Alex Mcloughlin interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW 

When did your love of books begin?

I can’t remember not being able to read. I became addicted as a child when I discovered that books made anything possible in this world, and that there are as many other worlds as we can imagine. Weaned on Tolkien & C.S. Lewis, sage words of advice from the earliest years are the ones that stay with you I find...’It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific.’  

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I’ve always made up stories, but probably as a teenager when I first read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. There was a moment when I thought, ‘Oh...you can actually do that?’ I realised what the ideas were for, and have wondered ever since whether I could make them appeal to anyone else.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Ha! Becoming an author is easy...getting published and finding readers is the hard part. My first novel has only just been published so I’m still learning, as well as agonising over whether anything I’ve written ranks any higher on the shelf than ‘confused nonsense.’ Eagerly, if anxiously, awaiting feedback there...

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Joanne Harris already said it:

‘How to be a writer, #261100

Write.

Just...write.’

Tell us about your book/books:

The Water Girl is a paranormal thriller about a disabled girl who finds herself pursued and threatened after receiving a letter from her dead mother. Like most of my stories it centres on the dark and unusual, but hopefully with a little humour.

I enjoy fantasy and fairy tales and anything with a touch of the surreal. But I also like to explore the perils of family, relationships and the inner demons we battle.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

Knowing that there are others out there with the same affliction! It’s also reassuring to know that books are still important to so many people. Creativity and a sense of wonder are central to being an effective human – there are so many outlandish, funny and terrifying ideas out there, with more being generated all the time.   

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Read all the books!

Never get too comfortable with what you read. Of course we all have our favourite writers and love to delve into a particular genre now and then. But I make a point, once in a while, of picking up something I wouldn’t normally read or that I expect to find difficult, dull or objectionable. I discovered Evelyn Waugh that way - you never know what you’ll find...

Where can people connect with you?

On Twitter @AlexofLoughlin