Stewart: I really had to think about this one. Does
having a pad of American yellow legal notepaper open on the desk, to scribble
on, count? Come to think of it, I also prefer to use Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V7 pens,
although V5s are acceptable at a push.
Paul: What types of books
do you like to read? Who are your favorite authors? Why?
Stewart: Crime fiction is my favorite and I like
Henning Mankell, Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Peter James and – a recent
discovery – Peter Robinson, who writes the Detective Chief Inspector Banks
stories. My favorite author is David Peace -- I would take his Red Riding
Quartet to my desert island. Peace takes real events and writes top-flight fiction
based on them, and in the Red Riding Quartet, he covers the Yorkshire Ripper,
the Stalker Affair and the Stefan Kiszko case. I also enjoy non-fiction immensely
and read biographies, historical books and true crime (especially Gordon Burn
and Joseph Wambaugh).
Paul: If someone had the
power to step into your creative mind what would they see?
Stewart: Absolute chaos. Too many ideas floating
about, many of which go missing because I can’t write them down or type them
fast enough. It’s very difficult to pick things out and focus, but somehow, I just
about manage.
Paul: What is a typical day
for you?
Stewart: I’ve just started freelancing, so I get up,
get ready, then have a coffee and sit at the dining table to do some work. I break
to walk the dog in the park, then get back to the laptop. I’m essentially a
night owl but I’ve had it knocked out of me during several years in the
conventional working world. My creativity is heightened at night, so I’ll
gravitate towards the novel I’m working on, perhaps with some wine and jazz. My
wife is an academic and an artist, and also works from home. It’s wonderful to be
able to take breaks, relax over dinner together and make each other laugh.
Paul: Do you have a
favorite character in each of your series, aside from the lead? If so, which
one and why?
Stewart: I’ve just written the first book in this
series, which I am calling the Northern Quartet, since it centers on the
Northern Quarter, an area of Manchester. I’m rather fond of Detective Constable
Wetherall. Some of his vocabulary is the sort of stuff you’d find in the Viz
“Profanisaurus”, as are certain things I say myself in social settings.
Wetherall says these things in more polite settings, which I wish I could get
away with myself. Don’t worry, though – we’re not talking Duke of Edinburgh
level gaffes here. He’s basically got the mind of a fourteen year old boy!
Paul: How do you find the time to write?
Stewart: I couldn’t find much, until recently,
when I was mentally and physically exhausted and had to take time off work. I
opened my laptop and looked through the first chapters of a detective novel
that I had started writing in early March -- at a slow rate. I decided to continue,
and found it therapeutic. My GP was pleased I was engaging in something giving
me some structure to my day, and my wife was – and is – tremendously
encouraging and supportive. I now write all the time, having decided to go
freelance.
Paul: What is one thing you hope I do not tell the readers?
Stewart: That I’m a fairly well-adjusted guy with a happy life, and I’m
an optimist. It doesn’t go with the image of a crime fiction writer really,
does it? Best keep it under your hat. Far better that people think I’m a morose
character full of intractable demons.
Paul: If
you are self-published, what led to you going your own way?
Stewart: Probably
my intense fear of rejection letters! I wanted to put my work out there and let
the reading public decide whether or not to buy it. The alternative was to
submit it to publishers and probably get knock-backs because it’s not
marketable or what they’re looking for at this time. Writers don’t have to do that, these days. There’s
a beautiful egalitarianism about self-publishing: it doesn’t matter who you are;
if you can write something that people find engaging, you can do well out of
it. Or at least have a better chance than you might through conventional
publishing.
Paul: Do
you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?
Stewart: I
have to have a plot, but I don’t follow it slavishly. I tried writing novels
for years during my twenties and would sit and write, just thinking and hoping
it would go somewhere, but every attempt petered out after twenty-odd thousand
words. I need the structure there. Once I had plotted Steps In The Shadows, I
followed the structure but improvised around it. I’m planning to do a James
Ellroy-style superstructure for the next novel. He referred to this in an
interview for The Paris Review (http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5948/the-art-of-fiction-no-201-james-ellroy).
I get the feeling it will give me some comfort.
Paul: Do
you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is
more fully-formed?
Stewart: In
the early stages of the first draft, I had to fight the urge to edit too much.
I found that, in the last few chapters of that draft, I was writing in a more
fully formed way. When it came to the second draft, I did extensive rewriting
of the first few chapters and had to add about ten chapters in the first half,
just so everything would make sense. But later on, the chapters didn’t need as
much editing and I inserted only one or two extra scenes.
Paul: Do
you have to do much research for your stories?
