Trading Vincent Crow
Tell us a bit about your new book Trading Vincent Crow.
Trading Vincent Crow is a humorous account of a young man, frustrated with his menial work and limited achievements, making a radical decision to change his approach to life. The story tracks his exploits over a year as he challenges himself to trade-up his life for a completely new one every few months until he becomes a success. Inevitably most of this is fairly disastrous, but it generates a lot of fun on the way as he tries to engage with new situations and take control of his life, rather than accepting his lot and remaining a means to other people’s journeys.
Your inspiration came from a man on eBay who swapped a paperclip for a house, can you expand on the thought process behind the novel after this?
The idea of trading-up stuff to improve your life, and transferring this to the idea of actually trading-up yourself, provided the thread from which to develop all of the other adventures in which Vince becomes engaged. At times the sub-plots draw vaguely on some of my own experiences. For example, Vince starts off as a washer-upper in a suburban pub. My own formative years saw me employed part time in a number of pub kitchens devoting my evenings to the contents of industrial-sized sinks. For other elements of his journey I either researched, or called on my imagination. The aim was to have a regularly changing background against which Vince has interactions between himself and the other characters as he tries desperately to improve himself.
You have qualifications in development management and community water supply engineering. What made you turn to writing?
Over recent years I have worked on both emergency and development programmes. Whilst this can be quite intense work, there are also periods where I’ve found myself in rural or remote areas where there is little to do in the evenings or on days off. It’s during this time that I’ve enjoyed some escapism through writing.
What are your favourite reads?
Much of my reading in the past has been from books abandoned by the travellers that have gone before me. As a result I went through a period of reading suspense/thrillers for a while, but have since tired of rogue cops flirting with the edge of convention but inevitably saving the day. Lately I’ve been sharing my reading time between humorous books and non-fiction science and history.
Which novel makes it to the top of your list?
Currently top of my list is ‘Right Ho, Jeeves’, by P.G. Wodehouse. I’ve recently re-read it, and enjoyed it as much as on the first reading. Not a word or sentence is wasted. However, ask me in a year’s time and I’m sure my list will have changed.
Which writers can you see reflected in your own work?
I enjoy the way Gerald Durrell in books like ‘My family and other animals’ seemed to delight in observing the eccentricities in others, without making any particular judgment. I think there’s an element of this with some of the characters in my book as well. I also enjoy some of P.G. Wodehouse’s dialogue with misunderstandings and absurd cross-purposes. There are conversations between Vince and his nan in Trading Vincent Crow where there is a similar level of non-communication.
How did you come up with the different scenarios and characters that Vincent meets along the way to carry the story?
The idea that Vince trades up his whole life every few months means that the story can be quite episodic, and this justifies a number of rapid leaps to new locations and working environments. For me this was part of the joy of writing Trading Vincent Crow, as it wasn’t necessary to find ways to re-animate the same initial characters in the same setting. Particularly, due to Vince’s capacity for disaster, things can change quickly and opportunities for new characters and scenarios are almost boundless.
Through my travels I’ve met a lot of people from different parts of the world and I think my enjoyment of observing different character traits in part fuels my inspiration for characters rather than drawing on specific people.
Can you tell us a little more about your writing process?
Being committed to my development work I currently have very limited time for writing. However, at the moment I see this as a positive thing as it means I am not under pressure each day to sit down, stare at my laptop and overcome writers block. Often ideas will come to me during the course of the week, and at the weekend I may find time to get down a few paragraphs that I’m most eager not to forget or I think will make a strong contribution. Often this produces fairly concise, self-contained but multi-faceted elements to the story which I feel help to make it more of a page-turner. However, this approach does mean it takes me a long time to finish writing a book.
You work in developing countries in Africa and Asia; tell us a little bit more about your day job.
I am currently working with a development programme supporting rural livelihoods. At the moment this includes proposal development, donor reporting, mentoring key staff, overseeing project management, field monitoring, and so on. They can be long days and it requires commitment, but I really do enjoy my work. Working over a long period in a different country with a national staff is a fantastic way to learn about and experience a culture and people, as well as develop and broaden your own perspectives.
What is next on the cards for you?
I’m currently working on the sequel to Trading Vincent Crow.
Female First Lucy Walton