Drew Neary Ceri Williams
Nottingham, England Nottingham, England
UK UK
Good morning, Drew and Ceri, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art and book lovers. You are my very first team interview. This is so exciting! Can you tell us a little about your book?
As the first in an upcoming series of supernatural books, the Clockmaker is the story of Annette and her young son Duncan. Widowed in World War 2, she faces a completely different life as they exchange the devastation of post-blitz London for the slow pace of a small village in Scotland.
The house they have inherited is old, its bones still settling, creaking noises in the dead of night and the murmur of scritch-scritch in the walls. Located outside the village of Lochnagar, it’s been empty for many years.
It is here in this village that a series of strange events begins to unfold.
How the Clockmaker makes his plans, his meticulous preparations and macabre creations, builds up to a series of gruesome, horrific murders. These have just one end in view: his release from that which has held him captive for centuries.
What is your favorite genre to write?
Our book contains a range of genres – fantasy, historical fiction, sci-fi and gothic horror. Most people however describe it as a supernatural thriller.
Favorite food.
Drew: it’s got to be chocolate-but unfortunately you can’t live off it ! So as a close second I love Italian foods, pasta and chicken dishes and citrus fruit.
Ceri: fish and chips !!!!
Tea or coffee?
Without question...it’s not even a competition...coffee every time and when we are writing there are several cups of cold coffee abandoned!
Pizza or ice cream?
Drew: I have such a sweet tooth, that i have to go with ice cream.
Ceri: If it’s a takeaway pizza that someone had made for me- that’s my option because I am rubbish at cooking.
Wine or beer or soda?
Drew: I like nothing better than an ice- cold beer in the garden on a warm day.
Ceri:I am addicted to full fat Coke.
Where would you like to visit?
Drew: I have travelled quite a lot, but I haven’t visited the states yet and my dream is to do Route 66 in a Mustang. But I’d also like to visit historical places like the Alamo and see some of the wonderful rock features in deserts that I’ve seen in the movies. And travel on down into South America.
I’d love to see some of the ruins in the jungles.
Ceri: I too have travelled extensively but I would love to visit the northern countries such as Sweden, Norway and Alaska.
I love the American Southwest. New Mexico is fantastic.
Favorite musical artist. Do you listen to music when you write?
Ceri: The Be Good Tanyas. Although I love music and have I guess an eclectic range depending on how I feel. Unlike Drew, I write in complete silence. I get distracted otherwise.
Drew: This is such a hard question because I have music on all the time and I listen to so many different styles of music but my absolute favourite is rock music .If I had to pin it down to one –it would be Hawkwind.
I nearly always write listening to music in the background. I go as far as to plan the music I am going to listen to when writing a particular scene. So for example there was an action sequence on the hillside in The Clockmaker, and I played Live Chronicles by Hawkwind because of the energy of the music. And when I wrote some of the scenes with Clockmaker and Duncan on the train- I listened to LA Woman by the Doors because of the vibe.
What makes you laugh?
Drew: Laughter and humour is such an important part of my life. I like UK classic tv comedies such as Blackadder. Monty Python and comedy movies such as “I married an axe murderer.” and The Anchorman.
Ceri:I was brought up on traditional British satire - Not the 9 o clock News, Python, Flanders and Swan,the Goons etc.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
Ceri: The later works of Kandinsky
Drew: If I have to pick one it would be Hallucinogenic Toreador by Dali.
How old were you when you started writing?
Drew: Late teens, early 20’s.I was writing mainly short stories but it is only in very recent years that I have begun to write novels.
Ceri; I have always written from a very young age, but the words were purely for me and not for an audience. It is only since meeting Drew that I have branched out into novels.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
It’s a mixture to be honest. Initially it is a mental flowchart that develops through discussion. We’re a little different as we co-write. We do write separately on occasion, but the most important aspects and content of the writing and novels come from us blending what we have written, discussions around ideas and next steps, and what we come up with when writing together. We have been asked whether it is difficult to write together, and our response has been not at all- in fact just the opposite.
When we are co-writing we are putting into words a dialogue we have with each other. Then we blend it in the editing process. So it reads as though one person has written it. Readers of our book cannot tell which parts have been written by either of us. Editing together is vital, it allows us to discuss what needs to be changed and or developed.
If we cannot physically write together, a really successful method has been sending each other the writing via email and then discussing this, or we just ring up and have a chat. We produce mental flowcharts through chatting about the text etc.
