Seeing your work
published is pretty much living the dream if you’re a writer. I’ve often heard
it said that everyone has one book in them, and I believe that to be true.
Publishers however, want more than one. They don’t want to invest in a book so
much as an author. That’s probably when you realize how competitive the market
place is: how difficult achieving your dream can be. Rejection slips are not
easy to face and believe me they come in thick and fast at the start. That’s
not to say that your book is bad, it often means you simply haven’t found the
right publisher.
The best advice I would give anyone is, never give up. I didn’t. No
matter how many times people told me something wasn’t right about the book (too
long, too short, too violent, unnecessary sex scenes – in the first draft), I
continued with such a determination and drive that you’d have thought I was
mad, or ignorant – or both, to continue. For me, staring at a blank piece of
paper with a wisp of an idea is therapy: turning it into a novel is a gift.
One book is a remarkable achievement for anyone. That was all I had
in mind when my initial idea was nothing more than a brainwave. The starting
point was some years back, when I was visiting a friend. I was searching around
for something new to write: something different. I’d had a notion for a long
time to write a story about an alternative Santa Clause, perhaps the total
opposite of the nice fat jolly chap that we see him portrayed as.
Following a meal and a few drinks my friend mentioned that maybe I
should think outside the box. Instead of writing another horror story, why not
switch genres – write a piece of crime fiction? He felt that horror was a dying
market (pardon the pun): that all the best horror writers were diversifying,
into crime; his next question became the icing on the cake – what’s more
horrific than killing someone? If you’re clever enough, you can write all the
horror you want and slip it into the middle of a police procedural.
His suggestion still involved a Father Christmas: the idea being,
have someone bumping off department store Santa’s. He couldn’t remember ever
reading anything along those lines.
I believed he had something. The concept soon became the central
theme for book 1 of the IMP series, Impurity. As with any book, there were
plenty of other things I had to consider: why anyone would want to bump of
department store Santa’s for a start. Once I’d thrown myself into the research
I discovered I could have quite a lot of fun with the ‘how’. I didn’t want a
simple stabbing, or anything involving a gun, or a hanging. I needed something
that no one else had done. As my friend had said in the beginning, think
outside the box.
I spent a lot of time mulling it over with a number of people, two
of which were very close friends of mine: a detective in the murder squad, and
a chemist. And trust me when I say that a chemist is a really valuable asset if
you want to bring a whole new concept to the word, murder.
“The corpse of a seasonal worker living in very tatty conditions is
bad enough, but someone has gone to great length to eradicate them by
administering a flesh-consuming drug, resulting in the victim’s rapid and
violent disintegration. Furthermore, pathology is unable to ascertain the cause.”
You can see from the paragraph above, we ended up with something
quite unique.
As the novel progresses, I increase
the horror: I keep the victim alive whilst it’s happening, and fully aware of
the effect it’s having on his body, because it’s already been explained to him.
In truth, when I attempted the first book, I didn’t know it had a
series in it. But the whole thing soon took on a life of it’s own. Before I was
even halfway finished, I knew there was more than one book coming up. I was
working with a pair of detectives whom I felt had a real future. One story
wouldn’t do them justice. They had such a wealth of background material
supporting their characters.
As with any crime novel, I still needed something else to make it
stand out from the competition. I required empathy for my main character from
the first page. It was quite some time before I decided on a surprising plot
twist that sealed his fate as early as chapter one. I’d love to tell you what
it is but I can’t. My apologies if I’ve just forced you into buying it.
Thinking along those lines is a daring leap into the unknown. As I
mentioned earlier, writing one book is a remarkable achievement but you have to
have some belief in yourself if you going to attempt a series. For one thing,
you need the stamina and the ability to see it through. You need a fresh idea
for each publication. You have to enhance the characters if you want your
audience to stay with you. Furthermore, you have to convince a publisher to
think the same way you do. Good luck with that one. The market is equally as
hard for him as it is for you. He definitely wants to invest in a writer, not a
book, but are you the one he really wants? You have to remember, yours isn’t
the only book – or series – he has to choose from.
I had that belief. I knew that if
other people could do it, so could I.
The whole series
to date has taken a long time to get right, and in most – if not all – cases
(or books), it’s been an absolute joy to do. That’s because I love working with
Gardener and Reilly. They’re a great pair of detectives who have an excellent
working relationship, and it’s been fun anticipating how they are going to
react to any given situation.
I mentioned above that I thought being able to write is a gift.
Sometimes it can take a while to recognize what you have. But when you meet
people who have read your books and enjoyed them, and ask you when the next one
is coming out, you realize what your gift is not only doing for you, but for
other people.
To see the whole series signed up with a London based publisher is
pretty much a dream come true.
When I think back, the really
frightening thing for me was, after having spent considerable time with a
chemist, I came to the conclusion that it might just be possible to achieve
what the book is offering: that maybe, you can actually dispose of your victims
in such a gruesome fashion.
My publisher emailed me about ten days after the release of Impurity
to let me know that he was going to negotiate the rights for the audio book,
and that he was so pleased with the reception and the success, the plan was to
release book 2, Imperfection before Christmas.
So perhaps my gift is finally allowing me to live the dream. For
anyone reading who wants to have a go, I wish you the very best of luck.
Imperfection
Synopsis.
When
theatregoers are treated to the gruesome spectacle of an actor’s lifeless body
hanging on the stage, DI Stewart Gardener is immediately called in to
investigate.
Is
the killer still in the audience?
A
lockdown is set in motion but it is soon apparent that the murderer is able to
come and go unnoticed. How do they do it?
Is
the killer a theatre worker or an actor? And what kind of grudge do they have
to bear?
Frustratingly,
the killer leaves a trail of clues for the detectives. Taunted by these and
flummoxed as to their meaning, he realizes that his own family may be in
danger.
Identifying
and capturing the culprit will mean establishing the motive for their macabre
crimes, but perhaps not before more victims meet their fate.
Can
DI Gardener succeed where he has failed in the past, and protect his own?
Author bio
Ray Clark is an award winning
Yorkshire born author whose first big break came in 1998 with the publication
of Manitou Man: The World of Graham Masterton (a biographical account of the
author’s work), which was nominated for both the World and British Fantasy
Awards.
Since then,
Ray’s writing career has been quite varied with publications covering short
story collections (A Devil’s Dozen & A Detective’s Dozen),
horror novels (Calix & Resurrection), stand-alone cross genre
novels (Seven Secrets), and the highly acclaimed IMP series, featuring
detectives Gardener and Reilly in the Yorkshire city of Leeds.
Over the last
forty years, Ray has also spent considerable time in the music industry working
both in the UK and Europe as a guitar vocalist, and with a number of bands.
These days, Ray divides his time between writing books and working live on the
music scene, and helping to raise money for the OPA, a charity he feels quite
close to.
Ray’s London publisher, The Book Folks
are planning to release Book 2 in the IMP series, Imperfection, in time for
Christmas.
Website: www.thelordofmisrule.net or www.theimpseries.net
Press Release & Official Trailer:
Impurity is available from the links below:
Amazon UK link Amazon (US) link
The Book Folks (publisher link):
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