Getting to know ... Jeff Gardiner

What genre would you say your books fall into, or do they defy classification?

Myopia is a YA/adult crossover novel which explores bullying amongst teenagers. It’s contemporary, gritty realism but also includes fantastical – or slipstream - elements when Jerry starts daydreaming and imagining himself having super-powers. Myopia becomes a state of mind; something to give him the confidence to stand up to the vicious thugs making his life so miserable.

My collection of short stories, A Glimpse of the Numinous, is a real mixture of genres: horror, slipstream, psychological realism; romance and humour. And yet they all have a strand of the numinous in common (go on ... look it up).

What made you choose that genre?

I’d rather not be pigeon-holed as being a writer of just one genre. Being classified as a horror, YA or romance author might then limit the way I am perceived by my readers. Roald Dahl managed to be an adult and children’s author. Michael Moorcock writes literary and fantasy novels. In fact, his literary novels are arguably his best works and yet he is always labelled as a fantasy author (or, ironically, a science fiction writer – even though he’s written very little pure SF). I might well be a marketing nightmare but why should business shape what I write?

How long does it take you to write a book?

It’s pretty much a year’s worth of work when you include the ideas, planning, drafts, changes, rewriting, editing and then months of trying to find a publisher. As I’m not a full-time writer I find it takes about six months to get a good draft of an 80,000 + word novel. That’s just to get to the editing stage. I like to edit for structural changes first; secondly for continuity and character development; thirdly for style and for adding descriptions, before doing a proper detailed line edit. I prefer to have too many words so that I can then hone it and cut out the many unnecessary bits. This needs real objectivity.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I prefer to focus on one thing at a time, but this never works out. At the moment I have at least four projects on the go and have to juggle them (not always successfully). I have two days a week (between school runs) for writing, but often find that my ‘other’ job interrupts and stops me concentrating purely on the writing.

Where do you get your ideas for your books?

My imagination.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?

When I was about 10 I was determined to write a book about birds. I got as far as describing avocets then gave up. As a student I wrote some pretentious plays and terrible poetry. My first completed novel came late in life at about the age of 35 (after many false starts and abandoned attempts). That first one remains unpublished.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Apart from spending time with my kids, I watch lots of films, football and cricket. I love rock music – especially progressive rock – and try to go to concerts when I can.

 

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

How bloomin’ hard it is to get published! I have huge respect now for published authors.

How many books have you written?

Five novels; one work of non-fiction coming out later this year, and lots of short stories, which can be found in various anthologies, magazines and websites.

Which is your favourite and why?

I’ve just completed a YA novel with stronger fantasy elements which I’m very pleased with. It needs a bit more work, but it has great potential.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Work with birds of prey or in a wildlife sanctuary looking after animals – particularly owls and eagles. I missed my true vocation and became a teacher instead.

What are you working on now?

I’m trying to get publishers for my novels – particularly the YA fantasy and an adult romance novel set in Nigeria during the Biafran War. I’m also working on a screenplay, which is a bit different and challenging. Another of my current projects involves working with a local software company in developing children’s stories and other resources for primary schools. I like to keep busy.

Author Bio

Jeff Gardiner is a UK writer whose collection of short stories, A Glimpse of the Numinous, was published last year by Eibonvale Press.  A.J. Kirby of The Short Review commented on: “Gardiner’s excellence as a writer.”

His contemporary novel, Myopia, explores bullying and prejudice – recently published by Crooked Cat Books. The novel was described by The Little Reader Library as: “an intelligent, skilful and well-written treatment of a serious subject.”

Both are available as paperbacks and e-books. Many of his short stories have appeared in anthologies, journals and webzines. His non-fiction work The Law of Chaos: the Multiverse of Michael Moorcock is due to be published later this year by Headpress.

For more information please see his website at www.jeffgardiner.com and his blog: http://jeffgardiner.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffGardiner1

Myopia: Amazon UK   Amazon USA   Smashwords

A Glimpse of the Numinous: Amazon UK   Amazon USA

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Novel Opening Chapter and Synopsis Competition

Have you started, or completed, a novel with strong, credible characters and a page turning plot? Have you polished the first chapter? Can you put together a compelling one page synopsis of the balance of the story? Yes? Then why not enter the Flash 500 Novel Opening Chapter competition and have your work judged by the senior editors at Crooked Cat Publishing?

