INTERVIEW: Kate Griffin

To many readers “The Madness of Angel’s” will come as a complete bolt from the blue as this relatively new author hits out with an epic Urban Fantasy based in the UK. Not only is the book well written but its got hints of a rich past in the same writing vein as Peep’s and Dickens, yet its all that and more.

Here, Kate chats to us about life, the ups and downs of writing along with the highs and lows of construction be it on the page or at RADA…


Falcata Times: Writing is said to be something that people are afflicted with rather than gifted and that it's something you have to do rather than want. What is you opinion of this statement and how true is it to you?

Kate Griffin: Well... I've always been of the opinion that if you don't write for pleasure, then you're probably a) in the wrong career and b) not going to write as well as someone having fun - enjoyment of a thing usually leads to it being better! I guess that 'affliction' could be argued for when the desire to write becomes so overwhelming that if you can't get your hands on a piece of paper in the next ten seconds, you'll actually cry; or when the urge to write is so overwhelming that you forget to eat. But I would never say it's been an affliction – just a massive rush of enjoyment followed by a midnight meal.


FT: When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?

KG: About two seconds after my Mum told me never to be a writer! No, wait, not really true... I never consciously thought 'ah-ha, lets write a novel and get it published!'. I do remember a very depressing moment in the Barbican library when I turned about eleven and discovered that I'd read the entire fantasy section. Which, admittedly, was on a single spinny kinda shelf thing. But the prospect of not having any fresh stories to keep me occupied through the long summer holidays led to the fact of sitting down in front of a keyboard which became, after a while, the thing I did to relax. The realisation of 'whoops, I'm a writer, how cool!' only really kicked in around the time Little, Brown published my third or fourth book.


FT: Its often said that if you can write a short story you can write anything. How true do you think this is and what have you written that either proves or disproves your POV?

KG: Short stories are ridiculously hard. I can't do them at all; I'm trying to learn because I think it's a fantastic skill to have. You have to compress so much into so small a space, be so concise and exact and turn so much from so little – its an amazing art. If I ever master it, I'll let you know....


FT: If someone were to enter a bookshop, how would you persuade them to try your novel over someone elses and how would you define it?

KG: I'd probably say... it's quite different from what you usually read in the fantasy section, there's a mish-mash of a whole raft of ideas that are both recognisable from 'traditional' yea-olde-magic-sword fantasy writing, but which have been kicked into twenty first century London, in what I hope is a new and exciting way. There's humour and adventure and if worst comes to worst, it's probably cheaper than buying a tourist guide to London.


FT: How would you "sell" your book in 20 words or less?

KG: Sorcery, vengeance, telephones, grafitti and the London Underground.


FT: Who is a must have on your bookshelf and who's latest release will find you on the bookshops doorstep waiting for it to open?

KG: Neil Gaiman! And Terry Pratchett! I would go a long way to get a copy of their stuff. On my shelf I have the complete works of Roger Zelazny and Raymond Chandler. I also have a thing for the collected works of Garfield, and a nerdy love of history, especially where pirates or sieges are involved.


FT: When you sit down and write do you know how the story will end or do you just let the pen take you? ie do you develop character profiles and outlines for your novels before writing them or do you let your idea's develop as you write?

KG: I do write outlines of a sort – I start usually with one basic idea, a beginning and an end, and add events, logical things that characters would do, places etc.. I never really plan characters in the sense that I go 'ah-ha, now I must have someone with these attributes who talks like this!' but do kinda know what they sound like long before I ever hit the keyboard. Slightly embarrassingly, I tend to dream in whatever point of view I'm writing in – when doing third person, I dream as an omnipotent narrator observing the action; when doing first person, I am usually in the centre of the action looking out through a pair of borrowed eyes. I should also add that any plan is usually entirely forsaken by page 50 of the novel, although 9 times out of 10 I will end up at the final destination I originally intended. It's always the marker to aim for, although how I get there is a little unpredictable.


FT: What do you do to relax and what have you read recently?

KG: Um... slightly nerdily... my current backpack reading is 'A Practical Guide to Theatre Lighting'. Which I am devouring joyously! I admit that a lot of my relaxation involves being beaten at Super Mario Kart by my boyfriend. I love going to the cinema, walking around London and regard Thai food as the peak of civilization. If I had more money, I would go to the theatre more. If I am in especially desperate need of relaxing, I will head towards the Thames.


