Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve worked 20 years in the independent music business and for the last five years in the freedom of expression world for an NGO., both in London. This is my eight published book, four of which are novels and four are collections of flash fiction. I’ve also collaborated with designers on digital literary projects, such as kinetic typography videos
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
28 Far Cries – it’s a collection of flash fiction, one story written each week since the start of 2014 so absolutely anything can inspire them from everyday life. Songs, a phrase or word in a book, real life people in the street or on a train, slogan T-Shirts, living statues and the failings of the human body as it advances in age. In the back of the book I provide a complete set of where each story arose from.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My whole approach to writing is to find new ways of representing stories, other than the conventional beginning, middle, end. So two of these stories have no characters, another story sees language itself breakdown, while the last story consists of two columns of single words that resonate to tell a narrative.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I don’t really have literary influences as I look to forge my own explorations, but there are plenty of authors I admire, such as Ben Marcus, Jonathan Lethem, Don Delillo and Dubravka Ugresic. Having said that, one of the stories in the book is me engaging with the literary approach of French author Alain Robbe-Grillet, it’s one of the stories without character and tells its tale by changing physical markers in the environment around a railway viaduct.
What are you working on now?
I have a couple of novellas, but I’m keen to collaborate on my next kinetic typography video which is scripted and also a large digital book project which I need to find programmers and artists and physicists to collaborate on.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Bookj Viral, Squid Inc, Self-Publisher Showcase, twitter, Goodreads and of course Awesome Gang are all, well awesome!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
You will get plenty of advice from people, some of which is contradictory, so how do you know which to heed? That’s when you need to return to your original artistic vision, what got you into writing in the first place and stick with that. Trust to your own vision of what your art is.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t stand around watching a fight. You’ll get sucked into it! Not sure this is especially relevant to literature, but good advice all the same I feel
What are you reading now?
Jonathan Lethem’s latest novel “Dissident Gardens”
What’s next for you as a writer?
lots of live reading and these various digital projects
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?
Ben Marcus – “The Age Of Wire And String”
Haruki Murakami – “Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World”
William Burroughs – “Cities Of The Red Night”
Don Delillo – “Cosmopolis”
Author Websites and Profiles
Marc Nash Website
Marc Nash Amazon Profile
Marc Nash’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account