After looking at his inspirations and influences, Civilian Reader is continuing its chat with Solaris author Eric Brown. As well as discussing his new project for our sister imprint, Abaddon, Eric discusses life as a writer and what makes him get to his writing desk every day.
"Writing is really the only full-time job I’ve ever done, at least from the age of twenty-two. Of course in the early years I wasn’t paid for doing it, but I worked on the assumption that if I worked hard I’d get better and eventually find a publisher. It took a lot longer than I thought it would – I had a lot of rubbish to get out of my system before I learned how to tell a tale. Working within the publishing industry? Well, it’s got to be done. I’ve had horrible experiences in publishing, which I’d rather not talk about, and some wonderful ones. I’m having the latter now with my current publisher Solaris, who are a great bunch to work with."
Do check it out...
Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts
Influences & Inspirations: Eric Brown
Earlier this year, Solaris published The Kings of Eternity - a book that took author Eric Brown ten years to complete. Vast in scope but emotionally powerful, The Kings of Eternity has been one of our stand-out titles this year and something we really do recommend you pick up.
With the book being such a significant personal undertaking for Eric, it's interesting to read about his influences and inspirations in this great post from Civilian Reader, in which he discusses his earliest experiences of reading...
"I came upon the works of H.G. Wells and Robert Silverberg at the same time, and if I’d found Christie revelatory, then you can imagine what these writers did to my head. I read all Wells’s scientific romances (and was bitterly disappointed when I finished them and tried to read his social novels) and began collecting Silverberg. Over the years, the latter was a great influence."
Enjoy.
Justin Gustainis: Free Short Story and Interview
You can read an interview with Justin Gustainis at the 'Open letters Monthly' Arts and Literature review, in which he talks all things Morris and Chastain Investigations, including possible TV deals and his dream casting decisions for Libby and Quincey.
Justin has released online a free short story about Morris and Chastain Investigations, called 'Big, Bad Wolf!' Go and read it today...
“B-b-both of my b-brothers have been bu-bu-bu-bu -- killed and eaten,” the pig said...
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When Graeme Interviewed Gary...
Graeme Flory (of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review) has recently interviewed Gary McMahon (of The Concrete Grove) in a colossal battle that destroyed much of Northeast England. Both men have now been captured and, heavily sedated, transported to a safe facility in the North Sea where British Science can study and seek to understand them.
Their interview is recorded, for posterity, here:
Thank you for your time.
David
Desdaemona Review and Author Interview
The Falcata Times has interviewed Chaz Brenchley, (otherwise known as the pseudonymous Ben Macallan,) and reviewed his latest work, the urban fantasy novel Desdaemona.The interview is here, and Chaz talks about writing, his guilty pleasures and his low opinion of the 'elevator pitch'.
The review is here, and calls Desdaemona 'a story that concentrates on character and personal relationships over the big exotic landscape.... As usual, [Solaris] don’t compromise on talent but with so many titles treading along a well-worn path, the ones released by this publisher like to hack their way through the undergrowth to create something different.'
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James Maxey Announcement
You all remember James Maxey and his Bitterwood series, don't you? Dragons, action, fantasy adventures... Well, we're pleased to announce that we'll now be publishing James Maxey's Dragon Apocalypse series!The first book, Greatshadow, will be published in February next year, with the second book, Hush, coming out in July of that year, and the final instalment in the trilogy, Sorrow, following in spring 2013.
James Maxey said:
“Greatshadow is my most ambitious work to date, simultaneously an epic dragon hunt, a heist novel, a ghost story, and a love story, all blended with a bit of the comic-book inspired action I love. After I met Jonathan Oliver at World Fantasy last year I realised he was the perfect editor to help bring my vision into print.”
No Dragon Apocalypse covers to show you yet, so here's a picture of the glorious lizard-like covers from his Bitterwood series. The dragon is watching you...Editor-in-Chief, Jonathan Oliver said:
“It’s a delight to welcome back James to the Solaris fold. I was a big fan of his Bitterwood series of fantasy novels and it’s great to see more from this talented writer. James has to be one of the most innovative and entertaining writers of dragon fantasy around.”
Maya Lassiter has interviewed James Maxey at her blog. You can also still see her earlier interview with James's fellow Solaris author Gareth L Powell.
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Gareth Powell interview
There's an interview with Gareth L. Powell, the author of our upcoming SF drama The Recollection, at Maya Lassiter's blog.
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Interview With "The Rem"!
Wotcher!
Well, I know you've been quaking in your swivel-chairs in anticipation, for the full one day since I've announced it, but it's finally here! Andy Remic, in the e-flesh, submitting himself to acavity search interview right here at Solaris Towers.
Read on...
Just another day in the life of the Rem...
Solaris: Hi Andy. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. First things first, then. What’s that you’ve got in your hands?
The Rem: Ooh, that would be a spanking gleaming brand new slick copy of CLONEWORLD, a rollercoaster psychopathic uber-kickass military black-comedy SF novel set in my Combat K universe. It's probably better if you're drunk when you read it. That way, the insanity makes sense.
Check out Marek Okon's pretty cover. Ooh...
Solaris: Also handy as a close-combat weapon, or as a sandbag, I find. And this is, I guess, your ninth book? You’ve a couple of books out by A Rival Publisher at the moment as well, so I’m slightly guessing.
The Rem: Yes, you are absolutely right! My ninth published novel. Now I feel kinda old. I hope I don't go the way of the Ninth Legion..... And my tenth, Vampire Warlords, is out very shortly. I have a busy year ahead of me!
Solaris: So, counting past works, your work with our esteemed competitors, your work with us and your side-projects, I find international espionage, futuristic black-ops, savage barbarian warriors, serial killers. Your muse is clearly murderin’. How did this love affair start?
The Rem: I suppose James Herbert is to blame for the murderin’ horror streak. Dave Gemmell for the strong moral fibre streak.
