It gives me great pleasure to welcome Paul Kane onto the website today. Paul is the award-winning, bestselling author and editor of over a hundred books. He writes horror, dark fantasy, and non-fiction - as well as crime novels under the name P. L. Kane. Some of his work has been optioned and adapted for both the big and small screen.
Alex: Tell us a bit about yourself, Paul.
Paul: I was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the UK, and still live not too far away. My dad was a miner and my mum was a secretary until she had me, so I come from a very working-class background. My dad, thankfully, instilled in me a solid work ethic but my parents never discouraged me from pursuing creative endeavours, like creating my own comic books when I was little – I was trying to copy the Marvel and DC comics my dad used to buy me from the local newsagents. My dad also introduced me to genre TV and movies. Even though they terrified me, we used to watch things like Doctor Who, The Incredible Hulk and Star Trek when I was small; I remember seeing Kirk and co. land on a planet where these flying jelly-fish things attacked them and couldn’t sleep for a week. They also used to let me stay up to watch all those Saturday Night Chillers on TV – something my better half Marie O’Regan and I still do – so I saw things like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 70s version, when I was only about seven or eight. That dog with the man’s face freaked me out! I also remember my granddad reading Enid Blyton to me when I was really tiny, and I was terrified by one story in particular called ‘The House in the Fog.’,
When I was still quite young, I got into reading books by Stephen King, James Herbert, Ramsey Cambell, Anne Rice, Graham Masterton, Shaun Hutson… all of those people who were at the forefront of the 70s and 80s Horror boom, really. But also the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll... I got into Clive Barker in a big way, and remember him shaking up the scene when his Books of Blood appeared. But I also read a lot of SF, Crime and Fantasy during that time, and into my teens – what I call my real education, because I used to sneak off during breaks to dive into the latest paperback from a second-hand bookstore. I’d always told stories myself, whether it was through the comics I’ve mentioned, or making things up with my toy figures, or even playing outside with mates. Kids would come round to my house because I’d make scenarios up like landing on alien planets or being a spy like James Bond, or even battling creatures from Greek or Roman mythology. So the imagination was always there.
It was inevitable I suppose that I’d try writing stories myself at some point, writing them down – as I’d do for English assignments at school; my teachers would get a bit exasperated with me at their length – or bashing away on an old typewriter my mum owned. I wrote some complete dross back then, but there were also the seeds of things to come in there. I still have a typed manuscript for something called Night Beast, which when you read it back now is hilarious! A bit like a Garth Marenghi tale with people running around on the Moors firing off Magnums. The structure was kind of there, though, and just having a go taught me not to be too self-conscious when it comes to writing.
I also loved painting and drawing, however, so after I finished my A-Levels I did a General Art and Design course at my local college – I’d end up going back there years later to teach, in the 2000s. That was probably the most openly creative period of my life, because you were actively encouraged to have a go at a bit of everything, from oil painting to poetry, from sculpture to life drawing. I even ended up specialising in film and photography, and my prints went on a travelling exhibition abroad. I was getting much better marks for my theory, though, so it was suggested that I do a BA in History of Art, Design and Film next, which I loved – especially the film part, because we were doing things like scripting. It was during this period I took an optional module in ‘Professional Writing’, because I was doing bits and bobs of reviews and articles for small presses anyway and thought I might like to do that for a living. To get your marks you had to send your stuff off to newsstand magazines and newspapers, so I was getting feedback from people at The Mirror, The Dark Side, Starburst… That stood me in good stead when I left and I managed to build up a bit of a career in genre journalism, working for places like Area 51 and Eclipse, but also reviewing movies for my local paper.
At the same time, the fiction was nagging at me again and I did a correspondence course about writing stories and novels, getting feedback from published authors. One said some really nice things about a ghost story I’d written and told me I should send it in somewhere. I remember it was a choice between trying a competition or sending it to a new small press magazine called Terror Tales. The editor, John B. Ford, lived not too far away from me at the time, and I took that as a sign – which I think it was, actually, because I might not have got anywhere in the competition. John took the story for an upcoming issue, and invited me to a gathering of local writers. They were talking about all their achievements and it just kind of spurred me on to do better. I started writing more and more supernatural tales and sending them off, attending more get-togethers and conventions, and the rest is history!
