Educated at Mostyn House School in Cheshire; Simon
became involved in writing from an early age. At the age of 13, under duress he
was torn away from playing tennis and made to enter the school writing
competition which he subsequently won. But to this day he blames said competition
for only making the second pair in the school tennis team!
A self-confessed geek, Simon has a passion for
mathematics and thoroughly abused that knowledge from an early age by writing
probabilities for those playing the school masters at pontoon (21) and poker.
Not that he believes in blame culture, but it could be deduced that his success
at winning sweets at cards during his formative years has contributed to his
six pack transforming prematurely into a one pack! His book "How Do I Win
on a Lottery?" became a number #1 amazon bestseller in its genre...
A writer of many genres, yet probably better known
for interviewing other authors than for his own books, but nonetheless enjoys
scribbling, ranting and making up stories that chill, thrill and entertain.
Independent
Author Network. Please
tell us about your latest book.
Simon Duringer. The Word –
Volume 1. The
book delivers 28 bespoke interviews with successful writers; from debut
sensation MJ Summers to the Veteran; DuPont, Royal Academy, 5 x Emmy Award
winning war correspondent and for 20 years Head of NBC News International,
Martin Fletcher. Simon puts them in multiple situations from the sublime to the
ridiculous. From time travel to being marooned on desert islands, each set of
circumstances has been designed specifically for the individual interviewee’s
circumstances and is intended to draw out their inner personalities. Simon
breaks down the layers of stardom to reveal the true individuals beneath the
glitz. The results are nothing short of fascinating – The interviewees never fail
to entertain, whilst also; informing, sharing and creating “out of genre”
responses that delight the readers. This is no ordinary set of interviews and
the collective trophy cabinet of those within is dazzling! With 10% of all
royalties going to the veteran’s charity, The Royal British Legion, and with
even bigger names in the planned Volume 2,
it is worth getting on board early!
IAN. Is The Word published in print,
e-book or both?
S.D. I am a great lover of
traditional books and whilst the majority of the marketplace is now eBooks, I
chose to publish in both kindle and paperback versions for all my offerings. The Word is slightly different as the
kindle version has illustration whilst the paperback does not, so in effect
they are treated by Amazon as two separate entities, albeit not by choice. All
my books are also currently available on Prime and therefore Amazon Prime
members can borrow them for free.
IAN. Where can we go to buy The Word?
S.D. The links I would suggest using
are those of my amazon author pages which are as follows;
For US Readers: http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Duringer/e/B00GZA1D8W
For UK Readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Duringer/e/B00GZA1D8W
My books are also available through
search on other global amazon sites and via my website: http://www.simonduringer.com
IAN. Do you
have a specific writing style?
S.D. I find that to be an incredibly difficult question to answer.
Honestly? I don’t know… I don’t tag myself with any particular style or model
my work on that of others. It would be nice to think I have my own unique
style! However, rather than disappoint or not answer, I have trawled through
past emails and correspondence from readers and found this email from a reader
in Canada, Isabel Galloway, who sent me a wonderful message late last year
whilst reading Stray Bullet. This
sums up the answer way better than I could. I quote;
“At the beginning it reminded me of Mark Billingham but
now I realize that you are more Peter James. Have you heard of him? His novels
are all in Brighton. You have the sense of him, I think. And the racy bits
remind me of Micky Spillane! Haha!”
IAN. What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your
books?
S.D. I want my readers to be astonished, surprised and delighted! I
attempt to deliver a story that will challenge readers’ imagination. I want
them to attempt to decipher the outcome without making it too straight forward.
At the outcome I want them to smile, curse the author (in a “I want to do that
again!” kind of way) and then sink in their chairs uttering the words “OMG, How
the hell did I miss that!” I want to deliver plots that will dumbfound, yet, without
patronizing the reader in hindsight be obvious. I want them to be motivated to
come back for more. But, most of all it has to be believable, plot lines must
work and I must believe my own story before I can make it available to the
reader. In summary, I want the readers to be entertained and left wanting more…
IAN. How is The Word different
from others in your genre?
