Welcome to part one of Confessions of a Reviewers’
interview with England’s very own, Duncan P Bradshaw. There are rumours that no
other country will have him due to some……incidents!
If you don’t know a lot, or indeed anything, about Duncan
then read on. In this interview Duncan was kind enough to take the time out to
give us some detailed and, brutally honest and funny answers to all the
questions I threw at him.
In Part One, tonight, we find out some general
information about Duncan and his writing and influences. In Part Two, tomorrow
night, Duncan will give us some specifics on his new book Hexagram, and also some more
general life stuff. In Part Three on Thursday, Duncan will tell us what to
expect from him in the future and take on the mighty Ten Confession!
On night four, as always, I will be posting my review
on Hexagram.
There is much much more to come from him this week as
well but I will keep you posted on that as we go.
Nothing left to say at this point other than go grab some
nibbles and a drink and sit back, and most of all……enjoy!
CoaR - So tell everyone a bit about yourself in general.
Who is Duncan P Bradshaw?
DPB - I’m the man in the closed toilet cubicle, who makes
grunting sounds when you’ve just finished. I’m the one who drinks from your
favourite mug and leaves that weird burst bubble scum around the rim. I’m the
voice in your head, telling you to drop your phone out of the moving train
window. I am DOOM INCARNATE.
When I’m not doing all of that, I type out the weird and
wonderful things that pop into my head. These sometimes form coherent sentences
and paragraphs, and ultimately, books. I’m then lucky enough for people to
exchange money for these books, so that my frozen thoughts can be thawed out,
in other people’s brains.
I live in Wiltshire, Southern England, with my wife
Debbie, and our two cats, Rafa and Pepe. Having been sterilised in a freak
accident involving a Greenpeace boat and a VHS box-set of Friends, I’ve dedicated myself to being as utterly annoying as
possible. In that regard, I’m doing alright.
CoaR - Can you confirm that the P stands for pisshead?
DPB - The P stands for many a thing, depending on who
I’ve vexed, or the current Martian transition. It is mainly used as a tool of
wonder, as people remark, ‘I wonder what it stands for?’ If they knew the
truth, the enigma would be ruined.
CoaR - Do you have a normal “pay the bills” job, and if
so, can you say what it is? It is rumoured you are a gigolo?
DPB - I do indeed, but it is pretty dull, if I told you
what it is, it would likely send you into a coma, one that you would not
recover from. To counter this, I used to tell people I was a hitman, or a honey
collector. Contrary to the scrawls on many a wall, I've never been a gigolo.
Sorry to disappoint Nev, but if you do require those services, a certain Daniel
Marc Chant would be more than willing to 'accommodate’ you.
CoaR - Why writing? Why decide on that as a career?
DPB - One of my favourite things at school was writing
stories, I had a repeat character called Andy Beatemup, an inept spy, based on
the Russ Abbott character, 'Basildon Bond’. My problem though is that I can be
quite a lazy sod. A few years back, Dan, out of the blue, said he'd written a
book. Bastard, I thought. Coupled with that, Justin had also written two.
Bastards, I thought. It was the final kick up the arse, if they could find the
time, then by Jove, so could I.
I really enjoy it, don't get me wrong, it's not all
sunshine and rainbows, but I finally have a vent for my weird thoughts.
CoaR - Take us through your process for a story. How do
you start it and follow it through to the final product?
DPB - Pretty much everything spawns from a rogue thought
or one line of dialogue. Prime Directive
for instance, was borne out of five words going round and round my head, I
drove Debbie potty one night with its constant repetition. From there, it
linked up with some other ideas I had bouncing around already, and BOOM, I had
enough to start with.
More often than not, ideas are dismissed, as they just
don't have enough to warrant a story, or something else bullies it. I'll spend
a few days thinking about the general narrative, a few characters, setting,
maybe a few key events. Then as soon as I come up with a first line, I'll open
a new word document, and begin.
I tend to fly out of the gates, but then get bogged down.
