Hi Mark 👋 Give us a brief outline of yourself...
Hi Grumpz! I live in Cardiff, Wales, with my fiancé and new-born son. I work for a charity that supports deaf children across the UK, which was one of the main reasons why my character in my first novel, Feral Snow, was unilaterally deaf. I’ve always wanted to be an author but I found books late. I wasn’t a quick reader and reading wasn’t a go-to pastime in my house. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? That I knew I wanted to be a writer before I was a reader. But I love creating things. When I played video games, I always enjoyed the beginning—the creation of a new character. I loved movies and TV shows. And I love words so, it was inevitable.
Give us a brief outline of your latest book...
Dandelion is the story of a psychopath’s journey to feel something, anything, be it empathy, love, hate, passion. He is undergoing Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Broadmoor Prison for the Criminally Insane.During these therapy sessions, he takes us through his story of meeting Violet Driscoll, a fun, life-loving woman, and George Harrison, a sociopathic serial killer.As he narrates to us, we experience what he experiences. We think how he thinks. We feel what he feels. And, by the end journey of change, you’ll be questioning whether everything he’s told us is real or whether you're just another pawn in his games.
Where can readers buy your book
You can buy Feral Snow.....Here
You can buy Dandelion......Here
Where can readers find out more about you?
I am extremely active on
Twitter (much to my detriment). You can find at @StrugglingMJ
My DMs are always open
and I love to hear what readers think about my books. Alternatively, as I know
many aren’t on Twitter, I have an email: mjlauthor@gmail.com for a similar purpose. I also have a monthly newsletter anyone
can sign up to.
What was the hardest
scene to write?
Oh wow. If you read
Dandelion, you’ll see there are several difficult scenes to write. Technically,
the hardest scene to write was the first meeting between George and THE
PATIENT. I don’t want to give away too much of the final pages here but there
needed to be similarities in dialect and language between the two characters,
but enough difference to make them separate entities and interesting. But
that’s the case throughout the entire book.
Do you find it difficult
to write from a different mindset eg psychopath in Dandelion?
No. That sounds awful but it was incredibly easy to be distant and cold. When I first started writing Dandelion, I wasn’t in a great place mentally. So, that detachment came easily to me.
Surrounding that mindset though was a lot of research. I watched a lot of interviews concerning psychopaths and what drove them. I listened to The Ice Man by Philip Carlo based on Richard Kuklinski. I read about Albert Fish, Dahmer, the Wests, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, etc. It was hard to read what they did but what was harder was to understand why they committed their crimes.
Another difficult aspect of this book was, as it’s told through a narrator who is untrustworthy but has a certain outlook of life, there’s a stream of consciousness you’re constantly trying to wrestle with. But that's from a technical point of view. I love him as a character. He is a dark corner of everyone’s mind, I think.
I actuality find it really easy to inhabit the mind
of my characters. What's difficult is doing them justice. My next book, for
example, has a teenage girl as my main character. I need to do her justice and
for her to experience and feel all the things a teenage girl would (during an
apocalypse).
Is Dandelion part of a series. Is there another in the pipeline?
Currently, there aren’t
any plans to turn Dandelion into a series. Although, there’s definitely an
opportunity to do so. So, who knows, maybe in the future…
How did you first get into writing?
For English in secondary
school, I was asked to write an urban myth (short story) for an assignment. I
wrote about this babysitter and her boyfriend who were on the job when news
broke that a lunatic had escaped. The story ended bloody. It was the first A
that I got in English. My teacher (who may have been an inspiring figure for a
character in Dandelion) told me I had a knack for creating images in people’s
heads. And from then on, I was hooked. First, I wrote magical realism and fantasy. In fact, I wrote an awful fantasy novella (I say
novella, it was intended to be a novel but I had no idea of word counts and so,
a novella it was) about an assassin who grew up in the slums of some great city
until he became the go-to hitman for the emperor. I posted in the discussions
of Amazon, asking for advice to get it published (yes, I sent it to agents and
yes, I am ashamed of that—I was 19). Then someone responded who I am immensely
grateful to and still friends with. Anna has gone on to read all of my writing
and is both brutally honest and amazingly encouraging at the same time. From
there, I was spurred into wanting to write more and more.
Why did you choose self publishing?
Several reasons. The main one though
is that I was receiving some attention from literary agents but not enough to
be taken on. And that was difficult. I’m hugely grateful to them for their
responses but I found this was a gate I wasn’t getting through as quickly as I
would like. Plus, they wanted the focus to be more on the plot, which is cool,
but I'm a character, setting and description guy. Then, I found out my fiancé
was pregnant (he was planned). And everything changed. I suddenly became very
aware of money and so, thought, why not? My plan is to still try traditional
publishing, purely because I don't have the time to dedicate to self-publishing
every novel and I like the thought of being a part of a team rather than me
doing it all on my own.
Budget. Know what you can spend on marketing and promotion. For example, I ran a giveaway where I offered five books which inspire me to a random person who pre-ordered Feral Snow. I got about ten people who sent me their proof of pre-order. I earned about £10 from royalties but spent close to £40 on the books. A mistake, yes. So, now I’m very careful with what I offer.
Build relationships, be loyal, kind, appreciative and maintain those contacts. I cannot stress this one enough. If you can build a loyal fanbase, you’re set. Each book you release will garner more interest and more fans. But do not forget the old ones. They are the hardy bunch that have stuck with you throughout. So, appreciate that. Respond to them. RT them if you’re using Twitter. Respect them because they took a chance on you.
The Shining is my
all-time favourite book and Stephen King is an idol of mine (him
endorsing a book of mine is on my bucket list). His
book, On Writing, is also a must read for fledgling authors out there. Another
is My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent, a book that features in Feral Snow.
