Carol Anne Davis

by Nicola Warwick

NW: What were you like as a child?

CAD: Constantly afraid and increasingly alienated--but I'll spare you the ugly details. One interviewer was so upset by my experiences that I had to take him to the pub for a double gin!

NW: What sort of short stories did you write as a child?

CAD: Dramatic and escapist ones. In my early writing-in-the-first-person tales I saved strangers from jagged rocks and from burning buildings. By the age of eight or nine my characters became less autobiographical yet still survived attacks by discarnate entities and rabid lions. I've no idea where any of this exotica came from as the only fiction in our house was in the form of the People's Friend.

NW: What sort of books did you read? Do you have a particular favourite from your childhood?

CAD: One of my Primary School teachers took my class to join the local library and thereafter I read every children's book they had and then tried to move on to the adult section. When little, I loved Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree. I thought that it was all true--that if I could just find and climb this incredibly magic tree I would be transported to a whole new universe. I used to gaze longingly up at each playground oak. In reality I was so uncoordinated and unathletic that I was always last to be picked for netball, and it took me all my time to climb a flight of stairs.

NW: How do you start writing a book? Do you get a clear picture of the book from start to finish or does it evolve as you write?

CAD: I plan out the entire novel before I start, writing an outline of anything from five to five hundred words for each proposed chapter. I also write out cards for each character, noting their description, interests, raison d' ętre, career history and age. When I begin to write the actual novel I usually think up twists or a subplot and immediately add them--I don't feel constrained by my outline. But without that initial plan it would feel like too awesome a task.

NW: Is there an author who you particularly admire or who is something of a role model for you?

CAD: I admire esoteric writers like Colin Wilson who examine the unexplained aspects of the world we live in. And I'm impressed by true crime crimes like John Douglas and Anne Rule who have worked in a law enforcement capacity. They've seen life's worst excesses and survived. The same is true of Dean Koontz who has lived through an abusive childhood and gone on to write horror that encompasses triumph over tragedy, gives hope. On a lighter note, friends often e-mail me humorous and satirical stories they've read on the internet. The original authors have seen the wry humour in, say, industrial mis-management and want to make those of us who can identify laugh.

NW: Are you a voracious reader? What are you reading at the moment?

CAD: Yes, I usually have two to three books plus a couple of magazines on the go. I'm currently coming to the end of Reincarnation by Roy Stemman (Piatkus non-fiction) which suggests that we are born again and again with the same group of people. If that's true then I'm damned if I'm being reincarnated. And I've just started Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes collection, Shocks, (published by the British Fantasy Society) which I've been sent for the purposes of review. I read erotica, horror, esoteric non-fiction, and realistic crime fiction. I hate it when interviewees say, "Oh, I'm re-reading the classics," and you know damn well they're really half way through The Unexpurgated Joy Of Sex.

NW: Where does your inspiration come from? Is it always just in your head or do certain things inspire you?

CAD: I think the raw material that makes a writer comes from within and is fashioned at a very early age--but thereafter most of us have to reach out to the wider world for inspiration. That said, quite mundane things can inspire me--a brief conversation with a stranger, a visit to a museum, a paragraph about a medical breakthrough in a scientific magazine.

I sometimes use music to help me create a certain mood. I played Wicked Game by Chris Isaac over and over again before I started writing my sociopathic novel Safe as Houses. The lyrics and feel of the piece ('What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you.') perfectly conjures up the mindset of a sadistic psychopath who blames women for his own flaws.

Similarly, before I wrote my suicide-themed chapbook Expiry Date I played and replayed Radiohead's album OK Computer. Most of the tracks have an existential feel and one of them, "Exit Music," is actually about a suicide pact.

NW: What's a chapbook?

CAD: I didn't know the answer to this until I was recently asked to write one! Basically they are limited edition booklets, usually signed by the author, They can be made up of a few short stories or one long fiction piece and are usually 8,000 words or more in length. Mine is a mini- novella of approximately 14,500 words.

NW: You say that after your postgraduate course you went for an option that wasn't the "safe option." What would you say to other people in a similar position?

CAD: Don't do it! I used to tutor for one of the correspondence writing schools and new students often hoped to support themselves from their fiction within a year. I used to point out that in my first month as a writer I made Ł50. In my second month I made Ł20 and in my third month I made nothing at all. It takes a long time to hone your craft--and even then you often aren't paid well as it's such a competitive market. But we writes are optimists so I'm rehearsing my speech for the day I win the Booker Prize. :-)

NW: What is a typical day for you? (Especially when you're writing.)

CAD: I don't really have a typical day. That's the main upside to being freelance. I love the freedom of this lifestyle and am endlessly grateful for it. I basically do a mixture of writing-related things: produce new fiction and non-fiction, edit drafts of earlier features, maybe write letters asking for new work. I read books that I'm to review and surf the Net if there's any research required. Between finishing one piece of work and starting the next I go grocery shopping or follow a fitness video then eat a bar of chocolate. I also complete the usual small business tasks of writing hate mail to the bank manager and buying prohibitively expensive printer cartridges from PC World.

NW: Your sense of humour comes through in your writing. Do you have a warped sense of humour?

CAD: I think my humour is quite straightforward--though one editor said that I had a bizarre sense of the comic. The police are still trying to identify her body parts.

NW: Do you receive lots of e-mail from readers?

CAD: Not lots--but enough to stop me feeling that I'm completely persona non grata. I've had more snail mail letters, often sent on from magazine's who have used my work. Readers seemed to be shaken or stirred by Shrouded for but some reason didn't write to me c/o its publisher. Then they read a short story or article of mine in a magazine and wrote to the editor asking him or her to pass their letter on. These letters have sent my spirits sky high as they went into great detail about how much they liked my writing. After letters like that you go to the word processor and the words just flow.

NW: Do you use the Web for research? If so, for what in particular?

CAD: The last time I used it was to research Victorian corsetry! An editor asked me to produce a historical erotic short story. I'm more interested in the present than the past so was somewhat out of my depth. But after an hour and a half on the Net I knew all that I needed to know about ladies unmentionables. I also found that you could tightly lace your waist and eventually reduce it by several inches, but on reflection I've decided to let it all hang out.

NW: If there were no constraints and you could write any genre full time what would you choose?

CAD: I would choose for there not to be genres. They are artificial distinctions and do a disservice to authors who don't fit easily into one identifiable camp. A good book speaks honestly to many people and shouldn't really be pigeon-holed. It loses numerous potential readers if it's marketed solely as dark literature or horror or crime. I'd love to change the world of books so if I'm reincarnated I'll form The Last Hope Publishing Company: no intergalactic reply coupons required.

Nicola Warwick is the author of life's little luxuries. She lives in Manchester in the North West of the UK. Nicola's articles have been published in various writing, computing, and electronics magazines. Read more about her here.

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