Lucky 13 Interview With Andy Palmer

1 – Can you start by telling us a little about your current book?

It’s an addiction memoir about my teenage years struggling with alcohol and depression. In a sentence: As a lost teenager I go searching for meaning and escape going from Barnsley to Texas to Dorset, but find my quest for freedom leads to deepening addictions and spiralling depression until everything changes between the bloodied floor of a supermarket and a Victorian pier.

2 – Are you a plotter or a panster?

I wish I could say a panster, as I like the flybytheseatofyourpants idea of it, but I’m afraid I’m a plotter. Having said that, I don’t plan extensively I just like to know where I’m heading.

3 – Savoury or sweet?

I’m bitten by the US bug of salty and sweet together, specifically bacon in places it shouldn’t (but should) be: milkshakes, doughnuts, with syrup and pancakes etc. But I also like the classic combination of coffee and cake with a good book.

4 – Three books to a desert Island. Go!

The Bible — it’s long and diverse, so you can keep reading and reading and never fully know it all. The Lord of the Rings — journeys, quests, friendships, good and evil, home and away, comfort and trouble, trust and deceit. There’s so much to go at. The Complete Works of Shakespeare — I know, I know, massive cliché. However, I may be on the island a long time so I need plenty of fodder for my brain and this is a lot of lit for your money.

5 – Star Wars or Star Trek?

Star Wars.

6 – If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

I’d have the ability to shapeshift. Being introverted and shy I like the idea of being able to hide in plain sight in another form so as not to be noticed. And also the ability to spy on people and listen in on conversations I’m not meant to hear.

7 – Music or Silence when writing?

Silence, but not absolute silence. I like to write in my upstairs office with the sound of people walking past the house chatting, the odd car going past and the children playing in the school field behind us.

8 – If you could live anywhere in the world, and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose?

I like cities, the coast and rural areas so it would have to be somewhere that has all three to varying degrees. I also don’t like the cold. I think somewhere like Lisbon would suit me very well, as it’s got the city with lots of historic parts, rural areas around it and beautiful coastline in areas such as Cascais that you can get to quickly by train. It’s also never really cold.

9 - Your favourite karaoke song?

Paranoid by Black Sabbath.

10 – One piece of advice to an aspiring writer?

Don’t pin all your hopes on writing, but find something else you love doing as well that, ideally, earns you a living.

11 – You win £1 million, but you must give half to charity. Which charity do you chose, and what do you do with the rest of the money?

Macmillan Cancer Support. The rest would be spent on my family and extended family.

12 – Horror films, yes or no? If so, any favourites?

Not anymore, as I’ve become quite a wuss as I’ve got older. However, I used to love them in my youth. My favourites from then would have been The Exorcist (nothing else has scared me quite as completely), The Blair Witch Project (so much atmosphere and dread created with so little), and Paranormal Activity (I didn’t sleep for several nights afterwards and it was probably the final horror film I saw).

13 - What are you currently working on?

I’m writing a novel about a dark secret three adolescent boys have kept hidden for years that finally catches up with them in adulthood. I’m trying to write in the hinterland between fact and fiction using real events to weave a fictional narrative.