From Pages to Pages: Author Interview

What do you hope your obituary will day about you?

M – He tried

D – Always willing to help, happy to share a drink, terrible dancer.

Location and life experiences can really influence writing, tell us where you grew up and where you now live?

M – I grew up in York, Lincoln and Brighouse. As we moved a bit as children and I had 3 brothers we made up our own fantasy worlds. We created a local street newspaper as 10/11 year olds which was fun. I went to Army College in Reading, then a 2 year stint in Germany followed by a year in London. I still don’t have any one place I really call home so that gives a broader perspective on life.

D – Same as Marcus as a child. I joined the Army at sixteen years of age and managed to see a bit of the world. After a number of years I left to join the corporate world in Communications and Finance. I have worked in Sydney, Auckland and Manchester, which is where I currently live and love. I always like to experience and try different things, whether that comes through or not in the writing? I hope so.

How did you develop your writing?

M – Mostly down to our editor Harry Dewulf who showed us how to structure the narrative. It made us both relax a bit more and not try to spoon feed the reader.

D – Write and then write some more. Comparing our first draft of ‘First Activation’ to the final cut is like chalk and cheese. I’m still learning as I go along, and as Marcus says, Harry Dewulf has been an excellent teacher.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

M – All people I meet have a story to tell and I love seeing new locations and imagining a huge bunker below the ground, or cave behind a waterfall.

D – Straight from my wandering imagination. It’s something I’ve always had, although it can have its draw-backs when people are wanting my attention.

What is hardest – getting published, writing or marketing?

M – Getting published is the hardest thing to achieve. Small presses offer a form of publishing, but there is no print run or marketing plan. It is more like a self-publishing club where you try and draw strength from the publisher and other author followers. The only way to get traditionally published seems to be either establish yourself first or perhaps appear on reality TV.

D – Writing is the hardest part for me. There’s great help out there on marketing, notably through KBoards ran by Harvey (great guy). I think a lot of ‘small press’ publishes are springing up nowadays that are nothing more than middle men, as in they are bedroom operations, a person with a website. I sometimes can’t believe it when I see people saying they get a ‘warm fuzzy feeling’ by being published by these type of guys. There’s a lot more scope to make a book a success by self-publishing and not going with the small press, you have the freedom to budget for marketing, run your own promotions and invest in your book for your own benefit.