Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I never went to school. Mum and Dad didn’t believe in them, so I was sent to the public library instead. “Books”, I was told, “are the best education you can have, the more you read, the more you’ll know, and the more you know, the more you’ll understand”
Our house was full of books. Books cluttered the table, books gathered dust under the beds, books lurked in the bathroom and lay on the windowsill in the laundry. The roof seemed to almost sag beneath all the books Mum and Dad had collected and stored in the attic. I tried to count them once. I stopped at three thousand. Books, we were taught, are a pleasure and a duty. Books are power. If you can read, you can learn anything.
Given this extraordinary start in life, I think it was almost fated that I would become a writer. If there is a constellation in the heavens known for producing writers, I am almost certain I was born under it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book is called “The Ghastly Greek Gods”. It’s the basic Greek myths, written out as amusingly as possible, hopeful to tempt kids thirteen and up to read them. I feel there’s a bit of a gap in the market really, humour is the jam that makes the medicine of education go down.
After all those years hidden in the library reading, it occurred to me that it was probably time I took a few official courses so that I could partake in the joys of standard education, tests and certificates. So I signed up for a course in Classical Studies. I was asked to retell a Greek Myth for an assignment and I fairly let myself go. The comment I got back said “you should write a book”.
So I did. ‘The Ghastly Greek Gods’ came rushing into my head, each god and goddess shrieking what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it, and finally (just to shut them up I think!) I moved aside and let them scribble themselves out.
I didn’t try and ‘modernize’ them. In any case, I don’t believe they would have let me…. they really are a fearfully bossy bunch of deities, I simply told the myths as they are recorded, but I gave my down-under kiwi humour a fairly free hand and I imported quite of lot of that gorgeous Aussy slang to make the dialog sparkle. The Australians are just so much more creative than us kiwis with their distinctive brand of English.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, when I’m working on a book I never stop. I do a lot of ‘rewriting’ before I even sit down at the computer. Unfortunately this ‘rewriting’ is all very ‘out there’, I can’t work out if a piece of dialog is any good until I hear it, so I spend a lot of time muttering to myself in the voice of the character I’m working on. This can be counted on to drive the people around me mad. “Stop talking to yourself! It’s the first sign of insanity!” they hiss. The worst thing is, I am usually unaware I’m doing it! Still, it does save a lot of time in the long run. Once it hits the paper, it’s been ‘rewritten’ about six times already.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I think Terry Deary of Horrible Histories has had a huge impact on me in that he’s taken a subject that most kids are scared silly of and he’s made it hilarious and a bit of a treat. I mean, my younger brothers have never cared for history at all, but since they discovered the Horrible Histories books/TV show, they’ve been absolutely begging for the stuff.
Someone else who did that quite brilliantly was Margret Mahy with her book ‘Awesome Aotearoa, a history of New Zealand.’ I think it’s the first history book on my own country I actually managed to finish. Utterly hilarious and you realize you’ve been taught something as an afterthought. Very cunning.
I also have a lot of time for C. S Lewis. He had the knack of thinking deeply and writing lightly to get things across his audience. Of course, Narnia is just loaded with classical references. It’s a double treat when you realize what he’s drawing his inspiration from.
What are you working on now?
About eight different things. As you can imagine, I am talking to myself like I really AM mad! I’m very keen to have another go with the Ghastlies, though, they practically write themselves.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That’s a very good question, and one day I’ll know that answer to it. It’s a bit like anything, you sort of stumble around and try all the wrong ways until at last you hit the right way. The truth is, word of mouth is slow but it can’t be beaten. No one is running a lot of add campaigns for the Bible, but we all know it’s out there.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I think the worst thing new authors can do is doubt themselves. We are constantly looking for affirmation as humans. We want to be acknowledged as the next big thing. I think that’s quite normal but it’s also a bit misplaced. The greatest test of talent is time. It’s a sad fact but some of the greatest writers and painters that ever lived died in poverty and only meet with sucess after death. Don’t write because it’ll make you famous, write because you love it. That way, sucess is a bonus if it comes and not a disaster it doesn’t.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Love God, be kind to people. Beyond that, not a lot matters.
What are you reading now?
War and Peace by Tolstoy.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m not really sure, but I’d like to encourage a lot of writers become authors. It’s a wonderful sense of accomplishment, and I think it would be lovely to share that.
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 Cannibal’s Guide to Cooking your Brother.’
Either that or ‘Endurance Swimming for the Unfit.’
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