On Tenderness Express began as an exercise in writing a somewhat post-modern private eye story and, in the process, mutated into what now appears to be the final volume in a quartet, which I personally call The Hotel Room Quartet and might be reprinted in omnibus format as such, which brings to an end many of the preoccupations and strands of my previous two crime novels and the story collection Life in the World of Women. All about bad things happening to good people, bad people happening to good people, and people with cold hearts colliding with others of a softer disposition. Much of the action is set in America, on highways, in motels, a sort of desperate waltz into darkness juggling all my own regrets and obsessions.
Influences: all of crime fiction and much SF and fantasy, on the basis of you are what you eat. In random order: John Irving, Cornell Woolrich, J. G. Ballard, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Crumley, David Goodis, Jim Thompson, Michael Perkins. Like a cocktail, really. Some influences are more apparent than others, others less so but no less important. As far as fledgling efforts, just the need to stand out at school when I was young and I was good at storytelling. Began writing at thirteen and published (efforts better now left buried) at sixteen.
I have very little unpublished stuff, apart from one embarassing novel I wrote at eighteen which had the whole weight of the world and deluded romanticism on its shoulders, encompassing reincarnation, the Wandering Jew and a bleak travelogue of south American brothels and decadence (at that age you write about what you don't know, then you learn to know better, and continue the embrassing process by writing about matters closer to reality, in my own case). In fact, a later science fiction novel which had many incarnations and was partly published in various places will finally be seeing the light of day next year from Toxic. Called The Phosphorus War, my homage and goodbye to the new wave of British speculative fiction, albeit with a year 2000 polish I'm applying right now.
What with Murder One and my Time Out and now Guardian column duties, I read a lot of crime and it's no secret my sympathies lean towards darkness and the USA, but I also try to read a lot outside the genre. And not just erotica! I still cast a fond eye on Golden Age locked room mysteries, knowing all too well I'd never be capable of writing one. Same names as the influences above, but I would rather not name contemporary names, as I live within the crime community and have already angered P. D. James, Robert Crais and Andrew Vachss without really trying, and am amazed by how thin-skinned some people are. So: I love them all (not!).
Bloodshed is there, in the world outside our window and it would be hypocritical to ignore it. Violence hurts and too many books treat it as an exercise in style and prove incredibly unrealistic. On the other hand, it can also be caricatural and fun, viz Tarantino and Hiaasen and his whole school of camp grotesque followers. I assayed violence myself in It's You That I Want to Kiss and, in retrospect, maybe was too explicit, and went slightly over the top (although the fact that the major villain was called Mr Evil was, I thought, a sure sign of my intentions). Some people found it disturbing so some regrets there. But, it's like nudity in the movies, and should it advance the plot and have artistic merit, I'd be violent again.
Sex in my novels? The big question! Well, I plead guilty. It's there, it's in your face, it's anatomically realistic, it's crude, it's tender, it's about bodies and minds and the places in between. I write what I feel, and the sexuality of the characters and what they do about it is always paramount in my books. It is, I hope, what brings these people alive. Therefore, sexuality is unavoidable in what I write. You can't live without it; well, at any rate, I can't.
I often come up with titles first, sometimes characters, and I improvise a lot, particularly so in short stories. The novels are somewhat more structured, although in a loose way. I live with the idea and a rough approximation of the plot in my mind for up to a year before I actually put pen to paper and then I usually write the book in three months. But there's no preferred method. It's just what has worked for me over the last decade. In physical terms, I drink Coca-Cola from the bottle, eat chocolate and listen to rock music when I write fiction. Non-fiction, on the other hand, is more of a silent activity. But rock music (possibly a bigger influence on me than other writers) is fundamental and provides me with the right atmosphere for the book.
Films are a part of my life and always have been and I am heavily involved in various film festivals, including of course Crime Scene, and I would not be the person I am were it not for music. I still attend rock gigs even if, in some cases, I might happen to be the oldest person present, and I probably see over 150 films a year, so you might say I'm still a fan. Well, it's the only way to grow old disgracefully...
First for me in a novel? Always characters and places. I feel that if you get those right, the narrative just happens. It becomes an organic thing closely allied to the people and the places. There are only so many plots around and all have been used a thousand times. What is important is to spin the variations with elegance and get the reader involved in an emotional way even if he or she has already read the boy meets girl, or road chase or shoot-out or investigation canvas many times before.
I've enjoyed working with Jim Driver at the Do-Not Press and prefer working with small, independent publishers, but then I worked in big publishing myself for many years so I know the problems that face editors or people working in the conglomerates. It's a question of balance: you get marketed better at Pan or Headline or Hodder than you do at Robinson or Do-Not, but then again I'm in the invidious position of not having to rely on my writing for the money, so I can afford to indulge. Often there is less choice.
I am of the world. I have somehow orbited towards the centre of the crime world what with Murder One, my reviewing, the festivals and all that, but somehow I don't think it has much bearing on what I actually write about. Personally I'd prefer splendid isolation, although not of the monastic variety, although my favourite poet and singer Leonard Cohen has now become a Zen seminarist (and no longer appears to write, though).
Having completed what turned out to be a quartet of books with many things in common (with a year's interruption in between for an erotic amuse gueule The State of Montana), I have now decided quite consciously that the form suits me and am planning another quartet of books. They will be crime, somewhat less erotic than my previous novels (although the characters will still have sex lives of course), many of the minor characters will reappear haphazardly from book to book, although not the main protagonists of the novels, and the emphasis will be on cities, one per book. The order will be London, New York, Paris and New Orleans. Foolishly, I'd be committing to this series for the next five years or so of my life and it is a bit daunting, but it's all brewing inside right now and the mental bubble is about to burst. The London book is called Kiss Me Sadly and I'm aiming at summer 2001 delivery. But then again, I might just write that time travel SF love story I've also been incubating for only twenty years. Ask me the question again next month.
Titles
all title links to amazon.co.uk
except where specified
