Apologies for the radio silence

Dear all,

I am so sorry I haven't been here to update for the longest time.

Basically the real world got in the way. I have been fortunate enough to secure my dream job as a the Director of Library Services for a small town in Alberta called Chestermere. It is a beautiful, vibrant community that I am happy and proud to serve.

As many of you know, I am actually from the UK, so taking up this job meant packing up the family and moving to the otherside of the world on short notice. It meant wading through the soup of immigration and culture shocks (we still are). It was a small price to pay for the chance to live in my dream place and do my dream job, but it also meant I had to let a couple of things slide - including the Project.

I will get back to the Project, although it is looking as though it will be in the New Year. Yes I know that is forever away, but my goal is to get this right, rather than doing a half-job at it.

In the meantime feel free to drop me some emails if you have people you would like me to approach for interview. I'll get on with next year's list and I promise to get this site back off the ground.

Hugs to all,

Gem x

Gueat Post By Helen Hunt

The Women's Magazine Market

Helen M Hunt

Gemma has asked me to share some thoughts about the women's magazine short story market and give some advice to anyone hoping to break into it.

First, a bit about me. I write short stories, book reviews and features for magazines. My short stories have appeared in Woman's Weekly, My Weekly, The Weekly News and Take A Break Fiction Feast in the UK, and That's Life Fast Fiction in Australia. I have also had real life stories published by My Weekly, This England and Evergreen magazine, and articles in Writers' Forum and The New Writer magazine. You can find my writing blog at http://fictionisstrangerthanfact.blogspot.comand my book review blog at http://bookersatz.blogspot.com.

One of the first things that you need to be aware of is that, sadly, the women's magazine market for short stories has shrunk over the last few years. Many magazines which used to take fiction, such as Woman and Woman's Own, no longer do so.

Add to this the fact that there are a large numbers of writers trying to break through, and it makes for a challenging and competitive market. Having said that, it would be wrong to assume that it's impossible to break into it. I have read comments in various places that suggest that women's magazines are a bit of a 'closed shop' and only established writers can get published. Happily this isn't the case.

When you look at the magazines you will find the same names coming up on lots of short stories, but that is because those are the writers who are consistently sending out a high volume of good quality stories carefully targeted to their chosen publications, not because there is an embargo on new writers.

If I can do it, then anyone can, but patience is the key. I went on a short story writing course at my local adult education college in September 2005 and wrote my first ever short story. I carried on writing and eventually my story 'Shredding The Label' was published by Momaya Press in 2007 – my first fiction publication. My first commercial publication wasn't until the beginning of 2009 when Woman's Weekly published my story 'Dandelion Clocks'.

Since that first publication, I have continued to write short stories and I have been fortunate to be published quite a bit by My Weekly, Woman's Weekly, and The Weekly News and have also had stories accepted by Take A Break Fiction Feast, People's Friend and a couple of non-UK magazines.

So for those who do want to write for this market, where do you start?

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here about submission guidelines for specific magazines. Instead I will direct you to Womagwriter's Blog. (http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/) This blog has all the guidelines and contact details for the relevant magazines with regular updates and also blog posts discussing various aspects of writing for this market. If you don't already follow Womagwriter I strongly recommend that you should.

My main advice to anyone who wants to start sending short stories to magazines is to initially concentrate on targeting one or two of them. All magazines have different requirements and like slightly different types of story so it's more manageable if you look at a limited number of magazines in great depth at a time. Always remember that magazines are looking for stories that are similar in style and tone to the ones they are currently using, but at the same time they need to be different enough to catch an editor's eye.

The key markets in the UK at the moment are:

Woman's Weekly – they take two stories and a serial every week in the magazine and also have regular fiction specials containing twenty or so stories. They are a good strong market that likes unusual stories and they are lovely to write for.

Take A Break Fiction Feast – this is a monthly fiction special which carries about fifteen stories each time. They like a variety of stories and take anything from romance to crime in a variety of word lengths.

The Weekly News – this is a newspaper rather than a magazine but also carries two or three short stories every week. Because the publication is aimed equally at men and women they like stories with male characters, are strong on crime and mystery and not keen on romance.

The People's Friend – this magazine is very much focussed on fiction, and carries six or seven stories and also a couple of serials each week. They like a gentle upbeat type of story and steer clear of anything too depressing or contentious.

My Weekly publishes fiction regularly in the weekly magazine and occasional specials. However, at the moment they aren't taking stories from people they haven't published before so they're not currently one for beginners to target.

Other magazines such as Candis and Yours take a limited amount of fiction, and there are a few overseas markets. All have their own particular requirements, and full details can be found on the Womagwriter blog.

