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Interview with Kim Newman, with an introduction by
Wendy Zazo-Philips
I’m not sure if there has ever been a more prolific writer than Kim Newman. He
is an English writer, journalist, and film critic whose works have spanned over
four decades and have earned him many accolades, including the Bram Stoker Award
and the International Horror Guild Award. In horror fiction, perhaps his
best-known novel is Anno Dracula, which was followed by Anno Dracula: The
Bloody Red Baron, and Dracula Cha Cha Cha. Anno Dracula and
The Bloody Red Baron have recently been republished by Titan Books. One of
his latest works is Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles , which
is a collection of short stories based on the characters of Professor James
Moriarty and Colonel Sebastian ‘Basher’ Moran.
Wendy: When you adopt a well-known character like Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis,
Professor Moriarty, you must satisfy two groups of readers: the fans (or
potential fans) of your work as well as the fans of the character himself. Can
you tell us more about how these two groups will be satisfied with your new
collection Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles?
Kim: It’s a little presumptuous to assume these groups will be satisfied with
the book, but I hope they are. I tend not to think too hard about how readers
will respond to the work while I’m writing it – sometimes in revisions, I’ll
change or delete things that strike me as too obvious or too obscure or
generally in the way. I did know with this book that there would be a
significant percentage of readers who are very familiar with the Conan Doyle
stories, and so I salted through a lot of things that they might pick up –
though I assume the general reader gets many of the Holmes jokes too. I did want
to give my particular spin to the characters – and, like the Holmes stories as a
whole, it’s a book about two characters rather than one – but it still derives
from Doyle. I decided early on that I wouldn’t contradict anything Doyle writes
in order to make things easier for me, though I do point out where he
contradicted himself. I know there are people who follow my work, but I also
know that I’m unlikely ever to attract the level of minute analysis that the
Holmes stories have had over the years. I hope Thomas Hardy’s fans won’t be too
upset by The Hound of the D’Urbervilles either.
Wendy: In the short story “The Adventure of the Six Maledictions” in Gaslight
Arcanum: The Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes, one of the pivotal plot points is
a recounting (with commentation by Moran) of “The Ballad of Mad Carew,” which
was an actual poem written in 1911 by J. Milton Hayes. Was the poem the genesis
of the story, or was it (and the Mad Carew character) added later?
Kim: Yes, I started with the poem – though it was a way to get into the
recurrent 19th century motif of the cursed jewel or object. The initial idea was
that the component stories of Professor Moriarty would all arise from a
collision of Doyle’s world with that of another writer – Zane Grey, Anthony
Hope, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, etc. – and Hayes certainly isn’t as famous or
well-remembered as they are. The poem is obviously influenced by Wilkie Collins’
The Moonstone, which is the best of the cursed jewel of Empire stories (Doyle’s
“The Sign of the Four” is another key entry in the cycle), but that takes place
a bit before the 1880s/90s time period of Professor Moriarty. I also wanted to
make something of the character of Carew.
Wendy: You mentioned in a previous interview that there are people that will
claim not to enjoy reading or watching horror stories, but yet almost everyone
has read or seen (i.e.) A Christmas Carol and/or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
What is it about horror stories that draw people to them, and why do you think
people are generally skittish about admitting to liking them?
Kim: Horror is one of those forms that thrives on being disreputable, and
probably needs to be in order to do its job – which ranges from just being
harmlessly spooky to addressing the deepest, darkest material there is.
Wendy: There has been a deluge of young adult vampire novels in recent years, to
the point that we had to launch a sister site, Reading Bites, for those reviews.
Can there be such a thing as oversaturation of the vampire genre?
Kim: As someone interested in vampire fiction, I think there is now such a
proliferation of material that I find it impossible to keep up with. In the
reissue of The Bloody Red Baron, there’s a new novella (“Vampire Romance”) which
was written partly to address developments in vampire fiction since I last
worked on the Anno Dracula series.
Wendy: You’ve mentioned a couple of times before and in your biography that you
used to work in cabaret, but (at least where I’ve read) you never discussed it
in detail. Did working in musical theater affect your writing process?
