I discovered Wilf's book, The Assassin's Wedding during the
time I spent on Completely Novel.com, where it was posted for free reading. Wilf's
book is a great example of the power of a good cover. I haven't read thrillers
since I trudged my way through Steig Laarson's Millennium trilogy. The ultra-stylish cover (features of all
Wilf's books) caught my attention immediately- I scanned the blurb- and dove
straight in.
And what a discovery. The book begins at a wedding, with the
main character, Mike, introducing us gradually to his covert world of
assassinations. Very rapidly we get a sense that this is going to be an
atypical (and funny) journey with Mike. The humour is subtle for the main,
built (in true British style) around awkward situations, splendidly drawn
characters, well-observed cultural differences and irony. Wilf's particular
strength is in his pop-culture references, of which there are plenty.
There is a strong cinematic vibe that runs through the book,
both in the evolving plot and the way the scenes are set. It is most apparent
in flashback chapters of Mike's life, which are written like scripts. It felt
odd initially but it works well, taking some potentially dark psychological
scenes and making them readable.
The plot progresses in a wonderfully intricate way, with
twists and turns that get Mike further and further into trouble. Perhaps it was
the aforementioned cinematic tinge to it, or perhaps it was the dark humour and
assassins, but the book brought to mind the classic Grosse Point Blank. The
assassin aspect to it varies in its dominance of the tale, ultimately it is a
story of relationships, truth and trust.
So that's enough of my rambles- I interviewed Wilf Morgan
about the book and about his journey into self-publishing. He gave a fantastically
detailed interview:
Me: I was struck by the very cinematic nature of
your book, The Assassin's Wedding. Was that intentional or just a by-product of
how you write?
Wilf: Being into films (like most people!), I'm definitely a
fan of the cinematic style. I always imagine things very visually so that's how
I write them, too. It's not that I'm just trying to write a 'film on paper' -
prose has very definite differences to screen and some very definite
advantages, so you'd be foolish to simply try to recreate one medium in
another. But I do like reading things that flow in that very dynamic, visceral
way. I'm also a big comic fan. Comics are kind of a halfway house between film
and prose - they capture that visual aspect as well as being presented via
written word. So between film and comics, there are definite influences there
for me.
Often, in books, I find that action scenes (for example) are
quite slow and overly intricate, even when they're meant to be fast and
desperate. That's partially down to the very nature of reading words off a page
- you can only process words so fast. But I've tried to take lessons from
certain writers (Doug E Winter's 'Run' for example) as well as certain comic
book writers regarding brevity and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks in
their mind. You won't have to describe everything in endless detail, slowing
down the action. And because people are so used to watching films, they tend to
fill in the details using that visual language. That's probably one reason why
books written this way do tend to feel somewhat cinematic.
Another big thing I'm into is having a strong concept or
'point' of a story and then wrapping it in action. It's just a stylistic thing
I like and it probably comes from watching too much Star Trek! On the surface,
a typical episode / film of Star Trek is about people flying around in
starships fighting Klingons or some other menace - and all the associated
explosions and gunfights therein. But in reality, the stories are always
'about' something - getting older, dealing with grief, innocence of childhood,
accepting bad choices in early life etc. Those two aspects are what I really
enjoy in films/tv I watch and books I read. So I definitely try to recreate
that in my own work. In The Assassin's Wedding, for example, we have an
assassin taking on various targets and getting into all kinds of scrapes. Yet,
the story is really about 'can a person accept that who they are isn't
necessarily the best thing - and do they have the maturity to recognise that
changing for the better isn't necessarily 'selling out' but 'growing up').
So yeah, I think it's a big mistake to simply write a book
to reflect what you think you'd see on the screen - but, if what you're writing
lends itself to it, I think there are definitely some elements from the visual
media that can make prose work in a more dynamic way.
Me: The comedy-crime
tone of your book was very well done. What writers in the genre inspire you in
your writing?