So, choose a market and immerse yourself in it. It's probably best initially to go for the publication which carries the stories which most strongly appeal to you as a reader. Really study the stories carefully and concentrate on why they work and what it is about them that made the editor say yes. And don't give up!

For further information and advice, as well as Womagwriter's blog, I highly recommend Teresa Ashby's blog (http://teresaashby.blogspot.com/) and Della Galton's website (http://www.dellagalton.co.uk/).

I am intending to run some short courses and workshops on breaking into the women's magazine market later this year, so if you're interested please feel free to email me at helen-hunt1(at) sky.com. I'll add you to a mailing list to be sent details of the courses once they are up and running.

Thanks very much to Gemma for inviting me to do this guest post, and do feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

Helen M Hunt

An Interview with Bernard Cornwell - REPOST

*REPOST*

Hi all, I'm running around like a headless chicken at the moment preparing for some pretty big changes in my life. As such i didn't want to post a half-finished interview (not fair on author or on you), so instead I have decided to repost an old interview with one of my all time fave writers, because reading it once just isn't enough.

Normal service will be resumed soon!

Gem

Bringing History to Life

An Interview with Bernard Cornwell

photograph (c) Chris Clarke

It was my dad who first introduced me to the works of Bernard Cornwell, long before I fell in love with Richard Sharpe (well, okay, Sean Bean) as he strode around on TV looking very fetching with a rifle and a green jacket. I was a history buff as a kid, but that love had not crossed over into my reading habits. Until I read Sharpe’s Rifles. From that day on, Bernard Cornwell has featured very high on my list of favourite authors. I love it when he releases a new book. It means I don’t have to think of a present to buy Dad for his birthday.

Of course, it isn’t just the Sharpe books, based around the Napoleonic Wars, that Mr. Cornwell is famous for. The Starbuck Chronicles are set in the American Civil War, the Winter King Trilogy tell the tale of King Arthur, and his latest offering, The Burning Land, is book five of the Viking Saga, which are based in the times of Alfred the Great. Then there are his stand alone novels, like Gallows Thief and Azincourt. In terms of historical fiction, Bernard Cornwell writes incredibly well in a diverse range of periods.

So when I got the email back from Mr. Cornwell’s assistant saying that he was happy to answer my questions, you can forgive me for jumping up and down for a solid five minutes while squealing incoherently. Then I phoned my dad. He didn’t squeal, but I like to think he was as chuffed as me.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. You are widely regarded as the greatest writer of historical adventure books of our time; how do you feel about this label? Did you set out to be the “best”?

I don't believe it! There's Robert Harris writing his trilogy on Cicero, C J Sanson's wonderful books about Matthew Shardlake, and let's not forget Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall! Wow, I'm way down the list. I simply set out to write entertaining books!

Most people know that they want to write long before they actually start; was this the case for you? What made you put pen to paper and begin writing?

I wanted to write from way back, probably from when I was a teenager (oh god, so long ago). I'm not sure I ever would have taken the plunge - I had a perfectly respectable job with BBC TV, but then I met an American blonde and she couldn't live in Britain for family reasons, and I had no strong ties so decided to emigrate. The US Government, in its wisdom, denied me a Green Card (work permit), so I airily told her I'd write a book. Which I did, and thirty years later I'm still writing books and, much more important, still married to the blonde.

Out of all the books you have written, do you have a favourite? If so, what makes that one stand out above the others?

This feels rather like being asked 'do you have a favourite child', a question which probably has the answer 'yes', but everyone denies anyway. My favourites are the three Arthurian books - starting with The Winter King. They were simply a joy to write . . . at the time it felt as though they were writing themselves. I've enjoyed writing most of the books (why do it if it isn't enjoyable?), but those three stand out.

Your latest book, The Burning Land, has just been published and is the latest in the Alfred Series. How does writing in this period differ from the Sharpe books? What period is your favourite to research / write in?

I suppose the main difference is that the real history is so obscure. We have an enormous amount of material on the Napoleonic era, and know a vast amount about what really happened, but the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle can be maddeningly obscure . . . events are mentioned, but without any details. So I'm freer to use imagination (good), but more likely to get things wrong (bad).

What are you working on now?

A book set in the summer of 1779, during the American Revolution, when the British established an outpost on the coast of what is now Maine and the State of Massachusetts sent a large fleet and a militia force to dislodge them. The campaign is very little known, but curiously features two men who became very famous. On the British side a very young John Moore fought his first action, while Paul Revere was in charge of the American artillery. It's a fascinating tale, and you'll have to wait to find out more.

How long into your career was it before you could effectively write full time? What advice do you have for anyone who aspires to be a full time writer?

