What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I would say my use of offbeat imagery or ideas. I like to think readers will never know what they are going to get in my fiction because of my rather leftfield imagination. So one story in my new short story collection, An Orchid in My Belly Button, features oyster mushrooms growing on an arm, another includes a hoover that can suck up anything the character hates in his life. My fiction is speculative but literary too.
What comes first for you — the plot or the characters — and why?
Neither! My stories usually begin with an image that appears in my head and I give it some time to settle. In An Orchid in My Belly Button, the original idea for the story ‘Snow on Snow’ came from watching a snowstorm out of my window and wondering what if the quiet snowflakes were falling in a flat. For ‘Butterflies and a Gun’, I heard the phrase on the radio ‘he had butterflies in his gut’ — meaning someone nervous — and an image came of a man with actual swallowtails fluttering near his midriff.
How long did it take you to write this book?
It is difficult to say precisely. Stories from the past few years sit alongside those from more than a decade ago in this, my third anthology of short fiction. Though I didn’t set out to write a book, when deciding in 2023 to put together another collection, I centred it around environmental and natural themes because many of my short stories explore those. I took some time ordering the stories as I tried to balance playful pieces with darker ones. So, for example, I have an absurd story about a woman trying to score bootleg chocolate in a world of scarcity, which features bouncing sheep and gangs of marauding estate agents; but a more serious story concerns a middle-class Columbian man who seeks help from an indigenous shaman because of his lung problems caused by oil pollution.
What do you think is the best way to improve writing skills?
Ultimately I think writing is more craft than art. Good writing comes down to good editing, sculpting the successive drafts from a first draft that is always messy. Over time, I am learning to edit better. I edit a lot — I’m not a writer who writes two or three drafts and then is happy to submit. I often return to old stories to add a few words here or cut a chunk of text there. I relate to Oscar Wilde’s quip that he had a good morning writing because ‘took out a comma and then on reflection he put it back’! Being a good editor sometimes means spending time tightening a line of dialogue, but it can also mean embellishing a particular scene to bring out its deeper current. When I re-read a story after leaving it aside for a bit, I try to trust my intuitive sense of what works and what doesn’t and edit accordingly.
How do you process and deal with negative book reviews?
I am lucky that I haven’t had any one star reviews yet — that is a rite of passage I am awaiting! But if anyone posts a vaguely critical review of one of my books, I try to remind myself it is just one opinion. I occasionally go and look at the mean, one-star reviews of my favourite books on Goodreads. If the brilliant George Saunders can get reviews like ‘WTF, this is the worst book I ever read,’ then anyone can. Actually, some Goodreads one-star reviews of great books are pretty funny. But if I dislike a book, I wouldn’t review it publicly because I know the time and care the author has probably put into it.
How do you use social media as an author?
Because I am disabled and housebound, I use Bluesky and Instagram to post about my writing and for book promotion. They are also good ways to connect with other authors and creatives (and to have the occasional rant about politics). Most publishers expect authors to have some social media presence these days.
What are your favorite blogs or websites for writers?
Chris Fielden, who runs the To Hull and Back humorous writing competition, has a great website containing a wealth of advice — such as short story writing tips — and lists of writing competitions. For pleasure, I love the experimental, lyrical Ric Journal, run by a French and an Indian editor, which features sections like Dreams, Impressions, Echos, Iconotosy, and includes odd interviews with dead people like Bataille and Picasso and with figures like Dracula and the Sphinx. I also like 3AM Magazine, which does interesting essays and interviews as well as publishing original writing and visual poetry. I recently interviewed the Japanese-to-English translator Polly Barton for it.
If you could be a character in one of your favorite books, who would you be?
Probably Zaphod Beeblebrox. Who wouldn’t want two heads and to steal a spaceship?
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Twitter @Sylphsea
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