S.D. Whilst author interviews are bountiful online, The Word is unique. Each interview takes
a vast amount of research time and is not designed to cater to the whims of
those with new releases to pimp out to the masses. There are plenty of those
around already. The Word attempts to
challenge and probe in order to discover what the author is really about. I
already know my interviewees are damn good writers, they have either been major
award winners, debut sensations or have a unique quality that has caught my eye
and intrigued me into approaching them for an interview. I am not looking for
bland content to fill my website, or books, for the likes of Google or Yahoo
search engines. I am looking for individuals of a like mind. Most of my
interviewees, if not all, are far more talented at wielding a quill than I will
ever be, and therefore through my interviews I can learn about writing,
marketing and the publishing industry, whilst at the same time having my
emotions rocked to their foundations by stories that are so sad, or so witty,
or simply so incredibly full of creative thought. The Word has been an eight
month rollercoaster and what I have outlined above is what has drawn the likes
of Bernard Cornwell to my door; The
19th Globally Bestselling author of the decade (source – Daily Telegraph). His agreement to run the gauntlet of Simon’s 10 Q Interviews tells me I must
be doing something right! He will be headlining The Word Volume 2. But ultimately it is the readers who will decide
the fate of The Word, they are both
judge and jury. Without big publishers or marketers behind me, my current quest
is simply to get The Word in front of
enough readers to allow that process to take its course.
IAN. What books have influenced your life the most?
S.D. I was always fascinated by two books penned by the same author,
although of course there have been many… George
Orwell’s 1984 is one of those. To see his ‘predictions’, which seemed so
unbelievable back along, become reality, with me playing a small part in my
mainstream career as an operations and control room manager, is something that
astonishes me. Where it will all end who knows, but big brother is already
watching you! Additionally, another George
Orwell works, Animal Farm, which
I read and subsequently watched as a feature length animation whilst still at
school, had a great impact on the way I look at others. It displays how, in
politics, whilst people might genuinely set out on a journey to improve the
lives of others; conforming to establishment traditions, compromising on one’s
beliefs, human nature and greed often erode those noble principles over time. I
can look back over the course of history and see that as humans we don’t learn
from our mistakes and regularly revisit the errors made by past generations. It
wears me out sometimes as I find it all so predictable.
IAN. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
S.D. For me this is not a difficult question. In my life time I have
had two people I consider to be mentors. One of which I still regard as such,
the other, who was not a writer but an incredible man, sadly passed away some
years ago. Josephine Bailey, or Godmother as I refer to her, has and continues
to encourage me for no distinct reason other than being a good egg! She
encouraged me to get started with interviewing and has been casting an eye over
my progress ever since. She is an English Rose with a dash of heretic about her
and I just feel it is a shame that she and her husband Sam live so far away in
the US, though I am certain we will all meet in person one day! Prior to Jo
there was a man who was our neighbor when we (my family) lived in Spain during
the 1980’s. Possibly the most decent man I have ever known and once again for
no apparent reason he took me under his wing for a time. Perhaps being cheeky
to a man that nobody else ever dared to confront was what intrigued him into
helping me, but John Lampitt who owned Blue Boar, Watford Gap services,
Sheffield Ski Village, was referred to as the NCP of Switzerland’s car parking
industry amongst other things and if I recall correctly owned sole rights to
the sales of Mazda cars within Switzerland, was a great friend and source of
inspiration to me. He had started life as a sergeant within the British Army
and ultimately is a man I will never forget, though he was not a writer he taught
me that anything is possible and I regularly think about him and the amazing
things he achieved during his lifetime.
IAN. What book are you reading now?
S.D. I actually have four books on the go at the moment, all very
different and all by authors that I know personally. Each is re-opened where I
left off depending upon my mood at the time, they are all very good and are as
follows;
Hotey
by Josephine Bailey (my mentor) – This book is fantastic and I never
tire of it. Sadly, it never received the exposure it deserves, Hotey is a
contemporary novel and really should be made into a feature animation. There’s
a lot in there to be learned both morally and in terms of great writing from
Jo, who was voted by Publishers Weekly as Best Female Narrator a few years back.