I started writing full time the moment I emigrated to the States - I really had no choice! Advice? Just do it! I do have a real mistrust of writing groups, which a lot of people join thinking, maybe, they'll find encouragement. The only opinion that matters in the first place is your own, and then that of an agent or publisher, and finally the reader, but writing is a solitary vice, so my recommendation is to sit down, shut the door, threaten the kids with blue murder if they interrupt you, and get on with it.

Historical fiction is a popular genre but, as with everything, is subject to changes and trends in the market. What advice would you give to someone trying to break into the historical fiction market?

I'd tell them to ignore the trends and write what they want to read themselves!

New writers can struggle to get the balance between historical fact and the actual story right. How do you approach this problem?

By refusing to see it as a problem. My job is to be a story-teller. I'm not an historian. If someone wants to know about the Peninsular War, then I'd recommend Professor Charles Esdaile's brilliant book, but I'd venture to suggest that his book doesn't have the same suspense as, say, Sharpe's Company? I do try to get the history right, but if there's a conflict between history and story, story always wins.

You are definitely one of the more accessible authors out there; do you think that it is important for writers to engage with their audience beyond their actual books?

I guess that's up to the author? I like doing it, but I can quite imagine that some people don't, and their first job is to write the books. Nothing is really important beyond that!

Agents tend to be regarded with mixed feelings by new writers. What are your experiences of literary agents? Do you think that they are worth having?

If a new writer can understand the complexities of a publishing contract and negotiate like a junkyard dog, then of course they don't need an agent. But I do, and I like mine and I'd recommend that every writer has an agent. I don't understand 'mixed feelings'. The agent is on your side!

And finally, can you sum up a key piece of advice for new writers in one sentence?

Everyone who is on the best-seller list was a scared new writer once. So just do it!

Many thanks to Mr. Cornwell for getting the Literary Project’s new year off to a fantastic start! Bernard Cornwell’s website can be accessed here, and for those of you obsessed by all things Sharpe, there is a great fansite accessible at this address. Bernard Cornwell’s newest novel, The Burning Land, is out now.

I have finally stopped jumping excitedly up and down in my seat long enough to get this post uploaded and the links sorted out; but for those of you that follow me on twitter, I really am sorry. I promise I’ll stop bragging now.

Just after I’ve gone and phoned my dad.

An Interview with David Hewson

When In Rome....

An Interview with David Hewson

photo by Mark Bothwell

David Hewson is good with words. He started out in journalism, working his way up from a local paper in Scarborough up to the big London broadsheets. He has also penned over sixteen novels, including the fabulous Nic Costa modern crime series, all set in the atmospheric city of Rome. Even his tweets are well constructed, which makes error-prone amateurs like myself sigh and think, "I wish I could write like that." I am impressed by the way he paints Rome, a city and culture he is not actively part of, yet constructs like a native. It is a writing benchmark that I am aiming for, so naturally I could not resist asking David to answer a few questions for me here at the Literary Project.

Hello David! Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I always wanted to write because it seemed the one thing I was half good at. But the only writing job I could find at seventeen was working on a tiny local newspaper in Yorkshire. So I took it. It seemed better than school, even at £5 a week back in 1970.

How do you think your background in journalism influences your writing? Do you think it has been a help or a hindrance?

Helps and hinders. Journalism teaches you research, editing and not to be too precious with your words. But it also relies absolutely on fact, which fiction doesn't. There's an Italian expression, 'Better a beautiful lie than an ugly truth'. Fiction is about telling beautiful lies, and to do that properly a journalist has to kill the reporter inside him.

Why crime?

Do I write crime? Yes, the stories involve cops and crimes. But I don't think I fall into the usual procedural template. My stories tend to be about justice, about relationships, about living in a fractured society. All narratives need a problem. Crime stories simply use a crime as the starting point of that problem. I don't really do whodunits. More whydunits and they've been around for ages, in all sorts of forms.

Writing novels based in a different country and culture to your own must be difficult – how do you go about getting the "feel" right?

I'm not a fan of the idea that you should write about what you know. Writing about what you don't know makes you work harder. You have to create that world from scratch which renders it more vivid and 'real'. I did it the only way I could. I moved to Rome, studied Italian, invested in myself and my ideas. Luckily it's paid off so far.

How did you get your agent? Any advice for aspiring writers looking for representation?

Everyone asks that and there's no secret answer. It really is the way it tells you in the Writers' Handbook. Go through the motions, send out the letters, keep your fingers crossed. No short cuts I'm afraid. My principal advice in this area is: for pity's sake read the submission guidelines and follow them to the letter. Be professional, not a jerk. Accept rejection and learn from it.

What is your proudest moment to date, writing-wise?