As I'm a pantser, in that I don't plan a book, I write in the evening, then
spend the next day at work thinking about what I did and what's next. I get
home, make any corrections to problem areas, then crack on with the next bit,
repeat and rinse.
I edit it three times before I send it to beta readers.
Usually, whilst I'm waiting for the feedback, I'm already tinkering, getting
fonts sorted out, working out little design details, that sort of thing. Then
I'll go through what people said, take on board anything of note, discard
anything which isn't useful, and then do another couple of rounds of edits,
before getting it proofread. When it comes back, I then get it into book
templates and get it looking all purty. That part is one of my most favourite
parts of the process to be honest. I’ll then order up a physical proof for one
last edit, and voila, it's ready for release.
CoaR - How do you keep track of your ideas? Do you carry
a notebook with you everywhere or write stuff on the back of your hand?
DPB - Most of my ideas, I just remember, if it's really
good and I don't want to forget it, I'll email myself. It's usually just a line
of dialogue, which I think is either hilarious or disgusting. In the future, I will
have to invest in a gadget of some description, but here and now, the ole brain
is doing alright.
CoaR - Is the pipe just for show?
DPB - The pipe is in fact, a breathing tube. My alien
physiology is ill-equipped to deal with the concentration of gases and people
vaping. To counter these otherwise poisonous materials, my people formed a
rebreather, which I fashioned into a pipe, so I can integrate with you bunch of
savages without anyone knowing.
CoaR - Can you tell us if any of the characters in your
books are based on people you have come across in your life or maybe even
yourself?
DPB - Plenty! Though, I would say that most aren’t
complete representations of people I know. I tend to take a few of their quirks
or traits, and magnify them, as when you’re trying to create a character, you
need to make them memorable. I don’t want to make caricatures, but sometimes, I
need a character whose sole purpose is to help transition the story from one
point to another. They get a chapter, maybe two, if they aren’t quirky in some
way, they just don’t get remembered.
Even the times I use people’s names in books, it is
rarely a full reflection of them. In Class
Four: Those Who Survive, I asked for volunteers to be characters. I’d say none
of them are based fully on the people who share the name. It’s a balancing act,
like all of writing. Though sometimes, when you get inside the head of a
character you’re writing, you see similarities with people, which you can then
try and use as a guide.
I think the character people ask me about the most, is
Philip from Class Three. He’s based,
loosely, on me, but as above, I’ve skewed the personality to make him a bit
larger than life. Though I don’t make up songs about zombies who have been cut
in half, I do have a habit of engaging mouth before brain sometimes, with
varying degrees of riposte from people.
CoaR - Every book you produce has a wonderful cover to
show it off. How much input do you have with them and how important to you are
they?
DPB - This might seem an odd thing to say, so bear with
me, but I think that the covers are probably the most important thing, even
more so than the words contained within. With the boom of self-publishing, and
small presses, the market is swamped. If someone is flicking through a list of
books, where none of the authors are household names, the cover is going to be
what will make or break that person putting their hand in their pocket and
buying it.
Yes, you have to write well, or at least be able to tell
an interesting story, but if your cover looks like a montage of stock imagery,
or you’ve used Times New Roman, it just looks like amateur hour. For me, I love
going to an artist with a brief, and seeing what they come up with. I get a bit
of banter within the SHC for being quite particular, and the brief I send to
artists, is quite exacting. In my mind’s eye, I know what I want, and whilst I
appreciate that what I’ll get back will be different, I need it to incorporate
certain things.
Art, and being able to draw, is one of those things I
would love to be good at, but I completely suck. Though I do have a pretty
clear idea of what I am after in my head. I have been really lucky with the
artists I’ve found so far. Each of them are completely different, but they’ve
all nailed what I asked of them.
I love having an image on
the front, rather than just stylised words, so you can rest assured that,
anything I’ll ever put out, will have something eye catching on the front. Will
it appeal to all? Of course not, but it’ll be the closest representation of
what I want, and that is all I can ask for.