Stewart: Even
though it’s a detective novel and therefore it’s important to get things right,
I probably don’t need to research as much as I do, but I have an obsessive
personality. The internet makes it easy to conduct research. For example, Google
Street View enables you to walk in the shoes of your characters. I know
Manchester city center very well. I’ve walked along most of its streets, but
when I was writing one of the chapters, I needed to check whether the route I
was taking would be plausible under the circumstances. I went on Google Street
View and tracked it.
Stewart: Steps In The Shadows is a book about the
murder of a young woman, whose body is found on a building site. The copper
working the case is Detective Inspector Molyneux, and it’s his first case at
this rank – he’s only been promoted recently. So he’s thrust into this case,
having to find a killer while he’s only just finding his feet. He’s a decent
guy with good values, dealing with some horrific stuff. He’s not entirely
comfortable wearing the cloak of authority, his personal life’s a bit chaotic
and he doesn’t enjoy the healthiest of relationships with his boss.
Paul: What inspired you to
write this book?
Stewart: David Peace once said he “[didn't]
really see the point of making up crimes.” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/10/writers-true-crime-david-peace). It’s definitely true crimes that inspired me. In early 2010, the remains of a
woman were found when builders were working on the new Co-op headquarters in
Manchester. (http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1191952_murder_hunt_after_skeleton_found_on_building_site). There was another case at the start of this year, when the body of a young
woman was found on the Sandringham Estate. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/08/sandringham-body-identified-latvian-student). So I had a crime based on these that my detective character could investigate.
There was a series of attacks in central Manchester’s Northern Quarter in late
2011 and early 2012 (http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1581139_my-terror-at-hands-of-northern-quarter-sex-beast-brave-victim-speaks-out-as-attacker-is-jailed),
which inspired the quartet’s overarching theme. In addition, society inspires
me -- especially how the media reports crime, particularly crimes against
women. (Yes, there is a journalist character in the series!)
Paul: Do
you also write any poetry, non-fiction or short stories?
Stewart: I
haven’t written any poetry since school. I have written a short story on my blog.
I would love to write non-fiction. I plan to write about one of my favorite
bands, which will take a massive amount of research but I’ll love it. I also want
to write true crime. A few years ago, I started scribbling some notes about a
particular case that fascinated me. I wanted to turn the notes into a book as
good as Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”, or Gordon Burn’s “Happy Like
Murderers” -- a psycho-sociological study, but in my own voice. I didn’t feel
confident that I could pull off such a task, so I shelved it.
Paul: Do
you enter competitions? Are there any you could recommend?
Stewart: I
don’t, although I’ve not ruled out having a go. My wife bought me a
subscription to Writers’ Forum magazine and their monthly fiction competition
looks good. I’ve enjoyed reading some of the stories in there, and they give
the winning writers a pretty thorough critique.
Paul: How
much marketing do you do for your published works or for your ‘brand’?
Stewart: A
few weeks before publication, I started tweeting, blogging about it and I even
made a Facebook page. I think there are only so many tweets people can read
about a certain book, or album, or product, before they get sick of the sight
of it. People reading and recommending it to others is probably the best
marketing – I just hope the recent “sockpuppeting” scandal will not hurt indie
writers. I’m sure there must be many genuine reviews out there. With e-books,
you can read sample chapters anyway, so you can see for yourself and decide
whether to buy the entire thing.
Paul: What’s
your favorite / least favorite aspect of your writing life? Has anything
surprised you?
Stewart: I’d
say probably the editing, especially when you find a massive hole in the plot –
something you didn’t think through properly but is essential to the story, so
you have to write a lot more to deal with it. I don’t think anything has
surprised me, although I would have hoped for greater uptake of the pre-release
marketing I did!
Paul: What
do you do when you’re not writing? Do you have any hobbies or party tricks?
Stewart: When
I’m not writing, I enjoy life with my immensely beautiful and talented wife and
our incredibly cute dog. I love cooking and entertaining. I read voraciously
and I am addicted to jazz, especially jazz fusion – I listen to jazz constantly
and I co-presented a jazz radio show every two weeks for three years on a
community radio station in Manchester, ALL FM. (http://allfm.org/) I also enjoy
running. Party tricks? Probably funny voices, accents and impressions – a
passable Alan Partridge and, in keeping with my appearance, a bit of Bee Gees
style falsetto. But only after a few drinks.
Paul: Thanks Stewart. That was most entertaining. Good luck!
Stewart's Blog: Stewart Spaull
Stewart on Twitter: @StewartSpaull
Stewart on Facebook: Stewart Spaull
Stewart's latest book: Steps In The Shadows (Amazon)
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