Please welcome to WLB M.J. Johnson. Martin is the author of Niedermayer & Hart
, which is an amazing, well-written horror/thriller (if you need to put a label on it) that I have reviewed here and is worth checking out. (Really, one of the best books I have read this year, and I read a lot.) On to the questions:
Describe your ideal writing space. How
does it compare to reality?
George Bernard Shaw and Roald Dahl used
to write in sheds in their gardens. Sir Henry Rider Haggard used to write in a
room above an elegant archway in his Victorian lodge home that crossed the road
at Maze Hill, St Leonards, East Sussex. I don't think I've ever had an 'ideal
space' clearly pictured in my mind. I've had the odd fantasy about converting an
attic room into a special study, its walls lined with beautiful oak shelves
bearing every reference book I might ever conceivably need. Alas, this I
realise, is nothing more than a pipedream!
I write in a corner of our dining room
and have done so for a number of years now. What was once upon a time our
'dining table' and still referred to by this name (old habits die hard!), is
generally covered with reference books, notes and old drafts. Occasionally it
gets cleared when people come over for dinner, though generally (if you've been
invited more than once - and therefore regarded as someone we don't have to
impress anymore) we eat in our kitchen which has an extendable table. I have a
set-up alongside the window which looks out at our often sadly neglected
garden. I think it's absolutely essential to be able to look out for an occasional
daydream and couldn't conceive of a space that didn't have a window or some
kind of changing picture, a cloud or bush blowing in the breeze, a spider on
the window spinning its web, or observing the rain. I enjoy watching the
battles and antics of our local cats taking short-cuts along our fence and
occasionally shake a fist at them when they do what cats love doing best in
finely raked soil! Grrr! I work on a PC and set myself a target of 2,000 words
a day for a first draft. I used to write my first draft in longhand which is a
way I loved to work, but once I'd completed a draft I then had the extra labour
of typing-up my often fairly messy pages. I've got used now to working directly
onto the screen.
What is the first story you remember
writing and what was it about?
The first thing I ever wrote was a
story about a secret agent called James Wheaton. He had many very striking
similarities, eg a love of gadgets etc, to that other secret agent named James.
I was ten/eleven at the time and recall working furiously at it in a small,
thin, ruled, exercise book. I'm not sure if I ever finished it and I recall
that I became a little disheartened when it was pointed out, not in an unkind
way by one of my teachers, that what I'd written (twenty or so chapters!) would
probably only amount to two or three pages of a book.
Name a memorable book from your
childhood. Why is it memorable?
I think the book I still love most of
all from my childhood is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I read the
book to myself and I adored the characters then and still continue to do so. Mr
Mole, Ratty, Badger and the incorrigible Mr Toad have lived in my imagination
ever since. In my mind's eye I can still picture the charming illustrations by E
H Shepard that accompanied the version I had.
If you could ask any writer (living or
dead) a question, who would it be and what would you ask?
This one was the hardest to answer,
because I've always read a great deal and admire so many writers. After much
deliberation I decided on James Clavell (1924 - 1994). He wrote what is to my
mind one of the finest adventure stories ever written, 'Shogun', and I am awed
by the sheer size and scope of this novel. If I could, I'd love to be able to discuss
with him, or better still be a fly on his study wall and observe his working
practices. My question to him: how do you absorb the research information
necessary for your writing without getting too bogged down in the detail?
If you could pick any of the worlds or
characters you have created, which would you want to visit or spend a day with?
Thanks, Brinda, an easy one! I'd love
to meet or better still be considered a friend of Reynald De Sauveterre's. He
is one of the main characters in the old tale that runs through my book
'Niedermayer & Hart'. Reynald is kind, noble, loyal and always prepared to
do what is right and to see it through to the bitter end no matter how
difficult this may turn out to be. I think he'd give a great guided tour of
medieval Acre, be fun to be with and what's more it would have really cut down
on research time when I was trying to get the feel of the place right!
What is one thing you like to do when
you are not reading or writing?
I love to walk. I take a walk every day
and miss sharing these with our characterful old dog Bob who passed away a short
while back. I'm very lucky to be married to a woman who shares this joy of
walking with me and our weekend never feels complete if there hasn't been time
for a decent walk. In the summer just gone by we went to the Tyrol, Austria and
spent two glorious weeks going up and down on cable-cars (another shared
pleasure!), taking long daily hikes and eating spinach and nettle knödel (dumplings)
smothered with parmesan cheese at the Gipfelrestaurant right at the top of the
Hohe Salve (whenever we could engineer arriving there by lunchtime!)
What are you currently working on?
I'm doing some last minute corrections
and changes to 'Roadrage' which will be coming out next Spring and is a dark psychological
thriller. I'm also seventy thousand words into the first draft of a new novel that
doesn't yet have a title and is the sequel to 'Niedermayer & Hart'. I was a
bit nervous about doing a sequel but so far I'm satisfied with the way it's
going. I hope to have it complete and ready for publication in 2014.
I was looking forward to a new book, but a sequel, too? I am intrigued. Can't wait! Thank you for taking the time to answer all of my questions!
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