Please welcome Sarah Pinborough to The Qwillery. Sarah's most recent US publication is The Shadow of the Soul (The Forgotten Gods 2), published by Ace on August 6, 2013.
TQ: Welcome to The Qwillery. When did you know that you wanted to become a writer?
Sarah: It was always there since I was a little girl - I have vague memories of writing stories from as soon as I could write. My mum is an avid reader so there were always books in the house. As I grew up I wrote bits and pieces and short stories but I guess it wasn't until I was about thirty I started to take it seriously with a mind to writing my first novel and getting published
TQ: Who or what inspires your writing today?
Sarah: Oh, so many people. Every time I read a book I really enjoy I feel inspired by it. As for content I'm currently fascinated with real people and past crimes and events. That will pass no doubt and then it will be something else.
TQ: You are the author of The Forgotten Gods Trilogy, The Tales From the Kingdoms series as well as several stand-alone novels in a variety of genres. Do you have a favorite genre? And if so, why?
Sarah: I also wrote a fantasy YA trilogy under a different name which I really enjoyed doing, and in fact my next book for Gollancz is a kind of New Adult book, although not fantasy. I don't think I have a favourite genre, but all my books tend to have a dark tone to them. I like trying different things. Perhaps I'd be more financially successful if I picked one and stuck to it, but that's just not the way my story brain works.
TQ: Out of the books you have written, do you have a favorite? Or are they like children, you love them all the same?
Sarah: The book you're about to start is always your favourite! I don't love them all the same but I'm very proud of The Forgotten Gods and my YA trilogy The Nowhere Chronicles - and also Mayhem and the fairy tales. I'm proud of pretty much everything I've done in the past four years. In fact, now I'm thinking about it perhaps I'm proudest of The Language of Dying (Quercus 2013) because it was based on such a personal experience and seems to touch everyone who reads it.
TQ: How is writing for television (the BBC) different than writing novels? What do you enjoy most about writing for television? What do you enjoy most when writing a novel?
Sarah: Weirdly, the thing I like most about writing for TV is that it's quite collaborative - there are lots of meetings and people throwing ideas around, whereas what I like about writing novels is that they're all mine. Screen writing is great for improving your dialogue in novels. I think TV writing is also far more pressured because of the cost of making television.
TQ: In The Forgotten Gods Trilogy (which I note is called The Dog-Faced Gods Trilogy not here) which character surprised you the most? Which character was most difficult to write?
Sarah: I think Mr Bright surprised me the most - I love both him and Cass equally - but the most difficult was probably Claire May. I wanted her to be accessible and sweet without being sickly. I tend to write more men than women so it was a bit of a challenge - although now I've done the fairy tales I think my writing of female characters has got much better.
TQ: You've written two Torchwood novels - Long Time Dead and Into the Silence. How difficult or easy is it writing novels in an already established world?
Sarah: It's actually quite good fun. Especially for something like Torchwood where there were only two series at the time and so the canon wasn't vast. I watched them all back to back to get a real grip on the characters and how they spoke etc, and then it's great to be able to add your own stories in. I enjoyed doing them far more than I expected to.
TQ: What's next? And thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.
Sarah: Next I have to write The Death House for Gollancz and then another book for Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. I've also just been paid to write the first episode of my own TV series and I have to do the final pass on my horror film script that's in development, so busy busy busy!
The Forgotten Gods
A Matter of Blood
The Forgotten Gods 1
Ace, April 2, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
In a world steeped in darkness, a new breed of evil has fallen…
London’s ruined economy has pushed everyone to the breaking point, and even the police rely on bribes and deals with criminals to survive. Detective Inspector Cass Jones struggles to keep integrity in the police force, but now, two gory cases will test his mettle. A gang hit goes wrong, leaving two schoolboys dead, and a serial killer calling himself the Man of Flies leaves a message on his victims saying “nothing is sacred.”
Then Cass’ brother murders his own family before committing suicide. Cass doesn’t believe his gentle brother did it. Yet when evidence emerges suggesting someone killed all three of them, a prime suspect is found—Cass himself.
Common links emerge in all three cases, but while Cass is finding more questions than answers, the Man of Flies continues to kill...
The Shadow of the Soul
The Forgotten Gods 2
Ace, August 6, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook, 352 pages
The author of the “diabolically clever”* A Matter of Blood returns with another gritty supernatural thriller featuring hard-boiled homicide detective Cass Jones…
A devastating terrorist attack has crippled London. To find a perpetrator who is more than human, Special Branch turns to Detective Inspector Cass Jones.
Cass is already investigating a series of student suicides, but saying no to Special Branch isn’t an option—even when he’s hit with a much more personal and deeply disturbing mystery: a message left for him by his murdered brother revealing that Cass’s nephew was stolen at birth.
Cass’s investigations and his search for the boy lead him down a dark labyrinth to the shadowy Mr. Bright and his otherworldly allies—and into the middle of an ancient and deadly feud, with no less than the fate of humanity hanging in the balance…
*F. Paul Wilson
The Chosen Seed
The Forgotten Gods 3
Ace, December 3, 2013
Trade Paperback and eBook, 320 pages
The tables have turned, and now Detective Inspector Cass Jones is a wanted man on the streets of London. Framed for murder and hunted by his former colleagues, Cass needs every ally he can get—including a very unexpected figure from his past.
While detectives Hask and Ramsey search for the killer behind the lethal Strain II virus, Mr. Bright continues to pull strings from the shadows, and there are dire warnings of a final battle that could tear everything apart.
As he searches for his kidnapped nephew while eluding his own pursuers, Cass is determined to find the answers—even if he has to confront the darkest secrets of the history of humanity to do it.
About Sarah
Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, and has three times been short-listed for Best Novel. She has also been short-listed for a World Fantasy Award. Her novella, The Language of Dying was short-listed for the Shirley Jackson Award and won the 2010 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella.
You can follow her on Twitter @sarahpinborough
Website ~ Twitter @sarahpinborough
Can't wait to read these books
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