Witnesses for the defense in the case of
Common Decency vs. The Rem
And the twisted nature of humanity for allowing me to put it all into one barrel, mash it up, and distil a mad-mix of violence and death. Ultimately, death terrifies me – so I make sure it damn well terrifies my characters, as well! And somehow, it would just feel wrong if I wrote about daffodils.
Solaris: You seem to be a polite, quietly-spoken man. Are we going to hear about how you “seemed like such a nice, normal guy” and “we never saw it coming” on the news one night?
The Rem: Err. It certainly occurs to me that if, hypothetically speaking of course, I was on trial, head on the block, etc, for a crime I didn’t commit, you know how it goes, then the do-gooders of the jury would point at my writing works with long scaly fingers and say, “Ahh yes, but have you read the insane stories he writes? They make Robert Rankin look normal! He must be the lunatic axeman!”
Experiments have demonstrated that not even
lunatic axemen make Robert Rankin look normal.
I do try to be a nice person of strong moral fibre. It doesn’t always work out that way, of course. But I love my kids and bring them up to respect their elders, have good manners, always do the right thing, and generally be positive members of the human race. I only get mad at scumbags. :-)
Solaris: Okay, so let’s talk Combat K. It was our predecessors from BL Publishing who first commissioned War Machine from you. Talk us through that.
The Rem: I’d initially written three near-future SF thrillers for Orbit (Spiral, Quake and Warhead), and decided I fancied doing some far-future SF, but again with a large dollop of action and featuring a combat-based military squad - that's how Combat K was born. My agent started shopping around and Solaris jumped on it, apparently. Originally, the first novel was called Combat K, but my editor Christian Dunn thought that was a better name for the “series” as a whole, so I came up with War Machine to describe the novel - and indeed, the squad - itself. Unstoppable.
Solaris: And a legend was born. The aforementioned fourth Combat K book, Cloneworld, is out now. I’m going to pretend I didn’t edit it and ask you what it’s about.
The Rem: Cloneworld focuses on two of the characters from earlier Combat K novels, Franco – detonations expert, sexual deviant, chef, and Pippa – a death-dealing, man-hating, violent PMT-proud psychopath. Imagine Lara Croft, but without the manners. The Quad Galaxy is being overrun by an alien scourge known as Junks, and Franco and Pippa have been tipped off by a planet-sized half-God known as VOLOS concerning a pseudo-AI artefact which could be used in the war against the Junks. The only problem here, is that this potential saver of the human race lies on Cloneworld, an abandoned toxic hellhole populated by gangers (or clones, with the ability to clone themselves) and orgs, humans who have turned the art of mechanical self-improvement into a twisted religion of self-inflicted machine massacre. The gangers and orgs are at constant war with one another, from their respective fortified continents, and into this mess are dropped Combat K. Obviously, things go wrong very quickly, not aided by Franco who accidentally beheads the prime-time reality TV show host, Opera, on live TV, thus pushing the gangers and orgs closer to all-out war... Then follows a series of mad and wild and weird adventures through the violently opposed and differing landscapes of both the gangers and orgs world... and Franco starts to learn the horrors of machine “self-improvement”...
Solaris: Opera, of course, and there’s a passing mention of Van Gok, and one or two other popular figures subtly referenced, in this and earlier titles. Have you ever heard back from the people you satirise in your books?
The Rem: I've had some hate mail. Especially from Ronan. That guy hates me!! (see below). I had to get a court order to forbid Mr Keating from beating me up with a helve!! He's certainly not as squeaky clean as he looks! [Lawyers please note: that was a joke].
Why I oughtta...
Solaris: So, what’s next? We’ve got at least two more coming from you, and for the next one, Theme Planet, you leave Combat K behind altogether. Give us some hints? Who or what are the Anarchy?
Out this winter!
The Rem: Although I love writing Combat K, I felt I needed a break from Franco’s ginger insanity. I'm mentally overloaded by the little bugger. An excess of Franco. I've got a Franco-hangover. Indeed. And thus, for a little while I've come up with a new concept, set broadly within the same set of galaxies as Combat K, but with a more fast-paced and violent set of central themes, less humour, and tying together two ideas I’ve wanted to work with for a while. The concept of torture- and murder-model androids (the Anarchy Androids of the series title) and “Theme Planet” – an entire world dedicated to absolutely wild and insane and over-the-top alien theme park rides. So, a twisted alien theme park set across an entire world. A deviated alien Disney of the 51st Century. The novel begins with Dexter Colls, a policeman and nice family man, who takes his wife and children to Theme Planet for their annual holiday... but things soon turn very, very bad.
Solaris: Any reason for wanting to move away from the humour?
The Rem: I enjoy the humour, certainly, but as a writer it’s healthy to do different things, to always challenge yourself. I’m just changing gear for a bit; don't worry, before long I’ll change back again.
Solaris: Okay, back around to Combat K for a moment, then. Specifically, Franco Haggis, who is clearly your favourite character, and seems – forgive me – at least a little bit like your good self, even setting aside your repeat performances as him in promotional videos. So level with me: is there a little of you in Franco? Or, God forbid, a little of Franco in you?
Presented *ahem* without comment.
The Rem: [I’ve had to have a break while I laugh at that question!] Okay. Just for the record, I am not Franco Haggis, and if I found myself hanging on a cross with fellow Sciffy writers when SF is no-doubt eventually outlawed, like at the end of Spartacus, I would NOT cry out, “No! I am Franco Haggis!” Of course, there’s elements of me in every character I write, and sometimes, maybe, (or maybe I’m just a deviant), elements of characters creep back into me. Does that sound wrong? Weird? I apologise. There used to be a running joke at the (old) BL Solaris, where they threatened to take lines from my novels and wear them on t-shirts. They were always lines from Franco. Lines like: “Damn that alien VD!” So yes, to answer the question, there’s a bit of me in Franco, and unfortunately, Franco seems to leak out and pollute a bit of the world in which we live. God help us if they ever make a film. I would hate for the little deviant ginger monstrosity to become fashionable, which he no-doubt would – in a Jackass kind of way.