Seeing all eleven of my Italian books bought for TV movies in one swoop -- and from an Italian-based production outfit, Bavaria's Rome arm (though they will be made in English).

If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be?

The gap between delivering a book and seeing it on the shelf. It's sometimes nearly two years for me and that's just too long

Can you tell us about The Fallen Angel?

The Fallen Angel comes from a real-life tragedy from 16th century Rome, the case of a young noblewoman Beatrice Cenci. She and her family were convicted of the murder of her father who was reputedly abusing her. They were savagely executed in front of the Ponte Sant'Angelo. Beatrice became in icon for the virtuous criminal, defending her own virtue. In the book we find a young Englishwoman facing what appears to be a rerun of the Cenci case. Is this coincidence or a deliberate echo? So my Roman cops set out to find the awkward truth.

What are you working on right now?

A standalone book set in Florence in 1986. I felt the need to write something that didn't have the constrictions of the 21st century. No DNA, no science, no internet, no mobile phones. Makes for a very interesting environment in which to set a narrative.

And finally, if you could sum up a key piece of writing advice for aspiring crime writers in one sentence, what would it be?

Read lots of books and try to understand what makes the ones that work for you pull of that trick.

The Fallen Angel is available to buy here, and you can learn more about David and his books at his website over here.

Lesley Cookman Guest Post

Lesley Cookman Takes Over The Literary Project

Gemma has very kindly invited me to contribute a guest blog for The Literary Project, which is a great honour when I see the other prolific and august authors who have preceded me, and whom she has interviewed.

Thinking about what might be of use to pre-published writers, whether novelists, short story or non-fiction writers, my first piece of advice would be, as it always was when I was teaching creative writing, to READ. It's amazing how many people say "Oh, I'm definitely going to write a book, but I simply haven't got time to read." Well, if everyone was like them, there would be a lot of books out there with no-one to read them. And the industry would grind to a halt.

So - READ. Particularly in your own genre. It tells you what the public wants, or at least, what the publishers and editors think the public want. And that isn't always the same. For instance, my "cosy" crime series is the direct descendent of the Golden Age detective fiction and the large publishing houses don't think there is a public for them. However, the smaller independent publishers know a thing or two about what the public really want, and my own, Accent Press (long may they rule) took a punt on the Libby Sarjeant series and here we are, eight books in and with two more on the stocks.

Anyway, back to the advice. Read to find out how to write. How to write dialogue, to see how things look on the page (not too many long paragraphs, for instance) and how to plot. There are many, many books out there that will tell you how to do this, but you can't do better than to read and compare other people's books and work out why they work - or don't, more importantly. This is not to say you must slavishly copy the style of your favourite author or journalist but to learn what has got them published.

Write what you know - well, not necessarily. SF, fantasy, horror and crime - most of us haven't experienced them, have we? I haven't murdered anyone yet, although give me time, neither have I investigated a crime, other than trying to discover which of my four children perpetrated the latest domestic incident. Your imagination provides everything you need to start, and with the enormous resources of the internet research is available to confirm any detail of which you aren't sure.

Network. Yes, a rather naff late 20^th/21^st century term, but very necessary. When I started as a features writer with Which Computer some time before Adam got his fig leaf, we didn't, strangely, have the internet or social networking sites, and we had to Go Out And Talk To People. Most of us who worked in that kind of environment latched on to the internet very early on, but as so few others did, it didn't do us a lot of good. I began going to events such as the RNA (Romantic Novelists' Association) meetings and got to know a few people in the industry. Nowadays, you can connect with your favourite authors, make friends with agents - only don't pitch to them on Twitter! - and research opportunities easier than ever before. And still go to the real life events, too, if there are any appropriate to your particular fancy and if you can afford to.

Have I said anything helpful? I'm probably only reiterating what many others have said before. There are many how to sites and blogs out there, and I expect Gemma knows all of them. One thing we will all say, though, is to repeat the old adage: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. It's hard work, but persistence and dogged stubbornness will win the coconut. (Mostly.)

All the best,

Lesley Cookman

The latest Libby Sarjeant novel, Murder to Music, is out now and can be ordered here.

Interview with Russ Litten

All the Fun of the Fair

An Interview with Russ Litten

I am not a native of Hull, and didn't move here until was in my mid twenties. As such, my first trip to Hull Fair – the largest travelling fair in Europe – was a memorable experience. Every year in mid October, Walton Street is taken over by old style fairground games; hair-raising, ultra-modern rides and more sweet & food stalls thank you can shake a plastic light sabre at. By the time night falls your senses are assaulted with neon lights, screams of laughter and blaring music. I remember thinking, "this is an amazing location for a novel," just before I took out a load of my aggression on the Whack-a-frog stall.