FT: What's your guiltiest pleasure that few know about?

KG: Um. Covered Super Mario Kart. I guess I should also admit that there are few things as satisfying as conquering central Europe with nothing more than a strong trading economy and a bunch of well-trained longbowmen. In computerised form.


FT: Lots of writers tend to have pets (mainly cats.) What do you have and what are their key traits (and do they appear in your novel in certain character attributes?)

KG: Tragically, I have no pets. I would love, LOVE, to have a cat (conforming to the stereotype) but alas live in a second floor flat and have asthma. My parents have accidentally adopted a cat I visit whenever at home, and who, I like to think, I was key in acquiring owing to my tendency to let her in through the toilet window during our initial courtship. Her name is Wusspuss, and her key trait is that she may sit on your lap for an hour and a half perfectly happy to purr and be stroked, but the moment my Dad walks in with his bigger and warmer lap, she will be off and onto him before you can say 'fickle little madam'.


FT: Which character within the book is the most fun to write and why?

KG: I must admit, I love writing Matthew Swift, just because there is that slightly schizophrenic thing going on which is intensely fun and satisfying. Although... one of my all-time favourite characters, admittedly in a minor part, is Dr Seah. Mostly, because as soon as she graduates from medical school, she will be both real, and the coolest medic ever to swing a stethoscope.


FT: How similar to your principle protagonist(s) are you?

KG: Um... well, I guess subconsciously there's probably more stuff going on than I'm really aware of, because writers always tend to write aspects of themselves even if they don't know it. Superficially, however, there are both massive similarities and differences. Like Swift, I am perfectly happy to play on swings in a playground, will eat almost anything just for the sake of it, will walk around London being excited by it, head to the river when angry, and in the face of disaster go down the route of ominous silence rather than screaming. On the other hand... I am neither male, dead nor in possession of magic powers.


FT: What hobbies do you have and how do they influence your work?

KG: I'm currently at RADA, doing Technical Theatre and Stage Management, which essentially means that I have very little time to do anything except technical theatre... which rocks! But is a little time-consuming, since we work anywhere between 10-14 hours a day, six days a week. I'm sure this will influence my work – I'd like to write a play! - but it's hard to see how right now through the mist of muscular exhaustion.

I do love science, which I guess has told very strongly in my previous work as Catherine Webb. I'm okay at maths when it's going in straight lines, but when it starts wiggling, less good... I did a history degree at LSE, which I adored – hence the addiction to pirates and sieges. But since history is essentially a massive, massive, brilliant story, I guess it's easy to see how that influences me.


FT: Where do you get your idea's from?

KG: Sorry, this is a bit of a cop-out answer, but it's gonna have to be everywhere. From walking round London, reading, watching films, pictures, people arguing in the street, clothes people wear, reflections in bus windows - from just pretty much everywhere. The Midnight Mayor, the second book of the Urban Magic series, revolves almost entirely around a fly poster I saw once while walking through Smithfields; I'm never consciously aware of going 'oh, cool, gotta write a book about that!' but I know that every few days I'll look up and think, 'that's interesting' and sooner or later, whatever it was is going to wind up on the page whether I mean it or not. Which rocks!


FT: Do you ever encounter writers block and if so how do you overcome it?

KG: I haven't yet got writers block... don't get me wrong, I won't write if I don't feel like it, will never force myself, so I guess in that sense I get blocked. But I always have something to write and will never sit down in front of a blank screen and stare at it forlornly in the traditional writers block sense. My parents have had writers block! (Both being writers!) So I can tell you a list of things that happen, starting with minor through to major, in the writers block situation....
1 . Vacuum the house top to bottom.
2 . Polish the tables.
3 . Defrost the freezer.
4 . Do the gardening.
5 . Trim the front hedge.
6 . Clean the inside of the car.
7 . Read every single back copy of every single section of every single newspaper in the living room.
8 . Watch channel 5 action films until one in the morning.
9 . Defragment the hard drive.
10 . Scan the hard drive for virus errors.
11 . Do the tax return.
12 . Do the filing.
13 . Cook huge, complicated and exciting meals with herbs in it the names of which you can neither pronounce nor spell.
14 . Clean the insides of the mouse, to allow free movement of the ball within its wheel.

