting the worry stack up, indulging in it when you're supposed to be getting on with the job, can paralyse you.
Nowadays, when I'm sat at the desk, I tend to look at worrying as simply my brain's attempts to generate excuses for not doing any work (hee hee hee!) After all, writing is not easy. It's much simpler to sit there worrying, or talking about writing, than it is to get on with it – or it can feel that way.
Sometimes (here's a tip!) I throw the worrying part of my brain a bone to distract it. When I'm writing I always keep a document open under whatever I'm working on: that's where I put things that are clamouring and rattling around my head (shopping lists, bills to pay, letters to answer, how-the-Hell-am-I-going-to-do-that-bit-in-chapter-six? Etc!) I find that sometimes if you acknowledge to yourself that you'll consider those things in due course and you haven't forgotten them – as if nodding to yourself to say 'thank you, that's duly noted' – then (a bit like a fretful baby!) the back-brain quietens down, allowing you to get on with the job. The best part is, once you're into it, once you're engaged in what you're doing, then the worries melt away, the work progresses – and maybe the next time you look at your clock you'll be surprised to find that four hours have gone past!
The only way to find out for sure if you're able to bring all your ideas together is (you guessed it) to try to bring all your ideas together. Worrying in advance is completely understandable (Hell, yes!) but it won't help. In fact, all it does is get in the way.
I'm not going to come on like Morpheus in The Matrix – 'free your mind', or whatever. Personally I'm not sure that's even possible: there's always something else to think about, somewhere your brain can wander away to. But writing takes concentration, and to proceed you have to get to that concentration by any means necessary. That can include trickery ('Brain, I'm listening to everything you're worrying about. Now shut up and let me finish this bit'); bribery ('shut up and let me finish this bit and I'll make you a cup of coffee'), even threats ('shut up and let me finish this bit or I'm going to smack our forehead into the table') Whatever it takes!
How do you say 'The Scourge'?
From events and posts in the Guestbook I've had some surprising variations ["the Scrooge" seems to be a popular one!] so I'm happy to clear this up. ;) It's pronounced "SKRRRRJ". 'Scourge' is a real word: literally it means a whip – which, incidentally, ties in with one of the shapes Ashmon takes in one of Charlie's fights with Esme. But the word is most often used metaphorically (particularly in the Old Testament of the Bible) to describe a curse or a plague – a cruel, harsh, provocative horror of some kind, especially one that seems uncontrollable or unavoidable.
I know someone called Jack Farrell with blonde, fluffy hair. Do you know him or did you just take the name from your brother and make up the last name?
Hee hee hee! :) No, no, I don't currently know anyone called Jack Farrell, let alone the person you're describing! Naming characters after real people is almost always more trouble than it's worth: it's much better, more interesting and just more fun, to make something up. That being said, I have to admit I find coming up with characters' names (or human ones anyway!) to be really hard.
There's a convention in stories that a character's name is supposed to suggest something about what they're like. Like many story conventions, if you look at it under the microscope it's actually pretty silly and unrealistic: in real life, what a person is called has absolutely no bearing on who they are as a person – not unless they've chosen (or allowed themselves) to have their name affect them in that way. But stories are different. Characters are hard for writers to describe: it's difficult to make characters seem convincing and three-dimensional, particularly in the context of a fast, thrilling story. So authors often end up using this 'name trick' - because it's quick, and because they need every opportunity to tell you about the character that they can get.
Jack's a fine example. I knew very early on in the planning of Black Tat that, while the action scenes were going to be Esme's, the real hero of the piece was going to be this other character, Charlie's best mate, the one who has no special powers or talents and just got into this whole thing by mistake. Now: it's true that my brother is called Jack! He's a splendid fellow and I'm very fond of him (and I bet he's going to be very embarrassed if he reads this!) But he also happens to have what seems to me to be one of the most heroic-sounding first names a person could possibly get. The word "Jack" has a tough, solid, dependable sound to it. It's short, and - in contrast with, say, "Ebisu Eller-Kong Hacha'Fravashi, God of Rulers, God of the Dead, God of Yadda Yadda Yadda"(!) – it's unpretentious. So: even though I knew I'd have some explaining to do to my brother ('he's not you! honest!' etc etc) I knew that 'Jack' was what this bloke was going to be called.
Then came the surname – the family name. Surnames are tough. I get tempted to extremes – either too unusual, or too ordinary – and it's hard to find a balance. In desperation (believe it or not!) I often end up picking a shortlist of surnames at random from the telephone directory. I tend to feel pretty silly while I'm doing it, you can imagine, sitting there flicking through the phone book. But at least that way, however weird the name is, you know it's a real name for somebody. In Black Tat's case, I knew Jack and Charlie had first met after being put next to each other in alphabet order at school, which helped. So: 'Farrell' (and 'Farnsworth') it was.