Solaris: And may I ask? What brand of horseradish, particularly? If I should ever get my hand on some CubeSausage and need something to wash it down with.
The Rem: Knowing Franco, that would be “the cheapest.” He’s a little feral scrote.
What's cheaper than store-brand? No-brand!
Solaris: I’ll get a jar in specially. Never know when I’ll need it. Moving on, then. You do a lot of work with th3 m1ss1ng, a music/video/art collective whose music appears in your book-promo videos and side projects. Care to give them a quick pimp? What are they about?
th3 m1ss1ng.
The Rem: I’m a massive fan of th3 m1ss1ng’s music, and we've been working together for quite a few years now. They’ve composed music for several of my short films, book promo films, my (work in progress) full length horror feature film GEHENNA, and have just written a full album to go alongside Serial Killers Incorporated, the little ebook thing I’m about to launch, the aim of which is to promote my work that falls outside the normal SFF genres in which I write - or stuff that's a bit weird, even for me. th3 m1ss1ng describe themselves as: “an art project consisting of industrial/electronic/independent music and film involving collaborations from many others including writers, artists and filmmakers.” They have a website. It's www.m1ss1ng.com and I recommend you go there :-)
Solaris: You joined us at the “San Diego of the South,” the SFX Weekender at Camber Sands. What were your thoughts? Would you do it again?
Hey. We're in... Camber. Whoo!
The Rem: I absolutely loved the SFX Weekender, genuinely one of the best (if not the best) convention I’ve ever attended. I took my kids for the first time - their first con - and there was so much for them to see and do. They had a ball!! Stormtroopers and Daleks and Craig Charles, of all people, bloody Craig Charles!! I got to chat to him in the bar! Take photos! And drink beer! You hear that? Drink beer with Dave Lister!! Damn, I think I died and went to Red Dwarf Heaven. :-) I’ve just been talking to Dave Bradley at SFX Magazine, and it's looking like I'm going to be doing some writing for the SFX blog in the near future. Now, that's going to be super-cool!!
Solaris: Now, those of our readers who have seen the promotional video or were there at the Weekender will know what I’m talking about when I ask about that hat. You said you nicked it from Ronan Keating. We’re all kind of aching to hear the story.
The Man, the Book... the Hat.
The Rem: Err. I really do set myself up, don’t I? Damn. Okay. I actually nicked it from “a Ronan Keating obsessive.” And by Ronan Keating obsessive, and I think there’s many guys out there who are going to sympathise with me here, I mean “my wife.” Her and some of her chums went to a good ol’ Ronan gig in Manchester, and for some reason, Ronan seems to enjoy his fans wearing pink cowboy hats. Now, I’m not sure of the psychology behind this act of rockgod worship, but if fans of my novels started wearing pink cowboy hats, then somebody would get a good kick in the happy sacks. [You know what? People are going to start doing this now, aren't they? Just to wind me up? Hmmmmm?]. Anyway. After the gig, me and a good mate were sat out in the back garden, with a roaring fire and some cans of *ahem* pop (let’s just says Milk+, or Milk with Knives in it, reet?) and we found it hysterically funny to have a photo shoot where we all paraded in said pink cowboy hats. Fast-forward a few years to the making of the Cloneworld video. I was casting about for a comedy item to wear, and nothing struck me as so much fun as Ronan's pink hat. Come on. You just *know* he wears one on the kludgie ;-)
Solaris: Finally, a hypothetical. You’re putting together your own Combat K unit. Which two other authors would you take with you deep into enemy territory, and why?
The Rem: Hah! That would have to be Gary McMahon, author of Pretty Little Dead Things and The Concrete Grove - for his uber-military kick-boxing skills, his stern, steely gaze, and his twisted horrifying imagination of horror (and his sexy bottom, of course); and also the debonair, the sophisticated, the intricate, the charming, the one and only James Lovegrove, author of The Age of Odin and Redlaw, and the man who should have beat Daniel Craig to become the next James Bond.
Shaken... and Stirred.
However, I fear in military terms, we would no-doubt perform more like the crew of Red Dwarf than a crack military Combat K unit. We might put a little dent in the enemy fortifications. Although, in reality we’d probably all be back at the SLAM dropship arguing about the horseradish...
Solaris: Thanks a lot for coming in.
Well, I know you've been quaking in your swivel-chairs in anticipation, for the full one day since I've announced it, but it's finally here! Andy Remic, in the e-flesh, submitting himself to a
Read on...
Just another day in the life of the Rem...Solaris: Hi Andy. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. First things first, then. What’s that you’ve got in your hands?
The Rem: Ooh, that would be a spanking gleaming brand new slick copy of CLONEWORLD, a rollercoaster psychopathic uber-kickass military black-comedy SF novel set in my Combat K universe. It's probably better if you're drunk when you read it. That way, the insanity makes sense.
Check out Marek Okon's pretty cover. Ooh... Solaris: Also handy as a close-combat weapon, or as a sandbag, I find. And this is, I guess, your ninth book? You’ve a couple of books out by A Rival Publisher at the moment as well, so I’m slightly guessing.
The Rem: Yes, you are absolutely right! My ninth published novel. Now I feel kinda old. I hope I don't go the way of the Ninth Legion..... And my tenth, Vampire Warlords, is out very shortly. I have a busy year ahead of me!
Solaris: So, counting past works, your work with our esteemed competitors, your work with us and your side-projects, I find international espionage, futuristic black-ops, savage barbarian warriors, serial killers. Your muse is clearly murderin’. How did this love affair start?
The Rem: I suppose James Herbert is to blame for the murderin’ horror streak. Dave Gemmell for the strong moral fibre streak.
Witnesses for the defense in the case of Common Decency vs. The Rem
And the twisted nature of humanity for allowing me to put it all into one barrel, mash it up, and distil a mad-mix of violence and death. Ultimately, death terrifies me – so I make sure it damn well terrifies my characters, as well! And somehow, it would just feel wrong if I wrote about daffodils.