It’s a brutal story of Turtle who’s brought up to survive in an apocalypse just in case one happens while also being abused by her father. The writing is
exquisite. More recently, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker is superb. If
you want to learn about suspense, The Shining is for you. If you want to learn
about beautifully brutal prose, My Absolute Darling. If you want to learn about
masterful characterisation, We Begin at the End is perfect. Duchess Day Radley
is one of the most complete characters I have ever read.
You can buy "The Shining".....Here
You can buy "My Absolute Darling"......Here
You can buy "We begin at the End".....Here
Who is your favourite author and why?
Stephen King. I would
sell my house to live in that man’s mind. Often, when thinking of a novel idea,
I try to ask myself ‘what if this happened?’ Or place my character into a
situation and see how they deal with it. His ability to turn a ‘what if’ into a
novel is unmatched, as far as I’m concerned. His early books of Carrie, Salem’s
Lot, The Shining, Misery, Pet Semetary, and so on are just incredible. More
recently, he’s turned to crime a little more but I’d love to see him tackle
ghosts again.
Has any book that you have read changed you?
Several. And they’re
listed above. My Absolute Darling changed the way I wrote but also how I viewed
the world. It was the first book I read that heavily featured child abuse and
it made me really question why that was a topic I was reluctant to write about.
I also listened to a podcast Tallent was on and he spoke about how it was a story
he had to do justice. And I
understood what he meant by that. It’s a responsibility.
If you could be any character from literary fiction who would it be?
Harry Potter, probably,
because magic. Not even Harry himself but a side
character or something. Would be great fun. Or Jon
Snow from A Song of Fire and Ice. I actually have a replica Longclaw on my shed
wall.
What is your favourite quote?
“Description begins in
the writer’s imagination, but ends in the reader’s” Starting to feel like a
King lovefest but it’s 100% true and I stick by it. My books are heavy on the
description side and while many will say it takes away from the plot, I say it
immerses you in the story. You can’t feel a character’s terror unless you’re standing next to them.
what comes first plot or characters?
Characters. Always
characters. I listened to a podcast recently, in which the presenter (an
author) said, ‘A good plot will make the reader turn the page. A good character
will make them want a series.’ And it’s absolutely true. I read to discover new
characters,
not to get to the end of a book.
Plan or Pantser?
A bit of both. I plan on
Excel with lots of columns and rows. My planning sheet looks like a patchwork
of colours and words. But when I sit down to write, I’ll never stop my
character reacting or behaving in a certain way. They are, to me, organic and
organic creations have a mind of their own. In Feral Snow, there
a moment in the ice cavern when Paul sticks his finger in his hearing ear so he
doesn't hear Nanny telling him to eat. That was Paul reacting to the situation,
I didn't plan that.
How to you create characters in your books, are they cast in your mind or composites of real people?
Again, a bit of both.
Characters seem to walk into my mind before the story starts. Every novel comes
to me the same way: a mental image of a character (usually my MC) in a scene or
setting doing something. For Feral Snow, it was actually Nanny sitting in front
of the TV watching Arctic wolves on a documentary. For Dandelion, it was THE
PATIENT in the lift looking at the dead flies in the light casing. For my next
one, it's Dena (the main character) watching flower petals and seeds flying
over a lake and into the sky as she tugs a scarf over her mouth, sunrise as the
backdrop. Once I have these images, I ask myself why are they there? What are
they thinking? What will they do next? And they just grow.
Time. I work full time and now have a
baby so, time is limited. I'm a night owl so, I don't mind staying up late to
write but I can't do this 5am writing nonsense. I was on furlough last summer
and wrote a 90k word novel in less than 2 months. I just kept thinking, how prolific
could I be if I did this full time? Maybe one day.
Completely depends on what I'm
researching. For Feral Snow, I used Google Maps and Streetview to place myself
in the Arctic. I watched YouTube videos to research what it's like there. I
read loads of facts and articles on the history of the place. Best of all
though was the author, Kate Hamer, put me in touch with a wildlife documentary
cameraman called Mei. I was able to email back and forth with him to ask all
the technical questions I needed such as, 'What's one thing that can happen you
don't really think of or expect to happen, but when it does, it's a disaster?'
(Losing a glove) but that's all because the setting was essential to that book.
For Dandelion, the mind of a psychopath was essential so, I watched lots of
interviews and read a lot. For my next one, place is important but, biology is
essential, so, non-fiction sites are my go-to.
The crippling self-doubt. I'm
absolutely terrified every single time I share my writing with someone or
someone buys my book. As far as I'm aware, the majority of writers are. But
we're compelled to create. It holds me back, at times, I think, when it comes
to seeking beta readers or being ready to find an agent, etc. I worry about my
books' perception. Are they too brutal? Are they too soft for their genre? Do
they make sense? Are my characters relatable? The whole thing is excruciating.
Best parts are the other side of the worst parts. Reviews. Talking with readers. Knowing they're absorbing your writing, thoughts, ideas and themes. Recently, I had an email at 2 am telling me they loved Feral Snow. Next day, their Amazon said they can see it being turned into an Oscar winning film BUT the film will never be as good as the book....blew my mind!
Share something that your readers will not know.
Well, I could share a
couple of things here. The first is that KDP have selected me to run a beta of
something. Watch this space. The second is that I was once in a One Direction
tribute band in America. I worked on a summer camp and, as part of a skit, me
and four others pretended we were One Direction. We performed in front of
thousands and, for the rest of the time there, we were treated like royalty.
Place: a bookshop with time on my
hands (I love the smell of a bookshop… if that's not too weird).
Film: The Martian
Song: Run by Snow Patrol
Food: Pulled pork