As for interests, they’ve always reflected what I do. So reading, watching TV and films, writing, photography, collecting and making movie memorabilia. It was a toss-up back in art college as to whether I’d go into writing or pursue a career in special effects, because I used to build and paint models back then – up to a really high standard. I still have a few in the garage, like a full-sized Facehugger from Alien. I probably made the right choice in hindsight, though.
Alex: Tell us a bit about yourself, Paul.
Paul: I was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire in the UK, and still live not too far away. My dad was a miner and my mum was a secretary until she had me, so I come from a very working-class background. My dad, thankfully, instilled in me a solid work ethic but my parents never discouraged me from pursuing creative endeavours, like creating my own comic books when I was little – I was trying to copy the Marvel and DC comics my dad used to buy me from the local newsagents. My dad also introduced me to genre TV and movies. Even though they terrified me, we used to watch things like Doctor Who, The Incredible Hulk and Star Trek when I was small; I remember seeing Kirk and co. land on a planet where these flying jelly-fish things attacked them and couldn’t sleep for a week. They also used to let me stay up to watch all those Saturday Night Chillers on TV – something my better half Marie O’Regan and I still do – so I saw things like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 70s version, when I was only about seven or eight. That dog with the man’s face freaked me out! I also remember my granddad reading Enid Blyton to me when I was really tiny, and I was terrified by one story in particular called ‘The House in the Fog.’,
When I was still quite young, I got into reading books by Stephen King, James Herbert, Ramsey Cambell, Anne Rice, Graham Masterton, Shaun Hutson… all of those people who were at the forefront of the 70s and 80s Horror boom, really. But also the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll... I got into Clive Barker in a big way, and remember him shaking up the scene when his Books of Blood appeared. But I also read a lot of SF, Crime and Fantasy during that time, and into my teens – what I call my real education, because I used to sneak off during breaks to dive into the latest paperback from a second-hand bookstore. I’d always told stories myself, whether it was through the comics I’ve mentioned, or making things up with my toy figures, or even playing outside with mates. Kids would come round to my house because I’d make scenarios up like landing on alien planets or being a spy like James Bond, or even battling creatures from Greek or Roman mythology. So the imagination was always there.
It was inevitable I suppose that I’d try writing stories myself at some point, writing them down – as I’d do for English assignments at school; my teachers would get a bit exasperated with me at their length – or bashing away on an old typewriter my mum owned. I wrote some complete dross back then, but there were also the seeds of things to come in there. I still have a typed manuscript for something called Night Beast, which when you read it back now is hilarious! A bit like a Garth Marenghi tale with people running around on the Moors firing off Magnums. The structure was kind of there, though, and just having a go taught me not to be too self-conscious when it comes to writing.
I also loved painting and drawing, however, so after I finished my A-Levels I did a General Art and Design course at my local college – I’d end up going back there years later to teach, in the 2000s. That was probably the most openly creative period of my life, because you were actively encouraged to have a go at a bit of everything, from oil painting to poetry, from sculpture to life drawing. I even ended up specialising in film and photography, and my prints went on a travelling exhibition abroad. I was getting much better marks for my theory, though, so it was suggested that I do a BA in History of Art, Design and Film next, which I loved – especially the film part, because we were doing things like scripting. It was during this period I took an optional module in ‘Professional Writing’, because I was doing bits and bobs of reviews and articles for small presses anyway and thought I might like to do that for a living. To get your marks you had to send your stuff off to newsstand magazines and newspapers, so I was getting feedback from people at The Mirror, The Dark Side, Starburst… That stood me in good stead when I left and I managed to build up a bit of a career in genre journalism, working for places like Area 51 and Eclipse, but also reviewing movies for my local paper.
At the same time, the fiction was nagging at me again and I did a correspondence course about writing stories and novels, getting feedback from published authors. One said some really nice things about a ghost story I’d written and told me I should send it in somewhere. I remember it was a choice between trying a competition or sending it to a new small press magazine called Terror Tales. The editor, John B. Ford, lived not too far away from me at the time, and I took that as a sign – which I think it was, actually, because I might not have got anywhere in the competition. John took the story for an upcoming issue, and invited me to a gathering of local writers. They were talking about all their achievements and it just kind of spurred me on to do better. I started writing more and more supernatural tales and sending them off, attending more get-togethers and conventions, and the rest is history!