I'm not sure I can think of too many writers that inspire me
from a style perspective but there are some definite people that inspire me
just generally;
Iain M Banks' stuff is great because it pulls you so
completely into a fully realised world (or, I suppose, galaxy). It feels
totally real and it's almost like you're simply reading a 'diary' of events
that have really happened (ditto Tolkien with Lord of the Rings and R R Martin
with Game of Thrones). Robert Rodriguez is my favourite film director / writer
because of his brevity, speed and dynamic approach to even the most potentially
boring of scenes. I'm also a massive fan of dialogue so I really like Quentin
Tarantino and William Shakespeare (yes, I did just put them both in the same
sentence!). Both writers do brilliant, witty, clever and flowing dialogue. In
the same vein, I'm also a fan of comic book writers Mark Millar and Peter
David. But my favourite writer right now (and hopefully for a long time to
come) is Patrick Ness. He wrote the Chaos Walking trilogy as well as 'A Monster
Calls'. They are Young Adult books but written with a kind of maturity that a
good number of adult books lack. Quite simply, he knows how to tell a damn good
story.
With regards to the dark humour in The Assassin's Wedding, I
think I adopted that tone because making an assassin your main character (and
hence someone you're meant to root for) can be a very difficult thing to pull
off, especially if you're going to be 100% serious about it. At the end of the
day, these folks kill people for money - that' just not nice! Adopting a kind
of black humour means that I'm not really taking everything too seriously but
still allows me some space to address some of the darker, more serious aspects
of the story (Mike's family history, for example). Also, my previous book, Lost
Angels, was so serious and so dark, it almost sends you into depression reading
it - so I was determined to write something that was more fun this time around!
Me: What made you decide to establish 88tales and
where do you plan to take it? What is it about self-publishing that appeals to
you most?
Wilf: Eighty8Tales
simply came about in the same way as plenty of other self-publishing ventures
are coming about nowadays - in response to two main developments; the rise of
print-on-demand and also the ease of web-based presence. Before POD, I was
restricted to home A4 print-outs of my stuff for my own viewing. Then I
discovered POD (lulu.com and then completelynovel.com) and was suddenly able to
produce actual, real books! I've always been into my art and design so I was
able to get my arty hat on and do my own covers, too. Throw in a website (in my
case www.88tales.com) and bingo - you're your own publisher!
Yes, I still send my work to mainstream publishers in the
hope of getting a deal, but that's almost just a reflex action, now. I found,
very quickly, that I love the freedom of doing it myself. Yes, you don't get
the same penetration in the bookstores (assuming you're one of the writers your
big-name publisher decides to push, that is) but you do get to reach people
online, through social networking, blogs like this one etc. Crucially, you can
decide what kind of books to produce (full length novels, novellas, short story
collection, whatever you fancy). Cover design, visual identity, tag-lines, the
back-cover blurb - it's all down to you and you can do things that a 'real'
publisher might never let you do in a million years (I made one collection 'The
Greatest Show on Earth' look like a circus poster and I want to do another one
to look like a vintage music album). At the end of the day, building a line of
books under the Eighty8Tales banner is just total and utter fun..!
Of course, the challenge is not to look amateurish and
sloppy - the stereotypical image of the self-publisher - but it's a challenge I
enjoy trying to overcome.
If I got offered a deal by a 'big' publisher, would I take
it? Well, I suppose I'd just have to see at the time. But producing things
under my own 'label' is really exciting - and knowing there are loads of people
out there doing the same thing is even moreso.
Me: You have several books under your belt now.
What advice would you give to starting out authors?
Wilf: Boringly
enough, my advice is the same as many other writers' - write every day. It's
advice I don't always take! But it's very important. The two main reasons for
writing every day are;
a) It hones your technical skills. Just like kicking a ball
or playing a violin, you sharpen your physical abilities and make them more
ready to carry out whatever twisted tasks you come up with for them!
b) Stories almost never come fully formed out of your head
and onto the page. It's a big process of layering. Throw whatever's in your
head out onto the page. Don't stop and re-read and edit as you go...just keep
moving. Don't look back! When you've done a big chunk (a chapter or three),
then you can go back over it. It may well be a pile of crap (excuse my French).
But that's good. Because that's the way it works. You go over the crap and it
gives you ideas that you didn't initially have. Sometimes small, sometimes
large. And then you refine and refine and refine. Until eventually, you end up
with the finished well-written product. Always remember that it's much easier
to turn crap into something good than it is to turn a blank page into anything
at all.
Well, that's how it is for me, anyway..!
Me: What's your opinion on social media as a
marketing tool? Is it something you've considered?
