Today is the first day of December and my first festive author interview. There’ll be plenty more in the run-up to Christmas but let’s kick things off with Richard Ayre.
Hi Richard. Lovely to see you today. Why don’t you introduce yourself to the readers before we get started?
Hi, Fi, thank you. A real pleasure to talk to you today.
I teach History in a secondary school as a day job, but I’ve been writing fiction in my spare time for donkey’s years now. Back in the late 1980’s I started writing what would eventually become ‘Point of Contact,’ a sci-fi/horror/procedural thriller (not really sure what it is!). I sent it to a few agents but it got nowhere, which is not surprising really as it was terrible. I’ve revised it massively since going back to it and I love it now, but re-reading it after twenty odd years was possibly the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done. First drafts etc.
After that, I thought I would have a go at writing horror. I was, and still am, a huge fan of James Herbert; I love the gritty Britishness of his works, and I was also really into New Wave Heavy Metal. I thought I’d combine these two loves into a novel and so ‘Minstrel’s Bargain’ was created. I set this in Newcastle and tried to add a little humour into the tale, as well as a lot of very gratuitous violence. Again, this got nowhere, and by this time my eldest daughter had been born. Writing did not really have a place in my heart anymore so the scripts for both Minstrel’s Bargain and Point of Contact went and lived in the loft for nearly twenty-five years as I got on with life.
Fast forward to 2015 and I dragged them out and had a look at them again. By this time there was a slew of indie publishers around, so I sent MB off to one of them and to my surprise they took it on! Unfortunately, that didn’t work and the publisher and myself eventually parted ways, but that small success prompted me to begin writing again. I heavily revised Point of Contact and this was taken on by another indie publisher (but once again I found that there was limited interest from them re; advertising etc, so I parted with them too and decided to self-publish.) After that I decided that I missed Minstrel, the demon from Minstrel’s Bargain, so I wrote a sequel entitled Minstrel’s Renaissance, and then a third novel in what has become a trilogy; Minstrel’s Requiem. All of these were self-published.
In and amongst this, I was scribbling down short stories, as this helped me through a bit of writer’s block on Minstrel’s Renaissance, and they have become two anthologies called ‘A Hatful of Shadows’ and ‘Nightmares and Daydreams’ respectively.
I then started on a story I called ‘Passing it Along’ which was very different to what I had written before. It was the story of a man mortally wounded in World War One who, for a convoluted reason, becomes immortal. The story follows the protagonist’s life journey; from 1918 all the way to the 21st Century. When this was finished, I once again touted it to agents for over a year, but, inevitably, none of them wanted it. I eventually came across Burning Chair who took the novel on, edited the hell out of it and turned it into ‘A Life Eternal.’ They then took on Point of Contact too, so it has eventually found a home.
Tell us about your latest book. What’s it called and what was the inspiration behind it?
My latest book, again published by Burning Chair, is a historical thriller called ‘Shadow of the Knife.’ It came about after a conversation about Point of Contact between myself and Pete and Si at Burning Chair. They said I should write a police procedural. I said no because I actually don’t really like those kinds of books; they all seem a bit ‘samey’ to me, but I had been thinking of writing a story set in the 19th Century; a time-travel novel set in that period. I mulled on it for a while, took out the time travel aspect and turned it into a historical thriller. Shadow of the Knife was born, and Pete and Si took it on.
The story is, in essence, a crime thriller, set in the East End in 1890; two years after the Ripper killings. When more women begin to be murdered in the same fashion as the Ripper killings, Detective Jonas Handy of Leman Street Station is put on the case. He calls on the help of surgeon Dr Carter ‘Jigsaw’ Jarman, a celebrated criminologist, and the two men are drawn into the murky world of prostitution and murder. Their investigations take them from the filthy streets of Whitechapel to the plush sitting rooms of the Victorian gentry. It’s my first novel that does not contain any supernatural elements, so we’ll have to see how it all goes!
Speaking of inspiration, what inspires your writing?
I have to be honest; my inspiration comes in peaks and troughs. If I have an idea, I can rattle out a 300-page novel in pretty quick time, (both A Life Eternal and Shadow of the Knife took about three months each for the first drafts) but I tend to go for long periods without writing a thing. We are always told to write every day, but I don’t do that. When I’m working on a novel, I put every spare minute of the day into it, but when I’m finished, I tend to just leave writing alone for a while. Weird, but true.
Here’s the festive question: If you could have Christmas Dinner with any fictional character, who would it be?
Which fictional character would I have Christmas dinner with? What an incredible question. There are far too many!
If I had to plump for one, (and not one I’ve created, which would be the hero of the Minstrel books, Phil Sturgess) I think I would have dinner with Fluke, the protagonist of James Herbert’s novel of the same name. If you have not read this, the story is about a dog who slowly discovers that he is the reincarnation of a man who believes he was murdered and sets out to discover about his past life as a human. I think Fluke would get on with Harvey, my own dog, and it means I could sit on the settee after dinner and have two dogs to stroke instead of just one. I wouldn’t have to engage in much conversation with them either. That would be a great Christmas!
Finally, what bookish plans do you have for 2022?
Plans for the future. I really don’t know. I’m at a point where I’m in a bit of a trough at the minute as far as writing is concerned. I will definitely write a sequel to Shadow of the Knife at some point, but when that will be I don’t know. I’m always having ideas for new stories, and I’ve started at least 3 that I can think of, but the hunger is not really there at the moment. Real life always gets in the way of just being able to sit and write and my job always has to take priority as this is the thing that actually pays the bills, which writing certainly does not. So, we’ll see how Shadow of the Knife does. I suppose this novel is a bit of a watershed; do I continue or not? I’m sure I will and I’m sure I will start again soon, but, as I say, we’ll just have to see when that will be.
Thanks for the chat, Richard. Shadow of the Knife is on my to-be-read shelf (note I said shelf and not pile – this book buying habit really is turning into a problem).
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If you’d like to find out more about Richard and his books, here are all the useful links you might need:
And if that isn’t enough, I’ve reviewed a couple of his books too.
A Life Eternal
“I enjoyed this novel immensely. It was one of those books that made me forget I was reading – it was so well crafted and involving.
The development of Rob Deakin from broken ex soldier to adventurer, doomed man, loving husband and finally, wise soul is cleverly and convincingly written.
Looking forward to Richard’s next book.”
Point of Contact
“Point of Contact by Richard Ayre has a brilliant cast of characters and although the point of view changes rapidly and frequently, there is never any doubt whose eyes you are seeing the story through.
I enjoyed the way we got to know the villain – slowly, deeply, and menacingly – without any idea who they were until the big reveal near the end of the novel.
The switch back and forth between time periods was done well, serving the story and happening at just the right places.
The end was excruciatingly exciting and brutal. This author obviously enjoys making their characters suffer. I did begin to wonder just how much more injury and misery Fenwick, Goddard, and Ellie could take.
All in all, a brilliant page-turner of a novel. Awesome.”