Solaris: You seem to be a polite, quietly-spoken man. Are we going to hear about how you “seemed like such a nice, normal guy” and “we never saw it coming” on the news one night?
The Rem: Err. It certainly occurs to me that if, hypothetically speaking of course, I was on trial, head on the block, etc, for a crime I didn’t commit, you know how it goes, then the do-gooders of the jury would point at my writing works with long scaly fingers and say, “Ahh yes, but have you read the insane stories he writes? They make Robert Rankin look normal! He must be the lunatic axeman!”
Experiments have demonstrated that not evenlunatic axemen make Robert Rankin look normal.
I do try to be a nice person of strong moral fibre. It doesn’t always work out that way, of course. But I love my kids and bring them up to respect their elders, have good manners, always do the right thing, and generally be positive members of the human race. I only get mad at scumbags. :-)
Solaris: Okay, so let’s talk Combat K. It was our predecessors from BL Publishing who first commissioned War Machine from you. Talk us through that.
The Rem: I’d initially written three near-future SF thrillers for Orbit (Spiral, Quake and Warhead), and decided I fancied doing some far-future SF, but again with a large dollop of action and featuring a combat-based military squad - that's how Combat K was born. My agent started shopping around and Solaris jumped on it, apparently. Originally, the first novel was called Combat K, but my editor Christian Dunn thought that was a better name for the “series” as a whole, so I came up with War Machine to describe the novel - and indeed, the squad - itself. Unstoppable.
Solaris: And a legend was born. The aforementioned fourth Combat K book, Cloneworld, is out now. I’m going to pretend I didn’t edit it and ask you what it’s about.
The Rem: Cloneworld focuses on two of the characters from earlier Combat K novels, Franco – detonations expert, sexual deviant, chef, and Pippa – a death-dealing, man-hating, violent PMT-proud psychopath. Imagine Lara Croft, but without the manners. The Quad Galaxy is being overrun by an alien scourge known as Junks, and Franco and Pippa have been tipped off by a planet-sized half-God known as VOLOS concerning a pseudo-AI artefact which could be used in the war against the Junks. The only problem here, is that this potential saver of the human race lies on Cloneworld, an abandoned toxic hellhole populated by gangers (or clones, with the ability to clone themselves) and orgs, humans who have turned the art of mechanical self-improvement into a twisted religion of self-inflicted machine massacre. The gangers and orgs are at constant war with one another, from their respective fortified continents, and into this mess are dropped Combat K. Obviously, things go wrong very quickly, not aided by Franco who accidentally beheads the prime-time reality TV show host, Opera, on live TV, thus pushing the gangers and orgs closer to all-out war... Then follows a series of mad and wild and weird adventures through the violently opposed and differing landscapes of both the gangers and orgs world... and Franco starts to learn the horrors of machine “self-improvement”...
Solaris: Opera, of course, and there’s a passing mention of Van Gok, and one or two other popular figures subtly referenced, in this and earlier titles. Have you ever heard back from the people you satirise in your books?
The Rem: I've had some hate mail. Especially from Ronan. That guy hates me!! (see below). I had to get a court order to forbid Mr Keating from beating me up with a helve!! He's certainly not as squeaky clean as he looks! [Lawyers please note: that was a joke].
Why I oughtta...Solaris: So, what’s next? We’ve got at least two more coming from you, and for the next one, Theme Planet, you leave Combat K behind altogether. Give us some hints? Who or what are the Anarchy?
Out this winter!The Rem: Although I love writing Combat K, I felt I needed a break from Franco’s ginger insanity. I'm mentally overloaded by the little bugger. An excess of Franco. I've got a Franco-hangover. Indeed. And thus, for a little while I've come up with a new concept, set broadly within the same set of galaxies as Combat K, but with a more fast-paced and violent set of central themes, less humour, and tying together two ideas I’ve wanted to work with for a while. The concept of torture- and murder-model androids (the Anarchy Androids of the series title) and “Theme Planet” – an entire world dedicated to absolutely wild and insane and over-the-top alien theme park rides. So, a twisted alien theme park set across an entire world. A deviated alien Disney of the 51st Century. The novel begins with Dexter Colls, a policeman and nice family man, who takes his wife and children to Theme Planet for their annual holiday... but things soon turn very, very bad.
Solaris: Any reason for wanting to move away from the humour?
The Rem: I enjoy the humour, certainly, but as a writer it’s healthy to do different things, to always challenge yourself. I’m just changing gear for a bit; don't worry, before long I’ll change back again.
Solaris: Okay, back around to Combat K for a moment, then. Specifically, Franco Haggis, who is clearly your favourite character, and seems – forgive me – at least a little bit like your good self, even setting aside your repeat performances as him in promotional videos. So level with me: is there a little of you in Franco? Or, God forbid, a little of Franco in you?
Presented *ahem* without comment.The Rem: [I’ve had to have a break while I laugh at that question!] Okay. Just for the record, I am not Franco Haggis, and if I found myself hanging on a cross with fellow Sciffy writers when SF is no-doubt eventually outlawed, like at the end of Spartacus, I would NOT cry out, “No! I am Franco Haggis!” Of course, there’s elements of me in every character I write, and sometimes, maybe, (or maybe I’m just a deviant), elements of characters creep back into me. Does that sound wrong? Weird? I apologise. There used to be a running joke at the (old) BL Solaris, where they threatened to take lines from my novels and wear them on t-shirts. They were always lines from Franco. Lines like: “Damn that alien VD!” So yes, to answer the question, there’s a bit of me in Franco, and unfortunately, Franco seems to leak out and pollute a bit of the world in which we live. God help us if they ever make a film. I would hate for the little deviant ginger monstrosity to become fashionable, which he no-doubt would – in a Jackass kind of way.
Solaris: And may I ask? What brand of horseradish, particularly? If I should ever get my hand on some CubeSausage and need something to wash it down with.
The Rem: Knowing Franco, that would be “the cheapest.” He’s a little feral scrote.