As for interests, they’ve always reflected what I do. So reading, watching TV and films, writing, photography, collecting and making movie memorabilia. It was a toss-up back in art college as to whether I’d go into writing or pursue a career in special effects, because I used to build and paint models back then – up to a really high standard. I still have a few in the garage, like a full-sized Facehugger from Alien. I probably made the right choice in hindsight, though.
Alex: How would you describe your writing, and are there particular themes that you like to explore?
Paul: I’m not sure how I’d describe it really, as I cover a lot of ground. I’ve written all kinds of things in the past, from Horror and Dark Fantasy to SF and Crime, and in all kinds of formats – audio, comics and film, TV and theatre scripts, as well as fiction. And of course I started out writing non-fiction, so I like to keep my hand in with that. One of my most popular books has been The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, which came out in 2005-6 and took a look at all the films in the series up to then, plus comics and merchandise. That’s still selling well today! One thing all my writing has in common, though, is you can see how much work I put into it and how much I enjoy it, which then translates into other people having a good time with it I think.
In terms of the fiction, I try and write from the heart. I’ve been told my characters are well-rounded and feel real, which is what I’m always aiming for. And a realism in the stories, even if they have the most outlandish elements in them like monsters or time travel. You have to ground things in reality to then take them into the surreal. All of this holds true whether you’re writing a serial killer book, like The Gemini Factor, a homage to creature features and monster novels like The Storm or a post-apocalyptic world like the one featured in my reimagining of Robin Hood, Hooded Man.
As for themes, I think all authors have topics they keep coming back to. Someone once described us as carrion circling and picking at certain bits of a corpse. One of mine is heartbreak, I suppose. I recently wrote a story called ‘The Cursed’ which was published in my latest collection The Naked Eye from Encyclopocalypse. That was essentially unclassifiable: a meditation on life, love and everything in-between. Betrayal and cheating people getting their just desserts is an offshoot of this theme, I guess. The perfect example of this is a crime short I wrote not long ago that I’ve just turned into a film script, ‘Benched’. I read about the phenomena of people dating and keeping potential partners ‘benched’ like in sport, only to call on them when they feel like it. I read about that in a news report and thought to myself, what would happen if all those partners suddenly found out about each other? Would they turn on themselves, or the person doing it? I’ve just given that tale away for subscribers to my PL Kane newsletter, which you can sign up for here .
Talking of my crime-writing pseudonym – I just cut out the ‘a’ and ‘u’ from Paul – the first two thrillers for HQ/HarperCollins focus quite heavily on family, which is another theme of my fiction. In Her Last Secret it’s about a father who’s trying to find out who really killed his estranged daughter, and in Her Husband’s Grave it’s someone who calls on her psychologist cousin to help find out how her husband died. The third novel in the deal, which I can’t talk about just yet, follows a son who is trying to get to the bottom of his father’s murder.
Locations are also a big thing with me, and tend to become as much of a character as the people who inhabit them. For the PL’s, there’s Redmarket, Golden Sands – by the coast – and Green Acres, which is more of a rural village. I’ve been told a lot of times that Norchester, another fictional place made up of towns and cities that I know, even reflected what was happening in The Gemini Factor – in that it had two distinct natures, like a twin, good and evil sides. I think that’s another theme for me, good vs evil, light vs dark – I’ve always been afraid of the latter, which comes across in books like Darkness & Shadows – and all the shades of grey in-between. Life’s complicated, and I try and show that in my work.
Finally, you have the themed collections. That’s where I take all the material that broadly fits into a certain category, like GHOSTS, Monsters and More Monsters , Death, Nailbiters which are my crime or psychological stories or more recently my Body Horror stories in Traumas. It’s not until you look back over your work that you see you have enough stories in a similar vein to warrant an 80 or 90,000 word book.
