Andy Darby interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

Would be Viking, owner of a beard, lover of the strange. I grew up in 1970’s Birmingham, England, and I think that, plus large doses of heavy metal did quite a bit to influence me. I now live in Cornwall and plot world domination from the office in my loft!

When did your love of books begin?

When I was about 10 years old I discovered that the Conan comics I was reading were based on books so I read all the R E Howard I could get my hands on. Then as I entered my teens I discovered Michael Moorcock and my obsession with his works led me even further afield. Today I read anything that interests me, from books on psychology and science through history to crime and fantasy – I always have at least one book on the go.

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

Back around 1996 I began to make notes about ideas that popped up in my head, and this began to turn into a book which is still in the process of being written!

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

I decided in 2011 to start writing a series of blog posts on Facebook on a daily basis to see if I could get any interest and to give me the discipline of writing every day. These posts carried on for 12 months and took on a life of their own and when I finished I realised that I had enough content for a book. Me and The Monkey was born. I self published and then forgot about it until 2020 and lockdown. I decided to edit what I had released and see if I could get any interest from a publisher, and on my second attempt I managed to get a contract from a small, cult fiction publisher and my first book Me and The Monkey: Chronicles of the Monkey God Volume 1 was released on 10 July 2021.

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

Just write! If you have a story in you and it is worth telling then it needs to be written down not just pondered. Don’t worry about finely crafted prose, you can go back and do that (I guarantee that you will go back over your manuscript many times), get your ideas out there, get the flow out there, and don’t be surprised if the story goes off in an unexpected direction as you are working on it!

Tell us about your book/books:

This is the blurb:

 

Well, there’s this talking monkey who won me in a game of Othello in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. He came back to Cornwall with me and has become a prolific reader and dabbler in magic. He also has past life flash backs – the most prominent of which are the Nam special forces ones. We have partially deceased girlfriends who apparently eat dead bodies. The Monkey created a sort of black hole in the spare bedroom and now we have a team of nerds investigating it and trying to stop ‘things’ coming out of it. A bunch of Oriental hit men who appear to believe he is a god attempted to steal The Monkey’s magic lolly pop sticks, but he managed to blow them up in their caravan. We are off to Cambodia in search of a temple from which came a monkey faced pendant with glowing eyes and we seem to have upset an international cabal who are out to get us. Oh, and did I mention that The Monkey likes a cigar and we regularly get very drunk on Jack Daniels…

 

Volume 2 is with the publisher at the moment and will continue the deranged adventure.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

There are so many passionate people out there with so many stories to tell! It is great inspiration for those who are starting and those who are much further down this tricksy road of storytelling…

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

Life is a journey that has many turns in the road, you never know what is coming and sometimes you have just got to give yourself up and go with the flow. Embrace the chaos! Don’t take The Monkey as a role model, but maybe try to be a little more like him 😊

Where can people connect with you?

People can go look at the monkey based chaos on the web site: https://www.meandthemonkey.co.uk/

The book is available at: http://getbook.at/MeandTheMonkey

And I can be found at: https://twitter.com/MeandTheMonkey0  https://www.facebook.com/WhatWouldTheMonkeyDo  https://www.instagram.com/me_and_the_monkey/  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCebCyWBbTgO2UoAS2lYWcjA