One last observation on this subject, if I may: watch out. It's easy to get so hung up on using a character's name to suggest something about them that you end up being too obvious. During my years of shelving books in the fiction section at the bookshop where I worked, I developed a personal dislike and suspicion (for instance) of books that have their central character's name as the title [I'm not talking about Harry Potter..., Percy Jackson... and so forth: those have subtitles that beckon you into the book. I'm talking about titles that are the name and nothing (or almost nothing) else. See if you can think of examples]. My feeling as a writer is that if the character's name actually suggests your title (the theme of the book perhaps - or [heh!] the supposed ordinariness of the heroine!) then it's doing too much, it's too manipulative, it's not ordinary or believable enough any more for its primary purpose as someone's supposedly real name. But there again, I've just signed a contract for a book (and a character) that, in a couple of books' time, is going to take that rule and break it right over my knee - so what do I know? ;p
When you were at school, were people mean to you because you liked reading?
Yes. Yes, they were. Not the teachers, of course: they, unsurprisingly, were extremely keen to get people to read (if occasionally irksomely fussy or disapproving about what I actually chose – ADULTS TAKE NOTE). No: as the person who asked me this knows – and I'm sure anyone reading this answer does, too – I'm talking about other students.
One of the worst things – possibly the worst thing – about being at school, is the pressure from the people there with you to be "normal", to conform, to be just like everyone else. Anything that makes you stick out can make you a target – and enjoying reading (probably because it's a solitary activity) is a prime example.
What I want to tell you is, you'll get through it. Those people you're stuck with now at school won't be with you forever: one day soon you'll move on, and leave them behind in your past. But a love of reading... that's something that can give you immense pleasure and enjoyment for the whole of your life. And if other people can't understand that, or have some kind of attitude about it, well: they're missing out, and you know something they don't.
I'm just curious (not racist, I'm black) but is Esme black?
Esme's mother Belinda was black. Esme's father (AHEM! Spoiler alert! Name withheld! ;p) was white.
I really want to share [my] stories with the world, but I make so little progress with them I just don't know if they'll ever get finished. Could you give me any tips to avoid writers' procrastination?
To be completely honest with you, procrastination is a huge problem for writers. It certainly is for me! Writing can be fun and satisfying, sure, but ultimately it's a job, it's work, you've got to put in the hours: that's not easy, particularly if you're not yet even getting paid for your time. The bottom line is, I'm sorry to say, that you've got to be disciplined about it. When it gets hard, you have to suck up the pain and keep going. Neil Gaiman, a writer I admire a lot, once put it like this: "How do you finish stories? You finish them. There's no magic answer, I'm afraid. This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and put one word in front of the other until it's done. It's that easy, and that hard [...] Most people can start a short story or novel. If you're a writer, you can finish them. Finish enough of them, and you may be good enough to be publishable. Good luck." However, I appreciate that's not too comforting on its own, so yes, I do have a couple of tips for you! ;)
The first is, be REGULAR about your writing. If you're at school, or you've got a day job, or you've got people you have to look after, then finding the time and the energy to write can be very tough – no question about it. What can help, I've found, is if you set aside a regular part of your life, and dedicate that exclusively and infallibly to your writing. For me, when I'm doing the first draft of a book, I have a quota – a set amount I have to produce. It's a thousand words a day. For me that's a feasible, manageable amount – something I can produce reasonably reliably. Sometimes that thousand takes me all day, and my forehead becomes pitted with little marks from smacking it against the desk. Sometimes (all too rarely lately!) I finish it quickly and knock off early. But it's a good amount. Writing novels is a long game: this way I can make progress without exhausting myself, and still have a place to start the story from the next day when I come back to it. A thousand words a day works for me. For you, particularly if your time and energy are short, it could perfectly respectably be much less. A couple of hundred, one hundred, even fifty words is a fine quota if you're making it every day. The quota doesn't even have to be measured in words: it can be time - an hour a day, one night a week (that worked for Raymond Carver!) It doesn't matter. The important thing is that whatever your framework is, you stick to it, and don't allow yourself any excuses. For that regular amount of time or that quota you are on the case, and nothing can be allowed to stand in your way. If you've chosen a realistic and achievable target, and you stick to it, you will make progress.
