Mark Graham Media

Writing

I write books that I would wish to read.

My favourite authors are those who write either fast-paced plots or stories that are real and plausible.

I read a lot of Michael Connelly because he gets on with the story without too many diversions into his characters' love lives. I take the view that purchasing a book is like hiring a contractor. I want him to get on with the job. I don't need to know what he does between the sheets. I also depreciate authors who feel they must shove in some love interest in order to make their characters seem 'well rounded'.

Twisted

My characters always have flaws and they usually have a dark side. That's because most real people do. And I don't just mean the tough guys.

I have encountered more than a few grey haired old ladies who are devious and nasty. They put on a good show of appearing affable and harmless but, as soon as they sense there is an advantage to be had, the mask falls away.

I've noticed that people can become quite unpleasant when they develop dementia. I think this is because they lose the ability, that we all have, to maintain the pretence of civility.

Who are we?

I have explored this issue of our dual personalities in my new eBook 'Critical Kill'.

It is not that we deliberately set out to deceive others. We are always, quite literally, in 'two minds'. We are all more than a little schizophrenic. Furthermore, we may all be experiencing slightly different versions of what we call 'reality'.

The Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics states that we humans collectively create 'reality'. If this is so, it's not surprising our world is mixed up and generally an unpleasant place.

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My problem with literary agents

Somewhere along the way it seems men have stopped reading books. Where have they all gone? Are they all now on Pornhub?

I look at the names listed on the various agents' websites and nine out of ten are of the female persuasion. Sometimes it's ten out of ten. All agents say in their blurb - and in their rejection emails to me - things like 'it wasn't really for me'.

So it seems that literary agents are only interested in taking on clients who write the kind of stories that appeal directly to them.

The other little amusing thing they say on their websites is 'we are looking for new voices'. Then they ask writers when submitting manuscripts to list books which they think are the most similar to the one being tendered for consideration. Would it be unfair of me to suggest they are looking for 'new voices' as long as they sing the same songs as the 'old voices'?

I get the impression that all these people are looking for a new Wuthering Heights. It is a fact that in any grouping of people, inevitably, the crowd begins to think the same.

The freedom of 'e'

Whenever I begin a manuscript I imagine I will be able to interest an agent and sell it to a conventional publisher.

That never happens - and, as soon as I realise that I relax and enjoy the pleasure of writing what I want to write and not what I think the agent wants to read.

Being a Capitalist at heart I firmly believe 'the customer is king'. In this case, it's the readers who count and, so far, they have given generally favourable reviews.

The only downside to self publishing is the black hole that is Amazon's server. You take the trouble to write a book, edit it thoroughly, re-write it, upload it and then it disappears into Amazon's system - just like the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.