One of the perks of talking to writers, publishers and agents is getting great recommendations.
Joe Abercrombie would take Ballantine?s 17 to a desert island, Malcolm Pryce hails Singha as the King of Beers and you?ll never guess what Susan Jane Gilman wants on her pizza.
Here are some great soundbites from my interviews with writerly types. (All quotes first appeared in Words with JAM. Subscribed yet? It?s FREE!)
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Naomi Alderman (author of The Liars? Gospel)
?Which book affected you most when growing up?
?The Bible. But not always in a good way?
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David Mitchell (author of Cloud Atlas):
?How hard was it for you to find representation given the genre-defying nature and structural originality of Ghostwritten?
I was armed with pristine na?vete. I was living in Japan and just did what I heard you were supposed to do ? send three chapters and a summary to an agent. I picked one, Mike Shaw at Curtis Brown, because he had the only non-posh name that a bog-standard, state comp-educated kid wasn?t intimidated by. He sounded like he could be a character off Eastenders. I sent him my first novel. Big sections of it were rubbish and I?m now profoundly grateful it wasn?t published. But on the back of that, Mike said, maybe not this time but if you want to send me the next thing you work on ? So I did and that was Ghostwritten. I got a very off-the-rack, unastronomical two-book deal, but it was amazing. This was in the days of fax machines and I still remember the excitement of that fax coming through. It was one of my best ever days.
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Chris Pavone (author of The Expats)
?Which book do you wish you?d written?
?The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. It has a wonderful rhythm and has fun with words. It?s enjoyable to say and hear. Rhythm of writing is so important. Whether it?s the long sentences of Foster Wallace or the short snaps of Hemingway, they understand the rhythm.
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James Long (author of Ferney)
?Much of your work references the inescapable influence of, and fascination with the past. Where does that interest in history come from?
?My mildly eccentric mother drove me round villages as a child with a copy of Highways and Byways of Sussex in the car ? perhaps ?the single most untrustworthy historical narrative yet published but laden with fascinating anecdotes. She would brake to a halt outside any ancient building, church, manor house or crumbling castle and read chunks of it out. I used to half close my eyes and try to imagine it as it was.
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Jojo Moyes (author of Me Before You)
Which was the book that changed your life?
Kate Atkinson?s Behind The Scenes At The Museum. It made me realise that books could have an actual ?voice?, and made me want to find my own.
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Joe Abercrombie (author of The First Law Trilogy)
I know you have strong views on made-up swear words in fantasy, and prefer the good old Anglo Saxon traditional four-letter words. Do you find some countries more sensitive to that than others?
By the holy hammer of Swarfega I do not! ?People often think the US to be more puritan and less humorous in taste than the UK, but I haven?t particularly noticed that as an overall trend. ?People occasionally object to the use of ?modern? swearing in my books, but most swearwords are ancient, with long and noble traditions in the English language. ?Returning to that point about truth, my feeling has always been that in an adult work of fiction, if you mean fuck, you should say fuck.
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Jane Gregory (Gregory & Co Literary Agents)
?Traditional publishing is undergoing a series of rapid and dramatic changes. Which elements make you?optimistic and which pessimistic???
On the plus side wonderful authors are still being published and previously out of print books are being made available again as ebooks. On the minus side, books and ebooks are being underpriced and therefore probably undervalued.
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Malcolm Pryce (author of Don?t Cry For Me, Aberystwyth)
?There are a vast range of learned references in your novels, from ancient Celtic culture to modern science. How long do you research each novel?
?I don?t do any research, I make everything up. It?s a lot easier and you can never get facts wrong if you invent them. As for the so-called learned references, they are just bits and bobs lying around in the rag and bone shop of the heart that I chuck into the mix. Just stuff I?ve read and remembered. It all gets remembered and pops up. I?m quite impressed sometimes by the breadth of allusion some reviewers find in my books, often stuff I haven?t read, such as Martin Rowson?s The Waste Land. I will probably read it one day just to see.
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Janet Skeslien Charles (author of Moonlight in Odessa)
?Which modern author impresses you most?
?Authors who work to create a sense of community where they live impress me. Writing is a tough, lonely business, and I appreciate authors who donate their time and share their wisdom with others. In Paris, Jake Lamar and Laurel Zuckerman are two established authors who try to help other writers and that really impresses me.
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AD Miller (author of Snowdrops)
What?s the best filling for a jacket potato?
Butter and hope.
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Tom Weldon (UK CEO of Penguin)
?As a gambler, where would you place your bets in publishing?
?On authors and books. On storytelling in all its various forms. Publishers who embrace change are the ones who will thrive. Tastemakers and curators need to be dynamic, flexible and fearless, and to listen to readers. I?m always open to new ideas, but with every kind of book, I?m betting on the very best writers. The format may change but it?s still the content that counts.
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Emma Darwin (author of The Mathematics of Love)
?You spent many years working in theatre. How did the experience of storytelling on stage inform your writing?
?Doing Drama for my degree had all sorts of benefits: learning to speak Shakespeare, Pinter and all sorts of other texts is peerless training for the ear. Working with Stanislavskian ?intentions?, when you distil a character?s reason for acting and speaking as they do into a verb, is brilliant training for working with characters-in-action on the page. And it does mean I know what it?s like to live in corsets and long skirts.
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Susan Jane Gilman (author of Hypocrite in a White Pouffy Dress)
Which pizza topping best represents your personality?
Smoked salmon. And chocolate.
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Source: http://jjmarsh.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/whisky-beer-pizza-and-potatoes/
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