This month’s interview marks the re-issue of Comeback Tour, a book by one of the forum’s favourite authors, Kim Newman. He is the creator (under the pseudonym of Jack Yeovil) of Warhammer's Genevieve the Vampire and also wrote some of Black Flame's Dark Future strand of novels - Comeback Tour is one of them. He has written many books and is a prolific critic of both horror films and books.
Like the last interview with James Swallow, this interview only skims the surface of the vast body of Kim’s work. You can read a lot more about him on his website.
From reading Dark Future books like Comeback Tour I get the impression that you had immense fun writing that mix of the occult, dark SF and satire. Is that how it felt at the time?
I enjoyed doing those books very much, and I'll stand by the original versions of them. Then again, I have enjoyed writing all my books. With the DF series, and the GW books in general, I was writing very quickly, which has its own rush.
Why Jack Yeovil? Was that to do with Britain’s culture of literary snobbery?
I used a pseudonym for the Games Workshop books because everyone else working on the line at the time did; later on, Ian Watson broke that tradition. Looking back on it, it was never a particular secret - and I'm certainly pleased with the original versions of the Yeovil books. It has occasionally been useful to have an established pseudonym or two stashed around -- I published a horror novel (Orgy of the Blood Parasites) as Yeovil, and have done odd film reviews under the name. If I subscribed to any culture of literary snobbery, I'd probably have put a pseudonym on everything.
Dracula and vampires. What is the particular fascination for you? Is it one of those childhood interests you’ve never been able to shake off?
I suppose so. I tend to date my interest in horror - and also in the movies - to watching the 1931 Dracula when I was about 11, though looking back on it I had crazes for science fiction, TV fantasy and comics before then. I'm interested in vampires now because they can mean so many things - part of what I have tried to do in the Anno Dracula series is go through all the ways they can be represented, and every possible application they can have.
What’s your take on why people appear to be either fascinated or repelled by the horror genre?
Whenever I'm asked 'why do people like horror', I always suspect the real question is 'why do sick bastards like you enjoy things no normal person would ever consider reading or watching?' I've no particular interest in why people like being scared, as if being scary were the only or even primary purpose of every work of horror fiction. A significant number of people do, and another lot don't - the way some people like or hate westerns or musicals. That's just the way it is.
Are you tempted to return to Genevieve and write another story about her?
She's in the story I'm writing at the moment (Cold Snap), and she was in the lengthy novella I wrote a few months back (Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch). These stories aren't set in either of the universes she's most often found in, the Warhammer world or the Anno Dracula world, and the character has slightly different middle names in all three of her primary incarnations in my work - but she's at least 80% the same person. So, obviously, I do keep going back to her. I felt that with The Ibby the Fish Factor in the GW short story collection, I'd give some closure to the Warhammer version of her - she gets married, and that usually (though not always) prohibits further stories. I've not finished the AD series yet, though I'm slightly stuck on it at the moment - which means I'm spending more time on a looser cycle, set closer to our own world.
In some of your novels you import characters from other literary sources. Both James Bond and Tom Ripley appear in Dracula Cha, Cha, Cha. Did you have to get permission to do that or do you live in fear of someone like Patricia Highsmith accosting you in the street and smacking you in the gob for nicking her character?
In those cases, I was cautious about Bond (I change his name) and I have occasionally been wary of characters who have huge franchise industries attached. When I started the book I didn't know The Talented Mr Ripley was being filmed and that everyone (not just Highsmith's readers) would know who Tom was when DCCC came out. Highsmith is dead, and unlikely to make a fuss - but I didn't use his last name in the novel, partly as a hedge against problems and partly as literary game-play. I've done that quite often. My understanding is that writers are free to use borrowed characters or situations for the purpose of satire or if there's no attempt at 'passing off' - DCCC isn't billed, for instance, as 'the new James Bond book'. By making a patchwork of other authors' universes, I think I avoid treading on any particular toes. I should say that the few times I've come across Anno Dracula 'fan fiction' using my characters, I've really hated it - so I might well be a hypocrite in this area. A few living authors whose characters I've given cameos (Charles L. Grant, Les Daniels) have approved. No one has actually complained yet.
Do you describe yourself as a horror or fantasy writer? Does it matter? I tell people who have never read your books that you are a satirist. Is that a reasonable description?
When people ask what I write I say something like 'kind of scary, kind of funny'. I'm happy to be called a satirist - though probably in a wider sense of the word that most folks understand these days. Satire can be serious, as well as just funny. I've occasionally provoked arguments by saying that science fiction is a sub-genre of satire.
How did you become a professional writer and how much of a struggle was it to achieve that?
I couldn't get a real job. I did try. Once I sold my first stuff - and I sold film reviews, fiction, humour and my first books within a few months in 1982-3 - I was pretty much able to make a living, and I've been working steadily ever since. I suspect that writing in several different areas has helped. I had a couple of years between university and making a go of writing when I was basically unemployed - though I did a few unpaid things (some theatre) that were definite steps on the way.
Do you make a conscious effort to balance out the split between your non-fiction work and the novels? Is it possible to say which you enjoy more?
No and no. Sometimes, when I've got immediate deadlines, there's a tension - but I think that the two areas feed into each other. Quite a lot of my fiction has been an extension of my criticism.
You have collaborated on many books. Does it involve a lot of diplomacy when two writers used to solitary work come together on one project?
I've written or edited with Neil Gaiman, Stephen Jones, Eugene Byrne, Paul McAuley and Chris Wicking. All these have been quite smooth - collaborators in this field tend to know when to let the other fellow take the strain. One reason for collaboration is that writing can be so solitary - it's nice to have someone to talk to. And when writers meet they tend to talk ideas - sometimes it's only natural to write them up together.
Which book was you favourite collaboration and why?
I'm not singling any one out, because they've all been fun. Back in the USSA, with Eugene, is the most substantial of them.
And which of all your books is your favourite and why?
Most people can't choose their favourite child, and if they can it's probably a terrible thing. I am particularly fond of Life's Lottery - partly because it's so unusually structured.
Your love of horror films movies forms a significant part of your writing. Have you ever been tempted to create the perfect horror screenplay? If so, when will it hit the big screen?
I've sold options, written adaptations, done original scripts, etc. So far only a single short story, adapted by someone else, has been filmed - Week Woman, which was done on an anthology show called The Hunger. I wrote and directed a short film, Missing Girl, which I'll be posting on my site (www.johnnyalucard.com ) soon. Most projects don't get made, which is dispiriting. I'm not giving up yet, but I'm also not devoting all my time to hammering away at it.
Describe your working day. Do you set yourself a target like a word count; do you work on more than one book at a time?
Get up, write in the morning, usually do other things in the afternoon, often go to a press screening in the evening. I fit some kind of social life in there too. When I'm working on fiction, 1,500-2,000 words a day is a reasonable target - but, for instance, it takes a lot longer to write two paragraphs full of facts, research and background detail than it does to do a conversation or an action scene. When I was Jack Yeovil, I used to manage 7,000 words a day - two weeks of that and you had a draft of a 70,000 word novel, a week off and another week to revise, and it was done inside a month. I'm not sure I could do that now - mainly because I'd find it hard to clear the decks of all other commitments for as long as three weeks.
What do you find the hardest part of the craft and what is the easiest?
The hardest parts are the things beyond your control - how much effort your publishers, agents, publicists, etc put into selling what you've worked on. You can't afford to be a nagger and a whiner, but you can't be unassertive either. For me, the easiest thing is actually writing the prose.
What are your emotional high and low points in novel writing cycle?
I especially like rewriting - when you have a complete draft, no matter how rough, and work to polish or expand or hone the prose, fix plot-holes, etc. I don't really have low points. The worst aspects of my career as a whole have all been in meetings with film producers.
Who are or were the biggest influences on your writing?
Probably all the movies I've seen and books I've read.
Some of your books and short stories are complex constructs that work on many levels and feel like they must have taken years of thought to work out. It might not be possible to generalise, but how easy or difficult do you find them to write?
As I said, I find the writing easy when I'm actually writing. I accept that some of the things I do take a long time just as I accept that some are finished very quickly. I do let ideas percolate for varying degrees of time.
Give us a couple of examples of how the ideas for books came about? Do ideas spring fully formed into your mind, or do they build over time?
See above. Some ideas are instant - I actually woke up in the middle of the night with the title and premise of my novel The Quorum, which is a rare instance where I can trace the actual inspiration of something. Other things build up over years and years - the whole Anno Dracula cycle springs from a footnote in an essay I did at university, and the idea came together over ten years.
Warhammer 40K and WFB. Were or are you a fan or player?
I was at school with Cheryl Morgan, who was one of the very early exponents of fantasy role-playing games in the UK and later contributed to various Games Workshop-published role-playing games. I did play a proto-warhammer game a couple of times, but my role-playing experience was mostly in a long, complicated series of games I played from 1978 to '83 with no official system and in a different genre (alternate history international power politics, war and diplomacy). When I came to write the GW books, I'd been out of that for a while but was familiar with and interested in gaming - but also outside enough not to feel hobbled by things. I got permission early on to change stuff that was in the rule-books if it made for a better story - the then supremo let me change how vampires were represented in the Warhammer world, for instance.
What other books do you have lined up to be published this year?
My next book is The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, which follows up my The Man From the Diogenes Club. It'll be published by MonkeyBrain Books in the Autumn.
Who is your favourite writer and who are you reading at the moment?
The book I happen to be reading right now is Dead Letter Drop, a thriller by Peter James. I'm also in the middle of DC Comics Showcase Presents The Elongated Man. I don't really have a favourite writer, as such.
What do you think is the most common misconception of a writer’s life?
That it is physically undemanding.
Do you have an agent? If so, how does that help you to manage your writing?
I have a literary agent and a media agent. They can't do the writing for you, but they do everything else. Also, sometimes you need someone on your side no matter how unreasonable you're being.
Any practical advice for aspiring writers?
Find things out for yourself.
When you become Evil Overlord for the day, what rule would you impose on the genre (apart from giving yourself a lifetime’s worth of novels to write)?
I am by political inclination a libertarian, so I'd rather take rules away from the genre - even if most genres are defined by rules (horror must be scary, comedy must be funny, etc), I think the interesting work is done by people willing to break them.
- Kim Newman, aka Jack Yeovil, was interviewed by Martin Belderson
