Stuart Young provided the story "Do Not Go Gently" for THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES 2. Here he speaks of its inspiration, and Capt. WE Johns...
Would you like to
briefly introduce yourself: what inspired your writing and when you began, and
– if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your
favourites are (and why)?
I
started writing as a kid. I started submitting stories to the small press back
in the ’90s. For some reason this has yet to bring me fame and fortune.
As
for which of my stories are my favourites I suppose “The Mask Behind the Face” because it won a British Fantasy
Award. Although on a less egotistical level it’s one of my favourites because
it’s brilliant. (Wait, that was supposed to be less egotistical.) “Houses in Motion” is another
favourite; it’s semi-autobiographical and so has a strong emotional resonance
for me. And “Jarly and the Saga of the
Snowball” was fun to do, partly because I got to play around with story
structure and partly because I don’t get the chance to write comedy nearly
often enough.
Do you have a favourite
genre, or sub-genre? What exactly is it that attracts you?
I
suppose my favourite genre is speculative fiction, assuming it’s being used as
an umbrella term for SF, fantasy, horror, weird fiction etc. And I quite often
add a dash of crime and comedy.
Some say Pulp is a
genre, others a style; which side do you come down on?
Style.
My gut response attempt at describing Pulp is that it’s fast-moving, accessible
and fun, but that doesn’t necessarily give an accurate picture. Writers such as
Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Cornell Woolrich, HP
Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch
didn’t all write in the same style. The same goes for modern pulp writers such
as Joe R Lansdale, Andrew Vachss, Stephen Hunter and James Ellroy. And let’s
face it, no one’s going to refer to Lovecraft’s style as fast-moving,
accessible and fun. Intense, maybe. Perhaps the best single word to sum up pulp
is vivid.
What was the inspiration for “Do Not
Go Gently”?
The
impending deadline. I’d been working on another project that I only managed to
complete the day before the Pulp Heroes 2 deadline ended, so I’d
resigned myself to not actually submitting anything. Then I woke up with the
inkling of an idea in my head and only got one day to get the story written.
And then I realised this was the same day the clocks went forward…
Do you have a particular
favourite author, or authors? What is it about their work which appeals to you?
For
this particular story I went back to one of my childhood favourites, WE Johns,
who created the aviator and adventurer, Biggles. When I originally created the
character of John Blake about ten years ago for a one-off appearance I hadn’t
actually read a lot of pulp so I just mixed a Biggles-style character into a
John Carter of Mars type setting. The idea was to compare the reaction of an
English gentleman with those of a Southern gentleman. For example, Blake,
instead of taking the sight of a scantily clad alien princess in his stride,
got all embarrassed and offered her his coat. Consequently the story ended up
being something of a light hearted romp, which was quite fitting as some of the
WW1 set Biggles stories have a comedic vein, with the pilots playing pranks on
each other between the deadly dogfights. They read a little like PG Wodehouse
taking a crack at adventure fiction – JEEVES AND THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS.
For
“Do Not Go Gently” I decided to
examine the grimmer side of the WW1 Biggles stories. The ones where Biggles would
snap and engage in vengeance fuelled vendettas, where he couldn’t remember
exactly when he fought the last six men he killed because the constant strain
had distorted his sense of time, and where he ended the war as a bag of nerves
with a drinking problem.
My
protagonist Blake was also a WW1 veteran and adventurer so he would have seen
more than his fair share of death. I thought it would be interesting to explore
his reaction to all the carnage he had witnessed and dig into the darker side
of his character that was only hinted at in his previous outing.
Outside
writing, what else occupies your time (assuming you have any free time left)?
I
fill out promotional questionnaires for publishers.
Is there any particular
style of music – or musicians – which appeals to you?
I tend to like popular yet slightly offbeat stuff
like Talking Heads, the Beastie Boys, Elvis Costello, Dr John and Nina Simone.
Then I use those bands as a way of easing into listening to the less commercial
stuff that formed the roots of their music – afrobeat, funk, jazz, Americana,
blues, R&B, gospel and show tunes. Similarly, Johnny Cash, the O
BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? soundtrack and Aly Bain from THE TRANSATLANTIC
SESSIONS have given me a starting point for listening to country, country
rock, Celtic, folk and bluegrass. And I’m also trying to expand my knowledge of
classical music; right now I’m at still that stage where everything I know
about it comes from pop culture. You know, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is from Die
Hard, Grieg’s Piano Concerto is from that Morecambe and Wise sketch…
What are you currently
working on?
I’m
finishing up editing DEMONS AND DEVILRY, an anthology of black magic
stories for Hersham Horror featuring tales by Peter Mark May, John Llewellyn
Probert, Thana Nivea, David Williamson and yours truly. It’s my first foray
into editing so hopefully I haven’t screwed it up too badly.
I’m
also working on a collection of novellas, tackling a cross-section of different
horror sub-genres – a haunted house story, weird fiction, cosmic horror, etc.
If all goes to plan it’ll be out next year.
And
I’m working on a bunch of pieces for SPARKING NEURONES, the column I
write for Matt Cardin at http://www.teemingbrain.com/
where I discuss films, books,
comics, television and other matters of vital importance.