September 2011
Gerry McCullough
The second of our September 2011 ‘Indie’ e-book author interviews is with Gerry McCullough, author of the fabulous ‘Belfast Girls’, published by Night Publishing.
Gerry McCullough
Right, Gerry… here goes….
Tell me a bit about yourself and the things that make you tick.
This is embarrassing. What do I think makes me tick? Well, I’m Irish. I live in Co Down. I’m married with three grown up children who’ve flown the nest. I’m a socialist, a vegetarian, a Christian. All this makes me who I am, I suppose. Or perhaps it’s the other way round – who I am produced these things in my life? I read a lot. I spend any spare time I have with my friends and my family. I like swimming, but don’t do it often enough. I love driving or walking in the country provided it isn’t pouring with rain. Will that do?
What do you like to do when you are not writing or working to promote your book?
Sleep.
What is your favourite genre for reading?
I have lots of favourites, but they are writers rather than genres. A lot of my favourite writers (Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Simon Brett, Hazel Holt, Gavin Lyall, etc) fall into the detective story genre, but that’s only a coincidence. I also like lots of writers of romance, (Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer, Jilly Cooper, etc. ) of historical novels, of fantasy, of children’s books, etc. If you follow my blog, you’ll get a regular taste of the books and writers I enjoy most.
Which two authors have influenced you most as a writer?
Probably C.S.Lewis and Jane Austen. But there are so many.
Describe the moment you decided to pen your first book?
It’s a bit far back to remember – I’d have been about eight, I think. I found that because I enjoyed reading books, I very much wanted to produce the sort of writing I admired. My first attempts at a book were pretty much copies of PG Wodehouse and /or Georgette Heyer.
What was the trickiest bit of writing your latest book?
Working out the plot. Characters come easily to me, but they have to do something, and you have to think hard to make everything fit in properly.
Tell me a little about your writing disciplines – most productive time of day, background music, daily word targets, tea or coffee, lucky pants… that sort of thing.
I work best in the morning or early afternoon. I aim, if I’m actually writing, to produce about 1,000 words a day. But so much of writing is editing, or publicizing – you can’t aim for an exact number of words for either of those. I can’t write if there’s something else going on, even music – I know lots of people do, but it’s a mystery to me how they can. I normally don’t stop for tea or coffee until I’m ready to have a complete break, and as for lucky pants – really, Mr Makinson!
Tell me about your experience in getting your first e-book to market.
My publisher, Tim Roux of Night Publishing, set it up for me as well as publishing the paperback version. Technology doesn’t come easily to me, though I daresay with a bit of effort I could have done it – just glad I didn’t have to! Tim has also helped publicise it. But having said that, I myself worked pretty much without stopping for the first six months trying to ‘get it to the market,’ using Facebook, Twitter, other people’s blogs, and various ‘listing’ sites like Daily Cheap reads; until one day I realized that my next book was still untouched since the day Belfast Girls was first accepted. The difficulty of balancing writing and publicising is a serious one, and I’m trying hard to walk the best line with this.
What’s in the pipeline?
I’ve just finished writing a follow up book – not a sequel, just similar in type – to Belfast Girls, having gone back to it a couple of months ago. Now comes the editing. But I hope to have it out at least as an eBook fairly soon. It’s called Danger Danger, and like Belfast Girls it’s a romance plus thriller, the story of twin girls separated at birth whose lives take strangely parallel routes into two sorts of danger.
E-bookmuncher thinks that giving e-books away for free sends the wrong message to consumers. What are your views?
I heartily agree. I didn’t spent ages writing a book to give it away. If someone wants to read my book, I think they ought to be prepared to pay at least something for it. EBooks are cheap enough to start with – it devalues the book if it’s free. Having said that, I think the emergence of eBooks, which are sold at a price which most people can afford, is a good thing for the market in general. Long ago, paperbacks sold at a price which meant people could buy one quite often without it being a problem. Then prices zoomed skywards until a book became something you only bought occasionally, on a birthday or at Christmas. I think it can be nothing but good that this trend has been reversed as far as eBooks are concerned. But there’s a limit!
If you could be a character from any book in history, who would it be and why?
Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. She is witty, attractive, independent and able to decide for herself how to act, and she ends up with a husband worth having.
