Author Q&A with Mark Fowler author of the fabulous Red Is The Colour set in Stoke-on-Trent!

It's time for The Crime Warp to meet the very lovely Mark

Fowler who has dared to be Warped on The Crime Warp today.  A huge round of applause please!...

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Liz:  lovely to meet you mark, Can you

tell us a bit about your current book release?

Mark: RED IS THE COLOUR is the first in a new series of crime novels featuring DCI Jim Tyler and DS Danny Mills. The corpse of a school boy, missing for thirty years, is discovered in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. DCI Tyler has arrived from London under a cloud, and is teamed up with DS Mills to investigate the case. There is tension between the detectives from the start, and Tyler is clearly battling demons from his own past. The dead boy’s sister comes forward, pointing a finger at the school bullies who made her brother’s life a misery. Bullying, at school and at work, is something that Tyler knows a lot about. Mills too. As the investigation develops it becomes clear that important careers may be at stake.

            Then one of the bullies is found brutally murdered.

Liz: Where did the inspiration for Red Is the Colour come 

from?

Mark: The original spark came out of a conversation with an old school friend about bullying. It was a chance remark that provoked a ‘what if’ question that I couldn’t leave alone. ‘What if’ is my very best friend when I’m looking for ideas to kick off a book, and I know I’m not the first writer to say that. I knew that I wanted to explore the theme of bullying, and in the context of a crime novel, but it was a while before the shape of the story came into focus.

Liz: How long did Red Is The Colour take to write?

Mark: The first draft was written some time ago, a few years back, and written fairly quickly once I got started. The idea that the book would be a crime mystery story featuring two detectives, both with good reasons to hate bullies, investigating a historic murder really kicked the whole thing off, and everything seemed to come together. Yet I was never entirely satisfied with the book, and I put it to one side. I knew there was something missing but I couldn’t quite figure out what. Other projects came along and the years piled up, and then more recently I dug the book out, dusted it off and saw what I thought it needed. It still took a few drafts to nail it, but I felt that I was on to something. I knew that I wanted to write more books featuring Tyler and Mills, and set in Stoke-on-Trent, a place that I know well. I feel that there is a lot I can do with these two detectives, and that is an exciting feeling.

Liz:  Where is your favourite place to write and why?

Mark: I tend to be something of a home bird, and a lot of my

writing is done in my study. I often take ideas out for a walk, though, and make sure to have a notebook with me. A lot of scribbling down of ideas is done in cafes and parks, and then I take them home to work on them.

Liz: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block and if so how do you overcome it?

Mark: I don’t tend to think of it as writer’s block, but I do go

through phases when I find it very difficult to write. If I am particularly stressed I struggle, particularly in the early stages of trying to develop a book, or gather in an idea. I find that momentum will often see me through, which is one reason I try to write regularly. When I’m writing, my antennae works overtime, and ideas can come thick and fast. When I stop – and maybe this is partly a confidence thing – I fear I won’t be able to get back. If I look too long at a blank page I find myself questioning too much, editing before I’ve even started; and with that kind of filter in place, no idea will ever be good enough. Once words are on the page, though, I have something to work with, something to shape. Questions start to arise and my writing will attempt to answer them.

Liz:  That's my biggest problem too.  So, what is it about Crime fiction as a genre that turns you on?

Mark:I find crime fiction to be such a wide-ranging genre. There are just so many possibilities to explore. At the same time there are so many sub-genres, providing a focus. For me crime suggests, at some level, a mystery, and I absolutely love a mystery. Curiosity fires the imagination like nothing else can. Crime also suggests darkness, and I’ve always had a love of dark tales. I love delving deep into the psychology of my characters, and crime fiction provides a lot of scope for that. Trying to understand the motivation at the heart of a terrible crime, but also the motivation of the hero. What makes one person commit a dreadful act, and makes someone else put their life on the line to find justice. Good and evil lies at the heart of a lot of crime fiction, heroes and villains. But real life is often more nuanced, and I believe that the best crime fiction aims to provide an understanding of human behaviour, the best and the worst of it, over and above the more simplistic, almost comic-book, scenarios.

Liz: Who or what inspires you to keep writing?

Mark: Reading great books is an obvious source of inspiration. And sometimes reading not so great books, where I might think, rightly or wrongly, that I can improve on what the author has done in some way. Real life is also a constant inspiration, whether that is feeling strongly about an issue, a perceived injustice in society, perhaps. Or exploring a deeply held fear.

Liz: Which fictional hero or anti-hero would you like to meet 

and why?

Mark: It would be fun to meet Dr. Watson. I would love to ask him about his time with Sherlock Holmes, and what it has taught him about crime and about humanity. I would also like to ask him what he thinks about the man who created both him and Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle. I once wrote a novel,

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The Man Upstairs, exploring the relationship between the author and his fictional hero. The story is told in the first person from the point of view of the hero, who is a detective. A detective who has worked out that his author is planning to

kill him off. I had a lot of fun with that book, and it is far more whimsical than Red is the Colour, as you might imagine. With Red I have kept my storytelling rooted in the real world of crime and fallen humanity.

Liz: Could you describe the book you are working on at the moment using only 5 words?

Mark: I’m currently working on the follow up to Red Is The Colour. The second book in the series featuring Tyler and Mills. I can’t disclose the title at the moment, but the book in 5 words: Singer goes missing. Corpse discovered.

Liz:  Well, that's whetted my appetite!  Do you have competing ideas for future projects and have you ever worked on more than one at the same time?

Mark: I always seem to have a lot of projects on the go. I finish one book, move on to the next, and then revisit the earlier one. Until a book is actually published I have a tendency to keep returning to it, finding ways to improve it. I did once try to write two new books at the same time and I really would not recommend it as a working method. Better to stay focused, I think.

Liz:  Thank you so much for coming over today. It's been an absolute pleasure.