Author Interview – Dan Thompson

1) Do you write books as a career, or are you currently still juggling your author time with a full or part time job?
As much as I hate to admit it, I still have a full time job. Working nights at a supermarket isn’t fun or interesting, but it does pay the bills. Having a five year old daughter who, at the minute, is more like a teenager doesn’t help my cause much either. But still, everyone has to start off somewhere. I’ve been working nights for nearly nine years now, so I guess the routine has become second nature, but you have to give up a lot of luxuries that some people may take for granted. You tend to lose time with family and friends, as more often than not, they have normal, day jobs.
One day, though, I will be able to call myself a ‘real’ author who writes for a living. Well, fingers crossed anyway!

2) Have you always wanted to be an author, or did some time or event in your life set you on the path?
I’m boring I’m afraid. I’m sure my clichéd answer will lose itself in the vaults of unoriginality, but I’ve always wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. When I was seven, I wrote a collection of children’s stories, which all followed a group of animals. I even did lift up flaps and colourful drawings to go with them! I didn’t have an audience, but I used to read them to my baby sister. She spilled lemonade over the first one, Animals Hide and Seek. Thankfully, it wasn’t ruined and I have all three books stored away in my filing cabinet. I occasionally bring them out, blow away the dust, and chuckle away to myself at how awful they are. Still, children are allowed to dream … and do you know what? Adults are too.

3) Do you always write in the same genre, or do you sometimes like a change of theme? If you haven’t already, is there another genre you would like to write?
If you’d have asked me that question a year ago, then the answer would most certainly have been “yes, I always write in the same genre.” I love writing for teenagers. I think a lot of people turn their noses up at YA (young adult) books, but they are fun and exciting, yet serious and realistic too. In fact, I know a lot of people that turn their noses up at YA.
The very first story I wrote (full length) is a young adult fantasy novel and I’ve been trying to get that published quite recently. But out of nowhere, whilst I was recovering from an operation in early 2013, I started to write something entirely new. It built up and evolved, which later became an adult novella entitled The Caseworker’s Memoirs. I toured libraries and book groups with that book last year. I especially found that the over fifties loved it more.
Also in 2013, I came across a genre I hardly knew anything about. Dystopia, which is exactly what my upcoming novel, Here Lies Love is. Actually it is a NA (new adult) book too, which is an extension of YA. I think it is important to test yourself as a writer. Build up your repertoire and the possibilities are endless.

4) As a writer, what is the best thing that has happened to you, and what is that most exciting thing that could happen to you?
The best thing that has ever happened to me as a writer has ultimately got to be going on my library tour last year. It was exciting, nerve-wracking and scary, but enlightening too. I learned so much more about myself and what I was capable of. I had the opportunity to meet my readers in person, thank them, but also to listen to them. I’ve been on radio twice too, which again was an opportunity most people don’t have the chance to do.
The most exciting thing that could happen to me would be to be published traditionally, with a real publisher. It is something I have always dreamed of, apart from being a writer that is. It is still hard work, tough to get noticed, but everyone deserves an opportunity to fulfil their dreams. I’m hoping that my chance is just around the corner.

5) How do you view the promotion, book signings etc. Is it something you enjoy, or do you prefer the writing stage?
The days of the hermit-like writer, locked away in the study or the shed even, scribbling away, with sticky notes pinned in every free space, old coffee mugs with mould growing inside, are long gone. As an author, you really have to be a saleable commodity. Book signings, school visits, book fairs are all part of the process. Now, I was (and in some case still am) a nervous person, but having to get stuck in and get out there in the public eye was something that was both daunting, but valuable. I honestly believe that I have grown as a person, more confident in my approach. Of course there are times when the talks could have gone better, more involved, but then there are the times where you get a round of applause, people queuing up to have you sign their own copies.
Of course though, we are writers at heart and the writing is the most fun. You have no critics, no expectations. You can boldly go wherever the hell you want, whether it be in some fantastical enchanted forest, the war torn back alleys of occupied France, up the sky, underneath the ground …. The list goes on. Having the opportunity to tell someone’s story, really step into their shoes and decide their fate, is one job I wouldn’t trade for the world.

6) Could you tell us something about your published books, and let us know what they are about?
Well my adult book, The Caseworker’s Memoirs has been described by some reviewers as several stories in one, and although that is true, it is Malcolm’s story that gels everything together. He is recently widowed, having lost his wife only a few weeks before. He is losing touch with the world, locking himself away – even his daughter can’t get through to him. That is until, she gives him a leather bound notebook. As the days drag on, Malcolm starts to have these dreams, rediscovered memories about his former patients from when he was a psychologist. Malcolm had to treat these people with their numerous phobias, whether it be the fear of heights, the fear of time, homophobia, fear of terrorism … but he feels he has failed them.
It is a very enclosed story, one that pulls you in and makes you feel for Malcolm as you progress with him trying to find himself again. Or so I’ve been told anyway.
My upcoming novel, Here Lies Love, will be out in the spring and it follows the story of Abbey as she tries to escape the awful man she was sold to by her father. But as Abbey is quick to discover, the cold and lonely world outside is just as terrifying. She is haunted by the abuse she has suffered and having to survive by herself is asking too much. Only by confronting her father will she be able to move on with her life. I love the tagline for this book: ‘Would death be less painful than life?’

Author of Here Lies Love, The Black Petal & The Caseworker’s Memoirs

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Great answers, Dan. Best of luck with your career as a writer!