INTERVIEWS BETWEEN NAV LOGAN AND JACK SILINCE:

 

 

Nav Logan had the unfortunate task of interviewing me.  The result can be seen below:

 

1. Is writing a lifelong ambition, or did it just happen?

     Yes, it always has been – since I can remember although I was always afraid of rejection so it took some time to pluck up the courage to let others read my work.

2. How long have you been writing?

     I wrote two plays between 1990 and 1993 so I guess you could say that I’ve been at it for the last 24 years.  Anything I wrote before that has never been seen by anyone so I guess we can discount it.

 

3. How long do you write each day?

     I don’t have a set time frame.  I write as the mood takes me – sometimes days go by before I commit anything to the page.

 

4. Who is your favourite character in your book/books and why?

     Jacques Aubenet in “DAMAGE”.  I love the idea of a man that has such vast power yet is reluctant to use it.  Also I like his shy character.
 

5. Who/what/where first inspired you to write?

     Myself – I was going through an extremely difficult time so I started keeping a journal of what I would have like my life to be like – purely fictional of course.  It was a form of escape – somewhere that I could retreat to when things got really bad.
 

6. Do you like animals? Are you a cat or dog person, if dog, big or small?

     I’m a cat person – I adore them.  I’ve kept many in the past – one, a ginger Tom, was with me for thirteen years.  I do like dogs but I have never owned one – although my family have kept dogs.
 

7. You’re throwing a dinner party and you have room for three guests. Which three people, past and present would you invite?

     My dear friends, Dick Clarke, Johann Burger and Sven Yaffe.
 

8. Which of your characters do you think most reflects your own personality?

     Graham in my short story “SIMON SAYS”.  Possibly David in “TANGLED” – they’re very similar.
 

9. What inspires you?

     Anything and everything.  Songs, movies,  people that I see on the street. Situations that I come across – for example: “SAND” was the result of seeing children writing messages to each other in the sand on a beach.
 

10. What really gets your goat up?

     Rudeness.  I cannot abide rude people.  I am always polite and I expect the same courtesy in return.  The other is stupid people – pure stupidity burns my feathers.
 

11. How hard is the editing process?

     Strangely, I find it pretty easy going.  I have a system that works well for me and hence, the tediousness of the task is lightened.

12. If a genie appeared and gave you three wishes, what would they be?

     Difficult question.............First: that there would be no more wars.  Second: that I still had the figure and health I had thirty years ago.  Third: that I had met the love of my life much sooner.
 

13. What are you currently working on?

     I have decided to write “DAMAGE” as a series of books, so I am working on the second novel of that series.

A QUESTION FOR YOU: What happened to 14?

 

15. Which of your covers is your favourite and who designed it?

     “DAMAGE” – which I designed myself.
 

16. How do you combat writer's block?

     I don’t even try – I just let it ride its course.  Usually, something or someone will suddenly inspire me to continue.
 

17. Where in the world would you want to live and why?

Right where I am now.  Simply because it is with the one person I adore the most in the world.  In fact, as long as we’re together, it wouldn’t matter where we lived.

18. What would be your number one writing tip?

     Write what you know.  Experience is the best research one can ever do.
 

19. Do you have any phobias and how do you deal with your inner fears?

     Arachnophobia.  Can’t stand spiders near me.  I deal with it by avoiding them – or getting as far away from them as possible.
 

20. What are your all-time favourite three books?

     “THE STAND” by Stephen King, “CHILD OF THE SUN” by Carl Onstott and Lance Horner and “THE DAVINCI CODE” by Dan Brown.
 

21. What was the first book you remember reading?

     “ON THE BEACH” by Neville Shute when I was about nine years old.
 

22. You wake up in the morning with a strange itchy rash on your privates, do you rush to the doctors and say nothing to anyone about it, ignore it and hope it goes away, or use it for research in your next novel?

     Stick something on it and hope it goes away.  The thought of showing it to even a doctor scares me.
 

23. Is the glass half full or half empty?

     Half full!
 

24. How do you come up with your book titles?

     Usually from a phrase or idea in the story itself.  The title will just pop into my head without thought.
 

25. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?

     Watch movies.  I love a really good film.

 

You’re hanging on a precipice by your fingertips. To make matters worse, you’ve an overwhelming urge to itch your butt. Your phone is going off in your pocket. It must be important as they keep ringing and ringing.
Just then, a brilliant Idea comes into your head for your next novel.
Using the last of your strength, you pull yourself up so that you can rest your chin on the ledge for a few seconds and free one of your hands.
Do you:
• scratch that annoying itch,
• answer the damned phone,
• or scribble down the plot before you forget it?
 

     Scratch that annoying itch!!

 

The Conundrum:

You’ve been wandering around the darkest jungles of Peru for days, before being captured by a tribe of pygmy cannibals, who tied you up and prepared you for the guest of honour spot at their Sunday lunch.
It’s your own fault, as you weren’t paying attention. You were too engrossed in Maerlin’s Storm and simply had to finish the book and find out how it ends.
They grant you a final wish.
Do you:
• Ask them to read the last twenty pages for you?
• Ask to marry the chieftain’s toady daughter?
• Request a last shot of bourbon before you die?

