Writing about the Russian Mafia

What do I have in common with the Russian mafia? Not much, thankfully, except my friend, Joe Stein, has written a brilliant new detective novel which shows that he knows enough about them for both of us. I first wrote about That Twisted Thing Called Truth here, but since then I've had the chance to ask Joe some pointed questions about writing this sort of book, which is a genre I love but can't imagine being able to write, and about his own experiences that have given him the scary inside info that allowed him to write about such scary people:

     You write in a genre very different from my own and you excel in plot development. How do you plot out your books? How do you think of the twists and turns?

Very kind of you to say excel! But although the plot is obviously important, I often think of it as a device to show the characters’ development. Events happen which allow the reader to have a new way of looking at a character and how he/she reacts to that event. I usually have a starting point and end in mind for the plot, and sometimes, some set scenes that I want to include, but I think of my plotlines as fairly simple and I don’t want to overcomplicate them, because most events in life, even the extreme ones are reasonably simple and follow patterns. Credibility is really important to me and I hope that any ‘twists and turns’ appear to be natural developments of events or the characters’ reactions to events.

 You’ve written a trilogy using one particular character as the main character in each. As a reader, I never tired of him and wouldn’t mind a 4^th chance to watch his life. But as a writer, are you tired of him? Does he still intrigue you?

No, I’m not yet tired of Garron. I think (I hope) that he has changed and evolved since the first book. Here’s a guy who grew up in a tough, but not criminal, world with little education, and thought he’d got out through boxing. When that didn’t work, he found he had no other skills. His decisions are driven by his circumstances and in some cases by self-deception about his own motives. He’s an introspective character and in fact the first book was really written not as a thriller, but as a character study, though set in a world with thugs and guns in it. He’s been described as a ‘tough guy’ character, but I don’t really think of him like that. A lot of thriller lead characters are called tough guys, but he’s not a 6 foot 4 ex-special services marine, with three black belts in martial arts, who can make a flame thrower out of an empty washing up liquid bottle and some sticky-back plastic. It takes more to be tough when you’re not sure what’s going to happen, or whether you can deal with it, or if in fact whether you should try dealing with it at all.

One thing I have found in these books though, is that telling a story in the first person does limit you in terms of the language. I find sometimes that I can’t use certain words or phrases because the character telling the story just wouldn’t use them. And that can be a little constricting at times. I have to try to work around that by having other characters say what he wouldn’t!

 I love the way you write a car chase. It’s breathtaking, in that it really takes your breath away. Did the style of writing for that scene just happen organically or did you make a conscious decision to write it the way you did?

That’s a very interesting question. It’s back to the credibility thing. I wanted to see if I could write a car chase in a realistic and believable way. We all like car chases, from Bullitt to the Bourne films and most of us drive, but I wanted to see if I could describe what it would really feel like to be in that. To be right on the knife edge of controlling that vehicle. I tried to write it as I would have driven it, if that makes sense. So yes, it was a conscious decision to write it that way, hopefully taking the reader along with the characters, but at the same time, that’s the way it came out. It’s then a question of whether it reads right to me, whether the gut reaction which I’m looking for in the reader is there in me as well. In that respect, it was a little like the unlicensed boxing scene in my second book, where I wanted to write a fight more or less in real time and as it would happen and feel. Then you’re into the re-writing stages, but trying to keep the natural flow of what is going on, which if you’re not careful you can lose when you’re on the second or third draft. If it works, it’s good, if it misses, it misses by a mile!

And I must ask…your ability to write about Russian mafia, the life of a body guard, the violence of the people in that world – where did that come from? Should I be worried about your wellbeing?

No, Sue, thank you but you don’t need to worry about me. I’m out of that world and I have a day job and a family. That’s enough hard work, I don’t need thugs and Russians and bulletproof vests anymore! But I worked in an industry where these people existed. If I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t be able to write credibly about them. Obviously, the books are a fictional exaggeration of the jobs and the people I worked with (and if they weren’t fictionalised, I’d still say that they were!) but those types, mindsets, even some of the lesser events (though not all) are based in reality. And that should give the books the credibility they need as a background to what the characters do and how they act. Because, to get back to your first point, I’m more interested in why something happens and how people react to that, than the event itself. (Have I dodged that question well enough?)

And thank you for the questions, Sue, I don’t often get the opportunity to talk about writing and this has been a pleasure.

Thank you, Joe. And to all you crime novel lovers out there, do go check out Joe's books. You can buy them in all the usual places.

Literature for Social Change

While I was having a wonderful time in Ireland pounding out the first draft of Novel 3, the kids of Anjali House were holding their third Writing Workshop. In between writing episodes about fictional lives in Siem Reap, real lives in Siem Reap were being poured into poetry and short stories which were then forwarded my way via the magic of the internet. Talk about feeling connected! Their work is as mesmerising as ever, and it was interesting to me to see how the work of the new kids differed from those who had worked through the process before. Not better or worse. Just different.

In the past I have sent them photographs or ideas to use as prompts for their writing. But this time we did something different. The end of the workshop coincided with the annual Angkor Photo Festival. This festival was started years ago by an international group of photojournalists who then also began to put cameras into the hands of local street kids. Those kids became the first group to attend the shelter which has now become Anjali House, and now with its Writing Workshop, we decided it was time to combine the two arts projects together. So this time the kids used their own photographs as prompts and I think the results are quite beautiful. As they say, "Imagination is the Best Power." I am so proud to be a part of it, and I can't wait to be back with them leading their next workshop in March.

I wish I could show you all 28 pages of this issue, but I can't. Instead, here's an example:

Meet Poet, Carolyn Oulton

Over the past years, I have had the good fortunate to get to know Carolyn and her poetry. I think all poetry lovers should know about her latest collection.


Carolyn is a Reader in Victorian English at Canterbury Christ Church University. Her collection, A Child, a Death and the Making of the Fairytale Woman registers Carolyn's interest in Victorian and modern mythmaking as well as the landscape of East Kent. In this beautiful book, she has  created a life with all its humour and tragedy, dreams and fears, out of a language mixed with beauty and simplicity. Both quiet and powerful, this is poetry that carries you along in waves, like the sea that crashes through it. It stays with you, reverberating in your ear and your heart.


Here is an excerpt, the poem from which the title of the book is taken. After reading it, you might well want to order it from the publisher, BeWrite Books, here, as well as the usual other sources.


















A Child, a Death and the Making of the Fairy Tale Woman

These shreds of gauze are carelessly cut out
before being fingered to bits; a small pair of fists
might be almost enough to keep them back.
On subsequent days,
treading ice - a parent will tell
of holding the child in air
like a juggling ball -
collision and tumble,
steep then flat, the snow
implodes. And there is waiting
again - pouring fast over ridges of air,
scrambling over the height of the garden,
cars are sludge and grime on the dual carriageway -
there is waiting for a phone
to ring. A single robin
flaps against a window. You see they die.
You can paste the figures back onto
an appropriate landscape. Who knows why
in some versions, the hair is cut off
or the cinders grind? All the time
remember, there is blood in a sister's shoe.
It doesn't matter. What you can't get back
always, is an outline, quite the right shape,
to edge onto the backdrop,
and the snow
falls angrily in rags, fades to water
where it bumps against bare skin.

Retreat!

Random thoughts:

1. Look at the 1st Draft Progress meter to the right. Yep, that's 73% done and a crazy 13,000 words written since I've been here.

2. I haven't left the house in two days which is partly due to the above, partly due to the rain, and partly due to being too lazy to change out of my sweatpants and put on my shoes.

3. I finished reading a fantastic crime novel by Joe Stein called That Twisted Thing Called Truth. Yes, I know Joe and yes, he is published by my publisher, but I wouldn't rave about this if I didn't mean it. I wouldn't mention it at all. So...go buy it. It's a real page-turner, and his descriptions of car chases and shoot outs are wild! (I'll be writing more about him and his book later. I might even get him to answer some questions about how he could possibly know the stuff he's written about. Hmmm.)

4. I wrote about the difficulty I was having coming up with a title for novel 3 here. Well, I think I've come up with one, at least one I can use as a working title. I had been playing around with two specific words which felt like they needed to be a part of it and this morning, who knows how or why, the way to put them together in a catchy, intriguing way, popped into my head. I wasn't even in the shower -- which is how I tell my students to do it. I won't tell you what it is now, just in case.....

5. I was part of a fascinating reading here the other night. The Irish Writing Centre, where I read in September and talked about here, has sent around three memoirists to read at various venues around Ireland. It really was very nice of them to include me in the reading, considering I don't write memoirs and  I'm not Irish. But it gave me a chance to read an excerpt from A Clash of Innocents that I don't normally read, and to think about an aspect of my writing which I don't normally think about, i.e. my use of memory and my slightly wacky impulse to want to turn reality into fiction.

