(Worth mentioning that Stevie first won my heart with her short story in the 2011 Tea & Crumpet Anthology, titled, 'The Utterly True Story of Guy Alien and the Rise and Fall of His Band, X-Wing')
Over to Stevie! :-)
About The
Author
1. Who are you, and
where do you come from?
I'm a medical writer by
day and author of fantasy, SF and mystery fiction the rest of the
time. Originally from Derbyshire, I went to university in Edinburgh,
and have been working my way southwards ever since. I've now reached
the coast, so at some point I'll probably have to move north again if
I don't want to fall into the English channel.
I have a livejournal
which may explain things in more detail.
2. Describe your
writing style in three words:
Diverse, literary
fantastika.
3. What inspires you to
write?
I get my inspiration
from everywhere. Mostly I see either the setting or one of the
characters first, and then start to wonder how everything else fits
together. I take a lot of photographs, and many of my story ideas
come from those, or I dip back into my collections to ensure the
details are accurate.
4. What are your
stories about?
People, first and
foremost. I'm fascinated by the wide range of backgrounds and
characters I see in the population around me, and I try to have my
writing reflect that. I also like to include places, and parts of
history, that other writers tend to gloss over or miss out
altogether.
5. Read any good
book(s) lately?
I have a GoodreadsAuthor Page
and try to give fair reviews to all the books I finish. Two that have
stood out recently were The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian
Selznick, which did a wonderful job of combining text, art and old
photographs, and Daughters of War by Hilary Green, which is
the first book in a trilogy about the British women who went out to
the Balkans prior to the First World War and nursed the casualties of
the conflict out there. Both those books show how a talented author
can take detailed historical research and turn it into a ripping
adventure yarn.
Portchester Castle, picture taken by Stevie Carroll.
About The Book
'A Series of Ordinary
Adventures'
1. How would you
describe your book?
It's a collection of
seven short stories (including two novellas) about extraordinary and
fantastical events involving everyday British people. Six stories are
set in England, and based on places I know well, while the other is
set mainly on Crete at Knossos, which I visited twice while at
school.
There's magickal
realism, a ghost story, horror and a smidgin of Greek mythology. Plus
some romance.
2. What's all this
about graveyards, then? Where is that story set?
One of the novellas,
'Seven for the Devil', involves several graveyards based on some I've
visited in Norfolk and Suffolk. It's the story of Michael, a
rock'n'roll/psychobilly double bass player, who at the beginning of
the story is recovering from an accident and mourning the deaths of
his band mates. He's offered the chance to bring them all back, but
he finds out that deals with strange men offering the seemingly
impossible never quite turn out as expected.
3. Is this a love
story?
In a way. Michael's had
feelings for one of the band's vocalists, Patricia, for a long time,
and discovers that she also liked him when it's possibly too late.
But it might not be, as you'll see when you read the story.
Some of my other
stories are more conventionally romantic, though: 'Charmed by Prince
Charming' is all about the first date for Ash and Colin, two actors
in a theatre company that puts on Shakespeare in the summer and
pantomime in the winter, and 'The Footballer's Mistress' tells of a
ghost who falls for the new tenant of one of the flats she's
haunting.
4. Are the characters
based on anyone?
None of them are based
on any individual person: they're all composites, although I'd love
to meet certain of them, and would go out of my way to avoid some of
the others.
5. If your book was a
movie, who would play your characters, and what would your budget be?
That's a tough one. I
think I'd prefer a BBC miniseries with unknown actors and a
relatively low budget. These are British stories after all ;-)
Highgate West Cemetary, picture taken by Stevie Carroll.
Excerpt from
'Seven for the Devil'
It took another two
rounds before he could even think of raising the subject with Jimmy.
Returning from the bar with another pint of the Fire and Brimblywood,
by far his favourite of the current guest beers, a bottle of cider
for Jimmy, and a double whiskey for himself, Michael thought he
caught sight of a dark figure lurking by the quiz machine. When he
looked again, however, there was just the usual bunch of pissed-up
rugby players squabbling over their answers.
“A funny thing
happened to me on the way back from the cemetery today.” He took a
large gulp of whiskey, the burn as it went down his throat strangely
reassuring.
“Funny ha-ha, or
funny peculiar?”
“Funny peculiar. Odd.
Creepy.”
“Well, if you hang
around in old graveyards...” Jimmy took a long pull from his
bottle.
“No, it wasn’t in
the graveyard. It was afterwards.” Michael had another gulp of
whiskey. “I got a lift back, because I had two flat tyres.” He
paused, realising how unlikely his story seemed against the bright
fluorescent lights of the Eagle’s main bar.
“You want any help
with them?” Jimmy picked at his bottle’s label. “I could drive
over in the morning, and fetch you back to mine. Much easier working
in the garage than in that rubbish dump you call a garden.”
Michael ignored the
jibe. He’d be moving to a better place soon enough, once he decided
where he wanted to live.
“The guy that gave me
a lift, he looked like one of those old blues guys. He asked me some
really off questions.”
“Pervert, was he? You
should be more careful, accepting lifts from strangers.”
“Not that sort of
creepy. More like ‘I want to buy your soul’ kind of creepy. He
asked...” Michael finished his whiskey. “He asked if I’d be
prepared to give up my chance of fame to get the guys from the band
back. More than that. It felt like he was offering me the chance to
be famous, then offering to take it away so I could have the guys
back.”
“A charlatan.”
Jimmy fixed Michael with a sky-blue stare. “What have I told you
about wearing that fancy watch of yours in public? He could see
you’ve got money hidden away somewhere, and wanted a piece of it.”
Michael looked down at
the table, where a wasp was weaving drunkenly away from a patch of
spilled beer. The old man had never once mentioned money. Then again,
he’d never outright mentioned wanting Michael’s soul either.
“I see it all the
time.” Jimmy leaned across the table and patted Michael’s
shoulder. “Fellows like that don’t just prey on little old
ladies, you know. He spotted the jewellery, remembered your face from
the papers, and thought he’d try his luck. For all you know, he’s
been keeping tabs on you for a while.”
“A con artist? A
hustler?” He liked that series, and the hidden camera version,
where they conned unsuspecting members of the public before showing
how the tricks were done.
“That compensation
you got was reported in the nationals. Someone was bound to try and
fiddle you out of it eventually.”
“So you don’t
think...” Michael made a start on his pint. “You don’t think he
was the devil?”
“What? Like the old
Robert Johnson story? That never happened, you know. It was just
spread around by reporters who couldn’t understand how he could
play so well.”
“But surely you
believe in the devil?”
“Not like that. The
devil is the evil that lurks in people’s hearts, preventing them
from reaching their true potential for good. Not some bloke driving
around East Anglia tempting injured musicians
to throw away their
life’s savings.”
* * *
St Boniface Church, all pictures by Stevie Carroll.
Holy Trinity Church.
Thank you
for playing Tush's Ten, Stevie! :-)
Links:
Listen to me read an
excerpt: Candlemark & Gleam
Read the first story in
the collection via BookBuzzr
Buy from Candlemark and GleamPublishing
