The Dead City Rollers
The Dead City Rollers, I’d like to think is a rip-roaring, comedy crime thriller set in the underbelly of my home town of Swansea. The book features an assembled cast of ne'er do wells including incompetent want-to-be gangsters, tyrannical policemen and delusional vigilantes. The action revolves around a series of mysterious disappearances and a good old fashioned power struggle. Plus there is a love story thrown in for good measure.
This is your debut novel – how have you found the writing process.
Years ago I was in a job that wasn’t satisfying on any level and decided it would be great to write a book. I remember thinking ‘well how hard could that be’. Blooming hard as it transpires. Retrospectively I should have sat down and planned it all out first before just blithely ploughing on. Consequently I ended up writing myself into a lot of dead ends and had to discard quite a few ideas once I discovered they didn’t work. I’ve probably been chipping away at the book for over ten years; rewriting bits, getting stuck and having computers die on me. Overall though to see the completed book and have the feeling of accomplishment and think ‘I did that’ made it all worthwhile.
You have been writing since you were a teenager – tell us about your earliest attempts.
I had a lovely English teacher called Mrs James who was very supportive of my earlier attempts at short stories and poetry. I was lucky enough to win a handful of small competitions for poetry when I was younger and that set me on the path to complete a full on novel.
What made you decide to set the novel in your birthplace?
Initially I was going to leave the city as unnamed, however, as I got close to completing the book I thought why not name the place as Swansea. Swansea is at times a crazy fun place with its fair share of characters that have some bonkers stories, many of which made it into the book under various guises. Plus I think you have got to write about what you know and I have tried my best to show some of the positivity in Swansea despite dealing with the seedier side of the city.
You have had many different careers, so what made you finally settle on writing?
I bumbled around between a lot of rubbish/fun/frustrating/rewarding/stinky jobs, including lamp shade packing, car park attending, dish washing and trying to teach Geography to classes full of hooligans in some really rough schools around South Wales. I thought that if I could be a successful writer I wouldn’t ever have to get up to the sound of an alarm clock in the dark again. It still hasn’t happened but perhaps one day (I do buy lottery tickets as a back-up plan).
What do you admire about the writers Carl Hiaasen and Allen Weisbecker?
They are both excellent writers. Carl Hiaasen writes crime novels predominantly set in Florida and really conveys a sense of place. His is a slightly skewed version of Florida with crazy characters and often bizarre situations. Allen Weisbecker made me want to write. I picked up his novel Cosmic Banditos when I was about 12 at a carboot sale. It’s a brilliantly funny, part autobiographical story of an international drug smuggler hiding out in the jungles of South America with his dog. Actually, thinking about it now, it was probably much too adult a book for me to have been reading at the time.
Tell us about the character of Alistair.
I really like the poor chap. He is stuck in a dead end ‘occupation’ running drugs around the city for a crime syndicate. He is really not happy with the situation and is desperate to change his life. Plus he is burdened down with guilt as he sees his past actions as having led to the death of a friend. Changing his life is something that turns out to be a lot more complicated than he thinks. However, there is a lady involved who will hopefully help him become a better person.
What is next for you?
Ideally start to write another book. My first one has been received very positively and people have been really kind with their help, support and feedback. I’ve got a few ideas bubbling away and will definitely be planning the thing out properly this time in an attempt to complete it in less than 10 years.