1 – Can you start by telling us a little about your current book?
linktr.ee/ajwest - A.J. West author.
The Spirit Engineer is a Gothic retelling of a very strange true story from early 1900s Belfast. William Jackson Crawford was an engineering lecturer, who studied a young spiritual medium named Kathleen Goligher, bringing her to international fame with a series of books, in which he proposes theories explaining the origin of paranormal phenomena. Then, in 1920, he took his own life, drinking whisky laced with potassium cyanide. Harry Houdini claimed he'd been tricked by the medium and couldn't face inevitable public ridicule; sir Arthur Conan Doyle said he'd glimpsed a world beyond the veil and simply wanted to carry out one, final experiment. Readers of my novel will find themselves drawn into William's beguiling world of paranoia, fear and one very haunted attic. I can promise a few surprises...
2 – Are you a plotter or a panster?
I'm a plotter. I don't think you can realise such a complex story without planning ahead really. At least, I don't think I could! There isn't a single word in my novel that hasn't been considered. Every line has its purpose and the ending is woven into a series of hints throughout. I'd say the shrewd reader might, if they read very closely, guess a twist or two. But nobody has yet. I will say that I diverged from the plan quite a lot but it was so useful as a way to identify the historical research I needed to do! 3 – Savoury or sweet?
Ah. That depends on my mood, but if I could only ever eat one or the other, it would be savoury. Crisps, bread, cheese, pie, chips, pasta. This is why I have to jog! Oh, but then imagine never eating chocolate again. This is too much, I can't breathe, I'm getting a picnic attack.
4 – Three books to a desert Island. Go!
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
How to Survive on a Desert Island, Jim Pipe
Omeros, Derek Walcott
5 – Star Wars or Star Trek?
Moulin Rouge.
6 – If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
Time travel of course! I would go to Elizabethan London first I think, then I'd walk around the Titanic. Wouldn't that be an eerie feeling?
7 – Music or Silence when writing?
I listened to this music on YouTube when I needed to: https://youtu.be/mIYzp5rcTvU. Usually I ask for silence to write but it's often impossible. Nothing amplifies noise like the quiet.
8 – If you could live anywhere in the world, and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose?
St Ives in Cornwall. It's a fun place, packed with every type of person imaginable, and beautiful too of course. Great food, lovely pubs and the waves in winter inspire me to write about terrible tragedies.
9 - Your favourite karaoke song?
Maybe This Time from Cabaret. I also like to sing the soundtrack to Evita, particularly when driving. My latest favourite, however, is Unworthy of Your Love from Assassins. I have a mediocre voice but my husband Nicholas Robinson (who played William Beech in Goodnight Mr Tom, by the way! I'm so proud of him.) has the most extraordinary stage voice. I could listen to him singing all day, but he's quite shy about it.
10 – One piece of advice to an aspiring writer?
I'll need to practice answering this question, won't I? The problem is, my route to publication has been so eccentric. I guess, if a writer wants to be published traditionally and sell books, then it might not be enough to write from your heart, ignoring what the market demands. You do need to see your book as a product these days I think. It sounds awfully mercenary but, in my experience, it's true. Debut authors have to write books people want to read and publishers want to publish. Mind you, if you're not bothered about sales and landing a publisher, and it's really all about your art and nothing else, then write that iambic pentameter about a tree in 1980s Marrakesh. I'll probably win the Booker Prize!
11 – Where do you like to write?
I wrote the first few chapters of The Spirit Engineer in Rustique Cafe in Tufnell Park, also known as the Literary Cafe. I was living in Clapham at the time, and the three hour walk from South London to North London and back gave me the most wonderful thinking time. My then fiancé and I were living in a single room in a shared house so it was difficult to write at home. Even now in our own little flat we don't have a spare room so I planned the novel and did a lot of writing in the British Library. I wrote the scene with Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Cyprus, which was strange imagining snowy London amidst olive trees in baking heat. The ending was written in a static caravan in Dover, and I wrote two of the séances in a cottage on Quay Street in St Ives. It's amazing to me how you can write pretty much anywhere. It's like being a kid again, just losing yourself in another world.
12 – Horror films, yes or no? If so, any favourites?
I do like a good horror flick! I remember the original Japanese film, Audition. It still sends shivers down my spine. Kiri, kiri, kiri...
13 - What are you currently working on?
My second novel! Working title: The Dark Day. As with The Spirit Engineer, it's based on a ghostly true story and resonates with my own experiences as a flawed, conflicted, idiotic man.