It turns out, however, that I was right. Russ Litten's debut novel, Scream If You Want To Go Faster, is based around the weekend of Hull Fair, just after the floods that caused havoc in the city back in 2007. Russ took some time out of his busy schedule to chat to the project about his debut novel, and his experiences of the writing and publishing industry.

Hello Russ! Have you always wanted to be a writer? What stopped you dreaming about it and actually put pen to paper?

I think my desire to be a writer stemmed from having a short story published in The Yorkshire Post when I was seven. The paper asked local school children to write something about Christmas and I wrote a short thing about an angel losing his halo and Santa finding it for him.

After seeing my story in print that was it for me, there was nothing else that I wanted to do. Which was fortunate really, because as I made my way through school it became very apparent that writing was my only real talent. I was useless at maths and couldn't kick a football, so putting words together was my only option. As I got into my teens I started reading about the Beats and that seemed like the very life for me - running around and having mad adventures and avoiding any form of responsibility. So when I was sixteen I joined a rock and roll band and volunteered for the job of lyric writer. That was when I started to really become conscious of my writing and tried to shape it for maximum effect.

You've worked a range of writing gigs prior to completing your debut novel, can you tell us a bit about those?

The first real writing job I had was in commercial radio. I used to write the adverts. At the time there was a concerted effort by people in the industry to raise the bar, both in terms of writing and production values. It was a good time to get involved and I got the chance to travel around a bit and meet some inspiring people. After that I became a freelance writer. I did stuff for magazines and newspapers, web-sites and other bits and bobs, including music festival brochures and cable TV publications. I used to write those things you saw in WH Smith where you buy the first issue and get issue two free, "The World's Most Famous Murderers" and stuff like that. It was all good practice for writing fiction because it equipped me with valuable editing techniques. And I was writing constantly on a wide variety of subjects. Somewhere along the line I got introduced to a film director and I went down to London to write film scripts.

So why the decision to write a novel?

My novel started off as a short film about a lad who got talked out of a suicide attempt by a taxi driver. I was told this story by the actual taxi driver in question. I thought it was a brilliant tale, and set about writing the dialogue and searching out people to put it together on film. I quickly found this to be logistically tricky, so I decided to re-write it as a short story. Impatience, really. And then I started wondering why the lad in this story would want to end his own life. So I put together another short piece along these lines. My original intention was to write a short story collection around a central theme, but I wasn't sure what the theme would be. Then I met up with my brother in law around the Christmas holidays and he told me his neighbour was a writer and if I was agreeable he'd show this fellow my stories. A couple of weeks later I got a phone call from this writer and he told me that in his opinion I was good enough to get published. And he also told me that I should write a novel, not a short story collection, the former being notoriously hard to sell for a first time writer. That was when I started to think of my stuff in terms of a thematic whole and started looking at ways of spinning all the stories together.

What type of writer are you?

I try to do at least two thousand words a day. I find the best routine for me is to get on the keyboard very early in the morning and just keep at it until mid afternoon. I have a rough outline of where it's going, but am always prepared to be led up various side streets and detours. Which is actually part of the joy of the process for me. I find I often think in terms of scenes rather than chapters. That helps me break it down into more manageable chunks. If I get stuck or stymied in any way I tend to go for a run in the park. That usually helps. And I like to write to music, although it's usually instrumental or ambient stuff. Lyrics get in the way. Or lyrics sung in discernible English, at any rate.

How long between starting your novel and seeing it hit the shelves?

I started the novel in the summer of 2008 and it came out in the January of this year. So that's about two and a half years. Although it seemed like several lifetimes longer.

Do you have an agent?

Yes, my agent is Jon Elek at AP Watt, and he's a thoroughly splendid fellow. I got an agent because I was told I needed one, basically. Your chances of having your manuscript read by a publishing house escalate noticeably if you are represented by someone with credibility and contacts. It's a simple matter of maths. They get flooded with stuff, so a recommendation from a trusted source tends to jump the queue.

Tell us a bit about Scream if you want to go faster

It's ten intertwining tales set in and around Hull Fair, in the aftermath of the floods that struck Hull in 2007. It's about ordinary people living under extraordinary circumstances and pressures. A lot of it is semi-autobiograpical. It's been described as "gritty", which is usually applied to most stuff that comes out of the North of England. But that's fair enough. I tried to give it a real human heart, because it's essentially a book about people and how they interact with each other. It is written in the present tense and the action all takes place over a single weekend. I had the idea that it would be rather like the police helicopter that flies over the city, picking out people below in the spotlight then swooping over to the next situation. I wanted it to be an accessible book and I wanted it to be very vivid and cinematic.

