Conrad Williams is the author of five novels: Head Injuries, London Revenant, The Unblemished, One and Decay Inevitable which is out later this year. He has written four novellas: Nearly People, Game, The Scalding Rooms and Rain. And around eighty short stories. He won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award, beating none other than Stephen King. He resides in Manchester with his wife, three sons and his monster maine coon cat!
BCC: Welcome, Conrad. You are our first male author to be interviewed on Book Chick City. I think the guys have been a little shy, due to the amount of pink 
CW: I’m honoured to be your first man, as it were. Thanks for asking me along.
BCC: Your current novel, One, is primarily about a man’s journey to find his son after an apocalyptic event. As a father, was it difficult to write? Did you have to go places in your mind to find the emotion needed for the protagonist, Richard Jane, that you would rather not have gone?
CW: It was very difficult, in places. I’d wanted to write a post-apocalyptic novel about fathers and sons for years, but I knew I’d not do it justice if I wasn’t a father myself. Now I have three little boys and it was excruciating, at times, to put myself in Richard Jane’s shoes and try to understand how he would feel. I certainly came away from work some nights close to tears, really shaken. You wonder about what would happen if… and it can get to you.
BCC: What made you choose to write the book in two halves and jump a decade?
CW: Initially I was going to write it straight through and not have the jump. But I wanted to factor in the growing desperation for food and to show how obsessions never die, despite long passages of time. It was also fund to write about a changed London, new rules, new mindsets, new dangers.
BCC: You are also the author of The Unblemished, which won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. What did it feel like to win?
CW: It was great! I didn’t expect it, but on the morning after the presentation (in New york…. I couldn’t make it), I started receiving congratulatory emails from people. It was difficult to take in, especially as Stephen King was on the shortlist. If nothing else comes of my career, at least I’ll be able to say I beat the world’s bestselling author to a literary award…
BCC: Absolutely, what an amazing achievement. You have written five novels, four novellas and eight short stories. What can we expect from you next?
CW: I’m negotiating with a number of publishers about a couple of upcoming projects. One is an historical horror novel set in the 1790s, the other is a noir-ish London crime thriller. I’m also putting together a second collection of horror stories, tentatively called ‘Open Heart Surgery’, to be released by PS Publishing in 2011.
BCC: Ooh, they all sound great, can’t wait. Which of your novels did you enjoy writing the most?
CW: I’ve enjoyed all of them, for different reasons. Head Injuries because it was the first I completed when I felt I’d done something worth reading. The Unblemished because it was my first out-and-out horror novel and enormous fun to do. One because it was so personal. I hope I continue to enjoy it. I’d hate it if I ended up feeling like a proper job.
BCC: Have you always been interest in horror and the darker side of life?
CW: I suppose I have. I used to enjoy sitting half way down the stairs to watch horror films through a crack in the living room door when I was a kid. I loved writing grisly stories at school, as much to get a reaction as anything else. There’s something about the atmosphere of dark fiction, that creepiness, that really appeals to me.
BCC: Yes, I love the creepiness too – although I’m not sure why I like being frightened…I think it was my mum’s influence, we used to watch horror movies together. Why did you choose to write dark fiction?
CW: I think it’s tied up in the previous answer, but also there’s the suspicion that I didn’t choose to write it – it chose me.
BCC: How long does it take you to write your novels?
CW: It depends how well it’s going and how grievous the deadline. Six to nine months, in the main, although that’s not taking into account gestation periods and rewrites. The novel I’d like to write next has been on my mind since 2000.
BCC: Tell us about your writing process.
CW: On my writing days I’m up early to tend to the boys (usually about 6am). I’ll take them to school and then I like to have breakfast and read the papers over coffee. Then I’ll settle behind my desk between 9:30-10 am and try to write a good chunk of words before lunch. I’ll work though till 5pm when I take over child-minding duties again. Of course much of the day is spent trying to ignore distractions such as emails, football news, online chess, the cat…
BCC: Ahh, how cute, I love cats! I know what you mean about online chess, I have about fifteen games on the go, so I can relate… If I read too much horror, I tend to give myself nightmares. What triggers your imagination to think up the horrors you write about. Do you sometimes frighten yourself?