We are looking for an opening chapter up to 3,000 words, plus a one page synopsis outlining the balance of the story. If your chapter is longer than 3,000 words, DO NOT SUBMIT A LONGER MANUSCRIPT. Simply close the entry within the 3,000 word limit and make a note at the end (which will not be included in the word count) stating the chapter continues beyond this point.

This is an annual competition; entries open on 1st May and close on 31st October. 

Entry fee: £10

Optional Critique of Chapter and Synopsis: £25

Prizes will be awarded as follows:

First: £500

Runner up: £200

Payment options and entry instructions can be found on the

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Let's NOT Start at the very Beginning

This is going to be a novel approach to talking about writing a novel (excuse the pun). I’m calling in my alter ego, Frances di Plino, to guest post over the next few weeks on the subject. The reason I’m not making the posts as Lorraine Mace is that I haven’t yet had a novel published under my own name. Frances, on the other hand, is not only a published author of a crime/thriller (Bad Moon Rising published last year by Crooked Cat Publishing), but she is also in the throes of finishing off the next in the Paolo Storey series, Someday Never Comes. All of which means that Frances, rather than Lorraine, is the person best placed to give tips and advice on the long, hard slog to your first published novel.

So, bye bye, Lorraine, for now, and hello to Frances.

Let’s not start at the very beginning (even though it’s usually a very good place to start, as Maria sang in The Sound of Music).

This week’s question is: have you started your novel in the right place? Some good advice, given to me more years ago than I care to recall, was to start your opening chapter as close to the action as you possibly can.

You want to get your readers instantly involved in the plot and in the lives of the characters. You need the readers to be invested emotionally and intellectually in what happens next. Open with dialogue, action, or both, but make sure you hook your readers from the first paragraph.

Don’t bog down the opening with background information. Any necessary back-story can wait until a later chapter to be revealed by the characters themselves – through their thoughts, words and deeds. Let’s face it, if your character is in a life or death situation, or about to suffer a traumatic event (love affair ends/parent dies/partner seriously ill/going bankrupt/uncovers deception/gets caught out doing something wrong), the last thing you want to do is take away from the impact of that by telling the reader how the character came to be there in the first place.

Did your protagonist have a troubled upbringing or toxic parents? Who cares? What’s important to the reader is how the character deals with the situation he or she is in right now.

Don’t describe characters in those opening paragraphs. It doesn’t matter what colour the heroine’s hair is if she’s hanging by her fingernails from a cliff. The man’s height and build is immaterial if he’s facing down the wrong end of gun. Showing your characters in action, and letting the reader see how others react to them, gives a much better image of them than any description can achieve.

Do you have a prologue? If yes, is it really necessary? I believe prologues should be used for only the following two reasons – if yours doesn’t satisfy one of them, then I don't think need it.

If you really, truly, hand on heart and hope to die, believe you simply have to provide the backstory or your novel will fail, you can do it in a prologue. BUT this shouldn’t be an information dump. The prologue should read like a short story and leave the reader hooked (a bit like chapter one – hmmm).

You can use a prologue to show a scene near the end of the story, and then the novel itself tells the reader how that moment came to pass. In other words, show the character at a moment of high drama (also a bit like chapter one – double hmmm).

The acid test as to whether or not you need a prologue (or you just jump straight into chapter one) is to ask yourself two questions:

If I used this as chapter one, would the story still work?

Am I writing a prologue simply to hook the reader?

If you answered yes to either question, you don’t need a prologue, you need to work harder on getting chapter one to work for you.

If you would like to know more about Frances di Plino, why not subscribe to the free newsletter? A free prize draw will be taking place to give away an e-book copy of Bad Moon Rising to one of the first 100 subscribers. 

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Tips on writing a series

Have you ever thought about writing a series of books? Here, prolific author and great friend, David Robinson, gives his thoughts and advice.