Has anything about the publishing industry surprised you? Is there anything you know now that you wish someone had told you right at the start?

I was initially surprised at the slow pace at which everything operates. I was used to fast moving commercial environments. But I've come to appreciate this way of working, because it's all about making sure every single detail is right, as painstaking as that can be sometimes. And I was very pleasantly surprised at how thoroughly decent and ego-free the vast majority of people I've met in publishing are. One thing that has surprised me is the lack of heavy marketing or publicity they do. I suppose this is because I'm a first time author. But I quite like this aspect as well. I'm all for letting things grow organically and I think at the end of the day a book will always find its natural audience.

What are you working on right now?

I'm on with my second novel as well as messing about with the odd short story and stage script. I also work in a prison two days a week helping people with their creative writing. The novel is the main event though. It's about two men who confess to the same murder. They're both unreliable narrators. One of them is an eighteen year old kid off an estate in Hackney. The other is a seventy year old ex-sailor who likes to gamble on horses and get drunk. The working title is Captain Jack & The Rocksteady Kid.

Have you got a long term writing goal that you're willing to share with us?

I'd like to write a novel every year and make enough money to keep going, feed the kids etc. And to help people feel less alone. That's the only ambition, really.

And finally, can you sum up a key piece of advice for aspiring writers in one sentence?

Don't think of yourself as an aspiring writer. Just be a writer. With the emphasis on be.

Thanks to Russ for talking to us about his debut novel. For those of you who have not experienced the heady insanity that is Hull Fair, Russ explains some of the draw over here, and you can read some of his articles over here. Scream If You Want to Go Faster is available now from Amazon.

An Interview with Steve Savile

If at first you don't succeed...

An Interview with Steve Savile

On my quest for blokey writers, the lovely Adele sent me the contact details of one Mr Steve Saville, with the words "interview him, he's really cool," attached to the address. Once again, the girl was write about such things.

Steve Saville is a prolific writer who has had one of those bumpy paths to publication that plague most of us - although to be fair, his has been somewhat bumpier than most. Steve has been good enough to share the trials and tribultions of his writing career with us, which I think goes to prove that persistence is just as much a key to your eventual writing success as your talent as a writer is.

Over to Steve:

Hello Steve! Can you talk us through your writing career to date?

Oh my... okay. Erm. That's... well, it's a long story. It would be, wouldn't it? I mean, I write therefore I just about am. Okay, stepping back into the time machine (cue special effects, Tardis woo-wooo dematerialisation noise and we're back) I first started noodling about skipping lectures at uni to stay home and write some dreadful fantasy-pastiche that was Terry-Pratchett lite... then probably around age 20 I went dark. I discovered horror as a genre to read and found I really enjoyed writing it. So I sat down and wrote a story, Coming for to Carry You Home (as in Swing Lo Sweet Chariot... I guess it must have been the year the rugby fans picked it as an anthem) and sent it away to a small press magazine, Exuberance. It was picked up. Earned me fifty quid. I sat down thinking 'this is easy' and wrote a much longer novella, In Darkness, We Sleep and sent it to Frighteners, the Newsfield magazine (the guys who did all of the computer mags in the 80s) and Oliver Frey bought it for 350 quid. I was beginning to think this was 'easy'. They posted a note in Frightener that they were looking for 40,000 word stories to do as special projects, so I wrote The Last Angel (Angel of Pain, Secret Life of Colours... it's had a raft of titles) and subbed it, thinking it was seriously GOOD. I mean it felt right. But it came back in the same envelope unopened, and started to make a few calls. Newsfield had gone bust. My debut story was supposed to be in that issue along side Steve Harris and some other fairly well known 90s horror writers. I believe 30,000 copies were sat mulching in a warehouse back then. So suddenly I was stuck with a story that was an 'unsellable' length.

In that blind arrogance of youth I wrote a letter (more like a mini-book) of about 10,000 words and sent it to 10 literary agents down in London saying I was the next best thing to sliced bread... 9 wrote back within 7 days asking to see the full manuscript. I sent them out the next morning. Three days later Tanja Howarth (who was PD James and Patricia Highsmith's agent) phoned me at home to say she'd read it, loved it, and thought I was the hottest thing she'd found since whatever the last hot thing was. It was all very heady stuff. I went down to London, we discussed plans for expanding the book. Keep making it more magical was her advice - then it went out to publishers. Unfortunately, timing rather stumped us and the landscape of horror changed pretty much overnight with the arrival of Silence of the Lambs. Everyone wanted less 'magic' and more 'real human horror'. But after a lot of very brilliant rejections we got an offer, only this was right around the time paper prices hiked staggeringly and books went from sub one quid to two fifty and three fifty and four ninety-nine in about 12 months, and like so many debut writers I was cut loose. Unfortunately my second novel, The Sufferer's Song, was proving unsellable because it was too big (160,000 words when everyone wanted 80,000) and Tanja and I parted company.