Unsigned
Unscene by John Winstanley – John is an author local to me who managed bands during the last
decade. It’s a fly on the wall account of that time and the interviews he
carried out. It is a cult book with a few similarities to The Word and whilst John has deliberately left famous individuals
out of the book it does not detract from my interest in it.
Flat
Out, Flat Broke by Perry McCarthy – This is a fascinating
autobiography and reached the Top 20 motor books of all time. It takes the
reader through Perry’s struggles to become a Formula 1 racing driver and all
that happened between, including becoming the legendary driver The Stig of
BBC’s Top Gear.
Finally, I have on my bedside table Daniela by debut author Georgia
Melaris. Whilst her first novel, Georgia has been involved in editing and
proof reading the works of many others. It’s steamy and not my genre of choice,
but whilst I am only into the first couple of chapters of this one, I have 50
shades of hope for it and for her success!
IAN. Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family
members.
S.D. In a nutshell, Simon’s 10 Q
Interviewees. They are all amazingly supportive and I remain in touch with
the vast majority of them. They are all such fascinating and unique individuals
and the wealth of knowledge and experience that they have between them is
somewhat phenomenal. Learning from them and the new interviewees that come
along is a key driver for me, it really keeps me motivated. Conversing with
them is like bathing in a fountain of knowledge, or having the ability to delve
into the cookie jar with no fear of getting your hand stuck. For me they are
the cookies and there is an endless supply out there, the only reason that
supply will deplete is, if and when, hopefully, in the future I become one of
them, at which time I hope to offer up similar support to those around me.
IAN. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your
writing?
S.D. Writing both the thriller Stray Bullet and its sequel Phoenix has
been a challenge as the stories are complex, full of twists and turns to keep
my readers guessing to the very end. I believe, from reading the reviews, that
I have achieved this. But as I write the books sporadically and sometimes take
fairly long breaks between sessions of writing, I have had to re-read the
narratives from the start on many occasions so as not to contradict or
compromise the story line when writing fresh chapters. This is a time consuming
process but ultimately I believe worth the effort. I would also guess that I am
an undiagnosed dyslexic as I am aware that my grammar and punctuation leave
something to be desired but am unable to fix it. I hand my work to professional
editors, but for me, this is probably akin to an uninhibited author having a
manuscript translated into a completely separate language, as in both instances
I and they are in the same boat, rarely able to tell the differences post edit
to pre edit and can only assume and trust that the professionals have done
their job correctly. In the past this reliance on others has not served me well,
but again I am in a position of learning and hold enough confidence in my
storylines that this is something that can and will be overcome.
IAN. Who designed the covers?
S.D. I do a lot of the conceptual design work myself, indeed I produce
my own promotional videos too. For The
Word I simply didn’t have the time to commit to getting it “just right” and
employed the services of a young and very talented designer from the US – Michael
Price. We worked on the cover for months before getting it to a stage where I,
and all those involved within the content of the book, was happy with its
appearance. I am very grateful to Michael for his patience with us all! The
theme is likely to carry on throughout the series.
IAN. Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your
readers?
S.D. Yes, I love you one and all! For me, there is no greater honour
than for somebody to consider paying money for something that I have created. Writing
a book is a time consuming process and I, as many other authors, put my heart
and soul into delivering work of a quality worthy of you the reader. Hours are
spent pouring over ideas and concepts for the storylines. Unlike those prolific
writers whom are able to churn out story after story, I take great pride in
weaving a plot for personal and not financial gain i.e. one that will challenge
the reader to use their own imagination if they are going to even get close to
the outcome before it is revealed. As with interviews, there are countless
shelves full of repetitive storylines, I have no wish to become a part of those
formula led award winners. I commit to putting everything I have into each
storyline which is possibly why my ideas take longer than most to get into
print. But, bear with me, you may not find quantity but I hope you will
continue to agree that you shall find quality here…
IAN. Tell us about your next book or
a work in progress. Is it a sequel or a stand-alone?
S.D. The Word - Volume 2 is already completed and will be out towards
the end of the year. Stray Bullet is
being re-edited and re-covered for a second edition which will be out in due
course and I am still working on Phoenix,
the sequel to Stray Bullet, although
I have not pressured myself into a time frame for publishing that offering.