On Friday, November 23rd, Crooked Cat Books released the fifth STAC Mystery, Murder at the Murder Mystery Weekend. Five books, all with the same central characters, but the only theme common to them is a murder mystery.

Writing with a series in mind is a fine idea, and even when I produce stand alone novels, like Voices, I tend to finish them with a sequel in mind. There are many pros to turning out a series. But, equally, there are a few cons.

The STAC Mysteries are just beginning to be noticed, and a part of that lies in the series factor. A reader buys one, enjoys, and buys another, and another, and another. Why? Because they know what they’re getting.

From the writer’s point of view, this is a great advantage. As long as you can keep the storylines fresh, keep the characters in character, maintain or improve the level of quality you set at the start, then the readers will follow, perhaps slowly at first, but they will be there.

In a stand alone novel, you have 100,000 words to develop your character(s). In a series, you can have them grow. Joe Murray, the amateur sleuth of the STAC Mysteries, is a case in point. Grumpy, hiding a heart of gold, Joe remains obstinately single after his divorce, but with this fifth book I took the opportunity to re-introduce him to the joys of love (non-graphically, of course) and in the sixth book, I’m taking that theme a stage further.

Another advantage is you don’t have to go into detail on character backgrounds. Most of the groundwork has been done in the first book. A few reminders here and there in subsequent tales are all that is needed. It frees you up to concentrate on plot and action.

Finally, the great advantage a series has over, say a serial, is that each novel is a stand alone. Think of Harry Potter as an example. Would Goblet of Fire make complete sense if you had not read the earlier books? But if you read Murder at the Murder Mystery Weekend, it would make perfect sense, and you could go back to The Filey Connection (the first STAC Mystery) at your leisure.

But it’s not all plain sailing. There are downsides to the series, and the biggest one is accuracy.

Joe was born sometime around 1955. He was 55 years old in The Filey Connection. I cannot, then, have him as 54 years old in Murder at the Murder Mystery Weekend. Opposite Joe’s café is Doncaster Road Industrial Estate. It will always be Doncaster Road Industrial Estate. It cannot suddenly change to Sanford Industrial Estate, anymore than the local newspaper can start off as the Sanford Gazette and later become the Sanford Herald. To make such changes needs an explanation, and to avoid error, keeping detailed records is vital.

It’s one of the tenets of writing novels that you should know every, tiny detail about your characters. That goes double for writing a series. One of Joe’s friends is diabetic. I cannot have her taking heaps of sugar in her tea when I’m six books in. Another is a self-employed painter and decorator. If I have him installing a new central heating system several books down the line, the reader will want to know where he got the skills and whether he’s just doing it as a favour.

Another problem you face with the series is variety. The Filey Connection was a traditional, British seaside mystery. When I began work on the second book, The I-Spy Murders, I set it in Skegness, but then I changed my mind and moved it to Chester. I did not want the STAC Mysteries to become seaside mysteries. Since then, I’ve set them in Leeds, York, and with Murder at the Murder Mystery Weekend, Lincoln. I vary the murders, the murderers, the circumstances and the motives as much as I can.

Is there a limit?

I don’t know. Alan Hunter, author of the George Gently novels, turned out 46 between 1955 and his death in 1982. I’d like to think that the STAC Mysteries could go that kind of distance, but only time will tell.

In the meantime, if you’re contemplating a series, go for it. I’ll keep an eye out for you in the Kindle charts.

~~~~

David Robinson is a 62-year-old freelance writer, novelist and blogger. He lives and works in Greater Manchester, England.

He has published six novels with Crooked Cat Books, five of which are STAC Mysteries.

He was a volunteer editor on 50 Stories for Pakistan, an anthology whose profits go to the Red Cross to help those afflicted by the 2010 floods in Pakistan. He was also a managing editor on 100 Stories for Queensland, the proceeds going to help victims of the Queensland floods of January 2011.

You can find David at http://www.dwrob.com and you can learn more about the STAC Mysteries at https://sites.google.com/site/sanford3rdageclubmysteries/

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