Paul: I’m not sure how I’d describe it really, as I cover a lot of ground. I’ve written all kinds of things in the past, from Horror and Dark Fantasy to SF and Crime, and in all kinds of formats – audio, comics and film, TV and theatre scripts, as well as fiction. And of course I started out writing non-fiction, so I like to keep my hand in with that. One of my most popular books has been The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, which came out in 2005-6 and took a look at all the films in the series up to then, plus comics and merchandise. That’s still selling well today! One thing all my writing has in common, though, is you can see how much work I put into it and how much I enjoy it, which then translates into other people having a good time with it I think.
In terms of the fiction, I try and write from the heart. I’ve been told my characters are well-rounded and feel real, which is what I’m always aiming for. And a realism in the stories, even if they have the most outlandish elements in them like monsters or time travel. You have to ground things in reality to then take them into the surreal. All of this holds true whether you’re writing a serial killer book, like The Gemini Factor, a homage to creature features and monster novels like The Storm or a post-apocalyptic world like the one featured in my reimagining of Robin Hood, Hooded Man.
As for themes, I think all authors have topics they keep coming back to. Someone once described us as carrion circling and picking at certain bits of a corpse. One of mine is heartbreak, I suppose. I recently wrote a story called ‘The Cursed’ which was published in my latest collection The Naked Eye from Encyclopocalypse. That was essentially unclassifiable: a meditation on life, love and everything in-between. Betrayal and cheating people getting their just desserts is an offshoot of this theme, I guess. The perfect example of this is a crime short I wrote not long ago that I’ve just turned into a film script, ‘Benched’. I read about the phenomena of people dating and keeping potential partners ‘benched’ like in sport, only to call on them when they feel like it. I read about that in a news report and thought to myself, what would happen if all those partners suddenly found out about each other? Would they turn on themselves, or the person doing it? I’ve just given that tale away for subscribers to my PL Kane newsletter, which you can sign up for here .
Talking of my crime-writing pseudonym – I just cut out the ‘a’ and ‘u’ from Paul – the first two thrillers for HQ/HarperCollins focus quite heavily on family, which is another theme of my fiction. In Her Last Secret it’s about a father who’s trying to find out who really killed his estranged daughter, and in Her Husband’s Grave it’s someone who calls on her psychologist cousin to help find out how her husband died. The third novel in the deal, which I can’t talk about just yet, follows a son who is trying to get to the bottom of his father’s murder.
Locations are also a big thing with me, and tend to become as much of a character as the people who inhabit them. For the PL’s, there’s Redmarket, Golden Sands – by the coast – and Green Acres, which is more of a rural village. I’ve been told a lot of times that Norchester, another fictional place made up of towns and cities that I know, even reflected what was happening in The Gemini Factor – in that it had two distinct natures, like a twin, good and evil sides. I think that’s another theme for me, good vs evil, light vs dark – I’ve always been afraid of the latter, which comes across in books like Darkness & Shadows – and all the shades of grey in-between. Life’s complicated, and I try and show that in my work.
Finally, you have the themed collections. That’s where I take all the material that broadly fits into a certain category, like GHOSTS, Monsters and More Monsters , Death, Nailbiters which are my crime or psychological stories or more recently my Body Horror stories in Traumas. It’s not until you look back over your work that you see you have enough stories in a similar vein to warrant an 80 or 90,000 word book.
Alex: Are you a writer that plans a detailed synopsis or do you set out with a vague idea and let the story unfold as you write?
Paul: Oh, I’m definitely a planner! I think that comes from essays and articles I used to write when I was at college and uni, and when I first became a professional writer twenty-five years ago now. I keep different notebooks for different projects, A4s for novels, A5 for novellas and novelettes and a small notebook for ideas and short stories. That’s hardback, because I can carry it around with me – you never know when an idea might strike! I’ve always roughed out the longer pieces, especially; I just like to have a roadmap of where I’m going before heading off. And I definitely like to have an ending in sight. That doesn’t mean I’ll stick rigidly to it once I’ve started writing, as that tends to throw things up as you go along, but I think psychologically it gives me a safety net if I get lost.
