Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I work as a construction professional, writing in my spare time. I enjoy keeping fit, reading and writing.
Originally, after leaving school, I wanted to become a journalist, but things happen, focus changes . . . But I never lost sight of my dream of writing a novel. I worked my way through several hundred thousand words of idea development and over the years, although several projects began taking shape; they never got off the ground. I had working titles such as ‘The Road to Redemption’, the tale of a crusader knight in the twelfth century who stayed behind in The Holy Land long after the first crusade was over, serving a self-imposed penance for his part in the massacre that followed the siege of Jerusalem. At the same time, I was working on another project I called, ‘Finding Her’.
To date, those novels, while substantially developed, remain incomplete, casualties of writing in one’s spare time and the emergence of a more ambitious idea, which is covered in the answer to the next question.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Just before Easter in 2009, I had a conversation with a friend on the subject of writing, and it led me to summarise for her each of the stories I’d written so far. As I was recounting them, I was struck by a blizzard of new ideas that streamed from my mouth so spontaneously, I worried I wouldn’t be able to recall them afterwards.
Over the next few days, I wrote like a mad thing, just to record all the ideas. The Sister was born. The inspiration, looking back was the culmination of a series of ‘what if’ scenarios – What if I told you about a guy who was so successful at murdering young women, so devious and cunning, he’d remained undetected for over forty years? What if I told you a cold case reconstruction in late 2006, brought him onto the radar for the first time with the emergence of a new witness to the disappearance of a young nurse, in 1983? What if the detective assigned to the case had dark secrets of his own? Without giving away too much, I also wanted to explore the role that chance plays in all of our lives, and how fate governs us, and perhaps ultimately, the possibility that there is a life after death.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, I often sit writing with a set of headphones on, but not listening to anything. Although I can edit whilst playing music, I can’t actually write. As for anything else, I’m not sure if any of these things really qualify as unusual. I keep an iPhone by my bed and use it to make notes, typically at around three o’clock in the morning. I’ll wake up with a strong idea of how to resolve a scene that’s been bothering me, or sometimes a completely new section will take shape. After an hour or two, I generally manage to go back to sleep and get up for work in the morning.
I’m sure others use calendars and charts, but in the middle of 2011, I blew up the months of a 2006/2007 calendar into several table cloth sized charts and began organising the scenes I’d written to ensure they were in some kind of order.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I count authors like Harold Robbins and Stephen King among early influences, but really, too many to mention here and books by either of them from their earlier years, up to The Betsy in Robbins’ case. I drifted away from King for a while. I guess you can read too much by the same author sometimes. Influential books? Black Elk Speaks, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Adventurers, Mountain Interval, but again, too many to cover here.
What are you working on now?
The Sister is an epic length novel that stands alone, but some of my beta readers convinced me to write a spin-off book following the lives of some of the characters from the story and I am half a dozen chapters into this latest venture. This second novel is expected to be complete by March 2014, and I’m very excited at the prospect of delivering a third novel, another spin-off, by the end of 2014. Once I have those out of my system, I will return to the original ideas I mentioned in the first question.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s a little bit early for me to know for sure, but I have found personal networking and face to face meetings with various people very effective in achieving a few sales, and then those people recommend to others. I use facebook and twitter, plus I’ve started registering with a number of sites such as goodreads, wattpad and librarything. All these things take time to gestate. My next book is tentatively booked to feature in a London magazine publication on the strength of The Sister.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
In hindsight, I’d have created a buzz before I published. I think it’s important to hit the ground running.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you always do what you always done, then you always get what you always got. Someone said it to me in a pub once. I know its a cannibalisation of an Anthony Robbins quote, but that’s how I’ll always remember it now.
What are you reading now?
Atrament Speaks by C. McDonald an author I much admire.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a developing and ambitious theme for a future novel, it will be of an epic length, just like The Sister. For now, it must wait while everything else comes together.
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 Sphalerite of Almandine, the next part of the trilogy by C McDonald. The Stand by Stephen King, I always intended to re read it at some point, what else? Choices, desert island eh? Perhaps Robinson Crusoe . . . although seriously, while I’m fond of the classics i think I’d try The Hunger Games.
Author Websites and Profiles
Max China Website
Max China Amazon Profile
Max China’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account