6. People have asked why I can get so much writing done when I'm here, and I think I've realised why it is. Obviously, it's the quiet and the fact that by being here in the first place I've made a commitment to put my normal life aside. But I do blog (obviously). I do answer emails and check out Facebook. So what's the difference? One, I don't make plans to see people or get my hair cut or run errands or grab a drink (I mean tea) with friends in the afternoon. Even if those things don't take up much time, knowing I have to do them means I have to put on real clothes, break my momentum, plan my day etc. When I'm here, there are lots of things I do, but nothing I have to do, and that's a big difference. And two, I don't have to think about my meals. I don't have to plan them, organise them, order (I mean cook) them. All I do is notice the time, amble out to the kitchen and eat. Another big difference. So it's not so much about real time. It's about mental time.

And speaking of mental time, I've run out of it. I need a nap and a shower and then an amble over to dinner. Enjoy your weekend.

Deadlines Made Easier to Bear

For the first time in my writing career, I feel like I have a serious deadline. I feel like, finally, there are people out there in the world waiting for something, expecting me to produce. I have always been the type of person who responds well to the pressure of deadlines. I have always made them for myself even if they didn't really exist and I may have done it again. You see, I have told everyone from here to Cambodia and back again that I will be bringing my next novel back to SE Asia in the spring of 2013. That sounds like a long time away, but the fact of the matter is that for that to happen, the finished manuscript -- yes, the one that has already been written and revised and edited and revised again -- needs to be in the hands of my publisher by October 2012. Eleven months from now. Dear Ward Wood, please avert your eyes now because I have to admit that I've fallen behind.  Yes, the word count meter off to the right of this page is creeping up word by word, but not fast enough. My plan was to finish the first draft by Christmas and as of today, I am just a bit over halfway done.  Okay. I have had some good reasons for falling behind. Namely the facts that I moved house while also traveling a lot to promote A Clash of Innocents. But nonetheless.....

So I'm taking myself to Ireland, the retreat called Anam Cara that I have mentioned here so often, the place where I always get the most writing done.  I can't wait. And although I don't see how I can write half a novel in a week, I know that being there will bring me much closer to my target.  And this time, to get myself in the mood, I've been able to watch a tv show which just aired featuring the Beara Peninsula, Anam Cara, and the visionary Sue Booth-Forbes who founded the retreat. "Wild Camping - Ireland" was aired on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 at 8pm (Sky 251) and the first episode focused on Beara as inspiration to writers with writer-in-residence Bernard O'Donoghue and Beara poet John O'Leary. Sue was there, too, talking about the retreat, making tea for her tv host guest, and ushering everyone to their best work. I believe you can still see the show on the Travel Channel website. If you're interested in seeing why so many of us writers love to go there, do take a look.  Or, you could read an article about the place recently printed in The Irish Times.

So, in the spirit of work to be done, you may not see me again this week...or, if things are going swimmingly, you just may....

Coming to Radio 4!

Big news! I will be interviewed on the popular Radio 4 show Excess Baggage by the fascinating

John McCarthy tomorrow....yes, that's tomorrow, Saturday 12 November at 10.00 am UK time. Very exciting and a bit scary, to be sure. I hope you can listen to it if you're home with the radio on. And if the timing doesn't work for you, you'll be able to listen to it on their Iplayer here.  I'll be putting it up on some sort of podcast site too and I'll let you know how to access that, as soon as I know. And for you non-UK listeners out there, don't worry. You'll be able to access the Radio 4 site and listen to it from there at your convenience. I do think it will be a fascinating discussion about Cambodia, "ethical tourism," and of course, why I've become so intrigued and committed to the place. Do listen, if you can.

From a pr standpoint, this is pretty huge for me. National coverage is very difficult to get. And I've been told that I will now be able to put on my press releases, bios etc "as heard on BBC's Radio 4".

Excuse the boasting, but......

Wish me luck!

Blog Change

There's lots of changes chez Guiney of late. As many know, we've moved house after seventeen years and with that came a new neighbourhood and a very new and, actually, exciting lifestyle. There's also my new connection with SOAS as Writer-in-Residence in its Department of SE Asian Studies. Out of that has come the move from back burner to front of my interest in using art for social change, and this has necessitated moving my work in the theatre towards the back of the hob (stove top for you Americans out there). There will also be a newly updated website which should be ready to unveil any day/week now.

