The
Short Review:
How long did it take you to write all the stories in your collection?
Kim
Newman: The
Big Fish, the earliest story in Secret Files of the Diogenes Club,
was published in 1993 (and written a year or two earlier); Cold Snap, the most
recent, was written in 2007 especially for the collection. As for the
writing time of individual stories, it probably averages out at a week
or so for each - the shorter pieces get done in two or three days, the
novella-length ones take a month or more.
TSR: Did you
have a collection in mind when you were writing them?
KN:
No, though I have always been aware of the
links between my stories and that I tend to pick up characters and
threads from piece to piece. Secret
Files collects a loose series of linked stories,
and Cold Snap
was written partially to tie all the stories together by suggesting
that there have been plotlines boiling all along between all the
stories. Of course, this is my second MonkeyBrain collection, following
The Man From
the Diogenes Club - which collects stories about one
character and set over a few years; this is more diverse in setting and
time period, but the stories are still set within the same fictional
universe.
TSR: How did
you choose which stories to include and in what order?
KN: This
was a fairly easy process - I picked stories that were already linked
together, and ordered them according with internal chronology. The
stories are set in different years over a century or so.
TSR: Do you
have a "reader" in mind when you write stories?
KN: Not
really. I just write things that interest me, and hope other people
catch on.
TSR: Is there
anything you'd like to ask someone who has read your
collection,
anything at all?
KN:
Nothing comes to mind.
TSR: How does it feel knowing that people are buying your book?
KN:
Horrible. I wish they wouldn't ... no, come to think of it, it's very
nice.
TSR: What are
you working on now?
KN:
On my desk at the moment - a rewrite on a film script I did a few years
ago (subject to contractual negotiation), a couple of outlined
non-fiction projects (none commissioned yet), a long-gestating fourth
book in my Anno Dracula
series, my usual freelance commitments (I write for various magazines
and newspapers), and (eventually) another Diogenes Club collection.