Whilst we’re on design...I
just want to point out that my books don’t stop at the cover. If you’ve ever
bought a physical copy of my books, you’ll see that I apply the same principles
inside. For example, Celebrity Culture,
my bizarro novella, uses a different font for every single disease. There are forty-six
of them. FORTY-SIX. I love putting these little touches to my final product.
There’s a little section in the physical version of Hexagram which does just that. I
researched it online to get it looking as close as possible to the real thing.
Vague, I know, but best go pick it up and see huh? Ultimately, these little
design decisions may seem trivial to some, but to me, it helps convey more to
the reader.
CoaR - Any chance I can have some money off you for the
laptop I ruined spewing coffee all over it after seeing your pose in front of
Jabba the Hutt?
DPB - You best take that up with Jabba himself I’m
afraid. Being one of his slave girls has some perks, included within that is
any claim for damages caused by my sultry demeanour.
CoaR - I plan to interview the three stooges, sorry, the
three men responsible for The Sinister Horror Company all together so won’t go
into it too much here, but how is that working out for you all?
DPB - It’s going alright, I think the nucleus of why we
started off the Sinister Horror Company is still there, of a fashion. Just, as
is the way, things change. I don’t think it would work if we weren’t all
friends, as each of us has wildly different personalities and approaches.
I for one, am not the easiest person to get on with at
times, and, hand on heart, there have been a few occasions when it has been a
real struggle. Fortunately, I think we’ve found a way of working now, which
cuts down on some of the areas which caused issues beforehand.
Nothing worth having, ever comes easy.
CoaR - What do you think of the state of play in the
writing world these days? Particularly the horror genre?
DPB - It’s an odd one, with the advent of
self-publishing, there is now so much out there, it’s unreal. There are some
people, who feel that it should all belong to them alone, which is an odd
concept to fathom, fortunately, they are in the minority. With the big
publishers doing what they’ve always done, the underbelly of horror is
beginning to bubble. In a good way.
I read an interview Justin did at the beginning of the
year, and he likened it to the indie music scene of the late eighties/early
nineties. I think this is a brilliant analogy. Right now, you have some truly
amazing writers out there, doing some astonishing work. Couple that with some
excellent small presses, the world of genre fiction stands on the edge of a
real boon.
You have some people who have really mastered the art of
promotion and finding out, A) what they’re good at and B) what people want, and
they are giving that to the readers. This year alone has seen some really
excellent books coming out, and I think that there are plenty more to come. I
really get the feeling that I’m in the midst of something cool.
Yes, there are people being dicks, but that is true in
any walk of life. Hell, think back to school, or your workplace, there is
always that person or persons, who are utter bell ends. We are all in this
together, so share people’s Facebook posts, recommend books to people, point
writers in the direction of an artist you think would be perfect or them,
anything that can help make kickass books, do it. The scene is only as good as
the people in it, and from what I’ve seen, it is something to behold.
Well that is your lot for Part One of the Interview!
Please remember to come back tomorrow night when Duncan
will be talking some more about his writing in general and telling you all you
need to know about Hexagram!
Thanks again for visiting Confessions of a Reviewer!
CONFESSIONS REVIEWS DUNCAN P BRADSHAW
One day upon waking, as if from some frightful nightmare, I sat at my laptop and typed out letters, which formed words, slowly they created sentences. People read it and said, that's okay that is, have a biscuit. And I said yes.
I live in Wiltshire, in Southern England with my wife Debbie and our two cats, Rafa and Pepe, they just miaowed a hello at you. Between bouts of prolonged washing up and bungie cord knitting, I type out the weird and wonderful things that run around my head.
My debut novel, zom-com Class Three, was released in November 2014, the first book in the follow up trilogy, Class Four: Those Who Survive is out in July 2015. I'm then going to try and get some novellas released which are on something other than the undead.
And for more about Duncan, visit his site or find him on social media:
And for more about Duncan, visit his site or find him on social media:
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