INTERVIEW - Horror Author Adam Nevill
Geek Syndicate
ever to get published. Maybe it was self-fulfilling and we should have played the markets, but I don’t think so. A long apprenticeship is what I recommend. As regards horror fiction, I endeavour to transport the reader, to write well without over-writing, and to not write silly books. Whether I achieve this or not, I rewrite my novels endlessly until I can’t find anything else to change. Apartment 16 had seventeen drafts. I don’t consider my books to be pulp fiction at all, but I want to be a good storyteller with the potential of reaching a wide readership. I guess, above all else, I want my horror fiction to matter. GS: Who would you say has been the biggest influence on your writing; either authors you’ve read or people you’ve met in your life (or both!)? AN: There are literally too many authors to mention, and I’m influenced by all kinds of writers all of the time. M R James, Machen, Blackwood, De la Mare, Lovecraft, Blatty, King, Ellroy made me write horror. Through James Joyce and Colin Wilson’s books, more than those of any other writers, enabled me to identify that if I didn’t become a writer I would be profoundly unhappy. I probably already knew this, but needed the fact articulated by greater minds than my own.
AN: My pleasure, Phil. Thank you for having me. GS: So Adam, you’ve been an author for a while now having been published as both an erotica and horror writer. For those that don’t know you, how would you describe your approach to/style of writing? AN: Old school, in terms of the actual writing. I read a huge amount for years before I began writing seriously in my mid-twenties, and went to university twice for the sole reason of studying fiction in order to become a writer. Writing is as much about reading, and about thinking through your ideas, as it is about actually physically writing. In fact, I sublimated just about everything after leaving school to the whole idea of writing. Looking back now, being that driven seems a bit mad. And my God, did I make life difficult for myself at times, particularly when working security night and day in order to get the time and headspace to write, effectively full time. I also wrote full time one year in the nineties and survived on the three thousand pounds that I’d saved the year before. But I’ve always had a purpose to each and every day, even if I was very poor and underemployed in a conventional sense, and that is priceless. I’ve only met one or two other writers who went through the same process. Bizarrely we all shared the same love of the same books about becoming writers, and it took us all for-
Recently, the shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards 2012 was announced. Amongst the nominees were horror author Adam Nevill. Nevill was born in Birmingham, England in 1969 and still lives there. He is the author of the supernatural horror novels Banquet for the Damned, Apartment 16, The Ritual, and Last Days. Geek Syndicate was fortunate enough to secure an exclusive interview with Adam, sending Scrolls co-host and Geek Syndicate reporter, Phil Ambler off to ask the questions. Read on for the full interview and to find out details from Adam’s next novel. GS: Adam, thanks for sparing us the time for an interview. We know you’re incredibly busy, what with your recent nomination for the British Fantasy Awards 2012 and the launch of your latest book Last Days, so we appreciate the chance to hear from you.
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