… and, as the last act of shame...
1 . Clean the inside of the keyboard with a toothbrush to remove excess dirt from between the keys.


FT: Certain authors are renowned for writing at what many would call uncivilised times? When do you do write and how do the others in your household feel about it?

KG: I write whenever I feel like it. When I lived at home with my parents they dealt with it by ignoring it, in full and happy knowledge that I'd stop when I was tired and I was inside my own room and wasn't any trouble to anyone. Now I live in my own flat and there's only me to give a damn. If I'm really caught up in something I will happily work until 2 a.m. or get out of bed at 7 a.m. to start. Usually, however, I'm pretty civilized.


FT: Sometimes pieces of music seem to madly influence certain scenes within novels, do you have a soundtrack for your tale or is it a case of writing in silence with perhaps the odd musical break in-between scenes?

KG: I always write with music on, but never have music in mind when I write. I can't listen to good music when writing, since it's usually too good and will distract me; so I have a collection of perfectly harmless stuff on my hard drive to keep me going.


FT: What misconceptions, if any, did you have about the writing and publishing field when you were first getting started?

KG: Thankfully, my father was a publisher long before he became a writer, and my Mum was both a writer and an editor. Therefore, from a very early age, they would sing me to sleep with tales of their days at work and as a result, I had a healthy and hearty cynicism about the whole affair. As an ex-publisher, my Dad would always say, 'authors! So demanding!' and as a published writer, my mother's battle cry was always, 'publishers! They just don't understand!' I am happy to have had both sides told to me...


FT: If music be the food of love, what do you think writing is and explain your answer?

KG: Writing is the cold glass of milk that you have with your dark chocolate digestive biscuit.

Um... hold on, I'm sure I have a good explanation of this analogy. I think it boils down to something like, life is the dark chocolate digestive biscuit, rich and tasty and full of fat and sugar and a wonderful, wonderful treat. And writing is the cold, clean glass of milk that washes it down.


FT: What can you tell us about the next novel?

KG: A Madness of Angels and its sequel, the Midnight Mayor, are both attempts to do fantasy in a more modern setting. Sure, there have been plenty of fantasy novels in which our protagonists discover mystic goings-on in twenty first century cities, a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer; but even in these cases, the mystic symbols tend to be pentagram stars, the language of spellcasting tends to be Latin, the beards are big, the baddies wear black and there tends to be an epic evil only smiteable with a magic sword. In the next novels, however, the magic symbols are more likely to be the sign of Transport For London, the vampires are limited to only type-O, rhesus positive blood (depending on their own types) and live in mortal fear of getting a duff donor, and the lightning that the wizards throw is likely to be at mains voltage, unless near a transformer station.


FT: What are the last five internet sites that you've visited?

KG: Let's see... hotmail... the bbc... amazon.co.uk... 'pay your bill' Thames Water.... and oh dear. Scifi.com. I hang my head in shame at this geekdom.


FT: Did you ever take any writing classes or specific instruction to learn the craft of writing a novel?

KG: Um. No. To my shame. I feel I really ought to have. Not because I'm not happy with how I write – I love doing it and an I enjoy the end product! But in other careers you strive to learn more, and I am sure that there is tonnes of stuff out there that I just haven't thought of trying. Might never try it, might never use it, but there's nothing wrong with knowing the full breadth of possibility.


FT: How did you get past the initial barriers of criticism and rejection?

KG: Well... I've never really been rejected. Not properly. Had the odd bad review. My favourite bad review I ever had was on the same page as a bad review for Phillip Pullman, so I felt I was in excellent company! And the publisher has always published and sure, I get editorial notes, but 99% of the time, my editor is right, and his suggestions are improving the book and so there's nothing to complain about! I guess if tested, if faced with rejection and criticism of an unbearable nature I would either just shrug and get on with it because I love writing and what else are you going to do? - or I'd fall back on technical theatre or history until my nerves were restored!


FT: What are the best and worst aspects of writing for a living, in your opinion?

KG: Best – I get to do what I love! Rock on! (I know it's cliché, but it is also true...)

Worst – there's no denying that authors are notoriously insecure about their work, which is unreliable in terms of being paid, and often quite lonely. I kinda haven't run into these yet, but I know the danger is always out there....