CW: All kinds of thinks. Air disasters. Terrorism (we lived two minutes’ walk away from the Edgware Road station, where one of the bombs went off on 7/7). Random acts of violence. I have scared myself. There’s a sequence in The Unblemished, on a train, where the protagonist, Bo, is convinced that everyone is looking at him with a kind of naked hunger. When he looks up, they all turn away. When he looks down again, their mad eyes are on him once more. It really spooked me, writing that.
BCC: Yes, I can see why. I’m a little spooked myself right now…. Some have put you firmly into the ‘horror genre’. Does this limit you as a writer?
CW: It limits my sales. The unfair thing about trying to be a career writer is that you can’t write what occurs to you unless you’re successful, and even then you’ll get pressure from your publisher to bring out the same book again and again and again. I’m determined to write what I want to write, and have plans for a number of novels – not all of them horror – but i’m sure it won’t necessarily win me many friends in the publishing industry, and it’ll give my agent conniptions. That said, I don’t mind being labelled a horror writer. I’m in some pretty rarefied company.
BCC: How do you research your novels?
CW: It depends on the subject matter. For The Unblemished I needed to find out about the behaviour of insects, plague, the Great Fire of London. I spent a lot of time at the British Library (one of the things I miss about London) reading up on such subjects. For One, I discovered that one of my students was related to a guy who worked on an oil platform in the North Sea. Which was a stroke of luck. He was very happy to answer my questions about life on the rigs.
CW: Lots of different stuff. Devil May Cry by Sebastian Faulks, Bilton by Andrew Martin, Nineteen Eighty by David Peace. I don’t actually read an awful lot of horror. I tend to be quite picky. The last horror novels I enjoyed were Scott Smith’s The Ruins and Mark Danielewski’s House of leaves. I’m looking forward to reading John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novels.
BCC: Who are your favourite authors?
CW: M. John Harrison, Christopher Priest, Patrick McGrath, Graham Greene, Rupert Thomson, David Peace. Some of these write at the edges of horror. Firmly within the genre I’d go for Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, T.E.D. Klein, Thomas Tessier…
BCC: Some of those I have never heard of… think I will be visiting my library tomorrow 
Was there a particular author that influenced your writing?
Was there a particular author that influenced your writing?CW: M. John Harrison had quite an impact on me. His collection, The Ice Monkey, taught me that horror can occur in daytime, in terraced houses, in the middle of ordinary lives. He is a wonderful writer.
BCC: What do you like to do to relax outside of writing?
CW: I like to take photographs, play guitar, hand out with the munchkins, try not get eaten when the cat is around, watch films, cook, drink wine, play football, watch football, run, buy too many books and spend far too much time fooling around with fountain pens and fancy-coloured inks and posh paper.
BCC: I read that you like to listen to music as you write. What music are you into right now?
CW: I like to listen to music while I’m writing, as long as it doesn’t have any lyrics. Soundtracks are ideal. Current favourites are the Bourne Trilogy by John Powell, the new Batman soundtrack by Hans Zimmer (and James Newton), There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenword and The Thing by Ennio Morricone, whose Bugsy is also a favourite. I also like The Stars of the Lid, Paul Schutze, Harold Budd, The Necks…When I’m not writing, I like to listen to Radiohead, The Pineapple Thief, Curve, Interpol, P J Harvey…
BCC: Yes, I see on your website that you are an accomplished photographer as well as a talented writer. Is it just a hobby or something more serious?
CW: I’ve been in love with photography ever since my dad gave me his old Praktica back in the 1970s. I started getting serious about it about three years ago. My work has appeared in a few travel books now, and will be prominent in a book called In Love in France, published by Rizzoli (which is written by Rhonda Carrier, my wife) in January next year.
BCC: Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you would like to add?
CW: Not really. These have been good questions, and it’s been fun. Thanks again.
BCC: Thanks, Conrad, it’s been my pleasure and it’s been great talking with you.
If you would like to know more about Conrad and his books then visit his website www.conradwilliams.net.
Look out for my review of The Unblemished coming soon!
If you would like to purchase any of Conrad William’s books, then just click on the images above and they will take you straight to Amazon UK.
UPDATE: A couple of weeks after reviewing One and interviewing Conrad, I had the pleasure of meeting him at one of his book signings.