I worked away in a wilderness for a few years, writing another unsellable novel, Laughing Boy's Shadow, which actually got me back into the game, so to speak, when Laurence Pollinger took it on, describing it as reminiscent of a young Chandler... but still, no joy. I was pretty much done in at this point. There's only so much great rejection a boy can take - and I was still young... maybe 24. So I went and got a real job. That didn't last.

I remember chatting to a guy, a really nice writer, who said you know, you should check out Lucy Bator over at Henderson's, they're doing a series of kids horror novels... like Goosebumps. So I gave her a call and we got on like a house on fire. She, however, admitted the horror line was closed, but they were looking for pre-teen romances... could I write one? The writer's mantra is "I can do that". Great, she said. I need a synopsis on my desk by the end of tomorrow, fax it over. So I got my then girlfriend to round up all of her female friends for a night on the town in which a dozen 20 something girls were going to entertain me with stories of what they thought was hot when they were 12... I wrote an outline that I reckoned knocked it out of the park. Lucy agreed. Unfortunately it was too similar to the idea her best writer had done, could I give her ANOTHER idea for the next morning? Of course, I said, I can do that... And did.

But again, the line never game out, so my teen romances are long gone, hidden on some harddrive I can't access any more.

What it did result in was a phone call many months later to ask if I was into computers because they wanted a book all about this thing called the Internet... I adopted the writers mantra, said, I can do that... and a three weeks later gave them a definitive guide to the internet circa 1995. They intended to publish it in 1997. Needless to say it never happened.

But that led to the first phone call that changed my writing life. It went something like this: "Steve... do you like space and dinosaurs?" "I did...when I was 12." "I've got a job for you but I can't tell you what it is. Want to do it?" "I dunno... do I want to do it?" "I think you want to do it.." and so we danced around it without saying what it was... it was actually pretty cool - adapting Return of the Jedi for young readers, and doing a series of little flip books for Star Wars characters, and doing a FunFax file for Jurassic Park II: The Lost World...

Suddenly in 1997 almost a decade after I started writing I had books out.

It should have been plain sailing from then, right?

Wrong.

Couldn't sell squat for about 6 more years. No matter what I did. I went through a string of agents. One I remember burst into the British Fantasy Convention to say "Steve! I've got BRILLIANT news!" and everyone thought he'd sold my fantasy novel (Bones of Dominion, still unpublished). He hadn't. Spurs had won 1-0.

Then I was quite ill, and during that illness wrote the story that pretty much changed it all, Houdini's Last Illusion, which won the Writers of the Future Award (under the title Bury My Heart at the Garrick). Within a year of that I'd sold a couple of small press collections, and then, through a quirk of knowing people who knew people, got to audition to write for Games Workshop's Warhammer line because their vampire writer had disappeared off the face of the planet...

From there I got fairly lucky in that I got to fulfil a lot of youthful dreams, writing for Dr Who, Torchwood, Stargate, Primeval and other stuff like Slaine, as well as do my own writing. I've been a full time writer since 2005, topped the UK chart with Primeval, hit the German and Italian charts with the Warhammer stuff, and am finally getting to see the reward for all that persistence.

Do you have an agent? If not why not, and if so, why?

I do. And I've had about 11. Nah, that's an exaggeration, but finding a good agent is like trying to find a wife. Actually probably harder in many ways.... you want to get on with them, but you don't want to be their friends, once you're friends they burst in to celebrate football scores instead of book deals... ahem.

You've written a few collaborative works with other authors. How does that work? Does it involve a significantly different approach than writing by yourself? Which do you prefer?

I've collaborated with Bram Stoker Award Winner David Niall Wilson on a Deadwood-esque fantasy about the Devil's Assassin, Steve Lockley (something like 11 times nominee for the British Fantasy Award) on the Sally Reardon Supernatural Mystery series (Of Time and Dust, Missing and Deadlines thus far), Brian M. Logan (an actor and screenwriter) on Monster Town, which has just been picked up by a tv studio in the US, and Aaron Rosenberg on so much stuff my head wants to spin. I really like collaborating because each of these guys brings stuff to the table that I don't have in my own locker. We create something that is neither me nor them but uniquely us. There have been other collabs, like Mostly Human, a straight to e-book venture with Scott Nicholson, Steven Lockley, Willie Meikle and I (four writers, four countries... got to be something for the record books)... in the main each one is very different. With Steve what happens is we thrash out a storyline, he'll write a really rough first pass because his skill is visualising things and chipping out the core story quickly, then I'll get it and fill in the characterisation, the scenery etc until it's smooth and you can't see the joins.