What's cheaper than store-brand? No-brand!Solaris: I’ll get a jar in specially. Never know when I’ll need it. Moving on, then. You do a lot of work with th3 m1ss1ng, a music/video/art collective whose music appears in your book-promo videos and side projects. Care to give them a quick pimp? What are they about?
th3 m1ss1ng.The Rem: I’m a massive fan of th3 m1ss1ng’s music, and we've been working together for quite a few years now. They’ve composed music for several of my short films, book promo films, my (work in progress) full length horror feature film GEHENNA, and have just written a full album to go alongside Serial Killers Incorporated, the little ebook thing I’m about to launch, the aim of which is to promote my work that falls outside the normal SFF genres in which I write - or stuff that's a bit weird, even for me. th3 m1ss1ng describe themselves as: “an art project consisting of industrial/electronic/independent music and film involving collaborations from many others including writers, artists and filmmakers.” They have a website. It's www.m1ss1ng.com and I recommend you go there :-)
Solaris: You joined us at the “San Diego of the South,” the SFX Weekender at Camber Sands. What were your thoughts? Would you do it again?
Hey. We're in... Camber. Whoo!The Rem: I absolutely loved the SFX Weekender, genuinely one of the best (if not the best) convention I’ve ever attended. I took my kids for the first time - their first con - and there was so much for them to see and do. They had a ball!! Stormtroopers and Daleks and Craig Charles, of all people, bloody Craig Charles!! I got to chat to him in the bar! Take photos! And drink beer! You hear that? Drink beer with Dave Lister!! Damn, I think I died and went to Red Dwarf Heaven. :-) I’ve just been talking to Dave Bradley at SFX Magazine, and it's looking like I'm going to be doing some writing for the SFX blog in the near future. Now, that's going to be super-cool!!
Solaris: Now, those of our readers who have seen the promotional video or were there at the Weekender will know what I’m talking about when I ask about that hat. You said you nicked it from Ronan Keating. We’re all kind of aching to hear the story.
The Man, the Book... the Hat.The Rem: Err. I really do set myself up, don’t I? Damn. Okay. I actually nicked it from “a Ronan Keating obsessive.” And by Ronan Keating obsessive, and I think there’s many guys out there who are going to sympathise with me here, I mean “my wife.” Her and some of her chums went to a good ol’ Ronan gig in Manchester, and for some reason, Ronan seems to enjoy his fans wearing pink cowboy hats. Now, I’m not sure of the psychology behind this act of rockgod worship, but if fans of my novels started wearing pink cowboy hats, then somebody would get a good kick in the happy sacks. [You know what? People are going to start doing this now, aren't they? Just to wind me up? Hmmmmm?]. Anyway. After the gig, me and a good mate were sat out in the back garden, with a roaring fire and some cans of *ahem* pop (let’s just says Milk+, or Milk with Knives in it, reet?) and we found it hysterically funny to have a photo shoot where we all paraded in said pink cowboy hats. Fast-forward a few years to the making of the Cloneworld video. I was casting about for a comedy item to wear, and nothing struck me as so much fun as Ronan's pink hat. Come on. You just *know* he wears one on the kludgie ;-)
Solaris: Finally, a hypothetical. You’re putting together your own Combat K unit. Which two other authors would you take with you deep into enemy territory, and why?
The Rem: Hah! That would have to be Gary McMahon, author of Pretty Little Dead Things and The Concrete Grove - for his uber-military kick-boxing skills, his stern, steely gaze, and his twisted horrifying imagination of horror (and his sexy bottom, of course); and also the debonair, the sophisticated, the intricate, the charming, the one and only James Lovegrove, author of The Age of Odin and Redlaw, and the man who should have beat Daniel Craig to become the next James Bond.
Shaken... and Stirred.However, I fear in military terms, we would no-doubt perform more like the crew of Red Dwarf than a crack military Combat K unit. We might put a little dent in the enemy fortifications. Although, in reality we’d probably all be back at the SLAM dropship arguing about the horseradish...
Solaris: Thanks a lot for coming in.
Andy Remic: Incoming!
Hi all,Whew! A week into March and six posts already. I'm going quite dizzy from all the typing.
So it's been an exciting time for swordsman, zombie-hunter, Ronan Keating-devotee and raconteur Andy Remic recently (there's the lovable little ginger psycho on the right).
His fourth Combat K book, Cloneworld, has just landed on the shelves (This very week! Hurry, there may still be copies left!). He attended the SFX Weekender with us last month and had an asbolute blast, where we launched the book, he wore a very strange pink hat, and was interviewed by the Scrolls podcast.
Now, we've just seen our first extremely enthused review of Cloneworld over at Falcata Times:
[Remic] cluster-bombs the reader's brain with seriously hard-core fight sequences and devilishly complex missions and finishes it with a cocktail of fully-formed characters, full-throttled adrenaline, and a seat-of-the-pants, rocket-fuelled plotline and twists it off with few drops of Nitro-glycerine as he shakes this mix and waits for the explosion.
And to top it all off, he's agreed to be interviewed by your gentle bloggers, here at the Solaris Books blog. The full interview will be going up tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that!
David
Conrad Williams Interviews a-go-go!
Hi all,Well, you've been seeing a lot of Decay Inevitable and Loss of Separation author Conrad Williams, what with his blogging about writing his most recent book and competition, and his interview with Editor-in-Chief Jon Oliver, but he has been altogether indefatigable recently, and I thought I'd draw your attention to some of his other internet shenanigans recently.
It seems that Graeme Flory of Graeme's Fantasy Book Review (we've already told you about his glowing review of Loss of Separation last week) succeeded in pinning him down for an interview yesterday (you can read it here).
And he also generously consented to giving David McWilliam of the University of Sterling's The Gothic Imagination an interview (and you can read that one here).
So lots of opportunity to hear his thoughts. Go and check 'em out.
David
Eric Brown interviewed by Mark Chitty
Mark Chitty, of the science fiction blog Walker of Worlds, has interviewed Solaris's Eric Brown, author of recent novels Engineman and Guardians of the Phoenix, as well as the forthcoming Kings of Eternity, which will be available in shops this April.
