Saturday, 1 June 2013

Interviews Sarah Pinborough by DJ Forrest



Sarah Pinborough born 1972, in Milton Keynes is an English horror writer whose works have been compared with such writers as Dean Koontz, Richard Layman and Bentley Little.  Under the name Sarah Silverwood she also writes fantasy novels for children with the Nowhere Chronicles.

Sarah has written two Torchwood novels ‘Into the Silence’ (2009) and ‘Long Time Dead’ and also wrote ‘Kaleidoscope’ for the ‘Consequences’ novel, that also features short stories by David Llewellyn, James Moran, Andrew Cartmel and Joseph Lidster.

Sarah also wrote the 2nd episode of the 9th Series of New Tricks ‘Old School Ties’ (2012),  the crime drama starring James Bolam, Dennis Waterman, Alun Armstrong and Amanda Redman.

In 2012 it was announced that director Peter Medak had been attached to direct ‘Cracked’, a screenplay based on Sarah Pinborough's first novel ‘The Hidden’.

Recently Project: Torchwood interviewed Sarah Pinborough in connection with her story Kaleidoscope for Consequences and about her new projects and book launches.


I liked the feel of this story from the point of Danny Dillard, a lad who didn’t have much and had that feel good factor with the kaleidoscope, and how it changed even his dad, but it was the twist at the end though when things didn’t quite end as you hoped.  I loved your description of the boy and his life, had you based those characters on anyone you knew?

Sarah: No, I rarely base characters on people I know, but I had worked at a school on quite a tough estate for a few years so that probably fed into it a bit.

What prompted the idea of a kaleidoscope for the Rehabilitator?

Sarah: I honestly can't remember! Although it seems natural for it to be something you look through that distorts things. I'd probably looked through one close to the time I had to come up with the story or something.

Your story Kaleidoscope would have occurred when Jack went off with the Doctor and just before he returned for Series 2 in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?  It did seem odd not seeing Jack coming into the story, but having the four other members working harder to prove themselves.  Was it harder on yourself to have all four members to operate in your head and on paper?  All talking to you at once.

Sarah: No, not really. In the novels I have all five of them – well, at least in Into the Silence. In Long Time Dead it's mainly just Suzy's narrative. The thing with writing tie-in novels is they tend to be quite dialogue focussed because you're emulating the show, and so it's more natural to have them all talking and the flow just comes. They have very separate voices and as most of the people reading the books are already very familiar with the characters you don't have to spend a lot of time establishing them.

You’ve just launched your new book ‘Poison’ – congratulations on the book, have you always been interested in the genre you write for or has this developed over the years?

Sarah: Poison (to be followed by Charm and Beauty) is a departure for me. I normally write crime/horror/fantasy/sci-fi style stories so re-working fairy tales has been quite different. But I've enjoyed doing them and fairy tales are a type of fantasy. Plus, there are some quite dark elements in mine.

I’ve been toying with two different styles of writing, first person which always had me struggling but has somewhat worked on a new story – horror piece in fact, and another which is third person omniscient which I prefer to write as, do you vary your writing styles, or favour one over the other?

Sarah: I tend to write third person – I prefer to get multiple viewpoints. But in Mayhem I've used first person for one character and third for the others.

Have you always had a passion for writing?

Sarah: I don't think you can be an author if you don't have a passion for writing and reading.

Your new book at the moment ‘Poison’ is this aimed at the Young Adult, and can you tell us about the book, what it’s about?  From the items you had on the table in your photo, I’m thinking it is a version of the old Snow White and the apple story, but I’m grasping at straws here, I’ve not read any reviews upon it.

Sarah: Poison is very definitely NOT aimed at the young adult market ;-). It's quite adult in content, with quite a lot of sex and some violence as well as romance and humour. It's a reworking of Snow White.

I was looking up on your website and you have another book coming out called ‘Mayhem’ does this run in line with the book ‘Poison’ and the two other books coming out this year ‘Charm’ and ‘Beauty’?

Sarah: No, Mayhem is a Victorian supernatural crime novel based on real life events. Mayhem is from Quercus and Poison, Charm and Beauty - fairy tale re-tellings - are from Gollancz.

Questions from fans

Kate Mora @Jedikat71 asks: I’m curious, has Sarah listened to Blue Gillespie (since her book had Ianto undercover in a Welsh choir?)

Sarah: No, I haven't. I will check it out!

Mickie Newton asks: What drew you to writing for the TW canon of novels, what was your inspiration behind “Into the Silence.”

Sarah: I wrote for them because I was lucky enough to be asked if I'd be interested in writing some, so it wasn't really a case of being drawn to them, but being lucky enough to be drawn into them, as it were. As for Into the Silence I wanted to write something that seemed scary but turned out to be quite moving. It starts as quite a horror tale, but I hope by the end there is some emotional payoff.

 Special thanks to Sarah Pinborough for the interview, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Pinborough    Source info


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