Simon Toyne
Simon Toyne graduated from Goldsmiths College in London with a degree in English and Drama then worked in television for almost twenty years before becoming a novelist.
Sanctus is his first book and also the first volume of the Ruin trilogy.
- ‘Sanctus’ is the title of your debut novel - what does it actually mean?
‘Sanctus’ is Latin for ‘holy’. In the book it also denotes a high-ranking monk within a secretive and ancient sect who protect the Catholic Church’s greatest, oldest and most dangerous secret.
- If you could summarise ‘Sanctus’ in a short paragraph how would it look?
Version 1 - enigmatic
In the beginning was the word. It says so, right there in the Bible. But somebody wrote those words, and we all know that the victors write the history books.
But there is another story, a forbidden story, waiting to be told. It is the story of the vanquished and the wronged. It is the story of Sanctus.
Version 2 - literal
In the historic city of Ruin a man climbs to the top of the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, the mountainous holy citadel at the centre of the city.
Here he makes the sign of a cross with his body, a symbolic act that, thanks to the media, is witnessed by the entire world. Some believe that this marks the end of an ancient conspiracy, perpetrated since the beginning of time and nurtured by blood and lies.
But the cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel will kill, torture and break every law to keep things the way they are and maintain the secrets they keep.
For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it marks the beginning of a voyage that will end in a shocking revelation that will reveal the truth about her own identity and the terrible secret lying at the heart of Ruin.
- What were the main inspirations behind the idea for the book?
When I quit my job to try and become a writer I had a couple of ideas for thrillers that had been knocking around in my head for a while.
I planned to outline them both and then write the one I felt strongest about. We’d rented out our flat in England and hired a house in France about an hour outside Toulouse, which was where we were all going as a family while I wrote my book.
We set off in the rain on the thirtieth of November, 2008, me in a battered van full of enough stuff to turn our rented house into a home, and my wife in our car, similarly loaded.
The kids were staying with friends who would fly them over once we’d settled. We drove onto the ferry at Newhaven in sideways rain and set sail into the worst gale of the winter. The plan had been to sleep during the four hour crossing but that wasn’t going to happen.
We arrived in France utterly relieved that we’d made it at all, but tired. Very, very tired. There was no way we could manage the eight hour drive to our new home so we limped inland to Rouen looking for a cheap hotel to crash for a few hours.
As we drove into the city I saw the outline of the cathedral against the pre-dawn sky and a quote I’ve always loved just popped into my head. ‘God is a man in ruins.’
We got a room, fell asleep and four hours later we were on the road again. I thought about Rouen and the quote the whole way down. By the time we arrived at our new home I had the central idea for 'Sanctus'.
- Did it take you long to construct and put together?
From idea to first draft took me about a year and a half, then I spent another year re-writing and polishing it - so two and a half years in total.
In all that time I probably spent as much time planning and outlining as I did writing.
- Are any of the characters within the book based upon real individuals?
As part of my writing process I find photographs of real people who look like my characters and collate them in a reference document, but they don’t have the same personalities.
In a thriller you’re always asking the reader to swallow some big conceit somewhere along the way so the more believable you can make your characters the better.
It’s easier to care about someone if they seem like someone you know, so you just use bits from everywhere - characters in films, other books, people you’ve met. It’s funny how the villains in your life seem to stand out more than the saints.
- Did you do any field research to help you get a better understanding of the main themes that run within the book?
I think the central themes of the book are actually quite universal... Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose in life? How did I get here?
The only difference in Sanctus is that the main character has a bunch of lunatics trying to kill her before she can find the answers.
- ‘Sanctus’ is the 1st title in the 1st volume of the ‘Ruin’ trilogy - what can we expect from the others and how does the story develop?
‘Sanctus’ deals with the righting of an ancient wrong. The next 2 books deal with the fallout from this. It turns out that the prophesy fulfilled in book one is only the first part of a prophetic sequence and the fate of mankind rests on its outcome.
- As this is your 1st title what made you decide to take the plunge and leave your day job of nearly 20 years in television, and focus on becoming an author?
There were many overriding factors - getting older, feeling increasingly creatively uninspired at work, a long held desire to tell a big story in some form.
When I was younger I had written a couple of spec screenplays, one of which got close to being made but ultimately foundered on the rocks of development.
The experience of these made me realise that a screenplay is just the beginning of a process whereas a novel is the finished item.
I’d always read thrillers, so understood the mechanics of them, and they’re quite like screenplays in structure and design.
