I was invited by the talented and prolific SJA (Simon) Turney to take part in a writing process blog tour. Simon is a good friend and inspirational writer of several series of Historical Fiction and Fantasy novels, his most famous being 'Marius Mules' and its subsequent sequels. You can find out more about Simon and his work on his own blog http://sjat.wordpress.com
The tour requires that I answer several questions. I'll try and answer them as honestly as possible.
1. What am I working on?
Well, that's easy. After completing 'Entwined - Tales from the City', I took a 12 month break, wrote a number of short stories and tried to improve my writing skill before embarking upon... *trumpet fanfair*,.. the eagerly anticipated, (by me anyway), 'Entwined - Tales from the Village'. For those of you who are familiar with the first book, Detective John Pearce, makes another appearance. This time he is investigating the disappearance of two girls from the sleepy village of 'Druid's Haven'. All is not as it seems in the village and not everyone is as they appear to be, so 'Good luck' with that one John!
Once I have completed 'The Village', I have a few other ideas in the pipeline as well as a half-written epic fantasy novel which I really must get back to. The problem with me is that I get easily distract... Hey did I tell you about a one-off novella I'm also working on? It's a standalone piece centering on the village of 'Druid's Haven', an adult horror/thriller loosely based on the child's fairy tale, 'Sleeping Beauty'. A cameo appearance for D.I. Pearce? it would be rude not to.
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
What genre would that be? It would be difficult to categorize the 'Entwined' series, because it's a supernatural/sci-fi/horror/thriller/anthology where all the stories are in some way linked to each other. Think 'Pulp Fiction', meets 'The Twilight Zone', and you're half way there.
3. Why do I write what I do?
When I was a child, my favourite books were fairy tales. I loved the images conjured up by the likes of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm. As I got older I progressed to Stephen King and James Herbert. The last series of books I read was the 'Game of Thrones' series, 'A Tale of Ice and Fire'.
I think what I am trying to say is that I write what I read. For me, writing is about escapism. It is taking a step back away from the norm and seeing how far you can leap into the unknown. The more imaginative and original a tale, the more I tend to love it.
4. How does my writing process work?
Ha! I wish I could say I had one!
As I work full-time, finding the time to actually write is sometimes quite challenging, and then when I do have the time, I have to be in the mood. Sometimes I can write nothing for weeks, and then when the urge takes me, I can knock out a 5,000 word (unedited) short story in an afternoon. Editing takes much longer, sometimes I can agonize over a 50 word paragraph for half an hour. Other times I can do it in minutes.
When I writing 'Entwined', I edited each story as I completed it. Once I finished the anthology, I then re-edited the whole thing and passed it on to a fellow writing friend who made notes and passed it back for a final edit. It then goes to a proofreader. Finally, I have a few beta-readers who give it a once over before I finally 'publish' it.
And finally...
At this point in the process, I'm supposed to nominate a couple of other writers to continue the blog tour. Unfortunately, I've left it a little late (Did I mention I get easily distracted?) so apologies for this.
Thank you, Simon, for inviting me to take part in the Blog Tour, and also to anyone who has taken the time to read this and get to know me a little better.
Many thanks
Tony
