We were lucky enough to get signed copies of Daniel’s ‘Broken’ for our giveaway last month (if you’ve not read it yet, it’s brilliant- you can find it under featured/reviewed in our shop) and here’s what Daniel had to say when we caught up with him recently:

What were your favourite books and authors when you were a child?

There were very few books in our house so I just tended to read whatever I could get my hands on; usually quite dark stuff, though I remember reading The Eagle Of The Ninth (which, I think, has just been turned into a film) several times as it was so good.  Later, as a teenager, I loved The Pan Book of Horror Short Story series plus a similar range published by New English Library, then moved on to James Herbert and, finally, Stephen King.  All nice light cheerful stuff.

When did you know you wanted to write?

Since before I can remember, and long before I understood writing could be a career.

How much of Broken is based on people and situations you knew?

Little snippets definitely seeped in from my life – Mr Jeffries’ world view was quite similar to mine at the time I wrote the novel. The situation Broken’s parents go through, not knowing how to get him help, understanding the State are failing him but not being equipped to kick up the necessary fuss to get him seen by the right people, is also something I’d seen someone close to me go through.

Setting wise, it’s very personal – I live around the corner from the place where I imagine Drummond Square to be, and, in the original draft, I wrote it as if the characters lived in the same street as me (my wife made me change that…)

What was it about the story that made you confident it would be successful? (or as confident as you can ever be?!)

Successful and confident are scary words to use when it comes to trying to get your first novel published!  I don’t think either ever applied to me because I’d come close to being represented by a big-name agent once before and was pretty resigned to the fact nothing would ever happen for me, so I was just writing because I love to write and then going through all the standard motions of trying to get published with no real faith the system would work for me.  With Broken, though, six months after I’d finished the first draft, I dug it out of a drawer thinking I’d just have a quick flick through, and, reading it for the first time after such a long break, it felt like someone else’s work, and seemed to be at a much higher level than anything I’d ever written before:  I still didn’t think it would ever be published, because life’s just unfair like that a lot of the time, but it was nice to go on to prove myself wrong…

I think with any sort of writing, except, perhaps, for genre novels, it’s impossible to know if they truly work until they’re finished. For me, the few times I’ve tried to write with a specific plot in mind, the outcome has been disappointing, and usually gut-wrenchingly so.   It’s much scarier to write thinking, well, maybe something like this can happen, maybe I could throw something like that in half-way through, but the results can often be as surprising for the writer as they are for the reader, which is usually a good thing, even though you have no idea if you’re producing anything good or not until a few months after it’s finished…

What’s your new book about?

It’s called Swap and, primarily, it’s about a woman called Angela who, at the age of thirty-nine, has lived the same life her parents lived before her – one job all her life, one relationship all her life, one house all her adult life, one son to show for it all:  When her mother dies and her husband isn’t very supportive she embarks on an affair with her best friend’s husband, the repercussions of which change everyone’s lives forever.

Unlike Broken, it doesn’t really have a linear plot (it tells two parallel stories in three very distinct stages) or the same shades of right and wrong, but I really wanted to capture the way ordinary life can change so rapidly, and not through anything sensational such as murder or physical violence, just through decent people not quite valuing each other enough. I also wanted to show how an ordinary suburban woman’s life can be as shocking and riveting as anyone else’s, and just as hope-filled as well.

When you’re not writing, what do you enjoy doing?

I like to read and I write a few articles here and there, plus I critique other writers’ work for writers’ news.  Away from the keyboard I like to ski.  I surf every now and then but not very well.  I like going on bike rides as well, but only really if they involve pubs…

If you were to recommend a book(s) to children to get them hooked on reading, what would they be?

Anything they’re likely to relate to – that doesn’t mean it has to be by a modern writer reflecting life for children today, but just someone portraying character-traits and values they can recognise and identify with. I think, also, the big trick is to make books accessible but never force one on a child (or anyone, really):  I had to read Chaucer and Shakespeare at school and ended up with an Ungraded in English Literature O Level because I just couldn’t decipher what the two of them were on about, yet I’d already read Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm – which were covered in CSE – two years before we sat our exams and had written three novels of my own by the time I left school.  It was ridiculous and turned me off that sort of writing forever, whereas, probably, if I’d found my own way to them later on in life, I’d have loved them.

It might sound obvious, but I’d suggest Harry Potter.  Given how popular they are, I’d imagine no child would feel any stigma in being seen reading them. Also, as a series, they’re perfect for children because the first book is a very quick and easy read, and then each subsequent installment demands more concentration and gets progressively darker – a bit like life, really.

So that’s all from Daniel – hope you enjoyed it as much as us? We’d be hard pressed to come up with a better recommendation than Harry Potter ourselves, but let us know what you think..

Thank you, thank you and thank you. We told a few people about us last Saturday afternoon, and we’ve already smashed all targets we’d set ourselves for followers – sky’s the limit now, so let’s go for 1000 by month end!! There’s a fair few of you joining, adding us on Facebook and following us on Twitter, but we’re not getting enough reviews and forum posts from you, so come on, make it your own!

Hopefully you’ll all have seen last week’s post with lots of books and author Q&A’s on offer (if you haven’t, check it out now – dated 1.05.2010). Well, as our popularity is growing, thanks to you, we figured you deserved a couple more treats…

5 signed copies of Broken – Daniel Clay

A bit about it, from Amazon – Until that fateful afternoon, Skunk Cunningham had been a normal little girl, playing on the curb in front of her house. Rick Buck ley had been a normal geeky teenager, hosing off his brand-new car. Bob Oswald had been a normal sociopathic single father of five slutty daughters, charging furiously down the side walk. Then Bob was beating Rick to a bloody pulp, right there in the Buckleys’ driveway, and life on Drummond Square was never the same again.

Inspired by Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Clay’s brilliantly observed and darkly funny novel follows the sudden unraveling of a sub urban community after a single act of thoughtless cruelty.

We’ll be hearing more from Daniel in the next few weeks, and are already looking forward to his second novel, Swap, out early next year.

We didn’t want to ignore the little ones either. We’ve teamed up with Poppy’s Books to bring you an exclusive competition. All you have to do is share with us your favourite picture book of all time and you could get your hands on a bundle of picture books, worth just over £30. Click here to be taken to the competition and see the prize!

Simple as always to get free stuff – register on the site to be a member and you’re entered into the draw. Add a genuine comment to the forum or send us in a review that we feature and you’ll get more entries – and it’s limitless. Contribute more, the more chances you’ll get to win. This isn’t just for launch month either. We regularly plan to bring you free books and chances to do author Q&A’s, so members be ready! We already have 2 authors lined up ready for a Q&A in June, and we plan to be part of a new book blog tour starting later this month that we’ll want your involvement in, so do join in and babble to ensure you get a chance to ask some questions.

How’s everyone getting on with their ‘book of the month’ choice? We’ve read Chips, Beans and Limousines and are on to Granny now. Speaking of Chips, Beans and Limousines, we hear that the author, Leila Rasheed (check out our Q&A post with her last month) will be appearing at the Book Bash in Birmingham 30th-31st May. Anthony Horowitz, author of Granny and the Alex Rider books, will be making an appearance, too, on Wednesday 2nd June. The Young Readers festival runs across several venues in Birmingham from 22nd May-5th June, with loads of great events. To find out more click here.

Oh, and don’t miss out on being one of our first ‘bookbabbler’ reviewers – check the reviews page and our Facebook page for more info now.

Until next time, happy reading!