Thrillers are also very commercial so it seemed a sensible thing to attempt, seeing as I was giving up a perfectly good job to try and write one.
- Can you pinpoint what it was exactly that cemented your decision to change career path and pursue the writing?
The single spark that set everything in motion was the birth of my second child, Stanley. I was a staff producer at a big indie TV production company and I applied for two weeks holiday to coincide with his birth which they turned down.
It really upset me and made me question the whole nature of being staff and the illusion of freedom it gave. I suddenly imagined all the nativity plays I’d miss, the sports days, the just dropping them off at school in the morning and picking them up afterwards.
My dad worked really hard all his life and we hardly saw him in the week. I didn’t want to be that kind of dad. I wanted to be around to watch my kids grow up, day by day, and not have to ask someone permission to do it.
So I quit my job and gave myself 5 years and 3 books to become good enough to earn a living at it. I planned to freelance during that time to pay the bills and go back to TV full time if it didn’t work out. I got very lucky with Sanctus. Now I work from home. I have never missed a school event.
- Do you have any tips or advice for fellow individuals that may want to do the same?
I think you have to go into it like your life depends on it. Leaving the comfort of one career to roll the dice on the chance of starting another is very risky, so you’ve really got to want to make it happen, otherwise it probably wont.
When I told my boss I was quitting to go and write a book he offered me a sabbatical but I turned it down. I figured I would try much harder not to fall if I knew there was no safety net to catch me. Fear of failure is heady fuel.
Simon Toyne graduated from Goldsmiths College in London with a degree in English and Drama then worked in television for almost twenty years before becoming a novelist.
Sanctus is his first book and also the first volume of the Ruin trilogy.
- ‘Sanctus’ is the title of your debut novel - what does it actually mean?
‘Sanctus’ is Latin for ‘holy’. In the book it also denotes a high-ranking monk within a secretive and ancient sect who protect the Catholic Church’s greatest, oldest and most dangerous secret.
- If you could summarise ‘Sanctus’ in a short paragraph how would it look?
Version 1 - enigmatic
In the beginning was the word. It says so, right there in the Bible. But somebody wrote those words, and we all know that the victors write the history books.
But there is another story, a forbidden story, waiting to be told. It is the story of the vanquished and the wronged. It is the story of Sanctus.
Version 2 - literal
In the historic city of Ruin a man climbs to the top of the oldest inhabited place on the face of the earth, the mountainous holy citadel at the centre of the city.
Here he makes the sign of a cross with his body, a symbolic act that, thanks to the media, is witnessed by the entire world. Some believe that this marks the end of an ancient conspiracy, perpetrated since the beginning of time and nurtured by blood and lies.
But the cowled and secretive fanatics that live in the Citadel will kill, torture and break every law to keep things the way they are and maintain the secrets they keep.
For Liv Adamsen, New York crime reporter, it marks the beginning of a voyage that will end in a shocking revelation that will reveal the truth about her own identity and the terrible secret lying at the heart of Ruin.
- What were the main inspirations behind the idea for the book?
When I quit my job to try and become a writer I had a couple of ideas for thrillers that had been knocking around in my head for a while.
I planned to outline them both and then write the one I felt strongest about. We’d rented out our flat in England and hired a house in France about an hour outside Toulouse, which was where we were all going as a family while I wrote my book.
We set off in the rain on the thirtieth of November, 2008, me in a battered van full of enough stuff to turn our rented house into a home, and my wife in our car, similarly loaded.
The kids were staying with friends who would fly them over once we’d settled. We drove onto the ferry at Newhaven in sideways rain and set sail into the worst gale of the winter. The plan had been to sleep during the four hour crossing but that wasn’t going to happen.
We arrived in France utterly relieved that we’d made it at all, but tired. Very, very tired. There was no way we could manage the eight hour drive to our new home so we limped inland to Rouen looking for a cheap hotel to crash for a few hours.
As we drove into the city I saw the outline of the cathedral against the pre-dawn sky and a quote I’ve always loved just popped into my head. ‘God is a man in ruins.’
We got a room, fell asleep and four hours later we were on the road again. I thought about Rouen and the quote the whole way down. By the time we arrived at our new home I had the central idea for 'Sanctus'.
- Did it take you long to construct and put together?
From idea to first draft took me about a year and a half, then I spent another year re-writing and polishing it - so two and a half years in total.
In all that time I probably spent as much time planning and outlining as I did writing.