Michael Ford

THE POISONED HOUSE:

Author Interview:

When and how did you start writing?

I started writing (badly) when I was about seventeen. Awful poetry, sentimental short stories. I accidentally emailed a load of them to someone, and that earth-swallowing embarrassment was enough to put me off for some time to come.

I only began writing ‘properly’ once I started working in publishing – I’d always wanted to be a writer in a nebulous way, and lived with a guy who said to me that it was hard to be one without actually putting pen to paper. Fairly obvious, one would have thought.

Anyway, I started out by getting freelance writing jobs through my various employers – first non-fiction, later fiction. These were just short projects that I could easily fit in around my day-job. Embarking on a full-length novel was always a long way off. Eventually I realised that the skills needed for longer works aren’t so different – it’s just a case of planning and patience.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Who were your childhood storytelling heroes?

I remember the hypnotic qualities of being read to, but little about actual books, from my very early childhood. Later, I went crazy for Roald Dahl, and Willard Price’s boys’ own adventure stories. Both have a sense of pure escapism and, for me, Dahl’s creative imagnation is unrivalled. I went through a phase in my teens of reading buckets of poetry. I found a copy of Ted Hughes’ Crow in our school library and reread it dozens of time. I’m not sure I really understood what it was about then - come to think of it, I still don’t now - but it moved me a great deal.

A book I read just before going to university, and which made a impact on me in terms of realising the emotional potential of fiction, was Kazuo Ishiguro’s THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. It wears its huge themes and clever structure very lightly and packs a tremendous punch at the end. Oddly, I’ve probably read more children’s literature in my adult years. I love Neil Gaiman - he captures the same magic I remember from Roald Dahl.

Can you talk us through the writing of your first book? What were the key moments?

The first full length novel I wrote was called THE FIRE OF ARES, and it was about a Helot (a slave) in ancient Sparta (a city-state in Greece) who discovers he has a warrior heritage.

I wrote it for a children’s book packager, who had basically created the storyline in a lot of detail. Working in this way was a great training ground – it took away the pressure of plotting, and let me focus on getting into the characters’ heads and doing the research needed to give a convincing portrayal of ancient Greece.

I found the research particularly interesting – so much is not known about the Spartans, and what is mostly comes from sources outside that society. The other benefit of working to a brief was that I was supported through the process by a really talented editor. I ended up writing three books in a trilogy, and by the end I think I’d grown as a writer. The editor may disagree…

Was it hard to get an agent ? Can you talk us through the process?

Not especially. I had an existing relationship with the publisher (Bloomsbury) through the Spartan trilogy, and they bought my new novel based on a sample. I wanted to have an agent to take away the pressures of dealing with the financial side of things, so I could focus on editorial matters. It’s also great to have someone to bounce ideas off, and to support you when things aren’t going so well - otherwise being a writer can be quite a solitary experience.

Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organize your time? Where do you look for inspiration?

I organize my freelance writing around my day-job as an editor of adult fiction. When I do freelance writing work, I mostly write in the library, because I’m really distractible in other environments. The Guildhall in London has a quiet reading room where I can work. I often have more than one project going at a time, so tend to flit between them in bursts of energy and creativity.

Inspiration’s a tricky one. More often than not I’ll read something in a non-fiction context and see potential for a story. I’m drawn to historical subjects, possibly because it’s easier to see the pressure points and conflicts in retrospect. I envy people who can write contemporary, issues-driven fiction: it takes a level of perception that I haven’t got.

Sometimes it’s just a phrase or a brief scenario that will jump into my head. Often people say that being a writer is being able to see the world around you, and I think that’s probably true. Too often I find myself looking into my head for stories, and that’s the worst place!

Can you tell us about your next book?

I’m currently writing a Victorian ghost story/murder mystery about a servant girl who discovers her mother was murdered by someone in the house where she works. It’s sort of a cross between the film Ghost and the play Hamlet, for younger readers. It’s great, because the Victorians were such a weird, morally confused and myopic bunch, yet possessed the most remarkable spirit of human endeavour.

In almost all of their own stories, the problems are those we would recognise as affecting the ‘middle’ and ‘upper’ classes - sometimes it’s as though life ‘below’ stairs never existed. Yet the machinery of the servant classes completely sustained the Victorian system (in much the same way as the slave classes of ancient Sparta allowed Spartan male citizens to belong to a warrior caste). Now we’re more interested in social history than the majority of Victorians ever were.

Research has been fun, as there are plenty of places where one can look right back into the Victorian past – houses, paintings, books. Our lives are still steeped in received Victorian thinking, and the evidence of their accomplishments is all around us.

Are there any tips you could give aspiring writers who are looking to get published?

There are hundreds of books purporting to answer this question, so I won’t say I have all the answers. Publishing is like an ever-finer sieve. There are perhaps three or four hoops to jump through, and it’s important to tailor your projects to line up those hoops as well as possible. If it’s your first book, and increasingly with any title for the children’s market, you can’t afford to neglect the commercial appeal. Read other books that are out there, and know how yours fits in.

The marketing and sales departments have growing influence over what gets commissioned in most major publishing houses - a catchy tagline, which immediately conveys what your book ‘is’, can help a great deal. Many publishers no longer accept unsolicited submissions, so getting an agent (the first sieve) is going to increase your chances enormously. I’m sure that luck plays a part too.

Can you describe three aspects of writing craft that have been most important as you’ve developed as an author?

It’s an old one, but ‘Don’t get it right, get it written’ is an invaluable piece of advice. It’s much easy to amend something later. Two, be brutal with your own work and assume the criticism of those close to you is correct, not misguided. Three, ‘show’ don’t ‘tell’. Again, it’s spouted left, right and centre, but it’s a terribly important way of lifting writing from being pedestrian.

Which favourite authors would you invite to a dinner party? What fictional character do you wish you’d invented?

There are lots of people I think would be great conversation, but it might not be a good dinner party, because they wouldn’t get on:  Evelyn Waugh, Martin Amis, Gore Vidal… I suspect they’d be very opinionated, and plates would be thrown.

So, for sheer admiration of their books, I’d invite Roald Dahl, David Almond and Neil Gaiman.

I wish I’d invented Flashman – I can’t get enough of him. He’s a bewhiskered bounder who’s cornered the market in cowardly, debauched adventures, and George MacDonald Fraser’s series of novels is a fantastic interpretation of Victorian history.