Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a guy who refuses to be pigeonholed. I don’t write in any particular genre. I pen fiction for any consenting adult who dares to take a look. My background is as eclectic as my scribbling: art college drop-out, foundry worker, road builder, scrap man, curtain and blind fitter, and amateur philosopher, all accomplished with questionable degrees of success. I think I might be okay at making up stories.
I grew up in a northern coal mining town in England during the fifties and sixties. I studied Film-Theatre & TV at Bradford College of Art in the early seventies where I developed a passion for writing drama for screenplay & radio. My debut novel The Albion was first published in 2008. It has since been totally expurgated and re edited, and is due for re release both in ebook and paperback by the end of August. Scrapyard Blues, my second novel has just found a home with Grinning Bandit Books.
I live with my wife, on the edge of the moors and just a spit away from Bronte country (not a good idea if the wind’s in the wrong direction) where I continue to work on my third MS.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Scrapyard Blues.
The Genesis of this story came about one cold and crispy New Years Eve back in the mists of time.
All the planets must have been aligned that night because it shaped up to be the most bizarre, surreal and yet thoroughly enjoyable evening.
The Melbourne was one of those tatty but warmly welcoming waterholes, loved to bits by its regular patrons. The Exterior was fashioned in a faux Art Deco style, all stucco walls and glazed tile. The landlord was a feisty Irish character called Eamon, purveyor of fine ales and excellent live music. Eamon addressed everyone as “brother”, even the women.
The band that evening was a bunch of gnarly looking dudes who kept everyone happy into the small hours with their own brand of tried and tested, no-nonsense R & B standards. The punters on this particular Old Years Night were having such a good time that midnight came and went in a alcoholic haze of happiness without anyone resorting to that God awful “Auld Lang Syne” crap. No fall-outs, no fights – even the wife was behaving herself.
It was during a bladder-bursting bog break that things became predictably hazy. I remember being stood at the urinal admiring the 1930’s craftsmanship in the shape of cracked glazed porcelain that adorned the Gents in vivid bottle green and brick-red and cream colours, when some guy, a total stranger in the adjacent trough sparked up a conversation. He started by asking me if I was enjoying the band. I replied in the affirmative.
“I used to shag the singer’s missus,” he confirmed, swaying happily. “I hope he don’t recognise me else I’m f***ed.”
“How long ago was this?” I enquired.
“Oh, ages ago – not even sure if they’re still together.”
“Would he still be bothered after all this time?”
“Course he’ll still be bothered, he’s a Marsden lad,” he said indignantly. “The whole f****ing band comes from Marsden.”
I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, at which he proceeded to quote John Wesley, word perfect and at great length about what the Methodist Theologian and lay preacher had to say of the wild and nefarious ways of the Godless people of Marsden. He was still at it long after I’d emptied my bladder, but I was so impressed by his recitation I didn’t want to appear rude and Interrupt.
I never saw the guy again after that. Whether or not he’d decided to stagger home early, jump in a taxi out of harms way I’ll never know, but that fascinating and surreal conversation will stay with me forever.
So, bizarrely, that’s how the idea for Scrapyard Blues was born. Ironically, on the weekend that I completed the first draft of SB I attended the annual R & B fest in Colne, Lancashire and quite by chance bumped into the hairy lead guitarist of the band that played The Melbourne on that NYE. We whiled away the early hours of that late summer eve outside my tent drinking cheap red wine and eating Polish kabanos sausage, debating the universal merits of the wondrous element that is Carbon until the sun came up. I never brought up that New Years Eve gig or the mysterious stranger who once shagged his missus.
Footnote: Sadly, The Melbourne no longer exists in its boozy R & B manifestation. It’s now a shop that sells saris.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Certainly not!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
During my college days I was a Raymond Chandler nut. I couldn’t get enough of Philip Marlowe and his weary cynicism, the pampered vampy women, the corruption, the sleaze, the twisty plots and the inevitable slug to the back of the head when things got sticky.
Chandler writes in a style that simply cannot be taken out of its era, yet can be understood and enjoyed by any generation. His use of English is quite unique and any attempt to analyse it here would do it injustice. He uses Marlowe as a lonely crusader in a sea of immorality and arms him with witty aphorism, negative simile, allusion and metaphor. The plots aren’t always strong, sometimes they lead up dead ends and dark alleys, but that doesn’t matter when the dialogue is so sharp and caustic and you can almost taste the cigarette smoke and smell the bourbon. I think Chandler is one of, if not the greatest exponent of “noir” writing, a definite inspiration for me wanting to read as well as write.
Although it is almost forty years old now, ‘A Kestrel For A Knave’ by Barry Hines is still one of my favourite reads, a modern classic. The author is writing about me. Billy Casper is me. We are the same age; we both grew up in northern pit towns under the same social conditions. We speak the same; we act the same. We strive to survive and look for something to take us out of our circumstance, and Billy finds his escape in the beautiful metaphor that is Kes, his adopted bird. Barry Hines nails it. For a fourteen year old to totally identify with the book’s main character and his surroundings and for it to still read as fresh and as relevant today marks it as a truly great piece of writing. I hope that ‘The Albion’ captures the same grim realities that this novel has without losing that ever-present albeit faint undercurrent of hope.
‘The Football Factory’ by John King. King writes about common bonds and shared cultures that are often estranged from what society perceives as normal or acceptable. He was the first writer (along with Irvine Welsh) who made me realise that it was okay to write about things as they are, without resorting to cliché, to tell it how it is by using the language of the street, which at times can make for uncomfortable yet always compelling reading. It is apparent that King applies personal experience to much of his writing; it shines through the narrative and leaps off the page. He also uses flashback in his story telling; a technique I find can be both effective and creative as a book unfolds. One thing I hate is linear storytelling.
What are you working on now?
‘Precession’ is the working title I’ve given to my third novel.
This is a story of a right of passage, of an unlikely childhood to teenage friendship that defies social barriers, transcends class divides, and contradicts paradigms, all through a mutual love of birds. It is also an example of the struggles of life thrown up by fate, the escaping of a particular milieu to achieve a better life, and ultimately one man’s awakening to the waste of that life through false promises and the futility of war.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still trying to work that one out. I’m not very good at promotion.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Edit, edit some more, and then edit again.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Most of the advice I’ve heard in the publishing realm has often been contradictory. You always hear that old chestnut: “show don’t tell”. Much of the stuff is anal. I tend to follow my heart and instincts. It’s only storytelling fer Gawd’s sake.
What are you reading now?
I’ve just finished reading Graham Hancock’s ‘War God’ and Neil Young’s autobiography ‘Waging Heavy Peace’. Both of which were excellent. I’ve just started David Icke’s (gulp!) The Perception Deception.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m aiming to finish ‘Precession’. My initial intension was to make this a trilogy, but my research has sent me down the proverbial rabbit hole from which I don’t know if I’ll ever emerge. The first part is already written and would work well as a novella, I suppose.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Big Sleep – Raymond Chandler
The Physician – Noah Gordon
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
Author Websites and Profiles
Derryl Flynn Website
Derryl Flynn Amazon Profile
Derryl Flynn’s Social Media Links