So everything feels ripe for change and that includes my blog. As careful readers will remember, I thought about stopping my blog all together which led to my musing here about why we blog in the first place. Of course, after  nearly four years, I've become addicted to this place and so will not be stopping any time soon. But I have decided to make a subtle change which probably no one but me will notice. For years I have been regularly blogging on Thursdays and Sundays -- did you notice? Well, starting later this week I'll be blogging on Fridays and Mondays. I don't expect it to make much of a difference to be honest, but it will suit my new schedule better. I know many bloggers write their posts in advance and schedule them for the appropriate times. I have done that sometimes as well. But my ideas are often more spontaneous than that. So my timing will be different from now on. But I have to ask, do you think it matters? Is it just important that there needs to be some sort of regularity in order to maintain your readership or do readers really expect to turn on their computers on a specific day and find a specific set of blogs waiting to be read?

In any event, I'll next see you here on Friday instead of Thursday, and I'll have some exciting news about me on Radio 4! And in the meantime, in the spirit of change, here's a little music for a Sunday afternoon (ps - I have also used this song as a way to trick teenagers into writing poetry....)

Where to Launch?

I'm a great believer in celebrating success - especially in a job as rife with rejection as writing is. So whenever I or anyone I know is able to have a book published, I want to party! But like all good parties, book launches need planning, and the first question is where should the launch be?

There are several ways of looking at this, I think. The first is the traditional idea of launching at a bookstore. I've been to launches in outposts of large chains like Waterstones (I actually had one of mine there) and Borders (ahh..remember them?). And I've been to launches in small indie bookshops like  The Big Green Bookshop and The Calder Bookshop.  Both settings are great. You certainly can't beat the feeling of launching a book surrounded by other books which have paved the way for you. Plus, these venues are run by knowledgable readers who know how to run a launch, how to get people in the door, and how to handle book sales. This type of venue also has the benefit of attracting the public, those unsuspecting book lovers who may just happen to be in the store at the time and so may just happen to buy your book, a book they never even knew existed. And that's a huge plus.

Then there are the private, more personal venues, places that are important to the writer or to the specific book they have just written. For example, my first novel, "Tangled Roots," being about a physics professor among other things, was launched in the wonderful Victorian library of London's Science Museum. "A Clash of Innocents" which is set in Cambodia, was launched at Asia House. I see this sort of venue as the midway point between the three types of three launch sites. These places are usually proper venues with their own caterers and organisers, often also with their own membership or newsletter. Although they may be just as used to staging weddings as book launches (and so are sometimes more expensive, but not always), they know what they are doing and can take much of the burden off the shoulders of an already nervous writer. Such places can also open the event up to a semi-regulated public, i.e. people you may not know but who already share a common interest. That in itself is a great way to build a readership. These are the sorts of places where I have held my own launches and, to be honest, they've been great. They've felt like big parties and let's face it -- after years of writing the damn things alone in my room and my head, I know I've wanted to be in a big wine-filled room full of people unreservedly singing my praises. But hey -- that's just me.

The third type of venue is like the one I went to Tuesday night. I was thrilled to make my way into East London to The Commercial Tavern to celebrate the launch of Joe Stein's latest crime novel, That Twisted Thing Called Truth. I loved Joe's first two novels and have been eagerly awaiting this one. He has created a character and a world which really stays with you and makes you feel like "but for the grace of God go I..." But more on his new novel at a later date. First, the launch. The Commercial Tavern is a great old pub that has been around for many years and has gone through many iterations. It's packed full of local characters. It has lots of local character. The upstairs room where we were even had a wall full of unrelated jigsaw puzzles. East London and this pub in particular is clearly special both to Joe's life, work and writing and Tuesday night became an intimate -- though not small --party. Alas, poor Joe had recently hurt himself and was on a crutch and full of prescribed meds that the underworld characters he creates probably know too much about. But that didn't stop him from making a lovely welcoming speech, despite the pub din all around us, selling and signing lots of books, and being a great host. And so this felt especially personal and we who were there felt privileged to have been asked. A very special type of launch, indeed.

Now there may be other types of launches, but these are the three that I know of, and each one does the trick but in its own way. I'm sure for the publishers, these are marketing events. But for the writers, they are much more than that. They are a celebration of their life's work, and a statement of belief in their future. So which type would you choose? It's fun to think about, to be sure.