Second tip, LOVE YOUR STORY. I've written about that before on this page, but really, it's crucial. Finishing things is hard. There will be times when you want to give up. But if you love your story, if the idea of it is something you believe will be brilliant if you can only carry it off, then that by itself can keep you going to the finish line.
Third tip, INCENTIVES! If you set your writing targets and stick to them, reward yourself: you did the work, you earned it.
Power to your writing elbow! ;)
How did Jack kill Lord Slint? I know he stabbed it, but it doesn't make any sense. How did he even get his knife back? He didn't have it when he got there. Was it tipped with extreme poison from the blood of that spider he stabbed? Or what?
First, my usual disclaimer: this answer is only how I imagined it, and just because I wrote the book it doesn't make it any more valid than your own. Making one's own theories about how things happen in stories is one of the great pleasures of reading. I wouldn't want to take that pleasure away by squashing yours with some supposedly 'definitive' pronouncement from me - and this is a prime example. That idea about the knife being tipped with poison from Jack's encounter with Leo the Unspeakable – that's AWESOME! I would never have come up with that myself, that's made my day! Thank you! But here, for what it's worth, is my theory about how Jack killed Lord Slint.
The main thing I imagined about it, is that Lord Slint just isn't as tough as everyone thinks he is. He's got something in common with Hacha'Fravashi in that way: as you know, the Emperor's strength comes from stealing powers from other demons – that, and (perhaps even more importantly) by putting up a front, a show of bravado, ruling by reputation. Well, my theory was that his bodyguard could be the same way. In one of the early drafts of the book I referred to this explicitly. The passage was cut in the end (around the sixth draft, I think!) But I've dug it out of the files, and here it is for you...
This bit was supposed to come in the chapter called Favours, just as Lord Slint makes his appearance over the arena and the crowd do their Mexican Wave thing. You might recognize the eel-like demon (and Jagmat, obviously!) because they're still sitting next to Jack in the auditorium in the final version. Here we go:
"The only section of the audience who conspicuously did not join in and leap up when the great shark's shadow passed over them, were the un-called gladiators.
'I don't even believe those scars're real,' sneered the eel-like demon as the assembled un-called watched the shark do another celebratory lap.
'They're real all right,' croaked the eel's neighbour, a large crab-like creature. It lifted one of its great pincers and snipped the air meaningfully. 'I put some of them there myself.'
'Sure, sure,' scoffed the eel.
Instantly the crab's eye-stalks craned round, fixing the eel with a murderous look. 'You ever wondered what your insides look like, youngster?' it asked.
'Save it,' belched Jagmat. 'You've got to admit, Basto, the kid's got a point. You never see Slinty actually fight anyone, do you?'"
As I say, that passage didn't end up in the final book, so in a sense it doesn't prove or disprove anything: the reader has to put their theory together as best they can from what they've got in front of them. But if you'd like some extra evidence that I'm not just making this stuff up right now(!!) I also refer to rumours that Lord Slint's not as fierce as he looks in the Daily Hellegraph pages.
Next, the fight itself. There are true stories of swimmers who have survived shark attacks by fighting the shark off, so I don't think this is too unfeasible. It used to be said that shark's snouts are quite delicate, and though I think that's been disproved or questioned it's certainly true that their gills and – particularly – their /eyes/ are vulnerable to a quick-thinking victim. Me, I've got a nasty turn of mind (as you probably noticed!) So when I wrote that bit about the "unforgettably revolting SMUTCH" I was thinking that Slint's eye was where Jack's knife ended up for the blow that makes them drop out of the air.
As to the knife itself though... well, you've probably got a point there. It is a bit convenient that Jack has it with him, especially as it hasn't been mentioned since the fight with Leo. For what it's worth, in the first draft of Book 2 Jack's gladiator career was a little longer, and he used the knife in a couple of other fights. But in the final version it's just there again in his hand all of a sudden, and Jack's almost as surprised as you obviously were. I was kind of hoping the excitement of the surrounding scene – and readers wanting Jack to win! – would allow me to get away with it. But yeah, fair play mate! I guess you got me there. ;)
This illustrates an important point by the way, one I hope you (reading this) can take on into your own writing if you choose to pursue it. It's this: a lot of the time with writing, you learn to make the best of what you've got. Books are never perfect, and striving for perfection is a recipe for going crazy or never writing anything. Books aren't written by gods or wizards, they're written by people sitting in rooms and making things up. As a writer you do your best, try your hardest to make the best book you possibly can. But occasionally (often, even!) there will be points where you just have to cross your fingers, leap into the dark, and hope.
What inspired your view of Hell? It's so vivid and crazy, I love it!
