1 – Can you start by telling us a little about your current book?
My debut novel, Suburb, is the story of Tom Fray, a 21-year-old who returns home from university to a suburb of Manchester and feels no one has changed but him. He is desperate to live a life of adventure. He meets a married neighbour, Kate, and the two share a connection. When they begin an affair, Tom’s plans to escape become a lot more complicated.
This autumn, I’ll be releasing Running and Jumping. Set between the Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016 Olympics, the novel tells the story of a rivalry between two long jumpers. Told from the perspective of Adam Lowe, the story looks at the impact the battle has on Lowe personally and professionally, and looks to answer the question: What if you had your greatest ever day and still didn’t win? 2 – Are you a plotter or a panster? Plotter. Although I’m open to being led be the characters and story if it moves away from initial idea. In Running and Jumping, the majority of the story takes place at real life venues or events (such as Olympics, World Championships, Diamond league meetings) so I had to plot every twist and turn around an actual timeline. That took plotting and planning to a new level for me. 3 – Savoury or sweet?
Sweet.
4 – Three books to a desert Island. Go! The Damned United by David Peace. The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow. The Beach by Alex Garland. 5 – Star Wars or Star Trek? I’m not a huge fan of either to be honest but Star Wars feels like it’s been in my life forever without me ever seeking it out. When my kids started showing an interest, I was quite happy to sit down and watch it again. I don’t think I’d be the same if they wanted to watch Star Trek. 6 – If you could have any superpower, what would it be? The ability to speak any language. 7 – Music or Silence when writing? Music. It’s normally something understated like Stephen Fretwell or the more acoustic Springsteen stuff (I’ve written thousands of words to the Nebraska album). I need silence to edit though. 8 – If you could live anywhere in the world, and take everything that you love with you, where would you choose? I have spent far too much time thinking about this question and could probably pick ten places and give you in-depth answers as to why. If I can live there without working, or only writing for a living, I’d pick New York City (with a summer place in the Hamptons, obviously). It’s such a cool city and it’s got such a history, especially with music and writers, which I’d get a lot from. I’d love to spend a year or so just exploring the place, sitting in the diners and the bars listening to the rhythm of the way the locals speak, hearing the stories I’d eventually try and weave into some kind of novel.
I love American sport but don’t feel like I can justify the time to dedicate to watching it properly. Living there would make it easier. 9 - Your favourite karaoke song? I’ve only ever done karaoke once, in a hotel bar in Lanzarote. I did it to impress my then girlfriend (now wife), Gemma. I sang Wonderwall. Badly. There were eight people in the bar and three left. Gemma wasn’t one of them, fortunately. If I did it again, in one of those private booth things, I’d be blasting out Thunder Road by Springsteen or Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys. 10 – One piece of advice to an aspiring writer? Enjoy the process. 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? There is a charity local to me called the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust that, a few years ago, I did a day’s volunteering at through my day job. They do residential holidays for kids with difficulties. I’d love to be able to give them half a million quid because they do such fantastic work. Home - The Childrens' Adventure Farm Trust (caft.co.uk). I’d use the other half to pay off my mortgage and fund allowing me to write full time and run / grow the music website I’m a co-founder of. 12 – Horror films, yes or no? If so, any favourites? No. I don't find the idea of being scared for entertainment very entertaining. The only horror film I remember enjoying was Scream, and I genuinely don’t know if that counts amongst horror fans. 13 - What are you currently working on?
Last year, my friend Matt and I set up a music website called Eight Albums (www.eightalbums.co.uk and @eightalbums on Twitter) where we ask people to write about eight albums that are important to them, and why.
We’ve had over 70 people take part at the time of writing this. We release new entries every Friday, which means we are always working on the site and its content. The idea behind the site is to get a mix of people, ages, backgrounds to talk about music that has influenced and impacted their lives. For your audience’s interested, we’ve had some writers on it, including Ian Rankin, Chris McDonald (who I know has been on this blog) and Neil Lancaster. And your own entry, Matthew, can be found at: Matthew Leach - Eight Albums
Along with working on releasing Suburb and finishing Running and Jumping, the site has taken up a large portion of my spare time, meaning new writing has (unfortunately) taken a backseat. I’ve got 19k words of a Private Detective novel finished, which is about a man who goes missing on his stag do, but my (self-imposed) deadline of finishing the first draft by the end of 2020 has been and gone.
During lockdown, I rebuilt my own website (www.stevenkedie.com).
Writing all this down has just made me realise why I’m so tired…
Bio:
Steven Kedie is a writer and co-founder of music website www.eightalbums.co.uk, who lives in Manchester with his wife and two children. He spends far too much time running, writing, talking about albums and trying to complete television. All of which get in the way of his football watching habit.
His debut novel, Suburb, can be found as an e-book and paperback at Amazon.