I’ve got the greatest respect for people who fly by the seat of their pants, it’s just not how I’m wired or how my mind works. I’ve also done a lot of work for tie-in publishers and they tend to want to know what they’re buying before you start, just so they know everyone’s on the same page – and I got used to doing detailed synopses or chapter breakdowns. I don’t love doing them, nobody does, but I don’t find it as hard as some writers do either. I’ve carried that habit forward when working with publishers like Harper, so even if they don’t ask for it I can say here’s what I’m thinking of doing, let me know if you want anything changing or shifted about.
Paul: Oh, I’m definitely a planner! I think that comes from essays and articles I used to write when I was at college and uni, and when I first became a professional writer twenty-five years ago now. I keep different notebooks for different projects, A4s for novels, A5 for novellas and novelettes and a small notebook for ideas and short stories. That’s hardback, because I can carry it around with me – you never know when an idea might strike! I’ve always roughed out the longer pieces, especially; I just like to have a roadmap of where I’m going before heading off. And I definitely like to have an ending in sight. That doesn’t mean I’ll stick rigidly to it once I’ve started writing, as that tends to throw things up as you go along, but I think psychologically it gives me a safety net if I get lost.
I’ve got the greatest respect for people who fly by the seat of their pants, it’s just not how I’m wired or how my mind works. I’ve also done a lot of work for tie-in publishers and they tend to want to know what they’re buying before you start, just so they know everyone’s on the same page – and I got used to doing detailed synopses or chapter breakdowns. I don’t love doing them, nobody does, but I don’t find it as hard as some writers do either. I’ve carried that habit forward when working with publishers like Harper, so even if they don’t ask for it I can say here’s what I’m thinking of doing, let me know if you want anything changing or shifted about.
Alex: Tell us about your latest novel.
Paul: I’d love to, but unfortunately it’s not been announced yet – which is a shame as it’s coming out very soon! As I say, it’s the third PL Kane, and deals with a son who goes back to the place where he was brought up because his father died in suspicious circumstances. It has all the usual PL trademark twists and turns, characters, suspense and action, particularly towards the end. I can tell you, I think, that it has a couple of characters returning from Her Husband’s Grave even though it’s totally standalone. I’ve designed all three books so that if you haven’t read the others you can still enjoy them without getting lost… I mean, obviously I’d love it if you bought all three!
I can tell you more about Her Husband’s Grave, though, which is technically my latest novel at the moment even though it came out last year. That introduces one of my favourite lead characters, Dr Robyn Adams, who helps the police out when they’re tracking down serial murderers. She’s drawn into the case of a body buried on the beach when her cousin calls her to ask for help. Robyn’s a little messed up, not least because her last case ended with her getting captured and attacked by the person they were tracking. Yet she still goes to Golden Sands to help, because family is family and she can’t just ignore that – in spite of the fact the authorities there make it very clear they don’t want her sticking her nose into their business. I really like Robyn – she’s one of those characters who feels like she’s a living, breathing person to me – and I’m hoping to do something else with her at some point in the future.
Paul: I’d love to, but unfortunately it’s not been announced yet – which is a shame as it’s coming out very soon! As I say, it’s the third PL Kane, and deals with a son who goes back to the place where he was brought up because his father died in suspicious circumstances. It has all the usual PL trademark twists and turns, characters, suspense and action, particularly towards the end. I can tell you, I think, that it has a couple of characters returning from Her Husband’s Grave even though it’s totally standalone. I’ve designed all three books so that if you haven’t read the others you can still enjoy them without getting lost… I mean, obviously I’d love it if you bought all three!
I can tell you more about Her Husband’s Grave, though, which is technically my latest novel at the moment even though it came out last year. That introduces one of my favourite lead characters, Dr Robyn Adams, who helps the police out when they’re tracking down serial murderers. She’s drawn into the case of a body buried on the beach when her cousin calls her to ask for help. Robyn’s a little messed up, not least because her last case ended with her getting captured and attacked by the person they were tracking. Yet she still goes to Golden Sands to help, because family is family and she can’t just ignore that – in spite of the fact the authorities there make it very clear they don’t want her sticking her nose into their business. I really like Robyn – she’s one of those characters who feels like she’s a living, breathing person to me – and I’m hoping to do something else with her at some point in the future.
Alex: How much research do you do and what does it usually entail?