 

     Ask them to read the last twenty pages…….

 

 

Below is my interview with Nav Logan:

 

1. Is writing a lifelong ambition, or did it just happen?
     I’ve written poems since I was a teenager, and recently drabbles have taken over from them. As for novels, I originally wrote Maerlin’s Storm as a poem, then I started to play as work was slow, and the first chapter appeared. The people I worked with asked what I was doing and read it and wanted more so the story grew from there. Very much an accident.
 

2. How long have you been writing?

     Poems since I was a teen so about 35 years, I first wrote Maerlin’s Storm about 12 years ago but some bits of it are older and part of short stories and RPG snippets. The Characters of Cull, Vortex, and Sile for example are older than Maerlin or Conal.
 

3. What made you decide to write fantasy?

     When I was at school, they taught me how to read but not how to love reading. Soon after I left school, I found Fantasy with the likes of David Eddings, Terry Pratchett, and Stephen Donaldson. There was no turning back from there. I was hooked.
 

4. Who is your favourite character in your book/books and why?

     Malachi the dwarf Jester. He is such a rascal. Also Cull, Vortex and Sygvaldr. They are all parts of me.
 

5. Who/what/where first inspired you to write?

     Teenage angst was a bit motivator for me to write. Writing was a way to purge the demons in my soul.
 

6. Do you like animals? Are you a cat or dog person, if dog, big or small?

     I love big dogs and have owned a few German shepherds and wolfhounds. Currently, we have a smaller dog, though I miss the bigger dogs. I’d like another shepherd but I’m not sure I can commit the time and space it needs.
 

7. You’re throwing a dinner party and you have room for three guests. Which three people, past and present would you invite?

     Henry Thoreux, Rudolf Steiner and Janis Joplin.
 

8. What’s the one question you wish people would ask you when you tell them you’re a writer?
     Where can I buy your books?
 

9. Whom among your characters is the most unusual and why?

     That’s a tough one! Sygvaldr the King of the Frost Dragon’s. He is a complicated character and not right in the head.
 

10. Where do you get the names for your characters.

     Mainly, they come from dreams. It was the same thing with my children’s names and the names for my horses or dogs. Sometimes, with lesser characters they come from Celtic and Norse Mythology
 

11. How hard is the editing process?

     I love writing but hate editing. No matter how many times I read and re-read something, there is always something that needs changing, or something I’ve missed. Editing is the hangover after a good nights partying, writing is the party.
 

12. Do you prefer to drabble or work on a novel?

     I write drabbles as quick as I can type, it was the same with poems, they just come out, and I am consumed until I allow them release into the world. Writing novels takes a lot more time, but I generally use the same process. I just sit down and start to write. I have no plans beforehand, just a vague idea of where I want to go.
 

13. What are you currently working on?

     A lot of things LOL. I write an average of a drabble a day, so that is an ongoing process. I am about a chapter and a half into the final book of the Storm-Bringer Saga. I am also editing a collection of short stories going back over the last 20 years as a follow up to my collection of drabbles and poems. On top of that, I have three other stories I am working on. One is a fantasy based in modern day Ireland about a student who wants to rear a dragon. Another is a sci-fi horror about the great grandson of Jack the Ripper. A third is a story that dates back to before I wrote Maerlin’s Storm and features some of the characters that were later featured in that series.
 

14. What is the most interesting thing you have learned from your research?

     I don’t really do research, though I have a lot of life experience to draw from.
 

15. Which of your covers is your favourite and who designed it?

     The cover for The Black Knights of Crom Cruach is awesome and was designed by Clarrisa Yeo. I loved it at first sight, and it inspired me to write the book. It’s filled with dark malevolence. I also love the cover of Little Words … Full of Big Worlds which I designed myself.
 

16. How do you combat writer's block?

     What’s that? I can never get the voices in my head to shut up for long enough to experience it.

17. Where in the world would you want to live and why?

     I’m already there. All my life, I wanted to come home to Ireland and after twenty years living in the UK, I came home. I’d love to have enough money to build myself a hobbit hole to live in though.
 

18. What would be your number one writing tip?

     Write from the heart not the head.
 

19. Do you have any phobias and how do you deal with your inner fears?

     Not really. I had a lot of fears when I was younger and learned to overcome them. I’m like a badger. I will avoid things for a quiet life sometimes, but if I’m pushed, I am fearless. I’m very stubborn and pig-headed when I want to be, and won’t let my fears get the better of me,
 

20. What are your all-time favourite three books?

     So many to choose from. If I could pick three series instead, I’d pick The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, The Belgariad, and Walden and essays on the duty of civil disobidience.
 

21. What was the first book you remember reading?

     Lord of the Flies by William Goulding
 

22. How long have you been writing?

     Déjà vu?
 

23. What’s the most annoying thing people say when you tell them you’re a writer?
     Oh!
 

24. How do you come up with your book titles?

     From dreams and the voices in my head
 

25. When you're not writing, what do you do for fun?

     I play gealic football, tag rugby and Warhammer 40k. I also coach youth rugby and referee for a local rugby club. I also love to read and watch films.