Immersion, pace, seeing it clearly in your head, reinventing punctuation (for which critics always eat me, heh). I see scenes very cinematically, and they play out like movies in my skull. I just write what I see. It’s not my fault, guv’.
the next Combat K novel. Ooh, actually, I also have a comedy fantasy novel in the pipeline, and my first children’s book, Rocket Cat. And no, it doesn’t have guns and androids. It does have a cat, though. A cat with a rocket pack.
For action-oriented novels your books are populated by quite well-rounded characters. What is the key to good characterisation? You have to get inside their heads, make them believable, and make sure they are always consistent to the logic model you created. They cannot break their own internal rules. Also, conflict between characters makes for interesting characters. Nobody wants to read about flower arrangers. Well, I don’t, unless they beat people to death with daffodils.
Your e-book publishing business, Anarchy Books, is steaming ahead. What new books can we look forward to seeing in 2012? Wow, it’s been a hectic year! Which will round off with our fantastic “bizarre and weird tales” anthology called Vivisepulture, with so many great writers I just can’t list them all! For 2012 we have two books signed up from Gareth L. Powell, we have two more from Eric Brown, an original novel by Tony Ballantyne, as well as some newcomers including Paolo Sedazzari and his semiautobiographical tale of punks growing up in London called Young Punks; we have a mainstream novel by James Rothwell called Cult of the Confession and some gentle fantasy novels by Alexander Caine Duncan. Plus, a fabulous little gem I discovered by a very famous journalist. Watch this space. Apart from running a publishing company and writing several novels a year, you’ve also started the free online Ultimate Adventure Magazine www.uamag.co.uk. What’s that about? This was a project I instigated over the summer, and I put in place the building blocks back then. It’s basically a free-to-download adventure magazine looking at mountain biking, climbing, motor biking, hiking, travel and adventure! It’s just for fun really, but I think you’ll see it will give the big boys a real damn run for their money! The first issue is due out 24.12.11 and will make great iPad/Kindle/ePub reading over the festive season. It’s very lighthearted and non-offensive, and has interviews, reviews and features focusing on interesting stuff. My personal favourite from this issue is the interview with Dr Andrew Murray, who ran from John O’Groats all the way to the Sahara Desert. The madman.
Your epic fantasy Clockwork Vampire trilogy was completed last year with the publication of Vampire Warlords. The omnibus will be coming out in February. Will there be any extras? Please tell us this isn’t the end of the road for Kell. I have many plans for many novels with Kell and Saark, and more of the Clockwork Vampires as well; only not yet. My agent, John Jarrold, also has some new ideas for original fantasy series which I’ve created, so we’ll see if anything comes from that. At the moment, I’m working on Toxicity, then
What is you dream writing project? I’d really, really love to do a collaboration. I collaborated on a short story with fantasy novelist Ian Graham, a manic comedy fantasy with chunky dwarves, but he won’t allow its release because a) Ian Graham is a Big Girl with a Big Beard, and b) the story would destroy both of our careers, the planet, and probably the galaxy. So, to get to the answer, my dream writing project would probably be a collaboration with somebody like Joe