Wilf:
Social Media is
an absolutely brilliant thing regarding marketing of your work. I have to admit
to not having used it to its potential yet. But even in the limited way I have
used Facebook and Twitter (in particular), I have seen the benefits. Creating a
Facebook page for your book and posting a link to it on your friends' pages,
for example, is a great start. And as friends link to you, so their friends are
made aware of it and so on. But that is only a start. You still have to do more
work such as advertising online (eg. Google Ads), joining in forums and
participating in blog conversations and so on. But if you funnel people from
those activities to social media pages then any interest they show will be
automatically broadcast to others. (On that note, the Assassin's Wedding is on
Facebook - search for it! Yes, I know, totally shameless...)
Social Media is a great tool but it certainly won't do all
the work for you (unfortunately!). I'm a typical writer in that I'd rather
spend all my time writing and designing the books themselves and have someone
else shout about them and tell everyone how brilliant and great they are and go
and buy a copy right now etc..! Unfortunately, if you can't force yourself to
jump into that stuff, all the work you do in writing will be for nothing
because no-one but you and your mum will read it. Leveraging social media in
conjunction with your book's (or publishing venture's) website can definitely
yield results.
One last thing on the marketing / publicity aspect - I think
it's a good idea to offer large chunks of your work for people to read online
for free. As an up and coming writer, your greatest currency isn't money - it's
word of mouth. One hundred people who know about you is worth more than fifty
people buying your book. Because (assuming you are successful in capturing
their interest and imagination through your work) they will tell others and
spread knowledge of your stuff to others. If that keeps happening, the
purchases will come naturally (especially when you realise that the vast
majority of people much prefer to read a physical book than off a screen - so
having your work available to read free online isn't going to really hurt you
financially that much - unless you're J K Rowling!). Of course, it's down to
each person to figure out the balance of what to give away and what to charge
for. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another's marketing
style, content type etc.
Me: What's your latest project/WIP?
Wilf; At the moment,
I'm writing my first children's book. My kids have long pestered me for
something they can read and I foolishly gave in. Writing a kids' books is
really, really hard! I had to figure out what age range I was aiming for and
then find their level of comprehension; what kind of sentence structure they
like, what they find funny, what they find boring etc.
I finally settled on aiming it at 9-12 year olds. It's
called 'Arthur Ness and the Secret of Waterwhistle'. Arthur Ness is sent to
live in a Nottinghamshire village (called Waterwhistle) during the blitz. He
soon discovers that everyone there is scared of something. Something they can't
see. There are guardians there, keeping everyone under a strange kind of
control and only Arthur - a naturally very scared young boy - is free from
their machinations. Only he, therefore, can do anything about it - if he can
only realise the most important thing about fear and how to conquer it.
I've had a selection of children (friends' children as well
as some kids from local schools) reading it as I'm going along to help me
strike the right chord with it. After a very difficult initial period, it's now
coming along very nicely. I'm aiming for it to be finished by the end of summer
(depending on how much football / Olympics I end up watching..!). From there,
it's onto the book I was going to start before my kids side-lined me, 'The
Notorious Mr Locke'. But more on that nearer the time!
You can check Wilf's booksite out at
88 Tales
The Assassin's wedding is available on Kindle UK
here for £0.88... a bargain!
As is his book The Cotton Keeper
here, for the same price.
In the USA click
right here for the Assassin's Wedding at $1.36 and
on this bit here for the Cotton Keeper at the same price.
Emeline is a great hero, and she appeals to the kick-ass Lara Croft/ Buffy/ Hit-girl fab-boy in me. She's a crack shot, tough as nails, but has a gentler and vulnerable side that is exploited at various stages in the book. Emeline is dragged into a conspiracy-murder mystery within her compound that ultimately leads to revelations and confessions about how the whole viral outbreak began. The action is full-on, and the setting of rural Australia perfect for the story. Rachel introduces some excellent characters, many of them female, and many of them memorable.
RT: Believe it or not, the idea started forming because of a block of units being built across the road from me! The block of land had been vacant for ages and is high and right next to a train line. The builder was attempting to cram as many little buildings into the block as possible and the whole effect was bleak. I wondered who might live there and the character of Emeline evolved from that one single thought.
Me: Zombies and vampires always used to be purely the remit of pure horror films/books, albeit with occasional humour. Why do you think they've crossed into the mainstream so effectively?
