An Unexpected Pleasure

For those who missed it last Friday, while I was editing the current book, Aliya Whiteley and I had an impromptu chat/interview over Twitter. This wasn’t planned, in fact I recall it started because I wanted – needed – to be distracted by the non-creative, functional blitzing of draft 5 of ‘Stranded Rooms’.  And I threw out the statement: @MFWC ‘So here I am, on my pre-sub draft of current book. At no other time during a project am I as accessible. That kinda means, I don’t mind distractions. It’s the mundane task of correcting grammar, style and continuity.’

And that’s when Aliya called in…

~

copyright Aliya Whiteley, Unlikely Stories.org

For those who don’t know (and you should, you know), Aliya Whiteley is the author of several books, and numerous short stories, that transcend genre. To call her a horror writer, a fantasist, SF author, literary writer and anything else, would be a disservice. Aliya is a writer who tells great stories, and whatever genre those stories fall into..? Well that’s just great if they do. But if it doesn’t, that’s great too. It really doesn’t matter, (other than to the publicist who gets the odd pang of a headache whenever an ‘Aliya Whiteley’ book falls on their desk.)

Yeah, Aliya is a great writer. Let’s leave it at that, because like I said before, you should know. You should pick up either The Beauty, or Witchcraft in the Harem, and just as you might take a lover’s hand while you step under the ivy covered arch into that place you can’t really see from afar, you really won’t expect this.

As I didn’t:

@AliyaWhiteley: …Hello! *waves*

@MFWC: Hello right back at ya - glued to the laptop too? Writing perchance?

@AliyaWhiteley: Yep, scribbling away as ever. Default setting. I hope the editing goes well - it's my least favourite bit.

@MFWC: It’s usually my least fave too, but this time it’s been quite enjoyable. What are you working on? Can you divulge?

@AliyaWhiteley: Just finished the edits on the new novella, coming out May. Historical fiction/SF crossover - I loved writing it. What about you?

@MFWC: That sounds very cool. And as ever, the kinda thing I want to read. I want to know more! Tell you what, I’ll ask 5 questions about the new book. Is that ok?

@AliyaWhiteley: Okay, go... ;)

@MFWC: (in the tone of Comic-book Guy)… Question the first: What’s the title of the new book?

@AliyaWhiteley: It's called 'The Arrival of Missives' and it took me ages to come up with that. At one point I mooted 'Of Rocks and Responsibility' ;)

@MFWC: Hahaha - I love that second title. That’s great.

@AliyaWhiteley: If it was an Austen mashup it would have won, but it's not quite that era...

@MFWC: Having said that, ‘The Arrival of Missives’ is a damn fine one too. And it’s so intriguing. Ok, Question 2 (cos I’m very intrigued now), who is your main character?

@AliyaWhiteley: I love her, she's called Shirley Fearn and she's a precocious teenager who's in love with her mysterious schoolmaster. Who limps.

@MFWC: Ok, as this is SF too, (and I might point out, ‘Aliya Whiteley’ SF) I can see this heading to unlikely places... Question 3, without giving too much away, what’s the backstory to the schoolmaster, and his limp?

@AliyaWhiteley: Well, this is 1920 and he's been in the wars. In one war in particular. And the experience has... um... changed him. Somewhat.

@MFWC: Yep, that’s it. Well hooked now. I could dig further, but that’ll be too many spoilers, so…To question 4: with this story, which came first, the idea or the love of the genres?

@AliyaWhiteley: Shirley's voice came first and then I tied her DH Lawrence. I've always wanted to write something Lawrence-ish....

...but hist fic is scary, so I had to find the courage to take a crack at it. The plot then went where it wanted (my plots always do).

   

@MFWC: DH Lawrence SF? When CAN I buy this? Yeah I know what you mean with hist fic. It’s like walking amongst barbed wire and landmines whilst listening to heavy metal. Too many traps. And way too many distractions. With my first hist fic books I got buried by the research.

   

@AliyaWhiteley: Great description! Yep.

@MFWC: Question 5 then: having written in the historical fiction genre do you think you’ll go there again?

   

@AliyaWhiteley: I would, I feel braver about it. But it's not my thing. I don't think I have a thing. A genre. I just go wherever it takes me.

@MFWC: That’s what I love about your writing. When you pick up an Aliya Whiteley story, you only know that it will be great.