Here's the interview, and an excerpt:-
The Kings of Eternity ... is about a group of friends and their discovery, in the Hampshire woods in 1935, of a portal to outer space. What comes through the portal will change their lives for ever, and the story follows these individuals over the course of the next sixty or so years. I've been writing the novel, on and off, for ten years, and I think it's probably the best thing I've done....
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Scrolls!
Scrolls is one of the finest literary podcasts around, so imagine how pleased we were when Dion Winton-Polak, creator of Scrolls, interviewed not one, but two of our Solaris authors when we met him at the SFX Weekender.
The podcast has now gone up, with interviews from NYT-bestselling author James Lovegrove, sci-fi author Andy Remic, Scott Andrews and steampunk author Jonathan Green from Abaddon, and also fantasy authors Joe Abercrombie and Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Scrolls: Author Interviews
Dion says: "Authors by and large get very little direct feedback from their readers, so make their day and show them your love (and if you’ve enjoyed this episode of Scrolls, for goodness sake let them know that as well. It will increase the likelihood of them letting the bald-nutter-with-the-tiny-microphone interview them again in future.)"
You can contact Scrolls by tweeting @scrollscast, or e-mailing them on scrolls@hotmail.co.uk. Scrolls is now hosted by the dashing chaps of Geek Syndicate.
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Conrad Williams on Loss of Sep and COMPETITION!
Wotcher all,Mr. Conrad Williams, whose remarkable book Loss of Separation is even now being printed, has been on his blog, blogging.
Scroll back a bit - assuming you don't already regularly read, which I daresay you do - to see posts on draft revisions, chapter breakdowns and his thoughts about the book and the life of a writer, along with little sample snippets from the book, other short bits of prose (including a deeply unsettling description of some kind of air disaster), and links to interviews about his work.
And then read his thrilling announcement of an impending competition, to win a signed copy of Loss and a signed picture of Flight Z. Full details of the comp will go up on release date, the 3rd March.
While you're at it, read Jon Oliver's interview with Conrad here on the Solaris blog.
Whee!
David
Interview: Juliet McKenna
Issue #4 of science fiction and fantasy magazine Salon Futura features this interview with Solaris author Juliet McKenna. Cheryl Morgan conducts the interview.
You can find out about Juliet's all-new fantasy trilogy for Solaris Books, The Hadrumal Crisis, on our website. Here's the cover for the first instalment, Dangerous Waters, coming out in August next year.
Cover (TBC) by Clint Langley
The Archmage rules the island of wizards and has banned the use of magecraft in warfare, but there are corsairs raiding the Caladhrian Coast, enslaving villagers and devastating trade. Barons and merchants beg for magical aid, but all help has been refused so far.
Lady Zurenne’s husband has been murdered by the corsairs, and a man she doesn’t even know stands watch over her and her daughters. Corrain, former captain and now slave to the corsairs, knows that Zurenne’s guardian is a rogue wizard.
If Corrain can only escape, he’ll see justice done. Unless the Archmage’s magewoman, Jilseth, catches the renegade first...
Dangerous Waters is the start of a stunning new fantasy trilogy by highly-respected fantasy writer, Juliet E. McKenna.
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You can find out about Juliet's all-new fantasy trilogy for Solaris Books, The Hadrumal Crisis, on our website. Here's the cover for the first instalment, Dangerous Waters, coming out in August next year.
Cover (TBC) by Clint LangleyThe Archmage rules the island of wizards and has banned the use of magecraft in warfare, but there are corsairs raiding the Caladhrian Coast, enslaving villagers and devastating trade. Barons and merchants beg for magical aid, but all help has been refused so far.
Lady Zurenne’s husband has been murdered by the corsairs, and a man she doesn’t even know stands watch over her and her daughters. Corrain, former captain and now slave to the corsairs, knows that Zurenne’s guardian is a rogue wizard.
If Corrain can only escape, he’ll see justice done. Unless the Archmage’s magewoman, Jilseth, catches the renegade first...
Dangerous Waters is the start of a stunning new fantasy trilogy by highly-respected fantasy writer, Juliet E. McKenna.
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The Press Release That Wasn't: Mr Pickles
Hello all,Many of you will have by now received the official Press Release for The End of the Line, in the new exciting format (if not, and you feel you should be receiving our press releases, just email us to ask to be added to the list).
If you have, you may have noticed the tragic oversight: Mr Pickles the cat isn't mentioned! Not anywhere! Not even once!
This is, of course, a tragedy that may not be tolerated. Pickles, of Stockwell (pictured), was very proud to receive a starring role in a major horror release, and was hoping to be asked his opinion on the book and its impact on the publishing world. It's certainly being widely talked about in both the small-animal-murdering and bottom-licking communities.
He read the book carefully, and discussed it with all his friends, and waited for the phone to ring. Imagine his disappointment when no calls came.
Well, all that has been corrected now! Your fearless blogger has been able, with heartfelt apologies and the offer of a slaughtered vole, to secure Mr Pickles' forgiveness and a brief quote.
Pickles says:
"End of the Line is set to be a classic of urban horror. And I should know - I die in it. Two paws up. Better than sitting on a stack of clean laundry."
So, there you go, newspaper-people and blog-writers. Put that in your pipes and smoke it. Probably the pundit of the year. Anyone not listening to Mr Pickles, basically, can't hear.
Profound thanks to Mr Pickles' people, Jared and Anne at Pornokitsch, for allowing us to interview Mr Pickles and sending us their photo of him.
Cheers,
David
Remic vs McMahon
Wotcher all,Just a quickie. Andy Remic, the hardest man in SF (and fantasy), author of the Combat K novels (including the upcoming Cloneworld, launching at the SFXWeekender in February), has drawn our attention to a video of an interview he conducted with the equally rambunctious Gary McMahon, whose Concrete Grove series is launching next summer, in a pub at the World Horror Convention.