Paul: I do lots of research ahead of starting something. For Her Husband’s Grave I spent ages making notes on psychology and serial killers, just to give the book that air of authenticity I was talking about earlier. I like to know what I’m talking about if it’s going out in print. I just recently wrote a short story for a charity anthology that’s set in a universe I created for the novella The Rot. So I ended up doing a lot of research on moulds and fungi for that, just to add to the first lot of notes I had from the original.
Research for me usually entails hitting the books, doing online searches or watching TV shows and films. And sometimes that can be fun as well! I remember when I was writing the Robin Hood books, I went back and rewatched a show I adored from the 80s: Robin of Sherwood, created by Richard ‘Kip’ Carpenter. Anyone who's read read Arrowhead, Broken Arrow, Arrowland or Flaming Arrow can’t fail to see the influence, in fact Kip actually got in touch with me to say how much he enjoyed them himself and that he’d passed the books on to his grandson. Another writer who passed before his time. I was doubly lucky in that I then got to write an RoS audio, which then became a novel in its own right: The Red Lord. It brought things round full circle for me.
Alex: Do you ever base your characters on people you have encountered in real life?
Paul: I think, like locations, all characters are amalgamations of people we’ve encountered and fictional characters we’ve admired from shows or movies. There are certainly elements of characters like Ripley from the Alien series and Sarah Connor from The Terminator in some of my kickass female protagonists – I’m thinking Rachael from my RED trilogy, which is actually a modern horror reworking of Little Red Riding Hood.
There’s also a healthy dollop of me in some of my characters, so for example Stephen Regis from ‘Shadow Writer’ which you can find in Darkness & Shadows, and his nephew Adam from ‘The Scoop’ which is in my collection The Controllers are both journalists, a profession I can write about with some degree of confidence. I’m a father as well, so was able to put myself in the shoes of Jake Radcliffe from Her Last Secret, even though it was very difficult at times. I think experience helps with that realism, knowing people from certain backgrounds or having come from them yourself. Of course, I’m not a serial killer and don’t know any – that I’m aware of anyway – so there’s a certain amount of imagination involved too. Characters are always mish-mashes of the real and the made-up, and are inspired by the same.
Paul: I do lots of research ahead of starting something. For Her Husband’s Grave I spent ages making notes on psychology and serial killers, just to give the book that air of authenticity I was talking about earlier. I like to know what I’m talking about if it’s going out in print. I just recently wrote a short story for a charity anthology that’s set in a universe I created for the novella The Rot. So I ended up doing a lot of research on moulds and fungi for that, just to add to the first lot of notes I had from the original.
Research for me usually entails hitting the books, doing online searches or watching TV shows and films. And sometimes that can be fun as well! I remember when I was writing the Robin Hood books, I went back and rewatched a show I adored from the 80s: Robin of Sherwood, created by Richard ‘Kip’ Carpenter. Anyone who's read read Arrowhead, Broken Arrow, Arrowland or Flaming Arrow can’t fail to see the influence, in fact Kip actually got in touch with me to say how much he enjoyed them himself and that he’d passed the books on to his grandson. Another writer who passed before his time. I was doubly lucky in that I then got to write an RoS audio, which then became a novel in its own right: The Red Lord. It brought things round full circle for me.
Alex: Do you ever base your characters on people you have encountered in real life?
Paul: I think, like locations, all characters are amalgamations of people we’ve encountered and fictional characters we’ve admired from shows or movies. There are certainly elements of characters like Ripley from the Alien series and Sarah Connor from The Terminator in some of my kickass female protagonists – I’m thinking Rachael from my RED trilogy, which is actually a modern horror reworking of Little Red Riding Hood.
There’s also a healthy dollop of me in some of my characters, so for example Stephen Regis from ‘Shadow Writer’ which you can find in Darkness & Shadows, and his nephew Adam from ‘The Scoop’ which is in my collection The Controllers are both journalists, a profession I can write about with some degree of confidence. I’m a father as well, so was able to put myself in the shoes of Jake Radcliffe from Her Last Secret, even though it was very difficult at times. I think experience helps with that realism, knowing people from certain backgrounds or having come from them yourself. Of course, I’m not a serial killer and don’t know any – that I’m aware of anyway – so there’s a certain amount of imagination involved too. Characters are always mish-mashes of the real and the made-up, and are inspired by the same.