Plug your latest book in ten words or less.
Belfast Girls – a glittering romance plus action-packed thriller. Unputdownable!
That’s it, Gerry. Thanks very much indeed for taking out some time to share your tips and writing experiences with us. Very best of luck with ’Belfast Girls’ and indeed your next book, ‘Danger Danger’. We look forward to seeing it out there soon.
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Robert Craven
The first of our two September 2011 ‘Indie’ e-book author interviews is with Robert Craven, author of the excellent ‘GET LENIN’, published by Night Publishing.
Robert Craven
My favourite genre for reading has to be Adventure / Historical; both fiction and non-fiction. I grew up reading Robert Ludlum, Alastair MaClean, Fredrick Forsyth and most recently, Antony Beevor’s series ‘The Battle for Spain’, ‘Stalingrad’ & ‘Berlin’. I’m currently reading ‘Mannerheim President, soldier, spy’ by Jonathan Clements.
Which two authors have influenced you most as a writer?
The two authors who have most influenced me are without doubt, Martin Cruz Smith and John Le Carre – Arkady Renko and George Smiley are two wonderful creations.
Describe the moment you decided to pen your first book?
I have to admit, I wrote my first piece in 1991, a horror short story; after reading Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot’ for the second time - for me its a landmark book; rebooting vampires into the 20th century. I thought ‘I’d love to try something like that…’ & it got published.
What was the trickiest bit of writing your first book?
The trickiest part of GET LENIN had to be the development of my main character Eva Molenaar; the original manuscript was only 26 000 words and really planned as a novella. My wife felt Eva was too unsympathetic a character as it stood, so building the back-story and placing her in the centre of the rise of fascism was a challenge.
Tell me a little about your writing disciplines – most productive time of day, background music, daily word targets, tea or coffee, lucky pants… that sort of thing.
I write best in the evening; usually between 9.30-midnight; music is a must, usually west-coast Jazz, blues, classical and the old rocker that I am, Alice Cooper’s radio show. I don’t set targets, but try to get as much down as I can. A glass of wine (or 2) usually helps the creative juices flow and I try to wear loose clothing and get as comfortable as I can.
Tell me about your experience in getting your first e-book to market.
The experience in getting published was a learning curve; I kept every rejection letter and email which totalled 280 submissions with only 71 responses (all rejections). Then when pitching to Harper Collins; I was directed to their site Authonomy.com. I posted up Get Lenin and through the peer-reviews I found a reference to Night Publishing. I submitted directly and Tim Roux responded that he was interested and offered me a contract. All-in-all the process of writing, pitching and getting published took about 5 years. You learn to grit your teeth and keep on going.
What’s in the pipeline?
I have just finished the sequel to Get Lenin titled ‘Zinnman’, it is in some ways more important because now I’ve written 2 novels and I think after re-reading the final draft, is a worthy sequel. I have a very rough draft for the third instalment, but this hangs on how Get Lenin does.
E-bookmuncher thinks that giving e-books away for free sends the wrong message to consumers. What are your views?
I think give-aways are acceptable so long as there’s a time-limit on their availability, there has to be a certain amount of ‘freebies’ & special pricing to generate an interest, especially with an unknown author. It is after all, a commercial venture.
If you could be a character from any book in history, who would it be and why?
If I could be a character from history (as an eyewitness rather than his actions) would be Andrei Gromyko, the soviet foreign minister who saw Russian history through ww2, the cold war and the fall of the Soviet Union. He was a survivor and that appeals to me.
Plug your latest book in ten words or less.
Eva Molenaar: ingénue, muse, model, assassin; read GET LENIN now.
And finally, Robert, E-bookmuncher wishes to encourage authors to help each other out. Which author and book would you recommend that I approach next that fits the criteria on the E-bookmuncher.com blog site?
Without doubt Gerry McCullough author of ‘Belfast Girls’, a great book and great author; Shalini Boland, author of ‘Hidden’, Drew Cross, author of ‘Bite Marks’. (2 over I know.)
That’s it, Robert. Thanks very much indeed for taking out some time to share your tips and writing experiences with us, and indeed for your recommendations. Very best of luck with GET LENIN and the sequels.
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