Steve Feasey – The Interview

by Melanie Gow on December 21, 2009

What made you realise you are a writer?

I’m still not sure I realise that I am. Everything has happened so quickly for me that it does all still feel a bit unreal. I think I really felt like a writer for the first time when a boy came up to me at a bookshop signing and was hyperventilating with excitement at meeting me. He’d persuaded his mum to stop off on their way home to Germany – that’s pretty cool.

Which book are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading three books (which is quite unusual for me):

Clive Barker’s Book of Blood, which I’ve been meaning to read for about three years. Because it’s short stories I can dip in and out at will. I love Barker’s ‘no holds barred’ approach to horror. He’s quite brutal in his storytelling, and I like that every now and again.

Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’ve just started this, so I can’t tell you too much about it yet.

Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots. I’m reading this because I think I should try and work out what this writing malarkey is all about.

What achievement in your life are you most proud of?

I don’t really count the things I’ve done as achievements. That sounds like a cop-out, but it’s true. I once stopped a guy from jumping to his death off of a motorway bridge. Does that count?

If I have to say what I am most proud of in my life, it would be my children.

If you were stranded on a desert island which three fictional characters, who would you like to be there with and why?

Sam Gamgee from Lord Of The Rings for his eternal optimism (although if I’m to be stuck on the island for too long, I suspect that it might become a bit wearing, and that I’d end up eating him).

Atticus Finch for his wisdom and all-round good discourse. I really connected with Atticus when I read To Kill A Mockingbird for the second time (as an adult), and I think he stands for everything good in fatherhood. Who wouldn’t want an Atticus Finch as their dad?

Superman. Hey, I’ve got to get off of that island once the tan is A-one (and he’d be handy to fetch the coconuts too).

What was the first book you ever bought with your own money?

I seem to have some vague recollection of buying a Roald Dahl book at a junior school book fair. I think it might have been Fantastic Mr Fox, but I couldn’t swear to it.

What phrase do you find is the most played in your head?

‘Get off of Twitter and do some work!’ or ‘This would be lot easier if you could only plot.’

You’re a self confessed late bloomer, what did you do before you became Steve Feasey author?

I was a rock diver in Acapulco (oh, how I wish that were true…). Nothing very exciting really – I spent a big hunk of my working life as a technical manager for a huge photographic manufacturer. And then I set up my own company – that’s when I realised that I didn’t have the entrepreneurial gene.

Do you think that you respond to, and relate to teenagers, because you haven’t forgotten your own teeneage years, which you describe as miserable?

I guess so. I have such a strange memory of my childhood and teenage years – I seem to have simply blocked out great chunks of it. I do remember feeling terribly inadequate during my teenage years. Everyone else seemed to know what they wanted out of life, and which direction they were going to go. I just felt…adrift. I was at my happiest when I had my head stuck in a book. Looking back on it now, that may not have been a bad thing.

What would your grown up self want to say to your teenage self, with what you know now?

Hey, cheer up. I know things aren’t great right now, and they’re going to get a lot worse before they get better. But everything has a way of working itself out in the end. You turn out alright, buddy.

Oh, and Steve, when you go out on that first date with Zoe? She wants you to kiss her at the end of the night. So pucker up and go for it.

What was your role, and what did you like most, about taking part in the Kids’ Lit Quiz final this year?

I was the ‘champion’ for Wellingborough College. Each team was assigned an author to champion them, and I was assigned this school from Belfast. I could not believe the breadth and depth of knowledge that these young people had of literature (not just children’s lit). It’s a terrific event, and I don’t believe it gets the publicity it deserves. I hope that this is rectified next year, and that more people recognise it. more about Kids Lit Quiz on their website www.kidslitquiz.com

It is well known that you are a part of on-line writers forums, do you find this a good way of staving off social isolation, or does it do more than that?

It is a good way of avoiding going completely stir-crazy. Writing is lonely, and when you’re new to it there are a lot of questions that you need answered. Writers’ forums can be a great source of information, help and encouragement.

Can you recommend your favourites to us?

www.writewords.net is a great place to go for all of the above.

And I’m about to join http://www.scatteredauthors.org because they specialise in children and teen writers.

At Halloween, what would you dress up as Zombie, werewolf, vampire …or something else, like Assassins Creed?

Zombie. Every time. I wanted to dress up as a zombie for a booksigning, but my publicist thought it might not be a good idea. I’d seen these great make up techniques that make your flesh look like it’s falling off, and…

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there. Zombie.

So would you give comment on our magazine if we asked you to review it?

I hate being asked to review things for people. Whatever you say, you’re damned. If you think you have to have a thick skin to be a writer (and forty-seven rejection letters makes you grow a rhino-like hide, believe me), you must have to be armour-plated to be a reviewer. Urgh.

Have you bought yourself a beret?

Ha! My secret is out. No, I have still not summoned up the courage to buy a beret. I doubt if I have the ‘cojones’ to pull off wearing one.

How did you get involved in the Book Swap night?

I came along to the adult event in November (I even baked a cake), and had a ball. Scott and I had previously met at an event I did at his son’s school, and he was kind enough to ask me to come along to the December Swap.