Alex: Which was the last book you read that blew you away?
Paul: There are so many! Probably too many to mention… Because I’ve been reading a lot of crime lately for work, the ones that stick in my mind are books like Girl A by Abigail Dean, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker and The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean… I re-read Luther: The Calling recently by Neil Cross, a prequel to the TV show, and highly recommend that. It’s honestly one of the best novels I’ve ever read in any genre.
With regards to Horror, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is absolutely superb. A home invasion tale with a twist that’ll have you turning the pages faster than you can read.
Alex: How do you market your books?
Paul: I just try and push them online where and when I can, as I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Doing interviews like this obviously helps! When a novel comes out, I might do a blog-tour – like I did for Her Husband’s Grave – or the publisher might organise a review tour, as Titan did when the anthologies Marie and I co-edited Wonderland and Cursed came out.
I also have the PL Kane newsletter for people who want to keep up to date on the crime stuff, which also includes book, TV and film recommendations, and we update the news section of my Shadow Writer site every month. That features a new Guest Writer slot every time, and the most current news about what I’m up to on all fronts. For instance, most recently we’ve had the feature film Sacrifice out – based on my novelette ‘Men of the Cloth’ and starring Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton – and the short movie I scripted, The Torturer, starring the current Pinhead, Paul T. Taylor, which has been making some noise on the convention circuit. So that’s the best way to find out about all of my work and keep tabs on things coming out.
I keep getting social media requests from reviewers or people who do blogs saying they’ll promote my stuff for a payment and I have to keep saying I’ve never paid for any of that stuff in my life. Nothing against what they’re doing, but I’ve always felt that if something deserves a review or whatever, it’ll get one somewhere.
Paul: There are so many! Probably too many to mention… Because I’ve been reading a lot of crime lately for work, the ones that stick in my mind are books like Girl A by Abigail Dean, We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker and The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean… I re-read Luther: The Calling recently by Neil Cross, a prequel to the TV show, and highly recommend that. It’s honestly one of the best novels I’ve ever read in any genre.
With regards to Horror, The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is absolutely superb. A home invasion tale with a twist that’ll have you turning the pages faster than you can read.
Alex: How do you market your books?
Paul: I just try and push them online where and when I can, as I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Doing interviews like this obviously helps! When a novel comes out, I might do a blog-tour – like I did for Her Husband’s Grave – or the publisher might organise a review tour, as Titan did when the anthologies Marie and I co-edited Wonderland and Cursed came out.
I also have the PL Kane newsletter for people who want to keep up to date on the crime stuff, which also includes book, TV and film recommendations, and we update the news section of my Shadow Writer site every month. That features a new Guest Writer slot every time, and the most current news about what I’m up to on all fronts. For instance, most recently we’ve had the feature film Sacrifice out – based on my novelette ‘Men of the Cloth’ and starring Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton – and the short movie I scripted, The Torturer, starring the current Pinhead, Paul T. Taylor, which has been making some noise on the convention circuit. So that’s the best way to find out about all of my work and keep tabs on things coming out.
I keep getting social media requests from reviewers or people who do blogs saying they’ll promote my stuff for a payment and I have to keep saying I’ve never paid for any of that stuff in my life. Nothing against what they’re doing, but I’ve always felt that if something deserves a review or whatever, it’ll get one somewhere.
Alex: What are your interests aside from writing? And what do you do to unwind?
Paul: I love nothing better than curling up with Marie on the sofa and watching TV shows and movies. We do marathons at the weekend, which people online seem to enjoy – whether it’s looking for recommendations or just watching along with us! We’ve recently had a James Cameron weekend, which took in movies like Titanic and Avatar, a Serial Killer weekend – where we watched Copycat and Se7en, among others – a Jurassic Park/World weekend, an X-Men weekend, and just last weekend marathoned the Fear Street movies on Netflix. This in addition to, as I mentioned, our Saturday night Chillers! It really is the best way to relax.
Alex: Which authors do you particularly admire and why?
