INTERVIEW: British Mystery Thriller Author Alan Hardy

 

Alan Hardy

United Kingdom

Good morning, Alan, and welcome to Vision and Verse, the site for art and authors of today. I've read The Nazi Spy and it was fantastic. It was one of the best books I read this year and I read every night. Can you tell us a little about what else you've written? 

12 books, with another three ready to come out, hopefully all this year. I also write poetry, and have been published quite extensively in a number of poetry magazines in the UK and other countries. Although I still write poetry, in the last five/ten years I’ve been concentrating on writing novels, in a variety of genres.

 

What is your favorite genre to write? 

 Really difficult to say. Probably I’ve been most successful with the mystery and thriller genres, although one of the books I’ve just written and hope to bring out later this year, is a WW2 romance from a female Point of View. I found that very interesting to write, as also a thriller which was also written from a female POV.

 

Favorite food. 

Either egg and bacon; any type of mixed salad with French or Italian dressing; or gnocchi alla gorgonzola

 

Tea or coffee? 

Tea, probably

 

Pizza or ice cream? 

Ice cream

Wine or beer? 

Wine

 

Where would you like to visit? 

Vienna

 

Favorite musical artist. 

David Bowie.   

 

Do you listen to music when you write?    What? 

I don’t, I’m afraid.

 

Afraid of music? Then do not listen! What makes you laugh? 

Well-written, cheeky situation comedies

 

Because this is an art and author blog, I am obligated to ask: 

Favorite work of art or sculpture. 

Edvard Munch’s The Scream

 

How old were you when you started writing? 

Putting aside juvenile stuff, I think about 15

 

Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write? 

I have a rough idea where I’m going, but not to the extent of outlines/notecards. The story fills in/expands as I go along. I don’t write ‘blind’, so to speak, but keep my eyes peeled on the ground immediately in front of me. Halfway through, though, I normally know the final destination.

 

Describe your perfect evening. 

A little bit of work (not to feel guilty), a nice meal with some wine, a bit of TV/internet.

 

Where do you get your inspiration? 

For novels, I tend to start spinning out stories/narratives/ideas in my head (basically a bit of child-like fantasizing and story-telling), and, maybe, after a while, I might consider one is the germ of a decent idea and it might possibly work as a novel… For poetry, generally, it’s sitting down in front of the computer and a blank screen, and thinking of an image/scene/idea I can try to capture in words, but, more importantly, capture that very moment of creation itself.

 

What do you do when you get a writer's block? 

For novels, I think I’m OK. For poetry, it can happen. Then I just force myself to write something…anything… If it’s no good, I can discard it later. I have the belief it’s not good to sit down to write, and not to be able to. Better something bad (and at least, by doing so, keep yourself in practice) than leave a blank screen/piece of paper behind as you walk away…

 

Who is your favorite author?             
Jane Austen; Giacomo Leopardi (the Italian poet)

 

Best book you ever read. 

Pride and Prejudice; or The Portrait of Dorian Grey

 

Last book you read.

The Prisoner of Zenda

 

What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer? 

I have taught English for many years, in particular latterly as director of an English language school for foreign students

 

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why? 

I can only give the obvious answer here, namely, in my youth, my parents, and, now in later life, my wife and daughter. I haven’t really thought of how any of them have influenced my life in specific terms, it’s just that proximity with them sets the parameters of one’s life. That’s the way it is, isn’t it, and learning within those parameters to accept (or, at least, put up with) the good and the not so good… But life is never easy, is it?

 

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why? 

I don’t think it would be either anybody famous, or fictional, but maybe just a normal, average person from another era, with whom I could sit down and in a chat discover exactly how people in other times thought, felt, dreamt… Maybe someone from Victorian times, or someone from ancient Roman/Greek times.

 

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer? 

Just to never, never give up. The other thing—always very difficult to do—is not so much to keep rewriting/editing what one has written, but to learn as a matter of course to trim/cut the language used. This is important in poetry, but equally so in prose. In prose, cut out unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, in poetry cut out /adjectives/adverbs/articles/anything you feel you can. (And here I have to own up I often don’t do as much as I should. It’s not easy to obliterate/erase one’s own words…is it?)

 

Do you have some links for us to follow you?

https://www.amazon.com/Alan-Hardy/e/B00GDDS4UG; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alan-Hardy/e/B00GDDS4UG; alanhardyblog.wordpress.com; https://twitter.com/AlanWilliamHardy

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