(The interview, that is. Was conducted in a pub at the WHC, I mean. I mean to say, the launch won't be conducted in a pub at the WHC - Hell, you'll probably be able to pick up a copy, and say Hi to Gary, 'cos he's usually there, but I don't think there are any firm plans - so much as the interview between Gary and Andy was. At a pub at the WHC. Look, just watch it.)
Check it out here.
Cheers,
David
Eric Brown Interview
Wotcher!Well, it seems I totally should have held off linking to his awesome review.
Mark Chitty over at Walker of Worlds has now posted an interview with Solaris's own Eric Brown!
Check it out here.
Eric talks about Engineman, the upcoming Guardians of the Phoenix and The Kings of Eternity, his influences, and "being a Bob Shaw sort of writer."
Enjoy.
David
Interview with Paul Kearney!
Hi all,With the second Macht book, Corvus, due to hit the shelves before the end of the month (and a third on the way next year), I thought I'd get in touch with Mr. Kearney at his remote fastness in Northern Ireland and try and persuade him to answer a question or two.
Fortunately, the man was only too happy to submit to my queries, and offered some insights on historical fantasy, writing about soldiers, what authors should be writing about, and Steven Erikson.
Read on...
Solaris: Hi, Paul. Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.
You clearly have a fascination with history. Even when you’re not drawing directly on real-world events – the sacking of Constantinople, the Anabasis – your work has a strongly historical feel. So why fantasy? Why not go the route of Cornwell or Iggulden and write historical fiction?
PK: Maybe I will! I have thought about it, almost from day one in the job. In fact Richard Evans over at Gollancz was convinced I would move into historical fiction, especially after he first read Hawkwood. I guess what held me back was the knowledge that once I committed myself to a period and a set of circumstances, then I would be constrained by what actually happened. To take an example, my last but one book, The Ten Thousand had a plot that was very heavily based on the Anabasis, a piece of real history. I kept fairly close to the events of the actual history, partly as an experiment to see what it would be like, partly because the real history was a fantastic story anyway. Ultimately, I found it limiting, so for Corvus, which came next, I resolved not to be so pedantic about it, and it was definitely easier that way. So though I love history, and plunder it shamelessly for ideas, I’m still not sure about coming out of the closet and writing it without the patina of fantasy.
Solaris: If you did, what period would tempt you? Maybe one where less is known, and there is more room for conjecture? Or is there just a favourite era?
PK: My favourite eras have pretty much been in my books from the start. Sixteenth century Europe (and before that), and Classical Greece. I’ve read history books and academic papers on those eras all my life, devouring them with the same shameless rapidity as an Essex housewife will snatch a copy of Heat. I studied the Icelandic Sagas at college, and their mindset is in my work too – when you read them in the original Norse, it’s astonishing how modern the mentality of these chaps was, even down to the quips they uttered as they went into battle. Having said that, if you want to fathom the outlook of the Macht, then all you have to do is read the Anglo-Saxon Battle of Maldon. We will all go into the dark together.If I were to write about real history, then it would have to be about common soldiers, I know that. And a great era for encapsulating that would be the fourteenth century and onwards, with the rise of the Italian city states and the professionalisation of war. Now that would be really something. I could even keep writing about a guy named Hawkwood…
Solaris: You write a lot about soldiers, actually; about their their superstitions and sentimentality. Do you think these traits are exaggerated in fiction? Or are soldiers that just do their job and are fairly rational and even-handed about it all really as rare as all that?
PK: You do tend to exaggerate character traits in fiction now and again, in order to slap the reader across the face with a character and make him remember who he is in the big scheme of things. It’s not something I like doing, but I have fallen prey to it. The real soldiers I’ve known have, if you want to generalise horribly, been capable, level-headed, and possessed of a ferociously black humour. The better they are at their job, the less gladly they suffer fools, but in general they are a remarkably decent set of people, and compared to civilians, they are completely free of pretence. Plus, most of them possess a built-in bullshit detector with a mile-wide range.
Solaris: On to Corvus, then. Take us through this. It’s twenty-three years later, Rictus is a grizzled old campaigner, and this new prodigy general, Corvus, is uniting the Macht under him. I’m getting an Alexander vibe (or I suppose, more accurately, Alexander’s father Philip)?PK: Corvus the man is inspired by Alexander the Great; that much is obvious, though the job he undertakes in Corvus the novel is that completed by Alexander’s father. So in the third book, Kings of Morning, Corvus will be leading the Macht eastwards to invade the Asurian Empire, which is still under the rule of Ashurnan. If you remember the retreat of the Ten Thousand, and some of the atrocities they committed, imagine that on a titanic scale. It isn’t going to be pretty. We’ve seen the Macht in defeat and adversity in the previous books, but in Kings, we will see what they make of victory. As with Alexander’s army, the battle with and conquest of a huge empire will rupture and disseminate Macht society across the world.
Solaris: Actually, your central protagonists – Corfe Cear-Inaf, Rol Cortishane, Rictus – all tend to be these strong, charismatic leaders, who rise above their own murky backgrounds to beat terrible odds through sheer force of personality and strategic genius. What was it like writing two such characters, on the same side of the campaign? Did they vie for “screen time” while you were writing?PK: It brought me up short a few times, I have to admit. The thing was that I really identified with Rictus, and found it hard to figure out how I was going to portray someone whose military genius left him standing. In the end I took the example of Mary Renault. In her Alexander trilogy, which is to my mind the greatest work of historical fiction ever written (you can stuff your Wolf Hall), she wrote from the perspective of Alexander himself when he was very young, and upon his manhood, she only described him from without, through the eyes of friends and lovers. That way she kept his mystique alive, and left the questions we all have about his genius lying there. I liked that – it retains the mystery of the man. In Pressfield’s Alexander, The Virtues of War, we are given a first person view of the man himself, and it’s horrible. He lectures and pontificates and is dry as dust. You can’t break open the mind of a phenomenon like that, twenty-three centuries after his death, and expect to make him explicable.
