Interview With Author Ian Coates
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a bit of a techie as well as a thriller writer. I studied electronics at uni’ more years ago than I care to remember and often use experiences from working in high-tech companies to give my thrillers an authentic background. Although I followed a career in technology, my first love has always been books. There was never anything better than getting into an exciting page-turning thriller, especially ones about spies and assassins.
I won my first writing competition when I was fourteen with a crime novella, and that has spurred me on ever since. My debut thriller was called Eavesdrop, and I was very fortunate to have it shortlisted in a Tibor Jones Page Tuner competition. It was also one of the winners in the centenary Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook novel writing competition. The biggest excitement came in 2014, though, when Eavesdrop was published in paperback and Kindle by Bad Day Books, Assent Publishing’s suspense and thriller imprint. Audible Studios subsequently released it as an audio book narrated by Simon Darwen after I submitted it to a crime writing competition they were holding.
So far, I’ve had two thrillers published and am currently working on a third.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest thriller, which has just been released today, is called Backlash, and is published in paperback and Kindle by Wallace Publishing. It was inspired by something I saw while walking along the Grand Union Canal in Kings Langley. A woman was sitting smoking on a canister of flammable gas in the stern of a boat. I thought, “if that leaks, she and her boat will disappear in an explosion.” I then wondered, “but what if the canister is inside the boat and she’s sitting outside smoking when it explodes? Could you then say that her smoking habit saved her life?” That gave me the opening line of the book (“It was Trish McGowan’s addiction to a daily half-packet of Lambert & Butlers that saved her life. “) and the rest grew from there over the following few weeks. In particular, the question, “Why would it explode? Is someone trying to kill her? And if so, why?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write my fist draft on paper with a “special” pencil. I guess many people would consider that unusual. I then type it up as soon as I can so that it becomes securely backed up, and then continue with the computer. If I ever need to write a new scene, I go back to my pencil.
I find writing like that helps me be far more creative. Things seem to flow so much better, although, when I get into the really exciting bits, I write faster and faster, and my writing starts to become less legible! For a blog, I did a bit of research on creating fiction on paper rather than a PC and found I wasn’t alone. There’s some science behind it, too, that shows more of the brain is used if you write in an analogue form rather than digital.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I learnt a lot from reading Robert Ludlum (the original ones he wrote, not the ones written posthumously for the Ludlum “brand” by other writers). He showed me how to create suspense with the structure of the story. Then, there’s also Adam Hall, who was the master of the cliff hanger; again, his writing showed me how to do that. Perhaps my favourite thriller writer was Victor Canning. His ability to paint a scene and pass on so much information in so few a words was quite amazing. I think he has influenced my writing style quite a lot.
What are you working on now?
My latest thriller has a working title of “Knife Edge” and I’m about a third of the way through writing it. I don’t want to share the plot at this point, though. I’d rather keep it under wraps until I’ve finished.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That’s a hard question. I was trained by my first published to use social media, so I use that. It helps because I can build a relationship with readers.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Plot the story out first. I made two attempts at writing a novel when I was at university and they both got nowhere because I hadn’t planned them out before I started. On both occasions, I quickly backed my hero into such a tight corner that I couldn’t find a way for him to get out, and the story ground to a halt. I concluded I just wasn’t good enough to write, and I gave up. It was some years later that my wife bought me a book on how to write crime fiction, and the author explained about the need to plan the plot. I never realised! When I was at school, we were basically told to write; there was never any mention of planning it first, and I didn’t realise that was “a thing”. As soon as I started to plot it out fully before writing, I was able to complete a full 90,000-word novel. If my hero gets stuck somewhere and can’t get out, it’s easy to go back and work out what the problem is, and then rework the plot until it’s okay.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The one about the need to plot. If it wasn’t for reading that advice, I would never have been published and my childhood dream of writing would never have been achieved. How sad would I have been!
What are you reading now?
I’ve just finished reading Tess Gerritsen’s thriller, Whistleblower, which I loved. It was beautifully written, tense, and exciting. I really couldn’t put it down!
What’s next for you as a writer?
Finishing my third thriller and getting that published. I’d love to find an agent, too, but that’s more difficult. The third thriller is the first of a series, so I’ll also be planning out the different books in the series and then, hopefully, starting to write them as well. I’ve already got quite a few ideas popping into my head, which I’m noting down ready.
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?
A dictionary and an encyclopaedia so that I can build my vocabulary and general knowledge. As I’m a Christian, I’d have to take a Bible along, too.
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