Big thanks to The Bookwitch and Charlie for sharing this excellent interview with us.
“Which thing do you love or hate the most about writing, and why?”
“I love being alone.” Very loud and disbelieving laughs. “No, it’s a great luxury for any person to have a couple of hours on their own, in their own office, to put on their own music. Like most Dads…, when you’re older and you’re a Dad Charlie, you will realise that you are the only person in the world that likes the music you like. For some reason when I put on good music in our house, that I paid for, everyone starts screaming that you’re an idiot. Even in the car now, as soon as I get in the car, my son is at the dial to change the radio station. So, when I’m in my office I can put on 1970s David Bowie,” loud laughs, “Led Zeppelin, and nobody says anything, and it’s fantastic. I’ve downloaded all my old CDs to iTunes and I just sit there and I listen to this music. It’s a huge luxury to do that, which most people do not have. When you’ve got kids you do not have two hours in the day to have your music going as you work, so I appreciate that. It’s really nice.
What I hate about it is, erm, I don’t think I hate anything about it. I don’t like the time when you send in a book and you’re waiting for your editor to get back to you, because you don’t know if it’s any good. You’ve been in your room for a year and a half and you’re too close to it. You’ve re-read it a hundred times, and you’ve forgotten what excited you about it, and what were the funny bits, and so you’re waiting for two weeks for the phone call from the editor. Luckily so far it’s been pretty good. I’ve had two editors killed.” Very loud laughs. “Only in my mind.” More laughing. “They’re still alive.”
Read the full interview here: