John Barlow has written Islanders and Hope Road.
1. What is your name
and where do you call home?
John Barlow. I’m
originally from the UK, but I currently live in northern Spain, right beside
the beach in a city called A Coruña.
2. What is the name of
your most recent book and if you had to sum it up in 20 or less words, what
would you say?
ISLANDERS. In a war-torn
world devastated by germ warfare, a boy tries to discover why his dad abandoned
him.
3. Do you have plans
for a new book? Is this book part of a series?
ISLANDERS is the first
in a trilogy of YA novels.
4. Do you gift books
to readers for book reviews?
All the time. Here, in
fact!
5. How did you come up
with the cover? Who designed the cover of your book?
Stuart Bache did it.
He did the current UK covers for some of Stephen King’s books, and I just find
everything he does to be tremendous.
6. Which is your
favourite cover of all the books you have written?
ISLANDERS. It captures
the novel completely. I also like the UK cover of Eating Mammals, which was the
first book I published back in 2004.
7. Do you prefer
e-books, paperbacks, hardcovers or audiobooks?
Increasingly ebooks. There
are some disadvantages, like not being able to fold the corner of a page down
or write notes in pencil in the margin. But the advantages are so enormous that
I think most people, once they start using an e-reader, have trouble going
back.
8. Are you a
self-published / Indie author?
Both. I’ve had books
out with traditional publishers (HarperCollins, FSG) but ISLANDERS is published
by Storm Books, which is essentially me and a colleague, Sam Bridges. We’re
looking at ways that a micro publisher like Storm Books might be able to take
advantage of the ebook revolution, perhaps with translations (we’re based in
Spain). Who knows? Publishign is changing so quickly.
9. Have you ever read
a book more than once? And if so what was it?
Giovannino Guareschi’s Don
Camillo stories. All three volumes, one right after the other. Three times
in a row! I was doing post-grad work in phonetics at the time, doing really
repetitive analysis, so I needed something to distract me. I’ve also read
Cervantes’ Don Quixote a few times, because it is (IMHO) the finest novel ever
written.
10. Has the quality of
the cover of a book ever put you off of reading it?
Yes. I live in Spain,
where ‘literary’ works often have incredibly dull covers. It’s as if they want
you NOT to pick the book up... I happily oblige.
11. What is your
favourite film based on a book?
The Godfather. The
film is a great deal better than the novel, which is extremely good.
12. What is your
favourite book genre at the moment?
I’m into British crime
wiring. I’m also into reading random stuff that I notice on the internet.
Hence...
13. What book are you
reading at the moment? And in what format?
Krista D Ball’s What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank: A
Fantasy Lover’s Food Guide. Just brilliant.
14. If you could
invite any four celebrities (alive or dead) to your dinner party, who would you
invite?
Henry VIII,
Shakespeare, Count Basie, Noam Chomksy.
15. Do you have any
advice for other writers? And what’s the best advice that you have been given
when it comes to writing?
Keep going. Rewrite a
lot. Be honest with yourself.
16. Do you have any
hobbies that aren’t related to reading & writing?
I very much like food!
OK, so I’m greedy. But I also like learning more about food, how it’s produced
and prepared. I write articles for a food magazine, which is such a joy because
I am essentially paid to travel around and taste food. What could be better?
Other than that I like travel, and I’m interested in ecological issues
(ISLANDERS is partly about the ecological damage done to a country and its
society).
17. Where can your
readers follow you?
Website: http://www.johnbarlow.net
Mailing list: mailinglist@johnbarlow.net
Facebook page: facebook.com/john.barlow.319
Goodreads author page:
http://www.goodreads.com/JohnBarlow
Twitter: @John_Barlow_LS9
Thankyou so much for taking the time to do this interview and allowing us a glimpse into your writing world!
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