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Jay is back by popular demand! Well, I demanded his return, anyway. Am asking him my Pride of Poppies questions this time.
What grabbed you so much about the Pride of Poppies submissions call that you had to send in a story?
I had one story in the slips ('At the Gate') that I had been longing to find a home for ever since I read the article that inspired it; the submissions call was, you might say, the catalyst that finally got it written. The other story was really a response to Julie Bozza, who as editor had been musing on how little the submissions reflected what she had been expecting, i.e. stories about trenches and poets. I offered to write something appropriate, and 'Break of Day' is the result. It also gave me the chance to quote Isaac Rosenberg - the "queer sardonic rat."
What were the particular challenges about writing a story set a hundred years ago?
I write historical fiction anyway, and have been interested in the Great War for a very long time indeed; so I'm lucky, in that it didn't challenge me too much. What nearly caught me out was the assumption that nothing aboard ship changed very much between 1918 and 1939; did you know that the Tannoy wasn't invented until 1925?*
Do you have a 'hero' (or heroes!) from WWI? Who and why?
The medical staff, full stop. Particularly Surgeon Edward L. Atkinson, RN - "Atch." He was one of Captain Scott's surgeons in the Antarctic in 1911/12, and during the Great War served not only with the howitzer brigades on the Western Front but also at Gallipoli. In September 1918 he was appointed surgeon to HMS Glatton, and was aboard her when she was torpedoed in Dover Harbour to prevent a cordite fire from spreading to the main magazine, as there was an ammunition ship moored astern which would have devastated Dover if it had exploded. Atch went down below to rescue two men, and was knocked off his feet, pinned to the deck through his leg and half-blinded. At which point he pulled the shrapnel out of his leg, got up, and went on to save two more men ...
What are you working on at present?
Right this minute I am between books, having just added 'The Peacock's Eye' to my Manifold Press publications; I'm very proud that it was launched on the same day as the e-book of 'A Pride of Poppies'. My previous book is 'Dance of Stone', and next to come will be 'Across Your Dreams', which tells what happens to Lew, Russ and Alan after the end of the stories in the anthology.
* Charlie's note: I didn't know that, although I do know that the first floodlit rugby match was around 1880.
What grabbed you so much about the Pride of Poppies submissions call that you had to send in a story?
I had one story in the slips ('At the Gate') that I had been longing to find a home for ever since I read the article that inspired it; the submissions call was, you might say, the catalyst that finally got it written. The other story was really a response to Julie Bozza, who as editor had been musing on how little the submissions reflected what she had been expecting, i.e. stories about trenches and poets. I offered to write something appropriate, and 'Break of Day' is the result. It also gave me the chance to quote Isaac Rosenberg - the "queer sardonic rat."
What were the particular challenges about writing a story set a hundred years ago?
I write historical fiction anyway, and have been interested in the Great War for a very long time indeed; so I'm lucky, in that it didn't challenge me too much. What nearly caught me out was the assumption that nothing aboard ship changed very much between 1918 and 1939; did you know that the Tannoy wasn't invented until 1925?*
Do you have a 'hero' (or heroes!) from WWI? Who and why?
The medical staff, full stop. Particularly Surgeon Edward L. Atkinson, RN - "Atch." He was one of Captain Scott's surgeons in the Antarctic in 1911/12, and during the Great War served not only with the howitzer brigades on the Western Front but also at Gallipoli. In September 1918 he was appointed surgeon to HMS Glatton, and was aboard her when she was torpedoed in Dover Harbour to prevent a cordite fire from spreading to the main magazine, as there was an ammunition ship moored astern which would have devastated Dover if it had exploded. Atch went down below to rescue two men, and was knocked off his feet, pinned to the deck through his leg and half-blinded. At which point he pulled the shrapnel out of his leg, got up, and went on to save two more men ...
What are you working on at present?
Right this minute I am between books, having just added 'The Peacock's Eye' to my Manifold Press publications; I'm very proud that it was launched on the same day as the e-book of 'A Pride of Poppies'. My previous book is 'Dance of Stone', and next to come will be 'Across Your Dreams', which tells what happens to Lew, Russ and Alan after the end of the stories in the anthology.
* Charlie's note: I didn't know that, although I do know that the first floodlit rugby match was around 1880.
