Hi Darren, 😁 Give us a brief outline/history about yourself.
Hi Grumpz! I am Forty-five year old man living in Swindon, married with children and a dog that spends so much time sleeping that I find myself getting jealous. I try to be as positive as I can because there is more than enough arguments going on to want to add to it. I read quite a lot, yet I don’t consider myself an avid reader or read reviews in newspapers, I read the blurb and take a chance. I have been writing properly for about a year and have released three books with a new one being released in May or June.
Give us a brief outline of your latest book.
It’s the follow-on to ‘DeLuca’ which was released late last year. It isn’t a sequel as such, the story doesn’t carry on, but it is helpful if you have read the first. The story centres around Breanna DeLuca who is working as a cleaner in a hotel when she ‘accidentally’ picks up a memory stick not knowing that it is central to a blackmail plot by some European criminals.
She is then followed by a dangerous former Polish police detective that has been hired to retrieve it no matter who or what stands in his way. She turns to her friends to help her while also trying to keep one step ahead of her pursuer.
NB. You can buy Broken Umbrellas (a short stand alone)..........Here
You can buy DeLuca....................Here
You can buy DeLuca Finds a Man.................Here
Where can readers find out more about you?
I don’t have a website or anything, so I suppose the place to find me is through the ‘author page’ on Amazon or Twitter (@CreativeType14) where I post things about books I’m reading and biscuits I’m eating.
What was the hardest scene to write?
The violence was tricky, I tried to make it a little more violent so the reader can dislike the baddie, but I also didn’t want to put people off, because the central character is supposed to be fun. Finding that balance was difficult, and I had to rewrite certain parts three or four times to reach a point I was happy with.
Do you find it difficult to write from a different gender/ethnic background point of view?
Being a middle-aged white man means I’m a million miles away from my main character, who is a twenty-something black female, but I don’t really think about it. I could have made the central character a white man in his forties, but he wouldn’t have fit into the story so well. I hope no one is offended by my main character, I guess Mary Shelley wrote about a male medical student and that worked out ok. The vast majority of positive things I hear about the first book is the fact that Breanna is likeable, so maybe I’m doing ok…
It is part of a series. Is there another in the pipeline?
I’m piecing together a third one at the moment, but it’s difficult. The fact she isn’t a police officer means she doesn’t have certain tools at her disposal so the ‘crimes’ need to stay either under the radar with regards to police involvement or low key. But, hopefully, there will be a third – and if I can make the pieces fit together, it’ll be a cracker!
How did you first get into writing?
I write reviews for music releases for a website called Dancing About Architecture, it specialises in smaller, unsigned bands and tackles all genres, but writing novels started in March 2020. I was put on Furlough for a few weeks, and I struggled with insomnia. To help me get off to sleep I busied myself with an idea for a story, over a few nights that story grew larger and eventually I decided to write it down. It became a book called ‘Broken Umbrellas’ about a young boy living in an abusive home who plans to walk to the seaside.
I planned, wrote the first draft and edited it in three weeks.
Then I was hooked.
I returned to work in April 2020 and wrote in my spare time.
What have been your favourite books to read throughout your life and why?
What a question! I rarely read a book more than once, but books that have stuck with me are ones like World War Z by Max Brooks, I loved this book and was hooked from the opening page. The Last of Us by Rob Ewing, which is about a group of young children surviving on a Scottish island after some kind of pandemic. I’m not obsessed with plague and disease honestly!
Another I read this year was Les Miserable by Victor Hugo, I loved the intertwining stories.
You can buy World War Z by Max Brooks......Here
You can buy The Last of Us by Rob Ewing.....Here
You can buy Les Miserables by Victor Hugo...Here
Who is your favourite author and why?
I don’t really follow authors, I tend to flit and bounce between genres but two authors that I seem to return to and that I’m currently obsessed with are Linda Castillo, who writes spectacular crime novels set against the backdrop of an Amish community in Pennsylvania, and S D Sykes who writes historical crime in the 1300’s during the Black Death. Both writers could write a shopping list and I’d read it.
You can find Sworn to Silence the first in the Kate Burkholder series by Linda Costello....Here
You can find Plague Land the first in the Oswald DeLacy series by SD Sykes ...Here
Has any book that you have read changed you?
I think reading changes all of us, I know my understanding of language has changed since reading regularly. I also enjoy and appreciate my own thoughts more and I find myself seeking moments during the day to read. I know it’s a very general answer, but I think the actual act of reading is good for us.
If you could be any character from literary fiction who would it be?
Does Batman count? I can’t think of anybody that has leapt from the page and made me want to be them. Jack Reacher would be cool, but his life sounds far too busy for me.
What is your favourite quote?
One I say often, especially to my daughters, is “there’s always a bigger fish” meaning the world is full of people and there will always be someone better than you at something, but this also means, you are better than someone else. It’s from Star Wars.
What comes first plot or characters?
Plot. The characters come later, depending on what is needed.
Do you plan it or when you sit down it just happens?
Because I’m not a full-time writer, I tend to plan the next step, so once I’ve stopped writing I then add one or two sentences to explain what happens next, this acts as a springboard to get going quickly the next time.
How to you create characters in your books, are they cast in your mind or composites of real people?
I don’t think any of them are real people, what I find useful is thinking of a tv celebrity for characters and that way I know exactly what they look like and maybe a quirk or habit will come through too. It’s particularly helpful when writing a series where the characters need to stay the same, they can’t be short and slim one minute, only to be tall and muscular the next.
What is the most difficult part of writing for you?
Editing. I like to write and move on, but I have to go back through and repair/replace things. I find it tiresome because I usually have another idea in my head that I want to work on.
How do you research your books?
Google is a big help of course, but most of the time it’s moments and information that I have picked up from television, films, experiences. I seem to have one of those minds that gathers useless information and stores it away in some dark corner in my nogging. It’s annoying, but also useful when describing scenes with words.
What is the best and worst thing about being a writer?
Best thing is writing whatever pops into your head, I love the freedom that comes from a blank page and an imagination. The worst thing is time, I don’t get enough time to write, and my head goes onto the next thing before I’ve really finished the thing I was working on.
Share something that your readers will not know.
I detest green pesto. I can’t be anywhere near it. Just the smell of it makes me gag.
Favourite place, favourite film, favourite song, favourite food?
Favourite place would be my home, favourite film is a toss-up between The Godfather or Jaws. Song is even more difficult, but I love Boys of Summer by Don Henley. Favourite food would be something simple like a sausage sandwich or lasagne.