But, obviously, I love working alone as well... it's just fun to work together with people you like, admire and trust.

Tie-in fiction for Stargate, Primeval and Dr Who. How did you score those gigs, and what advice would you give to someone looking to write for established lines like these?

See above, basically. It was a process of luck initially, but in truth it came down to submitting a 100 page sample to Games Workshop, and being lucky that the editor, Lindsey Priestly loved it and thought I was what they needed for the line at the time. Then it was down to barter. I've done X, I'd like to do Y... and approaching the editors in question with cv and begging cap in hand.

As to advice - build your own body of work. More and more tie-ins are being delivered 'complete' from the studios with writers attached in the US, for instance, and then other properties are so hot you've got Michael Moorcock and Ian Rankin doing them... Places like Wizards of the Coast have auditions, check their website for details. Games Workshop run open submission windows- that's the best way in. With one of those you could get into the next anthology... write the best story you can, and you could get into the book line...

Does writing tie-in involve different skills to original fiction?

Yes and no. No in that you still need the basic skill set of any writer, but yes in that you have to please thousands of people who think they know the world you are writing better than you do, and can do it better. There's a shared ownership that you don't face with your own original works. People expect (rightly) that you know what you are talking about, that you are a fan of the show and you get the voice of the characters right. The thing is you can't please everyone, you have to focus on pleasing the people at the show itself, the editors etc. With my Stargate novel for instance, the characterisation was singularly praised by the MGM licensing department but has been savaged by the fans. I watched every episode of Stargate over a 4 week period (that's over 200 episodes of tv) until I knew them inside out, and then wrote the novel. According to the internet it's obvious I've never watched a single episode. You really can't win and you need a fairly thick skin and just need to be sure you've written the best novel you can write for the show.

Speaking of which, can you tell us a bit about your original works?

Well, I've done quite a bit. I'm most proud of two books, neither of which are available in the UK (unless you have a Kindle, that is), Silver, an assassination novel in the vein of Day of the Jackal, but with a religious undercurrent, and London Macabre (only available in Polish currently). Silver's out in Spain, Germany, the US, coming in France... I've released all of my back catalogue on the Kindle through my own imprint BadPress. And in the UK in a few weeks you'll get to see The Black Chalice, which is an original Arhturian fantasy written to kick of Abaddon's Knights of Malory series.

So, why genre fiction?

In truth, I write everything. I've ghostwritten novels in a variety of genres, I've done non-fiction, and am working on a rom-com script. Really, I'm like an idea magpie and flit form shiny thing to shiny thing...

What are you working on right now?

I'm ghostwriting a thriller for a very well known on-air talent in the US, writing Gold the sequel to Silver, and thinking hard about a new fantasy novel, Glass Town, which I think could be very interesting... if I ever get the time to dedicate to fleshing it out fully!

Can you talk us through the positives and negatives of being a full time writer? Do you love the freedom of being a freelancer or do you think you're possibly crazy?

Oh god... I can think of hundreds of negatives - the strain it puts on your family for a start, how it turns you from a writer to a business man chasing invoices and fighting to be paid for your work all across the world, how if you aren't writing you aren't getting paid so you don't eat... mortgage fear when the end of the month looms... but I wouldn't have another job. I am obviously barking mad.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to build a career writing full time (as opposed to just getting a novel published)?

Do it properly. Take the time to learn what you are doing. Think of it as a career - that means long term. Look at the numbers... if you start writing age 30 and write until you are 70 producing 3 great short stories a year (truly great, not just so-so or good) and write one great novel every 2 years by the end of your career you have got 120 GREAT short stories and 20 brilliant novels as your body of work, and that is one incredible body of work that could easily see you accepted into literary cannon. Don't be in a rush. Think of it as a long arduous walk in the desert - you need to take the time, and drink a lot. Ahem.

What is your ultimate writing goal?

I've often joked that if I ever get it right I'll stop writing... so I think that's it. I think my goal is to write a novel and know I've got it right. All of it. That it couldn't be better in any way. And that's the day I'll retire...

And finally, if you could sum up a key piece of writing advice for aspiring writers in one sentence, what would it be?

Be yourself. When you die and Saint Peter's up at those pearly gates waiting to judge you, he isn't going to say "Why couldn't you have been more like Dan Brown... or more like David Baldacci... or more like Terry Pratchett." He's going to say "Why couldn't you have been more like yourself." You have a unique voice. Share it. And that's more than one sentence, obviously, but you get the point.

Massive thanks to Steve for answering my many questions and being an all around top bloke. CHeck out more about his books over at his website here.