Interview: Alex Walters

I'd like to offer a warm welcome to Alex Walters for the first step on his blog tour to Not Just A Mummy, don't forget to check out his other stops:

Alex Walters is a successful author of new release Candles And Roses.

DI Alec McKay is a man haunted by the loss of his daughter.  As he obsesses over a missing person case that is going nowhere, McKay’s investigation is interrupted when bodies start appearing on the Scottish Black Isle. Soon McKay and his team start to identify a disturbing pattern behind the killings.

This is the first police procedural novel I've read in a long time,  and my review will come in due course, but before then I'd like to welcome the author for the first step on his blog tour.

Welcome Alex,

To warm us up I've some quick fire questions for you. What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say the following...

Milk…shake 

Cats…hungry (we have four and they always are)

Yellow…mellow (quite rightly)

Favourite film…Chinatown (see below)

Moist…wipes. No, me neither. 

Sci-fi…teenage, because I read little else for a while then and have barely read any since. Don’t know why. 

Thank you for that, now onto the real questions, what encouraged you to be an author in the first place?

There were various writers I first read as a teenager who made me excited about what fiction could do - a pretty mixed bunch including Alan Garner, Agatha Christie and science fiction writers like Samuel R Delany. There was a point then when all I wanted to do was be a writer. Then I read English Literature at university and that probably knocked it out of me for a while! But I always carried on doing it, initially just half-heartedly but then with more and more enthusiasm, and I finally had my first book published about ten years ago. 

And how did you feel when you first realised your books were being bought by people other than friends and family?

It’s still a slightly unnerving thought (I find it even more unnerving seeing the page reads for Kindle Unlimited and realising that there are people out there reading my books right now…). But it’s reality gratifying when you get positive feedback from people you don’t know - it’s great to think that you’ve actually created something they’ve enjoyed. 

I read that Candles and Roses is the first in a new series, have you planned out the whole series yet?

Not really - that’s not really how I work. I’ve got a loose idea of how the characters will develop and interact and some ideas for plots. But I usually find that once I start writing the story develops in ways I hadn’t expected at all - for me, that’s one of the great pleasures of writing. 

Who is your favourite author?

I think that changes from day to day, almost. In terms of crime fiction, it’s probably the late Reginald Hill, who wrote the Pascoe and Dalziel books  - I don’t think anyone’s surpassed him for the brilliance of his plotting, the depth of his characters or the sheer wit of his writing. Still underrated, I think.  I’m also a huge fan of the Golden Age crime writer, Marjorie Allingham - also probably still underrated. 

Where do you get your inspiration for your books? I'm assuming you don't go around killing people to see what would happen?

No, though it may occasionally be tempting… My books usually start from not much more than a scene or a couple of scenes that pop into my mind. With the new book, the scene was the finding of the first body at an eerie place called the Clootie Well on the Black Isle. But I’ve no idea where the candles and roses came from! 

What is your favourite film?

Again, it changes. But probably Chinatown - just the perfect film noir, with terrific performances from Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston and a terrifying ending that’s like Greek tragedy. 

You've created a few characters in your time as an author, if you could sit down with just one for a pint who would it be and why?

There are one or two. But I think Alec McKay, the lead character in Candles and Roses, would make interesting company. He’s got a very deadpan acerbic sort of humour that I get on well with. 

Who (fiction or non fiction) would you invite to your ideal dinner party?

I think we should have a fictional detectives dinner party with, say, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Albert Campion, Andy Dalziel and Philip Marlowe, just because it would be fun to see those diverse egos clashing!

If you weren't a writer what would you do?

I do actually have a (now diminishing) day job as a freelance consultant. It’s worked well for me in the last few years because I’ve been doing work in police forces which has given me a lot of insight into the culture and methods of policing. But the writing is becoming more and more central. 

And can you tell us anything about your next novel?

I’ve got another book finished in a separate series (about Manchester-based DCI Kenny Murrain) and I’m in the middle of my next Alec McKay book. It’s probably a little too early to say to much about it, but it links back to events in the past not just for McKay but also for his deputy DS Ginny Horton. 

Do you have any advice for budding authors that may be reading?

Be persistent, mainly.  It’s not an easy road so you have to do it because you really want to (not just because you have dreams of being the next J K Rowling). Try to get feedback from people who’ll tell you honestly what you think. And personally I think editing is as important as writing - the first full draft is really just the start of the process not the end. Keep writing as much as you can. And keep reading. 

And finally, Alex what is the one thing you would want a new reader to your books to know.

That’s a tricky one. All of my books have a growing team of characters, so I suppose I’d want a reader to know that they’re going to meet a bunch of interesting and engaging people who will take them, I hope, to some exciting and perhaps sometimes frightening places...

Thank you Alex, and good luck with the rest of your tour.