How did you start writing? And why did you choose Science Fiction, fantastique and Fantasy?
I’ve been writing since I was a kid, probably from the age of six or
seven. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write stories. I
used to buy school exercise books and filled them with stories and
illustrations. I don’t think I ever made a decision to be a science
fiction/fantasy writer – most of my stories have that kind of feel, I
suppose, but I’ve never wanted to limit myself to one genre. What I do
love about sf/fantasy is that you can make new rules, and the audience
are very open-minded. They are always ready to accept different kinds of
strangeness, as long as they don’t feel you’re trying to cheat them
with lazy writing or easy solutions. I like to have weird elements in my
stories.
Who were the authors who made you want to read and write Fantasy?
Where do I start? When you read as a young child, most stories have an
element of fantasy to them. I write young children’s books now, so that
obviously stuck with me. My favourite sf/fantasy authors when I was
young would include Tolkien, CS Lewis and Jules Verne, comics writers
like Alan Moore, Pat Mills and Frank Miller and then later I found
people like Iain M. Banks, Neal Stephenson and Terry Pratchett. I also
loved Stephen King’s horrors, Louis L’Amour’s Westerns, and Craig
Thomas’s Cold War thrillers, But I watched loads of films too, and they
would have had a big influence on my writing too.
Tell us about ‘Ancient Appetites’ – How did this story take shape?
It was originally going to be a complete fantasy setting, much weirder
in a way, but as the ideas started to take shape, I decided to ground it
in an historical setting. There were two basic concepts: The first was
the family’s ruthless way of life contrasted with the delicate manners
and dialogue of the Victorian Age. The second was the supernatural
element; their enhanced health and its connection with the engimals –
the living machines that roamed the world like wild animals and had to
be tamed to be used. I like historical fiction, and the Victorian period
is a fascinating, dramatic time, particularly in Ireland. Nobody had
set a fantasy story in that period in Ireland, so I thought it would be
something new that would engage readers – and I figured the bizarre
nature of the characters would help close the deal.
How would you describe ‘Ancient Appetites’, in a few words?
A fantasy, historical novel featuring a ruthless and massively wealthy
family who consider assassination of one’s own relatives an acceptable
means of achieving one’s ambitions. But there are those in the family
who try to resist this violent way of life. ‘Ancient Appetites’ tells
their story. And just to add to the mystery of this family’s origins,
there are living machines whose creation is a mystery and whose
connection with the family’s supernatural health is only beginning to be
explored.
In the novel, the ‘mechanical monsters’ are very surprising. Where did that idea come from?
I think it’s very common for people to think of machines as disobedient
animals. We shout at our computers, hit our televisions, wrestle with
our vacuum cleaners and our lawn-mowers, argue with our cars. Having
machines that made all this conflict more real seemed a natural thing to
do, and gave the stories a nicely surreal flavour, and one that lends
itself to the strange science that becomes more important as the trilogy
progresses.
Tell us about Nate, how do you see him?
Nate is an adventurer, but an immature one. He hates his family – with a
few exceptions – and tries to escape responsibility and duty whenever
he can. He is physically brave, almost reckless, but has less emotional
courage. He has little patience for academic pursuits or business, but
is fascinated by zoology in general and engimals in particular.
How was the idea of the Wildenstern family born? Their rules are terrifying . . .
This, to me, is capitalism taken to the absolute limit. I’m not
anti-capitalist, but I think everything we do needs to be conducted
within some kind of ethical code. With the Wildensterns, I thought: How
would you run a family whose overwhelming drive is greed? How would you
encourage greed, ruthlessness, ambition and cunning in a family? That’s
where the Rules of Ascension came from – where this powerful family will
cover up murder if it’s committed according to their bizarre
traditions. And I loved the contrast of these natural born killers who
had to have good Victorian manners and a respectable image.
You released ‘The Vile Desire to Scream’ on your website. The
readers can download it for free. Why did you put it on the internet ?
And what do you think about ebooks?
The Vile Desire to Scream is set in between Ancient Appetites and The Wisdom of Dead Men,
though you don’t have to have read either to read the story. I released
it as a promotional tool for the trilogy, as a means of spreading the
word, but also to help bridge the long wait between the second and third
books. I’m very interested in where the book world is going, but I see
ebooks as just one of many different types of media that are emerging.
Just as with films and music, I don’t think there will be one way of
consuming written stories anymore. I don’t think printed books are going
anywhere just yet, but from now on, they will be just one of a range of
ways you can enjoy a story. I think the lines between text, online
media, films and virtual reality are all beginning to blur, and I find
it fascinating how that will affect how we read, tell and write stories.
What Can You Tell French Readers About The Second Book: ‘The Wisdom Of Dead Men’?
This is a sequel, but quite a different kind of story. You don’t have to have read Ancient Appetites,
but it would help. In the story, most of the main characters from the
first book are either working to reform the family, or take it over, or
both. There is a secret society carrying out miraculous operations on
the richest people in society, a manipulative assassin within the family
itself, and women dying of spontaneous human combustion in Dublin and
the surrounding lands. We learn more about the engimals, and the
family’s past, and their own unnatural abilities. I hope readers will
find it fun, thought-provoking and a little bit chilling.
Tell us about your other projects. What are the Mad Grandad and The Forbidden Files series about?
These are books for younger readers, and they’re basically what I would
have enjoyed reading when I was young, particularly stories like Roald
Dahl’s books, or the Professor Branestawm books. The Mad Grandad tales
are weird action adventures, illustrated on every page, where Lenny and
Grandad make some strange discovery in every story. The Forbidden Files
are a bit longer; comedy horrors with illustrations every second or
third page.
In your website, you say that you often do talks for children. Is it important to talk with your readers?
I don’t know what it’s like in France, but in Ireland there is a great
culture of children’s writers visiting schools and libraries. With so
little marketing done for books, doing sessions for kids is a vital part
of the promotion of an author. I work in both primary and secondary
schools, doing one-off sessions or longer workshops and residencies. I
think it is very important to get out and meet your readers, but that is
more for the contact itself, rather than a requirement for the writing
process.
Is there some ‘message’ in Ancient Appetites?
Not really. I’m not sure I’m qualified to be delivering moral or
philosophical messages, but writing represents an ongoing thought
process, and my writing is often prompted by the questions that pop into
my head. I do think any good story should challenge the reader and make
them ask questions about the world around them.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on Merciless Reason, the third book in
the Wildenstern Saga, as well as a new contemporary crime novel and a
novel for slightly younger readers set in a paranoid near-future
surveillance state. I also have a number of projects in the works for
young readers, including my third and fourth Armouron books – a sci-fi
series I was commissioned to help conceive and write in conjunction with
a toy range. I read a lot of that kind of thing when I was young, so it
was interesting to get involved with that project.
Thank you.
You’re very welcome.