Paul: One which leaps out is Clive Barker. I’ve already mentioned what an impact his original short stories had on me, but novels like Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show, plus movies like Hellraiser all just blew me away. I’m very fortunate that I got to work with Clive later on in my career and even consider him a friend. Marie and I co-edited a book of Hellraiser-inspired stories called Hellbound Hearts for Simon & Schuster, I wrote the Holmes-Hellraiser crossover Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell for Rebellion, another fan favourite, and even adapted The Hellbound Heart into a full cast audio drama for Bafflegab. I just love the fact Clive writes, he paints, was involved in the theatre and so on… Hugely inspirational to an all-rounder like myself.
More recently, I find writers like Mike – MR – Carey an inspiration. We first met Mike at a convention around 2007 when his Felix Castor novels were coming out and have stayed friends ever since. I was so delighted about the success he had with The Girl With All The Gifts, both the book and the movie – which Mike penned himself and which was up for a BAFTA. Again, another all-rounder because Mike’s also known for his excellent comics work.
In Science Fiction, names like Richard ‘I Am Legend’ Matheson spring to mind, not to mention Frank Herbert. Dune is one of my all-time favourite novels, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new movie is like. In Fantasy, obviously Tolkien stands head and shoulders…
In crime, there are so many names. Mark Billingham is my favourite writer in that genre I think. I just love his Thorne books! But also people like Fiona Cummins, Martyn Waites, CJ Tudor, Martina Cole, Christopher Fowler – who incidentally is one of our best short story writers, in my humble opinion – Peter James… The list goes on and on, and is constantly being added to in every genre. I’m currently reading The Serial Killer’s Wife by Alice Hunter, and that’s absolutely superb!
Alex: Thank you so much, Paul for sharing your writing journey with us and for such detailed and insightful answers. it's been fascinating listening to you.
Paul. My pleasure, Alex. Thanks for having me over.
Paul: I love nothing better than curling up with Marie on the sofa and watching TV shows and movies. We do marathons at the weekend, which people online seem to enjoy – whether it’s looking for recommendations or just watching along with us! We’ve recently had a James Cameron weekend, which took in movies like Titanic and Avatar, a Serial Killer weekend – where we watched Copycat and Se7en, among others – a Jurassic Park/World weekend, an X-Men weekend, and just last weekend marathoned the Fear Street movies on Netflix. This in addition to, as I mentioned, our Saturday night Chillers! It really is the best way to relax.
Alex: Which authors do you particularly admire and why?
Paul: One which leaps out is Clive Barker. I’ve already mentioned what an impact his original short stories had on me, but novels like Weaveworld and The Great and Secret Show, plus movies like Hellraiser all just blew me away. I’m very fortunate that I got to work with Clive later on in my career and even consider him a friend. Marie and I co-edited a book of Hellraiser-inspired stories called Hellbound Hearts for Simon & Schuster, I wrote the Holmes-Hellraiser crossover Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell for Rebellion, another fan favourite, and even adapted The Hellbound Heart into a full cast audio drama for Bafflegab. I just love the fact Clive writes, he paints, was involved in the theatre and so on… Hugely inspirational to an all-rounder like myself.
More recently, I find writers like Mike – MR – Carey an inspiration. We first met Mike at a convention around 2007 when his Felix Castor novels were coming out and have stayed friends ever since. I was so delighted about the success he had with The Girl With All The Gifts, both the book and the movie – which Mike penned himself and which was up for a BAFTA. Again, another all-rounder because Mike’s also known for his excellent comics work.
In Science Fiction, names like Richard ‘I Am Legend’ Matheson spring to mind, not to mention Frank Herbert. Dune is one of my all-time favourite novels, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the new movie is like. In Fantasy, obviously Tolkien stands head and shoulders…
In crime, there are so many names. Mark Billingham is my favourite writer in that genre I think. I just love his Thorne books! But also people like Fiona Cummins, Martyn Waites, CJ Tudor, Martina Cole, Christopher Fowler – who incidentally is one of our best short story writers, in my humble opinion – Peter James… The list goes on and on, and is constantly being added to in every genre. I’m currently reading The Serial Killer’s Wife by Alice Hunter, and that’s absolutely superb!
Alex: Thank you so much, Paul for sharing your writing journey with us and for such detailed and insightful answers. it's been fascinating listening to you.
Paul. My pleasure, Alex. Thanks for having me over.