So that’s what I did with Corvus – I stayed at a distance from him, decided deliberately to leave him lightly drawn, and concentrated instead on those who orbited him.Solaris: You said very firmly after The Ten Thousand came out that it would be a stand-alone. What changed your mind? Was it just Solaris’s roguish charms, or did you have a rush of inspiration?
PK: Brutal honesty? Solaris said they liked this stuff, and how about I write another? That’s it – seriously. It was meant to be a stand-alone pure and simple. If I had known I was going to be in that world for two more books, there are definitely certain things I would have done differently. I would have beefed up the role of the Juthan, because they are going to be very important in book three, and I reckon I would have kept a few characters alive that got bumped off. But hey, war is hell.
Solaris: Well, we’re happy you managed to find two more books in there. You’ve said before that fantasy writers tend to lazily stick to the pseudo-Tolkienesque, pseudo-medieval fantasy milieu. You’ve covered classical and late-medieval; what era would you like to see more of? Stone-age fantasy? Iron age? Renaissance? Why?
PK: I’d like to see more of that kind of strange otherness that literally made the hair stand up on the back of my neck when I first read Robert E Howard. I’m a massive Tolkien fan, but Howard was able to evoke an entire epoch that was weird and distant and visceral without breaking sweat. I think of him bent over his typewriter in ’twenties Texas, and I wonder to this day – where the hell did he get it from? It was effortless – at least that’s how it seems – and it stormed out of his head fully-fledged and howling. I’d like to see some modern day fantasy author go for that kind of energy – throw the world-building out the window for crying out loud – and just write a good goddamned story.Solaris: So you’d like to see authors escaping real-world reference altogether? Interesting, given your own strongly historically-themed settings. Are you tempted to try something completely alien yourself?
PK: Nope. People tell me, when they know what I do, that I must have a great imagination, but I really don’t. I just get inspired by some fragment of history and then I run with it. To make up everything, and I mean everything, in the way guys like Erikson do, is unfathomable to me. I come up with the story first, and the world comes later. And I want to get that world out there as fast as I can, so that it can keep up with the story I want to tell. So for me, the worldbuilding comes last. Is that heresy for a fantasy author to admit?
Solaris: Not at all. Having mentioned Erikson... he’s been quoted citing you as an inspiration, and calling you one of the “best writers of fantasy around.” Care to comment on his own work?
PK: Steve’s books leave my jaw bumping along the floor in awe. I remember when I first picked up Gardens of the Moon, and just the opening of the book had me gritting my teeth and thinking you son of a bitch – because he had the courage to get in there, dark and dirty, and chuck his world at the reader with almost a sneer. He takes no prisoners, and expects those who read his work to be paying attention. It takes real bravery on the part of an author to do that. And despite what I said about world building in the previous question, I think Erikson’s is so deep and real that it permeates every page of his books, and gives his world a rock solid gravitas that never – and I mean never – falters or stumbles. He simply never drops the ball. With Erikson, you don’t see the wizard behind the curtain, and there aren’t many writers I can think of today who manage that.
Solaris: Alright, that’s us about done. Before we sign off, do you have anything you want to say?
PK: Just keep her between the hedges.
On which slightly odd note, we signed off. Paul's latest work, Corvus, will be hitting the shelves in a bookstore near you in the next few weeks, but you can have a taster in the form of the free sample chapter right now.
Corvus can be read as a stand-alone book without any difficulty, or you can start with the first book in the Macht series, The Ten Thousand, which is available right now in good book stores and online.
If you want to try some of Paul's other works, the Monarchies of God series has now been collected in two omnibus editions, Hawkwood and the Kings and Century of the Soldier, out now; Hawkwood and the Kings is also now available as an eBook on Kindle, and Century of the Soldier is due to go up in the next week or so.
To find out more about Paul Kearney and his books, please visit his website, Paul Kearney Online, where he provides free extracts from his books and maintains a forum for readers.
Cheers,
David
Cheers,
David
Interview with Rowena Cory Daniells
LEC Book Reviews have interviewed Rowena Cory Daniells, author of the King Rolen's Kin Trilogy.The interview is here.
Excerpt:
LBR: What real-world inspiration is there for the characters in The King’s Bastard or any of the book’s elements?
RCD: Everything has real world inspiration - it is just not that easy to see. Some things stay with you. When I was about 10 my family went to play tennis at a set of courts in the back blocks of the Gold Coast. Behind the courts was a stretch of land backing onto a creek. As the eldest I was used to organising the games and I always saw myself as a sort of hero character so we'd play these long involved games with my younger siblings as my army, following orders, fighting great battles against enemy foes...
While running down one high white sand hill we left my little sister behind. I turned around to find she'd run through the deepest part of the hollow and the sand, which appeared to be solid, had given way. She was knee deep in some sort of sticky sand-clay mix and couldn't get out. Having seen plenty of Tarzan movies, I immediately thought of quicksand.
A real emergency! I told my brothers to stay back, afraid that they'd get trapped too, and edged forward. The sand's surface broke up under my feet. It was cold and smooth and wet, and I didn't know what was under there. My eight year-old brother took my arm to pull me out and we managed to grab our little sister's arm and hauled her out of the sticky sand-clay which did not give her up easily...
In King Rolen's Kin power seeps up from the land's heart, infecting people and animals. Only those trained to contain this power go near Affinity Seeps. Now you see how a childhood adventure can be the inspiration for something in a story many years later. These days I don't order my younger brothers and sister around to play out my great battles, I have a cast of characters and they play out the battles in my books....
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The End of the Line - line up!
Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews have spotlighted our horror anthology, End of the Line, which is coming out in November this year and will feature horror stories based in and around the London Underground and other underground train networks. Spooky stuff! The Dark Wolf article is here, and you can read about the great line up of authors that we're planning!We love discovering new readers, and when we ran into Gard Goldsmith buying our novels at World Horror last year, Jon agreed to be interviewed by Gard's libertarian radio show - the link to Jon's interview is here. Gard has also interviewed SF anthologist Ellen Datlow and horror writer Wayne Simmons in the past.
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