Thank you! Once I'd decided that so much of Black Tat was going to be set in Hell, I set about gathering together all the source materials I possibly could. I started with the classic stuff like Dante's Inferno and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, as well as all sorts of different views on the subject from all over the world. Then – like everything else in my stories – I basically mixed it up with whatever I thought would be fun. I knew there were going to be lots of fights: that suggested a gladiatorial element, which naturally led me to thinking about Ancient Rome. I knew there were going to be monsters: I had a lot of fun with the demons, as you probably noticed! By the end of the story I ended up with more material than I knew what to do with. If you've found the password in the back of the book, you can unlock some deleted extra scenes, here.
I swear somewhere along the lines I've come across the name Khentimentu somewhere! Does the Scourge have roots in Egyptian Pharonic mythology?? Please reply! It's KILLING me! :S
Put your mind at ease: you're absolutely spot on. The Scourge's name is indeed (almost) the same as that of KHENTIMENTIU, “the Egyptian god who rules the destiny of the dead” [source: 'A Comprehensive Dictionary of Gods, by Anne S. Baumgartner, University Books, 1984]. Respect to your Egyptology skills! :)
If it is OK with you, I was thinking about designing my first video game based on the book The Black Tattoo. Also, video clips. I am still looking for the right characters to play the part as Charlie. Who knows, I might even get to be the Scourge!
These plans sound amazing, best of luck with 'em! The way it works with my permission for you using things from my books is very straightforward: if you want to make money out of them, then we have to do this on a business footing (involving my agent, contracts etc). But if you want to make clips or design a game as a showcase for your skills, so people can see (for free) what you can do, then go for your life. Drop me a line at the address on the Reader Art page whenever you like. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
After finishing The Black Tattoo and studying Hinduism, I wondered if the Dragon, the Brotherhood and the Scourge had any links with the three Hindu gods Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva, ie Brahma – the Dragon; Vishnu – the Brotherhood; Shiva – the Scourge. I was just wondering and thought I would point it out.
Wow. Um, to be honest with you, the short answer is 'no'. Hinduism had no direct influence on Black Tat – or none that I was conscious of, at least. While I'm familiar with some bits and pieces of Hindu mythology and theology, by the sounds of it you know more about it than me! But I'm sure I was influenced unconsciously by it – as I am in everything I write, by everything in the world around me.
Nothing that anyone writes or creates can ever be completely original. Whatever you do will be influenced by things that have been done before – including the things you've experienced or read about, the things you learned from, let alone archetypes, standard elements of a creative work such as, for stories like Black Tat, heroes and villains.
For a long time, when I was younger, that fact used to bother me. The impossibility of making something that was completely new was very frustrating. Sometimes it even seemed like if I couldn't be completely original then it just wasn't worth the bother of creating anything. But then I changed my mind.
Everyone has influences – a vast, bubbling mixture, some elements of which an individual won't even be aware of. While you can (and should, I think) add to the mixture – expand your influences, by experiencing and discovering and finding out about as much as you can – there's no subtracting from your influences or getting away from them. There's no going back.
But here's the thing: it's the mixture that makes us different – the particular combination that gives a creative work, or even a person, their own special style and flavour.
The expression of that mixture in a way that excites me – and, I hope, other people! – is what I chase after in my stories. I wish you the best of luck in chasing yours.
What kind of research do u do when u are writing ur books?
If you're talking about facts and figures, details of setting and time and place and action… it depends. I think details are important, especially in a fantasy story: they give the reader something to hang onto; they make things seem real. For instance, I got the fight scenes in Black Tat checked out by genuine martial artists. While I was writing the book, I met a lady at a party who turned out to be the ranking Number 3 North European Women's Sabre Champion! She was wonderfully sporting about reading Black Tat's swordfights for me: I got these excellent emails from her saying, 'Well, ok: if I was fighting a thirty-foot-long hedgehog centipede beast, I suppose I'd start off on the back foot, with this sort of a grip…' and off she went. I hope those kinds of details give some realistic weight and crunch to Black Tat's fights. And if a story needs other kinds of information, I'll find out everything I can.
But here's the thing: that stuff should only ever be in service to the story. The story comes first. Because no amount of detail is going to make the readers care if they're not involved in the scene, feeling for the characters, wondering what's going to happen next.
The story is the hard bit – the main thing to focus on – it seems to me.
Why did it take you five years to write The Black Tattoo? And how is it fun?!
Why did Black Tat take five years? That's how long it took to get the book written and polished into the best shape I possibly could (the polishing was what took the longest). Black Tat was a big project for me, no doubt about it. But like any big project, if you break it down into manageable chunks (small steps towards your goal), and you do them, and keep doing them, because you want it, and love it, and believe in what you're doing, then you can get there. If you approach it like that, you can achieve anything you want.