Kim: In the early 1980s, I wrote plays and musicals and performed with a group
called Club Whoopee. Based in Somerset, we appeared at Arts Centres, pubs, a few
parties, etc., under the aegis of an organization called Sheep Worrying, which
published a fanzine, put on stage shows, prompted local bands, issued a few
tapes and records and did other vaguely countercultural (the buzzword of the
time was “alternative”) things. One of the groups we toured with evolved into
P.J. Harvey’s band. We weren’t very successful or, frankly, very good, though we
did generate some good material. Some of my later fiction grew out of things I
wrote for the stage, and I’d like to work in that medium again sometime (I’ve
enjoyed writing plays for radio in the last few years). I certainly grew as a
writer while doing this stuff, and a couple of odd things stay with me – in the
musicals I wrote, I was working with a large group of people with a range of
ages, talents and commitments but I learned to make sure that everyone in every
show had some bit of business (a funny line, a character trait) that let them
show off a bit. I did this because I noticed other people didn’t, and that
small-part actors (who still had to show up all the time) got fed up with just
standing about feeding nothing lines to the few “stars” in a show. Now I try to
make sure every little character I write has something going for them, even if
it’s very small. I enjoyed the technical stuff: writing to cover scene changes
or contriving the action so it all takes place in a single space, directing the
audience’s attention to one part of the stage to set up a surprise somewhere
else, etc. One of the things that made it fun also led in the end to me moving
on – you have to rely so much on other people, whereas writing prose it’s just
your fault.
Wendy: I read with delight about the “Peace and Love Corporation,” which was a
company of writers that included you, Eugene Byrne, Stefan Jaworzyn, Neil Gaiman,
and Phil Nutman. What was that like?
Kim: Being in a small room throwing jokes at each other, with someone designated
to take notes and write up the articles. We mostly wrote humorous pieces,
firstly for men’s magazines and then for a short-lived comedy magazine called
The Truth, though Neil, Eugene and I fiddled with some fiction projects that
didn’t get finished, and Neil, Stefan, Phil and I worked up film outlines that
didn’t get bought (I turned some into novels – Bad Dreams and Orgy of the Blood
Parasites). The last real P&L project was Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock
Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock Rock
Rock Rock Rock Rock – a parody of rock musicals (music by Brian Smedley) that
Eugene and I wrote, with a few scenes and songs involving Neil.
Wendy: More and more, we are receiving requests to review independent and
self-published works. How do you see these changes in the industry, and what do
you think the future holds for authors?
Kim: I still think it’s difficult to reach an audience without a conventional
publisher – they have publicists, etc. – and I personally value the process of
editing that tends to get skipped in self-publishing. I think the future will be
difficult, but it’s never been easy for most authors. George Gissing’s New Grub
Street (1891) is still horribly pertinent about how hard it is to earn a living
as a writer.
Wendy: Was going to the library a part of your childhood? Do you still go?
Kim: Yes. I spent a lot of time in libraries as a kid, a teenager and in my
twenties – I even went through a
staying-out-of-the-cold-and-reading-a-novel-off-the-shelves-in-an-afternoon
phase when I was really poverty-stricken. I’m afraid I don’t go these days – I
have more books here than I can possibly read, and even when not using the
internet to research I tend to track down and buy reference books for particular
projects. I passionately believe in the importance of libraries and think that
there’s no real replacement for them.
Wendy: If you could suggest one or two books for librarians to purchase to
introduce their patrons to Kim Newman, which ones would you suggest?
Kim: My novel Anno Dracula and my non-fiction book Nightmare Movies, both
recently reissued in expanded editions.
Wendy: The purpose of our website is to help librarians make well-informed
decisions about which horror-genre books to purchase for their collections. What
books written by other authors do you feel are “must have” titles for libraries?
Kim: I’d cite two other books with my name on the spine – Horror: 100 Best
Books and Horror: Another 100 Best Books, edited with Stephen Jones, which
each contain a hundred essays by horror authors on their favourite horror titles
and an extensive list of further reading suggestions by me and Steve.
Wendy: What projects are you working on now?
Kim: I’m doing a new Anno Dracula novel (the
long-delayed Johnny Alucard) and pondering some other long-in-the-works
projects, a novel called An English Ghost Story and a 1920s schoolgirl
adventure called Kentish Glory. Just now, I’m writing a new novella (set
in swinging London) to go in the reissue of Dracula Cha Cha Cha.
Wendy: Is there anything else you’d like librarians and readers to know?
Kim: Just that I appreciate them very much.
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