   

@AliyaWhiteley: Aw, thank you. Happy to have being great as my thing, then. ;) I see you have managed to neatly sidestep the question of what you're working on! Is it still in the secret stages?

@MFWC: Not entirely - but if you want you can ask some questions...

@AliyaWhiteley: Goodie! 1. What's the title of your current project?

@MFWC: Well, it’s a working title, but it’s a working title that hasn’t gone away for nearly two years: ‘Stranded Rooms.'

@AliyaWhiteley: I like that. 2. I'm guessing genre fiction, am I right? SF/F/Horror?

@MFWC: Yeah, all three genres really. It’s a present day setting, but it goes everywhere (literally).

@AliyaWhiteley: Intriguing! 3. Tell me something about your main character(s)...

   

@MFWC: There are two. He’s a foppish, wayward guy in his 20’s who’s become a little lost... He ends up in an old shared industrialist’s mansion called Thunderclap House. The second character, Alex, has a complex history, a little enigmatic, but she has a very strong character. When I set out to write it, Edward was the only main character. Now, it looks like Alex is the one driving the story forward.

 @AliyaWhiteley: I like the way the story can surprise you in the writing sometimes. And Thunderclap House is a most excellent name.

@MFWC: Ha, yeah, and this story has really surprised me. I suppose in some ways it is autobiographical. Thunderclap House is based on a place Sarah and I lived in ten years ago. An old steel baron’s mansion.

           

@AliyaWhiteley: Wow, sounds like a good place for a writer to live in! To let it sink into your bones...

@MFWC: Lol. The damp did! But yeah, it was fantastic. The rooms were cavernous. But it was so cold. Most of the time I was huddled over the computer with three jumpers and thermos. I was writing The Secret War then.

@AliyaWhiteley: And I always thought your great imagination provided that authentic Napoleonic feeling of soldiering on through dire conditions!

           

@MFWC: Ha, yes. Well the damp helps. I came close to getting trench foot too while living there!

   

@AliyaWhiteley: 4. To what extent does this novel have a message? Do you ever write with a message in mind, or is that the subconscious bit?

@MFWC: I think there are two things going on with the message. I want people to have fun with my stories so I don’t labour a message. But there are definitely messages in this about craving adventure, going out and doing things with your lives... There’s a character in this story that has agoraphobia but is in denial, for instance. During the day-job I meet people - too many actually - who have not fulfilled their potential for numerous reasons. It’s sad. I suppose this book is about that. Through catastrophic accident, they become more important than they ever expected.

@AliyaWhiteley: I want to read it! It sounds driven. 5. Now you're at the end of it, are you happy with it? (Are you ever happy with a book? :))

   

@MFWC: I’m never happy with the book. Even when it’s published, I want to do another draft! But with this one, I’m the happiest I’ve been. Which is unusual considering the size: at the moment it stands at 700 pages.

   

@AliyaWhiteley: Wowie!

           

@MFWC: It’s a little overwhelming when I look at the page count. Like looking at a mountain or one of the ‘Unghar’ in the story.

   

@AliyaWhiteley: I want to know what an Unghar is.

           

@MFWC: Thats 6 questions...

           

@AliyaWhiteley: I knew you'd say that! Well then, I will just have to wait until I can read it...

           

@MFWC: Ok, just this once, think of an ‘Unghar' as a cycloptic ‘Treebeard’ the size of a mountain, who likes squishing people.

@AliyaWhiteley: This sounds like my kind of story.

@MFWC: I hope so! It was so much fun to write. I could be as bonkers as I wanted to. The worlds in this book are utterly mad.

@AliyaWhiteley: Right then, back to it, we must get together in person some time! Will hassle the MNWers for a lunch date.

           

@MFWC: Sounds good. And thank you - this was a lot of fun. Should do it again!

@AliyaWhiteley: And I'm sure it's been excellent research for something... ;)

@MFWC:;)

So there you are… this wasn’t planned, nor was it expected, but I feel better for it. It reinvigorated the reasons for writing, which can be as important as the writing itself sometimes. It can also be very surprising. I didn't think about messages too much while writing the current book. So it just goes to show, you really don't know what is around the next page… much like reading AliyaWhiteley’s work, I might add!

Footnote: I did do my writing for the day, if my editor is reading this. I managed to drill through twenty thousand words, and that’s with a half hour chat being conducted on-line over Twitter. I guess not all social networking is a ‘dead-letter’ distraction for the writer.

Some of it… Well, hell, some of it can be the match that lights a fire, you know?