Tell us about your latest book.
One Hot Summer is a coming of age story set
against the background of the long, hot British summer of 1976. As I was a
teenager in that era it’s very much write what you know, though it definitely
isn’t an autobiography. No, honestly, it’s not!
Who are your favourite authors?
How long have you got? I always
think that being asked to chose a favourite author is like choosing a favourite
limb, you’re really quite attached to all of them.
Going back to school, Harper Lee’s
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the few books I’ve revisited and enjoyed as an
adult. John LeCarré is a long-term favourite – I started reading his books when
I was about 16. I also love Ian Rankin’s books and Andrew Martin’s ‘Jim
Stringer’ series. Of writers in a similar genre to mine Nick Hornby clings
stubbornly to my shelves when other paperbacks face the charity shop cull as do
Jonathan Coe and Hanif Kureishi.
What advice do you have for other writers?
Write first, research later. I think
I stole that from an Ian Rankin interview but it’s good advice. If you do too
much research at the start you not only waste what should be writing time, you
also end up including much more than you should and bogging the book down in
unnecessary detail.
Where can people find out more about you and your writing?
I’ve got a website at www.iandavidbarker.co.uk where you can find out about my
novels and my non-fiction work. You can also read some short stories and some
dodgy poetry. My books are on Amazon and Smashwords or you can buy them direct
from the publisher at www.rebelepublishers.com – you’ll find some other incredibly
talented authors there too.
Who is you favourite character in your book and why?
You
might expect me to choose John, the book’s main character here, since he’s
partly me. However my particular favourite in One Hot Summer is the
Cartoon Devil, a figment of John’s imagination who acts as a sort of
anti-conscience, popping up at inappropriate moments to urge John to do or say
the wrong thing, or provide a very un-PC comment on events.
He
was great fun to write but also proved to be a useful literary device for
getting inside John’s head and exploring his slightly darker thoughts.
Why do you think readers are going
to enjoy your
book?
It’s funny and
it has characters that, I hope, anyone who has ever been a teenager can relate
to. It explores love and loss and the basic insecurities that most of us suffer
from time to time. If you’re old enough to remember the 1970s you can wallow in
nostalgia too.
For those who
remember the line in the movie Shakespeare in Love that every good story
should have a dog in it, mine has two just to make sure.
How long did it take you to write your book?
Too long. Because my day job is writing about technology, fiction has to
take a back seat. Both of my novels to date have taken about three years or so
to write. Although One Hot Summer is my second published novel it was
actually the first one I wrote. After collecting a sheaf of rejections it sat
in the bottom drawer whilst I wrote Fallen Star. The experience of
writing, and ultimately in 2010 publishing, that enabled me to go back to the
first book and revise it to make it a much better story.
What is your work in progress? Tell us about it.
I’m currently
writing a sequel to my first book. Star Turn takes up Fallen Star’s
story around four years on from where that book ended. I thought it might be
difficult to pick up again with characters that I last wrote about three or
four years ago but it’s surprising how easily you slip back into their thoughts
– or they slip back into mine!
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| Ian Barker |
What are your thoughts on self-publishing verses traditional publishing?
Each has its
place, though I do think that today people are sometimes too ready to rush into
self-publishing with products that aren’t ready which results in disappointment
all round. One of the best things about working with a traditional – albeit
small – publisher has been having access to a professional editor. Both of my
novels are immeasurably better as a result.
Who or what inspired you to become a writer?
To be honest I don’t
think I’ve ever not been one. One of my school reports at the age of about
eleven read, “An easy style and interesting ideas.” I’ve always dabbled in
writing since leaving school though for a long time it was a sideline to a
career in IT.
About ten years ago I
moved sideways to work for a computer magazine and never looked back. It’s a
shame it took me so long to realise that I could get paid for writing about
computers rather than fixing them!
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