We find that we have a very strong respect for each other’s ideas and thoughts, and as a result this respect leads to a meshing of quality text.
Describe your perfect evening.
Drew: Ah...how things change and circumstance. When I was younger it would have been a loud outdoor gig with sunshine and plenty to drink. However nowadays, somewhere warm and picturesque by the sea where the children can play, the breeze is warm and the food is divine.
Ceri: Mine would be with my son who is now 22.He has achieved so much in life through his own determination and endeavour. I love the way he thinks and expresses himself. And he makes me laugh.
Where do you get your inspiration?
It’s tricky to answer this because our ideas will spring out of nowhere. It could be a building, or a piece of music, or in the case of Drew ”I get a lot of ideas whilst I’m driving and I have to stop, pull over and write them down- so it takes me ages to get anywhere. I also have a Dictaphone which I now carry everywhere with me.”
Many readers and reviewers have asked where the inspiration for the Constructs (supernatural creatures) came from. The Clockmaker needed supernatural creatures to do violent acts so Drew designed them out of bone, sinew, and a range of materials that would appear frightening. These were the product of Drew’s imagination and came to him one day when he was in the garden looking at a tree that needed pruning.
Drew: “My children were running around the garden, and the idea for the character of the Clockmaker (which was at the time, a very minor part of our novel Optics,) just popped into my head. And here we are a couple of years later with the novel The Clockmaker and I still haven’t pruned the tree!“
Ceri: ”The idea behind The Perfect Child which is one of the follow up novels came from a school visit to an old jail which had an oubliette within it. In other writings it may come from an image, a word or a conversation I have had with Drew.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
Drew: I am so lucky that I haven’t had this yet. I don’t have this because my imagination and my mind is constantly coming up with and creating different scenes, characters, and plots. Hence the Dictaphone. So when it comes to writing out a particular scene, I’ve already gone through with several variations inside my mind and it naturally pours out. I consider myself lucky so far.
Ceri: This happens to me quite frequently. I tend to write in splurges. If I do get stuck, often talking with Drew will unstick me and I can carry on. This is one of the beauties of co-writing.
Who is your favorite author?
Drew: There are so many but Michael Moorcock if I had to narrow it down to one. This is mainly down to the time I discovered his work was when I was finding out sci-fi/fantasy novels, and his stories made the biggest impression on me as a young man.
Ceri: Mervyn Peake.A much neglected writer of dark texts, overshadowed sadly by Tolkien and his ilk. Gormeghast trilogy contains language of such lyricism, it deeply affected my style as a young writer.
Best book you ever read.
Drew: I have read so many great books- It by Stephen King. Lord of the Rings, Moorcock, Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, that it is hard to pin it down. It may not be the best book technically but the one that gave me so much joy in reading, and has made the biggest impact on my life so far was when I was approximately 10 or 11 and it was The Iliad.
Ceri:Under Milkwood because never before nor since has any writer in my opinion, manipulated and created their own language constructions.
Last book you read.
Drew: Jamaica Inn.
Ceri: We Need to talk about Kevin.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
Drew: I love the outdoors and animals but it would definitely be farming.
Ceri: I have always loved history-hidden pasts and so I would definitely become an archaeologist.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
Drew: For me, when I became a parent- everything changed. And in the most wonderful way. My view of the world and relationships just changed overnight in a positive way. My world view shifted. So I would have to say my son.
Ceri: My best friend Sheila. My parents had emigrated from the UK to Lesotho and I was sent to a boarding school in the south.2 days journey by train. It was a very lonely experience and I was out of my depth until one day a new girl joined the school. She was Scottish, wise, beautiful in a Gaelic way and knowledgeable about everything that I was not. I learnt about life from her.
If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?
Drew: This is almost an impossible question to answer because there are so many people such as Jim Morrison, Newton, Socrates, the list goes on. But if I had to pick one it would be one of the disciples who wrote one of the gospels- probably Luke.
Religious or not (whether you are a believer or not)-the bible in my opinion, has had a great influence of human history. So perhaps still preserving some mystery by not meeting Christ himself, I would choose to meet one of the biblical voices.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
If you feel you have a story in you, go ahead and write. Don’t worry about punctuation, grammar, spelling or any thing that strangles your creative flow.
Never ever give up. Have a good group of people around you who will read what you have written and give you honest constructive feedback. We had a range of people (of all ages) who gave us sound critical advice that we could follow if we thought it appropriate. And be prepared to “murder your darlings” and be ruthless with your editing.