Some of writing Black Tat was definitely fun. I was excited about the story. I had to be, because most of the process of writing it was work. But I did it, I'm proud of it, and when people write in and tell me they enjoy reading the book, that makes me very, very happy.
How do you figure out names or looks for the monsters? Like the Chinj? [They're actually kinda cute in my mind lol]
Thinking up names and looks for monsters is something that I personally don't find too hard. In fact – as you've probably guessed from my stories – there's almost nothing I love better! Dreaming them up and giving them personalities is an absolute delight, for me. And once you've done that, finding names for them is a matter of picking something that best suits that particular monster.
One trick that I found worked well for several of the demons in Black Tat was to write lists of words that /sounded/ close to the sort of effect I was after. I'd then take individual syllables or letters from those words and recombine them in different ways until I had something that fit. 'Chinj,' though, came from a billboard ad I passed when I was on the bus one day! The word caught my eye, I did a double-take and realised I'd misread it, but by then the word 'chinj' was stuck in my mind – and my weird brain was already whirring into action! Monster names can come from all sorts of places. /Human/ names, however… wow, now those are /hard/. ;)
Totally you need to write more books like The Black Tattoo! i tried reading the other books but couldnt get into them the same so i think you should write another like The Black Tattoo it was so awesome.
I aim to put my whole heart into all my books. I think that's the only way to write something truly exciting. But that means (and I'm sorry if this is disappointing to you) that I won't repeat myself by writing something too like what's gone before – whether for money, or even because people ask me to. Each book I write is its own beast: each one will affect each reader differently. That's my plan; that's the only way I want to do this. And I hope you'll understand why.
Say I wrote a sequel to Black Tat: it wouldn't have my heart in it, so the chances are it wouldn't be as good. You would be disappointed. You might even start to doubt whether the original was really as good as you thought it was (crummy sequels can do that). And then your feelings towards the book, the ones you've got right now, would be ruined.
I think that would be a shame. The power that a particular book at a particular time can have over a person is one of the most amazing and brilliant things that books can do. I'm thrilled and delighted that Black Tat has touched you that way. But I know from my own reading experience that those kinds of feelings are too important to trifle with – particularly by trying to recreate them artificially.
I hope you'll keep an eye on what I write in the future – even if it's not exactly like Black Tat! But in the mean time, if you'd like some suggestions for other books I think are awesome, check my LibraryThing profile.
How exactly did Nick get possessed by the Scourge? What were those burns on his hands?
In the battle in which Belinda was killed, Nick managed to trap the Scourge in a staff – but only just: that’s how his hands got burned. The problem was, he didn’t complete the ritual by taking the Scourge back to the tree.
Why do the Sons never reveal their names? And what are the Sons of the Scorpion Flail exactly? I mean, why is Number One never really known, and how did Number Two get to be ‘Number Two’ in command?
If you join the Sons of the Scorpion Flail you have to give up your name — or rather, your number /becomes/ your name. You have no other identity beyond or outside The Sons of the Scorpion Flail. Number Two was good at being a Son. But as he progressed up the ranks, Number One noticed that his increasing power in the organisation was going to his head. When Number Two (with the agreement of the other three apparently active members of the Top Five at that time-!) was promoted to Number Two, /he/ thought he was now acting leader of the Sons. But Number One only put him there so he could keep an eye on him. As to who or what the Sons are beyond what they say to Esme when they first arrive at the theatre, I leave that to you to imagine. HEE HEE HEE!
What exactly inspired you to create The Dragon? He’s a favorite character of mine, and I was just wondering how he came into being.
I’m glad you like The Dragon – I’m fond of him too. Like pretty much all ideas I think, he came from a mixture of different places. Douglas Adams’ Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a big influence (especially the supercomputer Deep Thought!) I was also thinking about the Red King in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass (and Alan Moore’s Miracleman); Smaug in Tolkien’s The Hobbit; The Dragon, Ogdru Jahad, from Mike Mignola’s Hellboy – and the very last scene from the first Men in Black movie (the scene involving marbles!)
To make my books and stories I draw from a bubbling, reeking, belching cauldron of things I love – things that thrill me and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I think that filling a project with your own mix of stuff which does that for you will give you the best chance that other people might enjoy the results too (and I’m always searching for more pungent and tasty ingredients, HEE HEE HEE!) If you’d like to find out more about my work hit the links at the bottom of this page or check my homepage: www.samenthoven.com
